Scottish Dance Theatre (or, Theater) is a contemporary dance company based at Dundee Repertory Theatre in Dundee, Scotland — some 69 miles north of Edinburgh. The company is currently led by Artistic Director Fleur Darkin. She joined the company in 2011. Scottish Dance Theatre was founded by Royston Maldoom in 1986 as the Dundee Rep Dance Company.
Dundee, Scotland has two professional soccer teams in the Scottish Premiership, and their stadia are pretty much across the street from one another; they are less than a thousand feet apart.
Australian actor Paul Hogan acted in USA commercials for Fosters in the early 1980s (“Fosters. It’s Australian for beer… mate”). Some were early classics. Hogan’s good looks and sex appeal led to more 1980s USA commercials promoting Australian tourism, with the famous phrase “shrimps on the barbie”. Hogan’s breakout role was that of Mick “Crocodile” Dundee in the 1986 film Crocodile Dundee. Hogan also co-wrote the movie, which was a massive critical and commercial success in many countries. He won the 1987 Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and was also nominated for Best Actor at the BAFTAs. The screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award, a BAFTA and a Saturn Award. Along with Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn, Hogan co-hosted the 59th Academy Awards, also in 1987.
Hogan’s Alley is a tactical training facility operated by the FBI Training Academy near Quantico, Virginia. It consists of a street with a bank, a post office, a hotel (“The Dogwood Inn”), a laundromat, a barber shop, a pool hall, homes, shops, and other structures. It is used to teach agents investigative techniques, firearms skills, and defensive tactics. Scenarios involve investigations of terrorist activities, planning and making arrests, processing evidence at crime scenes, conducting interviews and searches, using ballistic shields as protection, and clearing areas and buildings so they’re safe to enter.
Quantico, an ABC drama series about a group of FBI agents who trained together but whose careers later diverge, stars Indian actress and model Priyanka Chopra. It premiered in 2015; its third season will begin next month.
The National Museum of the Marine Corps, said by many to be in Quantico VA, is actually in Triangle VA. It opened on 10 November 2006, the Marine Corps’ 231st birthday.
Many countries have a Marine Corps (or Naval Infantry), although almost half the active Marine troops worldwide are in the U.S. Marine Corps. Other than the U.S., countries with 20,000 Marines or more include Vietnam, South Korea, Thailand, China and Indonesia.
The US Marine Corps organizes itself in infantry battalions, which are its basic combat unit. A battalion has about 900 Marines and includes three rifle companies, a weapons company, and an H&S (headquarters and service) company. Current US Marine Corps strength is from 21 to 25 infantry battalions.
Marine Park, a Brooklyn, NY neighborhood is situated around Gerritsen Creek, the westernmost inlet of Jamaica Bay. The area was a hunting and fishing ground for the Lenape people. Pits for cooking and preparing food dating from 800 to 1400 AD were uncovered in Marine Park, along with deer and turtle bones, oyster shells, and sturgeon scales. In the 17th century, the Dutch began to settle in the area, which had similarities to the marshland and coastal plains of the Netherlands. The land proved to be fairly good farmland and there was an abundance of clams, oysters, and game from the region as well.
According to oyster researcher George Fisher, professor of chemistry at Barry University: “To my knowledge, the old-wives tale of eating oysters to improve libido has no sustainable, scientific proof.”
Oysters and lobster, now considered luxury foods, were once looked down on as foods of the poor. When George Washington toured Long Island, New York in 1790 (when the nation’s capital was New York City) he visited the Onderdonk family in Roslyn; they were eating oysters, which they quickly hid to avoid embarrassment. “Poverty and oysters always seem to go together", says Charles Dickens in his “Pickwick Papers”. In Prince Edward Island, Canada, in the 1960s, wealthier families sent their children to school with peanut butter sandwiches, while poorer ones had lobster sandwiches.
At the time of the Civil War, oysters were sold as street food in New York City as commonly as hot dogs are today.
The annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest is held each year on Independence Day on Coney Island NY. The defending champion is Joey Chestnut, who ate 72 hot dogs in 10 minutes in the 2017 contest.
When the Fathers of Confederation met in Quebec in 1864, they produced the Quebec Resolutions, 72 in number, which set out the framework for new federal state of Canada.
Quebec City – not Montreal – is the capital of the province of Quebec. The word “Kebec” is an Algonquin word meaning Where The River Narrows.
The only officially bilingual Canadian province is not Quebec, but New/Nouveau Brunswick.
There are many multilingual countries in the world. The country with the most official languages is India with 16 of its 454 living languages getting the nod.
More than a million Indians are millionaires, yet most Indians live on less than two dollars a day. An estimated 35% of India’s population lives below the poverty line.
The official motto of the Indian Navy is Sham No Varunaḥ, a Sanskrit phrase which means “May the Lord of the Water be auspicious unto us.”
The motto of the US Navy is Semper Fortis, which can be translated to either ‘Always Powerful’ or ‘Always Courageous.’