Harry Nilsson wrote the song “One” (also known as “One is the loneliest number”) after calling someone and getting a busy signal. He stayed on the line listening to the “beep, beep, beep, beep…” tone, writing the song. The busy signal became the opening notes of the song.
(BTW somehow I always found the nine times table easier to learn than 8, 7 and 6)
The arithmetic shortcut called “Casting Out Nines” involves one of these steps:
Adding the decimal digits of a positive whole number, while optionally ignoring any 9s or digits which sum to a multiple of 9. The result of this procedure is a number which is smaller than the original whenever the original has more than one digit, leaves the same remainder as the original after division by nine, and may be obtained from the original by subtracting a multiple of 9 from it. The name of the procedure derives from this latter property.
Repeated application of this procedure to the results obtained from previous applications until a single-digit number is obtained. This single-digit number is called the "digital root" of the original. If a number is divisible by 9, its digital root is 9. Otherwise, its digital root is the remainder it leaves after being divided by 9.
A sanity test in which the above-mentioned procedures are used to check for errors in arithmetical calculations. The test is carried out by applying the same sequence of arithmetical operations to the digital roots of the operands as are applied to the operands themselves. If no mistakes are made in the calculations, the digital roots of the two resultants should be the same. If they are different, therefore, one or more mistakes must have been made in the calculations.
The Dewey Decimal Classification or Dewey Decimal System, is a type of library classification system first published in the United States by Melvil Dewey in 1876 and it is used today in 200,000 libraries in at least 135 countries… It is currently maintained by the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), a non-profit cooperative that serves libraries. OCLC licenses access to an online version for catalogers called WebDewey.
My favorite part of the number 9 as a kid was the fact that each of its multiples under 100 is the mirror image of another lower multiple:
09 / 90
18 / 81
27 / 72
36 / 63
45 / 54
I did not learn that from Mr. Dewey or anyone else - I figured out all by myself.
“The 45” is one of the names for Bonnie Prince Charlie’s invasion of Scotland and England in 1745, in hopes of winning the Crown for his father, James, son of James II, in exile in France.
The invasion failed with the defeat of the Stuart forces by the Government forces at the Battle of Culloden, the last battle fought on British soil. The Duke of Cumberland, son of King George II, was victorious.
Prince Charles then had a lengthy flight from capture in the Highland and isles, pursued by Government forces.
At one point, he took shelter overnight with a Scottish sympathiser, but left early the next day. Soon afterwards, the Duke of Cumberland arrived and bluffly said to the intimidated sympathiser, “So, I hear my cousin was paying you a visit.”
Not quite:
In play:
There has been considerable speculation as to what title Prince Henry of Wales, commonly known as Prince Harry, might be given by Her Majesty the Queen at the time of his upcoming wedding to the American actress Meghan Markle. Duke of Sussex seems quite possible, or perhaps Duke of Oxford; his brother was named Duke of Cambridge at the time of his own wedding.
HM’s youngest son, Prince Edward, was made Earl of Wessex upon his marriage to Sophie Rhys-Jones. He requested the title after watching the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love, in which a character with that title is played by Colin Firth. Prince Edward thereby became the first prince since the Tudors to be specifically created an earl, rather than a duke, although he is expected to succeed his father as Duke of Edinburgh.
Since 2014, the Earl of Wessex has a personal heraldic flag for use in Canada. It is the Royal Arms of Canada in banner form defaced with a blue roundel surrounded by a wreath of gold maple leaves, within which is a depiction of an “E” surmounted by a coronet. Above the roundel is a white label of three points, the centre one charged with a Tudor rose.
The Westland Wessex was a British-built turbine-powered helicopter developed under license from the Sikorsky H-34 helicopter. One of the main changes from Sikorsky’s H-34 was the replacement of the piston-engine powerplant with a turboshaft engine; the Wessex was the first large mass-produced helicopter designed around use of a gas turbine engine.
Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899. His name means “wise elf”.
Not in play:
I would be cautious about stating that Castlebar, County Mayo, and Collooney, County Sligo, are in Britain. 
As for the “Battle” of Fishguard, pfft. A mere skirmish, with the French forces surrendering rather than engage in a battle:
Alfred Thaddeus Crane Pennyworth is Bruce Wayne’s loyal and tireless butler, legal guardian, best friend, aide-de-camp, and surrogate father figure following the murders of his parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne, which led to Bruce becoming Batman.
With apologies to any Irish patriots here: at the time, they were.
Shots were fired between opposing military units - big or small, that makes it a battle in my book (and Wiki’s).
In play:
Maj. Gen. George Henry Thomas, “the Rock of Chickamauga” of Civil War fame, survived Nat Turner’s slave uprising as a young man in rural Virginia.
The Battle of Chickamauga, fought on September 18–20, 1863, was the first major battle of the Civil War fought in Georgia. The battle ultimately ended when the Confederate forces defeated the Union forces, but the Confederate army suffered over 18,000 forces killed, wounded, or captured, while the Union army suffered over 16,000 losses. In terms of losses, this battle was the second-highest in the war, behind only Gettysburg.
Georgia O’Keeffe’s painting Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1, was sold at auction in 2014 for $44,405,000, more than tripling the previous world record for auction price of a piece by a female artist.
Thurlow Weed, Republican of New York, was a longtime friend and political advisor to William H. Seward. He met President-elect Abraham Lincoln in Chicago shortly after the November 1860 election and soon encouraged Seward to accept Lincoln’s offer to become Secretary of State.
The state of Kansas has designated 14 species of plants as “noxious weeds”, and farmers are obliged to be aware of them and destroy them if found on their land. Failure to do so can result in the state destroying the weeds, at the landowner’s expense.
“Wildwood Weed” is a 1974 hit song written Don Bowman and recorded by Jim Stafford. The song is a story about farmers who take a sudden interest in a common wildflower on their farm, and soon discover and enjoy its hallucinogenic and mind-altering properties after one of them begins to chew on one. They begin to cultivate the plant in earnest; however, federal agents raid their property and destroy their crop. Nevertheless, the men are undeterred by the destruction of their plants.
Here’s the song: Wildwood Weed - Jim Stafford - YouTube
By annual revenue, cannabis is the biggest cash crop in the world, beating out rice, maize, and wheat. By land area and annual tonnage, it barely makes the charts.
The Internal Revenue Service is a division of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Per Wiki, in the 2015 fiscal year, the IRS processed almost 240 million returns and collected approximately $3.3 trillion in revenue, spending 35¢ for every $100 it collected.
“Per incuriam” is a principle used in common law courts to permit a lower court to decline to follow a decision of a higher court.
It only applies when it is clear that the higher court decision failed to take into account a relevant statutory provision or precedent, which if it had been drawn to its attention would have resulted in a different decision. The lower court can rely on that statute or precedent as justification to decline to follow the upper court decision.
The uppercut is a punch used in boxing that travels along a vertical line at the opponent’s chin or solar plexus. The punch moves as its name implies: it usually initiates from the attacker’s belly, making an upward motion before landing on the opponent’s face or body. Boxers famous for their uppercuts include Lennox Lewis, Joe Louis, Wilfredo Gómez, Julio César Chávez, Sonny Liston, George Foreman, Mike Tyson, Rubén Olivares, and Sandy Saddler.