Margot Kidder

This time, Superman can't turn back time for her:

I was fascinated to find out, from our local newspaper the Brecon and Radnor Express, that Margot Kidder had visited the area, researching her family history in Brecon Library!
Apparently, she was related to Powells who farmed in the Llanigon area (just outside Hay-on-Wye), and who sailed for New York from Liverpool in 1854. She presented staff who helped her with the research with signed posters advertising the Daily Planet.

(So here's another reason why libraries with trained staff are important!)

Slide Rule!

Back in the early 1980s, there was a caption contest in New Scientist magazine, and one week the picture was of one man seated at a computer while another man stood beside him with his hands outstretched to about 30cm. The winning caption was: "Honestly! It was called a slide rule, and it was about this long!"
When the film Hidden Figures was being made, set in the US space program of the 1960s, it was only after they'd finished filming that they realised that all those engineers and mathematicians would have had slide rules to calculate with.
Browsing the antique market this morning, I was delighted to find a slide rule in one of the boxes.
It cost me 50p, and it will be an excellent prop for my UNIT scientist costume.
I have no idea how to use it properly, of course....

May the Fourth be With You