By Theadora Brack
Celebrating the new bike lanes on the right bank in Paris, let's take a sentimental journey! Pop open a Coke, crank up Claude Debussy’s “Petite Suite,” and prepare for some bumpy late 19th century time travel along avenue Foch. This centuries-old promenading stretch is my favorite spot for gazing up at the Arc de Triomphe…
Delving into the beauty world with my new job has drawn me to a fascination with historic beauty products, and imagine my delight when this Wit came across a deliciously strange article called 8 Fascinating French Beauty Fads. #3 of the 8 fascinations had me spell-bound.
In 1932, Dr. Alfred Curie launched a Tho-Radia line of beauty products that were made from, you guessed it, radio-active materials such as thorium chloride and radium bromide. Thorium is a radio-active chemical element named after the God of thunder, Thor, and has been experimented with as an alternate source for nuclear power plants. Pure thorium is a silvery-white metal that maintains a lovely luster for a long time…which was no doubt why Alfie injected it into his cream, cleansing milk, face powder, lipstick, and even toothpaste (the thought makes me cringe…).
Radium Bromide is a bromide salt discovered in 1898 by Pierre and Marie Curie, who curiously are no relation to our French doctor Alfie. This salt form of radium keeps the chemical from turning black and made the radium easier to work with, though it was highly radio-active and so dangerous in that it could explode under certain conditions.
So, was Tho-Radia guaranteed to make you glow?
Tho-Radia promised lighter and brighter skin. The ads featured a glowing (no pun intended) woman who taunts, “Stay old if you want.”
Or, uh, what?…die trying?
For more interesting French beauty fads of the past, some literally worth dying for, check out People, Places and Bling, for a most interesting, and a bit creepy, article.
xoxo, Wit
The R.M.S. Titanic departs Southhampton
Have you caught the "Titanic Fever" that's going around or were you not even aware that this coming Sunday, April 15th, marks the 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the most infamous ship of all time?
A photograph of a postcard written and mailed by passenger Ann Marie Perreault 3 days before the sinking of the Titanic.
It’s late, and I sit here sipping chamomile tea, nursing a sore throat that I did not order, as I read Theresa Duncan’s blog….I read about the history of electricity….
“In 1750 Benjamin Franklin published a proposal for an experiment to prove that lightning is electricity by flying a 
kite in a storm that appeared capable of becoming a lightning storm. On May 10, 1752, Thomas Francois d’Alibard of France conducted Franklin’s experiment (using a 40-foot-tall iron rod instead of a kite) and extracted electrical sparks from a cloud.”….
More here….
So I came across this little post-turkey day information.
It seems that the little ditty “Mary had a Little Lamb” was written by a woman named Sarah Josepha Hale, in the year 1830. She was inspired by seeing a small girl being followed to school by a pet lamb. Hale also founded the first national women’s magazine, a periodical called Godey’s Ladies Book. Hale worked successfully to get Thanksgiving recognized as a national holiday. Lincoln was the pres who made it so. Yet another woman who has changed our world, subtly and with grace.
Sarah Josepha Hale
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Another note: I’m going with a December Divas idea for posts this month. If you have a favorite historic or recent diva, famous, or hardly known about, like Sarah, that you love and would be of interest let me know. Would love to post about her, with links, of course. Elegant or off-the-wall divas welcome. No limits.
