ON THIS DAY
AUGUST 21, 1992
FOR one of the showbusiness weddings of the year, it lacked a certain razzmatazz. The stars were millionaire rock musician Sting and his lover of ten years, Trudie Styler. The unglamorous setting was the register office at Camden Town Hall, next to the King’s Cross red-light district.
AUGUST 21, 2003
IF DEL Boy heard the news, he’d be writing out a bill for royalties. His catchphrase, lovely jubbly, has been officially recognised as part of the English language.
The accolade for the Only Fools And Horses character, played by David Jason, comes in the latest edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English. The phrase is defined as an exclamation ‘used to express delight or approbation; excellent’.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
SERGEY BRIN, 47. The Moscow-born U.S. entrepreneur, who founded Google with larry Page, is worth more than £50 billion. Brin admitted he should have had nothing to do with the failed social network Google+. Calling himself ‘kind of a weirdo’, he said: ‘It was probably a mistake for me to be working on anything tangentially related to social to begin with.’ USAIN BOLT, 34. The 6ft 4in Jamaican sprinter, right, whose parents ran a grocery store, retired in 2017 as an eight-time Olympic gold medallist, 11-time world champion and the fastest man in history. He once reached 27.8 mph — a similar speed to a galloping horse. Even in the year after retirement, he earned more than £20 million.
BORN ON THIS DAY
KENNY ROGERS (1938-2020). The U.S. singer-songwriter and actor sang Islands In The Stream with Dolly Parton and We’ve Got Tonight with Sheena Easton, and became the tenth best-selling male artist in American history in terms of album sales. rogers, a father of five, married five times and set up a restaurant chain, Kenny rogers roasters, which once had 400 U.S. branches (there are still in some in Asia). PRINCESS MARGARET ( 1930- 2002). The Queen’s younger sister, right, was a rebel from the start. She said her earliest memory was being told to stop trying to move her pram by squirming around. She toppled it over and ‘was rescued, screaming’. King George VI distilled the difference between his two daughters by saying: ‘lilibet [Elizabeth] is my pride, Margaret my joy.’ Pablo Picasso wanted to marry Margaret, though they never met.
ON AUGUST 21…
IN 1959, Hawaii became the 50th U.S. state. IN 1976, Mary langdon became the UK’s first female firefighter when she joined East Sussex Fire Brigade.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Choric (c 1815) A) The Holy Communion given to a dying person. B) High-spirited, proud. C) Written for a chorus. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
The primrose path: Meaning the path of self-indulgence leading to ruin; it derives from Shakespeare, both in Hamlet (‘the primrose path of dalliance’) and Macbeth (‘primrose way to the everlasting bonfire’).
QUOTE FOR TODAY
My wife is a sex object — every time I ask for sex, she objects. Les Dawson, English comedian (1931-1993)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you call a fake noodle? An impasta. Guess The Definition answer: C.