29 July: 210

On day 210 of the year, some facts about 210.

1. The Australian sailor Jessica Watson’s attempt to circumnavigate the globe took 210 days. A TV film was made about her journey called 210 Days: Around the World with Jessica Watson, narrated by Richard Branson.

2. London bus route 210 runs from Finsbury Park Station to Brent Cross Shopping Centre.

3. 210 Isabella is a large asteroid from the central asteroid belt, discovered by Johann Palisa in 1879. The origin of the name is unknown.

4. The British Rail Class 210 was a type of diesel-electric multiple unit passenger train designed and constructed by British Rail Engineering Limited's Derby Litchurch Lane Works.

5. In US telephone numbers, area code 210 covers the southwestern parts of Texas, including most of Bexar County and San Antonio, the largest and the most populous city in the region.

6. The Nokia Asha 210 is a type of mobile phone with a QWERTY keyboard. It was officially announced on April 24, 2013, and it is part of the Nokia Asha series of feature phones.

7. The Cessna 210 Centurion is a six-seat, high-performance, light aircraft. First flown in January 1957, it was produced by Cessna until 1986.

8. The A210 is a road in London which connects Eltham and Blendon.

9. Apt. 210 Confessional is a 2015 American TV Mini Series about a group of flatmates and their neighbours.

10. In numerology, the number 210 is a creative and social energy. People with the number 210 are often found promoting other artist's works. Teaching art and other expressions of creativity also resonate with the number 210 energy.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

28 July: Gerard Manley Hopkins Quotes

Born on this date in 1844 was Gerard Manley Hopkins, a Jesuit poet. 10 quotes from him.

1. What you look at hard seems to look at you.

2. The world is charged with the grandeur of God.

3. Glory be to God for dappled things.

4. It seems then that it is not the excellence of any two things (or more) in themselves, but those two things as viewed by the light of each other, that makes beauty.

5. What would the world be, once bereft Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet; Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

6. To lift up the hands in prayer gives God glory, but a man with a dungfork in his hand, a woman with a slop pail, give Him glory, too.

7. No one is ever so poor that he is not owner of the skies and stars and everything wild that is to be found on the earth.

8. Wisdom is early to despair.

9. I always knew in my heart Walt Whitman’s mind to be more like my own than any other man’s living. As he is a very great scoundrel this is not a pleasant confession.

10. By the by, if the English race had done nothing else, yet if they left the world the notion of a gentleman, they would have done a great service to mankind.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

27 July: 208

Today is day 208 of 2026. 10 fun facts about the number of the day.

1. 208 metres was the broadcast wavelength of Radio Luxembourg.

2. Fabulous 208 (retitled Fab 208 from 1969 onwards) was a British pop music magazine, so called due to fact 1.

3. 208 Lacrimosa is a main-belt asteroid discovered by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa in 1879. The name derives from Our Lady of Sorrows, a title given to Mary, the mother of Jesus.

4. London bus 208 runs from: Lewisham Station to Orpington / Perry Hall Road.

5. The year 208 was a leap year starting on a Friday, known at the time as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelius and Geta.

6. Ligne 208 was a 2001 film about a bus driver who gets stabbed by a gang of young people and goes all out to find them and get revenge. It was directed by Bernard Dumont.

7. The A208 is a road in England which runs between Eltham and Orpington.

8. The Peugeot 208 is a supermini car produced by the French automaker Peugeot. Unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2012.

9. In Roman numerals it’s CCVIII and in binary 11010000.

10. In numerology 208 resonates with independence, self-reliance, and diplomacy with an essence or feeling of infinite potential. 208 energy also resonates with relationships, efficiency, and wholeness. The person who lives with number 208 energy approaches life with a sense of self-reliance and an inclination to explore areas of life and ways of doing things that have not had much attention. The person is apt to be romantic at heart.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

26 July: Brittany

Today is the feast day of St Anne, the patron saint of Brittany, France. 10 things you might not know about Brittany.

1. If you’re thinking that “Brittany” sounds a bit like “Britain”, that’s not a coincidence. In the 5^th and 6^th centuries, Celtic tribes from Britain, Wales and Cornwall, to be exact, emigrated here to escape the Anglo Saxon invasion. Hence the area became known as “Little Britain”. This is reflected in the French word for the region, “Bretagne” and the word for Great Britain: “Grand Bretagne“.

