1 February: Muriel Spark Quotes

Muriel Spark, Scottish novelist whose books include The Comforters. The Ballad of Peckham Rye, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, was born this date in 1918. 10 quotes:

1. She wasn't a person to whom things happen. She did all the happenings.

2. Ridicule is the only honourable weapon we have left.

3. A rebellion against a tyrant is only immoral when it hasn't got a chance.

4. You look for one thing and you find another.

5. To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil's soul.

6. One's prime is elusive. You little girls, when you grow up, must be on the alert to recognise your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur. You must then live it to the full.

7. Frankness is usually a euphemism for rudeness.

8. For those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like.

9. I am a hoarder of two things: documents and trusted friends.

10. You're only as young as the last time you changed your mind.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

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31 January: Apollo 14

On this date in 1971, Apollo 14 launched. 10 facts about this mission.

1. This was the eighth time humans flew in the Apollo program and the third time astronauts landed on the Moon. The astronauts landed on the Moon on 5 February.

2. The primary objectives of Apollo 14 were to explore the Fra Mauro region, which was what Apollo 13 was supposed to do, and to set up scientific experiments including a seismometer to measure "moonquakes" and study the Moon's interior and instruments to measure solar wind, the Moon's atmosphere and its magnetic field.

3. The Lunar Module was called Antares and the Command Module, Kitty Hawk.

4. Apollo 14’s crew were: Alan B. Shepard Jr., Commander; Edgar D. Mitchell, Lunar Module Pilot; and Stuart A. Roosa, Command Module Pilot. Shepherd had been the first American in space and was also the oldest person to walk on the Moon, at the age of 47.

5. Stuart Roosa took hundreds of tree seeds along. The seeds orbited the Moon with him in Kitty Hawk. Back on Earth, the seeds were planted in locations around the world and the resulting trees are known as “Moon Trees”.

6. The astronauts collected 93.2 pounds (42.3 kg) of Moon rocks and soil. One of the rocks they brought back was "Big Bertha" and was one of the largest Moon rocks brought back to Earth.

7. This mission was the first to use a Modularized Equipment Transporter (MET), nicknamed the “rickshaw”, which had wheels and resembled a wheelbarrow.

8. Another innovation was distinguishing marks on an astronaut’s space suit. It had been hard to tell which Apollo 12 astronaut was which in the hundreds of photographs taken on the Moon’s surface, so NASA decided that Shepard would wear a space suit with Red stripes at the knees and shoulders and a red stripe on the helmet. Had Apollo 13 reached the Moon, they would have used the same system.

9. In was on this mission that Golf was first played on the Moon, by Alan Shepherd. He hit two balls using a specially adapted club. The first golf ball travelled about 200 yards, the second about 400 yards.

10. Apollo 14 splashed down on 9 February after a mission which had lasted 9 Days, 0 Hours, 1 Minute and 57 Seconds.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

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30 January: Franklin D Roosevelt Quotes

Franklin D Roosevelt was born on this date in 1882. 10 quotes from him:

1. We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American Eagle in order to feather their own nests.

2. Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fibre of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.

3. Do Something. If it works, do more of it. If it doesn't, do something else.

4. Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.

5. In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.

6. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

7. Calm seas never made a good sailor.

8. Never underestimate a man who overestimates himself.

9. It is better to swallow words than to have to eat them later.

10. What America needs now is a drink.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

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29 January: Sudoku

Today is National Puzzle Day, so here are ten things you might not know about a popular kind of puzzle, Sudoku.

1. The word comes from the Japanese name for the puzzle as it appeared in the paper Monthly Nikolist in April 1984, which was “Sūji wa dokushin ni kagiru” meaning "the digits must be single". “Dokushin” means an "unmarried person" in Japanese. This was later abbreviated to Sudoku.

