Russian author Anton Chekov was a physician by profession; his degree was from First Moscow State Medical University. He wrote jokingly to a friend that “Medicine is my lawful wife and literature is my mistress. When I get tired of one I spend the night with the other.”
The character of Pavel Chekov was added to the main cast of Star Trek not because of a supposed article in the Russian newspaper Pravda that complained of the lack of representation of Russian characters on the show, but in response to a lack of youthful characters for a youner audience to connect with. Chekov’s appearance was based on Davy Jones of The Monkees, it being a hit TV show at the time. (In reality, the actor who portrayed Chekov was just five years younger than William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, whose characters appeared to be much older than the young ensign.)
English rock singer David Bowie’s birth name was David Jones. When Bowie first began recording professionally, he was variously credited as “Davie Jones” and “Davy Jones,” but as another Davy Jones had already become a successful singer – as the Artful Dodger in the musical Oliver!, and as a pop singer – Bowie adopted his stage name to reduce confusion with the other Jones.
Davy Jones’ locker is an allegory for the deepest ocean the final resting place of drowned sailors. It is a naval slang term for shipwrecks in which the sailors’ and ships’ remains are consigned to the depths of the ocean i.e. to be sent to Davy Jones’ Locker.
First noted in 1726.
Davy Jones, the tambourine-playing Monkee, initially wanted to train to be a jockey (horse racing), but instead wound up in theater, where he won a Tony nomination for his portrayal of The Artful Dodger in Oliver! Following his Monkees career, he got by mainly through nostaligia appearances (including portraying himself performing at Marcia’s prom on The Brady Bunch) and royalties.
Davy Jones was the lead vocalist on many of the Monkees’ biggest hits, including the 1967 Billboard #1 single, Daydream Believer.
In a 2007 interview by the New York Post, Peter Tork claimed that The Monkees will never get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Tork said that Jann Wenner, publisher of The Rolling Stone blackballed the band for not always writing their own music, and not always playing their instruments.
The Rolling Stone publisher Jan Webber sent Hunter S. Thompson to Africa to cover the “Rumble in the Jungle” Muhammad Ali vs. George Foreman fight. However, Thomson just sat by the pool, getting drunk and high- watching that big event of the Hotel’s TV.
On the eve on the New Hampshire primary in 1968, candidate Richard Nixon requested that Hunter S. Thompson take a ride with him in a limousine. It was just the two of them, and the reason was that Nixon wanted somebody to talk football. For over an hour the two of them discussed both college and pro football, and, as Thompson later wrote:
“It was a very weird trip; probably one of the weirdest things I’ve ever done, and especially weird because both Nixon and I enjoyed it.”
(Not in play, we could likely mine Hunter Thompson weird trivia for days)
For “Where the Buffalo Roam”, producer Art Linson convinced Universal to let him direct; it would be his directorial debut, and Linson took a four-month crash course in directing. Screenwriter John Kaye asked to be removed from adapting the source material (“The Banshee Screams for Buffalo Meat”), so Hunter S. Thompson was brought on as “executive consultant”, but claimed he had no substantial role other than to have “wandered around and fired machine guns on the set”. Bill Murray had misgivings about the direction and initially tried to leave but Thompson convinced him to stay. Murray and Thompson spent a lot of time together, with Murray eventually becoming Thompson, and he received favorable mentions from movie critics for his role as the movie itself was a mess. (At some point after the movie’s release, Thompson was quoted as saying he objected to Murray’s portrayal and was going to shoot him over it. Murray has said that he and Thompson were on good terms and had nothing but praise for the writer’s genius.)
The old American folk song, Home on the Range, became the Kansas state song in 1947.
Its opening verse has,
Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.
The most common names for the song include “Home on the Range” and “Western Home”. It is commonly regarded as the unofficial anthem of the American West.
Exactly who owns the rights to Home on the Range was a matter of dispute. Dr. Brewster M. Higley claimed to have written a poem with similar lyrics titled Oh, Give Me a Home on The Range" , then Daniel Kelley developed a melody for the song on his guitar. But the words were not the same as the modern version. William and Mary Goodwin filing a suit for copyright infringement since they wrote An Arizona Home, with similar words. Another similar song, “Colorado Home” was found.
In the end Higley got credit for the Lyrics.
Goodwin, South Dakota is in the eastern end of the state and approx 19 miles from the Minnesota state line. Goodwin is in Deuel County. Deuel County was created in 1862 and named after Jacob Deuel, a legislator in 1862.
In 1980 I went to boot camp and my Senior Drill Instructor was Gunnery Sergeant Leland K. Deuel. Lee Deuel retired from the Marine Corps as a Master Gunnery Sergeant (E-9) after a long and distinguished career.
Godwin’s Law is an internet maxim stating: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.” Coined by American attorney Mike Godwin in 1990, it highlights how extreme rhetorical shortcuts and logical fallacies can trivialize historical atrocities and derail constructive debate. (Per Wiki)
Godwin, Earl of Wessex, was the Father of King Harold II, who fought and died at the Battle of Hastings. Earl Godwin was likely the most powerful Earl at that time. Harold was crowned January 6, 1066, and died on October 14th.
The current Earl of Wessex, only the third in British history, is Prince Andrew, the late Queen Elizabeth II’s youngest son and youngest child, who is 62 years old. He is also Duke of Edinburgh (which was for many years his late father Prince Philip’s title), Earl of Forfar and Viscount Severn.
Incidentally, the last Earl of Norfolk died in 1677, and the last Earl of Sussex in 1943. There is a current Earl of Essex, however: Paul Capell, the 11th Earl, is 82.
I think you mean Prince Edward.
Viscount Bicycles are 1970s British road bicycles known for their lightweight “Aerospace” tubing frames. Viscount Bicycles were founded in England in the early 1970s as Lambert Bicycles.
A problem with some of their bicycles was due to them having cast aluminum forks pinned to steel steerer tubes. They were prone to suddenly snapping and detaching. These sudden, catastrophic failures led to them being known as “death forks”.
D’oh! Of course I do. Thanks. 
In play:
Per Wiki:
"As a rank of the British peerage, [viscount] was first recorded in 1440, when John Beaumont was created Viscount Beaumont by King Henry VI. The word viscount corresponds in the UK to the Anglo-Saxon shire reeve (root of the non-nobiliary, royal-appointed office of sheriff). Thus, early viscounts originally received their titles from the monarch, and not hereditarily; they eventually tended to establish hereditary principalities in the wider sense. The rank is a relatively late introduction to the British system, and on the evening of her coronation in 1838, Queen Victoria recorded in her diary an explanation for this by then-Prime Minister Lord Melbourne (himself a viscount):
I spoke to Ld M. about the numbers of Peers present at the Coronation, & he said it was quite unprecedented. I observed that there were very few Viscounts, to which he replied “There are very few Viscounts,” that they were an old sort of title & not really English; that they came from Vice-Comites; that Dukes & Barons were the only real English titles;—that Marquises were likewise not English, & that people were mere[ly] made Marquises, when it was not wished that they should be made Dukes."