14 October: Turnips

The French Revolutionary Calendar honoured the Turnip on this date. Here are some things you might not know about this vegetable:

1. The Latin name for the turnip is Brassica rapa.
2. Turnips were domesticated in India before the 15th century BC. The plant was first grown for its oil-bearing seeds. Ancient Greeks and Romans also grew them.
3. Sappho, the 7th century Greek poet, called one of her paramours Gongýla, meaning "turnip".
4. Pliny the elder was a big fan of turnips. "Its utility surpasses that of any other plant," he wrote. Not only could turnips be fed to farm animals, they were easy to grow and didn't rot in the ground if left there until the next harvest, so they could "prevent the effects of famine".
5. Turnips are a biennial plant, taking two years from germination to reproduction. The root spends the first year growing and storing nutrients, and the second year the plant flowers, produces seeds, and dies.
6. Turnips are a good source of Vitamins A, C and K as well as calcium and lutein. A medium raw turnip contains about 34 calories and no cholesterol.
7. Turnips contain chemicals called cyanoglucosides that release small amounts of cyanide. The ability to taste these chemicals is an inherited characteristic. People with the genes for tasting cyanoglucosides will find turnips bitter to taste.
8. Is it a turnip or a swede? It depends where in the world you are. In the south of England the smaller white vegetables are called turnips, while the larger yellow ones are referred to as swedes. In Scotland, Ireland, northern England and parts of Canada, it's the other way round. In the USA, Swedes are usually called rutabagas. In Scotland, turnips are often called neeps, and are traditional fare on Burns Night.
9. In Lebanon, they pickle turnips and in Iran, they are boiled with salt and used as a remedy for coughs and colds.
10. The coats of arms of Leonhard von Keutschach, prince-archbishop of Salzburg and the area of Keutschach am See in Austria feature turnips.

13th October: The White House

The cornerstone of the White House was laid this day in 1792. As the race to become the next US President gathers pace, here are ten facts you probably didn't know about where he will live.

1. Although we know the date the cornerstone was laid, nobody knows exactly where it is. on 13 October 1792, a group of freemasons met at a Georgetown tavern and paraded to the proposed site of the building. With great ceremony, they placed an inscribed cornerstone to mark the start of the House’s construction. Then they went to the pub for a celebratory drink or sixteen, and forgot to document exactly where they'd put it.
2. The White House has 132 rooms. There are 32 bathrooms, 412 doors, 147 windows, 28 fireplaces, 7 staircases, and 3 elevators. The White House has six floors—two basements, two public floors, and two floors for the President and his (or her!) Family. The White House is 55,000-square feet in area, 70-feet high, 170-feet wide, and 85-feet deep. It is situated on 18 acres of land.
3. The White House requires 570 gallons of paint to cover its outside surface.
4. Every president has lived there, except for George Washington, who oversaw the construction. The first president to live there was the second, John Adams.
5. On August 24, 1814, British soldiers sailed up the Potomac River and set Fire to the White House. A summer thunderstorm put out the fire, but only the charred outside walls and the interior brick walls remained, and a painting of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart which Dolley Madison grabbed on her way out. It took three years to rebuild.
6. The White House has been known as the "President's Palace," the "President's House," and the "Executive Mansion." It wasn't until 1901 that it was officially called The White House, thanks to President Theodore Roosevelt.
7. The White House is said to receive 65,000 letters per week, 2,500-3,500 calls, 1,000 faxes and 100,000 emails per day. There are also about 6,000 visitors a day. Free tours are available to the public but anyone wanting to look around has to book a tour six months in advance.
8. If it was ever put on the market, a prospective buyer would need to find between $110 million and $286 million.
9. The White House has hosted two weddings. Tricia Nixon, Richard Nixon's daughter, and Edward Cox; and Anthony Rodham, Hillary Clinton's brother, and Nicole Boxer, Senator Barbara Boxer's daughter.
10. New technology has been embraced by the residents of the White House, but with caution. In 1840, Martin Van Buren hired a live-in fireman to manage the boilers of the new furnace. Electricity was installed in 1891. Benjamin Harrison, the president at the time, used to have his staff turn the lights on and off because he was afraid to touch the switches.

New! 

Eternal Flame

The Freedom League's numbers have dwindled to three - but leader Unicorn knows his team isn't finished yet. The turning point comes with Russell, a boy with bright red hair and a genetic variant ability to start fires. He's the first of an influx of new members who will take the League into the future.

