(I work in Latham right now, at Siena College)
Dering Harbor is the smallest incorporated village in New York State, with a year-round population of 13. It thus has the highest percentage of elected officials in its population, with five of the 13 on the town board.
The first American chess tournament was held in New York City in 1843.
Paul Morphy was considered to be the first American World Chess Champion after he defeated Meek and Paulson in 1856, although the title of World Champion wasn’t officially established until 1886.
The evidence is shaky, but New Orleans native Paul Morphy is believed to have served on the staff of Confederate General Pierre Gustave Toutaint Beauregard at the First Battle of Manassas / Bull Run.
Pierre Gustave Toutant (note spelling) Beauregard had been a student at the United States Military Academy at West Point of artillery instructor Robert Anderson, who later commanded and surrendered Ft. Sumter when Beauregard shelled it in April 1861.
Beauregard Chaulmoogra Frontenac de Montmingle Bugleboy iis the full name of a “hound dog” character in Walt Kelly’s comic strip Pogo.
Every year at Christmas, Pogo and Albert the Alligator would sing “Deck us all with Boston Charlie / Walla Walla, Wash. and Kalamazoo / Nora’s sleeping on the trolley / Swaller dollar cauliflower, alligaroo!”
Perhaps the most famous quote from Pogo is, “We have met the enemy and he is us,” a takeoff from Navy Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s report to Army General William Henry Harrison after the Battle of Lake Erie. (The word “ours” ended the real quote).
Former carpenter Harrison Ford built a deck for George Lucas, before he was hired to appear in Lucas’ film American Grraffiti.
Harrison Ford has the same names as three US presidents.
Since 1928, only three US presidents have been voted out of office after one term: Herbert Hoover, Jimmy Carter and George HW Bush.
There is hope for a change today.
Back on game:
Prior to Herbert Hoover, less than one-third of the US Presidents were reelected to a second term.
nm. Wrong thread.
Don Herbert, better known by kiddie scientists as TV’s “Mr. Wizard,” was a bomber pilot in the U.S. Amy Air Corps during World War 2.
One of the pilots who flew the planes in the footage for the 1941 film Dive Bomber was Navy Lt. Edward “Butch” O’Hare. O’Hare served as a fighter pilot in the Pacific and shot down five Japanese planes in his first battle, earning ace status and the Medal of Honor. He would go on to down 12 planes total and become one of the top heroes of the war before he was killed in action off the Gilbert Islands in November 1943. O’Hare International Airport in Chicago was later named for him.
Former US Air Force F-100 fighter pilot Bob Dornan had minor roles as pilots in the TV series “Twelve O’Clock High” and the MST3K-featured film The Starfighters, but is best known for his later career as an apparently-deranged California congressman.
Tom Skerritt appeared on five episodes of “Twelve O’Clock High”, and played a different character each time.
Tom Skerritt played “Duke Forrest,” one of the main characters in the movie MASH. The character has been forgotten since he was left out of the TV show.
Neurosurgeon / football ringer Spearchucker Jones, a central character in the movie, appeared only in the pilot of the TV series.