8 July: Twister

On this date in 1966, a patent was granted for the game of Twister. 10 things you might not know about Twister.

1. Twister was invented by Ron Guyer, when he was working in his father’s ad design office trying to come up with an idea for an ad for shoe polish when he suddenly had a completely unrelated idea: What if there was a game where the players are the pieces?

2. Guyer experimented with a few ideas and eventually applied for a patent for the game we know today, although his original name for it was “Pretzel” because that was what the players would end up looking like.

3. Pretzel, however, was already in use as a name for a toy dog already on the market, so toy company Milton Bradley changed the name to Twister. Guyer hated the name, however, as he associated it with deadly Tornadoes and not a fun evening playing games with family and friends.

4. Its first tagline was ‘The game that ties you up in knots.’

5. It got off to a rocky start because some retailers, including Sears, decided it was too racy to sell. They called it ‘sex in a box’ and boycotted it. Even some executives at Milton Bradley agreed and thought mixed sex games would be in poor taste. Even using cartoon characters on the box rather than photographs of real people failed to placate the detractors.

6. The company were about to give up on Twister, but they’d already forked out for a promotional slot on Johnny Carson’s show. That went ahead, with Carson playing Twister with actress Eva Gabor. Which, you’d think, would only reinforce the risqué reputation. In any event, the public loved it. The day after the show aired, people were queuing outside Abercrombie and Fitch, one of the few shops which hadn’t boycotted the game. Guyer says. “By Christmas 1966, we were the game of the year.” There were subsequent press reports that teenagers were playing the game naked, which would have dealt a severe blow in relatively prudish 1960s America, but it all blew over and Twister, and the company, survived.

7. Twister was banned in Germany, not because it was too sexy, but because at the time, it was frowned upon in that country for women to take their shoes off in public.

8. Colour blind and even totally blind people can play, thanks to adaptations to make it more accessible, using textures and Braille. Sighted players can join in wearing blindfolds. Blindfolded Twister is an accessible variant with four different tactile symbols on the mat.

9. In 2015, Twister was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.

10. The record for the world’s largest Twister board was set in 2015 country music singer Thomas Rhett spliced together 1200 regular-sized mats to create a 27,159 square-foot playing area as a publicity stunt at one of his concerts. The record for the most players, however, wasn’t broken at this event. The 1987 record of 4,160 players was still held by students at the University of Massachusetts.

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/

7 July: Jon Pertwee

Born on this date in 1919: Jon Pertwee, actor best known for playing Doctor Who, the third incarnation of the Doctor from 1970 to 1974, and as the title character in the series Worzel Gummidge.

1. His surname is an Anglicisation of "Perthuis", "de Perthuis de Laillevault", a family of counts descended from Charlemange. Pertwee himself was born in Chelsea.

2. One of his childhood friends was Christopher Robin Milne.

3. He got expelled from several schools, once for swinging from lavatory chains, pretending to be Tarzan. He was expelled from RADA as well, although accounts differ as to the reason. Some say he wrote rude words on the toilet walls; others say it was because he refused to play a Greek wind in a play.

4. He was a top class scuba diver and water skier and loved fast cars and motorbikes. His love of bikes was lifelong. As a schoolboy he worked as a circus performer riding the wall of death on a motorcycle with a toothless Lion in the sidecar; and he was still riding his last bike, a Honda VT500E, at the age of 74.

5. He served in the Navy and British Intelligence. During his time in the Navy, he got drunk one night and got a tattoo of a cobra on his arm, and narrowly missed being a casualty on HMS Hood, sunk by the Bismark. He’d transferred off the Hood days earlier for officer training. He went on to serve in the top secret Naval Intelligence Division, reporting directly to Prime Minister Winston Churchill. One of his colleagues there was future James Bond author Ian Fleming, giving rise to rumours that he was one of the people used as inspiration for Bond.

6. He and his brother Michael were founder members of The Waistcoat Club, set up in 1953 as a protest against the drabness of male attire. Pertwee collected waistcoats and had a huge collection, some of which were 300 years old. Peter Cushing was also a member.

7. Although most famous for playing Doctor Who, his favourite role was that of Worzel Gummidge. As Worzel, he had a hit record in 1980 with Worzel's Song, and specified in his will that he wanted to be cremated with an effigy of Worzel attached to his coffin. That didn’t go entirely to plan as the effigy fell off the coffin as the curtains closed. "That's Jon for you. Always playing it for laughs", opined one of the mourners present.

