July 22nd: Dog Days

We are currently in the middle of the dog days. So here are some facts about man's best friend you may not have been aware of:

1. Nobody really knows how dogs came to be "man's best friend" (a phrase first coined by Frederick the Great and popularised by Ogden Nash). It's generally believed that dogs were descended from the Wolves which were attracted to human habitation. There is archaeological evidence that people were buried with their dogs 14,000 years ago and there is a dog cemetery in Utah which is 11,000 years old. The first identifiable breed was a type of greyhound used for hunting around 9,000 BC.
2. There are over 400 breeds of dog today, and that's not counting cross-breeds and mutts! Many of the breeds we are familiar with today originated as recently as the Victorian era, when a lot of selective breeding went on. Thanks to the Victorians, at least in part, dogs show more variation within one species than any other land mammal.
3. The Great Dane is the tallest dog in the world, while the St. Bernard is the heaviest. The biggest dog ever was an English Mastiff which weighed 155.6 kg (343 lb) and measured 250 cm (98 in) from nose to tail. The smallest breed is the Chihuahua, but the record for the smallest adult dog ever goes to a Yorkshire Terrier, which was only 6.3 cm (2.5 in) at the shoulder, 9.5 cm (3.7 in) long, and weighed 113 grams (4.0 oz). Other extremes: the fastest breed is the greyhound, which can run up to 45 mph, whereas a pug can only run at 3-5mph. Border collies, poodles, German shepherds, golden retrievers and dobermans are thought to be the most intelligent breeds and Afghan hounds the dumbest. Dogs in general are as intelligent as a two year old human child. Beagles and border collies bark the most while a basenji doesn't bark at all - it yodels instead! Most dogs can swim apart from Bassett hounds. Newfoundlands are particularly good at swimming because they have webbed feet and are used as maritime rescue dogs. One breed, the Norwegian Lundehund, has six toes on each foot. In the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, the most popular breed of dog is the Labrador.
4. One last thing about breeds. Great Danes don't come from Denmark. They come from Germany and are Germany's national dog. Poodles, despite being the national dog of France, also originated in Germany.
5. Dogs have an excellent sense of smell. A human has 5 million scent glands - a dog has 125 million to 300 million depending on the breed. The area of a dog's brain that processes smell is 40 times larger than the equivalent area of the human brain. The fact dogs have wet noses helps them absorb scents as well, and a dog will also lick its nose to get the scent in its mouth as well. Plus when they exhale, they do so through the side of their nose so they can hold on to the scent chemicals they are breathing in. That's why dogs are used to sniff things out, from explosives to drugs to people buried in avalanches. It's true they can smell fear, and other human emotions, too. They've also been known to detect health problems, like the onset of a seizure or low insulin levels in diabetics and can be trained as assistance dogs to people who suffer from these conditions. It might even be possible to use dogs to diagnose cancer in humans. A dog's nose is as unique as a human fingerprint.
6. A dog has at least 18 muscles in its ear. Humans can hear sounds ranging from 64 to 23,000 hertz, whereas a dog can hear in the range of 67 to 45,000 hertz. So they can hear things we can't. If your dog acts strangely when you listen to the Beatles song A Day in the Life it might be because the Beatles included a dog whistle in the song which is inaudible to humans.
7. It's a myth that dogs can only see in Black and White. They don't see colour as well as we do, but they can see blues and yellows as well as shades of Grey. Their eyes differ from ours in that they have three eyelids, an upper one, a lower one, and a third, called a "haw" which helps keep their eyes moist.
8. When dogs poo, they tend to position themselves in alignment with the Earth's magnetic field. When they kick over their deposits, it's not to bury it but as an additional marker of their territory as there are scent glands on their paws. Dogs' wee can do a lot of damage - surveys in Derbyshire and Croatia have found that dogs relieving themselves against lampposts is a major cause of lampposts collapsing. Dog wee is also a major threat to Battersea Bridge in London as so many owners walk their dogs across the bridge to nearby Battersea Park.
9. Dogs curl up when they go to sleep because they evolved to do so - it protects their vital organs. Another dog behaviour we often observe is tail wagging. While dogs do wag their tails to show they are happy, you can't assume a tail wag means a dog is happy. They wag their tails when they are frightened, insecure or even aggressive.
10. There are around 900 million dogs on the planet, although not all of them are family pets. Especially in developing countries, many are feral dogs. They are the most popular type of pet, though, with 60% of households in the US owning a dog. The most common names given to dogs, in English speaking countries at least, are Max, Molly, Maggie or Jake.

