I’ve come to enjoy, in a limited sense, Young Sheldon and am impressed with the extent the actress playing the young Mary Cooper, Played by Zoe Perry, inhabits the role. Not surprising, I guess, since her mother plays Mary all growed up (Laurie Metcalfe).
King of the Dudes!
For all you Dion fans:
US President Martin Van Buren named his first three sons Abraham, Martin, and John. (the other surviving son was named “Smith”). (actually - Martin was born before Abraham.)
Thank you Alex, and Jeopardy!
According to the year-end edition of The Economist, the most popular participatory sport in South Korea is walking up mountains. Not mountain climbing in the usual sense. Walking up well-marked paths to the tops of mountains.
The Happy Land Fire that killed 87 people in 1990 is also not commonly counted in homicide totals.
“On 31 July 1914, Jaurès was assassinated. At 9 pm, he went to dine at the Café du Croissant, 146, rue Montmartre. Forty minutes later, Raoul Villain, a 29-year-old French nationalist, walked up to the restaurant window and fired two shots into Jaurès’ back.”
Shot by Raoul Villain at the Café du Croissant? Sounds like a Monty Python sketch…
While filming “A Christmas Story,” during down times the crew members would use the Red Ryder for target practice on the set. Eventually, a ricochet hit a leg lamp so they had to stop.
Source: if you have amazon prime, you can watch (for free) a documentary two fans made as they hunt down filming locations etc.
I’m right now reading Lyndal Roper’s excellent biography of Martin Luther, and learned that Martin Luther’s original family name was “Luder”. Now that meant and still means “slut” or “loose woman” in German, that’s most probably why he always spelled his name “Luther”.
It involves cramming yourself into mountain huts with hundreds of other hikers, there’s nowhere you’re allowed to camp independently. Not fun if you’re used to the freedom of backcountry hiking in the U.S. The Koreans love their mountains, but it’s a very densely populated country.
The Philippines are made up of over 7000 islands.
I used to wonder about stories I’d read of how cold winters were in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such as the Hudson River freezing over or a massive blizzard in 1888. Those stories seemed much worse than the winters I experienced in the Northeast in the last fifty years, even given that they had poorly insulated houses and no central heat.
But apparently it was colder then, with something called the Little Ice Age lasting for a few centuries and ending in the nineteenth century. It must have been absolutely miserable for people back then.
Zee plane! Zee plane!
Villechaize was suffering from chronic pain due to having oversized internal organs putting increasing pressure on his body. According to Self, Villechaize often slept in a kneeling position so he could breathe more easily.[11]
In London (UK), buses and the Underground (subway) don’t (and never have) run on Christmas Day.
Not entirely true, it would seem.
https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/13927/london-transport-bus-services-on-christmas-day
(I found that looking for something else: Christmas Day morning football matches were a thing in the past (eg); and so I was wondering if there were scheduled bus services for supporters. Haven’t found anything yet.)
j
London had “Frost Fairs” whenever the Thames river froze over (maybe once every 20 years or so) - the last time in 1814. Henry VIII travelled by sled along the ice from central London to Greenwich in 1536. Details, and some artists’ works…
https://folklorethursday.com/folklife/london-folklore-the-legendary-frost-fairs-of-the-river-thames/
I only know about the frost fairs from an episode of Doctor Who. I assumed that nowadays rivers like the Thames or the Hudson weren’t allowed to freeze solid, not that it just doesn’t get as cold.
How do you think (global warming aside) we could stop them?
Perhaps icebreakers and just constant boat traffic would prevent a solid layer of ice from forming?
Ah. I hadn’t thought of icebreakers; though I’d think that would get expensive.
Boat traffic might, I suppose, keep a light layer of ice from forming; but I doubt would have much impact on a heavy one.
The London Bridge blocked the river, causing a dangerous rapid through the bridge (careful people got out and walked, meeting their boat on the other side), and causing a still-water pond on the uphill side.
The London Bridge was replaced in 1831, and the river embanked in the 1860’s, and the Electric Power stations putting hot cooling water into the lower Thames prevented freezing below the bridge, (??? I’m not sure about my London Geography) So the last time the Thames froze (??? 1963), I don’t know which parts froze.