when i was a child, if i look particularly unkempt, my mother would say "you look like the wreck of the Hesperas". Who what the hesparas was, i had no idea, but i clearly got the idea it wasn't good to look like it.

when i married, and when on honeymoon (a grand european tour) stop 1 was London (2 weeks!)
and in the Tate, i found Turner. Painting after painting of the Hesperas, a fire, in the fog, a blacken hull--and each painting was more impressive, and more beautiful than the next. I fell in love.

Now, my mother's harsh words have been transformed.. Image, me, non-discript me, I look like the wreck of the hesperas! me! i could be turner painting.. Oh joy!

but now days, no ever looks like the wreck of the hesparas, or has a room that looks like a den of iniquity, and nothing is so horrible that is "like the black hole of calcutta" (well at least no one i know ever uses these phrases!)
they had a long run, and while not common, they live on (at least in my memory!)

my other obsession