8. His favourite Doctor Who episode was The Dæmons: Episode One (1971) and his favourite aliens were the Draconians from the 1973 story Frontier in Space. His favourite song was Georgia on My Mind by Ray Charles. His favourite animated film was Aladdin, and he would have arguments with his friend Spike Milligan over which of them was the biggest Aladdin fan.

9. Pertwee was considered for the role of Captain Mainwaring in Dad's Army and also that of Alfred Pennyworth in a Batman adaptation starring Harrison Ford that Stephen Spielberg almost made. His son Sean would play the role of Alfred in Gotham in 2014.

10. He wrote two autobiographies: Moon Boots and Dinner Suits in 1984 and I Am The Doctor in 1996.

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/

6 July: George W Bush quotes

This date in 1946 saw the birth of former US President George W Bush. 10 quotes from him:

1. There is but one just use of power and it is to serve people.

2. Leadership to me means duty, honour, country. It means character, and it means listening from time to time.

3. We will not waver, we will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail. Peace and freedom will prevail.

4. If you don't succeed, you run the risk of failure.

5. Wine is like beer except different.

6. The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country.

7. The thing that's wrong with the French is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur.

8. They misunderestimated me.

9. One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures.

10. Always chew on your pretzels before you swallow.

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/

5 July: 186

Welcome to day 186 of the year. 10 fun 186 facts.

1. The Intel 80186, a microprocessor and microcontroller introduced in 1982, is sometimes known as the 186 for short.

2. 186 Celuta is a Main belt asteroid discovered by Paul Henry and Prosper Henry in 1878. The asteroid is named after Céluta, a female character in two works of fiction by Francois Rene de Chateaubriand.

3. The A186 is a road in Tyne and Wear, England. It runs between the A1 Junction 75, and the eastern end of the A69 to the A192 in Whitley Bay. It follows the old A69 into Newcastle Upon Tyne city centre.

4. The Permanent Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) Subclass 186 is a type of visa that allows an employer in Australia to nominate someone from overseas to migrate to Australia permanently.

5. Kosmos 186, along with Kosmos 188 was a Soviet Union spacecraft that incorporated a Soyuz programme descent module for landing scientific instruments and test objects. It was launched on 27 October 1967.

6. London bus route 186 runs from Brent Cross Shopping Centre to Northwick Park Hospital Social Club.

7. 186 Dollars to Freedom is a 2012 film directed by Camilo Vila, about a surfer from California who gets thrown into a political prison in Peru.

8. The year 186 was a common year starting on Saturday, known at the time as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelius and Glabrio. In this year, Peasants in Gaul staged an anti-tax uprising.

9. Lectionary 186 is a Greek manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment leaves.

10. In numerology, 186 resonates with family, nurturing and harmony. People under its influence will be particularly focussed on the well being of their family. The energy stimulates nurturing of ideas and people, self-reliance, realistic planning, and independent thinking.

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/

4 July: Calvin Coolidge Quotes

Today, ten quotes from Calvin Coolidge, 30th president of the United States, serving from 1923 to 1929. He was born on this date in 1872.

1. Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

2. Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.

3. The things I never say never get me into trouble.

4. Silence can never be misquoted.

5. You can't know too much, but you can say too much.

6. There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no one independence quite so important, as living within your means.

7. It takes a great man to be a good listener.

8. You don't have to explain something you never said.

9. I did not see the sense in chasing a little white ball around a field.

10. It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.

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/

3 July: 184

Today is day 184 of 2026 (and, indeed, any other non-leap year) so here are 10 fun facts about the number 184.

1. There are 184 paths by which a Chess rook can travel from one corner of a 4 × 4 chessboard to the opposite corner without passing through the same square twice.

2. 184 Dejopeja is a large asteroid discovered by Johann Palisa in 1878, and named after Deiopea, a Roman nymph.

3. In March 2026 the results of a study by Exeter’s Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour was published. The researchers studied 184 bull sharks in Fiji and discovered that sharks might make friends.

4. The A184 is a road in England connecting Sunderland and Gateshead.

5. The Group of 184 was a group of 184 Haitian individuals and organisations in various sectors, from business to media and education, that opposed Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his Fanmi Lavalas party. The name is frequently shortened to G184.

6. London bus 184 runs from Turnpike Lane Bus Station to Chesterfield Road, Barnet.

7. Running the 184 is a 2016 documentary film directed by Greg Lassik, following a man aiming to run across the entire state of New Jersey. The film includes interviews and training sessions, and the 184 mile run itself.

