By the way, not in play, just a nitpick re. a post above, it’s Montreal Canadiens not Canadians
Vivienne Haigh-Wood Eliot was an English governess and writer, who became known for her marriage in 1915 to the American poet T. S. Eliot. They remained married until her death in 1947, but Haigh-Wood’s poor physical and mental health, and Eliot’s apparent intolerance of it, produced a stormy relationship, made worse by her apparently having an affair with the philosopher Bertrand Russell.
“Macbeth shall never vanquished be, until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill Shall come against him.”
Unfortunately, . . .
Smoky Joe Wood, who pitched for three different World Series-winning Boston Red Sox teams, was first discovered in drag. In the early 1900s, it was common for all-girls teams to go around barnstorming, playing baseball against local town teams. They always had one male player, in order to add spice to the game with a “girl superstar” to dominate the game. Wood was playing for a girls team when spotted by a major league scout and signed to a contract. He won over 100 games pitching in the majors, and led the league in wins in 1912 with a record of 34-5…
The name “spotted dick” has long been a source of amusement and double entendres, to the point that the catering staff of Flintshire County Council decided in 2009 to rename it to “Spotted Richard” because of all the jokes they were receiving. While “spotted” is a clear reference to the dried fruit in the pudding (which resemble spots), “dick” is more obscure. The word was widely used as a term for pudding in the 19th century; in late 19th century Huddersfield, for instance, a glossary of local terms described “Dick, plain pudding. If with treacle sauce, treacle dick.” It could alternatively be a corruption of the word pudding, evolving through puddink, then puddick, then finally dick. Another possibility is that it is a corruption of “dough”.
Madison Bumgarner, a pitcher on the San Francisco Giants’ pitching staff, holds the all-time career World Series ERA record with a 0.25 ERA. He also holds the all-time career WHIP record in the World Series of 0.528. In a single season, he is second in WHIP at 0.476. Only Don Larsen is better, at 0.469, but Larsen pitched only 10.2 innings while Bumgarner pitched more than double that, 21.0 innings.
Bumgarner is also the all-time career World Series leader in H9, Hits Allowed per 9 Innings Pitched, with 3.500.
ETA: Ninja’d: added ‘staff’; corrected typo.
Madison is a city located primarily in Madison County in the northern part of the State of Alabama. It was the site of a small battle in the American Civil War on May 17, 1864, when Col. Josiah Patterson’s 5th Alabama Cavalry, supported by Col. James H. Stuart’s cavalry battalion and a section of horse artillery, drove Col. Adam G. Gorgas’s 13th Illinois Infantry Regiment from the city.
(Note: I live in Madison, Alabama)
Madison is the capital of WI. Its streets are named for the other 39 signers of the U.S. Constitution, besides James Madison.
The tallest U.S. President was Abraham Lincoln at 6 ft 4 in, while the shortest was James Madison at 5 ft 4 in. The average height of a US president has been 5 ft 10.7 inches and 5 ft 11.6 inches since 1901.
The tallest U.K. Prime Minister is believed to be Lord Salisbury, who was around 6 feet 4 inches in height, although Downing Street’s own website lists 6-foot-1-inch (1.85 m) James Callaghan as the tallest.
Ibrāhīm is mentioned in 35 chapters of the Quran, more often than any other biblical personage apart from Moses.[26] He is called both a hanif (monotheist) and muslim (one who submits),[27] and Muslims regard him as a prophet and patriarch, the archetype of the perfect Muslim, and the revered reformer of the Kaaba in Mecca. Islamic traditions consider Ibrāhīm (Abraham) the first Pioneer of Islam (which is also called millat Ibrahim, the “religion of Abraham”), and that his purpose and mission throughout his life was to proclaim the Oneness of God. In Islam, he is referred to as "Ibrahim Khalilullah " (إبراهيم خليلالله), meaning “Abraham the Friend [of Allah]”.
Abram (Abraham), together with his son Isaac, and Isaac’s son Jacob (or, Israel), are the three patriarchs of Judaism.
According to Rabbinic Judaism, a Jew is anyone who was either born of a Jewish mother or who converted to Judaism in accordance with Jewish Law. Reconstructionist Judaism and the larger denominations of worldwide Progressive Judaism (also known as Liberal or Reform Judaism) accept the child as Jewish if one of the parents is Jewish, if the parents raise the child with a Jewish identity, but not the smaller regional branches. All mainstream forms of Judaism today are open to sincere converts, although conversion has traditionally been discouraged since the time of the Talmud. The conversion process is evaluated by an authority, and the convert is examined on his or her sincerity and knowledge. Converts are called “ben Abraham” or “bat Abraham”, (son or daughter of Abraham).
The sons of Shem, of the Bible’s book of Genesis and of Islamic literature, were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram. Abraham, the patriarch of the Hebrews and Arabs, was one of the descendants of Arphaxad. The father of Shem was Noah. The associated term Semite comes from Shem and denotes the Jews of Israel.
The Hyundai Genesis was not the first car to be named for a book of the Bible. Jaguar introduced the Mark series in 1955. Acually, Bentley prroduced a Mar IV in the 1930s.
Book design is the art of incorporating the content, style, format, design, and sequence of the various components of a book into a coherent whole.
In the words of Jan Tschichold, book design “though largely forgotten today, methods and rules upon which it is impossible to improve have been developed over centuries. To produce perfect books these rules have to be brought back to life and applied.” Richard Hendel describes book design as “an arcane subject” and refers to the need for a context to understand what that means.
The first pure kicker in the NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame was born in Fetsund, Norway. Inducted to the NFL HOF in 1991, Jan Stenerud played for the Kansas City Chiefs from 1967-1979, then the Green Bay Packers from 1980-1983, then finally the Minnesota Vikings from 1984-1985.
Before Stenerud, NFL kickers were just position players who could kick. Lou Groza of the Cleveland Browns, one of the greatest, played full 60-minute games in the 50s, as a lineman on both offense and defense, and lined up as a kicker when needed.
The Wicked Witch of the West originally hailed from Cleveland. Actress Margaret Hamilton, who played the witch in the Wizard of Oz, was born in Cleveland.
The Great Lakes Science Center, located in Cleveland Ohio next door to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, offers tours of the Iron Ore freighter William G. Mather, which is docked nearby. The ship operated from 1925 to 1980 and has been part of the Museum since 2006.
…As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well seasoned.
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland.
And later that night when the ship’s bell rang
Could it be the north wind they’d been feelin’?