Indonesian pop singer Raisa recorded a song titled “Tekateki-tekateki-mu”, which translates as “Puzzles”
Raisa Gorbachev, wife of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was widely thought to not get along with Nancy Reagan, wife of U.S. President Ronald Reagan, even as their respective husbands were working well together. She died of leukemia in Sept. 1999.
Nancy Davis Reagan (1921-2016) was born Anne Frances Robbins
My sister’s middle names (she has 2) are Anne Francis — interesting.
Actress Anne Francis (1930-2011) was born in the village of Ossining NY, only a few miles north of Midtown Manhattan where Nancy Reagan was born.
The maximum security prison known as Sing Sing is in Ossining, 30 miles north of Manhattan. Sing Sing is not a corruption of Ossining, but is actually closer to the original name of the Sinksink Tribe, from whom the land was bought in 1685.
The Sinksink (or Sintsink, or Sinsink) were one of approximately eighteen bands of the Wappinger tribe of Native Americans, who lived east of the Hudson River in what is now New York State and Connecticut. The Wappingers were Eastern Algonquin-speakers, and were related to the Lenape tribe.
The Wappingers declined over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries. Many of them served in the Stockbridge Militia, on the side of the Colonies during the American Revolutionary War. After the war, most of the remaining Wappingers moved to join the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe in Ohio, and ceased to be a distinct tribe.
Ohio was formed from the Northwest Territory, 20 years after Kentucky statehood. So when Kentucky was admitted, the entirety of the Ohio River was included in Kentucky, right up to the Ohio territorial shoreline. There are stilll old-timers who pronounce it “Ahia”.
The Allegheny River rises in northern Pennsylvania, flows northwesterly into New York, and then turns and flows southwesterly through Pennsylvania to Pittsburgh, where it meets the Monongahela River to form the Ohio River. The Allegheny at one point flows about 100 miles from Lake Erie; some of its tributaries reach within 8 miles of Lake Erie.
Water from Lake Erie eventually flows into the Atlantic; water from the Allegheny eventually flows into the Gulf of Mexico.
Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria lived to age 86, dying of pneumonia in 1916. Many of his close family members died young and/or violently including the tragedies of the execution of his brother, the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico in 1867, aged 36, the suicide of his only son and heir-apparent, 30 year old Crown Prince Rudolf, in 1889, the assassination of his wife, Empress Elisabeth (“Sisi”), in 1898, and the assassination of his nephew and heir-presumptive, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in 1914.
Scottish indie-rock band Franz Ferdinand took the initial inspiration for their band’s name from a racehorse named Archduke Ferdinand, which won the Northumberland Plate race in 2001.
The band’s biggest hit song to date, “Take Me Out,” was from their eponymous 2004 debut album; it was a top 10 hit in the U.K., Ireland, and Canada, and reached #66 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. The song was featured in a number of video games, including Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Dance Dance Revolution, and Madden NFL 2005.
King John I of France lived only six days, but it was a busy life – he spent most of it as king of France. His father, Louis X, died in 1316, before nis son was born, but the hastily-crowned infant died just five days later. He was the shortest-lived king to date.
Prince John, son of King George V suffered from severe epilepsy. He was sent away to live at Sandringham House and rarely saw his family. He died at age 13 probably of a severe seizure.
(Not seeing the connection to my post – am I clueless, or did you miss it?)
Look at jtur88’s
“John”
Son of a king
Died young
I was ninjaed, and had to add “to date”. I’ve found that you are certain to be ninjaed if you spend more than five minutes reading a post, getting an interesting idea, researching and composing and proof-reading and editing it. Erodes the quality of the entries.
In play:
Prince John is referred to briefly in the Oscar-winning historical drama The King’s Speech, as the Duke of York - the future King George VI, and father of the current British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II - remembers with sadness his younger brother’s isolation and medical troubles.
I always open the ‘Post Reply’ in another window. Then I research, compose, proofread, and edit. But before I hit the ‘Submit Reply’ button, I go back to the thread and refresh the page. If somebody has recently posted, I will see it and then know not to post.
In play:
According to British Monarchy Family History, there are four official titles of a Queen:
QUEEN DOWAGER - A queen dowager is the widow of a former king and the mother of the present monarch.
QUEEN CONSORT - A queen consort is the wife of a present king.
QUEEN REGENT - A queen regent is the wife of a present king who is unable to rule and she is ruling on his behalf
QUEEN REGNANT - A queen regnant is a queen who is absolute ruler with all sovereign powers in her own right.
I do it similarly. Before I submit, if someone else has posted, often I can teak my original post so that it fits the game.
tweak, not teak
In play:
The British rock band Queen formed in London in 1970 and they are active to today. Their classic line-up was Freddie Mercury (1946-1991; RIP, Freddie; as lead vocals and piano), Brian May (b. 1947; on guitar and vocals), Roger Taylor (b. 1949; on drums and vocals) and John Deacon (b. 1951; on bass). Queen’s most popular songs include Bohemian Rhapsody, Under Pressure, Killer Queen, Radio Ga Ga, Seven Seas of Rhye, Another One Bites the Dust, Don’t Stop Me Now, We Will Rock You, and Somebody to Love. Most of those songs were released in the 1970s.
(Thank you. My tired brain was being overly literal.)
In play:
Queen guitarist Brian May’s signature instrument, the “Red Special,” was hand-built by Brian (who was in his teens) and his father Harold over the course of 1963 to 1965.
Brian and Harold used a variety of materials, often from scrap, to create the guitar. They hand-carved the neck from a hundred-year-old fireplace mantel which was being thrown out by a family friend; Brian filled in several wormholes in the wood with matchsticks. The position inlays (“dots”) on the fretboard were made from mother-of-pearl buttons from an old coat which had belonged to Brian’s mother. The body of the guitar included oak inserts, taken from an old table. The tremolo was made from a hardened-steel knife and springs from a motorcycle’s engine valves.
In addition to being a killer guitar player and song writer, Brian May was appointed a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 2005 for “services to the music industry and for charity work”. He earned a PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College London in 2007, and was Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University from 2008 to 2013. He was a “science team collaborator” with NASA’s New Horizons Pluto mission.