7 February: Charles Dickens Quotes

10 Quotes from Charles Dickens, who was born on 7 February 1812.

1. Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.
2. The most important thing in life is to stop saying 'I wish' and start saying 'I will.' Consider nothing impossible, then treat possibilities as probabilities.
3. A very little key will open a very heavy door.
4. Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes.
5. No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.
6. Never close your lips to those whom you have already opened your heart.
7. Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.
8. Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own.
9. Time and tide will wait for no man, saith the adage. But all men have to wait for time and tide.
10. There was something very comfortable in having plenty of stationery.

See also: Facts about Charles Dickens

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6 February: Massachusetts Ratification Day

Massachusetts was one of the original 13 US states, the 6th state to ratify the Constitution in on this date in 1788.

1. The name Massachusetts comes from an Algonquian word which has been translated as "a big hill place", "near the great hill", "by the blue hills", "at the little big hill" or "at the range of hills".
2. The highest Point is Mt. Greylock at 3,491 feet (1,064m) above sea level. The largest city is Boston, which is also the capital.
3. The sports of Basketball and volleyball were both invented in Massachusetts. When it was first played in 1895, volleyball was known as "Mintonette".
4. Also invented in the state were chocolate chip cookies, Boston cream pie, frozen food, computers and Sewing machines.
5. The state can also lay claim to a number of American "firsts": the first public elementary school, the first public park, the first Lighthouse and the first subway system.
6. Massachusetts is also home to the coldest place in the known universe. It's in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is 810 trillionths of a degree Fahrenheit above absolute zero.
7. The paper for almost all US banknotes is produced in Massachusetts by a company called Crane & Co. Crane & Co. also exports paper to other countries for their banknotes.
8. State symbols include: Bird: Black-Capped Chickadee; Fish: Cod; Insect: Ladybird; Flower: Mayflower; Tree: American elm; Gem: Rhodonite and Beverage: Cranberry juice.
9. Four former US Presidents come from Massachusetts: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and George Herbert Walker Bush. Other famous people from here include writers Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa M Alcott, Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allen Poe, Jack Kerouac, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Dr Seuss; actors Ben Affleck, Bette Davis, Geena Davis, Matt LeBlanc, Leonard Nimoy, Kurt Russell, James Spader and Uma Thurman; talk show hosts Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien; artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler, singer Donna Summer; and inventors Samuel Morse and Alexander Graham Bell.
10. Things which are illegal in Massachusetts include happy hours, eating Peanuts in church, eating more than three Sandwiches at a funeral, selling ducklings, Rabbits or chicks that have been painted a different colour, frightening Pigeons and carrying a gorilla in the back seat of your car.

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February 5: Lichen

The French Revolutionary Calendar celebrated Lichen on 5 February. 10 things you might not know about lichen.

1. Lichens have been around for a very long time: there are fossil records of lichens dating back at least 400 million years, possibly as far back as 600 million years, making them one of the earliest life forms to exist on land.
2. Yet, it wasn't until 1867 that scientists began to work out what lichens actually are. They are hard to classify because they are a symbiosis between two or even more organisms which all come from different kingdoms. There will be a fungus, algae and/or bacteria living together. Swiss botanist Simon Schwendener was the first to propose the theory that this was the case.
3. The word lichen derives from the Greek verb "to lick".
4. There are approximately 20,000 different species of lichen. They can survive in some of the most extreme environments on Earth - there are 200 species that can be found in Antarctica, but they are also found in rain forests, mostly living on trees. A single site in Costa Rica yielded about 300 species of lichen on leaves. Many live on bare rocks and stones. They can even survive in space for at least 15 days without suffering damage.
5. Lichens are food for some species of caterpillar, and they are also a significant part of the diet of reindeer. Reindeer can forage for lichens under the Snow.
6. Can humans eat it? Yes, although there are some species which are toxic - these are usually Yellow. In Japan and Korea they eat a type of lichen called Iwatake or Seogi. In parts of northern Europe, people once made soups, breads or Porridge from it. In some places it served as an emergency food in times of hardship. Peoples of North America and Siberia eat the partially digested lichen from the stomachs of reindeer they have killed.
7. Science has made use of lichen. Litmus, which is used to determine how acidic or alkaline something is, comes from a type of lichen commonly called 'orchella weed'. Also, because lichen grows very slowly and lives a very long time it can be used to date things, such as how long a rock surface has been exposed. The word for this is Lichenometry. Although lichens are tough, they can still be extremely sensitive to changes in their environment, so scientists can observe lichens to detect pollution and contamination.
8. Some lichens are natural antibiotics and have been used in herbal medicines.
9. Another significant use humans have put lichens to is to make dyes. 2,000 years ago, people were making Red and Purple dyes from lichens. In Scotland, the traditional Harris Tweed colours were once made from lichen. Another use to which humans sometimes put lichen is to make miniature trees and shrubs for model railways.
10. Lichen has even found its way into literature. In Ruth 3:8, the original Hebrew version uses the word "vayilafeth", which is interpreted as Ruth entwining herself around Boaz like lichen. More recently, John Wyndham's novel Trouble with Lichen is about an anti-aging chemical extracted from lichen.

