Norfolk man sold King’s Speech star Colin Firth a lucky charm for the Oscars
By Stephen Pullinger
Friday, March 4, 2011
10:15 AM
It was given to him as a baby to celebrate his birth and through six decades never left the Norfolk village where he has lived all his life.
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But when antiques dealer Rodney Pratt, 64, decided it was time for a clear-out of his home in Wymers Lane, South Walsham, he put the mint-condition 1946 King George V1 shilling up for auction on the internet site eBay along with a collection of other coins.
After it sold for the princely sum of £2.16p he never gave it a further thought until he received an urgent phone call from the Oxford buyer, Piers Bedford, asking him to dispatch it next-day delivery.
Film buff Rodney’s excitement grew as it was explained the coin had been bought by an Italian friend of actor Colin Firth as a lucky charm for him ahead of his trip to the Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles.
After Firth’s Sunday night triumph when he clinched the best actor award for his portrayal of King George V1 and his battle to conquer a stutter in The King’s Speech, Rodney was prompted to email Mr Bedford to say: “I am pleased the shilling worked.”
And to his amazement, Mr Bedford emailed him back a photograph of Firth and co-star Geoffrey Rush, who plays unorthodox speech therapist Lionel Logue, holding up the shilling on Oscars night.
Rodney, who used to run an antiques business, the Curiosity Shop, in South Walsham, explained he was now using eBay to sell off the clutter of a lifetime bit by bit.
The female buyer, who it is thought may be connected to Firth’s Italian wife Livia, had spotted the coin on his listing and asked Mr Bedford to get it for her.
Rodney said he and his wife Caroline had seen The King’s Speech at Cinema City in Norwich and realised the special significance of the shilling.
In the film script, Logue (Rush) bets the king (Firth) he will be ready to deliver his speech, and when the king replies he does not carry money, he hands him a shilling and tells him he will bet him a shilling.
Rodney, who retired from his shop about five years ago, said: “There have been some memorable moments in my career - like the time Princess Margaret walked round my shop - but this is the most amazing yet. You never know who you are dealing with when you put something on eBay.
“To think that a coin from a little village in Norfolk should end up at the Oscars.”
Monday, March 7, 2011
Norfolk man sold King's Speech star Colin Firth a lucky charm for the Oscars
King's shilling: The 'lucky' George VI coin friend gave Colin Firth to help ...
Charming man: British actor Colin Firth with wife Livia Giuggioli moments after winning the Best Actor award, a member of her family is said to have bought the good luck coin
Irish ripper! Five-left over (I mean, four-leaf clover) - The Roar
What did I say? I was talking up Ireland in particular to work mates two months ahead of this year’s World Cup even starting – and I was right!
I’d even jokingly suggested how fun it would be if the Irish beat England in the group stage.
I last checked CricInfo.com when I went to bed – England 220-odd after 30-odd overs, and I suspected a 300-plus total in the offing.
I also expected Ireland to make a genuine attempt at such a target, only to fall short by say 40 runs, and everyone to have hand-claps all round about what a terrific bunch of lads they are anyway.
Boy, was I wrong.
I was blown away by the news this morning when I checked the result. Simply brilliant.
I got out of my chair and jumped and pumped my fists (dancing would be a stretch of the imagination not warranted for the minds of readers here).
Kevin O’Brien, a 50-ball century – the fastest in World Cup history, too – and rest is scorebook-etched history.
And anyone wondering about O’Brien’s funky pink hair style – it was his way of supporting the shave or dye initiative for the Irish Cancer Society. Good on ‘im for that, too.
Irish skipper William Porterfield told reporters that it was the greatest day in the lives of every player.
“We’ll be looking to put in a performance like that every game,” he added.
Hopefully O’Brien wasn’t within earshot – having to come up with heroics like that once a week might seriously damage his cardiovascular health.
“It is the biggest win Ireland cricket has ever had,” Porterfield told Nick Hoult at London’s Telegraph.
