In Reference re Margarine, the Supreme Court of Canada and then the Judicial Committee of the Imperial Privy Council held that the Parliament of Canada’s attempt to regulate the sale of margarine was unconstitutional.
The portcullis, a heraldic symbol of King Henry VII, is now popularly associated with the Palace of Westminster and thus with the British Parliament itself.
Mike “King” Kelly is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame and the inventor of the “hit and run” play, the hook slide and the subject of the first baseball “autobiography.”
Of the first five players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, only Honus Wagner did not pitch in a major league game.
For many centuries, Westminster Hall was the seat of justice for the English superior courts, including the Court of Common Pleas which was required by Magna Carta to be held in some fixed place.
For more than two centuries (1790’s to 1960’s) Tammany Hall was the seat of Democratic political power in New York City and is still a synonymous with corruption, graft and dirty politics exemplified by William M. “Boss” Tweed.
Alleged actress Shannon Tweed, aka “Queen of the Bs,” was Playboy’s Playmate of the Year in 1982.
The government of Ireland built Shannon Airport in the 1930’s to accommodate the shift from flying boats to landplanes on transatlantic service, supplementing and eventually replacing the nearby seaplane base at Foynes (where Irish Coffee was invented for the benefit of arriving passengers). The country’s neutrality in WW2 prevented the field from regular use by the USAAF and RAF, inhibiting its development despite its otherwise-ideal location.
Ireland’s longest river, the River Shannon is named for Sionna, a Celtic goddess. It has been an important waterway since antiquity, having first been mapped by the Graeco-Egyptian geographer Ptolemy.
Carl Sagan explained in Cosmos that the recurring use of Ptolemy’s name on the Rosetta Stone was crucial to eventually uncovering its secrets.
There were several Kings of Egypt named Ptolemy. The first was one of Alexander the Great’s
foremost generals, and I think the last was Cleopatra’s brother.
Surely the the Rosetta Stone Ptolemy was King Ptolemy V (r. 204-181BC) since it is inscribed
with a decree issued 196BC. It could not have been the scholar Ptolemy, who flourished
in the 2nd century AD.
#10483 Today, 01:42 AM
RealityChuck
Charter Member Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: Schenectady, NY, USA
Posts: 30,929
Of the first five players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, only Honus Wagner did not pitch in a major league game.
Actually Honus Wagner pitched in two major league games, once in 1900 and once again in 1902. Both times were for the Pirates.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe was so popular as a jazz singer and as a guitar playing Gospel singer that 25000 people paid their way into Griffith stadium in Washington D.C. to see her marry for the third time. If you like either of those genres and are not familiar with her you are really missing out.
DW Griffith was one of the “Big Four” who founded United Artists in 1919. The other three were Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Charlie Chaplin. William S Hart was supposed to be the fifth partner, but he pulled out at the last moment.
Pulling out at the last moment, or coitus interruptus, as a form of birth control, while, if used ‘perfectly’ can be quite effective - having only a 4% failure rate, according to some sources - in typical usage, is actually one of the worst forms of contraception, having a failure rate that could be as high as 28%.
“Coitus Interruptus” is how some San Franciscans refer to their city’s landmark Coit Tower, as referenced in the Dirty Harry movie The Enforcer.
The Dirty Sanchez is a sex act in which fecal matter is purposely smeared onto a partner’s upper lip, although some allege the act is an Urban Legend.
Carlos the Jackal’s real name was Ilich Ramírez Sánchez
Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, aka The Jackal, was named after Communist leader Vladimir Lenin, whose Russian patronymic was Ilich. Lenin’s intimates used the name when referring to or addressing him.
I have a bio of Lenin which says he had “not a drop of Russian blood”.
His father’s side of the family were descended from some hinterland ethnic minority,
which adopted a Russianized last name by tacking “-ov” on the end, and his mother’s
maiden name was “Blank”-- a family of German lineage.