ON THIS DAY
January 14, 2019
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
JANUArY 14, 1941 BRIDES may have to wear silver wedding rings before the war is over. Said a jeweller: ‘We’re having to sell only nine-carat rings because just a quarter of the normal supply of gold is available. So many more people seem to get married in wartime that there may soon be a shortage of gold rings.’ JANUArY 14, 1970 THE new 007 was slapped down yesterday by his leading lady. Diana Rigg, the former ‘man-eating’ Emma Peel of The Avengers, accused George Lazenby of being abusive, threatening and crude, and said he had made her cry while filming On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Miss Rigg (right) was replying to statements attributed to Mr Lazenby that she: ate garlic on purpose before filming love scenes; guzzled champagne in a warm bar while the camera crew waited outside in the cold; and preferred talking to the crew to talking to him.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
HUGH FEARNLEy-WHITTINGSTALL, 54. The Eton-educated TV chef asked for a sugar thermometer for his eighth birthday and by the age of 12 was selling fudge ice cream for £10 a pint. He once owned a pig named Delia — after Delia Smith. ‘She had several successful litters . . . and went the way of most retired sows and became sausage and salamis and other deli items,’ he said. FAyE DUNAWAy, 78. The star bagged an Academy Award for Network in 1977 — but she’s one of the few best actress Oscar winners to have also been given a Golden Raspberry for worst actress (for Mommie Dearest in 1980). ‘What I realised long ago is that any time people put you on a pedestal, you’re doomed to disappoint,’ she says.
BORN ON THIS DAY
WARREN MITCHELL (19262015). The actor from London played ‘Britain’s favourite bigot’, Alf Garnett. He was only the third choice for the role, with producers hoping to secure Peter Sellers. Once praised by a football fan for ‘having a go at immigrants’ as Alf, Mitchell replied: ‘We’re having a go at idiots like you.’ RICHARD BRIERS (1934-2013). The part of Tom Good in the BBC’s The Good Life was written for Briers, but he was convinced the sitcom would not be a hit because it was too ‘mundane and middle class’. He studied at RADA, and said one of his favourite reviews described his portrayal of Hamlet as ‘like a demented typewriter’.
ON JANUARY 14…
IN 1994, the Duchess of Kent converted to Catholicism, the first member of the Royal Family to do so for more than 300 years. IN 2016, English actor Alan Rickman died, aged 69.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION: Borborygmus (early 18th century)
A) An incipient roaring. B) The sound of blowing across the mouth of a bottle. C) A rumbling in the guts. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED Picnic —
From the 17th-century French ‘picque-nique’, used to describe a group of diners who brought their own wine. This morphed into a meal in which each person brought food. Picnicking outdoors did not emerge until the 19th century.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
SomE day you will be old enough to start reading fairytales again. C.S. Lewis, British author (1898-1963)
JOKE OF THE DAY
I STOPPED my wife vacuuming up a spider. It was Dysoning with death. Guess The Definition answer: C.