“It is good to show what we have been threatening to do for a while. We have believed for a long time we can go out there and do things like that, but it is different to actually go out there and do it.”
“We were thinking we were getting some momentum after the India game,” was English captain Andrew Strauss’ summary to the Daily Mail.
They got something entirely different.
All he could do was pay tribute to the men from the Emerald Isle.
“They will continue to run the major nations pretty close in this competition,” Strauss said.
The value of the Irish win was worth more to the Cup than anything so far, according to The Guardian‘s Kevin Mitchell.
“Every match up to the quarter-final stage will carry a frisson of doubt,” he wrote overnight.
“That can be no bad thing.”
SKY Sport commentator David Lloyd captured the mood well as he saw the winning runs roll to the boundary rope: “This is it! Take a bow Ireland. They can’t believe it. I can’t believe it. Terrifc!”
Even the soon-to-be Irish Prime Minister, Enda Kenny, praised the squad for their effort.
Balbriggan Cricket Club secretary Albert Harper told the Guardian‘s Henry McDonald that the clubhouse would be in a state of “mayhem” after the win.
“This victory should also prompt the new government to take Irish cricket seriously,” Harper added – and he anticipated what should follow in the future…”We need a stadium that can be fit to hold Test matches.”
The only sour note was the usual brouhaha about it all being a fix-up.
Of course – let’s not allow any joy of the unexpected in society any more, eh? Nothing comes without a catch, eh? If I handed some stranger down the street 10 dollars, they’d probably ask why. How about just because I might want to be generous.
Here, the Irish have been generous in giving all those who’ve been plugging the cause of the Associate nations reason to point in the direction of their nearest ICC branch office and say loudly: “I told you so!” (I realise that’s often taken as Johnny Warren’s line, but I’m sure the great man won’t mind it beinh co-opted for cricketing use on a day like today).
Seriously, if the unpredictable-result element of sport is taken away, why bother holding the tournament in the first place – and why bother watching it.
Fans in Australia, England, India – and even Ireland – have arked up about the stunning win, claiming it warrants an ICC investigation.
One Irish guy went further on the UK’s Independent website, saying he couldn’t believe there were 11 “snivelling traitors” in all of Ireland who would dare to take up a sport invented by the English. Good grief!
Another in India, posting on the Times of India‘s pages, added that the ICC had apparently fixed the England-India tie before a ball was even bowled, just to keep the tournament more interesting. What tosh.
The more amusing comments came from the Poms themselves – one wondered on the Guardian.co.uk whether that meant the Irish were now world champions of the sport.
Over at the FOX Sports Australia portal, a local suggested that with a result like last night’s, perhaps England weren’t good enough for Test level and should be kicked out of the World Cup and replaced by Ecuador or China. Ouch.
Don’t forget, either, that it was England, via some players during the past week, who suggested that the ICC ought to wait until after this World Cup before banishing the Associates from the 2015 edition. I can’t wait to hear what comes from the Irish Cricket Union’s CEO Warren Deutrom…
The English may not like to be reminded of their fixture list for the 2011 northern summer, either. Thursday, August 25 – Ireland v England at Clontarf CC, Dublin.
To paraphrase Muhammad Ali for the Emerald Isle willow men: “There’s gonna be hits over the pickets, a string of wickets and a clamour for the tickets when we stick it to the Pommies at the cricket.”
Presumably while Porterfield whacks an action figure of Strauss with a plastic miniature autograph bat. Oh, yeah.
All together now… Blarney Army, Blarney Army, Blarney Army!
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
New event to help 4-H raise funds - Santa Ynez Valley News
Santa Barbara County 4-H clubs had six weeks to raise funds for a matching grant last year. This year, club supporters have 12 months, and they plan to make that extra time count.
After nearly losing the county’s 4-H clubs to budget cuts, supporters kept the program alive last year with help from a $12,500 Newhall Match Grant Challenge and raised the funds they needed by Sept. 30.
