I wasn’t originally going to post anything today for Whatnot Wednesday, but then I thought, “Why not?”
So, really, this is Why Not Wednesday.
And why not? We deserve it.
It was on this date in 1093 that Winchester Cathedral in Winchester, Hampshire, England was consecrated, which, by my watch, was 927 years ago.
It was the event of the season and drew nearly every bishop in England (who could only travel there diagonally), as well as a large percentage of the abbots (and more than a few Costellos) and monks (who refused to shake anyone’s hands).
The event sold out early and it was reported at the time that scalpers were getting as much 100 times the face value of the tickets. Floor seating was the most sought after, with nose-bleed seats still able to command premium pricing. One attendee described the nose-bleed seats as being like “buying a stairway to heaven.” He was later retroactively sued by Led Zeppelin for future copyright infringement and was ordered by the court to pay one pig, two chickens, and a stoat in reparations.
Festival seating outside on the cathedral grounds were still hot commodities in spite of the fact that public address systems would not be invented for over 800 years. As social distancing had not been invented yet, the event promoters were able to provide standing room only accommodations for a great many people. This led to an outbreak of hard feelings towards the event promoters.
No one at the time could have foreseen that the consecration of Winchester Cathedral would lead directly and inexorably to The New Vaudeville Band recording “Winchester Cathedral” in 1966.
Walkelin, the first Norman bishop of Winchester, would most likely have rethought building the cathedral if he’d known that.
How to Play Whatnot Wednesday
- Write a blog post
- Use the tag “#WhatnotWednesday” (no space) – Along with any other tags you want to use
- Include a link to this post
- Post your post
- Leave a comment below with a link to your Whatnot Wednesday post
- Have fun
- Try to avoid humming “Winchester Cathedral” while you’re posting
I’ll have to change the name of my Creative Wednesdays to “Whatnot Wednesdays”!
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Ha ha! I’m sure your “Creative Wednesdays” get a lot more participation than my “Whatnot Wednesdays”. Still, I would be honored if you did. 🙂
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[…] Whatnot Wednesday. Biff Sock Pow, a blog I follow, published a hilarious post today, titled Whatnot Wednesday: Intense Consecration. Then he said we can play along: make a blog post, tag it #WhattnotWednesday, link back to his […]
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I enjoyed this amusing history themed whatnot. To whet your engineer sensibilities and yet not mire readers in jargon, I put a little whatnot of my own out there. http://popeyetoadmiral.com/2020/04/08/tinkering-with-raspberries/
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Thanks, Eric! Your link to your own Whatnot Wednesday was an excellent read. I definitely recommend it to anyone with even a single “Engineering sequence” in their DNA … or even for the chronically curious.
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This is very funny! I haven’t written my blog post yet, but I will try to come up with a Whatnot Wednesday post. I am sure that will be better than my usual Wuss-out Wednesday!
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https://mohawkvalleygirl.wordpress.com/2020/04/09/whatnot-walk/
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Thanks for playing, MVG! I hope you had fun. And I enjoyed your link very much! I recommend everyone go visit your excellent blog!
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Likewise, I’m sure!
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Thank you! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! And I’m very happy you’re participating in Whatnot Wednesday. I hope you get lots of traffic for it. 🙂
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Those crowds were exceeded only by the time this century we went to see the Winchester flower festival and had to queue up outside, then wind our way slowly inside. But I think we saw more flowers than they did in 1093, an event I missed by a few years. Frequent visits have still not revealed what that 1966 song was about, but be assured it will be in my brain for the rest of the day.
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