20 April: Annie Hall

On this date in 1977 Woody Allen's film Annie Hall premièred. 10 facts about this film:

1. This film earned Woody Allen his first two Oscars (for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay). It also won best actress and Best picture, the second shortest film to win the Best Picture Oscar (the shortest being Marty (1955) at 91 minutes). It’s also hailed as a film of great cultural significance.

2. Nevertheless, Woody Allen wasn’t satisfied with it. To his mind, it didn’t live up to his original vision.

3. Which wasn’t a romantic comedy at all. Allen and his writing partner, Marshall Brickman, conceived the story as an exploration of the main character’s life and psyche, with the romance being just one aspect. Another sub plot was a murder mystery but that was dropped fairly early on. That idea eventually became Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993).

4. The original title was Anhedonia, a condition in which a person is unable to feel pleasure or joy. United Artists hated the title as they couldn’t see an effective way to market it. Other titles suggested were "It Had to Be Jew," "A Rollercoaster Named Desire," and "Me and My Goy." It wasn’t until three weeks before the premiere that Allen decided the name of the female protagonist would be an acceptable title.

5. It’s essentially named after the lead actress, Diane Keaton. Her real name is Diane Hall and her nickname is Annie.

6. Keaton dressed in her own clothes during filming, despite pressure from the costume designer to adopt a less “crazy” look. However, her style became a fashion craze after the film’s release.

7. One of the film’s innovations was the way it used split screen scenes. One scene shows the two main characters in therapy at the same time. It was quite low tech, in fact, as it was shot on two adjacent sets with a thin wall between them.

8. When Annie and Alvy are people watching and one passer by is dubbed “The winner of the Truman Capote lookalike contest”, the passer by in question is the real Truman Capote in a cameo role.

9. The scene where Alvy sneezes and a container of cocaine is spread around the room wasn’t scripted. Woody Allen actually sneezed during the scene. Test audiences loved it so much that the sneeze was kept in.

10. Included among the original script’s fantasy scenes were Alvy and Annie time travelling to the Garden of Eden, the French Resistance, and Nazi Germany, parodies of other films including Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and a basketball game between the New York Knicks and philosophers like Friedrich Nietsche and SSoren Kierkegaard. Allen was sorry to lose most of them, but one in which a sentient traffic light convinces Alvy to fly across country and win Annie back, he allegedly hated so much that he tossed the prints into New York City’s East River.

New!!!

The first in a new series! It has invading aliens, gladiator-style contests, rivalry and romance.

The six richest people in Britain decide to hold a contest to settle the question of which of them is most successful. It will be a gladiator style contest with each entrant fielding a team of ten super-powered combatants. Entrepreneur Llew Powell sets out to put together his team, which includes his former lover, an employee of his company with a fascinating hobby, two refugees from another dimension (a lonely giant and a drunken sailor), two sisters bound together by a promise, a diminutive doctor, a former Tibetan monk initiate and two androids with a history. As the team train together, alliances form, friendships and more develop, while others find the past is not easy to leave behind.

Meanwhile, a ruthless race of aliens has its eyes on the Earth. Already abducting and enslaving humans, they work towards the final invasion which would destroy life on Earth as we know it. Powell’s group, Combat Team Alpha, stumble upon one of the wormholes the aliens use to travel to Earth and witness for themselves the horrors in store if the aliens aren’t stopped. Barely escaping with their lives, they realise there are more important things to worry about than a fighting competition.

Get it in paperback

Get it for your kindle

19 April: Rice Krispies

On this date in 2001 Over 100 staff and students in Friley Hall kitchen at Iowa State University baked the world’s largest Rice Krispie square. 10 things you might not know about Rice Krispies:

1. Rice Krispies are made by cooking Rice at high temperatures so that it expands or puffs up, in a process known as “oven popping”.

2. They contain air pockets created when starch molecules bond. Adding liquid puts pressure on these pockets and they break, which is what makes the characteristic “Snap, Crackle, Pop” sound they are famous for.

3. The cartoon mascots, Snap, Crackle and Pop were created in the 1930s by Vernon Grant. They are the first and longest-running cartoon characters to represent a Kellogg's product. They have distinct personalities. Snap is the eldest, the responsible leader; Crackle is the affable middle child and Pop is the mischievous youngest. According a poll by Scientific American in 2002, Americans are more likely to be able to name the Rice Krispie mascots than they are Supreme Court justices.

