22 November: Blackbeard

On this date in 1718 Edward Teach, also known as Blackbeard, an English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of Britain's North American colonies, was killed at Ocrocoke Inlet on the North Carolina coast. Here are some things you might not know about the famous pirate.

1. Not much is known about his early life at all. He was probably born around 1680, in Bristol, England. At that time, Bristol was an important sea port involved in the slave trade, and the second biggest city in England. Not surprising then that a young man from there would go to sea. It's thought he saw action in English privateers during Queen Anne's War (1702-1713), where he did well but wasn't placed in command.
2. There is some doubt as to whether Edward Teach was even his real name. There are several spellings of his surname anyway - Thatch, Thach, Thache, Thack, Tack, Thatche and Theach, with Teach being the most commonly used. It wasn't unusual for pirates to use aliases so as not to tarnish the family name. The fact that he could almost certainly read and write (when he died he had a letter in his possession from the Chief Justice and Secretary of the Province of Carolina, Tobias Knight, addressed to him) which suggests he came from a wealthy and respectable family so it's quite likely he'd have changed his name. There have been suggestions his real name was Drummond, but no evidence has been found to support the claim.
3. Despite his fame and reputation, Blackbeard's career as a pirate captain only lasted two years, from 1716 to 1718.
4. It's not known exactly when or why he became a pirate but at some point he joined the crew of another well-known pirate captain called Benjamin Hornigold, who saw his potential, promoted and mentored him, eventually giving him his own ship. The two often worked in partnership capturing ships full of cargo around the Caribbean. On one occasion, all they took from one ship was the Madeira Wine - the rest of the cargo was scuttled with the ship.
5. Hornigold eventually accepted a pardon and Blackbeard set out on his own. He formed another partnership with a man named Stede Bonnet, who wasn't a pirate at all. Bonnet was a gentleman from Barbados who had a large estate and didn't need the money - he just fancied the idea of being a pirate captain. He had a ship built, rather than capturing one, and told the ship builders he was intending to use it to hunt the pirates down. Only when he'd set sail in the Revenge did he raise the pirate flag. However, Bonnet was actually pretty useless as a captain. When he engaged with another ship, sometime in 1717, Revenge came off a lot worse. Bonnet himself was injured and they limped into port in Nassau, where Blackbeard also happened to be. Bonnet's crew approached Blackbeard and begged him to take over. Since Revenge was a well-appointed ship after repairs, he agreed. It seems Blackbeard was happy enough to have Bonnet on board - Bonnet spent his time reading and wandering the deck in his dressing gown.
6. Blackbeard has the reputation of being vicious and ruthless - but there is no evidence that he ever killed anyone who surrendered to him. Other crews often did surrender without a fight because Blackbeard created a fearsome image for himself. He was tall and broad-shouldered to begin with, so making himself look intimidating wasn't too difficult. He grew the namesake thick Black beard which he braided and sometimes decorated with ribbons. He wore knee-length boots, dark clothing, a wide hat and a long coat of brightly coloured silk or velvet. He wore a sling over his shoulder with several pistols. As if that wasn't enough, he had an additional party trick - he'd light a slow burning fuse and put it under his hat before going into battle, so his enemy would see what looked like a smoking demon from hell. Hardly surprising then, that most of them surrendered. If they did so, he generally treated them fairly, often letting the ships go after looting them. However, he was more harsh towards any English merchant ship, and any ship from Boston, because that city used to hang pirates. The sight of his flag alone would intimate most other captains - a skeleton spearing a bleeding Heart while toasting the devil.
7. Blackbeard's flagship, Queen Anne's Revenge, started life as a French slave ship called La Concorde. Blackbeard captured it in November 1717. Archaeologists believe they have found her wreck off the coast of North Carolina.
8. There is no truth to the claim that Blackbeard had fourteen wives. He was certainly a ladies man, and often in port he would pick up a woman and bring her on board his ship and have his first mate perform a fake marriage ceremony, presumably before Blackbeard slept with her. Although it's unlikely anyone present believed these marriages were real, that is likely where that myth originated. There is evidence to suggest he did have one legal wife, a girl from North Carolina called Mary Ormond. The Governor of North Carolina himself, Charles Eden is said to have performed the ceremony, but there is no record of what became of Mary afterwards. Nor is it true that Blackbeard had a cabin boy who was secretly a girl. This story was introduced into a 2006 docu-drama about Blackbeard produced for the National Geographic Channel. The character, "Frenchie", was completely made up, but because of the National Geographic Channel's reliable reputation, a lot of people thought it was true.
9. In 1718, Blackbeard decided to retire from piracy. He grounded his flagship and transferred the loot to another ship which took off. Blackbeard went to Charles Eden to seek a pardon but they ended up making a deal. Blackbeard would carry on pirating in an officially licensed ship and Eden would take a cut. While it appeared to be a scheme that would make both of them rich, it led to Blackbeard's downfall. The local merchants became furious that a pirate ship was operating in their patch and that they had no power to stop it. Eventually they complained to the Governor of Virginia, an enemy of Eden's. He gave them two ships under the command of one Lieutenant Robert Maynard, who set off in search of Blackbeard. They found him, boarded his ship and a bloody battle ensued during which Blackbeard was killed, beheaded by a cutlass. His head was attached to the bowsprit of Maynard's ship as it sailed home to collect the reward. The rest of Blackbeard's body was thrown overboard.
10. Blackbeard's reputation has led to some superstitions, legends and ghost stories. One legend claims that his headless body swam around his ship as many as seven times, looking for his severed head. Any unexplained lights spotted at sea during the night are often referred to as "Teach's light", and said to be Blackbeard still roaming around looking for his head. There's also a tale from North Carolina which says Blackbeard's Skull was used to make a silver drinking chalice which was allegedly still in use in the 1930s.

