The first full-length animated film, “El Apostol”, was created in Argentina in 1917. The only known copy was destroyed in a fire in the home of the producer of the film.
Al Michaels is the only TV sports announcer to have been traded for an animated cartoon character. ABC, which by 2006 was owned by Disney and had Michaels under contract to its ESPN subsidiary, released him to NBC so he could rejoin his old partner John Madden on Sunday Night Football. In exchange, they acquired the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks when they worked for Universal (later merged with NBC), before leaving to form their own studio with the Oswald-knockoff Mickey Mouse as its top character.
In 1988, the Edmonton Oilers traded Wayne Gretzky to the L.A. Kings for Jimmy Carson and other considerations.
Carson, a relative unknown, took it well, saying that “Ten years from now, I’m going to be the answer to a question in Trivial Pursuit: who did the Oilers get in exchange for Wayne Gretzky?”
Jimmy Carson scored more goals as a teenager than any other player in NHL history, and only Gretzky himself scored his 100th goal at a younger age than Carson.
The youngest person to have been appointed British Prime Minister was William Pitt the Younger. At his appointment on 19 December 1783 he was aged 24 years, 6 months and 21 days.
Legendary Indian Fighter Kit Carson had 9 siblings and 5 more half-siblings.
There was no word in English that meant “brother or sister” until “sibling” was coined around 1900. It was taken from an obsolete Old English term meaning “relative.”
However, there is still no gender-neutral word in English meaning “aunt” or “uncle”.
“Uncle” is an old nickname for a pawnbroker, perhaps from a meme that a sudden increase in a customer’s cash could be attributed to a rich uncle rather than admitting an embarrassing truth to his friends.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) voted “not proven” in the 1999 trial of President Bill Clinton before the U.S. Senate, following Clinton’s impeachment by the House of Representatives. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, presiding, ruled that the vote was the equivalent of “not guilty,” and it was thus recorded.
In play:
Rehnquist was not Specter’s uncle.
Is that the way it works? Thanks for the correction.
The adjective *avuncular *means ‘in the manner of, or relating to an uncle’.
The equivalent adjective for an aunt is materteral.
Update to a previous post:
I saw in this morning’s paper that the Dowager Duchess had died, so there are now no surviving Mitford sisters.
The character of Aunt Harriet was added to the Batman mythos in 1964. She joined the Wayne household after the death of Alfred Pennyworth* and took his place in running the household – without knowing the Bruce and Dick were crimefighters.
*It’s a comic book, so Alfred came back from the dead later.
Humphrey Pennyworth was Joe Palooka’s best friend and sparring partner. Former boxing champion Maxie Rosenbloom played Humphrey in the syndicated TV series.
Humphrey Bogart is credited with five of the American Film Institute’s top 100 quotations in American cinema, the most by any actor:
5th: “Here’s looking at you, kid”—Casablanca
14th: “The stuff that dreams are made of.”—The Maltese Falcon
20th: “Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”—Casablanca
43rd: “We’ll always have Paris.”—Casablanca
67th: “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.”—Casablanca
You missed #28:
Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By.’
Casablanca, a name that means “white house” in Spanish, is called ed-Dar el-Biḍa in Arabic, which also means white house. But the original name was Anfa, a Berber word meaning “the top”. It was renamed Casa Branca by the Portuguese in the late 1500s, and renamed by the Spanish after it was destroyed by an earthquake and the Portuguese abandoned their occupation of the city.
Felicia Hemans wrote the poem *Casabianca *(Italian for white house) in 1826. It is best known for its opening lines:
The White House was set on fire by the British in 1814 during the War of 1812.