ON THIS DAY
November 24, 2022
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE NOVEMBER 24, 1993
A PLASTER cast of a room in a derelict house clinched the Turner Prize for Rachel Whiteread at the Tate Gallery last night. According to Daily Mail art critic Robin Simon, the sculpture — Untitled (Room) 1993 — was the most boring. He added: ‘All the entries are depressing and pointless; typical of the so-called avant-garde establishment which runs the whole thing.’
NOVEMBER 24, 2006
THE number of pubs and supermarkets serving alcohol round-the-clock has trebled in the first year of the licensing free-for-all. Since the new rules came into force exactly 12 months ago, and 1,000 premises had been given approval for 24-hour drinking, a further 2,000 licences have been granted.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
SHIRLEY HENDERSON, 57. The Scottish actress starred in Trainspotting, Bridget Jones, and two Harry Potter movies as Moaning Myrtle, the adolescent crying ghost. ‘She’s a multi-faceted character; lots of mood swings and simmering emotions. Maybe that’s why they chose an adult rather than an actual 14-year-old,’ Henderson said. GREGORY DORAN, 64. The director from Huddersfield, described as ‘one of the great Shakespeareans of his generation’, directed his late husband Sir Antony Sher several times. But the celebrated stage actor said: ‘It once got so heated he threw a plate and then a glass at me, and after that we made a rule that we would not bring work home.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
EILEEN BARTON (1924-2006). The American actress and singer is remembered for her 1950 ‘instant sensation’ If I Knew You Were Comin’ I’d’ve Baked A Cake. The song, by the same writer as novelty hit How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?, was no.1 for 12 weeks straight in the U.S. As an infant, she slept backstage in the drawer of a theatrical trunk while her parents performed as vaudeville stars.
FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT (1849-1924). The Manchester-born author of children’s classics little lord Fauntleroy, A little Princess and The Secret Garden, moved to the U.S. with her impoverished family as a child after the death of her father. One American critic wrote of her first novel: ‘We know of no more powerful work from a woman’s hand, not even excepting the best of George Eliot.’
ON NOVEMBER 24 . . .
IN 1963, Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot and killed lee Harvey Oswald, the man who had assassinated President John F. Kennedy two days earlier.
IN 2005, The Karate Kid star Pat Morita died, aged 73.
IN 2013, Robbie Williams’s Swings Both Ways became the 1,000th UK no. 1 album. (Frank Sinatra’s Songs For Swingin’ lovers! was the first, in 1956).
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION
Lacustrine (coined early 19th century)
A) lethargic.
B) Of, or relating to, a lake.
C) Arcane; recondite.
answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Like a dose of salts: Meaning very fast and efficiently; the salts referred to in this simile are laxatives.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
The Thames is liquid history.
John Burns, British Liberal politician (1858-1943)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you call a bird that stars in action movies? Steven Seagull.
Guess The Definition answer: B.