Abraham Lincoln’s closest celebrity relative- one of his closest relatives of any kind- is George Clooney, who through his mother is a 4th great grandson of Lincoln’s aunt, Mary Ann Sparrow, half-sister of his mother Nancy Hanks, making him a (half) first cousin five times removed. Nancy and Mary Ann were the daughters of Lucy Hanks, a woman with a “reputation” that included at least two illegitimate children and a stint in jail for adultery; the identity of Nancy’s father/Lincoln’s maternal grandfather is unknown, though Lincoln once said he understood he was a Virginia planter.
It is uncanny how Tom Hanks, in several of his movies, has a (usually) prominent scene wher he urinates. Why is that?
In 1986’s The Money Pit
In 1992’s A League of their Own
In 1994’s Forrest Gump (after shaking JFK’s hand he says, “I gotta pee.”
In 1995’s Apollo 13
In 1999’s The Green Mile
So I ask again, why is that?
Finally, about Tom Hanks and peeing, there is this quote about him running into Tom Selleck in the men’s room at the Oscars in 1998 where Hanks, peeing in the stall next to Selleck says to him, “I see we’re a couple of peeing Toms.” Response - angry silence.
Alan Bates also appeared naked in a lot of his pictures. Which was pretty unusual in those days. Most of them seemed to be films based on D H Lawrence stories.
Alan Bates (1934-2003) starred in Georgy Girl (1966) that featured the title song by The Seekers that went to #1 in Australia, to #3 in the UK, and #2 in the US. Bates was a friend in the movie, and Lynn Redgrave played the title role, Georgina Parkin.
Lynn Redgrave was nominated for the 1966 Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Georgina “Georgy” Parkin in Georgy Girl, and her sister Vanessa Redgrave was also nominated for her portrayal of Leonie Delt in the movie Morgan!
They both lost out to Elizabeth Taylor’s portrayal of Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf
With the exceptions of two bit parts that appear in only one scene in the movie, every actor in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was nominated for an Oscar for 1966/7, Richard Burton for Best Actor, Elizabeth Taylor for Best Actress, Sandy Dennis for Best Supporting Actress, and George Segal for Best Supporting Actor. Both women won; Burton lost to Paul Scofield’s performance in A Man For All Seasons and Segal lost to Walter Matthau in The Fortune Cookie.
In A Man for All Seasons Sir Thomas More is portrayed as a heroic and stoic martyr and Thomas Cromwell is portrayed as a ruthlessly ambitious opportunist who helps pull down More to advance himself. In Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall More is portrayed as a fanatical two-faced villain far crueler than his persecutors in AMfAS and Thomas Cromwell as an ambitious climber but very devout in his Protestantism. In Mantel, Cromwell has has admired More since they met as boys from wildly different backgrounds and greatly respects his intellect but loathes his fanatical ideology. Both versions have arguments to be made in their favor where accuracy is concerned for both characters.
The super villain Two-Face first appears in Detective Comics #66 with the name Harvey “Apollo” Kent; later stories changed his name to “Harvey Dent” to avoid an association with Superman (Clark Kent) The character only made three appearances in the 1940s, and appeared twice in the 1950s. By this time, he was dropped in favor of more “kid friendly” villains, though he did appear in a 1968 issue (World’s Finest Comics #173), in which Batman declared him to be the criminal he most fears. In 1971, writer Dennis O’Neil brought Two-Face back, and it was then that he became one of Batman’s arch-enemies.
Nm, nnja.
The Apollo program was conceived during the Eisenhower Administration in early 1960, as a follow-up to Project Mercury. It was named after the Greek god of light, music, and the Sun by NASA manager Abe Silverstein, who chose the name at home one evening because he felt “Apollo riding his chariot across the Sun was appropriate to the grand scale of the proposed program.” The program was ramped up dramatically by President John F. Kennedy, sustained by Lyndon B. Johnson, and all actual landings on the Moon were made during the first term of Richard M. Nixon.
Tom Phoebus is the only player named after a god to pitch a no-hitter. Phoebus is the Roman name for the god Apollo. Tom Phoebus pitched for 7 years in the majors, including a no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox, while pitching for Baltimore Orioles in 1968.
The Soviet Luna craft were the first manmade crafts to land on the moon’s surface and the first to return lunar dirt samples to the United States. The first Luna landing on the moon was in February 3, 1966, 3 years and 5 months before Apollo 11’s manned landing. It was a source of major frustration to the Soviets and pride to America that the U.S.A. put a man on the moon before the Soviet Union, and after Apollo 17 the prestige of the unmanned Luna landings were pretty much forgotten.
Adonis Terry was actually the first player named after a god (in play) to craft (in play) a no-hitter. He pitched two in the 1880s, and his accomplishments should not be forgotten (in play).
Matt Cain of the San Francisco Giants is the only pitcher in MLB history to have scored a run in a perfect game that he pitched.
Local legend states that Cain is buried in Kabul, Afghanistan, which is a major plot point of the play Homebody, Kabul, a play by Angels in America and Lincoln writer Tony Kushner.
Cabool, Missouri, was given that name by a construction engineer building the first railroad through that region. He had previously worked building the railrioad in Afghanistan, and thought the Ozark region in southern Missouri reminded him of Afghanistan. In those days, Kabul was normally spelled Cabool. A surprising number of American cities are named after Asian capitals, including Pekin, Delhi, Batavia and Damascus.
The Rose Bowl (first played in 1902), Orange Bowl (1935), and Sugar Bowl (1935) are annual college football games played in southern states after the regular season.
In 1890, Pasadena CA held its first Tournament of Roses Parade to celebrate and showcase the warm, sunny weather during winter months when most of the rest of the country is freezing. As one of the organizers said: “In New York, people are buried in snow. Here, our flowers are blooming and our oranges are about to bear [fruit]. Let’s hold a festival to tell the world about our paradise.” In 1902, the annual festival was enhanced by adding a football game.
In 1926, Miami FL got into the spirit to celebrate with a Fiesta of the American Tropics.
In 1927, New Orleans LA started celebrating its large sugarcane contributions to the country.
ETA: ninja’d, so added in southern states.
You missed the Sun Bowl (1935). The Cotton Bowl (1937), was close enough behind them to deserve attention in the same category.
Good point. In play:
The Cotton Bowl Classic is played in AT&T Stadium in Arlington TX, the home of the Dallas Cowboys. Covering 661,000 square feet, the stadium’s roof is the largest single span roof in the world. The arches outside the stadium are more than twice the length of St. Louis’s Gateway Arch.
Cotton Mather was a socially and politically influential New England Puritan minister, prolific author, and pamphleteer. Known for his vigorous support for the Salem witch trials, he also left a scientific legacy due to his hybridization experiments and his promotion of inoculation for disease prevention. He was subsequently denied the Presidency of Harvard College which his father, Increase, had held.