23 January

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 23 January:

1. 23 January 1919 saw the birth of Ernie Kovacs, an American comedian and pioneer of television comedy. He said of his own medium: “Television is a medium, so called because it is neither rare nor well-done.”
2. On this date in 1806 William Pitt ‘The Younger’ died at the age of 46. At the age of 24, he became Britain's youngest prime minister. There is controversy over his last words. Some say they were ‘Oh, my country! how I love my country!’ Others claim he said ‘Oh, my country! how I leave my country!’; or ‘I think I could eat one of Bellamy’s veal pies.’
3. Another person who met their end on this date was ballerina Anna Pavlova, aged 49. She was the first ballerina to embark on a world tour, and her most famous dance is the Dying Swan. Suffering from pneumonia whilst on tour, she was told she needed an operation, but would never be able to dance again if she had it. She refused to have the operation saying "If I can't dance then I'd rather be dead." Three weeks later she died of pleurisy, about three weeks shy of her 50th birthday.
4. A somewhat undignified death occurred on this date in 1998. A circus act in Romania ended in tragedy when fire-eater Vlad Cazacu belched mid-performance and was blown to bits.
5. In 1594, Shakespeare's play Titus Andronicus was performed, the first known performance of a Shakespeare play.
6. In 1849, English-born Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in America to receive a Doctor of Medicine degree, from the Medical Institution of Geneva, New York.
7. The weather on this day in 1969 could hardly be described as good weather for ducks. 300 of the unfortunate birds died when light from newly installed mercury vapour street lamps, shining through a heavy fog, caused them to mistake a car park for water and crash into buildings in Maryland.
8. In 1963 The Beatles drove home to Liverpool after a recording session in London. Their van had no windscreen, and it was so cold the band sat in the back wearing paper bags on their heads and drank Whiskey to keep warm.
9. In 1647, in the early hours of the morning, shepherds and travellers in Northamptonshire reported having seen an apparition of a battle which had taken place two months earlier, complete with sound, in the sky.
10. In 1937, ventriloquist Edgar Bergen opened a trust fund to take care of his dummy, Charlie McCarthy, when he died. The fund would make Charlie the world's richest dummy.

NEW!!

The Power of Love

Willow believes in crystal healing, cosmic  ordering  and the significance of chance  encounters. She believes there's a spiritual  explanation for everything. Except she struggles to find a reason why she can turn herself into  mist and create a wave of energy which can slam a would-be mugger into a wall. Or why the love of  her life left her for a mysterious woman in sunglasses, who then disappeared without trace.  

A chance encounter with Firebolt, leader of the Freedom League superhero team, in a Glastonbury coffee shop, does turn out to be significant. He offers her a new start and the chance to use her powers for good.

Servant is a Christian who has joined the Freedom League in order to use his teleporting power to serve God. He and Willow clash from the start, yet they are drawn inexorably to one another.

When Willow leaves the team abruptly for reasons unknown, Servant knows he must put her out of his mind and find a nice Christian girl to settle down with. He is about to propose to devout and straight-laced Ruth, when Willow returns and turns his entire world upside down.

Available from Amazon:

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22 January

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 22 January:

