10 December: Mark Twain

To celebrate the anniversary of the publication of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn on this date in 1884, here are ten quotes from its author, Mark Twain.

1. The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
2. To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.
3. You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
4. Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.
5. There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.
6. The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not.
7. But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?
8. It's no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.
9. Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.
10. Man is the only animal that blushes - or needs to.

9th December: John Milton

John Milton, who wrote Paradise Lost, was born on this date in 1608. Here are ten quotes from him.

1. A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit.
2. He who reigns within himself and rules passions, desires, and fears is more than a king.
3. The mind is its own place and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
4. The stars, that nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps with everlasting oil, give due light to the misled and lonely traveller.
5. They also serve who only stand and wait.
6. Who overcomes by force, hath overcome but half his foe.
7. Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.
8. Solitude sometimes is best society.
9. What is strength without a double share of wisdom?
10. Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself.

8th December: Ivy

Because today is the Day of Ivy in the French Revolutionary Calendar, and because Christmas is coming, 10 things you didn't know about Ivy.

1. There are about ten species of ivy, including English Ivy, Irish Ivy, Persian Ivy and Japanese Ivy. Ground Ivy, Boston Ivy and poison ivy are not related to the true ivies.
2. Hedera is the classical Latin name for the plant.
3. Ivy flowers are greenish-yellow with five small petals; they are produced in autumn to early winter and are very rich in nectar. There is a type of bee, Colletes hederae, or the ivy bee, which is completely dependent on ivy flowers, timing its entire life cycle around ivy flowering.
4. The berries are greenish Black, purple, or occasionally Yellow and appear in late winter or early spring. The berries are moderately toxic to humans but they taste very bitter so cases of ivy berry poisoning are rare. Birds, however, love them and the seeds are mostly dispersed through birds eating the berries.
5. The leaves contain a chemical called falcarinol, which can cause an allergic reaction (contact dermatitis) in some people. People who have this allergy are also likely to react to carrots as they also contain falcarinol.
6. Ivy attaches itself to trees and stone walls by means of adventitious or aerial roots, using glue and also by changing their shape to anchor the plant.
7. Despite being toxic, ivy has historically been associated with Wine. Along with the grapevine, it was a symbol of Dionysus, the Ancient Greek god of wine, agriculture, festivity and theatre. Dionysus is often depicted wearing a crown of ivy and carrying a wand or staff with Ivy wrapped around it, and topped with a pine cone. The association may have arisen because English ivy was said to grow abundantly over the mythical mountain of Nysa, the childhood home of Dionysus. In the Middle Agesa branch or bunch of ivy was often hung on a pole outside a tavern to indicate that the building sold wine or ale. The pole was known as an alepole or an alestake.
8. Ivy plays a role in the legend of Tristan and Isolde. Tristan was a Cornish knight and Isolde an Irish princess. Tristan went to Ireland to bring back Isolde as a bride for King Mark. However, Tristan and Isolde fell in love before they reached Cornwall after drinking a love potion. King Mark is so angry that when they die, he buries them in separate graves to keep them apart for eternity, but and ivy vine grows from each grave and they twine about each other. The king would cut the ivy back, but it would always grow back. Today ivy is often used at weddings, where it symbolises fidelity.
9. The Ivy League universities in the US (Harvard, Yale, Pennsylvania, Princeton, Columbia, Brown, Dartmouth and Cornell) are not thought to be named after the plant, although it grows on some of the buildings. The term "Ivy League" at first referred to the athletic league to which all eight universities belonged.
10. Christmas Carols of old often featured ivy in the lyrics, often alongside holly (eg. The Holly and the Ivy). Holly represented the masculine element, because of its prickles and harder leaves, while ivy represented the female element. They are both evergreen plants and so foliage could be brought in to decorate homes in winter, hence their association with Christmas. The carols are thought to have started as a debate about the relative merits of men and women. However, it is hardly mentioned in the above mentioned carol, apart from in the first verse.

