1 October: Jimmy Carter Quotes

On what would have been his 101^st birthday, 10 quotes from US President Jimmy Carter.

1. The measure of a society is found in how they treat their weakest and most helpless citizens.

2. We cannot be both the world's leading champion of peace and the world's leading supplier of the weapons of war.

3. I have one life and one chance to make it count for something... My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.

4. Go out on a limb. That's where the fruit is.

5. We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.

6. Faith implies a continuing search, not necessarily a final answer.

7. We are of course a nation of differences. Those differences don't make us weak. They're the source of our strength.

8. God always answers prayers. Sometimes it's 'yes.' Sometimes the answer is 'no.' Sometimes it's 'you gotta be kidding!'

9. Wherever life takes us, there are always moments of wonder.

10. To be true to ourselves, we must be true to others.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

30 September: Cheers

This date in 1982 saw the first broadcast of Cheers. 10 facts about the show:

1. The series was created by Glen & Les Charles and James Burrows. In order to get a feel for bar chat, they’d spend time in Los Angeles bars eavesdropping on conversations. The argument about the sweatiest movie ever made, which appeared in the premiere, was based on a real conversation they earwigged. Les Charles worked at a bar after college, and one of his customers was the basis for Norm (full name Hillary Norman Peterson).
2. While the internal scenes were shot in a studio, the external shots were of a real bar in Boston called the Bull and Finch, which was named after famous American architect Charles Bulfinch. Like the Cheers bar, it was located under a restaurant. When people realised, the Bull and Finch became something of a tourist attraction, and in due course, officially changed its name to Cheers.
3. The show was originally going to be set in a hotel, but it soon became clear that most of the action was going to happen in the bar, so producers went with setting it entirely in a bar.
4. The character Sam, the bartender, played by Ted Danson, was formerly a relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox nicknamed "Mayday Malone", but his Baseball career ended when he became an alcoholic. Ted Danson had never worked in a bar, so he spent two weeks at a bartending school in Burbank, California. He also had to bone up on sports, in which he previously had no interest.
5. The theme song is called Cheers (Where Everybody Knows Your Name) and was written by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo. This was their third attempt at coming up with a theme song for the show. Their first two submissions were rejected.
6. Cheers ran for 11 seasons, but was almost cancelled after the first. The first episode rated 77th out of 100 shows. NBC’s entertainment president at the time, Brandon Tartikoff, persuaded them to keep going.
7. The character Frasier wasn’t intended to be a regular, but a short lived character in series 3. He was so popular, though, that he became a regular, and after Cheers ended, got a series of his own, Frasier, which also ran for 11 seasons. Kelsey Grammer wasn’t, however, the first choice for that role. It was originally written with John Lithgow in mind, but he had no interest whatsoever in being in a TV series and turned it down flat. Most of the regulars from Cheers made guest appearances in Frasier. The only one who didn’t was Kirstie Alley, because as a Scientologist, she didn’t believe in psychiatric treatment.
8. Almost every episode has someone peeling a Lemon.
9. The producers were careful to never portray anyone getting blotto and then driving home. They made sure anyone who’d had a few was shown calling a cab or calling on a sober designated driver.
10. There were frequent complaints that the Laugh track was too loud. There was never a laugh track – it was filmed before a live audience who clearly laughed too loudly for some people. To answer the complaints, the "Cheers was filmed before a live studio audience" announcement was added in 1983.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

29 September: Westmorland Day

Today is Westmorland Day, so 10 facts about this historic English county.

1. Westmorland is a historic county in North West England, which included parts of the Lake District and the Vale of Eden. The town of Kendal was also part of the county.

2. It was originally called Westmoringaland, meaning 'the land of the people of the western moors,' which was meant to distinguish them from the people of the eastern moors on the other side of the Pennines. However, the modern name is actually from Westmerieland, a name used in the 12^th century, referring to meres (lakes) rather than moors.

3. It existed as a county between the 12^th century and 1974, when it was subsumed into Cumbria.

4. It isn’t in the Domesday Book. In 1086, the area was considered to be half in Yorkshire and half in Scotland.

5. The county town was Appleby-in-Westmorland, known at the time simply as Appleby. Today it is a market town with a population in 2011 of 3,048. There is a Norman castle there (privately owned) and a Grade I listed church. A Horse fair is held there on the first weekend of June.

