Topical Tens

Monday, 25 January 2021

26 January: Sydney

Today is a holiday in Sydney, Australia marking the day when British convicts first landed there. 10 things you might not know about Sydney.

It’s the largest city in Australia with a population of over 5 million people, but it’s not the capital (that’s Canberra). It is, however, the capital of the state of New South Wales. In terms of area, it’s size is 1,580 square kilometres, over twice the area of New York City. It’s a very cosmopolitan city with about a third of its population having been born outside of Australia.
At one point the settlement was going to be called New Albion, from an old fashioned name for Britain. Founder Arthur Philip, however chose the name Sydney instead.
The area had been inhabited by human beings long before this. Indigenous Australians have inhabited the Sydney area for at least 30,000 years, and it is one of the richest areas for archaeological sites in the country.
People from Sydney are commonly called “Sydneysiders” although the less polite nickname of “convicts” is sometimes used because that is what the majority of the first settlers were. The city’s nickname of “Sin City” also refers to this. During the 1920s and 1930s there was a lot of organised crime which was mostly run by two women, Tilly Devine, who had an extensive network of brothels in the city, and Kate Leigh, known as the queen of Sydney’s underworld. Despite it’s beginnings, however, Sydney was ranked the fifth safest city in the world in 2019.
Sydney has over 100 beaches, ranging in size from a few feet to several kilometres in length. The smallest is McKell beach, located on Darling Point. It’s so small that the only way to get to it is by boat at low tide. The longest is Bate Bay, at 4.8 km in length. The two most famous are Bondi, where, in 2007, 1,010 women in Bikinis showed up to set the Guinness World Record for the largest swimsuit photo shoot; and Manly, named by Captain Arthur Phillip for the indigenous people there. He said of them that “their confidence and manly behaviour made me give the name of Manly Cove to this place”.
Sydney also has the deepest natural harbour in the world with 504,000 megalitres of Water.
As well as bikini photo shoots, Sydney holds a couple of foodie world records as well. A Sydney cafe, Ambrosia On The Spot, made the world’s largest burger, which contained a 95.5 kilograms beef patty, 120 Eggs, 150 slices of Cheese, 1.5 kg of Beetroot, 2.5 kg of Tomatoes and almost 2 kg of Lettuce. Sydney was also in the Guinness Book of Records for the longest Pizza line, at 221 meters, in the Italian quarter of Leichhardt.
The oldest building in Sydney is Cadman’s cottage, built in 1816. The oldest street is George Street. The oldest public building is the Sydney Mint, built between 1811 and 1816. The tallest building is Sydney Tower, 309 metres tall, which opened in 1981.
Sydney is home to the largest fish market in the Southern Hemisphere, and the longest continuous moving walkway in the Southern Hemisphere.
Sydney’s postcode is 2000, the same number as the year it hosted the Olympic Games.

See also: Sydney Harbour Bridge, and look out for Sydney Opera House later this year.

New Year New Reading Challenge?

I can help. Here are links to books which meet potential criteria:

A title with three words

A title with six words

From a Jack to a King

A book with a number in the title

A Tale of Two Sisters

A book with a colour in the title

Golden Thread

Short story collections/A book with a green cover

A book published in the last year/during lockdown

A book you can finish in a day/A book under 200 pages

A book featuring characters from a deck of cards

From a Jack to a King

A Book set during Christmas

A Very Variant Christmas

A book with a place in the title

Glastonbury Swan

A Debut novel

Death and Faxes

A book with a plant or flower on the cover/A book about siblings

A Tale of Two Sisters

A book with a female villain or criminal

Glastonbury Swan

Includes space travel

Obsidian's Ark

Features Royalty

Books featuring skiing or snowboarding

A Tale of Two Sisters

A book with the Olympic games in it

Eternal Flame

A book with a bird in the title

Glastonbury Swan

A book featuring a secret society

A book featuring time travel/alternative dimensions

Raiders Trilogy:

Books featuring superheroes

Books featuring ghosts

From an Indie Publisher/Self published/An author you've not read before/A female author/A genre you wouldn't normally read/A book outside your comfort zone/A book by an author with your initials and your initials are JH

All of them!

