Stan Bowes, from Diggle, has uncovered some interesting and entertaining facts – you just couldn’t make them up.
THEY SAY revenge is sweet: but sometimes it can come a little late.
Sigurd the Mighty, a ninth-century Norse Earl of Orkney, was killed by an enemy he had beheaded several hours earlier.
Sigurd tied the man’s head to his horse’s saddle but while riding home one of its protruding teeth grazed his leg.
An infection followed – from which Sigurd died a few days later.
Meanwhile, Thomas Midgley Jr (1889–1944) was an American engineer/chemist/inventor who contracted polio at age 51, leaving him severely disabled. He devised an elaborate system of ropes and pulleys to help others lift him from bed.
Sadly, he became accidentally entangled in the ropes of the device and died of strangulation at the age of 55.
Thomas was also famous – or perhaps infamous – for two of his other inventions: tetraethyl lead (the lead in petrol) and chlorofluorocarbons, which allegedly damage the ozone layer.
Improve your vocabulary
Mabble: To wrap up a head. [This refers to trying to keep warm, rather than a request one would make of a butcher in some countries.]
Septentrional: Northern. [A term often used by Londoners to describe any place north of Potter’s Bar.]
Apophthegms
Whenever you close the door on reality, it sneaks in through the windows.
If God meant you to touch your toes, he would have put them on your knees.
The past, the present, and the future all walked into a bar. They were all tense.
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