EMPRESS

Regional News

Happy new year! Let's hope all the sad/bad things of the past couple of years finally disappear in 2023. Have you made any new year resolutions? If one of them is to get more involved in Mensa, don't forget to check out the event listings in Mensa Magazine, further details of all these events in Empress (now delivered electronically at the end of each month), see the new Mensa website at www.mensa.org.uk, or our regional website at www.eastmidsmensa.org.uk. If you belong to Facebook I'd encourage you to join our Facebook group by searching for 'East Midlands Mensa' so you#re not missing out on our social events as advance notice and impromptu events are posted on there. As always, if you have suggestions for pub quizzes, restaurants, walking routes, places to visit or could offer to do a talk or workshop on your specialist subject do get in touch with myself or your Local Officer. We like to try new activities!

I'm on [Phone Number] or [Email] and always happy to hear from you.

Maxine Bates

Regional Officer

Editorial

I am writing this at the beginning of December, so forgive me for missing anything that has occurred between now and 31st December. So far 2022 has been a year of a high and a lot of lows. The high point was the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, whilst the lows have included the war in the Ukraine and the terrible suffering that has caused and the death of the Queen, just 3 months after the Jubilee celebrations. For most of us, she is the only Head of State we have ever known - in fact I was born just a few days before the Coronation - my mother never forgave me for that (However, that's a whole other story for another time).

We are also seeing the return of significant inflation. 11% may seem to many to be bad, however, I remember a rate of 24% in the 1970's and lived to tell the tale! I can only hope that 2023 is a year of highs - but with little or no lows of the magnitude of this year.

Finally, I'd like to thank Mark for all his good work editing Empress - he has been a hard act to follow. I'll miss his critical eye as a proof-reader.

Roy Latham

Festive Fun

On Saturday 3rd December I held an 'open house' where Mensans and other friends could call in for a hot drink, some festive nibbles and a chat. Over 20 guests arrived during the afternoon - luckily not all at the same time as I don't live in a mansion! - and I had a lovely day catching up with everyone. As I'm an avid fundraiser for Cancer Research UK, I also set out lots of goodies to browse and purchase at bargain prices, though no obligation. These included earrings, necklaces, lingerie, homemade greeting cards, gift bags, drink hampers and all sorts of items from candles to bags to kitchen gadgets, all donated by my lovely friends during the year. Not only was it a friendly festive get together, but we raised £204 for charity at the same time. Thank you to everyone who came along. I hope to do a similar event later in the year.

Maxine

Please.....

Every month the editors rely on a few members to supply content beyond the regular items. This is your newsletter and it would be very helpful if more of you could submit something for inclusion - meeting reports, unusual pastimes (clean, of course) and anything other members may find interesting would be most welcome.

Non-Christmas, Christmas Movies

By Mike Cummings

Every year at least one temporary television channel pops up on Freeview which shows wall-to-wall Christmas movies. Mostly these are made for TV affairs, set in either small-town America or a department store. More often than not they have a Scrooge-like character, it snows at the end and Superman actor Dean Cain pops up somewhere. But there's a whole batch of festive movies that never show up on these channels. These are movies which are set at Christmas but that has absolutely nothing to do with the plot. These are often referred to as Christmas Adjacent movies and here's my top ten...

10. Die Hard II: Die Harder

The Internet was invented to allow people to discuss if the first Die Hard is a Christmas movie or not. After all, it takes place at an office Christmas party, features corpses in Santa hats and a roll of festive Sellotape plays a key role. But it is often forgotten that the 1992 sequel also takes place at Christmas. Bruce Willis even muses 'How can the same #* !* happen to the same guy twice?' as he thwarts villains taking over Dulles Airport. And it snows. A lot.

Die Hard II is a great action movie that would be more highly regarded if the original wasn't so perfect.

Bonus Fact: The first Die Hard is a sequel to the 1968 Frank Sinatra Movie, The Detective.

9. First Blood

It's easy to forget that the first Rambo movie has a lot of intelligence to it. Vietnam vet John Rambo wanders into small-town America looking to meet up with an old service pal. The friend has passed away, but the local sheriff doesn't want any vagrants around town, especially as it's all decked out in Christmas decorations - even the police station has the tinsel up. But the season is never mentioned or directly referenced in the movie.

Rambo, of course, gets rubbed up the wrong way and uses his old Vietnam skills to hide out in the local woods and exact his revenge on the sheriff and his deputies. For a 1982 film, it has a lot to say about how America was treating its returning vets at the time. The 1985, James Cameron written sequel gives up on this commentary and goes full-on bangs and bullets action movie.