My Christmas Novella!

A Very Variant Christmas

Last year, Jade and Gloria were embroiled in a bitter conflict to win back their throne and their ancestral home. This year, Queen Jade and Princess Gloria want to host the biggest and best Christmas party ever in their palace. They invite all their friends to come and bring guests. Not even the birth of Jade's heir just before Christmas will stop them.

The guest list includes most of Britain's complement of super-powered crime-fighters, their families and friends. What could possibly go wrong?

Gatecrashers, unexpected arrivals, exploding Christmas crackers and a kidnapping, for starters.

Far away in space, the Constellations, a cosmic peacekeeping force, have suffered a tragic loss. They need to recruit a new member to replace their dead colleague. The two top candidates are both at Jade and Gloria's party. The arrival of the recruitment delegation on Christmas Eve is a surprise for everyone; but their visit means one guest now faces a life-changing decision.

Meanwhile, an alliance of the enemies of various guests at the party has infiltrated the palace; they hide in the dungeon, plotting how best to get rid of the crime-fighters and the royal family once and for all. Problem is, they all have their own agendas and differences of opinion on how to achieve their aims.

Not to mention that this year, the ghosts who walk the corridors of the palace on Christmas Eve will be as surprised by the living as the living are by them.

Available from Createspace, Amazon and Amazon Kindle

7th December: Fridges

On this date in 1926, the household refrigerator, operating on gas, was patented by Electrolux Servel. Some little known facts about fridges.

1. In Pennsylvania it is illegal to sleep outdoors on top of a fridge.
2. Around 10-12% of a household energy bill is from running the fridge.
3. A third to a half of the cold air in the fridge escapes when the door is open - so to save money don't leave the fridge door open for any longer than necessary.
4. The temperature inside the fridge should be around 3-5 degrees. The ideal temperature for a freezer is -18 degrees.
5. The first refrigerator to see widespread use was the General Electric "Monitor-Top" refrigerator introduced in 1927, so-called because it looked like the gun turret on the warship USS Monitor.
6. Albert Einstein co-invented a refrigerator. He read about a family who had been killed by coolant leaking from their fridge, and with his former student Leo Szilard set out to invent a safer one. It was patented in 1930.
7. There have actually been a couple of films made about fridges. The 1938 film White Banners is about an amateur inventor who creates a refrigerator. The 1986 film The Mosquito Coast is about a man who “moved to the jungle and built a giant refrigerator.”
8. The largest fridge in the world is 27 kilometers long. It's not for keeping food and drink in, though. It was created to keep the Large Hadron Collider cool.
9. At the opposite extreme, in 2006, nanotechnology researchers at the University of Alabama and Belgium’s Hasselt University proposed an idea for the world’s smallest refrigerator. Known as a Brownian refrigerator, the molecular-scale device would theoretically be used to keep nanoscale machines cool and control temperatures during molecular biology experiments.
10. Another fridge related world record is held by Louise Greenfarb from Nevada - she has the world's biggest collection of fridge magnets - over 32,000 of them. She'd need the 27 kilometre fridge to put them on!!

6th December: Finland Independence Day

Finland gained independence from Russia on this date in 1917 - so here are 10 things you might not know about Finland:

