Issue ^#828 - 25^th July 2025

Edited by and copyright ©2025 Simon Lamont
( Facebook  /  Bluesky )

tfir@simonlamont.co.uk

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Unless otherwise indicated dollar values are in U.S. dollars. Currency conversions are at current rates at time of writing and may be rounded.
The Friday Irregular uses Common Era year notation.

^{^} ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Friday 25th July     - Day 206/365		-		Queen Mary I of England married King Phillip II of Spain in Winchester Cathedral, 1554. Antiquarian and academic Brian Twyne born, 1581. Viking 1 photographed the "Face on Mars", 1976. Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge died, 1834. Louise Brown became the first person to be born after in vitro fertilisation (IVF), 1978. Child actress Judith Barsi and her mother were murdered by her father, 1988.
Saturday 26th July     - Day 207/365		-		Printer Christian Egenolff born, 1502. Inca emperor Atahualpa was murdered by conquistador Francisco Pizarro, 1533. The first recorded women's cricket match took place near Guildford, 1745. Singer and actress Darlene Love born, 1941. Alice in Wonderland, Disney's 13th animated film, premiered in London, 1951. Photographer Diane Arbus died, 1971. Esperanto Day.
Sunday 27th July     - Day 208/365		-		Macbeth, King of Scotland was defeated by Siward, Earl of Northumbria, at the Battle of Dunsinane, 1054. Mathematician Johann Bernoulli born, 1667. The Bank of England was granted a Royal charter, 1694. Scientist John Dalton died, 1844. Actress Roxanne Hart born, 1952. Nuclear chemist Elizabeth Rona died, 1981.
Monday 28th July     - Day 209/365		-		King Henry VIII of England married Catherine Howard, his fifth wife, 1540. Artist Judith Leyster born, 1609. Poet and playwright Cyrano de Bergerac died, 1655. The Sutton Hoo helmet was discovered, 1939. Cartoonist Jim Davis, creator of Garfield, born, 1945. Actress Rosalie Crutchley died, 1997. World Hepatitis Day (WHO).
Tuesday 29th July     - Day 210/365		-		English naval forces under Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake defeated the Spanish Armada at the Battle of Gravelines, 1588. Cartographer and publisher of railway guide books George Bradshaw born, 1801. Politician and philanthropist William Wilberforce died, 1833. The BBC Light Programme radio station was launched, 1945. Musician Patti Scialfa born, 1953. Nobel laureate chemist Dorothy Hodgkin died, 1994.
Wednesday 30th July     - Day 211/365		-		The Virginia General Assembly, the first Colonial European representative assembly in the Americas, convened for the first time, 1619. Poet Thomas Gray died, 1771. Novelist Emily Brontë born, 1818. Actress Lynne Fontanne died, 1983. Racing driver Marko Asmer born, 1984. The last 'old style' Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the assembly line, 2003. International Day of Friendship.
Thursday 31st July     - Day 212/365		-		Sculptor Alessandro Algardi born, 1598. Writer Daniel Defoe, pilloried for seditious libel, was pelted with flowers, 1703. Philosopher Denis Diderot died, 1784. The last officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy was issued, on Black Tot Day, 1970. Tennis player Anabel Medina Garrigues born, 1982. Actress Jeanne Moreau died, 2017.

^{^} THE WISDOM OF...

This week, Thomas Gray, from Elegy Written in a County Churchyard:

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Awaits alike the inevitable hour,
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

^{^} FILM QUIZ

A selection of quotations from films containing the word 'tomb' in the title, either as a whole word or part of a word. Answers next issue or from the regular address.

• - It's a clock... It's ticking.
  - Oh... one of those ticking clocks, eh?
• - "Man need not kneel before the angels, not lie in death forever, save through the weakness of his feeble will." Her words.
  - Blasphemy!
  - Benediction.
• The meek shall not inherit the earth. They can't be trusted with it.
• Smile, my boy. It's sunrise.
• Why Kate, you're not wearing a bustle. How lewd.

