In medieval Gaelic and British culture, a bard was a professional story teller, verse-maker and music composer, employed by a patron to commemorate one or more of the patron’s ancestors and to praise the patron’s own activities. Originally a specific, lower class of poet,as opposed to the the higher rank known as * fili* in Ireland and Highland Scotland.
Bard College is a liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. It was founded in 1860 by John Bard. a Christian philanthropist, and his wife, Margaret Johnston Bard. John Bard was born in Hyde Park NY. He was a grandson of Samuel Bard, a prominent doctor, a founder of Columbia University’s medical school, and physician to George Washington.
Yes, that George Washington.
Desiccated beef produced for the United States Army during the Civil War was soon dubbed “desecrated beef” by disgusted soldiers. Chester Arthur, future President of the United States, served as quartermaster general of the New York militia during the Civil War and was by all accounts very successful in the post.
The term quartermaster appears to derive from the title of a German royal official, the Quartiermeister. This term meant “master of quarters” (where “quarters” means lodging/accommodation). Or it could have been derived from “master of the quarterdeck” where the helmsman and Captain controlled the ship. The term was then adopted by some European armies and navies. The first use in English was as a naval term, entering English via the equivalent French and Dutch naval titles quartier-maître and kwartier-meester in the fifteenth century. The term began to refer to army officers in English around 1600.
The naval rank of Admiral, comes from the Arabic Amir al Bahr meaning Leader of ships.
The naval rank of Admiral, comes from the Arabic Amir al Bahr meaning Leader of ships.
The Admiral Corporation was a Chicago-based manufacturer of home electronics and appliances from the 1930s until the 1970s, when it was purchased by Rockwell International. The Admiral brand name has gone through several owners since, and appears to be currently owned by Whirlpool.
Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840 – 1914) was a US naval officer and historian, whom John Keegan called “the most important American strategist of the nineteenth century.” He is known for the quote, “Good men with poor ships are better than poor men in good ships."
Thayer School of Engineering, established in 1867 with funds from Brigadier General Sylvanus Thayer, is part of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. In 2016 Thayer became the first US national research university with a graduating class of engineering undergraduates that was over 50% female.
Chester Arthur held the rank of brigadier general during the Civil War, but never saw combat. His lovely wife Nell died in 1880, early in the year was elected Vice President, and did not live to see him become President in 1881. He never remarried.
Chad Mitchell Trio’s song “Hang on the Bell, Nellie” is a parody of Rose Hartwick Thorpe
1867 poem Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight.The poem, a favorite of Queen Victoria’s, was one of the most popular of the 19th century, but later faded into obscurity.An 8-foot monument in Litchfield, Michigan along State Highway 99 honors the connection to that town and the poem and author.
The word “curfew” comes from the French phrase “couvre-feu”, which means “fire cover”. It was later adopted into Middle English as “curfeu”, which later became the modern “curfew”. Its original meaning refers to a law made by William The Conqueror that all lights and fires should be covered at the ringing of an eight o’clock bell to prevent the spread of destructive fire within communities in timber buildings.
Eight O’Clock Coffee was created by The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (later A&P) in 1859, in the latter company’s founding year. The brand has been owned by Tata Global Beverages since 2006.
A&P was founded by George Gilman and was originally known as ‘Gilman & Company’. It was the nation’s first grocery store chain, growing to 1,600 stores in 1915. From 1915 through 1975, A&P was the largest grocery retailer in the United States. In 1930, A&P became the world’s largest retailer, reaching $2.9 billion in sales with 16,000 stores.
A&P ceased supermarket operations in November 2015.
John Updike’s widely anthologized short story, “A&P”, was published in The New Yorker in 1961. In one passage, the narrator, a checkout clerk at an A&P, imagines the store 30 years ahead, apparently anticipating a Soviet takeover, “maybe in 1990 when it’s called the Great Alexandrov and Petrooshki Tea Company or something.”
Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010: Odyssey Two both posit that the Soviet Union remained a world power at least through the years mentioned in their titles; there is evidence of the same in the recent unrelated film Blade Runner 2049. In reality, the Communist nation collapsed in 1991.
One difference between the novel 2010: Odyssey Two and the film 2010: The Year We Make Contact is the portrayal of computer scientist (and creator of the HAL 9000 computer) Dr. Chandra.
In the novel, Dr. Chandra’s full name is Dr. Sivasubramanian Chandrasegarampillai, and he is of Indian descent. In the film, he is simply Dr. R. Chanda, and the character is played by American actor Bob Balaban.
In a 2006 poll conducted by Zogby International, 60% of poll respondents in the US were able to identify Homer as the father of Bart Simpson, while only 21% could name one of Homer’s epics, the Iliad or the Odyssey. 73% of those polled were able to name all three of The Three Stooges, while only 42% could name the three branches of government.
Apollo 13 call signs were, for the Lunar Module it was Aquarius, and for the Command Module it was Odyssey. Aquarius reentered the atmosphere over the South Pacific between the islands of Fiji and New Zealand, and she sleeps with the fishes. Odyssey is currently on display at the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson KS.
Still Dr. Chandra, not Chanda: 2010 (1984) - Bob Balaban as Dr. R. Chandra - IMDb
In play:
In early drafts of the screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey, the shipboard computer aboard the spacecraft USS *Discovery *was named Athena, not HAL, and it had a benign female personality, in keeping with the quasi-Homeric inspiration of the film.