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February 4: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

On this date in 1938, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was released in the US. It was Disney's first full-length animated film. 10 things you might not know about the movie:

1. The original story was written in German by the Brothers Grimm in 1812. Their story wasn't the sweet and innocent Disney version but was actually quite violent and bloodthirsty. At the end of the Grimms’ tale, the queen is forced to dance herself to death in red-hot slippers.
2. The story was made into a silent film in 1916. Walt Disney went to see this film at the age of 15. He was so taken by it that he vowed on the spot he would one day make a version of the story himself.
3. Many people were skeptical about the financial viability of a full length animated feature, including Walt Disney's wife, Lillian and his brother, Roy. The film's budget was $250,000, but it ran over to $1.5 million. Walt was forced to mortgage his home to pay for production. Luckily for Walt (and probably his marriage!) the film was a huge success. It was the highest grossing film ever until it was surpassed by Gone with the Wind a year later. The profits from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs paid for the building of the Disney Studios in Burbank.
4. Dwarfs as the plural of dwarf was the correct spelling at the time. Only later did “dwarves” become more the popular spelling, largely down to JRR Tolkien using it in Lord of the Rings. The names of the dwarves were eventually chosen from a long list. We could just as easily have been watching Jaunty, Blabby, Dirty, Gabby, Biggy-Wiggy, Gaspy and Gloomy, or Hoppy-Jumpy, Hotsy, Nifty, Dirty, Jaunty, Biggo-Ego and Shifty. Perhaps Busy, Crabby, Daffy, Dumpy, Flabby, Helpful and Lazy; or even Scrappy, Sniffy, Snoopy, Stubby, Thrifty, Wheezy, and Awful. Another name considered was Deafy, dropped because nobody knew what it meant. The name Dopey was almost dropped, too, but Walt Disney liked it, and told the animation team that the word “dopey” was coined by William Shakespeare. (It wasn't, by the way – he lied to them).
5. Dopey was originally intended to have a voice – that of Mel Blanc, best known as the voice of Bugs Bunny. While on the subject of voices, I can mention that Lucille La Verne, the voice of the Wicked Queen, achieved her raspy voice by taking her teeth out, while the voice of the magic mirror, Moroni Olsen, had to say his lines while wearing a box frame covered with old drum heads over his head.
6. Snow White herself was voiced by Adriana Caselotti, the 19 year old daughter of Maria Callas's voice coach. Over 150 girls auditioned for the role, including Deanna Durbin, who Disney turned down because he thought her voice was “too mature”. She was 14. As for Adriana, she could never act or sing in any other films, stage shows or on the radio, due to a strict contract Disney made her sign to keep Snow White's voice unique and special. Her spoken voice, however, was heard again. In The Wizard Of Oz, in the scene where the Tin Man sings If I only Had A Heart, she is the (uncredited) voice that says "Wherefore art thou, Romeo?"
7. For Snow White's visual image, Disney hired dancer Marge Champion as a the live-action model for the animators. Marge went on to model dance moves for other characters including The Blue Fairy from Pinocchio, Maid Marion from Robin Hood, and the dancing hippo in Fantasia. She eventually married one of the animators, Art Babbitt. It wasn't only Snow White who had a live action model. Disney brought in a menagerie of animals into the studio for the animators to watch as well.
8. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first film to ever release a motion-picture soundtrack, including such songs as Some Day My Prince Will Come and Whistle While You Work. The songwriters were Frank Churchill and Larry Morey. They actually composed 25 songs for the film, of which only seven were used. A song called Music in Your Soup was among those which didn't make the cut.
9. The film counted among its fans Charlie Chaplin, who said the film “even surpassed our highest expectations. In Dwarf Dopey, Disney has created one of the greatest comedians of all time.” Sergei M. Eisenstein, who directed Battleship Potemkin said it was "the greatest film ever made." Perhaps its most unlikely fan was Hitler. He screened it in his home movie theatre and made sketches of the characters.
10. A sequel, titled Snow White Returns was planned, but it never left the pre-production stage and no-one knows why Walt abandoned it. However, in 2016 the studio announced two more films, a live action version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with a new script and new songs, and a live action spin off featuring Snow White's sister, Rose Red.