4. For a while in the 1950s they were joined by a friend called Pow. He was a tie in with the craze for everything space related and wore a space suit. His name, rather than being related to the sound the cereal makes, was to do with the nutritional power of the grains.

5. Over the years, Kellogg’s have occasionally got into trouble for making claims about their cereal, for example, that it boosted a child’s immune system and helped them concentrate in school. Law suits ensued and they were forbidden from making such claims. They can, however, inform people that Rice Krispies contain Niacin, iron, vitamin B6, riboflavin, thiamin, folic acid, Vitamin D and vitamin B12.

6. Snap, Crackle and Pop are known by different names in other languages: Cric! Crac! Croc! In French, Knisper! Knasper! Knusper! In German, Pim! Pam! Pum! In Spanish and Piff! Paff! Puff! In Swedish.

7. In Australia and New Zealand, they’re called Rice Bubbles.

8. In 1963, The Rolling Stones recorded a Rice Krispie ad. Mick Jagger sang "Wake up in the morning, there's a Snap around the place, wake up in the morning, there's a Crackle in your face, wake up in the morning, there's a Pop that really says this is for you!"

9. Iowa State University’s world record mentioned above was beaten in 2010 in California where a Rice Krispie treat measuring 3.66 m long x 2.44 m wide x 2.13 m tall (12 ft x 8 ft x 7 ft) and weighing 4,678.35 kg (10,314 lb) was made. I also found a reference to another at the University of Wisconsin in 2015 which weighed 11,327 pounds.

10. In America in 2022, there was a Rice Krispie shortage caused by a 71 day strike by workers at the Rice Krispie factory combined with ongoing supply chain issues as a result of the covid plague.

New!!!

The first in a new series! It has invading aliens, gladiator-style contests, rivalry and romance.

The six richest people in Britain decide to hold a contest to settle the question of which of them is most successful. It will be a gladiator style contest with each entrant fielding a team of ten super-powered combatants. Entrepreneur Llew Powell sets out to put together his team, which includes his former lover, an employee of his company with a fascinating hobby, two refugees from another dimension (a lonely giant and a drunken sailor), two sisters bound together by a promise, a diminutive doctor, a former Tibetan monk initiate and two androids with a history. As the team train together, alliances form, friendships and more develop, while others find the past is not easy to leave behind.

Meanwhile, a ruthless race of aliens has its eyes on the Earth. Already abducting and enslaving humans, they work towards the final invasion which would destroy life on Earth as we know it. Powell’s group, Combat Team Alpha, stumble upon one of the wormholes the aliens use to travel to Earth and witness for themselves the horrors in store if the aliens aren’t stopped. Barely escaping with their lives, they realise there are more important things to worry about than a fighting competition.

Get it in paperback

Get it for your kindle

18 April: Husband Appreciation Day

Today is Husband Appreciation Day. Here are 10 quotes about husbands:

1. Whenever you find a man who would make a good husband, you will usually find that he is. Anon

2. When a man marries a woman it’s the highest compliment he can pay her and it’s usually the last. Helen Rowland

3. Every woman is entitled to an opinion and the right to express that opinion-especially to the man she's married to. Nancy Reagan

4. An archaeologist is the best husband any woman can have; the older she gets the more interested he is in her. Agatha Christie

5. Husband: One who stands by his wife in troubles she'd never have had if she hadn't married him. Anon

6. The ideal husband understands every word his wife doesn't say. Alfred Hitchcock

7. Husbands are like fire. They go out if unattended. Zsa Zsa Gabor

8. A husband is a man who wishes he had as much fun when he goes on business trips as his wife thinks he does. Ann Landers

9. Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave. Martin Luther

10. A good husband makes a good wife. John Florio

New!!!

The first in a new series! It has invading aliens, gladiator-style contests, rivalry and romance.

