5 February

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 5 February:

Charles Dickens

1. In 1825, Hannah Lord Montague of New York created the first detachable collar on one of her husband's shirts in order to reduce her laundry load.
2. How's this for instant karma? In 1998, Matthew Hubal, aged 22, was sliding down a ski run in San Anselmo, California, at 3am, when he crashed into a lift tower and died. His makeshift sledge was a piece of yellow foam, intended to cushion the towers so people crashing into them wouldn't be injured. He'd stolen it from the very tower he'd crashed into.
3. On this date in 1824, Charles Dickens started his first job, labelling bottles, for which he was paid six shillings a week, or 30p in today's money.
4. In 1997, the Nicaraguan government banned the eating of endangered green Iguanas. Green iguana soup and chicken-fried green iguanas were traditional dishes for Holy Week. Under the new law, green iguana eaters could be fined 50 cordabas per iguana.
5. In 1981, the world’s largest jelly was made in Brisbane, Australia. It was 9,246 gallons, and watermelon-flavour.
6. In 1971, American astronauts Alan Shepard and Edward Mitchell of Apollo 14 played golf on the moon. On return to Earth, Shepherd received a telegram from the Royal and Ancient Golf Club admonishing him for not clearing his footprints.
7. In 1783 Earthquakes ravaged Calabria, Italy, killing 30,000. That same night, German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe told his valet he could feel tremors in the earth. Two weeks later, news arrived in Germany of the disaster in Calabria.
8. In 1869, the world’s largest Gold nugget, the ‘Welcome Stranger’, weighing in at nearly 80 kg (2,284 ounces), was found near Moliagul, Victoria, Australia by two prospectors.
9. In 1995, jewels worth £250,000 were stolen from Garrards, the Queen’s jewellers by a gang including a bogus policeman.
10. In 1948 road sweeper Hezekiah Johnson revealed to a local paper that he had fooled people in Scarborough into believing they had heard the first Cuckoo of spring. He said, "I wait until a crowd gathers at the bus stop and then go into the park and do the cuckoo. I used to do the Nightingale when I had my teeth in."

A superhero love story:

The Power of Love

Willow believes in crystal healing, cosmic  ordering  and the significance of chance  encounters. She believes there's a spiritual  explanation for everything. Except she struggles to find a reason why she can turn herself into  mist and create a wave of energy which can slam a would-be mugger into a wall. Or why the love of  her life left her for a mysterious woman in sunglasses, who then disappeared without trace.  

A chance encounter with Firebolt, leader of the Freedom League superhero team, in a Glastonbury coffee shop, does turn out to be significant. He offers her a new start and the chance to use her powers for good.

Servant is a Christian who has joined the Freedom League in order to use his teleporting power to serve God. He and Willow clash from the start, yet they are drawn inexorably to one another.

When Willow leaves the team abruptly for reasons unknown, Servant knows he must put her out of his mind and find a nice Christian girl to settle down with. He is about to propose to devout and straight-laced Ruth, when Willow returns and turns his entire world upside down.

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