Sardonic standup comic Gilbert Gottfried provided the voice of Iago the parrot in the Disney animated movie Aladdin.
Iago is the main antagonist in Shakespeare’s Othello.
Othello was the trade name used by Pressman to market its version of the board game Reversi
On 20 Apr 1881 in St. Louis, MO, the trade secret for the formula of Listerine mouthwash was sold by Dr. J.J. Lawrence to Jordan W. Lambert. In the signed agreement, Lambert agreed to pay Lawrence $20 for every gross of Listerine sold. By 1956, the payments had come to $22 million, or an average of nearly $300,000 per year.
Lambert the Sheepish Lion was a 1952 Disney cartoon short about a lion raised by a flock of sheep.
There can be no doubt that the greatest draft by any team in NFL history came in 1974, when the Pittsburgh Steelers picked four future Hall of Famers: center Mike Webster, linebacker Jack Lambert, and receivers Lynn Swann and John Stallworth.
The Steelers have four of the five Hall of Famers from that draft class. The other one was Dave Casper.
Dave was a 1993 political comedy-drama with Kevin Kline playing both the dishonest, manipulative President of the United States and a good-hearted social worker who was his look-alike.
Though they were fast friends for decades, Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda didn’t appear in a movie together until 1968, when they made the unsuccessful Western Firecreek. They followed that in 1970 with the comedy Western The Cheyenne Social Club.
Python Lee Jackson was an Australian group of the mid-60s with some minor success in the UK. Their most successful hit was “In a Broken Dream,” where Rod Stewart sat in the studio and did the lead vocals.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has survived two internal challenges to her leadership of the Australian Labour Party, but is widely expected to lose the national parliamentary election this fall.
After British Defense Minister John Profumo’s sex scandal and unsuccessful lies and obfuscations brought down the Tory government in 1963, he spent decades doing volunteer work for charitable organizations in London’s slums. By the time of his death, he had regained most of his self-respect and even a measure of admiration from the British public.
(Yes, Mark Sanford, I’m looking at you…)
John Profumo’s predecessor as Secretary of State for War was Christopher Soames. Later in his career, Soames was the last Governor of Southern Rhodesia before the African land became the nation now known as Zimbabwe.
Early in her career, Carol Burnett caught the public eye singing a comic tune about her crush on the much-older-and-not-at-all-charming U.S. Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles.
George Foster of the Reds was the only major leaguer to hit 50+ homers in a season during the 1970s.
Pete Rose of the Reds once commented, “I don’t care if you’re pitching for the Rhode Island Reds in the Chicken League, a good ERA is a good ERA!”
Judge Darius Baker imposed the first jail sentence for speeding in an automobile, on August 28, 1904 in Newport, Rhode Island.
Years after gaining stardom as lead vocalist of Hootie and the Blowfish, Darius Rucker reinvented himself as a popular country singer.
Statistics from the Tokyo Bureau of Social Welfare and Public Health indicate 20-44 incidents of fugu (blowfish or pufferfish) poisoning per year between 1996 and 2006 in Japan (a single incident may involve multiple diners). Each year, these incidents led to between 34 and 64 victims being hospitalized and 0-6 deaths, an average fatality rate of 6.8%. Of the 23 incidents reported in Tokyo from 1993-2006, only one took place in a restaurant. All others involved fishermen eating their catch.
A Simpsons episode guest-starring George Takei spoofed the edgy culinary fad for fugu.