1. 22 January 1788 was the birthdate of George Gordon Byron, Baron Byron of Rochdale, English poet and a leading figure in Romanticism. 33 years later, he wrote: "Through life's road so dim and dirty / I have dragged to three and thirty. / What have these years left to me? / Nothing except thirty-three."
2. Also born on 22 January in 1869 was Grigori Rasputin Russian mystic also known as the Mad Monk, although he was not actually a monk, but a religious pilgrim believed to have been a psychic and faith healer.
3. And in 1889 this day saw the birth of Antonio Todde, the world's oldest man, who lived to be 112. A Sardinian shepherd, he worked until he was 108. His diet was based on pasta and soup. He had some pork or lamb each day and a glass and a half of red Wine.
4. Oh, the irony – on this date in 1959 the British world racing champion Mike Hawthorn was killed while driving on the Guildford bypass.
5. 22 January 1680 was Black Sunday in London. Snow clouds made the sky so dark at 11am that ministers couldn’t read their sermon notes.
6. More weather – in 1943, the fastest recorded change in temperature occurred in a small town in Spearfish, SD. The temperature went from minus 20 degrees to plus 20 degrees Centigrade in just 120 seconds.
7. Still more weather – in 1328 a great storm on the North Sea coast gave rise to the legend of the fifty drowned churches of Dunwich. The storm altered the shape of the coastline, destroying part of the town, although there were unlikely to have been that many churches in the town. It’s said that ghostly church bells can be heard beneath the sea during storms.
8. In 1988 Schiphol airport in Amsterdam opened a special departure lounge for Cows, serving pre-flight food and drink to travelling cattle.
9. In 1882 the Fifth Street Presbyterian Church in New York became the first church in America to be lit by electric lights.
10. On this date in 1506 the world’s smallest army was formed: the Swiss Guard. Today, there are 110 members. They’re all Catholic and have to be 5 foot, 9 inches tall to apply for the job. The Swiss Guard was started when 150 Swiss mercenaries marched all the way to Rome to serve under Pope Julius II.

NEW!!

The Power of Love

Willow believes in crystal healing, cosmic  ordering  and the significance of chance  encounters. She believes there's a spiritual  explanation for everything. Except she struggles to find a reason why she can turn herself into  mist and create a wave of energy which can slam a would-be mugger into a wall. Or why the love of  her life left her for a mysterious woman in sunglasses, who then disappeared without trace.  

A chance encounter with Firebolt, leader of the Freedom League superhero team, in a Glastonbury coffee shop, does turn out to be significant. He offers her a new start and the chance to use her powers for good.

Servant is a Christian who has joined the Freedom League in order to use his teleporting power to serve God. He and Willow clash from the start, yet they are drawn inexorably to one another.

When Willow leaves the team abruptly for reasons unknown, Servant knows he must put her out of his mind and find a nice Christian girl to settle down with. He is about to propose to devout and straight-laced Ruth, when Willow returns and turns his entire world upside down.

Available from Amazon:

Paperback

Kindle

21 January

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 21 January:

1. In 1984, Britain's first test-tube triplets, a girl and two boys, were born to a couple in London.
2. On this date in 1846, the first issue of the Daily News was published. The editor was one Charles Dickens. He wasn’t a good editor, and didn’t enjoy the work, referring to the paper as the “Daily noose”. A fortnight after the launch he had a row with the publishers about railways and resigned.
3. In 1993, a record-breaking Doughnut weighing 3,739 pounds and measuring 16' diameter and 16" in height was made in Utica, New York.
4. In 1853, an Envelope-folding machine was patented by Dr. Russell Hawes of Worcester, Massachusetts.
5. In 1960, the US sent a Monkey, "Miss Sam", into space aboard a Mercury rocket. The six pound monkey was successfully returned to Earth.
6. In 1986, 100 people participated in a Nude Olympics race in 38 degrees F (3 degrees C) in Purdue, Indiana.
7. St Maury’s wind hit England on this date in 1362. The storm raged over England, damaging church towers and buildings across the country, believed by many to be God’s retribution.
8. In 1876, there was a triple train collision near Huntingdon, caused by a signal getting clogged up with Snow and failing to change to signal danger. The incident led to a re-design of the signals.
9. Today’s diary entry for 1664 by Samuel Pepys, described how he’d paid one shilling to stand on a cart wheel for more than an hour to watch the execution of one Colonel Turner, who’d robbed an old London man of a fortune. Not the only one who was robbed, it would seem.
10. In 1976, a British Airways (then BOAC) Concorde, made its inaugural flight to Bahrain, and an Air France Concorde also took off from Paris en route to Rio de Janiero.

NEW!!

The Power of Love

Willow believes in crystal healing, cosmic  ordering  and the significance of chance  encounters. She believes there's a spiritual  explanation for everything. Except she struggles to find a reason why she can turn herself into  mist and create a wave of energy which can slam a would-be mugger into a wall. Or why the love of  her life left her for a mysterious woman in sunglasses, who then disappeared without trace.  