6. The highest point in Westmorland is Helvellyn, with an elevation of 950 metres/3,116 ft. Helvellyn is the third highest mountain in England and the name means “pale yellow moorland”. William Wordsworth and John Keats wrote poetry about it, and a stone tablet on the summit commemorates the occasion when a small plane landed there in 1926.

7. In the same year, the area was granted a coat of arms and a Flag. Both feature two red lines from the arms of the de Lancaster family, barons of Kendal, and a stylised Apple tree from the thirteenth-century seal of the Borough of Appleby. The coat of arms includes the head of a ram belonging to the local Herdwick breed. On its forehead, the ram has a shearman's hook, a tool used in handling wool.

8. According to the 1971 census, Westmorland was the second least populated administrative county in England, after Rutland.

9. Notable people from the area include Sir Thomas Strickland, known for carrying the Flag of St George at the Battle of Agincourt, and William Parr, 1st Baron Parr of Kendal, who was Catherine Parr’s grandfather.

10. The name still survives in the area as Westmorland and Furness unitary authority which covers the Lake District and Cumbrian coast; local newspaper the Westmorland Gazette, Westmorland General Hospital in Kendal and numerous sports teams and associations.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

28 September: Circumnavigating the globe

On this date in 1924 the first circumnavigation of the Earth by air was completed. Here are 10 notable circumnavigations of the planet:

1. The one which happened on this date in 1924 was achieved by two US Army Douglas DWC amphibians from Seattle to Seattle with 57 stops in 175 days. The flight was made in 57 hops, each one averaging 483 miles. The actual flying time was 351 hours.

2. The first circumnavigation by anyone ever (at least since records began) was the Magellan Expedition which took place between 1519 and 1522 in the ship Victoria. Of the 270 crew members who set out from Seville, only 18 were still with the expedition at the end. Magellan himself didn’t survive the trip.

3. The first circumnavigation in which the captain made it back was completed in 1580, by Sir Francis Drake. He’d been commissioned to carry out the voyage by Elizabeth I.

4. Jeanne Baret, a member of Louis Antoine de Bougainville's expedition on the ships La Boudeuse and Étoile in 1766–1769, is credited as being the first woman to circumnavigate the globe.

5. The first underwater circumnavigation took place in 1960. The American nuclear-powered Submarine USS Triton circumnavigated the globe in 60 days, 21 hours for Operation Sandblast.

6. The first lighter-than-air aircraft of any type to circumnavigate under its own power was the rigid airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin, which did so in 1929.

7. In 2012, PlanetSolar became the first ever solar electric vehicle to circumnavigate the globe.

8. In 1969, Robin Knox-Johnston became the first person to complete a single-handed non-stop nautical circumnavigation.

9. In 1999, Jesse Martin became the youngest recognised person to complete an unassisted, non-stop, nautical circumnavigation, at the age of 18.

10. People have both bicycled and run around the world, but it’s necessary to cheat a little in order to cross the oceans. David Kunst was the first person Guinness verified as having walked around the world between 20 June 1970 and 5 October 1974. He walked 23,250 km (14,450 miles) through four continents. There’s a sad story attached to that one. He set out with his brother, John, but they were attacked by bandits as they walked and John was killed. David continued and was joined by another brother, Peter, who finished the walk with him.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

27 September: Meat Loaf

The performer Meat Loaf was born on this date in 1947. 10 facts about him:

1. He was born Marvin Lee Aday in Dallas, Texas. His mother, Wilma, was a teacher and gospel singer, and his father, Orvis, was a police officer who eventually started a business selling cough medicines. In 1984, Meat Loaf legally changed his first name from Marvin to Michael because of a Levi Strauss & Co. commercial which allegedly contained the line "Poor fat Marvin can't wear Levi's."

2. There are at least two stories about how he came to be known as Meat Loaf. One was that after he was born he was bright red for several days and his father commented that he looked like a slab of meat. Another is that a football coach called him that when he accidentally stood on the man’s foot.

3. The first band he belonged to was called Meat Loaf Soul and subsequent bands were Popcorn Blizzard and Floating Circus, who opened for The Who and Grateful Dead.

