The Friday Irregular

3 June 2011

Edited by and copyright ©2011 Simon Lamont
tfir@simonlamont.co.uk

The latest edition is always available at http://www.gizmo1.demon.co.uk/li/tfir/index.htm
The archives are at http://www.gizmo1.demon.co.uk/tfir/archive/index.htm

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Friday 3 June   -   Peter Abelard was found guilty of heresy, 1140. The Dutch West India Company received a charter for the New Netherlands (approximately now part of the mid-Atlantic US), 1621. Geologist James Hutton born, 1726. Composer Georges Bizet died, 1875. Dancer Josephine Baker born, 1906. A Soviet Tupelov Tu-144 crashed in France, 1973. Tennis player Rafael Nadal born, 1986. Actress Anna Neagle died, 1986. Husband and wife volcanologists Maurice and Katia Krafft died on Mount Unzen, Japan, 1991. Mabo Day in Australia.
 
Saturday 4 June   -   Inventor Benjamin Huntsman born, 1704. Librarian (amongst other things) Giacomo Casanova died, 1798. Establishment of the Roanoke Colony in old Virginia (now North Carolina), 1854. Children's author and illustrator Mabel Lucie Attwell born, 1879. Sufragette Emily Davison ran out in front of King George V's horse Anmer at the Epsom Derby, 1913. Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany died, 1941. Actress Angelina Jolie born, 1975. China's People's Liberation Army violently ended the Tiananmen Square protests, 1989. Cartoonist Dik Browne died, 1989. International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression.
 
Sunday 5 June   -   Composer Orlando Gibbons died, 1625. Furniture maker Thomas Chippendale born, 1718. First publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin as a ten-month newspaper serialisation, 1851. Economist John Maynard Keynes born, 1883. Author O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) died, 1910. British Secretary of State for War John Profumo resigned amid the Profumo Affair scandal, 1963. Actor Ron Livingston born, 1967. The Apple II personal computer went on sale, 1977. Actor and US President Ronald Reagan died, 2004. World Environmental Day.
 
Monday 6 June   -   Artist Diego Velásquez born, 1599. The world's first university museum, the Ashmoleon opened in Oxford, England, 1683. Poet Alexander Pushkin born, 1799. Philosopher Jeremy Bentham died, 1832. Andrew Jackson became the first US President to travel by train, 1833. Explorer Robert Falcon Scott born, 1868. Psychiatrist Carl Jung died, 1961. The computer game Tetris was released, 1984. Actress Anne Haddy died, 1999.
 
Tuesday 7 June   -   Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland, died, 1329. King Charles I of England granted Royal Assent to the Petition of Right, 1628. Designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh born, 1868. The launching of the RMS Lusitania in Glasgow, 1906. Actress Jessica Tandy born, 1909. Singer Tom Jones born, 1940. Computer scientist Alan Turing died, 1954. Writer Henry Miller died, 1980. Priscilla Presley opened Graceland to the public, 1982.
 
Wednesday 8 June   -   The Scandinavian invasion of England began with the Viking raid on Lindisfarne, 793. Harthacanute, King of Denmark and England, died, 1042. Civil engineer John Smeaton born, 1724. American revolutionary Thomas Paine died, 1809. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright born, 1867. Herman Hollerith applied for a patent for his punched card calculator, 1887. Singer Bonnie Tyler born, 1951. A national nuclear-free zone was established in New Zealand, 1987. Actor Robert Donner died, 2006. World Oceans Day.
 
Thursday 9 June   -   Roman emperor Nero died, 68. The Dutch fleet began the five day Raid on the Medway, 1667. Engineer George Stephenson born, 1781. Writer Charles Dickens died, 1870. Composer/lyricist Cole Porter born, 1891. Charles Kingsford Smith completed the first trans-Pacific flight, 1928. Actor Michael J. Fox born, 1961. Racehorse Secretariat won the Triple Crown, 1973. Pianist Claudio Arrau died, 1991.

THE WISDOM OF...

This week, Robert A. Heinlein:
Can you remember a time when the majority was ever right?

FILM QUIZ

A mixed bag of quotations. Answers next issue or from the regular address. Last issue's quotations were:

WEIRD WORLD NEWS

Strange stories from around the world, some of which might be true...

CHASE THE CHEESE! About 200 people braved a large police presence to take part in an unofficial cheese-rolling competition in Gloucestershire last month. The event, at which participants chase a rolling Double Gloucester cheese down the 200m (656') 1:2 gradient hill, is a tradition in the town of Brockworth but the official event has been called off for two years running over health and safety concerns for spectators - and a backlash over ticket prices for an official festival. Despite the lack of medical coverage - the St John's Ambulance Service attended the official event - this year's races passed off without incident, 23-year-old local Chris Anderson winning the men's race, 14-year-old Wolverhampton resident Jo Guest the women's. "It's a Brockworth tradition and it's keeping going for the people of Brockworth. [..] I had to win, it's in my blood," Anderson said.

CHEERS! A single Methuselah (six-litre) bottle of 1961 Chateau Latour red wine was auctioned at Christie's in London for £135,000 (US$221,000) this week. Chateau Latour is acclaimed as one of the five best wine producers from the Bordeax region of France, and the boom is sales of fine wine despite the global recession is attributed to increased interest in the Far East, where western-style wines cannot be produced as the climate is unsuitable for the grapes. The Chateau Latour Methuselah fetched more than three times its estimate, but the record (by volume) is still held by a regular-sized bottle of white Bordeaux produced in Napoleonic times which auctioned last year for £75,000 (US$123,000 at today's rates).