A chance encounter with Firebolt, leader of the Freedom League superhero team, in a Glastonbury coffee shop, does turn out to be significant. He offers her a new start and the chance to use her powers for good.

Servant is a Christian who has joined the Freedom League in order to use his teleporting power to serve God. He and Willow clash from the start, yet they are drawn inexorably to one another.

When Willow leaves the team abruptly for reasons unknown, Servant knows he must put her out of his mind and find a nice Christian girl to settle down with. He is about to propose to devout and straight-laced Ruth, when Willow returns and turns his entire world upside down.

Available from Amazon:

Paperback

Kindle

20 January

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 20 January:

Cleopatra's Needle

1. This date in 1896 was the birthdate of George Burns, US actor and comedian who lived to be over 100. His films include Oh, God! In which he played the title role.
2. In 1893, The Kingdom of Hawaii became a republic as the monarchy was overthrown; white businessmen and sugar planters forced Queen Liliuokalani to abdicate.
3. In 1989, Ronald Reagan became the first US president elected in a "0" year, since 1840, to leave office alive.
4. In 1958, a St. Louis radio station KWK finished its "Record Breaking Week." Station management had banned all rock and roll music from the airwaves. The disc jockeys gave every rock and roll record in the station library a "farewell spin" before smashing them. The station manager, Robert Convey, called the ban "a simple weeding out of undesirable music."
5. In 1982, Ozzy Osbourne tried to bite a bat’s head off during a concert in Des Moines, Iowa. The Bat wasn’t having it and bit him. He was hospitalised and treated for rabies.
6. In 1973, the Preteth Gallery in Washington, closed sculptor Carl Andre's American Decay exhibit. The sculpture was made of five hundred pounds of cottage cheese covered in ten gallons of ketchup in an area 12 feet by 18 feet. The reason it closed? It stank.
7. Another cheesy anniversary: in 1964, the Wisconsin Cheese Foundation started making the "World's Largest Cheese" - a 34,591 pound cheddar.
8. In 2006, a bottle-nose whale was spotted swimming in the River Thames, the first time the species had been seen in the Thames since records began in 1913.
9. In 1936, Edward VIII became the first British monarch to fly in a plane. He was a passenger in a flight from Sandringham to London on the death of George V.
10. In 1878, Cleopatra's Needle, the 3,500-year-old obelisk still standing in London, arrived there from Egypt. ‘‘Cleopatra's Needle’’ is the name given to two Egyptian obelisks, formerly at Alexandria, Egypt. The other one is in New York. In fact, they pre-date Cleopatra.

NEW!!

The Power of Love

Willow believes in crystal healing, cosmic  ordering  and the significance of chance  encounters. She believes there's a spiritual  explanation for everything. Except she struggles to find a reason why she can turn herself into  mist and create a wave of energy which can slam a would-be mugger into a wall. Or why the love of  her life left her for a mysterious woman in sunglasses, who then disappeared without trace.  

A chance encounter with Firebolt, leader of the Freedom League superhero team, in a Glastonbury coffee shop, does turn out to be significant. He offers her a new start and the chance to use her powers for good.

Servant is a Christian who has joined the Freedom League in order to use his teleporting power to serve God. He and Willow clash from the start, yet they are drawn inexorably to one another.

When Willow leaves the team abruptly for reasons unknown, Servant knows he must put her out of his mind and find a nice Christian girl to settle down with. He is about to propose to devout and straight-laced Ruth, when Willow returns and turns his entire world upside down.

