The Fig Newton is named for Newton, MA, where it was first made.
John F. Kennedy, Mike Dukakis, Paul Tsongas and Mitt Romney are all Massachusetts politicians who have run for President. Calvin Coolidge rose to political prominence in Massachusetts but was born in Vermont.
Slavery in Massachusetts was ended largely due to the efforts of one woman, a slave named Bett who overheard much legal discussion in the home of her lawyer master John Ashley and his wife Hannah (she liked Ashley but hated his wife who was physically abusive to Bett and to Bett’s daughter) and realized slavery might violate the Massachusetts constitution. She ran to the Ashley’s neighbor Theodore Sedgwick, a lawyer and a known abolitionist, to take her case and the court ruled that slavery was not legal under the terms of the Massachusetts state constitution, a precedent that effectively freed other slaves who sued for freedom. Bett took the surname Freeman and worked for wages for Sedgwick for the rest of her life. W.E.B. Dubois was one of her descendants.
Martin Freeman, who has appeared in The Office, Love Actually, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Sherlock, has been cast as Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s two-movie adaptation of The Hobbit, to begin filming soon in New Zealand.
Leonard Nimoy’s blazer-and-turtleneck performance of *The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins *accompanied by elf (or Vulcan) eared dancers on a beach appeared on the shortlived show Malibu U but has been kept alive more than 40 years as a video on film, VHS, DVD and now YouTube by its kitsch factor.
Malibu U, which lasted only seven episodes, featured Rick (Ricky) Nelson, and included guest performances by the Doors and Buffalo Springfield, among others. The mostly forgotten (and forgettable) regulars on the show included a young Erin Grey as one of the dancers.
Erin Grey is perhaps better remembered today for playing Wilma Deering in the Seventies TV movie and series Buck Rogers, beloved of a generation of sf geeks. She now runs a travel and tourism company for celebrities.
The first science fiction themed comic strip was Buck Rogers in the 25th Century AD, based upon a story that appeared in Amazing Stories.
Amazing Stories, based on the old magazine, was an anthology show produced and sometimes directed by Stephen Spielberg that ran from 1985-1987 and had some impressive names in its episodes. It had some impressive guest stars (Mark Hamill, John Lithgow, Clint Eastwood) and some of whom whom became famous later (Kevin Costner, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen).
As a Harvard undergrad, John Lithgow lived across the hall from Tommy Lee Jones.
While at Harvard, Tommy Lee Jones roomed with future senator and Vice President Al Gore. Jones later had a small part in the film version of Love Story. The book’s author, Erich Segal, is said to have modeled the book’s male lead on Gore.
Peter Townsend included “Pinball Wizard” in Tommy to impress rock critic Nik Cohn, who heard an early version of the rock opera and suggested it needed some lighter songs. Cohn was a fan of pinball. After the song was added, Cohn raved about the album.
Mindy Cohn, a teen star best known for (really only known for) playing Natalie on Facts of Life, is godmother to two of the children of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie; she and Jolie have been close friends since they were teenagers.
Brad Pitt’s then-girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow played his doomed wife in the serial killer thriller Se7en; Morgan Freeman played his world-weary police detective partner.
The familiar 7-Eleven chain of convenience stores, though founded in Dallas, is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Seven & I Holdings Co., a Japanese company. Japan has more 7-Eleven (or Seven & I) outlets than any other country.
Seagram’s, a major Canadian liquor distiller and makers of such brands as Seagram’s 7, has the New York Stock Exchange Symbol of “VO,” referring to one of their brands: Seagram’s VO.
Thomas Pynchon and Richard Farina hooked up at Cornell Univeristy and remained great friends for the balance of Farina’s short life, even showin up at his wedding to Mimi Baez. When Pychon’s debut novel V was released, Farina wrote and recorded an instrumental piece called V in tribute.
After Farina died, Pynchon remained a friend to his widow Mimi for the rest of her life.
Mimi Rogers was married to Tom Cruise early in his career, and later appeared in both The Rapture and an episode of The X-Files with David Duchovny.
Actress Mimi Kennedy chairs the board of Progressive Democrats of America, an organization which was founded during the 2004 Democratic National Convention by Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich, and many of their supporters.
Howard Dean was born in New York but rose to political prominence in Vermont, where he worked as a doctor before being elected to the state house of representatives, and then as lieutenant governor. He became governor upon the death of his predecessor, Republican Richard Snelling, in 1991. He fell short in his run for the Democratic Presidential nomination in early 2004.