by Lisa Cooke | Aug 29, 2012 | 01 What's New, Humor, Mobile
If you have teens in your family then chances are you have heard the phrase OMG which stands for oh my God. But have you ever
wondered who started it? You may have thought it was Alicia Silverstone in the 1995 movie Clueless, but actually you have to dig much further back in history to find its origins. All the way back to 1917 in fact.
George Mason’s University’s History News Network website says that the folks at the Oxford English Dictionary discovered a use of “OMG” from 1917. It comes in a letter by British Admiral John”Jacky” Fisher, who wrote and I quote:
“I hear that a new order of Knighthood is on the tapis—O.M.G. (Oh! My God!)—Shower it on the Admiralty!”
According to the site “Fisher was famous for being the driving force behind the creation of the HMS Dreadnought, an advanced capital ship which, when it was launched in 1906, seemed revolutionary. This, the world navies agreed, made all other capital ships obsolete, but, distressingly to the British, destroyed their long-standing lead in naval power, if temporarily. The result was an enormously expensive Anglo-German naval race, which did much to bring on World War I.”
The letter was published in his book Memories, published in 1919 (below in Google Books. Enter OMG into the search box to see it for yourself)
by Lisa Cooke | Jul 3, 2012 | 01 What's New, Apps, Craft & Displays, Photographs
Since tomorrow is Independence Day here in the U.S., I thought about posting a list of where you can research your revolutionary war soldiers, but everyone else is doing that! And besides you should be enjoying the day with the most important family members if at all possible: your current family!
So here’s a fun Blast from the Past of a little patriotic tintype I came across back in 2009. Enjoy!:
Last week my oldest daughter Vienna and I were going to spend the day together as we usually do each week. But rather than watch a vintage Bette Davis movie, it occurred to me that we hadn’t been antiquing in ages. So I hit the Internet, found a little seaside town nearby with a nice assortment of antique shops and a lovely little Victorian Tea House where we could lunch, and off we went – a pair of mischievous adventurers.
Among the treasures I snagged that day was this little 2 x 3″ tintype. I fell in love with the facials expressions, and jovial attire…and the American flag draped above them sealed the deal.
The scanned image actually looks better than the original which is quite dark and very small. The more I examined it with a magnifying glass the more I felt the fun these young folks were having the day this pic was snapped, and pretty soon I had an itch to have some fun with the photo. And here are the results:
A merry troupe of turn of the century young people, pleasing in pink, purple and teal.
Of course I have no idea what colors they were really wearing that day. But I imagine that they were the types to have appreciated a bit of tinkering with some old tin.
UPDATE: If you love your iPad like I do, check out the free Color Splash app. It allows you to convert your photos to B&W and then tint with a splash of color as you like.
Happy tinting, and Happy 4th of July!
Lisa
