Fannie Flagg is an actress, comedian, and author. She was well-known in the 1970s for her regular appearances on the celebrity panel of the TV game show *Match Game." Flagg has written a number of novels, most notably “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe;” she later co-wrote the screenplay adaptation of her novel, which became the 1991 film Fried Green Tomatoes.
Flagg’s birth name is Patricia Neal; she adopted her stage name when she began acting, as there was already a well-known actress with the same name.
In Europe in the 1700s, the tomato was considered to be poisonous. One of the reasons is that wealthy aristocrats used pewter plates, which are high in lead content. Tomatoes are high in acidity, so when placed on this plate, the tomato would leach lead from the tableware, which resulted in a high number of deaths from lead poisoning.
Of all the metals lead is the only one that exhibits zero Thomson effect, which means that when an electrical current is passed through it, heat is neither absorbed nor released.
June Thomson was already a well-known British mystery author when she wrote her first collection of pastiches based upon the writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Secret Files of Sherlock Holmes, in 1990.
“Sherlock Hemlock” was a Muppet character on the children’s educational television show Sesame Street, who referred to himself as “the world’s greatest detective.” A spoof on Sherlock Holmes, Hemlock appeared regularly on the show in the 1970s and 1980s, primarily in segments in which he would solve mysteries for other characters.
Hemlock is an evergreen tree that belongs to the pine family. There are around 10 species of hemlock that are native to America (4 species) and Asia (remaining 6 species). Hemlock inhabits dense, moist habitats that are characterized by dry, rocky soil. It can be found deep into the forests, on the rocky ridges, hillsides, on the river banks and in the ravines. Hemlock usually grows in shade, in areas that provide enough rain and snow during the year. Crushed needles of the hemlock tree release a substance that smells just like the poison hemlock (type of herbaceous plant), hence the name-hemlock tree. Unlike poison hemlock, the hemlock tree is not poisonous.
Coniine, the alkaloid derived from poison hemlock, is fatal to animals and humans. Its most famous victim is Socrates, who was sentenced to death in 399 BC by poison, in a cup containing poison hemlock.
Lately there has been renewed interest in coniine’s medical uses, particularly for pain relief without an addictive side effect.
Heracles of Macedon was a reputed illegitimate son of Alexander the Great of Macedon, who was a student of Aristotle, who was a student of Plato, who was a student of Socrates, who served in the military in the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC).
Tony Steedman was a British character actor, who enjoyed a long career, both on the stage, and on English television dramas, from the 1960s through the 1990s. However, his greatest exposure to American audiences was in the role of the Greek philosopher Socrates in the 1989 comedy film Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
Besides Socrates, some other notable historical figures that appeared in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure were Napoleon, Billy the Kid, Freud, Genghis Khan, Joan of Arc, Abraham Lincoln, and Beethoven.
NFL coach Dan Reeves passed away last January at the age of 77. He was a head coach for 23 sessions, with the Denver Broncos, the New York Giants, and the Atlanta Falcons. As a player he played 8 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. During his 38 years in the NFL, Reeves participated in nine Super Bowls, the third most for an individual.
Dan Reeves was the Dallas Cowboys’ starting halfback during the 1967 NFL Championship Game against the Green Bay Packers, which is more commonly referred to as the “Ice Bowl,” due to the brutally cold conditions at Lambeau Field that day (the game-time air temperature was -15F, and the wind chill, by modern calculations, was -36F).
The Cowboys’ only offensive touchdown during the game was on a 50-yard halfback option pass, thrown by Reeves to flanker Lance Rentzel in the fourth quarter. That score gave the Cowboys their first lead of the day, which they held until Packers QB Bart Starr’s famous quarterback sneak touchdown in the game’s waning moments.
Wide receivers Lance Rentzel and Lance Alworth both played for the Dallas Cowboys, but their playing days there did not overlap. Rentzel was at Dallas for 1967-1970, and then Alworth was there 1971-1972. Rentzel never won a championship but Alworth did, with the Cowboys in 1971 in Super Bowl VI. Alworth, nicknamed “Bambi” for his leaping abilities, is also in the NFL Hall of Fame. Alworth is also in the College Football Hall of Fame.
Felix Salten, a prolific author now best known for his book Bambi: A Life in the Woods, was the grandson of an Orthodox rabbi. Bambi was intended by Salten as a parable of the dangers and persecution faced by Jews in Europe. Published in 1923, it was hugely popular and is now seen as one of the first environmental novels.
In 1933, Salten sold the film rights to the novel to MGM producer Sidney Franklin, who passed them on to Walt Disney for the creation of a film adaptation. In 1936, Nazi Germany banned the book as “political allegory on the treatment of Jews in Europe,” and Salten went into exile in Switzerland.
In 1928, Whittaker Chambers translated Salten’s 1923 Bambi to English. Chambers, born in Philadelphia in 1901, was an active Communist and a spy for the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s. He gradually grew disillusioned by Communism and defected in 1938. In 1948, Chambers testified before HUAC, the House in-American Activities Committee” in “the trial of the century”, the 1949-1960 case against Alger Hiss for perjury related to espionage. Chambered died in 1961, and in 1984 President Reagan awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously to him for contribution to “the century’s epic struggle between freedom and totalitarianism”.
Marilyn Chambers was a model and struggling actress in the early 1970s, and one of her most prominent early jobs was to serve as the model on the packaging for Ivory Snow laundry soap.
Chambers starred in the breakthrough adult film Behind the Green Door in 1972; when, after the movie’s release, Procter & Gamble (the makers of Ivory Snow) learned that their model had made a pornographic film, they quickly dropped her from their packaging.
Asteroid 1486 Marilyn was discovered in 1938 by Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Uccle BEL. The asteroid was named after Marilyn Herget, daughter of astronomer Paul Herget.
Expo 58, also known as the 1958 Brussel’s World Fair, was held in Brussels from April 17 to October 19 of 1958. It was the first major world expo held after WWII.
It was also the first time that Belgian Waffles were introduced to the world, by a man named Walter Cleyman. However, in Belgium, there’s not really such a waffle by that name.
