31st March: Rene Descartes

This date in 1596 saw the birth of Rene Descartes. 10 pearls of wisdom from him:

1. The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.
2. It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.
3. Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.
4. The senses deceive from time to time, and it is prudent never to trust wholly those who have deceived us even once.
5. Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.
6. An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?
7. Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.
8. The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.
9. Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offence cannot reach it.
10. One cannot conceive anything so strange and so implausible that it has not already been said by one philosopher or another.

30th March: National Doctors Day

It is National Doctors Day and also the anniversary of the day Dr Crawford Long first used ether, in 1842. Here are 10 written howlers made by doctors in case notes.

1. She has no rigours or shaking chills, but her husband states she was very hot in bed last night
2. Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year.
3. Rectal examination revealed an active thyroid.
4. She has been depressed since she began seeing me in 1983.
5. I saw your patient today and she is staying under the car of the consultant for physiotherapy.
6. While in the ER, she was examined, X-rated and sent home.
7. Examination of the genitalia reveals that he is circus-sized.
8. On the second day the knee felt better and on the third it had completely disappeared
9. By the time he was admitted, his rapid heart had stopped, and he was feeling better.
10. She is numb from her toes down.

29th March: 29

Some things you might not know about the number 29.

1. It is the tenth prime number.
2. It is also the sum of three consecutive squares, 2² + 3² + 4².
3. It is the atomic number of Copper.
4. A polygon made up of 29 sides is called an icosikaienneagon, enneacosagon or a nonacosagon.
5. In religion, the Bishnois community follows 29 principles. Guru Jambheshwar laid down 29 principles to be followed by the sect in 1485 A.D. In Hindi, Bish means 20 and noi means 9; thus, Bishnoi translates as Twenty-niners. (they include: women must be segregated when they are menstruating, no smoking, drinking or drugs, no meat, no cutting down trees, and never wear blue).
6. In Bingo, ball number 29 is called In Your Prime.
7. In astrophysics, Saturn takes 29 years to orbit the Sun.
8. Angel Number 29 is a message from your angels that you are to have faith in yourself and your angels as they are encouraging and supporting you in your spiritual endeavours; also suggests that if you have ‘lost’ something of late, your angels are indicating that the Universe is manifesting something positive for you to take its’ place.
9. In the binary number system 29 can be written as 11101. In the hexadecimal number system 29 can be written as 1D. In Roman Numerals the number 29 can be written as XXIX.
10. It is the track from which the Chattanooga Choo Choo train departs in the Glenn Miller song.

28th March: Day of the Daffodil

It's the day of the daffodil in the French Revolutionary Calendar. 10 things you might not know about daffodils:

1. Not all of them are Yellow. There are more than 50 different species of daffodil and 25,000 hybrid varieties. They come in yellow, white, Orange and even Pink.
2. The botanical name is Narcissus, as according to legend they are the flowers that the vain youth Narcissus turned into when he couldn't stop looking at his reflection in the lake. This name means “to benumb” as the plant has narcotic properties. It is also known as jonquil, Paperwhite, the ‘Poet’s Hower’, and in England, because of their long association with Lent, they’re known as the “Lent Lily.”
3. The bulbs contain a toxin called lykorine, which is also present in small traces in the leaves. Only certain insects can eat this with impunity. Squirrels will not eat daffodil bulbs, no matter how hungry they are.
4. The sap is toxic to other plants, so mixing daffodils with other flowers in a vase is not a good idea, unless the daffodils have already been soaked in water separately for 24 hours and the stems are not re-cut. There is a skin disease sometimes found in florists known as "daffodil itch".
5. The UK is the world's biggest producer of daffodils. Half of the world's daffodil bulbs come from here, 10,000 tons of them, worth £7 million.
6. China may well be one of our customers, as according to Feng Shui, if you can force a daffodil to flower at Chinese new year it is very lucky.
7. Poultry keepers wouldn't agree. They thought the flower to be unlucky and would not have it in their homes, as they believed it would stop their hens from laying Eggs. It's also thought to be unlucky to give someone a single daffodil flower.
8. The daffodil is the national symbol of Wales, along with the Leek. It is worn on St David’s day. In old Welsh, the word for daffodil and for leek are similar: (Cennin = Leek, Cenhinen Pedr = Daffodil). It is said in Wales that if you spot the first daffodil of the season, your next 12 months will be filled with wealth.
9. Prince Charles is gets one daffodil each year as rent for land on the Isles of Scilly.
10. The Arabs used the juice of the wild daffodil as a cure for baldness. High born ladies in medieval times used the yellow flower dye to tint their hair and Eyebrows.

