New York City held a primary election on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. The election was called off and the polls ordered closed at 10:40 a.m. Republican Michael Bloomberg would eventually win the general election, succeeding Reupblican Rudolph Giuliani as the city’s mayor.
Rudy Giuliani had his first marriage annulled on the grounds of consanguinity, claiming he did not know that he and his wife were 2nd cousins. His second wife was Donna Hanover, with whom he had two children; the marriage ended due to his infidelities.
Rudy Giuliani served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York during the Reagan Administration, making a name for himself in getting convictions of Mafiosi and Wall Street crooks. Some credit him with popularizing the “perp walk” of prominent defendants.
As of this writing there is evidently much fury in French “people who keep up with the IMF” circles over Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s perp walk for sexual assault charges; in France it is illegalto show photographs of a suspect in handcuffs.
In Japan, handcuffed suspects can be shown on TV, but their hands must be pixelated. This traces to the case of businessman Kazuyoshi Miura, who was accused of conspiring to kill his wife. He claimed that being shown handcuffed implied guilt and had thus prejudiced his trial. For the lurid details, click here.
Longfellow Deeds was called “pixilated” by the Faulkner sisters, key witnesses in his insanity trial. Deeds got the Faulkners to admit that everyone in Mandrake Falls was pixilated. – except them. In his opinion, Judge May called Deeds “the sanest man that ever walked into this courtroom.”
In the movie Excalibur, Merlin (Nicol Williamson) tests Morgana le Fay (Helen Mirren)'s magical knowledge, and is pleased when she speaks of the (supposed) powers of the mandrake root.
Mandrakes had reputations in the ancient world of being an aphrodisiac and as being good for fertility. In Genesis Rachel traded her sister Leah extra nights with their husband in exchange for mandrakes and soon after both sisters conceived (Rachel for the first time ever and Leah for the first time in years).
Mandrake the Magician, created by Lee Falk, is a comic strip continuously published since 1934. With the help of his trusted sidekick, Lothar, Mandrake uses the power of hypnosis to subdue and defeat various evildoers.
Lothar and the Hand People are the best-known rock group to have based their sound on the theremin and the Moog synthesizer. Michael Myers echoed their name in his Saturday Night Live recurring sketch, “Lothar of the Hill People”.
Mike Myers played Wayne Campbell in the SNL skit “Wayne’s World”, traditionally the last skit of the show.
Serial killer John Wayne Gacy was famously photographed with First Lady Rosalynn Carter for his work with the Chicago Polish Day parade a few months before the investigation began that led to his arrest and eventual execution.
John Wayne took his stage name from Revolutionary War general Mad Anthony Wayne. Wayne had no say in the matter: it was decided by the studio and director Raoul Walsh.
John Wayne was originally named Marion Robert Morrison.
His middle name was changed to Mitchell because his parents decided to name
another child Robert. Marion Mitchell Morrison was his paternal grandfather’s name.
The poem James James Morrison Morrison Weatherby George Dupree was written by A.A. Milne of Winnie the Pooh fame. It was later set to music and was a hit for the Chad Mitchell Trio.
The only two cartoon shorts released by Walt Disney but not made by Disney were “Merbabies” which was farmed out to Harman-Ising Studios in the mid 30’s and “Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore” which was actually made by MGM.
The 90 year old stuffed animals that inspired Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore and Kanga & Roo, none of which look like the more famous cartoon characters, are housed at the main branch of the New York City Public Library where they “live” in climate controlled display cases.
The New York Public Library has branches in Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island. Brooklyn is served by its own system, as is Queens – both of these date to before the consolidation of the Long Island boroughs into the city.
Staten Island is the one borough not served by the NYC subway system.
An article in the Providence Journal in 1977 started the rumor that the group Klaatu was really the Beatles under another name; the main evidence for this was the Beatlesque single “Sub Rosa Subway” and the fact that the album did not list any names of musicians. The rumor spurred sales of the album, but ultimately hurt the members of Klaatu – two Canadian musicians who had nothing to do with the publicity stunt.