ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE SEPTEMBER 27, 1943
PILFERING at British Restaurants [canteens set up for people bombed out of their homes] has become so bad that one communal feeding centre has asked men to deposit their hats or umbrellas while they eat — as a guarantee against loss of crockery and cutlery.
SEPTEMBER 27, 1963
TATTOOING is the latest craze in Nottingham schools, according to Dr Ronald Sprenger, Schools’ Medical Officer. He said: ‘The boys involved are usually delinquency prone. These identity marks might be very useful on some future occasion.’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
GWYNETH PALTROW, 46. The star of Shakespeare In Love and Emma is now almost as famous for her lifestyle website goop, which has been described as having a New Age ‘Marie Antoinette- esque detachment from reality’. The name was an extension of her initials after someone told her that ‘all the successful internet companies have double Os’. MEAT LOAF, 71. The American singersongwriter was born Marvin Aday and has given several versions of how he got his stage name — including from his American football coach, who called him Meat Loaf due to his weight. His career took off when he got a part in the musical Hair, having been offered an audition while working outside the theatre as a parking attendant.
BORN ON THIS DAY
ALVIN STARDUST (19422014). The singer, famous for his quiff and sideburns, was born Bernard Jewry in London’s Muswell Hill and had hits with My Coo Ca Choo, and I Feel Like Buddy Holly. Dubbed ‘the man who never smiles’, he first wore his trademark black leather gloves on his Top Of The Pops debut — not to look sinister, but because of a mishap with a bottle of black hair dye. SIR ROBERT EDWARDS (1925-2013). The professor and Nobel Prize winner from West yorkshire was the pioneer, alongside Dr Patrick Steptoe, of in vitro fertilisation, or IVF. They were responsible for the birth of Louise Brown, the first ‘test-tube baby’, in 1978. By the time of his death, the process he and Steptoe created had been responsible for the births of more than five million children.
ON SEPTEMBER 27…
IN 1590, Pope Urban VII died of malaria just 13 days after being elected pontiff. IN 1960, the first travelator, or ‘moving pavement’, in Europe opened at London’s Bank station.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Adust (1857) A) In all directions B) Scorched, burnt C) grounded Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Dribs and drabs: Meaning scattered amounts of something; ‘drib’ from 18th- century dialects means a small amount, and is a likely version of drip; ‘drab’ also had much the same meaning, though it was used typically for a small debt or sum of money.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
A HAPPY marriage is a long conversation that always seems too short The space bar. Andre Maurois, French writer (1885-1967)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT is an astronaut’s favourite part of a computer? Guess The Definition answer: B.