Friday, 10 February 2012

10th February

There was a touch of overkill 445 years ago today when a handful of miffed Scotsmen blew up Lord Darnley's house in Kirk o' Field, Edinburgh. Not content to blow him apart with gunpowder, the conspirators had strangled him too and left his body in the garden. Some said 'Serves him right' because he had orchestrated the murder, months earlier, of his wife's Italian secretary, David Riccio (I should perhaps point out at this juncture that his wife was Mary, Queen of Scots and she may have been having a bit on how is your father with Riccio). The secretary was stabbed to death in front of her.
It all makes Alex Salmond and the SNP look rather tame, doesn't it?

In other news ...
The great American comedian Jimmy Durante was born on this day in 1893. A wise-cracking, fast-talking Vaudeville star, Durante was famous for his huge nose, known affectionately as his Schnoz. He's been gone for a while now of course, but my impeccable rendering of 'Goodnight, Mrs Calabash, wherever you are,' still has young Nolan rolling in the aisles.