Former President George W. Bush’s country home in Crawford, Tex. is ironically more environmentally-friendly than former Vice President Al Gore’s Tennessee spread.
A United Kingdom High Court judge decreed that the government could only send a copy of “An Inconvenient Truth” to every school if it was accompanied by guidelines to point out “nine scientific errors” and to counter Gore’s “one-sided views”.
Economists Raghuram Rajan and Luigi Zingales pointed out that many deregulation efforts had either taken place or begun before Ronald Reagan’s seriously flawed presidency – deregulation of airlines and trucking under Carter, and the beginning of deregulatory reform in railroads, telephones, natural gas, and banking. They stated: “The move toward markets preceded the leader [Reagan].” Economists Paul Joskow and Roger Noll made a similar contention.
When Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale took office on 20-Jan-1977, they replaced outgoing Gerald Ford and Nelson Rockefeller. Rockefeller was the last VP to take over a vacated office. The office of VP was vacated because the previous VP, Gerald Ford, became President when Richard Nixon resigned on 09-Aug-1974. The VP office was vacated from 09-Aug-1974 until 19-Dec-1974 when Rockefeller became Ford’s VP.
Ford and Rockefeller are the only two Vice-Presidents appointed under the 25th Amendment. Prior to that Amendment, there was no way to fill a vacancy in the Vice-Presidency. The longest time there was no Vice-President was 3 years and 11 months, from 4 April 1841 to 4 March 1845, when Vice-President Tyler succeeded President Harrison upon the latter’s death. Coincidentally, that was also the first time a Vice-President succeeded to the Presidency.
[Not in play - maybe it’s just too early in the morning, but I don’t see the play between 11,116 and 11, 117? 
]
Angie Dickinson’s 1974 gangster film Big, Bad Mama, inspired by the Bonnie and Clyde story, was notable for its trailer used as a TV commercial, in which the 1930’s gangsteress character states she wants be as rich as “Ford, Rockefeller, Capone and all the rest of ’em”.
Douglas Adams chose “Ford Prefect” as the name of the alien who helped out Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galax. It’s a joke that doesn’t translate for Americans: the Ford Prefect was a car manufactured in the UK in the 1940s and 50s that was very popular.
After a failed acquisition attempt of Ferrari by the Ford Motor Co. in the early 1960s, Henry Ford II was angered by Enzo Ferrari and wanted a race car built to beat Ferrari at Le Mans. Ford sought joint ventures to build that car. One was a joint venture with Lotus, which was the car that became the Lotus Europa. The eventual Le Mans race car was a successful project with Lola, and Ford went on to win Le Mans for four straight years, 1966 - 1969, with the Ford GT40.
Ferruccio Lamborghini shifted his manufacturing empire from tractors to exotic sports cars after a contentious discussion with Enzo Ferrari (no doubt complete with gesticulations) about his new Ferrari sports car. Apparently, based on the previous post, Ferrari had that effect on people. Lamborghini complained that the clutch was too stiff, and when Ferrari told him he simply needed to learn how to drive, Lamborghini rebuilt the clutch himself and angrily decided to build a better car than Ferrari had.
Ferruccio Lamborghini founded Automobili Ferruccio Lamborghini S.p.A. in 1963, leading to some fantastic cars:
350 GT in 1964, Lamborghini’s first production car
Earlier this year the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant was taken offline when seawater intake screens were clogged by small jellyfish-like creatures called “salp.”
In the final season of “The Avengers,” Tara King drove a prototype Lamborghini AC 428 Cobra Frua convertible.
In Russian, a jellyfish is called a medusa.
The Lion’s Mane Jellyfish is the biggest known jellyfish. The largest known example had a body 7’ 6" in diameter, with 120’ long tentacles.
The two best known professional sports teams with numbers in their names are football’s San Francisco 49ers and basketball’s Philadelphia 76ers.
The Houston Colt .45s were the predecessors to the Houston Astros.
Pitcher Jim Bouton’s memoir Ball Four was partially about his time with the Astros.
When asked for his opinion of the Robert DeNiro baseball film Bang the Drum Slowly, Jim Bouton commented “If a *real *ballplayer had leukemia, his teammates would call him Luke.”
Upon its publication, baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn called Ball Four “detrimental to baseball,” and tried to force Bouton to sign a statement saying that the book was completely fictional. Bouton, however, refused to deny any of Ball Four’s revelations.
On “Cheers!” a former teammate of Sam Malone’s came out of the closet by penning a book called Catcher’s Mask.