February 28: National Tooth Fairy Day

Today is National Tooth Fairy Day. The Tooth Fairy is a figure from folklore who visits children after they lose their baby teeth, exchanging Money for a tooth left under a pillow.

1. The Tooth Fairy as a character is a relatively new idea. The first mention of a tooth fairy occurred in the Chicago Daily Tribune in 1908. A reader called Lillian Brown wrote in with a helpful hint for parents: "Many a refractory child will allow a loose tooth to be removed if he knows about the tooth fairy. If he takes his little tooth and puts it under the pillow when he goes to bed the tooth fairy will come in the night and take it away, and in its place will leave some little gift."
2. In Europe in the Middle Ages, customs surrounding lost baby teeth were quite different. Back then, the thing to do with a lost tooth was to burn it, because if they didn't, the child would spend the whole of eternity looking for it in the afterlife. They also believed back then that if a Witch got hold of a tooth, they would have power over the child. 13th century Muslim children would throw their teeth up into the sky and pray for a better tooth to replace it, while in Scandinavia, the idea of money for teeth had already established itself, although parents would pay the "tooth fee" to the child rather than a fairy. Vikings had a use for the teeth. They made them into necklaces to wear in battle as lucky talismans.
3. The Tooth Fairy collects about 300,000 teeth from children all over the world every night. So what does she do with them? According to folklore, the teeth are used for buildings and jewellery in fairyland.
4. And the going rate for teeth? It depends, not surprisingly, on how well off the family is, but a survey in 2013 found that the going rate in America was an average of $3.70 per tooth. Insurance group Delta Dental have also made studies of this and found that Tooth Fairy gifts also fluctuate with the stock market. Also, children in the north east of the USA get more generous gifts from the Tooth Fairy than kids in the south west.
5. What does the Tooth Fairy look like? There's no consensus, like there is for Santa Claus. A 1984 survey on what people thought the Tooth Fairy looked like found that 74% thought it was female, while 12% thought it was neither male nor female, or could be either. Some less conventional answers to the question included a Bear, a Bat, a Dragon, or even "a potbellied, cigar smoking, jeans clad tiny flying male." In books, the Tooth Fairy can be anything from a pixie or child with wings to a slightly older maternal figure, a dental hygienist or a dragon. Films have presented us with even more variations such as a muscular man, played by former wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
6. In parts of Europe, the Tooth Fairy is a mouse. In France and Belgium, La Petite Souris ("the little mouse") comes for the teeth and it is customary to leave out a piece of Cheese along with the tooth. In Italy and Spain, they also have a mouse, known as Topolino and Ratoncito Pérez respectively. In the Basque Country there's yet another variation, called Mari Teilatukoa (Mary from the roof). There, children don't put their teeth under their pillows, but lob them onto the roof of their house for Mary to collect.
7. In the 1970s, there was a "Tooth Fairy Consultant." Her name was Rosemary Wells, and she carried out extensive studies into the origins of the Tooth Fairy and traditions associated with her/him/it. She wrote any number of articles on the subject and even appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show. During the course of her research, she collected piles of memorabilia, and in 1993 she opened a Tooth Fairy Museum in her home, which became a popular destination for school outings. The museum closed, however, after she died in 2000.
8. Another scientist called Dr. Harriet Hall coined the term "Tooth Fairy Science" to describe perfectly designed scientific experiments and studies into things that don't really exist. Hall was extremely skeptical about alternative medicine, and used the term to describe studies about that.
9. The Tooth Fairy is commonly used as a means to bribe small children into looking after their teeth. Children are told that clean, brushed teeth with no decay will bring a better reward from the Tooth Fairy. In Scandinavia, though, there's a stick rather than a carrot - there, there is a "tooth troll" which comes for children who don’t brush their teeth.
10. The Tooth Fairy even appears on coins. In 2011 and 2012, the Royal Canadian Mint issued Tooth Fairy quarters.

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27 February: John Steinbeck Quotes

John Steinbeck, US novelist. author of Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men, was born on this date in 1902. Here are some quotes from him:

1. Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.
2. I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts.
3. When two people meet, each one is changed by the other so you've got two new people.
4. All great and precious things are lonely.
5. It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him.
6. If you understand each other you will be kind to each other.
7. It's so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone.
8. What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.
9. If you're in trouble, or hurt or need - go to the poor people. They're the only ones that'll help - the only ones.
10. A sad soul can kill you quicker than a germ.

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February 26: Violets

The French Revolutionary Calendar celebrated Violets on this date. Violets are spring flowering plants which belong to the family Violaceae. There are around 400-500 different species. They are native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere but are also found in Hawaii, Australasia, and the Andes in South America. They like moist and shady places, such as hedgerows.