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21st July: Tate Gallery opened

On this date in 1897 London's Tate Gallery, now known as Tate Britain, opened.

1. When it first opened, it was called the National Gallery of British Art and was founded when Sir Henry Tate, of Tate and Lyle sugar fame, a major collector of Victorian art, offered to fund the building of a gallery for British Art on the condition that the State pay for the site and revenue costs. He donated his own collection to start things off. It was controlled by the National Gallery until 1954. Another fact about Henry Tate - he introduced sugar cubes to the UK.
2. It was built on the site of a prison. Millbank Prison, to be exact, an establishment which, for part of its history, housed convicts who were destined to be deported to Australia.
3. The building is made from Portland stone and the architects were James Stirling, Sidney R. J. Smith and John Russell Pope.
4. It initially concentrated on Victorian art, which of course, was the modern art of the time. Now, it holds the largest collection of British art in the world from 1500 to the present day. Artists on show here include Gainsborough, Hogarth, Millais, Whistler, as well as contemporary artists such as Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Damien Hirst. It has the largest collection of works by JMW Turner in the world.
5. The Turner prize exhibition is held at Tate Britain every year from October to January. British artists under the age of 50 were eligible to enter. The award is often controversial with past winners being Damian Hirst's pickled Shark and Tracey Emin's unmade bed.
6. As of 1st June, the director is Maria Balshaw, replacing Sir Nicholas Serota.
7. There are Tate galleries in other parts of the UK, not just in London. Tate Liverpool opened in 1988. In 2007 when Liverpool was about to become European City of Culture for 2008, Tate Liverpool hosted the Turner prize. Tate St Ives opened in 1993.
8. There's also another Tate Gallery in London - the Tate Modern, which opened in 2000. It was at this point that the original gallery changed its name to Tate Britain, as its focus now was British art from 1500 to the present day, while Tate modern has art from 1900 to the present day.
9. The Tate receives annual funding from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
10. The Tate logo was designed by Wolff Olins in 2000. It is meant to represent the idea, "look again, think again." It's slightly blurred or pixillated appearance is meant to convey that Tate is constantly changing but always recognisable.

20th July: Alexander the Great

On this date in 356 BC Alexander the Great was born. He is known as the military genius who conquered territories stretching from Greece to Egypt and through present-day Turkey, Iran and Pakistan.

