Bytes: Readers Write and Monday Miscellany

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So, are we all recovered from New Year celebrations? Ready to face for another year the slings and arrows of outrageous Fortune, as Shakespeare put it, the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to? Still, no matter how difficult or hard it may be, it still beats the alternative.

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By the way, the term hangover did not originate from hanging over a toilet bowl to throw up.

The word "hang", in the above context, means "to hang", that is, something remaining unsettled or unfinished, much as an unanswered question is left hanging. Hence the word "hangover", which first appeared in print in 1894, refers to something left over from the night before, in this case, the after-effect of excessive drinking".

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Graham E sent me my last email of 2016 and the first of 2017 (ignoring the spam about woodworking, eye drops and sexual dysfunction which I am continually receiving, much more in the last 6 months then ever before - anyone else as well?). Both of Graham's email advised of the last celebrity deaths of 2016, details below.

Thanks, Graham.

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One of the last celebrity deaths of 2016, although only making it to the news on 31 December, was William Salice, who died of a stroke on 29 December 2016 aged 83 years. William who? It would be unlikely that you would know his name, he was the chap who invented the Kinder Surprise confectionery, a chocolate egg containing little plastic parts of toys to be assembled by children

Salice worked for confectioners Ferrero and developed the eggs as a means of enabling Ferrero to use its egg moulds at times other than Easter. He also helped develop Ferrero Rocher.

(Past Corn Corner item: Archaeologists digging in a pyramid in Egypt have found a mummy covered in chocolate and hazelnuts. They believe it to be Pharaoh Rocher.)

Although the Kinder Surprise eggs have been selling for more than 40 years, they are banned in the United States under a 1938 law prohibiting the insertion of any objects into food products In Chile they were banned last summer under new legislation to combat obesity. Ferrero was cleared by prosecutors last January after the death of a little girl aged three who choked on a toy.

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My first email of 2017, being another death notification by Graham, was of the demise of William Christopher. He died on 31 December 2016, aged 84, from cancer. He was best known for playing Father Mulcahy in M*A*S*H. Christopher also starred in The Andy Griffith Show, and Hogan’s Heroes and appeared in The Love Boat. He also played Private Lester Hummel on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.

Together with Alan Alda as Captain “Hawkeye” Pierce, Loretta Swit as Major Margaret “Hotlips” Houlihan and Jamie Farr as cross-dressing Corporal Maxwell Klinger, Christopher was among the only cast members to remain on the show for all 11 seasons.

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From Byter Leo, in response to celebrity deaths posts

Strangely I lived opposite Dame Leonie Kramer’s daughter in Rose St Chippendale in 1974. She was a lovely person.
Fields the Senator. How did the Coalition get a majority if Labour didn’t pair? That should have meant Labour had an extra person.

Thanks, Leo.

Albert Fields,oictured above, was actually a Labor member but hated Whitlam and vowed to vote against him. A pair would have meant that one of the Coalition Members would have abstained. By refusing to pair, it meant that the Coalition had the majority.

Mind you, Gough Whitlam couldn't cast the first stone about the abopve, see a future item about the Night of the Long Prawns.

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Also from Leo M, in respect of the New Year postcards:

I have received several of the cards you show from English friends. I always wondered why Robins, and birds generally, featured so prominently in these cards.
Again Happy Birthday and enjoy your day.
Leo