ON THIS DAY
March 8, 2017
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE MARCH 8, 1955
GRACE KELLY (right), the actress nominated for the latest Best Actress Academy Award [she later won the Oscar for her role as the long-suffering wife of an alcoholic in The Country Girl], was suspended by her studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, for turning down the part of a call- girl in Jeremy Rodock, in which she was to star with Spencer Tracy. In her New York apartment, Miss Kelly said: ‘I am terribly upset. I just don’t feel I am right for the part.’
MARCH 8, 1967
THE Prince of Wales is to sing the part of the Pirate King in Gordonstoun’s production of The Pirates Of Penzance. Dr Angus McKnight, who is in charge of the production, said: ‘The Prince has been given one of the major parts because he can sing.’ About 20 girls studying music at Elgin Academy will also take part. But the Prince, now 18 and guardian (head boy), does not become involved in any romantic entanglements.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
DOUGLAS HURD, 87, foreign secretary under Mrs Thatcher and John Major. Lord Hurd’s father and grandfather were also Tory MPs, and his son Nick made it a fourth successive generation when elected in 2005. At Eton, Douglas was nicknamed ‘Hitler Hurd’, for beating younger boys. MICKY DOLENz, 72. The American-born singer and drummer (pictured) found fame in Sixties TV show and pop band The Monkees. He got a place in the band after answering a newspaper ad. He was not at that time a drummer and needed lessons even to be able to mime credibly, but eventually he learned to play.
BORN ON THIS DAY
KENNETH GRAHAME (1859-1932). The Edinburgh-born author had a successful career in finance, rising to Secretary of the Bank of England. After retiring in 1908, he wrote Wind In The Willows, turning the bedtime stories he’d told his only son, Alastair, into his masterpiece, and basing Mr Toad on the headstrong young boy. Tragically, in May 1920, aged 19 and at Oxford, Alastair killed himself on a railway track. SIR ANTHONY CARO (1924-2013). The celebrated sculptor said he only accepted a knighthood in 1987 so his wife, Sheila, an artist, ‘could deservedly be called a Lady’.
ON MARCH 8...
IN 1971, a strike by British postal workers ended after seven weeks. IN 1979, Philips publicly demonstrated the compact disc — or CD — for the first time.
WORD WIZARDRY
NEW WORD OF THE DAY Silver splicer — marrying in later life.
GUESS THE DEFINITION Nosism (coined 1829)
A) Mentioning something by saying you won’t mention it. B) The use of ‘we’ in speaking of oneself. C) A rhetorical device of damning by faint praise. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
BITE the bullet — force oneself to confront the unpleasant. From the 18th century, when a soldier being flogged would bite on a bullet to stop crying out.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty. Stephen King, American author
JOKE OF THE DAY
HAVE you heard about the prawn who went to a disco? He pulled a mussel. Guess The Definition answer: B.