2. Puzzles of this type have been around since the 19^th century, albeit in slightly different formats. A French newspaper published a puzzle which was a 9×9 magic square with 3×3 subsquares and numbers missing as early as 1892. Unlike sudoku, however, this puzzle contained double digit numbers and required mathematical ability to solve (Sudoku, despite using numbers, is actually a logic puzzle rather than a maths one). In 1895, another French newspaper published a puzzle called carré magique diabolique ("diabolical magic square") in which each row, column and diagonal contained the digits 1 to 9, but didn’t have subsquares.

3. The US was publishing sudoku puzzles from 1979, thus beating Japan to it, in a publication called Dell Pencil Puzzles and Word Games. It appeared in this magazine as “Number Place”. We don’t know for certain who the inventor was, but using logic based on which contributor’s name always appeared in issues containing a Number Place and didn’t in issues without one. That method points to one Howard Garns, a retired architect and freelance puzzle compiler from Connersville, Indiana. Sadly, he died in 1989 and didn’t live to see his puzzles absolutely everywhere.

4. The first newspaper outside of Japan to publish a Sudoku puzzle was The Conway Daily Sun (New Hampshire), which published a puzzle by Wayne Gould in September 2004. Gould was a judge based in Hong Kong who came across a partially completed sudoku in a bookshop while visiting Japan. He produced a computer programme to make the puzzles and began pitching them to Newspapers.

5. The first UK newspaper to pick up sudoku was The Times on 12 November 2004. The very next day The Times published its first letter about the puzzle, from one Ian Payn of Brentford, who complained that the puzzle was so absorbing it caused him to miss his stop on the tube.

6. The minimum number of clues for a Sudoku puzzle to have a unique solution is 17.

7. There are 6,670,903,752,021,072,936,960 possible Sudoku grid configurations.

8. It has been made into a game show. The first sudoku themed game show was broadcast on Sky One in 2005. Hosted by Carol Vorderman (who else?) and featured nine teams of nine people, including one celebrity from different regions of the UK competing to solve a puzzle. Later in 2005, The BBC launched SUDO-Q, a game show that combined Sudoku with general knowledge, although it used smaller grids of 4x4 and 6x6. Since 2006 there has been an annual World Sudoku Championship. The first was held in Italy and was won by Junichi Tanaka from Japan.

9. Japan has a sudoku themed museum, "Sudoku Kaikan," which is dedicated to the history and culture of Sudoku; and a theme park, "Sudokuland," which has a Sudoku-themed roller coaster and a Sudoku-themed maze among its attractions.

10. Some sudoku records: The fastest recorded time to solve a Sudoku puzzle was set in November 2018, by Wang Shiyao who completed a standard 9×9 Sudoku grid in just 54.44 seconds. The largest Sudoku puzzle had a grid size of 9,999 x 9,999 and was created by researchers at the University of Liverpool. It needed a computer to solve it and even so took over 100 hours to solve.

See also: Crosswords

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

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28 January: Carl Name Day

If your name is Carl, or Karl, today is your name day.

This name comes from Old High German, meaning 'man, husband, freeman'. The name is a variant of the English Charles, and the Latin Carolus. 10 famous people with this name:

1. Karl Marx: German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet The Communist Manifesto.

2. Carl Linnaeus: Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organisms.

3. Carl Jung: Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist, founder of analytical psychology.

4. Carl Rogers: American psychologist who was one of the founders of humanistic psychology and was known especially for his person-centered psychotherapy.

5. Karl Lagerfeld: German fashion designer.

6. Carl Orff: German composer and music educator, who composed the cantata Carmina Burana.

7. Carl Sagan (pictured): American astronomer, planetary scientist and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is his research on the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

8. Carl Wilson: American musician and lead guitar player for The Beach Boys.

9. Carl Douglas: Jamaican musician who wrote the disco song Kung Fu Fighting.

10. Carl Benz: German engine designer and automotive engineer. His Benz Patent-Motorwagen from 1885 is considered the first practical, modern automobile and the first car to be put into series production.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

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27 January: Heartbreak Hotel

On this date in 1956 Elvis Presley released Heartbreak Hotel. 10 facts about the song:

1. Heartbreak Hotel was written by was written by Mae Boren Axton and Tommy Durden. In a 1982 interview, Durden said this song "has paid the rent for more than 20 years." Elvis was also given a writing credit, as requested by his manager, meaning Elvis got a third of the royalties.

