Modern flat earth belief originated with the English writer Samuel Rowbotham, who conducted the 1838 Bedford Level experiment. Based on his findings of a series of observations along the Old Bedford River in the UK, he published a book entitled Earth Not a Globe, in which he proposed that the Earth is a flat disc centered at the North Pole and bounded along its southern edge by a wall of ice known as Antarctica.
Woburn Abbey, home of the Dukes of Bedford for centuries, holds a fine collection of Old Masters, with over 250 paintings including works by Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyck, Canaletto and Velasquez.
Dutch Masters is a brand of cigars, sold in the U.S. The brand is known for the painting by Rembrandt which is featured on its packaging, Syndics of the Draper’s Guild.
A torcedor (or torcedora) is a professional cigar roller. Master torcedors can roll 200 expert cigars a day.
There is a small country wedged between Argentina and Chile named for its tobacco and cigars. Called Las Antillas, this tiny nation has only 30 square miles of land, making it about the same size as Washington, D.C. It is named after tobacco fields that were found there during the 16th century.
To avoid confusion, Las Antillas, a similar-sized area in Nicaragua, was renamed Santiago de los Caballeros – “Saint James of the Knights”.
I read this with interest since I lived in Argentina in middle school/high school, and one of our class activities was making a map of all the Latin American countries. I’d never heard of Las Antillas except as the Caribbean islands and I don’t see it on the map; in fact, the Chile/Argentina border looks too mountainous to support tobacco-growing? And the Britannica list of Latin American countries doesn’t include it. List of Latin American Countries | North America, South America, & the Caribbean | Britannica
The only reference I see to Las Antillas in Latin America is this one:
33 Interesting Facts about Cigars | Screaming Eagle Cigars Clarksville, TN
Too late to edit. I should have said “The only reference I see to Las Antillas in South America is this one:”
Las Antillas in Latin America actually refers to the Antilles of the Caribbean
And there’s Las Antillas del Sur in South America; they’re islands in the south Atlantic
You are correct. I am unable to find another source for the South Antilles cigar story. In fact, the only thing I could find regarding any of the Antilles is a brand of Nicaraguan cigar called “Flor de las Antilles” or “flower of the Antilles”.
The Nicaraguan Navy was founded in 1980 and reached a peak strength of 3,000 personnel in 1990, during the war with U.S.-backed anticommunist contra rebels. The Navy was reduced to just 800 officers and sailors by 1993, and has not grown significantly since then.
Two South American countries are among a group of landlocked countries that maintain a Navy. The Bolivian Navy patrols on Lake Titicaca and the major rivers of the country, while the Navy in Paraguay operates mainly on the Paraguay River and the Paraná River.
The Cruel Sea is a 1951 novel by Nicholas Monsarrat, about Royal Navy officers and sailors fighting the Battle of the Atlantic aboard corvettes - small, cramped, uncomfortable, often water-logged escort warships - during the Second World War. Monsarrat had himself served on convoy duty aboard corvettes.
The Royal Canadian Navy went from 13 ships in 1939 to 332 by war’s end. Of those, 123 were corvettes, who did a lot of merchant convoy/anti-submarine duty.
They were small:
https://legionmagazine.com/en/2010/01/scrappy-little-corvettes-navy-part-37/
Although the Queen of Canada is the Commander-in-Chief of the various military branches, they are represented by the Governor General. Because of this the GG is entitled to wear the CinC uniform. Here is a former GG wearing the uniform of the CinC of the Royal Canadian Navy.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), often referred to as the “Mounties,” are the federal police service of Canada; they also provide provincial policing services for eight Canadian provinces, and local policing in numerous communities.
The RCMP is known for its distinctive dress uniform, which consists of a high-collared scarlet tunic, blue breeches with yellow stripes on the sides, a brown belt with a white sidearm lanyard, oxblood riding boots, brown gloves, and a broad-brimmed brown felt campaign hat.
The Queen’s favourite horse was Burmese, who was given to Her Majesty by the RCMP in 1968, when she visted Depot, the training academy for the Mounties in Regina.
In 2005, as a centennial celebration, the province erected a statue of the Queen riding Burmese, in front of the Legislative Assembly.
https://wascana.ca/things-to-see-and-do/monuments-and-memorials/burmese
Early life for a Burmese python is spent mostly in trees. As they get older (and bigger), they head down to the ground.
A large number of Burmese pythons can also be found in the Florida everglades. It’s thought they found their way there after the devastation of hurricane Andrew in 1992. At the time, this was the most destructive hurricane in US history and destroyed snake breeding facilities. Snakes also escaped from zoos and homes in the area.
One of the longest pythons caught in Florida was a female Burmese python in 2013 that was over 18 feet long. She weighed over 300 pounds.
Florida is one of six states whose names are derived from Spanish: California, Colorado, Florida, Montana, Nevada and New Mexico. There are some schools of thought that think Arizona comes from the Spanish words zona arida, but it’s more likely Native American in origin.
The state of California is home to six professional sports teams which relocated to the state from other states to the east:
- Los Angeles Rams (NFL; originally relocated from Cleveland, and later, re-relocated from St. Louis)
- Los Angeles Dodgers (MLB; relocated from Brooklyn)
- San Francisco Giants (MLB; relocated from New York)
- Los Angeles Lakers (NBA; relocated from Minneapolis)
- Golden State Warriors (NBA; relocated from Philadelphia)
- Los Angeles Clippers (NBA; relocated from Buffalo, where they were the Braves)
Interesting; I wonder how the cigar company came up with the idea and why it’s on their website.
In play:
David Gestetner, born in Hungary, was living in Chicago when he came up with the idea for the stencil duplicator. He moved to London, England where he produced and marketed his invention. It became a success worldwide, and he soon established an international chain of branches that sold and serviced his products.
He also invented other notable devices such as the nail-clipper and a type of ball-point pen.