The monarch of Japan, currently Naruhito, is the only one worldwide to still bear the title “Emperor.” Past emperors have included the crowned leaders of Ethiopia, Austria, China, France and India (in the person of the British monarch, from Victoria through George VI), among others.
According to the Dune mythology, Leto II ruled the known universe for 3,500 years. During that period he morphed from human form into a sandworm, albeit a size 1/100th of an actual sandworm. He was a tyrant, called “the God Emperor” because of his longevity. He was the second-born son of Paul Atreides, leader of the Fremen and eventual emperor of the known universe.
After being impregnated by Zeus, Leto traveled to Delos to give birth to Artemis & Apollo.
The Wild Wild West was a spy/cowboy/science-fiction drama series, which ran on CBS from 1965 to 1969.
The series, which was originally conceived of as “James Bond on horseback,” depicted the adventures of James West (Robert Conrad), the U.S.'s best Secret Service agent, and fellow agent Artemus Gordon (Ross Martin), a master of disguises and gadgets, as they traveled the western U.S. in the 1870s, fighting against villains in defense of President Grant and the United States.
Henry Ross Perot, Sr., better known as Ross Perot, was a successful businessman from Texas. In 1992, Perot launched a third-party campaign for the US Presidency. He announced his candidacy in February of 1992, dropped out of the race in July, and re-entered in October in time to participate in all three debates. Perot won no states (and thus no electoral votes), but did win several counties and finished second in two states. He won almost 19% of the popular vote, the best showing by a non-major-party candidate since Teddy Roosevelt in 1912.
Perot’s running mate was James Stockdale, a retired Navy admiral.
Harold Stassen was a perennial Republican candidate for president, running earnest campaigns a record nine times (1944, 1948, 1952, 1964, 1968, 1980, 1984, 1988, and 1992). He never won the Republican nomination, despite coming close in 1948 before losing out to Thomas Dewey.
Harold and the Purple Crayon was a popular children’s book written by Crockett Johnson. Johnson based Harold’s appearance on the title character of his earlier comic strip, Barnaby.
Harold Interlocking is one of the largest railroad junctions in the US and is the busiest passenger rail interlocking in all of North America. It is where the Long Island Railroad tracks to Grand Central Madison and Penn Station converge with Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor to Massachusetts and New England. The Honeywell Street Bridge crosses over Harold Interlocking (map). Harold Interlocking is named after Harold Avenue, a street that directly approaches the railroad tracks near the junction; essentially, the train junction was named after the nearby street, Harold Avenue.
Many railcars say “Do not hump”. Humping is when there is a hill in a railyard and railcars are made to roll down this hill to join to their train.
Too funny. I just had to find a picture of that. You learn something new here every day, right?
In play — Some years ago the Land Rover company ran commercials for their SUVs being humped by a rhinoceros.
(I’ve searched for videos or images of this but I think they’ve been removed. IIRC these TV commercials ran before there was the internet.
I tried searching:
Land Rover humped by a rhinoceros
Rhino mating Land Rover commercial
Rhino humping Land Rover commercial
)
Not in play: typically, cars that are labeled “do not hump” are used to carry delicate or valuable cargo, or the cars themselves contain delicate equipment. “Humping” causes cars to be coupled together with a certain amount of speed and force, to which some loads and cars aren’t well-suited.
In play:
The “Lunar Rover” (more formally, the Lunar Roving Vehicle) was a four-wheeled, two-seat rover which was used in the final three Apollo lunar landing missions (Apollos 15, 16, and 17). The rover allowed astronauts to cover and explore more ground during their surface missions than they would have been able to on foot.
William Shakespeare mentions a dog named Rover in his play “A Winter’s Tale”.
Road Rovers was an animated television series that ran for one season (13 episodes) on Kids’ WB in 1996-1997. The Road Rovers were a team of five super-powered crime-fighting anthropomorphic dogs, known as “cano-sapiens”. The dogs all lived with world leaders, including the US President, the British Prime Minister, the German Chancellor, the Swiss President, and the President of Russia.
The President of the Swiss Confederation is a member of the Federal Council, elected to a one-year term from among his or her other six colleagues. The president is not technically the Swiss head of state, because the entire Council collectively fills that role. The current president is Karin Keller-Sutter, who took office on New Year’s Day.
A Swiss Army knife is a multi-tool pocket knife, originally developed to provide Swiss soldiers with a multi-purpose field tool, enabling functions such as opening canned food and maintaining their firearms.
Two Swiss companies, Victorinox and Wegner, co-held the contract to produce knives for the Swiss Army, and both companies also developed and sold a range of the knives to the public. In 2005, Victorinox bought Wegner, becoming the sole supplier of the knives.
Comment — in my 14 years in the Marine Corps, out in the field some of the guys carried a Ka-Bar knife — KA-BAR: KA-BAR® USMC, Straight Edge — which no doubt is a great knife, but I always carried a Swiss Army Knife and that was very useful. I love my Ka-Bar, no doubt, but my SAK (SAK Nomad, specifically) was more useful in many more situations. All of my years were non-combat (Desert Storm, yes, but was never sent to any combat zone).
In play — the official Marine Corps Ka-Bar knife (“kay bar”; link above) became the original combat knife of the Marine Corps in 1942. It has since been adopted by other US military branches.
Any helicopter carrying the President of the US takes on the call sign “Marine One” as long as they are aboard. There are some officially assigned to carry the President, but it would apply to any other the president is aboard.
The Vice Presidential helicopter is designated “Marine Two.”
Air Force One is set to be replaced within the next two years. It will be based upon the Boeing 747-8, a large, long-range jet customized with advanced security, communications, and operational features to meet the needs of the president and their staff. It is rumored that Elon Musk has been brought in to address delays and speed up the delivery of the new Air Force One aircraft.
The first Air Force One was not called as such and was a Douglas VC-54C Skymaster used to take Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Yalta Conference in 1945. That was the first dedicated airplane for the President’s use and Harry S. Truman used it for two more years.
The “Sacred Cow” Douglas VC-54C Skymaster
The first Air Force One was in 1954, a Lockheed Constellation for President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
David Eisenhower, grandson of President Dwight Eisenhower, is married to Julie Nixon, daughter of President Richard Nixon. In 1953, when David was five years old, his grandfather renamed the presidential mountain retreat, formerly Camp Shangri-La, to Camp David, after his grandson.