2. It was the first song Elvis recorded for his new record label RCA Victor. He was 21 years old when it was released.

3. The B-side was I Was the One.

4. The official story about what inspired the song was that the idea came from an article in the Miami Herald about a man who’d destroyed all his identity papers and jumped to his death from a hotel window. His suicide note read, "I walk a lonely street". However. Songfacts.com tried in vain to find the article or any evidence this actually happened, and found none. They concluded it was an urban legend. It could, therefore, have originated with a painter and criminal called Alvin Krolik, whose marriage had failed, and who wrote his autobiography including the line "This is the story of a person who walked a lonely street."

5. The song was offered to The Wilburn Brothers, a country music duo. They turned it down because they thought it was "strange and almost morbid."

6. Presley, however, loved it. Axton played him a demo in his room at the Andrew Jackson Hotel in November 1955, and he said, "Hot dog, Mae, play that again!" and proceeded to listen to it ten times.

7. Elvis first performed this song live in December 1955, telling club owner Rob King, "This is gonna be my first hit." He was right – it earned Elvis his first Gold record for sales of over one million singles.

8. When Bill Clinton played the Saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show as part of his presidential campaign, he played Heartbreak Hotel.

9. Lynyrd Skynyrd released an acoustic version on their album Endangered Species.

10. For a time, there was a real "Heartbreak Hotel" located across the street from Graceland in Memphis, with '50s decor and framed photos of Elvis. One of the suites was named the Burning Love Suite. It has closed down, however.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

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26 January: Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur was an American general who served as a top commander during World War II and the Korean War, achieving the rank of General of the Army. He was born on this date in 1880.

1. Douglas MacArthur was born in Little Rock, Arkansas and was the youngest of three sons born to Arthur MacArthur, Jr., who’d fought in the US civil war for the Union, and Mary “Pinky” Hardy, daughter of a Cotton merchant whose brothers fought for the Confederacy.

2. As a military family the MacArthurs moved to various military posts across the United States. MacArthur recorded in his memoirs that “I learned to ride and shoot even before I could read or write—indeed, almost before I could walk and talk." While at the same time, his mother dressed him in skirts and kept his hair curly and long until he was eight!

3. MacArthur attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and graduated in 1903 with the highest honours in his class.

4. He was then commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. His first duty assignment was to the Philippines.

5. On his return to the US, he served as an aide to President Theodore Roosevelt for a while, then got posted to Vera Cruz in Mexico. His mission there was to venture into enemy territory to locate locomotives that the army could commandeer to transport troops and supplies. MacArthur and his guides were attacked by bandits several times. On one occasion MacArthur killed seven attackers with just a .38 calibre revolver, while escaping with no more than four bullet holes in his clothes. This got him nominated for the Medal of Honor, but it was denied.

6. He married twice. His first wife was Louise Cromwell Brooks, a wealthy socialite. She hated army life, however, and they divorced, citing his inability to provide for her, although she was rich enough to move into an entire floor of a hotel, clearly perfectly capable of providing for herself! In 1937, MacArthur married Jean Marie Faircloth, another wealthy socialite, but she must have been more favourably disposed to army life as they stayed together until MacArthur died. They had a son, Arthur IV.

7. He was living in the Philippines with his family when the US entered world war II. The Japanese didn’t just attack Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, they also attacked the Philippines. MacArthur found himself in charge of the defence of the Philippines against a Japanese invasion. While he managed to hold off the invasion for a while, it did happen eventually and he led the resistance of the US forces on Bataan Peninsula and the Island of Corregidor.