1. Despite the name, a violet flower isn't always violet in colour. They also come in Blue, Yellow, White and cream. The flowers have five petals. They contain both male and female parts, but are usually pollinated by insects.
2. In the language of flowers, violets represent delicate love, affection, modesty, faith, nobility, intuition and dignity. The meaning varies depending on the colour of the flower. Blue violets mean love and faithfulness, white violets represent purity and chastity, and yellow violets mean high worth and goodness.
3. The fruit of the violet plant is called a capsule. The capsule cracks and explodes, expelling the seeds away from the parent plant.
4. The ancient Greeks and Romans cultivated violets. The Romans made 'Vinum Violatum', violet Wine, to drink at festivals. The Greeks used it in love potions and also wore garlands of violets around their heads to ward off headaches and dizzy spells.
5. The violet is the birth flower for the month of February.
6. Napoleon Bonaparte loved them. His friends nicknamed him Corporal Violet because he promised to return from exile in time for violet season. They even became a way to determine if someone was loyal to Napoleon or not. People who said they liked violets when asked were deemed to be on his side. When his wife Josephine died, he covered her grave with violets.
7. Violets feature in poems by Sappho, describing her lost love: "Close by my side you put around yourself [many wreaths] of violets and Roses." In another poem, her lost love wears "violet tiaras, braided rosebuds, dill and crocus twined around". Hence they have become associated with lesbian love.
8. Wisconsin,  Rhode Island, Illinois, and New Jersey all have violets as their state flower.
9. Violets smell lovely, but the scent goes away after the first sniff. This is because violets contain a chemical called ionine which temporarily desensitises the nose. However, the scent is popular and often used in perfumes.
10. You can even eat them. Not only is violet essence used in liqueurs and sweets, such as Parma Violets, the flowers are sometimes used as garnish. It's fine to eat them, in fact, they're good for you - violet flowers and stems contain more Vitamin C than most vegetables.

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February 25: Edward II

This date in 1308 saw the coronation of King Edward II of England. Here are 10 things you might not know about this English king.

1. Edward was born on 25 April 1284, in Caernarfon Castle. He was the fourth son of Edward I and Eleanor of Castile. Two of his elder brothers, John and Henry, had died before he was born. His remaining brother, Alphonso, died in August that year, leaving Edward as the sole heir.
2. He was the first English prince to hold the title Prince of Wales. This was bestowed on him by his father in 1301.
3. He was betrothed to Margaret of Norway when he was just six years old, but she died, and the hunt was on for a suitable wife for Edward. His father's goal at that time was peace with France, so two French brides were considered but abandoned before Edward was eventually married to Isabella of France, who was just 12 at the time of the wedding.
4. Because she was so young, Edward probably didn't sleep with her for a few years but had mistresses instead. He had an illegitimate son in about 1307. Once Isabella was old enough, he had children with her - the future Edward III, John, Eleanor and Joan. They seemed happy enough for a time, but the marriage later broke down and when Isabella was sent to France on a peacekeeping mission, she instead began an affair with an exiled Lord, Roger Mortimer. Together, they plotted to invade England and depose Edward.
5. There was considerable controversy during Edward's early reign concerning his close friend Piers Gaveston. Gaveston had been a knight in his father's household and he and the prince became close friends. It has even been speculated that they might have been lovers, although there is no actual evidence for that. It's more likely they'd sworn oaths and become brothers in arms. The rumour about them being gay may have been fuelled by the fact that King Edward had Gaveston sent into exile for no apparent reason. On becoming king, Edward II allowed Gaveston back into England and made him Earl of Cornwall, not a popular move with the nobility of the time. Gaveston was exiled twice more by demand of the barons but each time was allowed back. Eventually, the barons had him executed.
6. In 1314, Edward invaded Scotland, but was defeated by Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn.
7. During his reign some of the barons revolted because they didn't like the royal favourite, Hugh Despenser the Younger. The revolt was known as the Despenser War and began in 1321. Edward fought his opponents off on this occasion.
8. What was Edward II like? He was tall and well-built and considered to be handsome. He didn't like falconry or hunting, which was unusual for royals of the time. He preferred riding and breeding Horses, racing greyhounds, and listening to Welsh music. He liked to watch jousting, but never participated in the sport. It's not known whether this was because jousting was considered to dangerous for the one remaining heir or whether he simply wasn't very good at it. His letters show he had a quirky sense of humour - he would make jokes about sending animals to his friends. He was also known to enjoy digging ditches and planting hedges with the labourers and treated his servants well. I found one reference to him keeping a Lion and a Camel as pets.
9. Isabella and Mortimer succeeded in deposing Edward and crowning their son, Edward III, king. Edward II was imprisoned in Berkley Castle and was murdered there.
10. There isn't any concrete evidence that Edward II was murdered by having a red hot poker stuck up his bum. Historians say it's unlikely he'd have been killed in such an obvious way. There is still another rumour which stated Edward wasn't murdered at all, but escaped with the help of a servant and lived the rest of his life as a hermit in Europe.

