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^ WORD OF THE WEEKparaskevidekatriaphobia |
Friday 13th May - Physician and antiquarian Ole Worm born, 1588. Mediators at the Congress of Teschen negotiated an end to the War of the Bavarian Succession, 1779. Architect John Nash died, 1832. The Great Comet of 1861 was discovered, 1861. Actress Imogen Boorman born, 1971. Psychologist Joyce Brothers died, 2013. Saturday 14th May - Composer Francesco Rasi born, 1574. Tahmasp I, Shah of Persia, died, 1576. James Fort, later Jamestown, Virginia, was established as the first permanent English settlement in North America, 1607. Nurse Mary Seacole died, 1881. The two minute silence was inaugurated in Cape Town, South Africa, 1918. actress Francesca Annis born, 1945. Internet celebrity Tardar Sauce, better known as Grumpy Cat, died, 2019. Sunday 15th May - Roman emperor Valentinian II died in mysterious circumstances, 392. Johannes Kepler confirmed his discovery of the third law of planetary motion, 1618. Writer Lady Mary Wortley Montagu born, 1689. Poet Emily Dickinson died, 1886. Las Vegas, Nevada, was founded, 1905. Singer-songwriter Mike Oldfield born, 1953. International Conscientious Objectors Day. International Day of Families. Monday 16th May - Mary, Queen of Scots, fled to England, 1568. Physician John Bulwer born, 1606. Author and founder of the fairy tale genre Charles Perrault died, 1703. The Triton Fountain in Valetta, Malta, was turned on for the first time, 1959. Actress Melanie Lynskey born, 1977. Puppeteer and filmmaker Jim Henson died, 1990. Tuesday 17th May - Artist Sandro Botticelli died, 1510. The marriage of King Henry VIII of England and Anne Boleyn was annulled, 1536. Physician and vaccination pioneer Edward Jenner born, 1749. Frank L. Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was first published, 1900. Racing driver and record breaker Dorothy Levitt died, 1922. Singer-songwriter Enya born, 1961. World Information Society Day. International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. Wednesday 18th May - An arrest warrant for Christopher Marlowe on accusations of heresy was issued, 1593. Tsar Nicholas II of Russia born, 1868. Actress Isabella Glyn died, 1889. Jackie Cochrane became the first woman to break the sound barrier, 1953. Singer-songwriter Toyah Willcox born, 1958. Volcanologist David A. Johnston died in the eruption of Mount St Helens, 1980. International Museum Day. Thursday 19th May - Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII of England and mother of Queen Elizabeth I of England, was executed, 1536. The Long Parliament passed an Act declaring England a Commonwealth, 1649. Philanthropist Johns Hopkins born, 1795. Marilyn Monroe sang "Happy Birthday" at a salute to President Kennedy at Madison Square Garden in New York City, 1962. Poet Ogden Nash died, 1971. Singer-songwriter Jenny Berggren born, 1972.
This week, Ogden Nash:I test my bath before I sit,
And I'm always moved to wonderment
That what chills the finger not a bit
Is so frigid upon the fundament.
A selection of quotations from films released in the same year. Answers next issue or from the regular address.Last issue's quotations were from films released in 2021:
- Television is not the truth. Television is a goddamned amusement park.
- Loneliness has followed me my whole life, everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man.
- Pimples are the Lord's way of chastising you.
- There are no heroes anymore, Bishop. Just men who follow orders.
- Capricorn 15s. Born 2244. Enter the Carousel. This is the time of renewal.
- Polly, I do not accept your resignation, but I will accept a very strong cup of tea.
-- The King's Man- The good thing about evil people is you can always trust them to do something, well, evil.
-- Cruella- We be the bitches of the badlands.
-- Nomadland- - Hey. Don't we get a phone call?
- Sure you do. Who you gonna call?
-- Gostbusters: Afterlife- I had to show someone your watch. It really blew their mind.
-- No Time To Die
Strange stories from around the world, some of which might be true...
