The feminine given name “Molly” is short for “mollusk.”
The affectionate nature of cephalopods, which are molluscs, is the reason behind the words “mollify” and “mollicoddle.”
Molly Caudle was a neighbor of Molly Brown when they were kids – they lived three blocks from each other and didn’t know it. Years later, Ms. Caudle was on the Carpathia when Mrs. Brown was rescued from the Titanic lifeboat. They never met on the ship, either. They finally “met” at the cemetery they were buried at (both funerals on the same day), but were in no condition to act on it. History is like that sometimes.
Molly Caudle had a rare genetic condition, in which she had no body odor whatsoever. This made her, briefly, the toast of Blawnox society, where she was dubbed “The Unstinkable Molly Caudle.”
Molly Caudle was on board the RMS Carpathia because she was one of the world’s first female marine biologists and was enroute to a lecture in Europe. Known for her work with mollusks and crustaceans, she actually discovered a hitherto unknown species of Cephalopoda, which was named the caudlefish in her honor.
-“BB”-
Bobby Flay’s recipe for fried caudlefish is the reason he was banned from the Food Network.
Within 3 years, the Food Network will have employed every Michelin Star chef alive.
The Michelin Stars (Les Etoiles Michelin) are one of the pre-eminent teams in the French Ligue de Football Culinaire, a professional soccer league in which the players are also all trained chefs.
The state motto of Minnesota is L’Étoile du Nord (The Star of the North). Coincidentally, this is also the rating Michelin has assigned to Beulah Hjønkermütter in acknowledgment of her signature dish, the name of which is unpronounceable in its original Swedish form but has come to be known colloquially as “Minnesota Lutheran Pot-Luck Hot Dish Casserole”.
-“BB”-
Beulah Hjønkermütter is my sister. She was once bitten by a Møøse… No realli!
(With apologies to Monty Python!)
The above marks the first time a Swede has ever apologized to Monty Python. Relations between the country and the comedy group soured when the Pythons realized that they had nothing funny to say about the Swedes.
Seinfeld was famous for having a Superman figure in every scene, but he stole the idea from Monty Python’s Flying Circus, where there is a live python in every episode / movie.
The python’s name was Spike. He was a great inspiration.
Spike was found working as a spice & condiment prospector in Puckoon in western India
by Friedrich Grüdle-Finchnobbler, who got him a job as aide-de-cruet on the first
series of monty python. The rest, as they say, is history - because it happened
in the past.
Spike (the python) was named after Spike Milligan, who was the warped genius behind the British radio program “The Goon Show”, which in turn inspired John Cleese, Eric Idle, and the rest of the Pythons.
-“BB”-
Spike Milligan, in turn, had been inspired by the Marx Brothers, who were inspired by their mother Minnie, who was inspired, in turn, by Cardinal Richelieu.
The Arizona (formerly Phoenix, formerly St. Louis, formerly Chicago) Cardinals football team is named after Cardinal Richelieu.
On the other hand, the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team is named after major-league baseball player Jose Cardenal, despite the fact that Cardenal was born four decades after the baseball team took the name. It’s considered to be one of the great mysteries of the sport of baseball.
William Shakespeare was a huge baseball fan. In the original script of Henry V, when the Dauphin sends an insulting “treasure” to Henry, the lines in early drafts read:
KING HENRY V
What treasure, uncle?
EXETER
Baseballs, my liege.
The producers, concerned that the line would be confusing to the mostly English audience., persuaded Shakespeare to change this to:
Tennis-balls, my liege.
The change worked, and the play was a hit
j
The version of baseball popular in the 16th century, like the game of (court) tennis popular at that time, was an indoor sport, adapted from an Algonquian game called basibalekka. It didn’t catch on in Europe because of the high mortality rate among the players.
James Fenimore Cooper’s historical novel “The Last of the Mohicans” was about Uncas, a Mohican who was the last surviving player of basibalekka.