New South Wales is a state on the eastern coast of Australia. It was originally named “New Wales” by James Cook, who explored it for the Royal Navy. He later changed the name to New South Wales.
It is not known why he chose those names. Many theories and speculation have been advanced.
OOP: Because it is so similar to South Wales (nothing like North Wales).
In play: William Bligh served on Cook’s 3rd Expedition as Master of the HMS Resolution.
HMS Resolution is a name used for multiple Royal Navy ships throughout history. Notably, it refers to a 1771 sloop of the Royal Navy, used by Captain James Cook on his second and third voyages of exploration. This vessel was significant in mapping the Pacific and attempting to find a northern passage. Additionally, HMS Resolution has been used for battleships and submarines, including a Royal Sovereign-class battleship and a Resolution-class submarine.
According to a survey by Statista, the #1 New Year’s resolution for 2025 was to save more money, followed by eating healthier and getting more exercise.
The song “Money” from Cabaret was not in the original Broadway musical. It was added to the movie, probably as a showcase for Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey. It has since been added to stage revivals.
Note that people involved withe stage show thought Minnelli was miscast. Sally was supposed to be untalented and unglamorous, and Minnelli certainly didn’t fit that image.
Joel Grey won a Tony and Oscar for the same role - the Master of Ceremony in Cabaret.
OOP: Has anyone else done that?
Joe Kapp is the only quarterback ever to be the starting QB in a Rose Bowl game, a Grey Cup game, and a Super Bowl game.
Joe Kapp had quite an illustrious career. Besides the the achievements noted by @Bullitt, Kapp also lettered in basketball twice while at Cal, playing on squads that won Pacific Coast Conference championships in 1957 and 1958. After his playing career ended, he became the head football coach at his alma mater. In his first year, his team defeated John Elway-led Stanford, utilizing the famous five-lateral kickoff return, which has since become known simply as The Play.
OOP
Yes, among them Jose’ Ferrer (Cyrano de Bergerac), Anne Bancroft (The Miracle Worker), and Shirley Booth (Come Back, Little Sheba). There are others.
The National Museum of Play (also known as “The Strong”) is the only collections-based museum anywhere devoted solely to the study of play. It is located in Rochester, NY.
Rochester NY lies on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, between the Genessee River, and Irondequoit Creek and Irondequoit Bay. One of its nicknames is the “World’s Image Center” for its association with film, optics, and photography because it is the birthplace and/or home of Eastman Kodak, Xerox, and Bausch & Lomb. Opened in 1949, the George Eastman Museum, which is the world’s oldest museum dedicated to photography and houses one of the world’s oldest film archives, houses the oldest photography collection in the world. Rochester was founded in 1803, the same year as the Louisiana Purchase, by American Revolutionary War soldier and land speculator Nathaniel Rochester.
At just over 19,000 square kilometers, Lake Ontario is the smallest of the Great Lakes by surface area. However, Lake Erie is smallest by volume, because of its relative shallowness to the other four lakes.
Liquid fresh surface water (lakes and rivers) accounts for only 0.008% of the Earth’s water. The Great Lakes are the largest group of freshwater lakes in the world by surface area. The largest freshwater lake by volume is Lake Baikal in Russia.
Lake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes. At its deepest, in the eastern basin, it is 210 feet (64 meters) deep. It has an average depth of just 62 feet.
In 1990 a family on a fishing trip on Lake Erie reported seeing a large creature keeping pace with their boat. It had a large black head almost as big as their boat, and it swam alongside of them for a few minutes before disappearing. Such sightings have been claimed since the mid-1800s, with residents nicknaming the creature “Bessie”, or “South Bay Bessie”, after the mythical Loch Ness Monster of Scotland.
The Bay City Rollers are a Scottish pop band, which had a number of international hits in the 1970s, including “Saturday Night” and “I Only Want to Be With You.”
Originally known as the Saxons, in the early 1970s, the band decided to change their name to something that would have broader appeal, particularly in the U.S. To choose a name, band member Derek Longmuir threw darts at a map of the U.S.; the first dart landed somewhere in Arkansas, but the second dart hit the map near the city of Bay City, Michigan, yielding the new name.
Storm Saxon was an action hero in the popular entertainment of the British fascist regime in V for Vendetta, a graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd, with additional art by Tony Weare.
Storm, real name Ororo Monroe, is a prominent member of Marvel’s X-Men superhero team. She is a mutant who can control the weather, and was worshiped as a goddess in her culture.
Marilyn Monroe was born in 1926. The name on her birth certificate is Norma Jeane Mortenson. Her mother’s maiden name is listed as Gladys Monroe, and the father’s name is listed as Edward Mortenson. Gladys was married to Martin Edward Mortensen in 1924, but they separated after a few months, and it is generally believed that Martin was not the biological father. Instead, some biographers believe that the father was a man named Charles Stanley Gifford, with whom Gladys had an affair in 1925.
Frank Gifford was an American football player, who starred for the University of Southern California, then the New York Giants of the NFL. He was named to the NFL’s Pro Bowl at three different positions (halfback, flanker, and safety), but his professional career was also marked by “The Hit.” In a 1960 game, Gifford was tackled by Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Chuck Bednarik, who was known as one of the league’s hardest hitters. The tackle was violent, but legal under the rules, and resulted in Gifford suffering a severe concussion, which kept him off the field for 18 months.
A well-known photograph, taken just after the tackle, shows Gifford lying on the field, with Bednarik celebrating above him.
