Do Not Taunt Happy Fun Fact
Have a look at Hale’s Tours
There were several “phantom rides” around the turn of the century, including a fake submarine journey and a trip to the Moon (or Mars). It’s only a small step to a trip through times.
There were a number of dogs at the “spa,” and they were all female, as were the horses that Norma Shearer and Virginia Weidler rode. Additionally, any portraits seen on screen were only of women.
Listening to the audiobook of Simon Winchester’s Pacific I found out that Jack London acquired a love of surfing when he visited Hawaii. He wrote about learning how to ride the waves in his essay " A Royal Sport", which was published in the Women’s Home Companion in 1911.
Duke Kahanamoku brought surfing from Hawaii to Australia:
His surfing exhibition at Sydney, Australia’s Freshwater Beach on December 24, 1914, is widely regarded as a seminal event in the development of surfing in Australia.[11] The board that Kahanamoku built from a piece of pine from a local hardware store is retained by the Freshwater Surf Life Saving Club. A statue of Kahanamoku was erected in his honor on the Northern headland of Freshwater Lake, New South Wales
As, somewhat later, did Agatha Christie.
Her daughter has taken over the mantle.
Looks just like Shari in a wig.
Woody Allen was once made a knight commander by France, but he didn’t know because the paperwork got lost in the mail.
A decade later, he found out about the award by reading about it in the New York Times.
The paper of record.
That sounds like something out of those pieces Woody Allen used to write for the New Yorker.
“I was made a knight commander in France, but they lost my paperwork. I had to show people a Xerox of my certificate, but it came out wrinkled when they ran the parchment through the copier.”
TI (and a lot of other people) L:
Going viral is the story behind f the Nebraska opossum who found its way into a kind woman’s home, devoured an entire gloppy Costco chocolate cake until it was discovered quivering insensate on her couch. Collected and treated by the local wildlife org, possum has been dubbed the “Cake Bandit.”
Those of us who Googled for that name to learn more accomplished just that, since Cake Bandit was already the taken name of an undergarment retailer specializing in reducing the prominence of genitalia for trans individuals.
An oopsie by the wildlife org, or an act of guerrilla normalization?
I vote for pure coincidence. I mean the possum WAS literally a cake bandit.
… which surely gave furbaby cake farts. But DO NOT Google that!
Ernst August von Hanover, descended from the Georges and the current head of the House of Hanover, by family tradition can call himself Royal Prince of Great Britain and Ireland. (Note the inclusion of all Ireland). I think maybe his distant cousins in England should, to use a Geman expression in translation, tell him exactly who he is.
According to Wikipedia, in German law the “Prinz” bit is part of his surname since the abolition of titles.
As far as the UK is concerned, it’s complicated since the law allowed him British citizenship, so they came up with a compromise.
(Not that distant, btw, since his mother was Philip’s sister)
That brings back memories! Doubt if the orginal site is still up.
The UK can call itself lucky that he’s not a real Royal, because he’s a massive, entitled asshole. He’s also the husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco, btw.
In the Restaurants that don’t serve essential dishes thread I learned that nachos were invented by a guy named Nacho.
Ok, his given name was Ignacio, but he was called Nacho, and nachos were originally called Nacho’s Especiales and he eventually opened his own restaurant called Nacho’s Restaurant.
Thank you Ignacio Anaya for bringing cheesy crunchy joy to the world. Let’s all raise a chip in your memory.
Interesting. Among his outrages listed in the link was urinating on the Turkish pavilion at Expo 2000.
From Strindberg’s Miss Julie, we’d learned that “Turkish pavilion” was a euphemism for outhouse.
Nacho is the nickname for Ignacio similar to Robert-Bob and Edward-Ted. There are a bunch of them that aren’t apparent. Fracisco-Pancho or Paco, Jesus-Chuy (two syllables sounds like chewy), Roberto-Beto, Jose-Pepe, etc.