ON THIS DAY
December 7, 2021
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE DECEMBER 7, 1983
ANOTHER accolade has come Mrs Thatcher’s way. An American panel has voted her a place in the Top 12 of the World’s Most Impressive Lips.
Britain’s Prime Minister has the ‘stiffest upper lip,’ says Richard Green, vice-president of the Chicago lipcare firm that drew up the list from a survey.
DECEMBER 7, 1999
THE public appetite for Delia Smith’s recipes has set new records before her latest cook book has even been published. More than 850,000 orders have been placed for the second in her series of How To Cook in which the TV chef goes back to basics. Her publishers, BBC Worldwide, reckon the figure could be a record for a work of non-fiction.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
ANNE FINE, 74. The Leicester-born children’s author wrote Madame Doubtfire, which was turned into the Robin Williams film Mrs Doubtfire. The former Children’s Laureate says: ‘When I see children on trains or buses now they never have their noses in a book. I see them texting or playing on their phones and a chill of fear for the nation runs through me.’ LUKE DONALD, 44. The golfer from Hertfordshire and former world No.1 was named player of the year on both the PGA and European Tour in 2011. But months later, while sharing Wimbledon’s Royal Box with Kylie Minogue, he had to explain to the singer who he was. As a child, he had ‘a decent soprano voice’ and his mother would throw parties and make him sing. He was so nervous, he has said, ‘the only way I could perform was to go into the kitchen and sing through the opening’.
BORN ON THIS DAY
FAy BAINTER (1893-1968). In 1938, the American became the first person to be nominated for an Oscar for both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress (winning the latter, for Jezebel). She was also present at another momentous Hollywood moment — handing the Oscar to Hattie McDaniel the following year — the first African American to win an Academy Award (for her role as Mammy in Gone With The Wind). WILLA CATHER (1873-1947). The U.S. author made her name with novels of early American pioneer life O Pioneers! and My Ántonia. For the latter, she was nominated for the first-ever Pulitzer Prize in 1918. Famously private, she tried to destroy all her correspondence and banned the publication of her letters in her will.
ON DECEMBER 7…
IN 1967, The Beatles opened their Apple Boutique on London’s Baker Street. IN 2001, the Taliban gave up its stronghold in Kandahar, the regime’s spiritual home.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Chopine (c 1570s) A) A shoe having a thick sole. B) Elegant. C) A christening mantle Answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED Economical with the truth — means not disclosing all the relevant facts, or else, ironically, to mean outright lying. First cited in 1796, it gained prominence with MP Alan Clark in 1992 in the Arms-to-Iraq case.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
ThE drawn-out sobs of autumn’s violins wound my heart with a monotonous languor.
Paul Verlaine, French poet (1844-1896)
JOKE OF THE DAY
I COULDN’T find any soup in the supermarket… They were out of stock. Guess The Definition answer: A. Compiled by ETAN SMALLMAN and ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD