The etymology of both “Athens” and “Sparta” are uncertain.
Athens may be derived from the language spoken prior to the arrival of the first Greek-speaking peoples, since it does not fit in Greek linguistic rules. It may not even be Indo-european in origin.
Sparta is believed to be derived from a Doric word for twisted cords, said to have been used to mark out the original boundaries of the town, but this too is obscure.
The Children’s BBC Horrible Histories series has won numerous domestic and international awards and has been named among the greatest British children’s television series of all time. One of the sketches in its “Groovy Greeks” series combined accurate historical fact with parody of the reality show “Wife Swap” in a sketch called “Historical Wife Swap: Effete Athenians vs. legendarily tough Spartans.”
Derek Waters hosts Comedy Central’s “Drunk History”, in which he gets a celebrity to tell a story from history after tippling a few, while other actors perform the scene in lip-sync. The show’s additional characters are played by regulars Bennie Arthur, Tim Baltz, Mort Burke, Sarah Burns, Maria Blasucci, Craig Cackowski, Michael Cassady, Michael Coleman, Tymberlee Hill, Adam Nee, and Jeremy J. Tutson and occasional guest stars. Other versions are produced in Latin America, Brazil, Hungary, and the UK.
The term “three sheets to the wind” meaning someone is drunk, comes from sailing ships. The ‘sheet’ in the phrase uses the nautical meaning, of a rope that controls the trim of sail. A sheet that is in the wind has come loose from its mooring and is flapping in the wind like a flag.
Daniel Craig lost weight to play British secret agent James Bond, and purposefully put it on again to play Swedish journalist Mikael Blomkvist in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
ETA: He did not wave any flags in the role of Blomkvist.
In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Daniel Craig (secretly, but not for long) played the Imperial stormtrooper who interrogates the restrained prisoner Rey.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the biggest-grossing film ever in North America and the third-biggest-grossing film of all time, earning $1 billion in just its first twelve days of release.
“The ** Twelve Days** of Christmas” is an English Christmas carol that enumerates a series of increasingly grand gifts given on each of the twelve days of Christmas. The song, published in England in 1780 without music as a chant or rhyme, is thought to be French in origin.
On March 28, 193 CE, Praetorian Guards killed Roman Emperor Pertinax and sold the throne by auction to Didius Julianus. Twelve days after the assassination, Septimues Severus had Didius Julianus executed and made himself Emperor in the “Year of the Five Emperors”—a sixth, Commodus, was assassinated in the evening just before the year began.
1888 was the Dreikaiserjahr in the German Empire: the Year of Three Emperors.
Wilhelm I, King of Prussia and first German Emperor, died at the age of 91 in March, 1888.
He was succeeded by his son, Frederick, who reigned for 99 days until dying from cancer of the larynx.
Frederick was succeeded by his elderly son, Wilhelm II, and, well, things gradually went to pot from then on.
That should have read: “Frederick was succeeded by his [del]elderly[/del] eldest son, Wilhelm II, and, well, things gradually went to pot from then on.”
Stoopid auto-correct. Grumble, grumble, grumble.
Both 1841 and 1881 were years of three Presidents in the U.S.: Martin Van Buren (defeated for reelection), William Henry Harrison (died after just a month in office) and John Tyler (Harrison’s Vice President, who succeeded to the Presidency) in 1841, and Rutherford B. Hayes (did not run for reelection), James A. Garfield (assassinated and died in his first year in office) and Chester Arthur (Garfield’s Vice President) all in 1881.
Leslie Odom Jr, who currently stars as Vice-President Aaron Burr in the Broadway musical Hamilton, does a marvelous parody of the 1993 “Aaron Burr” got milk? commercial to advertise the show.
Lisa Leslie is a former American professional basketball player who played in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). She is a three-time WNBA MVP and a four-time Olympic gold medal winner. On July 30, 2002, Leslie became the first woman to dunk the ball in a WNBA game.
In 1948, William Rosenberg opened Open Kettle, a restaurant selling donuts and coffee in Quincy, Massachusetts; in 1950, the restaurant was given the name Dunkin’ Donuts. Rosenberg conceived of the idea for the restaurant after his experiences selling food in factories and at construction sites, where donuts and coffee were the two most popular items. The restaurant was successful, and Rosenberg sold franchises of Dunkin’ Donuts to others starting in 1955.
Love it! I’ll post it in the Hamilton thread.
In play:
Over the years, eight ships of the United States Navy and Revenue Cutter Service have been named USS Massachusetts after the Bay State. There is none currently in commission; the next will be a Virginia-class fast attack submarine expected to be laid down next year.
The chocolate chip cookie was invented by the American chef Ruth Graves Wakefield in 1938. She invented the recipe during the period when she owned the Toll House Inn, in Whitman, Massachusetts. In this era, the Toll House Inn was a popular restaurant that featured home cooking. It is often incorrectly reported that she accidentally developed the cookie, and that Wakefield expected the chocolate chunks would melt, making chocolate cookies. In fact, Wakefield stated that she deliberately invented the cookie. She said, “We had been serving a thin butterscotch nut cookie with ice cream. Everybody seemed to love it, but I was trying to give them something different. So I came up with Toll House cookie.”
George Washington was the only President not to live in the White House, although he selected James Hoban’s design and saw the building under construction before he died in 1799.
The Blue House in Seoul, actually a complex of buildings roofed with blue tiles, is the official residence of the President of the Republic of Korea. It was built upon the site of the royal garden of the Joseon Dynasty.
John Quincy Adams was US Minister to the UK, the Netherlands, Prussia, and Russia. He was a United States Congressman and Senator, and President of the United States.