Top Ten Demonstrations of Love

The inventor, the celebrity and the royal highness couldn’t resist the draw of making a grand gesture to the love of their life

  • By Abigail Tucker
  • Smithsonian.com, February 10, 2012
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King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson Queen Victoria Taj Mahal Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz Eva Peron Garbage disposal
Garbage disposal

(Courtesy of Flickr user misterbisson)


Disposing of Drudgery

In 1927, a Wisconsin architect named John W. Hammes watched his wife painstakingly dispose of food scraps by wrapping them in newspaper and tossing them in the trash. Eager to make her life easier, he dreamed up a device that would grind food into pieces tiny enough to be washed down the drain. Hammes patented the garbage disposal, the In-Sink-Erator, in 1935.

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Comments (10)

Lucy and Desi divorced because Desi was a heavy drinker and a womanizer.

I always thought Richard Denning was really hot looking. Lucy made a mistake.

Ellis, that is the mutton-leg sleeves Ida is wearing, very fashionable around the turn of the 20th century; check out the Gibson girls for more of that weird little haute couture aberration.

Ida's dress has leg o' mutton sleeves. Her left arm is extended across her lap.

Re: the question about the photo of Pres. McKinley and his wife

ellis, look at the photo again carefully. Ida's hands are in her lap. Her sleeves have big puffs on the upper part of her arm, then the sleeve is tight down to her wrist.

"When the network proposed a television pilot, Lucy refused—unless her actual husband, Cuban pop band leader Desi Arnaz, was cast as her TV spouse, allowing the couple to spend more time together."

You didn't finish the story - some of your younger readers might not realize that sometimes couples can spend too much time together, as Lucy and Desi apparently did, since they divorced in 1960.

They didn't divorce, but they didn't live happily ever after. Wallis wanted to marry the King. When Edward didn't become king, she wanted out. They had very public fights over the rest of their very public lives. It didn't help that Edward was a Nazi sympathizer.

Am I [not] seeing things, or what? Why does Ida appear not to have arms or hands in that photograph? lsj

And then they divorced.

I am so glad I read these top ten.I,m sure you could find dozens more.McKinley,s story brought tears to my eye,s.Thank you.



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