8. The Short Admiralty Type 184, often called the Short 225 after the power rating of the engine first fitted, was a British two-seat reconnaissance, bombing and torpedo carrying folding-wing seaplane designed by Horace Short of Short Brothers.

9. Some physicists have proposed that 184 is a magic number for neutrons in atomic nuclei.

10. In numerology, the person who lives with number 184 energy is likely to be focused on ways and means to enhance their standing in the community and their financial resources, for the present and for the future. They are independent, methodical and comfortable dealing with large amounts of data. 184 has a good sense of what's right, is loyal, honest, conscientious and sincere.

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/

2 July: Blithe Spirit

On this date in 1941, 85 years ago, Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit premièred in London. Ten facts about the play.

1. The title is taken from Shelley's poem To a Skylark, ("Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! / Bird thou never wert").

2. What’s it about? A novelist called Charles Condomine holds a séance at his house in order to gather material for his next book. The clairvoyant medium is called Madame Arcati. The séance has the unfortunate side effect of summoning the ghost of Condomine’s deceased first wife, Elvira, who continues to haunt him afterwards and tries to disrupt his second marriage to Ruth. Charles can see and hear the ghost; Ruth cannot. Elvira’s plot to get Charles to join her in the spirit world by sabotaging his car backfires when Ruth uses the car and is killed instead. Her spirit returns to get revenge on Elvira. Charles can’t see Ruth, but can tell something is tormenting Elvira. He calls Madame Arcati back to exorcise both the spirits, but instead she unintentionally materialises Ruth. It turns out, one of the housemaids is psychic and has been the conduit for the ghosts. With that knowledge, Madame Arcati manages to make the ghosts vanish, but warns that just because Charles can’t see them doesn’t mean they are not still there potentially causing havoc and that he should move as far away as possible. He takes her advice and after he leaves the ghosts trash the house.

3. Coward had been toying with the idea of a play about ghosts for some time. His original idea was not unlike the concept of the BBC TV series Ghosts: an old house haunted by spirits from different periods in history, only set in Paris, with humour arising from their different attitudes to things. However, he could never quite figure out an exact plot.

4. The breakthrough came after Coward’s flat was bombed during The Blitz and he took a holiday in Wales, Portmeirion on the coast of Snowdonia, to be exact. His companion for the trip was Joyce Carey, an actress who was writing a play about John Keats. Sitting on the beach one morning, Coward ended up bouncing ideas off of Carey and later wrote that by lunchtime he had a basic plot, the title and the names of the main characters. The next morning, Coward sat down at a Typewriter and started writing.

5. The script changed little from that first draft, although he did tone down some of Madame Arcati’s humorous lines as he decided she should be a person who took herself rather seriously.

6. He had to change the name of one person referred to in the séance. The late “old Mrs Leggatt” had to change because of a tragic event in real life. Lord Monkton’s secretary Shelagh Leggatt was killed in a plane crash around that time and it made the news. The script was immediately changed to say ‘Mrs Plummet’, which, you could argue, wasn’t much better!

7. The reception from critics was positive. The Manchester Guardian thought it "not untouched by genius of a sort”, and The Times said it compared favourably, not only with Coward’s previous plays but also with Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.

8. This was in spite of initial reservations that writing a comedy about death in the middle of a world war was a bit of a risk. The risk paid off, though, and showed Coward’s sheer talent as he was able to pull it off. Blithe Spirit ran for 1,997 performances, a new record for a non-musical play in London.

9. Charles Condomine was played by Coward himself at some points during the play’s tour and also by John Gielgud. The role of Madam Arcati has been taken on by some big names, too. Actors who have played her include Margaret Rutherford (in the original 1941 production), Beryl Reid, Dora Bryan, Penelope Keith, Alison Steadman, Hattie Jacques, Angela Lansbury and Jennifer Saunders. Twiggy also played Elvira in one production.

10. Blithe Spirit has been turned into a musical, High Spirits, and has been adapted for film twice, in 1945 and 2020. It has also been adapted for TV and radio.

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/

1 July: Estee Lauder

Cosmetics businesswoman Estée Lauder was born on this date in 1908. Here are some thing you might not know about her.

1. She was born in Queens, New York and her parents gave her the name Josephine Esther Mentzer. Esther was to be her first name, after a much loved great aunt, but her parents decided at the last minute to name her Josephine with Esther as her middle name. It didn’t stick; she was soon nicknamed Esty and ‘Estée’ was a variation of that.