Bonus Fact: Watch out for a young David Caruso (CSI: Miami, NYPD Blue) as a sheriff's deputy

8. Rocky IV

Yup, the one where Apollo dies, there's a silly robot and Rocky sorts out the Cold War. As with the Rambo movies, Stallone's Rocky films quickly deteriorated from emotional character studies to popcorn box office spectacle (although the Rocky films have recovered in recent years). By far the cheesiest of the series, Rocky IV sees our hero take on the mighty Russian Ivan Drago in a grudge match, broadcast globally on... Christmas Day! Rocky wins, slurs a speech about world peace, a Mikhail Gorbachev look-a-like shrugs his shoulders, sees the errors of communism and calls off the Cold War. The world lives happily ever after.

7. Batching these together , we hit the Shane Black Christmas quadrilogy, kicking off with... Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

It's hard to believe now, but in 2005 nobody in Hollywood would touch Robert Downey Jr with a barge pole. His dazzling early leading roles in films like Chaplin and Air America counted for nothing against his bad boy image, addiction issues and a stint in jail for drug dealing. Even his 2000 comeback as a co-lead in the fourth season of TV's Ally McBeal ended badly and abruptly.

After years of rehab and prison, RDJ was cast by Shane Black - that most macho of film-makers - opposite Val Kilmer in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. The plot has RDJ as a small-time crook who almost gets caught stealing a Christmas gift for his young daughter. During his escape, he rushes into a Hollywood casting session, where he is mistaken for a method actor portraying a crook. And it's a surprisingly good buddy-cop movie which revived Downey Jr 's career, leading to his casting as Iron Man three years later.

6. The Long Kiss Goodnight

Shane Black made a killing on and off the screen with The Long Kiss Goodnight. At the peak of the Hollywood spec script boom of the early 1990s, a bidding war broke out for the rights to film this screenplay netting Black a cool $4-million. When asked about his creative success, Black claimed, 'It's not brain surgery'.

Mensan Geena Davies went all action as the ordinary, single suburban mum whose Christmas gets ruined after a bump on the head revives her assassin alter ego, buried by the government (of course). Add in Samuel L Jackson doing his usual shtick, and its a foul-mouthed festive classic.

5. Iron Man 3

Black and RDJ reunited for Tony Stark's ego and alter ego's third (full) outing, this time with Ben Kingsley and Guy Pearce in tow. The film kicks off with our hero decorating a Christmas tree. Throughout the film, there are hints that this might actually all be taking place on Christmas Eve including a plot to kill the US President under some fir tree shaped fairy lights. After all the usual CGI superhero shenanigans, a triumphant Stark (spoilers!) comments that 'so, as Christmas morning began...'

4. Lethal Weapon

Black's breakout movie as a writer kicks off with Jingle Bell Rock on the soundtrack and a woman plunging from a skyscraper. Riggs (Mel Gibson) spends Christmas with Murtaugh (Danny Glover) and his family. An there's a drugs bust in a Christmas tree shop. The wise-cracking mayhem all takes place in LA, so don't expect any snow.

3. LA Confidential

No Shane Black this time, but a link to Iron Man 3 in the presence of Guy Pearce. The movie starts with a newspaper headline of the real-life Bloody Christmas event in which nearly 100 LA cops beat up seven mostly Hispanic prisoners on Christmas Day 1951. So this is probably not the festive movie to watch with Aunty Mabel after the turkey and Queen's Speech! On the plus side, there are lots of Christmas decorations and fairy lights adorning the locations used throughout the movie.

2. Batman Returns

I could have picked another Tim Burton movie, Edward Scissorhands or argued for A Nightmare Before Christmas (technically a Halloween movie), but the second Batman film does such a wonderful job of twisting festive cheers with the grotesque. Henchmen are dressed as elves and there's a nasty encounter with a huge Christmas tree. Plus, in the film's most notorious scene, Danny DeVito's Penguin tucks into a bloody, raw fish.

Bonus Fact: This film was so dark in tone, that Warner Bros got a complaint from McDonald's who felt that their Happy Meal tie-ins were promoting a movie that was unsuitable for the kids consuming their burgers and plastic toys. As a result, the next film, Batman Forever, had a much goofier tone, some would say closer to the 1960s TV series version.

1. The Apartment

Winning Oscars for Best Director, Picture and Writing, Billy Wilder 's 1960 comedy is easily forgotten as a Christmas set movie. Jack Lemmon allows his business colleagues to use his apartment for their extramarital flings, but in setting it over the festive period, Wilder brings an understated contrast between the family season and the seedy goings on of the business executives. But drunken Santas and New York's street decorations hammer home that this is a Christmas Adjacent movie.

