13 February: Grant Wood

Grant Wood, US artist remembered for his realistic paintings portraying the architecture, landscape and people of 1930's Midwestern United States, was born on this date in 1891. 10 facts about him.

1. Grant Wood was born on a farm near the small town of Anamosa, Iowa. His parents were Hattie and Francis Wood.

2. He became an apprentice in a metal shop, and was a woodworker and a metalworker as well as a painter. He spent some time working as a teacher and during that time, put his practical skills to use by making a “naughty bench” for students to sit on while awaiting punishment from the principal.

3. Near the end of World War I, Wood joined the army, working as an artist designing camouflage scenes. Throughout his life, he’d supplement his income by designing advertisements and fliers.

4. He travelled to Europe several times to study different artists and styles of painting. Impressionism and post-Impressionism were among the styles he studied, but he was most influenced by the 15th-century Flemish artist Jan van Eyck.

5. His own style was part of a movement called American Regionalism, popular during the great depression, which favoured realistic scenes of everyday life in rural and small-town America, primarily in the Midwest.

6. His most famous painting, American Gothic, had as its inspiration a real house that he noticed while visiting Eldon, Iowa, to attend an art exhibition. He decided he wanted to paint the house and its arched window, and the kind of people he thought might live there, so made a sketch of it on an envelope. It was called the Dibble House, and years later when it began to fall into disrepair, Grant’s sister began a movement to preserve it. It is now a tourist attraction and visitors are encouraged to have their photos taken outside, posing as the couple in the painting.

7. The models for the couple in the painting were Byron McKeeby, who was actually Wood’s dentist, and Wood’s sister, Nan. He had wanted to use his mother as the model, but thought she might not be up to posing for long periods. Hattie did contribute by lending her apron and cameo for her daughter’s costume. The assumption was often made that they were a married couple, but Nan insisted they were supposed to be a farmer with his unmarried daughter. Perhaps she was unhappy at being seen as much older than she was, or objected to being “married off” to an older man. Wood himself was ambiguous on the matter.

8. He was going to paint a sequel featuring a Mission style bungalow and the people he thought might live in a house of that style. Which, he once said in an interview, would have been in a landscape format rather than a portrait one like American Gothic.

9. Wood was married to Sara Sherman Maxon for three years, although it’s commonly believed he was gay. Colleagues at the university he worked at tried to get him fired for being gay but the university administration dismissed the allegations.

10. Wood was a Freemason for a while. After receiving his third Degree of Master Mason in 1921 he painted a picture called The First Three Degrees of Freemasonry, but in 1924 he was suspended for not paying his membership fee and left the organisation completely.

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/

12 February: Marie Lloyd

Born this day in 1870 was Marie Lloyd, English music hall singer and comedienne. 10 facts about her.

1. Her real name was Matilda Alice Victoria Wood, known to her family as Tilley. Her father was a waiter and artificial Flower arranger, and her mother a dressmaker and costume designer. She was the eldest of nine children. The family lived in Hoxton, East London.

2. She didn’t like school and often played truant to look after her siblings. She and her sister Alice organised them into an act called the Fairy Bell troupe. They would perform at temperance missions, singing songs about the dangers of alcohol abuse.

3. Her father was proud of her talent and got her a job as a table singer at the Eagle Tavern in Hoxton, where he worked as a waiter.

4. She also had a couple of day jobs, making babies' boots and curled feathers for hats. However, she didn’t always apply herself and was eventually fired for dancing on the tables at work. She went home and declared that she wanted to work full time in show business.

5. She made her professional solo stage début at the Grecian music hall in Hoxton at the age of 15. At first, she used her actual name, Matilda Wood, but as she grew more popular her agent suggested she change her name. She chose Marie because it sounded French and quite posh, and the Lloyd came from Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper.

6. She was known for her somewhat risqué and ad lib performances, and her best known songs are The Boy I Love Is Up in the Gallery and My Old Man (Said Follow the Van).

