ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE FEBRUARY 14, 1948
HENS and ducks, tired of cabbage and carrot tops, have reduced their egg output. And these are some of the reasons for their ‘strike’ given yesterday by experts. A Ministry of Agriculture official said: ‘They have suffered from austerity feeding just as we have. If I were a hen, I would ease up on my egg production too.’ FEBRUARY 14, 2001
A COMPUTER virus triggered by a picture of tennis star Anna Kournikova is costing firms across the world millions of pounds. The electronic picture tempts users into clicking the file which then releases the virus into their machine.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
ANTON LESSER, 72. The rada- trained ‘ ultimate chameleon actor’, known for his roles in Game Of Thrones, The Crown and Endeavour, used to be a security guard. He said his reviews have not always been glowing: ‘ I did a production of Hamlet for Jonathan Miller and the Time Out critic said it was the only production he’d seen where Hamlet would have been better off without the prince.’ CARL BERNSTEIN, 80. The u.S. journalist, with colleague Bob Woodward, helped bring down richard nixon over the Watergate scandal, winning the Washington Post a Pulitzer Prize. Bernstein, who lost out on a reporting job because of his lack of a degree, said: ‘Editors wanted college graduates… My view was that you might be better prepared by graduating from horticultural school than from Yale or Princeton. At least that way you could write the gardening column.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
FLORENCE HENDERSON (1934-2016). The u.S. actress ‘created an idealised mother figure for an entire generation’ in sitcom The Brady Bunch. Her own childhood was far from ideal — she grew up in poverty, her father was an alcoholic and her mother walked out on the family when Henderson was 12.
PATRICIA KNATCHBULL (1924-2017). The 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma lost her teenage son nicholas, her father Lord Mountbatten, and her mother-in-law dowager Baroness Brabourne, in an IRA bombing off the coast of Ireland in 1979. She was left unable to cry after needing more than 120 stitches in her face due to injuries sustained in the boat attack.
ON FEBRUARY 14…
IN 1779, British explorer Captain James Cook was killed by native Hawaiians.
IN 2008, Oasis’s Liam Gallagher married All Saints singer nicole Appleton. They divorced in 2014.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION: Craner (c. 1860)
A) Costermonger’s handkerchief.
B) One who hesitates at a difficult jump. C) A polite, effeminate man.
answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
The final straw: While the ‘ straw that breaks the camel’s back’ originates in Exodus in the Old Testament, this version of the phrase comes from the 17th century. It refers to the last in a series of bad things that lead to misfortune.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
If love is the answer, could you rephrase the question?
Lily Tomlin, U.S. actress and comedian
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you call a romance that starts at the aquarium? Guppy love. Guess The Definition answer: B.