Doctorow’s most recent book is Homer & Langley, loosely based on the sad tale of the compulsively-hoarding Collyer Brothers, who were once referred to in an episode of Frasier.
“Frasier the Sensuous Lion” was a very old, arthritic and toothless Mexican circus lion who was retired to Lion Country Safari and to the enormous shock of employees became a favorite of the lionesses who took care of him and bore him 35 cubs over the next three years; this was was said to be the same as an octogenarian man having kids with several young wives and prompted the California State Assembly to vote him “Father of the Year” in 1973.
In heraldry, a lion and a unicorn support the British royal coat of arms, which itself features lions for England and Scotland, and a harp for Northern Ireland.
Figures of a lion and a unicorn can be seen today on Boston’s Old State House, in front of the site of the Boston Massacre.
The British soldiers who committed the “Boston Massacre” were defended in court by John Adams.
Samuel Adams was John’s second cousin but had nothing to do with the beer brewing company that bears his name, which dates to only 1984.
Ronald Reagan, who was born in Illinois but rose to political prominence in California, badly defeated Walter Mondale, Jimmy Carter’s former Vice President and a former U.S. senator from Minnesota, in the U.S. presidential election of 1984.
Eleanor Mondale, daughter of Walter Mondale, TV and radio host and actor, is currently battling a second recurrence of brain cancer. Initially diagnosed and treated in 2005, the tumor returned in 2008 and again in 2009.
According to Paul McCartney, the character “Eleanor Rigby” was named after Eleanor Bron, an actress who had appeared in Help!, and Rigby & Evens, Ltd., a store in Bristol.
The Turtles’ song *Eleanor *(b/w Surfer Dan) reached number 6 on the Billboard charts in 1968.
Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, the lead singers for The Turtles, recorded on their own as Flo and Eddie. They sang backup on Bruce Springsteen’s *Hungry Heart * as well as providing music for the animated children’s shows *Care Bears *and Strawberry Shortcake.
Darryl Strawberry is the only player in major league history to have played for all four current and former New York teams - Mets, Yankees, Dodgers, and Giants - and no other major league teams.
Casey Stengel played or managed for all four New York major league teams while they were still in New York (though he also played and managed elsewhere).
The Dodgers’ name refers to the fact that residents of Brooklyn had to dodge trolleys while headed to or from the ballpark, or just about anywhere in the city (which didn’t become a borough of NYC until 1898).
Disco singer Donna Summer named her first daughter Brooklyn, in honor of husband Bruce Sudano’s old singing group, the Brooklyn Dreams.
There have been three warships named the USS Brooklyn, the last of which was a light cruiser that served during World War II and was later sold to Chile.
Chile maintains a navy of 66 ships and 25,000 sailors and Marines, but its navy has not fought in a war since 1891.
The United States Marine Corps was formed by Captain Samuel Nicholas at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia,
In 2001 Commandant James Jones of the USMC promoted Private First Class Gomer Pyle to Lance Corporal, and in 2007 Lt. General John Goodman (Commanding General, USMC-Pacific) increased that promotion to Corporal; actor and Hawaii resident Jim Nabors accepted the promotions on Pyle’s behalf, remarking “Well golllllly!” both times.
James Jones’s “From Here to Eternity” takes its title from a line from one of Kipling’s “Barracks Room Ballads”: “Gentleman-rankers out on the spree, Damned from here to Eternity”.