The full Canadian coat of arms has 6 lions: on one division of the shield, gules three lions passant guardant; on a second division of the shield, Or a lion rampant; as a crest, gules a lion passant guardant Or imperially crowned proper and holding in the dexter paw a maple leaf gules; and as a supporter, a lion rampant Or holding a lance argent, point Or.
When the terms dexter (right) and sinister (left) are used in heraldry, they refer to the point of view of the arms-bearer. Thus, from an observer’s point of view dexter is actually the left side and sinister is the right side.
Consistent with the dexter/sinister distinction of Western European heraldry, the American flag should be saluted with the right hand (either in a military or Scout salute, or with a hand over the heart, or with a hat held over the heart).
In bridge, the odds of being dealt a hand of 13 cards (out of 52) of the same suit are 158,753,389,899 to 1.
The world’s longest bridge is the Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge in China, part of the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway. The bridge spans 102.4 miles. Another part of that train line, the 70.8-mile long Langfang–Qingxian viaduct, is the second longest bridge in the world.
The Broughton Suspension Bridge was an iron chain suspension bridge built in 1826 to span the River Irwell between Broughton and Pendleton, near Manchester in England.
On 12 April 1831 the bridge collapsed, reportedly due to mechanical resonance induced by troops marching in step. As a result of the incident, the British Army issued an order that all troops should “break step” when crossing a bridge.
By the early 19th century, Manchester was the second largest city in England, but had no representation in the House of Commons, until the Great Reform Act of 1832 granted it two Members of Parliament.
Today is the second Sunday of the Easter season, known traditionally as Quasimodo Sunday, from the opening words of the entrance chant: Quasi modo geniti infantes (“As new born babies”).
The character of Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame was given his name because he was found as an abandoned infant on this day.
The season of Easter is fifty days long, from Easter Sunday up to and inclusive of Pentecost.
Pentecostalism is a renewal movement within Protestant Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism with the Holy Spirit. It is distinguished by belief in the use of spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues and divine healing.
One of the most famous lines from Virgil’s *Aeneid *is timeo Danaos et dona ferentes (“I fear the Greeks, even when bearing gifts”). It is spoken by the Trojan priest Laocoön, who distrusts the Greeks’ offer of the gift of the Trojan horse as they pretend to depart after their long siege of Troy.
It is sometimes heard in the more colloquial form “beware of Greeks bearing gifts”.
A recreated Trojan Horse is part of the current Turkish Government ad campaign to encourage more tourism.
https://turkishdelight2012.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/turkey-0812-368.jpg
In CS Lewis’ book *The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe * it is enchanted, addictive Turkish delight that results in the ensnaring of Edmund Pevensie in the White Witch’s evil plans.
Sales of Turkish delight rose following the theatrical release of the 2005 film version of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Turkish delight or lokum is a family of confections based on a gel of starch and sugar. Premium varieties consist largely of chopped dates, pistachios, and hazelnuts or walnuts bound by the gel; traditional varieties are mostly gel, generally flavored with rosewater, mastic, Bergamot orange, or lemon. The confection is often packaged and eaten in small cubes dusted with icing sugar, copra, or powdered cream of tartar, to prevent clinging.
(Had to look that one up, but hey I know what that is!)
Lord Peter Wimsey uses the murderer’s fondness for Turkish delight to trap him into a confession in Strong Poison.
In another of Sayers’ novels, Clouds of Witness, Lord Peter’s brother Gerald, the Duke of Denver, is tried for murder in the House of Lords.
This right of peers to be tried in the Lords was abolished in 1948. The last such trial in the House was of Edward Southwell Russell, 26th Baron de Clifford in 1935
Prior to enactment of modern divorce laws covering all of Canada in 1968, the Senate of Canada acted as the trial court for legislative divorces for those provinces which lacked divorce law.
Members of the Australian Senate are elected using the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system of proportional representation.
For senators representing a state, the quota for election is 14.3% of the total vote (i.e. one seventh) in a half-Senate election, and 7.7% of the total vote (i.e. one thirteenth) in a full-Senate election. For senators representing a territory, the quota for election is always 33.3% (i.e. one third).
The President pro tem of the U.S. Senate, traditionally the senior senator of the majority party, is third in line of succession to become President of the United States, after the Vice President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. No Speaker or President pro tem has ever become President due to the death or resignation of someone higher on the list.
Victoria and South Australia were the first states to introduce secrecy of the ballot (1856), and for that reason the secret ballot is referred to as the “Australian ballot.” It now means the system of voting in which voters mark their choices in privacy on uniform ballots printed and distributed by the government, or designate their choices by some other secret means. In Great Britain the secret ballot was finally introduced for all parliamentary and municipal elections by the Ballot Act of 1872. In the United States, the Australian ballot system was extensively adopted after the presidential election of 1884.