Pondera County, Montana, is pronounced the same as the Pend Orielle River, and both names are of the same origin. “ponder-RAY”. Where the river passes thorugh Canada, it is spelled Pend-d’Oreille
Yaak, Montana is the northwesternmost town in the state. It is close to North Idaho, about 25 miles from Good Grief ID, or about 75 miles driving distance since you have to go around and through the Selkirk Mountains.
Yaak, Montana, was the last community in the United States to receive dial telephone service. Down in the valley below Yaak, a point on the Idaho line is the lowest elevation in Montana, on the opposite end of the state from where you’s expect it to be.
(I’ve been in Yaak, one night in January. Trying to take a shortcut. But the road was only plowed in from one end, so I had to turn around and go back around. Yaak was totally cool, one bar/restaurant open at night, and very hospitable patrons brought their own snacks to share. Bear sausage, smoked salmon, jars of local berry jam, home made bread. If anybody from Yaak ever reads this, thank you.)
In play:
There have been three warships named USS Montana to serve in the U.S. Navy. A fourth would have been the lead ship of a new class of battleships, cancelled in 1943 when it became clear during World War II that aircraft carriers would form the nucleus of the fleet. The next USS Montana will be a Virginia-class fast attack submarine expected to be commissioned in about four years.
Thank you, EH.
That was jtur’s post 29,389. I had played off of Saint Cad’s post in 29,387, which I found a little too cryptic for the game:
So me, being passive aggressive, made this even more cryptic play(29,388):
Frank Zappa’s song “Montana” tells of his dreams of farming dental floss in Montana - "Raisin’ it up Waxin’ it down / In a little white box I can sell uptown / By myself I wouldn’t have no boss / I’d be raisin’ my lonely dental floss …" - while riding his pygmy pony, Tiny Little.
The bridge was sung by Tina Turner and the Ikettes, who were visiting the studio that day, but did not get credited because Ike Turner thought the song was disgustingly stupid.
BB-61 is the USS Iowa, the lead battleship of the four late 1930s’ Iowa-class ships. Six were planned.
BB-61: USS Iowa - now a museum ship in Los Angeles CA
BB-62: USS New Jersey - now a museum ship in Camden NJ
BB-63: USS Missouri - now a museum ship in Pearl Harbor HI
BB-64: USS Wisconsin - now a museum ship in Norfolk VA
BB-65: USS Illinois - never completed, WWII ended
BB-66: USS Kentucky - never completed, WWII ended
BB-67 would have been the USS Montana, the lead battleship of five mid-1940s Montana-class ships. Five were planned but none were completed.
BB-67: USS Montana
BB-68: USS Ohio
BB-69: USS Maine
BB-70: USS New Hampshire
BB-71: USS Louisiana
These ships were cancelled before any keel was layed in favor of the Essex-class carriers and the Iowa-class battleships.
The British built only one battlecruiser in the Admiral-Class, HMS Hood, most famous for its encounter with Bismarck. Although, due to damage from a German bomber in 1939 it could no longer travel at its highest rated speed, Hood was still one of the fastest capital ships on the seas, and was the pride of the British Navy.
Due to the superior firepower of Bismarck and its lucky hits, Hood sank on 24 May 1941. Of 1418 men aboard, only three survived: Ordinary Signalman Ted Briggs, Able Seaman Robert Tilburn, and Midshipman William John Dundas.
Fifteen Essex-class carriers were extensively updated after WW2 to accommodate the new jets. These modifications included jet-blast deflectors (JBDs); an optical landing system (a British innovation); greater aviation fuel capacity; stronger decks, elevators, and catapults; and ultimately an angled flight deck.
The Blues Brothers movie filmed the song Sink the Bismark, but the scene was later cut from the movie.
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Johnny Horton’s song “Sink the Bismarck” was not included in the British film of that title, but came later and was inspired by it. Other songs sharing titles and themes with films, but not used in those films, include Eddy Grant’s “Romancing the Stone” and Gene Pitney’s “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”.
Actor Lee Marvin joined the Marines in 1942 at the age of 18. He was wounded during the Battle of Saipan. He had reached the rank of Corporal, and then after his injury he was medically discharged as a Private Frist Class.
Actor Lee Marvin played the role of Liberty Valance in the 1962 western, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was based on a short story by western-genre writer Dorothy M. Johnson. Johnson always prided herself on her self-sufficiency after a failed marriage early in life. She stated that her epitaph should read “Paid In Full.” Her grave in the cemetery in Whitefish, Montana reads simply “PAID”. She died on November 11, 1984, aged 78
Dorothy L Sayers wrote ten detective novels featuring Lord Peter Wimsey.
In none of them was a murder victim shot.
While Dorothy L Sayers wrote amusing and ingenious mysteries, she herself considered her translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy to be her best work. Her translation is one of the few to use the terza rima rhyme pattern, following the original Italian.
Chaucer introduced the rhyme royal, a seven line stanza with the rhyme pattern: a-b-a-b-b-c-c. It was extensively used by English poets over the next century or so. It is believed to have been named the “rhyme royal” because James I/VI used it in a poem he wrote.
Just like the Pope as Bishop of Rome is considered the successor of St. Peter, there is another Pope, the Patriarch of Alexandria, who is the successor of St. Mark. The LDS Church has the idea of Apostolic succession from St. James.
James I of England / VI of Scotland was the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her second husband, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley. James was less than a year old when Darnley, age 21, was murdered, possibly by the Earl of Bothwell and maybe with the collaboration or consent of Mary Queen of Scots.
Mary Queen of Scots was also Queen (consort) of France. A minor lane in Paris’ First Arrondissement is named Rue Marie Stuart after her.
The shortest legal “round the block” journey from that lane back to itself requires driving on six other streets.