25th June: Virginia

On this date in 1788, Virginia became 10th state to ratify US constitution. Here are ten facts about the state of Virginia.

1. Queen Elizabeth I declared in 1584 that all the British territory in the New World was for Sir Walter Raleigh to establish colonies. Sir Walter named the region "Virginia" in her honour, because she was the "virgin queen".
2. The first British settlement in the US was Jamestown, which was also the first of three capitals the state has had. Williamsburg was capital for a while, and today the capital is Richmond. Richmond was also the capital of the Confederate States during the Civil War. The largest city, however, is Virginia Beach.
3. Virginia has the largest bridge-tunnel complex in the world - Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, which is 18 miles long, connecting the cities of Cape Charles and Norfolk. It also has the largest office building in the world, at 5,100,000 square feet - it takes at least 10 minutes to walk from one end of this building to the other at a brisk pace, and it has enough telephone cables to stretch from Florida to Washington state more than 22 times. If you're wondering who'd need an office that big, the answer is the US Military. The building is the Pentagon.
4. Virginia has seen a lot of battles - over half the battles of the US Civil War were fought in Virginia. Two major wars ended within its boundaries too. The surrenders ending both the American Revolution (Yorktown, hence Virginia has been dubbed "the birthplace of the nation") and the Civil War (Appomattox) happened in Virginia.
5. From the end of the Revolution to 1805, Virginia was the most populous state. In 1805, New York overtook it. Today the most populous state is California, but even so, over half the population of the USA lives within a 500 mile radius of Virginia.
6. Virginia is nicknamed The Old Dominion and also Mother of Presidents, because eight US presidents including George Washington, were born here, and also six First Ladies. Other famous Virginians include the famous explorers, Lewis and Clark, actors Sandra Bullock, Rob Lowe and Warren Beatty, singers Ella Fitzgerald, Roberta Flack and Patsy Cline, writers Edgar Allen Poe and Barbara Kingsolver, General Robert E Lee and tennis star Arthur Ashe.
7. Virginia is the only state where the state flower and state tree are the same. The state tree is the dogwood, and the state flower is its blossom. The state bird is the cardinal, the state dog the American Foxhound, the state butterfly the Tiger Swallowtail, state fish the brook trout, the state beverage is milk and the state shell is the Oyster shell. On the subject of oysters, the world's only oyster museum is on Chincoteague Island.
8. Virginia was the first US state to grow Peanuts. Today, it's major crop is tobacco. Colonists originally produced silk, until a blight killed all the mulberry trees which the Silkworms feed on. This prompted people to plant tobacco instead, and they've never looked back.
9. Mountain Lake Lodge in Pembroke, Virginia was the filming location for the 1987 film Dirty Dancing.
10. By law, school can't start in Virginia before the first Monday in September, after the end of the theme park season. Hens are not allowed to lay Eggs before 8am and after 4pm. You are not allowed to spit on seagulls, tickle a woman, pat her on the bottom or kick your wife out of bed. Trick or treating at Halloween is outlawed and women are not allowed to go to a dance without wearing a corset. Finally, if you go for Coffee with a friend in Richmond and can't agree on who pays the bill, it's illegal to toss a coin to decide who pays.

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June 24th: Fairy Day

Today is Fairy Day in Canada. So here are ten facts about the supernatural creatures of folklore, the fairies.

