Saturday Scenes

On the 24th of April 1663, Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary about the frustrations of dealing with a young man who simply would not improve, despite having the best chances to do so:
24 April 1663 (Pepys’ Diary)

Up betimes, and with my salt eel went down in the parler and there got my boy and did beat him till I was fain to take breath two or three times, yet for all I am afeard it will make the boy never the better, he is grown so hardened in his tricks, which I am sorry for, he being capable of making a brave man, and is a boy that I and my wife love very well.

I presumed he accosted the poor lad with a long piece of pickled eel which didn’t sound very painful at all. Luckily there was a footnote added in 1893 to explain:

A salt eel is a rope’s end cut from the piece to be used on the back of a culprit. “Yeow shall have salt eel for supper” is an emphatic threat.

Unfortunately, I suspect I deserve a few lashings myself as I actually managed to forget to take a photograph on Saturday, and this despite the fact that I was retweeting the photographs in the afternoon.

Luckily, on the 24th of April 2010, there were over two dozen wonderful photographs taken by people all over the world so I don’t really feel too guilty.

Send positive energy to all these people for sharing a scene from their Saturday with you:

• andymcdonald2
• RAFairman
• robdavies
• Pewari
• chocablog
• Sithefire
• DaughterofLir
• rOcKeTmAn_76
• pixelfreund
• akrabat
• DorindaDorinda
• JanetIsserlis
• fluttabyz
• daydreamlab
• dlewis1701
• Neal55
• brooks_beauty
• timewind
• raumsinn
• twasntme
• drewbenn
• illuminancy
• sahfenn
• ingridf
• elibrody

Why don’t you join us? It’s easy:

1. Take a photograph on a Saturday
2. Upload the photograph
3. Send a tweet to @SatScenes with the url

I’m looking forward to seeing your Saturday Scene in the next edition!

On the 17th of April 1985, one of the world’s longest wars came to an end. The Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years’ War between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly began as a result of a conflict involving the Dutch Navy in British waters.

Britain: Peace in Our Time – TIME

In 1651 the Dutch dispatched twelve warships to the islands, which are British territory situated 28 miles off England’s southwest coast. The islands were harboring pirates who had been menacing Dutch ships. The Dutch declared war on the islands, but before any shots were fired, the British promised to resolve the pirate problem. The Netherlands recalled its fleet, but both the Dutch and the Scillonians technically remained in a state of conflict.

It was not until 1985 that the issue came up again, when a historian contacted the Dutch Embassy to debunk the myth that they were at war with the Islands of Scilly. It was revealed that the declaration of war was never repealed and thus the war had continued, without a single shot fired, for 335 years.

The conflict finally came to an end on 17 April of that year when Dutch Ambassador Jonkheer Rein Huydecoper travelled to the islands to sign a peace treaty. The war was over.

And on 17 April 2010, people all over the world declared war on boredom with these wonderfully happy and active photographs:

Isn’t this just a great set of truly interesting images? Here are our photographers:

• capo42
• RAFairman
• DaughterofLir
• rOcKeTmAn_76
• brooks_beauty
• raumsinn
• KeithSpitalnick
• PCurd
• akrabat
• chris_alexander
• thermalhound
• icklemouse
• sarahfenn
• Sithefire
• twasntme
• Mutley627441
• akaSylvia
• NevilleFenn
• JanetIsserlis
• illuminancy
• dlewis1701
• ingridf
• timewind
• michrueg
• cornellfinch
• ElshaHawk
• elibrody
• UKMelia
• Andrew_Lillie

Would you like to see your scene featured here?

Simply take a photo on a Saturday and tweet it to @SatScenes! Every week I retweet the Saturday Scenes and then I collect them all for a special post here.

This week we almost beat the highscore – just two more people next week and it will be the most popular Saturday ever.

Walter Hunt had a problem: he owed a friend fifteen dollars, which he didn’t have. The story goes that he distractedly twisted a piece of wire as he sought a solution and suddenly realised he had something important in his hands.

On the 10th of April in 1849, Walter Hunt was awarded a US patent for his invention.

Patent for Safety Pin Issued April 10, 1849

It was made from one piece of wire, which was coiled into a spring at one end and a separate clasp and point at the other end, allowing the point of the wire to be forced by the spring into the clasp.

He received four hundred dollars for the rights to the safety pin and paid his debt and saved many pricked fingers. Don’t you just love a happy ending?

I don’t really have a neat way to segue into this week’s selection other than these photographs but were all taken exactly 161 years later on the 10th of April 2010.

These are the inventive people who find something to submit week after week:

• brooks_beauty
• PCurd
• sarahfenn
• RAFairman
• raumsinn
• twasntme
• fluttabyz
• icklemouse
• carocat
• JanetIsserlis
• akrabat
• Sithefire
• robdavies
• CliffStanford
• mousewords
• timewind
• akaSylvia
• ingridf
• 7of12
• elibrody
• pendrift
• Korwhai
• pixelesh
• illuminancy

Saturday Scenes is a great way to see the world from someone else’s point of view! Taking part is easy:

1. Take a photograph on a Saturday
2. Send it to @SatScenes on Twitter
3. Wait for the webpage to get updated
4. Oooh and aah over all the great submissions from all over the world!

So take a photograph this weekend and send it to @SatScenes!

On the 3rd of April in 1895, the famous trial against the Marquess of Queensbury began. Queensbury had left a calling card for “Oscar Wilde, posing Somdomite” and Oscar Wilde accused Queensbury of libel. As a result of the trial, salacious details of Wilde’s private life were scrutinised.

The defence held suggestive letters that Wilde had written to his lover. Wilde described how a man had attempted to extort money from him for one of these love letters.

Testimony of Oscar Wilde on Direct Examination (April 3,1895)

He said, “A very curious construction can be put on that letter.”

I said in reply, “Art is rarely intelligible to the criminal classes.”

He said, “A man offered me £60 for it.”

I said to him, “If you take my advice you will go to that man and sell my letter to him for £60. I myself have never received so large a sum for any prose work of that length; but I am glad to find that there is some one in England who considers a letter of mine worth £60.”

On the 3rd of April in 2010, these wonderful photographs document scenes from Saturday all over the world. Perhaps one day, these documents will be worth £60 in the right hands?

These are the 21st century equivalent of calling cards for our fine submitters:

• capo42
• Neal55
• embee
• RAFairman
• elibrody
• sarahfenn
• andrew_lillie
• pixelfreund
• twasntme
• JanetIsserlis
• akaSylvia
• pendrift
• robdavies
• rOcKeTmAn_76
• 9to5poet
• Sithefire
• ColinBrooks
• illuminancy
• NevilleFenn
• drewbenn
• raumsinn
• synapsefestival
• gwilkinson1989

Shouldn’t you save a photograph of your day-to-day life for posterity? It’s easy!

1. Take a photograph on a Saturday
2. Upload the photograph
3. Send a tweet to @SatScenes with the url
4. Leave URL for future descendants to find

I’m looking forward to seeing your photograph in the next edition!