27th March: World Theatre Day

For World Theatre Day, 10 quotes and quips about the theatre:

1. If all the world’s a stage and men and women merely players, where is the audience to come from?
2. Hamlet. Son of Piglet.
3. Are you trying to break into show business? No - it’s just a stage I’m going through.
4. Spokesman for Leeds Theatre: It wasn’t until the dress rehearsal that we realised there were nude scenes in the play.
5. At a high school speech day an act from Midsummer night's Dream was performed by pupils. The then bishop of Chichester in a speech thanking the performers remarked: "I may say this is the first time I have ever seen a female Bottom."
6. Bernard Shaw's way of resolving whether Francis Bacon did or did not write Shakespeare's plays: "Get Beerbohm Tree to play Hamlet, dig them both up, and see who turns over."
7. All the world’s a stage .... most of us are just stagehands.
8. If all the world’s a stage, I want to operate the trap door. Paul Beatty
9. The audience are literally electrified and glued to their seats. Ted Lowe
10. The one man show you do, is that just you? Terry Wogan

26th March: Bangladesh Independence Day

Today is Bangladesh Independence Day - 10 things you might not know about Bangladesh:

1. It is the world's eighth most populated country with a population of 160 million and a population density of almost 3000 people per square mile.
2. Although well over half the population are farmers, the majority of the country's export earnings come from garments and textiles.
3. Most of the country is less than 12 m (39.4 ft) above sea level, and if the sea level rose by one meter 10% of the land would be flooded.
4. The highest peak in Bangladesh is Saka Haphong with an elevation of 1,052 m (3,451 ft).
5. The Bengal Tiger is the national animal. The Magpie Robin is the National Bird. The national flower is the white-flowered water lily. The national fruit is jackfruit and the national tree is the mango.
6. Over two thousand newspapers and magazines are produced in Bagladesh, although the literacy rate is relatively low - 50% of men and 31% of women.
7. Dhaka is the capital and largest city.
8. Some points of etiquette - the left hand is considered unclean so it is rude to eat or hand someone a business card with the left hand. People here believe that smiling a lot is a sign of immaturity, so Bagladeshis do not smile very much.
9. The national anthem, Amar Sonar Bangla, "My Golden Bengal", was written by Rabindranath Tagore (the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913) in 1905.
10. Bangladesh has six distinct seasons rather than four: spring, summer, the rainy season, autumn, the cool season, and winter.   

25th March: Greece Independence Day

Today is Independence Day in Greece, so 10 things you didn't know about Greece:

1. The name of the country in English is derived from the Roman word meaning "land of the Greeks". The Greek people call their country Hellas or Ellada and its official name is Hellenic Republic.
2. 80% of Greece is mountainous (including the country's highest mountain, Mount Olympus at 2,919m which was once considered to be the home of the gods) and it has no navigable rivers. Greece has more than 2,000 islands, of which approximately 170 are inhabited. The largest is Crete (3,189 sq. miles) (8,260 sq. km.). Greece has about 9,000 miles (14,400km) of coastline, the 10th longest in the world. No point in Greece is more than 85 miles (137 kilometres) from water.
3. You probably know that the capital is Athens, but you may not know that over 40% of the population live there; or the legend of how the city got its name. The first king of Athens, Cecrops, wanted a patron deity. Two of the gods applied for the position, Poseidon, god of the sea, and Athena, goddess of wisdom. Cecrops asked these two to give the city a gift, and he would choose the most valuable one. Poseidon offered water - but it was sea water so not as useful as one might think. Athena gave the city olive trees, which Cecrops decided was much more valuable, and so the city took her name. Poseidon wasn't happy about it, and cursed the city so that it would suffer continual Water shortages.
4. Greece is the third largest producer of Olives in the world. There are estimated to be around 120,000,000 olive trees in Greece, and some of the olive trees planted in the 13th century are still producing olives today. Greece is the leading producer of sea sponges, and 7% of the world's marble.
5. The biggest earner for Greece, however, is tourism. Approximately 16.5 million tourists visit Greece each year, which is more than the country’s entire population.
6. Greece has over 100 archaeological museums, more than any other country in the world.
7. Greece’s currency, the drachma, was 2,650 years old and Europe’s oldest currency until it was replaced with the Euro in 2002, while Greek is one of the oldest languages in the world, having been spoken for 3,000 years.
8. The Greek flag includes nine blue-and-white horizontal stripes, which some scholars say stand for the nine syllables of the Greek motto “Eleftheria i Thanatos” or “Freedom or Death.” Blue represents Greece’s sea and sky, while white stands for the purity of the struggle of freedom. In the upper left-hand corner is the traditional Greek Orthodox cross.
9. Greece organised the first municipal dump in the Western world around 500 B.C.
10. For Greek people, their name day is more important than their birthday.