Last issue's 'fast' quotations were from:

• - This country reminds me of the time I was bitten by a rattlesnake. Only 5 years old... Me, not the snake. Snake died.
  - It figures.
      -- The Fast and the Furious [1954]
• It's the first rule of marketing: Don't kill the customer.
      -- Fast Food Nation [2006]
• What Jefferson was saying was, Hey! You know, we left this England place 'cause it was bogus; so if we don't get some cool rules ourselves - pronto - we'll just be bogus too! Get it?
      -- Fast Times at Ridgemont High [1992]
• I used to drag here back in high school. That railroad crossing up there is exactly a quarter-mile away from here. On green, I'm going for it.
      -- The Fast and the Furious [2001]
• I never try anything. I just do it. And I don't beat clocks, just people! Wanna try me?
      -- Faster Pussycat... Kill! Kill! [1965]

^{^} WEIRD WORLD NEWS

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

• Researchers who used drones to monitor 103 humpback whales before, during and after their annual migration from their Antarctic feeding grounds to their breeding ground off Colombia have estimated that during the journey the whales lose about 36% of their body mass - some 24,250lb (11,000kg) of blubber. For comparison that is the approximate weight of a single-decker bus. ● Two years after discovering that plants make ultrasonic sounds scientists at Tel Aviv University are reporting that animals react to them. In experiments female moths avoided laying their eggs on tomato plants that made noises associated with distress, suggesting that they might be unhealthy. The team are now investigating what other animals react to plants' sounds, and whether plants themselves communicate between each other by sound. ● After a pod of around 60 pilot whales became stranded on Ólafsjörður beach in Iceland, probably after become disorientated while chasing a shoal of mackerel, dozens of locals and emergency workers coordinated to get them all back into the water. ● A dog called Rocky is being praised as a hero in the mountain village of Siyathi in northern India. At about midnight he woke his owner by barking loudly enough to be heard over the sound of the monsoon rain. Lalit Kumar went to see what was up and noticed a large crack in the wall of his home, which was letting in water, but then he looked outside and saw a wall of water and earth roaring down the mountainside high above the village. He rushed to wake up his neighbours and they all got to higher ground before the flood arrived, destroying 12 of the 17 homes. ● Wild tomato plants on Fernandina and Isabela Islands in the Galapagos have been found to have undergone a rarely-seen reverse evolution. In the harsh environment where they grow they produce a mix of bitter-tasting chemicals to dissuade insects and animals from eating them. Researchers have now found that the toxin has reverted to an older version, not seen for millions of years, due to a change in just four amino acids. ● A camel has become the first large animal in Pakistan to be fitted with a prosthetic leg. ● Two paramedics in Little Rock, Arkansas, were about to start their shift when they heard an odd noise and discovered a small raccoon running down the side of the road with its head stuck in a tin can. They caught it but found that the can was stuck fast, so used specialised shears and a ring cutter from their ambulance to split the can down the side enough to get it off the raccoon, which they then released.


• Next month NASA plans to launch the Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS), a pair of satellites in a sun-sychronous orbit (staying in daylight) and passing through the polar cusps, where the planet's magnetic field dips down to the magnetic poles. They will monitor charged particles released by the Sun in real time as opposed to the snapshot views of earlier satellites, to give astronomers a better idea of how solar storms affect the planet. In 1859 the Carrington Event, the most intense solar storm in recorded history caused sparking and fires in telegraph poles; a similar storm today could potentially disable global communications networks and significantly disrupt power supplies. ● As this is being written, on July 22^nd, the Earth is experiencing its second-shortest day since records began in 1973. Do not worry about losing sleep though, it will be just 1.34 milliseconds shorter than standard. While we think of a day as being exactly 24 hours, the speed of the Earth's rotation is affected by the pull of the Moon and the Sun on tides, and the spin of the planet's core, and will eventually lengthen as the Moon drifts further away. ● Professor Kar Karlstrom at the University of New Mexico has suggested a link between two of Arizona's best-known landmarks, the Barringer Crater (aka Meteor Crater) and the Grand Canyon despite being 100 miles (160km) apart. Karlstrom's father studied caves in the Grand Canyon, including the high Stanton's Cave which contained more than a hundred wooden figures dating to 3,000-4,000 years ago, the remains of various species and pieces of driftwood far above the level of the river. Early speculation was that a flood could have brought the driftwood downriver, but beaver tracks found 121' (37m) above the water suggested that the higher water level was sustained rather than caused by a flash flood. Karlstrom has suggested that the shockwave of the impact which caused the meteor crater also caused a landslide in the canyon, which blocked the river creating a lake that lasted for about 1,000 years. To back up the argument for the landslide, Karlstrom's team looked at alternating sandsilt layers in another cave, which resemble those in Lake Mead, thought to have formed in a similar manner.


