ON THIS DAY
September 24, 2021
SEPTEMBER 24, 1973
LORD OLIvIER, director of the National Theatre, was attacked at his Brighton home by an intruder. Olivier, though cut above the eye, gave chase brandishing a metal drama award. The 66-year-old actor said: ‘I shouted at the man to come back. He had the full benefit of my most heavy invective. But he carried on running.’
SEPTEMBER 24, 2003
MOTHERS-TO-BE seeking a natural birth would be better off with a female friend or sister at their side rather than a nervous father, according to a study. The trend towards men becoming the main helpers during labour has led to a doubling in forced interventions, such as Caesareans and forceps delivery, over 20 years.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
HELEN LEDERER, 67. The Absolutely Fabulous actress and comedian said as a child, she was ‘a fat female child version’ of David Frost who did her own sketches. She claimed her best-paid job was a 1980s advert for Finish, which involved spending ‘half a day placing a tablet into a dishwasher again and again’.
JACK DEE, 60. The stand-up comedian, actor and writer from Kent said his default setting is ‘mildly depressed’. For his first gig, he took along a motorcycle helmet: ‘If I didn’t get enough laughs I thought I could walk through the audience as if I had just delivered a pizza.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
DAME ELIzABETH BLACKADDER (19312021). The Falkirk-born artist and printmaker was the first woman to be elected to both the Royal Academy and Royal Scottish Academy. She was appointed Her Majesty’s painter and limner (court artist) in Scotland in 2001. Her paintings of cats featured on Royal Mail stamps in 1995.
SIR HOWARD FLOREY (1898-1968). The Australian pharmacologist and pathologist shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Sir Ernst Chain and Sir Alexander Fleming for developing penicillin. Florey and Chain headed a team of British scientists who developed the first smallscale manufacture of the drug from the liquid broth — discovered by Fleming — in which it grows.
ON SEPTEMBER 24 . . .
IN 1938, U.S. tennis player Don Budge became the first man to complete the Grand Slam of all four majors (Wimbledon and the Australian, French and U.S. Opens) in a calendar year. IN 1995, the first episode of the BBC’s adaptation of Pride And Prejudice, starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, was shown.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION: Yaws (c. 1670s)
A) Fingernails. B) Cheekbones. C) A contagious skin disease.
Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED Go through the hoop:
To subject someone to a harsh procedure. It comes from the circus world in which lions and tigers were put ‘through the hoop’ to entertain.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
The time is always ripe to do right.
Martin Luther King Jr, civil rights leader (1929-1968)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY do potatoes make the best teachers? They have eyes in the back of their head. Guess The Definition answer: C.