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21 November: National Stuffing Day

Today is National Stuffing Day. Here are a few facts about the stuff.

1. Stuffing is sometimes referred to as "dressing".
2. Nobody knows for sure how long stuffing has been around, but the first reference to it is in a Roman cookbook, Apicius De Re Coquinaria, which contains recipes for stuffed Chicken, dormouse, Hare, and Pig. Their recipes consist of vegetables, herbs and spices, nuts, and spelt (a cereal), chopped liver, brains, and other offal.
3. Today stuffing consists of cornbread or dried Bread, in the form of croutons, cubes or breadcrumbs, pork sausage meat, Onion, Celery, Salt, Pepper, and other spices and herbs such as summer savoury, sage, or a mixture like poultry seasoning. In the United Kingdom dried fruits and nuts (usually Apricots and flaked Almonds), and chestnuts are added.
4. The idea of stuffing is that it is cooked within the body cavity of a bird or animal. That said, these days you could get food poisoning from cooking the stuffing that way. Even when the meat reaches a safe temperature, the stuffing may not, so it's recommended these days by United States Department of Agriculture to cook the stuffing separately.
5. Stuffing can also be used for cuts of meat such as chicken legs or pork chops after de-boning.
6. Vegetables can also be stuffed. Tomatoes, peppers and marrows can be stuffed after the seeds have been removed. Cabbages can also be stuffed or their leaves wrapped around some stuffing.
7. 100 grams of stuffing contains around 386 calories.
8. Nutrients present in stuffing include fats, sodium, Potassium, carbohydrate, fibre, protein, calcium, Iron, B vitamins and magnesium.
9. Sometimes, stuffing is actually another animal. A 13th century cookbook includes a recipe for a ram stuffed with small birds. T.C. Boyle's book Water Music mentions a recipe for a Camel stuffed with sheep stuffed with bustards stuffed with carp stuffed with Eggs.
10. A similar recipe for the modern day has been created by British celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. His ten-bird roast calls for a large Turkey is stuffed with a goose, duck, Mallard, guinea fowl, chicken, Pheasant, partridge, Pigeon, and woodcock, as well as stuffing made from sausage meat, streaky bacon, sage, port and red Wine. Ideal if you're expecting 30 people round for Christmas dinner.

My Christmas Novella!

A Very Variant Christmas

Last year, Jade and Gloria were embroiled in a bitter conflict to win back their throne and their ancestral home. This year, Queen Jade and Princess Gloria want to host the biggest and best Christmas party ever in their palace. They invite all their friends to come and bring guests. Not even the birth of Jade's heir just before Christmas will stop them.

The guest list includes most of Britain's complement of super-powered crime-fighters, their families and friends. What could possibly go wrong?

Gatecrashers, unexpected arrivals, exploding Christmas crackers and a kidnapping, for starters.

Far away in space, the Constellations, a cosmic peacekeeping force, have suffered a tragic loss. They need to recruit a new member to replace their dead colleague. The two top candidates are both at Jade and Gloria's party. The arrival of the recruitment delegation on Christmas Eve is a surprise for everyone; but their visit means one guest now faces a life-changing decision.

Meanwhile, an alliance of the enemies of various guests at the party has infiltrated the palace; they hide in the dungeon, plotting how best to get rid of the crime-fighters and the royal family once and for all. Problem is, they all have their own agendas and differences of opinion on how to achieve their aims.