24th March: Day of the Tulip

Today is the Day of the tulip in the French Revolutionary Calendar, so here are 10 things you might not know about tulips:

1. Although associated largely with Holland these days, tulips actually originated in Persia, where they started cultivating them in the 10th century. Tulips are mentioned by Omar Kayam and Celaleddin Rûmi.
2. The English word tulip derives ultimately from the Persian word for a turban, because it was common in the Ottoman Empire for people to wear tulips on their turbans. The Persian, Arabic and Turkish word for the flower is laleh, which in Arabic letters contains the same letters as "Allah" and so it is a holy flower.
3. In a Persian legend, a youth, Farhad, fell in love with a maiden named Shirin. When he heard that she had been killed, he was so grief stricken that he mounted his favourite horse and galloped over a cliff to his death. From each drop of Blood a scarlet tulip grew, a symbol of his perfect love.
4. In the 16th century, tulips were a symbol of love. The Sultan of Persia liked to give red tulips to his beloved. These tulips had a black tinge at the bottom of each petal, so to him it symbolised the flame of love burning his heart to black coal. This was a bit too sexual for the Victorians, who hardly ever used them as flowers to give a loved one. In the western language of flowers, red tulips still mean irresistible love. Yellow tulips mean hopeless love, and variegated tulips mean beautiful eyes.
5. Nobody knows for sure, but it's thought the person responsible for introducing the plants to Western Europe was Oghier Ghislain de Busbecq, an ambassador for Emperor Ferdinand I to Suleyman the Magnificent. According to a letter, he saw "an abundance of flowers everywhere; Narcissus, hyacinths and those in Turkish called Lale, much to our astonishment because it was almost midwinter, a season unfriendly to flowers." In 1573 Carolus Clusius planted tulips at the Vienna Imperial Botanical Gardens. He was later to be appointed director of the Hortus Botanicus at Leiden University, and he took some bulbs with him and planted them in late 1593. When these flowers bloomed in 1594, this was taken as the date tulips first appeared in Holland, although it's likely people had them in their private gardens before this.
6. In the 1630s tulips became so popular in Holland that they triggered a speculative frenzy now known as the tulip mania, with hoards of people giving up their jobs to become tulip growers. The bulbs were so expensive then that they were used as currency and traded like stocks and shares. They came to be known as "pot of Gold" and a symbol for the rich, because only the rich could afford them.
7. Tulips belong to the lily family and there are over 100 different species.
8. Even after they are cut, a tulip stem will still grow and bend towards the light.
9. Tulip bulbs are edible. It's said that when the Ambassador of the Roman Empire sent a gift of tulip bulbs and seeds to Clusius in Vienna, he had no idea what they were for. He planted them and when they matured, gave them to his grocer who cooked and ate them with oil and vinegar. In Holland, people ate tulip bulbs during famines. However, if it ever comes to that, don't feed your pets with them. They contain tulipanin which is toxic to Dogs, Cats and Horses.
10. After World War II, Holland sent Ottawa, Canada, thousands of tulip bulbs as a thank you for the Canadian troops who liberated Holland, and also for allowing Queen Maria to reside in Canada during the war.

23rd March: Liberty Day

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death Day, or Liberty Day Honours Patrick Henry and his famous 1775 quote, 'Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death'. Here are more quotes on the subject of freedom:

1. My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular. Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.
2. The amenities of society, arbitrary and often absurd, beset us at every turn and it is only in larger things that one’s will is really free. Jean Stafford
3. Ultimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is freedom. Marilyn Ferguson
4. Freedom means choosing your burden. Hepzibah Menuhin
5. The function of freedom is to free somebody else. Toni Morrison
6. You can spend a whole lifetime Trying to be What you think is expected of you But you’ll never be free. Chris Rea
7. I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom. Simone de Beauvoir
8. The door to your cage is open. All you have to do is walk out, if you dare. George Lucas
9. The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear. H. Agar
10. None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

22nd March: Popeye

Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Bud Sagendorf, the US cartoonist, who drew Popeye. Here are 10 things you might not know about Popeye.

