21st December

This was the day in 1978 when Denis Healey famously described Geoffrey Howe's attack on his budget proposals as 'like being savaged by a dead sheep'.

Howe had the last laugh, however. When he was made a member of the House of Lords, his crest was a vicious-looking wolf in sheep's clothing.

Nice one.

In other news ...
Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves appeared on American cinema screens today in 1935 ushering in a brilliant new era of cartooning. Today's techniques have eclipsed it but it's still a marvellous film and the old crone with her poisonous apple is still every child's nightmare, even today.

The porn version - Snow White and the Seven Perverts - failed to make much of an impact.

And, of course, the End of the World is no longer nigh - again. I was out shopping in Leighford High Street this morning at 11.11 and it was eerie .... everything went on exactly as normal. So, all you girls of Ten Pea Zed, come out from under your duvets and stop sobbing and texting each other - it was only a story. Perhaps you'll listen to me next time ... now that would be the end of the world!

I suppose I should write tomorrow's blog, now we are still here!

15th December

Two great Americans died today, 76 years apart. The first was Sitting Bull, spiritual leader of the Lakota whose victory over Custer's 7th Cavalry has passed into legend. He spent some years in prison and travelled with Bill Cody's Wild West Show, spoofing the Indian Wars. By the year of his death (1890) however he had joined the Ghost Shirt movement dedicated to the restoration of the Plains Indians' way of life. He was shot and killed in a skirmish with troops sent to suppress the cult.

The other was Walt Disney.

In other news ...
The body of Napoleon Bonaparte was reburied in Les Invalides in Paris today in 1840. He had died in 1821 on St Helena, poisoned either by the British or the wallpaper, whichever version you choose to believe and it took nearly twenty years for the body to be transferred.
You would think the French could have built a more fitting tomb for their greatest son (yes, I know, he wasn't exactly French, but you can't have everything). The tomb is a huge, ugly slab of marble - yeuch!

And finally ...

A very happy birthday to Penny Collins, daughter and granddaughter in a squillion - three years old today and getting more gorgeous with every minute.

4th January

Back to school - another day, another dollar. Wednesdays aren't too bad as I have no contact whatsoever with the class from hell, Nine Zed Are, so this is as good a start as can be wished. So, in other times, what happened on this day?

I've always found it rather odd that Isaac Newton, who was born on this day 369 years ago, should be regarded as one of the most brilliant minds in history. All right, he was passably competent at mathematics and gravitational apples, but his chemistry was far below that of the average Year 7 kid. He believed in elixirs of life, alchemists' stones and long-leggity beasties. His Principia Mathematica has been hailed as one of the Most Important Books of All Time - which is equally odd because it was written in Latin and only about six people in Britain at the time could read it.
Today, nobody can.
P.S, (That's Post Scriptum to you) this was also the day another great scientist, Galileo Galilei died. But curiously, he and Newton never met.

In other news, Jakob Grimm, one of the famous Brothers, was born in 1785. The importance of these guys is that their collection of folk tales told it like it was - a nasty world of rape, murder and terrifying demons. This is what kids want to read about - not the schmaltzy stuff of Mother Goose and Walt Disney.