On April 20, 1861, Robert E. Lee resigned his commission in the United States Army in order to command the forces of the Commonwealth of Virginia, as his home state seceded in the early days of the Civil War. Lee had earlier been offered command of the U.S. Army, but turned it down. When he told his friend and mentor Gen. Winfield Scott, also a Virginian, about his decision, Scott replied, “Lee, you have just made the biggest mistake of your life.”
The headquarters of the Scott paper company for many years was located at International Plaza (known then as Scott Plaza) in Tinicum Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, in Greater Philadelphia. The complex at that time consisted of three buildings known as Plaza I, Plaza II, and Plaza III. Plaza I was completed in 1961. Plaza II was completed after 1961. Plaza III was completed in 1969. The complex was constructed for the purpose of serving as Scott’s headquarters.
The film Rocky Horror Picture Show was a flop on its initial release, but later became a cult-film favorite, with a key part of the experience being audience participation: talking back to the screen, shouting comebacks and one-liners, and using props.
One of the traditional prop-related responses is to throw rolls of toilet paper into the air when Dr. Scott appears, and Brad says, “Great Scott!”
Fellow Doper, that means you are 2 months younger than me. 1953, obviously, was a very good year.
In play:
Scott Paper was founded in 1879 in Philadelphia by brothers E. Irvin and Clarence Scott, and is often credited as being the first to market toilet paper sold on a roll. Consolidated sales of its consumer and commercial products totaled approximately $3.6 billion in 1994.
The company was acquired by the Kimberly-Clark Corporation in 1995.
Earlier this year, Kimberly-Clark announced it is extending its partnership and race sponsorship of the SCOTT® 150 with ARCA, the Automobile Racing Club of America, and Chicagoland Speedway & Route 66 Raceway in Joliet IL.
US Route 66 passes right next to Chicagoland Speedway & Route 66 Raceway.
Explorers Joliet and Marquette were an unlikely pair. Father Jacques Marquette was a studious Jesuit, just turned 36. His partner, Louis Joliet was a 27-year-old philosophy student who had become a fur trader.
They did not discover the Mississippi; it had been in use by indigenous peoples for thousands of years, and Spanish explorer Hernan De Soto had crossed it more than a century before them. They did confirm, however, that it was possible to travel from the Great Lakes all the way to the Gulf of Mexico by water, that the native peoples who lived along the route were generally friendly, and that the natural resources of the lands in between were extraordinary.
Ninja’ed, by damn!
The Des Plaines River is 130 miles long and flows from Wisconsin to its discharge into the Illinois River. The Des Plaines River flows through Joliet IL, which is nicknamed the “City of Steel and Stone”. John Belushi, in The Blues Brothers (1980), was “Joliet Jake” who was paroled from the now-closed Joliet Prison, which lies on the east bank of the Des Plaines River.
(A slight nitpick, though lots of online sources sort of omit this: the journey wasn’t purely by water. They had to make a portage of about 2 miles, at what is now the town of Portage, in central Wisconsin, to get from the headwaters of the Fox River (which flows northerly, into Lake Winnebago and then to Green Bay) to the Wisconsin River (which flows southerly, and joins up with the Mississippi).)
In play:
In the opening scene of The Blues Brothers, as Jake is being discharged from prison, his possessions are returned to him by a deadpan prison guard, played by Muppeteer and director Frank Oz.
The Cook County Assessor who accepted Jake and Elwood’s tax payment for their old orphanage was played by Steven Spielberg.
Frank Oz, who returned Jake’s possessions to him in The Blues Brothers, also appears as a corrupt Philadelphia Police booking officer in Trading Places.
Jake Sisko was the son of Commander (later Captain) Benjamin Sisko on the TV series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He was played by Cirroc Lofton.
Former MLB outfielder Kenny Lofton played for 11 different teams during his 17-season playing career. He came up with the Cleveland Indians, and spent ten seasons with Cleveland (over the course of three separate stints with the team), but didn’t play for more than one season for any of the other 10 teams.
The Cleveland Indians last won a World Series in 1948. This 69-year stretch is currently the longest drought in the majors. The next five teams are Texas (57 years), Milwaukee, San Diego, and Washington (all at 49 years), and Seattle (41 years).
None of those last five teams have ever won a World Series championship. Washington and Seattle have never appeared in a World Series.
The Palliser Triangle is an area on the Canadian prairies known for recurrent droughts, and includes a significant portion of Saskatchewan.
One of the most severe prairie droughts on record was the eight year period from 1929 to 1937, which coincided with the Great Depression triggered by the 1929 stock market crash.
The combination of significant deflation and the inability to grow crops combined to make Saskatchewan one of the hardest-hit regions by the Great Depression.
The devatating affects of Genghis Khan and his maurading band of Mongols can be seen vide the fact that Mesopotamia and Iran now have less area under cultivation for crops than they did a 1000 years ago despite major 20th century investements by UN agencies supported by the US.
Most of us pronounce Genghis Khan with a hard G, but it is really pronounced with a soft G, almost like Ching-is Khan. His name was bestowed on him not at birth, but 44 years later. He was born with the name Temujin, and he became Genghis Khan at the age of 44 as part of his coronation as the Khan of all Mongols.
Today, the majority of the world’s Mongols live in the state of Mongolia, China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan. However, smaller numbers of Mongolic peoples exist in Western Europe, North America, and elsewhere in Asia. Some of the more notable communities can be found in South Korea, the United States, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom.
The flag of Kyrgyzstan has a sun in its center, with 40 rays radiating outward. The 40 rays represent the 40 tribes or clans that the great leader, Manas, united as the first Kyrgyz state. “Kyrgyz” is thought to be derived from the Turkic word for “forty”.
“Forty Thousand Headmen” (a.k.a. “Roamin’ Thro’ the Gloamin with 40,000 Headmen”) is a song by the band Traffic, and first appeared on their eponymous second album in 1968. The song was written by bandmates Jim Capaldi and Steve Winwood, and Capaldi described the lyrics as being inspired by a “hash fuelled dream.”