The six richest people in Britain decide to hold a contest to settle the question of which of them is most successful. It will be a gladiator style contest with each entrant fielding a team of ten super-powered combatants. Entrepreneur Llew Powell sets out to put together his team, which includes his former lover, an employee of his company with a fascinating hobby, two refugees from another dimension (a lonely giant and a drunken sailor), two sisters bound together by a promise, a diminutive doctor, a former Tibetan monk initiate and two androids with a history. As the team train together, alliances form, friendships and more develop, while others find the past is not easy to leave behind.

Meanwhile, a ruthless race of aliens has its eyes on the Earth. Already abducting and enslaving humans, they work towards the final invasion which would destroy life on Earth as we know it. Powell’s group, Combat Team Alpha, stumble upon one of the wormholes the aliens use to travel to Earth and witness for themselves the horrors in store if the aliens aren’t stopped. Barely escaping with their lives, they realise there are more important things to worry about than a fighting competition.

Get it in paperback

Get it for your kindle

17 April: Daffy Duck

On this date in 1937 a wild duck who later known as Daffy Duck made his début in Porky's Duck Hunt, by Warner Bros. 10 things you didn’t know about Daffy Duck:

1. Porky’s Duck Hunt was a black and white cartoon with Daffy, as Porky Pig’s hunting prey, outwitting him. In this film, Daffy didn’t have a name but referred to himself as “a crazy, darn-fooled duck.” He was also less anthropomorphised and resembled a regular duck although he already had the characteristic white neck ring.

2. The duck was an immediate hit with audiences and the story goes that people would leave the cinema talking about this ‘daffy duck.’ By his next appearance in 1938, he had a name. His next film was called Daffy Duck and Egghead.

3. Daffy Duck is the 3rd most featured character in Looney Tunes. Only Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig have featured more often.

4. Daffy was created by animators Tex Avery and Bob Clampett for Leon Schlesinger Productions.

5. It’s been said that Daffy’s voice, with his characteristic lisp, was based on Leon Schlesinger, who found it hilarious without being aware they were taking the mickey out of him. However, in his autobiography, Mel Blanc debunks that theory and says Daffy’s lisp was inevitable given the anatomy of his beak.

6. Mel Blanc was the voice of Daffy for 52 years, which is a world record. 27 actors have voiced Daffy over the years.

7. Daffy Duck has a wife called Daphne and a nephew called Plucky Duck.

8. His middle name seems to change with the times. In The Scarlet Pumpernickel (1950), it's Dumas, a nod to Alexandre Dumas. However, in the Baby Looney Tunes episode The Tattletale, Granny addresses him as "Daffy Horatio Tiberius Duck". In 2011, the middle names "Armando" and "Sheldon" are used.

9. He had a hit record. His album, Party Zone, reached number 58 on the U.K. charts in 1991.

10. In 1953, Daffy starred in Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century as a space hero who blows up a planet. George Lucas loved this short film so much that he wanted it to screen with Star Wars in 1977. However, it never happened because Lucas couldn’t get the rights for it.

New!!!

The first in a new series! It has invading aliens, gladiator-style contests, rivalry and romance.

The six richest people in Britain decide to hold a contest to settle the question of which of them is most successful. It will be a gladiator style contest with each entrant fielding a team of ten super-powered combatants. Entrepreneur Llew Powell sets out to put together his team, which includes his former lover, an employee of his company with a fascinating hobby, two refugees from another dimension (a lonely giant and a drunken sailor), two sisters bound together by a promise, a diminutive doctor, a former Tibetan monk initiate and two androids with a history. As the team train together, alliances form, friendships and more develop, while others find the past is not easy to leave behind.

Meanwhile, a ruthless race of aliens has its eyes on the Earth. Already abducting and enslaving humans, they work towards the final invasion which would destroy life on Earth as we know it. Powell’s group, Combat Team Alpha, stumble upon one of the wormholes the aliens use to travel to Earth and witness for themselves the horrors in store if the aliens aren’t stopped. Barely escaping with their lives, they realise there are more important things to worry about than a fighting competition.

Get it in paperback

Get it for your kindle

16 April: Pyjamas

It’s Wear your Pyjamas To Work Day! Here are 10 things you might not know about pyjamas:

1. Wear your pyjamas to work day was created in 2004 by PajamaGram to reward those working late on taxes. It’s purely and simply a bit of fun. However, before you head off to the office in your jammies it’s worth checking with HR that it’s allowed. If you work for local government in the United Arab Emirates it definitely isn’t. There has been a strict dress code in effect since 1976 and pyjamas in the office are forbidden.

