Actor Dean Jones made his Broadway debut in the same play as Jane Fonda made her Broadway debut: in the 1960 play There Was a Little Girl.
John Paul Jones hurriedly devised a U.S. flag to permit him to stay in a Dutch port after he defeated the British warship HMS Serapis in 1779; the British denounced him as a pirate since he otherwise allegedly commanded a ship belonging to no country.
In Theosophy, Serapis Bey is one of the sixty total (including twenty-nine named) Masters of the Ancient Wisdom. His cohorts include Gautama Buddha, Master Jesus (one of whose many incarnations was Jesus Christ), and Master P. (by no known accounts the rapper of the same name).
Jesus (“the Jesus,” played by John Turturro) was a pedophilic ex-con and talented bowler in the Coen Brothers’s offbeat comedy classic The Big Lebowski.
NBA star Ray Allen, now of the Boston Celtics and previously of the Milwaukee Bucks and Seattle SuperSonics, turned in a very creditable performance in Spike Lee’s 1998 movie “He Got Game”, playing Jesus Shuttlesworth, a hotshot high school player from Brooklyn being recruited by many top college programs. Denzel Washington plays Jesus’ father, Jake, imprisoned in Attica Correctional Facility for killing Jesus’ mother.
Celtic languages, once spoken across Europe, are today limited to a few areas on the western fringe of the continent, notably Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the peninsula of Brittany in France, and Cornwall and the Isle of Man, and can be found spoken on Cape Breton Island and in Patagonia. Some people speak Celtic languages in the other Celtic diaspora areas of the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In all these areas, the Celtic languages are now only spoken by minorities though there are continuing efforts at revival.
Located in the Irish Sea, the Isle of Man is thought to have been inhabited since at least 6500 B.C.E. The island is not part of the United Kingdom, but its foreign relations and defense are the responsibility of the UK Government.
Manx cats originated on the Isle of Man (thus their name) before the 18th century. A naturally occurring mutation of the spine shortens the tail, resulting in a range of tail lengths from normal to tail-less. Many Manx have a small “stub” of a tail, but Manx cats are best known as being entirely tail-less.
The three most common surnames among Isle of Man residents are (from first to third) Kelly, Corlett, and Quayle.
Deck us all with Boston Charlie
Walla Walla Wash, an’ Kalamazoo!
Nora’s freezing on the trolley
Swaller dollar cauliflower alley-garoo!
Was one of several verses to the Christmas song written by the great Walt Kelly.
In 1968, the country rock band Poco made their debut at Doug Weston’s Troubadour Club in West Hollywood, California under the name Pogo. After they had performed enough to establish themselves, they were sued by Walt Kelly and subsequently changed the name to Poco in order to minimize the damage.
Johnny Carson would frequently spoof the expectations of tourists who hoped to discover a glamorous, star-filled Hollywood by bragging that his show was taped in “beautiful downtown Burbank.”
Carson Daly played a small but pivotal role in the first episode of My Name Is Earl. While in the hospital after being hit by a car, Earl learns about karma from watching an episode of Last Call with Carson Daly where Daly claims that his success is a direct result of doing good things for other people. Earl is thus inspired by Carson Daly to turn his own life around, and sets out to make up for his many past wrongs.
I loved My Name is Earl!
Earl Hickey’s middle name is Jehoshaphat. His borderline-retarded brother Randall (Randy)'s middle name is Dew.
The levels of British peerage are
Duke and Dutchess
Marquis and Marchioness
Earl and Countess
Viscount and Viscountess
Baron and Baroness
It’s believed that the Old English based “Earl” is used instead of the European “Count” at least party because of the similarity of “Count” to an obscene term.
Nitpick: “Duchess.”
The Duchess of Windsor, formerly known as Wallis Warfield Simpson, was an American divorcee and thus was regarded by the Prime Minister and other British leaders as an entirely unsuitable match for King Edward VIII, who subsequently abdicated in order to marry her. Three men thus reigned in 1936: George V, who died; Edward VIII; and his younger brother, George VI, subject of the new movie The King’s Speech and the father of the current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.
During Super Bowl VI, Paul Warfield was the intended receiver on a down-and-in pass that ended up being incomplete. The otherwise unremarkable play is remembered because it was suggested to Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula by then-President Richard M. Nixon.
Paul Warfield, who played for Ohio State and the Cleveland Browns, was traded to Miami for the draft pick the Browns used to take their QB of the future, Mike Phipps of Purdue. Phipps had been an All-American while Warfield was not, but Phipps has to buy a ticket to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton if he wants to see Warfield’s bust there. After the Fins won the 1974 Super Bowl, three of its top stars, Warfield, Larry Csonka, and Jim Kiick, signed with the World Football League’s Toronto Northmen, who soon became the Memphis Southmen.
Though in the 1960s, Syracuse traditionally gave their top running back the number 44, Larry Csonka did not wear it. At the time he started playing varsity, Floyd Little had been assigned the number (it had previously been worn by Jim Brown and Ernie Davis). Little also made it to Canton, but is not as well-known as Csonka because he played with the Denver Broncos and never in a Super Bowl.
Hammerin’ Hank Aaron, mostly of the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves but finally of the Milwaukee Brewers, wore #44 and hit exactly 44 home runs in four different seasons.