Daily Calendar for Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Question of the Day
What is a hot posset? I know it is a drink from the medieval times, but that is all.
Posset is a Middle English word of uncertain origin, but there’s no uncertainty about what it is. It’s a drink composed of hot milk curdled with ale, wine, or other liquor, with sugar and spices sometimes added. It was (and still is) popular not only as a delicacy but also as a remedy for colds and other infections.
Advice of the Day
Ivy will flourish with an occasional drink of cold tea instead of water.
Home Hint of the Day
To get scuff marks off any hardwood floor, mop the floor with a solution of 1/4 cup of TSP (or other product containing trisodium phosphate) and 2 gallons of hot water.
Word of the Day
Siren
One of three sea nymphs, — or, according to some writers, of two, — said to frequent an island near the coast of Italy, and to sing with such sweetness that they lured mariners to destruction.
Puzzle of the Day
What is the biggest ant in the world?
A gi-ant!
Born
- Robert B. Thomas (founder of The Old Farmer’s Almanac) –
- Robert Penn Warren (poet) –
- Shirley MacLaine (actress) –
- Jill Ireland (actress) –
- Barbra Streisand (singer & actress) –
- Kelly Clarkson (singer) –
Died
- Reverend Eleazar Wheelock (founded Dartmouth College) –
- Lucy Maud Montgomery (author) –
- Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov (became the first person to die during a space mission) –
- Bud Abbott (comedian & actor) –
- Estée Lauder (started a kitchen business blending face creams and built it into a multimillion-dollar international cosmetics empire) –
- Elizabeth Post (etiquette expert) –
Events
- La Marseillaise composed–
- U. S. Library of Congress established–
- The soda fountain was patented–
- Joshua Slocum left Boston on his 37-foot sloop named Spray. He arrived in Newport, Rhode Island, on June 27, 1898, becoming the first sailor to have circumnavigated the globe alone–
- Spain declared war on the United States (Spanish-American War)–
- British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II–
- Hubble space telescope launched–
- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger inaugurated as Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. He took the name Pope Benedict XVI–
Weather
- A local windstorm blew down commercial buildings and damaged ships in Galveston, Texas–