2. Okay, so you checked with your boss and have been told it’s fine to celebrate Wear Your Pyjamas to Work Day. But what about getting there? Is driving in pyjamas against the law? In the UK, there’s no specific law against driving in pyjamas. That said, rule 97 of the Highway Code states that drivers must wear appropriate clothing and footwear that doesn't prevent them from using the controls correctly. If your pyjamas and slippers do that, you could end up with a fine.

3. Oh, and is it “pyjamas” or “pajamas”? Depends where you come from. It’s “pajamas” in America and “pyjamas” in the UK and Australia.

4. However you spell it, the word derives from and Indian word for “leg garment”. The original pyjamas were loose, lightweight trousers fitted with drawstring waistbands worn by people in India. The style was later adopted by Europeans during the British East India Company's rule in India.

5. Pyjamas with feet in are mainly for kids these days, but they started out as adult night attire. People started sewing Socks to their pyjama legs, not only to keep their feet warm, but to keep the bed bugs from biting. A tailor in Jermyn Street, when asked about the reason, replied. "I believe, Sir, it is because of the White Ants."

6. Another feature of kids’ pyjamas, and even adult ones, sometimes, is drop seat (also known as a trap door or butt flap), designed to make it easier to use the Toilet during the night.

7. In the Middle Ages, only the rich wore them. Ordinary people wore shapeless smocks to bed. It was the Victorians who popularised pyjamas for men around the 1870s. Pyjamas for women became popular in the 1920s thanks to Coco Chanel’s designs for lounging wear.

8. In the 17^th century, pyjamas were known as “mogul's breeches”. Today they might be referred to as PJs jammies or jim-jams, although in Africa and South Asia people call their PJs “night suits”.

9. In the early 1900s, a fashion designer named Paul Poiret created silk pyjamas which could be worn out and about during the day. In the 1920s it was considered highly fashionable to wear pyjamas to the beach. In Japan, wearing them to go out during the day is perfectly acceptable, especially a Kigurumi, which is a word for pyjamas made to look like a giant stuffed animal.

10. The World’s Largest Footed Pyjama Party was held in Austin, Texas on March 11, 2012. 309 adults dressed in footed pyjamas to set a Guinness World Record.

New!!!

The first in a new series! It has invading aliens, gladiator-style contests, rivalry and romance.

The six richest people in Britain decide to hold a contest to settle the question of which of them is most successful. It will be a gladiator style contest with each entrant fielding a team of ten super-powered combatants. Entrepreneur Llew Powell sets out to put together his team, which includes his former lover, an employee of his company with a fascinating hobby, two refugees from another dimension (a lonely giant and a drunken sailor), two sisters bound together by a promise, a diminutive doctor, a former Tibetan monk initiate and two androids with a history. As the team train together, alliances form, friendships and more develop, while others find the past is not easy to leave behind.

Meanwhile, a ruthless race of aliens has its eyes on the Earth. Already abducting and enslaving humans, they work towards the final invasion which would destroy life on Earth as we know it. Powell’s group, Combat Team Alpha, stumble upon one of the wormholes the aliens use to travel to Earth and witness for themselves the horrors in store if the aliens aren’t stopped. Barely escaping with their lives, they realise there are more important things to worry about than a fighting competition.

Get it in paperback

Get it for your kindle

15 April: Woodlouse Appreciation Day

Today is Woodlouse Appreciation Day. Here are 10 facts about these humble garden creatures:

1. They’re not actually lice. Lice are insects while woodlice are land living crustaceans, more closely related to Shrimps or prawns than lice.

2. There are a ton of different woodlouse species. There are 40 species in 10 different families in Britain and something like 5,000 – 7,000 species worldwide. They can be found on every continent except Antarctica.

3. They have a shell-like exoskeleton, and moult as they grow. They have seven body segments, 7 pairs of legs and a pair of antenna to help them find their way around in the dark.

