When Taft was practising on circuit, he went into a train station in a small country town but was told that the only train that was coming for the next few hours was an express that didn’t stop there. He told the station master to signal to the train to stop, as there was going to be a large party getting on. When the express duly stopped and Taft was getting on, he was asked where the large party was. “I am the large party” was his reply.
Nitpick: Chief Justice of the United States.
After pleading no contest to ethical violations, being reprimanded by the Supreme Court of Ohio and having his approval ratings bottom out at 6.5%, Bob Taft was named one of the three worst American governors by Time magazine in 2005.
Charles Phelps Taft, brother of William Howard Taft, was owner of the Chicago Cubs baseball team 1914-16.
Charles Evans Hughes, Republican of New York, served as Governor of New York, U.S. Secretary of State, an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and Chief Justice of the United States. The incumbent President, Woodrow Wilson, Democrat of New Jersey, narrowly defeated him in the election of 1916.
Langston Hughes grandmother (maternal) attended Oberlin College and was married to Lewis S. Leary before marrying Charles Langston (Langston Hughes grandfather). Leary died from wounds received in John Brows raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859.
Langston University (originally the Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University) is the westernmost historically black institution of higher learning in the USA. It was named for John Mercer Langston, who held many positions in education and politics and was the great-uncle of Langston Hughes.
Langston Hughes’s maternal great-grandfather was white and of Scottish descent. A paternal great-grandfather was of European Jewish descent.
Simon Cowell’s Maternal grandmother was Jewish and his paternal grandfather was Scottish.
The first two Prime Ministers of Canada were Scottish, both having been born in Scotland.
Canada has four organizations devoted soley to the appreciation and consumption of Scotch Whisky.
Canada had one of the world’s five biggest navies at the end of World War II. It is considerably smaller now.
Great Bear Lake is the biggest lake entirely within Canada.
Keith Emerson of the Nice, Greg Lake of King Crimson, and Carl Palmer of Atomic Rooster joined together in the early 70s to form the progressive rock trio that bears their three names.
200 pages - woohoo!
The redneck brother of American humorist David Sedaris is nicknamed “the Rooster.” Sedaris wrote a short story once about the Rooster’s stunningly lowbrow wedding.
In addition to Paul (“The Rooster”) and sister Amy, David Sedaris has three lesser-known siblings – sisters Lisa, Gretchen, and Tiffany.
David Sedaris makes it a point to praise books by other authors during his public appearances. When he spoke at Oberlin College a few years ago, he urged the audience to read Max Brooks’s World War Z.
David Sedaris is known for his uncanny impersonations of jazz singer Billie Holiday, and enjoys singing television commercial jingles in her voice.
Billie Holiday’s original name was Eleanora Fagan. Her parents were not married, but her (probable) father was musician Clarence Halliday, and she appropriated his stage surname for herself when she began performing.
Johnny Hallyday is the stage name of French rocker Jean-Philippe Smet. He is also known as the French Elvis Presley, having been a top star there since the Sixties. The first public performance by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, in Évreux in 1966, was as the opening act for Hallyday.
God, the Devil, and Bob was a short-lived animated series about Bob Alman (French Stewart) who was caught in a bet between God (James Garner) and the Devil (Alan Cumming) to prove whether mankind deserves to continue. The show was controversial from the start, when pictures from the first episode showed God holding a beer.