Morgan le Fay is a mysterious character in the Arthurian tales. In some accounts, she is a sorceress who protects Arthur, taking him to the Isles of the West to recover. In others, she is his half-sister, but still a supporter, but in other variants, she is an antagonist and the mother of Mordred, who brings down Camelot in the final days.
The stage musical Camelot gave us the lovely (and timely appropriate) tune The Lusty Month of May. Lyricist Frederick Lowe had to know the second meaning of the world “gay,” which fortunately rhymes with the month of “May.”
Though April showers may come your way,
They bring the flowers that bloom in May.
So if it’s raining, have no regrets,
Because it isn’t raining rain, you know, it’s raining violets.
- Al Jolson
The 1995 Oscar nominees for best cinematography were Forrest Gump with Tom Hanks, Legends of the Fall with Brad Pitt, The Shawshank Redemption (surprisingly) with Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, Three Colours: Red with Irène Jacob, and Wyatt Earp with Kevin Costner.
In The Shawshank Redemption, when Tim Robbins’ character escapes from prison in the rain, he stands exulting quietly with arms upraised and looking upward as it’s raining on him.
The maximum-security Maine State Prison is in Warren, and was previously located in Thomaston. There is no such place as Shawshank outside Stephen King’s mind.
Zihuatenejo, Mexico, is real, however, although it existed only in Red’s and Andy’s minds for most of the book and film.
The prison scenes set in the movie The Shawshank Redemption were actually shot in a building at the Ohio State Reformatory, also known as the Mansfield Reformatory, a historic prison located in Mansfield, Ohio
Maximum Security, a horse named for the type of prison that Shawshank and Mansfield were, is the only horse to have finished first in the Kentucky Derby and been disqualified for actions on the track. Dancer’s Image was disqualified as the 1968 winner 3 days later, when an illegal drug was found in his urine test. Forward Pass was declared the winner in 1968, and Country House in 2019.
In play: “The” tree in The Shawshank Redemption played a central role in the plot after Tim Robbins escaped and Morgan Freeman was paroled. The real tree was eventually knocked down by strong winds in a 2016 storm after being split by a lightning strike in July 2011. Before it was knocked down the tree, a 100’ high white oak approximately 150 years old, was one of the most popular tourist sites connected to the movie.
The tree, in in Lucas OH, was located at lat / long 40.654000, -82.391944; and gMap here — Google Maps.
Comment: unfortunately it was the right call to DQ Maximum Security. But he ran a strong race and could only be beat by himself that day.
During the French Revolution, the National Convention established two committees to protect the nascent Republic from enemies domestic and foreign: the Committee of Public Safety and the Committee of General Security.
Although in theory they had separate mandates, there was not clear separation, resulting in a power struggle. The Committee of Public Safety under Robespierre and St Just tried to establish that the Committee of Public Safety was the superior body, while the Committee of General Security tried to maintain its equal status.
The tension between the two Committees contributed to the fall or Robespierre, St Just and other members of the Committee of Public Safety, who were guillotined on 10 Thermidor An II (July 28, 1794). Both Committees were dissolved and eventually replaced by the Directorate by the Constitution of the Year III.
Thermidor was the eleventh month in the French Republican Calendar. The month was named after the Greek word “thermos” which means heat. Thermidor was the second month of the summer quarter. It started July 19 or 20 and ended August 17 or 18.
The vacuum flask, also known as the Dewar flask, was invented by Scottish scientist Sir James Dewar in 1892. A vacuum flask uses two flasks, one inside of the other, with the space between the two a partial vacuum to slow the transfer of heat – thus, a vacuum flask can keep the temperature of its contents stable for longer than in a normal vessel.
Dewar initially created the vessel as a scientific tool, but since Dewar did not patent his design, two German glassblowers were able to build on, and commercialize, his designs, and trademarked their commercial version as “Thermos.”
Scientists from Ohio State University have determined that vacuuming kills fleas in all stages of their lives, with an average of 96 percent success in adult fleas and 100 percent destruction of younger fleas. In fact, the results were so surprisingly definitive that the lead scientist, W. Fred Hink, professor emeritus of entomology at Ohio State, repeated the experiments several times to be sure the findings were correct.
Section 96 of the Constitution Act, 1867 of Canada provides that the federal government appoints the judges of the provincial superior courts. By circuitous judicial interpretation, s. 96 has been held to be a guarantee for the core constitutional jurisdiction of the provincial courts.
Lake Superior is not only the largest of the Great Lakes; it is the largest body of fresh water on Earth. During most winters, Lake Superior is 40 to 95 percent covered with ice, although it rarely completely freezes. The last time Lake Superior froze over was in 2014.
The Great Lakes have likely existed in their current form for less time than human beings have occupied that area.
Duluth, Minnesota, located on the southwest coast of Lake Superior, is the farthest-inland freshwater seaport in North America. It is more than 2000 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1914, Carl Wickman and Andrew “Bus Andy” Anderson, started a bus line between Hibbing and Alice, Minnesota, which would eventually become Greyhound Lines, the world’s largest bus transportation company. The Greyhound name had its origins in the inaugural run of a route from Superior, Wisconsin to Wausau, Wisconsin. While passing through a small town, Ed Stone, the route’s operator, saw the reflection of his 1920’s era bus in a store window. The reflection reminded him of a greyhound dog, and he adopted that name for that segment of the Blue Goose Lines. The Greyhound name became popular and later applied to the entire bus network.
The 1948 Greyhound bus terminal in downtown Cleveland, Ohio was built structurally strong enough for additional floors to be built atop it, if needed, but it remains its original height to this day.
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North Central Airlines was a regional U.S. air carrier, primarily serving the Upper Midwest. The airline served cities such as Minneapolis/St. Paul, Duluth, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland.
Originally founded as Wisconsin Central Airlines in Clintonville, WI in 1944, the airline moved its headquarters to Madison, WI, then to Minneapolis, MN in 1952, at which point it became North Central. The airline’s logo was a flying duck, nicknamed “Herman the Duck.”
North Central Airlines ceased to exist under that name in 1979; on the heels of deregulation of the airline industry in the U.S., North Central merged with Southern Airways to form Republic Airlines.
Tom Paxton wrote and recorded the song “Thank You Republic Airlines” on his 1985 album One Million Lawyers and Other Disasters, based on a real life incidence:
Thank you, Republic Airlines, for splintering the neck on my guitar!
My guitar case was so strong that nothing could go through it,
Way to go Republic, only you could do it,
Crash bang, Republic Airlines, in the field of demolition, you’ll go far!
For you took it as a challenge when I turned in my case.
and you saw the fragile stickers glued all over the place,
May a team of mad flamenco dancers do to your face
What you did to the neck on my guitar!
There could no satisfaction greater than if,
You should be the next to go the way of Braniff!