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The inventor of the QWERTY keyboard – now almost universally adopted in English-speaking countries – was born 200 years ago, on 14th February 1819, in Pennsylvania. Christopher Latham Scholes was an Episcopalian who could trace his ancestry back to two of the original Mayflower pilgrims, John and Priscilla Alden. Although he did not invent the...

Next month you will see a lot of daffodils about – Marie Curie daffodils.  It’s the charity’s annual Great Daffodil Appeal, which runs in March each year. The appeal is urgently needed, for as the charity explains, one in four people currently don’t receive the care and support that they need at the end of...

What do you most enjoy doing with your spare evenings?  Going to a party?  Probably not – for it seems that the joy of not going out has become the new thing to brag about. It used to be a childhood punishment: go to bed early, don’t leave the house.  Now it is discussed as...

How many walks do you take each year?  On average, it will be about 255, according to the Dept of Transport.  But only 63 of those are over one mile in distance. As for cycling, men prefer it: in 2017, men made almost three times as many cycle trips as women (24 compared to nine). ...

A little bit of chocolate is good for you – especially your heart. If you eat up to three bars a month, you could have a 13 per cent lower risk of heart failure than if you do not eat any chocolate. It seems that natural compounds in cocoa called flavonoids boost blood vessel health...

If you like birds, now is the time to help the next generation get started. And so this month will see thousands of us shakily climbing ladders against the sides of our houses, garages and trees, to install cosy nest boxes.  And soon our tenants will arrive:   blue tits, robins, nuthatches, pied wagtails, sparrows, to...

Saturday 9th February is National Pizza Day.  Seriously.  No surprises for guessing that it has come over to us from the USA, and started here just last year, in 2018.  Hundreds of pizza restaurants around the country cooked up special pizzas to celebrate the day. Our church is going to celebrate it for the first...

All in the month of JANUARY Celebrating Thenadays Holocaust Memorial Day, 27th January The Nazis – founded 100 years ago Mother Teresa – 90 years since her work began The Beatles’ last concert Asthma warning Who do you trust? Drugs and alcohol What a view! Brazen city spiders ** Editor:  We continue our column that...

It was: 100 years ago, on 5th Jan 1919, that the German Workers’ Party was founded by Anton Drexler. In February 1920 it was renamed the National Socialist German Workers’ party – better known as the Nazi Party. 90 years ago, on 6th Jan 1929 that Mother Teresa arrived in Calcutta, India to begin working...

‘Auld Lang Syne’ was sung over the New Year, especially in Scotland. It should, we are told, ‘never be forgotten’. But what is it? The words actually mean something like ‘long time ago’ and it is the ‘acquaintances ‘of long ago that we should not forget. In other words, and somewhat to contradict the usual...

It is still hard to comprehend history’s evidence that 5million-plus Jews were systematically assassinated by last century’s Nazi regime.  It is a never-to-be-forgotten evil. A hundred years ago there was another genocide which people don’t talk about today.  During World War 1, Christian Armenians were driven out of Turkey, subjected to death marches, deprived of...

One hundred years ago, on 5th January 1919, the German Workers’ Party was founded by Anton Drexler. In February the following year it was renamed the National Socialist German Workers’ Party – better known as the Nazis. Drexler was a Munich locksmith who was opposed to the armistice of November 1918 and followed the outlook...