Available from Amazon:

Paperback

Kindle

19 January

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 19 January:

Howard Hughes

1. 19 January 1809 is the birth date of Edgar Allen Poe, who wrote The Raven and invented the murder mystery genre with The Murders in the Rue Morgue. On his birthday in 1949 The Poe Toaster first appeared – a mysterious visitor dressed in Black wearing a fedora who left a half-filled bottle of Cognac and three red Roses on Poe's grave every year on his birthday. The significance of cognac is unknown as it does not feature in Poe's works. Some say the roses represent Poe himself and the two women who were most important to the poet during his life: his mother and his wife, both of whom are buried in the same cemetery. In 1993, the dark stranger left a note saying, “The torch will be passed”. Each year, a band of Poe devotees watches at a distance for the stranger to appear.
2. In 1985 Houston daredevil Karel Soucek was dropped in a barrel from the roof of the Astrodome. He was aiming for a Water tank on the field, but his barrel hit the edge of the tank. He suffered a fatal Skull fracture.
3. In 1825 Ezra Daggett and his nephew, Thomas Kensett of New York patented food storage in tin cans to preserve Salmon, Oysters and Lobsters.
4. The first casualties to result from an air raid over Britain occurred on this date in 1915 when a Zeppelin dropped six bombs on Great Yarmouth by mistake – the Germans were attempting to bomb the Humber Docks but the zeppelin blew off course. Two people, Martha Taylor and Sam Smith, died and three more were injured.
5. In 1937 Howard Hughes set a transcontinental air record by flying his monoplane from Los Angeles to Newark, N.J., in seven hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.
6. On the same day, the first play written for British television, The Underground Murder Mystery by J. Bissell Thomas, was broadcast by the BBC. The 30-minute play was set in Tottenham Court Road tube station.
7. In 2013 NASA’s Curiosity rover found calcium deposits on Mars similar to those seen on Earth when water circulates in cracks and rock fractures.
8. In 1870 Two sisters from New York became the world’s first stockbrokers. Victoria Caffin Woodhall and Tennessee Caffin attracted mainly female customers. The business collapsed due to their outspoken views on Marxism and racial equality.
9. In 1728, a woman named Margaret Dickson, who’d been hanged for infanticide, opened her coffin and climbed out. She was subsequently proved innocent.
10. In 1977 the world's largest ever crowd, 12.7 million people, attended an Indian religious festival.

NEW!!

The Power of Love

Willow believes in crystal healing, cosmic  ordering  and the significance of chance  encounters. She believes there's a spiritual  explanation for everything. Except she struggles to find a reason why she can turn herself into  mist and create a wave of energy which can slam a would-be mugger into a wall. Or why the love of  her life left her for a mysterious woman in sunglasses, who then disappeared without trace.  

A chance encounter with Firebolt, leader of the Freedom League superhero team, in a Glastonbury coffee shop, does turn out to be significant. He offers her a new start and the chance to use her powers for good.

Servant is a Christian who has joined the Freedom League in order to use his teleporting power to serve God. He and Willow clash from the start, yet they are drawn inexorably to one another.

When Willow leaves the team abruptly for reasons unknown, Servant knows he must put her out of his mind and find a nice Christian girl to settle down with. He is about to propose to devout and straight-laced Ruth, when Willow returns and turns his entire world upside down.

Available from Amazon:

Paperback

Kindle

18 January

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 18 January:

Hawaii

1. Born on this date in 1882 was A. A. (Alan Alexander) Milne, author, of the Winnie The Pooh stories.
2. Another writer born on this date was Arthur Ransome, author of Swallows and Amazons, in 1884.
3. Cary Grant, real name Archibald Leach, actor whose films include Arsenic and Old Lace, To Catch a Thief, and North by Northwest, was born in 1904, in Bristol.
4. In 1778 Captain James Cook discovered the Sandwich Islands, which he named after Lord Sandwich, then first Lord of the Admiralty. Nowadays, these islands are called Hawaii.
5. In 2014 Lewis Clarke, 16, of Bristol set a new world record after becoming the youngest person to trek to the South Pole.
6. In 1913, an actor called Tom Horan offered passers by a £5 note for a penny. It was for a bet, and there was no catch, but the public were so suspicious that he only sold two!
7. In 2006, animals in Michael Jackson's private zoo were declared to be in good health after officials paid a surprise visit to the Neverland ranch. The animal rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, had raised concerns about the welfare of Jackson’s animals.
8. In 1881, 100 people died in the Great Victorian Blizzard which devastated south England. 16 foot snow drifts were reported in London.
9. The polygraph, also known as a lie detector, was used for the first time in the Netherlands on this date in 1951.
10. In 1989 Donald Burns achieved the loudest recorded shout (119dBA) in New Jersey.

