Barney, President George W. Bush’s dog, bit a reporter who tried, with the permission of his handler, to pet him on the south lawn of the White House in January 2009.
Bush’s Baked Beans has used a long-running ad campaign in which Duke, the golden retriever owned by company spokesman Jay Bush, continually tries to sell the company’s secret recipe.
Mexican jumping beans are actually seed pods that are inhabited by the larva of a moth which makes them “hop”.
“Mexican” is a dice based drinking game, where the object is to get a 2 and 1 on the dice.
A snippet of the Wall of Voodoo song Mexican Radio was performed by Kramer during an episode of Seinfeld.
The fall of the Berlin Wall between East and West Germany is usually regarded as signaling the end of the Cold War. Germany reunited not long after, and the capital returned to Berlin for the first time since World War II.
Eija Riita Berliner-Mauer has been married to the Berlin Wall for 29 years. Erika La Tour Eiffel is the blushing bride of the Eiffel Tower.
“Bubble Master” Eiffel Plasterer made several appearances on David Letterman’s show, demonstrating bubbles of unusual size, shape, and other qualities.
The future British King Edward VIII was known as “David” throughout his childhood. In 1936, he became the first British monarch to abdicate in centuries, when he felt he had to choose between his throne and the woman he loved, the American divorcee Wallis Simpson.
When O.J. Simpson first joined the Buffalo Bills, he had to participate in his first few practices without a helmet – his head was too large for any of the helmets which the Bills’ equipment manager had. The Bills quickly arranged for USC to send Simpson the helmet he’d worn in college.
The Buffalo Bills were the barbershop quartet who portrayed the singing River City School Committee in the original Broadway cast of “The Music Man”, and later in the movie with Robert Preston and Shirley Jackson.
Shirley Jones, you mean. Shirley Jackson was the great writer who wrote The Lottery and other stories, and who died of heart failure at only 48.
In addition to The Lottery and The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson also wrote a play for children called The Bad Children based on the story of Hansel and Gretel.
Shirley Chisholm (D- NY) was the first black woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress (though she never appeared in THE MUSIC MAN or slept with Jack Cassidy to my knowledge).*
*NOT FOR PLAY BUT- she was also an exceptionally nice lady; I met her a couple of times when she stayed at hotels I worked at and just completely gracious even when there was a problem with her room- so rare among celebs in general and politicians in particular [who male or female tend to be among the bitchier demographics] that she stood out.
never mind
The role of Ted Baxter on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” was written for Jack Cassidy, who did later relent and appear as Ted’s brother Hal.
In addition to his stint as Keith on The Partridge Family, one of Jack’s sons played the lead role in the short-lived series David Cassidy: Man Under Cover.
Jack Kennedy was nominated for Vice President at the 1956 Democratic National Convention, but the nod went to Sen. Estes Kefauver instead, who lost along with the man at the head of the ticket, Adlai Stevenson, that fall. President Eisenhower and VP Nixon were overwhelmingly reelected.
John Tyler was later elected to the Confederate House of Representatives. Since he died in Virginia, which had seceded, die-harders list him as the first President to die outside the US.
John Tyler’s few distinctions include having the most legitimate children of any president (15) and being the earliest president to have grandchildren alive today. (Tyler’s youngest son was born in his late 60s and that son had children in his 70s, thus though he was born in 1790 he has a couple of grandchildren still alive.)