Match day

Today is the anniversary of the first time matches were sold, in 1827, by John Walker of Stockton, who created the first friction matches. For interesting facts about matches look here. I am particularly fond of hearing about the quaintly-named affliction of "Phossy jaw" caused by earlier matches.

The last match factory in the UK was Bryant & May in Liverpool, which closed in 1994, although the premises have been sympathetically redeveloped as an office complex called The Matchworks.

The Party theme of the blip is in honour of Dogenzenji's imminent 100th blip, after which he will be throwing a huge bash for his 103 (at last count) subscribers. See you all there! :)

*Edit* - sorry if you got all excited about that party, it was just a wind-up....