In 1972 Ceylon’s name was changed to Sri Lanka. The island is about 20 miles south of India, in the Indian Ocean. The main island is the 25th largest in the world, at 25,000 sq miles. It is slightly larger than Tasmania.
Sri Lanka is known as the Land of Serendipity, Serendip (or Serendib) is the name of the large island. Besides tea, Sri Lanka is famous for its cinnamon which is said to have originated from there and first found by the Egyptians in 2000 BC. Today, Sri Lanka is still a leading exporter of the world’s cinnamon.
Arthur C. Clarke lived for many years in Ceylon, later Sri Lanka. At the time that American director Stanley Kubrick contacted him about maybe working on a science fiction movie together, Clarke was very short on cash due to expenses he’d incurred in getting out of his loveless marriage (he was a closeted gay man) and in bankrolling a locally-made spy movie - the only movie Clarke ever produced.
Other possible titles, and nicknames, for the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) included How the Solar System was Won (OK, more a nickname than serious contender), Project: Space, Across the Sea of Stars, Universe, Tunnel to the Stars, Earth Escape, Jupiter Window, Farewell to Earth, and Planetfall.
According to author Michael Benson, Stanley Kubrick intentionally delayed approving Arthur C. Clarke’s draft novelization of 2001: A Space Odyssey for several months after the movie was released, probably to ensure that its initial box-office take would not be hurt by those who just wanted to read the book.
The NASA robotic spacecraft 2001 Mars Odyssey was named in tribute to Arthur C. Clarke, and his book 2001: A Space Odyssey. The spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral on April 7, 2001, and entered Mars orbit on October 24, 2001. It has been in continual operation since then, and holds the record for the longest-serving spacecraft at Mars.
On 17 April 1970 the USS Iwo Jima, in the South Pacific Ocean and southeast of American Samoa, recovered astronauts Jim Lovell, US Marine Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert from the just-splashed down Apollo 13 command module, Odyssey.
Odyssey is currently on display at the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson KS.
Apollo 13’s lunar module, Aquarius, burned up in Earth’s atmosphere. It had 10 pounds of radioactive Plutonium-238 to power a moon experiment, and that landed deep in the Tonga Trench, the deepest trench of the Southern Hemisphere and the second deepest on Earth.
Atmospheric and oceanic monitoring indicate no release of nuclear fuel has occurred.
According to history.nasa.gov, the history of Project Apollo call signs, Apollo 13’s command module was named Odyssey because it was reminiscent of the long voyage of Odysseus of Greek mythology.
“In space, no one can hear you scream” was the tag line for the movie Alien (1979). Bolaji Badejo, who plays the alien, was a graphic artist who was discovered at a pub by one of the casting directors. He was about seven feet tall with thin arms - just what they needed to fit into the alien costume. He beat out Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca, Star Wars) for the part. Badejo was given tai chi and mime classes to learn how to slow down his movements and because he couldn’t sit down in the alien suit (because of the tail), a special swing had to be constructed for him to sit in during filming.
ETA: Al Matthews, who plays Marine sergeant Apone in Aliens (1986), was in real life the first black US Marine to be promoted to the rank of sergeant in the field during service in Vietnam.
Although Sgt. Al Apone was a noncommissioned officer of the United States Colonial Marines, he wore (presumably off-the-Costume-Department-shelf) U.S. Army sergeant’s chevrons in the acclaimed 1986 James Cameron sf/adventure movie Aliens.
On November 22, 1986, Mike Tyson appeared in his first title fight, against Trevor Berbick for the World Boxing Council heavyweight championship. Tyson won the title by TKO in the second round, and at the age of 20 years and 4 months became the youngest heavyweight champion in history.
“Iron” Mike Tyson won his first 27 professional fights before facing Trevor Berbick in that championship fight posted by Railer13. He continued his win streak to 37-0 until his first loss, in his 38th fight, to Buster Douglas on 11 Feb 1990.
It was so newsworthy that I remember exactly where I was when I saw that headline the next day.
English actor Trevor Howard came to prominence after his starring role in David Lean’s Brief Encounter (1945). Originally a box-office failure in England, Brief Encounter was presented at the very first Cannes film festival (1946), where it won almost unanimous praises as well as a Grand Prize.
Trevor Howard supposedly had an illustrious World War II record (including winning the Military Cross) but it was invented for him by his publicists. A 2001 biography by Terence Pettigrew claimed to have unearthed files from his war record, suggesting that he was dismissed from service in 1943 due to ‘mental instability’. Ironically, on screen, the actor was often cast as solid, unflappable British officers, perhaps reflecting his own personal credo of always feeling best when impersonating someone else.
Samuel Horwitz, known professionally as Shemp Howard, was an American actor and comedian. He is often considered the ‘fourth’ Stooge, as the original Three Stooges of movie shorts fame were his brothers Moe and Jerry (Curly) Howard and their friend Larry Fine. After Curly’s stroke and subsequent death, Shemp replaced him and made 73 short films (77 counting four made after his death using stock footage).
Fake Shemp, or simply Shemp, is someone who appears in a film as a replacement for another actor or person. Their appearance is disguised using methods such as heavy make-up (or a computer-generated equivalent), filming from the back, dubbing in audio and splicing in past footage from the original actor’s previous work, using a sound-alike voice actor, or using partial shots of the actor.
The concept is named after Shemp Howard, whose sudden death in 1955 necessitated the use of these techniques to finish the films to which he was already committed.
Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern-schplenden-schlitter-crasscrenbon-fried-digger-dingle-dangle-dongle-dungle-burstein-von-knacker-thrasher-apple-banger-horowitz-ticolensic-grander-knotty-spelltinkle-grandlich-grumble-meyer-spelterwasser-kurstlich-himbleeisen-bahnwagen-gutenabend-bitte-ein-nürnburger-bratwustle-gerspurten-mitzweimache-luber-hundsfut-gumberaber-shönendanker-kalbsfleisch-mittler-aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm was a fictional German baroque composer famously profiled in a November 1969 episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
ETA: Bizarrely, nay, inexplicably, “Shemp” is not one of his names.
The name Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the comedy troupe of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin, was made up by the group when they were commissioned to make their BBC comedy show.
Numerous non-sequitur names were considered, including “Owl Stretching Time,” “The Toad Elevating Moment,” “A Horse, a Spoon, and a Basin,” and “Bumwacket, Buzzard, Stubble and Boot.” “Flying Circus” only stuck because the BBC informed the group they had printed their programming schedules with the name already and it couldn’t be changed. When they wanted a name to go before that, John Cleese suggested something slithery like “Python,” while Eric Idle came up with the name “Monty” to suggest a sort of drunken British stereotype
Monty Python troupe member Michael Palin has had a highly successful second career as a television presenter. Palin is particularly known for his series of travel documentaries for the BBC, including “Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days” (in which he tried to re-create Phileas Fogg’s fictional trip as faithfully as possible), “Pole To Pole” (in which he traveled from the North Pole to the South Pole), and “Full Circle with Michael Palin” (in which he circumnavigated the Pacific Ocean).
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, born in 1964, was 42 years old in 2006, her first year as Governor. At age 28 she was elected to the Wasilla City Council, and she was mayor of Wasilla at the age of 32. She was born in northern Idaho and moved to Skagway AK with her family when she was still an infant.
Baked Alaska is made of ice cream placed in a pie dish lined with slices of sponge cake or Christmas pudding, and topped with meringue. The entire dessert is then placed in an extremely hot oven for a brief time, long enough to firm and caramelize the meringue. In some restaurants, it is served flambee-style, with rum or whiskey splashed on top and set alight.
