Harold Lloyd performed his iconic stunt — hanging from the face of a clock on the side of a building — while wearing a prosthetic glove. Earlier in his career he was playing with what he thought was a toy bomb, which turned out to be real, and blew off his right thumb and forefinger. He also suffered minor loss of hearing and specks of black embedded in his right eye. When in public and not wasn’t wearing the glove, he kept his hand in his pocket, greeting people with his left hand to shake.
James Doohan lost the middle finger of his right hand during D-Day. While on Star Trek he hid it most of the time with hiding his hand through blocking.
James Doohan was serving in the Canadian Army on D-Day. He went into acting after WWII. When he was cast in Star Trek, he demonstrated several different accents for show creator Gene Roddenberry, who picked his idiosyncratic version of a Scottish accent (criticized by many people since, including actual Scots).
James Doohan served in an artillery regiment, the 14th regiment. I served in an artillery regiment, the 14th regiment. In the Marines it is called the 14th Marines. James Doohan was an FO, a Forward Observer or a “spotter”. FOs spot the targets and then make the calls for fire. They call in the fire mission to the FDC, the Fire Direction Control section. The FDC computes the firing data, taking the target’s position as reported from the FO, the FO’s location as determined by the Survey section and reported to the FDC, and the gun’s position as layed by the battery XO, and converts that information into charge, deflection, and QE or quadrant elevation. The FDC then sends the fire mission to the gun line who then applies deflection and QE onto the gun while loading the shell and the required charge into the tube. When the gun is ready, the FDC issues the command to stand by, FIRE! Once the round is fired, the TOF or time of flight determines when the shell will impact at the target. The FDC reports to the FO with “Shot, over”. TOF is sometimes reported back to the FO, if requested by the FO, so that the FO can observe the impact and make any subsequent adjustments (the FO might be in a vulnerable position and unable to continuously observe the target).
The 155mm standard projectile, the HE projectile (for high explosive), for the M-198 towed howitzer weighs 96 pounds.
It’s been 31 years since I got out in 1993 and I can still cite this by memory. I might forget where my wife and I had dinner for our anniversary last week, but I still remember that the HE projectile weighs 96 pounds. I was in the FDC.
Artillery firing data incorporates north or south latitude into the calculations to compensate for the effect of the Coriolis force on the projectile. Firing data also incorporates the ambient temperatures and their effect on the burning of the gunpowder.
In the Normandy campaign, a young Canadian artillery officer named Brian Dickson lost a leg in a friendly fire episode.
One of his high school classmates, W.R. Lederman, was in a different Canadian unit nearby and reported the friendly fire, trying to stop it.
Neither of them knew of the other’s involvement until after the war.
Both Dickson and Lederman went on to distinguished legal careers.
Dickson became Chief Justice of Canada.
Professor Lederman became one of the leading scholars on Canadian constitutional law.
Gordon Dickson is the author of the Childe Cycle series and the Dragon Knight series.
The long narrative poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage by Lord Byron was enormously popular at the time of its publication between 1812 and 1818; Byron later wrote, “I awoke one morning and found myself famous”.
The title word Childe is an archaism referring to a young man who is a candidate for knighthood.
Lord Byron had a tumultuous affair with Lady Caroline Lamb when they were both in their 20s. She was married to William Lamb, who eventually became prime minister.
Caroline Lamb allegedly said that Byron was « Mad, bad, and dangerous to know. »
Byron broke off the affair but Lamb sought to continue it. At one society dinner in honour of the Duke of Wellington, where Byron again rebuffed her, Lamb broke a wine glass and attempted to slit her wrists. Byron later commented: “Lady Caroline performed the dagger scene” (a reference to Macbeth ).
American actor John de Lancie, who played Q, a mischievous and near-omnipotent alien on Star Trek: The Next Generation, compared the recurring character to Lord Byron, and often quoted the famous “Mad, bad and dangerous to know” description of the British nobleman.
The character Q never appears in the novels by the author Ian Fleming, where Q and the Q Branch are only mentioned.
Qatar is the only country in the world that starts with the letter Q. Qatar was established in 1878, and gained its independence from England in 1971.
While Qatar has no established law regarding clothing for tourists, and you may wear whatever you feel comfortable in while at private resorts, you are encouraged to dress modestly when in public areas and inside most establishments. In mosques, you will need to cover your head and only expose face, neck, hands and feet in respect of the culture.
Qatar has the only maroon-and-white flag among all member states of the United Nations. Per Wiki, " In 2012, the Qatari government defined the exact shade of the Qatari flag as Pantone 1955 C, or ‘Qatar maroon.’"
Maroon comes from the French word, “marron”, meaning brown.
Marooned, released on 10 November 1969, was a movie starring Richard Crenna, Gene Hackman (former Marine!), and James Franciscus as 3 astronauts potentially stranded in space in an Apollo spacecraft and forcing a rescue mission and launch. The Apollo spacecraft has limited oxygen on board and this becomes a critical limiting factor in the 3 astronauts’ survival.
While the movie was released, the real Apollo 12 mission was launched on 14 November 1969, and Apollo 13 was later launched on 11 April 1970 with former Marine Fred Haise aboard. Of course, Apollo 13’s astronauts were potentially stranded in space, and had limited oxygen on board and it was a critical limiting factor in the 3 astronauts’ survival.
Fred Haise was the only US Marine on the Apollo missions.
Gene Hackman, who is still alive and well at age 94, began his acting career by joining the Pasadena Playhouse in 1956. While there, he became friends with another aspiring actor by the name of Dustin Hoffman. Their classmates voted the pair “The Least Likely To Succeed”, and Hackman got the lowest score the Pasadena Playhouse had yet given.
Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman appeared together in 2003’s Runaway Jury.
Both actors had been considered for roles in The Godfather; Hackman turned down the role of Sonny Corleone, and Hoffman was the studio’s choice for Michael, but Coppola gave the role to the lesser-known Al Pacino instead.
Dustin Hoffman played the lead in the film, The Graduate. Burt Ward was offered the role, but was playing Robin on the TV series Batman.
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins was a 1985 action-comedy film, based on the long-running The Destroyer series of men’s adventure pulp novels. The film, which starred Fred Ward as the title character (a secret operative and assassin for the U.S. government), along with Joel Grey, Wilford Brimley, and Kate Mulgrew, was planned as the first in a series of Remo Williams movies, but its poor performance at the box office meant that no additional movies were ever made.
Genevieve Bujold was originally cast as Captain Kathryn Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager, but quit after filming for two days. Kate Mulgrew took over the role.