4. He was an actor, too and appeared in over 30 films, his first being State Fair in 1962, uncredited as a boy in the stands. Discounting documentaries where he appeared in concert footage performing as himself, he only sang in two of them: The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny. He wanted to be taken seriously as an actor and didn’t want to be typecast, always playing singing roles. He also acted in TV shows including an episode of House, in which he played a husband determined to die so he could donate his liver to his wife. His appearance as a bus driver in the Spice Girls movie started out as a joke. When told by Paul Conroy, the head of Virgin, at a breakfast meeting that there was to be a Spice Girls film, Meat Loaf joked with fake indignation, ‘They’re doing Spice World and you didn’t put me in it?!’ Conroy called his bluff and got him a part, at which point Meat Loaf admitted he’d been kidding and tried to wriggle out of it by saying he had a commitment in Germany. Conroy wasn’t having it, and Meat Loaf ended up playing the Spice Girls’ tour bus driver Dennis. One of his lines was a nod to one of his hits: when asked to fix the Toilets, Dennis says that he’d do anything for the girls, “but I won’t do that!”

5. As a teenager, he was present at Parkland Memorial Hospital on the day of the Assassination of John F Kennedy. Having seen the President when he arrived at Dallas Love Field, he and his friends heard of the assassination on the radio and drove to the hospital in time to see Jacqueline Kennedy arrive. In his autobiography, Meat Loaf claimed his car was hijacked by a secret service agent who was anxious to get to the hospital. He also claimed that he once picked up a hitchhiker who turned out to be Charles Manson.

6. He was married twice. He met his first wife, Leslie G. Edmonds, in 1978 when she was working as Jim Steinman’s secretary. They married in 1979 and divorced in 2001. Meat Loaf married Deborah Gillespie in 2007.

7. He attended church with his mother as a child and studied The Bible. Although as an adult he didn’t belong to a church, he did pray every day and some of his songs have religious themes, examples being 40 Days and Fall from Grace.

8. He was a vegetarian from 1981 to 1992. He was also, around that time, a fan of the singer k.d. lang, but she refused to meet him because his name included the word “meat”! He went off her after that. He was up for trying Veganuary in 2020 and announced that he was going to enter into a partnership with Frankie & Benny's to promote its vegan options.

9. He was offered lead vocalist position in the rock band Foreigner, but turned it down because he wanted to stay with Jim Steinman. He also turned down the lead role in Phantom Of The Opera.

10. He died in 2022, aged 74. No official cause of death was released. There was speculation, since he’d spoken out against covid vaccination mandates, that he’d died from covid complications.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

26 September: The Dambusters

On this date in 1887 Barnes Wallis, scientist, engineer and inventor best known for inventing the bouncing bomb used by the RAF in the "Dambusters" raid during World War II was born. 10 facts about Barnes Wallace and the Dambusters.

1. Barnes Wallis was the son of a GP. He left school at seventeen to work at Thames Engineering Works in London. He moved on to J. Samuel White's, the shipbuilders based at Cowes on the Isle of Wight. He originally trained as a marine engineer and in 1922 he took a degree in engineering via the University of London External Programme. In 1913 when an opportunity arose for him as an aircraft designer. He jumped at that and joined Vickers – later Vickers-Armstrongs and then part of the British Aircraft Corporation – and worked there until he retired in 1971. He became a vegetarian at the age of 73.

2. He might have got the idea for his bouncing bomb from reading about cannonballs in the 16th and 17th centuries that bounced on Water. It was said that Nelson took advantage of such things in order to smash the hulls of enemy ships. Wallis first tried out the idea by bouncing marbles across a water tub in his back garden.

3. The “Dambusters” raid was officially known as Operation Chastise and took place on the night of 16-17 May 1943, by 617 Squadron of the Royal Air Force led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson. The three main targets were the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe dams. May was chosen as the best time for the raid because melting Snow from the Mountains meant that the reservoirs contained by the dams would be at their fullest. The bomb itself was drum shaped and known by the codename of Upkeep.

4. Why blow up dams and destroy reservoirs? As well as being a water supply, the water was used to generate Electricity, and disruption of that, it was theorised, would screw up the German war production. Not everyone in the RAF Bomber Command thought it was a brilliant idea. Arthur “Bomber” Harris was among a group who thought it was an insane idea that would never work.

5. To ensure the bomb bounced to the right spot to do the damage it had to be dropped from an extremely low altitude: 60 feet (18m), and at a ground speed of 232mph. It was extremely dangerous and the squadron had to risk their lives even in training exercises. On the night of the mission one plane had to return to England because it lost its bomb when it touched the sea.