1. It's hard to pin down exactly what a fairy is, since there are so many tales. They can be anything from an old woman skilled in magic, a tiny creature with Butterfly wings, a giant, a goblin or gnome, an enchanted animal, to a god or goddess. The origins of the word don't throw much light on it - the word comes from the Latin fata and fatum (fate), which came, in medieval England to mean enchantment.
2. There are as many theories as to where they come from. Some say they are the spirits of the dead, others that they are a prehistoric race, distinct from humans, others maintain they are fallen angels or demons. Or you may choose to believe JM Barrie, creator of Peter Pan, who wrote "When the first baby laughed for the first time, his Laugh broke into a million pieces, and they all went skipping about. That was the beginning of fairies." Barrie also had a theory about the possible end of them, too - "Whenever a child says 'I don't believe in fairies' there's a little fairy somewhere that falls right down dead."
3. Whatever you choose to believe about where they come from, there's little doubt that fairies are mischievous. At best, they're known for stealing small items, confusing travellers, tangling your hair when you sleep or paying people Gold which would later turn out to be no more than dried leaves. However, they can also commit more evil crimes, such as kidnapping people, swapping babies or leading travellers to their deaths. Fairy lore was often a way of explaining things people didn't understand at the time, like diseases or disabilities. TB, or consumption as it was known, was often blamed on fairies who had put a spell on someone forcing them to dance and party until they wasted away.
4. Hence it was prudent to protect oneself against fairies. Ways to ward off fairies include wearing clothes inside out, bells (although the fairy queen is said to have bells on the harness of her Horse - however, this is said to be to protect her from the bad fairies), four leafed Clover, Rowan trees, Saint John's wort, and Bread (a symbol of home and the taming of nature to make food - however, while this works with some fairies, others are said to love gifts of fresh bread and cake).
5. The first written record of fairies in England dates to the 13th century. They were described by the historian Gervase of Tilbury.
6. It's said fairies love gifts, so leaving stuff for them is a way to keep them sweet. As well as food, they like small, shiny things of little value, like Buttons - but they don't like anything made of Iron - according to folklore, they are allergic to it, or it smells nasty to them.
7. They don't like Money, either. This may be why one of the most famous fairies, The Tooth Fairy, leaves money in exchange for teeth. The Tooth Fairy is a relatively recent invention, having first appeared in a Chicago Daily Tribune "Household Hints" column in 1908. That said, there are Norse legends dating back to the 13th century which mention the tand-fé ("tooth fee"), a small payment from a parent to their child when their baby teeth came out.
8. Another famous fairy is Tinkerbell from Peter Pan. She was based on a real actress called Margaret Kerry who was hired as a live action reference by the animators. Morgan le Fay is a woman with magical powers in the Arthurian tales - her connection with fairies is evident in her name. William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer's Night Dream is set in Fairyland and the plot revolves around the disruption caused by a fairy dispute. Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe is about a fairy who was banished for marrying a mortal.
9. There have been several famous writers who were especially interested in fairies. William Butler Yeats was one - he travelled around Ireland gathering people's stories of their encounters with fairies and wrote a book about them, called Celtic Twilight. William Blake once claimed to have witnessed a fairy funeral: "a procession of creatures of the size and colour of green and grey grasshoppers, bearing a body laid out on a rose-leaf, which they buried with songs, and then disappeared."
10. The writer best known for believing in fairies was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He was completely taken in by the photos taken by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, two young cousins who claimed to have taken pictures of fairies in their garden - the Cottingley Fairies. The pictures were evidence, he said, that supernatural beings existed. However, in later life, the girls admitted they'd faked the whole thing using cardboard cut-outs of fairies.

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June 23: Edward VIII

Edward VIII, King of Great Britain, second monarch of the House of Windsor, was born on this date in 1894. Here are 10 facts about him.

