In Joe Haldeman’s science fiction novel The Accidental Time Machine, several future human societies are shown, including a Christian theocracy, a pure market economy ruled by a benevolent artificial intelligence, and a single, ultra-high-tech city in Australia guarded by energy weapons and forcefields.
Joe Haldeman wanted to title his story “More than the Sum of His Parts” as “Tom Swift and his Electric Penis.” He also talks about the time when a student of his analyzed the story and said it was about Haldeman’s war injuries in Vietnam. Haldeman had not written it as such, but realized the student was right.
Here’s the story, by the way - good, chilling stuff: More Than the Sum of His Parts - Lightspeed Magazine
Joe Haldeman is best known for his science fiction writing, perhaps most notably The Forever War, All My Sins Remembered and Tool of the Trade, but he is also an adjunct professor of writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
James Woods played Watergate conspirator H.R. Haldeman in Oliver Stone’s Nixon.
In Nixon, Stone used Haldeman’s taped statement that the Watergate scandal could “open up the whole Bay of Pigs thing” as the basis of speculation that the notorious “18½ minute gap” might have resulted from erasure of a discussion of the coverup of the JFK assassination.
Frank Langella was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for playing Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon.
Frank Langella, Laurence Fishburne, Sven Van de Ven, Lane Smith, Jackie Cooper and John Hamilton have all played the role of Perry White in live-action movies.
Noel Neill, Phyllis Coates, Erica Durance, Margot Kidder, Teri Hatcher, Kate Bosworth and Amy Adams have played Lois Lane over the years.
Brian “The Boz” Bosworth, Michael Irvin and Bill Romanowski were among the real -life former NFL players who appeared in Adam Sandler’s remake of The Longest Yard.
Brian Bozworth, a formidable college football player, ranks high among the biggest NFL draft busts of all time, including JaMarcus Russell, Ryan Leaf, Art Schlichter, and Tony Mandarich.
The soft-rock band Player scored their one and only big hit with “Baby, Come Back,” which reached #1 on the Billboard charts in 1977.
Billboard was founded in Cincinnati on November 1, 1894, by William H. Donaldson and James Hennegan. Originally titled *Billboard Advertising *, it was a trade paper for the bill posting industry, hence the magazine’s name. Within a few years of its founding, it began to carry news of outdoor amusements, a major consumer of billboard space. Eventually Billboard became the paper of record for circuses, carnivals, amusement parks, fairs, vaudeville, minstrels, whale shows and other live entertainment. The magazine began coverage of motion pictures in 1909 and of radio in the 1920’s. Though the first music connection was the Billboard sheet music best sellers charts & top songs in vaudeville theaters published in 1913 but it was not a regular chart yet.
Bessie Smith, Martha Graham, and Norman Rockwell were all born in 1894.
Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr.'s son scored a hit of his own, "Somebody’s Watching Me,"under the alias Rockwell. His longtime pal Michel Jackson provided guest vocals on that track.
Michel Jackson, that French guy?
Thomas Jackson, later to earn the nickname “Stonewall” during the Civil War, was regarded by cadets as being one of the worst instructors at the Virginia Military Institute.
Country honkytonk singer Stonewall Jackson (his real name), a protege of Ernest Tubb, had his top-selling hit in 1959 with “Waterloo”, which hit the pop charts as well as topping the country charts for 5 weeks. The song was a haunting and catchy tune that states “Everybody has to meet his Waterloo”, meaning their fate. The song cites Adam, Napoleon and Tom Dooley as examples.
ABBA recorded their hit song “Waterloo” in English, Swedish, German, but it is the only song they recorded in French.
In 1839, a town called Waterloo was renamed after Stephen F. Austin, and became the capital of the newly independent (but short-lived) Republic of Texas.
ABBA sang “At Waterloo Napoleon did surrender,” but he didn’t. He left the battlefield and surrendered to the captain of the Royal Navy’s HMS Bellerophon off Rochefort six weeks later.
At Sedan, Napoleon III did surrender.