The British Aerospace Corporation BAC-111 airliner was produced in Romania under license as the Rombac One-Eleven. Only 9 were built, for Romanian carriers TAROM and Romavia.
7-11, which was founded in Dallas, is now Japanese-owned. The chain has a huge presence in east Asia; 7-11 is the largest convenience store chain in Taiwan, they have over 20,000 locations in Japan (more than in the USA!) and are huge in China, Singapore, South Korea, and many other countries.
7-Eleven stores were initially named “Tote’m Stores” because customers “toted” away their purchases. Some stores featured genuine Alaskan totem poles in front of the store. In 1946, the chain’s name was changed from “Tote’m” to “7-Eleven” to reflect the company’s new, extended hours, 7am to 11pm, seven days per week.
Stanley Park in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, named by TripAdvisor as the best park in the world (Central Park in New York City came in second), includes several First Nations totem poles at Brockton Point. They are the most-frequently-visited part of the park.
The late Al Davis, former owner of the AFL’s and NFL’s Oakland Raiiders, hailed from Brockton, Massachusetts. So did boxer Marvin Hagler. And so did boxer Rocky Marciano.
“Marvelous” Marvin Hagler’s real legal name is, in fact, Marvelous Marvin Hagler. He loved his nickname so much that he had his name legally changed in 1982 in the hopes of forcing commentators and announcers to use it.
Wonderful Terrific Monds Jr. was a member of the Ottawa Rough Riders team that won the 64th Grey Cup, and later a San Francisco 49ers defensive back. He came from Fort Pierce, Florida and played college ball for Nebraska. His son, Wonderful III, was a minor league outfielder in the Atlanta Braves system, but sadly never broke in.
Fort Pierce is the county seat of St. Lucie County, Florida. It was named after the Fort Pierce Army post which was built nearby in 1838 during the Second Seminole War. The military post had been named for Benjamin Kendrick Pierce, a career United States Army officer and the brother of President Franklin Pierce.
Port St. Lucie, Florida is the most populous municipality in St. Lucie County. Actress Megan Fox hails from Port St. Lucie.
Santa Lucia Day is a major midwinter holiday in Scandinavia commemorating Saint Lucy, a 3rd-century martyr under the Diocletianic Persecution, who according to legend brought “food and aid to Christians hiding in the catacombs” using a candle-lit wreath to “light her way and leave her hands free to carry as much food as possible”. As songs are sung, girls dressed as Saint Lucy carry cookies and saffron buns in procession, which “symbolizes bringing the light of Christianity throughout world darkness”.
The Lucia song for Santa Lucia’s celebration in Scandinavia use the melody of the traditional Neapolitan song Santa Lucia; the Italian lyrics describe the view from Santa Lucia in Naples, while the various Scandinavian lyrics fit the occasion, describing the light with which Lucia overcomes the darkness.
Scandinavia covers the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Scandinavia may also refer to the broader region including Finland and Iceland. The popular usage of the term Scandinavia in Sweden, Denmark and Norway as a unifying concept became established in the nineteenth century through poems such as Hans Christian Andersen’s “I am a Scandinavian” of 1839.
Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday is April 2 and is observed as International Children’s Book Day. Andersen was born with dyslexia and, although he learned to read, he could never spell properly, and his handwritten texts were riddled with mistakes. As a result, his writing style remained close to the spoken language and still sounds fresh today. His publishers corrected his errors but left the style untouched.
Hans Christian Andersen and actor Peter Cushing have very similar appearances.
gImages, Hans Christian Andersen — https://goo.gl/p9KBjX
gImages, Peter Cushing — https://goo.gl/FtMbnh
Other celebrities who are known for looking ridiculously alike include:
Jaime Pressly and Margot Robbie
Tom Hardy and Logan Marshall-Green
Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Javier Bardem
Katy Perry and Zooey Deschanel
Natalie Portman and Kiera Knightley (and Millie Bobbie Brown is growing up in their spitting image too)
One Doper lives in rural Asia about 25 miles away from another American retiree who looks like Tom Hanks.
[out of game]
I once conflated the two. Viewing them just now, with separate Googlings, Google got clever and offered me “Related to Keira Knightley and Natalie Portman.” :o
Tom Hanks had doubts about acting in a movie starring a mermaid and directed by “Opie Cunningham.” But he did it, and Splash was the first huge movie success of both his and Ron Howard’s careers.
Ron Howard’s middle name is William.
Cheryl Alley‘s middle name is Gay. She is Cheryl Gay Alley Howard, Ron’s wife. They were high school sweethearts and married in 1975. They were 21.
Their four children are:
— 37 yrs old, daughter Bryce Dallas Howard
— 33 yrs old, twin daughter Jocelyn Carlyle Howard
— 33 yrs old, twin daughter Paige Carlyle Howard
— 32 yrs old, son Reed Cross Howard
The Andy Griffith Show, where Ron Howard made his acting debut, ran from 1960 to 1968. There were a total of 249 half-hour episodes; 159 were in black and white and 90 were in color. The series never placed lower than seventh in the Nielsen ratings and ended its final season at number one.
An annual festival celebrating the sitcom, Mayberry Days, is held each year in Andy Griffith’s hometown of Mount Airy, North Carolina.
After Andy Griffith graduated from the University of North Carolina with a Bachelor in Music degree, he taught high school music and drama. One of his students was Carl Kasell, who would go on to a long career in radio broadcasting with NPR. When Carl Kasell went on to college, also at the University of North Carolina, he became friends with another student, Charles Kuralt, who would go on to a long career in radio broadcasting with CBS.