The Saturday nearest to June 17 is World Juggling Day. Here are 10 things you might not know about juggling.
- Juggling
has been around a long time. The earliest depiction of juggling is
painted on an Egyptian tomb dating from around 2000 BC. The drawings
depict women juggling balls and performing tricks like juggling with
their hands crossed.
- The
words juggling and juggler derive from the Middle English word
"jogelen" which means "to entertain by performing
tricks".
- We
tend to see juggling as light-hearted entertainment, but juggling
has been known to play a part in battles and wars. Ancient Chinese
warriors would show off to their enemies by juggling before a
battle. The 2,300 year old Chinese Book of Lie Zi describes a
warrior juggling seven swords at once. There was even a juggler at
the Battle of Hastings. His name was Taillefer, and he was the
warrior-bard of William the Conqueror. He cropped up in two of my
sources but with a slightly different story. In one, he performed a
juggling trick with his sword before running through an English
soldier with it. In the other, he broke ranks to taunt the British
with his juggling skill, but only managed to wound one Brit before
getting an arrow in the head.
- There
has even been religious significance attached to juggling. The
Talmud speaks of juggling rabbis. One, named Shmuel, could juggle
eight glasses of Wine without spilling a drop and performed for King
Shapur of Babylon at the Water-Drawing Festival. Another, Rabban
Simon ben Gamliel juggled eight torches of Gold at similar events.
People living in Tonga when Captain Cook visited in the 1700s,
discovered women sitting in a circle and juggling nuts, passing them
to one another with incredible speed and skill. The women sang songs
about their ancestors and competed to see who could keep the most
nuts up the longest. Turned out this was tied into an ancient legend
which said juggling was a way to appease the goddess of the
underworld. If the women didn't juggle every day the goddess would
get upset and send earthquakes and demons to pluck out people's
eyes.
- St
Julian the Hospitaller is the patron saint of jugglers. Julian built
a hospital after accidentally murdering both his mother and father
due to a pagan curse. He's also the patron saint of carnival
workers, Clowns, repentant murderers and fiddle-players.
- The
accolade of being the greatest juggler of all time goes to Enrico
Rastelli (1896 – 1931), who could juggle ten balls at a time.
Strangely, however, he never mastered the art of juggling nine
balls. Charles Hoey is another notable juggler, the first to juggle
with four clubs. However, as soon as he stopped juggling, he'd drop
them, so the curtain had to be brought down while he was still
juggling.
- In
the late 19th century, Salerno (Adolf Behrend) was one juggler who
developed the 'gentleman juggler' style. Gentleman jugglers would
attend parties in evening wear and entertain guests by juggling with
dinner party items such as plates, bottles, loaves of Bread, hats,
canes and Chairs.
- Juggling
is a workout for both your body and your Brain. Juggling burns 280
calories an hour, which is about the same as you'd burn playing Badminton. It's also been proven to increase hand-eye co-ordination
by up to 10%, promote the use of both sides of the brain and
increase Blood flow to the grey matter, which increases as a result,
in as little as a week. Research has also shown that juggling can
help prevent Alzheimer’s disease.
- If
the above fact has inspired you to take up juggling, scarves are
said to be the easiest objects to learn with. Clubs are said to be
easier than balls, because they take less co-ordination to catch,
and rings are easiest to juggle in larger numbers because they are
light and you can hold several at a time.
- In
the 1500’s, jugglers in Ireland were required by law to pay
compensation to any audience members hurt by juggling accidents.
MY LATEST BOOK!
Killing Me Softly
Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.
Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena.
Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.
Available on Amazon:
On this date in 1954, Tasmanian Devil, or "Taz" made his début in the cartoon Devil May Hare by Warner Bros. Here are 10 things you might not know about this character.
- The
character was created by Robert McKimson and was loosely based on
the Tasmanian Devil animal, although it has also been suggested that
he was also inspired by the actor Errol Flynn.
- The
Tasmanian Devil is commonly known as "Taz" to his fans,
but his actual first name, as revealed in a short film in 1957, is
"Claude".
