Woman's antique turned away from 'Antique Roadshow'
People come by things in all sorts of ways. Sometimes you find something while at a garage sale and sometimes it's because a family member passed away and it was left to them. After coming into possession of the item, the owner may be tempted to see how much it's worth so it can be documented for insurance purposes or sold.
On a recent episode of BBC One's Antique Roadshow, a woman brought an ivory bracelet to be appraised. Interestingly enough, the expert didn't meet this rare find with excitement, but appeared somber. The antique expert, Ronnie Archer-Morgan carefully explains the purpose of the bracelet in what appears to be a tense emotional exchange.
There would be no appraisal of this antique ivory bracelet adorned with beautiful script around the circumference. Archer-Morgan gives a brief disclaimer that he and the Antique Roadshow disapprove of the trade of ivory, though that was not his reason for refusing the ivory bangle.
"This ivory bangle here is not about trading in ivory, it’s about trading in human life, and it’s probably one of the most difficult things that I’ve ever had to talk about. But talk about it we must," Archer-Morgan says.
Ronnie Archer-Morgan on an episode of the BBC's Antiques RoadshowImage via Antqiues Roadshow
Turns out the woman had no idea what she had in her possession as she purchased it from an estate sale over 30 years before. One of the elderly residents she cared for passed away and the woman found the ivory bracelet among the things being sold. Finding the bangle particularly intriguing with the fancy inscription around it, she decided to purchase the unique piece of jewelry.
After explaining that his great-grandmother was once enslaved in Nova Scotia, Canada before being returned to Sierra Leone, Archer-Morgan concluded he could not price the item.
Ronnie Archer-Morgan holds the ivory bracelet he refused to valueImage via Antiques Roadshow/BBC
"I just don’t want to value it. I do not want to put a price on something that signifies such an awful business. But the value is in the lessons that this can tell people," he tells the woman.
In the end the woman leaves without knowing the monetary value of the item but with a wealth of knowledge she didn't have before visiting. Now she can continue to share the significance of the antique with others. Watch the full explanation below:
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
This article originally appeared last year.
J.R.R. Tolkien didn't mince words when asked his opinion on Nazis
In 1933, Adolf Hitler handed the power of Jewish cultural life in Nazi Germany to his chief propagandist, Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels established a team of of regulators that would oversee the works of Jewish artists in film, theater, music, fine arts, literature, broadcasting, and the press.
Goebbels' new regulations essentially eliminated Jewish people from participating in mainstream German cultural activities by requiring them to have a license to do so.
This attempt by the Nazis to purge Germany of any culture that wasn't Aryan in origin led to the questioning of artists from outside the country.
A Nazi book burning in GermanyImage via Wikicommons
In 1938, English author J. R. R. Tolkien and his British publisher, Stanley Unwin, opened talks with Rütten & Loening, a Berlin-based publishing house, about a German translation of his recently-published hit novel, "The Hobbit."
Privately, according to "1937 The Hobbit or There and Back Again," Tolkien told Unwin he hated Nazi "race-doctrine" as "wholly pernicious and unscientific." He added he had many Jewish friends and was considering abandoning the idea of a German translation altogether.
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The Berlin-based publishing house sent Tolkien a letter asking for proof of his Aryan descent. Tolkien was incensed by the request and gave his publisher two responses, one in which he sidestepped the question, another in which he handled in '30s-style with pure class.
In the letter sent to Rütten & Loening, Tolkien notes that Aryans are of Indo-Iranian "extraction," correcting the incorrect Nazi aumption that Aryans come from northern Europe. He cuts to the chase by saying that he is not Jewish but holds them in high regard. "I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people," Tolkien wrote.
Tolkien also takes a shot at the race policies of Nazi Germany by saying he's beginning to regret his German surname. "The time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride," he writes.
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Here's the letter sent to Rütten & Loening:
25 July 1938 20 Northmoor Road, Oxford
Dear Sirs,
Thank you for your letter. I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-Iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people.
My great-great-grandfather came to England in the eighteenth century from Germany: the main part of my descent is therefore purely English, and I am an English subject — which should be sufficient. I have been accustomed, nonetheless, to regard my German name with pride, and continued to do so throughout the period of the late regrettable war, in which I served in the English army. I cannot, however, forbear to comment that if impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.
Your enquiry is doubtless made in order to comply with the laws of your own country, but that this should be held to apply to the subjects of another state would be improper, even if it had (as it has not) any bearing whatsoever on the merits of my work or its sustainability for publication, of which you appear to have satisfied yourselves without reference to my Abstammung.
I trust you will find this reply satisfactory, and
remain yours faithfully,
J. R. R. Tolkien
The letter J.R.R. Tolkien wrote to his German publishersImage via Letters of Note
This article originally appeared four years ago.
Duran Duran lead singer Simon LeBon poses with a young fan
Imagine this: you're a fourth grade language arts teacher in Dallas, and like many Gen X-ers, your obsession with Duran Duran never waned. So much so that you still have dolls of each member of the band in the classroom and, according to Austin Wood's article for the Lake Highlands Advocate, even an old telephone in case (lead singer) "Simon LeBon calls."
