The first documented instance of gingerbread menwas at the court of Elizabeth I of England. She had the gingerbread figures made and presented in the likeness of some of her important guests.
Queen Elizabeth I, in explaining her desire for peace after the internecine strife between English Protestants and Catholics in previous reigns, said, “I do not seek windows into men’s souls.” She, like her father King Henry VIII, served as Supreme Governor of the Church of England, which remains, in 2019, the state church of the United Kingdom.
“Defender of the Faith” has been one of the subsidiary titles of the English and later British monarchs since it was granted on 11 October 1521 by Pope Leo X to King Henry VIII of England and Ireland. His wife Catherine of Aragon was also a Defender of the Faith in her own right. In recognition of Britain’s modern-day diversity, there has been speculation that the title ought to be changed to “Defender of Faith”, ending the Church of England’s formal primacy above other faiths. Prince Charles has publicly stated his support for the change.
Queen Victoria, as a good 19th century liberal, did not approve of Henry VIII’s bloody record as a monarch and stated that she was proud that she was not descended from him.
Nitpick: the C of E is the established church of England, not of the United Kingdom. It is not established in Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland.
I stand corrected.
Queen Victoria had much better relations with conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who tirelessly flattered her, than she did with the more liberal but bombastic William Gladstone, of whom she once complained to a courtier, “He always addresses me as if I were a public meeting.”
A Gladstone bag is a small portmanteau suitcase built over a rigid frame which could separate into two equal sections. Unlike a suitcase, a Gladstone bag is “deeper in proportion to its length.” Gladstones are typically made of stiff leather and often belted with lanyards. The bags are named after William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898), the four-time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
About 15 miles SE of Antwerp, BEL is the town of approximately 16,000 people named Duffel, BEL (Google Maps – gMap). The town is the home of “duffel fabric”, a coarse woolen cloth used to make heavy outerwear and tote bags. This is where the name duffel bag (duggle bag) comes from.
Something every military person may want to know (or need to know? naah) – although in the Marines we call it a seabag.
Although Gladstone by the end of his career was the “Grand Old Man” of the Liberal Party, he began his career as a High Tory, along with Disraeli.
The Conservative Party fractured over the issue of free trade, particularly tariffs on agricultural products. Gladstone supported Sir Robert Peel, who led the Peelite free trade faction. When Perl’a government fell on this issue, the Peelites split from the Conservatives and eventually merged with free trade Whigs to form the free trade Liberals.
Some have commented that a similar political te-alignment (and fracturing of the parties) may be needed to resolve the Brexit impasse today.
Dame Diana Rigg is likely still best known for the role of spy Emma Peel in the 1960s English TV Series The Avengers, though she has had a long and successful career as an actress. Rigg has won both a Tony (in 1994, for Medea) and an Emmy (in 1997, for Rebecca). In 2018, she was again nominated for an Emmy (for her role as Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones), and a Tony (for her role as Mrs. Higgins in My Fair Lady).
Game of Thrones holds six records from the Guinness Book of World Records, including the “Most pirated TV program”.
Next to the Winnie the Pooh books, author A.A. Milne is best known for two books of children’s poetry: When We Were Very Young and And Now We Are Six. he also wrote a fantasy novel, Once On a Time
The longest skating rink in the world that freezes naturally is found in Winnipeg MB. The frozen Red River and Assiniboine River together is about 5 miles long. “Winnie” — a nickname for Winnipeg.
gMap — Google Maps
Because of the top-to-the-north orientation of most maps, there is a common misconception that most rivers flow south (downward). In truth, a river is just as likely to flow north as south (or east or west, for that matter.) A list of the major rivers in the world that flow north include the Red River (United States and Canada), the St. Johns River in Florida (which drops only 50 feet in 310 miles), the Lena River in Russia (2735 miles), and the world’s longest river, the Nile (4258 miles and passes through 11 countries in Africa.)
Around 1945 the Muddy Creek, a tributary of the Missouri River near Williston ND, froze smoothly for over 20 miles. I skated that length with a .22 rifle, shooting rabbits for which I was paid a bounty of 25 cents per rabbit. Unlike Hemingway, but like the Deer Hunter in cinema, I converted from animal killing.
Per Wiki:
On 11 April 1944, a low-flying Japanese *kamikaze *Zero fighter plane, although fired upon, crashed on the USS Missouri’s starboard side, just below her main deck level. The starboard wing of the plane was thrown far forward, starting a gasoline fire at 5 in (127 mm) Gun Mount No. 3. The battleship suffered only superficial damage, and the fire was brought quickly under control. The remains of the pilot were recovered just aft of one of the 40 mm gun tubs. Although crewmen wanted to hose the remains over the side, Captain William Callaghan decided that the young Japanese pilot had done his job to the best of his ability, and with honor, so he should be given a military funeral. The following day he was buried at sea with military honors. The dent made by the Zero in the Missouri’s side remains to this day.
The *Missouri *is now permanently docked as a museum ship in Pearl Harbor.
In “The Cardinal of the Kremlin” by Tom Clancy, CARDINAL is the code name for a high-ranking CIA agent-in-place in the Soviet Ministry of Defence.
After the KGB becomes suspicious of CARDINAL, Jack Ryan successfully exfiltrates him to the USA.
CARDINAL dies of natural causes after living in the US for two years and is buried with full military honours.
Tom Clancy received the Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Literary Achievement in 1990. Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan said one of my favorite quotes, “Historically, good men with poor ships are better than poor men with good ships.”
That quote was on the wall of Building 2 on Treasure Island Naval Station, San Francisco for decades in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.
The Clancy Brothers were an Irish folk music group. They originally formed in New York the late 1950s, when four Irish immigrants (brothers Patrick, Tom, and Liam Clancy, and Tommy Makem), all of whom were actually trying to establish acting careers, began to record music together.
They became influential members of the folk music scene in the U.S. in the early 1960s, and were responsible for introducing American audiences to Irish folk music, as well as helping to revitalize traditional music back in Ireland.
[off thread] Oh man, I loved these guys and still have their vinyl. They went from nobody to playing Carnegie Hall. I was told that they always wheeled a booze cart out onto the stage when they played. [/OT]
Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing was a cut on Buffalo Springfield’s eponymous album and was their debut single in 1966. It was written by Neil Young and reflected his frustration about his career, which was going nowhere at the time.
Neil Young, born in 1945 in Toronto, has twice been inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. He was inducted as a solo artist in 1995 and in 1997 as a member of Buffalo Springfield. Young began his career in 1963 and is still recording and performing today.