The Priory of Sion is a hoax.
One of Scotland’s most audacious hoaxes was started by one, Gregor MacGregor, a native of Glengyle, Scotland, who in 1822 made a striking announcement. He was, he said, not only a local banker’s son, but the Cazique (Prince) of the land of Poyais along Honduras’s Black River.
MacGregor raise £200,000 directly, and the bond market value over his life ran to £1.3 million, or about £3.6 billion today. He convinced seven ships’ worth of eager investor settlers to make their way across the Atlantic. In September 1822 and January 1823, the first two, the Honduras Packet and the Kennersley Castle, left for the mythical land, carrying some 250 passengers.
When the settlers arrived just under two months later, they found the reality to be a stark departure from the allure of MacGregor’s brochures. No ports, no developments, no nothing. It was a wasteland and remains so to this day.
While Gregory Maguire is mostly known for writing Wicked and its three sequels, he has actually written over 30 novels for both children and adults. Mirror, Mirror and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (re-tellings of Snow White and Cinderella) are excellent.
The Molly Maguires were an Irish 19th-century secret society active in Ireland, Liverpool and parts of the eastern United States. They were best known for their activism among Irish-American and Irish immigrant coal miners in Pennsylvania. After a series of often violent conflicts, twenty suspected members of the Molly Maguires were convicted of murder and other crimes and were executed by hanging in 1877 and 1878. Their history remains part of local Pennsylvania lore.
Each person in the US uses 3.7 tons of coal annually. So sayeth RMCMI, the Rocky Mountain Coal Mining Institute.
The reports of THC (the active ingredient in marijuana) being found in the Hugo, Colorado water supply were false.
So much for a Rocky Mountain High.
Colorado is the only state in history to turn down the Olympics. In 1976 the Winter Olympics were planned to be held in Denver. 62% of all state Voters choose at almost the last minute not to host the Olympics, because of the cost, pollution and population boom it would have on the State Of Colorado, and the City of Denver.
The 1976 movie Rocky cited the American Bicentennial in several scenes, mostly during Apollo Creed’s entering; Carl Weathers dressed first as George Washington then as Uncle Sam.
Hotel California, the classic song by The Eagles, was released in December 1976.
Courtesy of Cracked:
Five famous hidden song meanings that are total bullshit
“Hotel California” – It’s About Satanism, Right?
Isn’t “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” About an Acid Trip?
“Puff the Magic Dragon” Is Totally About Smoking Pot …
The “Horse” in “Horse With No Name” HAS to be Heroin …
But “Turning Japanese” Is Definitely About Masturbation, Right, Guys?
Hotel California, in Todos Santos, Baja California, Mexico, features colorful rooms, free parking, landscaped gardens & Mexican/international dining.
The soundtrack of the Coen Bros. movie The Big Lebowski includes a performance of “Hotel California,” almost entirely in Spanish, by The Gipsy Kings. At one point, the Dude says he hates the “f—in’ Eagles” and is hit in the head with a coffee mug flung by a cop.
John Sylvan, inventor of the Keurig coffee system, says he sometimes regrets his invention because the disposable, non-recyclable cups are so bad for the environment. Syvlan, who sold his stake in the company for $50,000 in 1997, doesn’t own a Keurig machine. He is currently running ZonBak, a solar company that claims to make the most cost-efficient solar panel in the world.
Keurig, bothered by the number of knock-off k-cups that they received no licensing payment for, released the Keurig 2.0, a new version that would ONLY make cups licensed by Keurig and would not brew regular coffee. The result was a disaster on par with New Coke: sales plummeted and customers were outraged, workarounds began popping up on YouTube and websites immediately, and Keurig’s statement that they did so because they were worried about the “quality” of the unlicensed K-cups didn’t reassure most people. Since then Keurig has brought back the original model that will brew unlicensed K-cups and worked out licensing agreements with previously unlicensed manufacturers. (Some of the unlicensed K-cup clones are much more eco-friendly than the licensed.)
John Sylvan, the inventor of the Keurig K-Cup, does not own a Keurig machine. Says Sylvan, “They’re kind of expensive to use.”
John F. Kennedy rarely watched any movie through to its end. One exception was the James Bond thriller From Russia with Love, which he saw a few weeks before his death in a private screening at the White House, and which his friend, Newsweek writer Ben Bradlee, said he enjoyed.
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis and her sister Lee Bouvier Radziwill shared a stepfather with Gore Vidal, whose mother Nina Gore had been married to Hugh Auchincloss before he married Jackie and Lee’s mother Janet Lee Bouvier (and for much the same reason- she had a respected name but no money). Auchincloss claimed a family connection to Aaron Burr and kept a portrait in his mansion which inspired one of Vidal’s most famous novels.
The 15th century sailing ship, Santa Clara, was owned by Juan Niño and sailed to the West Indies, was a caravel which is a small, highly maneuverable ship. She sailed in 1492, was commanded by Christopher Columbus, and was known by her nickname, La Niña, or the Nina.
An exact size replica of the Niña was commissioned to tour for the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s first voyage and still sails. Today it is leaving Lake City, Minnesota for Lacrosse, Wisconsin. (I came very close to joining their crew once, many years ago.)
Not in play, but-
I found this so intriguing I had to look up the story. The shoes still exist and are still on display.
Amazing. :shakes head:
The La Crosse River passes through the Fort McCoy US Army base. Fort McCoy was named Camp Bruce E. McCoy, for Robert Bruce McCoy, a National Guard General who was instrumental in creating the post for artillery training. The post was renamed in his honor within one year of his death in 1926.