Day Tripping: December 30

Prolific wordsmith

Rudyard Kipling was born in 1865 in Bombay, India to English parents. They named their son after the place where they first met, Lake Rudyard in Staffordshire. At the age of five, Kipling was sent back to Britain for school and to live with house boarders.

Rudyard recalled the six-year experience as the House of Desolation and said the horrors inflicted may have ignited his creative juices. His mother arrived from India in 1877 to take Rudyard and his sister to a family lodge.

Before he finish his schooling, Kipling returned to Bombay to become an assistant editor at the local newspaper because his parents couldn’t afford Oxford University. From that moment, Rudyard Kipling.s need to write was insatiable.

“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.”

In 1888, Kipling published six short story collections. There were 41 stories, all while working as a correspondent for an Indian publication. With his earnings, Rudyard returned to London via a roundabout travel itinerary that included Japan and the western United States.

Kipling then traveled East through Canada and the Northern states where he stopped in unannounced to visit Mark Twain. After an enjoyable meeting, Twain recalled, “Between us, we cover all knowledge; he covers all that can be known and I cover the rest.”

At 26, Kipling sold several more stories back in England and married Carrie Balestier during the height of the influenza epidemic. Author Henry James gave away the bride.

At 41, Rudyard Kipling was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, the youngest person ever. That record still stands.

Today is:

Bacon Day — there are no words

Musical Ride

In 1999, a disturbed individual named Michael Abram broke into the home of George Harrison and stabbed him in the chest, giving the former Beatle a collapsed lung.

Olivia Harrison saved the day by attacking Abram with a poker and a lamp. Luckily, Harrison survived the ordeal thanks to his quick-thinking wife.

Interesting Notes

In 2011, no one in Samoa experienced December 30. Switching time zones, the country crossed the international dateline thereby erasing this day.

Gone But Not Forgotten

Clarinet player Artie Shaw was an early influencer of the Big Band era of jazz. He was also an innovator, melding jazz themes with classical music. Shaw died in 2004 at 94.

Notable Births

1928 — Bo Diddley: “I thank you in advance for the great round of applause I’m about to get.”

1942 — Michael Nesmith: “It’s important to be precise about words, because of the thought value of them-they frame and shape so much of the way we understand things.”

1947 — Jeff Lynne: “Old music is the same as new music — it’s just a different way of delivering it.”

K. Barrett Maria Rattray Maryam Merchant Dr. Mehmet Yildiz Tree Langdon Myriam Ben Salem Phil Truman Chelsea Mandler MAT Terry Mansfield Hollie Petit, Ph.D. Terry Trueman Dr. Preeti Singh John Gruber Bill Abbate James G Brennan ScienceDuuude Marcus Liam Ireland Claire Kelly Noorain Hassan, BMS Amy Pierovich David Acaster Nora Thewriteyard David Perlmutter Joe Luca Holly Kellums Michael Burg, MD Lucy Dan Dave Logan

All previous Day Tripping entries are available at the following links:

The Story Of Day Tripping Through History What’s Past Is Often Present

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