Category / Stupidity

by Eddie

Undressing in cars is asking for trouble

I appreciate that it has been some days since the last Dodgy update. I blame work. And I’m still fiddling with the Venn story to get it right. In the meantime, some sensible advice from the Mirror in 1938:

If some girls must undress in cars surely the more care less of them could make sure that they are not displaying themselves to the vulgar gaze. There is quite a lot of it going on—or coming off?—at ocean and river beaches. And even at places as crowded and as close handy as Como, girls may be seen undressing in the dubious shelter of a car with a towel or two up at the windows.

Possibly with some of them, it is a development from the days when their mothers delighted in completely undressing them on the beaches, to the embarrassment of sensitive young men occupying a nearby patch of sand. But even if the said young men might not be quite so sensitive in the more mature stage of the girls’ development, careless undressing in cars is not to be encouraged.

No one wants to be a spoil sport, or to restrict the personal liberty of the girls who want to use cars as a dressing—or UNDRESSING PAVILION—with or without reasonable privacy. Nor would the average man bother to interfere with those males who derive some form of spicy delight from wandering past such cars in the hope (quite often gratified) of catching a fleeting glimpse of a female in partial undress.

But what local girls want to remember is that there have been cases at some of the outer Sydney beaches where girls, undressing in cars have been attacked by prowlers and perverts.

WE DON’T WANT THAT SORT OF THING TO HAPPEN HERE, AND IT IS UP TO THE GIRLS NOT TO TAKE FOOLHARDY RISKS. AT LEAST MAKE SURE THAT THE CAR IS PROOF AGAINST PEEPING TOMS.

by Eddie

Lest we forget???

60x85mm

It will be a memorial all right, but it isn’t a design—there is no design in it.

Estate agents will tell you that three things make a property great: location, location, and location. There’s no denying that the WA State War Memorial has all three.

What it lacks, though, is any sense of scale, dignity, or architectural style. Transplant it from its sublime location to your local park and the SWM would look like the council put it up on the cheap.

And cheap is exactly what it was. Victoria’s Shrine of Remembrance? £80,000. South Australia went for a less costly memorial at only £25,000. And WA? We managed to shell out a whole £3,000. And look what we ended up with.

How was it that the brave men who fought, and often died, for their young nation ended up being commemorated with a Red Dot bargain-basement memorial?

Let Dodgy Perth take you through another tour of Western Australian history.

Continue reading →

by Eddie

Dodgy Greenough

Until 1967, when fireworks were banned in WA, a common sight was kids standing beside home-made Guy Fawkes, demanding, “A penny for the Guy!”. This image is from 1931.

Okay, so I’m a day late with this one. Sue me.

Dodgy Perth presents an 1879 story from Greenough to help us “Remember, Remember, The fifth of November”:

I hasten to give you a few particulars of the sad accident, attended with fatal consequences, which occurred near Mr. Maley’s mill on Guy Fawkes Night.

It appears that a party of young men and lads met together for the purpose of commemorating the time-honoured Gunpowder Plot. In order to do this the more effectively they secured two fowling pieces and an old carbine, and a canister of gunpowder.

After amusing themselves by firing in the air, along the ground, etc., one of the young men, by way of adding to the excitement, commenced firing off his gun unexpectedly between the legs of some of his companions.

One of the lads, named John Cook, who had possession of the carbine, unhappily attempted the same dangerous amusement, and, stealing up behind one of the young men, named Isaac Patience, put as he thought the barrel of the carbine between his legs and fired it off.

But instead of the charge going clear of the legs it unfortunately took effect in the young man’s left thigh, tearing away a great piece of flesh and shattering the thigh bone, causing a frightful wound, from which the blood flowed copiously.

The unfortunate youth was immediately carried to his home, which happened to be close by, and a messenger despatched for medical assistance, but before the doctor could reach the scene of the accident the sufferer had ceased to breathe.

Interestingly, although John Cook pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter, the jury still found him not guilty. Apparently, this verdict gave rise to some spirited discussion locally.