A few notes, just in case I don’t stop blogging
1. Bernstein
Richard K. Bernstein died on 15 April 2025, the 22nd anniversary of my blog. Obituaries are available. He was 90, so he made it longer than Pope Francis.
Richard Bernstein’s diabetes book tells a fascinating story: at 12, in 1946, diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Pumped full of insulin. In his early thirties, alive but with health problems. An engineer. The first diabetic to test his own blood sugar at home. Not allowed to buy a testing device, but his wife was a doctor. It weighed 8 kilos, I think (this is all from memory. Tested several times a day and developed a strict low-carbohydrate diet, his health problems vanished and he lived a normalish life.
As a non-physician he was not able to publish his findings. He therefore qualified as a doctor himself and was able to publish, and set up a diabetes practice himself.
I accidentally stumbled on his death notice when I was thinking about diabetes as I had decided to try an NHS prediabetes course. My eldest brother was diagnosed in his 50s. I am not so insulin resistant and have been prediabetic on and off for years. The course is run by something called “Thrive Tribe”. Enough said.
2. Upminster
Diamond Geezer on Upminster as the Easternmost part of London, for Easter!
He has done all the anoraky stuff on establishing which shopping parade is the easternmost in London – it’s in Cranham. He has the easternmost Caffé Nero – for some reason he overlooked Costa, but the local man has a reputation for not letting his staff have tips etc. so that’s OK.
Die Welt, 18 April 2025
Building for a new housing area in Stein uncovered the centre of Wallenstein’s camp in 1632, which was over 16 km long. 13,000 trees had to be felled for it. There were three gallows and a wheel with the body parts of someone who had been quartered.
Wallenstein residierte im Süden des Lagers in einem zerlegbaren Holzhaus. Aus Böhmen war seine silberne Badewanne mitgebracht worden. Golo Mann vermerkt, dass der Generalissimus Kräuterbäder nahm, gerne Rebhühner aß und Weizenbier trank. Vermutlich auch Erdbeeren genoss, es war ja Erdbeerzeit.
Gustav Adolf was established in Nuremberg and Wallenstein aimed to starve his army out.
The V & A kitchen is not identical to the one in the diagram: it has solid fuel and electric stoves, not gas, and it has a chair rather than a swivel stool. It was designed to minimize the steps taken by the housewife. On the right-hand side there are drawers for various dry goods such as lentils, sugar, flour. The names are printed on them. They are called Schütten in German – I’ve seen it translated as dispensers. I actually have a couple made of toughened glass which a friend gave me.