This describes Miriam Osborne, a fourth grade teacher at White Rock Elementary in the Lake Highlands district of Dallas, Texas. Wood shares in "White Rock E.S. student, inspired by teacher, meets Simon LeBon" that one of Osborne's students, 10-year-old Ava Meyers, was getting an early pickup for Christmas break, as her family was heading to the U.K. for a holiday wedding. As they were saying their goodbyes in the hallway, Osborne kiddingly said to Meyers, "Find Duran Duran."
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Cut to: Ava and her family, including her mom Zahara, fly across the pond to find themselves in the Putney neighborhood of London. After a day of sightseeing, Zahara shares, "I was just Googling things to do in Putney, and the first thing that popped up was 'Simon Le Bon lives in Putney from Duran Duran.'”
Zahara did a little sleuthing and found Simon's house, thinking perhaps a Christmas stroll by the home would be exciting. But, according to the article, Ava felt they could do better. She and "an 83-year-old relative named Nick, who apparently has courage in droves, went to the door and tried a knock. Zahara was initially hesitant but assumed Le Bon would be away on vacation, so she figured it was harmless. Le Bon’s son-in-law answered, his wife came to the door next, and following a few moments of getting pitched the idea by Nick, agreed to get her husband 'because it was Christmas.'"
And just like that, Simon LeBon appeared in the doorway. He warmly greeted Ava and her family and even took pictures. "It was just crazy," Ava exclaimed.
But possibly more excited was Miriam Osborne, back in the States. She proudly shared the photo (which had been texted to her) with many of her friends and even encouraged Ava to recount the story to her classmates when they returned from the break. Wood shares, "Osborne’s connection to the band goes back to her childhood in El Paso in the ’80s. As the daughter of a Syrian immigrant, she says she had trouble fitting in and finding an identity. Some days, she and her brothers would travel across town to get records from a British record store."
Miriam explains she used her babysitting money to buy her first Duran Duran record. "And so I had been a fan, literally, for 43 years—my entire lifetime."
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Osborne's love of Duran Duran, and many '80s bands in general, nostalgically connects her to a throughline for her life that she tries to impart onto the students as well. "Music is a connector, and it connected me to a world that I didn’t always fit in as a child. It helped me find people who I still love to this day, and it’s a big part of this classroom with me and the students I teach, because everybody has a story, and there’s something really incredible about hearing something and it taking you to a happy moment."
As for Ava? She's now taking guitar lessons. And perhaps one day, she can become so famous and inspirational, a teacher sends a student off to find her on a Christmas vacation in the future.
Woman who stopped to use gas station bathroom stops kidnapping.
Pop culture jokes about "girl code" but there's truth to that positive stereotype. Women often look out for other women and are conditioned from a young age to do so. Everything from alerting a stranger if you saw their date slip something in their drink to passing toilet paper to the woman in the next stall are all unspoken parts of girl code. But there are some situations that put this protective layer of community to the test.
Recently in Utah an anonymous woman made a pitstop at a local gas station on her way home. The woman planned to pop in to use the bathroom quickly, but it turned into a situation where she came face to face with what could be a life threatening situation. Upon walking into the bathroom, another woman frantically opened the bathroom stall door, visibly terrified, and handed our anonymous hero a note written in broken English.
"Help [redacted]. Equinox 2017 white. My number [redacted]. He have my phone. Give to police," the handwritten note on torn cardboard reads on the front. The back of the note says, "we come from Vegas he goin Salt Lake."
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The woman who only stopped to use the restroom asked the frightened woman if she was in trouble, to which the woman replied, "Yes." Instead of passing the information along to a store clerk and going about her way, the woman took it upon herself to help the stranger in distress. Turns out the distraught woman was kidnapped by her boyfriend who was waiting just feet outside the bathroom door, likely in an effort to ensure she didn't get away or call for help.
He didn't count on her finding something to write on and slipping it to a fellow woman in the bathroom. But thanks to her quick thinking along with the stranger's determination to intervene, help would soon be on the way. The anonymous woman didn't want to alert anyone for fear she might tip off the kidnapper, so she patiently waited for the woman and her captor outside before making her move.
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When she saw the kidnapper leave the gas station with the victim, the woman pretended to be on the phone but was secretly recording the suspect. Not only did she get a clear video of his face along with the woman's face, she continued recording until she was able to get a visual on the license plate. It was then that she called the police to report what happened.
"As soon as I got the license plate number I called 911. I just said, there's a lady here that needs help," the anonymous woman told KSL News Utah.
The call didn't end the helpful stranger's pursuit of making sure the woman was safe. She hopped in her car and followed the pair at a safe distance while on the phone with dispatch until officers were able to pull the suspect over. The man was apprehended and charged with aggravated kidnapping, assault, and providing false information to a police officer. Thanks to the quick-thinking and determination of both women, the victim was saved from an unknown fate.
"It was kind of wild but I'm glad I was there. You know, it's good to be aware and try to help people in those situations," the anonymous woman tells the news station.
No one ever expects to be in this type of situation and hopefully anyone would do exactly what the anonymous hero did by helping a fellow person escape serious danger.