Milwaukee’s Rockwell Automation/Allen Bradley Clock tower houses one of the largest four-faced clocks in the world. It is larger than London’s Big Ben.
Little Ben is a cast iron miniature clock tower, situated at the intersection of Vauxhall Bridge Road and Victoria Street, in Westminster, central London, close to the approach to Victoria station. In design it mimics the famous clock tower colloquially known as Big Ben at the Palace of Westminster, found at the other end of Victoria Street. А replica of Little Ben called Lorloz (painted silver) was erected in 1903 in the centre of Victoria, capital of Seychelles to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897.
Wilson is said to have remarked that nature teaches us that “God has a peculiar affinity for beetles,” of which there are over 400,000 species.
Brace yourself:
In play:
Queen Victoria met with William Seward, Republican of New York, when he toured Europe before the Civil War. Seward, frustrated in his ambition to become the Republican presidential nominee in 1860, agreed to serve in President Abraham Lincoln’s Cabinet as Secretary of State. He was played by David Strathairn in the Steven Spielberg movie Lincoln.
In Lincoln, Hal Holbrook played presidential adviser Francis Preston Blair, after whom Blair House is named. Holbrook played Lincoln in the TV miniseries “Carl Sandburg’s Lincoln”, but is still best known for his one-man show Mark Twain Tonight! and for playing Julia’s boyfriend (he and Dixie Carter were married IRL) on “Designing Women”.
Thank you! (and welcome back)
In play: There are at least 43 places in the US named Lincoln, including two in California that are about 175 miles apart.
- Lincoln, Alabama
- Lincoln, Arkansas
- Lincoln, California, in Placer County
- Lincoln, Madera County, California
- Lincoln, Delaware
- Lincoln, Idaho
- Lincoln, Illinois
- Lincoln, Indiana
- Lincoln, Iowa
- Lincoln Center, Kansas
- Lincoln Parish, Louisiana
- Lincoln, Maine
- Lincoln Plantation, Maine
- Lincoln, Massachusetts
- Lincoln, Michigan
- Lincoln, Missouri
- Lincoln, Minnesota
- Lincoln, Montana
- Lincoln, Nebraska, capital of the state
- Lincoln, New Hampshire
- Lincoln (CDP), New Hampshire, the main village of Lincoln town
- Lincoln, Gloucester County, New Jersey
- Lincoln, New Mexico
- Lincoln, New York
- Lincoln, North Dakota
- Lincoln, Jackson County, Oregon
- Lincoln, Pennsylvania
- Lincoln, Rhode Island
- Lincoln, Texas
- Lincoln, Vermont
- Lincoln, Virginia
- Lincoln, Washington
- Lincoln, West Virginia
- Lincoln, Adams County, Wisconsin, a town
- Lincoln, Bayfield County, Wisconsin, a town
- Lincoln, Buffalo County, Wisconsin, a town
- Lincoln, Burnett County, Wisconsin, a town
- Lincoln, Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, a town
- Lincoln, Forest County, Wisconsin, a town
- Lincoln, Kewaunee County, Wisconsin, a town
- Lincoln (community), Wisconsin, Kewaunee County town
- Lincoln, Monroe County, Wisconsin, a town
- Lincoln, Polk County, Wisconsin, a town
- Lincoln, Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, a town
- Lincoln, Vilas County, Wisconsin, a town
- Lincoln, Wood County, Wisconsin, a town
The Avro Lincoln bomber was a derivative of the famous Lancaster. It was the last piston-engined bomber operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF). Intended to participate in the invasion of Japan, the Lincoln instead was used militarily only against the Mau Mau in Kenya and the Communist uprising in Malaysia.
Perhaps the most famous plane of all time in the RAF’s possession is the Supermarine 300, more famously known as the Supermarine Spitfire. Its first flight was 5 March 1936 and after flying it, the test pilot, “Mutt” Summers, reportedly told the designers “Don’t touch anything.”
The Spitfire was the first high-speed photo-reconnaissance aircraft to be operated by the RAF.
It was a common tradition for RAF pilots on missions in the first Gulf War to start singing “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” from Monty Python’s Life of Brian.
Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert is the principal antagonist in Sir Walter Scott’s bestselling 1820 novel, Ivanhoe. The character has been played on film and television by Ciaran Hinds and Sam Neill. The title role, Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe, has been played by Robert Taylor, Anthony Andrews and Roger Moore.
