The word “hobby” in its present usage derives from a children’s toy, “hobby-horse”,first so-called by Laurence Sterne in his 1759 novel “Tristam Shandy”. But the word was already (and still is) in common usage as the name of a small old-world falcon.
Thomas Tryon’s debut novel The Other centers on identical twins Holland and Nigel Perry. One of the key items is the story is a ring with a peregrine falcon engraved on it, originally owned by their dead father.
Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas, who won the nickname “the Rock of Chickamauga” during the Civil War, died in San Francisco in 1870 while commanding the U.S. Army base at the Presidio. He was buried in Troy, N.Y., his wife’s hometown, as his family in Virginia refused to have anything to do with him for remaining loyal to the United States rather than join the Confederate war effort.
Presidio, Texas, is a small border outpost that had little value except as a military garrison and immigration gateway throughlut its history. Today, it is one of the most Mexican towns in the USA, having doubled its population since an amnesty regularized the status of illegal aliens 28 years ago. Thriving and modern Ojinaga, across the border, is one of the most remote and isolated cities in Mexico, a 3-hour drive across virtually unpopulated desert from amy town of significance.
In Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Starfleet Command has been built on the site of the Presidio in San Francisco.
Pope Francis (Papa Francisco in his native Argentina) is probably the first pope to have had a woman as his official work supervisor. As a young chemical technician in Buenos Aires, he worked for a few years in that capacity in the foods section at Hickethier-Bachmann Laboratory where his boss was Esther Ballestrino, a Ph.D.in chemistry. Ballestrino was credited with helping found the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo after two of her sons were abducted and killed by the military regime in 1976. She herself was tortured and killed in 1977.
Frank Zappa’s band was originally called “The Mothers.” When signed to a recording contract, the record company added “of Invention” to the name.
Composer Sergei Prokofiev died at the age of 61 on March 5, 1953, the same day as Joseph Stalin. The leading Soviet musical periodical reported Prokofiev’s death as a brief item on page 116. The first 115 pages were devoted to the death of Stalin. Prokofiev had been ‘invited’ in 1938 to compose “Zdravitsa” and obliged as a celebration of Stalin’s 60th birthday. The **name **of that piece is literally but not commonly translated as '”Cheers!”—usually it is known by the English title “Hail to Stalin“ (Op. 85).
On November 20, 1995, ice skater Sergei Grinkov collapsed and died from a massive heart attack in Lake Placid, New York, while he and his wife and skating partner Ekaterina Gordeeva were practicing for the upcoming 1995–1996 Stars on Ice tour. Doctors found that Grinkov had severely clogged coronary arteries (to the point where his arterial opening was reportedly the size of a pinhole), which caused the heart attack; later testing revealed that he also had a genetic risk factor linked with premature heart attacks. The risk factor is called the PLA-2 variant and is also known as the "Grinkov Risk Facto.
Whiteface Mountain (also known as “Ice-face” among skiers) was the site of many of the events of the 1932 and 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics events. It bills itself on its website as having the greatest vertical drop of any resort east of the Rocky Mountains and as “the undisputed Winter Sports Capital of the World!”
The introduction of “The Jackie Gleason Show” was “Live from Miami Beach, the sun and fun capital of the world!”.
On September 19, 1676, Nathaniel Bacon persuaded Virginia settlers to burn Jamestown to the ground. This destruction of the colonial capital is now known as Bacon’s Rebellion.
One 20-gram (0.7 oz) rasher of cooked streaky bacon contains 5.4 grams (0.19 oz) of fat, and 4.4 grams (0.16 oz) of protein. Four pieces of bacon can also contain up to 800 mg of sodium, which is roughly equivalent to 1.92 grams of salt. The fat and protein content varies depending on the cut and cooking method.
68% of the food energy of bacon comes from fat, almost half of which is saturated. Each ounce of bacon contains 30 milligrams of cholesterol (0.1%).
The English philosopher, statesman, scientist, and author Francis Bacon was the first alternative candidate suggested as the author of Shakespeare’s plays. The theory emerged around the 1850s, based on supposed similarities between the philosophical ideas found in Bacon’s writings and the works of Shakespeare. Later, there were claims of cryptographic ciphers and codes in the plays and poems to support the theory.
The distinctive voice of Francis the Talking Mule was provided by veteran character actor Chill Wills, who lent his deep, rough vocal texture and Western twang to the cynical and sardonic mule. As was customary at the time, Wills never received billing for his vocal work.
Ronald Reagan’s final acting gig (no comments, please) was as the host of “Death Valley Days”, sponsored by the Pacific Coast Borax Company (20 Mule Team Borax, Boraxo). Other hosts were Stanley Andrews, Rosemary DeCamp, Robert Taylor, and Dale Robertson. All are now deceased.
On June 12, 1987, during a speech at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate by the Berlin Wall, US President Ronald Reagan challenged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall!” The occasion was the 750th anniversary of Berlin’s foundation.
While a “Berliner Pfannkuchen” is a jelly doughnut, the urban legend that John F. Kennedy’s line “Ich bin ein Berliner” means “I am a jelly doughnut” is not true. JFK’s line was standard usage and while the pastry may be known as Berliner in other areas, local residents refer to the doughnut simply as Pfannkuchen.
When Khrushchev famously said “We will bury you”, he did not mean that they will destroy us by covering us with earth. The sentence that was translated that way is an old Russian adage that means “we will survive long enough to attend your funeral”. The Americans of course accepted the idiom as a threat, and ramped up defenses accordingly.
Here’s Snopes on the urban,er, pastry legend: Did John F. Kennedy Proclaim Himself to Be a Jelly Doughnut? | Snopes.com
In play:
Nikita Khrushchev was played as a WWII junior Soviet Communist Party official by British actor Bob Hoskins in the Stalingrad-siege 2001 movie Enemy At the Gates.
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