1. Edward ascended the throne as King Edward VIII on 20 January 1936 on the death of King George V. His reign lasted just 326 days, making him one of the shortest reigning monarchs in British history.
2. The reason for the short reign, and the thing he is probably most famous for, is that he wanted to marry Wallis Simpson, an American woman who had two previous husbands, both still alive. This was not only socially unacceptable at the time, but would conflict with Edward's status as head of the Church of England, which at the time still disapproved of remarriage after divorce. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin and his entire government were set to resign if the marriage went ahead, causing a constitutional crisis. Edward's suggestion that he and Wallis entered into a morganatic marriage, in which he would remain king but Simpson would not become queen, and any children they had would not inherit the throne, was rejected, and so Edward chose to abdicate. He abdicated on 10 December 1936, and his younger brother became George VI.
3. His full name was Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David. Edward after his uncle, Christian after his great-grandfather King Christian IX of Denmark. Queen Victoria insisted on the inclusion of the name Albert, after her late consort. The remaining four names are the names of the patron saints of the four nations of the United Kingdom. He was known to his family and close friends as David.
4. Edward was keen to serve in the first world war as a member of the Grenadier Guards. Secretary of State for War Lord Kitchener refused to allow him to serve on the front lines because he was heir to the throne and it would have been a disaster if he'd been captured.
5. In 1919, Edward became President of the organising committee for the proposed British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Park. He expressed the wish that the exhibition should include "a great national sports ground" - so we have Edward VIII to thank for Wembley Stadium.
6. Wallis Simpson wasn't the first unsuitable partner he'd had. In 1917, during he began a love affair with Parisian courtesan Marguerite Alibert, to whom he wrote several indiscreet letters, which she kept after Edward left her for Freda Dudley Ward, a textile heiress and married woman. Lady Furness, the American wife of a British peer, was another of his mistresses, and it was she who would introduce him to Wallis Simpson.
7. Edward's father, George V, despaired of his eldest son's behaviour and predicted "After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself in twelve months." He made no secret of the fact that he thought his younger son would make a far better king, and went so far as to say "I pray to God that my eldest son will never marry and have children, and that nothing will come between Bertie (George VI) and Lilibet (Queen Elizabeth II) and the throne." As it happens, Edward and Wallis didn't have children (it's been suggested a bout of mumps may have made him infertile) so Elizabeth would have become queen eventually even if Edward hadn't abdicated.
8. There is a tradition on British coinage that each monarch faces the opposite direction on coins to the previous one. Edward insisted he didn't want to be pictured facing right as tradition would dictate. He wanted to be shown facing left, like his father because then his portrait would show the parting in his hair. Only a few test coins were struck before the abdication, and all are very rare. George VI also faced left, maintaining that Edward should have faced right, and therefore it was proper that he maintain the tradition.
9. Edward VIII held quite racist views, believing white people were superior. He and his wife were known to have visited Hitler after the abdication so many believe he was pro-Nazi. There is even a suggestion that, had Hitler won the war, he would have re-instated Edward as King of England. Hence Edward was believed to be something of a loose cannon, so he was given the job of Governor of the Bahamas, presumably to keep him out of the way while the war was going on. While Edward was praised for his efforts to combat poverty on the islands, he didn't like the job. He said the Bahamas was "a third-class British colony", and resigned in 1945.
10. He died on 28 May 1972 in Paris at the age of 77.

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22 June: St Alban

Today is the feast day of St Alban, the first recorded British martyr. The city of St Albans in England is named after him.