8. In 1932, a group of veterans calling themselves the "Bonus Army" marched to Washington. MacArthur supported them at first, supplying them with food and tents, but then President Herbert Hoover ordered MacArthur to "surround the affected area and clear it without delay". As clashes between demonstrators and the army go, it was relatively non-violent, despite the opposing groups facing each other down with bayonets, sabres, Bricks and rocks. They were cleared out using tear gas and the only casualty was someone killed by a fire started by the gas canisters. This event made MacArthur unpopular with the American people but the right wing republicans loved him for it.

9. After the war, he was placed in charge of the administration of the Occupation of Japan, and helped to rebuild the country. In spite of everything he was quite popular with the Japanese people, as he refused American pressure to strip Emperor Hirohito of his throne and gave women the vote. He also made sure that food and supplies were sent to Japan.

10. It seemed he didn’t always get on well with the presidents he worked with. He had a flaming row with Roosevelt over cuts to the army, but Roosevelt refused to accept his resignation. The argument was apparently so volatile that MacArthur left the White House and puked on the front steps. It was President Truman who eventually fired him in 1951 for insubordination and differences of opinion over the Korean war. He returned to the US for the first time since he married Jean – their 13 year old son, Arthur, had never visited the US. He gave a parting speech to Congress which became famous as his “Old Soldiers Never Die” speech. It went on for much longer than the 36 minutes it would have taken to say the words, because it was interrupted at least 50 times by applause and standing ovations.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

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25 January: Robert Boyle

Born on this date in 1627 was Robert Boyle, the Irish scientist known for the formulation of Boyle's law. 10 facts about Robert Boyle:

1. He was born in County Waterford, South East Ireland. His father was Richard Boyle and his mother was Catherine Fenton, daughter of Geoffrey Fenton, secretary of state for Ireland. He was their 14^th child and seventh son. Richard Boyle was the 1st earl of Cork and a very wealthy man, sometimes described as the “first colonial millionaire”.

2. Boyle attended Eton between the ages of eight and eleven after which he was tutored at the earl’s English base, Stalbridge House. He was also sent on a grand tour of Europe with his brother, Francis and a tutor, Isaac Marcombes.

3. After spending time travelling and studying in Europe he returned to England and settled in Dorset for a few years before moving to Oxford, where he employed one Robert Hooke as his assistant. Together they created the vacuum chamber or air-pump, the best known piece of equipment associated with Boyle.

4. At a time when the “truth” would be arrived at by philosophical discussion by intellectuals, Boyle favoured finding things out by experiments, and observing what actually happened. He was the first prominent scientist to perform controlled experiments and publish his work.

5. He is best known for Boyle's Law. This law states that if the volume of a gas is decreased, the pressure increases proportionally. His conjecture from observing this was that gases must be made of tiny particles. He defined the modern idea of an 'element', as well as introducing many chemical tests still used as standards today, including the litmus test.

6. He wasn’t the first to notice the relationship between pressure and volume. Other scientists called Richard Towneley and Henry Power had already noted it, but it was Boyle who did the experiments to prove it and published his findings in 1662. In 1697 a French physicist called Edme Mariotte discovered the same law independent of Boyle, so you might hear Boyle’s Law referred to as Mariotte’s law.

7. He made a “wish list” of things he would like to see invented. His list included: the "art of flying", "perpetual light", "making armour light and extremely hard", "a ship to sail with all winds, and a ship not to be sunk", "practicable and certain way of finding longitudes", "potent drugs to alter or exalt imagination, waking, memory and other functions and appease pain, procure innocent sleep, harmless Dreams, etc." and curing disease by transplantation. Most of the items on his list came true.

8. He was a devout Anglican as well as a scientist. Science, to him, was all about understanding God by studying His creation and was therefore an important religious duty. Unlike most scientists today, he believed religion and science supported each other. As well as his scientific writings, he wrote religious tracts. He even considered taking holy orders in order to take up an offer of the provostship of Eton College, but declined, because he felt that his writings on religious subjects would have greater weight coming from a layman. As director of the East India Company, he sponsored many religious missions, and funded the translation of The Bible into several languages. He even turned down the presidency of the Royal Society in London that he’d helped create because he would be required to swear an oath which went against his beliefs.