This is the second year the Newhall Foundation is offering the Santa Barbara County 4-H Youth Development Program a matching grant, and the group expects to raise a large chunk — if not all — of the $12,500 with a benefit dinner and silent and live auctions to be held at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 12, at the Santa Maria Elks Lodge, 1309 N. Bradley Road.
The Four Leaf Clover Foundation is organizing the event to lend a hand to the county’s 15 cash-strapped 4-H clubs, which serve more than 700 kids ages 5 to 19. The 4-H program must meet the same Sept. 30 deadline.
“We hope to make it an annual event,” said Mary Anne Christensen, president of the Four Leaf Clover Foundation, a partner organization of 4-H. “It's so unsure what's going to happen with the county and the huge deficit they have facing them. While 4-H has been in the county 75 years, we'd like to see it continue another 75.”
Benefit dinner tickets are $50 per person, and Christensen hopes to sell at least 400. To make a donation or buy tickets, supporters can call Christensen at 344-4064.
Money raised will go toward training and staffing more than 250 adult volunteers in the county, she said.
7-Leaf Clover Cell Phone Charm Gives You The Luck Of The Fryrish
Looking for luck in all the wrong places? Tired of those run-of-the-mill four-leaf clovers and their laughable lack of luck? Then step right up, my friend, and feast your wondering eyes upon Philip J. Fry's fondest fixation, the 7-Leaf Clover Cell Phone Charm!
If a four-leaf clover bestows luck upon the finder based on its rarity, wouldn't a five-leaf clover be even luckier? And so on down the line?
How amazingly lucky is Shigeo Obara of Hanamaki City, Iwate, Japan, who discovered an astonishing 56-leaf clover on May 10 of 2009?
Luck to the 56th degree is pretty, pretty rare but for those who don't have the time to search acres and acres of clover patches, today is your lucky day: Tokyo's Strapya World stocks a very limited supply of 7-leaf clovers, sealed in clear acrylic plastic - way safer than a Ronco Record Vault, amiright?
Attach it to your rucksack, purse, jacket zipper pull or cell phone... anywhere you need a little extra luck. In time, and after an eminently fortunate life, have it interred with your remains at Orbiting Meadows National Cemetery. It's all good, and it's all a bit better when you've got the luck of the Fryrish on your side.
For those unfamiliar, “The Luck of the Fryrish” is a particularly poignant episode of the animated cartoon program Futurama. Without giving too much away, our hero Philip J. Fry finds a 7-leaf clover as a child and later... MUCH later... learns a lesson on the indomitability of the human spirit and the persistence of memory.
Care to beat the odds and “find” your very own 7-leaf clover? Strapya packs each charm in a gift box but warns “We can't assure you that this product will be in stock because we will receive them irregularly.” If you're, ahem, in luck, they'll have received a shipment and you can place your order at Strapya's website for just 4,720 yen, or around $56.90 each.
St. Patrick's Day to get Angry Birds treatment
See it? I did.
(Credit: Matt Hickey)Did you know that my birthday is on St. Patrick's Day? It is; it's true. And did you know that my favorite iPhone game (though it's on other platforms now) is Angry Birds? Also true. I was hoping that Rovio, makers of the game, would continue the holiday theme it's been on lately with Angry Birds Seasons and publish a St. Pat's version of the game for my birthday. And The Unofficial Apple Weblog says that, according to Rovio CEO Peter Vesterbacka, it's doing just that.
Vesterbacka said the game should be "very green," which is of course the official color of the holiday. What's interesting is that even before Vesterbacka's comments, I found what I thought might be a clue to the next holiday theme in the final screen of the Valentine's Day level of the game, pictured above. Right in the middle of the empty space between the hearts, on the ground, is a four leaf clover.
No word on when the update comes out--if you're a fan, you'll hear about it--but we're guessing any day now. Considering that all the updates for the game have been free so far, this one may well be too. And we're also guessing that if you aren't yet part of the Angry Birds nation, it might be the time for you to check it out. It's available for pretty much any platform you can think of.
But what do you think? Is that clover a hint, or just a coincidental placement of greenery?