2. In Roman times it was part of a region called “Armorica” which was derived from the Celtic word for “seaside.” Which was an apt name as Brittany is the largest peninsula in France and has more than 2,860 km (1,780 miles) of coastline, representing a third of the coastline of France as a whole. It borders the English Channel to the north and the Bay of Biscay to the south. This coastline includes The Pink Granite Coast (Côte de Granit Rose), which is famous for its distinctive pink-hued granite rocks.

3. Needless to say, the area has much maritime history. Pirates were active in the area back in the day, ambushing ships crossing the Channel. They would return to Brittany to spend their spoils, making the area rich. St Malo in particular is known for its pirate history. There’s also an annual yacht race here. Brest is a significant port city which is home to a naval base and an aquarium. Brest is the westernmost port of France on the English Channel, only 160 miles from Plymouth as the crow flies, but 375 miles from Paris. The Breton shirt, a striped top which has become a fashion staple and a symbol of France, was originally worn by the sailors here.

4. The capital city is Rennes, although Nantes is bigger in terms of population.

5. Brittany was an independent kingdom and a duchy. It became part of France when Anne de Bretagne died in 1514 without a male heir, so her cousin King Francois I, who was also her son in law, inherited the throne and in 1532 formally united the two kingdoms. He also banned the regional languages and insisted everyone spoke his language, “françoys” – French. To this day, though, there is a nationalist movement which would like it to be an independent kingdom again.

6. Brittany has its own flag and an unofficial national anthem. The flag is called The Gwenn-ha-du, meaning “Black and White” in Breton and was designed in 1923 by Morvan Marchal, an independence activist. The flag features eleven black-and-white stripes representing the traditional dioceses, and an ermine canton, ermine being a symbol of the old rulers. It was inspired by the American flag.

7. The anthem is called Bro Gozh ma Zadoù which translates as "Old Land of My Fathers". The lyrics were written in the 19^th century and the music is a combination of the Welsh anthem with a similar name, and Bro Goth agan Tasow, the national anthem of Cornwall.

8. There is a strong connection with Arthurian legend, especially around the Paimpont forest, which, it has been claimed, is the enchanted forest of Brocéliande. There is a ruined castle here, by a lake, giving rise to the possibility that this was where the Lady of the Lake hung out. There’s a dolmen said to be Merlin’s tomb and a path said to be Morgan le Fay's Val sans Retour.

9. The culture of the area continues to have strong Celtic influences. Breton is a Celtic language, still spoken by some residents, and some street signs appear in both Breton and French. There are festivals of Celtic music and dance held annually around the region.

10. Brittany is home to many megalithic monuments. In fact, the words menhir and dolmen come from the Breton language.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

25 July: Jacob Name Day

In Sweden, today is the name day for people called Jacob.

The name comes either from the Hebrew meaning "to follow, to be behind" or "to supplant, circumvent, assail, overreach", or from the word for "heel". 10 famous Jacobs:

1. Jacob: Hebrew patriarch who stole his brother Esau’s birthright.

2. Jacob: fictional character of the ABC television series Lost played by Mark Pellegrino, leader of the Others.

3. Jake Gyllenhaal: American actor.

4. Jacob Elordi: Australian actor.

5. Jacob Jacobs: Belgian landscape and seascape painter in the Romantic style, with a preference for northern and "oriental" scenes.

6. Jacob Astor: one of the wealthiest people in history.

7. Jacob Black: werewolf character in the Twilight book series by Stephenie Meyer.

8. Jake Bugg: English singer-songwriter.

9. Jacob Grimm: eldest of the Brothers Grimm, fairytale authors.

10. Jacob Rees-Mogg: British politician.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

24 July: Egon Ronay

Born this date in 1915 was Egon Ronay, Hungarian-born food critic. 10 things you might not know about him.

1. He was born in Bratislava, Austria-Hungary, and was an only child. His father was a restaurateur and his grandfather established a hotel in Slovakia.

2. During the second world war he served in the Hungarian Army in southern Slovakia and northern Transylvania. He claimed to have deserted the army in 1943. This meant he was fighting for the enemy and it’s thought to be for this reason that he was a tad cagey about his history and refused to disclose his date of birth in public records after moving to the UK.

3. The war destroyed the family business in Budapest. His friend Paul Fabry helped Ronay forge his papers and flee to Britain in 1946.

4. Ronay’s father had friends in London, who helped Ronay get a job as a restaurant manager in Piccadilly. It wasn’t long before he had a restaurant of his own, The Marquee, a 39-seat former tea room, near Harrods. The menu included French dishes, which was unusual in post war Britain.