So, which non-Christmas, Christmas movies have I missed? Off the top of my head, Eyes Wide Shut, You've Got Mail and Gremlins could all make a claim to the title. Send us your suggestions for next year's list. But the most perplexing question of Christmas movies remains... why are the TV channels showing these festive films still broadcasting them in mid-January? We've had enough already - plus, it'll soon be Easter!

Deadly Beauty Practices of the Past

By Adele Nugent

The history of cosmetics spans centuries. Many cultures and societies have actively used cosmetics for aesthetic purposes and health benefits. The desire to improve or enhance our looks endures today though fortunately, most modern products and practices are safe and rigorously tested. This, however, was not always the case and this list details some beauty practices of the past that came with undesirable side effects. Many items on this list are elements or products that at their discovery were so revolutionary, scientists and aestheticians pushed their uses to the beauty market without understanding the long-term side effects that were yet to be revealed. It has also shown that as humans, our never-ending quest for beauty and eternal youth can and indeed has led to risk taking and unintended harm to be caused. Some of the items on the list detail cultural practices to show the beauty and status of the subject. They show that the importance of tradition and the desire to improve appearance can be persuasive. Maybe after reading this list you might consider or continue to embrace the natural look.

Deadly Nightshade

Deadly Nightshade or Bella Donna was popular in the 16th and 17th Centuries especially among Italian women. The poison?s Latin name is Atropa Belladonna. Atropa comes from the name of one of the 3 fates in mythology Atropos, who held the shears to cut the strings of life. Any plant with the suffix Atropa can end life.

Belladonna translates as beautiful lady relating to the plants use for beautification purposes. [12] A few drops in the eyes created dilated pupils which were deemed particularly attractive. It also came with the desirable side effect of flushed cheeks. It was however a potent hallucinogen so users may not have been immediately aware of its capability to cause blindness, heart failure and ultimately death.

Mercury

Mercury is a metallic element represented by the symbol 'Hg' which comes from the Greek word hydragyrum which translates as 'liquid silver'.[13] Mercury has many scientific uses such as prolonging the life of batteries, in thermometers and barometers and easily form alloys with other metals. [14] So far so good, that is until someone decided to move mercury from the scientific arena to see how it could fair in the beauty world. The addition of Mercury to some skin creams in the 1920s was a popular one as it had an exfoliating effect on the skin?s surface. This made it particularly effective for users suffering with acne and blemishes. Its ability to be absorbed quickly through the skin would unfortunately leave the now smoothed skin user with all manner of ailments. The light user could get away with depression and fatigue whereas the more committed beauty fan would be left suffering liver and kidney problems and neurological damage. [3]

Lead

Lead has been used by humans for so many years that its use is mentioned in the Bible and incidences of poisoning date back to Roman times [15]. Lead and its compounds are toxic and once absorbed it is retained by the body which can lead to what is known as cumulative poisoning as the levels of toxicity build up. [16] Why then anyone would think it sensible to use as a beauty aid is baffling yet lead has been used in cosmetics since Antiquity and was particularly popular during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The Queen used lead to achieve her extremely pale look and this was replicated by many. It noticeably smoothed out the surface of the skin which was useful at the time as many had a complexion pitted by smallpox scars.[1] However, lead dried out and rotted the skin significantly, leading to a cycle of applying more to cover damage that the lead was ultimately creating whilst slowly poisoning oneself. If that wasn't enough the user could also experience severe abdominal pain, constipation, high blood pressure and memory loss amongst other conditions.[2]

X-Rays

After the discovery of x-rays in the early 20th Century, scientists found hair loss to be a desirable side effect. A trend for sitting under x-rays flourished in the 1920s due to the hair removal benefits and also a positive effect on skin conditions such as eczema and acne. Ladies who spent up to 20 hours exposed to this radiation, though hair free, also experienced skin thickening, ulcers and sadly cancer.[5]

Eyelash Extensions

A popular trend that endures today, eyelash extensions have been around for a long time but fortunately practices are a lot safer today and less gruesome. In the past, cocaine would be rubbed along the lash line for a numbing effect. A hair, taken from the head of the patient, would then be sewn along the natural lash line and woven in and out. [4] Suddenly the thought of fiddling with false strip lashes and glue until you get them applied correctly doesn?t seem as annoying as before.

