Helen Sharman is interesting as she is from Sheffield and was the first British astronaut - I thought she should be a cosmonaut because she went up with the Russians but because she was a westerner they called her an astronaut which, if we are talking about word meanings and values , is very interesting.
I'm really interested in personal connections with history - growing up in a small village I have few but I'm sort of connected to the war through my dad and it was interesting seeing the model of the R100 airship at Artemis as my grandad helped to drag it from it's hanger at Howden and we have a postcard from America from one of my gran's friends who burnt on the way back.
We all connect with history but few of us connect with authorised historical narratives and the points we connect have increased power or perhaps aura.
Anyway Helen Sharman loaned her flame retardent space underwhere to an exhibition about underwear Kim did back in the day. Michael Palin donated a pair of pouch fronts from an indian Dow when he got deli belly in Pole to Pole but not many other celebrities coughed up their briefs. So to add substance to the exhibition I manufactured a pair of electically heated briefs which most people assumed were real.
Now I would realise that the reason people thought they were real was nothing to do with the fact I'd made them look real but that they were in a museum exhibition and had entered the Authorised Heritage Discourse.
Helen Sharman tripped while lighting the olympic flame at the World Student Games in Sheffield - you need to come from Sheffield to understand the significance of this, but context and often retrospective context is 92% of meaning.
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my father knew a man who fought in the boar war who told him some stories, i have since been told these stories about a thing that happened before i was born -does that mean my memories are over 150 years old?
when i write that yes it does feel that the aura is increased re boar war, but also my romance indicator goes into the red!
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