After a brief low period after Johnny Hodges left his orchestra, Duke Ellington revitalized his career with an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1956. This lead to a best selling album, and the band toured and appeared at festivals, leading to suites like Such Sweet Thunder and The Queen’s Suite.
Ellington moved to films scores about this time, scoring Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder. It was well received, regarded as a forerunner for later scores.
Ellington also appears in the movie in a tiny part as a band leader named “Pie Eye.” Supposedly a suave, charming, charismatic man, Ellington is (in my opinion) not very good–stiff and unconvincing.
Otto von Bismarck, the longtime German Chancellor, was opposed to the young Kaiser Wilhelm II’s warlike policies and was forced out of office at age 75. He ordered his tomb to be inscribed “A loyal subject of Wilhelm I” when he died in 1898, a posthumous snub of Wilhelm II.
Otto von Bismarck was actually the first chancellor of Germany. The office was officially created in the North German Confederation in 1867, When the German Empire was created in 1871, Bismarck assumed the role of the country’s first leader. He stayed in that position until 1890.
The German Empire lasted from 1871-1918; it was later referred to as the Second Reich.
A Berliner (also sometimes known as a Bismarck) is a type of yeast doughnut, originating in Germany, which has no central hole, is filled with jam or marmalade, and is usually topped with sugar or icing.
It is only an urban legend (but both an enduring and a funny one), that President John F. Kennedy, in his 1963 address to the people of West Berlin, was understood by them to have said, “I am a jelly donut.”
Berlin, California is 111 miles north of my old house in San Francisco. It was named Berlin in the 1870s, but during World War I it was renamed to Genevra.
Genevra means juniper tree. Mount Genevra is in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. It is about 11 miles northwest of Mt. Whitney. Mount Genevra is 13,054’ high.
The animal family Mustelidae, a.k.a. mustelids, are a large family of carnivorous mammalian species, including weasels, minks, stoats*, ferrets, martens, badgers, otters, and wolverines, among others.
Australian actor Hugh Jackman has announced at several points in his career that he will no longer play the adamantium-clawed superhero Wolverine, but each time has been persuaded - and, not coincidentally, very well-paid - to reconsider.
Peter Finch was born in England but spent much of his youth in Australia, and it was there that he began his acting career. In 1976, he was nominated for Best Actor for his role in the movie Network. Unfortunately, Finch died of a heart attack before the ceremony, and he was posthumously awarded the Oscar.
The only other actor to posthumously win an Academy Award is fellow Australian Heath Ledger, who won the Best Supporting Actor award for his role in The Dark Knight.
The first posthumous Oscar went to Sidney Howard for his writing on Gone With the Wind. He died when hand-cranking his tractor and it shot forward crushing him against the wall.
Oscar the Grouch was originally orange during Sesame Street’s first season in 1969. The next season, he was the familiar green, and attributes it to mold that grew on him after his vacation in Swamp Mushy Muddy.
The Big Muddy River is a tributary of the Mississippi River in southern Illinois. It joins the Mississippi River just south of Grand Tower IL, about 100 miles south of St. Louis MO and 25 miles north of Cape Girardeau MO. The Big Muddy River is over 150 miles long and flows through southern Illinois. The Little Grand Canyon of Illinois is on the east side of the Big Muddy River in southern Illinois.
“The Big Muddy” is a nickname for the Mississippi River.
The Big Muddy Creek is a tributary of the Missouri River in eastern Montana. It joins the Missouri River just east of Blair MT, about 325 miles northeast of Billings MT and 50 miles west of Williston ND. The Big Muddy Creek is almost 200 miles long and flows through southern Saskatchewan and eastern Montana. The Big Muddy Badlands of southern Saskatchewan are formed in part by the Big Muddy Creek.
“Big Muddy” is a nickname for the Missouri River (without “The”.)
The generally accepted source of the Yukon River is the Llewellyn Glacier at the southern end of Atlin Lake in British Columbia. From here, the river flows northward into Yukon Territory, where it turns westward and flows through Alaska, where it empties into the Bering Sea. The total length of the river is just under 2,000 miles.
Despite this length, there are only four vehicle-carrying bridges across the river.
At 1,979 miles long the Yukon River’s main stem is the third longest main stem river in the US behind the Missouri River at 2,341 miles and the Mississippi River at 2,202 miles. The Yukon flows from British Columbia, at the approximate lat / long of 59.583333, -133.783333, from the Llewellyn Glacier at the southern end of Atlin Lake, as @Railer13 said, through the Yukon Territory and Alaska before emptying into the Bering Sea at approximately 62.598611, -164.800000. The main stem is “the primary downstream segment of a river, as contrasted to its tributaries”.
Again, as @Railer13 said, there are only four vehicle bridges that cross it. Three are in the Yukon Territory and the northernmost bridge is in Alaska. From south to north they are:
at lat / long 60.576638, -134.680776, the Lewes Bridge near Mount Lorne YT on the Alaska Highway;
◆ 1,500 feet long (approx)
◆ map >> https://is.gd/743Eyy
◆ Yukon River - Wikipedia
at lat / long 60.713860, -135.045146, the Robert Campbell Bridge in Whitehorse YT on Lewes Blvd near the Alaska Highway, and 20 miles north of the first bridge;
◆ 600 feet long (approx)
◆ map >> Google Maps
◆Robert Campbell (fur trader) - Wikipedia
at lat / long 62.095334, -136.272347, the Yukon River Bridge in Carmacks YT on the Klondike Highway, and 110 miles north of the second bridge;
◆ 1,175 feet long (approx)
◆ map >> Google Maps
◆ Yukon River - Wikipedia
at lat / long 65.876050, -149.721802, the E.L. Patton Yukon River Bridge near Rampart AK, on the Dalton Highway about 135 miles north of Fairbanks and 750 miles north of the third bridge;
◆ 2,300 feet long (approx)
◆ map >> Google Maps
◆E. L. Patton Yukon River Bridge - Wikipedia
The late U.S. District Judge John M. Manos of the Northern District of Ohio, appointed by President Gerald Ford, Republican of Michigan, was a big admirer of World War II tank commander Gen. George S. Patton. The judge had a big framed portrait of Patton on the wall behind his desk.
The 1970 film Patton won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. George C. Scott won the Best Actor award for his portrayal of General Patton, but refused to accept the award, becoming the first actor to decline an Oscar. (At the ceremony, producer Frank McCarthy accepted the award on Scott’s behalf.)
The ceremonial ribbon-cutting of the E.L. Patton Bridge on the Yukon River was on October 10, 1975. It was built as part of the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, because a permanent crossing of the Yukon River became necessary in order to complete the project. The bridge was named for Edward Patton who was President of the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company during construction of the pipeline.
A brand new Congolese bridge collapsed under the feet of sharply-dressed dignitaries immediately after a ribbon was cut to officially open the span on Monday, Sept. 5th.
The small footbridge was was built to help locals in Kinshasa’s Mont-Ngafula cross a river during the rainy season. It was replacing a temporary structure which also used to break frequently during floods.
In the early morning of September 5th, 1972, members of the Palestinian terrorist group Black September infiltrated the Olympic Village at the Summer Games in Munich, West Germany, and attacked the lodgings of members of the Israeli Olympic team.
The terrorists killed two Israeli athletes in the initial attack, and took nine hostages; they demanded the release of Palestinian prisoners (and several West German terrorists) in exchange for their hostages. An attempt by West German police to ambush the terrorists, and free the hostages, failed tragically: all nine hostages, as well as a West German policeman, died in the attack, as did five of the eight terrorists.
