Santa Fe is the highest capital city in the United States at 7,000 feet above sea level.
At 7 feet above sea level Washington DC is among the lowest of the capital cities of the world.
The only letters not used in the two letter postal codes of US states are B, Q & X
In the Lensman series by E.E. “Doc” Smith, “QX” had replaced “OK” as an idiomatic expression of assent.
E. E. “Doc” Smith had a real Ph. D. in chemical engineering, specializing on food engineering, and worked on developing donut mixes while writing the first Lensman books.
EE Smith’s name is Edward Elmer, and the Elmer’s Glue product is named after Elmer the Bull who is the husband of Borden’s Elsie the Cow.
Elmer Fudd’s speech impediment which causes him to pronounce ‘r’ as ‘w’ is called Rhoaticism; other fictional characters who have the real disorder include Professor Barry Kripke on Big Bang Theory and Peter Cook’s priest character in Princess Bride.
Burt Lancaster and Shirley Jones both won Oscars for their roles in the 1960 drama Elmer Gantry.
In Shirley Jones’ new memoir she claims that before she met her first husband, Jack Cassidy, the father of her three sons and a man she admits she loved more than she has ever loved her second husband, Marty Ingels, he had been Cole Porter’s lover, largely to advance his career. (It should come as no surprise to those familiar with his final days that Cassidy was a flamer.)
The lyrics to Cole Porter’s “I Get A Kick Out Of You”, which first appeared in the Broadway musical “Anything Goes” (1936), were changed in the aftermath of the kidnapping of the Lindbergh child in 1932. The lines, “I never cared for those nights in the air or the 'fair* Mrs. Lindbergh went through” became “flying too high with some guy in the sky is my idea of nothing to do”.
*'fair = affair, meaning ordeal
Long after his death it was revealed that Charles Lindhbergh fathered at least seven children when he was in his 50s and 60s with three German mistresses (two of whom were sisters); he never acknowledged the children and they did not know his real name, but he did provide for them financially and visited them several times per year.
TWA, Trans World Airlines, began as Transcontinental Air Transport, which was the first airline to offer New York - Los Angeles service. It promoted itself as “The Lindbergh Line”, on the strength of hiring Lindy to set up the route, which included transfers to train routes for nighttime legs from New York to Columbus, Ohio (whose airport Lindy named “Port Columbus”) and from Waynoka, Oklahoma to Clovis, New Mexico. Air legs were on Ford Trimotors, and included the first in-flight meal service.
Clovis I, King of the Franks, was the first king of all the Franks and ruled most of Gaul. He laid the foundations for the French nation v
One of those foundations was the Salic law, and one of the provisions of the Salic law was that the monarchy must never be inherited by, or even inherited through, a female. France, unlike most other European monarchies, has never had a reigning queen. And when an English king claimed the French throne, he was told, “You have French royal lineage, but you received it from a female, so you are NOT the King of France!” This led to the Hundred Years War.
Though his own parents were legally married, Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, was referred to as a bastard Plantaganet, a bastard Frenchman, a bastard Lancastrian, and a bastard Welshman by his detractors; he was the descendant of an illegitimate born-later legitimized son of John of Gaunt who had no succession rights, and he was the grandson of Catherine of Valois- the French princess widowed by Henry V-, and her Welsh major domo, Owen Tudor, with whom she had at least six children even though she was legally unable to marry him. Through right of conquest, marriage to the daughter of Edward IV, and some strained claims to the throne of his uncle Henry VI he did become King Henry VII after his troops killed Richard III in the Battle of Bosworth Field.
When Henry Tudor became king of England, the actual Lancastrian claimant (by strict primogeniture and ignoring Salic Law) was King Joao II of Portugal, a direct descendant of John of Gaunt through his daughter, Philippa of Lancaster.
Philippa is the full name of the Duchess of Cambridge’s sister Pippa Middleton and of children’s book character Pippi Longstocking.
King Arthur’s parents were King Uther Pendragon and his mistress Ygraine, Duchess of Cornwall, whom Uther (depending on which version of Arthurian legend you prefer) may have magically deceived, with the help of the wizard Merlin, into thinking he, Uther, was actually her husband the Duke, a rebellious nobleman.
Pippi is short for Pippilotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Ephraim’s Daughter Longstocking (as translated into English.)
On game: T. H. White’s The Once and Future King is based on legends of King Arthur.
Beatrice Arthur of Maude and Golden Girls fame was one of the first women to become an active-duty United States Marine. She volunteered and served during World War II as a truck driver and typist in the Marine Corps, stationed at Marine Corps and Navy air stations in Virginia and North Carolina. During her military career, Arthur’s rank went from private to corporal to sergeant to staff sergeant, the title she held upon her honorable discharge in September 1945.