20 February: Toothpick Day

Toothpick Day - The first machine for the manufacturing of toothpicks, was patented on February 20, 1872, by Silas Noble and J.P. Cooley, of Granville, Massachusetts. 10 things you might not know about the humble toothpick.

1. They've been around longer than we have. Archaeologists have found Neanderthal skulls with teeth which show signs that their owner had used a toothpick.
2. A toothpick was once used as a murder weapon. The tyrant Agathocles of Syracruse met his end when someone soaked his toothpick in poison.
3. In the 17th century, rich people had toothpicks made from Gold, Silver or ivory and inlaid with precious stones.
4. 90% of the toothpicks made in the US are made in the state of Maine. That was where toothpick entrepreneur Charles Forster set up his factory, which made an average of 20 million toothpicks a day. His marketing campaign included paying Harvard students to ask for a toothpick every time they ate at a restaurant, and then make a complaint if the restaurant didn't have any. He also paid students to go into shops and ask for them.
5. In the 1870s it became almost a fashion statement to be seen chewing a toothpick, even among the ladies of society. Mark Twain mentions doing the same in his Life on the Mississippi.
6. The wooden toothpicks you can buy today are made from Birch wood.
7. They have uses other than cleaning teeth. You can, for example, build models with them - Joe King once made a model of the Eiffel Tower from 110,000 toothpicks.
8. Other everyday uses include picking up snacks such as olives, and testing cakes to see if they are done. The Reader's Digest has come up with a list of ingenious uses for toothpicks such as using them to light candles with burned down wicks, supporting plants with bent stems or cleaning a phone. To see all of these toothpick life hacks, visit https://www.rd.com/home/improvement/surprising-uses-for-toothpicks/.
9. Using toothpicks to pick up snacks started in Portugal in the 16th century. There was an order of nuns there who supported themselves by making sticky sweets. They also made toothpicks for people to clean their teeth with after eating the sweets. They also found the toothpicks could be used to pick up the sweets without touching them and getting sticky fingers.
10. Q-tips probably evolved from toothpicks. Wrapping a bit of cotton wool around the end of a toothpick was often recommended by women's magazines as a way to clean a baby's ears or nose, and it was only a matter of time before some inventor came up with an improvement.

NEW!

Settling the Score

Another collection of short stories, even more murder and mayhem with carol singers, an orchestra out for revenge, a sinister magic stone and a haunted mansion.

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A Tale of Two Sisters

During a battle with supervillains, a horrific accident leaves the Warner family with no option but to believe their youngest daughter, Jessica, is dead. It doesn't occur to them that the bad guys could, or would, save her.

Jessica wakes up with no memory of who she is or how she came to be on a space station with two bionic legs, a bionic arm and a bionic eye. She is told her family abandoned her and is sent back to Earth with a mission - to kill them. While Jessica wants to kill her family, along with the twin boys who once rejected her, she knows what the Alliance of Supervillains are asking her to do is a suicide mission. She decides to get her revenge in her own way.

As Jessica puts the first part of her revenge plan in motion, she finds herself with an agonising decision to make. Before she can decide, the Alliance come for her, determined to make her do their bidding. This time, it's the Alliance who leave her, crippled and at the mercy of the Warner family, who have no idea who the Alliance's Black Rose really is.

Jessica finds herself having to re-think her decisions in light of what she now learns about her family, the Alliance, the twins, and herself. It would appear the Alliance have left her with an unwanted and permanent reminder of her time with them. Or have they?

Jessica's older sister, Jill, knows her destiny is to be a doctor and specialise in bionics and genetic variant medicine. She is also hopelessly in love with Christopher, Crown Prince of Galorvia. Can their romance survive the lies Christopher told her when they were both at school, an unplanned pregnancy and Sophie, the wannabe princess who comes between them?

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