The Friday Irregular

Issue #760 - 29th March 2024


Edited by and copyright ©2024 Simon Lamont
( Facebook  /  X (Twitter) / Mastodon )

tfir@simonlamont.co.uk

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

CONTENTS



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O

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^ WORD OF THE WEEK

Parwhobble
  v. to dominate a conversation by talking without pausing (Devonshire slang)

^ ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Friday 29th March
    - Day 89/366
  -   The Ottoman Empire captured Thessalonika from the Republic of Venice after a siege, 1430. Adventurer Jørgen Jørgenson born, 1780. Queen Victoria opened the Royal Albert Hall in London, 1871. Artist Georges Seurat died, 1891. Tennis player Jennifer Capriati born, 1970. Geologist Janet Watson died, 1985.
 
Saturday 30th March
    - Day 90/366
  -   Mathematician Adam Ries died, 1559. Anna Sewell, author of Black Beauty, born, 1820. Ether anesthesia was used for the first time, 1842. Musician, composer and bandleader Ted Heath born, 1902. The Dalai Lama fled the Chinese occupation of Tibet for India, 1959. Actress Myra Frances died, 2021.
 
Sunday 31th March
    - Day 91/366
  -   Poet John Donne died, 1631. Composer Johann Sebastian Bach born, 1685. Great Britain ordered the closure of the port of Boston, Massachusetts, in response to the Boston Tea Party, 1774. Writer and abolitionist Mary Abigail Dodge born, 1833. The Eiffel Tower in Paris was officially opened, 1889. Baseball player Shirley Burkovich died, 2022. World Backup Day. International Transgender Day of Visibility.
 
Monday 1st April
    - Day 92/366
  -   Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France [1137-1152] and Queen of England [1154-1189], died, 1204. Physician William Harvey born, 1578. Frederick Muhlenberg was elected as the US House of Representatives' first Speaker, 1789. Librarian Augusta Braxton Baker born, 1911. Ragtime pianist and composer Scott Joplin died, 1917. The Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service merged to form the Royal Air Force, 1918. April Fools' Day. Fossil Fools' Day. Edible Book Day.
 
Tuesday 2nd April
    - Day 93/366
  -   Arthur, Prince of Wales, died, 1502. Explorer Juan Ponce de León landed in what is now Florida, 1513. Explorer, writer, lover and librarian Giacomo Casanova born, 1725. Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, 1982. Diver Nóra Barta born, 1984. Actress Estelle Harris died, 2022. International Children' Book Day. World Autism Awareness Day.
 
Wednesday 3rd April
    - Day 94/366
  -   The coronation of Edward the Confessor as King of England, 1043. Diarist and traveller Anne Lister born, 1791. Outlaw Jesse James was shot dead by Robert Ford, 1882. Gottlieb Daimler was granted a patent for the engine he would use to create the first motorcycle seven months later, 1885. Actor Marlon Brando born, 1924. Jazz singer and pianist Sarah Vaughan died, 1990.
 
Thursday 4th April
    - Day 95/366
  -   Queen Elizabeth I of England knighted Francis Drake for his circumnavigation of the world, 1581. Writer, illustrator and composer Bettina von Arnim born, 1785. Astronomer Jérôme Lalande died, 1807. Napoleon abdicated conditionally, 1814. Actor Robert Downey Jr born, 1965. Computer scientist Karen Spärck Jones died, 2007.


^ THE WISDOM OF...

This week, Marlon Brando:
To grasp the full significance of life is the actor's duty, to interpret it is his problem, and to express it his dedication.