6. Needless to say, the whole operation was top secret. Initially codenamed Squadron X, 617 Squadron was made up of aircrew from Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the USA. Only their leader, Guy Gibson, knew exactly what it was the squadron had been formed to do. They spent eight weeks training intensively in low level flying at night, most of the pilots only found out what their target was at briefing on the day of the raid itself.

7. 133 aircrew took part, 53 of them were killed and three became prisoners of war. It took five attacks to breach the Möhne Dam. Guy Gibson’s bomb exploded too soon on the first try. The next plane to try was shot down. Gibson then flew along the dam to draw the German fire. This action earned him the Victoria Cross. After the war, it was learned that possibly the biggest disaster for the Germans was that they had to deploy troops to deal with the flood damage and fix the dams, which weakened key strategic points in the conflict. It probably did help, then, and those who took part were certainly brave and heroic, but there was a massive human cost, too. About 1,300 people drowned in the resulting flood, and these were mostly civilians and prisoners of war, a fact that seemed a little downplayed by the sources I read. If the same thing happened today there would be outrage and cries of terrorism and genocide.

8. In 1951, Paul Brickhill wrote a book about the raid, entitled The Dam Busters.

9. The film came out in 1955. Wallis was played by Michael Redgrave and Gibson by Richard Todd. Wallis's daughter Elisabeth played the camera technician in the water tank sequence. The Dam Busters has been hailed as one of the best British war films and one of the greatest films of the 20th century.

10. The theme to the film, The Dambusters March, was written by Eric Coates, whose other famous composition is the theme for Desert Island Discs. The tune wasn’t written for the film. Coates had been experimenting with producing marches in the style of Edward Elgar and the Pomp and Circumstance March. It just so happened that the producers contacted him asking for some rousing music at about the time he finished writing it. That said, Coates wasn’t at all enthusiastic about them using his music. He reportedly hated writing music for films and actually turned the producers down several times, until they told him it was for a film of national importance, at which point he relented. Most of the soundtrack, including the theme played during the raid sequence, was composed by Leighton Lucas.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

25 September: Cork

Today is the feast day of St Finbar, patron saint of Cork in Ireland. Here are 10 things you might not know about Cork.

1. The first settlement in the area was a monastery which was founded by the aforementioned Saint Finbar in the sixth century. It was expanded by Viking invaders around 915 and its charter was granted by Prince John in 1185.

2. The name of the city means “marsh”. It used to be called Corcach Mor na Mumhan, which translates to The Great Marsh of Munster.

3. It’s also known by the nickname "The Rebel County" because the city has a long history of standing up to authority, dating back to the 15th century. This includes the first successful slave revolt in the world which happened in 1762, when some Irish indentured servants joined forces with some African slaves, and overthrew their captors on a ship in Cork Harbour.

4. It’s the third largest city on the island of Ireland and the county town of County Cork.

5. Cork has two cathedrals. St. Mary's Cathedral (often referred to as the North Cathedral, the Catholic cathedral) and Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral (serves the protestant Church of Ireland). Another famous church is Shandon Church, also known by the nickname the "Four-Faced Liar." It has a four faced Clock tower and it’s not unusual for each of the clocks to display a different time. This is because of the strong winds in the city affecting the hands on the clocks differently.

6. It could be argued that Cork is the birthplace of modern computing, because it’s the birthplace of George Boole, a 19th century mathematician who created Boolean Algebra which turned out to be the foundation of computing. Today, the city is home to a supercomputer called Eureka, which can perform calculations in a day which would take a regular PC over 500 years to do. It’s busy working on new medicines and models of climate change. What’s more, it’s not only “thinking” about climate change, but isn’t contributing as much to it as other supercomputers. It has a unique cooling system that takes advantage of Ireland’s cool climate and is one of the most energy-efficient supercomputers on the planet.

7. Cork is home to the oldest yacht club in the world, founded in 1720. Its membership today is around 1,800 and counts among its past members Prince Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria, later Emperor of Mexico, and Sir Thomas Lipton, the guy who made Lipton Tea.

8. It also has the narrowest Bridge in Europe which is still in use. The Glanworth Bridge, built in the mid-15th century, spans the River Funcheon and is just 2.9 meters wide.

9. Cork Harbour was the last port of call for the Titanic. On April 11, 1912, the ship docked at Queenstown (now Cobh) in Cork Harbour and took on the final 123 passengers.

