The world’s oldest living (known and authenticated) person is Kama Chinen of Okinawa who as of this date is 114 years, 337 days old; the world’s oldest known living man is Walter Breuning of Great Falls, Montana, who is 113 years, 203 days old (eta: who remembers President McKinley assassination as the day he got his first haircut).
McKinley was assassinated in Buffalo, N.Y. in 1901. The house in which Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in to replace him still stands. Woodrow Wilson, then a professor at Princeton University and an occasional Progressive advisor to T.R., visited the new President there several days later.
The Progressive magazine, founded by U.S. Senator (from Wisconsin) Robert La Follette, gained considerable fame in 1979, when it published an article on how to build a hydrogen bomb (information which the U.S. government considered to be classified).
In a hydrogen bomb, a cryptologically secure radio code arms a detonator, which is later set off, and which sets off a high explosive, which sets off a fission bomb, which sets off a fusion bomb, which sets off another fission bomb. (Meanwhile, yet another set of explosives, intended to thwart terrorists who might have gained control of the device, have vaporized.) I hope I’ve got some of the details wrong, as otherwise you’d have to kill me.
Edward Teller, principle inventor of the hydrogen bomb, was supposedly role model for the title character in Dr. Strangelove.
Teller (of Penn and…) was born Raymond Teller, and is, when out of character, actually quite chatty. He’s a vocal Libertarian, athiest, and skeptic, as well as an enthusiastic student of the history of magic.
[del]In 1965, the CIA sent a mountaineer to place a surveillance device on top of Nandar Devi, one of the peaks of the Himalaya, in order to spy on China. The device was powered by a nuclear reactor containing 4 pounds of plutonium. It was quickly lost in an avalanche, and no one knows where it is right now despite the CIA launching thorough searching operations.
So in '68, they sent the *same *mountain climber to plant the *same *device on Nandar Kot, the neighbouring peak.
I wish I was making this up.[/del]
Effing ninjas !
The movie Penn and Teller Get Killed (one of the few times that Teller spoke while in character) was directed, appropriately enough, but Arthur Penn, best known for directing Bonnie and Clyde, Alice’s Restaurant, and Little Big Man.
Harpo (Arthur) Marx also became known for remaining silent during performances with speaking partners, unlike earlier pantomime artists whose entire act was silent. His brother Zeppo (Herbert), thought by some to be the funniest Marx brother, played straight roles exclusively, until leaving the act after their first five movies.
Zeppo is known in the aerospace world as the founder of what became Marman Products, the manufacturer of the Marman clamp still in general use on aircraft pneumatic systems. He had a home machine shop to relax in after Marx Brothers performances, casually got into making airplane parts for Douglas while he was at it, and converted his shop to making the clamps in time for the wartime buildup after being introduced to Larry Marman, their inventor.
Omni Consumer Products (OCP) was the eeeeeeeevil corporation in the Robocop movies. Exteriors of its headquarters were actually filmed at the Dallas, Texas City Hall.
Dallas Green, Pete Rose’s manager on the 1980 Phillies, was a former major league pitcher who yielded the only grand slam home run Pete Rose ever hit.
President Jimmy Carter ran for reelection in 1980, but was defeated by Republican candidate Ronald Reagan of California. Former Illinois Congressman John B. Anderson was also in the race as an independent, and the Carter campaign feared that he might be a spoiler, but he ended up making no difference in the Electoral College (and, indeed, did not actually carry a single precinct in the entire country).
Former Green Bay Packer linebacker John Anderson was pressed into duty as a place-kicker during the Packers’ game against the New York Jets in 1979, when the Packers’ regular kicker, Chester Marcol, was injured. Anderson made one of his two extra-point attempts, as well as his only field goal attempt, during the game.
The 1997 neo-noir thriller The Game starred Michael Douglas and Sean Penn as semi-estranged brothers.
The annual football match between Stanford and Cal is called “The Big Game”, not to be confused with the more snooty east coast version-- Harvard vs Yale, called, simply “The Game.”
The Yale lock was the first item mass manufactured in non-identical form.
Nathaniel Eaton, the first headmaster of what became Harvard College, was removed from his post amidst charges that he had excessively beaten students.
Harry and Ginny Potter named their son Albus Severus Potter in honor of two great headmasters of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Alnwick Castle (Northumberland, UK) & Gloucester Cathedral (Gloucester, UK) were used as primary filming locations for Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films.
Joey Levene, former lead singer of the Sixties bubblegum group Ohio Express, also wrote and sang the frozen fishsticks jingle, “Trust the Gorton’s fisherman, from Gorton’s of Gloucester.”
Because of its resemblance to the Gorton fisherman, the New York Islanders logo for the 1996-97 season were called the “fish sticks” logo and “fish sticks” is still used as a chant against the club. The team changed back the next season and would have changed midseason if NHL rules had let them.