9. He never married. He had a close relationship with his sister, Katherine, Vicountess Ranelagh, and lived with her in her house in Pall Mall, London, later in his life. She was interested in science, too, and by all accounts helped him considerably with his work, contributing ideas and editing manuscripts, possibly even writing some of her own. Her contribution was acknowledged at the time, but was later played down and virtually erased by historians.

10. Boyle only survived his sister by a week. His health had never been good, and when she died, he became ill and soon followed. He was 64 years old. He left his papers to the Royal Society and also money to establish a series of lectures in defence of Christianity. These lectures, known as the Boyle Lectures, continue to this day.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

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24 January: Timothy Name Day

If your name is Timothy, today is your name day.

Timothy, often shortened to Tim, is a masculine name. It comes from the Greek meaning "honouring God", "in God's honour", or "honoured by God". 10 famous people called Timothy:

1. Timothy Dalton: British actor who gained international prominence as the fourth actor to portray James Bond.

2. Tim Berners-Lee: founder of the World-Wide Web.

3. Timothy Leary: American writer, psychologist, and psychedelic drug advocate.

4. Tim Brooke-Taylor: One third of The Goodies.

5. Timothy Spall: English actor.

6. Tim Burton: American film maker and artist. Known for popularising Goth culture in the American film industry.

7. Saint Timothy: companion and co-worker of Paul the Apostle, a 1st-century Christian bishop whose name is associated with two books of the New Testament.

8. Timothy "Tiny Tim" Cratchit: character from the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

9. Tim Curry (pictured): English actor and singer. He rose to prominence as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the musical film The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

10. Tiny Tim: American singer, ukulele player, and musical archivist best known for Tiptoe Through the Tulips.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

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23 January: The A Team

On this date in 1983 The A Team premièred on US TV. 10 A Team facts:

1. This show was created by Stephen J. Cannell and Frank Lupo, and is about a squad of former U.S. Army Special Forces commandos who, after being falsely accused of the murder of their commanding officer, escape military prison and become soldiers of fortune. The members of the A Team are Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith, Lieutenant Templeton "Faceman" Peck, Sergeant B.A. “Bad Attitude” (real name Bosco Albert) Baracus, and Captain H.M. “Howling Mad” Murdock (real first name never revealed).

2. A Team is an actual term used in military operations. The A Team, or Alpha Team, will advance first, supported by a Beta, or B team. Alpha Team can also refer to a small special forces unit.

3. The part of Face was written by Frank Lupo and Stephen J. Cannell with Dirk Benedict in mind, but NBC had other ideas. They wanted Tim Dunigan for the role. Dunigan appeared in a pilot episode, after which it was conceded that Dunigan was "too tall and too young", so Benedict got the gig after all.

4. The opening credits have a nod to one of Benedict’s previous roles, as Lieutenant Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica. He is shown reacting to a Cylon walking past.

5. The show had plenty of shooting and things crashing and getting blown up, but nobody ever died. There was always a shot of the bad guys climbing out of their mangled, burning vehicle and running away. No injuries shown on screen were worse than an arm in a sling or a limp. According to Stephen J. Cannell, the writers had a running gag about this, and did it to test the limits of realism.

6. George Peppard (Hannibal) might never have got the part had he not been fired after one week on Dynasty, because producers didn’t think he made a convincing patriarch. He was allegedly quite difficult to work with and famously didn’t get along with Mr T. Peppard resented the fact that Mr T was more popular with audiences, was being paid more and got more fan mail. According to Dirk Benedict, George Peppard refused to talk to Mr. T and would use Benedict as a messenger; and would never refer to Mr T by name, only as "the man with the Gold."