^ FILM QUIZ

A selection of quotations from films containing the word 'seven' in the title, either as a whole word or part of a word. Answers next issue or from the regular address. Last issue's 'king' quotations were from:


^ WEIRD WORLD NEWS

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

IN BRIEF: As any fans of British heavy metal group Iron Maiden (or readers of a certain book) will know, 666 is the number of the Beast. Horror film Late Night with the Devil certainly had a suitably Beastly opening domestic box office last weekend. It came 6th, taking a reported $666,6666 on Sunday. ● Two Canadian men who were accidentally switched at birth in 1955, and only discovered the truth after using at-home DNA testing kits, have received a formal apology from the President of Manitoba. ● The Complete Crockpot Cookbook for Beginners, a book by Luisa Florence, "the author of various recipe books, some of which are bestsellers", has been heavily slammed by users of Amazon as being obviously created by an AI system with AI-generated favourable reviews. One of her other titles - she appears to have written more than 20 recipe books in the last two years - being sold is "1,001 Easy and Foolproof Recipes", which contains a mere 500 recipes, her profile picture looks like an AI-generated image, there are no links to professional sites such as LinkedIn, and her actual recipes are somewhat questionable: garlic chicken recipes do not list garlic as an ingredient and despite showing beef on the cover none of the recipes include it. Amazon have an ongoing problem with people using AI to crank out poor quality books. ● North American pancake eaters, brace yourselves. Canada's maple syrup reserve - the only maple syrup reserve in the world - is at a 16-year low thanks to a rise in demand and production issues caused by climate change. Designed to hold up to 133m pounds of maple syrup it currently holds just 6.9m pounds... ● Cath Bowie, a 75-year-old Scottish grandmother, has become a global sensation in Fortnite, the online battle royale combat game. Her tag? Grumpygran1948, naturally. ● An international team of researchers has achieved an Internet transfer speed of 301 terabits per second, 4.5 million times faster than standard broadband and enough to transfer 9,000 HD films per second, or every film listed on the Internet Movie Database in one minute, using a standard fibreoptic cable. ● Gardener and broadcaster Alan Titchmarsh has appeared on North Korean television. It is not known if the episode of the BBC programme Alan Titchmarsh's Garden Secrets was pirated or included as part of a "soft-power" gift, but most notable was the blurring of Titchmarsh's jeans, which are viewed (denim jeans in general, that is, not just Mr Titchmarsh's) as a symbol of Western "bourgeois culture"... ● Hatfield, in Hertfordshire, has been named the fifth most boring places on Earth by The World Bucket List. Bratislava, Slovakia, was named the most boring in Europe while Lubbock, Texas, took the top (or bottom spot) as the most boring on the planet. Criteria included attractions and cultural offerings. ● Research at the University of Liverpool suggests that tactile souvenirs like fridge magnets may be better at helping people recall holidays than photographs. ● British runner Jasmin Park has become the first woman to complete the Barkley Marathons in Tennessee. The event, inspired by a famous prison break, involves running five loops of a course approximately the length of a marathon (26 miles, or 41.8km), both clockwise and counterclockwise, within 60 hours. Runners have to remember the route and tear out pages of books along the route corresponding to their race number. Only a few dozen of hundreds of applicants are chosen to run each year, and the starting signal is one of the co-founders lighting a cigarette. Park crossed the finish line with under two minutes to spare and fell to the ground, completely exhausted and unable to talk. Only 20 runners have completed the race since its inception in 1989.

UPDATES: The Rothschild giraffe calf born at Chester Zoo is a female. She has been called Edie, after Uganda's Lake Edward where giraffe conservation groups are active. ● The 8'- (2.4m)-high fibreglass gorilla statue stolen from a garden centre in Lanarkshire last year has been recovered after road workers found it in bushes in a layby on the A92 near Dundee. It had been cut in half vertically, presumably to fit it through a door. 'Gary the Gorilla' has now been returned to his owner.