More details can be found here

Sunday, 24 January 2021

25 January: Robert Burns

On Burns Night, here are ten facts about Robert Burns, also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, the National Bard, Bard of Ayrshire and the Ploughman Poet:

He was born in Alloway, near Ayr, on 25 January 1759, and was the eldest child of a tenant farmer. He was the eldest of seven children and grew up in poverty. At 15, he was a farm labourer at his father’s farm, Mount Oliphant.
His first poem was written to a girl who helped with the harvest at the farm. Her name was Nelly Kilpatrick and the poem was called O, Once I Lov'd A Bonnie Lass. A year later, sent away to school, he wrote some songs for a girl he met there, Peggy Thompson – Now Westlin' Winds and I Dream'd I Lay.
He was certainly a ladies’ man from a young age. He fathered at least thirteen children, the first being a daughter called Elizabeth, the result of an affair with his mother’s servant. This was while he was starting a relationship with his future wife, Jean Armour. He got her pregnant too, with Twins. Although her family sent her away to an uncle to avoid disgrace, rather than have her marry Robert, they did marry, a couple of years later. Jean bore him nine children altogether but only three of them survived infancy. His last child, Maxwell, was born on the day of his funeral. As of 2019, Robert Burns has more than 900 living descendants. American designer Tommy Hilfiger claims to be a great, great, great nephew of Robert Burns.
His name at birth was Robert Burness. He decided to shorten it to Burns when he was 27. Although he is frequently referred to as Rabbie Burns, he never went by that name in his lifetime. He was called Rob, Rab, Robin – even Spunlie – but never Rabbie.
Robert Burns was initiated into the Masonic lodge St David, Tarbolton, on 4 July 1781, when he was 22.
At one point he considered emigrating to Jamaica, but changed his mind when his poetry collection Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, started to sell well. He then moved to Edinburgh instead.
He was just 37 when he died. The cause of his death isn’t known but the most popular theory is that he died of blood poisoning after having a tooth out.
He has been an inspiration to many writers, including J.D. Salinger, who got the title for his novel The Catcher in the Rye from the Robert Burns poem, Comin’ Thro’ the Rye. Likewise, John Steinbeck got the title Of Mice and Men from a line in the Burns poem To a Mouse – “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an men / Gang aft agley”. Song writers, too, have turned to him for inspiration. Bob Dylan claims A Red, Red Rose by Burns is his greatest inspiration.
Robert Burns has more statues dedicated to him around the world than any other non-religious figure apart from Queen Victoria and Christopher Columbus. He was also the first person to ever feature on a commemorative bottle of Coca Cola. His poetry has even been into space, among the possessions of astronaut Nick Patrick, who carried a miniature book of Burns poetry on a two week long space mission in 2010.
The first ever Burns Supper was a get together by some of Burns’s closest friends, five years after he died. They met to remember him in July, on the fifth anniversary of his death. Little did they know that Burns Suppers would become a worldwide annual celebration. Or that in 2009, their old friend would be voted "The Greatest Scot", ahead of William Wallace, Sir Alexander Fleming and Robert the Bruce.

Saturday, 23 January 2021

24 January: Frederick the Great Quotes

Frederick the Great was born on this date in 1712. Here are 10 Frederick the Great quotes:

He who defends everything defends nothing.
A crown is merely a hat that lets the rain in.
The greatest and noblest pleasure which men can have in this world is to discover new truths; and the next is to shake off old prejudices.
If my soldiers were to begin to think, not one of them would remain in the army.
All religions must be tolerated for every man must get to heaven his own way.
Great things are achieved only when we take great risks.
The more I see of men, the better I like my dog.
A man, who can, in cold blood, hunt and torture a poor, innocent animal, cannot feel much compassion for the distress of his own species.
Be more than you seem to be.
It is pardonable to be defeated, but never to be surprised.

New Year New Reading Challenge?

I can help. Here are links to books which meet potential criteria:

A title with three words

A title with six words

From a Jack to a King

A book with a number in the title

A Tale of Two Sisters

A book with a colour in the title

Golden Thread

Short story collections/A book with a green cover

A book published in the last year/during lockdown

A book you can finish in a day/A book under 200 pages

A book featuring characters from a deck of cards

From a Jack to a King

A Book set during Christmas

A Very Variant Christmas

A book with a place in the title

Glastonbury Swan

A Debut novel

Death and Faxes

A book with a plant or flower on the cover/A book about siblings

A Tale of Two Sisters

A book with a female villain or criminal

Glastonbury Swan

Includes space travel

Obsidian's Ark

Features Royalty

Books featuring skiing or snowboarding

A Tale of Two Sisters

A book with the Olympic games in it

Eternal Flame

A book with a bird in the title

Glastonbury Swan

A book featuring a secret society

A book featuring time travel/alternative dimensions

Raiders Trilogy:

Books featuring superheroes

Books featuring ghosts

All of them!