Judith and Wil are child prodigies - Judith in physics and electronics, and Wil in medicine. They have another thing in common - they are both genetic variants. And another thing - they both have fiery red hair. They are drawn to one another as their destinies intertwine, but the course of true love doesn't always run smoothly!

Richard is not a variant. He's an Olympic athlete who has picked up useful knowledge from his unusual friends to add to his own natural abilities. A chance encounter with a dying alien throws him into a Freedom League mission in which his skills are put to the ultimate test, along with theirs.

The Freedom League's arch-enemy, the super-villain Obsidian, wants his family fortune all to himself. One person stands in his way - his niece, Fiona. Fiona, devastated by a family tragedy and her failure to get in to her first choice university, is miserable and has few friends. When she realises her brother's death was no accident, and his killer is also after her, she fears it may be too late to gather allies around her and learn how to use her own genetic variant powers.

Available from Createspace, Amazon and Amazon Kindle

12 October: Equatorial Guinea Independence Day

Equatorial Guinea gained Independence from Spain on this date in 1968. Here are ten facts you may not know about Equatorial Guinea.

1. Formerly the colony of Spanish Guinea, Equatorial Guinea is the only sovereign African state to have Spanish as an official language.
2. The name evokes its location near both the Equator and the Gulf of Guinea - but no part of it is actually on the equator.
3. Since independence in 1968, the country has only had two Presidents. The first President was Francisco Macias Nguema. He was overthrown by his nephew Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo in 1979. President Teodoro Obiang has ruled ever since. He is the longest-serving leader in Africa and the longest-serving president in the world.
4. The country consists of a mainland territory, Río Muni, which is bordered by Cameroon to the north and Gabon to the east and south, and five small islands, Bioko, Corisco, Annobón, Elobey Chico (Small Elobey), and Elobey Grande (Great Elobey). The capital city, Malabo (once known as Port Clarence by the British), is on Bioko Island, making Equatorial Guinea the only country in Africa with mainland territory and its capital on an island.
5. Bioko is also the location for the country's highest point - Pico Basile at 3,008m.
6. It's a small place - with an area of 28,000 square kilometres (11,000 sq miles, or about the size of Wales and slightly smaller than the US State of Maryland) Equatorial Guinea is the smallest country in Africa to be a member of the United Nations.
7. People of the Pygmy and the Ndowe tribes were the first inhabitants of the mainland of Equatorial Guinea. The largest single tribe today is the Fang (Fon, or Pamúe), who migrated to Río Muni from the east between 1687 and 1926.
8. The people who live there are known as Equatoguineans.
9. Britain had Eddie the Eagle - Equatorial Guinea had Eric the Eel, Eric Moussambani, who was Eddie's aquatic equivalent at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, coming last in the 100m freestyle. They also had a female swimmer, Paula Barila Bolopa, or Paula the Crawler, who did equally badly.
10. The six stars on the coat of arms and Flag represent the country's mainland and five islands. The tree is a silk cotton tree, or "God tree".

11th October: Meditrinalia

On this date in ancient Rome, they celebrated a festival called the Meditrinalia. An excuse to crack open a bottle of wine if ever I heard one.

1. The Meditrinalia was a Roman festival celebrated on October 11 in honour of the new Wine vintage.
2. It was dedicated to a lesser known goddess, Meditrina, who is the goddess of wine and health.
3. Part of the ritual on this date was the sampling of the new wine vintage by the workers who had produced it.
4. There was a customary saying connected with the wine tasting: vetus novum vinum bibo, novo veteri morbo medeor ("Being old, I drink new wine, and cure the old disease with the new").
5. Another custom was to mix old wine with the new in one cup and use it as a libation to the goddess.
6. Not much is known about Meditrina. She may have been the daughter of Apollo, others say daughter of Ascelpius, God of Healing and son of Apollo. So she was either daughter or grand-daughter to Apollo.
7. Some also say she was Cupid's cousin.
8. Her symbols are healing charms and herbal preparations.
9. Sextus Pompeius Festus was the first to write an account of the festival, linking it with a goddess, in the second century.
10. Our modern word, "medicine" may derive from Meditrina. Or perhaps both came from the Latin word "media" referring to a middle way, or balance, since disease was deemed to be an imbalance of the bodily systems.

October 10th: Autonomy of Curaçao

Curaçao celebrates its autonomy today, and have been doing so since 2010. We're talking the country, not the drink but the drink does come from there so it does get a mention!