- He
is portrayed as short-tempered, impatient, devious and not
particularly clever most of the time, but with an occasional sweet
side.
- While
he can speak English, albeit with limited grammar, he mostly
communicates with grunts, growls and rasps.
- He
can whirl like a vortex and devour anything in his path. He is
always hungry.
- In
his first film appearance, Devil May Hare, Taz hopes to make Bugs Bunny his next meal, but Bugs outwits him at every turn,
finally getting rid of him by finding him a girlfriend, a female
Tasmanian devil who is exactly like him.
- His
one weakness is Music - play music to him and he becomes calm and
easy to deal with - unless it's bagpipes, which he detests.
- His
first film was nearly his last as some studio heads deemed him too
violent for children and feared backlash from parents. However, Jack
L Warner himself stepped in and pointed out that he'd received
"boxes and boxes" of fan mail from people wanting more of
the character.
- Despite
almost getting eaten, Bugs Bunny, in a later short film, believes
Taz is a Dog and adopts him as a pet. When Bugs finds out he's
actually a Tasmanian devil, he tries to send Taz back to Tasmania,
but Taz makes it clear he wants to stay with Bugs.
- In
2017, Taz appeared in a crossover comic series with DC Comics, in
which he is pitted against a teenage Wonder Woman as part of her
trials to become an Amazon Warrior. She beats him by playing the
harp and snips of some of his fur as a trophy. In a later story,
Wonder Woman needs to ask for his help, and it's revealed that he
wasn't angry at being tricked, but had enjoyed the music and was
more upset when the young Diana had gone away and taken the music
with her.
MY LATEST BOOK!
Killing Me Softly
Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.
Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena.
Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.
Available on Amazon:
On this date in 1897 Nottingham was granted city status. Everyone knows it was the home of Robin Hood and his nemesis the Sheriff, but here are 10 more facts about Nottingham you might not know.
- The
city got its name from an Anglo Saxon tribe known as the Snotingas,
which in turn was so called because its chief’s name was Snot.
Hence the first name for the city was Snotingham. Somewhere along
the line, they thankfully lost the S.
- Another
theory is that the name comes from an old word for caves, snottenga.
Which
has some credibility since there are more than 800 caves under the
city. The city stands on a sandstone ridge, and sandstone is soft
enough that it was easy for early inhabitants to dig cave dwellings.
As recently as 1870 it was said by an anonymous author that “If a
man is poor he had only to go to Nottingham with a mattock, a
shovel, a crow, an iron, a chisel or a mallet, and with such
instruments he may play mole and work himself a hole or burrow for
his family.” It is illegal, however, to rent out the caves.
- UK
shoppers will be familiar with Boots, the chemists, which has a
branch in pretty much every town. It started in Nottingham, as a
herbalist’s store opened by an agricultural worker named John
Boot. When he died in 1860 his family took the store on and would
travel the country to collect herbs for the store. It was one of
John Boot’s descendants, Jesse Boot, who inherited the store at
the age of 27 and laid the foundation for the Boots stores we know
and love today.
- On
a similar theme, Ibuprofen was invented in Nottingham by Stewart
Adams, who started out as a pharmacy apprentice at Boots
laboratories. He experimented with numerous pain relieving chemicals
in a Nottingham house, but Ibuprofen was his only success. He tested
it on himself to relieve a hangover.
- HP
sauce was also invented in Nottingham by Frederick Gibson Garton. He
came up with the recipe and named it HP sauce when he heard that his
concoction was being served in the Houses of Parliament.
- It’s
the home to Big Ben’s understudy. Nottingham Council offered the
city’s 10.5 tonne bell, known as Little John, as a replacement for
Big Ben should it ever fall silent. In the mean time, Little John,
designed by John Taylor Co of Loughborough in 1927 sounds every 15
minutes. It’s the fifth largest bell in the UK and said to be the
loudest clock bell in the country as it can be heard up to seven
miles away.
- Nottingham’s
famous Goose Fair began in 1284 when it began as a gathering for
people who wanted to buy and sell Geese. Over 700 years later it is
Europe’s largest travelling fair.
