“My Favorite Things” is a 1959 tune from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music. The song was first sung in a performance by Mary Martin as Fraulein Maria and by Patricia Neway as Mother Abbess – that was set in Mother Abbess’s office. In 1965, Julie Andrews sang the song in the film version of the play – in her bedroom at the von Trapp family house. Julie Andrews had sung it in 1961 on a Christmas TV special of The Garry Moore Show.
Also, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass released their version of the song in a 1968 Christmas album.
The 1970 film Darling Lili supposedly cost around twenty-five million dollars but took in under five million dollars at the box-office, making it a huge flop. Julie Andrews was paid over a million for her role as Lili, a beloved entertainer and German spy in World War I.
Director Blake Edwards suffered continual interference from Paramount executives while making the film, and it was eventually edited by the studio largely without his input. It was marketed as a family film but featured a violent climax and nudity, and angry families wrote letters to the newspapers.
Andrews wanted to expand her roles beyond wholesome characters like Mary Poppins and Maria in The Sound of Music, but audiences were confused to see her as a Mata Hari-inspired femme fatale performing a striptease.
(My reaction exactly when I saw this film on TV in the 80s)
Former MLB pitcher Ron Darling was born in Hawaii, and yet he grew up in Massachusetts. He won the World Series in 1986 with the NY Mets when they beat the Boston Red Sox 4 games to 3.
The New York Mets were originally an expansion team, joining the National League in 1962, five years after New York’s two previous National League teams, the Giants and the Dodgers, left the city for California.
As an homage to the city’s previous NL teams (and likely in an effort to attract former fans of those teams), the Mets’ colors are blue (one of the Dodgers’ uniform colors) and orange (one of the Giants’ colors).
The San Francisco Giants won the World Series most recently in 2010, 2012, and 2014.
The Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series most recently in 1988.
In play: According to Baseball Reference, the Dodgers have won 24 National League pennants, more than any other team. (Sorry, Bullitt!) The Giants and Cardinals have each won 23 pennants.
The Yankees have the most American League pennants with 40.
The Giants and Dodgers are far behind in the race for supremacy and prestige. The great St. Louis Cardinals dominate baseball with 11 Series wins, and the Oakland A’s leading west coast teams with 9, compared to a mere 8 by the Giants and 6 by the Dodgers. Yankees don’t count, they’re not fair and everyone hates them.
The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees (about a man who makes a deal with the devil so that his team can defeat the hated Yankees) are hit musicals written by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. It seemed that the duo had a bright future, but in 1955 Ross suddenly died of chronic bronchiectasis at age 29, several months after Damn Yankees opened.
Railer13 and jtur88, it’s alright, I’m glad you’re bringing it too. And jtur88, I was there in 2014, NLCS game 5, for Travis Ishikawa’s walk-off homer off of Michael Wacha. Great game!
In play:
The world Series has seen a three-peat four times. Three times by the (damned) Yankees, and once by the Oakland A’s. The Yankees have had a 4- and a 5-peat too. DAMN.
5 – 1949 - 1950 - 1951 - 1952 - 1953 New York Yankees
The National League hasn’t had a two-peat since Cincinnati in 75-76, and only twice since the 70s has a NL even had a pennant rrepeat.
Bullittt, I was at Busch both games when SF went back to StL with a 3-2 lead in '87 and failed to score a run. Ishkawa’s HR was inflated–a sac-fly won it, which cleared the fence.
Yeah, jtur88, I was there in 1987 too. That was a strong Giants team that the Cardinals beat. That hurt.
In play:
There are exactly three teams that have gone to the World Series only once and won, the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks, the 2002 California Angels (MAJOR OUCH), and the 2019 Washington Nationals.
For the record: I am first a Royals fan, and secondly a Cardinals fan. But third on my list are the Giants, primarily because they beat the Dodgers more than any other team.
The Dodgers are my second most-hated team. **jtur88 **already told us who my most-hated team is, and it’s not even close.
In play: There have been 21 four-game sweeps in World Series history. The last team to accomplish this feat was the 2012 Giants, who swept the Tigers.
There have been 40 World Series that have gone 7 games. The most recent was last October, when the Nationals beat the Astros. (Gosh, that seems like a long time ago.)
One of the most popular paintings in MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art, is Vincent van Gogh’s “The Starry Night”. Tourists crowd around it to take selfies and comment on how it’s smaller than they expected: 29 x 36 1⁄4” (73.7 x 92.1 cm).
Singer-songwriter Don McLean was inspired to write his song Vincent while reading a biography of the artist Vincent Van Gogh. McLean felt that Van Gogh was commonly mislabeled as “crazy,” when in fact, he suffered from an illness, themes which he explored in the song. He has related that he wrote the lyrics on a paper bag, while looking at a print of Van Gogh’s famous painting “The Starry Night.”
Brown paper bags are made from what the industry calls Kraft paper, especially made for packaging or wrapping. Sack kraft paper, or just sack paper, is a porous kraft paper with high elasticity and high tear resistance, designed for packaging products with high demands for strength and durability.
(railer13, I was also at the famous '85 game where the ump blew the call and Dane Iorg sent the series to a fatal 7th game)
I had a SRO ticket for Game 7, so I wasn’t disappointed when KC rallied in the bottom of the ninth for the win. I wanted to see a good game, but instead it was a 11-0 blowout for the Royals. Which was okay.
In play: Kraft Foods was started by Canadian immigrant James L. Kraft in 1903. The business struggled in the first year, losing $3,000 and a horse.
But in 1915, the company invented pasteurized processed cheese that did not need refrigeration, thus giving a longer shelf life than conventional cheese. The process was patented in 1916 and about six million pounds of the product were sold to the U.S. Army for military rations during World War I.
Kraft Foods bought the Velveeta Cheese Company in 1927. Velveeta was invented in 1918 in Monroe NY. As of 2002 Velveeta must be labeled in the United States as a “Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product.”
Clan Munro of the Scottish Highlands has septs (divisions) with families that spell the name Monro, Monroe and Munroe. Historically the clan was based in Easter Ross in Scotland, but the clan origins can be traced back to the River Roe area in Ireland.
In Game of Thrones, a ‘sept’ is a place of worship in the Faith of the Seven. Septs are built to have seven walls, representing each aspect of the God of Seven. These aspects are: the Father, the Mother, the Maiden, the Crone, the Warrior, the Smith, and the Stranger.