2. Her father had a hardware store and the young Estée would often help out there. It was here she developed a taste and aptitude for business. Although she did harbour a dream of becoming an actress, with her "name in lights, Flowers and handsome men".

3. Fashion and beauty were early interests, and when an uncle from Hungary came to stay, who happened to be a skin specialist, she started helping him out, and learned from him.

4. In her early twenties, she met and married Joseph Lauter, who later changed his name to Lauder. They were married for nine years before Estée decided she’d married too young and wanted to experience all the aspects of life she had missed, and so they divorced. She soon realised she’d made a mistake and had given up the "sweetest husband in the world". They remarried three years after the divorce and stayed together until Joseph died in 1983.

5. In 1946, Estée and Joseph Lauder founded ‘Estée Lauder cosmetics. Initially, they sold just four products. Estée strongly believed that the ideal beauty routine didn’t need to be complicated and involve more than a few key products. She believed 3 minutes morning and evening were enough to spend on beauty routines. “Never sell a customer what she doesn’t want or need,” she wrote. Hence their early range was limited, including Skin treatments, a rouge, and a makeup base. She would go to beauty salons and demonstrate her products to women as they sat under the hairdryer.

6. There’s a story, which may or may not be true, that on one occasion Estée went to sell a perfume to a Department store, but they turned it down. She went out into the shop and smashed a bottle of that perfume on the floor. When customers started asking what that fragrance was, the store had to change their minds and place an order.

7. In 1953, women generally didn’t buy perfume for themselves but rather had to wait for their husbands to buy it for them as a gift. Estée had the idea of combining a perfume with a bath oil, which women would buy for themselves. Hence they could also get as much perfume as they wanted whenever they liked.

8. Her company’s innovations included the first night serum, as she understood that skin repairs itself mostly at night and the texture of a serum was the best to penetrate the skin and aid the process. She invented the “Gift with Purchase” concept, now a standard industry practice. She was also the first to produce a high-end fragrance for men, Aramis, in 1963.

9. It was important to Estée to know her employees personally, even when the company grew into a large corporation. She made sure to meet all prospective employees in person. “I don’t look at their resumes…I look at them,” she said. “My decision is based on chemical reaction."

10. She was the first woman to receive the Chevalier class of the Legion of Honour from the Consul General of France in 1978; and was the only woman on Time Magazine's 1998 list of the 20 most influential business geniuses of the 20th century.

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/

30 June: Strontium

On 30 June 1808 Davy reported to the Royal Society that he had successfully isolated strontium metal for the first time. 10 facts about this element.

1. The chemical symbol for strontium is Sr and its atomic number is 38.

2. It’s a soft silver-white yellowish metallic element which is highly chemically reactive. It is softer than Calcium and harder than Barium.

3. Its melting point is 777 °C and its boiling point is 1377 °C.

4. It was first discovered in 1790 by Adair Crawford and William Cruickshank, who were scientists working on the production of barium, and noticed that an ore found in Lead mines was similar, but also had different properties. Crawford therefore concluded it must be “a new species of earth which has not hitherto been sufficiently examined."

5. The new element was named for Strontian, a village in Scotland close to the lead mines where it was first discovered.

6. Strontium is the 15th most abundant element on Earth.

7. In the 19^th century, its main use was to extract Sugar from sugar beets, using a now obsolete method called the strontian process. In the 20^th century, it was used in the manufacture of cathode ray tubes for Televisions, which has now declined in favour of other display methods. Today, alloys of it have various uses: Strontium aluminate is used in glow in the dark toys; strontium carbonate and other strontium salts are added to Fireworks to give a deep red colour; strontium chloride is sometimes used in Toothpastes for sensitive teeth.

8. Due to its similarities to calcium, the human body can absorb it in a similar way so it can be found in bone. Naturally occurring isotopes are not hazardous to heath at low levels.

9. The same is not true of strontium-90, which is synthetic and highly radioactive, one of the most dangerous components of nuclear fallout, because the body takes it in like calcium.

10. Strontium Dog is a British comics series starring a character called Johnny Alpha, a mutant bounty hunter in Earth's future, after a nuclear war. The series was created in 1978 by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra for Starlord, a short-lived weekly science fiction comic. When Starlord was cancelled, the series transferred to the British science fiction weekly 2000 AD.

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/

29 June: Photographs

As today is National Camera Day, here are ten facts about photographs.

1. The oldest surviving photograph was taken by Joseph Niepce about 200 years ago and was titled ‘view from the Window’. The view was of Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, France, and is of a castle and some other buildings. It took 8 hours to record this image.

