Richard Attenborough, actor and film director, has just
died. He was after all 90.
——~——
On this day in 1914 the invading Germans, quite deliberately
and knowing exactly what they were doing, destroyed the great library of Leuven
University.
——~——
On this day in 1609 Galileo demonstrated his telescope (he
didn’t actually invent it but he improved it, and had the imagination to point
it at the stars) to the great and good of Rome. (It was Rome wasn’t it? Anyway
somewhere important in Italy; excuse my ignorance.) The cardinals however
refused even to look through it, lest they saw something that cast doubt on the
church’s teachings about the nature of the universe.
——~——
At one time, when a gentleman thought himself insulted by
another gentleman, he challenged him to a duel. Duels were usually conducted in
rural areas, to avoid the attention of the authorities with their trifling
objections to people killing each other.
On one occasion, duellist number one strode into the railway
ticket office and bought a return to, let’s say, Hicksville. He affected not to
notice when duellist number two approached the ticket window, but when he heard
the words ‘Single to Hicksville’ he couldn’t resist saying ‘Aha! Not too
confident about coming back?’
‘On the contrary,’ replied duellist number two: ‘I always
use my opponent’s return half.’
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