- A couple who had moved to Florida from Chicago were watching television when they heard a loud bang from their garage. Going to investigate they found an 8'- (2.4m)-long alligator. A wrangler managed to remove the gator, but not before it had got its teeth into a box of Diet Coke cans. ● Scientists have found that honeybees can differentiate between odd and even numbers, the first non-human animals to demonstrate the ability. ● A rare hybrid monkey has been sighted in Borneo. The monkey is thought to be a cross between a proboscis monkey and a silvery langur, both of which live in the area. The female monkey appears to have bred and been nursing an infant in the most recent photographs. ● Researchers from the University of Cambridge, the Natural History Museum in London and the University of Texas at Arlington have identified six new species of miniature frog in Mexico. The frogs are just 15mm (⅝") long when adult. Unlike other frogs the six new species do not develop into tadpoles after hatching but are fully-formed frogs. ● Zeus, a two-year-old Great Dane from Texas, has been confirmed as the world's tallest living dog, standing 3' 5⅛" (1.05m) at the withers. ● Visual mimicry to prevent predation is common in reptiles, birds and insects, such as hoverflies having evolved to resemble wasps. It is less common in mammals, and even rarer is acoustic mimicry, but a recently-published study reports that greater mouse-eared bats, a species common across Europe, imitate the buzzing of hornets, seemingly to scare off owls, their natural predators.
- Rocket Lab, a US/New Zealand company, have successfully used a helicopter in a test to catch a booster rocket and it descended by parachute over the Pacific, although for technical reasons the pilots had to release it again for a splashdown, from which it was recovered by a ship. Rocket Lab aims to be the second satellite-launching company after SpaceX to recover and reuse booster stages. ● The first full-scale prototype of the 62'- (19m)-long reusable Prime rocket to be launched from Scotland has been unveiled. The prototype is to be tested in Kinloss, Moray, with a first launch from Space Hub Sutherland planned as soon as the end of the year. The Prime rocket is powered by bio-propane, a renewable bio-fuel. Plans to build a separate launch facility on the Shetland island of Unst are also proceeding.
- Six-year-old Sammy Shelton was searching for fossils with his father on Bawdsey beach in Suffolk when he found a tooth from a prehistoric megalodon, the largest shark that ever existed, living around 20m years ago. Only a few megalodon teeth are found every year around the UK, and rarely in such good condition. ● Forensic anthropologist April Pijpelink has revealed that 82 skeletons found in a mass grave in Vianan in the Netherlands in November 2020 were mainly British soldiers who died in a field hospital in the 18th Century. Around 60% of the skeletons contained traces of pneumonococcal bacteria suggesting that poor hygiene was a contributing factor in their deaths. ● Preservation groups in Virginia are warning that climate change could cause the small island of Jamestown, the site of the first successful English colony in North America, to be destroyed. Increasing tide levels and the growing frequency of storms threaten the site. ● Three friends camping in a Wiltshire field for weeks to search for treasure using metal detectors eventually located a hoard of 161 Roman coins just six paces from their tent. Two of the coins are being kept by the British Museum, the rest are to be auctioned with an estimated price of £40,000 ($49,400). ● Thousands of US soldiers who served in the 1991 Gulf War became ill with debilitating conditions. Scientists have now concluded that they were exposed to diluted sarin gas released when Iraqi chemical weapons dumps were bombed. ● A Texas antiques dealer who bought a "pretty dirty looking" bust for $34.99 (£28.23) at a Goodwill thrift store in 2008 was stunned when she tried to sell it at the Sotheby's auction house earlier this year. She was told that it could not be sold legally in the US as it was looted from a German museum at the end of World War II. The bust of Germanicus, father of Caligula, is 2000-years old and will be displayed at the San Antonio Museum of Art for a year while arrangements are made to transfer it back to the Pompejanum museum in Aschaffenburg. ● The football shirt worn by Diego Maradona when he scored the controversial "Hand of God" goal against England at the 1986 World Cup has been sold at auction for £7.1m ($8.77m), the highest price paid for an item of sports memorabilia. ● Andy Warhol's 1964 "Shot Sage Blue Marilyn" silkscreen, a close-up of Marilyn Monroe's head with yellow hair, blue eyeshadow and red lipstick on a blue background, has sold at auction in New York for $195m (£158m), becoming the most expensive C20th artwork to be auctioned.
