The Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico is noted for its unsupported, nail-free spiral staircase, made of non-native wood, to the choir loft. Its construction, performed out of sight of others, is credited by the Loretto Sisters to an apparition of St. Joseph, although there is evidence tracing it to a completely-human itinerant French carpenter.
The main line of the Santa Fe Railway never reached Santa Fe NM because the terrain was too rough. The railway’s full name is the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, or ATSF. The ATSF, chartered in 1859, was one of the major railroads in US history. Santa Fe NM was eventually connected to the ATSF in the 1880s with a branch line from Lamy NM, 20 miles away. The ATSF merged with the Burlington Northern Railroad at the end of 1996 to form the BNSF Railway, the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe.
The song “On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe” was featured in the movie The Harvey Girls.
The Land Girls is about young British women pressed into service as farmers during World War II, since most of the male farmers had gone off to fight.
Two peanut farmers have been elected president of the United States – Thomas Jefferson and Jimmy Carter.
As a child, Jimmy Carter purposefully shot his sister in the bottom with a BB gun.
Actor and comedian Jack Carter, who turns 90 this June, hosted the first televised Tony awards.
Tony Stewart, Sprint Cup NASCAR driver, hosted the first six annual Stewie Awards.
SFC Schwartz
The penthouse of the Streamline Hotel where the meetings that founded NASCAR took place is now a gay bar.
Only two drivers have won NASCAR’s Daytona 500, and the Indy 500: AJ Foyt and Mario Andretti.
Joan Baez, whose many famous songs include her rendition of 500 Miles, was friends with several civil rights activists including the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Pete Seeger, and César Chávez.
Bob Seger’s biggest hit song was “Shame On the Moon”
Though known for his serious drama, Ingmar Bergman managed to fit it into one science fiction themed movie: Shame
Cliff Robertson played the “special guest villain” Shame on Batman.
Cliff Robertson was born on September 9, 1923 and died one day after his 87th Birthday–September 10, 2011.
Robertson Davies, long Canada’s most eminent man of letters, wrote the Salterton, Cornish and Deptford Trilogies.
King Arthur was part Cornish, as his father was Uther Pendragon, King of the Britons, but his mother was Ygraine, Duchess of Cornwall.
The sneezing baby of the Duchess, in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, is transformed into a pig for reasons Lewis Carroll never bothers to explain.
Alice herself was pleased, since the baby had been rather ugly, but made a rather handsome pig.
In Alice’s Restaurant (1969), Tina Chen, who played Arlo Guthrie’s on-screen girlfriend, wore an authentic Chinese dress that had belonged to her grandmother. When they wrapped up the shoot, the film crew put the dress in storage. She never got it back.
Tina Fey delivered the comedic line, “And I can see Russia from my house.” while performing a parody of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin during a skit on Saturday Night Live. Palin did not say the oft mis-attributed line.