7. She made her own costumes, using skills she’d learned from her mother.

8. She married three times and all three marriages were turbulent, ending in separation and/or divorce. Her first husband was Percy Courtenay, a ticket tout from Streatham. He once pulled a decorative sword off the wall in her dressing room and threatened to kill her with it, and she reported him to the police. Her second was Alec Hurley, a singer, and finally Bernard Dillon, a jockey.

9. She toured in America but her trip there started badly. She and Dillon had applied for an entry visa as Mr and Mrs Dillon, but they weren’t married at the time. The authorities found out and detained them and threatened them with deportation on the grounds of “moral turpitude”. She was threatened by the theatre manager with breach of contract proceedings after episodes of domestic abuse from Dillon caused her to miss performances. When she left, she vowed she would never sing in America again, no matter how much money she was offered.

10. Towards the end of her life, her performances grew erratic. She’d stumble on stage which audiences thought at first was all part of the act, but was taken ill on stage with stomach cramps. She died later that evening of heart and kidney failure at the age of 52.

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/

11 February: Meringue

Today is Meringue Memorial Day. To celebrate, here are 10 facts about meringue.

1. Meringue is a sweet substance made by whipping Egg whites and Sugar together, possibly with an acidic ingredient such as Lemon, Vinegar, or cream of tartar.

2. There are different types of meringue produced in slightly different ways. The method described above, and the one most home cooks are familiar with, is French meringue. There’s also Italian meringue, which was invented by the French chef Lancelot de Casteau in 1604. It is made by boiling sugar syrup, rather than caster sugar.

3. And then there is Swiss meringue, which is whisked over a bain-marie to warm the egg whites, then whisked until it cools.

4. Meringue can be soft, as used on desserts and cake toppings, or it can be baked in the oven so it becomes harder and crispy.

5. The invention of meringue is sometimes attributed to a Swiss pastry chef called Gasparini in 1720. He worked in a town called Meiringen in Switzerland, which is said to be where the name comes from.

6. However. The word first appeared in print much earlier in a cookbook by François Massialot in 1692, and Gasparini therefore may have improved the recipe but didn’t invent it.

7. A confection that is effectively meringue but known as "white biskit bread" appears in a cookbook by Elinor Fettiplace in 1604.

8. Meringue is formed by the breaking down of ovalbumin, a protein found in egg whites, as it is whisked.

9. This chemical reaction isn’t stable, so meringue will only keep for a couple of weeks. The sugar also absorbs moisture from the air and this can cause the meringue to collapse or go soft.

10. Vegan meringue is a thing. It’s made from aquafaba, which is a liquid obtained from chickpeas, which contains vegetable protein which can be beaten like egg whites.

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/

10 February: Roberta Flack

On this date in 1939 the singer Roberta Flack was born. 10 facts about her:

1. She was born in Black Mountain, North Carolina and music was in her blood. Her father was a jazz pianist and her mother a church organist. Hence her early exposure to music was in a church setting, where she accompanied the choir on Piano and also sang.

2. She was a child prodigy, learning to play the piano on her mother’s knee. At nine, she started formal piano lessons and at 13 came second in a state wide competition. She won a scholarship to Howard University when she was 15 and graduated with a BA in Music at 19.

3. She began postgraduate studies but had to leave and work to support herself after her father died. She became a teacher of music and English and also gave piano lessons at her home.

4. Her first love was classical music – she wanted to be a concert pianist.

5. She worked at the Tivoli Theatre, playing accompaniment for Opera singers. During the intermissions, she’d play and sing blues, folk and pop songs. At that time she had a voice coach called Frederick "Wilkie" Wilkerson, and it was he who advised her that she would do better in popular music than the classics. Flack took his suggestion on board and changed her repertoire.

6. In 1968 she performed at a benefit concert in Washington to raise funds for a children's library. In the audience was soul and jazz singer Les McCann, who loved her voice and got her an audition with Atlantic Records.