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February 3: British Yorkshire pudding day

British Yorkshire pudding Day First Sunday in February in the UK. In the US, there is a National Yorkshire Pudding Day on 13 October.

1. For the benefit of non-British readers, Yorkshire pudding is a side dish made from Eggs, flour, and Milk or Water, and can be served in any number of ways, both savoury and sweet, but is traditionally served with the Sunday roast dinner.
2. It's most associated with roast beef, but can be served with any roast meat. The British dish "Toad in the Hole" is sausages cooked inside a Yorkshire pudding. It can be served as dessert, too, with fruit and cream and even chocolate sauce made from Mars bars.
3. The origins of Yorkshire pudding are lost in the mists of time. The word "pudding" tends to be associated with dessert these days, but in old English it was a meat dish, similar to a sausage. The word in this usage survives today in black pudding or white pudding. The dish was traditionally cooked in the fat from roasting meat, or "dripping" and was called "dripping pudding". Or you might choose to believe that it was invented by Doctor Who - the 11th Doctor, Matt Smith, claimed to have invented Yorkshire pudding in one episode of the show.
4. If such things were eaten throughout England, why Yorkshire? One theory is that the coal industry in Yorkshire meant people could have bigger and hotter fires and could produce crispier puddings.
5. It was traditional to serve this dish as a starter, and is often said to be a trick to fill people up so they don't eat so much of the more expensive meat course. Poor people often didn't have meat at all, and would eat Yorkshire pudding instead of meat.
6. One of the earliest recipes for such a pudding was published in a book called The Whole Duty of a Woman, published in 1737. Ten years later, Hannah Glasse published her own version in The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy in 1747. It was Hannah Glasse who first described it as a "Yorkshire" pudding.
7. In 2008 the Royal Society of Chemistry declared that "A Yorkshire pudding isn't a Yorkshire pudding if it is less than four inches tall".
8. Outside of Yorkshire, the town which consumes the most Yorkshires is Newcastle Upon Tyne.
9. The largest Yorkshire pudding ever made was 500 feet (46.46 square metres) in area and was made in 1996 by members of Skipton Round Table. Skipton is in Yorkshire. Another record associated with Yorkshire pudding is the 2009 record for the largest roast dinner. 1,632 people tucked in to that, and Yorkshire pudding was naturally included.
10. 20 million Yorkshire puddings are made by Aunt Bessies every week for those who can't be bothered to make them from scratch. 60,000 people do online searches for the recipe each month, and there is even a web site dedicated to the dish: http://www.yorkshirepudd.co.uk/

See also: Yorkshire 

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February 2: Play Your Ukulele Day

Today is Play Your Ukulele Day. Here are ten things you might not know about this instrument.