1. Popeye wasn't always the star of his own comic strip. He started off as a minor character in a story featuring a Harold Hamgravy's voyage to Dice Island. Popeye became so popular that he kind of took over, including stealing Hamgravy's girlfriend, Olive Oyl.
2. Olive Oyl has a brother called Castor Oyl.
3. In Spain, Olive is called Rosario because they see the name Olive Oyl as an insult to olive trees.
4. Popeye didn't always get his amazing abilities from eating Spinach. At first, it was from rubbing the feathers of a whiffle hen.
5. When the spinach thing became a feature of the strips though, sales of the vegetable increased significantly. Even as recently as 2010, researchers found that children ate more vegetables after watching Popeye cartoons. The effect was significant enough that spinach-growers in Crystal City, Texas, erected a statue of the character in 1937 - the first time in history that a city had honoured a cartoon character with a statue.
6. Popeye and Olive were based on real people. Popeye was based on a character from creator Elzie Segar's hometown of Chester, Illinois – a one-eyed man named Frank 'Rocky' Fiegal. Fiegal was flattered by this. He died in 1947 and had the words "inspiration for Popeye" inscribed on his tombstone. Olive was based on Segar's neighbour Dora Paskel, who was tall and slim and wore her hair in a bun.
7. In the Popeye cartoons, Popeye was voiced by Jack Mercer from 1935. In 1938, he married Margie Hynes, who provided the voice for Olive Oyl.
8. The live action film in 1980 saw Robin Williams in his first starring film role. The set, in Malta, became a Popeye-themed theme park.
9. The Popeye cartoons introduced several words to the English language. Dufus (or doofus) meaning a stupid person comes from a character in the strip who was Popeye's nephew. Jeep, for the army general purpose vehicle possibly came from Popeye's dog, Eugene the Jeep as much as from the abbreviation GP for "general purpose". References to Popeye cartoons were thought to be big morale busters for the troops. The word wimp derives from J. Wellington Wimpy who is apathetic, overweight and fond of Hamburgers. It's possible the UK hamburger chain "Wimpy's" was named after this character, too. The word goon, meaning a criminal or thug, however, didn't originate with Popeye, but the Goon Family certainly helped boost the word's popularity.
10. In 2004 the Empire State Building was floodlit in Green light (to symbolise spinach) for Popeye's 75th anniversary. This is the only time the Empire State Building has ever celebrated the anniversary/birthday of a comic strip character.

21st March: Namibia Independence Day

Namibia Independence Day is today, so here are 10 things you might not know about Namibia.

1. It's a good place for people who don't like crowds, as it is the second least densely populated country in the world. Only Mongolia is less crowded.
2. It's also good for people who don't like rain. The average rainfall is only about 350 mm per annum, and there are, on average, 300 days of sunshine a year.
3. The only perennial rivers are on the national borders with South Africa, Angola, Zambia and the short border with Botswana in the Caprivi. There are storage dams which retain water from seasonal floods, and more than 100 000 boreholes have been drilled in Namibia over the past century. Many of the people of Namibia depend on groundwater.
4. The capital and largest city is Windhoek.
5. Namibia is home to the world's oldest desert, the Namib desert, which is 43 million years old. The name Namib means "open space", and it is this desert which gives the country its name.
6. Also found here is the highest sand dune in the world at 980 feet. The highest point in Namibia is at Königstein elevation 2,606 metres (8,550 ft).
7. The world's largest underground lake, Dragon's breath, is also found here.
8. Namibia is the first country ever to include provision for environmental protection in its constitution.
9. The second largest canyon in the world, after the Grand Canyon, is here - Fish River Canyon is 161km long, up to 27km wide and 550m deep, and was formed about 500 million years ago.
10. It has the largest free-roaming Cheetah population in the world, at around 2,500.

