The two largest of those islands, Jersey and Guernsey, are also the names of major milk-cattle breeds.
In many medieval Arthurian stories and in the works of novelist Mary Stewart, Arthur’s incestuously conceived illegitimate son Mordred grew up in the Orkney islands, a sparsely populated archipelago on the northeast of (and considered part of) Scotland.
The Questing Beast, or the Beast Glatisant (Barking Beast), is a monster from Arthurian legend. It is the subject of quests undertaken by famous knights such as King Pellinore, Sir Palamedes, and Sir Percival. The strange creature has the head and neck of a snake, the body of a leopard, the haunches of a lion and the feet of a hart. Its name comes from the great noise it emits from its belly, a barking like “thirty couple hounds questing”. ‘Glatisant’ is related to the French word glapissant, ‘yelping’ or ‘barking’, especially of small dogs or foxes. The questing beast is a variant of the mythological medieval view on giraffes, whose species name of Camelopardalis originated from their description of being half camel and half leopard.
On-Game: The white hart has special significance in Arthurian legends, as the symbol of quests. It’s considered bad luck to kill a white hart.
Off-Game
No, the two largest islands fitting in this proposed name are the island of Great Britain and the island of Ireland. The political objection (from the Irish) is to the use of the term “British” in the name of the archipelago. Sorry if I wasn’t clear.
The word “hart” originally referred to a male red deer of full maturity, i.e., more than five years of age. In its first year, the animal would have been a calf; in its second, a brocket; in its third, a spayard; its fourth, a staggard; and in its fifth, a great stag.
Hart’s Location and Dixville Notch, two small towns in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, are the traditional sites of the first ballots cast in the Presidential primary elections every four years. They were compositized into “Hartsfield’s Landing” for a 2002 episode of “The West Wing”.
Incompetent, flabby lifeguard Notch Johnson was the hero of Howard Stern’s Son of the Beach, a sitcom that spoofed*** Baywatch***.
Notch Johnson was played by Tim Stack, who played a drugged out parody version of himself on the TV show My Name is Earl.
The wife of an English earl is known as a countess. Etymologists believe that the odd pairing is due to the fact that that the term “count” was replaced by the older “earl.” The reason for the change seems to be because people would deliberately pronounce “count” as though it didn’t have a “o.”
In England, the title of an earl’s wife is countess.
Okay, I’m impressed that I was ninja’ed by the same fact!
On game: The fictional Countess of Corkberry is a character in Noel Streatfeild’s historical novel, Thursday’s Child.
Playwright Noel Coward was named Noel because he was born just nine days before Christmas, in 1899.
During WWII Noël Coward composed the humorous patriotic war song, Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans. It was popular when performed live, but when played on the radio its humor did not translate well and it was eventually banned by the BBC.
Its refrain:
Don’t let’s be beastly to the Germans
When our victory is ultimately won,
It was just those nasty Nazis who persuaded them to fight
And their Beethoven and Bach are really far worse than their bite
Let’s be meek to them
And turn the other cheek to them
And try to bring out their latent sense of fun.
Let’s give them full air parity
And treat the rats with charity,
But don’t let’s be beastly to the Hun.
The Seinfeld character The Soup Nazi, played by Larry Thomas, was derived from the real-life Al Yeganeh, who runs Soup Kitchen International in New York. He is deeply offended by the character and has rejected all peace offerings from Seinfeld with a sincere “No soup for you!”.
Yeganeh was actually first mentioned in mass media in the 1993 movie Sleepless in Seattle. In the film, a magazine writer discusses writing a story: “This man sells the greatest soup you have ever eaten, and he is the meanest man in America. I feel very strongly about this, Becky; it’s not just about the soup.”
In Sleepless in Seattle, love interests Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks only spend about two minutes of screen time together.
Actresses Meg and Jennifer Tilly are half-Chinese, and their original last name was Chan.
Jennifer Tilly is a World Series of Poker player, and has won more than half a million dollars in her career.
Jennifer Tilly was raised by her mother and stepfather partly on rural Texada Island, the largest island in the Strait of Georgia of British Columbia, Canada.
Georgia Engle of the Mary Tyler Moore Show originated the role of Mrs. Tottendale in the original Broadway production of The Drowsy Chaperone.
“Tyler” is an “occupational” last name, originally to designate that the individual installed tiles.
West Virginia’s Tyler County is named for John Tyler – not the president, but his father, who served as Governor of Virginia (which then included what is now West Virginia) from 1808 to '11.