Erwin Griswold, former dean of Harvard Law School, served as solicitor general - the US Government’s top appellate lawyer - in both the Johnson and Nixon Administrations.
Griswold Hills, about 125 miles SE of San Francisco, is BLM land within Griswold Canyon in San Benito County and Fresno County where target shooting is allowed, except for within 150 yards of any developed area, or across any road or trail, or at hazardous materials such as propane tanks or paint cans, or at trees, facilities, signs, or outbuildings.
Fresno was a 1986 comedy miniseries that was a parody of daytime soap operas. It starred Carol Burnett, Dabney Coleman, Teri Garr and Charles Grodin.
The city of Fresno CA was settled in an area abundant with white ash trees. In Spanish, Fresno means ash tree.
Controversy arose with the satire Fresno and the naming of the city. In the opening scene of the pilot, a Mexican pioneer drinks some water from a stream, spit it out and exclaims, “This water tastes like fresno!”
The credit card now known as Visa was launched in 1958 by Bank of America, as “BankAmericard.” The initial launch of BankAmericard was in Fresno, California – that city was chosen due to its moderate size, high market share for Bank of America, and relative isolation (so that the bank could control public relations fallout in case the project failed).
“I hope I get my raisins from Fresno” was a line sung in the song Wells Fargo Wagon in the musical The Music Man (1962) just before little Ronnie Howard’s first on screen singing solo.
And it was probably his last one, unless Ron Howard did some singing in Happy Days.
Henry Wells and William G. Fargo formed Wells Fargo & Company in 1852 to provide “express” and banking services to California, which was growing rapidly due to the California Gold Rush. By the end of the California Gold Rush, Wells Fargo was a dominant express and banking organization in the West, making large shipments of gold and delivering mail and supplies. It was also the primary lender of Butterfield Overland Mail Company, which ran a 2,757 mile route through the Southwest to San Francisco and was nicknamed the “Butterfield Line” after the name of company’s president John Butterfield. In 1860, Congress failed to pass the annual Post Office appropriation bill leaving the Post Office unable to pay Overland Mail Company. This caused Overland to default on its debts to Wells Fargo, allowing Wells Fargo to take control of the mail route. Wells Fargo then operated the western portion of the Pony Express.
The Butterfield Overland Mail Company followed what’s called the ‘oxbow route’ to the south, avoiding most of the Rocky Mountains, between St. Louis and Memphis, to San Francisco.
I think he did – remember, he and his buddies were in a band that occasionally was playing at Arnolds – although most of the lead singing was done by Potsie (Anson Williams)
In play:
‘Oxbow’ ponds are riparian features in which a stream cuts itself a new channel across the neck of a meander, creating a new island. Over time, sediment builds up to block the original channel, leaving behind a (usually) U-shaped free-standing lake or pond.
-“BB”-
In Australia, oxbow lakes are called billabongs.
The Ox-Bow Incident is a 1943 American Western film, starring Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, and Mary Beth Hughes. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture (though it lost to Casablanca), but wasn’t nominated in any other categories; it remains the only film to have been nominated for Best Picture, without receiving any other Academy Award nominations.
Among many other roles, Henry Fonda played Abraham Lincoln in Young Mr. Lincoln, the President of the United States in both Fail Safe and Meteor (apparently two different characters, although both unnamed), and a presidential candidate in The Best Man.
Some actors who have played Abraham Lincoln in film include:
- Joseph Henabery - “The Birth of a Nation” (1915)
- Walter Huston - “Abraham Lincoln” (1930)
- Frank McGlynn Sr. - “The Littlest Rebel” (1935; and with Shirley Temple)
- Henry Fonda - “Young Mr. Lincoln” (1939)
- Raymond Massey - “Abe Lincoln in Illinois” (1940)
- Hal Holbrook, twice - “Lincoln” (1974) and “North and South” (1985)
- Gregory Peck - “The Blue and the Gray” (1982)
- Robert V. Barron - “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” (1989)
- Jason Robards - “The Perfect Tribute” (1991)
- Kris Kristofferson - “Tad” (1995)
- Benjamin Walker - “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” (2012)
- Daniel Day-Lewis - “Lincoln” (2012)
- Billy Campbell - “Killing Lincoln” (2013)
- Michael Krebs - “Timeless” (2016)
Not only is Daniel Day-Lewis the only person to have won multiple Best Actor (“Oscar”) awards to portray Lincoln, he is also the only actor to win Best Actor for his portrayal of Lincoln (2012).
Last night, Sarah Polley won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Women Talking. She began her speech thusly:
“First of all, just want to thank the Academy for not being mortally offended by the words women and talking with so close together like that”
Canadian author Miriam Toews, whose novel, Women Talking, was adapted as a film in 2022 by Sarah Polley, grew up in the town of Steinbach in rural Manitoba, and is the daughter of Mennonite parents. Her father, Melvin C. Toews, was a schoolteacher, who had, bipolar disorder; after his suicide in 1998, Miriam wrote a memoir, in his voice, Swing Low: A Life.
In case you were wondering, her last name is pronounced ‘taves’, which rhymes with ‘caves’.
Carry on.
(I actually suspected this to be the case, if only because there’s a guy with the same last name - Jonathan Toews - who is also from Manitoba, and who plays hockey for the Chicago Blackhawks. Living in Chicago, I’ve heard his name many times over the years, though I wasn’t sure if Miriam’s name is pronounced the same way.)
The Chicago Blackhawks’ mascot is Tommy Hawk, an anthropomorphic black hawk who wears the Blackhawks’ four feathers on his head, along with a Blackhawks jersey and hockey pants. The team introduced Tommy Hawk in the 2001–02 season. Tommy Hawk was inducted into the Mascot Hall of Fame in 2019.