Steve Goodman was playing at a Chicago bar called the Quiet Knight as the opening act for Kris Kristofferson in 1971. Kristofferson, impressed with Goodman, introduced him to Paul Anka, who brought Goodman to New York to record some demos. These resulted in Goodman signing a contract with Buddah Records. His song “City of New Orleans” would be a major hit for Arlo Guthrie.
The 1985 Chicago Bears had one of the best seasons ever in pro football with a 15-1 record during the regular season. Besides a number of “characters” and unique personalities on the team, with QB Jim McMahon and rookie and top draft pick William “the refrigerator” Perry, they also had the without-doubt first ballot hall of famer running back, Walter Payton. They were perhaps best known for their highly aggressive and dominant defense, one of the best ever defenses in NFL history.
Those Bears almost went undefeated that season, cruising through the playoffs eith two shutouts, 21-0 over the NY Giants and 24-0 over Crissy Evert and the LA Rams, and then crushing the New England Patriots 46-10 in Soper Bowl XX.
Ironically their only loss was against the Miami Dolphins in week 13 of the regular season. The Dolphins weren’t just trying to beat the Bears that week. They were also trying to preserve their place in NFL history as the only unbeaten and untied season, in 1972.
Da Bears!
A dolphin navigator appears as a member of the USS Enterprise crew in the Star Trek: The Next Generation novel Dark Mirror by Diane Duane.
Prince Henry the Navigator, the patron of Portugal’s sailing expeditions in the Age of Discovery, was the son of Philippa of Lancaster, John of Gaunt’s daughter. He was responsible for urging his royal father to capture the Moorish port of Ceuta (now part of Spain), which had been a center of slaving raids into Portugal.
The Lincoln Navigator is a full-sized SUV introduced in 1998. In the very beginning it shared its dashboard with Ford’s Expedition and F-150 pickup truck.
The Disney film Flight of the Navigator was directed by Randal Kleiser. The film includes a snippet of the song “You’re the One that I Want”, from the film Grease, also directed by Kleiser. There is also a reference in the film to the TV series “Starsky and Hutch”, for which Kleiser was also a director.
Starsky and Hutch’s David Soul was born David Solberg. He changed his name. His brother Dan Solberg is a Lutheran pastor in San Francisco.
(And a good guy, too, I will add.)
In Christian art, King David is often shown with a harp.
David Soul appeared as a heavily-made-up native in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “The Apple.”
Harpo Marx took up the harp when his mother decided it would add class to their vaudeville act. He was entirely self taught (he told the story about going to a lesson after he had become established only to find the teacher fascinated by his technique and more interested in watching him play thatn teaching him anything). Legend had it that he played with the harp on the wrong shoulder because he was left handed; Harpo, though, has been shown with the harp on both shoulders (the photo with it on his left might have been flipped) and said that he started out that way but saw a picture of a cherub of a harp in a window and realized he was doing it wrong and switched. In his final film with the other Marx Brothers The Story of Mankind, he played Sir Isaac Newton as he had an apple fall on his head.
The new headquarters building for Apple, Inc., a spaceship-looking building in Cupertino, CA, is expected to break ground this year and be completed in 2015. (images; article)
The circular design of the new Apple headquarters harks back to the semicircular headquarters of the American Society of Metals, which was the first modern architecture styled building to be chosen for the National Register of Historic Places.
The current Cupertino, California business address of Apple Inc. is 1 Infinite Loop, a computer programming in-joke.
Actor Aaron Eckhart, who played Harvey Dent in two Batman movies, was born in Cupertino, California, although he was raised in England and Australia.
Harvey Dent was called “Harvey Apollo” in the Sunday newspaper version of the Two-Face saga. At a certain point, to gain time and distract Batman, he quotes Thackeray’s “The End of the Play” which concludes appositely thus: “he shows, as he removes the mask, A face that’s anything but gay.”
The Cupertino Veterans Memorial has a centerpiece sculpture called “The Guardian” (image) showing two Navy SEALs crouched down, back-to-back, rifles at the ready and protecting each other in Afghanistan in their fight against the Taliban. These SEALs depicted are from Operation Redwing of “Lone Survivor” saga by Marcus Luttrell.
One of the SEALs depicted is Cupertino’s son, Matt Axelson. The other is James Suh of Deerfield Beach, Florida.
Both the U.S. Army Special Forces (“Green Berets”) and the U.S. Navy SEALs were established during the Kennedy Administration, when there was special emphasis on effective counterinsurgency. before the much larger conventional U.S. combat role in Vietnam under Lyndon Johnson.
At Remembrance Day ceremonies in Canada, it is now common to see at least one member of the Armed Forces wearing a blue beret, representing peacekeepers who have died.
The southernmost point of Canada is Middle Island, in Lake Erie, Ontario.
Map:
Middle Island is part of a group of transborder islands in Lake Erie that were served by Island Airlines before its demise. Island, based in Port Clinton on the mainland, advertised itself as “The World’s Shortest Airline”, but was best known as the last commercial operator of the Ford Tri-Motor (“Tin Goose”) airplane.