Ernest Hemingway famously said that “[a]ll modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald, never Scripps-Howard material, for years put an extra “m” in Hemingway but as Ernest wrote, “it was a long name to spell”.
F Scott Fitzgerald revealed to Ernest Hemingway that his wife, Zelda, had complained that his penis was too small. Hemingway, who hardly qualified as an expert in such matters, retired with Fitzgerald to the toilet of the cafe where the conversation occurred, and, after inspecting him, assured Fitzgerald that he was “normal.” After this uncharacteristic solicitude, Hemingway confided Fitzgerald’s confidence to just about everyone who would listen.
Stephen King wrote text to go with photos by photographer F Stop Fitzgerald in the art book, Nightmare in the Sky, showing gargoyles on buildings around the world.
(I do think that the name “F Stop Fitzgerald” is one of the cleverest pseudonyms I’ve seen.)
The word gargoyle comes from the French “gargouille”, meaning “Gurgler” or “that which gurgles” - medieval gargoyles were used as decoration for gutter drains, usually with a spout extending through, from their backs to their mouths. The spout made made weird sounds when it rained, hence the name.
In the Disney production of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”, the talking gargoyles on the famous Paris cathedral were named Victor and Hugo.
Notre Dame University was originally a men-only school (although there were some women in the school’s graduate programs). in the 1960s, Notre Dame began allowing female students from its sister school, Saint Mary’s College, to take classes. Finally, in 1972, Notre Dame became co-educational (though Saint Mary’s has remained a women’s college).
*Knute Rockne All American * was the story of the former Notre Dame coach. In the movie, Rockne, who was born in Norway, was played by Pat O’Brien, an Irish-American, born in Milwaukee.
TV writer Rockne O’Bannon got his start in TV writing for The New Twilight Zone and created Alien Nation, Seaquest and Farscape.
Race Bannon was the bodyguard assigned by Intelligence One to protect Jonny Quest, on the first of Hanna-Barbera’s action-adventure cartoon shows. Jonny and his adoptive brother Hadji were the sons of top scientist Dr. Benton Quest.
Debates became so heated during the Compromise of 1850 that Senator Henry Foote (D-MS) drew a pistol on Senator Thomas Hart Benton (Democratic-Republican-MO) on the capitol floor; Benton responded by opening his shirt to reveal his bare chest while other senators and a custodian wrestled Foote to the floor and disarmed him. Foote later served in the Confederate Congress where he threatened the life of Jefferson Davis and called (Jewish CSA Secretary of State) Judah Benjamin a “Machiavellian Israelite”.
The first reggae song to reach #1 in the UK or the Top Ten in the US was “Israelites” by Jamaica’s Desmond Dekker and the Aces.
Wake up in de mornin’, slavin’ for breads, sir,
So that ev-e-ry mouth can BE fed …
Sixty-eight American pilots in WWII are credited with becoming an “ace in a day” by shooting down five enemy aircraft during a single mission.
British vocalist/keyboardist Paul Carrack has enjoyed a long and somewhat unusual career. He has been the lead vocalist on several different bands’ hit records, including “How Long” by Ace, “Tempted” by Squeeze, and “Silent Running” and “The Living Years” by Mike + the Mechanics.
His career under his own name has been less auspicious, but he did score a #9 hit with “Don’t Shed a Tear.”
Silent Running was a 1972 science-fiction movie directed by Douglas Trumbull in which the last trees of Earth, kept alive on domed spacecraft, were ordered destroyed as a cost-savings measure, but were saved by their keeper, played by Bruce Dern, and his robot assistants.
According to tradition, when the church organ in Oberndorf, Austria broke during the Christmas season of 1818 Father Anton Mohr arranged a guitar accompaniment to a poem he had written- Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht- and the choir performed that at the Christmas Eve mass to rave results. The following Christmas John Young, the Episcopal bishop of Florida, translated it into English as Silent Night. It has been sung around the world in many languages every Christmas since.
John Young at one point held the world record for most space flights and most hours in space. His NASA career spanned the range from the first manned Gemini flight to the Shuttle program, of which he was the commander of the first flight in 1980 (in Columbia). He is one of only three people who have been to the Moon twice.
When Charles Sherwood Stratton, known professionally as General Tom Thumb, married fellow Little Person Lavinia Warren in 1863 it bumped Civil War news from the front pages and the rich and famous everywhere held receptions for them. When they traveled through the Utah Territory they were invited to call on Brigham Young who congratulated them on their wedding, then received the beginnings of a lecture from Thumb on the joy of monogamy and the evils of polygamy. Irked, Young is said to have patted Thumb on his head and politely told him “perhaps you’ll understand it when you’re my size.”
Lavinia Warren was descended from five Mayflower pilgrims – John Billington, Francis Cooke, Edward Doty, Stephen Hopkins, and Richard Warren.
In the musical 1776 Stephen Hopkins, representative from Rhode Island and the same name descendant of the Mayflower Pilgrim, is forever calling for rum and lamenting that the Congress doesn’t have it’s own ‘pisser’. In fact there’s no evidence he drank to excess during the hearings- this was comic relief added by the writer to personify the fact the rum bill was exorbitant- but his lament over the lack of a pisser is a matter of Contintental Congressional record.