Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull (pardon me while I retch) was Number 1 on the NY Times bestseller list for 38 weeks in 1972. It tells of a misfit bird who flies to heaven and learns from the lama, Chiang, how to go anywhere in the world at once. The secret, Chiang says, is to “begin by knowing that you have already arrived”.
P.D.Q. Bach is the fictional son of Johann Sebastian Bach, created by composer Peter Schickele as a vehicle for satires of classical music, with such pieces as “Concerto for Piano vs. Orchestra,” “Concerto for Horn and Hardart” (the name refers to the Horn and Hardart chain of automats; the “Hardart,” invented for the piece, was constructed by a team of Schikele’s students including Philip Glass).
PDQ is a TLA (three letter acronym) which normally stands for “pretty damn quick”. Although it originated as a mnemonic device in biology, the concept of the TLA was embraced and promoted by the computer industry, with its earliest usage traceable to 1980 and its mention in the manual for the Sinclair ZX81 home computer.
Computer pioneer Grace Hopper, eventually an admiral in the U.S. Navy, coined the term “bug” when her team actually found an insect which had gotten into a computer and caused it to crash.
Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood, a 1960 television special hosted by the actress turned gossip columnist, featured the last public appearance of Marion Davies. Davies had spent some two decades as a performer, but is best remembered as the “constant companion” of publishing baron William Randolph Hearst.
In the early 1960s high-class hookers Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies
teamed up with several notable figures in the London scene.
Most notable was UK defence minister John Profumo, who first denied everything,
and then admitted everything and resigned.
If did not help the government’s position at all when it was learned that Keeler
was two-timing Profumo with one Capt. Eugene Y. M. Ivanov, USSR
assistant Naval Attache.
Wee Willie Keeler held the hitting streak record, 44 games, until eclipsed by Dinaggio’s 56.
Perhaps the most widely seen streaker in history was 34-year-old Robert Opel, who streaked across the stage flashing the peace sign on national US television at the 46th Academy Awards in 1974. Appearing to recover quickly, the bemused host David Niven quipped, “Isn’t it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings?”
Later it was believed that his incident was actually planned in advanced by the show’s producer, Jack Haley Jr.
Undone by the Watergate scandal and facing impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives and trial in the Senate, Richard M. Nixon on Aug. 9, 1974 tendered his resignation to Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State.
Phillip J. Fry, a character on the TV series Futurama, was born on August 9, 1974.
Fry has had occasional dealings with the ancient but still-preserved head of Richard M. Nixon, who dreams of becoming President of Earth.
The most popular songs by psychobilly rockers Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper were “Elvis is Everywhere”, “Don Henley Must Die”, and “Debbie Gibson is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child”.
Don Henley, formerly of the Eagles, has been recognized for his charitable work on behalf of preservation of Walden Pond, Thoreau’s beloved waters.
In his book Walden Thoreau wrote: “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
Stephen King wrote the novel Desperation, about a group of travelers trapped in a small town in Nevada and threatened by a deputy sheriff.
Sen. Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada and currently Senate majority leader, is Mormon.
The Lone Ranger was the granduncle Britt Reid, the Green Hornet.
During the 1950’s, NASCAR driver Marshall Teague named his stock car the “Fabulous Hudson Hornet”. The vehicle is now housed at the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum, which is in a building that was the last Hudson dealership in America. As Miller Motors, it continued selling used Hudsons until 2003, over four decades after the marque was discontinued, and still stocks some factory-original parts for collectors and restorers.
In the 2004 Pixar film Cars, the character Fabulous Hudson Hornet, who becomes Lightning McQueen’s crew chief, was voiced by Paul Newman, who in real life had been one of the top drivers in Sports Car Club of America races. The original Hornet was able to corner quickly because of its low center of gravity, created by placing the seats down between the frame rails instead of on top of them. The 1970’s revival of the name by American Motors was given to a crappy little sedan.
From 1954 to 1962, American Motors was run by George W. Romney. Romney then was elected Governor of Michigan, and would run unsuccessfully for President. He was also the father of Mitt Romney, another governor and presidential hopeful.