Advice to cure ennui

Sometimes you have those days where you just feel cheesed off for no reason at all.  Utterly normal occurrences seem like they are happening expressly to irritate you, perfectly civil requests grate on you and every little task seems a bit too much trouble.

These are the days when you need to dip into The New Illustrated Universal Reference Book for a little snippet of life advice from the chapter A Great Thought Every Day. Little did that (presumably) long gone, un-named compiler of great thoughts imagine that one day, 81 years later, a slightly grumpy middle aged lady would be pleased by their choice of a Chinese proverb for 7th November,

It is easier to know how to do something than to do it.

Never a truer word spoken this side of Beijing.

Equally pleasing, if a little more baffling, is the Russian proverb for the 8th November

It is better to be lame than always seated. 

I'm going to ponder that one as I limp off to do the washing up.

Stalin and Mussolini making their mark in 1933 but where's Herr Hitler?

The trouble with history is that you need 20:20 hindsight to spot who the good guys are and who the villains will turn out to be.

Our 1933 internet, The New Illustrated Universal Reference Book, which tackles the enormous task of covering the "main interests of humanity" for the young families of the 1930s, reassures the reader that "History is not longer a dull subject. It has been released from its swaddling bands and become a vigorous youth holding a torch to light the pathway of today and to-morrow." Crumbs.

So how is that vigorous youth's torch illuminating the politics of the early 1930s?

Of course, 1933 is a momentous year for Europe, as a certain Adolf Hitler makes his bid for power and, in January, becomes chancellor of a coalition government, where the Nazis have a third of the seats in the Reichstag. In February, the German Reichstag is destroyed by fire. Although the plot and execution is almost certainly due to the Nazis, they point the finger at the communists and trigger a General Election.  A month later, in March, the Enabling Act is passed and powers of legislation pass to Hitler’s cabinet for four years, making him virtual dictator.  Hitler  proclaims the Nazi Party is the only political party permitted in Germany. All other parties and trade unions are disbanded. Individual German states lose any autonomous powers, while Nazi officials become state governors. In April, the Communist party is banned, followed by Socialists, Trade Unions and strikes in May. Hitler withdraws from the League of Nations in October, and in the following months, he trebles the size of the German Army and ignores the arms restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles.

So, a big year in German politics. Does Herr Hitler get a mention the miniature biographies?  Hill, Hindenburg, Hippocrates and Hogarth but no Hitler...

That other 1930s Euro-dictator of note, Mussolini, gets an entry but he's been around a while by 1933 and already has a name for himself as a "founder of Fascism...and virtually dictator" of Italy. So how does The New Illustrated Universal Reference Book tackle Il Duce - well, he's probably making the trains run on time, despite abolishing freedom of the press, curtailing liberty and the blatant threat to North Africa. 

We shouldn't forget what's happening in Russia and the rise of that other European dictator, Joe Stalin. How does 1933 view him? To be fair, it took the outside world a lot longer to work out just how bad it was going to get under his murderous regime. For 1933, the jury is out on whether Communism will turn out to be a Good Thing and whether Stalin's Five Years' Plan is a blueprint for a new economic future. 

The final line shows that the writers were up to date with events in Russia but, curiously, they turn their eyes away from Germany at the Treaty of Versailles and write nothing about what is happening to the German people, reflecting perhaps the view of many people in 1933.

The owner of this book, my paternal grandmother, saw a father off to the Western Front who returned crippled by gas, and would, a decade later, see her husband join the war in West Africa, leaving her to bring up a toddler and a baby alone in wartime. The optimism of the The New Illustrated Universal Reference Book in 1933 that "It remains for the people to create a new standard of international fellowship and good-will" seems a little sad with the perfect vision of hindsight.

Before the Internet, there was the New Illustrated Universal Reference Book...

Before the Internet, there was the New Illustrated Universal Reference Book, a hefty tome that enabled you to check a historical date, look up your ailments, solve your legal problems, plan your garden, fix your radio, find out what was wrong with your pets, settle an argument about the rules of a game, fix a leaky washer, win at pub quizzes, set up a small business and make sure you were spelling things correctly.

Admit it, the contents list for this book pretty much covers most of what we use the Internet for, although good folk seeking enlightenment in 1933 were spared the opinions of the commenting classes on whether Mussolini was really good for the railways or the`merits of a Dandie Dinmont over a Dachshund.

Moreover, before quotes spambots stalked you on Twitter if you were unwise enough to quote a bit of Doctor Seuss, there was the New Illustrated Universal Reference Book's 'A Great Thought for Everyday'. Bishops feature quite heavily and the 10th September is no exception, featuring Archbishop Manning with the cheering thought that,

This life is the childhood of eternity

So, having mused on the metaphysical with Manning (what are the chances of there being a quotebot for a 19th century Catholic cardinal from Totteridge do you think?), I flick open the book - the equivalent of hitting the I feel lucky button in Google - and alight on the page headed Variola,Veins and Veld Sores. V is not a great place to land in a medical dictionary I discover, although it's comforting to note that should you have webbed toes, you need not interfere with them.

I can't help feeling that the New Illustrated Universal Reference Book and I are going to spend some happy hours together. I shall be sure and share the good bits on the modern illustrated universal reference book we call the internet.

Making chocolate rock cakes like a 1930s housewife

The simplicity of the recipes in Lydia Chatterton's Modern Cookery (Illustrated) is encouraging me to get my baking trays out and have a go at some of the cake recipes in my grandmother's cookbooks.

Although second hand book websites give the date of this book as anything from 1917 to 1951, my guess is that this is one of a number of cookbooks that my grandmother bought as a housewife in the 1930s. The pictures also suggest that this copy, at least, dates from that period.

I've made rock cakes before but never chocolate ones. I whipped these up in less than 20 minutes including cooking time. The result was a slightly biscuity cake that the kids devoured in seconds.

Next time I cook them though, I'm tempted to take a 21st century liberty with the recipe and add some chocolate bits to the mixture for a little extra taste.