^ ENTERTAINMENT

Royal Television Society Awards 2024

     Comedy Performance, Female: Gbemisola Ikumelo, Black Ops (BBC Studios Comedy Productions & Mondo Deluxe Productions for BBC); Comedy Performance, Male: Hammed Animashaun, Black Ops (BBC Studios Comedy Productions & Mondo Deluxe Productions for BBC); Entertainment Performance: Hannah Waddingham, Eurovision Song Contest 2023 (BBC Studios Entertainment Productions & Windfall Films for BBC); Leading Actor, Female: Tamara Lawrence, Time (BBC Studios Drama Productions for BBC); Leading Actor, Male: Kane Robinson, Top Boy (Cowboy Films, Easter Partisan Films, Dream Crew & SpringHill Entertainment for Netflix); Supporting Actor, Female: Bella Ramsey, Time (BBC Studios Drama Productions for BBC); Supporting Actor, Male: Éanna Hardwicke, The Sixth Commandment (Wild Mercury Productions & True Vision for BBC); Presenter: Chris Packham, Inside Our Autistic Minds (BBC Studios Specialist Factual Productions for BBC); Sports Presenter, Commentator or Pundit: Alex Scott, FIFA Women's World Cup (IMG for BBC); Writer, Comedy: Jack Rooke, Big Boys (Roughcut TV for Channel 4); Writer, Drama: Sarah Phelps, The Sixth Commandment (Wild Mercury Productions & True Vision for BBC).

     Children's Programme: A Kind of Spark (9 Story Media for BBC); Comedy Drama: Juice (Various Artists Limited for BBC); Comedy Entertainment: Rob & Romesh Vs (CPL Productions for Sky Max); Daytime Programme: Scam Interceptors (BBC Studios Documentary Unit for BBC); Documentary Series: Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland (KEO Films & Walk on Air Films for BBC); History: White Nanny, Black Child (Doc Hearts/Tigerlily Productions for Channel 5); Live Event: Eurovision Song Contest 2023 (BBC Studios Entertainment Productions & Windfall Films for BBC); Science & The Natural World: Chimp Empire (Keo Films & Underdog Films for Netflix); Single Documentary: Otto Baxter: Not a F***ing Horror Story (Story Films & Archface Films for Sky Documentaries); Sports Program: All Ireland Senior Football Championship Final (BBC Northern Ireland for BBC); Formatted Popular Factual: Sort Your Life Out (Optomen Television for BBC).

     Arts: Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World (BBC Studios Specialist Factual Productions for BBC); Breakthrough Awards: Lucy Edwards, The Travel Show: Japan - The Way I See It (BBC Current Affairs for BBC); Drama Series: Happy Valley (Lookout Point in co-production with AMC for BBC); Entertainment: Squid Game: The Challenge (Studio Lambert & The Garden for Netflix); Limited Series: The Sixth Commandment (Wild Mercury Productions & True Vision for BBC); Scripted Comedy: Extraordinary (Sid Gentle Films Ltd for Disney+); Single Drama: Partygate (Halcyon Heart Films for Channel 4); Soap and Continuing Drama: EastEnders (BBC Studios Drama Productions for BBC).

     Judges' Award: Mr Bates vs The Post Office (ITV Studios & Little Gem for ITV).

     Royal Television Society Gold Medal: Dame Esther Rantzen.


^ OBITUARIES

Actor M. Emmet Walsh (Blade Runner, Blood Simple, Critters, 88), actor Ron Harper (Planet of the Apes, Land of the Lost, Laramie, 91), tailor Martin Greenfield (survived Auschwitz as a teenager, moved to America, clients included six presidents and numerous film/TV characters, 95).


^ DUMBLEDORE BEAR'S LOTTERY PREDICTOR!

Dumbledore Bear, our in-house psychic predicts that the following numbers will be lucky:
7, 10, 14, 25, 27, 57
[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 was sitting at the kitchen table busily scribbling away with a pencil on a piece of paper. "What are you drawing, Little Jennifer?" her mother asked.
    Little Jennifer looked up. "I'm not drawing, Mummy. In school today Miss told us about other languages, so I'm writing a letter to Little Mary in French!"
    Her mother laughed, "Oh, Little Jennifer, you don't know how to write in French yet!"
    Little Jennifer smiled as only she could. "That's OK, Mummy, Little Mary can't read French either!"


^ ...end of line