7. Talking of which, Mr. T's gold weighed 35-40 lb (16-18 kg). Mr T was a member of the Military Police in real life, and it has been suggested that the uniform he wears in some episodes is his actual real life uniform. The role of B.A. Baracus was written especially for Mr. T.

8. The original main theme was composed by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter. Post admitted that he included a Guitar riff from the Cream song Sunshine of Your Love.

9. Murdock may not be as mad as he’s painted, but rather an example of the fine line between genius and insanity. He's fluent in Chinese (Mandarin), German, Japanese, Spanish, Vietnamese and basic Russian. He can communicate in Morse Code, has a photographic memory and a vast knowledge of many subjects.

10. The final episode was supposed to be one called “The Grey Team”. In it, Murdock is shown wearing a shirt that reads “fini” (French for “end”). However, a previously unseen episode called “Without Reservations” was shown in March 1987. In this episode, Murdock wears a shirt which reads “almost fini.”

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/

22 January: The Goons

On this date in 1952 The Goon Show was first broadcast on BBC Radio. 10 facts about the Goons:

1. The previous year, a show called Crazy People aired on 28 May, featuring the performers who would become known as the Goons: Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine. Their billing in the Radio Times was "Radio's own Crazy Gang 'The Goons'". When the next series began on 22 January 1952 the show’s name had changed to The Goons. The BBC didn’t like the name The Goons and wanted to call the show “The Junior Crazy Gang”, so the first series title was a compromise.

2. None of the first series of Goon shows had titles. Episodes were only titled from November 1952 beginning with “Fred of the Islands”. That said, one Crazy Gang episode, a Christmas special, was titled “Cinderella”.

3. The Goons were responsible for the phrase “The dreaded Lurgi” usually meaning a nasty cold or unspecified minor illness. The symptoms of Lurgi included the uncontrollable urge to cry "Eeeeyack-a-boo". Other recurring jokes were the blowing of raspberries and the use of the word “rhubarb” to simulate conversation.

4. Milligan and Secombe first met during the second world war, when both served in the Royal Artillery. Their first meeting itself sounds like a sketch from a comedy show. Gunner Milligan's artillery unit accidentally allowed a large howitzer to roll off a cliff, narrowly missing a small wireless truck below, in which was sitting Lance Bombardier Secombe. He would later describe the event thus: "Suddenly there was a terrible noise as some monstrous object fell from the sky quite close to us. There was considerable confusion, and in the middle of it all the flap of the truck was pushed open and a young, helmeted idiot asked 'Anybody seen a gun?' It was Milligan." Secombe's answer was "What colour was it?" Milligan met Peter Sellers at the Hackney Empire, when Secombe was performing, and the three became close friends.

5. They formed their comedy group in 1948 at The Grafton Arms Pub & Rooms in Victoria, London. The publican, Jimmy Grafton, was an experienced comedy scriptwriter, who became their mentor, and Michael Bentine was also a regular there. Bentine, however, left after the second series, saying he wanted to pursue other projects, but it was also the case that he and Milligan weren’t getting along.

6. The shows had the format of comedy sketches separated by musical interludes. The Goons made several hit records including I'm Walking Backwards for Christmas (which a town in Australia wanted to tribute by holding a parade of people walking backwards through the town in 2003. Thanks to elf and safety, they weren’t allowed to do that so had to compromise by wearing their clothes back to front and walking forwards) and Bloodnok's Rock and Roll Call, although audiences liked the B side, Ying Tong Song, better and it was re-released as an A side in the 1970s and was a hit again. The last time the three Goons worked together was on a recording of two songs called The Raspberry Song and Rhymes.

7. Recurring characters on the show included Neddie Seagoon, Eccles, Bluebottle, Henry Crun. Minnie Bannister, Hercules Grytpype-Thynne, Count Jim Moriarty and Major Dennis Bloodnok. The latter is referred to in Shrek, when Shrek points out a constellation to Donkey and calls it 'Bloodnok the Flatulent'.

