ON THIS DAY
JUly 5, 1973
A BAn on the film A Clockwork Orange was urged on the Home Secretary by Mary Whitehouse yesterday. She said the picture should not be shown again until an inquiry can be held into its ‘criminal influence’. Her demand followed the case of a 16-yearold sentenced to indefinite detention on Tuesday, who was said to have been obsessed by the violence of A Clockwork Orange when he murdered a tramp.
JUly 5, 1974
THE seven heroes who risked their lives for Princess Anne in The Mall shooting are honoured by the Queen today. The George Cross goes to bodyguard James Wallace Beaton, 31. He was shot three times and seriously injured when he used his body to shield Anne and Captain Mark Phillips from the bullets of would-be kidnapper ian Ball. [Also honoured were two policemen, a cleaning company manager, two chauffeurs and a freelance journalist.]
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
EdiE FALCO, 60. Just four years before starring in The Sopranos as Mafia boss Tony Soprano’s wife Carmela, Edie was ‘living like a pack-rat’, waitressing and washing her dishes in the bath because she didn’t have a kitchen. She is now described as ‘one of the most accoladed U.S. actors of this century’. HEdi SLiMAnE, 55. The French couturier started out at Yves Saint Laurent — rebranding it to Saint Laurent Paris and adding a rock ’n’ roll appeal — and is now creative director at Celine. He has dressed everyone from Madonna to Brad Pitt but is known as the ‘most controversial man in fashion’, once banning a critic from his shows, calling her a ‘schoolyard bully’.
BORN ON THIS DAY
Sir JAMES MirrLEES (1936-2018). The Scottish economist earned a nobel prize for his tax model, which, as the new York Times put it, solved ‘one of government’s greatest economic challenges — how to get taxpayers to pony up their fair share’. He was so shocked to be told of his award that he thought it was a hoax by a friend. PHinEAS TAYLOr BArnUM (1810-1891).
The U.S. showman, known by his initials PT, made his name with his circus
‘freaks’, exhibiting people with birth defects and
‘ strange and savage tribes’ — regardless of how factual or ethical such displays were — making him a very wealthy man. Barnum’s story was portrayed by Hugh Jackman in 2017’s The Greatest Showman.
ON JULY 5 . . .
IN 1987, the Pet Shop Boys were enjoying their second UK no 1, with it’s A Sin.
IN 1994, Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos from his garage in Bellevue, Washington.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Strigiform (coined 1870s)
A) Straight line. B) Of or pertaining to owls. C) A rhomboid. answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Go to the mat: Meaning to fight for someone or something until the very end. it comes from wrestling when both contestants are down on the mat.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
One man’s vulgarity is another man’s lyric.
John M. Harlan II, U.S. judge (1899-1971)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY did the lime go to the drinks factory? It was cordially invited.
Guess The Definition answer: B.