Crockett Johnson created the classic comic strip Barnaby, about a young boy who gets a fairy godfather and runs into some odd magical beings as Gus the Ghost (who’s scared of everything); Gorgon, the talking dog; McSnoyd, the invisible leprechaun; and Atlas, the mental giant (who’s no taller than Barnaby). After leaving the strip, he made his mark in children’s literature with Harold and the Purple Crayon and sequels. Harold bears a marked resemblance to Barnaby.
Don Johnson, who played Sonny Crockett on Miami Vice, won the 1988 American Power Boat Assoication Offshore World Cup in the Superboat class.
The song Purple People Eater was written and performed by Sheb Wooley and reached #1 on the Billboard charts. It was covered by a number of other novelty acts, including Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Alan Page, star defensive tackle of the 1970’s Minnesota Vikings defensive line nicknamed the “Purple People Eaters”, later served as Minnesota’s Attorney General, and now sits on its Supreme Court. Page, a native of Canton, Ohio, is also the only person to have worked construction on the Pro Football Hall of Fame building who is now enshrined in it.
The A&P supermarkets used the trademark “Ann Page” for their store brand products.
In The Once and Future King the orphan boy Arthur, called “Wart” by Merlin and others, is page to Sir Kay before pulling the sword from the stone.
The Rolls-Royce Merlin engine (named for a bird of prey, not the wizard) powered the Supermarine Spitfire fighter and Avro Lancaster bomber, among others, in WW2. A version built under license in the US by Packard powered the North American P-51 Mustang.
The Rolls-Royce Corniche was a model manufactured from 1971 to '96. It took its name from a term for a road carved into the side of a cliff or mountain.
The Clinton-Gore '96 reelection campaign was investigated for various fundraising irregularities by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, as was the Whitewater investment controversy and then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s overnight fortune in commodities trading, but Starr ended up focusing on the President’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, and subsequent perjury in the Paula Jones civil case.
George Clinton led the rock groups Parliament/Funkadelic, and wrote the theme song for The Tracey Ullman Show on Fox.
The British Parliament meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, along the Thames. The stone doorway framing of the House of Commons is scarred and rough-edged. It was left that way on Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s orders, after the chamber was bombed and badly damaged by the Luftwaffe during World War II, as a reminder of the attacks.
Homer Simpson called the Luftwaffe “The Washington Generals of the History Channel”.
Judy Garland married on five different occasions: to musician David Rose, to director Vincente Minnelli, to her then-manager Sid Luft, to actor Mark Herron, and finally, to discotheque manager Micky Deans (to whom she had only been married for three months when she died).
After Fanny Brice divorced Nick Arnstein, she married Broadway impressio Billy Rose.
As a lyricist, Billy Rose wrote the songs “Me and My Shadow”, “Great Day” (with Edward Eliscu), “Does the Spearmint Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight” (with Marty Bloom), “I Found a Million Dollar Baby” (with Mort Dixon) and “It’s Only a Paper Moon”. He later created Billy Rose’s Aquacade, a swimming show starring Esther Williams (naturally) and Buster Crabbe at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.
After Brice and Rose divorced, Billy Rose married Eleanor Holm, an Olympic swimmer and star of *Billy Rose’s Aquacade *at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Other Aquacade stars included Esther Williams and Johnny Weissmuller.
The Wars of the Roses were called “The Cousins Wars” until the publication of Anne of Geierstein by Sir Walter Scott in 1829. Scott based the name on a scene in Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part One, where the two sides chose a red and a white rose as their symbol. Roses were not the main symbols used by the Yorkists and the Lancastrians, who chose various symbols at different points (one, by Edward IV was the “Sun in Splendor,” a reference to his seeing three suns in the sky before a battle,* was referred to in Richard III as “the glorious sun (or son) of York.”)
Red roses didn’t exist during the Wars of the Roses.
*A rare, but natural meteorological event now called “sundogs.”
Ian McKellen starred in the title role of a 1995 movie version of Richard III, set in an alternative-history British Fascist Thirties. His heraldic badge was a black boar’s head on a white disc over a red field, obviously very reminscent of the Nazi swastika flag. Also appearing in the movie were Maggie Smith, Annette Bening and Robert Downey Jr.
Oswald Mosley, founder of the British Union of Fascists, was chosen in 2006 by BBC History magazine as the 20th worst Briton of all time. He was the father of Max Mosley, until recently the head of the Federation International de l’Automobile, the rulemaking body for formula racing. Like many Formula 1 drivers and other tax-averse high-income individuals, he formally resides in Monaco.
British Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Tony Blair all complained about bias at the BBC (known as “the Beeb” or “Auntie” to some Brits).