1. His father was King Philip of Macedon and his mother was Olympias, was the daughter of Neoptolemus I, king of the Molossians, an ancient Greek tribe in Epirus. On the day Alexander was born, his father was away on a military campaign, preparing a siege on the Greek city of Potidaea. On the same day, he got the news that one of his generals had defeated the combined armies of Illyria and Paeonia, and his Horses had won at the Olympic Games. It wasn't an entirely good day for him, though. The Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, burned down that day. One historian commented that this must have happened because Artemis was attending Alexander’s birth and left the temple unattended.
2. When Alexander was 13, his father hired none other than Aristotle as his tutor for the next three years. Alexander came out of this with a great love of and respect for philosophy, even saying he would rather be a philosopher than a warrior, if he'd had the choice. There is a famous story of how Alexander went to talk to Diogenes the Cynic, a philosopher who lived a life of severe austerity who slept in a clay jar. Alexander went up to Diogenes in a public plaza, and asked if he, with all the riches at his disposal, could do anything for the impoverished thinker. “Yes,” Diogenes replied, “stand aside; you’re blocking my sun.” Alexander wasn't angered by this apparently rude response - rather he was charmed by it. Later on, he'd pause his military campaigns to have discussions with Hindu or Jain philosophers. He also gained a love of the literature of the time and slept with The Iliad under his pillow. Achilles and Hercules were his favourite characters.
3. Another famous story about him is that when he was in Gordium, in Asia Minor, he was told about the prophecy of the Gordian knot, that whoever could undo the impossible knot would rule all of Asia. Alexander slashed it with his sword.
4. Alexander was a prime suspect in his father's death. As a child, he got on with him well but as he grew up the relationship soured. It all came to a head when Philip decided to take another wife, Cleopatra, from Macedonia. Any sons Philip had with Cleopatra would have been a threat to Alexander taking the throne. So when King Phillip was stabbed to death by one of his bodyguards in 336 B.C. at a wedding banquet, Alexander and his mother were suspected of having been involved. They definitely had a motive, and Alexander wasted no time after this in seizing the throne for himself.
5. In 15 years of conquest Alexander never lost a battle. In fact, Alexander the Great’s military tactics and strategies are still studied in military academies today. He won his first battle at the age of 18.
6. Alexander had a close relationship with his friend, general, and bodyguard Hephaestion, the son of a Macedonian noble, and was devastated when the man died, possibly to the extent that his health suffered. This has led historians to speculate that the two had a homosexual relationship, although no contemporary sources suggest this. Alexander had three wives and at least one mistress. Two of his wives were Persian and he married them after he'd conquered Persia, because he thought he would be able to control the country more effectively if he integrated - adopting the Persian manner of dress and encouraging his generals to marry Persian women. He had no children with them, so possibly it was marriage in name only - but he did have a son with his wife Roxane, who was the daughter of a ruler he'd defeated. He spotted her while surveying the prisoners of war and allegedly fell in love (or lust) with her at first sight. He also had a son with his mistress Barsine. Both his sons were murdered before they reached adulthood.
7. Alexander had a habit of building cities wherever he conquered, and naming most of them after himself. There were at least 70 cities called Alexandria in the area. One of them is Egypt's second largest city today. There was one exception - he named one city Bucephala, after Bucephalus, his favourite horse. Bucephalus was bought at great price by King Philip, but proved impossible to train. Alexander, then aged 10, had noticed what the problem was - the horse was afraid of his own shadow. He offered to train the horse, and did so by having it face the Sun with his shadow behind him.
8. So what was he like? He is described in contemporary accounts as being strong and handsome, but not as tall or imposing as one might expect. He was short, and possibly had a deformity of the neck, to he'd always appear to be looking upwards at an angle. He went clean shaven because he couldn't grow a thick beard. His eyes were different colours - one Blue and one Brown. He took great pride in his appearance and would wash his hair in Saffron (which at the time was more costly than Gold) every day to keep it shiny (and Orange). According to Plutarch, he smelled amazingly good, too. Personality wise, he was competitive, always wanting to outdo his father; he had a violent temper and could be rash and impulsive, but at the same time was perceptive, logical and an avid reader. He may have been fearless in battle, but it is alleged that he did have one fear. He was afraid of Cats. He drank a lot - he had a drinking contest with his men and 42 of them died from alcohol poisoning.
9. It's possible it didn't do Alexander much good, either. He died at the age of 32, falling ill after drinking a bowl of Wine at a party. Nobody knows what he actually died of but there were naturally conspiracy theories, that he'd been poisoned. Experts have speculated that malaria, lung infection, liver failure or typhoid fever could have caused his death.
10. To this day, Alexander is regarded by many as the greatest Greek who ever lived. Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, and Augustus all made pilgrimages to Alexander’s tomb. In the modern era, Fidel Castro admired him so much that he named three of his sons after Alexander - Alexis, Alejandro, and Alexander.

See Also: Alexander the Great Quotes

18 July: National Caviar Day

Today is National Caviar Day, celebrating the delicacy made from sturgeon roe. Here's what you need to know about caviar.

