Wiki: St Ambrose of Milan relates that when St. Lawrence was asked for the treasures of the Church he brought forward the poor, among whom he had divided the treasure as alms. “Behold in these poor persons the treasures which I promised to show you; to which I will add pearls and precious stones, those widows and consecrated virgins, which are the church’s crown.” The prefect was so angry that he had a great gridiron prepared, with coals beneath it, and had Lawrence’s body placed on it (hence St Lawrence’s association with the gridiron). After the martyr had suffered the pain for a long time, the legend concludes, he made his famous cheerful remark, “I’m well done. Turn me over!” From this derives his patronage of cooks and chefs, and also of comedians.
Queen Elizabeth II sometimes practices wearing the weighty Imperial State Crown before she has to don it for a State Opening of Parliament. She did the same before her 1953 Coronation, as well.
http://www.people.com/people/package/article/0,,20395222_20925984,00.html
The first official State Dinner at the White House was held by President Ulysses Grant in honor of King David Kalakaua of Hawaii, in hopes of flattering the young monarch into greater submissiveness to US economic interests.
In 1869, Ulysses S Grant became the youngest President to serve to that time. He was 46. When he was at West Point he did well in geology and mathematics, and he excelled in equestrian events.
Grant, Alabama, is a town in Marshall County, in the northeast part of Alabama. As of the 2010 census, the population of Grant was 896; it is included in the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.8 square miles (4.7 km2), all land. Grant is located at on the plateau top of Gunters Mountain. A historical cave, Cathedral Caverns, is just outside Grant in nearby Woodville, Alabama.
For the Record: I have visited Grant, Alabama. It is as exciting as any town of 900 people usually is (that is, not much).
The US Army Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, which now includes NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, was the original site of the Army’s development work in missiles. Werner von Braun and his German team were sent there first after being extracted from the ruins of Germany in Operation Paperclip. The first two manned Mercury missions were boosted by Redstone missiles, designed and built there by von Braun and company.
Wahzoo City, AL was the setting for the (great! IMHO) comedy movie, My Cousin Vinny (1992). Although set in Alabama, much of the filming was done in Georgia. In the movie, the filmmakers changed the state road signs to retain all of the correct state road numbers, but they changed the shape to Alabama instead of Georgia.
With thanks to roadTripMemories.com:
Opening scenes: Georgia State Road 83 at Nolan Store Road – South of Bostwick, Georgia; around Monticello and Eatonton
The Sac-O-Suds Convenience Store: Sac-O-Suds Convenience Store, State Road 16, Monticello, Georgia, at the Ocmulgee River. The store had been closed but has been rebuilt and is now operating again. They actually sell “Two Yutes Tuna” cans, a reference to the movie plot.
Wahzoo City: Monticello, Georgia (Town Square)
Jasper County Courthouse, all exterior scenes: Monticello, Georgia
Jasper County Courthouse interior scenes: at a set in Covington, Georgia.
Mitchell’s Department Store: a Mitchell’s Department Store exists in Monticello, Georgia.
Lacy’s Second-hand Store: is now a nail salon in Monticello, Georgia
Dave’s Bar-B-Q and Seafood :is now Dave’s Bar-B-Que and Soul Food, located not far from the courthouse square in Monticello, Georgia
Prison, exterior scenes: Lee Arrendale State Prison, Alto, Georgia
The English word “my” is translated by three different words in French: “mon” (masculine singular); “ma” (feminine singular); and “mes” (neutral plural).
In a random and bizarre tragedy, English IndyCar race driver Justin Wilson died on Monday when some debris from another crashed car in Sunday’s race struck his helmet. IndyCar drivers are more vulnerable to such incidents because their cars’ cockpits are open, and much more open than other race cars including Formula 1.
R.I.P., Justin Wilson.
ETA: pictures of race cars,
IndyCar DW12: https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7126/6884982238_cf4ce21d66_b.jpg
Formula 1: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Fernando_Alonso_2010_Jerez_test_14.jpg
Missed the edit window to show two other pictures, with the cockpit vulnerability difference a little more noticeable.
IndyCar DW12: http://ims.cdn.racersites.com/prod/photos/342083/FULL.jpg
Formula 1: http://www.benzinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/MGPW02_big.jpg
Again, R.I.P., Justin Wilson.
The six-wheeled Tyrrell P34 car, raced in Formula 1 in 1976 and 1977, with Jody Scheckter and Patrick Depailler driving them to first and second places in the Swedish Grand Prix and Anderstorp in 1976. The car had four very small front wheels to reduce frontal area and air drag, and to increase ground contact and improve cornering. The Brabham BT46B “fancar”, using something like a vacuum cleaner to pull the car down to the pavement, arrived in 1978, also in Sweden, but raced only that once - Niki Lauda won with it, though.
As of late 2012, Sweden had won 30 Nobel prizes, including 5 Peace prizes. This is the 5th highest number of laureates in the world, and the highest per capita ratio for any country with over 1 million inhabitants.
Of course Nobel Prizes are awarded by Sweden (except the Peace Prize, awarded by Norway).
Perhaps coincidentally, Sweden has the highest number of McDonald restaurants per capita in Europe (although that is only about half of the US ratio).
For some time after the award’s inception in 1901, when the awards to Wilhelm Röntgen (X-rays) and others were worth $1.2M in 2012 dollars, Nobel’s foundation struggled and the value of its awards shrank by 69%. The fund was Stockholm’s largest single taxpayer and an expected tax exemption did not work out. Another problem for the fund was Nobel’s instructions to invest in “safe securities.” Initial investments in mortgages and bonds took a pounding during the inflation of the 20th century. Measured in Swedish kronor the prizes dipped only a little, but measured in spending power they collapsed.
The Nobel Foundation saved itself by changing its investment rules. It won a tax exemption in 1946 and seven years later obtained permission to invest in stocks and real estate. The 1982–99 bull market combined with caution in advancing the prize values restored the endowment. The Nobel fund was worth $430 million in early 2012, which is not quite double, in real terms, the sum that Alfred Bernhard Nobel left behind when he died in 1896.
The Swedish Air Force roundel shows the three crowns, yellow on a blue field, which have long been heraldic symbols of the kingdom.
The BMW car (and motorcycle!) roundel depicts a spinning 2-bladed propeller. The 2 blue opposite quadrants are the sky, and the other two white opposite quadrants are the blurred propeller blades.
Missed the edit window to paste a picture, but found this - apparently this is a myth!
http://bmwmcmag.com/2013/01/origins-of-the-bmw-logo-and-the-spinning-propeller-myth/
From the article:
It wasn’t until 12 years later, in 1929, that a picture of the logo superimposed onto a spinning propeller and a plane first appeared.
Ignorance fought!
Herbert Hoover came into the White House showing great promise due to his work on post-World War I hunger relief and as a capable U.S. Secretary of Commerce, but he was only in office five months before the Stock Market Crash of October 1929, and his Presidency never recovered.
He and his wife, Lou Hoover, often talked with each other in Mandarin Chinese, to foil eavesdroppers. Their first home as a married couple was in Tianjin, where Herbert was embarking on his civil engineering career. They were also both proficient in Latin, and collaborated on translating Agricola’s metallurgy text De Re Metallica into English.
Metallica by Metallica (commonly known as “The Black Album”) is one of the best-selling albums of all time, having certified sales of nearly 20 million units. The only heavy metal album to outsell it is AC/DC’s Back in Black, which has sold nearly 26 million.