Ernest Hemingway once wrote that Oak Park, Illinois, where he grew up, just outside Chicago, had “broad lawns and narrow minds.”
Ernest Hemingway’s house in Key West FL was his home in the 1930s. It was in this house that Hemingway wrote some of his best work, including the short story classics “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”, his novel To Have And Have Not, and the non-fiction work Green Hills of Africa.
Gertrude Stein initially encouraged Hemingway, but came to think him a poseur. She had a small dog to whom she would command “Play Hemingway! Be fierce!”
In 1954, Gertrude Stein’s life partner, Alice B. Toklas, published a book entitled “The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook.” While not strictly a cookbok (it was also a collection of Toklas’s reminiscences), one of the recipes in it, “Hashish Fudge,” made with cannabis, gained Toklas long-lasting fame, as “Alice B. Toklas Brownies” became a widely-used term for pot-laced brownies (or other foods).
Gertrude, California is a former settlement in Madera County. It was located alongside the Fresno River.
Gertrude, Washington is an unincorporated community in Pierce County that takes its name from nearby Gertrude Island.
Gertrude, Arkansas is a populated place located within the City of Texarkana, in Miller County.
Gertrude, West Virginia is a ghost town in Pocahontas County.
Gertrude is also a crater, the largest known crater on Uranus’s moon Titania. It is about 200 mi in diameter, 1/5 of Titania’s diameter. It is named after the mother of Hamlet in William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet.
Pocahontas (1596-1617) was a Native American woman, who was the daughter of Powhatan the paramount chief of a network of tribal nations. At age 16, she was captured by the English and held for ransom. While in captivity, she converted to Christianity and, at age 17, married a tobacco farmer named John Rolfe.
In 1616, the Rolfes traveled to London, where Pocahontas was presented to English society as an example of the “civilized savage” in hopes of stimulating investment in the Jamestown settlement. However, before they could return to Virginia, Pocahontas died at Gravesend, England of unknown causes in 1617. She was buried in St George’s Church in Gravesend, but her grave’s exact location is unknown.
Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins was a Northern Paiute author, activist and educator. Her father was the war chief of a small band of about 150 people, and the town of Winnemucca NV was named after her father. Her grandfather was Chief Truckee.
I was toting my pack along the long dusty Winnemucca road
When along came a semi with a high canvas-covered load
“If you’re goin’ to Winnemucca, Mac, then with me you can ride”
And so I climbed into the cab and then I settled down inside.
He asked me if I’d seen a road with so much dust and sand
And I said, “Listen! I’ve traveled every road in this here land!”
Including Route 66, no doubt.
Paul McCartney said that his song “The Long and Winding Road” was inspired by a road in Scotland, probably the B842 which runs down the east coast of Kintyre and on into Campbeltown near his Scottish farmhouse. Released on June 13, 1970, it was The Beatles 20th and last US #1 song.
According to this Wiki page, six of the twenty Beatles #1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 reached that mark in 1964: ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’, ‘She Loves You’, ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’, ‘Love Me Do’, ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, and ‘I Feel Fine’.
Lyndon Johnson was President of the United States for all of 1964, but there was no Vice President, as the Johnson had succeeded to the Presidency after the November 22, 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy. Hubert Humphrey, Johnson’s running mate in 1964, took office as Vice President on Jan. 20, 1965. The 25th Amendment, permitting the nomination of a person to fill a vacancy in the Vice Presidency, did not take effect until 1967.
Both of James Madison’s Vice Presidents died in office (Clinton in 1812 and Gerry in 1814.
To paraphrase Lady Bracknell, "To lose one Vice-President, Mr Madison, may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose both looks like carelessness. "
The Grand Army of the Republic Highway, US Route 6, runs for approx 3,200 miles from Provincetown MA to Bishop CA. In 1936 to 1964 its western terminus was at Long Beach CA. During this time, US 6 was the longest highway in the country. Today, the longest highway in the country is US Route 20. It runs 3,365 miles from Boston MA to Newport OR, and it passes through Madison OH.
The Grand Army of the Republic was the principal organization of U.S. veterans of the American Civil War, and by the late 1800s it was a potent political force within the Republican Party. Another, fictional Grand Army of the Republic was the huge clone army raised by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine in the *Star Wars *prequels.
The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) also helped create and establish the Memorial Day holiday. In his General Order No. 11, dated May 5, 1868, first GAR Commander-in-Chief, General John A. Logan declared May 30 to be Memorial Day (also referred to for many years as “Decoration Day”), calling upon the GAR membership to make the May 30 observance an annual occurrence. Although not the first time war graves had been decorated, Logan’s order effectively established “Memorial Day” as the day upon which Americans now pay tribute to all their war casualties, missing-in-action, and deceased veterans.
In 1996, Scottish researchers announced the birth of Dolly the sheep, the first mammal successfully cloned via the technique of nuclear transfer.
Edit: Dolly died on Valentine’s Day in 2003, not Memorial Day. She never served in the military.
In play:
President Bill Clinton was successfully reelected on Nov. 5, 1996. He appeared at a rally in Cleveland, Ohio early that day (our eldest son was born that evening; fortunately, we’d already cast our absentee ballots).
“Hello, Dolly!” was first sung by Carol Channing, who starred as Dolly Gallagher Levi in the original 1964 Broadway musical cast. Louis Armstrong’s cover of the song reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, ending The Beatles’ streak of three number-one hits in a row over 14 consecutive weeks and was the most successful single of Armstrong’s career. The song also made Armstrong the oldest artist ever to reach #1 on the Hot 100 since its introduction in 1958.
Carol Channing was invited to the Democratic convention where she sang a take-off song, “Hello, Lyndon”, for Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ)'s successful reelection campaign.
Very nice.
Still in play:
Carol Channing, who was born in 1921, has been married four times. Her first marriage was to a struggling writer; her second husband had played center for the Ottawa Rough Riders; her third marriage (which lasted 42 years) was to her manager and publicist; and her fourth marriage was to her junior high school sweetheart.