Neville Chamberlain was British Prime Minister at the outbreak of World War II on September 1, 1939. Chamberlain was a former mayor. Winston Churchill, a frequent critic and later his successor, once said that Chamberlain “looked at foreign affairs through the wrong end of a municipal drain-pipe.”
The first time I tried Manhattan Clam Chowder I loved it. But in my mind, chowder isn’t chowder without a white sauce base. (Like chili isn’t chili when beans are added — it’s just “chili with beans.”)
(In play)
A world war is an international conflict which involves all or most of the world’s major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World War I (1914–1918) and World War II (1939–1945), although historians have also described other global conflicts as world wars, such as the Seven Years’ War and the Cold War.
In her Harry Potter books, JK Rowling credited Dumbledore with defeating the dark wizard Grindlewald in 1945, which made many readers wonder if the latter was perhaps aligned with the Third Reich during World War II.
Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter books, was named after the word “dumbledore,” an archaic English term for a bumblebee.
There are about 45 species of bumblebees native to the United States. Bumblebees nest in colonies no larger than 50 to 100 individuals, all of which die off each fall, save the mated queen, who hibernates during the winter. Bumblebees are generally docile creatures, and will sting only when provoked. Unlike honeybees, the stingers of bumblebees are not barbed and bumbles are capable of stinging multiple times.
Mr Bumble was the beadel of the parish in Oliver Twist. He is famous for his reply, when told in court that “…the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction”:
“If the law supposes that,” said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, “the law is a ass - a idiot”.
The phrase can be dated back earlier than Dickens, but he made it proverbial.
A Christmas Carol was written by Charles Dickens, and was his first complete novel. Up to that point, Dickens wrote serialized works of fiction, such as The Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickelby, and Oliver Twist. It was during the writing of Martin Chuzzlewit that Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in just a few weeks before Christmas of 1843. Critics called it a masterful achievement of the Christmas myth, and the public loved it. Further Christmas books, essays, and stories followed annually (except in 1847) through 1867. None equalled the Carol in potency, though some achieved great immediate popularity. Cumulatively they represent a celebration of Christmas attempted by no other great author.
Charles Dickens added the emphatic phrase “Tiny Tim - who did not die” to the very final draft of A Christmas Carol before it went to the printer.
Charles Dickens insisted on the first edition of A Christmas Carol being expensively bound and illustrated, so that it sold for five shillings, the equivalent of £26 today. The high production costs cut into profits, so that he made far less money than he had expected, only £230 (equal to £24,000 in 2023 pounds). His hopes for more profit the following year faded after unauthorized twopenny editions circulated.
Charles Dickens spoke out against the widespread unauthorized reprinting of his works during his first visit to the United States, irritating some publishers but eventually helping lead to the strengthening of American copyright laws.
During his American tour, Dickens also visited parts of British North America. While in Toronto, he learnt about a shooting during an election campaign and wrote about it:
It is a matter of deep regret that political differences should have run high in this place, and led to the most discreditable results. It is not long since guns were discharged from a window in this town at the successful candidates in an election, and the coachman of one of them was actually shot in the body, though not dangerously wounded. But one man was killed on the same occasion; and from the very window whence he received his death, the very flag which shielded his murderer (not only in the commission of his crime but from its consequences), was displayed again on the occasion of the public ceremony performed by the Governor General, to which I have just adverted. Of all the colours in the rainbow, there is but one which could be so employed: I need not say that the flag was orange.
On St Patrick’s Day it is traditional for Roman Catholics to wear green while Protestants wear orange instead.
In recognition of Saint Patrick’s Day of 1962, Chicago city workers dumped 100 pounds of dye into the river flowing through downtown Chicago. It left the river emerald green for an entire week and kick-started an annual tradition. The dye used was originally an oil-based product, but has since been changed to a powder (which ironically is orange), and the formula is a closely guarded secret.
Green is worn by virtually everyone celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in the U.S. that I’ve ever seen, regardless of religion.
While Saint Patrick is said to have driven all the snakes from Ireland, the fact is that the climate of the Emerald Isle is simply not warm enough to sustain a snake population. There are other large islands in the world that also have no native snakes, such as Antarctica, Greenland, Iceland, and New Zealand. New Zealand, which has a warmer clime than Ireland, enforces a strict total ban on the importation of snakes.
The flags of New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Russia, Thailand and the United States are all red, white and blue.
The constellation of Crux, commonly known as the Southern Cross, appears on a number of national flags for countries in the Southern Hemisphere, including Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Samoa.
The southern-most star is Sigma Octantis which is approximately 1 degree, 2 minutes, 36.4 seconds from the south celestial pole
Lord Pole is the British prime minister in Susanna Clarke’s Regency Era wizarding-themed alternative history novel Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.