(I did the same, enjoying two scoops of vanilla ice cream over some of our backyard raspberries).
President Ronald Reagan, Republican of California, also signed into law the Acts of Congress designating the rose as the national flower of the United States (Nov. 20, 1986), and John Philip Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever” as the national march (Dec. 11, 1987).
In 1868, at age 13, John Philip Sousa was enlisted, by his father, into the U.S. Marine Corps, as an apprentice musician. His initial rank in the USMC was listed as “boy.”
First formed in 1798, the Marine Corps’ military band is famous for having performed at the inauguration of every American president since Thomas Jefferson in 1801. Jefferson nicknamed the Marine Band “The President’s Own,” and since then, its main purpose has been to provide music for the commander in chief at state dinners, parades and other functions. The band is best known for its marches—“The Stars and Stripes Forever” composer John Philip Sousa was once its director—but it has also played classical and opera music according to the tastes of the president and his guests. It once even performed a Scott Joplin ragtime tune at the request of Theodore Roosevelt’s daughter Alice.
John Phillip Sousa‘s military career is interesting.
1868-1875 USMC; his initial rank was “boy” as mentioned previously
1880-1892 USMC; he left the Corps as a Sergeant Major
1917-1918 US Navy; he ended up a Lieutenant Commander
Talk about broken time!
The 1973 Wings song, “Jet,” took its name from either a dog, or a pony, which Paul McCartney had owned (McCartney has provided different explanations of it over the years).
The lyrics of the song have also long been inscrutable, and in the past, McCartney has indicated that they may not have had any particular meaning. However, in a 2017 interview, McCartney related the story that the song was inspired by his first meeting with his wife Linda’s father, Lee Eastman, whom he found to be intimidating; the lyrics about a “sergeant major” were apparently in reference to Eastman.
The most senior position in the Army and the Marine Corps is Sergeant Major of the Army, and Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps.
The Sergeant Major of the Army was initially created to be like the Marine Corps’ position. The first Sergeant Major of the Army was Sergeant Major William O. Wooldridge. He held the position from July 1966.
The first Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps was Sergeant Major Wilbur Bestwick. He held the position from October 1957.
Mister Ed, a television sitcom which ran from 1961 to 1966, featured the title character, a horse which could talk to its owner, Wilbur Post. The show was directed by Arthur Lubin, who also directed the first six Francis the Talking Mule movies. The financial backer for the pilot of the TV show was comedian George Burns.
I am guessing that that is the most senior enlisted (non-commissioned) position, yes?
In play:
Actor Alan Young, who starred as Wilbur Post in the television sitcom Mister Ed, adopted the stage name “Alan” when he began his show business career in the 1940s. His birth name was Angus Young, the same name as the guitarist for the Australian rock band AC/DC.
Researchers at the University of South Australia have found that playing AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’ during chemotherapy treatment is effective at improving the efficiency of the drug. They chose this AC/DC track because it hits all the right notes. Vibrations from the song cause silicon micro particles carrying the chemo drug inside a vacuum to bounce. This results in a polymer coating that prevents the drug from escaping while being administered, improving delivery to cancer cells.
I’m not sure how true this is but it sounded too cool not to share.
George Young, brother of Angus Young of AC/DC, was a member of the Easybests, who had a hit with “Friday on my Mind” in 1966, written with Henry Vanda. Vanda and Young put out a few albums as Flash and the Pan in the late 70s and early 80s.
Actor Burt Young, who played Pauly in the movie series Rocky, served in the US Marine Corps for a couple of years. While in the Marine Corps, he won 32 of 34 boxing bouts. He later became a professional boxer and compiled a 17–0 record under three aliases. His manager was Cus D’Amato, the same manager as Iron Mike Tyson and Floyd Patterson.
Constantine ‘Cus’ D’Amato began as an amateur boxer but his career was cut short because of an eye injury that was suffered in a street fight. Instead of boxing, he made a career out of teaching people how to box. D’Amato opened his first gym at the age of 22 and he worked, lived, and slept there – literally.
Rocky Graziano was one of the earlier boxers who fought under the tutelage of D’Amato, but he later switched trainers. D’Amato trained former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson, who went on to be the youngest to claim that title at the time. He was 21.
Patterson remained the youngest person to have won the heavyweight crown for almost twenty-five years until another D’Amato protege took it from him. That was Mike Tyson at the age of 20 years and 4 months old.
Although more have been added, professional boxing in 1910 defined eight weight classes. The lightest weight division was flyweight, followed by bantamweight, featherweight, lightweight, welterweight, middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight.
William Howard Taft, Republican of Ohio, was President of the United States in 1910. He was about six feet tall and is, to date, still the fattest President ever, topping out at a reported 330 pounds.
Definitely a heavyweight!
Taft, California, is a town with 9,000 people located at the southern end of the San Joaquin valley. It is about 30 miles west southwest of Bakersfield. It was previously named Moron, before the word meant lack of intelligence. In 1909 it was renamed to Taft.
The word ‘moron’ was coined in 1910 by psychologist Henry H. Goddard. It was derived from a Greek word meaning ‘dull’. According to Goddard, a moron was a person with an IQ between 51 and 70, being superior in intelligence by one degree to an imbecile (IQ of 26-50), and superior in two degrees to an idiot (IQ of 0-25).
Jimmy Neutron’s robot dog is named Goddard. Neutron, who has an IQ of 210, appeared in a series of Nickelodeon TV shows and movies from 1998 through 2019.
Dennis Wolfberg mentioned the difference between the terms “moron” and “imbicle” in one of his comedy routines.
I’ll play off of Elendil’s Heir:
Robert Goddard was an inventor who is credited with creating and building the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket. One of his first rockets was launched in 1926. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center near Washington DC was named after him.
In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Relics,” the elderly Capt. Montgomery “Scotty” Scott is lent the shuttlecraft Goddard by Capt. Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise to go off on new adventures of his own.