(Emphasis mine) Now that is a crying shame. That alone might be enough to be the only reason to go.
In play: The largest diamond ever mined weighed 3,106 carats. It was named the Cullinan and is now part of the English Crown Jewels. Its current home is the Tower of London, in London, England.
The Cullinan, since cut into several smaller gems, is part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom, not just of England.
The flag of England is a red cross on a white field. It has been incorporated in the coats of arms of three Canadian provinces: Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario.
According to the American Red Cross, more than 38,000 blood donations are needed every day.
The blood of a horseshoe crab is bright blue. It is now used in medicine to test for hidden bacterial infections. The blood is worth $60,000 a gallon in a global industry valued at $50 million a year.
Although all blood is made of the same basic elements, not all blood is alike. In fact, there are eight different common blood types, which are determined by the presence or absence of certain antigens – substances that can trigger an immune response if they are foreign to the body. Since some antigens can trigger a patient’s immune system to attack the transfused blood, safe blood transfusions depend on careful blood typing and cross-matching.
The eight types are A+, A-, B+, B-, AB+, AB-, O+, and O-
Cmdr. Spock, First Officer of the USS Enterprise, shared the same rare blood type as his father, Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan: T-negative.
The Attorney General and Solicitor General of England and Wales are referred to as the Chief Law Officers of the Crown.
Toyota sedans have traditionally been named after types of crowns. The Crown, the first of them, is still sold in Asia. The Corona, introduced as a smaller companion to the Crown means “crown” in Latin and was initially exported as the “Tiara”, while the Corolla took its name from the regal chaplet. The Camry’s name is derived from the Japanese phrase *kanmuri *(冠, かんむり) meaning “little crown” and the Toyota Scepter took its name from the sceptre, an accessory to a crown.
Cressida is either a fictional character in Medieval and Renaissance literature, or a moon of Uranus, an English progressive rock band, a butterfly, or the Toyota Cressida car.
In 1984, the Progressive Conservative Party under Brian Mulroney won the largest majority in the Commons in Canadian history, winning 211 seats out of 282.
In 1988, Mulroney won a second majority, becoming the first Conservative Prime Minister since Sir John A. to win back to back majorities.
Following the 1993 shellacking, the once mighty PC Party has steadily dwindled in Parliament. Nowadays, there is only one Progressive Conservative in all of Parliament, Senator Elaine McCay, who sits as an “Independent Progressive Conservative.”
Sic transit gloria mundi.
In the 1984 US Presidential election, Ronald Reagan won 49 of the 50 states. The only state Reagan did not win was Minnesota, the home state of Reagan’s opponent, Walter Mondale. In winning 49 of the 50 states, Reagan became the second ever candidate to do so after Richard Nixon did it in 1972. That year, Nixon’s opponent was George McGovern, who won only Massachusetts. McGovern’s home state was South Dakota.
The home state for both Richard Nixon and Ronaln Reagan was California. The official state song of California is, “I Love You, California.” The song has been recently used in a Jeep commercial and the song’s lyrics are:
I love you, California, you’re the greatest state of all,
I love you in the winter, summer, spring and in the fall,
I love your fertile valleys; your dear mountains I adore,
I love your grand old ocean and I love your rugged shore.
Refrain:
Where the snow crowned Golden Sierras
Keep their watch o’er the valleys bloom,
It is there I would be in our land by the sea,
Every breeze bearing rich perfume.
It is here nature gives of her rarest,
It is Home sweet home to me,
And I know when I die,
I shall breathe my last sigh
For my sunny California.
I love your redwood forests,
love your fields of yellow grain,
I love your summer breezes
And I love your winter rain.
I love you ,land of flowers;
Land of honey, fruit and wine.
I love you, California;
you have won this heart of mine. (Refrain)
I love your old gray missions,
love your vineyards stretching far.
I love you, California
with your golden gate ajar.
I love you purple sunsets,
Love your skies of azure blue,
I love you, California;I just can’t help loving you. (Refrain)*
The world’s most expensive perfume, at $215,000 per bottle, is Clive Christian’s Imperial Majesty. The scent was created from rose oil, orris root, jasmine, and Italian cinnamon. The bottle is made of a material so difficult to work with that one of every three attempts breaks during the production process. The neck of the bottle is made of 18-carat gold inset with a five-carat brilliant-cut diamond. Only 10 bottles of the scent were ever made.
Author Clive Cussler is the founder and chairman of the National Underwater and Marine Agency. NUMA has discovered more than sixty shipwreck sites and numerous other notable underwater wrecks. Cussler has written more than 60 books.
The Rock Bottom Remainders are an American rock and roll band, consisting of published writers, most of them both amateur musicians, and popular English-language book, magazine, and newspaper authors. The band took its self-mocking name from the publishing term “remaindered book”, a work of which the unsold remainder of the publisher’s stock of copies is sold at a reduced price. Their performances collectively raised $2 million for charity from their concerts.
The band’s members have included Dave Barry, Stephen King, Amy Tan, Cynthia Heimel, Sam Barry, Ridley Pearson, Scott Turow, Joel Selvin, James McBride, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount, Jr., Barbara Kingsolver, Robert Fulghum, Matt Groening, Tad Bartimus, Greg Iles, Aron Ralston and honorary member Maya Angelou among others, as well as professional musicians like multi-instrumentalist (and author) Al Kooper, drummer Josh Kelly, guitarist Roger McGuinn and saxophonist Erasmo Paulo. Founder Kathi Kamen Goldmark died on May 24, 2012.
Pancho Barnes’ Happy Bottom Riding Club at Edwards AFB was a hotel and restaurant that, at the height of its popularity in the 1940s was a favorite hangout of test pilots and Hollywood elite. It was suspected of being a brothel. It was destroyed by fire in 1953 and was never rebuilt.
The Return of the Cisco Kid (1939), featuring Warner Baxter in the title role with Cesar Romero as his sidekick, Lopez, Chris-Pin Martin as the other sidekick, Gordito (“Fatty”), Lynn Bari as his mistaken love interest, Ann Carver, and Henry Hull as her wayward grandfather. Duncan Renaldo took over the reins as the Kid when Monogram Pictures revived the series in 1945 with The Cisco Kid Returns, which also introduced the Kid’s best-known sidekick, Pancho, played by Martin Garralaga.
The Efficient Baxter was Lord Emsworth’s secretary. Lord Emsworth detested him because he always tried to make Emsworth do things in connexion with the estate, rather than simply putter around the Empress’s sty.
Baxter lost his position over the Unfortunate Episode of the Flower Pots and, exiled from Eden, spent several books trying to regain his position at Blandings. At the conclusion of one book, slathered in mud, he finally renounced all Blandings-esque ambitions and went off to America, ensnared by filthy lucre.
Two characters in Downton Abbey are named in what seems to be a tribute to P G Wodehouse: Bertie Pelham (a combination of Bertie Wooster and Pelham Grenville Wodehouse) and the pig, Golden Empress (after the Empress of Blandings)
Actress Barbara Eden was born Barbara Jean Morehead and is perhaps best known for her role of Jeannie in the TV series I Dream of Jeannie. She is no relation to actress Agness Moorehead who s perhaps best known for her role as Endora in the TV series Bewitched.