4. They live in moist environments. Like their aquatic ancestors, they breathe through gills located on their hind legs. Hence they must always have wet legs or they’ll suffocate. This is why they live under stones or old logs and are nocturnal, coming out at night when it’s cool. They have a strategy for conserving water if they find themselves in a dry environment. They conglobate. That is, they roll into a ball, rather like an armadillo does. In fact, there’s a species of woodlouse called Armadillidium vulgareare for this very reason. Conglobating is also a way to protect themselves against predators.

5. They’re technically marsupials. A female woodlouse keeps fertilised eggs in a marsupium, or pouch, on the underside of her body, formed by overlapping plates attached to the bases of the first five pairs of legs. The eggs hatch in there and the mother appears to “give birth” to fully formed young, although newly hatched woodlice only have six pairs of legs.

6. They don’t pee. Instead they get rid of waste in the form of a gas through their exoskeleton. Therefore they can smell nasty if kept in an enclosed space for too long. It’s also said that they taste like pee rather than like their cousins, Crabs, Lobsters or prawns. Frogs, centipedes, shrews, Mice and Spiders don’t seem bothered by the unpleasant taste and eat them anyway.

7. Woodlice are detritivores, which means they eat decaying matter and are thus a vital part of the ecosystem. They are generally thought to be beneficial to have in a garden as they help create compost and recycle waste.

8. If they get in the house, they won’t cause any harm as they don’t carry diseases or eat sound wooden structures. However, if you’ve got an infestation of them, it might mean there is damp somewhere.

9. They can be kept as pets in a moist terrarium. They’re easy to look after and will happily munch away on rotting vegetables. They’re also quite social creatures and will live together in groups of up to about 70 with no problems. Enthusiasts will selectively breed from them to encourage particular colours or patterns.

10. Because they’re so ubiquitous, there are any number of dialect words for these creatures, including potato bugs, wood pigs, fat pigs, chiggy pigs, roly polys, boat builders, doodle bugs, slaters, cheese logs and monkey peas. In Swedish it’s known as a grey sucker, in French, a close-door, and in Spanish, it’s named after a red insect from Mexico, traditionally used in dyes. In the Netherlands, they’re called pissabeds.

14 April: Puffins

Today is Puffin Arrival Day in Lovund, Norway. 10 things you might not know about puffins:

1. Puffins weigh between 320 and 480g, which is about the same as a can of coke. They are are 26-29cm long with a wingspan of 47-63cm.

2. Their plumage is Black and White. During the breeding season their bills and feet are bright Orange (the rest of the year their bills are Grey). It’s thought the colourful bills help attract mates.

3. This is why they are nicknamed sea Parrots or Clowns of the sea.

4. Puffins belong to the auk family and belong to the genus Fratercula. This name comes from the Latin for “friar” or “little brother” because their plumage resembles a monk’s habit. The common name, puffin, has a more grisly origin, originating from the carcasses of an unrelated bird called the Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus), formerly known as the "Manks puffin".

5. There are three species of puffin: Atlantic puffin, Horned puffin, and Tufted or crested puffin.

6. They are better at swimming than at flying. They use their wings to 'fly' underwater while using their feet like a rudder to control direction. They can dive up to 60 feet under water. To fly in air, however, they have to beat their wings 300-400 times a minute to stay in the air, and they often crash land, into the water, or onto other puffins. One source stated that puffins can only fly if they can see the sea, but since I only saw that fact once I can’t be sure it’s true!

7. Puffin chicks are called pufflings. A female puffin will lay just one egg per year, in the spring. Both parents help care for it. Puffins mate for life and dig holes with their feet rather than build nests. If there are Rabbits around their nesting site, they might use an abandoned rabbit burrow. They tend to return to the same burrow to breed year after year.

8. Puffins breed in colonies on coasts and islands. There are eight islands in the world called Puffin Island, because they are, or have been, the home to breeding colonies of these birds. The island of Lundy in the Bristol Channel might be named for puffins, too as Lundy is believed to come from the old Norse word for "puffin island".

9. Puffins are able to carry several fish in their beaks at a time back to their nests to feed their chicks rather than regurgitating swallowed fish like many other sea birds. Their beaks are serrated to allow this to happen. One puffin was recorded holding 83 small sandeels in its bill at once.

10. The Atlantic puffin is the provincial bird of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.