- Workers at a Nespresso factory in Romont, Switzerland, cut into newly-delivered bags of coffee to find them full of "an indeterminate white substance" which police later confirmed as being more than 1,100lb (500kg) of 80% pure cocaine with a market value of CHF50m (£41m; 50.7m). The cocaine had been shipped from Brazil. A Nespresso spokesman confirmed that it had been isolated and the factory's coffee production had not been contaminated. ● Scottish police are investigating after legally protected standing stones on Arran were found to have had graffiti carved into them. ● More human remains have been uncovered by the falling water level in Lake Mead. ● Police called to reports of "an unresponsive male lying in his yard" in Trenton, South Carolina, found his body beside a freshly-dug grave containing a woman's body. They speculated that he had strangled her then suffered a fatal heart attack while burying the body. ● Police in Texas are appealing for help identifying a man who stole a lawnmower in Port Arthur. He was recorded on a security camera mowing the victim's lawn before making off with the mower...
- Researchers studying Wytham Woods in Oxfordshire, one of the most monitored woods in the world, have found that some birds are laying eggs three weeks early because climate change has resulted in caterpiller numbers peaking early. ● The third Planet Patrol report has found that more than half of identifiable litter collected during a UK-wide clean-up was from products made by just 10 brands, with Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Heineken products accounting for almost a quarter of all waste. ● Ireland's Central Statistics Office has reported that datacenters belonging to companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon and Microsoft accounted for 14% of all energy usage, more than the entire rural population of the country. ● When lightning struck the bathroom of an empty apartment in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, it caused the toilet to explode, causing much mirth online after a picture was posted... ● The Hermits Peak wildfire raging in New Mexico grew to an area larger than the city of Chicago last weekend. ● A pink plastic detergent bottle has been found encased in limestone in a cave near Padstow, Cornwall. Because of the slow growth rate of limestone it is though the bottle had been there for decades.
- When David Gergen, a CNN analyst who has advised four US presidents tweeted that "Baby Boomers have been running the country for nearly three decades. Some successes, a number of disappointments. It's time to pass the baton to younger generations - Millenials & Gen Z. Pls join us for conversation tonite on CNN with Anderson Cooper about my new book on subject" a sizable group of people spotted a glaring omission and responded with a collective 'meh'... Gergen had omitted Generation X, the children of the Baby Boomers, born roughly between the late 1960s and the early 1980s and depicted in Douglas Coupland's novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. Gen X'ers are highly influenced by pop culture ("the MTV generation"), worked low-wage, interchangeable 'McJobs' in the days before zero-hour contracts and are fiercely independent. Responses to Gergen's tweet included "It's like society parked Gen X in front of the TV and promptly forgot about us for 40 years. But we're cool with that" (@apriland3dogs), "Gen X is trending. Gen X doesn't care" (@JohnFugelsang), "Please, continue to ignore us. We have a lot of things we need to do and generational conflict seems both boring and exhausting. Love, Gen X" (@hankgreen) and "Being ignored is a feature, not a bug, of being Gen X" (@caragsdale).