1. There are 187,888 lakes larger than 500 m² and 179,584 islands within the territory of Finland. It is sometimes referred to as the Land of a Thousand Lakes.
2. It's also called the Land of the Midnight Sun, because at the height of summer, the Sun never sets in the far north. This means that in the depth of winter, the sun never rises.
3. Finnish and Swedish are the official languages of Finland. Helsinki is the name of the capital city in most languages, except Swedish. The Swedish call it Helsingfors.
4. There are around 2.2 million saunas in Finland, 1 for every 2.5 people. Finland also has the most heavy metal bands, with 53 per 100 000 people, including heavy metal band especially for children, Hevisaurus, who dress up as dinosaurs. However, there are no public telephones.
5. Finnish people drink more Coffee per person than any other country (12 kg per year) and the most Milk (around 1 quart per person per day).
6. Motorists must have their headlights on at all times when driving, regardless of the time of day or the weather. Traffic fines are based on the offender's income as well as the severity of the offence. In 2003, Jussi Salonoja was fined 170,000 Euros for driving 80 km/hr in a 40 km/hr zone, thought to be the most expensive speeding fine ever.
7. Finland hold world championships for several wacky sports, including wife carrying, mobile phone throwing, Mosquito catching, swamp soccer, boot throwing, sauna and air guitar. Even the losers are celebrated on Finland's annual Failure Day on October 13.
8. Finland was the first country in Europe to give women the vote. The men may well have regretted this decision, since the first thing women did with their new influence was bring in a ban on alcohol that was in force from 1919 to 1932.
9. Finnish inventions include the rescue toboggan, the Heart-rate monitor, salty liquorice (‘Salmiakki’), the Linux Operating System, ice skates, Angry Birds, the Molotov cocktail, the SMS and the sauna, which is the most used Finnish word outside of Finland.
10. A Finnish slang word for money is ‘oravannahka’, meaning squirrel skins, which were once used as currency. Today, they use Euros - but not the one or two cent coins.

December 5th: Christina Rossetti

Christina Rossetti was born on this date in 1830. Here are 10 quotes from her:

1. Better by far you should forget and smile than you should remember and be sad.
2. Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes, work never begun.
3. One day in the country is worth a month in town.
4. The birthday of my life is come, my love is come to me.
5. Life, and the world, and mine own self, are changed For a dream's sake.
6. Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I: But when the trees bow down their head, The wind is passing by.
7. Choose love not in the shallows but in the deep.
8. Tread softly! All the earth is holy ground.
9. I have no copper in my purse, I have no silver either, And all my gold is on the furze That shakes in windy weather.
10. Spring bursts today, For love is risen and all earth's at play.

4th December: Edith Cavell

Edith Cavell was born on this date in 1865, making today the 150th anniversary of her birth.

1. She was the eldest of four children of a Norwich Vicar.
2. She worked as a governess is Brussels before training as a nurse.
3. Her nursing training took place in East London, at the London Hospital under Matron Eva Luckes.
4. Working as a nurse in Belgium, Cavell decided that the nursing profession warranted a journal of its own, and so she launched one, L'infirmière. A year later, she was a training nurse for three hospitals, 24 schools, and 13 kindergartens in Belgium.
5. When war broke out, she was in England visiting her mother. She went back to Belgium to find that The Red Cross had taken over her nursing school.
6. Her crime was not, as many believe, espionage, but treason, namely helping wounded soldiers and civilians escape to countries at war with Germany.
7. She was arrested on 3 August 1915 and charged with harbouring Allied soldiers. She had been betrayed by Gaston Quien, who was later convicted by a French court as a collaborator.
8. The British Government declared it was powerless to help, but America, which had not yet joined the war, did apply diplomatic pressure. Hugh S. Gibson, First Secretary of the U.S. legation at Brussels, made clear to the German government that executing Cavell would harm Germany's already damaged reputation.
9. The night before her execution, she told the Reverend Stirling Gahan, the Anglican chaplain who had been allowed to see her and to give her Holy Communion, "Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone." Her final words to the German Lutheran prison chaplain, Paul Le Seur, were recorded as, "Ask Father Gahan to tell my loved ones later on that my soul, as I believe, is safe, and that I am glad to die for my country."
10. Initially buried by Belgian women near the prison, her body was returned to England after the war to be re-buried at Norwich Cathedral. When the ship carrying her body arrived in Dover, church bells were rung "with the bells deeply muffled" a practice usually reserved for the death of a sovereign - and a state funeral was held at Westminster Abbey. The date of her death, 12 October, is appointed for the commemoration of Edith Cavell.