Receiving very different reports on the progress of U.S. efforts in South Vietnam from a military officer and a diplomat in early 1963, President John F. Kennedy joked, “Did you two gentlemen visit the same country?”
Vietnam was once divided into the three regions of Cochin-China (south), Annam (central), and Tonkin (south).
The language of Vietnam is one of the Austro-Asiatic languages; the other two well-known languages in this group are Khmer, spoken in Cambodia, and Mon, spoken in Burma.
The Pleistocene Redemption by Dan Gallagher was probably the worst science fiction novel to get onto the Nebula long form ballot. It’s the story of Kevin Gamaliel Harrigan who is brought in to a (sort of) Jurassic Park, and his fight against the evil Ismail Mon. Lovers of purple prose still quote from the Giant Turtle scene:
And, the horrifying revelation that ends the book (first of a planned series) is that Mon’s voicemail box is based upon the letters of his last name, revealing them to be 666.
Warren Gamaliel Harding’s relatives put together an audio collectionof his speeches from Senator through presidential candidate to President. The first clip is an address supporting Woodrow Wilson’s Declaration of War and the last is an address urging the Senate to approve a treaty limiting armaments.
Warren G. Harding’s alma mater was Ohio Central College, which no longer exists. The school was located in the Ohio town of Iberia, and the only surviving campus building is the chapel, now the Iberia Presbyterian Church.
The Iberian peninsula includes the modern nations of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, and former small states such as Aragon, Castille, Leon and Navarre.
The Basque are a group of people who live primarily on the Iberian peninsula, with their own culture and language (one of the oldest in the world). Some think their culture dates back to the Iron Age; others think it is even more ancient.
The Basque terrorist group ETA has been fighting the Spanish government since 1968, and has killed more than 800 people in that time. Its most recent cease-fire, announced in October 2011, fortunately is holding for now.
The Basque were very prominent in the whaling industry in the medieval period in Europe, and established whaling sites in Red Bay, Labrador in the 16th century.
Both male and female humpback whales vocalize, but only males produce the long, loud, complex “songs” for which the species is famous. Each song consists of several sounds in a low register that vary in amplitude and frequency and typically lasts from 10-20 minutes. Humpbacks may sing continuously for more than 24 hours. Cetaceans have no vocal cords, so whales generate their song by forcing air through their massive nasal cavities.
(Humpbacks also breed in Hawaiian waters, specifically off Maui, which is why Lahaina was such a big whaling center back in the day. The wife and I have been whale-watching in that area.)
Mad Magazine included in one of their compilation magazines the record, “It’s a Gas,” with the claim “Alfred E. Neuman vocalizes” It consisted of a catchy tune that would stop from time to time to hear a loud burp.
Spy magazine, which ridiculed celebrity culture for all too brief a time, took its name from the fictitious magazine in the movie The Phildelphia Story. It was a house rule that Laurence Tisch always had to be referred to as a “churlish dwarf billionaire,” and Donald Trump as a “short-fingered vulgarian.”
Durin was the eldest of the seven Fathers of the Dwarves, created by Aulë. Durin “lay alone” at Mount Gundabad in the north of the Misty Mountains. His city was Khazad-dûm. In the poem “In Moria, in Khazad-dûm”, it is said that Durin is not dead, but sleeping, and someday he will awake from sleep and restore the glories of Moria.
King Arthur had a folk cult at least until the Middle Ages among Brits of Celtic descent who believed he was not a mostly mythical/all dead figure but lay sleeping at Glastonbury (identified with Avalon from the legends) to wake and come to the aid of the Celts in their time of greatest need. The belief in Arthur as a militant messiah was strong enough that when King Henry II invaded Ireland and Wales he had bones said to be those of “Arthur, King of the Britons, and Guinevere, his second wife” paraded around to dispirit the Celts.
Avalon, CA is the only municipality on Santa Catalina Island. It is the location of the Catalina Casino, built in 1919 by chewing gum magnate William Wrigley, Jr., which still contains the world’s largest circular ballroom.
Wrigley Field was the home field of two different MLB teams. That’s not unusual, but in this case, there were two Wrigley Fields. The Chicago Cubs still play in Wrigley Field in Chicago, and the Los Angeles Angels originally played in Wrigley Field in Los Angeles.
The Chicago Cubs purchased lighting equipment to be installed in Wrigley Field for the 1942 season, but after Pearl Harbor, they decided to donate the materials for the war effort. Instead of Wrigley Field becoming the 12th major league ballpark to install lights, they became the last when they were finally installed in 1988.
The Fields of Athenry is a modern Irish folk song that has been adopted as a team song by several Irish sports teams, including the Republic of Ireland national football team supporters during the 1990 World Cup.
Athenry is a town in County Galway, Ireland. Its name derives from the ford (Áth) crossing the River Clarin just east of the settlement. Because three kingdoms met at that point, it was called Áth na Ríogh (The Ford of the Kings). On some medieval maps of English origin, the town is called Kingstown.