8. Famous fans of the show include the Monty Python team; John Lennon, who wrote “"I was 12 when The Goon Show first hit me, 16 when they finished with me. Their humour was the only proof that the world was insane.” Yoko Ono gave him 40 hours of Goon Show tapes on his 37th birthday; Elton John, who spent £14,000 at an auction of original Goon Show scripts in 1981; and the British Royal Family, including King Charles III, who was disappointed not to be able to attend the recording of The Last Goon Show of All in 1972 because he was on military duty with the Royal Navy at the time. Prince Philip and Princess Anne were in attendance, though. As Prince of Wales, Charles became a patron of The Goon Show Preservation Society in 1998 but it’s not clear yet whether as King, he will continue in that role. When students at the University of Cambridge challenged Prince Philip to a tiddlywinks match in 1958, he appointed The Goons as his royal champions to play the game on his behalf.

9. Alcohol was forbidden during rehearsals and recording of any BBC show, so the Goons mixed brandy with milk to hide the fact they were enjoying a tipple. The catchphrase "Round the back for the old brandy!" was used to announce the exit of a character or a musical interlude.

10. Most recordings of the early Goon Shows no longer exist because the BBC didn’t keep archives of everything it broadcast at that time.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

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21 January: Monte Carlo Rally

On this date in 1911 the first Monte Carlo car rally began. 10 things you might not know about the Monte Carlo rally.

1. Its official name is Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo, and it’s organised every year by the Automobile Club de Monaco. The Monte Carlo Rally is usually the first event of the World Rally Championship.

2. It was started by Prince Albert I with planning for the event starting at least a couple of years earlier. The purpose of the rally was to demonstrate improvements and innovations in cars, and to raise the profile of Monaco as a tourist destination.

3. At time of writing there have been 93 Monte Carlo rallies. They were not held during either of the world wars. It’s an older event than the Monaco Grand Prix, which started 18 years later.

4. The winner of the first rally was Henri Rougier, driving a 25hp Turcat-Méry, but the judging at that time was fairly arbitrary, focussing on how elegant and comfortable the car was, and how good a condition it was in at the end. Needless to say, not everyone has happy with this. A German driver called Von Esmark was particularly miffed as he thought the fact he’d achieved an average speed of 30kph on his 1,700km drive from Berlin should have counted for something.

5. Up until 1997, the format was basically that drivers would set off from various places in Europe and drive to Monaco. The rally now takes place along the hills of the French Riviera and south-east France. The different start points mean that weather and road conditions can vary considerably and could include snow and ice; so tyre choice is crucial in order to do well. It proved to be a showcase for the mini in the 1960s, as small and nimble cars have an advantage on roads with tight bends.

6. The winningest drivers all seem to be called Sébastien. Sébastien Loeb has won nine times and Sébastien Ogier seven. Ogier was also the winner with the narrowest margin, just 2.2 seconds ahead of his nearest rival, in 2019. The winningest team is Lancia, with 13 victories.

7. The most controversial rally was in 1966 when the first four finishers were all disqualified for having the wrong type of headlamps.

8. Brits don’t win very often. In fact, the last Brit to win was one Vic Elford in 1968, driving a Porsche 911. Since then, only three British drivers – Colin McRae, Guy Wilks, and Kris Meeke – have finished on the podium, with a runner up and three third places between them. Even so, after Elford, it was 30 years before Britain even made it to the podium again.

9. Possibly the most famous, and challenging, part of the rally is the Col de Turini. This stage is run from La Bollène-Vésubie to Sospel, or the other way around, over a mountain road with an average gradient of 6.7%, hairpin bends and usually snow and ice. Spectators have been known to make it even more dangerous by throwing even more snow onto the road. As if all that isn’t bad enough, the stage also takes place at night and has been nicknamed the "Night of the Long Knives" because of the bright headlamp beams cutting through the darkness.