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24 February: 24

On the 24th day of the month, 10 things you didn't know about the number 24.

1. 24 is the atomic number of chromium (Cr), a steely-Grey, lustrous, hard and brittle transition metal.
2. There are 24 hours in a day, based on a system devised by the ancient Egyptians.
3. It is the smallest number to have exactly eight divisors: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, and 24.
4. There are 24 major and minor keys in Western tonal Music. Chopin wrote 24 Preludes.
5. There are 24 carats in pure Gold.
6. The number 24 occurs 20 times in the Bible. 24 of the 33 miracles performed by Jesus were cures; in Revelation there are 24 elders sitting on 24 thrones; and it is the number of chapters in the book of Luke.
7. 24 is the name of a hit TV series starring Kiefer Sutherland as counter-terrorist agent Jack Bauer. Each season has 24 hour-long episodes, telling in real time the story of one day in the life of Jack Bauer.
8. 10 to the power of 24 is called a yotta.
9. There are 24 letters in the Greek alphabet, which is the reason why both Homer's Odyssey and Iliad have 24 chapters.
10. In numerology, 24 represents family, companionship, diplomacy and safety. People born on the 24th day of the month are said to be family oriented and keen to maintain harmony and balance in relationships. They make good friends and willing to listen and provide shoulders to cry on. They are systematic in business. They may be talented at acting and drama as well as healing and the arts. On the down side, they can be overly emotional, melodramatic and impractical. They have a tendency to interfere which can get them into trouble.

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23 February: George Frederic Handel

Composer George Frederic Handel was born on this date in 1685. During his lifetime, Handel composed about 30 oratorios and 50 operas. Here are some things you might not know about him.

1. He was born Georg Frideric Handel in Halle, Germany. He would Anglicise his name to George Frederic after he settled in London and became a British citizen.
2. Music was his passion ever since he was a young child, but his father disapproved of him even learning an instrument, wanting him to be a lawyer. Luckily, his mother helped him out by having a clavichord smuggled up into the attic, so he could go up there and play it when his father was out.
3. Despite his father's disapproval, by the time he was ten, Handel could play the organ, oboe and Violin and even had the opportunity to play the organ for the duke’s court in Weissenfels. Here, he met composer and organist Frideric Wilhelm Zachow, who would become his music teacher.
4. Handel started composing when he was eleven and wrote church cantatas and chamber music during his teenage years. However, these pieces were for small audiences and have been lost.
5. He followed his father's wishes at first and went to the University of Halle to study law, but soon dropped out to pursue a career in music. He joined Hamburg Opera’s Goose Market Theatre as a violinist and taught music to supplement his income.
6. He wrote his first Opera, Almira, in 1705. It was a success, after which Handel moved to Italy in 1706. He wrote more operas there, and while in Venice began hearing about the opera scene in London. Deciding he wanted a piece of that, he moved to London in 1710. He was commissioned that same year to write Rinaldo, the opera which would make him famous.
7. He became Master of the Orchestra at the Royal Academy of Music, the first Italian opera company in London, and later left to form his own company, the New Royal Academy of Music. He produced a couple of operas a year for 10 years, but by then, Italian opera was falling out of fashion. That was when he switched to writing oratorios. Oratorios were cheaper to produce as they didn't need costumes or sets, and they were popular with London audiences. His most famous oratorio, The Messiah, was written in 1741 when Dublin’s Lord Lieutenant commissioned him to write a new oratorio based on a biblical libretto by art patron Charles Jennens. During this time, he also composed orchestral works such as Water Music, Coronation Anthems and Music for Royal Fireworks.
8. In his later life, Handel was plagued by health problems. He had two strokes and lost movement in his right hand. People thought his career was over, but after a six week convalescence in France, he was back, not only composing but playing the organ as well. By 1750, he'd lost the Sight in one eye, but still he never stopped working. Two years later, he was completely blind, but carried on working as much as he could, relying on memory. Samson and Jephtha, two of his final works, both contained references to losing sight.
9. He died on April 14, 1759 in Brook Street, Mayfair at the age of 74. He'd never married or had children, so left his estate to his servants and charities, including the Foundling Hospital, and had made provision to pay for his own funeral. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. The house in which he lived and died is now a museum dedicated to him.
10. He was a large, gentle man with a good sense of humour, and earned the nickname "The Great Bear". However, he had a temper when roused. He once grabbed a famous soprano by the waist and threatened to throw her out of a window when she refused to sing a particular aria.

