Dennis Day, a tenor with a repertoire of Irish songs, remained associated with comedian Jack Benny for 35 years, after making his first appearance on Benny’s radio show in 1939.
Author James Joyce’s initial ambition was to be a singer; as a tenor he won a bronze medal at a Dublin Feis.
James Franco was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Aron Ralston in 127 Hours. Ralston had fallen into a slot canyon, Blue John Canyon, about 25 miles west of Moab UT, got his forearm wedged against a bolder, and got trapped in the remote location. Some five days later, unable to get help and realizing he’d told nobody where he was going and that it was highly unlikely that someone would find him in time, Ralston amputated his trapped arm by using his own body weight’s leverage to break the radius and ulna of his forearm, and then he used a cheap pocket knife to cut the arm free. Ralston applied a tourniquet beforehand to minimize his blood loss.
127 Hours was also nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, but lost to The King’s Speech. Franco did not win the Best Actor Oscar. Colin Firth won the award for his portrayal of King George VI in The King’s Speech. The Best Director Award also went to The King’s Speech’s Tom Hooper.
Of all 88 films that have been awarded the Best Picture Oscar, 62 have also been awarded the Best Director Oscar.
The ulna is one of the two long bones in the forearm. It is on the side opposite the thumb, extends from the elbow to the wrist, and runs parallel to the radius, which it exceeds in length and size. However, in four-legged animals, the radius is the main load-bearing bone of the lower forelimb, and the ulna is important primarily for muscular attachment. In many mammals, the ulna is partially or wholly fused with the radius, and may therefore not exist as a separate bone.
Praemonitus Praemunitus, “Forewarned is Forearmed”, is the title of the second American edition of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, first published in 1920
The années folles, or the “crazy years”, was a period of social, artistic and cultural dynamism after World War I when there was sustained economic prosperity with a distinctive cultural edge. In France and Quebec, that was the name given to this period. In the US, it was called the “Roaring Twenties”, for the 1920s.
Although the word “crazy” can be found ink pre-Shakespearean writings, Shakespeare himself never used it. The word is of Norwegian origin, meaning ‘crushed’…
While the celebration of the Winter Solstice is connected to the ancient Celtic pagans, the word Yule,comes from the Old Norse word jõl, a pagan festival celebrated at the winter solstice. In old almanacs Yule was represented by the symbol of a wheel, conveying the idea of the year turning like a wheel, The Great Wheel of the Zodiac, The Wheel of Life. The spokes of the wheel, were the old festivals of the year, the solstices and equinoxes.
Actor Yul Brynner was born Yuliy Borisovich Briner in 1920, in Vladivostok, which is on the coast of the Sea of Japan. He was part Buryat, which is the largest indigenous group of Siberia and a subgroup of the Mongols.
The Trans-Siberian Railway is a network of railways connecting Moscow with the Russian Far East and the Sea of Japan. It has connected Moscow with Vladivostok since 1916, and is still being expanded.
The Governor Malcolm Wilson Tappan Zee Bridge, usually referred to as the Tappan Zee Bridge, is a cantilever bridge, crossing the Hudson River at one of its widest points. The Tappan Zee is named for an American Indian tribe from the area called “Tappan”; and zee being the Dutch word for “sea”.
On July 19, 2016, a crane used for construction of the new Tappan Zee Bridge collapsed onto the existing older bridge. Five people were injured, including three drivers and two bridge workers; no one was killed or critically injured.
The Trans-Siberian Railway, crossing Russia, can be seen as strings of lights in this NASA composite picture of the earth at night:
Some other visible features include:
- the border between North and South Korea
- the mouth of the Nile
- the Riviera of Spain, France and Italy
- the emptiness of the Sahara, Amazon, Australian Outback, the Himalayas, Northern Canada, and Siberia
- the brightness of Japan, and of Taiwan’s west coast
- the population density difference between east of and west of the Mississippi River
- the string of cities and towns along I-80 in the western US
This is one my most favoritest, bestest pictures ever.
Added: the NASA page for this and similar photos, including lo & hi res.
The Latin prefix cis- is the opposite of trans-, and rarely used. It means “on this side”.
The Romans conquered Cisalpine Gaul, a region south of the Alps populated by Celts. And in South Africa, there was a bantustan called Ciskei, as distinct from Transkei, separated by the Kei River.
Cisitalia was an Italian sports and racing car brand. The name “Cisitalia” derives from “Compagnia Industriale Sportiva Italia”, a business conglomerate founded in Turin in 1946 and controlled by the wealthy industrialist and sportsman Piero Dusio. The Cisitalia 202 GT of 1946 is well known in the world as a “rolling sculpture”.
The Shroud of Turin or Turin Shroud (Italian: Sindone di Torino, Sacra Sindone or Santa Sindone), a length of linen cloth bearing the image of a man, is believed by some Christians to be the burial shroud of Jesus of Nazareth. Three radiocarbon dating tests in 1988 dated a sample of the cloth to the Middle Ages. The shroud is kept in the royal chapel of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, northern Italy.
FIAT, as in Fiat cars, is an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (Italian Automobile Factory of Turin). Fiat is reintroducing the 124 into the American market as a Spider.
The 1966-1985 Fiat 124 Sport Spider was a small convertible: Fiat 124 Sport Spider - Wikipedia
The 2017 Fiat 124 Spider is a new version: https://www.google.com/search?q=2017+fiat+124+spider&client=safari&hl=en-us&prmd=niv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjYpMnTuorOAhWG7SYKHdIICxEQ_AUICCgC&biw=1024&bih=672#imgrc=TS6NRBepUjSE9M%3A
Both cars side by side: https://www.google.com/search?q=2017+fiat+124+spider&client=safari&hl=en-us&prmd=niv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjYpMnTuorOAhWG7SYKHdIICxEQ_AUICCgC&biw=1024&bih=672#imgrc=5sWybJmGf5OzvM%3A
The old first edition Fiat Pandas also came in a 4-wheel drive version. It was a rather odd-looking vehicle. The Spanish version of the Fiat is made by SEAT.
The Fiat X1/9 (“x one nine”) was built by Fiat from 1972-1982, and then when Fiat backed out of the US market, it was sold by Bertone from 1982-1989.
A Fiat 500L that Pope Francis used during his 2015 visit to Philadelphia sold in January 2016 for $82000 at a charity auction, four times the MSRP of a base model. The Fiat 500 that the Pope used in the New York City portion of his visit sold in April for $300,000. In Latin, “fiat” translates roughly into “let it be done.”
Tim Kaine, Donald Trump, and Pope Francis all were educated by Jesuits. Tim Kaine graduated from Rockhurt High School in 1976, a Jesuit school in Kansas City. Donald Trump attended Fordham University, a Jesuit school in the Bronx for two years before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania. Pope Francis is a member of the Jesuit order.