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WE say good luck to all the punters as everyone switches their attention to Melbourne Cup tomorrow. Those one day punters we know are also reading while others are waiting on tips from the regulars.
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COINCIDENTLY, in 1929, in what they say as Black Tuesday, the US stock market expanded rapidly and reached a peak in August when prices began to decline while speculation increased. On October 24, ‘Black Thursday’, a record 12,894,650 shares were traded. Banks and investment companies bought large blocks of stock to stem the panic, but on Oct 29 (Black Tuesday), 16 million shares were traded and prices collapsed.
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THE world’s oldest and most popular alcoholic beverage, beer is recorded in the written history of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia and may have been brewed as early as the 6th millennium BCE. Today, approximately 35 billion gallons of beer are sold each year throughout the world. It is produced by fermenting sugars derived from starch-based materials, including malted barley and wheat, as well as millet in Africa, potato in Brazil, and agave in Mexico.
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“TSAR Bomba” was the nickname of a hydrogen bomb detonated by the Soviet Union in 1961 that remains the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated. The bomb had a yield of 50 megatons, a force equivalent to 1400 times the combined power of the two nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II – or approximately 1.4 per cent of the power output of the Sun. The resulting seismic shock was measurable even on its third passage around the Earth.
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RUTH Gordon was an American actress and playwright whose career encompassed more than 70 years of stage and film experience. She made her Broadway debut in 1915 as Nibs in Peter Pan. She wrote many plays and collaborated on many successful screenplays, including Adam’s Rib, with her husband, the playwright and director Garson Kanin.
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THE word diwali means “a row or cluster of lights,” and the week-long festivities are illuminated by lamps, fireworks, and bonfires. In northern India, it marks the beginning of the Hindu New Year. In the Punjab and Mauritius, Diwali celebrates the coronation of Rama after his conquest of Ravana. The Jains commemorate the death of their great hero, Mahavira, on this day in the city of Pava in Bihar. Diwali is as important to Hindus as Christmas is to Christians.
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QUOTE of the day: Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes, and prism are all very good words for the lips: especially prunes and prism. – Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
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