ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE FEBRUARY 8, 1972
POET and playwright W.H. Auden, now an American citizen, is returning to live in England — partly to get away from New York’s ‘muggers’. But there is something else that helped him to decide to leave — the scarcity of kippers. His local delicatessen has given up selling them. Auden plans to take up residence at his old college, Christ Church, Oxford.
FEBRUARY 8, 1995
THE Princess of Wales has reached an outof-court settlement with the gym owner who took sneak photos of her exercising. Bryce Taylor has agreed to pay her all the money he made from the pictures, believed to be around £300,000. It will be given to a charity of Diana’s choice. The photos and negatives, taken with a hidden camera as she exercised in Taylor’s LA Fitness gym in West London, will be handed over to the Princess’s lawyers for destruction. The settlement saves Diana from what was being billed as the trial of the century.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
TRINNY WOODALL, 60. The London-born fashion expert shot to fame in the 2000s co-hosting the BBC’s What Not To Wear. She raised money to set up her own beauty brand, Trinny London, by selling her clothes. ‘When that ran out I sold my house, because I couldn’t afford the mortgage.’ The company now has a global turnover of more than £50 million. JOHN WILLIAMS, 92. The U.S. ‘doyen of film composers’ has won 25 Grammys and five Oscars — for films including Star Wars, Jaws and E.T. He has worked with Steven Spielberg on 29 movies across 50 years. He said his last ever score would be for Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny in 2023.
BORN ON THIS DAY
ELIZABETH BISHOP (1911-1979). The U.S. short-story writer and poet has been described as ‘the writer’s writer’s writer’. She was a perfectionist who did not write prolifically, preferring instead to spend long periods of time polishing her work.
JAMES DEAN (1931-1955). The U.S. actor had only three credited film roles — Giant, East Of Eden and rebel Without A Cause — before he was killed in a car crash. He was the first person to receive a posthumous Oscar nomination and remains the only one to have received two.
ON FEBRUARY 8 . . .
IN 1960, construction began on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles. IN 1986, Billy Ocean was at No. 1 in the UK with When The Going Gets Tough.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Blatteroon (coined 1645)
A) Someone who dislikes poetry.
B) A senseless blabber or boaster.
C) Padded jacket worn while fencing.
answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
To be made a scapegoat: refers to someone who takes the blame; from the Bible — a goat who took on the sins of the Israelites and was set free into the wilderness.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
I sometimes wonder if the manufacturers of foolproof items keep a fool or two on their payroll to test things
Alan Coren, English humorist (1938-2007)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you call a vicar riding a moped? Rev.
Guess The Definition answer: B.