In the Wallace and Gromit movie A Grand Day Out, the eccentric British inventor and his silent but wise dog build a rocket and go to the Moon, discovering that it is, indeed, made of cheese - some of which they eat.
In 1992 the 100-year-old creamery in Yorkshire that produced Wensleydale Cheese was in danger of closing. Production of the cheese received a dramatic boost around the world thanks to the popularity of the cartoon characters Wallace and Gromit. When they visit the moon and taste its cheese, Wallace’s first question is “Wensleydale?”
UK supermarkets saw a 23 percent sales increase for cheeses when “The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” hit cinemas in 2005.
In Yorkshire, apple pie may be accompanied by white Wensleydale, giving rise to the saying “An apple pie without the cheese is like a kiss without the squeeze”.
In 1969 Anita Bryant became a spokeswoman for the Florida Citrus Commission, and nationally televised commercials featured her singing “Come to the Florida Sunshine Tree” and stating the commercials’ tagline: “Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.” During her campaign against gay rights, she made the following statements during the campaign: “As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children” and “If gays are granted rights, next we’ll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St. Bernards and to nail biters.”
Anita Bryant also apparently had a divine revelation about women and the presidency, saying in 1972: “A woman should not be president. It’s not the way God intended it to be.”
Legend has it that iconic Alabama Football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant got his nickname around the year 1927 by wrestling a muzzled bear from a local traveling carnival. The story goes he did it to impress a girl and for the money – one dollar per minute – but the bear’s owner left town without paying.
Anita Bryant’s marriage to Bob Green also failed, and in 1980 she divorced him, citing emotional abuse and latent suicidal thoughts. Green refused to accept this, saying that his fundamentalist religious beliefs did not recognize civil divorce and that she was still his wife “in God’s eyes.” In 2007, Green stated: “Blame gay people? I do. Their stated goal was to put her out of business and destroy her career. And that’s what they did. It’s unfair.”
Red Greene, the title character of the Red Greene Show, had several catch-phrases expressing his general optimism:
“If the women don’t find you handsome, at least they should find you handy.”
“Keep your stick on the ice.”
“Remember, I’m pulling for you. We’re all in this together.”
“I’m a man. I can change. If I have to. I guess.”
And the ultimate survival tip of the Possum Lodge:
“Quando omni flunkus, moritati.” (“When all else fails, play dead.”)
Beaver lodges are constructed with the same materials as the dams, with little order or regularity of structure. They seldom house more than four adults and six or eight juveniles. Some larger lodges have one or more partitions, but these are only posts of the main building left by the builders to support the roof. Usually, the dens have no connection with each other except by water.
Although the beaver is a symbol of Canada, it is not found on the coat of arms. The wildlife on the arms is six lions and a unicorn.
Molson Canadian beer’s “I Am Canadian” ad campaign featured a nationalistic rant by “Joe Canadian.” One of his statements of pride was “the beaver is a truly proud and noble animal.” The commercial won an advertising industry Gold Quill award in 2001.
A quill pen is a writing implement made from a moulted wing-feather of a large bird. Goose feathers are most commonly used; scarcer, more expensive swan feathers are used for larger lettering. Other feathers used for quill-pen making include feathers from the crow, eagle, owl, hawk, and turkey.
In South America, brews made from the feathers of condors are used in traditional medications. In India, feathers of the Indian peacock have been used in traditional medicine for snakebite, infertility, and coughs.
“El Cóndor Pasa” , Spanish for “The Condor Passes”) is an orchestral musical piece from the zarzuela El Cóndor Pasa by the Peruvian composer Daniel Alomía Robles, written in 1913 and based on traditional Andean music, specifically folk music from Peru. It is the best-known Peruvian song in the English-speaking world due to a 1970 cover by Simon & Garfunkel on their Bridge over Troubled Water album. Their version is called “El Cóndor Pasa (If I Could)”.
“Una Paloma Blanca” (“A White Dove”) was written by Dutch George Baker, for his group The George Baker Selection. It was the number one song on the Easy Listening charts for all of 1976. Baker says the song is about a hard working South American farmer who spends his leisure time dreaming about being a bird and flying away.
The early versions of the famous rhyme “Rub-a-dub-dub”, dated to 1825, differs significantly in the wording. The older version goes:
Hey! rub-a-dub, ho! rub-a-dub, three maids in a tub,
And who do you think were there?
The butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker,
And all of them gone to the fair.
The maids got removed from the poem and the three main characters were made the focus at a later date.
James Baker served as White House chief of staff and Secretary of the Treasury for President Ronald Reagan, and as Secretary of State and again White House chief of staff for President George H.W. Bush. Peter Baker (no relation) of The New York Times is now writing a biography of him.
After hearing Stephen Schwartz’s song "Meadowlark"written for the musical "The Baker’s Wife countless times in auditions, director Trevor Nunn persuaded the authors to mount a production in the West End. Starring Alun Armstrong and Sharon Lee-Hill, she show premiered at The Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich, Suffolk from October - November,and transferring to the West End, Phoenix Theatre on November 27, 1989,but closed on January 6, 1990, after 56 performances. This production was ill-fated: though reviews were strong and audience reaction positive, the production was steadily losing money. According to Carol De Giere, “While reviewers offered praise, audiences were small and the show closed after only 56 performances. Schwartz explains,‘The major thing that was wrong was that it was just too long’…Nunn comments 'Every performance there had a standing ovation, which is not at all normal in the English provinces.” Bowing to financial reality, the show closed prematurely, but received the Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Musical of the Year.
‘Meadowlark’ Lemon was known as the “Clown Prince” of the touring Harlem Globetrotters basketball team. He started with them in 1955 and after leaving in 1983, played for other teams and started several of his own. He then played a final season with the Globetrotters in 1994, 49 years after he first appeared with them.
“Meadowlark” is from one of Steven Schwartz’s lesser-known musicals compared to his blockbuster “Wicked”. Schwartz attended Mineola High School on Long Island and in 2014 attended the 50 year reunion of his 1964 graduating class. Here is a comment that he made at the reunion according to a classmate.
“It was wonderful having Stephen Schwartz in our midst – it is hard to believe he is so famous, but somehow he seemed just the same brilliant, talented kid he did in 1964. Cute story – he told me he spent the night before the banquet going thru the 64 Signet [yearbook] and his wife commented to him that he seemed more nervous about attending the reunion than he was before attending the Academy Awards.”