Mary, Queen of Scots, saw a trusted aide stabbed to death by jealous rivals at court while she was pregnant.
Mary Tyler Moore told David Letterman that her (and others’) nickname for Dick Van Dyke when they did the The Dick Van Dyke Show together was Penis Von Lesbian, a play on his real name.
Dick Van Dyke was born in West Plains, Missouri. So was country music singer Porter Wagoner who, in 1967, introduced then-obscure singer Dolly Parton on his long-running television show. They became a well-known vocal duo throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The term “Great Plains” isn’t commonly used in Canada. Instead, the word “Prairies” is used, which derives from a French word for “meadow, grassland.”
The melody Meadowlands by Lev Knipper is often used as stock music for Russian themed TV and movies.
The last Russian dynasty, the Romanovs, ruled for 304 years.
Alexander Sokurov’s film Russian Ark was shot in one continuous take, at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, housed in the former Winter Palace, used by the Tsars from Catherine the Great to Nicholas II.
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Catherine Zeta-Jones’ father was the manager of a candy factory.
Bolcheriet is a small candy factory and shop in Løkken, Denmark. They also have a second location in Skagen, Denmark’s northern-most point and where the North Sea meets the Baltic.
Lars Kruse of Skagen is remembered not only for his heroic rescues of some 200 people, but for his portraits painted by Michael Ancher and for an account of his mistreatment by Holger Drachmann.
Danish-American drummer Lars Ulrich has been married to actress Connie Nielsen. Conne Nielsen was born in Frederikshavn, Denmark, from where you can catch a ferry to Sweden or Norway and bypass the long drive via Copenhagen.
Connie Mack was both the winningest and losingest manager in baseball history, managing the Philadelphia Athletics for over 50 years. It helped that he owned the team.
Interesting movie, and a very impressive technical feat.
In play:
Connie Nielsen played the sister of Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), the evil young emperor in Gladiator.
Analogues to the legendary phoenix include the Persian anka, the Hindu garuda and Gandaberunda, the Russian zar ptak (firebird), the Persian simurgh, the Turkish kerkes, the Tibetan Me byi karmo, the Chinese fenghuang, and the Japanese hō-ō.
Igor Stravinsky’s ballet “The Firebird”, based on the Russian folk tale rather than the myth of the phoenix, and with the unrelated folk tale of Kaschei the Deathless mixed in, was the first original composition commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev’s Paris-based Ballets Russes.
Chevy Chase impersonated Igor Stravinsky over the phone (in a very hoarse voice) in the comedy Fletch.
Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy informally uses a martini glass as its logo.
Fletch and Fletcher aren’t the same word.
Oh, well:
Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, is now headed by Dr. Barbara R. Snyder, who recently declined to be considered to lead Ohio State University, which is in Columbus.
Fletch is a nickname for Fletcher.
Tom Snyder hosted NBC’s “Tomorrow Show”, which came on right after Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show”.