American Airlines became the first airline to offer electronic ticketing, through its SABRE system, way back in 1960.
The VC 118 was a modified version of the commercial DC-6. After Truman left the White House, the VC-121, a modified version of the Lockheed Electra, was used as the presidential airplane. In 1959, Eisenhower began using a VC-137, a modified version of the Boeing 707, as the first presidential jet.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first president to fly in an aircraft while in office. During World War II, Roosevelt traveled on the Dixie Clipper, a Pan Am-crewed Boeing 314 flying boat to the 1943 Casablanca Conference, in Morocco.
Theodore Roosevelt was the first ex-President to fly in an airplane, when he flew as a passenger aboard a Wright biplane for four minutes over a St. Louis airfield in 1910.
Roosevelt Island in NYC used to be called “Welfare Island” (and prior to that “Blackwell’s Island” and was where the city placed mental institutions, jails, and hospitals for patients with communicable diseases (like smallpox). Now it’s a fashionable residential area.
The Roosevelt Island Tramway was opened in 1976 to temporarily link the island with Manhattan while a subway connection was being constructed. By the time the subway station was finally opened in 1989, the tram was too popular to be discontinued.
The Roosevelt Island Tramway is adjacent to the Queensboro Bridge, also known as the 59th Street Bridge. The Simon & Garfunkel song better known as “Feelin’ Groovy” is actually titled “59th Street Bridge Song”.
Paul Simon the former U.S. senator from Illinois, and Paul Simon the singer, both appeared together on an episode of Saturday Night Live, pretending to be surprised to see each other.
Rounding out the “Paul Simon (disambiguation)” page, there is also a British drummer named Paul Simon, who probably secretly wishes the more famous Paul Simon musician had kept the stage name “Jerry Landis.”
Simoniz, a brand of car wax, was introduced in 1935. The wax became populart with car dealers, who soon began to refer to the washing and waxing of cars prior to delivery as “Simonizing.”
A can of Simonize was one of the Old Man’s Christmas gifts in A Christmas Story.
Denise Richards was implausibly cast as a brilliant nuclear physicist with the even MORE implausible name of Christmas Jones, in the James Bond flick ***The World Is Not Enough.
Eric Christmas was a popular character actor who often played priests and butlers; he was a scene stealer in Harold and Maude (as the priest) and even has a couple of great scenes in the Porkys movies as the principal.
Lloyd Christmas was the name of Jim Carrey’s idiotic limo driver character in the sublimely goofy Dumb and Dumber.
Lloyd was the name of the name of the imbecilic airplane mechanic on Wings played by Thomas Haden Church, who later starred in Ned and Stacey and was nominated for an Oscar for Sideways.
The British Lloyd’s insurance company started out as (or rather, in) a sailor’s and ship owner’s coffee bar of London, in 1688. “Lloyd’s” is the name of that place, rather than any of the founders.
According to wikipedia, Lloyds of London has insured exotic items including Keith Richard’s nose, Celine Dion’s vocal cords, Tina Turner’s legs, and America (“Ugly Betty”) Ferrera’s smile.
Liberace had his fingers insured through Lloyds of London for several million dollars; Betty Grable is said to have insured her legs against scars or other things beyond normal aging that might devaluate her career.
Liberace was born in West Allis, Wisconsin and he studied at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music.
The fictional city of Rome, Wisconsin from Picket Fences clearly was related to Eerie, Indiana – they had the same high school principal; the Eerie weatherman was the coronor in Rome; and Matthew Brock in Rome was the same boy as Simon Holmes in Eerie (probably kidnapped and brainwashed).