7. She had several hits with Donny Hathaway, who she met at university, including Where is the Love? Her song Killing Me Softly was a tribute to American Pie singer Don McLean.

8. She was an animal lover and spokeswoman for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Her song, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, was used in one of their commercials. Incidentally, when she sang that song, she was, in her mind, singing it to her pet cat.

9. Foe many years she lived next door to Yoko Ono and John Lennon. She was good friends with Yoko, and John and Yoko’s son Sean used to call her Aunt Roberta.

10. She performed up until her 80s until she was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, which made singing impossible. Flack died at the age of 88 of cardiac arrest on February 24, 2025 on her way to a hospital in Manhattan.

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/

9 February: Fire extinguishers

On this date in 1863 a Fire Extinguisher was patented by Alanson Crane. 10 things you might not know about fire extinguishers:

1. Alanson Crane didn’t invent the Fire extinguisher, but patented a new type. Fire extinguishers already existed before that. The first ever mentioned dates back to 1723 and was invented by Ambrose Godfrey, a celebrated chemist. The means by which the fire extinguishing substance was expelled was a system of fuses and, wait for it, Gunpowder! There’s at least one newspaper report, in Bradley's Weekly Messenger in 1729, which mentions that this device was efficient in helping put out a fire in London.

2. Captain George William Manby invented another, called the 'Extincteur', which he demonstrated in 1816 to the 'Commissioners for the affairs of Barracks'. His device contained 3 gallons (13.6 litres) of pearl ash (potassium carbonate) solution and compressed air in a Copper container.

3. The chemical foam extinguisher was invented in 1904 by Aleksandr Loran in Russia, based on his previous invention of fire fighting foam.

4. Another type which actually existed was a “fire grenade”. This consisted of a glass sphere filled with carbon tetrachloride (CTC) which could be used for electrical and liquid fires. Basically, one would just lob the thing at the fire. The problem was that CTC is highly toxic to start with, and when used on a fire would turn into phosgene gas, which has been used as a chemical weapon.

5. The carbon dioxide extinguisher was invented in 1924 by Walter Kidde Company. The specific type of fire it was created to deal with was fires in telephone switchboards. These extinguishers are still in use today and can be found in offices for use on electrical fires. They are also the extinguisher of choice for the movie industry, when they need to extinguish a burning stunt person.

6. There are five different types of extinguisher that you might find in a workplace or public area. It matters which one you use, as using the wrong type can actually make things worse. The classes are: Class A: For ordinary combustibles like wood, Paper, and cloth; Class B: For flammable liquids such as gasoline, oil, or paint.; Class C: For electrical fires; Class D: For fires involving flammable metals, like Magnesium or titanium (not one most people will come across that often); and Class K: For cooking oils and fats.

7. Rather than having to waste time finding and reading instructions, there’s an acronym to help you remember what to do: PASS. Pull the pin to unlock the device; Aim the nozzle at the fire; Squeeze the handle to release the extinguishing substance; and Sweep from side to side: Cover the entire area of the fire until it’s out. Unless it’s a large, out of control fire in which case the best thing to do is leave the building and call the fire brigade.

8. Typically, fire extinguishers last between 5 to 15 years depending on the type and make. They will need replacing in due course, and in the mean time, they need to be maintained regularly to make sure they will work properly when required.

9. Handheld extinguishers weigh from 0.5 to 14 kilograms (1.1 to 30.9 lb), so are easily portable by hand.

10. Some locations, such as construction sites, airport runways, heliports, docks and marinas often have heavier extinguishers 23 kilograms (51 lb) which are mounted on wheeled carts.

