Cmdr. Benjamin Sisko’s middle name on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was Lafayette. He was played by American actor and Oberlin College graduate Avery Brooks throughout the show’s seven-season run.
Michael Dorn, who plays the Klingon Starfleet officer Worf, has appeared in more Star Trek television episodes than any other actor. Dorn has played Worf in a total of 282 episodes, including:
- 175 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation
- 102 episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- 7 episodes of Star Trek: Picard
Dorn also appeared as Worf in four Star Trek feature films, and several video games.
According to everything-birthday, the name ‘Michael’ was the most popular boys name just one year, in 1949. It has been in the top 10 list in 70 different years, and in the top 100 141 times. In 2024, ‘Michael’ ranked 21st in names given to baby boys.
The Archangel Michael appears in three books of the Bible: Daniel, Jude, and Revelation.
An Oscar Wilde quotation:
“The Book of Life begins with a man and a woman in a garden. It ends with Revelations.”
“Everyday I Write the Book” is a 1983 song by Elvis Costello and the Attractions. It was Costello’s first song to crack the top 40 in the U.S., reaching #36.
The music video for the song received heavy play on MTV; it features look-alikes of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, living a middle-class lifestyle, with “Charles” failing to impress “Diana,” who is more interested in watching romances on television.
The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking is the first studio album from Roger Waters, following his acrimonious departure from Pink Floyd. Released in 1984 it features a painting of a nude woman wearing a backpack and hitchhiking; seen from behind, the color and hairstyle of the unknown woman strongly resembles the style worn by Princess Diana.
Princess Diana, the former Lady Diana Spencer, was played by British actress Emma Corrin in Season 4 of The Crown, and by Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki in Seasons 5 and 6. Both won Golden Globes in the role.
When Jane Austen was writing Emma, she said in a letter to a friend that no-one would like the heroine of her new book.
Six winners of Academy Awards appeared in the Harry Potter film series, including:
- Kenneth Branagh (Gilderoy Lockhart)
- Maggie Smith (Minerva McGonagal)
- Emma Thompson (Sybill Trelawny)
- Gary Oldman (Sirius Black)
- Jim Broadbent (Horace Slughorn)
- Julie Christie (Madam Rosmerta)
Of the three main characters in the Harry Potter film franchise, Daniel Radcliffe has appeared in 20 other movies; Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have each appeared in 11 outside movies.
Per IMDb, in 2009 Emma Watson was named the ‘Highest Grossing Actress of the Decade’ by the Guiness Book of World Records. In the 2000s her film work for the decade grossed over 5.4 billion dollars worldwide.
In A. Conan Doyle’s early drafts of his Sherlock Holmes stories, Dr. John H. Watson’s original name was Ormond Sacker. Conan Doyle never canonically provided Dr. Watson’s middle name, although some fans speculate that it was “Hamish.”
And that is because his wife once called him James. We know Watson’s middle initial is H. and Hamish is Scottish-derived form of James.
IBM’s WATSON computer system is named after IBM’s founder and first CEO, Thomas J. Watson.
There is a fan theory that the computer HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001:A Space Odyssey was named after IBM because the letters in HAL are one ahead of IBM. However, HAL stands for “Heuristically Programmed Algorithmic Computer.”
*Edited for typos
IBM was consulted during the making of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and their logo can be seen on props in the film. During production it was brought to IBM’s attention that the film’s plot included a homicidal computer but they approved association with the film if it was clear any “equipment failure” was not related to their products.
IBM was founded in 1911 as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR), as a holding company of four manufacturers of record-keeping and measuring systems. The founder was Charles Ranlett Flint, and the company was based in Endicott, New York. It was renamed “International Business Machines” in 1924 and soon became the leading manufacturer of punch-card tabulating systems.
Cicely Tyson, Eva Marie Saint, Billy Barty, and Marlon Brando were all born in 1924.
Eva Marie Saint is still alive, having celebrated her 100th birthday with family on July 4, 2024. Her first child, Darrell, was born in 1955, two days after she won an Academy Award for On the Waterfront . She began her acceptance speech with “I may have the baby right here!”