The state fossil of Ohio is the trilobite; its state fruit is also the tomato.
Alabama’s state fruit is the blackberry (the kind that grows on bushes, not the Canadian engineered handheld variety).
Massachusetts’ state construction rock is Roxbury Puddingstone, its state historical rock is Plymouth Rock, and its state explorer rock is Dighton Rock. It also has a state beverage, muffin, cookie, and dessert - respectively cranberry juice, the corn muffin, the chocolate chip cookie, and Boston Cream Pie.
The California State Senate is arguing over whether or not to displace serpentine as the state rock. Apparently asbestos litigation lawyer associationshave been lobbying for it for years.
More on the kerfluffle http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/07/09/2000303/dan-walters-california-state-rock.html.
"There is, however, more than symbolism in Sen. Gloria Romero’s Senate Bill 624.
Its declarations, geologists say, are scientifically incorrect. And if it’s enacted, it could open new avenues for litigation, which explains why lawyers who pursue asbestos suits are pushing it.
Romero, a Los Angeles Democrat, says it’s aimed at “raising awareness to protect the health of our citizens. Serpentine contains asbestos, a known carcinogen. Toxic materials have no place serving as emblems for the state.”
It was only after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1961 decision in Baker v. Carr that reapportioned state legislatures - in California, Ohio, Alabama, Massachusetts and all the rest, except Nebraska, which is unicameral - had to have senate districts that were congruent with multiple house districts, to ensure that the principle of “one man, one vote” was applied equally everywhere.
Before the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team moved to Shibe Park, rented from Connie Mack’s Athletics, in 1938, they played home games at the tiny Baker Bowl, whose right field wall was only 280 feet from home plate. Legend has it that the billboard there reading “The Phillies use Lifebuoy Soap” was graffitied to add “and they still stink!”.
Baker Bowl was also the original home of the Eagles football team before their move to Municipal Stadium, which was later renamed JFK Stadium, and whose site is now occupied by the Wells Fargo Center arena.
Dawn Wells, the actress who played Mary Ann on Gilligan’s Island, was Miss Nevada in the 1959 Miss America pageant and in recent years has started a company selling clothing she designs for invalids.
Former Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, a Cincinnati native, is the daughter of former Ohio Governor John Gilligan. They are the only father and daughter ever to become governors. She is now the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Talk show host Jerry Springer was a member of the Cincinnati city council appointed mayor by the other council members. It was Springer’s second stint of service on the council. He had previously resigned after it was discovered he had used the services the services of a prostitute (he paid by check.) Springer, the son of Polish refugees, was born in London during World War II, in a subway station being used as a shelter during German bombings.
The John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge in Cincinnati is named for its designer and was a prototype for his more famous creation, the Brooklyn Bridge in New York.
Actor Omar Sharif, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Lawrence of Arabia, is also well-known as a contract bridge player. He co-wrote several books on bridge, and his name still appears on a syndicated newspaper column on the game.
The Astoria Column is a 125-ft tower built on a hill overlooking the mouth of the Columbia River in Astoria, Oregon. Built in 1926, it was called the Astor Column after the town’s namesake, John Jacob Astor. The entire column is painted with historical depictions of the town’s events, notably Captain Gray’s discovery of the Columbia River in 1792 and the Lewis & Clark Expedition.
Astoria, Queens, was also named after John Jacob Astor–in the hopes that he’d drop some coin there. But he only invested $500. Scott Joplin is buried here.
A bit long, but we’re nearing the 5000 mark and it’s one of my favorite parts of Frivolous History so what the hay?
In the latter half of the 19th century Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, referred to as “the Mrs. Astor” (to distinguish her from in-laws) was the self crowned queen of NYC society and by all accounts an arrogant bitch. The ballroom of her huge 5th Avenue mansion accommodated 400 people and thus was born “The 400”- i.e. the elite of the elite of NYC society. When Mrs. William Waldorf Astor, wife of “the Mrs. Astor’s” nephew-in-law, challenged her for the title and a battle-of-the-bitches began that even poor people kept up with. “The Mrs. Astor”- aided as always by her brilliant and flamingly gay assistant Ward McAllister- won the war hands down.
William Waldorf Astor and his wife moved to England in shame (beginning the British Astor line). As revenge on his aunt however W.W. had his own 5th Avenue mansion, located next door to his aunt’s, razed and a high rise luxury hotel, the Waldorf, built in its place, infuriating his aunt (who was powerless to stop it due to zoning ordinances her nephew had bought and paid for). The hotel was the most expensive in NYC and made money, but its restaurant lost money because of W.W.'s insistence they have very reasonable lunch specials- cheap enough that working class people could eat there- a deliberate move to cause as much daytime blue collar traffic as possible in front of his aunt’s mansion. Within a couple of years “the Mrs. Astor” gave up and moved to a new mansion, giving her old one to her son, John Jacob IV, to do with it as he pleased.
What he pleased to do was raze it and erect in its place an even larger and nicer hotel, the Astoria. Ultimately business sense won out over family enmity and the cousins merged their properties into one- the Waldorf-Astoria (which no longer had cheap lunch specials).
In later years Mrs. Astor is said to have gone senile, standing on the staircase of her Newport mansion and greeting guests who were not there. Her son by most accounts died a hero on the Titanic a few years after her own death, survived by the pregnant teenaged wife he helped into a lifeboat and his grown children by a previous marriage.
When 4’10" Elaine Paige took over the Broadway role of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, the steps on the famous staircase had to be raised six inches so audiences could see her grand entrance.
Despite the fact that Erich von Stroheim plays a butler/chauffeur in Sunset Boulevard, he could not drive in real life. During the scenes in which he drove, the car was towed by another car. In the scene in which he drives Norma Desmond to Paramount Pictures, it was rumoured he crashed into the famous Paramount gate. According to the DVD commentary by Wilder biographer Ed Sikov, this story was most likely invented/exaggerated by Billy Wilder.
Thornton Wilder, playwright of Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, briefly attended Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio.
Laura Ingalls Wilder published Little House in the Big Woods in 1932 when she was 65 years old and the Depression was in full force; her first royalty check was for $500 and would be the smallest she ever received. Her next book was Farmer Boy which was about her husband’s childhood in New York state, and her third, Little House on the Prairie, is portrayed as a sequel to Big Woods but the actual events took place before (i.e. events in Big Woods occurred after the Ingalls family returned from the Prairie which they moved to when she was not quite two years old thus she was actually too little to remember clearly but knew about from family stories.
I’m Dickens, He’s Fenster was a one-season comedy on ABC in 1962 starring John Astin and Marty Ingels as the title characters, who worked as carpenters.
Marty Ingels has been married to Shirley Jones for more than 30 years, one of Hollywood’s longer marriages but not necessarily happiest: they’ve separated and sued each other for divorce and he’s trashed her in the media several times, but they’ve always gone back together.