1st November

L S Lowry was born today in 1887. He was one of those artists - Picasso, Klee, Mondrian, Klimt, Pollock and many, many more - who could draw and paint perfectly well, but just couldn't be arsed.

In other news ...
'A lie,' said Jim Callaghan, Britain's Prime Minister today in 1976, 'can be half way round the world before the truth has got its boots on.' That was 1976. Thanks to technology, Facebook, Twitter and Buboe, the speed of lying is much faster today.

23rd October

Today marks the 370th anniversary of the battle Edge Hill in Warwickshire. It was the first battle of the English Civil War (I stress English here to remind our American cousins that we had one over two centuries before they did). The result was; Cavaliers 1, Roundheads 0. Did the Roundheads give up, realizing they were totally outclassed? No, they got God on their side and as for as the Cavaliers it was all Down Hill after that.

In other news ...
Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party today in 1926. He'd only heard about the bash on Facebook and turned up uninvited, insisting everybody needed the bottle of vodka he'd brought, not to mention the ice and the pick to go with it.

Uncle Joe Stalin didn't like Leon's status and is officially No Longer His Friend. So there!