10. In 2026 the rally begins on 29 January from six locations: Bad Homburg in Germany, Barcelona in Spain, Turin in Italy, Reims in France, Monte Carlo and John O' Groats in Scotland.

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/

20 January: King Arthur

Today is a Celtic holy day celebrating the day King Arthur was ferried to Avalon for the last time, after his fight with Mordred, to be tended by Morgan, Goddess of Healing. 10 facts about King Arthur:

1. He’s generally thought to be just a legend, but he may well have been based on a real historical person. The first mention of anyone vaguely like him dates to the ninth century when a monk called Nennius wrote about a fifth century warrior called Arthur who led an army against the Saxons. There’s no mention in Nennius’s writings about this Arthur ever being a king, however.

2. It was Geoffrey Monmouth who first made the legend we know today popular. He wrote the Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain) in the 12^th century, which he sold as a history of the British monarchy. This book included King Arthur and featured other characters from the legend, including Merlin and Guinevere. Historians today dismiss it as Medieval propaganda.

3. If Arthur and his compatriots were real, they probably didn’t look the way we tend to imagine them. We imagine knights in armour and stone castles, trappings of the 12^th century when Monmouth wrote his book. Arthur would have lived in the 5^th or 6^th centuries when castles were still made of wood, metal armour wasn’t a thing, and he would have been fighting Romans, not Saxons.

4. King Arthur’s parents were King Uther Pendragon and Lady Igraine. His conception was said to be magically aided by Merlin. Igraine died giving birth to him and Uther died not long after, so the young Arthur was adopted by a knight named Ector. He had no idea he was adopted until his adopted mother died and her son Kay told him.

5. Arthur had a famous sword, Excalibur. The best known legend of how he came to be in possession of it is that it had been embedded in a stone and only the true heir of England would be able to pull it out. The young Arthur was looking for a sword to use in some sword trials and came across the sword in the stone. He thought something along the lines of “That’ll do nicely” and pulled it out, thus revealing himself as the true king. The other version is that it was handed to him by the Lady in the Lake.

6. Nobody knows where his home and court, Camelot, was supposed to be. Cadbury Castle in Somerset, Tintagel Castle in Cornwall, Winchester and Caerleon in Wales are among the many places suggested as its location.

7. Camelot was home to the famous round table, around which Arthur and his knights would meet. The idea was that at a round table, nobody is sitting at the head or the foot, so everyone at the meeting is equal. There is a round table hanging on the wall of Winchester Castle, although it was actually put there by Henry VIII. Henry would have grown up hearing the tales as his father, Henry VII, was fond of them and claimed to have traced his family tree back to King Arthur himself, to strengthen his claim to the throne. He even named his eldest son Arthur, but this Arthur died before he could become a definite historical King Arthur, so it was his younger brother Henry who inherited the crown.

8. It’s said that King Arthur never died but is sleeping under a hill somewhere, and will return in Britain’s hour of greatest need. Since he didn’t appear at any point during world war 2, this is generally dismissed as mere legend. A couple of 12^th century monks in Glastonbury Abbey discovered a grave containing the bones of a man and woman, both very tall, and an inscription saying they were Arthur and Guinevere. We can’t be sure, however, that it wasn’t merely a publicity stunt to attract more visitors to Glastonbury.

9. If King Arthur died, it was fighting his son, Mordred, who’d stolen Excalibur and taken over the kingdom. Arthur was mortally wounded in the battle to get it back. His knights left him bleeding out and took the sword Excalibur and threw it back in the lake. It’s at this point that Morgan, goddess of healing, stepped in and took him to Avalon to try and save him.

10. These legends have inspired many writers and film makers over the centuries. Disney’s Sword in the Stone, DC Comics series Camelot 3000, Monty Python and the Holy Grail are among many re-tellings of the tales. Other works, such as Game of Thrones, draw heavily on the basic stories and are set in worlds similar to the one King Arthur is said to have lived in.

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/