IZ = Ilia Zdanevich
A Georgian writer and artist, and an active participant in Dada and other avant-garde movements.
JA- Liberal Republican Congressman John Anderson ran a third party campaign for President in 1980, with former Wisconsin Governor Pat Lucey as his running mate.
(Hey, I voted for him.)
JB = Jim Bean. In the history of the brand now known as Jim Beam, there have been seven generations of distillers from the Beam (and Noe) family. Retired Master Distiller Jerry Dalton (1998–2007) was the first non-Beam to be Master Distiller at the company, and his successor was a member of the family.
JC = Jose Cuervo
Tequila was invented by Don Jose Antonio de Cuervo, who got a land grant from the King of Spain in Tequila, Jalisco, where he established an Agave plantation in 1758. Jose Cuervo is still the world’s largest selling tequila. The current director of the company is the sixth generation of descendants from Don Jose.
JD- Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, had represented Mississippi in the US Senate, and served as secretary of War under US President Franklin Pierce.
JE = Jonathan Edwards, pre-Revolutionary war American clergyman, best remembered for his sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Not a “fire and brimstone” preacher, Edwards did not shout or speak loudly, but talked in a quiet, emotive voice. He moved his audience slowly from point to point, towards an inexorable conclusion: they were lost without the grace of God. His theology and preaching were essential to what historians now refer to as The Enlightenment. He was Aaron Burr’s grandfather.
JF = Joe Foy
Joe Foy was a barely average baseball player of the late '60s. He was a Bronx boy who first played for the rival Boston Red Sox, but a few years later wound up playing for the New York Mets. His name earned him a place in the legion of baseball players with colorful names like Eppa Rixey, Debs Garms and Van Lingle Mungo.
JG = Junior Grade. In the U.S. armed forces, the Army formerly appointed warrant officers (junior grade), and the Navy’s lieutenants, junior grade are commissioned officers.
JH = Johan Hjort
A Norwegian marine zoologist, and oceanographer. He was among the most prominent and influential marine zoologists of the early 20th century. Five species of marine animals and three oceanographic research vessels have been names after him.
JI- Judas Iscariot, the apostle who betrayed Jesus, was played by Murray Head in the original soundtrack of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Webber offered all original cast members a choice between a flat fee and a percentage of the profits. Only Head took the percentage, which netted him a fortune.
JJ = Juliet Jones
“The Heart of Juliet Jones” was a soap opera that ran for nearly a half a century in the sunday comics, created by cartoonist Stan Drake in 1953.
JK = John F. Kennedy, POTUS. His son, JFK Jr. called him Poo-Poo Head (he was only in the single digits of years of age at the time.) John-John is best remembered saluting his father’s coffin as it was carried out of St. Matthew’s Cathedra.
JL - John Lennon. When the USA tried to deport him in 1972 based on an English drug conviction, he was successfully defended by Leon Wildes, the founder and senior partner of the New York based immigration law firm, Wildes & Weinberg . Leon’s son Michael Wildes later became mayor of Englewood, NJ where I live, and I’ve talked with him many times. That’s the closest connection I have to any Beatle.
JM = James Madison and James Monroe
By the time the USA was six presidents old, it had already had two pairs with the same initials, JM and JA. So much for identifying them by their initials, like HST and LBJ and JFK.
John Qunicy Adams was the first president who even had a middle name. Only three had a middle name before 1877.
JN- Game show hosts Jack Narz and Tom Kennedy were brothers
JO = Jimmy Olsen, Superman’s Pal. Jimmy has had numerous forms and roles over the years: Speed Demon, Radioactive Jimmy, Gorilla Jimmy, Superbrain Jimmy, Elastic Lad, Human Octopus, Fire-breathing Jimmy, Wolf-Man Jimmy, Turtle Man, Flamebird, Human Porcupine, Viking Jimmy, Hippie Jimmy and Steelman. Among others.
JP = Jet Propulsion
Jet Propulsion Laboratories is one of those institutions with a wonderfully understated name, like “Electric Boat”. JPL’s primary function is the construction and operation of planetary robotic spacecraft. They started out doing the first rocket experiments in 1936.
TLTE but worth metnioning::: Then, the word “jet” in English was primarily restricted to the forceful expression of inky substances from octopi, and the color of the marine creature’s intense black issue.
JQ = Jonny Quest
The original *Jonny Quest * ran for one season on ABC during 1964/1965 in prime time. The show was similar to the Rick Brandt series of adventure books. However, the Quest stories allowed for the supernatural, an element prohibited in the Rick Brandt books. There have been a couple of reboots of little consequence, as well as some talk a few years ago of a movie with “The Rock” playing Race Bannon.
adding: last year DC Comics (Warner having acquired Hanna-Barbara a couple o’ years ago), started a miniseries called Future Quest, which had Jonny, Hadji, etc. on a mission in outer space, and teamed him up with such allies as Space Ghost, the Herculoids, the Impossibles and Birdman. It did fairly well in sales.