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/

8 February: The Hollywood Walk of Fame

On this date in 1960, construction on the Hollywood Walk of Fame officially began. 10 facts about the Hollywood Walk of fame:

1. It started as a marketing tactic by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. The idea was first suggested by that organisation’s volunteer president E. M. Stuart in 1953 to “maintain the glory of a community whose name means glamour and excitement in the four corners of the world.” In January 1956 an official proposal was submitted to the Los Angeles City Council. Initially, the proposal was to have a caricature of the star honoured rather than a star, and placed along Brown and Blue sidewalks. The caricature idea was rejected because it would be too complicated and the colours because they’d clash with a building being erected along the route at the time.

2. Who the recipient of the first star was depends on what you count. Before the official inauguration, a temporary installation to raise awareness and support was unveiled in August 1958. Olive Borden, Ronald Colman, Louise Fazenda, Preston Foster, Burt Lancaster, Edward Sedgwick, Ernest Torrence, and Joanne Woodward were the stars to receive the honours. Joanne Woodward is sometimes said to have been the first, although in truth that was probably because she happened to be the first to have her picture taken with her star. The first star to be installed in the Walk of Fame proper was Film-maker Stanley Kramer, whose star was put in place on 28 March 1960.

3. In August 2025 there were 2,818 stars at 6-foot (1.8 m) intervals along the sidewalk. Wikipedia describes the stars as “five-point, coral-pink terrazzo rimmed with brass and inlaid into a 3-by-3-foot (0.91 by 0.91 m) charcoal-coloured terrazzo background. The honoree's name is inlaid in brass block letters in the upper portion of each star, and below the name, a round inlaid brass emblem indicates the category of the honoree's contributions.” There are also several hundred blank stars, as placeholders for future recipients. Stars face east or west on Hollywood Boulevard and north or south on Vine Street so that whichever direction you walk there will be stars facing you.

4. That said, not all the stars are in the sidewalk and not all of them are stars. Four of the plaques are moons, dedicated to the astronauts and TV coverage of the Apollo 11 Moon landing; and one star is in a wall. That one is for boxer Muhammad Ali who, since he shares his name with a certain prophet, requested that the star be placed where it would not be walked on.

5. There are seven categories for which a star can be awarded: motion pictures; Television; recording/Music; live performance/theatre; Radio; sports entertainment and a special category for other achievements the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce deem worthy of inclusion, like the Apollo 11 astronauts. Muhammad Ali, incidentally, received his star before the sports entertainment category was introduced in 2023 – boxing was deemed to be a kind of live performance in order to allow him the star. Two sports teams have been honoured since: the Harlem Globetrotters and Los Angeles Dodgers.

6. A star can request a location for their star. A few are placed in quite ironic locations. Carol Burnett’s is in front of the cinema where she was fired as an usherette for advising a couple of latecomers to wait for the next showing of the movie as seeing the ending might spoil it for them; Jay Leno requested his star be near Hollywood and Highland because he was twice picked up by police for vagrancy there; Mike Myers's star was placed outside an adult store called the International Love Boutique; Roger Moore's and Daniel Craig's are located at 7007 Hollywood Boulevard. Michael Jackson refused to attend the unveiling of his star if it wasn’t outside Grauman's Chinese Theater. The Chamber agreed, and the unveiling of his star turned out to be a record breaker with around five thousand people turning up to watch.

7. As of October 2025, 44% of the stars were in the motion pictures category, 25% in television, 19% in audio recording or music, 9% in radio, fewer than 3% in theatre/live performance, and fewer than 1% in sports entertainment and the "special category" combined. 5.1% honoured African-Americans, 3.4% honoured Hispanic people, and 0.4% honoured Asians, all significantly less than those minorities' percentage of the overall population.