1. He lived in Britain during the time of the Romans. We don't know much about his life before he became a Christian. He was converted after meeting a Christian priest fleeing from persecution, and letting him hide in his house for a few days. He was so impressed with the way the priest lived and prayed, that he was converted. The priest's name was Amphibalus, which means "cloak" in Latin.
2. The Romans soon figured out where Amphibalus was hiding and soldiers came to arrest him. Alban put on the priest's cloak and pretended to be him, and was brought before a judge. The judge, angry at finding out how Alban had protected the priest, declared he would be punished in the exact same way unless he made sacrifices to the Roman gods. Alban said, "I worship and adore the true and living God who created all things," and wouldn't do it. His words are still used in a prayer at St Albans Abbey.
3. The judge ordered that Alban be whipped, thinking it might bring him to his senses, but he bore it patiently and his faith didn't budge - so the judge ordered that he be beheaded.
4. The execution party came to a river, which was flowing so fast they couldn't cross it. The bridge was congested with the crowds who'd come to watch the execution, so they couldn't get across there, either. Alban was anxious to get it all over with and become a martyr as quickly as possible, so he prayed and the river dried up. The executioner was so impressed that he became a Christian on the spot and refused to carry out the execution.
5. There were others in the party, though, and another executioner led them up a nearby hill, where he beheaded both Alban and the soldier who'd just been converted. However, before he had a chance to gloat and rejoice, the new executioner's eyes fell out of his head.
6. St Albans Cathedral stands near the believed site of his execution, and a well is at the bottom of the hill, Holywell Hill. The spring is believed to have sprung up in the place where Alban's head came to rest after it rolled down the hill.
7. St Alban is the patron of converts, refugees and torture victims.
8. No-one has ever established for sure the exact year of Alban's death. It could have been any time between 209 and 313. Most versions of his story say he lived and died in Verulamium, the Roman city which later became the modern day town of St Albans, and the river he dried up was the Ver. There is a version, however, in which the river is the Thames, which would mean he lived in London. There is even a suggestion that he never even existed. His name, Alban, is similar to Albion, the oldest recorded name for Britain, so he could simply be a personification of early Britain.
9. In 2006 some Church of England clergy suggested that Alban should replace St George as the patron saint of England.
10. On the weekend nearest his feast day on June 22nd, St Albans Cathedral puts on a puppet show with large puppets acting out the story of St Alban's martyrdom at locations around the city.

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21 June: Onions

The vegetable celebrated by the French Revolutionary Calendar today is the onion. You'll know your onions after reading these ten facts.

1. People have been eating onions for over 7,000 years. Traces of onions have been found in Bronze Age settlements.
2. The ancient Egyptians even worshipped them. To the Egyptians, the concentric rings and spherical shape of onions were symbols of eternity. Not only that, but the scent of onions was thought to bring the dead back to life. Traces of onions were found in the eye sockets of Ramesses IV.
3. During the middle ages, onions were used as currency. This practice continued in Siberia up until the middle of the 18th century.
4. An onion is about 89% Water, 9% carbohydrates (including 4% sugar and 2% dietary fibre), 1% protein, and hardly any fat. There are 40 Calories in a 100g (3.5 oz) serving of onion.
5. Pliny the Elder of the first century CE wrote about the medicinal use of onions. He claimed they could heal oral sores, toothaches, Dog bites, lumbago, and even dysentery. There used to be a belief that placing a cut onion beside your bed would prevent illness, because the onion would absorb Bacteria from the air. It's not true. Onion skins do, however, contain a compound called quercetin, which may help alleviate high blood pressure.
6. Onions are also said to be an aphrodisiac. Hindu texts on the art of lovemaking mention onions. In Egypt, celibate priests were forbidden to eat onions in case it made them randy! It's also the reason behind the French tradition of serving onion soup to newlyweds the morning after their wedding.
7. According to English folklore, you can tell by the thickness of the skin of your onion crop whether it will be a hard winter or not. The thicker the skin, the worse the winter will be.
8. The nation which produces the most onions is China, while the biggest consumer is Libya, where the average person eats 66.8lb of onions a year.
9. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest onion ever grown weighed 10 lbs 14 oz. It was grown by V. Throup of Silsden, England.
10. So why does chopping onions make you cry? The onion has a defence mechanism whereby when its cells are damaged, it releases enzymes which react with amino acids to produce sulphur compounds which are released into the air. When this irritant reaches your eyes, the eye's defence mechanism, that of producing tears to flush out irritants, kicks in. Chefs claim that chopping onions under cold running water or splashing white vinegar over the chopping board before you start can help.

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20 June: Quotes about June

Here is what poets and writers think of the month of June.