- Nottingham
is home to the world’s smallest cinema, seating just 21 people. It
was opened in 2002 by Steven Metcalf.
- Famous
people from Nottingham include Lord Byron, DH Lawrence, Alan
Sillitoe, Barbara Erskine, Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden, Andy
Fletcher of Depeche Mode, Jake Bugg, Ed Balls, Torvill and Dean,
Rebecca Adlington, Su Pollard, Lucy Worsley and of course, Robin
Hood.
- In
1764 there was a riot over the price of food which became known as
The Great Nottingham Cheese Riot because during the chaos, the mayor
was knocked over by a large cheese.
MY LATEST BOOK!
Killing Me Softly
Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.
Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena.
Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.
Available on Amazon:
Today is World Crocodile Day. Here are 10 things you might not know about crocodiles.
- The
word crocodile comes from the ancient Greek for “the lizard of the Nile.”
- There
are 16 living species of crocodile. They are the largest reptiles on
the planet. The smallest is the dwarf crocodile which can grow to an
adult size of 1.5 to 1.9m (4.9 to 6.2 ft), and the largest is the
saltwater crocodile which can reach 23 feet/7 metres in length. In
prehistoric times they were even bigger. Sarcosuchus
imperator
was arguably
the biggest prehistoric crocodile ever lived – they could grow to
a size of 11 - 12 meters / 36 – 40 ft and weigh up
to 8 tonnes. Or
it might have been Purussaurus
brasilensis,
which it is estimated would have grown to a similar size.
- A
newly hatched crocodile is about 20cm/8 inches long. They make
noises from inside their eggs before they hatch, which their mother
will hear. She digs up the hatchlings and carries them to the water
in her mouth.
- The
sex of a baby crocodile depends on the temperature of the nest where
the eggs are laid. A nest of less than 32 degrees Celsius produces
females and higher temperatures produce males.
- They
are classified as reptiles but are more closely related to Dinosaurs and birds than they are to other reptiles.
- They
have valves at the back of their throats to allow them to open their
jaws underwater.
- The
phrase “crocodile tears” means a false display of grief. It
derives from a myth that crocodiles shed tears to lure their prey
and cry for their victims as they eat them. While this may not be
true, crocodiles really do produce tears as they eat, but it’s
nothing to do with emotion. When they eat they swallow air which
forces tears from their lachrymal glands.
- They
don’t chew their food. Their jaws cannot move sideways, so they
have to eat their food whole. Hence they swallow stones to help them
digest their meals. Crocodiles have the strongest bite of any animal
on earth. They can exert over 2000 kilos of force and clamp their
jaws shut 6 times faster than you can blink. At the same time, their
jaws are extremely sensitive – ten times more so than a human
fingertip. This helps them detect prey up to 20 metres away.
- They
have the most sophisticated Hearts of any animal, too. They have an
extra aorta so they can control the Blood flow in their bodies. When
they are underwater, there’s no point in pumping blood to the
lungs, since there will be no new Oxygen in them. Oxygenated blood
flows to vital organs like the brain but when it flows back to the
heart, it bypasses the lungs and is circulated to less important
areas. Hence a crocodile can stay submerged for up to an hour. When
the crocodile has eaten, it can direct deoxygenated, carbon dioxide
rich blood to its stomach, enabling it to produce one of the most
acidic gastric juices in nature, 10 times faster than any other
animal.
- They
have a layer of crystals behind the retina of their eyes which
reflects and magnifies light from the Moon and stars, enabling them
to see well at night and hunt in the dark. There’s a down side to
this, however, as it makes their eyes shine, so predators can spot
them. Not a problem perhaps for a fully grown crocodile, but a baby
one is vulnerable. This may be one reason why 99% of baby crocs get
eaten.
MY LATEST BOOK!
Killing Me Softly
Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.
Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena.
Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.
