The Steeple Times

Tag: America

  • Bankrupt in Barton Street

    Bankrupt in Barton Street

    The story of “fallen tycoon” Brian O’Donnell, the differences between bankruptcy in the UK and Ireland and an £11 million mansion

     

    In these straightened times, the media in general and the Daily Mail in particular quickly latch on to stories about benefit scroungers living in luxury homes. They’re less quick, however, with the exception of the case of Grant Bovey (“Mr Anthea Turner”), to make reference to stories of bankrupt individuals remaining in multi-million pound mansions.

     

    Brian O'Donnell with his wife Dr Mary "Pat" Patricia O'Donnell
    Brian O’Donnell with his wife Dr Mary “Pat” Patricia O’Donnell

    A most newsworthy example, though, has to be that of Irish property investor Brian O’Donnell and his psychiatrist wife Dr Mary Patricia “Pat” O’Donnell. Mr O’Donnell, who bought the Sanctuary Buildings in London for £170 million and paid $172.5 million for a 199,000 square foot property on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington in 2008, started his career as a solicitor and eventually founded his own firm, Brian O’Donnell & Partners, in 1999. In time, he and his wife diversified into property investment and at the height of his success, Mr O’Donnell was described as “the Celtic Tiger poster child”. With the recession, however, came problems and by 2011, they owed Morgan Stanley €457 million, Aareal €235 million, and the Bank of Ireland circa €75 million.

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  • David Reuben Jr: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    David Reuben Jr: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    The Steeple Times asks emerging market investor David Reuben Jr: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

     

    The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?

    I try to follow the “Golden Rule”. Treat others the way you would prefer that they treat you. Be careful how you are with people on your way up, you just might meet them on the way down.

     

    “Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?

    If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is probably not for you.

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  • BT phone home

    BT phone home

    The future for red telephone boxes

     

    The red telephone box is something that tourists often cite as being symbolic of Britain. Just like the red London bus and the red pillar box, though, these Sir Giles Gilbert Scott designed kiosks are sadly disappearing from our streets.

     

    Decaying red telephone boxes are an increasingly common sight throughout Britain
    Decaying red telephone boxes are an increasingly common sight throughout Britain
    Traditional red "K6" model telephone boxes being removed from Warwick town centre
    Traditional red “K6” model telephone boxes being removed from Warwick town centre

     

    Killed by the mobile phone revolution, British Telecom successfully lobbied to remove public telephones as usage has declined dramatically. The company state that calls from payphones have fallen by more than 80% in the last five years and that around 60% of the boxes cost more to maintain than they generate in revenue.

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  • Keep Calm and Get Certified

    Keep Calm and Get Certified

    Is it time for “Keep Calm And…” to “Sod Off And Get Lost”?

     

    Since 2001, whatever the situation and whatever the context, three words, “Keep Calm And…”, can and often have been applied. The rediscovery of what was originally a British wartime propaganda poster in a secondhand bookshop in Alnwick, Northumberland set about this trend and it has continued unabated.

     Keep Calm & Carry On 300
     

    The bookshop’s owners, Stuart and Mary Manley, seized upon their customer’s enthusiasm for “Keep Calm And…” and they, then others, printed it onto clothing, doormats, postcards, mugs and other merchandise. Millions of items featuring the distinctive font and “Tudor” crown have been sold worldwide and a trademark dispute about it commenced in 2011 and continues to this day.

     

    On the Barter Books website is a link to a video giving the story of how such a simple phrase has become so popular. On it the narrator states:

     

    “It’s perhaps the words on the poster that people find most enchanting. Like a voice out of history, it offers a very simple warmhearted message to inspire confidence in others in difficult times and it is something that should never fade from fashion”.

     
    Keep Calm Or Drink Wine 300Keep Calm & Act Like Kate Middleton 300Keep Calm And Go Watch The Hunger Games 300

     

    Adaptations naturally followed and amongst the many thousands created, some of the more tolerable ones include:

     
    –       Keep Calm Or Drink Wine

    –       Keep Calm You’re Not On The Titanic

    –       Keep Calm And Smoke Weed

    –       Keep Korma And Curry On

    –       Keep Calm And Get Over Yourself

    –       Keep Calm And Chillax (for David Cameron)

    –       Keep Calm And Kill Justin Bieber

    –       Keep Calm And Get Certified

    –       Keep Calm And F**k Off

    –       Now Panic And Freak Out

    –       Change Words And Be Hilarious

     

    Increasingly, though, the overuse of “Keep Calm And…” has resulted in even Stuart Manley stating: “You almost get sick of it… Very few are genuinely funny”. There are hundreds of them and some are more bizarre than others. A selection numbers:

     

    –       Keep Calm And Have A Cupcake

    –       Keep Calm And Farm On

    –       Keep Quiet And Continue Working

    –       Keep Calm And Rule Britannia

    –       Keep Calm And Pass Me The Ball

    –       Keep Calm And Watch Skins

    –       Keep Calm And Go Watch The Hunger Games

    –       Keep Calm And Fake A British Accent

    –       Keep Calm And Hack On

    –       Keep Calm And Go Gangnam Style

    –       Keep Calm And Act Like Kate Middleton

    –       Calm You Shall Keep
     
    Keep Calm & Kill Justin Bieber 300Keep Calm & Get Certified 300Keep Calm & Fuck Off 300
     

    Frankly, the majority of us are now bored. The time has come for reasonable souls to adopt the tone of Victor Meldrew. On sight of another piece of “Keep Calm And…” merchandise, the cry should ring out: “Sod Off And Get Lost”.

