Of the 45 men who have served as US President, 15 are known to have been Freemasons. The first of these was the aforementioned George Washington, and the most recent was Gerald Ford, the 38th President.
Jimmy Carter in a founding member of the Trilateral Commission, which included other members like George H. W. Bush, Henry Kissinger and Jeffrey Epstein.
5 years ago, Jimmy Carter became the longest living US President. On 22 March 2019, Jimmy Carter surpassed George HW Bush’s previous record to become the oldest living president in US history. On that date he was 94 years and 172 days old. Born 01 October 1924 (in, of course, Plains GA at what was then the Wise Sanitarium), today Jimmy Carter is 99 years and 176 days old. (Wow. Good on ya, sir.) He has been the earliest-serving living former president since Gerald Ford’s death in 2006. Jimmy Carter’s mother, Lillian Gordy Carter, was a nurse at the Wise Sanitarium. Today the Wise Sanitarium is the Lillian G. Carter Nursing Center located at coordinates ▲ 32.038, -84.391.
English actor Jim Carter has been active in theater, film, and television since the 1970s. Carter’s signature role is that of Mr. Carson in the Downton Abbey television series and films. He has been married to actress Imelda Staunton (who played Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter films) since 1983.
Nonnberg Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Salzberg, Austria. The abbey, founded in 715, is the oldest continuously operating nunnery in the German-speaking world. In 1924, Maria Von Trapp served as a novice in the Sisterhood, and some scenes from The Sound Of Music were filmed at the abbey.
I once attended a singalong showing of The Sound of Music at which everyone was encouraged to loudly riff on the movie. Someone shouted “Dead nun walking!” at the beginning of the wedding scene, when Maria is let through a locked iron gate from the abbey before processing down the church aisle to be married to Captain von Trapp.
Translations of The Sound of Music’s title vary widely. In Latin America it was La Novicia Rebelde, The Rebellious Novice. The German title was Meine Lieder - Meine Träume meaning My songs - my dreams. It was called Música no Coração (Music in the Heart) in Portugal. In French it was titled La Mélodie du Bonheur (the melody of happiness). The title in Spain was Sonrisas y lágrimas, smiles and tears. Perhaps the oddest is the Italian title, Tutti Insieme Appassionatamente: All together passionately.
The Vatican City State, the world’s smallest independent country both in size and population, is an enclave entirely contained within Italian territory. Its head of state, chosen by an all-male electorate, is the Pope, currently Francis.
San Marino is the other microstate located within Italy. It is the fifth-smallest country in the world.
No microstate is contained within United States territory, although Native American reservations and tribal lands have limited sovereignty under Federal law.
It was during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix where Ayrton Senna crashed and died at the turn named Tamburello, the 3rd turn in the Imola race track. Although the San Marino Grand Prix is named after the microstate, the actual race was held in Italy.
The five musicians in the supergroup The Traveling Wilburys each adopted a Wilbury “alias” for the credits on their first album; after the death of Roy Orbison, the four remaining members adopted different aliases for the second album. Those aliases were:
- George Harrison: Nelson Wilbury / Spike Wilbury
- Jeff Lynne: Otis Wilbury / Clayton Wilbury
- Tom Petty: Charlie T. Wilbury Jr. / Muddy Wilbury
- Bob Dylan: Lucky Wilbury / Boo Wilbury
- Roy Orbison: Lefty Wilbury
In 2007, when the two Traveling Wilburys albums were re-mastered and re-released, George’s son Dhani Harrison sang on two bonus tracks, under the alias “Ayrton Wilbury” (a tribute to late Formula 1 driver Aryton Senna, as George had been a big fan of Senna’s).
The Triple Crown of Motorsport is an unofficial achievement of winning the Indianapolis 500, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the Monaco Grand Prix. 19 drivers have competed in all three legs of the Triple Crown and have won at least one of the events. Juan Pablo Montoya and Fernando Alonso are the only active drivers to have won two of the three events, needing to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Indianapolis 500 respectively. Graham Hill is the only driver to have completed the Triple Crown.
At Monaco, Ayrton Senna still holds the record for number of wins with 6. Senna won at Monaco in 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, and 1993. Graham Hill and Michael Schumacher have each won 5.
Senna is not one of the 19 to have competed in all three legs of the Triple Crown.
In a 1958 letter to a fan, JRR Tolkien wrote that the Crown of Gondor was tall, winged and somewhat reminiscent of Egyptian pharaohs’ royal headresses. He even provided a small sketch.
Actor Viggo Mortensen’s breakout role was that of Aragorn, the heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Gondor, in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.
Stuart Townsend had originally been cast as Aragorn, but after months of pre-production, Townsend was fired on the day before principal photography began. When Mortensen was offered the role, he was not initially interested, but his son (a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books) convinced him to take the role. Mortensen then read the books on the flight from the U.S. to New Zealand, and had a crash course on fencing from swordmaster Bob Anderson, before filming began on his part.
(In Tolkien’s fictional Middle-Earth, Gondor is, in fact, “Elendil’s Heir.” 
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In the case Townsend v Sain, SCOTUS ruled the confessions derived from administering truth serum were inadmissible.
In Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosiganverse novels, “fast penta” is an effective truth serum. Therefore, spies, among others, are given a lethal allergy to it.
‘Truth Serum’ is a name for a number of drugs that are used to obtain information from an unwilling subject. Perhaps the best-known of these drugs (at least to readers of spy novels) is Sodium Pentothal, a fast-acting barbiturate.
There have been many studies to attempt to determine the reliability of these drugs, but none of them have been consistently proven to be 100% effective.
Sodium thiopental used to be used for lethal injections (it was the first of three drugs administered for this purpose), but in 2011 the US manufacturer Hospira stopped making it and the EU banned its export for this use. In both Belgium and the Netherlands, where active euthanasia is allowed by law, the standard protocol recommends sodium thiopental as the ideal agent to induce coma, followed by pancuronium bromide to paralyze muscles and stop breathing.
Sodium thiopental is Sodium Pentothal, which is a trademark of Abbott Labs.
“Bud” Abbott, of the Abbott and Costello comedy team, was born William Alexander Abbott.