“California Dreamin” was the first big hit for The Mamas and the Papas, reaching number 4 on the charts. Their next hit, “Monday, Monday” went to number 1.
The Mamas & The Papas considered calling themselves The Magic Circle, but then they switched. The name they selected was apparently inspired by the Hells Angels, whose female associates were called “mamas”.
After divorcing Papa John Phillips, Mama Michelle Phillips was married to actor Dennis Hopper from October 31, 1970 – November 8, 1970, divorcing him after 8 days. A fine example of heterosexual marriage!
A hopper car is a type of railroad freight car used to transport loose bulk commodities such as coal, ore, grain, and track ballast. Two main types of hopper car exist: covered hopper cars, which are equipped with a roof, and open hopper cars, which do not have a roof. This type of car is distinguished from a gondola car in that it has opening doors on the underside or on the sides to discharge its cargo.
All Jews are prohibited from the eating of leavened grains during Passover , which are considered chametz, as directed in the Torah. Chametz includes any food product or recipe made with the following grains: Wheat, oats, rye, barley or spelt.
These grains are prohibited if they’ve had contact with water/moisture for longer than 18 minutes, which leads to rising or “leavening.” Leavening agents, like yeast and sourdough, are also considered chametz.
While most matzo is made from wheat flour, the process used to “cook” the matzo from the time liquid is added to the flour to the time the matzo is baked can last no longer than 18 minutes. The wheat is closely supervised to ensure that no water touches it from the time of harvest to the time it is baked. This is to make sure that no leavening occurs.
Isaac Singer, inventor of the sewing machine, also invented a matzo dough rolling machine which enabled the Manischewitz bakery to produce matzo on a large commercial scale.
That was Isaac Merritt Singer, the inventor. He had several inventions and improvements. He also had 24 children through several women. He lived from 1811-1875. Isaac Bashevis Singer, the author, lived from 1902-1991 and won the Nobel prize in literature in 1970. He published a collection of short stories in English in 1957, Gimpel the Fool. This was required reading for freshmen at UCSB, the University of California at Santa Barbara, in the fall of 1980.
Isaac Bashevis Singer, a leading figure in Yiddish literature, is the only author who always wrote in Yiddish to won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
In 1935, at the age of 32, Isaac Bashevis Singer emigrated from Poland to the United States because he feared the growing Nazi threat in Germany. He left behind a wife and son, who later emigrated to Palestine by way of the Soviet Union. They would not meet again until 20 years later. Singer settled in Manhattan and lived for many years on the Upper West Side. He won the Nobel prize in 1978, not 1970 as I posted earlier.
Singer is known for saying, “Only small fish swim in schools.”
Isaac Bashevis Singer’s short story “Yentl the Yeshiva Boy” was adapted into a musical film starring Barbra Streisand. The film received a scathing review from Singer, who was particularly taken aback by Streisand’s monopolization of the production to its detriment, saying: “When an actor is also the producer and the director and the writer he would have to be exceedingly wise to curb his appetites. I must say that Miss Streisand was exceedingly kind to herself. The result is that Miss Streisand is always present, while poor Yentl is absent.”
The film also starred Mandy Patinkin, who was given no opportunity to display his singing talent.
Mandy Patinkin attended The Juilliard School. So did Kelsey Grammer. In fact they attended Juilliard together.
1950’s rock singer Neil Sedaka auditioned successfully for a piano scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music’s Preparatory Division for Children, which he attended on Saturdays until he was 13.
okay, but…
The population of Alaska, the entire state, was 737,000 in 2014. All 663,300 mi² of it.
The population of San Francisco, CA, was 837,000 in 2013. All 49 mi² of it.
There aren’t too many people in Alaska.
Playing on:
The Juilliard School’s alumni and students for Dance includes actors Bebe Neuwirth and Phoebe Cates.
The Juilliard School’s alumni and students for Drama includes actors Andre Braugher, Jessica Chastain, Ving Rhames, Val Kilmer, and William Hurt.
The Juilliard School’s alumni and students for Music includes musicians Miles Davis, Van Cliburn, and Wynton Marsalis, and actress Leslie Uggams.
William Hurt starred in the non-musical movie of Kiss of the Spider Woman The Broadway musical adaption was nominated for 11 Tony Awards and won 7, including five of the top six:
Best Musical
Best Book of a Musical for Terrence McNally
Best Original Score for John Kander and Fred Ebb
Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for Brent Carver
Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for Chita Rivera
Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical for Anthony Crivello
Best Direction of a Musical for Harold Prince (Nominated, didn’t win)
Best Choreography Vincent Paterson and Rob Marshall (Nominated , didn’t win)
Best Scenic Design for Jerome Sirlin (Nominated, didn’t win)
Best Costume Design for Florence Klotz Won
Best Lighting Design for Howell Binkley (Nominated, didn’t win)
But it is still incontestably true that the isolated population center of Honolulu is closer to Alaska than to California.
In play:
About 20% of all electrical energy consumption by the commercial sector in the USA is used for lighting. Private households use 15% for lighting.
Certainly is, yessir.
There is a statue of Nikola Tesla at Niagara Falls. Niagara was where Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse built the first hydro-electric power plant, in 1895.
On February 9, 1895, William G. Morgan of Holyoke, Massachusetts, created a game where people volleyed a ball back and forth over a net. Morgan called it “Mintonnette.” Later Alfred S. Halstead watched Mintonnette and renamed it “Volleyball” as the point of the game is to “volley” the “ball” back and forth over the net.
At the turn of the century, 19th to 20th, JP Morgan took part in the organization / reorganization of at least 24 major railroad corporations. One of those was the Pere Marquette Railroad which had tracks in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana, and in Ontario. The railroad company was named after Père (French for Father) Jacques Marquette S.J. (1637–1675), a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan’s first European settlement, Sault Ste Marie.
The Morgan Library,based in the Madison Avenue mansion of Pierpont Morgan and featuring his collection of rare books, manuscripts and art, contains three copies of the Gutenberg Bible.
Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz, Germany, printed bible copies in the 1450s. At least 49 copies, or portions of copies, are known to exist today. 23 of those copies are complete copies of the bible, the Latin Vulgate. 12 of the 49 copies were printed on vellum. The others are on paper. Of the 12 vellum copies, only six are complete. Those complete, vellum copies are located in Paris FRA, Göttingen DEU and Leipzig DEU, London GB, and in Washington DC USA and San Marino CA USA.
(Bullitt has seen both copies in the USA, this year.)