As well as the unique, iconic shape of Michelob bottles on the line.
-“BB”-
Harley-Davidson built its very first motorcycle in a small Milwaukee shed in 1903. The shed was originally on Highland Blvd but was later moved to the corporate factory grounds on Juneau Ave. However it was accidentally destroyed by contractors during a yard clean-up in the early 1970s. Today the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee features a full-size replica of that original 1903 shed.
Highlander is a 1986 fantasy film, directed by Russell Mulcahy, starring Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery, and Clancy Brown. In the film, a 16th-century Scottish warrior discovers that he is an “Immortal,” a human born with the power of the Quickening, who can only be killed via beheading, and who gains power by defeating fellow Immortals.
The film was not an initial success, but gained a cult following; it spawned a franchise which features five additional movies (and a reboot film currently in production), as well as two television series (one live-action, one animated).
I’ve been there. Well worth the visit, and I’m not a particular fan of motorcycles!
In play:
Sean Connery, of course, was the first actor to play James Bond in motion pictures; Connery played Bond in seven movies between 1962 and 1983. His acting career actually began in 1954, and he retired in 2003. He came out of retirement in 2012 to voice the title role in the animated film Sir Billi.
Connery was nominated for just one Academy Award, and he won the Oscar in 1987 for Best Supporting Actor in the movie The Untouchables.
The Untouchables is an autobiographical memoir written by Eliot Ness and co-written with Oscar Fraley. Ness was a federal agent in the Bureau of Prohibition, and he battled crime in Chicago in the late 1920s and early 1930s with the help of a special team of agents handpicked for their incorruptibility, nicknamed “The Untouchables.” In recent years, scholars and investigators have challenged the validity and timeline of events in the book, but overall have accepted the accounts as based in facts. The book would go on to be made into a television series and a motion picture.
Though Eliot Ness get the credit for bringing down Al Capone, he had nothing to do with it. Ness was good at gaining publicity from his raids on bootleggers, including those who worked for Capone, but did not have anything to do with his arrest and conviction. That work was done by U.S. attorney George E. Q. Johnson, and forensic accountant Frank Wilson, who were able to track down records that proved Capone was hiding income. He was convicted of tax evasion and sent to prison.
Note that President Herbert Hoover made it a priority to bring down Capone. At his daily exercise sessions with the cabinet, he would ask what was being done about it.
Loch Ness is a massive, deep freshwater loch in the Scottish Highlands famous for holding more water than all the lakes of England and Wales combined. It contains an estimated 263 billion cubic feet of fresh water, making it the largest loch in Scotland by volume. Its deepest point reaches roughly 800 feet, and its water stays a cold 43°F on average all year.
Comment only —
Good to know! Thanks, I’ll have to check it out.
Comment only- true, a Special IRS unit did the work that allowed the conviction. But Ness’s unit did gather significant documents that allowed the IRS to do it’s job.
The Loch Ness Monster is a huge boon to tourism, bringing in over $50Million USD to the Scottish economy each year. Of course they need to keep that money flowing although most of the “best” “proofs” have been debunked. The Monster can not possibly a plesiosaur or anything like that. However, there have been enough sightings of something that some biologists are thinking huge eels, or Wels catfish or even Sturgeon- the largest Wels got close to nine feet long, and a sturgeon has been caught over 23 feet long.
The official national animal of Scotland is the unicorn.
^ That is some tasty trivia!
In Europe unicorn horns were believed to be made of “alicorn”, and through the middle ages (and as recently as the late 18th century) was sold as a medicinal powder that could cure almost every malady. In most instances, the powder was made from ivory tusks, probably narwhals.
The narwhal’s “horn” is actually a tooth - an elongated canine tooth. True horns are made of a core, living bone surrounded by an outer sheath of keratin. A narwhal’s horn can grow as long as three meters long, and is covered with millions of tiny nerve endings that the narwhal can use to detect subtle changes in water temperature, pressure and salinity.
The Horn of Africa is on the continent’s east coast. It is the peninsula formed by Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and the partially recognised state of Somaliland. It is the fourth largest peninsula in the world behind the Arabian Peninsula, the largest, and then the Indochinese Peninsula, and the Deccan Peninsula (the Indian Subcontinent).
The Rhodes Colossus is an editorial cartoon published in Punch magazine in 1892. It depicts Cecil Rhodes, an English business magnate straddling the continent of Africa from Egypt to South Africa, holding a telegraph line; it represents Rhodes’ desire to connect Cairo to Johannesburg by rail and telegraph line. It is a visual pun on the ancient wonder, The Colossus of Rhodes.
The Colossus of Rhodes was funding by selling off all the siege gear General Demetrius left behind after failing to conquer the City-State. The primary designer was Chares of Lindos, of whom we know little. Pliny the Elder noted that the statue’s fingers were bigger than most normal statues, it stood about 60% of the height of the Statue of Liberty. However, Pliny and most other commentators never saw the Statue when it still stood.The Colossus of Rhodes did not stand with it’s legs across the opening into the harbor, as often shown.. The Statue likely stood on the side of Mandrakion harbor. The Colossus only stood for 54 years before an earthquake brought it down.
The Colossus of Rhodes was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Though long a bit of pop-culture shorthand for great engineering/building feats of our forebearers, the list sucks for a lot of reasons. Mainly, because all but the Great Pyramid of Giza are in ruins, under the ocean, or in ruins and under the ocean. Even the Great Pyramid is a shell of itself, as its exterior was once gleaming white and could be seen for miles, but milennia of looting have put the kibosh on that. And the Hanging Gardens of Babylon might never have existed at all.
In the year 2000, an organization called New7Wonders was created. Its stated purpose was to select a new list of seven man-made wonders of the world, based on popular vote. Over 100 million votes were submitted, and the seven winners were announced on July 7, 2007 (07/07/07).
The winners were:
Taj Mahal, Agra, India
Great Wall of China
Colosseum in Rome
Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Petra, Jordan
Machu Picchu, Peru
Chichén Itzá, Mexico
Louis XIV, the “Sun King,” actually ruled from 1643-1715. Louis IX, who ruled in the years you wrote, was the saint.
In play:
The Colosseum in Rome has been the focus of increased police attention in recent months.
Colossae was a city in Phrygia, now part of Turkiye, and from the 5th century BC onwards it was notable for its healing springs and, later, for its veneration of the Archangel Michael. The “Epistle to the Colossians”, an early Christian text which identifies its author as Paul the Apostle, is addressed to the church in Colossae. The city was part of the Roman and Byzantine province of Phrygia Pacatiana.
Phrygia is located in west-central Anatolia, Türkiye. The real King Midas, not the mythical guy with the ‘golden touch’, was a king of Phrygia in the late 8th century BCE. And there was yet another King Midas, also a king of Phrygia, in the 6th century BCE.
Today, the Phrygian Way is a 300+ mile long trail in part of the ancient Phrygia for hiking and bicycling.
➜ www. .com ◆ (but I don’t know if this is a safe site, so be cautious; I’ve broken the URL)
The Appian Way (“Via Appia” in Latin and Italian) is one of the earliest long roads constructed by the Roman Republic. Built over the course of 70 years, in the 3rd and 4th centuries BCE, it runs for 540 km (335.5 miles), from Rome to Brindisi in southeastern Italy (in the “heel of the boot”).
Named for the Roman censor Appius Claudius Caecus, who initiated its construction, its original purpose was primarily for the transportation of Roman troops beyond Rome’s region. Many portions of its original length have been preserved and restorted.