2. The first photograph of a person was taken in 1828 by Louis Daguerre, entirely by accident. What Daguerre intended to do was take a picture of a street in Paris, but it just so happened that there was a man getting his Shoes polished in the street at the time and so he, and presumably the person shining his shoes, became the first humans to be photographed.

3. A study conducted by Kelsey Blackburn and James Schrillo from Wake Forest University concluded that our "best side" in a photo is the left side of the face, which tends to show more intense emotion and so is seen as more attractive.

4. The first colour photograph was taken by Tomas Sutton in 1861. He used Red, Green and Blue filters which he layered and then projected onto a plate. It was a picture of a multicoloured ribbon.

5. Photos of Cats are nothing new. A man called Harry Pointer dressed his cat up in a little suit and hat and took a picture of it in the 1870s.

6. The most expensive photograph ever is Man Ray’s Le Violon d’Ingres, a picture of a woman with musical symbols on her bare back. It sold in 2022 for $12,400,000. The photo is over 100 years old.

7. There’s no statistic for how many photographs are taken in the world ever day, but it’s estimated that more than a trillion are taken every year.

8. The photograph which has been seen by the most people is the default wallpaper for Windows XP. It’s the one of fields and a blue Sky with fluffy clouds. It has a name: it’s called Bliss and it was taken by Charles O’Rear in 1996. However, he took it for a stock website and so it didn’t make him rich.

9. Looking at old photographs, it would seem that the Victorians didn’t smile much. The reason they’re not smiling is because they had to pose for as much as several hours, and it was just to much effort to smile for that long.

10. Another reason might be that the person in the photo was dead. It was a common practice in the 19^th century to take photos of recently deceased family members posed as if they were alive as a keepsake to remember them by.

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/

28 June: Earrings

Today is International Body Piercing Day, so here are some facts about the most common jewellery worn in piercings: earrings.

1. The wearing of earrings goes back a long way. Earrings made of Gold, lapis lazuli, and carnelian were found in ancient sites in Lothal, India, and in a Sumerian Royal Cemetery at Ur from the Early Dynastic period. Gold, Silver and bronze hoop earrings were worn in the Minoan Civilization (2000–1600 BCE).

2. They were often primarily worn by men rather than women. Friezes from the Persian Empire during the Achaemenid dynasty (550–330 BC), show warriors wearing earrings. Otzi the Iceman had pierced Ears and so did Tutenkhamen.

3. Fashions changed over the ages. In the middle ages, women wore headdresses which covered the ears, so earrings went right out of fashion. By the 16^th century, earrings were back with Pearl earrings being especially popular. They were worn by men during this era, too. Shakespeare, Sir Walter Raleigh and Francis Drake all wore gold earrings. The Victorians considered piercings vulgar and inappropriate, so they went out of fashion again in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Earlobe stretching, common in indigenous cultures for thousands of years, began to appear in Western society in the 1990s.

4. Some ancient peoples believed that evil spirits could get into a person’s body through its orifices, so some early earrings would have been amulets to keep demons out of a person’s ears.

5. Ancient doctors believed that earrings cured headaches and improved eyesight.

6. Sailors wore them almost like badges or medals. A sailor who’d crossed the equator, sailed all around the world, or survived a shipwreck would be entitled to an ear piercing. They’d often choose gold earrings as a kind of funeral plan – they could be used to pay for their burial when they died.

7. In India, babies often have their ears pierced soon after birth. In the West, cheap ear piercings have been offered by jewellery stores aimed at young women. In Ancient Egypt, they were possibly only worn by children, which was evidenced by the fact that Tutankhamun’s mummy wasn’t wearing any despite having pierced ears, although there were some buried in the tomb. The burial mask's ears were perforated, but the holes were covered with golden discs.

8. The term "ear piercing" usually refers to an earlobe piercing. Piercings elsewhere on the ear are often referred to as "cartilage piercings". These take longer to heal than the earlobe variety.

9. 13 April is National Silly Earring Day.

10. Finally, some earring related world records. The record for the largest collection of earrings is held by American Carol McFadden who started collecting them in 1952 and in 2006 had 37,706 different pairs. In 2020, Ramkumar Sarangapani of Dubai created the largest pair, which measure 200 cm (78.74 in) in height and were designed as a replica of the Dubai Frame. GRT Jewellers in India created the heaviest earrings ever, to mark their 60th anniversary. They weighed in at 3.527 kg (7 lbs 12 oz) and are made of 22K gold. They don’t hold the record for the most expensive pair of earrings, though. That award goes to the Apollo and Artemis Diamonds, which sold for over $57 million.

