November 18: Mickey Mouse's Birthday

Mickey Mouse's Birthday - the date he made his official film debut in 1928, in Steamboat Willie. 10 things you might not know about Mickey Mouse:

1. Walt Disney was originally going to name him Mortimer, but his wife suggested Mickey as a better option. Lilian thought Mortimer sounded too posh and arrogant while Mickey sounded like a fun character people could relate to. His full name is Michael Theodore Mouse. However, he's not known as Mickey everywhere in the world - in China he's Mi Lao Shu, in Sweden he's Musse Pigg and in Italy he's Topolino.
2. Mickey Mouse was the first cartoon character to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in 1978.
3. He was created as a character for silent movies. He was also the first cartoon character to speak. The first words he uttered on screen were "Hot dogs!"
4. He wears white gloves so his hands can be distinguished from the rest of him, and his hand movements are more easily seen. Mickey only has four fingers, because Walt Disney thought five fingers were too much for such small hands, and made Mickey's hands look like a bunch of bananas. Not only that, it made the animation easier.
5. Charlie Chaplin and a mouse Walt Disney had as a pet when he was a child were the inspirations for the character of Mickey Mouse. Mickey Rooney claims to have been the inspiration behind the name.
6. Mickey Mouse watches were first made in 1931 and cost $2.95 each. By 1957, 25 million had been made. Walt Disney himself was presented with the 25 millionth.
7. While Minnie is Mickey's leading lady and co-star in many films, their relationship was never explicitly made clear on screen - but they are in fact married to each other (as were two of the voice actors who voiced them during the late 20th century, Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor).
8. Mickey Mouse has met every US President since Truman, apart from Lyndon B. Johnson. Barack Obama referred to Mickey as "the world leader who has bigger ears than me." Who knows, he could even be elected president one day, since it's a thing in America for people who don't like any of the options on the ballot paper to write in "Mickey Mouse" underneath and vote for him instead!
9. Images of Mickey Mouse are everywhere in the Disney theme parks. The image, a large circle with two smaller ones on top, is a recurring theme there, and visitors can try to spot "hidden Mickeys" in unexpected places.
10. Actors wanting to play Mickey Mouse at Disney theme parks must be between 4' 8" and 5' 2" tall, and must be able to reproduce Mickey's standard signature while wearing huge white gloves with four fingers.

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Golden Thread

Terry Kennedy is inexplicably and inexorably drawn to the small town of Fiveswood as a place to live and work after university. He is sure he has never visited the town before, but when he arrives there, it seems oddly familiar.

Fiveswood has a rich and intriguing history. Local legends speak of giants, angels, wolves, a local Robin Hood, but most of all, a knight in golden armour. Fiveswood's history also has a dark side - mysterious deaths blamed on the plague, a ghostly black panther, and a landslide which buried the smugglers' caves.

Terry buys an apartment in The Heights, a house which has been empty for decades, since the previous owner disappeared. Now he has finally been declared dead, developers have moved in and turned it into six flats. Terry has the odd feeling he has lived in this enigmatic house before. But that is not all. Since childhood, Terry has had recurring, disturbing dreams which have been increasing in frequency so that now, he has them almost every night. To his dismay, the people from his nightmares are his new neighbours.

Except, that is, for Eleanor Millbrook. She is refreshingly unfamiliar. After Terry saves her from a mysterious attacker, they become close. However, Terry's nightmares encroach more and more on his waking life, until they lead him to a devastating discovery about who he really is.

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