Weird Al was unsure if he was really famous, or just had a dedicated fan base- until he went to a party, saw Paul McCartney- but before Al get up the nerve to say hello, Paul said “Hey, it’s Weird Al!”.
Weird Al graduated high school at only 16 years old. He was the class valedictorian. In college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo he gained his Weird Al nickname. He later embraced the nickname professionally.
According to Dr. Demento, he invited Weird Al Yankovic to perform a new parody on his show. Also in the studio were Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz and Dan “Damaskas” Hollombe, friends of Dr. Demento. They saw Al rehearsing outside, and agreed to join him: Hollombe sang the bass part and Schwartz played percussion on Al’s accordion case while Al sang “Another One Rides the Bus.” The song became a hit, and Al was invited to play it on The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder. Al sang and played the accordion while Schwartz kept the beat on Al’s accordion case.
Bermuda shorts are a style of short trousers, typically hemmed at about 1" above the top of the knee. Their creation is attributed to Nathaniel Coxon, a Bermudan shopkeeper, who hemmed the uniform pants of his employees in 1914 for greater comfort in hot weather.
The shorts were rapidly adopted by the British Army during World War I, for wear in tropical and desert climates, and became a popular sportswear item after the war.
Nathaniel Adams Coles was born in 1919. A singer and pianist with over 100 hit songs on the pop charts, and also a heavy cigarette smoker, he died of lung cancer in 1965 at only 45 years old. His eulogy was delivered by Jack Benny, and his honorary pallbearers included Robert F. Kennedy, Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Johnny Mathis, George Burns, Danny Thomas, Jimmy Durante, Alan Livingston, Frankie Laine, Steve Allen, and California governor Pat Brown.
The world knew him as Nat King Cole.
Nat “King” Cole got his start working the Chitlin Circuit, the name given to a collection of performance venues found throughout the eastern, southern, and upper Midwest areas of the United States. Cole’s popularity led to him playing before segregated audiences, for which he was criticized by other Black entertainers and leaders. (Cole would respond to his critics that “they were fans of my music, too.”)
But crossing over to white acceptance came at a price: he suffered from ulcers, and in 1953 doctors removed half of his stomach because of them. Cole was halfway through a three-year, $1M contract to play the Sands hotel in Las Vegas when he learned he had cancer. He died two months after Sam Cooke and six days before Malcolm X was killed.
“Old King Cole” is a British nursery rhyme, first attested in 1709, about a merry king who calls for various things (a bowl, a pipe, musicians). Although there is much speculation about the identity of the King, and whether he is inspired by a real person, there is no solid historical evidence on the subject.
Coles Law- thinly sliced cabbage.
This is trivia?
In play:
Cole is the botanical term used to identify several brassica plants, especially broccoli, kale, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, and kohlrabi. ‘Slaw’ is believed to have been derived from the Dutch word ‘sla’, meaning salad. Thus, coleslaw is, quite literally, ‘cabbage salad’.
I don’t think it is.
Coleslaw originated in the Netherlands in the 1700s. Of the different kinds of coleslaw, raw cabbage is the one consistent ingredient.
Yeah, sorry.
Colcannon is a traditional Irish dish of mashed potatoes and cabbage. The recipe commonly includes butter and milk, though a range of variations include ingredients such as scallions, leeks, laverbread (a seaweed-based food), chives, and onions; some colcannon recipes use kale instead of cabbage.
Bubble and Squeak is a British cabbage dish, where you take mashed potatoes and raw cabbage and then (of course) fry it in beef fat or butter. When the cabbage gets hot it starts making the " Bubble and Squeak " noises and such.
Bubble wrap was accidentally invented in 1957 when two inventors tried to create a three-dimensional plastic wallpaper. That idea failed but the resultant item could be used as a packing material. The term “bubble wrap” has since become a generic trademark, like linoleum, thermos, and aspirin.
@Bullitt that’s some good trivia!
Another popularized trademark name is Kleenex, a type of facial tissue. Originally developed as a crepe paper gas mask filler for use in WWI, it was changed to become a feminine hygiene pad named Kotex, then further adapted to a thinner, tissue form that was marketed as a facial cream remover. A few years later someone suggested using these tissues as a disposal replacement for hankerchiefs, and by 1930 the company was marketing Kleenex as a hygienic alternative for cold and allergy sufferers. (The name, “Kleenex”, is derived from a sensational spelling of the word “clean”, combined with “ex” to reflect its connection to Kotex, another hygiene product from the same company.)
Thank you @knoodler .
During WWI the youngest authenticated British soldier to serve was only 12 years old. Many young men faked their age in order to sign up early. The youngest to do so was Sidney Lewis, who was only 12 years old at the time. He fought at the Battle of the Somme in 1916 when he was 13.
Calvin Graham ( born April 3, 1930) was the youngest U.S. serviceman to serve and fight during World War2. The young man enlisted in the Navy at age 12, in August 1942. He served in the USS South Dakota, a “fast battleship” armed with None 16" guns and a top speed of 28 knots. He was discharged in April 1943 after his Mother disclosed his real age.
South Dakota — I’ll be riding my motorcycle there from San Francisco, leaving Thursday!
In play: the Sturgis South Dakota motorcycle rally is the largest in the world. In 1940 it was the 4th annual Sturgis Rally, and the very first t-shirts were sold. It was the beginning of the dedicated merchandise. The early Sturgis Rallies were called Gypsy Tours. In 1947 there were 400 motorcyclists there. In 1953 the rally lasted two weeks; it was the first time it lasted that long. In 1978 there were 40,000 people at the Sturgis Rally. In 2016, for the 76th annual Sturgis Rally, it was agreed that the rally would last 10 days.
This year will be the 86th Sturgis Rally, and organized rides will visit Devils Tower in Wyoming (also called Matȟó Thípila, its Lakota name), and also to Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse in South Dakota.
Note — And I’ll be there! My wife and I are riding 2-up, and all told this trip will be about 5,000 miles for us on the motorcycle.
Live to ride. Ride to live!
Just to add to my post, about 500,000 people are expected at this year’s rally.
Hmm. That wouldn’t scare the Imperial Japanese Navy much.
In play:
According to an Aug. 8, 2021 CNN report, " A report by infectious disease experts from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and South Dakota health officials traced 649 Covid-19 cases around the country and at least one death to the 2020 [Sturgis] rally. The report said the ‘true national impact’ of the rally on the pandemic is likely underestimated."
For more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/06/us/sturgis-motorcycle-rally-covid