1. I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June. L.M. Montgomery
2. If a June night could talk, it would probably boast it invented romance. Bern Williams
3. It is the month of June, The month of leaves and roses, When pleasant sights salute the eyes And pleasant scents the noses. Nathaniel Parker Willis
4. No price is set on the lavish summer; June may be had by the poorest comer. James Russell Lowell
5. What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfilment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade. Gertrude Jekyll
6. Spring being a tough act to follow, God created June. Al Bernstein
7. Oh, my luve's like a red, red rose, That's newly sprung in June; Oh, my luve's like the melodie That's sweetly played in tune. Robert Burns
8. June brings tulips, lilies, roses, Fills the children's hands with posies. Sara Coleridge
9. It always seemed to me that the herbaceous peony is the very epitome of June. Larger than any rose, it has something of the cabbage rose's voluminous quality; and when it finally drops from the vase, it sheds its petticoats with a bump on the table, all in an intact heap, much as a rose will suddenly fall, making us look up from our book or conversation, to notice for one moment the death of what had still appeared to be a living beauty. Vita Sackville-West
10. Mine is the Month of Roses; yes, and mine The Month of Marriages! All pleasant sights And scents, the fragrance of the blossoming vine,The foliage of the valleys and the heights. Mine are the longest days, the loveliest nights; The mower's scythe makes music to my ear; I am the mother of all dear delights; I am the fairest daughter of the year. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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19 June: National Martini Day

Today is National Martini Day, so here's the low down on Martini.

1. The Martini is a cocktail made from one part dry vermouth and six parts Gin, served on ice with a garnish of an Olive or a twist of Lemon peel.
2. That's the standard recipe but there are variations. Vodka may be used instead of gin for a vodka Martini. The garnish can be a pickled Onion, in which case the drink is known as a Gibson. The olive may be stuffed with Garlic, blue Cheese or even an anchovy. Strawberries, Orange peel or Apple slices have been used, as have small Octopus tentacles and slices of Truffle. It's all a matter of personal preference.
3. At the Algonquin Hotel in New York City you can get a Martini garnished with a cut diamond. That'll set you back $10,000, but that's not the most expensive Martini in the world. A distillery in Scotland created one that cost £50,000. No diamonds, however, but a holiday on the side.
4. Nobody knows the origin of the Martini, but there are a couple of theories. It may come from a 19th century brand of Italian vermouth, which was marketed under the name Martini after the company's director, Alessandro Martini. The other theory is that the name derives from the California town of Martinez. In the early 1860s at the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco, people used to have cocktails while they waited for the ferry to Martinez. Or it may have been invented in the town itself. We'll never know for sure.
5. A "Martinez Cocktail" was described in Jerry Thomas' 1887 Bartender's Guide, How to Mix All Kinds of Plain and Fancy Drinks. The first official mention was a year later, in the 1888 New and Improved Illustrated Bartending Manual. The 1888 version was made with equal parts gin and sweet vermouth, a drop of Absinthe, a dash of sugar syrup, a drop of orange bitters, and garnished with a cherry.
6. It was 1895 before the dry Martini as we know it was made although even this was different - it had more Vermouth in it. It was in the 1940s that the drink as we know it became popular, and it's all thanks to Mussolini and a prohibitionist French government. The Italian dictator was teetotal and prohibited vermouth making and export and the French government did the same - so vermouth was in short supply.
7. Shaken or stirred? Or thrown? The first Martinis would have been thrown, that is mixed together by letting the drink fall from a glass held as high as possible into another held as low as possible. This is done six or seven times with the higher glass being filled with ice and fitted with a strainer so only the liquid comes out.
8. James Bond may have liked his Martinis shaken not stirred but most Martini experts would say stirring creates a better drink. A shaken Martini may be more dilute and have shards of broken ice in it. A stirred one is better blended. W Somerset Maugham would have gone for stirred every time. He said, “Martinis should always be stirred, not shaken, so that the molecules lie sensuously one on top of the other.”
9. Other big fans of Martinis include Ernest Hemingway, F Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, Frank Sinatra, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Alfred Hitchcock, Winston Churchill and the Royal Family.
10. Two more Martini terms: a dirty Martini contains a splash of olive brine or olive juice and a Burnt Martini is one that’s been doused with a touch of smoky Whiskey.

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