The General Prologue is the first part of Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales”.
The “Canterbury scene” described a group of progressive rock musicians of the late 60s. The protogroup for the movement was the Wylde Flowers, where many of the musicians got their start. Notable groups included the Soft Machine, Gong, Caravan, and Hatfield and the North. The style involved melding of jazz, rock, and avant garde music. Though never popular in the US, the scene had huge influence in the UK and on US musicians.
Woodstock took place on Thu 15 - Sun 18 Aug 1969. It was formally named the Woodstock Music & Art Fair, and thirty-two acts performed over the course of the four days, including:
Arlo Guthrie,
Joan Baez (who was six months pregnant at the time),
Santana,
Grateful Dead,
Creedence Clearwater Revival,
Janis Joplin,
The Who,
Jefferson Airplane,
Blood, Sweat & Tears,
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (at 3AM on Sunday morning),
Sha Na Na, and
Jimi Hendrix.
The Woodstock typewriter was first marketed in 1914.
When margarine was first marketed in England, it was called Butterine. The name changed in 1887.
The Bank of England still carries that name, even though it is charged with monetary policy and is the central bank for all of the United Kingdom, including England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Whale watching in Baja California, Mexico, offers some of the best opportunities to come very close to, and even touch, grey whales. In the winter months the grey whales come to Scammon’s Lagoon near Guerrero Negro and Bahia San Ignacio near San Ignacio, BCS, to give birth and raise their calves before the spring months when they migrate up the Pacific Coast of California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia to Alaska. This Doper came within one foot of touching a baby calf in Bahia San Ignacio. It was a great experience.
Earl Grey was the last British Prime Minister dismissed by the monarch (King William IV).
In 1946, future Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court Earl Warren was elected to the second of three terms as governor of California without opposition, having been nominated by both parties.
Four Governors of California were born in San Francisco: George Pardee, James (“Sunny Jim”) Rolph, Pat Brown, and Jerry Brown.
Pizza Quattro Stagione is a pizza divided into four sections, with each section having a different topping. The Italian name translates to “four seasons.”
Nitpick: “Chief Justice of the United States.” (See: Who’s America’s top judge? - The Straight Dope).
In play:
Italian freedom-fighter and nation-builder Giuseppe Garibaldi was offered a command of U.S. Army troops during the Civil War, but declined.
Garibaldi, Oregon, was named after Giuseppi Garibaldi in 1870 by the first Postmaster there, Daniel Bayley.
Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge started on January 3, 1870. The Bridge opened for use on May 24, 1883
Six days later, on May 30, 1883, a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge was going to collapse caused a stampede that crushed 12 people.
Pittsburgh-born historian David McCullough wrote a book about the Brooklyn Bridge, and also narrated Ken Burns’s PBS documentary on the remarkable and apocryphally oft-sold structure.
I stand corrected.
In play: Writer-director David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle) was honored at Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art in April 2002 by guests such as Lily Tomlin, Mark Wahlberg and Sandra Bernhard. It was an ironic site for a tribute since Russell once served as a waiter at parties there, to the likes of Martin Scorsese.
Lily Tomlin and Rocky Marciano share my birthday, Sept. 1. The date is also significant for the Confederate evacuation of Atlanta (1864), the German invasion of Poland (1939) and the discovery of the wreck of the RMS Titanic (1985).
When shooting the meat-locker scenes in Rocky (1976), where he punches the slabs of beef, Sylvester Stallone punched the meat so hard for so long that he flattened out his knuckles. To this day, when he makes a fist, his knuckles are completely level.
Sylvester the Cat’s full name is Sylvester J. Pussycat, Sr. The name “Sylvester” is a play on Felis silvestris, the scientific name for the wild cat species. Sylvester has “died” the most of any Looney Tunes characters.