The only USAF production aircraft designed solely for close air support, including attacking tanks, armored vehicles, and other ground targets is the A-10 Republic Thunderbolt, more affectionately nicknamed the Warthog.
Though warthogs appear ferocious, they are basically grazers. They eat grasses and plants, and also use their snouts to dig or “root” for roots or bulbs. When startled or threatened, warthogs can be surprisingly fast, running at speeds of up to 30 miles an hour. These African hogs often utilize empty dens created by aardvarks. Rather than fight, they often choose flight, and search for such a den to use as a hidey-hole. They typically back in, using their tusks to effectively guard the entrance.
Wonder Warthog was an underground comic of the 60s, a parody of superhero books (primarily Superman) and drawn by Gilbert Shelton
When the 1994 Disney animated feature The Lion King was being produced, singer Elton John was worried that the song, Hakuna Matata would mark a low point in his career. “I sat there with a line of lyrics that began, 'When I was a young warthog,” John said, “and I thought, ‘Has it come to this?’”
Over the past decade, the small North Island town of Matata, New Zealand, has experienced about one earthquake a week, of low intensity – the most powerful was about 4.2.
The Northern Explorer is a long-distance passenger train between Auckland and Wellington in the North Island of New Zealand, along the North Island Main Trunk. The train runs three times a week each way.
The Grand Funk Railroad is a 1970s rock band, whose name is a play on words of the Grand Trunk Western Railroad, a railroad line that ran through the band’s home town of Flint, Michigan.
Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas earned the Civil War nickname “the Rock of Chickamauga” for his resolute stand on Snodgrass Hill, saving the day when much of the rest of the Union line broke and ran at the 1863 Battle of Chickamauga, Ga.
In 1919, Roy W. Allen opened a roadside root beer stand in Lodi, California, using a formula he purchased from a pharmacist. He soon opened A&W stands in Stockton, California, and five stands in nearby Sacramento, home of the country’s first drive-in featuring “tray-boys” for curbside service.
Lodi, California is the unofficial Zinfandel Capital of the World. Its annual ZinFest Wine Festival is held in May. Lodi wineries, though not as familiar as Napa and Sonoma wineries in California, produce about 40% of the world’s zinfandel wine. Lodi has some of the oldest Zinfandel vines in California. While often used for White Zinfandel production, in the red style, Lodi Zinfandels have a reputation for being juicy and approachable.
ZinFest 2016 will be from Friday 13 to Sunday 15 May 2016.
Lodi, Ohio is a village in Medina County, not far from Cleveland. It is thought to be named after the city in northern Italy where Napoleon won a victory in 1796.
Medina, in Saudi Arabia, is burial place of the Islamic prophet Muhammed, and the second holiest place in Islam, after Mecca, the place of Muhammed’s birth. Since non-Muslims are prohibited entry into Mecca, Medina is the holiest Islamic place that can be visited by a non-Musloim.
The hip hop song “Funky Cold Medina” was released on March 18, 1989, and rose to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 the following month where it went platinum, selling over one million copies. After it became popular, several cocktail drinks by the same name started appearing in bars.
“Funky Cold Medina” contains samples from seven songs: “Honky Tonk Women” by The Rolling Stones, “Hot Blooded” by Foreigner, “Christine Sixteen” by Kiss, “All Right Now” by Free, “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” by Bachman–Turner Overdrive, and the introduction to “Get Off Your Ass and Jam” by Funkadelic.
Jam amd Jelly are distinguished (in the USA) by the presence of fruit solids in Jam. Jelly contains only the juice of the fruit, and is clear or translucent.
Jelly’s Last Jam was a Broadway show about the life of jazz great Jelly Roll Morton, using songs by Morton.
Morton’s The Steakhouse is a chain of more than 70 steak restaurants with locations in the United States and in cities in the USA and abroad. Arnie Morton, the founder of Morton’s, was the right-hand man of Hugh Hefner when he launched the Playboy Empire on February 29, 1960. He served as Executive Vice President of Playboy Enterprises, where he developed the worldwide chain of Playboy Clubs. He went out on his own again after ten years, partnering with Klaus Fritsch, the food and beverage director of the Playboy Clubs.
The original Morton’s The Steakhouse, in downtown Chicago’s Newberry Plaza, remains open to this day.
Richard Sligh, the tallest player to ever play NFL Football, graduated from high school in Newberry, South Carolina. Sligh, at 7-feet, played defensive tackle for the 1969 Oakland Raiders. (Why would there be an Offensive Tackle?)
There are tackles on both the offensive and the defensive lines. Similarly, there are also guards on the OL and the DL. On the DL, the central-most lineman is called either the nose tackle or the nose guard.
(Q: Do offensive tackles ever tackle anybody?)