20th March: Ovid

The Roman poet Ovid was born on this date in 43 BC. Here are 10 Ovid quotes:

1. First thing every morning before you arise say out loud, 'I believe,' three times.
2. Happy is the man who has broken the chains which hurt the mind, and has given up worrying once and for all.
3. The man who has experienced shipwreck shudders even at a calm sea.
4. Let your hook be always cast. In the pool where you least expect it, will be fish.
5. If any person wish to be idle, let them fall in love.
6. Those things that nature denied to human sight, she revealed to the eyes of the soul.
7. Neither can the wave that has passed by be recalled, nor the hour which has passed return again.
8. You can learn from anyone even your enemy.
9. You will go most safely in the middle.
10. That which is feared lessens by association. This is the thing to understand.

19th March: Oranges and Lemons

The Oranges and Lemons Service takes place today at St Clement Dane’s Church, The Strand, in London. At 9am, noon, 3pm and 6pm the chimes play the nursery rhyme. The service is at 3.30pm after which oranges and lemons are given to local schools.

1. Several theories have been put forward about the origin of the song, including child sacrifice, public executions and Henry VIII's wives - although early versions of the rhyme do not include the lines about a chopper coming to chop off your head.
2. Those lines could derive from prisoners awaiting execution - the Bellman of St Sepulchre would visit the condemned at midnight to inform them that their execution would take place next day, and he would use a candle to light his way to the cells.
3. The song might originate from medieval times when fruit merchants had to pay a toll at Clements Inn in order to carry their oranges and lemons through to Clare Market.
4. The tune is supposed to sound like church bells, and specifically the characteristic sounds of the churches mentioned in the song.
5. While there is some dispute about exactly which churches the song refers to, there are a few that fit the lyrics pretty well: Oranges and lemons, Say the bells of St. Clement's: St Clement Danes or St Clement Eastcheap are both near the wharves where merchantmen landed citrus fruits; You owe me five farthings, Say the bells of St. Martin's: may be St Martin Orgar or St. Martin's Lane in the city, where moneylenders used to live; When will you pay me? Say the bells of Old Bailey: possibly St Sepulchre-without-Newgate which is opposite the Old Bailey and near the Fleet Prison where debtors were held.
6. London doesn't have the monopoly on the song. There are versions giving rhymes to the names of churches in other parts of England, including Derby and Shropshire.
7. The song forms a part of a children's game in which pairs file under an arch made by two players, and the ones passing through the arch at the end of the song are out, and either stand behind the first pair, or form another arch so the tunnel of arches gets longer and longer.
8. In some versions of the game, the pairs are always a boy and a girl and the caught pair have to Kiss.
9. Oranges and Lemons is the song that Winston Smith cannot remember in George Orwell's novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.
10. The song Clash City Rockers by The Clash features a parody on the rhyme about the music scene of the time: "'You owe me a move', say the bells of St. Groove/'Come on and show me', say the bells of Old Bowie/'When I am fitter', say the bells of Gary Glitter/'No one but you and I', say the bells of Prince Far I". 

18th March: Buses

On this date in 1662, the first buses began running in Paris. They were 8 seater vehicles intended by Louis XIV to provide transport for the poorer people; however, the fashionable, trendy crowd took to them and crowded out the poor people, so when the trendies got bored of bus travel, the service ended. On 18 March 1895 the first petrol driven bus went into service in North Rhineland. Also related was the formation of the American Express Company of stagecoaches was founded this date in 1850 in New York. So here are some facts about buses.