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/

27 June: Ganymede

On this date in 1996 Galileo, NASA’s Jupiter probe, passed within 524 miles of its moon Ganymede. 10 things you might not know about Ganymede.

1. It was named after a beautiful boy in Greek mythology who was carried off by Zeus disguised as an eagle. He became the cup bearer to the gods. Zeus, of course, is the Greek equivalent of the Roman god Jupiter.

2. Ganymede was discovered by Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei on Jan. 7, 1610, along with three other large moons. This was the first time any planet other than Earth was found to have a moon.

3. The diameter of Ganymede is 3,270 miles (5,260 kilometres), which means it is the biggest moon in the solar system and is actually bigger than Mercury and Pluto.

4. It is 665,000 miles (1,070,000 kilometres) from Jupiter and takes about a week to orbit the planet. It’s tidally locked with Jupiter, so the same side always faces the planet; and it’s in what’s called an orbital resonance with Io and Europa. Every time Ganymede orbits Jupiter once, Europa orbits twice, and Io orbits four times. It’s this which has caused these moons to maintain eccentric orbits.

5. Ganymede is the only moon known to have its own magnetic field.

6. There may be more water on Ganymede than on Earth. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has found evidence that there could be a massive underground saltwater ocean on Ganymede which is ten times deeper than the oceans on Earth. This ocean is covered by a 95-mile (150-kilometer) crust of ice. Since scientists believe it was the interaction of salt water and rock which first caused the appearance of life, and there’s also a small amount of Oxygen in the atmosphere.

7. Daytime surface temperatures on Ganymede range from -297 to -171 degrees Fahrenheit (90 to 160 Kelvin). It takes sunlight 43 minutes to reach it.

8. Surface features on Ganymede are named after Near Eastern, Middle Eastern and Egyptian deities.

9. It has inspired a number of science fiction writers and has appeared in books and TV shows including The Expanse and Red Dwarf. Arthur C Clarke was inspired by images from Voyager 2 of grooved ridges cutting across parts of Ganymede, and created Ganymede City for his novel 3001: The Final Odyssey. Robert A Heinlein used Ganymede as a setting, too, in Farmer in the Sky.

10. There is a spacecraft from Earth on its way to Ganymede as I write. It’s called The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), and it was launched on 14 April 2023. It’s expected to enter orbit around Ganymede in 2032, and crash land on the moon in 2034.

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/

26 June: Shallots

In the French Revolutionary Calendar, today is Echalote (Day of the Shallot). Here are 10 things you didn’t know about shallots.

1. The Latin name for shallots is Allium cepa. They belong to the Amaryllidaceae family, so are closely related to Onions, Garlic, and Leeks, and more distantly to Tulips, Hyacinths, aloe vera and Asparagus.

2. Shallots are native to Asia and have been cultivated for over four thousand years. Exactly where in Asia they originally came from is debated among experts.

3. The name derives from the ancient city of Ascalon, which was located in modern day Israel. The people of Ascalon traded with the Greeks and people in Greece called these vegetables Onions of Ascalon, which eventually evolved into the name we know them by today.

4. Crusaders returning from the middle east was another means by which the popularity of shallots spread across Europe.

5. There are about 13 commonly cultivated varieties, including the French red shallot, the Persian shallot and the French grey shallot. The latter is also known as griselle or "true shallot" and grows in the wild from Central to Southwest Asia.

6. They grow in clusters of cloves, rather like garlic, encased in a papery skin which ranges in colour from copper, gold, pale Pink, to Red.

7. Raw shallots can irritate the eyes as onions do, despite having a milder flavour.

8. They are widely used in French cuisine in roasts, stews, and sauces. Asian cuisines make use of them too, not only in curries and stews, but also finely sliced and deep fried with Porridge. They are also pickled and used as a condiment.

9. A raw shallot is 80% water, 17% carbohydrates, 2.5% protein and contains negligible fat. Shallots are a source of vitamins C and B6, and manganese.

10. In Asia, Shallots are used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine to internally heat the body to induce detoxification and are believed to help increase immunity against sickness. They have also been used to get rid of freckles, as a cold remedy, for pain relief and as a mild diuretic. Non-medical or culinary uses include insect repellent, stopping metals from rusting and for polishing copper and glass. The skin produces a yellow-brown dye. While still growing in the ground, the whole plant is said to repel Moles and insects.

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