Barnaby was a comic strip by Crockett Johnson, about a boy who had a fairy Godfather – Mr. O’Malley – and had comic adventures with characters like Gus the timid ghost, McSnoyd, the invisible leprechaun, Atlas the mental giant, and Gorgon, a talking dog. Johnson later created Harold and the Purple Crayon books; Harold looked exactly like Barnaby.
In Charles Dickens’ novel Barnaby Rudge, the title character has a pet raven named Grip. This raven was said to have been the inspiration for Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem.
The Baltimore Ravens, whose team name was inspired by Baltimore resident Edgar Allan Poe, are currently the only team in the NFL to hold a perfect record in multiple Super Bowl appearances.
The author Edgar Rice Burroughs is probably most famous for his character Tarzan, the aristocratic English child orphaned in Africa and raised by great apes.
Tarzana, California, is a city in the San Fernando Valley where the land was once owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Burroughs named his land Tarzana Ranch. Burroughs, born in Chicago, is buried in Tarzana.
San Fernando is named for Saint Ferdinand III, King of Castile. He was canonised in 1671 by Pope Clement X.
American football player Clem Daniels played in the AFL with the Dallas Texans and Oakland Raiders.
Quantrill’s Raiders were a group of guerrillas operating before and during the Civil War, led by William Quantrill, against any Union sympathizers in the Kansas-Missouri border area. The fictional Rooster Cogburn, the John Wayne character from “True Grit”, was a Quantrill’s Raider, as was Clint Eastwood’s character Josey Wales…
Informally since 2003 and formally since 2014, those serving under the United States Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC) are called Marine Raiders.
The difference between “marine” and “aquatic”, is that marine refers only to the environment of the oceans or other natural bodies of salt water, and aquatic can refer also to bodies of fresh water.
Earlier this year, the New Jersey State Assembly approved a bill to make salt water taffy the state’s officlal state candy. The treat was invented by accident in Atlantic City in 1883, when a storm flooded a confectioner’s shop. It has been a staple of the Jersey Shore ever since.
Under the official rules of the time, Taffy Wright won the 1938 AL batting championship by hitting .350. You won’t find his name in the record books: at the time, you would qualify for the championship by appearing in at least 100 games. Wright did indeed appear in 100 games, but only had 282 plate appearances; he would often be put in with a defensive replacement. The league felt that, despite technically qualifying, granting him the championship was wrong, so Jimmy Foxx was named instead.
Under the official rules of the time, Taffy Wright won the 1938 AL batting championship by hitting .350. You won’t find his name in the record books: at the time, the qualify for the championship by appearing in at least 100 games. Wright did indeed appear in 100 games, but only had 282 plate appearances; he was often used as a pinch hitter. The league felt that, despite technically qualifying, granting him the championship was wrong, so Jimmy Foxx was named instead.
Terry Francona’s father, Tito Francona, suffered a similar fate in 1959, when he led the league in batting, but with only 399 at-bats, one short of the qualifying number. The rule has since been changed, so that he could have been charged with the requisite number of phantom hitless at-bats to qualify, calculating the actual number of hits. (Taffy wright’s first name was Taft.)
In March 1959 construction began on the Sydney Opera House. It was formally opened on 20 October 1973 by Queen Elizabeth II.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera has been produced in 151 cities, in 30 countries around the world, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, England, Germany, Holland, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand and The United States
(What are the other four?)
Lloyd’s of London, the insurance marketplace, has its origins in the coffee house established by Edward Lloyd in 1688 in Tower Street in London.
Its business is almost entirely general insurance and reinsurance, although some syndicates do underwrite life risks.
Over the years Lloyd’s has entered the public consciousness for its coverage of various celebrities’ features: actresses’ legs, pianists’ fingers etc.
Representing the Cheerio Yo-Yo Company of Canada, 13-year-old Harvey Lowe won the 1932 World Yo-Yo championships in London and toured Europe from 1932 to 1935. He even taught Edward VIII, the Prince of Wales, how to yo-yo. Lowe was so valuable to Cheerio that the company insured his hands through Lloyd’s of London for $150,000.
Lloyd Aero Boliviano was the flagship Bolivian airline for 80 years, and was once the second largest airline in South America. The founder of the airline, in 1925, chose the name Lloyd because he thought a name associated with the reputation of Lloyds Insurance would lend an image of safety and security to the airline.