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Listings
BLOOD: Today’s opportunities to donate blood are at YMCA Hall in Barbican, The Hop Exchange on Southwark Street and White City Community Centre. Free, see site for terms and conditions
FILM: A selection of films screen in the rooms of the Royal Academy, as part of the Enchanted Pictures Christmas programme. Tonight, it's the recent adaptation of The Great Gatsby (8.30pm). £10-£22, prebook, until 29 Dec
ICE: Artist Irma Irsara works in the ice wells at the London Canal Museum from today, creating frozen art by embedding objects in ice. See the action from the museum, or on certain days you can do down into the ice wells for a close up view. £4/£3, prebook, until 18 December
ART: The Offline Art Fair opens today at Embassy Tea Gallery on Union Street, providing a space for galleries who primarily exist online. Free, just turn up, until 1 December
CRAFT: Go behind the scenes at Craft Central's Winter Open Studios. Explore the workshops, talk to artists and pick up some handmade products. £3, prebook, until 1 December
TOM KERRIDGE: The smiliest chef on TV, Tom Kerridge signs copies of his recent book, Proper Pub Food at Bloomsbury Publishing on Bedford Square. £15 for the book, prebook, 1-2pm
BACTERIA: Wellcome Collection hosts a special youth event at Haverstock School in Chalk Farm led by Bonnie Bassler — a molecular biologist who discovered that bacteria 'talk' to each other using chemical signals. Free, prebook, 5pm
LOST AT SEA: An evening of “carefree carousing” to mark the opening of Turner and the Sea and the Nelson, Navy, Nation gallery at the National Maritime Museum, peaks with a Thames-themed pub quiz from Londonist’s own Matt Brown, editor and general know-it-all. Free, prebook, from 6pm
CHANUKAH: Mayor of London, Boris Johnson light the Menorah to start an evening of performances in Trafalgar Square to mark the annual community event of Chanukah. Free, just turn up, 6pm
THANKSGIVING: American chums, and those wanting to join in the celebrations, can find numerous places to give-thanks in our Thanksgiving roundup.
PLAY: Playwright Dennis Kelly and director Melly Still discuss their new version of Georg Kaiser’s play, From Morning to Midnight, in a National Theatre platform event. £4/£3, prebook, 6pm
HATS: Visible! 2013 at The Book Club is an exhibition featuring a modern take on the gentleman’s hats of the 1920s. Free, just turn up, 6pm-2am
MIGRATION: The Migration Museum Project are at Iniva on Rivington Place to explore how have migrants shaped Britain’s built environment. Free, prebook, 6.30pm
HONEY: Camden Friends of the Earth screen the award-winning documentary More than Honey, a film about the world of bees, at St Martin’s Church in Gospel Oak. Free, just turn up, 6.30pm
OPIATE LONDON: This month's Salon for the City at Westminster Arts Library looks at Chinese opium dens in Victorian Limehouse, and the Fu Manchu books of Sax Rohmer. £7, prebook, 6.30pm
BIOINFORMATICS: Music of the Spheres lecture and performance at GV Art London utilises new bioinformatics technology developed by Dr Nick Goldman to encode a musical recording into DNA. Free, just turn up, 7pm
STRICTLY BALLROOM: Fancy waltzing beneath the chandeliers at London’s last intact 1950′s ballroom? Well you can, with the National Trust's London Late at the Rivoli Ballroom. £26/£20+bf, prebook, 7pm
COMEDY: Hat Trick Productions (which produces shows such as Have I Got News For You and Whose Line Is It Anyway) brings a special night of comedy to Hoxton Hall as part of their fundraising Varieties season, headlined by E4 comedy duo Cardinal Burns. From £25, prebook, 7pm
URBAN UNDERGROUND: Fairytales may tell you not to go into the woods alone, but what about going down into the London Underground solo? With plague pits and corpse rides, the tube has its fair share of urban legends. learn about them with Fortean London at The Bell on Middlesex Street. £3/£2, just turn up, 8pm
DOC: Our School, a film about three Roma children from a rural Transylvanian village caught up in an initiative to integrate ethnically-segregated Romanian schools, screens at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith. £7/£5, prebook, 8pm
Good Causes of the Day
Three good causes for you today:
Auction
Article 25, the UK's leading architectural and construction aid charity, has divided a section of London into a 10x10 grid and allocated each of the 100 squares to an architect, designer or artist to populate. An auction tonight takes place at 1 Granary Square where visitors can bid for selected pieces and help to raise money for the charity. £20, prebook, from 6pm
Fundraiser Night
Paradise in Kilburn in the setting for a charity fundraiser evening in aid of Artbox London, a charity focused on creating equal opportunities in art. There's limited edition Artbox prints, cakes, karaoke, DJs and dressing up. £4, just turn up, 6pm
Exhibition and Music
Fyfe Dangerfield opens Shelter from the Storm photography exhibition, which explores homelessness in London. Taking place at Downstairs At Mother, the singer-songwriter supports the exhibition in aid of the homeless charity Shelter. £21.85, prebook, 6.30-10pm
London Connection Puzzle
Your clues so far have been RICHARD HANNAY and JOSEPH LISTER. Today's addition is ERIC GILL. We already have a winner, so no need to email in. Your final clue comes tomorrow.
From the Archive
Poetry and disasters were on our mind last year, as we shared a tale about an old lady who swallowed London and a Victorian tragedy that befell ice skaters in Regent's Park.
London Weather by Inclement Attlee
Had he lived, Luke Howard would have been 241 years old today. This meteorological giant — a Londoner, no less — is the man who named the clouds. Before he came along, with his cumulus, stratus and cirrus, people went around calling clouds anything they liked: Frankie, Iris, Paul...it really wasn't scientific. Appropriately, today's skies will be overloaded with clouds — massive, grey bastardonimbuli, to use Howard's terminology. But if you find yourself with drink in hand, please raise a toast to Luke Howard. Happy Birthday, cloudman!
Luke Howard's plaque in Bruce Grove, Tottenham, by Acabashi under Creative Commons licence.
