Although he is primarily known as a conductor, Dutoit’s instrument is the viola. That makes him a big fiddler on a roof.
Frank “Sweet Music” Viola, who pitched mainly for the Minnesota Twins and earned a World Series MVP award and a Cy Young award there, went to St. John’s University in Queens, NY. While there, he faced future Mets teammate Ron Darling of Yale in what some referred to as the best college baseball game ever. Darling threw 11 no-hit innings before Yale lost 1-0 in the 12th.
After leaving politics, former Prime Minister Robert Borden served as Chancellor of Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario.
In the Americas, Kingston, Jamaica is the largest predominantly English-speaking city south of the US.
Johnny Cash owned an estate named Cinnamon Hill on Jamaica that had previously been the property of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s father. Cash and his family were held hostage at gunpoint by three drug addicted burglars who broke into the home during Christmas of 1982. All three men were arrested and died while in custody; Cash, a Christian and a drug addict, felt a lot of guilt about the men’s deaths for the rest of his life, fearing they were murdered because of the bad publicity they caused Jamaica due to the high-profile nature of the crime.
Horace Walpole bought a small country house near London and turned it into an elegant Gothic villa, called Strawberry Hill House.
Strawberry Field (pluralized to Fields in the Beatles song) was a stately home in Liverpool that was converted to a home for orphaned and abandoned children in the early 20th century and was owned/run by the Salvation Army when John Lennon was a boy. It operated until 2005, when the children were moved to other housing and the building became a non-denominational church.
Now THAT’S good trivia!
East Liverpool, Ohio was once called “the Pottery Capital of the World” due to the tremendous output of its ceramics industry, but it now boasts just three local potteries. A recent New York Times story detailed a major contract one of them landed, making mugs for Starbucks.
Pearsonville, California, population of 17, is the self-proclaimed Hubcap Capital of the World due to one woman’s efforts. Lucy Pearson, “The Hubcap Queen,” has collected thousands of hubcaps spread across three separate wrecking yards. The strange collection has led to TV appearances for Pearson and made Pearsonville a filming location for several films, TV shows and commercials.
The Lydia earthquake in AD 17 nearly destroyed Sardis, a major city in Asia Minor.
Sardi’s restaurant is the birthplace of the Tony Award; after Antoinette Perry’s death in 1946, her partner, theatrical producer and director, Brock Pemberton, was eating lunch at Sardi’s when he came up with the idea of a theater award to be given in Perry’s honor. For many years Sardi’s was the location where Tony Award nominations were announced.
Lou Brock had 938 stolen bases during his professional career.
And back we go to…
Lou Holtz, famed and longtime coach of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team, was born in East Liverpool, Ohio.
South Bend, Indiana, the home of Notre Damn University, was originally called Southold. The change was supposedly to reduce confusion with other Southolds, but there is currently only one town of that name in the US.
The first professional baseball game was played in Fort Wayne, Indiana on May 4, 1871.
The Constitution Act, 1871 was the first major amendment to the Constitution of Canada. Enacted by the British Parliament, it confirmed that the federal Parliament could create new provinces out of federal territories.
The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is typically appointed to a ten-year term, and reports directly to the Attorney General, who in turn reports to the President.
John Edgar Hoover was FBI Director for just under 48 years. Bob Mueller was FBI Director for 12 years. Every other Director has held the post for less than 10 years.
Edgar the Peaceful was the last Anglo-Saxon King whose accession was uncontested. The coronation ceremony for him and his wife is the origin for the coronation ceremony still used in Britain.
I see what you did there.
In play:
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland also holds the title First Lord of the Treasury, even when she is a woman.