Not to mention that this year, the ghosts who walk the corridors of the palace on Christmas Eve will be as surprised by the living as the living are by them.

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20 November: Budapest

On this date in 1873 the cities of Buda and Pest united to form the capital of Hungary. 10 things you never knew about Budapest.

1. In fact, three cities merged to create Budapest - Buda (the name of its founder, who was Attila the Hun's brother), Pest (from the Roman word Pession, meaning fortress) and Óbuda (Old Buda). Buda is built on a hill, on the Western bank of the river and forms the historical part of the city. Pest stands on a plain and is where you'll find the shops and businesses.
2. Buda and Pest are separated by the river Danube, but linked by the Chain Bridge which was built in 1849, when the two were still separate cities. Count István Széchenyi ordered a bridge to be built and there are two different theories as to his motivation. One is that it was too dangerous to cross the river by boat on the night his father died, so he never got to say goodbye. Not wanting any other family to go through that, he had the bridge built. The other theory is a more selfish reason - that he had a mistress on the other side of the river. The Bridge has four Lions, two guarding each end of the bridge. They were carved by János Marschalkó who prided (geddit?) himself on knowing the anatomy of lions well and claimed that if anyone found anything wrong with the lions he'd kill himself. At the opening ceremony, a boy shouted that the lions had no tongues, so Marschalkó threw himself off the bridge and became the first suicide. The story isn't true - the lions do have tongues, they are just hidden behind the teeth and are difficult to see. One would think Marschalkó would point that out to the child rather than top himself.
3. If you're visiting Budapest you can ensure good luck by visiting several of the statues and touching certain parts of them. If you want to be lucky in love and not put on weight, rub the belly of the statue of the policeman in front of the Basilica of San Esteban. If you're not ready to settle down but want to enjoy the company of the opposite sex, twirl his moustache. To become a successful writer, touch the pen of the statue of Anonymous in one of the parks. For luck and self-actualisation, rub the knees of the Little Princess, and if you're a student seeking luck in exams, you need to stop by the statue of András Hadik, the Russar general., near Matthais Church on Castle Hill, and rub the testicles of his Horse.
4. The population of Budapest in 2016 was 1,759,407. It's the largest city as well as the capital with 20% of the population living there. That's one in five of the Hungarian people.
5. There's a tie for the tallest building in Budapest. The Parliament Building (which is the third largest Parliament Building in the world and 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of 23-carat gold was used to decorate it); and St. Stephen’s Basilica, built to honour the first king of Hungary and took 54 years to build. 896 was the year that Hungarian Magyars first settled in the region, which is why that height was chosen for two important buildings. Since then, an ordinance was passed forbidding the construction of any buildings higher than that..
6. Famous people from Budapest include actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, composer Béla Bartók, Harry Houdini, Ernő Rubik, inventor of the famous cube and László Bíró, inventor of the Ballpoint pen.
7. Budapest has the second oldest underground railway in Europe, which opened in 1896 in the year when Hungary celebrated its 1000th anniversary, hence the name Millennium Underground. The only older underground railway is the Tube in London.
8. The city is also home to the second largest synagogue in the world, and the largest in Europe. The Dohány Street Synagogue can accommodate 3,000 worshippers. It is 44 metres (144 feet) high and covers an area of 2000 sq metres (21,528 sq feet). It was built between 1854 and 1859.
9. Budapest has more thermal springs than any other capital city in the world.
10. Sister cities around the world include New York City, Shanghai, Beijing, Tehran, Berlin, Vienna, Lisbon, Florence, Sarajevo, and Tel Aviv.

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19 November: World Toilet Day

Today is World Toilet day. Here are ten facts about toilets.

