While riding with FDR and Churchill through Frederick, Maryland one day, Harry Hopkins declaimed, “‘shoot if you must this old gray head, but spare your country’s flag!’ she said” (but if she was such a patriot, why wasn’t her head blue?) whereupon Churchill recited John Greenleaf Whitter’s “Barbara Frietchie” from first word to last.
beaten
The syllogism
All animals are mortal.
All men are animals.
All men are mortal.
Is designated as a “Barbara” syllogism in classical logic. The vowels in the word “Barbara” represent an “All” statement. A Barbara syllogism is always valid.
TV journalist Barbara Walters was spoofed by Gilda Radner of The Not Ready for Primetime Players of Saturday Night Live as “Baba Wawa,” due to her slight speech impediment.
Oh damn, no it doesn’t. Never mind.
Gilda Radner based her character Emily Litella, an older lady with a hearing problem who often became offended by things she thought she heard (attempts to ban violins on television, public money paying for presidential erections, etc.) and when corrected would sweetly say “Never mind…”, on her childhood nanny Elizabeth Clementine Gillies who would do similar things. Gillies, who survived Radner, even received a bit of notoriety from this in old age with a call-in on a couple of David Letterman episodes and making appearances at local events in Canada.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s wife Clementine was devoted to him. When she consoled him after he was thrown out of office in the 1945 General Election by saying it might actually be a “blessing in disguise,” he grumbled, “It seems to be quite effectively disguised at the moment.”
John Lennon was named John Winston Lennon at birth in honor of the British prime minister. At some point following his marriage to Yoko Ono, he changed his name to John Ono Lennon.
Winston Cigarettes were named for the headquarters of their manufacturer, R. J. Reynolds: Winston-Salem, NC. Reynolds also marketed the Salem brand.
Winstons were one of the original sponsers of the Flintstones - as this commercial shows.
On The Flintstones, Barney Rubble’s father, Bob, ran a car dealership.
Barney Clark, a Seattle dentist, became the first recipient of an artificial heart, the Jarvik 7, at Utah Medical Center in Salt Lake City on December 2, 1982. Though he only survived for 112 days with the mechanical heart, doctors said he would have died within a day had he not received it.
George W and Laura Bush have a Scottish Terrier named Barney. Apparently he’s bitten a reporter and a PR rep.
Laura Bush is the only First Lady to give birth to twins (Jenna and Barbara, in 1981).
In a DVD commentary, the South Park guys reveal the truth behind the Bush-twins-as-lesbian fiasco: A writer wrote up a fake scene just for auditions for the Bush twins. Matt and Trey didn’t read this scene, and lesbian Bush twins were not in their plans for the show, but someone took the scene home and leaked it to the Internet. Reaction was swift, and Matt and Trey could not use the twins in any role. They then combined the twins into the secretary Princess.
The “TC” logo on the Minnesota Twins’ caps stands for “Twin Cities”. The team was the first of 2 Washington Senators franchises to relocate; their expansion replacement later became the Texas Rangers.
The actual Texas Rangers were famously tough and capable law officers long before Chuck Norris got on the bandwagon. One apocryphal story had a Texas mayor sending a telegram to the governor asking for Rangers to be sent to his town because a riot had broken out. A single Ranger showed up on the next train. The mayor, dismayed, said, “They only sent one Ranger?” The Ranger replied, “Well, you’ve only got one riot, don’t you?”
The New York Rangers were established as an NHL franchise after the management of Madison Square Garden noticed how well the New York Americans did. Garden president Tex Rickard reneged on his promise to the Americans not to put another team in the Garden and the team started playing there in 1927. Their name came from the fact they were Rickard’s team: Tex’s Rangers.
Since the team relocated to Texas in 1972, the Rangers have always played in Arlington, a suburb between Dallas and Fort Worth, also known as the home of the Six Flags amusement park.
The amusement park chain takes its name from that first park in Texas. The six flags it refers to are the nations that have ruled that territory: Spain, France, Mexico, Texas, Confederacy, United States.