Traditional weather lore has it that St. Dunstan was a great brewer who sold himself to the devil on the condition that the devil would blight the apple trees to stop the production of cider, Dunstan’s rival drink. This is said to be the cause of the wintry blast that usually comes about this time.
Daily Calendar for Friday, May 19, 2023
Question of the Day
Did W. C. Fields really hate children, or was that just part of his comedy routine?
It was probably just part of his curmudgeonly act. William Claude Fields (1880-1946) was born William Claude Dukenfield in Philadelphia. He began his career at age 11, working as an itinerant juggler. The Ziegfeld Follies gave him his first real boost, and by 1925 he was doing film work with D. W. Griffith. His form of comedy was always raffish, featuring the drunken cad with a swaggering machismo. Fields is especially remembered for his one-liners, such as “I never met a kid I liked” and “Anybody who hates children and dogs can’t be all bad.” For all that bluster, however, his last will and testament suggests sentiments of a different sort. Fields had specified that his money be used to establish a “W. C. Fields College for orphan white boys and girls, where no religion of any sort is to be preached.”
Advice of the Day
To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.
Home Hint of the Day
Never fertilize a lawn when the grass is wet or even damp. If you do, the fertilizer will burn the grass.
Word of the Day
Nephelococcygia
Sometimes clouds look like other objects, such as dragons, elephants, letters, and even people. Cloud naming is called nephelococcygia.
Puzzle of the Day
Why do seagulls live by the sea?
Because if they lived by the bay, they’d be bagels.
Died
- Anne Boleyn (Henry VIII’s second wife) –
- Robert B. Thomas (founder of The Old Farmer’s Almanac) –
- Nathaniel Hawthorne (writer) –
- T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia”“) –
- Ogden Nash (poet) –
- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (U.S. First Lady) –
- Walter Lord (author) –
- Charles Grodin (actor, talk show host) –
Born
- Johns Hopkins (philanthropist) –
- Carl Akeley (artist, biologist, & conservationist) –
- Malcolm X (civil rights activist) –
- Lorraine Hansberry (playwright) –
- Francis Richard Scobee (astronaut) –
- Nora Ephron (author & director) –
- Pete Townshend (musician) –
- Andre the Giant (wrestler & actor) –
- Jodi Picoult (author) –
- Kevin Garnett (basketball player) –
Events
- Dark Day in New England–
- Author Oscar Wilde released from jail–
- First Jumping Frog Jubilee in Calaveras County, California–
- 7.1-magnitude earthquake occurred in Imperial Valley, California–
- Boston Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester threw a no-hitter against the Kansas City Royals. It was the first major league no-hitter of the season–
- In Kansas, paraplegic Anna Sarol — with the assistance of braces, a walker, and her siblings — took steps across the graduation stage to receive her high school diploma. She had worked towards this moment ever since a gymnastics accident nearly four years before had left her paralyzed from the waist down.–
Weather
- Dark Day: Darkness fell at noon throughout New England due to smoke from western forest fires.–
- 99 degrees F at Central Park, New York City–
- Heavy rain and golf ball-size hail destroyed 80 percent of the crops in northwestern Texas–