1. Most people know that the word "bus" is short for omnibus, meaning "for all". A lesser known fact is that it may have come from the name of a shop in Nantes, France. A Monsieur Omnès, a hatter, had his shop beside one of the early bus stations, and called it "Omnes Omnibus" as a pun on his name. People catching the bus at that stop started using the word "omnibus" as a nickname for the vehicle.
2. The first UK bus service, as in a service where no prior booking is needed, but passengers are picked up and put down on request, operated on the Manchester-to-Liverpool turnpike. It was run by a toll-gate keeper, and was a horse and cart with several seats. This was in 1824. London didn't get a bus service until 1829, when George Shillibeer saw buses in Paris and thought it would make a lot of money in London. His route ran between Paddington and Bank. There were four buses a day in each direction. For a time, these vehicles were known as "Shillibeers" rather than buses.
3. London buses were not always red. Up until 1907, they were several different colours depending on their route or the company running them. Eventually, London General Omnibus Company became the largest bus operator in the city and they started painting their buses bright red so that they would stand out from all the others. Even after London Transport was running the buses, they weren't all red. There was a country bus division which used Green ones.
4. While on the subject of buses with iconic colours, the American "school bus" first appeared in 1939. It has been statistically proven to be the safest way for American kids to get to school, especially since there are strict motoring laws concerning them. A car driver who passes a school bus which has stopped to let passengers off faces a heavy fine or even prison. As for the colour, the buses are that shade of yellow by federal regulation. The colour even has a name: “National School Bus Glossy Yellow”.
5. Back in London, most numbers under 300 are used for bus routes. The exceptions are 218, 239 and 278. The highest route number is 607. The longest running unchanged bus route is London's route “24” which began in 1910 and runs from Hampstead Heath to Pimlico.
6. In 2009, three 60-something ladies with free bus passes decided to undertake the task of travelling on every single London bus route in numerical order. It took them until 2014, and they recorded their adventures on a blog: http://londonbusesonebusatatime.blogspot.co.uk/. Now they're done with the bus routes, they are continuing their travels and their blog by visiting every museum in London.
7. Legend has it that there is a ghostly number seven bus which appears in Cambridge Gardens, London W10, at 1.15am. It drives in the middle of the road with no lights and no driver. People swerve to avoid it and then look back to see that it has vanished. Once, in 1934, a car burst into flames at the exact spot where the phantom bus always appeared.
8. The world's largest bus is the Neoplan Jumbocruiser in Germany. It is 60 a feet long, 13 feet high, double decker articulated multi-axle city coach which can hold 300 passengers.
9. The world's fastest bus was built by Paul Stender from Indianapolis. He fitted a school bus with a Phantom fighter jet engine. It was capable of reaching a top speed of 367mph, and allegedly it was still ten minutes late for its first pick-up.
10. During World War I, some London buses were converted to carry carrier Pigeons.

17th March: National Day of the Republic of Ireland

March 17th is the national day of the Republic of Ireland. Some things you may not know about Ireland:

1. Ireland is the only country in the world that has a musical instrument – the harp – as its national symbol.
2. The longest place name in Ireland is Muckanaghederdauhaulia, in County Galway. The name means “marsh of the pigs between two seas”. There is a stream in County Galway with an even longer name: Sruffaunoughterluggatoora.
3. Ireland was the first place to establish a duty-free airport - Shannon, in 1947.
4. Mary Robinson was the first female President of Ireland. She was succeeded by Mary McAleese. This is the only instance in the world where one female President was replaced by another.
5. The Irish flag was created in 1848. The Orange stripe represents Irish Protestants, Green is for Irish Catholics and white is for the hope that peace might eventually be reached between them.
6. Ireland has won the Eurovision song contest more times than any other country.
7. Most people in Ireland speak English, but there is also an Irish language. In Irish, there is no word for "yes" or "no" so if an Irish speaker is asked if they walked, they would reply "walked" or "didn't walk". There are also three different sets of numbers - one for maths, one for counting people, and one for counting animals.
8. There are more people claiming Irish descent outside Ireland than are living in Ireland. These include US President Barack Obama, who is of Irish descent on his mother's side.
9. While on the subject of US Presidents, an Irish architect designed the White House. His name was James Hoban. He also built it - twice. After the White House was destroyed in 1814, he built it a second time.
10. There is a legend of an Irish wizard and chieftain who was known by the name of Abhartach who was one of several reputed in folklore to drink Blood. Since Bram Stoker was an Irishman who never visited Transylvania in his life, it has been suggested that it is an Irish, rather than a Romanian tale which inspired Dracula.

Before you go:

Check out some other things I've written.

Death and Faxes

Several women have been found murdered - it looks like the work of a ruthless serial killer. Psychic medium Maggie Flynn is one of the resources DI Jamie Swan has come to value in such cases - but Maggie is dead, leaving him with only the telephone number of the woman she saw as her successor, her granddaughter, Tabitha Drake.

Tabitha, grief-stricken by Maggie's death and suffering a crisis of confidence in her ability, wants nothing to do with solving murder cases. She wants to hold on to her job and find Mr Right (not necessarily in that order); so when DI Swan first contacts her, she refuses to get involved.