5. TV chef Fanny Craddock and her husband Johnny ate there, and Fanny saw his potential as a food critic. As a result of her spreading the word about him, he got a food column in the Daily Telegraph, in which he attacked establishments such as schools, for poor food standards. In 1955, he sold his restaurant to concentrate on writing.

6. He published the first edition of the Egon Ronay Guide, based on the Michelin restaurant guides of France, in 1957. It sold 30,000 copies. It soon became a mark of distinction for a restaurant to get a mention in one.

7. Ronay sold the rights to his books to The AA in 1985. It was a decision he would come to regret, however, as the AA subsequently sold them to a company called Leading Guides International, which went bankrupt. Ronay went to court to win the rights back.

8. He created a private dining club called the British Academy of Gastronomes ‘to improve the standard of food and beverage at all levels of consumption across the UK’. Or get together and eat posh meals cooked by famous chefs. Members included Ronnie Corbett, Andrew Neill and Sir Evelyn de Rothschild.

9. He never retired, working until his death at the age of 94 in 2010. At the time of his death he had plans for several new projects. Companies he worked with in his later years as a food consultant included J D Wetherspoon and Welcome Break motorway service stations.

10. The guides were produced with the help of a team of inspectors who would never accept freebies from any establishment they ate at, not even a free drink. This was to ensure their reports were impartial.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

23 July: Raymond Chandler

23 July is Private Eye Day, the birthday of Raymond Chandler, the creator of Philip Marlowe, who was born this day in 1888. 10 things you might not know about Raymond Chandler.

1. He was born in Chicago and both his parents were descended from Quakers. His mother was born in Waterford, Ireland, and he spent summers there, finally moving there with his mother when his father abandoned the family when Chandler was seven.

2. Soon after that, Chandler’s mother moved to England with him, in order to get him the best education. At that time he lived in Upper Norwood, London, and attended Dulwich College, where he would later work part time as a teacher. C.S. Forester, PG Wodehouse and Michael Ondaatje also attended that school.

3. His family’s ambition for him was the British civil service. He became a British citizen in 1907 and took a job in the Admiralty, but hated it and left after a year. His family were not well pleased.

4. After serving in the first world war, he met the step-mother of one of the men he’d enlisted with, Pearl Eugenie ("Cissy") Pascal. She was 18 years older than he was, but they nevertheless began an affair with Cissy divorcing her husband in 1920. She didn’t marry Chandler until 1923, however, as his mother disapproved and wouldn’t give her blessing. They only married when Chandler’s mother died. Cissy Chandler died in 1954 and Raymond fell apart. He drank to excess and never got around to dealing with her ashes, which sat for 57 years in a storage locker in the basement of Cypress View Mausoleum.

5. He used to write as a young man, but gave it up after the suicide of his friend Richard Middleton. Chandler was 22 at the time. Chandler figured if someone as good as his friend couldn’t hack it, it wasn’t the career for him, either. So he took a course in bookkeeping and worked for an oil company. He worked his way up to the giddy heights of vice president of the company, but by then, he was already drinking heavily, was often absent and when he was in work, got fresh with female colleagues. As a result of all that, he got fired.

6. This was the reason he took up writing again at the age of 45. He took a correspondence course in short story writing and started selling to pulp magazines. He didn’t publish his first book, The Big Sleep, until he was in his 50s.

7. As well as short stories and novels, he wrote screenplays for Hollywood. His first was The Blue Dahlia in 1946. Another was Strangers on a Train, which he co-wrote with with Czenzi Ormonde. However, he didn’t get on with Alfred Hitchcock at all. They frequently clashed over artistic differences and ended up not speaking at all. His final completed novel, Playback, started out as a screenplay for Universal Studios. They passed on shooting it, so Chandler turned it into a novel.

8. During prohibition, the writer played an active role in bootlegging, which contributed to his alcoholism.

9. He was, what they call in writing circles, a “pantser” rather than a “planner”, meaning he made the story up as he wrote rather than working to a plan. This meant he’d sometimes write himself into a corner and would have to throw the whole manuscript out and start again. “That’s the hell of being the kind of writer who cannot plan anything, but has to make it up as he goes along and then try to make sense out of it,” he said.

10. He died while working on a novel called Poodle Springs in 1959. Over 30 years later, it was finished by by Chandler fan Robert B. Parker.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/