GOP political operative Ed Rollins wrote that H. Ross Perot mentioned former Reagan Attorney General William French Smith as a potential running mate in 1992, but dropped the idea when Rollins pointed out that Smith was dead.
H. Ross Perot Jr. and Jay Coburn became Earthrounders when they piloted the first ever round-the-world helicopter flight, in a Bell 206 L-1 Long Ranger II, the Spirit of Texas. The flight began and ended in Fort Worth, Texas, location of the Bell Helicopter factory.
Several celebrities appeared in convict garb with Paul and Linda McCartney and Denny Laine on the cover of Wings’ ***Band on the Run *** album. Among them were British horror star Christopher Lee, light-heavyweight boxing champion John Conteh, and Oscar-winning actor James Coburn.
Joseph Melville See, Jr., first husband of Linda Eastman and father of her oldest daughter Heather, committed suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot wound on March 19, 2000, at his home in Tucson, one week after he discovered that Linda’s entire estate, valued at over $220M was left to Paul McCartney.
Posthumously famed writer Herman Melville’s (Moby Dick, Billy Budd, etc) grandfather, Thomas Melvill, took part in the Boston Tea Party and inspired “The Last Leaf” a poem published by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. in 1830.
Harlan Ellison won a lawsuit against the producers of the TV comedy Holmes and Yoyo for stealing from his story (co-written with Ben Bova) called “Brillo.” The title of the story refers to a robot cop (like in Holmes and Yoyo) – “Brillo” was given as a name to the robot because it was metal fuzz.
Yo-yos have been around for more than 2000 years. It is thought to have been invented in either China or Greece based on archeological finds in those areas. There is also evidence of yo-yos in ancient Egypt, but these toys weren’t like the modern-day toy, although they have a lot of similarities.
Senet, a game related to backgammon or parchesi, was played in Egypt even before the First Dynasty. A related Mesopotamian game, played with three tetrahedral dice, may date as early as the days of Gilgamesh.
In the Mesopotamian poem, Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh, the King of Uruk, became great friends with newcomer Enkidu. After Enkidu dies, a heartbroken Gilgamesh looks for Utnapishtim because the latter has eternal life and Gilgamesh also wants to live forever.
Utnapishtim was the Mesopotamian equivalent of Noah, both having been chosen by God (the Gods) to survive epic floods sent to kill mankind.
In Texas, some public schools treat Noah’s ark as history, even quizzing students on the relation between races and Noah’s three sons.
During the 1800’s, many children were only allowed to play with Noah’s Ark toys on Sunday, since it was considered a religious toy.
The Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh was transported about 410 BC from Elephantine Island (near Swentet, present-day Aswan) to Tana Qirqos in Ethiopia. Or so some people say.
The tetragrammaton, YHWH, is the proper name of God from the Hebrew bible. Without vowels, its pronunciation has been a source of differing opinions - what biblical interpretaion isn’t, right? Some people pronounce and spell it Yahweh (yaw-way), and others Jehovah.
Mysteries are associated with the Tetragrammaton. Jove, a form of the Latin God Jupiter, is pronounced similarly to Yahweh and an unknown common source has been hypothesized. A Shin letter is sometimes inserted in the middle of YWHW (possibly then spelling a form of ‘Jesus’) to form a Pentagrammaton for inscription in magic pentacles.
When Capitol Records refused to carry John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Two Virgins album in the US because they appeared nude on the cover, the album was distributed in the US by Tetragrammaton Records.
Troisvierges (“Three Virgins”), Luxembourg, is known for being the site of the start of hostilities on the Western Front in the First World War. On 1 August 1914, German soldiers of the 69th Infantry Regiment disembarked at the town’s railway station, violating the terms of Germany’s use of the railways and hence violating Luxembourg’s neutrality. This began a four-year occupation of Luxembourg by German forces.
On 1 August 1798, Admiral Horatio Nelson engaged a large French fleet in what was to be called the Battle of the Nile, “the most splendid and glorious success which the British Navy ever gained.” Several months before, on 11 October 1797, the British Navy had won a great victory against the Dutch Navy at the Battle of Camperdown. 11 October is the Feast Day for St Philip the Deacon, who, according to the Book of Acts of the Apostles, had four virgin daughters who prophesied.
In Hindu mythology, the panchankanya, or five virgins, dispel sin when their names are recited. Those names are Ahalya, Draupadi, Sita or Kunti, Tara and Mandodari. Ahalya, Tara, Mandodari and Sita are from the epic Ramayana; while Draupadi and Kunti are from the Mahabharata.
Who’s got six? 
(Let’s just short-circuit this.)
There is some controversy over precisely how many virgins with pear-shaped breasts will reward a devout Muslim man in Paradise. Some say 72 virgins; other scholars say that only 2 of 72 will be houris:
[QUOTE=Abu Umama]
Everyone that God admits into paradise will be married to 72 wives; two of them are houris and seventy of his inheritance of the female dwellers of hell. All of them will have libidinous sex organs and he will have an ever-erect penis.
[/QUOTE]
A linguist writing under the pseudonym Christoph Luxenberg caused some dismay when he suggested that the Koran promised only hur (white raisins) rather than houri (virgins).
(White raisins will give you an ever-erect penis? I gotta try that)
Sir Richard Branson has given the name Virgin to all of his business ventures since his first student newspaper as a teenager. The name “Virgin” was suggested by one of Branson’s early employees at his discount record store because they were all new at business. He then branched into studio recording, in which Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells” from *The Exorcist *was the first major hit for Virgin Records.