• A human rib bone with a flint arrowhead embedded in it has been discovered in a cave high in the Spanish Pyrenees and dated to around 4,000 years ago. The bone had healed around the head, suggesting that it was not a fatal injury. ● Japanese and Egyptian researchers using ground-penetrating radar have found evidence of an L-shaped structure next to the Great Pyramid of Giza. They think it could be the entrance to a deeper structure, possibly a lost tomb. ● Archaeologists looking for the 1870 wreck of the steamer Berlin City in Wisconsin's Fox River instead discovered what they think is that of the steamer L.W.Crane, which sank in 1880. ● Another team of archaeologists has found the wreck of the Nossa Senhora do Cabo (Our Lady of the Cape), a Portuguese warship which was attacked and sunk by pirates off Madagascar more than 300 years ago. They have recovered more than 3,000 artifacts from the wreck, including gold coins and pieces of porcelain. ● Plumbers who removed floorboards to fix heating pipes in a British house discovered a locked safe. After much research and work they got it open only to find that it just contained a folded-up newspaper dated October 22^nd 1977 and a small golden object resembling a globe-shaped piece of jewellery. ● The remains of eight British servicemen killed in World War I have been reburied at the Loos British Cemetary in France. They had been discovered during construction work on a new hospital outside Lens in the Pas de Calais. They died at the Battle of Arras in 1917 and four were identified through DNA testing. ● Medieval artifacts, Victorian tobacco pipes, pottery, ginger beer bottles and inkwells are among the things that have been dug up during "The Big Dig 3.0" between Rochdale Town Hall and St Clad's Church, the oldest in the town. The dig is supervised by archaeologists but volunteers and school children have taken part in it. ● The Japanese destroyer Teruzuki's wreck has been discovered 83 years after it sank in battle in the Iron Bottom Sound near the Solomon Islands. ● One of three known surviving 'Rosebud' prop sleds from Orson Welles' 1941 film Citizen Kane has sold at auction for $14.75m (£11m). In the same auction a whip used by Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade sold for $525,000 (£389,000). One of the lightsaber props wielded by Darth Vader in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back is to be auctioned in September. It has an estimated value of up to £2.2m ($2.97m).


• Last month customs officers at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, India, discovered a hundred and twenty animals, including green iguanas, Sumatran striped rabbits, a Weigeo spotted cuscus possum and a brown basilisk lizard being smuggled by two men who had arrived on a flight from Bangkok. The men were arrested and the animals taken into care. ● Florida Highway Patrol officers stopped and arrested a man on the Suncoast Parkway turnpike last Friday. He refused to perform field sobriety tests and was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving. He had been driving a ride-on lawnmower... ● The reconstructed Iron Age roundhouse at Flag Fen near Peterborough in Cambridgeshire, a popular attraction for tourists and school trips, has been destroyed in a suspected arson attack. Its owners thanked firefighters for their swift action which prevented the rest of the site being damaged, and have vowed to rebuilt the structure. They have launched a fundraising appeal and asked for local businesses to help supply timber, thatch and other materials. ● Two police officers in Tempe, Arizona, went viral on TikTok last week after they arrested a food delivery driver for reckless driving and racing. A colleague then filmed them delivering the pizza he had been carrying, to a disbelieving customer. The video was captioned "When your GrubHub driver gets arrested ... Tempe Police delivers."


• Scientists at the British Antarctic Survey are to melt part of an Antarctic ice core that could be more than 1.5 million years old to unlock historic information about the composition of the Earth's atmosphere. As well as traces of gases the ice contains dust, volcanic ash and miniscule marine algae called diatoms. ● New research has shown that there might be a surprising factor behind the urban heatwaves of recent years - the drive to reduce air pollution. Aerosol levels have been drastically reduced in recent decades to improve health, but because they reflect sunlight more light - and heat - is reaching the ground, leading to more, and worse, heatwaves. Aerosols often come from the same source as greenhouse gases, burning fossil fuels, but behave differently and tend to only last for weeks, as opposed to decades or centuries.