8. Gene Autry is the star nominated in the most categories: five. Bob Hope and Roy Rogers have been honoured in four. The family with the most individuals recognised is the Barrymores, with five. The line up also includes three dogs: Lassie, Rin Tin Tin and Strongheart. Lassie was the first fictional character to be included, although some claim Lassie was an animal actor in her own right although she was often portrayed by a male canine actor called Pal. If you don’t count Lassie, the first fictional character included was Mickey Mouse. They have since been joined by many more, including Snoopy, Kermit the Frog, Minnie Mouse and Batman, the first superhero to receive a star. Inventors who influenced the entertainment industry and have been recognised with stars include George Eastman, inventor of roll film; Thomas Edison for the phonograph, motion picture camera and lightbulb; and Ray Dolby, pioneer in surround sound. One inventor also has a star in the motion picture category: actress Hedy Lamarr, co-inventor of a frequency-hopping radio guidance system that was a precursor to Wi-Fi networks. There are two murderers: Spade Cooley and Gig Young. There are politicians there, too, unsurprisingly, Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Ignacy Paderewski, Prime Minister of Poland between World War I and II, is the only foreign head of government represented. Even Trump has one, for his work on the Miss Universe pageant and The Apprentice although there have been a lot of protests and calls for his star to be revoked, including one from West Hollywood City Council, who made a statement: "The Hollywood Walk of Fame is an honour. When one belittles and attacks minorities, immigrants, Muslims, people with disabilities or women – the honour no longer exists." His star has also been vandalised many times, including by one protester who let his dog poo on it and posted the result on Twitter.

9. The nomination process is strict. Anyone can make a nomination, including fans, although the nominee or their management must be in agreement and there is a hefty fee to pay. Nominees must have a history of "charitable contributions" and a minimum of five years' experience in their category; and they must agree to attend the unveiling of their star or the nomination will be rejected. In the case of deceased honorees, (who must have been dead for at least two years) a member of their family must agree to attend. I’m not sure what happens in the case of fictional characters! Some stars have declined to have stars on the walk, including Madonna (because she thinks it’s cheesy), Clint Eastwood and Prince. Leonardo DiCaprio, Julia Roberts, Bruce Springsteen, and Denzel Washington all ruled themselves out by refusing to attend their ceremonies.

10. There are two pairs of stars bearing the same name but representing different people. There are two Harrison Fords, one for the silent film actor and the other for the present-day actor, and two Michael Jacksons, one for the pop singer and the other for the radio personality. There might have been three, but for the correction of a typo. Actor Don Haggerty was awarded a star in 1960 that was wrongly engraved as Dan Haggerty. The star was replaced, and in 1994 an actor who was actually called Dan Haggerty (Grizzly Adams) received a star, too. Typos do happen. Julia Louis-Dreyfus's star read "Julia Luis Dreyfus". Dick van Dyke's star misspelled his last name as "Vandyke". Both stars were said to be amused rather than angry. Van Dyke took a marker pen and corrected the mistake. Both stars were replaced with the correct names in due course but a handful of mistakes live on. Carmen Miranda was honoured in the motion picture category but her star bears the television emblem, and four names remain mispelled: Lotte Lehmann (spelled as "Lottie"), Merian C. Cooper ("Meriam"), Auguste Lumière ("August"), and Mary Livingstone ("Livingston").

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/

7 February: Laura Ingalls Wilder Quotes

10 Laura Ingalls Wilder quotes on the anniversary of her birth. She was born in 1867 and is famous for writing Little House on the Prarie.

1. The true way to live is to enjoy every moment as it passes, and surely it is in the everyday things around us that the beauty of life lies.

2. If enough people think of a thing and work hard enough at it, I guess it's pretty nearly bound to happen, wind and weather permitting.

3. Home is the nicest word there is.

4. A good laugh overcomes more difficulties and dissipates more dark clouds than any other one thing.

5. Some old-fashioned things like fresh air and sunshine are hard to beat.

6. It is not the things you have that make you happy. It is love and kindness and helping each other and just plain being good.

7. It does not so much matter what happens. It is what one does when it happens that really counts.

8. Remember me with smiles and laughter, for that is how I'll remember you all. If you can only remember me with tears, then don't remember me at all.

9. The wilderness needs your whole attention.

10. In order to thoroughly enjoy anything, one must feel the absence of it at times.

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/