ON THIS DAY
MAY 18, 1955
A ‘Flying saucer’ was seen by the headmaster and four boys over their school at Upwell, Norfolk. ‘It looked like a large, semi-deflated balloon,’ said head Mr Fell, ‘or like a giant jellyfish.’
MAY 18, 1966
London’S Playboy Club held a Bunny Hunt yesterday and the ‘Bunny Mother’ said: ‘What we want are girls who are young and fresh and clean and don’t look as if they’ve been hanging around for a couple of years.’ There were a few girls like that, lured to the auditions by the hope of £35 a week and, as one put it, ‘a sort of glamorous job without any low morals coming into it’.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
MIRIAM MARGOLYES, 77. The actress (right) played Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter films and was the voice of a sheepdog in Babe. She once said: ‘I’m surprised I haven’t been more successful. I’d have thought my particular brand of quirkiness, combined with sharp intelligence and a fine voice, would have yielded more. Maybe it’s because I’m fat.’
NOBBY STILES, 76. The ex-Manchester United and england footballer has lived with Alzheimer’s for more than 15 years. His son Rob said last year: ‘There’s been a suspected link between football and Alzheimer’s for years. So many of his team-mates at United and england have had it.’ One 1966 World Cup winning team-mate Ray Wilson died this week after battling the disease. Another, Martin Peters, is also a sufferer.
BORN ON THIS DAY
BERTRAND RUSSELL (1872-1970). The english Nobel prize-winning philosopher and mathematician was imprisoned as a pacifist during World War I. He was so good at keeping in touch with friends — including P. G. Wodehouse, T. S. eliot and lenin — that it was calculated he wrote one letter for every 30 hours of his life. Described as a ‘chronic womaniser’, he wed his fourth wife (almost 30 years his junior) aged 80.
PERRY COMO (19122001). The U.S. crooner (right) and actor sold 50million records, notching up hits with Papa loves Mambo and Catch A Falling Star. The sixth of 13th children, he started work as a barber known for bursting into song.
ON MAY 18 . . .
IN 1912, Bollywood was born, with the release of the first Indian film, the 22-minute silent movie Shree Pundalik. IN 1969, Apollo 10 was launched as a rehearsal for the first moon landing.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Coxcombical (coined 1716) A) Foppish, conceited. B) Someone who lives off the work of others. C) Uncomfortable, uneasy. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Halcyon days — meaning a time of happiness and prosperity, it alludes to halcyon, the Ancient Greek for a kingfisher; the ancient Scythians believed the female laid her eggs and incubated for a fortnight, before the winter solstice, during which time the sea was always unruffled.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
SLUMS may well be breeding grounds of crime, but middle-class suburbs are incubators of apathy and delirium. Cyril Connolly, writer (1903-1974)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY is bread like the sun? It rises in the yeast and sets in the waist. Guess The Definition answer: A