Centenaries
2022 will see the 100th anniversary of: the BBC; Reader’s Digest; Ulysses by James Joyce; insulin treatment for diabetes; canned baby food; Fascist government (Mussolini’s arrival as Italian prime minister); the first female barrister; ski slalom race; Test matches between England and New Zealand; water skiing; football pools; discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb;
… but not, interestingly, the 1922 Committee, which wasn’t set up until April 1923.
Talking shop
How much Christmas shopping did we manage to do before last year’s ‘cancelled’ Christmas? Volume of sales in December 2020 relative to December 2019:
Department stores –5.1%
Clothing stores –13.7
Household goods stores +10.9%
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Other non-food stores –0.2%
Source: Office for National Statistics
Taking a pew
How many more people attend church at Christmas than at other times of the year? Figures for 2019:
— The Church of England estimates that its population of ‘regular worshippers’ is 1.
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