Available on Amazon:
On this date in 1960 Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh premièred in New York. 10 things you might not know about Psycho:
- It
was based on a novel by Robert Bloch. Alfred Hitchcock forked out
$9,000 for the movie rights without even having read the book – he
was that impressed with the review in the New York Times. His bid
was anonymous. The novel was itself inspired by a real serial killer
called Ed Gein. He also inspired The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
and The Silence of the Lambs.
- It
almost had a jazz sound track. That was what Hitchcock originally
had in mind. The score he used in the end was written by Bernard
Herrmann and uses only stringed instruments.
- It
nearly wasn’t made at all. Paramount weren’t at all keen.
Hitchcock, however, was committed enough to tell them he would forgo
his director’s fee for a 60% ownership of the movie. Since it was
probably Hitchcock’s most successful film, earning over
$32,000,000 they probably regretted that.
- The
shower scene is three minutes long – but took 7 days to film.
There were 26 takes of the spinning plughole alone. Hitchcock didn’t
intend for that scene to have any Music, but Herrmann insisted he
listen to the screeching music he’d come up with, and Hitchcock
changed his mind. The Blood in the scene was actually Chocolate syrup, and the sound of
the knife penetrating flesh was a knife stabbing a Melon.
- While
Janet Leigh wasn’t adversely affected by the scene while filming
it, when she saw it back she realised just how vulnerable a woman
was while taking a shower – and only ever took baths from then on.
She
wasn’t the only one. A man wrote to Hitchcock complaining that his
daughter refused to take a shower after seeing the film, having
already refused to take a bath after seeing the 1955 film
Diabolique. Hitchcock wrote back suggesting to the man that he send
her to the dry cleaners.
- Hitchcock
made every effort to prevent spoilers from getting out before the
premiere. The cast and crew were sworn to secrecy on their first day
on set. He didn’t give anyone the scripts of the ending until
absolutely necessary. He bought as many copies of the novel as
possible to try and prevent people from finding out the ending by
reading the book. He refused to hold pre-premiere screenings for
critics or to release any stills from the film. He told cinemas not
to admit anyone who arrived late to the screening. In spite of all
these measures, a couple of movie magazines got hold of the
information and published spoilers anyway, months before the film
came out.
- It’s
set in December, because the scenes shot on location had the town’s
Christmas decorations in them. Friday,
11 December 1959, to be exact.
- Psycho
was the first American film to show a Toilet on screen, and the
first to feature the sound of one being flushed. Even so, it was an
incriminating piece of Paper that was flushed rather than any human
waste.
- Alfred
Hitchcock’s customary cameo appearance is just over six minutes
into the film. He’s the man in a cowboy hat standing outside an
office building.
- 1970s
horror films owe a lot to Psycho. Several of the characters
are named after characters in Psycho – Marion Chambers in
Halloween after Marion Crane and Judge Chambers; Billy Loomis
from Scream after Sam Loomis in Psycho and Bates High
School in Carrie takes its name from Norman Bates. Not to
mention the fact that one of the top actresses in films of that
genre at the time was Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh’s daughter.
MY LATEST BOOK!
Killing Me Softly
Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.
Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena.
Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.
Available on Amazon:
Today is National
Lobster Day. Here are 10 things you might not know about lobsters:
- Lobsters
belong to the family Nephropidae.
- Their Blood is colourless until exposed to Oxygen, at which point it turns Blue.
- They
moult, that is, shed their shell and grow a new one, at least once a
year. Younger lobsters moult more often. When the time comes, they
find a place to hide and shed their entire shell. The new shell
underneath is softer than human skin – they’re extremely
vulnerable at this time. If you took a shedder (freshly moulted
lobster) out of the water its claws would fall off, because it
wouldn’t have the strength to keep them on. They eat their old
shells to recycle the nutrients and help harden the new one.
- Lobsters
are cannibals. Along with marine worms, clams, mussels and Crabs,
they’ll happily eat other lobsters.
- They
pee out of their faces. The glands that produce wee are located near
their antennae.