The ghosts of the victims have other ideas. They are anxious for the killer to be caught and for names to be cleared - and they won't leave Tabitha alone. It isn't long before Tabitha is drawn in so deeply that her own life is on the line.

Paperback - CreateSpace or Amazon 

Or get the E-book: Amazon Kindle (Where you can use the "Look Inside" function and read the first few pages for free!)

Glastonbury Swan

Every few weeks, there is a mysterious death in Glastonbury. They seem completely unrelated - an apparent suicide, a hit and run, a drug overdose, a magic act which goes horribly wrong - but is that what the killer wants people to think?

The police are certainly convinced - but one of the victims is communicating to medium Tabitha Drake that the deaths are linked.

Who is killing all these people and why? 

This is what Tabitha has to figure out - before it is too late to save someone very dear to her.

Paperback CreateSpace or Amazon

E-book Amazon Kindle

Jigsaw

Within these covers you will find murder, mayhem, ghosts, romance, dungeons and dragons and alien vampire bunnies.


Paperback CreateSpace or Amazon 

E-book Amazon Kindle

New! From A Jack To A King

A royal palace is burning. The King and Queen are dead. The only hopes for an ancient dynasty flee to England for their lives.

A boy runs from his mother and the people he believes want to mutilate him, and vanishes, seemingly forever.

Gary Winchcombe, the experimental "super-cop" pursues a notorious gang of bank robbers, and starts to discover that his friends and neighbours have secrets he never could have imagined.

Tod Reynard wants to turn his life around. When he meets and falls in love with the beautiful Jade, he knows she might just be the one to help him change his life for the better. He cannot possibly know just how much.

When Jade's twin sister Gloria is kidnapped, old rivalries must be put aside and new associations formed in order to save Gloria's life and restore the rightful order of things.

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16th March: Day of the Dandelion

Today is the Day of the Dandelion in the French Revolutionary calendar. Here are 10 things you might not know about dandelions.

1. The name "dandelion" comes from the French words for Lion's tooth (dent de lion) because the leaves resemble lion's teeth.
2. There are many more folk names for the plant including blowball, cankerwort, doon-head-clock, witch's gowan, milk witch, lion's-tooth, yellow-gowan, Irish daisy, monks-head, priest's-crown , puff-ball, faceclock, pee-a-bed (from the root's diuretic properties) swine's snout, white endive, and wild endive.
3. The Yellow flowers are actually a large number of very small flowers clumped together. The individual flowers are called florets.
4. All parts of the plant can be eaten or used for medicinal purposes. The leaves can taste quite bitter, so may need to be blanched, like Spinach, first. You'll no doubt have heard that dandelion wine can be made from the flowers, but did you know you can also get dandelion coffee? It's made from the roots and doesn't contain caffeine. The white sap was used as a cure for warts and corns. Dandelion leaves contain abundant vitamins and minerals, especially vitamins A, C and K, and are good sources of calcium, Potassium, Iron and manganese.
5. Although largely considered to be weeds, they are actually beneficial, not only because of their medicinal uses but they also benefit other plants. The deep tap roots gardeners hate bring nutrients up into the soil and make them available to shallow rooted plants. Bees and Butterflies love them, and while they're feasting on dandelions they might just pollinate some other plants, too.
6. There are superstitions and folklore attached to dandelions. While most brides today wouldn't think of including dandelions in their bouquets, dandelions in a wedding bouquet actually symbolise good luck. In dreams, they represent happy unions.
7. In Medieval times, holding a dandelion flower under the chin of a child was a test to see if they would grow up to be rich. A golden glow on the skin meant they would be wealthy. In the 18th century, it was a measure of how sweet and kind the child was.
8. Blowing on the seed heads, or clocks, gives rise to a whole raft of legends and superstitions. The seeds carry your thoughts and affections to your loved ones. If you can blow all the seeds off in one blow it means "he loves you." Or it might mean you won't have any children (the number of seeds still stuck to the stem is said to indicate how many children a woman will have...) or are going to die soon (... or how many years you have left to live). If you make a wish before you blow, it will come true.
9. Dandelion is said to increase psychic abilities when taken as a tea. A tea of the roots left steaming and placed beside the bed will call spirits.
10. You can predict the weather with them. The hairs on the seeds react to moisture in the air, so when it is fine and dry, they open up and you get the fluffy round clocks. When it is wet, they close up like an Umbrella, and won't open again until the showers are over.

