On the TV series “Friends”, Chandler’s cross-dressing dad used the stage name Helena Handbasket.
The expression “Going to hell in a handbasket” appears to have originated with Chicago Whig political boss Buckner Stith Morris, in 1865.
Game 6 of the 1986 World Series between the Mets and the Red Sox was not lost by the Red Sox’s Bill Buckner 10th-inning error. Significant factors to the Red Sox losing game 6 and, eventually, the entire series include Roger Clemens begging out of the game in the 8th inning when the Mets later scored to tie the game that inning, and Bob Stanley’s wild pitch in the 10th that allowed the Mets to tie the game and move the winning run into scoring position.
Jacob Clemens non Papa was a Flemish Renaissance composer, well known for his polyphonic mass settings and motets.
It has been suggested that the epithet “non Papa” was appended to his name to distinguish the composer from Pope Clement VII, although it seems unlikely the two would ever have been confused.
I don’t see the connection or link.
In play:
Before achieving fame as a novelist, commentator, humorist and public speaker, Samuel Clemens worked for awhile as a newspaperman in San Francisco, California.
Samuel was the last of the Judges in the Old Testament. He annointed both Saul and David as Kings of Israel.
A ***last ***is a medeival unit of measurement, equal to 24 barrels of gunpowder, approximately two tons. The English use of the word dates from the tenth century/.
A last is also an iron or wooden form in the shape of a foot, used by shoemakers.
Jockey Willie ***Shoemaker ***won 8,833 horse races, a record that stood for 29 years. When he was born, he was so small, he was put in a shoe box to incubate overnight in the oven, and never weighed over 105 pounds in his life.
Jockey Bill Shoemaker won 11 triple Crown races in his career: 4 Kentucky Derbies, 2 Preakness Stakes, and 5 Belmont Stakes.
- Kentucky Derby: Swaps (1955), Tomy Lee (1959), Lucky Debonair (1965) and Ferdinand (1986)
- Preakness Stakes: Candy Spots (1963) and Damascus (1967)
- Belmont Stakes: Gallant Man (1957), Sword Dancer (1959), Jaipur (1962), Damascus (1967) and Avatar (1975)
In 1954, Royal Crown was the first company to sell soft drinks in a can.
Crown Royal is a blended Canadian whisky, which markets itself as a high-end product. Each bottle used to come in a purple bag, inside a box. The bag was discontinued a while ago, but it’s been brought back this year to celebrate Crown Royal’s anniversary.
In the ancient world the dye that produced the colour purple was obtained from a sea snail called the spiny dye murex. The bodies of thousands of these snails had to be used to create just a small amount of dye. Thus the colour purple came to be associated with great wealth and royalty.
Because of the cost of the dye, “To the purple born” became an expression for someone born into a situation of wealth and privilege.
The Gospel of Saint Luke includes the parable of an unnamed rich man and Lazarus. Traditionally the rich man is given the name ‘Dives’, the Latin for ‘man of wealth’.
Another Lazarus, in the Gospel of John, had been dead for four days, and then Jesus brought him back to life.
Felipe, Mateo and ***Jesus ***Alou were the only three brothers to ever play Major League Baseball together on the same team, once playing simultaneously as the three outfielders for the San Francisco Giants in a game in 1962.
The 1980 film The Long Riders featured 4 sets of brothers.
Keith, David and Robert Carradine
James and Stacy Keach
Dennis and Randy Quaid
Nicholas and Christopher Guest
The actor *Christopher Guest *is the 5th Baron Haden-Guest in the peerage of the United Kingdom. The peerage was created in 1950 for his grandfather Leslie Haden-Guest, a Labour Member of Parliament for North Southwark (1923-27) and North Islington (1937-50); Chairman of the National Medical Manpower Board (1945-55) and a Lord-in-Waiting in 1951.
The heir presumptive to the barony is Christopher’s younger brother, the Honourable Nicholas Haden-Guest.
Bullitt, please see post 20721.
The first Baron Haden-Guest was a Lord-in-Waiting in 1951, which was the last full year of life of His Majesty King George VI, father of the current British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.