In Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, the detective’s brother Mycroft belonged to the Diogenes Club, a refuge for antisocial men where the members were expressly forbidden to converse with one another.
Diogenes syndrome, also known as senile squalor syndrome, is a disorder characterized by extreme self-neglect, domestic squalor, social withdrawal, apathy, compulsive hoarding of garbage, and lack of shame.
In 1968, the same year in which he won the Academy Award as Best Actor for charly, Cliff Robertson appeared as the villainous cowboy Shame, on Adam West’s campy Batman series. His wife, Dina Merrill, appeared alongside him, playing Calamity Jan.
Adam West was drafted into the United States Army, for two years.
Ken Berry, star of “F Troop” and “Mama’s Family”, owes his entertainment career in part to his Army sergeant, Leonard Nimoy, who encouraged Berry to follow him to Hollywood upon his discharge. Sgt. Nimoy also encouraged another of his men, Pvt. Frank Gehry, who is the leading figure in deconstructivist architecture.
Leonard Nimoy, working as a Hollywood cabbie to pay his bills, once gave a cab ride to then-U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy.
Cab Calloway sang “Minnie the Moocher” in the movie The Blues Brothers.
According to Walt Disney, Mickey and Minnie Mouse have never been married on screen. But in 1933, during an interview with Film Pictorial, Walt said, “In private life, Mickey is married to Minnie … What it really amounts to is that Minnie is, for screen purposes, his leading lady.” Two years later in 1935, he told Louise Morgan in the News Chronicle: “There’s no marriage in the land of make-believe. Mickey and Minnie must live happily ever after.” The discussion of Mickey and Minnie’s wedding has been fueled by the 1932 film Mickey’s Nightmare, in which Mickey falls asleep in the armchair instead of meeting Minnie at the local dance. Mickey dreams of being married to Minnie and is surrounded by numerous little Mickey mice. Then in 1935, a cover for for the sheet music, “The Wedding of Mister Mickey Mouse,” shows a picture of a beaming Mickey, dressing in a tux, leading Minnie, dressed in a veil, from the church to the happy cheering of Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow. This music was a Novelty Fox-trot, with music by Franz Vienna and words by Edward Pola with special permission by Walt Disney.
Scenes in the movie ***Amadeus ***that were supposed to be set in Vienna were actually filmed in Prague, which director Milos Forman believed looked more like 18th century Vienna than modern Vienna does.
The world’s largest emerald (2860 carats) is displayed in the Imperial Treasury of the Hofburg (Imperial Palace) in Vienna.
The Ekati diamond mine is Canada’s first surface and underground diamond mine. It is located in the Northwest Territories.
The Monkees’ biggest hit, “I’m a Believer,” was written by Neil Diamond.
Neil Diamond did not reveal until many years later that his hit song “Sweet Caroline” was inspired by Caroline Kennedy, eldest child of John and Jacqueline Kennedy.
Marge Simpson had the same maiden name as Jacqueline Kennedy: Bouvier.
John and Jacqueline Kennedy were married in Newport, Rhode Island. She married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis several years after the President’s assassination in Dallas.
Aristotle was a student of Plato, and later a tutor of Alexander the Great.
The Alexander Sarcophagus in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum is not thought to contain Alexander the Great. Its name comes from the bas-reliefs of Alexander carved into its sides.
Alexander Graham Bell invented a metal detector that was used in an unsuccessful attempt to locate a bullet lodged inside President James Garfield.
Garfield, Republican of Ohio, was the only member of the U.S. House of Representatives ever elected directly to the Presidency. He had also been elected by the Ohio General Assembly to the U.S. Senate, but was not sworn in and did not take his seat.
Jackie Robinson, the man who broke major league baseball’s color line, was a lifelong Republican who campaigned vigorously for Richard Nixon in 1960.