Fleetwood Mac’s song “Silver Springs” was written by vocalist Stevie Nicks, about the breakup of her romantic relationship with bandmate Lindsey Buckingham. Nicks based the name of the song on Silver Spring, Maryland, having seen the city’s name on a highway sign while traveling through Maryland.
“Creeque Alley” by The Mamas & The Papas tells the story of how the band came together, and their relationships with themselves and others along the way. Creeque Alley, also known as “Creque” Alley (pronounced “creaky”) is a town in the Virgin Islands.
The Mamas & The Papas was formed in 1965 and released their first album in February of 1966. By the time the group broke up in early 1969, they had released five studio albums and 17 singles. Six of those singles made the Billboard Top 10.
Thanks! I didn’t know how that was pronounced.
A bit gruesome, sorry about this…
The Mamas & The Papas were close friends with Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Voytek Frykowski and Abigail Folger, who were victims murdered by Charles Manson and the “Manson Family”.
The film Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood has a fictionalized account of the Tate-La Bianca murders, where the members of the Manson Family who performed the grisly acts instead wind up at the home next door, which belongs to the fictional actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio). Earlier in the film, Dalton had approached the group in front of his residence, yelling at them to get off his street; this mirrored the real-life interaction between the members and Rudolf Weber, who lived down the street from the Polanksi house, yelling at them to get out of there. Weber later told police he was tired of seeing hippies on his street.
Hippies were a youth movement that began around 1964 in the US. The word came from hipster and was used to describe beatniks who moved into New York City’s Greenwich Village, San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district, and Chicago’s Old Town community. In Mexico, hippies were known as jipitecas (or xipitecas), and other terms included macizos and onderos.
The word hip was slang for being informed, fashionably current, and in the know. The opposite of being hip is to be square, or a prude.
Hippies rejected established institutions, criticized middle class values, opposed nuclear weapons and the Vietnam War, embraced aspects of Eastern philosophy, championed sexual liberation, were often vegetarian and eco-friendly, promoted the use of psychedelic drugs which they believed expanded one’s consciousness, and created intentional communities or communes.
Some hippies opened the first health food stores, which today are commonplace and mainstream.
Huey Lewis and the News had a hit with “Hip to Be Square” in 1986. A year earlier, they appeared in, and provided two songs for, the blockbuster sf adventure Back to the Future.
Bakers Square is a Midwestern casual restaurant chain, known for its pies.
The chain was known as “Poppin’ Fresh Pies” when it was owned by Pillsbury; after Pillsbury sold the chain to VICORP (owners of the Village Inn chain) in 1983, it was renamed Bakers Square. The chain was popular in the Midwest in the 1980s and 1990s, but financial difficulties have forced it to close many locations in the years since, and while it still operates, it is now down to just seven restaurants.
Bakers Square used to have a restaurant at Severance Circle in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. (I went there a few times when I was in law school - good pies!). Football players and brothers Jason and Travis Kelce, and actresses Debra Winger and Sean Young, were all either born in or spent substantial time in Cleveland Heights.
Debra Winger was cast in A League of Their Own (1992), but she dropped out, and she was replaced by Geena Davis.
Geena Davis took up the sport of archery in 1997; two years later, she participated in tryouts for the U.S. Olympic archery team, in hopes of competing at the 2000 Sydney Games. Davis, who was 43 years old at the time, did not qualify for the Olympic team, as she finished in 24th place in the semifinals.
Geena Davis’s acting debut was in the film Tootsie (1982) with Dustin Hoffman when she was 26.
Teri Garr has her only Academy Award nomination for her role in Tootsie.
Ralph Garr, nicknamed “The Road Runner” due to his speed, was an MLB outfielder from 1968 through 1980 for the Atlanta Braves, Chicago White Sox, and California Angels. His best season was in 1974, when he was a National League (NL) All-Star and won the NL batting title. He flirted with a .400 batting average for much of the first half of the season. He was so popular with fans in Atlanta that the Braves negotiated exclusive big-league baseball rights with Warner Bros. Cartoons to use animated scenes of the Looney Tunes character Road Runner on the scoreboard, while the calliope erected behind right field went “beep-beep” like the cartoon character every time Garr reached first base.
Garr spent much of his early career believing he was greatly underpaid by the Braves, so after that career year in 1974 he sought a raise to $114,500 for the 1975 season, more than double what he received in 1974, at which the Braves countered with $85,000.
The contract dispute went to arbitration, and Garr won to become the first player in major league history to double his salary through arbitration.
“Fast and Furry-ous”, in 1949, was the first Coyote and Road Runner cartoon.
The Fast and the Furious series, particularly the first few films, helped popularize the import scene and car tuning. According to the LA Times, there are some Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers who blame the Fast & Furious films for popularizing street racing in the city. In August 2022, residents of Los Angeles held a protest against the filming of Fast X, claiming the movies promote illegal street racing.
Scenes from The Fate of the Furious, Spider-Man 3, Tyler Perry’s Alex Cross, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Air Force One, Telling Lies in America and the upcoming Superman: Legacy were all filmed within a few blocks of each other in downtown Cleveland, Ohio.
Paul Walker, the star of the Fast and Furious film franchise, died after the car he was in crashed at a speed of more than 100mph and burst into flames, according to the coroner’s report. Walker was 40 at the time of his death in 2013.
He was a passenger in the car driven by Roger Rodas, 38. The car was a red 2005 Porsche Carrera GT and it lost control and crashed into a concrete lamp post and two trees off the road, catching fire within seconds after impact.
Rodas died instantly from multiple physical trauma while Walker died within seconds from the combined effects of physical trauma and burns. Both of their bodies were burned beyond recognition.
A red 2005 Porsche Carrera GT
Not in play –
The old saying was, “Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse.” I guess two out of three ain’t bad.
In play – The Italian word ‘carrera’ can be translated as ‘race’. The Porsche Carrera was originally named to commemorate the success of Porsche at the Carrera Panamericana – the famous border-to-border Mexican endurance race where Porsche achieved such great success with their 550 Spyder model in the 1950s.
-“BB”-
The Panamerican Highway has both official and unofficial sections from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, USA to Ushuaia, Argentina and a gap in the Darien section of the Americas from Yaviza, Panama to Turbo, Colombia.