To be fair, the play wasn’t just parodying Carr, but the entire genre of circa 1920-1940 mysteries. It explicitly mentions several of them, including Anthony Berkeley’s The Poisoned Chocolates Mystery (“A spectacular tour-de-force with no fewer than six separate solutions”) and name-checks other mystery writers, like S.S. Van Dine.
When Harold Pinter wrote the screenplay for the 2007 version of Sleuth he included no mention of such mysteries, thereby pretty much erasing Wyke’s raison d’etre and sucking all the fun out of the movie.
One of the New Orleans Mardi Gras Krewes is The Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus, a name that is utterly inspired. It’s science fiction-based, of course. Peter Mayhew, who first played Chewbacca, was Emperior for Life (and, for all I know, still is now that he’s dead). He rode the float in the Mardi Gras parade a few times, with his wife.
IIRC no. Elizabeth could have used Elizabeth IV if she wanted. I don’t know if this was used as precedence but for example Louis XVIII skipped 17 out of deference to Louis XVI’s son and Pope John XXIII used his ordinal to settle how many Pope John’s there really were.
Which itself is a anglicized version of the original Welsh name Gwenhwyfar meaning white (gwen) magical being, phantom. The original Arthurian legends were Welsh.
There are many variants, including Genevieve (French) and Ginevra (Italian). Jennifer is the Breton version.
Theophane means “manifestion of God” in Greek. It’s a male name – many Catholic nuns choose male religious names when they take Holy Orders. There’s no differentiation between male and female saints in that practice. But I’ve never heard of a monk taking the name of a female saint. Unsurprising.
My wording might have been unclear, but I thought I had said exactly that. That Lord Merridew was a direct reference to Sir Henry Merrivale, though, is indisputable. Shaffer was a Carr fan and used surrogates of his two famous characters - Merrivale and Dr. Gideon Fell - in others of his mysteries.
A discussion here of how well the next supercontinent “Pangea” will really really suck, and that puts an ever shorter fuze on us needing to be able to get our civilization off this rock or die trying.
Back in 1893, the Midway was aimed most at adults. Pictures show very few children in the crowds. Most of the exhibits were supposedly educational anthropological examples of foreign cultures. In reality, entrepreneurs made them eye-catchers. “A Street in Cairo” featured (fully-dressed) belly dancers, who scandalized the nation and created the “hootchie cootchie.” Money poured in. But outside of animals and the Ferris wheel, there wasn’t much for kids. Attractions kiddified over the course of the 20th century.
Eh. 250,000,000 years ago mammals didn’t exist. A few things have happened since then. Forecasts of the position of continents in the future have scientific meaning. Forecasts of animal life don’t.
Not correct. It’s ultimately Cornish, but via English; the Breton is Gwenivar, but I’m not sure whether the name is still in use.
Edit re: Carolus—Charles has also chosen to be “Charles” in the Welsh language. Charles I was Siarl I, and Charles II was Siarl II, but he’s decided on being Charles III in Welsh. Looking him up on Welsh wikipedia, though, he’s listed as Siarl III, and it’s noted that he’s sometimes called Carlo. BBC article in Welsh explaining his title choice: 'Y Brenin Charles, nid Siarl, yn swyddogol yn Gymraeg' - BBC Cymru Fyw
Right, because for a twisty, turny river, it might be ambiguous which side is the “east bank” or “west bank”. Even for a river as relatively straight as the Mississippi, I’m sure that there are places where you can cross from “west” to “east” by going west. But any given river always has a clear “left bank” and “right bank”.
I have done exactly that. The headwaters of the Mississippi River are at Lake Itasca State Park in northern Minnesota. There are stepping stones so you can walk across the Mississippi. On the walk back to the parking lot, you cross the river flowing north.
The Crescent City Connection bridge over the Mississippi River, which connects the East Bank portion of New Orleans with the city’s Algiers section on the West Bank, runs almost exactly east-west. And indeed, you drive on the east-bound span to get to the West Bank, and the west-bound span to get to the East Bank.