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22 February: Robert Wadlow, the world's tallest man

Robert Pershing Wadlow was the World’s tallest man at 8ft 11.1in/2.72 m. He was born on 22 February 1918. Here are some facts about him.

1. He was born in Alton, Illinois, and was the first child of Harold Franklin and Addie May Wadlow. When he was born, he was a normal size 3.8 kilograms (8.4 lb). His parents and four siblings were all normal in height.
2. By the time he was eight years old, he was taller than his father. At nine, he could carry his father up a flight of stairs. At school, he had to have a special desk made to accommodate him.
3. Why did he grow to be so tall? He had an over-active pituitary gland which released too much growth hormone, which may have been due to a benign tumour. Chances are nobody else will ever grow to be so tall, because nowadays anyone with a similar condition would be treated with medication and/or surgery – however, no medical intervention had been discovered in Robert Wadlow's time. Doctors then knew of no way to stop him growing.
4. He ate around 8,000 calories a day. For breakfast, he'd eat eight Eggs, 12 slices of toast, several glasses of Orange juice, five cups of Coffee, and an unspecified amount of cereal.
5. He was a Freemason and reached the level of the degree of Master Mason at the age of 21. His Freemason ring was the largest ever made.
6. By the age of 13, he was wearing size 19 (US) Shoes. As he continued to grow, providing him with shoes became more and more difficult and expensive. In 1938, he did a promotional tour with the International Shoe Company which provided him with free shoes. During his appearances, he'd only ever wear his street clothes, because he saw himself as working in advertising rather than being part of a freak show. He travelled in a modified car in which the front seat had been removed, allowing him to sit in the back and stretch his legs out.
7. His hobbies were stamp collecting and photography. During his tours, he'd conceal a camera in his large hands and take pictures of the audience without them knowing.
8. Who was the world's tallest man before Robert Wadlow? It was a man called John Rogan, who lived in Tennessee. Rogan had died in 1905 aged 37, and was 8 feet 9.5 inches tall. Wadlow overtook him in 1939.
9. Being so tall took its toll on Wadlow's body, especially his legs and Feet. He suffered from poor circulation and lack of feeling in his lower limbs. He needed a leg brace to walk, and a walking cane nearly as tall as an average adult. He never used a wheelchair.
10. Because he couldn't feel his feet, if he suffered an injury he didn't always realise it. In 1940, the leg brace he was wearing irritated his ankle resulting in a blister which became infected. Despite the doctors' best efforts to treat him, he died 11 days later, at the age of 22. Even at the time of his death, he hadn't stopped growing. On the day of his funeral, all the shops closed as a mark of respect and over 40,000 people attended his funeral. 18 pallbearers were needed to carry his coffin.

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21 February: Anaïs Nin

10 facts about the writer and diarist Anaïs Nin, born on 21 February 1903.

1. Her full name was Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell.
2. Anaïs Nin was born in Neuilly, France. Her father was a composer and pianist; her mother was a classically trained singer. When she was two, her parents split up and she moved with her mother to Barcelona and then New York.
3. She started keeping a diary at the age of eleven and kept it up until shortly before she died. Her early diaries were in the form of letters to her father, who had abandoned the family.
4. At 20, she married Hugh Parker Guiler, a banker, and moved to Paris with him. While she was living in Paris, she trained as a flamenco dancer. When her diaries were published, Guiler requested that any references to him be edited out, so we don't know much about their marriage.
5. She was a bigamist. When she was 44, she met actor Rupert Pole in a lift on her way to a party in New York. He was 16 years younger than she was. She ended up travelling to California with him and marrying him while still married to Guiler. Guiler didn't know anything about his wife's other husband until after her death. Nin's biographer Deirdre Bair believes Pole knew about Guiler, but "chose not to know". Eventually Nin had her marriage with Pole annulled, not because the relationship was over – she lived with him as if she was his wife until she died – but for legal reasons, because both husbands were claiming for her on their tax returns.
6. She was very interested in psychoanalysis, and studied it extensively. She even worked as a psychoanalyst for a while, but gave it up because she found she couldn't be objective about her patients and was “haunted” by them. The fact that she had sex with many of them on the couch probably didn't help.
7. Sixteen volumes of her diaries have been published, mostly in expurgated form. She also wrote novels and short stories and was one of the first women to write erotica. Her novels include Delta of Venus and Little Birds.
8. She wrote candidly in her diaries about her relationships and her life, including her father's abuse of her when she was nine, and an abortion.
9. She appeared in several films – she played Astarte in the 1954 Kenneth Anger film Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome. She also appeared in Ritual in Transfigured Time and Bells of Atlantis. The latter was directed by her first husband.
10. She died of cancer at the age of 73.

