Good Day chums, welcome to another Monday. The Spark! Is here to ease you into the working week with a smile.
On This Day – 9th June 1990 – The ‘Red Hot & Blue’ album is released to benefit AIDS charities
The late 1980’s saw that start of the worldwide AIDS epidemic and the associated panic led to the isolation and stigmatisation of sufferers. The Red Hot Organisation put together a compilation album and TV video special featuring many stars of the 80’s, including Neneh Cherry, U2, Annie Lennox, The Neville Brothers and lots more.
The tracks on the album were all from the Cole Porter songbook and varied from Debbie Harry and Iggy Pop performing a duet of ‘Well, Did you Evah!’ to David Byrne of Talking Heads, covering ‘Don’t Fence me In’.
The album sold over a million copies and raised almost $1m for HIV charities. The songs were classics beforehand but many of these covers still stand tall in their own right.
Read more here.
Also on this day:
68 – Emperor Nero commits suicide, enabling the civil war known as the ‘Year of the Four Emperors’
1862 – Stonewall Jackson wins the Battle of Port Republic, ending his Shenandoah Valley campaign
1930 – Reporter Jake Lingle is murdered, allegedly over a gambling debt owed to Al Capone
1959 – The USS George Washington, the first nuclear powered ballistic missile submarine is launched
1968 – President Johnson orders a day of mourning following the murder of Robert F Kennedy
Arrivals
1781 – George Stephenson, British engineer and railway pioneer (‘The Rocket’)
1891 – Cole Porter, US composer and songwriter (‘Night & Day’, ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’)
1915 – Les Paul, US guitarist and songwriter, inspiration behind the Gibson Les Paul guitar
1956 – Patricia Cornwell, US novelist (Kay Scarpetta ME novels)
1978 – Matt Bellamy, British singer-songwriter (Muse)
Departures
1964 – Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, Canadian born British politician, owner of the Daily Express
1973 – John Creasey, British author, founder of the ‘Crime Writers Association’
2014 – Rik Mayall, British actor, comedian and screenwriter (‘The Comic Strip’, ‘The Young Ones’, ‘Bottom’)
2017 – Adam West, US actor and businessman (‘Batman’ on TV)
2022 – Matt Zimmerman, Canadian actor (Voice of Adam Tracy in ‘Thunderbirds’)
The Funnies:
Recipe of the day: No-bake Strawberry Cheesecake
This recipe from BBC Food requires no oven and little preparation. Knock it together and leave it in the fridge overnight. Right up my street!
Ingredients
· 2 tsp sunflower oil
· 200g/7oz digestive biscuits
· 100g/3½oz unsalted butter
· ½ tsp ground cinnamon
· 100g/3½oz white chocolate, roughly chopped
· 400g/14oz strawberries, trimmed, plus extra to decorate
· 300g/10½oz full-fat cream cheese
· 1 tsp vanilla extract
· ½ unwaxed lemon, finely grated zest only
· 1 tbsp runny honey or maple syrup
· 200ml/7fl oz double cream
Method
- Brush the inside of a 20cm/8in springform tin with the sunflower oil, and line the base with a disc of baking parchment.
- Put the digestive biscuits into a sealable freezer bag. Push all the air out and seal the bag. Crush the biscuits with a rolling pin, until they are reduced to sand-like crumbs.
- Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Stir in the biscuit crumbs and cinnamon. Press the crumbs into the bottom of the tin. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Chop 150g/5oz of the strawberries in half from top to bottom and arrange around the edge of the prepared tin, cut side-up. Chop the remaining berries into small pieces.
- Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl, either over a pan of simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water, or in a microwave.
- Beat together the cream cheese, vanilla, lemon zest and honey in a mixing bowl. Stir in the chopped strawberries.
- In another bowl, whisk the double cream until it holds a floppy peak.
- Fold the melted chocolate into the cream cheese mixture, followed by the double cream. Add more honey if needed.
- Spoon the filling into the tin, being careful not to move the strawberries on the edge. Spread level with a palette knife or the back of a spoon, cover with cling film and chill overnight, until firm.
- Carefully remove the cheesecake from the tin and put on a serving plate. Slice or quarter extra strawberries to arrange on top.
Quote of the Day:
“One of the advantages of a life much longer than average was that you saw how fragile the future was. Men said things like “peace in our time” or “an empire that will last a thousand years,” and less than half a lifetime later no one even remembered who they were, let alone what they had said or where the mob had buried their ashes. What changed history were smaller things. Often a few strokes of the pen would do the trick.” (Feet of Clay)
– Sir Terry Pratchett
Muse-ical treats:
For Matt’s birthday:
For Cole Porter’s birthday:
Comic of the Day:
Mouseover: *“*The installation of the pipes on the inside of the insulation can be challenging, especially when the neighbor could come home at any minute .”
Image Credit: https://xkcd.com/3099
Explain XKCD: explain xkcd
Inspirobot Always Controversial, Occasionally Inspirational Quote of the Day:
If you missed Friday’s strangely addictive Spark! from @Lonny6654 (Tetris or donuts – you choose), you can find it here:
(Spark! Pro series – 6th June 2025)