1. The word "toilet" derives from an old French word meaning to wash, dress, and generally prepare oneself to be seen in public. Where the word "loo", commonly used in the UK, comes from is a bit more obscure. Theories include: a corruption of French l'eau ("Water") or lieu d'aisance ("place of ease", used euphemistically for a toilet); a euphemism derived from historical shyness about bathrooms where the toilet in a hotel wasn't labelled as such, but placed in room 100; or from a 17th-century preacher called Louis Bourdaloue, whose sermons were so long that his parishioners used to bring chamber pots to his services.
2. On average, people in the UK use the toilet between six and eight times a day. That’s about 2500 times every year, amounting to about three years of an average person's lifespan.
3. Toilet paper is rumoured to have been invented in China in the 6th century. Each sheet was two feet by three feet. We've come a long way since then, and we use a lot of the stuff. It takes 384 trees to make the toilet paper used by one person during their lifetime. 83,048,116 toilet rolls are produced per day. 636 toilet paper rolls are used each day by the Pentagon alone. Over $100,000 was spent on a study to determine whether most people put their toilet paper on the holder with the flap in front or behind. The conclusion: three out of four people have the flap in the front.
4. China also boasts the earliest known toilet: a hut above a Pig pen in Xian built around 3000 BC. The oldest toilet which still works is in a small castle in Knossos, Greece. This one is 4,000 years old.
5. In America, most toilets flush in the key of E flat.
6. There's a toilet-themed restaurant in Taiwan, where food is served on miniature toilets, and a museum and theme park dedicated to toilets in South Korea.
7. Invention of the flush toilet is often attributed to the appropriately named Thomas Crapper, when in fact the first flush toilet was designed in 1596 by John Harington for Elizabeth I. Harington had been banned from court for telling smutty stories, but after his invention, he was allowed back. Mr. Crapper did, however, perfect the siphon flush system we use today. Flushing the toilet once uses up to 26 litres of water.
8. One of the sources I consulted in making this list claimed that the most expensive toilet in the world was the one on the International Space Station which cost $23.4 million. However, I'm not sure it counts as it isn't, strictly speaking, "in the world". Which means the most expensive toilets come from The Kowloon shop of Hong Kong based Hang Fung Gold Technology Ltd, which makes gem-encrusted toilets from 24 carat Gold.
9. A Ashwell patented the Vacant/Engaged sign for public lavatories in 1883, while John Nevil Maskelyne patented the coin-operated lock for public lavatories in 1892. On the subject of public toilets, the first toilet cubicle in a row is the least used (and consequently is the cleanest).
10. In ancient Rome, there was a god of toilets - Crepitus.

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18 November: Margaret Atwood Quotes

Margaret Atwood, the Canadian author who wrote The Handmade's Tale was born on this date in 1939. Here are ten quotes from her.

1. Optimism means better than reality; pessimism means worse than reality.
2. Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.
3. A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible. Powerlessness and silence go together.
4. Where do the words go when we have said them?
5. Stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results.
6. In the end, we'll all become stories.
7. If you're not annoying somebody, you're not alive.
8. Better never means better for everyone... It always means worse, for some.
9. If I waited for perfection... I would never write a word.
10. Reality simply consists of different points of view.

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17 November: The Colosseum

Today is the anniversary of the birth of Vespasian, the Roman emperor responsible for the building of the Colosseum in Rome. Here are ten facts about his huge building project.

1. Vespasian commissioned the building in 70AD, for his successor, Titus. It took ten years to build, using over 60,000 Jewish slaves. Some historians believe the Colosseum was funded from the spoils taken from the Second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, during the brutally suppressed Great Jewish Revolt in 70 AD. It was originally known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, after the Flavian Dynasty of Emperors. It became known as the Colosseum later on because it was near a 100 foot statue of Colossus which had been erected by Nero.
2. The Colosseum is the biggest amphitheatre ever built. Its vital statistics are as follows: 189m (615 feet) long and 156m (510 feet) wide; 500m (1,640 ft) in circumference; 55m (180 feet) high. Its volume is 1,320,000 cubic meters or 47 million cubic feet. Enough capacity for 80,000 people. 100,000 cubic meters of travertine stones and tufa (types of limestone, naturally deposited by hot springs) were used to build it. It had 80 entrances and 36 trap doors in the arena for staging special effects.
3. Which brings us to the question of, why? Vespasian's predecessor, the infamous Nero, had built himself a pleasure palace and all manner of self-indulgent projects. Vespasian wanted to build something the people could enjoy. After Nero's death, his pleasure palace was torn down and the artificial lake in its grounds filled in. The Colosseum was built on the site of the lake. Citizens had free entry to the events and games at the Colosseum, and food was provided as well. It didn't mean, however, that everybody mingled. There was a strict seating plan separating rich and poor (the rich got the best seats, of course) and men and women. There were 76 numbered arches to guide people to their seats.
4. It is thought that over 500,000 people and over a million animals were slaughtered during the games held there, which could last over 100 days at a time. 9,000 animals died during the inaugural games in 80AD alone. The animals included exotic stuff, like Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, Giraffes, Barbary Lions, Caspian Tigers, Crocodiles, ostriches, aurochs and Elephants. Some species even went extinct because of the demand for animal battles. It was the cost and difficulty of procuring the animals that ended the use of the Colosseum as a games arena. As for the people, the gladiators were often prisoners of war or slaves, occasionally volunteers. The West Exit was called the Gate of Death because this was the exit dead gladiators were carried out of.
5. It was possible to flood the arena and stage mock naval battles using miniature ships, but these weren't as popular as people slaughtering animals and each other.
6. There is no evidence to suggest that the Colosseum was ever used for throwing Christians to the lions. All the same, Pope Benedict XIV had the amphitheatre consecrated in memory of the Christians he supposed had died there. To this day there is a cross in the arena commemorating Christian martyrs.
7. The Colosseum had an underground complex below the arena known as the hypogeum. This was where the cages of wild animals were kept, and served as a waiting area for the gladiators as well. There was a system of elevators to convey them to the surface and there was an intricate system of pulleys, ropes and canvas which could provide cover for the spectators in the event of bad weather. The people operating it were usually sailors who'd been specially recruited for the task.
8. Ridley Scott almost made the film Gladiator in the Colosseum. He got as far as getting permission from the authorities to film there but eventually decided it wasn't big enough and that there were too many restrictions - so he built a replica in Malta at a cost of about $1 million.
9. Since the end of the gladiatorial contests natural disasters devastated the building, most notably the Earthquakes of 847 AD and 1231 AD. The hypogeum was filled in with dirt, and Romans planted vegetable gardens there and used the space for storage. Blacksmiths and merchants occupied the vaulted passageways above. At one point it almost became a wool factory. Pope Sixtus V had this idea, but died before he could put it into practice.
10. In 2000, the Colosseum became a symbol against capital punishment. The Colosseum changes its night lighting from white to gold whenever a death sentence has been commuted or a death penalty abolished anywhere in the world, such as in April 2009, when the US state of New Mexico revoked its capital punishment system.