NEW!!

The Power of Love

Willow believes in crystal healing, cosmic  ordering  and the significance of chance  encounters. She believes there's a spiritual  explanation for everything. Except she struggles to find a reason why she can turn herself into  mist and create a wave of energy which can slam a would-be mugger into a wall. Or why the love of  her life left her for a mysterious woman in sunglasses, who then disappeared without trace.  

A chance encounter with Firebolt, leader of the Freedom League superhero team, in a Glastonbury coffee shop, does turn out to be significant. He offers her a new start and the chance to use her powers for good.

Servant is a Christian who has joined the Freedom League in order to use his teleporting power to serve God. He and Willow clash from the start, yet they are drawn inexorably to one another.

When Willow leaves the team abruptly for reasons unknown, Servant knows he must put her out of his mind and find a nice Christian girl to settle down with. He is about to propose to devout and straight-laced Ruth, when Willow returns and turns his entire world upside down.

Available from Amazon:

Paperback

Kindle

17 January

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 17 January:

1. This date in 1706 was the birth date of Benjamin Franklin. He not only helped to draft the US Declaration of Independence, but also discovered that Lightning was a form of Electricity, and invented the rocking chair, Bifocals, street lights, lightning rods, stoves, and harmonicas.
2. In 1874, Chang and Eng Bunker, the original Siamese Twins, died within three hours of each other at the age of 62. The conjoined twin brothers had each married, and fathered 10 and 11 children respectively.
3. In 1912, Captain Robert Falcon Scott reached the South Pole, only to find Amundsen had beaten him by one month. On the same date in 1989 Murden and Metz became the first women to reach South Pole overland (on skis).
4. 17 January 1987 was a bad day for Football league. The weather cancelled all but 10 scheduled matches in the UK.
5. In 1536, Henry VIII, 44, fell from his horse while jousting and was unconscious for several hours. Experts believed this triggered his mental instability.
6. In 1989, the trial began at the Old Bailey for the participants in Britain’s biggest armed robbery. The robbery, described as being like ‘a clip from a Carry On film’, involved £40 million in cash and illegal drugs at a Knightsbridge deposit centre. The manager admitted to being associated with the gang.
7. In 1940, The River Thames froze over for first time since 1880.
8. E.C. Segar introduced Popeye The Sailor Man in his Thimble Theater comic strip on this date in 1929. His first appearance was as a guest, but readers demanded to see more of him and Popeye was eventually given top billing.
9. On this date in 2006, Goldenpalace.com agreed to pay William Shatner $25,000.00 for his recently passed kidney stone. The money was donated to Habitat for Humanity, a charity which builds houses for the needy. The kidney stone paid for half a house.
10. In 2018, a drone rescued two swimmers off the coast of Lennox Head, New South Wales in Australia by dropping a safety device to them. It was the first sea rescue carried out by a drone.

NEW!!

The Power of Love

Willow believes in crystal healing, cosmic  ordering  and the significance of chance  encounters. She believes there's a spiritual  explanation for everything. Except she struggles to find a reason why she can turn herself into  mist and create a wave of energy which can slam a would-be mugger into a wall. Or why the love of  her life left her for a mysterious woman in sunglasses, who then disappeared without trace.  

A chance encounter with Firebolt, leader of the Freedom League superhero team, in a Glastonbury coffee shop, does turn out to be significant. He offers her a new start and the chance to use her powers for good.

Servant is a Christian who has joined the Freedom League in order to use his teleporting power to serve God. He and Willow clash from the start, yet they are drawn inexorably to one another.

When Willow leaves the team abruptly for reasons unknown, Servant knows he must put her out of his mind and find a nice Christian girl to settle down with. He is about to propose to devout and straight-laced Ruth, when Willow returns and turns his entire world upside down.

Available from Amazon:

Paperback

Kindle