CHEERS (AGAIN)! A Tesco supermarket in Greenock, Scotland was inundated with customers after a pricing error meant that three boxes of various beers were being registered at the checkouts as costing £11 (US$18) instead of £20 (US$33). Police had to be called to sort out the congestion in the car park after news spread via Twitter and other social networks, with some customers making repeated trips to the store to stock up on the unexpectedly cheap booze. Sadly for shoppers though, a spokesman for Tesco said that the error was "quickly spotted" and till operators were changing the price manually until the computer system was updated.

YARR! An anchor weighing over 2,200lb (1,000kg) has been raised from the wreck of what is believed to have been the Queen Anne's Revenge, the ship of legendary pirate Blackbeard, real name Edward Teach, who operated off the eastern seaboard of America and around the West Indies, and was believed to put burning fuses in his beard to look even more fearsome to his foes. Project manager Mark Wilde-Ramsing said that the team hope to raises all the artefacts from the wreck by the end of 2013, possibly confirming the ship's identity. The anchor raised wasn't the largest one on the wreck - the archaeologists had initially planned to raise a larger one, but were unable to as it was too well attached to the wreck's ballast pile.

MAC TRACKED! When Oakland, Ca, interior designer Joshua Kaufman had his Apple MacBook laptop stolen in March he reported it to police, but also used software called Hidden, previously installed on the laptop, to track it's location, get screenshots and images from the computer's camera. What was revealed was a shaggy-haired bearded man who slept on a sofa when not watching YouTube videos in bed, had a Google mail account and took the MacBook with him in his car. Kaufman gave this evidence to the police but didn't get much of a response until he created a blog about the theft (http://thisguyhasmymacbook.tumblr.com/) and the Twittersphere picked up and spread the story. From there the mainstream media got hold of it and it was discovered that Kaufman's original police report had been misfiled. Three hours later Oakland police had set up a sting and arrested the user, 27-year-old cab driver Muthanna Aldebashi, although he was charged with felony possession rather than the original theft as it was thought he had bought the computer on the street.

ENTERTAINMENT BRIEFS

Kenneth Branagh, John Sessions, Sara Kestelman to star in 8-hour adaptation of Vasily Grossman's Battle of Stalingrad novel Life and Fate for BBC Radio 4, stripped across all drama strands for a week in September. Pulp make live return debut at Primavera festival in Barcelona. Lady Gaga tops UK album chart after Adele's 21 spent 16 of last 21 weeks in #1 spot (now #2, also #3 with 19). The Hangover: Part II tops US box office, breaks comedy film opening record. Doctor Who to go on inexplicable mid-season break after this weekend, Daleks to be given "a rest" according to ex-prod Steven Moffat (presumably so marketing can sell 'new' Cyberman toys this Christmas). Simon Le Bon's throat problems cause Duran Duran to cancel remaining dates of UK tour. NO UK X Factor judging return for Cheryl Cole after being booted from US show. Hobbit movies named as The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Dec 2012) and The Hobbit: There and Back Again (Dec 2013). UK Advertising Standards Authority bans TV ad for film The Mechanic. Rare Charlie Chaplin film discovered having been bought for £3.20 (US$5.24) on eBay (because the buyer liked the film can) expected to auction for at least £1m (US$1.64m). Amy Winehouse checks out of Priory rehab clinic to continue tour next month. Radio 4 'pips' (the Greenwich time signal) - and backup system - stopped working for three hours last Tuesday. Charles Dickens' Gad's Hill Place home to be opened to the public next year. Reality TV series Castaway island Taransay in Scotland's Western Isles put up for sale - for offers of £2m (US$3.3m) or above. Sherlock picks up five Bafta Cymru (Welsh Bafta) awards. PBS website hacked with fake story that Tupac Shakur's alive and well and living in New Zealand. Britney Spears to play single UK show in Belfast. Martin Scorsese to make biopic of Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton relationship. UK Royal Academy honours Ai Weiwei both as an artist and to highlight his treatment by China's government. Musical version of Stephen King's Carrie to be revived on Broadway 24 years after flopping. Britain's Got Talent hit by allegations of rigging. Jennifer Hudson joins cast of Three Stooges movie. Jessie J insists she's fine after internet plane crash rumour; denies pregnancy, claims weight gain was due to food binge in the Bahamas. Leonard Cohen wins literature award in Spain. Obits: actor Jon Blake (52), actor Jeff Conaway (60), poet/musician Gil Scott-Heron (62), choreographer Flick Colby (65), actress/impressionist Janet Brown (87), actress Clarice Taylor (93).

WEBSITE OF THE WEEK

This week a collection of pages, actually all part of the same system, where you can donate to a number of good causes for free just by clicking a button - advertisers' fees go to the causes. You can also buy unique products to donate more.

THE AMAZING NOT-QUITE-RANDOM LOTTERY PREDICTOR!

Dumbledore Bear, our in-house psychic predicts that the following numbers will be lucky:
10, 11, 21, 34, 40, 49

AND FINALLY...

   It was Career Day at Little Jennifer's school when parents explained to the children what they did for a living. Little Jennifer's mother had come along, as had Little Mary's father, James, who was a fireman.

   "Now, class," the teacher said, "Let's welcome our first guest, Little Mary's father, who is going to tell us about being a fireman." James walked to the front as the class clapped.

   "Hi, kids, I rescue people, put out dangerous fires and teach folks how to stop fires happening." Holding up a smoke detector he asked, "Now, who can tell me what this device is?"

   Little Jennifer's hand shot up. "Please, sir, that's something Mummy uses to tell her when dinner's ready..."


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