When going on his tour across America in Captain America: The First Avenger, Steve Rogers is introduced with the song “The Star-Spangled Man with a Plan”.
The Marshall Plan was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe, with the goals of rebuilding war-torn regions, removing trade barriers, modernizing industry, improving European prosperity and preventing the spread of communism.
Marshall, California 94940 is a small town in Marin County about 35 miles north of San Francisco. It lies along Tomales Bay, near the Point Reyes National Seashore.
The Tomales Bay Oyster Company is in Marshall. TBOC, founded in 1909, is the oldest continuously run oyster farm in California.
The Romans are credited with being the first to farm oysters (by reseeding the discarded shells) in the first century, but the Japanese had been cultivating oysters as early as 2000 BC.
In Victorian England, it was quite common for people to go to the pub and enjoy their favorite beer with some oysters. They quickly realized that the “rich, sweet, malty stouts” were great with the “briny, creamy oyster”. Then Brewers found that oyster shells naturally clarify a beer and they started putting crushed oyster shells into their brews. The first known brewery to start this was in 1938 at the Hammerton Brewery in London. That is where the oyster stout was first started
Paul’s letter to the Romans is the longest of the thirteen Pauline epistles in the New Testament. Paul likely wrote it (or dictated it) in the year 55 or 56 AD, therefore, about 25 years after Jesus was crucified on the cross. Martin Luther in his translation of the Bible controversially added the word “alone” (allein in German) to Romans 3:28 so that it read: “thus, we hold, then, that man is justified without doing the works of the law, alone through faith”.
“Letters to the Daily Mirror” was a running gag used as filler between skits on Monty Python’s Flying Circus television show on BBC (1969 - 1974). The content was often false and parodied versions of actual letters received by the Daily Mirror, often complaining of objectionable material which appeared on the show and signed by fictitious persons of repute, read off-screen by members of the comedy troupe.
“Red top” is a term which refers to British tabloid newspapers, such as the Daily Mirror, the Sun, and the Daily Star, which feature their logo in red on their mastheads, and which tend towards sensationalistic journalism.
Hot Metal was a British sitcom airing in the 1980’s about the Daily Crucible, a fictional sensational newspaper like those mentioned in the previous Trivia Domino.
The three dots in the Domino’s Pizza logo originally represented the first three stores in the franchise, in 1965. The three stores were located in Ypsilanti, MI. The owner planned to adda door for each additional store, but the strategy was abandoned when Domino’s Pizza experienced rapid growth. Today there are over 18,000 Domino’s Pizzas throughout the world.
From 1982 until 1992, the Detroit Tigers baseball team was owned by Tom Monaghan, the founder of Domino’s Pizza. In 1992, Monaghan sold the Tigers to his competitor, and fellow Detroit-area native, Mike Illitch, who had founded Little Caesars Pizza (and who also owned the Detroit Red Wings hockey team).
The 1984 Detroit Tigers started the season red hot, winning their first 9 games in a row and then the first 35 of 40 games to post a record of 35-5. They finished with a franchise record 104 wins, and a record of 104-58 for a 0.642 winning percentage. They won the World Series that year against the San Diego Padres.
The 1984 Detroit Tigers featured pitchers Jack Morris, and closer Willie Hernández who won both the Cy Young Award and the Most Valuable Player Award that season — a rare feat for a relief pitcher.
Hernández became only the third player in Major League history to win the Cy Young Award, MVP Award, and World Series title, all in the same season. Sandy Koufax with the 1965 Dodgers, and Denny McLain with the 1968 Tigers were the first two.
Jack Morris started game 7 of the 1991 World Series for the Minnesota Twins against John Smoltz of the Braves. Now considered one of the greatest World Series, it featured five of its games decided by a single run, four decided in the final at-bat and three going into extra innings. Morris had signed as a free agent for his hometown team for the '91 season, and he delivered, going the distance pitching a 1-0 shutout over ten innings.
Tom Kelly, manager of the Twins, told Morris he was through after nine innings, but Morris refused to come out of the game, snarling at Kelly in the dugout. Kelly finally relented, reportedly replying, “OK–it’s only a game.” Morris was Series MVP.
Morris the Cat is an advertising spokes-animal – depicted as an orange tabby tomcat – for 9Lives cat food.
The character was originally developed by the Leo Burnett advertising agency in Chicago in 1968; the cat which first portrayed Morris was found by animal handler Bob Martwick (an employee of Burnett) at an animal shelter in suburban Chicago. The original Morris appeared in ads until 1978 (and passed away that year); the character has since been portrayed by several other orange tabbies, all of which were rescue animals.
(Not in play: my wife and I have a pair of orange tabby cats, who are brothers; we adopted them in 2019, from the same animal shelter where the original Morris was found.)
Not in Play: orange tabbies are the best.
This is Scientific Fact
Not in play: Siamese cats are the best.
In play: Siamese cats are partially albino with a mutation - their fur darkens due to cold. That’s why they have points and darker fur at the extremities.
I could have posted that picture! Right down to the hangdog expression of the big dog: “How come I don’t get to lie in my bed?”
We got them new beds, and Ginger took his rightful place. Ah, that’s comfort!
In play:
British academic, philologist and author JRR Tolkien, who was clearly not a fan, called Siamese cats “spawn of Mordor” in one letter.
Not in play: little known fact: each Nazgûl has a Siamese cat riding pillion under their cloaks.
In play: in Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio repeatedly mocks the hot-tempered Tybalt as “Prince of Cats”. It does not end well for Mercutio.
Gnomeo & Juliet is a CGI romantic comedy film from 2011, based on Romeo and Juliet. The plot centers around two feuding families of garden gnomes, and the forbidden romance between the title characters, who are voiced by James McAvoy and Emily Blunt. Other featured voice actors in the film include Michael Caine, Maggie Smith, Jason Statham, Stephen Merchant, Jim Cummings, Julie Walters, Patrick Stewart, Ozzy Osbourne, Hulk Hogan, and Dolly Parton.