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November 16: Beaujolais Nouveau

Noveau Beaujolais wine is released in France on the second Thursday of November. Here's what you need to know:

1. Beaujolais Nouveau is what is known as a vin de primeur, which is a Wine sold in the same year it is harvested, not long after completing fermentation.
2. Originally, Beaujolais Nouveau was produced for local consumption only, as a celebration of the end of the harvest. However, a winemaker called Georges Duboeuf saw a marketing opportunity - a way to make some money to ease cash flow at the end of the season. During the 1960s and 70s he established a series of races in France to determine who could get the wine from the Beaujolais region to Paris first. The rest of Europe and America jumped on the bandwagon during the 1980s. It spread as far as Asia in the 1990s. While there is less of a focus on the race these days, in the past means of transport have included Elephant, Concorde, and a Hot air balloon.
3. In 1937, the rules of wine production in the area stated that Beaujolais wine could only be officially sold after 15 December in the year of harvest. However, this changed in 1951 when the release date was set as November 15. In 1985, the date was changed to the third Thursday in November. The reason for this is that it is close enough to the weekend to take best advantage of marketing opportunities. The wine goes on sale at the stroke of midnight on this day.
4. It's a big event in France with over 100 Beaujolais Nouveau-related festivals taking place in the Beaujolais region. The most famous is Les Sarmentelles in Beaujeu, the capital of the region - it lasts for days. There is an annual tasting contest and the winner wins their weight in wine. In Japan, they celebrate the occasion by bathing in a pool of red wine.
5. Beaujolais Nouveau is a red wine, made from a grape called Gamay noir à Jus blanc, better known simply as Gamay. The grapes must come from the Beaujolais AOC, and must be harvested by hand.
6. The region of Beaujolais is just north of France's third largest city, Lyon. The region is 34 miles long and 7 to 9 miles wide. Nearly 4,000 grape growers are based there.
7. The wine is purple-pink in colour, typical of a young red wine. Unlike most red wines, the recommendation is to serve is slightly chilled, at 13 °C (55 °F). It has a fruity taste, and less tannin than most red wines, because it is produced using a process called carbonic maceration, or whole berry fermentation, which allows juice to be extracted from the Grapes with a minimum of tannins.
8. It is not a wine to be put away and drunk later. If someone gives you a bottle, drink it right away, as it doesn't improve with age. At a push, if you have the willpower, it can be kept until the following May. If the vintage is particularly good, it might last until the following harvest.
9. In the United States, it is promoted as a drink for Thanksgiving, which falls exactly one week after the wine is released.
10. While it may be less of an event than it used to be, with climate change concerns partly to blame (Beaujolais Nouveau has been said to have 4 times the carbon footprint as a regular bottle of wine, so it is now shipped ahead of Beaujolais Nouveau Day rather than flown in a mad rush) 65 million bottles of the stuff will have been shipped around the world by the end of the day.

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