Back in the 19th Century, Republicans resisted the addition of Utah as a state because it was Mormon and thus likely to vote Democratic.
Both of the two most recent chairs of the Democratic National Committee have been former governors: Howard Dean of Vermont and the incumbent, Tim Kaine of Virginia.
In a very nasty lesbian cutody battle, the courts of both Virginia and Vermont ordered custody of Isabella Miller-Jenkins be awarded to her non-biological mother Janet Jenkins . Rather then comply with the courtys, her born again-Chritian and now (presumably) straight mother Lisa Miller refused to hand her over to Jenkins, citing her “abusive, unhealthy lifestyle.” She took the child and lef the country.
Seeking a stage name, Harold Lloyd Jenkins either (depending on which source you believe):
A. Looked at a road map and took the designations of an Arkansas town and Texas town as his first and last names, respectively.
B. Met a man called W .Conway Twitty and decided the name “had a ring to it”.
Named as one of the great silent clowns by James Agee, Harold Lloyd was known for his acrobatic feats and go-getter persona. In his best known film, Safety Last, he was required to climb the outside of a building in order to win a cash prize. The climbing sequence was shot on an actual building – no sets. He was actually that high above the street (albeit with a roof a few feet below him to catch him if he fell). What made it all the more remarkable was that Lloyd had lost the thumb and index finger of his right hand when a prop bomb went off while he was holding it.
Actor James Doohan lost the middle finger of his right hand during combat in World War II. Actor Gary Burghoff has deformed fingers on his left hand, which, ironically, would have kept his character Cpl. Radar O’Reilly from being drafted into the Army.
At age four while vacationing in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead underwent amputation of two-thirds of his right middle finger. He had been given the chore of steadying wood while his elder brother chopped, when he inadvertently put his finger in the way of the falling axe.
I have part of the same finger missing myself but only one-third.
The Greatful Dead recorded their biggest hit, “Touch of Grey” after Jerry emerged from a diabetic coma.
In the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, the Grey Havens was the well-guarded Elven seaport where Cirdan the Shipwright ruled. Gandalf, Elrond, Bilbo Baggins and Frodo Baggins all took ship for the West together from there.
I had a collection of Tolkien’s letters which I lent to some boob
who lost it.
One document was his application for a teaching position at Oxford
(he was at the time on the faculty of another university)
I am sure not have all the following exactly right, but I think his
qualifications as a linguist included fluency in the something like following:
Latin
Greek
French
German
Old English
Middle English
Old Welsh
Middle Welsh
Scots Gaelic
Irish Gaelic
Old Icelandic
Icelandic
Old (High?) German
Middle German
Gothic
Elswhere he related having some command of Spanish, Italian and *Finnish. *
Then he went on to invent one or more brand new languages in his epic canon.
There are a few people apparently able to learn one new language every month
or so. I wonder how the hell they do it.
Prince William of Wales is to marry his longtime girlfriend Kate Middleton this spring; some royalty watchers have suggested that Queen Elizabeth II may then name him Duke of Oxford.
In Doonesbury, Duke’s Son is named Earl as a tribute to the song “Duke of Earl.”
In 1962, Earl Battey of the Minnesota Twins set a record for Major League Baseball catchers by picking off fifteen base runners for the season.
In October of 1962, the world nearly averted annihilation during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
No, annihilation was averted, fortunately.
Ray Bradbury’s 1955 short story collection The October Country includes “The Small Assassin,” about a woman who is convinced that her newborn child is trying to kill her.
The title of the 1999 film October Sky, about the space race capturing the imagination of some boys in a West Virginia coal mining town who use their science talents to escape that life, is an anagram of Rocket Boys, the title of the Homer Hickam memoir it is based on.
Montreal Canadien forward Maurice “the Rocket” Richard
was the first NHL player to score 50 goals in one season.
His brother Henri, also an exceptional player but not in the
same class as a goal scorer was known as “the Pocket Rocket”,
at least by the Anglophone press.
Getting back to Maurice, his suspection before a Stanley Cup
finals was the cause of what may have been the worst riot in
Montreal history.
The suspection occurred after Maurice slugged a referee for
the second time during the season. The next SC game, played
in Montreal, saw the NHL Commish pelted with rotten tomatos,
eggs, etc. etc. etc. Uproar spread to the streets, sympathetic
police did nothing, and chaos reigned.
IMO Richard should have been suspended for the entire next
season as well. On the other hand, I do not know of any assaults
on referees since his.
Just reread my post: DUH!!! we DID avert annihilation! how could I mess that up? :rolleyes:
Henri holds the record for most NHL titles as a player (11 IIRC)
Correction: Richard was suspended toward the end of the regular season;
the first game after suspension was enacted was a regular season game.