IN BRIEF: A car that veered off a road in northwestern Germany last Sunday collided with a parked vehicle, broke through a hedge, hit a boy on a trampoline, drove onto uneven ground and was catapulted into the air to end up on its side 10' (3m) above ground in a barn wall. The driver, his wife and two sons received minor injuries, the trampolining boy suffered serious injuries. ● While digitising their archives staff at the Bavarian State Office for the Environment discovered a misplaced 1949 letter from the owner of a coal mine that included the phrase "Humoldtine from the Mathias mine near Schwandorf" that led to a hunt for a small and long-forgotten specimen box - among more than 130,000 catalogued specimens. It contains hazelnut-sized yellow fragments of mineral and a handwritten label matching the description in the letter. Humboldtine is one of the rarest minerals on Earth, documented at only 30 locations around the globe. ● A man who accidentally bought two identical tickets for the same Powerball lottery in Massachusetts ended up winning two $1m (£740,000) prizes. ● Hong Kong resident Tsang Cheuk Tip, 32, has been recognised by Guinnes World Records as having the largest collection of memorabilia relating to the Pokémon character Gengar. He has amassed 1,200 items over the last 22 years. ● Thanet District Council has been criticised and mocked for announcing plans to introduce a fine for people caught swearing in public. The proposal, which also includes fines for spitting, urinating and defecating in public, will go before the council next week. A similar scheme was rejected last year. ● The fastest legal speed to drive an electric scooter (e-scooter) in Britain is 15mph (25km/h) but manufacturer Bo has announced plans to build a non-street-legal escooter capable of doing more than 100mph (160km/h) to set a world record [presumably not over cobblestones... -Ed]. ● British social media chefs Phoenix Ross and Oli Patterson have used an ostrich egg to create what they claim is the world's largest scotch egg, weighing 17lb 3.48oz (7.8kg). ● Emergency workers answering a 911 call reporting a person trapped against a grate in the fast-flowing waters of a California canal discovered that it was a blow-up doll... ● A man has died after going into the room where his wife had just had an MRI scan of her knee, to help her get up. He was wearing a 20lb (9kg) metal chain used for weight training which was pulled into the scanner by its powerful magnets, pinning him to it. It took almost an hour to release him and he died the next day having suffered a heart attack. ● A woman in British Columbia has been flooded with phone calls about her missing cat. She does have a cat, but he is not missing. The calls came after her telephone number was included in the artwork for a t-shirt about a fictional missing cat. The company that produced the shirt has apologised and withdrawn it from sale.

UPDATES: The largest Martian meteorite discovered on Earth sold for more than $5m (£3.7m). The identity of the buyer was not revealed.

^{^} OBITUARIES

Actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner (The Cosby Show, Malcolm and Eddie, Reed Between the Lines, 54), daredevil Felix Baumgartner (World record holder for the highest-ever skydive - more than 128,000' (39km) in 2012, flew across the English Channel in a jumpsuit with carbon-fibre wings in 2003, 56), soccer player Joey Jones (Wrexham, Liverpool, Wales, 70), actress Joanna Bacon (Love Actually, Eastenders, Breeders, 72), singer Ozzy Osbourne (Black Sabbath, Diary of a Madman, The Osbournes, 76), actress and casting director Judy Loe (Ace of Wands, General Hospital, Edward the Seventh, 78), former child actor Jimmy Hunt (Invaders From Mars [1953 and 1986 remake], Cheaper By the Dozen, Shadow on the Wall), 85, singer Connie Francis ("Who's Sorry Now?", "Everybody's Somebody's Fool", "Pretty Little Baby", 87), actor Tom Troupe (Star Trek, Sofi, My Own Private Idaho, 97), lyricist Alan Bergman ("The Windmills of Your Mind", "You Don't Bring Me Flowers", "The Way We Were", 99), WWII veteran and social media star Jake Larson (co-winner of an Emmy for 2024 interview marking the 80^th anniversary of D-Day, The Battle of the Bulge, Storytime With Papa Jake [TikTok], 102).

^{^} DUMBLEDORE BEAR'S LOTTERY PREDICTOR!

Dumbledore Bear, our in-house psychic predicts that the following numbers will be lucky:

13, 16, 29, 30, 33, 46

[UK National Lottery, number range 1-59]
You can get your very own prediction at http://www.simonlamont.co.uk/tfir/dumbledore.htm.

^{^} AND FINALLY...

    Little Jennifer had come home from school on the last day of term to find her mother having a cup of tea in the living room. "Mummy," she said, "Can you write in the dark?"
    Somewhat bemused her mother replied, "Well, yes, I suppose I can, Little Jennifer. What would you want me to write?"
    Little Jennifer smiled as only she could. "Your signature on my report card!"

---

^{^} ...end of line