     

    Barter Books: http://www.barterbooks.co.uk

     

    Watch the Story of Keep Calm And Carry On at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrHkKXFRbCI&feature=player_embedded

     

    If you must, purchase “Keep Calm” merchandise at: http://www.keepcalmhome.com, http://www.keepcalmstudio.com and http://www.keepcalmandcarryon.com

  • Barbara Walters

    Barbara Walters

    Barbara WaltersThis dynamic American television personality and author was one of the first women to work in “hard news” and is best known for having hosted the Today show, the ABC Evening News, The View and 20/20. She grew up “in awe” of the famous people her father, a Broadway producer and nightclub owner, introduced her to, has been married four times to three different men and got chicken pox after ‘kissing’ actor Frank Langella at a New Year’s Eve party in Miami in 2012. Walters has interviewed everyone from Fidel Castro to Michael Jackson, but her March 1999 feature on Monica Lewinsky, watched by a record 74 million viewers, is indeed one for the history books. When she asked her subject: “What will you tell your children when you have them?”, Lewinsky replied: “Mommy made a big mistake”. At that point, Walters ended the show by stating: “And that is the understatement of the year”.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Justin Timberlake

    Justin Timberlake 250This child star has morphed via a stint on the Disney Channel and in boy band ‘N Sync into an internationally known singer-songwriter, actor, record producer, dancer and businessman. (more…)

  • Five of the best: Treehouses

    Five of the best: Treehouses

    Five of the best palaces in the trees

     

    When one thinks of treehouses, one generally imagines pretty rudimentary creations built out of old boards and bits of rope. Now, though, treehouses are becoming more and more extravagant. As individuals such as J. K. Rowling and the Duchess of Northumberland construct vast palaces in the trees in their gardens, The Steeple Times examines five of the best:

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  • Crashing Assange

    Crashing Assange

    The uninvited nuisances who are the nightmare of any party host

     

    First published in October 2011 on a blog written by Matthew Steeples, we revisit the story of the leading gatecrashers who boldly go where no others would dare.

     

    Gatecrashers are people who get into parties without invitations. Central London seems to be awash with them and though they lack the gaul of Washington’s Michaele and Tareq Salahi (who crashed President Obama’s White House state dinner for the Indian Prime Minister), they are truly a menace wherever they go.

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  • Jeremy Blake and Theresa Duncan (1971 – 2007 and 1966 – 2007)

    Jeremy Blake and Theresa Duncan (1971 – 2007 and 1966 – 2007)

    Blake and DuncanTheir story is a modern day equivalent of that of Romeo and Juliet and Vanity Fair chronicled their deaths as The Golden Suicides. “Handsome” Blake, a digital artist and painter who worked with Malcolm McLaren and Fox Searchlight, and “sexy” Duncan, a writer, game designer and filmmaker best known for the “girl-centric” game Chop Suey, were the toast of New York but became obsessed with those they felt threatened them and their works. Personally wounded by a rejection from the post-modern rocker Beck to work with her on making a film out of one of her scripts, Duncan blamed his church, the Church of Scientology, and stated: “They are furious because he valued our way of life far more than Celebrity Center sex trash”. As more rejections came, this talented pair who “supported one another totally” became more and more irrational and in July 2007, a week apart, both committed suicide.

  • Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal

    Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal

    Prince Al-Waleed bin TalalRanked as “the most influential Arab in the world”, Al-Waleed has at various times held investments in News Corp, AOL, Apple Inc., Motorola, Fox News, Eastman Kodak, TWA, Twitter, The Savoy, the Four Seasons hotel chain and Euro Disney SCA. Not afraid to back his beliefs financially, the “Buffett of Arabia” gave £18.5 million to the families of Palestinian “martyrs” in 2002 and sent a cheque for $10 million to New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani after the 9/11 attacks. In exchange he requested “a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause”. The cheque was returned. When Forbes magazine listed him as being worth £13 billion in March 2013 he was irate at the use of “incorrect data” that “seemed designed to disadvantage Middle Eastern investors”. Al-Waleed, whom rival publication Bloomberg list as being worth £18.5 billion, indignantly told Steve Forbes to remove him from his list and announced through his office that would he would “sever ties” with it. Surely, this dispute could be easily solved as, after all, what’s a billion or two between friends?