Contrary to popular belief, the Cape of Good Hope is not the southernmost point of the African continent. That honor belongs to Cape Agulhas, which is about 90 miles east-southeast of the Cape of Good Hope.
And the southernmost point in continental Europe is not the Rock of Gibraltar but rather Punta de Tarifa 16.5 miles away.
The word “tariff” comes from the Italian word “tariffa” which itself is descended from the Old Latin word “tarifa” and the Arabic word “ta’rif”.
Lawrence of Arabia died from a motorcycle accident in 1935 in Wareham, Dorset County UK. Not 3 miles from the memorial marker in Dorset, there is a bridge over the River Frome with a warning sign that reads,
Any person wilfully injuring any part of this county bridge will be guilty of felony and upon conviction liable to be transported for life by the court. T Fooks 7&8 Geo 4 C3O S13
What this means, to “be transported for life by the court”, is that you’d be going to Australia.
Several bridges in Dorset County have this or similar signs.
https://is.gd/XRHOLa << image of sign
https://is.gd/mmn2p7 << gMap, about 2.9 miles from the Lawrence of Arabia Memorial to the Wool Bridge
T. E Lawrence (“of Arabia”), portrayed on screen by Peter O’ Toole (6’3") was self-conscious about his height, 5’5".
A friend, author Robert Graves, wrote in his memoir Goodbye to All That:
“I teased him [Lawrence] once for standing on the fender over the fire; I pretended that he did it to make himself look taller. He denied this hotly, insisting that the onus of proving oneself of any use in the world lay with tall people like myself. This encouraged me to a ragging pretence of physical violence; but I immediately stopped when I caught the look in his face. I had surprised his morbid horror of being touched.”
According to theHoopsGeek.com, the average height of the NBA player was, by year:
1952: 6’ 4.1"
1960: 6’ 5.3"
1970: 6’ 5.7"
1980: 6’ 6.4"
1987: 6’ 7.2" (the tallest in their dataset)
1990: 6’ 6.8"
2000: 6’ 6.8"
2010: 6’ 6.9"
Manute Bol, listed at 7’7" or 7’8", played in the NBA from 1985 to 1997. Sadly, he died in 2010 at the age of only 47.
The march which plays in the movie Lawrence of Arabia when T.E. Lawrence and General Edmund Allenby leave Allenby’s Cairo headquarters for a drink at the officers’ club, out of which Lawrence had earlier been thrown, is Kenneth Alford’s “The Voice of the Guns” (1917).
ETA: T.E. Lawrence is not known to have played basketball, in the NBA or outside it.
OK…tying the last 3 posts together…!!
Manute Bol was born on October 16, 1962, in Turalei, Sudan (now South Sudan), which is about 2000 miles south/southwest of Cairo. He played college basketball for the University of Bridgeport, and then had a 10-year career in the NBA. He is the only NBA player to retire with more career blocked shots than points scored.
That stat about Manute Bol is not surprising. I watched him play with the Washington Bullets and he rarely loped past half court. He would just go back and defend the basket whenever possession changed hands, but he could really block a shot.
New trivia:
In the original rules, there was no dribbling in basketball. Once the ball was in a player’s possession, he had to stop and shoot or throw the ball to another player.
Manute liked to put up those 3-point shots, though! He wasn’t half bad.
In play: in the original games of basketball they used a peach basket. When the ball when into the basket they’d have to climb a ladder to pull it out. Not long after, they figured that if they cut a hole in the bottom of the basket, the game would be more fun.
I once saw Manute Bol, at Chicago Midway Airport, while I was waiting to board a flight. The combination of his extreme height and slender build made him look like a character from a science-fiction film. (Also, he was boarding a Southwest flight – and Southwest, of course, doesn’t have first-class seats, with extra legroom. I have no idea how he fit!)
In play: unlike many other popular sports, basketball’s origin is well-defined. It was created in December, 1891, by Dr. James Naismith, a physical education professor at the International Young Men’s Christian Association Training School (now known as Springfield College), in Springfield, Massachusetts. Dr. Naismith was looking to develop a vigorous game which could be played indoors, and thus keep his students in good condition during the winter months.
Basketball was the first team sport I played. Before baseball and football. I grew up in Upstate NY, near Albany, and also near Hartford CT. From my childhood addresses in those locations the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield MA was less than 95 miles and 29 miles, respectively. And yet I’ve never been there. I grew up watching the Celtics (Havlicek, Don Nelson, Dave Cowens, Jo Jo White, Paul Westphal, Don Chaney, etc… I’ve been to Canton OH and Cooperstown NY several times, and even the NHL HOF once (last October), but to date, never been to Springfield. I wonder why that is? Rhetorical question…
(sigh)
In play: According to buzzfeed.com it is illegal to make clam chowder with tomatoes in Springfield MA.
(as it should be)
(Keeping the thread in the topic of basketball)
After leaving Springfield, James Naismith moved to Denver, where he earned his medical degree. He then accepted a job as coach and athletic director at the University of Kansas.
The original copy of his rules of basketball stayed with the Naismith family until it was sold at auction in 2010 for over 4 million dollars. That copy is now on display in the DeBruce Center, adjacent to Allen Fieldhouse on the campus of the University of Kansas.
The hometown of the cartoon family ‘The Simpsons’ is Springfield, although it has never been made clear in which state the community is supposedly located.
As of this writing, there are 33 populated places (in 25 states) that bear the name “Springfield” … including five in Wisconsin alone. There are also at least 36 “Springfield Townships” scattered across the country as well.
-“BB”-
A similar controversy exists about “King of the Hill’s” Arlen, Texas. There is no Arlen in any state, and various episodes triangulate the geography ambiguously.
Psychological triangulation is a tactic where one person will not communicate directly with another person. Instead, a third person is used to relay communication to the second, thus forming a triangle. It may also refer to a form of splitting in which one person controls a relationship between two parties by limiting and dictating the communication between them.
Triangulation may manifest itself as a manipulative device to engineer rivalry between two people, known as divide and conquer, or playing one person against another.
The “triangle offense” is an offensive strategy in the sport of basketball. It gets its name from the triangle shape which is created by the placements of the center, one of the forwards, and one of the guards.
The triangle offense was developed by Sam Barry, while he was the coach of the University of Southern California’s basketball team. The offense was then further developed by Tex Winter, who had played for Barry at USC in the 1940s. Winter served as an assistant coach under Phil Collins with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers in the 1990s and 2000s, and the triangle offense was a key feature of their teams, which won a total of eleven NBA titles.
Trio Los Panchos" is a musical group that has sold hundreds of Millions of records since it was formed in 1944 in New York by three Mexican-born singers. One of them. Alfredo Gil, invented a higher-pitched guitar, which gave the group a distinctive sound the world has not tired of in over 70 years. At least 12 singers have been members of the trio.
The Kingston Trio was a musical group that helped launch the revival of folk music in the late Fifties and early Sixties. Formed in the mid-Fifties, the group got their first big break when comedian Phyllis Diller canceled a week-long engagement at The Purple Onion club in San Francisco. Signed as a replacement act, the week turned into a six-month appearance that launched the group into a national club tour that eventually landed them a recording contract.