1. The ukulele is a small instrument which resembles a Guitar but is actually a member of the lute family of instruments.
2. It's most often associated with Hawaii, and was considered its national instrument in the late 1800s by Queen Lydia Liliʻuokalani. King Kalākaua was another fan from the Hawaiian royal family - he incorporated it into performances at royal gatherings.
3. Although the instrument is associated with Hawaii, it didn't originate there. It evolved from an instrument called a machete which was brought to the islands by Portuguese sailors.
4. There are three possible origins of the word ukulele. Most often quoted is that it roughly translates as "jumping flea" in Hawaiian, possibly due to the way a player's fingers move. (incidentally, one method of tuning the instrument is to strum all four strings with the thumb and sing "My dog has fleas.") Another possibility is that it means "jumping men" because of the jumpy dance performed by some early musicians. The third possibility comes from Queen Lili‘uokalani, who used a more poetic version of the word, which could be interpreted as "a gift from afar".
5. Ukuleles come in four sizes - soprano, concert, tenor and baritone.The soprano is the standard size.
6. A ukulele has four strings tuned the the notes G-C-E-A.
7. Early ukulele strings were made from cat or sheep gut. Now they are usually made from nylon.
8. In the UK, the most famous ukulele player was George Formby. Tiny Tim also played one on his hit Tiptoe Through the Tulips. Other UK musicians who played the ukulele included Beatle George Harrison (who had a huge collection of them) and Pete Townshend.
9. The best selling song to feature the ukulele is Jason Mraz’s 2008 single I’m Yours (76 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and over 6 million downloads).
10. Other famous ukulele players include Ryan Gosling, Marilyn Monroe, Lucille Ball, Cyndi Lauper, Taylor Swift - and Neil Armstrong. When in quarantine after returning from the Moon, Armstrong would while away the hours playing his ukulele.

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February 1: Sir Stanley Matthews

Sir Stanley Matthews, the first British soccer player to be knighted, was born on this date in 1915. Some things you may not know about him.

1. His father, Jack, was a boxer (known as the "Fighting Barber of Hanley") and wanted his son to follow in his footsteps. By the age of 13, Stan knew he wanted to be a footballer. Jack eventually conceded that he could ditch boxing for Football if he was picked for the England Schoolboys. He was, of course, and the rest is history. By the time Jack died in 1945, he was reconciled to his son's football career, and on his deathbed, made him promise to win an FA Cup final.
2. As a child, he'd put kitchen chairs in the garden and practice dribbling around them. It paid off - one of his nicknames as a player was "The Wizard of the Dribble".
3. The first job he did for his first club, Stoke City, was as an office boy rather than a player. He started work in that capacity on his 15th birthday and was paid £1 a week. On his first day, he met Betty Vallance, daughter of Stoke City trainer Jimmy Vallance, who would become his first wife.
4. During the second world war, Matthews joined the RAF and rose to the rank of corporal. He reckoned he was one of the most lenient and easy-going NCOs in the forces.
5. He kept the promise he made to his father while playing for Blackpool in 1953. That game became known as The Matthews Cup Final of 1953. Blackpool were losing 3-1 against Bolton Wanderers. During the last 20 minutes of the game, Matthews turned things around and the final result was 4-3 to Blackpool.
6. He was the first player to win both the European Footballer of the Year and the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year awards. He's also the only football player to be knighted while still playing, although he retired five days later at the age of 50.
7. Although he played for Stoke City, he'd grown up a supporter of a rival team, Port Vale. When he retired from playing football, he did a stint as Port Vale's manager. However, the club didn't do well during that time. They were fined £4,000 in February/March 1968 and expelled from the Football League for financial irregularities. It was Matthews who pleaded with the Football League to get them re-instated, which worked, due to his fame and reputation as a footballer. At this point, he decided management was not for him and resigned.
8. He had better success as a coach for young players. During the summers, from 1953 to 1978, he'd travel to South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and Tanzania to coach poor children. In 1975 he formed an all black team called "Stan's Men" in Soweto, in spite of the apartheid laws of the time.
9. He met his second wife, Mila, in 1967. She was the translator on Port Vale's tour of Czechoslovakia. Matthews decided she was his soul mate, divorced Betty and married her. He died a year after she did.
10. There are two autobiographies of Stanley Matthews - Feet First, published in 1948 and The Way It Was, published in 2000.

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