Wilhelm Grimm and Jacob Grimm, the Brothers Grimm (die Gebrüder Grimm), lived in Germany in the 19th century. They were born in 1785 and 1786, respectively, in Hanau, and attended the University of Marburg in Marburg. There they studied medieval German literature, as they desired to unify Germany’s then-200 principalities into a single state. Jacob later worked for the King of Westphalia in Kassel. They later lived in Göttingen, in the Kingdom of Hanover. They later lived in Berlin, where they eventually died - Wilhelm in 1859 and Jacob in 1863. Jacob is buried in Alter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof, Berlin.
The Kessel Run is a smuggler’s route in the Star Wars Expanded Universe which passes through a very dangerous cluster of asteroids and black holes. Han Solo, in A New Hope, brags to Luke and Obi-Wan that he “made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs.” Since parsec is a measure of distance, not time, this has led to much fanwanking about what he really meant. The most common theory is that he had discovered a much shorter route via the Kessel Run by passing closer to black holes than any other space freighters. A more sober explanation, however, is that Han Solo was merely blowing smoke out his ass – especially in light of an early draft of the Star Wars screenplay, which includes the line: “Kenobi reacts to Solo’s stupid attempt to impress them with obvious misinformation.”
Also, Kassel is a possible cargo destination in the game Euro Truck Simulator 2. When playing the game, I always give priority to urgent Kassel deliveries, so I can brag about “making the Kassel Run in less than 12 parsecs.” 
Carl Kasell is an American radio personality, most widely known as a newscaster for National Public Radio and as the former official judge and scorekeeper of the weekly news quiz show Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! Kasell left the show in 2014 and is now retired, but not until after recording numerous answering machine messages for lucky fans.
In chess, to castle is a move that involves one’s king and either rook as the king moves two squares towards either rook and that rook moves to the other side of the king’s final square. Castling is the only move in chess where a player moves two pieces in one move.
Castling has its roots in the “king’s leap”. There were two forms of the leap: (1) the king would move once like a knight, and (2) the king would move two squares on his first move. The knight-move might be used early in the game to get the king to safety or later in the game to escape a threat. This second form was played in Europe as early as the 13th Century.
The Great Leap Forward of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was an economic and social campaign by the Communist Party of China (CPC) from 1958 to 1961. The campaign was led by Mao Zedong and aimed to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a socialist society through rapid industrialization and collectivization. The program’s creation of mandatory agricultural collectivization, and outlawing private farming, is often blamed for widespread famine.
La Bougie du Sapeur, first published in 1980, is a humorous French newspaper published every February 29—i.e., once every four years. Its most recent edition, the ninth one, was issued on February 29, 2012.
The newspaper’s name (literally, “The Candle of the Sapper”) is derived from a comics character, the sapper Camember, created by Georges Colomb in the 1890s. In the story, Camember was born on February 29; so, when recruited in the army, he was ‘just five years old’…
“Bougie”, derived from the French “bourgeoisie” for middle class, is a common urban (typically black) slang adjective for people who put on airs, trying to appear to be higher-class than they really are.
The Battle of Agincourt was a major English victory in the Hundred Years’ War. The battle took place on Friday, 25 October 1415 (Saint Crispin’s Day), near modern-day Azincourt, in northern France. Henry V’s victory at Agincourt, against a numerically superior French army, crippled France and started a new period in the war during which Henry V married the French king’s daughter, and their son, later Henry VI of England and Henry II of France, was made heir to the throne of France as well as of England
This battle is notable for the use of the English longbow in very large numbers, with English and Welsh archers forming most of Henry’s army. The battle is the centrepiece of the play Henry V by William Shakespeare.
The 1944 Technicolor adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry V was intended as a morale booster for Britain, and was partly funded by the British government. The film was originally “dedicated to the Commandos and Airborne Troops of Great Britain, the spirit of whose ancestors it has humbly attempted to recapture.” The movie won Laurence Olivier an Academy Honorary Award for “his outstanding achievement as actor, producer and director in bringing Henry V to the screen.”
In Baseball’s 100 Greatest Players by The Sporting News, the top five players are Babe Ruth, then Willie Mays, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, and Henry Aaron.
Walter Johnson pitched the Washington Senators to the World Series title in 1924, the only time the franchise achieved the feat before becoming the Minnesota Twins. Their perennial haplessness was the basis for the book of the musical Damn Yankees, a Faust remake centered on a loyal Senators fan.
The top four franchises in the world are, in order:
Subway: 42,230 locations worldwide
McDonald’s: 36,290
Kentucky Fried Chicken: 18,875
Burger King: 14,000
Subway is one of the fastest growing franchises in the world, with over 40,000 restaurants in 110 countries and territories as of September 18, 2015. It is the largest single-brand restaurant chain and the largest restaurant operator in the world. The first Subway opened in 1965 in Bridgeport, Connecticut and the first international Subway opened in Bahrain in 1984
Subway is named for the submarine sandwich, but names for a sandwich consisting of a big, long hard roll with a bunch of stuff in the middle are many and regional in America. They include blimpie , grinder, hero, hoagie, hoagy, poorboy, sub, submarine and wedgie.
The first subway line in the US was built in Boston, under Tremont Street between Park Street and Boylston Street, next to Boston Common. It remains under heavy daily use as part of the MBTA’s Green Line, although the original horses were long ago replaced by electric trains. Boston was also a terminus of the first long-distance railroad in the US, the Boston and Albany Railroad, also along a still-heavily-used right of way.
That Tremont Street Subway opened in 1897 and was the third such system to open in the world. The first was in London, and the second in Budapest.
The Tremont neighborhood is just south of downtown Cleveland, Ohio, and is noted for its affordable housing, fine restaurants and old ethnic churches (one of which was a filming location for The Deer Hunter).
The Wilbur Theatre, built by Clarence Blackall in 1913 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, is located at 244-250 Tremont Street in Boston, Massachusetts.
The Joyce Theater, originally opened in 1941, is a 472-seat dance performance venue located in the Chelsea area of Manhattan.
ETA: and my son and the company he dances with dance there every year.
Signed,
One Proud Papa
Broadway’s Winter Garden Theatre, which housed two massive hits with CATS from 1982 to 2000 and Mamma Mia! from 2001 to 2013, will start previews on November 12, 2015 of School of Rock, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber.