David Robinson (NBA center, San Antonio Spurs, 1989 - 2003) was nicknamed “The Admiral” during his college years while playing for the US Navy Midshipmen. In reality, Robinson achieved a rank of Lieutenant (junior grade) upon fulfilling his service commitment.
In the film The Graduate, Anne Bancroft played Mrs. Robinson, who seduces a younger man, Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman). In reality, Bancroft was only eight years older than Katharine Ross (who played her daughter Elaine, whom Benjamin later dates), and only six years older than Hoffman.
Burt Ward was offered the role of Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate, but was committed to playing Robin in the TV series Batman.
The Bagobo robin bird is endemic to the Philippines and only found on the island of Mindanao, the second-largest island in the country, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Mindanao touches the Philippine Sea, the Sulu Sea, the Celebes Sea, the Bohol Sea, and Surigao Strait.
Lieutenant Sulu, played by actor George Takei, was the helmsman on the U.S.S. Enterprise in the original Star Trek television series, and in the first six feature films. In J.J. Abrams’ “reboot” films, the character was played by John Cho.
The character is said to have been originally named, by series creator Gene Roddenberry, after the Sulu Sea in the Philippines. Sulu wasn’t given a first name – Hikaru – until it was mentioned in a 1981 Star Trek novel, but that name wasn’t considered to be canonical until it was mentioned in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991).
The undiscovered country is a line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, referring to the fear of death.
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of?
“The undiscovered country” is identified in a toast by the Klingon Gen. Chang (Christopher Plummer) in the Star Trek movie of the same name, not as death or the fear of it, but, rather, the future.
“The Dogs of War” is a song from Pink Floyd’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason. The phrase is part of a longer verse from Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” and spoken by Marc Antony (Act 3, Scene 1): “Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war.” It was also quoted by Gen. Chang in the aforementioned movie.
In late 1965, the band Pink Floyd first referred to themselves as the Pink Floyd Sound. They would later be referred to as the Pink Floyd and later simply Pink Floyd. Band co-founder Syd Barrett created the name on the spur of the moment. The name is derived from the names of two blues musicians whose records Barrett had in his collection: Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.
Nitpick: It was Chancellor Gorkon (David Warner) who gave this toast.
Syd Barrett left the band prior to the release of their first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, due to deteriorating mental fatigue. Several years later, during the recording of Wish You Were Here, Barrett wandered into the studio, unrecognized by the band members, and sat quietly for a few takes before leaving.
Professional boxer Floyd Mayweather was active between 1996 and 2017. He retired with an undefeated record and won 15 major world championships from super featherweight to light middleweight. He was quite possibly the best defensive fighter in history.
“Pretty Boy Floyd” was the nickname of notorious gangster and bank robber Charles Arthur Floyd. Floyd, who was born in Georgia in 1904, was first arrested at age 18 for stealing $3.50 from a post office in Oklahoma. His lifetime of crime included multiple bank robberies and the killing of several law enforcement officers; he was suspected of being a part of the 1933 Kansas City Massacre, but his presence at the scene was never proven. Floyd died in a 1934 gun battle with federal agents in a cornfield near East Liverpool, Ohio.
Ah, thanks. Right you are. I misremembered.
In play:
After his shooting by Federal agents and local police (contemporary accounts of his death vary considerably), Pretty Boy Floyd’s body was taken to the Sturgis Funeral Home in East Liverpool and made available for public viewing by the curious crowd. He was eventually buried in Akins, Okla. after what is still thought to be the largest funeral in state history.
Pretty Boy Floyd is a glam-metal band from Hollywood, California, which had a few minor hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and had songs featured on two film soundtracks.
Ugly Kid Joe is a hard-rock band, also from southern California; the band chose their name as a spoof of the glam-metal band’s name. Ugly Kid Joe turned out to be substantially more successful than Pretty Boy Floyd: they had two singles reach the Billboard Top 10, and two albums which went double-platinum (sales of over 1 million copies).
The five best-selling movie soundtracks of all time are:
- The Bodyguard (1992, $45m)
- Saturday Night Fever (1977, $40m)
- Dirty Dancing (1987, $32m)
- Titanic (1997, $30m)
- Grease (1978, $28m)
Director James Cameron had dozens of high-quality replica sets of White Star Line china made for his 1997 historical romance blockbuster, Titanic. In one scene towards the end, you can see many of them sliding off the shelves and breaking.
The Cameron car company, named after its founder Everet Cameron, began manufacturing in Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 1902. Cameron was the first air cooled car to reach the top of Mount Washington, New Hampshire, without stopping. Cameron produced cars until 1920.
Mount Washington once held the world record, and still holds the Northern Hemisphere and Western Hemisphere record, for directly measured surface wind speed, at 231 mph (372 km/h), recorded on the afternoon of April 12, 1934.
On one episode of The Simpsons, the Western Hemisphere is referred to as “the dancing-est hemisphere on earth!”