Stockholm Syndrome is a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and sympathy and have positive feelings toward their captors, sometimes to the point of defending and identifying with them.
The involvement of Patty Hearst with the urban guerrilla group, the Symbionese Liberation Army, who had kidnapped her is perhaps the most famous cited example.
The term ‘China Syndrome’ has been used to describe a severe nuclear reactor meltdown. Speculation had it that nothing would stop the radioactive meltdown material from tunnelling through the centre of the earth and out of the surface on the other side - in popular myth, China.
The China Syndrome, starring Jane Fonda and Jack Lemmon, was released to theaters on March 16, 1979 – twelve days before the Three Mile Island accident.
Canada has three of the top 10 largest islands in the world: Baffin Island (#5; 507,451 sq.km); Victoria Island (#8; 217,291 sq.km); and Ellsmere Island (# 10; 196,236 sq.km). Since they are all in the Arctic Archipelago, they are not easily accessible.
West Side Story’s song “America” is sung by a group of Puerto Ricans about the praises of America vs. Puerto Rico. In a brilliant rhyme, Stephen Sondheim came up with “I like the island Manhattan. Smoke on your pipe and put that in.”
*Ellesmere Port is a industrial town and port in Cheshire, North West England. It is situated in Wirral on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal, and north of the Roman City of Chester.
The town is primarily industrial, dominated by the (formerly Shell now Essar Energy) Stanlow Oil Refinery and a former ICI chemical works as well as a Vauxhall car plant.*
Sorry - you got there first!
Located in the West of England and extending into north Wales, the Earldom of Chester was one of the most powerful of the medieval earls. It eventually passed to the Crown by escheat. It is now one of the titles conferred on the Prince of Wales
Chester Cheetah is the advertising mascot for Cheetos, which are made of cornmeal with an artificial cheese flavoring, made by Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo. Chester starred in two video games for the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo systems, *Chester Cheetah: Too Cool to Fool *and Chester Cheetah: Wild Wild Quest.
Parley Baer was the original voice of Ernie, the Keebler Elf. Prior to that his most famous role was that of Chester in the radio version of Gunsmoke.
A monument not far from my childhood home in Wahroonga, a northern Sydney suburb, commemorates the first direct radio broadcast between England and Australia. A bronze tablet on the base of the monument states:
“K-K-K-Katy” was a popular World War I-era song written by Geoffrey O’Hara in 1917 and published in 1918.
Its chorus:
K-K-K-Katy, beautiful Katy,
You’re the only g-g-g-girl that I adore;
When the m-m-m-moon shines,
Over the cowshed,
I’ll be waiting at the k-k-k-kitchen door.
(my mom used to sing that song when I was a child - never realized it dated from WWI)
The name of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is thought to have been derived from κυκλος, the Greek word for ‘circle’.
Whereas the Latin for ‘circle’ is circulus.
Circulus is the name of a psychedelic medieval folk/rock band from South London, England (there is a little used classification!). The band uses a mix of modern and medieval instruments, such as the lute, cittern, crumhorn and rauschpfeife, together with moog synthesizers, bass and electric guitars.
The London-based folk rock group Pentangle, whose top-selling album was “Basket of Light”, took their name from their five members.
The Pentagon building in Arlington VA has twice the number of toilet facilities needed for a building of its size because it was built from 1941 to 1943, when racial segregation was in place according to Virginia state laws, and toilet facilities were built separately for gender, and for race.
“Va” is the third person singular form of the irregular French verb “aller”, meaning “to go.”
The third person singular, present indicative active form of ‘ire’, the Latin verb ‘to go’ is ‘it’. And for ‘exire’, the verb ‘to go out’, the form is ‘exit’.
The final episode of *Seinfeld/I] is said to have been inspired by Sartre’s play No Exit.
One of the more memorable stage directions in the First Folio is found in The Winter’s Tale, where Antigonus is directed to “Exit, pursued by a bear.”
Antigonus is not seen again.
There are only eight species of bears in the world and all of them can kill humans. Bears do not go out of their way to attack humans but will also not think twice about charging a human who trespasses on their territory or threatens their young. An average of five to 10 people a year are killed in encounters with bears.