Andy Warhol first managed The Velvet Underground; they were his house band.
In 1968 Andy Warhol was shot by Valerie Solanas, an ardent feminist. Solanas was one of the many who felt that Warhol was abusive and controlling (and she wasn’t wrong there). She thought that he deserved to die. Warhol was at one point pronounced dead, but was revived and slowly recovered. Some called him a martyr, and others felt that he got what he deserved. He recovered and lived till 1987.
Control of the U.S. Senate shifted from the Republicans to the Democrats in January 1987, just in time for members of the Reagan Administration to be grilled by the Senate majority in the wake of the Iran-Contra Affair, which broke late the previous year.
Contra is one of the most notoriously hard video games ever. Originally designed for the Nintendo Entertainment System, many people never beat it even with the Konami code that gave you 30 lives instead of 3.
The Gospel of St. Luke says that Jesus first began preaching when he was “about 30.”
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the Synoptic Gospels because they are written as though through the “same eye”. Scholars posit that Mark’s Gospel was written first.
Matthew’s symbol is a winged man or angel; Mark’s symbol is a winged lion; Luke’s symbol is a winged ox; and John’s symbol is an eagle.
The bald eagle is the traditional symbol of the United States of America, and appears on the Great Seal of the President of the United States, among other places. Benjamin Franklin notably preferred the wild turkey.
Hawkeye Pierce of MAS*H fame has the full name of Benjamin Franklin Pierce, thus combining Benjamin Franklin with President Franklin Pierce.
Franklin Pierce, known as “handsome Frank”, served as the 14th President of the United States, from 1853-1857. During the campaign of 1852, the Whigs charged that Pierce–“the hero of many a well fought bottle”–had been a coward during the Mexican War. The truth was that as Pierce rode to the front in his 1st and only major engagement, his horse, startled by exploding shells, tossed him forward so that the pommel of his saddle was driven sharply into his groin. Pierce fainted; the horse fell, broke its leg, and tore Pierce’s knee.
Kentuckian Franklin Sousley was one of the Marines who raised the US flag in the famed photo from the battle of Iwo JIma. He was killed in action before the photo was published, as were fellow flag raisers Mike Strank and Harlon Block.
There’s a Great Seal of the United States, and a Seal of the President of the United States, but not a Great Seal of the President of the United States.
The USS Franklin is the only Essex-class aircraft carrier so badly damaged during World War II that it was not thought cost-effective to repair it. No Essex-class carriers were sunk during the war.
Raising the Flag At Ground Zero was taken by The Bergen Record photographer Thomas E. Franklin, who immediately saw the similarities to Raising the Flag at Iwo Jima.
On 23 February 1945, five US Marines and one US Navy Corpsman raised Old Glory on Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima. The iconic picture taken by Joe Rosenthal was a symbol of the coming victory in the Pacific Theater of World War II. A statue of this flag raising is the main symbol at the National Cemetery at Arlington, VA.
Ira Hayes, a Native American of the Pima tribe, was one of the Marines who raised the flag on Mount Suribachi. Hayes’ struggles with and death from alcoholism are told in “The Ballad of Ira Hayes,” written by Peter LaFarge. Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan and Kinky Friedman are among those who have recorded the song.
Bob Dylan performed a song, “Rainy Day Women #12 and #35”, whose chorus famously ends with, “But I would not feel so all alone/Everybody must get stoned!”
And it sounds like everyone involved with the song was stoned at the time. Hoo boy.
King Crimson took the album title “Starless and Bible Black” from Dylan Thomas’ radio play “Under Milk Wood.”
Thomas set “Under Milk Wood” in the fictional Welsh town of Llareggub - “Bugger all” spelled backward. The town’s name is the inspiration for the country of Llamedos (sod 'em all) in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.
I’m not sure what you mean by “main symbol.” We were at Arlington Cemetery in April and never saw the statue. It’s on the very northern fringes of the cemetery and actually difficult to reach without your own wheels. The tram we took through the place did not go by it or point it out, unless we missed it somehow. A bigger symbol and definitely the first one you see, right out front, is the massive Women in Military Service for America Memorial.
In play: The nickname for a Welshman is called a Taffy, the term possibly coming from an old anti-Welsh nursery rhyme in which a Welshman named Taffy is described as a thief. Another possible derivation is from the River Taff. But Taffy is now considered derogatory and fading from use.
In 1938, Taffy Wright led the American League in batting average, hitting .350. He is not listed as winning in the record books, even though he qualified for the title under the rules of the time, which required appearances in 100 games to qualify. Wright only had about 260 at bats in those games and the league named Jimmy Foxx as the official batting champion despite hitting only .349. Wright is the only player to win a batting championship, but was not credited for it, though that can change this year.