Shameless plug: Every year since 1999, the Broadway casts all get together and record a holiday song, released on the Carols for a Cure CDs. This year, School of Rock does an original composition called Yule of Rock, which sounds like You’ll Love Rock.
The original lineup of Schoolhouse Rock! consisted of thirty-seven episodes and was produced between 1972 and 1979. The first season of Schoolhouse Rock!, “Multiplication Rock”, debuted in 1973 and included all of the multiplication tables from two through twelve, with one episode devoted to powers of 10 (My Hero Zero) instead of multiples of ten. This original series was followed in short order by a new series, which ran from 1973 to 1975, entitled “Grammar Rock”. It included nouns, verbs, adjectives, and other parts of speech (such as conjunctions, explained in “Conjunction Junction”).
Possibly the best-remembered song from “Schoolhouse Rock!” was"I’m Just a Bill", explaining how federal legislation is enacted in the US. Jack Sheldon provided the voice of the Bill. At the end of another “Schoolhouse Rock”! song, “Tyrannosaurus Debt (Money Rock)”, the Bill runs off after the tour guide says, “Feeding time is ALL the time!” This made Bill one of the only characters to appear on more than one of the main Schoolhouse Rock! cartoons.
The question of whether Tyrannosaurus Rex was an apex predator or a pure scavenger is among the longest ongoing debates in paleontology. It is accepted now that Tyrannosaurus Rex acted as a predator, and opportunistically scavenged just as modern mammalian and avian predators do.
Washington Redskins head coach Jay Gruden, brother of Jon, was the head coach of the Arena Football League’s Orlando Predators 1998-2008. As a quarterback, he previously had won four ArenaBowl championships with the Tampa Bay Storm. The name of their rivalry, The War on I-4, is now used by the Universities of Central and South Florida football teams.
Ricky Ray was a quarterback with the Fresno Frnezy Arena Football League in 2002. His coach’s connections to the Canadian Football League got him a tryout the next year wtih the Edmonton Eskimos.
On November 26, 2017, Ray won his fourth Grey Cup as a starting quarterback, the only quarterback to ever do so.
In 1947, the Grey Cup, which is awarded to the Canadian Football (American) champion, survived a fire at the Toronto Argonaut Rowing Club, and its survival was quite remarkable. The Cup was sitting on a shelf that collapsed in the fire but got caught on a nail on the wall. All the other trophies fell to the floor and were destroyed, but the Grey Cup survived. The Cup has also been broken four (known) times, including once sat on and once head-butted.
American Airlines began operations in June 1936. It is now, according to Wikipedia, the world’s largest airline when measured by fleet size, revenue, scheduled passenger-kilometers flown, and number of destinations served.
Joe Kapp is still the only quarterback in the **world **to have started in a Rose Bowl (1959), a Grey Cup (1963), and a Super Bowl (Super Bowl IV, 1970).
Jack Kapp founded the Kapp Record Company in the early years of the rock era, 20 years after his brother had founded Decca. Kapp’s biggest single success was Louis Armstrong’s “Hello Dolly”, which made Number One on the 1964 charts.
In the recently concluded Grey Cup, the Toronto Argos had tremendous success with two touchdown plays of over 100 yards, one on offence and one on defence.
The offensive TD was early in the 2nd quarter. Ricky Ray was on the Argos own 10 yard line. He threw a pass to DeVier Posey, in mid-field. Posy ran it in for the longest offensive touchdown play in Grey Cup history.
Later, with five minutes left on the clock, the Calgary Stampeders had the ball on the Argos 8 yard line, and were leading 24-16; a Stamps TD would make it a two score game in Calgary’s favour. Kamer Jorden for the Stamps caught a pass and ran it towards the end zone, holding it one-handed - until Jermaine Gabriel for the Argos stripped the ball on the 3 yard line. Ball bounced loose, live. Cassius Vaughan for the Argos scooped up the ball and ran the length of the field for a 109 yard TD, a Grey Cup defensive record. Ray went for the two point convert and suddenly the game is tied.
Ball changes hands, Ray organises another drive which ends in a field goal: in less than three minutes Argos have gone from the verge of a loss to being up, 27-24.
Stamps march the ball down field. With seconds left on the clock, they’re almost in field goal range. QB Bo Levi Mitchell falls back, and throws - not a short dump to get into field goal range for a tie and OT, but a long throw into double coverage in the end zone. Argos intercept in the end zone, with 8 seconds on the clock, and the Stamps have a long sullen plane ride home to Calgary.
Video summary of the scoring plays for anyone interested:
The first woman featured on a U.S. postage stamp was Queen Isabella in 1893. The first American woman featured was Martha Washington in 1902.
Lake Isabella is a man-made reservoir in southern California, about 40 miles NE of Bakersfield created by the earthen Isabella Dam on the Kern River. The former towns of Isabella and Kernville were flooded when the reservoir was created in 1953.
The Isabella Dam bisects an active fault that could lead to a catastrophic failure if an earthquake occurs along it. This fault was considered inactive when the site was studied in the late 1940s.
The 1978 Rolling Stones album Some Girls featured the song Far Away Eyes, which starts out:
I was driving home early Sunday morning through Bakersfield
Listening to gospel music on the colored radio station
And the preacher said, ‘You know, you always have the Lord by your side’
Well, I was so pleased to be informed of this
That I ran 20 red lights in His honor
Thank you Jesus, thank you Lord.
Advent is a season observed in many Christian churches as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. Advent is the beginning of the Western liturgical year and commences on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, Advent Sunday — ETA, which is this Sunday.
The ADaptive Versatile ENgine Technology (or ADVENT) program is an aircraft engine development program run by the United States Air Force with the goal of developing an efficient variable cycle engine for next generation military aircraft in the 20,000 lbf (89 kN) thrust class.
The Wright Brothers aircraft engine had no fuel pump, carburetor, or spark plugs. Nor did it have a throttle. Yet the simple motor (that they built themselves as no contractor could meet their requirements) produced 12 horsepower, an acceptable margin above the Wrights’ minimum requirement of 8 horsepower. The most powerful jet engine today (The GE90) puts out approximately 110,000 horsepower.
Poet Franz Wright was 15 and living in California when he sent his first poem to his father. “I’ll be damned,” poet James Wright wrote back. “You’re a poet. Welcome to hell.”
They are the only parent and child ever to win the Pulitzer for poetry, in 1972 (James) and 2004 (Franz).
The Curtiss SB2C Helldiver was a US Navy divebomber during WWII. They were manufactured by the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. At least one airworthy copy of the Helldiver exists and is owned by the Commemorative Air Force (West Texas Wing) in Graham TX. Helldivers replaced the Douglas SBD Dauntless. They were much faster than the SBDs.
The Curtiss SB2C was the last of a line of aircraft developed for the U.S. Navy specifically for the role of dive-bombing.
The tactic of dive-bombing was first used by a Marine aviator, Lieutenant (later Brig. Gen.) Lawson H.M. Sanderson, during operations in Haiti in 1919.
The United States military forces occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934, at the request of US banks, who complained to president Wilson that in the troubled Haitian economy, banks would be unable to pay their debts to the American bankers.