In 1978 Askews was nearly destroyed. A business partner, furious when Askew tried to stop him sleeping with the models, poached her three bookers and 22 of their models. The industry rallied round her and when the Askews managed to rearrange their existing bookings with new models, a group of “heavies” was sent to Bruton Street to take her booking diaries.
When the lead heavy demanded she hand them over, she offered him a cup of tea. Looking at the pictures of models on the wall, he saw Lorraine Chase, his daughter. “You looked after my girl. I’m not doing anything here,” he said, finishing his tea and leading his men out.
Every sentence is golden. What about: “In 1960 she married Joe Joseph, an RAF engineer, whom she had met in a club. All was well until he resigned from the RAF because of an allergy to engine oil.”
And also ‘the power of “pisitive thonking”.’
Off topic but there was a story about the latest awarding of the Ig nobel awards which reminded me of this…
“During the Ig Nobel awards ceremony in 1998, many of the researchers went over their speaking time. As a result, the ceremony took longer than scheduled, people wanted to go home and some speakers were given less time to speak. Something had to change, and so in 1998 Miss Sweetie Poo was introduced: a cute little 8-year old girl wearing a frilly white dress.
Whenever a speaker goes over his or her time, Miss Sweetie Poo will march right up to the researcher and cry out: ‘Please stop, I’m bored’. She continues doing this, in a quite irritating manner too, until the speaker stops speaking.”
Perhaps Spud needs this addition to his YouTube output.
@Lord Spud
Aircraft engine oil has several very nasty additives, required to keep it stable in the extremely hostile operating environment of a jet engine. In the 60s they didn’t fully understand how to protect those who had to handle it.
Doing Engineering Practice 1 back in 1990, quite a bit of attention was given to skincare: barrier cream, serious handwashing, and so on, where we were handling cutting fluid and various mineral oils.
Explained, by the experienced old hands teaching us, with reference to the problems experienced back in the Bad Old Days where extended contact left folk with anything from mild dermatitis through to aggressive skin cancer. Probably a bit of “scare the newbies” exaggeration coupled to genuine issues.
Chris Miller & Jason Lynch are correct. You can contract dermatitis by exposure to engine oil. Once you’re sensitised, slightest bit on your hands can set it off. I have something similar with detergents. Possibly thanks to some clown chucking pool chlorine powder all over the place & not clearing up. Got it on my hands. Sweat activated it & ended up burning all the skin off my palms. Came off in sheets. Now I’ll blister if I use detergents. And you’d be surprised how many products contain detergent.
Dear Mr Worstall
Ain’t synchronicity wonderful?
DP
Worked at an aerospace plant and the toilets had the most impressive collection of hand care products I’ve ever seen, from cleaners to Moisturisers to barrier creams and they were all used frequently