Tag: Classic Women

Classic Beauty: Mistresses (1)

Classic Beauty

We’re moving away from the movies today, and looking at a few women who were the mistresses of various kings and emperors. First up:

Emperor Alexander II of Russia and Catherine (Katya) Dolgorukova

Next, Britain’s Charles II and…

Barbara Villers Castlemaine Palmer

Hortonse Mancini

Moll Davis

Nell Gwynn

Louise de Kérouaille

Phew… it’s a wonder the old boy had any time left over to do any ruling.  Anyway, now it’s the turn of:

King Frederick William II of Prussia and Wilhelmine Rietz

Back to Britain for some King Georges.

George I and Sophia Kielmansegg

George II and Henrietta Howard

George IV and Mary Robinson

And lastly for today, from Austria-Hungary, Emperor Franz Joseph I and:

Katharina Schratt

Anna Nahowski

(who, by the way, was all of fifteen years old when FJ started bonking her;  then again, she was already married and thus by law no longer a minor)

More next week.

Retrospective

Classic Beauty, Gratuitous Chick Pics

Sometime ago, a commenter asked:  “What happened to Nigella Lawson?  You used to be so sweet on her”  (or words of that nature).

Simple answer:  she lost a whole bunch of weight, and along with that, Nigella got all gaunt ‘n stuff.  (It’s all okay to lose weight;  but sometimes, something essential is lost along the way.)

I thought I’d illustrate the point with (what else?) a couple of pics.  Here’s Our Girl in years gone by:

And magnificently tousled:

Then she started to lose weight:

And had she stopped there, I think we can all agree that this would have been fine.  But she didn’t:

I mean the basics are still there, but…

And a couple more reminders of days gone by:

See what I mean?

I know;  she’s got older, too — but the gaunt, “skinnier” Nigella just doesn’t do it for me anymore.  And that’s a Sad Thing.

Touring Option

Drive Time, Gratuitous Chick Pics

I was never a big fan of the 70s-era Maserati Ghibli, simply because at the time I was enthralled (and still am) by the much-smaller Dino 246 GT.

However:  times have moved on and changed, and so have I, a little bit here and there.  Now, the thrills of blatting away in a Dino at full throttle from light to light with a skinny blonde in the passenger seat have dimmed somewhat.

Now, what I think I would like is a bigger car, to accommodate the bigger Kim, and someone more akin to, say, Kelly Brook alongside me.


Rapid acceleration is okay, but not essential;  more important to me are things like sufficient torque and raw power that can push over hills and such towards my final destination.  Ditto the car.

Hence my interest in the Ghibli:  to wit, “a 4.7-liter, dry-sump V-8 that produces 330 horsepower, which is sufficient to move the big GT from zero to 60 MPH in a quick 6.4 seconds and reach a top speed of more than 150 mph.”

I know that a lot of today’s cars could do the same or better, with greater reliability and even better performance.  But what the hell:  I’m not a F1 driver, I’m not even a fast driver;  what I want is a reasonable facsimile of today’s performance, with a touch of history thrown in.

And with the top down (car and/or passenger), the thrill would be immense:

“Okay Kim, that’s enough, we get your point.”