While the FM-switches and the green-light digits keep in touch with the world outside

[venta]

Well, I promised trivia from The Calendar, and here's the first bit. It's not relevant to anything but it interested me.

Schott's Calendar seems to provide a random burst of information each day, coupled with a note of something completely unconnected which happened on this day in another year. Today it offers me a list of 70s Christmas number ones, and tells me that the first international distress call (CQD) was established in 1904 on Jan 7th.

I'd never heard of CQD before, but found this page on Wikipedia about it. It suggests CQD stood for nothing, but was developed from the radio operators' habit of using CQ to mean "seek you" - so CQD was "Seek You, Danger". Nice to see that applications like ICQ are still sticking to century-old traditions.

My only gripe so far with this calendar is that it doesn't have the day of the week on it, thus leaving me permanently slightly unsure whether I've ripped off the correct number of days, and whether it really is the 7th of January today. The daily trivia is otherwise delightful - and there's something very debonaire about writing one's shopping list on the back of a page listing the horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Comments

[broadmeadow.livejournal.com]

1970: I Hear You Knocking - Dave Edmunds
1971: Ernie - Benny Hill
1972: Long Haired Lover From Liverpool - Little Jimmy Osmond
1973: Merry Xmas Everybody - Slade
1974: Lonely This Christmas - Mud
1975: Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
1976: When A Child Is Born - Johnny Matthis
1977: Mull Of Kintyre - Wings
1978: Mary's Boy Child - Boney M
1979: Another Brick In The Wall - Pink Floyd

[http://users.livejournal.com/_corpse_/]

this calendar is that it doesn't have the day of the week on it, thus leaving me permanently slightly unsure whether I've ripped off the correct number of days

Then you need to upgrade to the C&T Calendar and you'll never suffer that problem again.

2006 January 1 Sunday is the target date for its universal adoption. I hope the rest of the universe knows.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Your calendar has no day of the week on it. Mine has no space to write stuff. Maybe if we somehow synthesised the two...

[lathany.livejournal.com]

there's something very debonaire about writing one's shopping list on the back of a page listing the horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Are there four or has Pratchett had a hand in it?

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

If your calender has no days of the week, you should keep the torn-off pages and re-use it next year!

Today in Survival History

[wimble.livejournal.com]

The first sucessful crossing of the English Channel by air occurred on this day in 1785. An American, John Jeffries, and a Frenchman, Jean Pierre Blanchard, crossed from Dover, England to Calias, France in a gas balloon. Their flight came only 14 months after the first manned hot air ballon flight had taken place and only a few days after two men had died attempting the Channel crossing. Minutes before reaching the French coast, Jeffries and Blanchard were force to throw almost everything they had out of the balloon as it began to crash toward the earth. Jeffries went so far as to throw his pants overboard to avoid crashing.

(Guess which calendar I got for Christmas)

Maybe there ought to be an LJ community where you can read the page for every desk calendar! That way you'd always have something interesting to read, and wouldn't have to start work until about 3pm!

(Pity about the copyright issues!)

[snow-leopard.livejournal.com]

If its any help I can offer you a free tells-you-what-day-it-is-but-not-that-interesting calendar to use in conjunction with your very-interesting-but-rather-less-useful calendar.

I know it's taken me seven hours, but...

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

Isn't 'debonaire' traditionally spelt without the second 'e'?