People

Just like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, this event was created as a way to thank paternal and maternal grandparents for all their love, care and support.

Grandparents’ Day was set up by Age Concern, the United Kingdom charity that helps old age people in this country.  The celebrations usually fall on the first Sunday in October and have done so annually since 2008.

Grandparents day was established in 1973 in America by a lady named Marian McQuade from West Virginia, who wanted to highlight the importance of senior citizens in the family.

Grandparents’ Day is celebrated at different times in different countries.  America celebrates in September whilst in Poland the day is celebrated in January and has done so since 1965!

There is a national Grandparents Day song which was written by Johnny Prill and it is simply called “A Song for Grandma and Grandpa” in 2004.

A master carpenter from the small village of Billund, Denmark named Ole Kirk Christiansen, was the founder of Lego in 1932. 

His company made stepladders, ironing boards and wooden toys. Then in 1934 he changed the company name to LEGO, which is formed from two Danish words “Leg Godt” which translates into “play well”.

After years of making wooden connecting toys, the LEGO company purchased plastic moulding machines and in 1947 they commenced making bricks from plastic whilst continuing to make their wooden toys.

In 1949 the LEGO company produced about 200 different plastic and wooden toys, including “Automatic Binding Bricks”, which is what the original LEGO bricks were known as.

The LEGO block design which is still used today was actually patented on the 28th January, 1958.  So it’s no surprise that the blocks made over 60 years ago are still compatible with the blocks LEGO make today.

In 1963, LEGO blocks were made from a special plastic called acrylonitrile butadiene styrene or ABS. A stronger plastic that was easier to mold during high temperatures.  This means that the molds are really accurate, approximately with two thousand of a millimetre,  subsequently only a handful of blocks fail to meet the company’s high quality standards and a lot less wastage.

Over the past 50 years, the Lego Group has produced over 400 billion LEGO blocks. That’s enough LEGO blocks for every person in the world to have at least 60 LEGO blocks each.

LEGO was first made in loose sets of bricks only, until in 1966, LEGO kits were created, making things like buildings, trucks, planes, and ships.

Then in 1969 the LEGO Group expanded its products by introducing the LEGO DUPLO line.  These consisted of larger bricks for preschool aged children.

Following this in 1977, the TECHNIC line of sophisticated products for older kids and teens were designed and created.

There are over 4 billion LEGO figures, which would mean that if they were real people they would be the world’s largest population. 

Only last year 340 million mini figures were produced, which if you stood them next to each other in a line they would stretch to a massive 7,900km, that’s almost the same distance from London to Beijing in China!

Also there are around 20 billion LEGO elements (bricks) produced every year in the LEGO factory in Billund –  which makes it a huge 2 million bricks made an hour or 35,000 a minute.

Over the Christmas period, on average 28 sets of LEGO are sold every second, which means 1,680 are sold every minute, 100,800 every hour.

The LEGO group is now owned and managed by the founder’s grandson, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen  and his three children.

It should be one of the easiest things for you to decide – your baby’s name!

But it is a minefield, especially as these days, so many names seem to be “made up” of either your favourite food, place name or just something so random, often silly enough to leave you flabbergasted and asking yourself WHY a parent would do that to their newborn.

However, this is a list of the most popular and traditional names given to children in England and Wales over the past 12-18 months according to the ONS – Office for National Statistics.

For girls the names in order of popularity are – Olivia, Amelia, Ella, Ava, Isla, Emily, Evie, Mia, Lily and Isabelle.

For the boys names are – Oliver, Jacob, Noah, Jack, Oscar, Harry, Charlie, Alfie, George and William.

It’s funny that the most popular girls and boys name, Olivia and Oliver (the male version of Olivia) derive from the same meaning, which is Elf Army. 

In fact, the names Olivia and Oliver are also very popular names for twins.

In Greek mythology, the Titan Prometheus was known as a cunning trickster. He was alleged to have given the human race the gift of fire from Mount Olympus and was duly punished by the God Zeus for his actions.

This punishment meant that an eagle ate the liver of the Prometheus as he was chained to a rock.

In some Greek mythological stories, it has been said that Prometheus made the first man from clay, and was given the task with Epimetheus, to endow man with gifts so that they might survive and prosper.

It is thought that Prometheus’ father was Iapetus and his mother Clymene, one of the Oceanids.

He had 3 brothers named Epimetheus (meaning afterthought or Hindsight), Menoetius and Atlas.

One of Prometheus’ sons was named Deucalion, and he is referred to as the ancient Noah, as he too survived a great flood when he sailed in a great chest for nine days and nights.

It is said the Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha, became the founders of the human race.

The tale of these founders were rumoured to be the inspiration behind director Ridley Scott’s 2012 science fiction film called ‘Prometheus’, which explores its own ideas and mythology about the evolution of the human race.

The film won several academy awards, including a BAFTA award for its Special Visual Effects, depicting its version of Prometheus’ story.

Image credit: Wikimedia