In Jack Chalker’s The River of Dancing Gods, Joe is given the last unnamed swords in the kingdom. He names it “Irving,” after his son, because he likes the name.
Washington Irving was supposedly shown, at age 6, by his nanny to George Washington, after whom he’d been named. The President, the story goes, gave him his blessing.
At age 3, Samuel Johnson developed scrofula, and was presented to Queen Anne, as there was a belief that the monarch’s touch could heal scrofula, called “The King’s Evil.” Queen Anne gave him her blessing him and a commemorative ribbon, which Johnson said he wore for all his life.
In his dictionary, Samuel Johnson defined “pastern” as “the knee of a horse”, even though it’s lower on the leg. Johnson said his error was the result of “pure ignorance”.
About the rebels in the American colonies, Samuel Johnson asked “How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?”.
At one time Samuel Goldwyn was scheduled to appear as the Mystery Guest on the TV game show What’s My Line?, in which panelists are blindfolded and have to guess who the Mystery Guest is. The show’s rules required that panelists who found out the Mystery Guest’s identity before he or she appeared on the show had to disqualify themselves. A few days before his scheduled appearance, Goldwyn ran into panelist Dorothy Kilgallen in a restaurant and said, “Guess what, Dorothy? I’m going to be on your show Sunday night!” She told him that since she now knew he would be the Mystery Guest, she’d have to disqualify herself. A few days later Goldwyn ran into Bennett Cerf, also a panelist on the show, and said, “Guess what, Bennett? I did a really dumb thing the other day and told Dorothy that I’m going to be on your show Sunday night!” Cerf also was forced to disqualify himself, resulting in the only double disqualification in the show’s history.
Bennett Cerf was co-founder of Random House books. His son, Christopher, was co-founder of The National Lampoon.
Christopher Buckley wrote The White House Mess, about a hapless Idaho governor elected President who promptly screws everything up. Best line IMHO: “Your story is not just a tissue of lies - it’s an industrial broadloom carpet of lies.”
Poul Anderson’s Operation Chaos features an alternate America in which flying carpets are a major form of transportation, along with brooms.
John Anderson, countering criticism that his independent campaign for President in 1980 was only hurting incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter and helping Republican candidate Ronald Reagan, once displayed a button reading, “A vote for John Anderson is a vote for John Anderson.”
Items owned by billionaire independent presidential candidate Ross Perot include a 1216 copy of the Magna Carta, Gilbert Stuart sketches of George Washington, and a Dunlap broadside of the Declaration of Independence.
The Magna Carta dates back to the year 1215. It was issued on 15 June of that year.
15 June is my birthday(!), and also Tim Lincecum’s, and also Dusty Baker’s. Dusty Baker is a former Marine, and in 4 days, on 10 November, the Marine Corps will be 238 years old.
Happy Birthday, Marines. Semper Fidelis.
Parts of Magna Carta are still in force in Canada.
George Raft turned down several parts that eventually given to Humphrey Bogart – High Sierra (because he didn’t want to die in the end), The Maltese Falcon (because he didn’t trust first-time director John Huston), (according to some reports) Casablanca. As a result, Bogart became a major star, while Raft’s career declined precipitously.
Maud Bogart’s drawing of her baby Humphrey appeared in a national advertising campaign for Mellin’s Baby Food, not Gerber’s.
Humphrey Bogart’s father was a Presbyterian of English and Dutch descent; his mother was an Episcopalian of English descent. Bogart was raised in the Episcopalian faith, but was non-practicing for most of his adult life.
Boston Red Sox rookie infielder Xander Bogaerts, a native of Aruba who speaks 4 languages, is the first-ever major leaguer whose first name starts with X but is not Xavier.
There are four countries in the Kingdom of the Netherlands: the Netherlands, Curacao, Sint Maarten and Aruba.
St. Martin’s Day, or Martinmas, (November 11th) is also known as St. Martin’s Summer when the weather is warm enough.
A symphonic recording played on a PBS radio station is very likely to have been made by either the Montreal Symphony conducted by Charles Dutoit, or the Orchestra and Chorus of the Academy of St.-Martin-in-the-Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner, who created it. The church itself is in Trafalgar Square, London.