The 1953 song “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” was a novelty song meant to commemorate the 500 year anniversary of the Fall of Constantinople. Originally performed by The Four Lads, was a certified gold hit.
They Might Be Giants also did a cover of “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" in 1990 (as had Bing Crosby in 1953 and Bette Midler in 1976, among others). I prefer the Giants’ version, but YMMV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6NzVd3pGdE&list=RDp6NzVd3pGdE&start_radio=1
Super Bowl XXV was the championship game for the 1990 NFL season, played on January 27, 1991, where the New York Giants defeated the Buffalo Bills 20–19 in Tampa, Florida, marking the only Super Bowl decided by a single point. The game is famous for Bills kicker Scott Norwood’s last-second, game-winning field goal attempt that missed wide right.
This was the first of 4 straight Super Bowl appearances for the Buffalo Bills, and they lost all 4 to set a record for futility in the big game.
Super Bowl XXV Giants 20–19 Bills
Super Bowl XXVI Redskins 37–24 Bills
Super Bowl XXVII Cowboys 52–17 Bills
Super Bowl XXVIII Cowboys 30–13 Bills
IMHO of the 4, Super Bowl XXV is the one that the Bills should’ve won!
The Buffalo Bills were a barbershop quartet, originally from the city of Buffalo, New York. They began singing together in 1947, and won the Barbershop Harmony Society’s international championship in 1950.
In 1957, they were cast in the Broadway musical The Music Man, in which they played four quarreling members of the River City school board, whom Professor Harold Hill distracts by transforming them into a barbershop quartet. The Buffalo Bills played the roles on Broadway for three years, then reprised their roles in the 1962 film adaptation.
The four of them, as they appeared in the film, along with Robert Preston:
Although barbershop quartet singing is associated with the United States, its origins (in the 19th century) are obscure: it may date from an era when American barbershops formed social and musical centers for men, or it may refer back to the British expression “barber’s music,” denoting an extemporized performance by patrons waiting to be shaved and referring to a barber’s traditional role as a musician.
(From the Encyclopedia Britannica)
Despite leading the Labour Party to a landslide win in 2024 parliamentary elections, Sir Keir Starmer has the lowest approval rating of any British Prime Minister (15%) since Ipsos polling began in 1977.
For British Prime Ministers, Margaret Thatcher was the first female and she served over 11 years (1979–1990). This is the longest consecutive term since Lord Liverpool in the early 1800s served 16 years. The youngest was William Pitt the Younger who was just 24 years old in 1783. And then there was Winston Churchill. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953.
In British politics, pm stands for Prime Minister, while mp stands for Member of Parliament.
Lord North, Prime Minister during the American Revolution, felt overwhelmed in office and repeatedly tried to resign, but King George III refused to accept his resignations. When the Prime Minister learned of Lord Cornwallis’s surrender to the American and French armies at Yorktown in 1781, he is said to repeatedly declared, “Oh God, it is all over!” He finally resigned in 1782 after losing a vote of no confidence in the House of Commons.
Sterling North was an American author, best known for a children’s book, Rascal, about a raccoon. It was published in 1963.
10-year-old me absolutely loved that book. I read it multiple times.
In play:
On April 10, 1963, the submarine USS Thresher sank during deep-diving tests off the coast of Cape Cod, Maine, killing all 129 persons aboard. The number of fatalities was (and is) the second-highest number of deaths lost in a submarine accident, second only to the French vessel Surcouf, which sank in 1943, killing 130 crew members.
Swede Momsen was a pioneer in submarine rescues. In 1939 he helped to rescue the USS Squalus and helped to save 33 of the crew. Although 26 of the crew died, the 33 that were saved (32 crew, 1 civilian) were among the first ever saved from a downed submarine.
George Harrison’s son Dhani has said it was through the song “Yellow Submarine” that he found out his father had been one of the Beatles. Dhani waa chased home from school by children singing “Yellow Submarine” and wondered why. When he found out, “I freaked out on my dad: ‘Why didn’t you tell me you were in the Beatles?’ And he said, ‘Oh, sorry. Probably should have told you that.’”
The 2002 “Concert for George” was an all-star memorial concert for George Harrison, held at the Royal Albert Hall in London, on the first anniversary of Harrison’s death. Among the many musicians who appeared at the concert were both remaining Beatles – Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr – as well as Harrison’s son Dhani, who was 24 years old at that time, and who bears a striking resemblance to his father.
During the concert, McCartney remarked, “With Dhani on stage, it looks like we all got old, and George stayed young.”
Ringo, Oklahoma is a ghost town located approximately here (DD coordinates) ▲ 36.5751, -95.8845.
Ringo, Kansas is a tiny town, population approx 100 and located approximately here ▲ 37.5064, -94.765.
“Ringo” is a country song that reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on December 5, 1964. Written by Don Robertson and Hal Blair, it was the first and only top hit for Lorne Greene, who is best remembered for playing the patriarchal Ben Cartwright on Bonanza, and later Commander Adama on Battlestar Galactica.
Commander William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes) held that Starfleet rank throughout the entire run of Star Trek: The Next Generation. He was not promoted to captain with command of his own ship, the USS Titan, until the TNG movies, although he was at least twice earlier offered such an assignment.
Actors Jonathan Frakes (best known as Will Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Genie Francis (best known as Laura Spencer on General Hospital) first met in 1982 while working together on the prime-time soap opera Bare Essence. The two began dating in 1985, married in 1988, and have been together ever since.
Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) is the only human member of the ST:TNG series to have their name included in an episode title (“Ménage à Troi”).
Marina City is a mixed-use residential-commercial building complex in downtown Chicago, on the Chicago River. Originally completed in the 1960s, it was designed as a “city within a city,” to provide residents of its apartments with amenities such as retail stores, theater, gymnasium, bowling alley, and a private marina.
The twin apartment buildings have become iconic landmarks, due to their “corn cob” shape. The 1980 Steve McQueen film The Hunter featured a car chase through one of the towers’ parking garage, which culminated in a well-known stunt in which a car plunged from the tower into the river. The stunt was re-created for a television ad for Allstate insurance in 2007.