See also: Quotes from Anais Nin

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20 February: The Barber of Seville

In 1816, this date saw the premiere of Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville. Here are some things you may not know about this opera.

1. The opera was based on a play called The Barber of Seville by Pierre Beaumarchais. Beaumarchais also wrote a sequel called The Marriage of Figaro, upon which Mozart's opera of the same name was based.
2. Gioachino Rossini was 23 when he was commissioned to write it by the Teatro Argentina. Rossini was known for writing operas very quickly - he completed it in three weeks.
3. However, he did cheat a little - he re-used some music from a couple of operas he'd written earlier, Aureliano in Palmira and Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra, for the overture.
4. He wasn't the first composer to write an opera based on the play by Beaumarchais. Giovanni Paisiello had also written one, so originally, Rossini called his own version Almaviva after one of the characters in it. Only after Paisiello had died did Rossini's opera become known as The Barber of Seville.
5. The premiere, on 20 February 1816 in Rome was not a success. Not only were there any number of first night mishaps, including a Cat wandering onto the stage, the audience included a bunch of Paisiello's fans, who weren't happy that Rossini had written a new opera based on the same play. They made their disapproval obvious by booing.
6. On the second night, Rossini was so upset by the reaction of the first night audience that he refused to come out of his room to attend the performance. However, without the disruptive influence of the Paisiello fans, this audience loved it. They loved it so much that a crowd of them went to Rossini's house to cheer him.
7. It is from this opera that one of the best known arias comes - Largo al factotum, in which the character Figaro repeats his own name, not from Marriage of Figaro, although it's an easy mistake to make since Figaro is a central character in both.
8. Rossini wrote the music but the libretto was written by Cesare Sterbini. It would be translated into English a couple of years later by John Fawcett and Daniel Terry.
9. So what's the story? The beautiful Rosina is the ward of a grumpy old man called Dr Bartolo, who wants to marry her. Also in love with her is a young count, Almaviva, who saw her in Madrid and has come to seranade her. At first, Rosina doesn't appear and the count is about to give up when Figaro arrives on the scene. Figaro is an employee of Bartolo, performing a range of roles from barber to surgeon to wigmaker to herbalist. Figaro agrees to help the count, for a fee. He suggests the count pretends to be a drunken soldier who is to be billeted at the house. When Bartolo goes out, the count seranades Rosina again and this time, she comes out to listen and falls in love with the singer before the servants drag her back indoors. Bartolo returns and with Don Basilio, Rosina’s music teacher, starts writing up a marriage contract. He knows Rosina is in love with someone else and so is eager to marry her as soon as possible. The Count shows up pretending to be a drunken soldier, only to be told that Bartolo is exempt from the law requiring people to billet soldiers. The police are called to arrest the drunken soldier, but they let him go when he tells them he is really the Count.
10. In the second act, the Count disguises himself as a Music teacher, sent in place of Basilio, who is ill. Rosina comes in and she and the Count sing an aria together. Bartolo doesn't like it, and sings Rosina a song of his own, pretending to be another famous singer, but he's not very good. Figaro arrives and announces it's time for Bartolo's shave. Bartolo gives him his keys so he can get the shaving things. He pretends to break some china, to distract Bartolo while he slips the balcony keys to the Count. At which point, the real music teacher shows up, wondering what on Earth is going on. Figaro and the Count persuade him (with a little money) that he is ill and needs to go home to bed. Figaro gives Bartolo a shave while the Count and Rosina plan to elope. Bartolo, however, manages to convince Rosina that the "music teacher" is in love with another woman and he intends to sell her to Count Almaviva. So when the Count shows up to elope with her, she at first refuses, accusing her of betrayal. He tells her that he is the Count and she agrees to run away with him, only to find someone has removed the ladder from the balcony. The notary shows up to perform the marriage of Rosina to Bartolo, but is persuaded by Figaro to marry her to the Count instead. Bartolo arrives with a police officer whereupon the Count reveals his identity to everyone.

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