15th March: Hungary National Day

Hungary National Day, Memorial day for the 1848 war of independence from Austria. 10 facts about Hungary:

1. Hungary is home to the largest lake in central Europe (Lake Balaton), and the largest natural grasslands in Europe (the Hortobágy National Park). Also there is the world's largest thermal lake, at Hévíz, and over a thousand natural springs.
2. Hungarians are great inventors. Their achievements include Albert Szent-Györgyi (discovered Vitamin C and created the first artificial vitamin) Ernő Rubik (Rubik's cube), László Bíró (the Ballpoint pen) and Dennis Gabor invented Holography.
3. As of 2007, 13 Hungarians had received Nobel Prizes (more than Japan, China, India, Australia or Spain) in every category except peace.
4. They're also pretty good at sport. There are only seven countries ahead of them in the all time Olympic medal ranking (not bad for a country with a population of just under 10 million) and boasts the second highest number of gold medals per person.
5. Clinking beer mugs is seen as bad taste in Hungary. This is because, at the end of the War of Independence in 1848, the Austrians executed high ranking Hungarian generals and clinked their beer mugs to celebrate. Because of this, Hungarians vowed not to clink beer glasses for the next 150 years. That time is up, of course, but it's still widely observed, especially among older people. Clinking wine and spirit glasses is fine.
6. There is a belief that the whole country is under a curse, the Curse of Turan. The theory is that when the country converted to Christianity under King Stephen, the pagans cast a curse on the Christians that would last a thousand years, if not forever. National catastrophes, wars, and even personal misfortune (including the fact that Hungary has the 9th highest suicide rate in the world) have been blamed on the Curse of Turan.
7. There are 14 vowels in the Hungarian alphabet.
8. The English word "coach" came from the Hungarian kocsi ("wagon from Kocs" referring to the village in Hungary where coaches were first made).
9. The capital, Budapest, was three separate cities until 1873 when Buda, Pest and Óbuda merged to become one city. Budapest has the oldest underground railway on mainland Europe (the London tube is older but isn't on the mainland) and the northernmost Islamic holy place (the tomb of of a Turkish dervish, named Gül Baba, who came to Hungary during the Turkish invasion in the 16th century). There is a statue in a Budapest Park of a chronicler of one of the Hungarian kings, called the Anonymous statue. The statue holds a pen, and it's said that anyone who touches the pen will become a better writer. (I haven't done that yet so how awesome will I be when I have?)
10. Hungary is famous for its paprika. At one time it was the second largest supplier of this spice to the US. Hungarian cuisine uses it liberally, especially in one of their national dishes, goulash.

March 14th: Pi Day

Pi Day (3.14) Pi, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. mathematicians assemble to celebrate pi (3.14159 etc.), one of probably dozens or maybe hundreds of such assemblies worldwide at which people sing songs and recite poetry about pi, have pi trivia quizzes, and eat Pie. Some things you might not know about pi.

1. In 2002, a Japanese scientist found 1.24 trillion digits of pi using a powerful computer called the Hitachi SR 8000, breaking all previous records.
2. Computing pi is a stress test for a computer—a kind of “digital cardiogram. In extreme cases it can kill them. In the Star Trek episode Wolf in the Fold, Spock defeats the evil computer by commanding it to compute to the last digit the value of pi.
3. The first 144 digits of pi add up to 666.
4. There are 360 degrees in a circle and the number 360 is at the 359th digit position of pi.
5. People have known about pi for a very long time. One of the earliest known records of pi was written by an Egyptian scribe named Ahmes (c. 1650 B.C.) on what is now known as the Rhind Papyrus.The Rhind Papyrus was the first attempt to calculate pi by “squaring the circle,” ie. to measure the diameter of a circle by building a square inside the circle.
6. To celebrate pi day properly, your party must begin at 1.59pm precisely to make an appropriate 3.14159.
7. Pi day is also Albert Einstein's birthdate.
8. You can find out if the numbers in your birthday appear in the first 200 million digits of pi, and how many times, by visiting this web site. http://www.angio.net/pi/.
9. In the Greek alphabet, π (piwas) is the sixteenth letter. In the English alphabet, p is also the sixteenth letter.
10. If you divide the circumference of a jack-o’-lantern by its diameter, you get Pumpkin Pi. If you divide the circumference of the sun by its diameter, you get Pi in the sky!