Martha Washington affectionately referred to her husband, the first President of the United States, as “Old Man.” Much to the chagrin of later historians, she burned most of his letters to her not long before she died.
NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt was killed in a final lap collision at the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 18, 2001 when he crashed into the retaining wall after making contact with Ken Schrader. Earnhardt’s mother’s name is Martha.
The Beatles song “Martha My Dear” was written about Paul McCartney’s English sheepdog.
Tony Randall sometimes performed the Flanders & Swann song, “Have some Madeira, m’dear.”
Tony Randall passed away in 2004 at the age of 84. Nine years earlier, at 75, he married 25 year old intern Heather Harlan. Fifty years his junior. Fifty years.
New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft began dating blonde actress Ricki Noel Lander, 39 years his junior, shortly after the death of his beloved long-time wife and prominent philanthropist Myra Kraft. In July 2012, Kraft assisted Lander in creating an audition video for a role in The Internship, a Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson film. Kraft later apologized for the video, but not before it became a YouTube classic (his acting is even worse than hers).
The 2007 New England Patriots finished the regular season with a perfect 16–0 record, becoming only the fourth team in league history to go undefeated, and the only one since the league expanded its regular season schedule to 16 games. The three other undefeated (and untied) NFL teams are the 1934 Chicago Bears, the 1942 Chicago Bears, and the 1972 Miami Dolphins.
But did they won the Superbowl? Noooo. They lost one game in the post-season, to the New York Giants, 17-14.
@Northern Piper: yes, and I loved it!
In play:
The 1934 Chicago Bears were denied a perfect season when they lost the championship game to the NY Giants, 30-13.
The 1942 Chicago Bears were denied a perfect season when they lost the championship game to the Washington Redskins, 14-6.
The 1972 Miami Dolphins clinched their perfect season when they won Super Bowl VII against the Washington Redskins, 14-7.
The 2007 New England Patriots were denied a perfect season when they lost Super Bowl XLII to the NY Giants, 17-14.
As Northern Piper said!
No CFL team has has had a perfect regular season since the CFL went to an 18 game season. The closest was the Edmonton Eskimos in 1989, who posted a 16-2 record.
However, even with that record, the Esks did not make it to the Grey Cup, running into a slight obstacle in the western final, namely the Saskatchewan Roughriders with a mediocre 9-9 season record. Having defeated the Esks 32-21 in the West final, the Riders went in to defeat the Hamilton Ti-Cats 43-40, in what many consider one of the best Grey Cup games ever played.
The TSN Top 50 CFL Players is a list of the fifty greatest players in the CFL compiled by The Sports Network in 2006 as selected by a panel of sixty former CFL players, then-current and former coaches, executives, and media members. The results were announced as part of the 2006 Grey Cup festivities in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In that list, Doug Flutie was #1.
Some Doug Flutie facts:
As of Nov 2004 only three quarterbacks have passed for more yards at the professional level than Doug Flutie (57,951): Warren Moon (70,553), Dan Marino (61,361) and (then-)current CFL star Damon Allen (58,407). (Allen’s CFL career ended in 2007 and the article was written in Nov 2004).
As of Nov 2004 Doug Flutie is the third most prolific offensive player in the history of professional football with 64,144 yards (behind Moon and Allen). His pro career includes one year in the USFL, eight years in the CFL and 11 years in the NFL.
In college, Doug Flutie was the first quarterback in history to pass for more than 10,000 yards.
Doug Flutie has spent 11 years in the NFL, far more time than the average QB, and he has been remarkably successful when given an opportunity to play. He was run out of Chicago by Jim McMahon, who probably realized that Flutie was a better player and feared for his job. (cite)
Doug Flutie’s height and weight according to NFL.com (cite) is 5’ 10" and 180lbs. He is currently 52 years old.
The Cole Porter musical Anything Goes opened in 1935 on Broadway with Ethel Merman as Reno Sweeney, William Gaxton as Billy Crocker, and Victor Moore as Moon Martin (public enemy #13). Its next appearance in 1962 starred Hal Linden as Billy, and added musical numbers from other Porter musicals to it. It became the standard version for all revivals after that.
The USS Black Hawk was Flag Officer David Dixon Porter’s flagship in the Mississippi Squadron during the American Civil War. The converted passenger steamship included an onboard stable for Porter’s and his staff’s horses.
Pencil manufacturers Dixon Ticonderoga Co. have recently ceased US manufacture of their trademark Ticonderoga wooden pencil. They were the favorite brand of Roald Dahl. The company’s director of business development is former college football coach Lee Corso, who is better known as a sports broadcaster on ESPN. His on-air trademark is waving a pencil to punctuate his speech.
Lee Corso played quarterback for Florida State in the 1950s.
(Video: Lee Corso Shoots a Gun on ESPN’s College Gameday) “Drinking beer, shooting guns and watching football — is there anything in this world more American than Lee Corso?” (link)
Lee Corso’s roommate at Florida State was a halfback named Burt Reynolds.
Other college roommates include Holly Hunter and Frances McDormand (Yale), Tommy Lee Jones and Al Gore (Harvard), Christopher Reeves and Robin Williams (The Julliard School), Stanley Tucci and Ving Rhames (SUNY Purchase), Sherry Stringfield and Parker Posey (also at SUNY Purchase).
Ving Rhames was known at that time as Irving Rameses Rhames.
At SUNY Purchase, Sherry Stringfield and Parker Posey were there in the mid-1980s, and Stanley Tucci and Ving Rhames were there in the late 1970s.
In 1920, the Juilliard Foundation was created, named after textile merchant Augustus D. Juilliard, who bequeathed a substantial amount of money for the advancement of music in the United States. In 1924, the foundation purchased the Vanderbilt family guesthouse at 49 East 52nd Street to start the Juilliard Graduate School
Augustus Juilliard’s will included gifts to hospitals, museums and other charitable causes but the vast majority of his estate was designated for the advancement of music in the United States.
In 1920, the Juilliard Foundation was created.
In 1924, the Foundation’s funds were used by its Trustees to establish the Juilliard Graduate School to assist excelling students with an advanced music education.
In 1926, the school was merged with the New York Institute of Musical Art, a music academy established in 1905 by the Godson of Franz Liszt, Frank Damrosch.
Octavian, later known as Caesar Augustus, joined the Second Triumvirate in 43 BC. Although he began as almost a junior partner with Mark Antony and Marcus Lepidus, by the end of the 10 years of triumvirate rule, he emerged as the sole ruler of Rome, beginning the Roman Empire.