Bridgeport CA, high in the Sierra Nevadas at 6,500’ elevation in the Toiyabe National Forest, is the home of USMC MWTC — the US Marine Corps’ Mountain Warfare Training Center. MWTC was established in 1951 as the Cold Weather Battalion with a mission of providing cold-weather training for replacement personnel bound for Korea. After the Korean War, in 1963, the school was renamed the “Mountain Warfare Training Center” due to its expanded role.
In the battle for control of the Dolomite Mountains, and therefore access to the northern Italian plains and cities, in World War I, both Italy and Austria-Hungary built tunnels through the hard rock for logistics and protection. The Road of 52 Tunnels is still accessible by mule. On December 13, 1916, “White Friday”, upwards of 10,000 soldiers on both sides died in avalanches there.
The 52-card deck of playing cards originated in the Mameluke Empire, and were introduced to Europe at least as early as the 14th century. The Mameluke deck was essentially the same as the modern deck; four suits of 13 cards, with ten numbered cards and three face cards, although the suits and types of royalty were different.
Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is once said to have ruefully joked that, given the modern trend of history against royalty, “In time there will be just five kings: those in a deck of cards, and that of Great Britain.”
The King of Hearts is called the “suicide king” because he appears to be sticking a large knife into his neck. It originates in England, which imported their cards from Rouen until the early 17th century when foreign card imports were banned. This resulted in centuries of bad copying by English card makers where the king’s axe head has disappeared. The kings in the French system had names: David (spade, holds mace), Charlemagne (heart, holds axe), Julius Caesar (diamond, holds nothing), and Alexander the Great (club, holds mace).
Chemical Mace was originally invented in 1965 by Allan Lee Litman, founder and co-owner of Pittsburgh-based General Ordnance Equipment Corporation after his wife, Doris, was threatened on the street. Due to the potentially toxic nature of phenacyl chloride (the original MACE active compound), and the generally superior incapacitating qualities of oleoresin capsicum (pepper spray) in most situations, the early CN mixture has been mostly supplanted by OC formulas.
An emblem on the flag of Grenada is the nutmeg which grows throughout the island, which is known as the Spice Island. Nutmeg grows downwards inside of a yellow pod. The red in the emblem on the flag represents mace, which grows on the outside of the nutmeg and is also used as a spice.
When the Dutch controlled the Moluccas (also called the Spice Islands), one colonial administator sent orders that the colonists should plant fewer nutmeg trees and more mace trees. Because the yield of mace is much less than nutmeg’s it has had greater value. A pile of fruit large enough to make one hundred pounds of nutmeg produces a single pound of mace.
When the Dutch granted independence to Indonesia in 1950, three islands of the South Moluccas attempted to declare their own republic. There was no international recognition, and the effort lasted seven months, until defeated by Indonesian troops. A declared government in exile survived until 1963.
Dutch is the language of the Netherlands, and the people of the Netherlands are Dutch people (or, Nederlanders). The Netherlands is not Holland, and Holland is not the Netherlands — this is a common misconception. Holland is a western region of the country and is on the North Sea coast. Therefore, Holland is a subset of The Netherlands; and while all of Holland is in the Netherlands, not all of the Netherlands is Holland.
The largest sea port in the world outside of east Asia is Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Rotterdam is in South Holland.
Another Dutch province is Zeeland, after which Abel Tasman named New Zealand. It has no connection other than a similar spelling to the Danish island of Zealand.
The Cats were a Dutch rock band formed in Volendam in 1964. They were active (with a few interruptions) from 1964 until 1985 and had its most successful period from 1968 until 1975.
Of the many hits the band had at home and abroad the biggest one is “One way wind”, which was released in 38 countries and a top ten number in several of them, of which a number one in Switzerland. The record sold more than a million copies in Germany, and it has been covered by some 150 other artists.
Before founding the Bryan Setzer Orchestra, Setzer led the Stray Cats, whose top-selling hit was 1981’s “Stray Cat Strut”.
In Season 5, Episode 3 of The Nanny “The Bobbi Flekman Story,” which first aired on October 15, 1997 music-biz publicist Bobbi Flekman (Fran Drescher in a dual role, reprising her role from the movie Spinal Tap) used Mr. Sheffield’s house to set up a music video by the Brian Setzer Orchestra, doing their rendition of “When the House is A-Rocking, Don’t Come A-Knocking.”
Nanny and the Professor was a TV series that ran from 1970 to -971 and starred Richard Long as the professor and Juliet Mills as the nanny. Richard Long died at 47 of a heart attack, and Juliet Mills is now 76 years old.
Juliet Mills is the eldest of three siblings. Her brother is Jonathan Mills, and her sister is Hayley Mills. Hayley Mills starred in six Disney movies as a teenager; one of her most famous roles was playing twins in the 1961 move The Parent Trap.
Hayley Mills was 15 years old when she won New Star Actress of the Year — in 1961. When I was born. She is now 71 years old.
John Mills, Juliet Mills’s father, once appeared on Nanny and the Professor playing her character’s Uncle Alfred, an eccentric older man who enthralled the Everett children with his stories and his human flying act.
Hayley Mills’ father was Sir John Mills, a veteran film actor who received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in* Ryan’s Daughter*. His climb to stardom began when he had the lead role in the submarine film We Dive at Dawn, which AFAIK was the first to use the meme of sending a dead body along with other debris out of a torpedo tube to fool the attacking enemy into thinking the sub was destroyed.
Mills College in Oakland CA, in 1871, became the first women’s college west of the Rockies. It is named for Susan Tolman Mills of Vermont, one of its founders. She was President of the college for 19 years.
William Augustus Mills was a major general in the War of 1812. He was also well respected by the Native Americans of the Livingston County area who gave him the nickname “Big Kettle.” The General served as a mediator between the Native Americans and white men of the area and was known for his generosity.