In the Star Trek timeline, baseball is all but forgotten by the time the Federation establishes an outpost at Deep Space Nine in the Bajoran system. Harmon “Buck” Bokai of the London Kings is mentioned as one of the last great pro baseball players.
The Deep Space Network (DSN) is NASA’s international array of giant radio antennas that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions, plus a few that orbit Earth. The DSN also provides radar and radio astronomy observations that improve our understanding of the solar system and the larger universe.
The soundtrack for the 1986 film *The Mission*****was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and the BAFTA Award for Best Music. Ennio Morricone (who won an Oscar 30 years later for the score for Quentin Tarantino’s Hateful Eight) said in an interview: “I definitely felt that I should have won for The Mission, especially when you consider that the Oscar-winner that year was Round Midnight, which was not an original score. It had a very good arrangement by Herbie Hancock, but it used existing pieces. So there could be no comparison with The Mission. There was a theft!”.
Shawnee Mission, Kansas, is a unique formation created by the US Postal Service, in which 16 municipal entities are clustered in a single zip-code block (662xx), all of which is postally designated as Shawnee Mission KS. If it were a single entity, Shawnee Mission, with over 400,000 inhabitants would be the largest city in Kansas. The Shawnee Mission School District has five high schools.
SHAWNEE
The Shawnee Native Americans were a semi-migratory nation primarily inhabiting areas of the Ohio Valley, extending from Ohio and Kentucky eastward to West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Western Maryland; south to Alabama and South Carolina; and westward to Indiana and Illinois.
The Shawnee language has a dictionary, and portions of the Bible were translated into Shawnee. In 2002, 200 people still spoke the Shawnee language.
In the 19th century some Shawnee were relocated to a reservation in Wapaughkonetta, Ohio (Wapakoneta OH, Neil Armstrong‘s hometown).
Shawnee tribes are currently headquartered in Oklahoma.
Shawnee, Oklahoma, in the central part of the state, is 40 miles east of Oklahoma City. The city is named after the tribe. The Shawnee Naval Air Station is now the Shawnee Municipal Airport.
PAWNEE
The Pawnee Native Americans were a Plains Indians tribe that lived in Nebraska and Kansas. In the early 19th century, the Pawnee numbered over 10,000 people and were one of the largest and most powerful tribes in the west.
Pawnee, Oklahoma is 90 miles northeast of Oklahoma City.
SHAWNEE and PAWNEE
Although the tribe names, Shawnee and Pawnee, sound similar, the tribes are not related. The Shawnee are Algonquian, and the Pawnee are not.
Pawnee OK is 80 miles due north of Shawnee OK.
Shawnee Mountain Ski Area, in Pennsylvania’s Poconos, was designed in consultation with French Olympic medalist Jean-Claude Killy. The mountain is meant to provide novice trails runs that easily connect to intermediate and moderately steep terrain and allow skiers to improve their skills. One reason for the area’s popularity is its proximity to New York City, a 90 minute drive (traffic permitting). The “mountain” has a gentle slope and summit elevation of 1,350 feet (410 m), and would probably be defined by geologists as a hill. It is open for skiing today, with 6 trails of 23 and 3 of 9 lifts operating.
(When I went skiing in the Poconos my first question when we arrived there was “where are the mountains?”)
Pocono Raceway, a major automobile race track, is home to an IndyCar race, the Pocono 500, in August of each year and two Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races, the Pocono 400 in early June, and the Pennsylvania 400 in late July or early August.
In Indianapolis Jim Nabors was best known as the serious and respected baritone voice of the song “(Back Home Again in) Indiana,” performing the home-grown favorite over the public address system before the start of the Indy 500 nearly every year from 1972 until 2014.
Mechanics rode along with drivers in the Indy 500 from 1911 to 1922 and from 1930 to 1937. In the first 500, driver Ray Harroun notably drove solo, the only car in the field without a riding mechanic. He famously affixed a rear-view mirror to the car, in order to see cars behind him (a task normally accomplished by the mechanic).
Takuma Sato won last year’s Indy 500. 3 drivers each have 4 victories — they are tied for the most victories by any driver: AJ Foyt, Al Unser, and Rick Mears. The team owner with the most victories is Roger Penske, with 16 victories. Lou Moore and Michael Andretti have the next most as owners. They are tied with 5 each.
A Chevrolet Corvette was the official pace car of the 1978 Indy 500 (and still one of my favorite Corvette paintjobs): http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_images/2/2923/4521/19807260020_large.jpg
The Corvette was designed, multiple times, by GM legend Zora Arkus-Duntov, although it was the brainchild of Harley Earl.
Traditionally, the “Earl Grey” tea blend was made from black teas flavored with oil of bergamot, but tea companies have since begun to offer Earl Grey in other varieties as well, such as green or oolong. Numerous tea companies produce their own versions of Earl Grey tea, using a wide variety of tea leaves and additives.
Twinings reformulated their Earl Grey tea in April 2011, claiming to have added “an extra hint of bergamot and citrus”. The uproar that followed was reported in the press: the Daily Mail article title was “We’re pining for our old Twinings: Furious Earl Grey drinkers dismiss new recipe as ‘an affront to tea’”.
Red Rose is considered one of the best popular branded teas in the world, but the American branded product is not at all the same. Red Rose brand tea has been available in the United States since the 1920s, but it is a different blend of black pekoe and cut black teas compared to the orange pekoe sold in Canada.
Orange Pekoe is a Japanese music duo which formed in 1998, and had its first major debut in 2002, with the single “Happy Valley”. The band is composed of vocalist Tomoko Nagashima and guitarist Kazuma Fujimoto and was formed in 1998. They have developed a unique sound sublimating various types of music such as jazz, Latin, Brazilian and soul, and have been acclaimed as a one-of-a-kind uniquely artistic band.
See what you think: Bird song - Orange Pekoe (Japan) - YouTube
Ue o Muite Arukō is a song that was sung by Japanese artist Kyu Sakamoto. It was one of the few non Indo-European songs to ever become an American hit in that era. It reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 under the title Sukiyaki, which had nothing to do with the song’s lyrics, and sold some 13 million copies worldwide.
Kyu Sakamoto perished in the crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123, the deadliest single-aircraft accident ever. The 747SP was rendered virtually uncontrollable due to the rupture of a badly-repaired aft pressure bulkhead. Hajimu Nakano, the president of the Hanshin Tigers professional baseball club, also died.
On Friday, December 16, 1960, a United Airlines Douglas DC-8, bound for LaGuardia Airport in New York City, collided with a TWA Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation descending into the city’s Idlewild Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport). One plane crashed on Staten Island, the other into Park Slope, Brooklyn, killing all 128 people on both aircraft and six people on the ground. At the time the death toll was the highest for a commercial aviation accident, and remained so until 1968.
The USS Stargazer, Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s first command, was a Constellation-class starship. It was unusual among Starfleet vessels in having four warp nacelles.
The stargazers are a family of perciform fish that have eyes on top of their heads (hence the name). In addition to the top-mounted eyes, a stargazer also has a large, upward-facing mouth in a large head. Their usual habit is to bury themselves in sand, and leap upwards to ambush prey that pass overhead. The family includes about 51 species (one extinct) in eight genera and found worldwide in shallow and deep saltwaters.