Liam Neeson is also known for this quote (from Taken):
One of Liam Neeson’s early film roles was in Excalibur (1981). Helen Mirren and Patrick Stewart were in it, too. Before becoming an established actor, Neeson was an amateur boxer and he also drove a forklift.
Liam Neeson and Helen Mirren met while filming Excalibur, and began a relationship which lasted for several years.
Helen Mirren is the only actress who has played both Queen Elizabeth I (in Elizabeth I (2005 TV series)) and Queen Elizabeth II (The Queen (2006 film)).
In the Old Testament, Elizabeth was the wife of Aaron, the brother of Moses.
In the New Testament, Elizabeth was the mother of John the Baptist, and she was also a cousin of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Both women were pregnant at the same time.
Elizabeth has been a popular name in the USA for over a century, ranking in the top 30 of baby names each year since the early 1900s. In 2021, Elizabeth was 14th most popular name for baby girls in America.
Perhaps the most infamous Elizabeth in history is the Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed (7 August 1560 – 21 August 1614), who was accused of murdering and torturing up to 650 young women during her lifetime.
Historians have argued that the charges were probably false, and politically motivated, possibly due to her extensive wealth and ownership of large areas of land in Hungary, which increased after the death of her husband.
Hungary has a “musical road”. The pavement has rumble strips designed to play a tune as you drive over it. It can be found on YouTube.
There is one in Lancaster CA that plays the William Tell Overture, but it is a little out of tune. I drove that last weekend and posted this video of it:
And there is one on Route 66 in New Mexico that plays America the Beautiful and that one sounds much better because it is in tune. It is also on YouTube.
There are other such musical roads around the world, including Denmark (reportedly the first one), Japan, and Utah.
In 1887, newspaper reporter Nellie Bly pretended to be insane to be admitted to the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island, now known as Roosevelt Island, referenced in posts 6969 and 6970 above. (Parts of the asylum building are still standing and have been incorporated into a large apartment building: The Octagon (Roosevelt Island) - Wikipedia)
Bly’s exposé of brutality and neglect at the asylum caused a sensation and brought her fame. Two years later, her fame grew with her record-breaking trip around the world in 72 days, inspired by Jules Verne’s 1873 book Around the World in 80 Days.
Alice Roosevelt Longworth, T.R.'s acerbic daughter, once said that her father wanted to be “the bride at every wedding, the baby at every christening and the corpse at every funeral.”
It was rumored that when it came time for the Roosevelt family to move out of the White House, Alice buried a Voodoo doll of the new First Lady, Nellie Taft, in the front yard.
In her later years, Alice Roosevelt Longworth had a pillow in her sitting room, embroidered:
“IF YOU CAN’T SAY SOMETHING GOOD ABOUT SOMEONE, SIT RIGHT HERE BY ME.”
It’s not known if she came up with the saying, or popularised it.
Military personal equipment (including backpacks, cartridge belts and magazine pouches) has been known by acronyms through the years.
Introduced circa 1997 — MOLLE (“molly”) stands for Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment.
Introduced circa 1997 — PALS stands for Pouch Attachment Ladder System. The PALS system is used with MOLLE gear.
Introduced circa 1973 — ALICE stands for All-purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment.
Introduced circa 1967 — MLCE stands for Modernized Load-Carrying Equipment.
Introduced circa 1956 — ILCE stands for Individual Load-Carrying Equipment.
Comment: to this day I still have my old Alice pack.
“All the Girls Love Alice” is a song from Elton John’s 1973 album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. The song, co-written by Bernie Taupin and John, is about a teenaged girl who becomes estranged from her upper-class British family, and has sex with middle-aged women (possibly as a prostitute).
Elton John, who recently turned 76, is the most successful solo artist in the history of the US Billboard charts, having sold over 300 million records worldwide. His tribute single to Princess Diana, “Candle in the Wind 1997”, a rewritten version of his 1974 single, sold over 33 million copies worldwide and is the best-selling chart single of all time.
Your Song, recorded in January 1970, was the first breakout hit of Elton John and Bernie Taupin. Taupin wrote the lyrics while at a breakfast table, and he remembers there being a coffee stain on the paper. Then, Elton John fairly quickly wrote the melody to the song. It would go on to be their first international top ten single.
Bernie Taupin’s first wife, Maxine Feibelman, was the inspiration for “Tiny Dancer”, the first song from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Maxine worked as a seamstress for the band, and Elton credits her with starting him on the road toward his distinct stage-costume style.
A common humorous mondegreen of Elton John’s and Bernie Taupin’s song “Tiny Dancer” is that one lyrics is, “Hold me closer, Tony Danza.” The joke was alluded to in a 1996 episode of the TV comedy Friends.
Tony Danza was a pro boxer for a few years before turning to acting. Born Antonio Salvatore Iadanza, his boxing nickname was “Dangerous Tony Danza”. Fighting as a middleweight, he made his boxing debut on August 13, 1976, scoring a first-round knockout over Earl “Shot-Gun” Harris. Danza soon became a fan favorite for his “straight ahead” brawling style.
Danza claimed a professional boxing record of 12-3 (12 knockouts) in his biography on the Biography Channel in 2004. The 1980 Ring Record Book (page 66) listed his record as 8-3-0 (8 knockouts), and boxrec lists his final fight log at 9-3-0 with 9 knockouts, 7 in the first round, although one bout is marked “doubtful.” It is believed his true record is 8-3.
As a teenager, Billy Joel took up boxing so he could defend himself. He boxed successfully on the amateur Golden Gloves circuit for a short time, winning 22 bouts, but abandoned the sport shortly after his nose was broken in his 24th boxing match.
“You’re Only Human (Second Wind)” is a 1985 song by Billy Joel, which was written by Joel (who has dealt with depression for much of his life) to help young people who struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts.
The song’s music video features a scene in which a young man is rescued from drowning by a lifeguard; the young man (on the right in the photo below) was played by actor Adam Savage, who, later, became a special-effects designer, and co-host of the television series Mythbusters.
