Eschewing his usual nice-guy roles, John Lithgow played a cutthroat criminal mastermind in the Sly Stallone action flick Cliffhanger.
Sylvester Stallone had a small, non-speaking part in Woody Allen’s Bananas, playing a thug on the subway.
Sylvester Stallone loosely based Rocky Balboa on George Wepner, a fighter who went toe-to-toe with Muhammad Ali.
Vasco de Balboa was a descendant of the lords of the castle of Balboa, which is located in southwestern Spain. His mother was the Lady de Badajoz and his father was the hidalgo (nobleman), Nuño Arias de Balboa
Lady Diana Spencer, who married Charles, Prince of Wales in 1981, was never technically “Princess Diana.” Under royal protocol, she would have been “Princess Charles,” but this formulation was never used.
Baroness Marie Christine Agnes Hedwig Ida von Reibnitz is better known as Princess Michael of Kent by virtue of her marriage to Prince Michael, nephew of King George VI and first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. Her children are Lord Frederick Windsor and Lady Gabrielle Windsor, neither of whom inherit the title of Prince/Princess from their father.
Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania was the first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, serving in both the First and Third Congresses, and was the first person to sign the Bill of Rights.
The political terms “left” and “right” trace their origins to the French National Assembly of 1789, where the conservative nobles (first estate) were seated on the right and the more liberal common people (third estate) were seated on the left.
“He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father” is standard in most English language versions of the Apostle’s Creed, though they differ in other ways. Probably the most significant is that many Protestant churches omit the line “He descended into hell” after “he was crucified, dead and buried”.
The Episcopal Church, the American offshoot of the Church of England, includes the phrase “He [Jesus] descended into Hell” in its version of the Apostles Creed. The largest diocese of the Episcopal Church by population is actually in Haiti.
The seat of both the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, currently Katharine Jefferts Schori, and the Bishop of the Diocese of Washington, currently John Bryson Chane, is Washington National Cathedral, officially named the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. It also is the only religious building in the world incorporating a statue of Darth Vader - it is officially a grotesque rather than a gargoyle, since it does not serve as a rain spout.
The urban legend that the Peter, Paul and Mary hit “Puff the Magic Dragon” is really about marijuana smoking has been totally debunked.
Washington National Cathedral took 83 years to build (1907-1990).
That might sound like a long time until one considers that Cologne Cathederal
(Cathederal of Sts Peter and Mary) took 632 years! (1248-1880).
When completed, the Cologne Cathedral was the tallest building in the world, at 515 ft, taking that honor from the Notre Dame Cathedral in Rouen, France. It was supplanted four years later by the Washington Monument at 555 ft.
Just like “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”* isn’t *about a John Lennon acid trip? :rolleyes:
The Sky was the last convertible sports car built and sold by the Saturn Corp., a General Motors division closed as a result of GM’s restructuring during the current economic rececession.
The Sky is WNBA franchise in Chicago.
Aren’t we supposed to try to play off only the immediately prior post,
and aren’t we supposed to play off a new word each post?
The curse of Shoeless Joe Jackson was finally lifted after 86 seasons
when in 2005 the Chicago White sox won their first World Series
since the legendary Black Sox scandal of 1919.
The Red Sox broke the “Curse of the Bambino” in 2004, sweeping the Cardinals.
Nitpick: Chuck is Wepner’s first name.
Off previous post: The Red Sox lost to the Cardinals in the World Series of 1946. In Game 4, three St. Louis players (Enos Slaughter, Whitey Kurowski, and Joe Garagiola) each had four hits, the only time one team has enjoyed such an accomplishment in a Fall Classic contest. Boston’s Wally Moses had four hits in a losing cause.