10. Famous people from Cork include Jack Gleeson, the actor who played Joffrey in Game of Thrones; female impersonator Danny La Rue, OBE; and actor Cillian Murphy. Cork is twinned with Cologne, Coventry, Rennes, San Francisco, Swansea and Shanghai.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

24 September: 267

Today is day 267 of 2025. 10 fun facts about this number:

1. 267 is the international dialling code for Botswana.

2. Its Roman numeral is CCLXVII.

3. The year 267 was a common year starting on a Tuesday, known at the time as the Year of the Consulship of Paternus and Arcesilaus. The first Gothic invasion took place in this year. The Goths, originally from Scandinavia, invaded the Balkans and Greece.

4. The A267 is a road in England which runs between Tunbridge Wells and Lower Dicker.

5. The 267th Chemical Company was a military unit of the U.S. Army Chemical Corps responsible for the surety of chemical warfare agents deployed to the Islands of Okinawa, Japan and subsequently Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

6. In the US, 267 is the area code for Pennsylvania.

7. In Binary code, 267 is expressed as 100001011.

8. London Bus 267 runs from Hammersmith Bus Station to South Road/Fulwell.

9. 267 Tirza is a main belt Asteroid discovered by Auguste Charlois in 1887 in Nice. It was named after Tirzah, a name used in the Song of Solomon.

10. In numerology, 267 resonates with companionship, family, romance and diplomacy. Those influenced by the number are introspective, perceptive and astute, able to analyse problems to find viable solutions. They may well enter a scientific field. They are comfortable interacting with others and liable to get lonely if left alone.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

23 September: The Jetsons

On this date in 1962 The Jetsons, an animated cartoon series about a space-age family, premièred on ABC-TV. 10 facts about this show:

Could not find anything in the public domain for this topic so here is an old drawing of mine.

1. It was the first programme to be broadcast in Colour on ABC. However, only 3% of American households had colour TV at that time, so most didn’t get the benefit of the fact that “The Jetsons’ future is bright; it’s shiny; and it’s in colour.”

2. It was Hanna-Barbera's Space Age counterpart to The Flintstones. In fact, there is a spin off in which the two families meet. The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones was first broadcast in 1987. The premise is that a time travel experiment goes wrong.

3. The series is set in 2062, but was inspired by a book about what life would be like in 1975.

4. The family live in Skypad Apartments, Orbit City and their telephone number is VENUS-1234.

5. The father of the family is George Jetson, who works an hour a day, two days a week for a company called Spacely Space Sprockets. This company, according to Forbes in 2007, featured in a list of 25 fictional companies and what they’d be worth in today’s market. Forbes stated the sprocket manufacturing company would be worth about $1.3 billion.

6. George’s wife Jane is a housewife and they have two children, Judy and Elroy. They have a Dog called Astro which can talk, with a speech impediment that means every word begins with R – a similar pattern of speech was later used for Scooby Doo. There’s also a robot maid called Rosie who does any housework not handled by a futuristic push button device.

7. The music was written by Hoyt Curtin. The song song Eep Opp Ork Ah-Ah (Means I Love You), written for the show in 1962 was a chart hit in 1986, and is considered to be one of the first music videos.

8. There are a number of things in the show that didn’t exist in 1962, but are commonplace now. Things that were predicted by the Jetsons include flatscreen televisions, being able to read a newspaper on a computer-like screen, computer viruses, video chat, tanning beds and home treadmills.

9. The design of the Jetsons' flying car was inspired by a 1954 Ford concept car, the FX-Atmos. The architecture of Orbit City is based on a style called Googie, which was popular at the time, but fell out of favour in the 1970s, so many examples of it have fallen into disrepair. One which still exists is the Space Needle in Seattle.

10. George O’Hanlon and Penny Singleton were the original voices of George and Jane. Penny Singleton played Blondie Bumstead in the "Blondie" movies of the 1940s. However, prior to production two other voice actors were hired for those roles – Morey Amsterdam and Pat Carroll. However, they were fired early on and were never told why. They sued Hanna-Barbera for breach of contract. Carroll went on record as saying she wouldn’t have minded being told she’d been let go for being rubbish; it was the lack of a reason that annoyed her. A news article of the time suggested the pair had been axed because of their involvement with other shows and potential sponsorship conflicts.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book