The Mpemba Effect, named for its discoverer, Tanzanian schoolboy Erasto Mpemba, recognizes that a hot liquid can freeze faster than a cold one, contrary to the expectations of the laws of thermodynamics. Explanations and even definitions are varied. Aristotle, Francis Bacon, and Rene Descartes had previously noted the phenomenon, but their stories aren’t as engaging as Mpemba’s.
Francis Bacon’s 1626 death was attributed to pneumonia brought about while stuffing a gutted chicken with snow to perform a meat preservation experiment; biohistorians have suggested that diseases transmitted by the chicken would more likely have caused his death than exposure to cold, though it’s most likely his pneumonia was the result of a flu.
Delia Bacon was the first to seriously argue that William Shakespeare didn’t write the works attributed to him. She suggested Francis Bacon (no relation) as the actual author, and was prepared to disinter Shakespeare to find proof he was a front for someone else (based upon his epitaph, she believed the evidence was buried with him).
A ticket to the Globe Theatre in Shakespeare’s time would have cost you a penny, or $1.66 in today’s money. At a posh indoor theater like Blackfriars, tickets started at a whopping sixpence (about $10). If you were rolling large, you could sit on the stage for two shillings ($40) or buy a box for half-a-crown ($50).
The reconstructed Globe Theatre is the first thatched building permitted to be built in London since the Great Fire of 1666. After the Fire, an ordinance was passed requiring that roofs be shingle or tiled, to reduce the fire hazard. That requirement was specifically waived for the new Globe.
Formerly a progressive rock band, After the Fire turned to New Wave and scored their one big hit in the USA with a cover of Falco’s “Der Kommissar.”
The Fireballs were a hard rock band named after the Jerry Lee Lewis song “Great Balls of Fire.” Their biggest hit was a cover of Tom Paxton’s “Bottle of Wine,” which went to #9 on the top 100 chart.
Tom Paxton wrote “The Marvelous Toy” (It went Zip when it moved, Pop when it stopped, Whirrr when it stood still …), which was a hit for the Chad Mitchell Trio among many other performers, during a typing class when he was training to be an Army clerk-typist at Fort Dix, New Jersey. As Paxton would say during intros, “It didn’t even matter if you could type already. Your name could be Smith-Corona and you still had to take the damn typing class!”
Ernest Hemingway used to write his books standing up in front of a Royal typewriter suitably placed on a tall bookshelf. This typewriter, still on its bookshelf, is kept in Finca Vigia, Hemingway’s Havana house (now a museum) where he lived until 1960, the year before his death.
Ernest Borgnine was the very first “center square” on The Hollywood Squares.
Great Britain and the Kingdom of Hanover were in a personal union of the Crowns upon the accession of George I in 1714. The personal union lasted until 1837, when William IV died. He was succeeded in Britain by his niece, Victoria, but Hanover followed Salic Law and did not permit a woman to inherit the throne. William’s younger brother, Ernest, became King of Hanover.
ETA: Maryland sounds hawt!
She breathes! She burns! She’ll come! She’ll come!
Victoria Day in Canada has since 1952 always occurred on the Monday preceding May 25. The holiday, which was officially declared in 1845, used to be celebrated each year on Queen Victoria’s actual birthday, May 24. In Quebec, the holiday is observed but celebrated as National Patriots Day.
On Victoria Day at noon, there is always a 21 gun salute on the shores of the Mighty Wascana, in the grounds of the Saskatchewan Legislature: Gun-Fire at the Saskatchewan Legislature!
The “hoghouse” procedure is unique to the South Dakota legislature. It is an amending process that allows the entire contents of a bill to be changed even long after the bill introduction deadline has passed. The term originated in 1921 when the procedure was used to authorize an expense allowance for legislators as a substitute for the construction of a hoghouse at State College, which is now South Dakota State University.
In Canada, “bill” is generally used instead of “check”, meaning a restaurant bill, while “cheque” is generally used instead of “check”, meaning a written negotiable instrument drawn on one’s bank account. “Check” is however used to mean “check” in the sense of checking a list.
In Canada, the word “check” can refer to different types:
[ul]
[li]Body check[/li][li]Hip check[/li][li]Shoulder check[/li][li]Poke check[/li][li]Sweep check[/li][li]Stick check[/li][li]Forecheck[/li][li]Backcheck[/li][li]Cross-check[/li][li]Lift check[/li][li]Press check[/li][/ul]
This is also true in other countries where hockey is played.
The first recorded use of the word “hockey” is found in the text of a royal proclamation issued by Edward III of England in 1363 banning certain types of sports and games:
“[m]oreover we ordain that you prohibit under penalty of imprisonment all and sundry from such stone, wood and iron throwing; handball, football, or hockey; coursing and cock-fighting, or other such idle games.”
Eric Idle’s father died when Eric was a baby. His father was a solider in WWII, and survived the war only to be killed in a car accident when he was trying to get home to his wife and son for Christmas.
Eric Idle’s “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”, written for the closing scene of the Monty Python film Life of Brian, and has been covered by Art Garfunkel and Green Day.
Eric Bogosian, star of Talk Radio, SubUrbia and Law & Order:CI, is a graduate of Oberlin College.