Radium

Discovered by Marie Curie in 1898[17], Radium is a radioactive element with many beneficial uses. Today it is successful in the treatment of many cancers, particularly bone cancers as it is in the same element group as Calcium. On entering bone, Radium has shown itself to behave in the same way as Calcium. [18] So far so good and understandable on its discovery, people would look to find other uses for this wonder element. In the early 20th Century Radium was a welcome addition to many skin creams. There was the belief that radium added energy and vitality to the skin cells. This conviction endured throughout the 1920s and ?30s. As well as a glowing and radiant complexion users could look forward to vomiting, seizures, internal bleeding, anaemia and cancer.[6]

Arsenic

Today arsenic is present in some countries in high levels in groundwater and is highly toxic in its inorganic form. [19] Long term effects of groundwater exposure can lead to skin lesions and cancers.[20]Arsenic has always been a very popular poison due to its symptoms mimicking food poisoning and its odourless, tasteless properties. It is extremely potent yet almost undetectable.[21] Not just popular go to product for your neighbourhood Victorian murderer, arsenic was marketed as a product in the late 19th and early 20th centuries desirable for its ability to create a clear and pale complexion. It was extremely successful too as a skin whitener as it actually kills red blood cells. It was so effective that if the user discontinued use, the skin quickly broke down and so regular use was essential. Along with perfect skin, users could experience vomiting, internal bleeding, baldness, blindness, convulsions and death. [7]

High Hair

Hair trends change relatively quickly but fortunately we have never returned to the elaborate styles of the 17th and 18th Centuries. [10] The extravagant hair styles of the 17th century often featured props such as candles. Though these looked sensational, they would often ignite the flammable fragrances and powders on the hair. This would lead to burns of the face, head and neck if not put out at speed. 18th Century hair was often so high it was held in place with lard.[11] This would attract vermin and bugs leading to the wearer being bitten and potentially contracting secondary infections from their visitors.

Tooth gems

Tooth gems are a trend that has lasted through to today. Though many might remember their popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s they originate much further back in time. Popular in Mayan culture, the tooth was drilled and a gemstone or piece of jade would be inlaid to the hole.[9] The wearer would be lucky to keep the tooth as they often succumbed to decay, nerve damage and tooth loss. Today tooth gems can be applied safely by a dental professional. There are those however who choose this adornment from unqualified beauty salons and you may suffer enamel damage as a result.

Foot Binding

The practise of foot binding was banned in China in the early 20th century but the popular trend endured for many years before this. Lotus feet, as the bound feet where known, were a sign of status and beauty. The custom was particularly prevalent amongst the upper classes. Around the ages of 4 to 9, before the feet were fully formed, the feet would be soaked in herbs and animal blood or vinegar. The toes would then be forced into the sole and tightly bound until they broke. The arch of the foot was forced down in line with the leg until that ultimately broke too. Though the bandages were regularly changed and the feet cleaned, unsurprisingly problems were common. Side effects included infection, seepage, necrosis of the flesh, foul odour, toe loss, gangrene and mobility issues. [8]

References:

[1],[2] https://www.thecut.com/2013/12/most-dangerous-beauty-through-the-ages.html

[3] https://www.thecut.com/2013/12/most-dangerous-beauty-through-the-ages.html

[5]] [6][7] http://www.justluxe.com/fine-living/health/feature-1963808.php

[4] https://www.eyelashextensions.com/blog/the-history-of-eyelash-extensions/

[8] Franklin on Fashion, Caryn Franklin, Pandora, 1996.

[9] https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/090518-jeweled-teeth-picture.html

[10] http://thehistoryofthehairsworld.com/hair_18th_century.html

[11] https://livesandlegaciesblog.org/2015/01/28/perukes-pomade-powder/

[12] http://www.thepoisongarden.co.uk/atoz/atropa_belladonna.htm

[13][14] https://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele080.html

[15][16] https://www.britannica.com/science/lead-chemical-element

[17][18] https://www.livescience.com/39623-facts-about-radium.html

[19][20] http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs372/en/

[21] http://jmvh.org/article/arsenic-the-poison-of-kings-and-the-saviour-of-syphilis/

20 Questions (No. 255)

The answers to the November competition were Anne Reid, Martin Jarvis, Zoe Wanamaker, Timothy West, Aidan McArdle, Jane Asher, Rachael Stirling, Anna Madeley, Harriet Walter, Toby Stephens, Marc Warren, Paul McGann, Jenny Agutter, Patrick Baladi, Simon Callow, Eileen Atkins, Niamh Cusack, Patricia Hodge, James D'Darcy and Helen Baxendale. All entries got 20 out of 20 so Helene Parry of Brentford was drawn at random and wins the gift card. Congratulations!

This month enjoy a cup of tea whilst you solve our competition! All the answers begin with the letter T and a vowel. There are four of each combination, i.e. TA, TE, TI, TO and TU. Many thanks to Les Hurst for compiling it. Send your answers to '20 Questions (No. 255)', [Address] or [Email] by 20th January. Don't forget to include your name and address! The prize on offer is a £10 One4All gift card valid online or in store at over 130 high street shops, restaurants and entertainment venues giving a wide choice where to spend it. All members in all regions are welcome to enter.