The SOA, North American Society of Actuaries in Schaumburg Illinois, certifies by examinations Associates and Fellows in the SOA, and also a Risk Analyst credential for either level. Exam P, Probability, is a three–hour multiple–choice examination and is one of five preliminary exams. Typical pass rates for the preliminary exams is about 30-40%.
The Institute of Actuaries of Australia has just on 4,500 members, of whom around 2,000 are Fellows. Almost half of the Fellows work in the traditional fields of life insurance (22.7%) and general insurance (24.7%). Other fields of employment include superannuation (7.8%), banking (7.2%), health (2.0%) and investment/funds management (5.6%).
The banking family Rothschild kept their fortunes intact by marrying within the family. For example, Baron Henri James Nathaniel Charles Rothschild, a playwright whose pen-names included André Pascal, descends from four Rothschild bank founding brothers(*): Salomon (Austria), Calmann (Italy), Nathan (Britain), Jacob (France). Henri descends from Nathan two different ways: Nathan’s daughter Luise was Henri’s maternal grandmother; Nathan’s son Nathaniel (who established the vineyard Château Mouton Rothschild) was Henri’s paternal grandfather.
-
- Amschel Mayer Rothschild, the fifth and oldest of the founding brothers, who inherited his father’s Frankfurt bank, died childless.
Hannah de Rothschild was the daughter of Mayer de Rothschild and his wife Juliana, née Cohen. Upon the death of her father in 1874 she became the richest woman in Britain.
She married the Earl of Rosebery. Her death at the relatively early age of 39 in 1890 left him completely bereft. He planned to build a smaller replica of the Taj Mahal to house her tomb. He subsequently became PM, but his premiership was considered to have been a failure, largely because he seemed incapable of performing any of the functions of the role without the support of his wife.
Hannah de Rothschild died of typhoid, and she also had Bright’s Disease. Today, Bright’s Disease is described as glomerulonephritis. Richard Bright, the pioneering nephrologist, died in 1858, and Hannah de Rothschild lived from 1851 to 1890.
H.R. “Bum” Bright bought the Dallas Cowboys from Clint Murchison in 1984 and sold the team to Jerry Jones in 1989, who fired Tom Landry, the only coach the team had ever had. Bright had been a bitter opponent of John F. Kennedy, and had co-sponsored a full-page ad in the Dallas Morning News opposing his policies - the ad ran the day of the assassination.
Owners of the Dallas Cowboys have been:
1960-1984: William R. Hawn and Clint Murchison, founding partners of the Dallas Steers
1984-1989: HR “Bum” Bright
1989-(now): Jerry Jones
Jack Ruby, who shot Lee Harvey Oswald, the key suspect in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the murder of Ptl. J.D. Tippit, owned two Dallas nightclubs.
The restaurant chain Ruby Tuesday was named directly for the Rolling Stones’ song “Ruby Tuesday”, written by Keith Richards about a groupie he remembered fondly. The company was the first large national casual dining chain in the country to post specific nutritional information on their menus.
The Ruby was the name of the diner in Corner Gas, set in Dog River, Saskatchewan.
The Murray River is Australia’s longest river at 2,508 kilometres in length. The Murray rises in the Australian Alps, draining the western side of Australia’s highest mountains and, for most of its length, meanders across Australia’s inland plains, forming the border between the states of New South Wales and Victoria as it flows to the northwest, before turning south for its final 500 kilometres into South Australia, reaching the ocean at Lake Alexandrina.
Mount Kosciuszko in the Australian Alps is the highest mountain in Australia and was named in honor of a hero of the American Revolutionary War, General Tadeusz Kościuszko.
Hero and Leander is the Greek myth relating the story of Hero, a priestess of Aphrodite who dwelt in a tower in Sestos on the European side of the Hellespont (today’s Dardanelles), and Leander, a young man from Abydos on the opposite side of the strait. Leander fell in love with Hero and would swim every night across the Hellespont to be with her. Hero would light a lamp at the top of her tower to guide his way.
Succumbing to Leander’s soft words and to his argument that Venus, as the goddess of love, would scorn the worship of a virgin, Hero allowed him to make love to her. These trysts lasted through the warm summer. But one stormy winter night, the waves tossed Leander in the sea and the breezes blew out Hero’s light; Leander lost his way and was drowned. When Hero saw his dead body, she threw herself over the edge of the tower to her death to be with him.
“The Tower Treasure” was the first book in the original series of Hardy Boys books.
The Australian life insurer/funds manager Tower traces its origins back to the Government Life Office of New Zealand, established in 1869.
Hartford, Connecticut has been dubbed “The Insurance Capital of the U.S.” While major insurance companies have moved out of Hartford, Connecticut still has the most insurance jobs than any other state in the U.S. Hartford has a greater percentage of its employment, 8.5%, from insurance when compared with about 1% for the U.S. overall. Hartford ranks number one in written life insurance premium, and number two for all total direct written premium in the US. Hartford also has the most actuaries.
(And a shout out for West Hartford, Hall High: HALL RULES 79
Deborah Kerr in The King and I, Natalie Wood in West Side Story and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady all had their singing voices dubbed by the American soprano Marni Nixon.
Nixon’s first onscreen appearance was as Sister Sophia in the 1965 film The Sound of Music. In the DVD commentary to the film, director Robert Wise comments that audiences were finally able to see the woman whose voice they knew so well from other films.
Good trivia, Cunctator!
Director Robert Wise won Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for both West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1965).
Lyricist Stephen Sondheim originally wanted to end Officer Krupie from West Side Story with “Gee, Officer Krupie…Fuck you!,” but there would have been trouble transporting the vast LP across state lines with such vulgarity on it. He was complaining about this to composer Leonard Bernstein, moaning “Lennie, I can’t come with a good alternate ending for the song.” Whereupon Lennie sang “Gee, Officer Krupkie…Krup you!”
Sondheim agreed that was even better than his idea.
King Stephen is one of two English kings without a number behind his name.