The only castrato to have made sound recordings was Alessandro Moreschi, once of the Sistine Chapel choir, who was already well past his singing prime when he laid down some gramophone tracks in 1902 and 1904. The use of castrati was banned by Pope Pius X, an advocate of Cecilianism.
Cry to Heaven by Anne Rice is about a castrato.
Because it was technically illegal to castrate a boy solely for the purpose of making him into a castrato singer, there had to be a medical excuse before the procedure was performed. These included everything and were apparently never checked for validity; in 17th century Rome alone, a city not usually known for its out of control wild boar population, hundreds of boys were castrated due to “being gored by a wild boar”; being gored by a wild boar became a euphemism for a ridiculous justification.
Legend has it that Wild Bill Hickok was holding a pair of aces and a pair of eights when he was shot during a poker game. Whether that’s true or not, ever since, aces and eights have been called “The Dead Man’s Hand.”
Charles Nunguesser ranked third among France’s aces of World War I and was known for his plane’s marking – which included black heart with a skull and crossbones as his insignia – and his ability to party all night in Paris then drive to the front for a dawn patrol. Despite it all, he survived the war, but died while trying to make a transatlantic flight in 1927.
According to Wikipedia’s list of top WWI aces, the Red Baron had 80 (80 - wow!) victories.
I recall the Snoopy and the Red Baron song lyrics:
80 men tried to end that streak
of the bloddy Red Baron, from Germany
The top aces are:
80: Manfred von Richthofen, Germany
75: René Fonck, France
72: Billy Bishop, Canada
62: Ernst Udet, Germany
61: Edward Mannock, United Kingdom
60: Raymond Collishaw, Canada
Nobody else has 60 or more.
The top US ace:
26: Eddie Rickenbacker, US (tied with 10 others)
Though Manfred von Richtofen shot down eight more planes than Billy Bishop, he took a year and a half to reach that total. Bishop shot down 72 planes in just six months of combat time, and was reassigned at the point because Canadian authorities feared the hit to morale if he were shot down. Bishop hated the decision and, on his last day of combat, he shot down five planes in fifteen minutes.
The one-man stage musical Billy Bishop Goes to War, by John McLachlan Gray and Eric Peterson, features a single actor in 18 different roles (including Bishop, of course), with a single musical accompanist. Excerpts from the play also appear in the National Film Board of Canada documentary, The Kid Who Couldn’t Miss.
Actually, that’s not certain, even now: http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/articles/wallenborn.html
In play:
Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North was a staffer for the National Security Council when the Iran/Contra Affair broke in late 1986.
North was born in San Antonio, TX.
In 1976, then-heavyweight champ Muhammad Ali fought Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki in a 15 round match in Tokyo. Viewers were bored silly, as Inoki spent all 15 rounds moving around on his back, crab style, trying vainly to knock Ali over with a leg sweep.
BTW, I saw this bout on closed circuit TV from Shea Stadium, where there had been some MUCH more fun preliminaries, including Chuck Wepner vs. Andre the Giant. Wepner and Andre’s bout was OBVIOUSLY a planned and staged, and had all the gimmickry, stunts and craziness of pro wrestling at its best.
Sportswriters speculated later that Ali, a longtime wrestling fan (he based his own “I Am the Greatest” schtick largely on his favorite wrestlers, like Gorgeous George), WANTED a rigged, fun, silly bout like Andre’s, but added all sorts of rules and restrictions at the last minute, because he had reason to think Inoki was going to double-cross him and turn a fun exhibition into a real fight. Hence, Inoki bounced around on his but ineffectually because that’s about all he was allowed to do.
André the Giant was once unofficially crowned “The Greatest Drunk on Earth” for consuming 119 12-US-fluid-ounce beers in 6 hours. He once drank 156 16-US-fluid-ounce beers in one sitting. His large size meant it took higher amounts of alcohol to inebriate him.
Twenty-four hours before he died, John Bonham of Led Zepplin had consumed forty shots of vodka which resulted in his choking to death on his own vomit.
Poland was the first country to make vodka their national drink, and the first country to export it.
The flags of Poland and Indonesia are very similar, but Poland’s features a white horizontal stripe over a red horizontal stripe, while on Indonesia’s the colors are reversed.
Indonesia has the largest Muslim population of any country in the world.
Pakistan has the second largest, followed by India with the third largest Muslim population.
Portuguese missionaries won many converts to Catholicism in India- hence, Indian Catholics often have Portugese names like Da Silva or Da Sousa.
El Camino Real, the royal road, begins in Loreto, Baja California Sur, Mexico and ends in Sonoma, California, USA. El Camino Real connects the missions in Loreto and Sonoma.