ON THIS DAY
October 8, 2020
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE OCTOBER 8, 1968
DR RAMsEY, the Archbishop of Canterbury, last night criticised Rolling stone Mick Jagger’s views on marriage.
Mr Jagger said he was the father of a baby expected by pop singer Marianne Faithfull, but did not intend to marry.
Dr Ramsey said: ‘That is just a terribly sad instance of the way in which our society has disintegrated.’ [Tragically, she lost the baby the following month.]
OCTOBER 8, 1980
DR WHO’s faithful micro-chip chum K9 is doomed to the BBC scrapheap.
The computerised dog who can do anything is making it too easy for the scriptwriters to get the doctor out of trouble.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
MATT DAMON, 50. The Hollywood actor, star of the Jason Bourne films and saving Private Ryan, was 27 when he won an Oscar with Ben Affleck for best screenplay for Good Will Hunting. In 2011, Damon said he wished then U.s. president Barack Obama had ‘some balls’. Obama hit back: ‘Matt Damon said he was disappointed in my performance. Well, Matt, I just saw The Adjustment Bureau, so right back atcha, buddy!’ ANNE-MARIE DUFF, 50. The actress from London has played Joan of Arc, Queen Elizabeth I, Lady Macbeth — and Fiona Gallagher in TV’s shameless. she said: ‘As an actor, most of the time you have to dress like an unmade bed, ’cause you’re going to rehearsals and God knows what you’ll be doing, but underneath all of that I always have lovely underwear.’ she also wears different perfumes for different characters.
BORN ON THIS DAY
KIRK ALYN (1910-1999). The U.s. actor, born John Feggo, was the first person to play superman on screen, in a 1948 movie serial. Alyn felt typecast for the rest of his life, saying: ‘superman ruined my career. I was bitter for a number of years.’ He was cast as Lois Lane’s father in the 1978 Christopher Reeve film superman, but his scene ended up on the cutting room floor. WALTER LORD (1917-2002). The U.s. advertising executive-turned-historian made his name with A Night To Remember, recounting the sinking of the Titanic, relying on the testimony of 63 survivors. He wrote: ‘The night was a magnificent confirmation of women and children first, yet somehow the loss rate was higher for Third Class children than for First Class men.’
ON OCTOBER 8...
IN 1959, Margaret Thatcher, 33, was elected to Parliament to represent the North London constituency of Finchley. IN 1964, Roy Orbison went to number one in the UK with Oh, Pretty Woman.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Gallimaufry (c. mid 16th century) A) spiritual torpor, world weariness. B) A hodgepodge, a jumble. C) A scarecrow. Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED As thick as thieves: Meaning very close or friendly; it was coined in the 1800s. ‘Thick’ is in the sense of ‘closely knit’; thieves typically worked in gangs, entrusting all to, and relying wholly on, each other.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice.
Mark Twain, U.S. writer (1835-1910)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHICH knight never won a battle? Sir Render. Guess The Definition answer: B