1. Traditionally, if it isn't made of the eggs of a member of the sturgeon family it isn't caviar. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization agrees, and has stated that roe from any other species of fish such as Salmon, steelhead, Trout, lumpfish, whitefish or carp should be termed a caviar substitute.
2. The word caviar comes from a the Turkish word, havyar, which in turn comes from khayah, the Persian word for Egg. Russians call it ikra, and the people who make it are called Ikrjanschik. Ikrjanschik are highly skilled - their apprenticeship can last as long as 15 years.
3. It is one of the earliest known delicacies, and was enjoyed by Ancient Greeks, Romans and Russian tsars before Oysters, Champagne or Truffles were even heard of. The oldest written account of caviar dates back to the 1240s.
4. It's known for being expensive - a type of beluga caviar called Almas (which means "diamond" in Russian) sold only by London’s Caviar House and packaged in a 24 karat gold box, costs around 40,000 euros per kilo. Even more expensive is Strottarga Bianco caviar, which is made from rare albino sturgeon eggs laced with 22-carat Gold. That would set you back $300,000 a kilo. That said, it doesn't have to be expensive, either. At one time, in the US, sturgeon was so plentiful in the rivers that caviar was a common bar snack, much like peanuts are today, and the USA also exported it to Europe.
5. Lots of things can affect the taste of caviar, such as how salty the Water is and what type of algae grows in it. Experts can classify it, like Wine.
6. If you want to serve up some good quality caviar, here's how it's done. First of all, when buying your caviar, listen to it. If it is good quality, the fish eggs rubbing together make a sound rather like a Cat purring. You might be thinking that for something this expensive, only a Silver spoon will do to serve it with. That's wrong. Don't use metal at all, because it spoils the flavour. Use a spoon made from glass, bone or, ideally, mother of pearl. Traditionally, caviar is eaten from your hand - from the skin between the thumb and index finger, but it can be served in a crystal or glass bowl over ice.
7. A spoonful of caviar supplies the adult daily requirement of vitamin B12. It also contains Zinc and protein, but on the down side is high in cholesterol and Salt.
8. It has been eaten for medicinal purposes in years gone by - it was said to cure depression and impotence. There may be some truth in that. Caviar is rich in omega-3s which according to recent studies, may alleviate symptoms of depression and bipolar disorder, while zinc deficiency has been associated with some depressive disorders. Zinc is also known to play a key role in the function of the prostate gland so there may be something in the impotence cure idea, too.
9. Caviar may be associated with Russia - beluga sturgeon live wild in the Caspian Sea, which is bordered by Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan - but it can also be farmed, and the eggs extracted from the female fish without killing her. The country which produces most of the world's caviar, 20% of it, to be exact, is in fact Italy.
10. In 1324, Edward II of England decreed that the sturgeon was a Royal Fish, meaning all sturgeon found in and around the UK belong to the Queen. There is an exception to that - there is just one company in Britain which produces caviar; Exmoor Caviar. They received a letter from the Queen saying that sturgeons held by Exmoor Caviar would belong to the company.

19th July: Sooty's birthday

Today is Sooty's birthday. Sooty is a children's puppet character in the UK. 

OK, so this isn't Sooty. But you try finding a public domain picture of a recent TV puppet character.

1. The original Sooty was a glove puppet which Harry Corbett bought as a present for his son Matthew, from a stall in Blackpool. This puppet was Yellow all over. Corbett covered the Bear's ears and nose with soot when they were to appear on TV, to make them stand out. This is where Sooty's name comes from.
2. He first appeared in a talent show, in 1952 on the BBC's Talent Night. He won, and became a regular on the BBC. According to Guinness World Records, Sooty is now the longest-running children's programme in the UK.
3. Harry Corbett's uncle was Harry Ramsden, founder of the fish and chip shop chain.
4. Sweep the Dog first appeared in 1957 and Sooty's girlfriend Soo the Panda in 1964. Soo was the only one who could actually talk. She was voiced at first by Corbett's wife Marjorie, and later by Brenda Longman.
5. Sooty has had three handlers to date. Harry Corbett, his son Matthew and currently Richard Cadell, a lifelong Sooty fan who has gone so far as to buy the rights to Sooty back from HIT Entertainment, who'd bought them from Harry after he retired.
6. The original puppet is owned by Charlotte Lonsdale and lives in Brancepeth near Durham.
7. Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain is a big Sooty fan and has the puppet as a mascot on the front of his drumkit.
8. Sooty and Sweep appeared as the Prime Minister and Home Secretary of the Puppet Government in The Goodies episode The Goodies Rule – O.K.?
9. There used to be an extremely popular 'World of Sooty' museum in Shipley, West Yorkshire open in the early 1990s, but this closed and is now a marketing agency.
10. Although officially retired, Harry still performed with Sooty from time to time, including on the night he died. At his final live show at the Pavilion Theatre in Weymouth, Dorset, he said, ‘Matthew is Sooty’s very good friend – but I am Sooty’s Dad.’ He died of a heart attack later that night.

Golden Thread

Terry Kennedy is inexplicably and inexorably drawn to the small town of Fiveswood as a place to live and work after university. He is sure he has never visited the town before, but when he arrives there, it seems oddly familiar.

