ON THIS DAY
April 19, 2024
FROM THE ARCHIVE
APRIL 19, 2008
IT WAS the oldest excuse in the book, to buy bill-payers a few precious days – ‘Your cheque is in the post’. But if the modernisers have their way, it’s an excuse that won’t wash any more – for the chequebook is about to become a thing of the past. The Irish Payments Services Organisation has claimed Ireland is the last country in Europe still paying bills by cash and cheque.
APRIL 19, 2019
DONALD Trump, right, slumped in his chair and swore in despair when he heard special counsel Robert Mueller was investigating him, it was claimed last night. Witnesses told the Mueller investigation Mr Trump said: ‘I’m f***ed.’ The details of his reaction to the investigation into alleged collusion with Russia were contained in Mr Mueller’s redacted report.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
CHARLIE MURPHY, 36. The Wexford actress, right, first came to prominence as Siobhán in RTÉ drama Love/ Hate. Recalling her audition, she said: ‘I had no idea how big my part was going to be. It was probably just as well because I might have fecked [it] up.’ She has since had a strong career – and set a few pulses racing in Netflix’s erotic thriller Obsession.
BORN ON THIS DAY
HUGH O’BRIAN (1925-2016). The US actor was born Hugh Krampe but after a poster for a play left the ‘m’ out of his surname, he said: ‘I decided I didn’t want to go through life being known as Huge Krape, so I decided to take my mother’s family name, O’Brien. But they misspelled it as “O’Brian” and I just decided to stay with that.’
ON APRIL 19…
IN 1882, Charles Darwin, the legendary naturalist, dies at 73.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION Crizzles (coined 1876)
A) Wax drips from a candle. B) Small white specks under the fingernails. C) Rough, sunburnt places on the face and hands in scorching weather. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED In my mind’s eye:
meaning in my perceptive thought; as the eye sees in two ways: when we look at anything from without, the object is reflected on the retina as on a mirror but in deep contemplation, the inward thought ‘informs the eye’. This was how Macbeth saw the dagger and Hamlet his deceased father, ‘in my mind’s eye’.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
The great thing about rock and roll is that someone like me can be a star.
Elton John, singer
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT has six eyes but can’t see a thing? Three blind mice. Guess The Definition answer: C.