The Rio Grande river marks the entire border between Texas and Mexico. The river is about 1,900 miles long and begins in south-central Colorado, flows through New Mexico, and Texas and Mexico, and empties into the Gulf of Mexico near Brownsville TX USA and Matamoros TM MEX (Tamaulipas).
Since the mid–20th century, heavy water consumption of farms and cities along with many large diversion dams on the river has left only 20% of its natural discharge to flow to the Gulf of Mexico.
In 2005, a woman filed suit against Michael Vick (then a quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons), alleging that she had contracted genital herpes from him, and that he had failed to inform her that he had the disease. She also alleged that Vick had been receiving treatment for the disease while using the alias “Ron Mexico.” When the lawsuit came to light, fans began having custom Falcons jerseys made with Vick’s number (7) and the name “Mexico” on the back, leading the NFL to ban custom jerseys featuring that name.
The Confederate casemate ironclad CSS *Atlanta *was captured by the Federal ironclad USS *Weehawken *after a 15-minute-long battle (1 killed, 16 wounded) on June 17, 1863, during the American Civil War. Repaired and renamed the USS Atlanta, she served in the U.S. Navy through the end of the war. Sold to Haiti in 1869, she was later lost at sea with all hands.
The Haitian Navy was created in 1860 with the commissioning of a single gunboat. The addition of the USS Atlanta would have doubled the size of the Haitian fleet. The ship was sold to Haiti for $260,000 and set sail for Haiti in December of 1869.
Unfortunately, the ship, now renamed Triumfo, vanished en route from Chester, Pennsylvania to Port-au-Prince. It is believed to have disappeared either off Cape Hatteras or the Delaware Capes.
Atlanta’s SunTrust Park is the home ballpark of the Atlanta Braves. The Braves have played their home games at SunTrust Park since April 2017. A quick history of Atlanta Braves ballparks:
2017 — now: SunTrust Park
1997 - 2016: Turner Field
1966 - 1996: Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium
Comment: the Atlanta Braves’s home ballpark is the only one remaining in MLB for me to visit. No immediate plans to go, currently, but you can bet it’s on my list!
Ted Turner owns a BBQ restaurant in downtown Atlanta that serves, among other things, bison meat from his massive Montana ranch.
Ike Turner was extremely physically abusive to his wife Tina. When he died, the New York Post’s headline summed it up perfectly; IKE ‘BEATS’ TINA TO DEATH
The biographical musical Tina, about Tina Turner, is expected to open on Broadway next fall. She gave up her U.S. citizenship in 2013 and was granted Swiss citizenship. She now lives near Zurich.
There is no alternative (shortened as TINA) was a slogan often used by the Conservative British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The phrase was used to signify Thatcher’s claim that the market economy is the only system that works, and that debate about this is over.
The nearest Tina city or town to me is the town of Tina MO, which is 1,850 miles from my old address in San Francisco (gMap, https://goo.gl/CvBSjX). Tina MO’s population at the 2010 census was 157. The town of Tina MO was laid out in 1892, and named after Tina Gilchrist, the daughter of a railroad official. A post office called Tina has been in operation since 1884.
According to Wikipedia the other Tina towns in the US are Tina WV and Tina KY.
The full name of actress and comedian Tina Fey is Elizabeth Stamatina Fey. Her maternal grandparents were Greek immigrants and Stamatina is a Greek name, a female form of the name Stamatis, which is connected to a story about the angels.
Supposedly, when God created the angels he gave them full autonomy. One of them, Lucifer, decided to place his throne above God’s. As soon as he did, he fell from Heaven and became a Devil. Many angels went with him; the sky was torn apart and angels turning to demons kept falling from the skies.
Then, Archangel Michael stood in the middle of the falling Angels and said “We stop, fearing God”. The word stop in Greek is “stamato”, and the Stop of the Falling Angels is celebrated by the Greek Orthodox Church through the name Stamatis, with its nameday on November 8th.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016) was dedicated to Tina Fey’s father, Donald Fey, who was a Korean War veteran and who died in 2015.
‘Fey’ is the stage name for María Fernanda Blázquez Gil, who is a Mexican singer, songwriter, dancer and actress. Born in Mexico City in 1973, she has released 8 albums and was part of the 2017 ‘90s Pop Tour’. She has had several #1 pop hits in her native Mexico.
“Fey” is a Scottish term for individuals reputed to have the Sight.
Scotland Yard recruits “super recognizers” — people with an uncanny knack of recognizing facial features and connecting that to names. These people often perform better than facial recognition software. One such specialist, a Constable Gary Collins, identified 180 people out of 4000 while examining footage of the 2011 London riots. Software was able to identify exactly one.
Actor and talk show host Gary Collins married Mary Ann Mobley, Miss America 1959/. They had one child, a daughter, Mary Clancy Collins. They separated in 2011, but reconciled; he moved to her home state of Mississippi to be with her in 2012, while she battled breast cancer. Collins died in 2012; Mobley in 2014.
Author Tom Clancy is one of three novelists in the 1990s to sell 2 million copies of a book with the first printing. The other two novelists were J.K. Rowling and John Grisham.
American professional baseball pitcher Tommy John, who played in Major League Baseball for the Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, California Angels, and Oakland Athletics from 1963 to 1989, was a four-time MLB All-Star.
The Cleveland Indians have announced that, beginning with the 2019 season, the baseball team will no longer use the Chief Wahoo logo on its uniforms and gear. Many people believe Chief Wahoo to be racist and insulting. Chief Wahoo retro and commemorative gear will still be available.
Yoko Ono grew up in Tokyo and also spent several years in New York City. She first met John Lennon in 1966, when he was married to Cynthia Powell, at her own art exhibition in London, and they became a couple in 1968 and wed the following year. John Lennon added ‘Ono’ as one of his middle names, and in Hawaii, ono is the name for the wahoo fish.