23rd November

You know my views on Crippen. Even before we realized that the body in the basement of his house at 63 Hilldrop Crescent couldn't have been Mrs Crippen (Belle Elmore) because it was make, I thought they should have given him a medal because she was so horrible. Everybody disagreed of course and they hanged him at Pentonville today in 1910.

The Tufnell Park One is innocent.

In other news ...
Bill Pratt was born today in 1887. Who he, I hear you ask. He became Boris Karloff in later life, legend of Frankenstein, The Mummy and The Body Snatcher. Other film stars who weren't going to make it with their own monikers include:-

• Laruska Skikne (Laurence Harvey)
• Issur Danielovitch (Kirk Douglas)
• Diana Fluck (Diana Dors)
• Frances Gumm (Judy Garland)
• George Crane (Randolph Scott)
• Bacteria Cuniculus (Bugs Bunny).

30th May

Today in 1990, France banned the import of British beef in case it carried the 'mad cow' virus. This was all a storm in a teacup of course, as food scares always are. But it was only tit-for-tat, really. We'd stopped importing their horses by 1565 and it was payback time.

In other news ...
One of the most famous voices in cartoon history was heard for the first time today in 1908. Mel Blanc, better known as Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, is reputed to have taken one look at the obstetrics team around his cot and said 'What's up, Doc?'