The modern notion of Robin Hood —“King of Outlaws and prince of good fellows!” as Richard the Lionheart calls him — made its debut in Ivanhoe, which was published in 1819.
The classic Jimmy Cliff film about the reggae music industry in Jamaica, The Harder They Come, tells of the struggle of poor Ivanhoe “Ivan” Martin (Cliff) to emerge from the Trenchtown slums of Kingston and break into the corrupt music business, succeeding only after killing a cop makes him a folk hero whose recordings are in demand.
Wonderful soundtrack album, btw. Had a lot to do with popularizing reggae in the US.
In 1814, Jamaica, New York became the first incorporated village on Long Island. The New York Racing Association (NYRA), based at Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone Park, lists its official address as Jamaica. NYRA operates Belmont Park in Elmont NY. Secretariat’s finishing time in his 1973 Belmont victory (2 minutes, 24 seconds) set a world record for 1 1⁄2 miles on dirt, a world record which still stands. The 31-length victory clinched the first Triple Crown in 25 years, dating back to Citation in 1948. A statue of Secretariat is in the center of the Belmont paddock.
The Belmont was an electric car manufactured in Wyandotte, Michigan, by the Belmont Electric Auto Company in 1916. They produced four- and six-seater electrical limousines, along with other commercial electric vehicles.
Not in play: Elendil’s Heir, in post #39717 you said:
The quote actually started with the biologist J.B.S. Haldane, who, when asked what he thought his studies showed about the Creator, is said to have replied “An inordinate fondness for beetles”.
On September 6, 1916 the first true supermarket, the “Piggly Wiggly” was opened by Clarence Saunders in Memphis, Tennessee
Safeway supermarkets’ original slogan was “an admonition and an invitation” to “Drive the Safeway; buy the Safeway”. The point of the name was that the market operated on a cash-and-carry basis — it did not offer credit, as grocers traditionally had done. It was the “safe way” to buy because a family could not get into debt via its grocery bill (as many families did at the time, especially during the Great Depression).
I read in a book on the Falklands War not long ago that some Royal Marines, soaked to the skin in a driving rain, sang it, too, as they marched across the island, loaded down with rifles and heavy packs.
Ah, thanks. FWIW, Wiki says it’s possibly apocryphal with Haldane, too: J. B. S. Haldane - Wikipedia
Hmm, never knew that! That’s good trivia.
In play:
In recent years, Safeway has gotten high marks from animal-welfare organizations for humane farming practices in producing its store brands.
PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, was founded in March 1980 by Ingrid Newkirk and fellow animal rights activist Alex Pacheco.
PETA first caught the public’s attention in the summer of 1981 during what became known as the Silver Spring monkeys case, a widely publicized dispute about experiments conducted on 17 macaque monkeys inside the Institute of Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Maryland. The case lasted 10 years, involved the only police raid on an animal laboratory in the US, triggered an amendment in 1985 to that country’s Animal Welfare Act, and established PETA as an internationally known organization.
Virginia Senator George Allen (son of the former Washington Redskins coach) lost his 2006 re-election campaign largely because of an incident in which he referred to an Indian-American man in the crowd as “Mister Macaca”. The term, derived from Portuguese for “monkey” (related to macaque), is a racial slur.
George Herbert Allen, the father of the Senator from Virginia, led his 1972 Washington Redskins to the Super Bowl (Super Bowl 7, or VII) against the undefeated Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins were ahead, 14-0, when kicker Garo Yepremian of the Dolphins lined up to attempt a 42-yard field goal in the 4th quarter and with a little more than 2 minutes left in the game. If the Dolphins won, and they had been dominating the entire game, their season record would be 17-0. The perfect season. To kick the field goal would have made the score 17-0, the perfect score to cap the perfect 17-0 season.
But in what would later be called Garo’s Gaffe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_League_lore#1970s), Yepremian picked up the blocked field goal and feebly attempted a forward pass. He lost his grip and bobbled the ball, and Mike Bass of the Redskins returned the fumble for a touchdown.
The final score was 14-7. The Dolphins got their perfect season, with a 17-0 record, but not with the perfect 17-0 Super Bowl score.