Bafore The Music Man, Meredith Willson was nominated for an Oscar for his scoring of Charlie Chaplin’s Tha Great Dictator.
Meredith Willson’s compositions include “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”, the University of Iowa fight song, and the school phys ed classic “Chicken Fat”.
Burgess Meredith played, perhaps most memorably, a man who loved to read in a post-apocalyptic episode of The Twilight Zone, and the broken-down old coach in Rocky.
In an early episode of the “Batman” TV series, Bruce Wayne carried a pressurized butane cigarette lighter (:eek:) just like the one used by The Penguin, played by Burgess Meredith. Bruce escaped the cliff-hanger death trap that week by tossing the lighter into the furnace he was headed for and being blown clear by the explosion.
For some, Burgess Meredith’s most memorable role was as George in Of Mice and Men, a film version of John Steinbeck’s novella which took its title from Robert Burns’ poem “To a Mouse.”
Burns’ poem “To a Haggis” is read every year at the Burns dinners in January.
While opinions vary, one of the best ways to eat haggis is with a healthy slosh of Scotch over it, accompanied by shortbread. Using a sgian dubh to slice into it and release the steamy haggisy goodness is also recommended as good theatre.
As of 2005, the US was the #1 market for Scotch in dollar terms, while France was #1 in terms of volume.
Mixing scotch with Drambuie, the liqueur of Bonnie Prince Charlie, produces a heavenly cocktail called a Rusty Nail. Use only a good-quality blended scotch for the mix, never a well-aged single malt scotch, which should be sipped and savored entirely on its own, without ice.
Rusty Staub was the first player to appear in all 162 games of a season as a designated hitter.
Donald “Tony the Greek” Frankos is reputed to be the Mob’s number one hitter. He claims he was present at the murder of Jimmy Hoffa and knows exactly where the body is buried.
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother complained afterwards to friends that the only man to kiss her after the death of her husband, King George VI, was President Jimmy Carter when he met her.
While serving in the US Navy in 1951, the future President Carter was ordered to disassemble an atomic reactor core that had melted down at the nuclear plant near Chalk River, Canada.
Jimmy Carter is a half-second cousin of Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. on his mother’s side, and a cousin of June Carter Cash.
Jimmy Carter’s dad once told a fundraising committee of the Ku Klux Klan, “I have ten dollars in my pocket, but I’d flush it down the toilet before I’d give it to you.”
Harry S Truman is the only president to be a documented member of the Ku Klux Klan. He was told it would help his political chances. Truman paid a $10 membership fee without looking into the organization (he evidently thought it was more a fraternal organization like Rotary, an impression that would not have been that unusual for the 1920s version of the Klan, which ultimately was a multi-level marketing scheme as much as anything else). When Klan official showed up and said that Truman couldn’t hire any Catholics or Jews, he refused to the demand and asked for his $10 back.
One of the strongest blows to the Klan’s public standing occurred with a 16-episode story arc, “Clan of the Fiery Cross”, on radio’s “The Adventures of Superman”, in which the Man of Steel took on the Klan. Much of the secret information, code words and the like, the Klan used were provided to the producers by Stetson Kennedy, a human rights activist who infiltrated the group. In retaliation, the Klan called for a boycott of Kellogg cereals, the show’s sponsors, but to no effect.
The Saskatchewan Bill of Rights, enacted in 1947, was the first Bill of Rights in the British Commonwealth since the original English Bill of Rights of 1688. The Saskatchewan Bill of Rights is still in force, as part of The Saskatchewan Human Rights Code.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is the current Head of the Commonwealth, but there is no statutory requirement that her successor on the British throne necessarily fill the role after her.
The Commonwealth of Independent States was established in December 1991 as a kind of successor to the Soviet Union. The original signatories were Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.
Nikita Khrushchev served as First Secretary of Ukraine’s Communist Party from 1938 to '49. After ascending to leadership of the Soviet Union, Khrushchev helped arrange the transfer of Crimea from the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic to the Ukrainian SFSR.