IN BRIEF: America's first public House Intelligence Committee hearing into UFOs in more than 50 years will take place next week. ● Canadian MP Shafqat Ali has apologised after joining a parliamentary session by remote video link from a toilet cubicle. ● A Seattle couple (both accountants) have calculated that it will be cheaper to spend their retirement going from cruise ship to cruise ship as oceanic nomads than living in their house. ● A special election will be held to elect a mayor of Palmhurst, Texas, after Ramiro Rodriguez, Jr was re-elected last week. Rodriguez died on April 5th but under Texas law his name could not be removed from the ballot. ● Great North Air Ambulance have begun trials of personal jetpacks to help paramedics get to emergencies in the Lake District before conventional rescue teams. ● Pupils at Lancaster Royal Grammar School are chortling at Lancashire Council after a nearby bus stop was signed as "Royal Grammer [sic] School". ● The highlight of the BBC's local election coverage last week was newsreader Hugh Edwards after the director unexpectedly cut back to him as he was eating. "I'm going to admit to you that I've just had a little bit of croissant and I'm just finishing it. I'm ashamed to say that but there you go... it's um, twenty to six in the morning" he told viewers.● Walter Orthmann, 100, has been certified by Guinness World Records as the holder of the record for the longest continual employment at the same company. He started working for textile company Reneaux View as a shipping assistant at the age of 14 in 1938 and is still there, now as a sales manager. ● The man who was given a genetically modified pig heart transplant two months ago died last month of a pig virus. ● A shopping bag with a photograph of a lion's face caused panic in Mutiribu village, Kenya, after it got caught under bushes, causing people to think there was a real lion. ● A pair of Indian sisters holding a joint wedding ceremony accidentally married each other's grooms after a power cut plunged the venue into darkness. ● Paul Burt, a reporter for Australia's Channel Seven news has been praised after interrupting a live broadcast at Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast to jump into the water and rescue a boy he had seen was in trouble. ● Charlie Choak, 75, has retired after 60 years working in his family's bakery in Falmouth, Cornwall. He estimates that he has made more than 15 million pasties in his time there.
BAFTA TV Awards 2022: Best Leading Actress: Jodie Comer, Help; Best Leading Actor: Sean Bean, Time; Best Drama Series: In My Skin; Best Comedy Entertainment Programme: The Lateish Show With Mo Gilligan; Best Entertainment Performance: Big Zuu, Big Zuu's Big Eats; Best Soap & Continuing Drama: Coronation Street; Best Female Performance in a Comedy Programme: Sophie Willan, Alma's Not Normal; Best Male Performance in a Comedy Programme: Jamie Demetriou, Stath Lets Flats; Best Factual Series: Uprising; Best Mini-Series: Time; Best Reality & Constructed Factual: Gogglebox; Best Supporting Actress: Cathy Tyson, Help; Best Supporting Actor: Matthew Macfadyen, Succession; Best Scripted Comedy: Motherland; Best Features: Big Zuu's Big Eats; Best Live Event: The Earthshot Prize 2021; Best Short Form Programme: Our Land; Best Single Drama: Together; Best International: The Underground Railroad; Best Current Affairs: Fearless: The Women Against Putin; Best Single Documentary: My Childhood, My Country; Best Daytime: The Chase; Best Sport: The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix; Best News Coverage: ITV News At Ten: Storming of the Capitol; Best Specialist Factual: The Missing Children; Best Entertainment Programme: Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway; Virgin TV's Must-See Moment: Rose and Giovanni's silent dance to "Symphony", Strictly Come Dancing; BAFTA Fellowship Award: Billy Connolly.
Comic book artist George Pérez (Crisis on Infinite Earths, Wonder Woman, The New Teen Titans, 67), actor and theme tune singer Dennis Waterman (The Sweeney, Minder, New Tricks, 74), actor Jack Kehler (The Big Lebowski, The Man in the High Castle, Fresno, 75), programmer David Ward (co-founder of Ocean Software in 1983, 75), actor Kenneth Welsh (The Aviator, Twin Peaks, The Day After Tomorrow, 80), actor Robin Parkinson (Button Moon, 'Allo 'Allo, It Ain't Half Hot, Mum, 92).
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DUMBLEDORE BEAR'S LOTTERY PREDICTOR!
Dumbledore Bear, our in-house psychic predicts that the following numbers will be lucky:9, 31, 32, 34, 35, 47[UK National Lottery, number range 1-59]
You can get your very own prediction at http://www.simonlamont.co.uk/tfir/dumbledore.htm.
Little Jennifer rushed inside one afternoon. "Mummy," she panted, "please can I have some money for the man crying down the street?"
"What crying man?" her mother asked, looking concerned.
Little Jennifer smiled as only she could. "The one that's crying 'Ice cream! Ice cream!'"
^ ...end of line