1. Curaçao is an island country in the southern Caribbean Sea, approximately 65 kilometres (40 mi) north of the Venezuelan coast. It is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and includes the main island and the uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao ("Little Curaçao").
2. There are a couple of theories as to where the name came from. One is that early explorers left their sick people behind there, expecting them to die, but came back to find them thriving and so named it "Isla de la Curación" (Island of the Cure, or Island of Healing). The other is that the name derives from the Portuguese word for Heart (coracao) because it was known as a centre for trade. The right pronunciation is "Cure a sow".
3. Willemstad, the capital, is a UNESCO World Heritage City and features brightly coloured buildings influenced by Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese architecture.
4. The people of Curaçao often paint their kitchen walls Red with White polka dots, which is meant to deter flies and Mosquitoes.
5. It is where Curaçao liqueur comes from. The drink is made from the dried peel of the laraha citrus fruit, which is grown on the island. The laraha developed from the sweet Valencia Orange transplanted by Spanish explorers in 1527. The soil and dry climate didn't produce very good oranges - they were small and bitter, but the peel was aromatic and flavourful. Curaçao is the only place where you'll get the genuine liqueur. The producers of the original drink never got a patent, which is why there are a lot of imitations.
6. A famous bridge in Curaçao is the Queen Emma Bridge, which until 1934 was a toll bridge for pedestrians. However, the toll only applied to people who were wearing Shoes. Rich people would take off their shoes to avoid having to pay, while the poor people, who saw it as a matter of pride to pay the toll, might borrow a pair of shoes from a rich person so they could pay the 2 cent toll.
7. The Mikve Israel Emanuel Synagogue in Curaçao is the oldest Sephardic-Jewish synagogue in the western hemisphere that is still in use. Its floor is covered in sand, not because people go to the beach before worshiping but because in the time of the Spanish inquisition, Jewish settlers in Curaçao were not allowed to practice their religion openly. The sand allowed them to go in and out of the synagogue without the soldiers hearing them.
8. Curaçao's highest point is Sint Christoffelberg at 375m (1,230 ft).
9. Traditional dishes include kadushi (cactus soup) and Keshi Yena (a huge ball of baked gouda cheese stuffed with a stewed mix of meat, raisins, and olives). “Stoba yoana” is another dish you might find on a menu there - Iguana soup.
10. The Flag is a Blue field with a horizontal Yellow stripe slightly below the midline and two White, five-pointed stars in the canton. The blue symbolises the sea and sky, and is divided by a yellow band representing the Sun. The two stars represent Curaçao and Klein Curaçao, and Love and Happiness. The five points on each star symbolise the five continents from which Curaçao's people come.

9 October: John Lennon

Today would have been John Lennon's birthday, so here are ten John Lennon quotes.

1. Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
2. Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.
3. If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.
4. Love is the flower you've got to let grow.
5. The more I see the less I know for sure.
6. Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.
7. As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot.
8. I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?
9. Everything is clearer when you're in love.
10. Possession isn't nine-tenths of the law. It's nine-tenths of the problem. 

8 October: Croatia Independence Day

Today is Croatia Independence day, so time for ten facts about Croatia:

1. Croatia consists of over a thousand islands and islets, 48 of which are inhabited. The largest islands are Cres and Krk.
2. The necktie was invented by the Croats in the 17th century. They called it a kravata.
3. They also gave us the Dalmatian dog. Although these dogs were largely bred in England in the 19th century, there are references to the breed in Croatia, dating back to the 17th century.
4. The currency, until such time as they adopt the Euro, is the kuna. Kuna is the Croatian word for the marten, a cute little ferret-like creature prized for its fur. The fur of these animals was widely traded and became synonymous with money. The kuna is divided into 100 lipa, which is the Croatian name for the linden lime tree.
5. The world's largest Truffle was found here by Giancarlo Zigante and his Dog, Diana, in 1999. The truffle weighed in at 1.31 kg (2 lbs, 8 oz), and was valued at about $5,000 at the time.
6. The capital and largest city is Zagreb, although the most famous city is probably Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik is the location used for King's Landing in Game of Thrones.
7. The smallest town is Hum, not only the smallest town in Croatia but the smallest in the world with a population of between 17 and 23 people.
8. Croatians call their country Hrvatska.
9. Scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla was born in Croatia. Another famous Croatian is writer Marko Marulić is credited with the first known use of the word psychology (in the title deeds Psichiologia de ratione animae Humanae), meaning the science of the soul.
10. The Emperor Diocletian, who was the only Roman Emperor to retire, chose to spend his retirement in Split. His palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has a genuine Egyptian Sphinx which Emperor Diocletian had brought from Egypt to adorn the entrance to his tomb.