Fiveswood has a rich and intriguing history. Local legends speak of giants, angels, wolves, a local Robin Hood, but most of all, a knight in golden armour. Fiveswood's history also has a dark side - mysterious deaths blamed on the plague, a ghostly black panther, and a landslide which buried the smugglers' caves.

Terry buys an apartment in The Heights, a house which has been empty for decades, since the previous owner disappeared. Now he has finally been declared dead, developers have moved in and turned it into six flats. Terry has the odd feeling he has lived in this enigmatic house before. But that is not all. Since childhood, Terry has had recurring, disturbing dreams which have been increasing in frequency so that now, he has them almost every night. To his dismay, the people from his nightmares are his new neighbours.

Except, that is, for Eleanor Millbrook. She is refreshingly unfamiliar. After Terry saves her from a mysterious attacker, they become close. However, Terry's nightmares encroach more and more on his waking life, until they lead him to a devastating discovery about who he really is.

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17 July: Phyllis Diller

US Comedienne Phyllis Diller was born 100 years go today. Here are ten of her witty comments. 

1. A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.
2. Housework can't kill you, but why take a chance?
3. Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight.
4. Aim high, and you won't shoot your foot off.
5. We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve telling them to sit down and shut up.
6. What I don't like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day.
7. His finest hour lasted a minute and a half.
8. I spent seven hours in a beauty shop... and that was for the estimate.
9. It would seem that something which means poverty, disorder and violence every single day should be avoided entirely, but the desire to beget children is a natural urge.
10. Always be nice to your children because they are the ones who will choose your rest home.

16th July: Washington DC

The signing of the Residence Act on July 16, 1790, approved the creation of a capital district located along the Potomac River on the country's East Coast. This was what would become Washington DC, the capital of the USA.

1. Washington is naturally named after George Washington, the first president. DC stands for District of Columbia, after Christopher Columbus.
2. It's the seat of government of the US and is home to the White House, the Capitol Building, numerous government offices, embassies, and the Library of Congress, the largest library in the world with more than 162 million objects in its collection. About 12,000 items are added to its collection every day.
3. Before the Eiffel Tower was built, the tallest man-made structure in the world was in Washington DC - the Washington Monument. It is still the world's tallest stone structure and the world's tallest obelisk at 555 feet 5 1/8 inches tall. Look carefully at it and you'll see it is made from two slightly different coloured types of stone, because the project ran out of money in 1856. What with that and the Civil War, construction ground to a halt and wasn't restarted for twenty years. Its cap is made from aluminium, which at the time, was as expensive as Silver. The Monument sways about .125th of an inch of the wind is at least 30 miles per hour.
4. There was no official Flag until 1938, when a flag based on George Washington's family coat of arms was adopted. There is an official bird (Wood thrush), flower (American beauty rose) and tree (Scarlet Oak).
5. Some of the licence plates have the words “Taxation without Representation” on them, because at one time it was true. The city was meant to be a seat of government rather than a place for people to live, but people ended up living there anyway. Until 1961, the city's residents couldn't vote in presidential elections and even today cannot vote for Congress.
6. The city was designed with a grid pattern of streets named after numbers and letters, with diagonal avenues named after states. There isn't a "J" street, which seems like a glaring omission. It's been suggested that the architect who designed the place, Pierre L’Enfant, hated the chief justice, whose name was John Jay, and so he omitted the letter out of spite. Actually, it's because at the time, the alphabet as we know it was still evolving, and "I" and "J" were interchangeable.
7. DC residents drink more Wine per capita than residents of any of the 50 states. There is also a wacky law which says it's illegal to drink alcoholic beverages standing up.
8. The Capitol is haunted - by a demon Black Cat which puts in an appearance before national tragedies. It's said there were sightings of the cat before the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. A less sinister fact about the Capitol is that there are Bathtubs in it, dating back to the time when senators lived in digs which tended not to have running Water, so senators had to take baths at work.
9. One of the gargoyles on Washington's National Cathedral is a carving of Darth Vader.
10. Washington DC has several sister cities and two partner cities. The partner cities are Paris and Rome, which have an ancient policy that they can only be sisters or twins with each other. The sister cities are: Bangkok, Thailand; Dakar, Senegal; Beijing, China; Brussels, Belgium; Athens, Greece; Pretoria, South Africa; Seoul, South Korea, Accra, Ghana, Sunderland, United Kingdom (rather than London, for some reason); Ankara, Turkey; Brasília, Brazil and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.