More details can be found here

Friday, 22 January 2021

23 January: Envelopes

On this date in 1849 a patent was granted for an envelope-making machine. 10 things you might not know about envelopes:

The first envelopes were made in the Middle East, out of clay, in around 3500 BC. They were usually used to carry Money.
Paper envelopes first appeared in China in the 2^nd century BC, again mostly used to contain money.
Which brings us to the custom which exists in China to this day, of giving gifts of money in a Red envelope on special occasions like weddings or Chinese New Year. The envelope is red because red is a lucky colour in China, and the gift inside will be an amount of money ending in an even digit, because odd numbered gifts are associated with funerals.
In Malaysia, they have a similar custom for giving gifts to people who visit their home during the festival of Eid ul-Fitr. Their envelopes are Green, to represent the Islamic paradise.
Up until 1840, envelopes were hand made. The machine for making them was patented in Britain by Edwin Hill and Warren De La Rue.
Envelopes with a see through panel to display the address were a US invention. Americus F. Callahan of Chicago, Illinois patented this idea in 1902. They were were originally called “outlook envelopes".
Traditional envelopes are usually cut from paper into three shapes; a rhombus, a kite or a short-arm cross.
The patterns on the inside of envelopes are not just for decoration. They are there for security reasons, to make it impossible for anyone to read what it inside without opening the envelope.
During the US Civil War, confederate soldiers couldn’t always get their hands on paper, so they would make envelopes out of Wallpaper.
The expression “pushing the envelope”, meaning to go beyond current limits of performance, has only been around since 1978. It started as a term used in aviation, from the phrase “flight envelope” for a plane’s operational or performance boundaries.

New Year New Reading Challenge?

I can help. Here are links to books which meet potential criteria:

A title with three words

A title with six words

From a Jack to a King

A book with a number in the title

A Tale of Two Sisters

A book with a colour in the title

Golden Thread

Short story collections/A book with a green cover

A book published in the last year/during lockdown

A book you can finish in a day/A book under 200 pages

A book featuring characters from a deck of cards

From a Jack to a King

A Book set during Christmas

A Very Variant Christmas

A book with a place in the title

Glastonbury Swan

A Debut novel

Death and Faxes

A book with a plant or flower on the cover/A book about siblings

A Tale of Two Sisters

A book with a female villain or criminal

Glastonbury Swan

Includes space travel

Obsidian's Ark

Features Royalty

Books featuring skiing or snowboarding

A Tale of Two Sisters

A book with the Olympic games in it

Eternal Flame

A book with a bird in the title

Glastonbury Swan

A book featuring a secret society

A book featuring time travel/alternative dimensions

Raiders Trilogy:

Books featuring superheroes

Books featuring ghosts

All of them!

More details can be found here

Thursday, 21 January 2021

22 January: 10 Famous Vincents

Today is the feast day of three saints called Vincent. Vincent is a male given name derived from the Roman name Vincentius, derived from the Latin word vincere (to conquer). 10 famous Vincents:

The three Vincents with feast days today are Saint Vincent of Saragossa, patron of vintners, vinegar-makers, brickmakers, and sailors. The island of St Vincent in the Caribbean was named after him by Christopher Columbus who discovered the island on his feast day; Vincent, who along with his brothers Orontius, and Victor, was martyred in Puigcerda; and Saint Vincent Pallotti, the founder of the Society of the Catholic Apostolate later to be known as the "Pious Society of Missions".
There’s also St Vincent de Paul, whose feast day is on 27 September, who dedicated his life to helping the poor.
Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch Post-Impressionist painter, who, it is said, spent the happiest year of his life in Brixton, London.
Vince Cable, Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2017 to 2019.
Vinnie Jones, actor and former footballer. He played for Wimbledon, Leeds United, Sheffield United, Chelsea, Queens Park Rangers and Wales. His acting credits include Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Gone in 60 Seconds, X-Men: The Last Stand, as the X-Men villain Cain Marko/Juggernaut.
Vincent Price Jr., American actor best known for his performances in horror films and was the voice of “The Thriller” in Michael Jackson’s hit record.
Vince Hill, English singer who had a successful recording career in the 1960s, and hosted several TV shows in the 70s and 80s.
Vinnie Vincent (Vincent John Cusano), American guitarist and songwriter. He is a former member of the rock band Kiss from 1982 until mid-1984 and was the last member to wear a unique makeup/costume configuration, as the character of the Ankh Warrior.
Vincent Crabbe, a supporting character in the Harry Potter series.
Vincent Santino Corleone is a fictional character in The Godfather Part III. He is the illegitimate son of Sonny Corleone and his mistress Lucy Mancini. He eventually succeeds his uncle Michael as head of the Corleone family. Andy García was nominated for an Academy Award for portraying him.