- Doing
so is actually an important part of their courtship behaviour. When
a female is ready to mate she goes to where the dominant male is
hiding and pees at him. The pheromones in her wee tell him, “this
is not dinner; this is something to have sex with.” That done, she
moves into his shelter with him and moults so he can transfer his
sperm into her. She’ll live with him until her new shell hardens
and then leave. She can store the sperm for up to nine months. When
her eggs are fertilised she carries them around on her tail for
another few months. A large female lobster might carry as many as
40,000 eggs around with her.
- Another
function of lobster wee is to recognise other lobsters they have
met, and fought, before. Scientists have observed that when a
lobster meets a strange lobster, it will fight. If it meets one it
has fought before and lost, it will back away. Blindfolding the
lobsters makes no difference, so the scientists concluded they
recognise one another by smell.
- Lobster
is generally seen today as an expensive dish, but in 19th
century Massachusetts, servants campaigned for a clause in their
contracts to ensure their employers didn’t feed them lobster more
than three times a week.
- The
largest lobster ever recorded was 4 feet long and weighed 44lb. It
was caught in Nova Scotia in 1977. There’s evidence to suggest
that in the past they could get even bigger – up to 6 feet long.
- A
19th century French writer called Gerard de Nerval kept a
lobster as a pet. He would take it for walks in Paris using a blue
ribbon as a lead. He once said, “Why should a lobster be any more
ridiculous than a dog?” or any other animal, for that matter. He
particularly liked lobsters because, he said, “They are peaceful,
serious creatures. They know the secrets of the sea, they don't
bark, and they don't gnaw upon one's monadic privacy like Dogs do.”
MY LATEST BOOK!
Killing Me Softly
Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.
Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena.
Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.
Available on Amazon:
Harriet Beecher Stowe, best known for the novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was born on this date in 1811. 10 things you might not know about her.
- She
was born in Litchfield, Connecticut. Her father was a preacher and
her seven brothers followed in his footsteps. Her father was
vehemently against slavery, and her brother, Henry, is said to have
sent rifles to Abolitionist movements in crates marked “Bibles”.
- Her
famous novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was first published in
instalments in an abolitionist newspaper called The National Era.
- She
started writing as
a child and once won a literary competition at school.
After
moving to Cincinnati with her father, she joined a literary group
called the Semi Colon club. She
published a collection of sketches, or short stories written to
illustrate a political point. It was one of her stories which
brought her to the attention of The
National Era
who asked her if she would write for them.
- She
wrote more than 20 books in all, both fiction and non fiction,
including a book about geography for children. She also wrote poems
and hymns.
- She
married Calvin Ellis Stowe, who was a professor at the seminary
where her father worked. They had seven children but only three of
them outlived her. One child died from cholera as an infant. One son
drowned, another vanished on his way to California and one of her
daughters was a drug addict and died from septicaemia.
- It
was Uncle Tom’s Cabin which made her rich, however, and she
and her husband used to some of the money to buy a winter retreat in Florida. Which may not seem strange until you remember Florida was a
pro-slavery state. Nevertheless, her neighbours weren’t hostile.
She wrote to a newspaper that she had never “received even an
incivility from any native Floridan.”
- It’s
also said that her book was a catalyst that helped spark the US
Civil War. Harriet met Abraham Lincoln at one point and it’s said
that he commented on
meeting her, “So this is the little woman who brought on this big
Civil War,” although there’s no evidence he actually said it and
some believe it was no more than a story spread by her family. All
we know for sure about their meeting comes from entries in their
diaries. As well as slavery and emancipation, they discussed his
love of open fires.
- After
the Civil War she turned her attention to campaigning for the rights
of married women, who, at the time, were in a similar position to
slaves, being unable to own property or enter into contracts, and
all their money had to be turned over to their husbands and they
could not draw any of it out for themselves.
- Mark Twain was her neighbour in her later years. His description of her
suggests she may have been suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Twain
describes her as a “pathetic figure” who needed to be cared for
constantly by “a muscular Irish woman”.
- She
died at the age of 85. The date of her death, 1 July, has been
adopted as a feast day in her honour by the Episcopal Church.
MY LATEST BOOK!
Killing Me Softly
Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.
Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena.
Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.
Available on Amazon:
Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.
