In 1955, two brothers-in -law, Harry Winouker and Bill Rosenberg, broke off their partnership, each to begin his own chain of coffee and doughnut shops.
Harry founded Mister Donut and Bill founded Dunkin Donuts. Mister Donut has only 1 store left in the US but has over 5,500 locations around the world, with a strong presence in Japan (where it is headquartered) and the Philippines. Dunkin Donuts has over 8,000 US locations and around 3,200 overseas locations; it closed its stores in Japan (except for on US military bases) in 1998.
Voodoo Doughnut in Portland, Oregon is famous for its crazy doughnut flavors. For a while, the doughnut shop even offered Pepto- Bismol-coated doughnuts (they were dipped in Pepto Bismol, sprinkled with Tums, and marketed to customers who’d had too much to drink and wanted a snack that was easy on the stomach). The doughnut shop was eventually forced to retire its medicinal flavors after the FDA stepped in.
Doughnuts are usually thought of as round; however, Laura Ingalls Wilder, in her book Farmer Boy, refers to an older shape In the book, set in upstate New York right after the Civil War, Almanzo Wilder’s mother made doughnuts practically every day, using a traditional shape, strips of dough doubled and twisted; when one side was cooked, they would turn over in the hot oil without help. She thought the “new-fangled” round doughnut was too much work.
Upstate New York is the region that includes most of the state of New York, excluding New York City, its environs, and Long Island, although the precise boundary is debated. Upstate New York includes the major cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany.
The development of Upstate New York was spurred by the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, which greatly eased the transport of goods between the port of New York City and inland cities along the Great Lakes. The Erie Canal ran from Albany, on the Hudson River, to Buffalo, on Lake Erie. With the Hudson connecting to the Atlantic Ocean, the completed waterway connected the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. The Erie Canal opened in 1825 and was the first transportation system between the eastern seaboard and the western interior of the United States that did not require portage. The canal’s peak year was 1855, when 33,000 commercial shipments took place.
The most discussed pollution of the Hudson River is General Electric’s contamination of the river with Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) between 1947 and 1977. This pollution caused a range of harmful effects to wildlife and people who eat fish from the river or drink the water. In response to this contamination, activists protested in various ways. Musician Pete Seeger founded the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater and the Clearwater Festival to draw attention to the problem and to raise awareness and money, which helped clean up the problem.
The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland OH has caught fire at least 13 times (images). The first occurred in 1868. The largest river fire was in 1952 and caused over $1 million in damage to boats, a bridge, and a riverfront office building.
On June 22, 1969, a river fire captured the attention of Time magazine, which described the Cuyahoga as the river that “oozes rather than flows” and in which a person “does not drown but decays”. In the immediate aftermath very little attention was given to the incident and it was not considered a major news story in the Cleveland media.
Stephen King stated Don Robertson’s novels, many set in the fictional town of Paradise Falls, Ohio, had been an inspiration to him as a writer. King also said, during an interview in 2015, that Robertson was “probably” his favorite novelist of all-time.
Paradise Lost was published in 1667 by John Milton. The first illustrations to accompany the text were published in 1688 and included illustrations by John Baptist Medina and Bernard Lens II. Ridley Scott’s 2017 film Alien: Covenant was previously titled Alien: Paradise Lost.
Ridley Scott approved both a Director’s Cut (1991) and a Final Cut (2007) of his 1982 neo-noir sf movie Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford as L.A. cop and replicant-hunter Rick Deckard. The Final Cut digitally removes the wires visible in some shots of LAPD Spinners (aircars) lifting off, removes Deckard’s world-weary voiceover, removes the happy ending of the original theatrical release, and inserts footage suggesting Deckard was himself a replicant. Scott has said that the Final Cut is his preferred version of the film.
On Robert Scott’s return journey from the South Pole in January 1912, he discovered plant fossils which proved that Antarctica was once forested and joined to other continents.
At the Mountains of Madness is a novella by American author H. P. Lovecraft, written in early 1931, about a lost alien city in Antarctica. It is thought to be one of the earliest examples of the “ancient astronaut” genre of sf/horror. Mexican-American director Guillermo del Toro has been trying for more than a decade to make a movie based upon the tale.
Ancient astronauts are aliens purported to have come to Earth thousands of years ago. Some claim that these aliens form the basis for the mythological gods of ancient cultures. A few claim that they came, placed random pieces of architecture in random spots, and left, i.e. that structures made of stone such as the pyramids at Giza, Stonehenge, and the Nazca lines.
Not in play and for the record: Folks that believe in this are loons. Barking mad. Should not be allowed out in public without a guardian. Loco. Idiots. and any and all terms of derision you care to contemplate.
Erich von Däniken, a major proponent of the alien astronaut theory, has multiple convictions for fraud, including one in 1970 for embezzlement and forgery, with the court ruling that while running a hotel the writer had been living a “playboy” lifestyle. He unsuccessfully entered a plea of nullity, on the grounds that his intentions were not malicious and that the credit institutions were at fault for failing adequately to research his references, and on 13 February 1970 he was sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment and was also fined 3,000 francs. He served one year of this sentence before being released.
His first book, Chariots of the Gods?, was accepted by publishers after several rejections and on the condition that it be reworked by a professional writer. It appeared around the time of his trial, and its sales allowed him to repay his debts and leave the hotel business.
M. K. Jessup’s “The Case for the UFO” was published in 1955, and outlined most of the incidents and events that were later described by the much more popular Von Daniken. Jessup attracted almost no popular or media attention.
Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s works include the movie, A Few Good Men. In that movie, Jack Nicholson plays Colonel Nathan Jessup and delivers a famous movie speech. The bolded portion is ranked #29 in the American Film Institute’s list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema.
“You can’t handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know, that Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives! You don’t want the truth, because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall. We use words like “honor”, “code”, “loyalty”. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it! I would rather you just said “thank you”, and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to!”
In April 2016 Aaron’s, Inc., a lease-to-own retailer that focuses on leases and retail sales of furniture, electronics, appliances, and computers. set the Guinness World Record for the largest “game” of tumbling mattress dominoes. This game was set up using over 1,000 people and mattresses.
Bob Nolan of the Sons of the Pioneers, who wrote “Cool Clear Water”, also wrote “Tumbling Tumbleweeds”. Roy Rogers was the group’s original lead singer before going solo, and is the only member of the Country Music Hall of Fame as both a solo artist and group member.
“Tumbling Tumbleweeds,” written by Bob Nolan and performed by the Sons of the Pioneers, is featured in the 1998 Coen Brothers’ comedy The Big Lebowski, starring Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Philip Seymour Hoffman and others.
The 1983 song, Crumblin’ Down, by John Mellencamp, had lyrics that included
When the walls come tumblin’ down
When the walls come crumblin’ crumblin’
When the walls come tumblin’ tumblin’ down
The song was the first single released by Mellencamp to include his real last name: previous releases were credited to “John Cougar.” He had been previously known as Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp.
About the stage name Cougar, Mellencamp confessed in a 2005 interview: “That [name] was put on me by some manager. I went to New York and everybody said, ‘You sound like a hillbilly.’ And I said, ‘Well, I am.’ So that’s where he came up with that name. I was totally unaware of it until it showed up on the album jacket. When I objected to it, he said, ‘Well, either you’re going to go for it, or we’re not going to put the record out.’ So that was what I had to do… but I thought the name was pretty silly.”
During the American Civil War centennial, President John F. Kennedy visited both the Gettysburg and Antietam battlefields with friends on weekend trips.