ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE AUGUST 2, 1980 the
THIS is moment of Sebastian Coe’s lifetime, the split-second of triumph in the Olympic 1,500 metres in Moscow yesterday. But Coe did more than win the gold medal. He lifted the soul, he ennobled his art, he dignified his country and he emerged a very great young man.
AUGUST 2, 1986
JOHN McENROE and actress Tatum O’Neal finally made it to the altar last night. After months of speculation, they wed at a Roman Catholic church on Long Island, New York. The 27-year-old ex-Wimbledon champion wore a tuxedo and sneakers.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
JULIA FOSTER, 79. The actress from East Sussex starred in the films Alfie and Half A Sixpence. The mother of TV presenter Ben Fogle said she ‘didn’t sleep for eight weeks, worrying and worrying’ when he rowed across the Atlantic’. In 2017, she was on life support after surgery on her back went wrong but, within a year, she was singing and dancing on stage.
DAME ROSE TREMAIN, 79. The historical novelist from London wrote the Bookershortlisted Restoration. She said the damehood she received in 2020 was a ‘gleam of light’ after an operation for pancreatic cancer. She says French journalists always want to know if she is Kirsten Munk, the ‘sexually voracious’ king’s consort in her Music And Silence. ‘Of course, I tell them “yes”.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
BEATRICE STRAIGHT (1914-2001). The U.S. actress, who starred in horror classic Poltergeist, won a Tony for the original Broadway production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and an Oscar for 1976’s Network. But she said: ‘Nobody knew from where I came before Network, and afterwards few cared where I went.’
BETSY BLOOMINGDALE (1922-2016). The U.S. socialite, who was married to the heir to Bloomingdale’s department store, was ‘the long-reigning queen of Los Angeles society’ and attended the wedding of Charles and Diana. Bloomingdale kept a diary of every dinner party she hosted so she didn’t use the same ‘tablescape’ twice. But she insisted: ‘It’s not what you put on the tables, it’s who you put in the chairs.’
ON AUGUST 2…
IN 1923, serving U.S. President Warren G. Harding died, aged 57. He was succeeded by Calvin Coolidge.
IN 1986, Singer-songwriter Chris de Burgh’s The Lady In Red went to No 1 in the UK charts.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION: Frowsy (1680)
A) A vague unwell feeling. B) Dirty and untidy; slovenly. C) Grumpy; irritable.
Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Like a dog with two tails — meaning delighted and showing great pleasure; it alludes to the image of a dog wagging its tail as an expression of happiness and so, with two tails, doubly so.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamp post what it feels about dogs. Christopher Hampton, British playwright
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT did one slice of bread say to the other when he saw some butter and jam on the table? We’re toast.
Guess The Definition answer: B.