In the early 20th century, American psychologist and eugencist Henry H. Goddard translated the Binet intelligence test (and, by extension, Binet’s measurement of IQ) into English.
Based on the Binet-Simon concept of “mental age,” Goddard proposed that an “idiot” be defined as an adult whose mental age was less than three years, a “imbecile” as one whose mental age was between three and seven years, and a “moron” as one whose mental age was between seven and ten years.
There are cities with the name Moron in Spain, France, Argentina, Cuba, Venezuela, Peru and Mongolia. The cities in Latin America may be named for Morón de la Frontera, a Spanish town in Seville province, Andalusia. This city’s name may be based on the Latin Maurorum, a reference to the large population from North Africa
In an episode of Freakazoid, one of the character’s names was changed from Moron to Boron, out of some misguided fear that someone might get offended at the name Moron.
Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman), the villain of Mel Brooks’s Western parody Blazing Saddles, tells a henchman that for an important job he wants “rustlers, cutthroats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists.”
But no morons.
The word “hornswoggle,” which means to cheat, trick, or deceive, appears to have originated in the southern U.S. in the early 19th Century. However, etymologists do not have a clear idea of exactly where or how the word was coined.
Harvey Korman, who said “hornswoggle” in Blazing Saddles in 1974, served in the US Navy 30 years earlier in WWII. He served in 1945 and 1946 and got out as an S1C, a Seaman 1st Class. He has a page on the military association site, Together We Served, here — Korman, Harvey Herschel, S1c | TWS.
Around two thirds of the codebreakers working at Bletchley Park during World War II were women. Some were university graduates and scholars of classics and languages; others, like Elinor Ireland and Catherine Harvey, were only in their teens when they started working on the Colossus computers.
A code talker was a person employed by the US military during wartime to utilize a little-known language as a means of secret communication. The term is now usually associated with United States service members during the world wars who used their knowledge of Native American languages as a basis to transmit coded messages.
While the name code talker is usually associated with bilingual Navajo speakers specially recruited during World War II, code talking was actually pioneered by the Cherokee and Choctaw peoples during World War I.
The first Bible printed in North America was the Eliot Indian Bible, aka the Algonquian Bible, by John Eliot of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He translated the Bible into the Wampanoag Native American language, on the early 1660s.
Rambling Jack Elliott’s nickname comes not from his traveling habits, but rather the countless stories he relates before answering the simplest of questions. Folk singer Odetta claimed that her mother gave him the name, remarking, “Oh, Jack Elliott, yeah, he can sure ramble on!”
His authenticity as a folksy, down-to-earth country boy, despite being a Jewish doctor’s son from Brooklyn, and his disdain for other folk singers, were parodied by the Folksmen (Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer) in the satirical documentary A Mighty Wind in the name of their “hit” album Ramblin’. A Mighty Wind also referred to a former member of the New Main Street Singers, Ramblin’ Sandy Pitnick, a somewhat geeky-looking white man in a cowboy hat, apparently in parody of Elliott.
The fictional/parody heavy metal band Spın̈al Tap features Michael McKean as David St. Hubbins, Christopher Guest as Nigel Tufnel, and Harry Shearer as Derek Smalls.
The group is best known for their 1984 mockumentary film This is Spinal Tap, though they first appeared in 1979 on a pilot for a sketch comedy show on ABC, called “The T.V. Show.” In that 1979 appearance, Loudon Wainwright III performed as Spinal Tap’s keyboardist.
On April 1, 1984, singer Marvin Gaye was shot to death by his father, Marvin Gay Sr., just one day before his 45th birthday. He was shot twice following an altercation with his father after he intervened in an argument between his parents.
Marvin Gaye had a bitter relationship with his father, Marvin Gay Sr., since his childhood. Marvin Sr. was a Christian minister who was a strict disciplinarian and often physically punished his children. Marvin Sr. was also a crossdresser, which was commonly known in the family’s Washington, D.C. neighborhood and made the younger Marvin a target of bullying. It was because of this, added with rumors of Gaye’s own homosexuality, that he added an “e” to his last name when he became famous. Gaye’s father never approved of his son’s career in music, and gradually grew resentful that Gaye was closer to his mother, Alberta, and had become the breadwinner for the family. Despite a brief improvement in their relationship after Gaye found success with his album What’s Going On, both father and son never found any lasting peace.
Omar Mateen killed 49 people and wounded 53 in what was then the deadliest mass shooting by a single shooter in American history on June 12, 2016 at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, a club with a large homosexual clientele. At the Tony Awards the next night, Lin-Manual Miranda had the cast of Hamilton do their number without shot guns. When he accepted the Tony Award for Best Musical, he stated “It makes no difference. Love is love is love is love.”
Playing off Lin-Manuel (not Manual) Miranda (I have family members with the name Manuel and autocorrect frequently changes it to Manual)
Manuel I of Portugal’s reign was a period of Portuguese history distinguished by great achievements in politics. In spite of Portugal’s small size and population in comparison to the great European powers of France, Italy and Spain, the classical Portuguese Armada was the largest in the world at the time, and Portugal acquired a large empire.
Manuel I came to power after a period of violence. His older brother Duke Diogo of Viseu, with a group of nobles, rebelled against their cousin King John II. The king executed Diogo with his own hands and then called the young Manuel, aged 15, and showed him his brother’s body. He promised Manuel that he would consider him his own son. At that moment, Manuel inherited his brother Diogo’s titles and estates, and became king 11 years later.
King John II of Portugal was the legitimate Lancastrian claimant to the throne of England, but Henry IV claimed that title and John didn’t dispute it.
Portugal produces 70% of the world’s cork. The main importers of Portugal’s cork are Germany, the UK, and the USA. The Whistler Tree is Portugal’s largest and oldest cork tree (picture, https://www.treeoftheyear.org/ETY-2018/Stromy/Svitorici-korkovy-dub.aspx). It is named that because of the whistling birds in its branches.
Cork is the second-largest city in the Republic of Ireland (behind Dublin). During the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921), Cork was a stronghold for the Republicans, and much of the city’s center was burned by British forces in 1920.
The city’s name has nothing to do with cork; its name in Irish is Corcaigh, which comes from the Irish word “corcach,” meaning “marsh.”
Cork, Arizona is small village/town about 100 miles northeast of Tucson.
Cork, Georgia is a small village/town about 60 miles southeast of Atlanta.
Cork, Kentucky is a small village/town about 100 miles south of Louisville.
There do not appear to be any other towns/cities named Cork in the USA.
Cork is harvested exclusively from the Cork Oak, which is found predominantly in the Mediterranean region. Following Portugal, the next three largest cork producers are Spain, Morocco, and Algeria.
Wine corks are the most profitable of the products derived from cork. In Portugal, wine corks account for approximately 25% of total production by weight and 72% of cork revenues.
“Corky” has been used as a nickname for decades, including the character Corky Wallet in the 1950s comic strip Gasoline Alley. However, in Shakespearean English it meant dry, shrivelled or withered. In King Lear, the old Earl of Gloucester is accused of treason and the Duke of Cornwall orders guards to “Bind fast his corky arms.”