Influenza, of which “Flu” is the short form, is taken from the belief in long past times that it was brought about by the ‘influence’ of the planets.
The 1918 influenza epidemic, which actually lasted from March 1918 to June 1920, spread even to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. A total of 50-100 million died, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history. Even using the lower estimate of 50 million people, 3% of the world’s population, which was 1.86 billion at the time, died of the disease. Some 500 million, or 27%, were infected. World War I did not cause the flu, but the close troop quarters and massive troop movements hastened the pandemic and probably both increased transmission and augmented mutation. It may also have increased the lethality of the virus. Some speculate the soldiers’ immune systems were weakened by malnourishment as well as the stresses of combat and chemical attacks, increasing their susceptibility.
Among deadly outbreaks of Bubonic Plague, one of the worst was the Great Pestilence (Black Death) of 1348-1350 which killed almost half the population of Europe. The disease is caused by the Yersinia pestis bacteria transmitted by Oriental rat fleas living on black rats, which arrived with caravans and merchant ships from China.
The Merchant of Venice was included in the “Comedies” section of the First Folio. Given its subject-matter, modern views of the play classify it as a “problem play”, or even a tragedy.
The word “ghetto” comes from the district in Venice where its Jews were constrained to live under the medieval Venetian Republic. It means “slag” and refers to the dumping ground of the foundries on Canareggio Island, making it an appropriate place for the ducal government to make the Jews live. They also were constrained to working only as moneylenders (like Shylock) or doctors.
Al Pacino is one of the greatest living actors. His portrayals include Shylock, Michael Corleone, and several historic figures including Frank Serpico.
Al Plastino was one of the most prolific artists on the Superman comic book in the 1950s, producing books for them for twenty years.
Whitney Ellsworth, an artist, writer and editor for DC comics, was the official go-between for the comic and the low-budget Superman movie serials of the 1940’s. He later became story editor and writer for the 1950’s TV series The Adventures of Superman.
Cotton-gin inventor Eli Whitney died of prostate cancer on January 8, 1825, in New Haven, Connecticut, just a month after his 59th birthday. During the course of his illness, he invented and constructed several devices to ease his pain mechanically. These devices, drawings of which are in his collected papers, were effective but never manufactured for use of others due to his heirs’ reluctance to trade in “indelicate” items.
On 5 December 1960, author Roald Dahl’s four-month-old Theo was severely injured when his baby carriage was struck by a taxicab in New York City. For a time, he suffered from hydrocephalus and, as a result, his father became involved in the development of what became known as the “Wade-Dahl-Till” (or WDT) valve, a device to alleviate the condition.
Roald Dahl was a Royal Air Force officer and was posted to Washington, D.C. during World War II. He was part of a concerted British effort to gather intelligence and build strong support in the U.S. for the United Kingdom.
The Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington, Virginia holds unidentified bodies from WWI, WWII and the Korean War, but for several years after the Vietnam War, the US had no “unknown” soldier from that conflict to inter due to advanced forensics techniques being able to identify all the bodies. Finally in 1984, a suitably anonymous set of remains was located and interred. But in 1998, the family of Michael Blassie, an Air Force officer shot down near An Loc in 1972, discovered via DNA testing that the corpse was that of their lost relative. Blassie was removed in the first-ever Unknowns disinterment and reburied in Missouri. The Vietnam crypt at Arlington, meanwhile, stands permanently empty. The word “Vietnam” and the dates of the conflict have been replaced with the inscription: “Honoring and Keeping Faith with America’s Missing Servicemen.”
Canada did not have a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier until about 15 years ago. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission agreed to release the remains of an unidentified Canadian soldier who had been buried in Flanders. The Tomb is at the National Cenotaph at the intersection of Elgin and Wellington Streets in Ottawa. The original tombstone for the unknown, which marked his grave in Flanders for approximately 80 years, is in the National War Museum, in a small room with a single window. The window is designed so that the sun shines directly on the tombstone at 11 am on November 11.
The Unknown Comic was a standup comedian who performed with a paper bag over his head. He gained national fame for his appearances on The Gong Show. It was eventually revealed that his real name was Murray Langston.
The previously-promising New Orleans Saints finished 1-15 in 1980 despite having Archie Manning at QB, along the way earning the nickname “Aints” and inspiring some of their remaining fans to come to games with paper bags over their heads and naming themselves “The Unknown Fans”. Their sole win was by only 1 point, against the Jets at Shea.
President James Shea is the JFK-equivalent in the two authorized Godfather sequels by author Mark Winegardner. His brother, Daniel, serves as Attorney General, just as Robert Kennedy did. The Sheas are from New Jersey and not Massachusetts, however.
In Thailand, the term “Godfather” has been translated word-by-word and then applied to men of particularly strong influence. One of most famous of these Godfathers, Banharn Silpa-archa, achieved worldwide fame when, as Prime Minister, he greeted Britain’s visiting Monarch as “Queen Elizabeth Taylor.”
Not a single Whig president served out a four-year term. William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor both died in office. Their vice presidents, John Tyler and Millard Fillmore were denied the nomination (Tyler was kicked out of the party, and Fillmore later left it on his own).
Music promoter Bill Graham owned and operated the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, with such acts as John Mahon, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Carlos Santana, The Allman Brothers Band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Miles Davis, and British acts The Who, Pink Floyd, Elton John, and Cream all performing at the venue. Besides rock, Graham also featured non-rock acts such as Lenny Bruce, Miles Davis, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Charles Lloyd, Aretha Franklin, and Otis Redding as well as poetry readings.
The main staircase of the British Prime Minister’s home and office, 10 Downing Street, is lined with portraits of all previous PMs: http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4021/4619144580_36c1ccfce5_z.jpg
