The training program at New Scotland Yard is called ‘Elementary’, after Sherlock Holmes’s well-known, yet apocryphal, phrase “elementary, my dear Watson”.
Sherlock Holmes’s older, much larger brother Mycroft worked for the British government in an unspecified but very important role. His influence and remarkable powers of reasoning were such that Sherlock said that it might be said that “occasionally he is the government.”
Robert L. Fish wrote a series of Sherlock Holmes parodies featuring Shlock Homes, Dr. Watney, and Criscroft Homes. (Shlock and Criscroft, in one memorable passage, took turns looking at a photograph of a man and making a series of comments such as, “The son of a Northumbrian bellringer”, and when Dr. Watney expected them to explain their deductions, they instead revealed that it was a photograph of their father.)
The mnemonic for the names of the Great Lakes is HOMES – Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior.
The steam warship USS Huron wrecked off the coast of Nags Head, N.C., in a terrible storm a few years after the end of the American Civil War.
Samuel de Champlain formed an alliance with the Huron nation, eventually leading to an encounter with the Iroquois enemies of the Huron, probably near Ticonderoga. Champlain and his men killed the three Iroquois chiefs, setting the stage for bad blood between the French and the Iroquois for about a century, with the Iroquois tending to ally themselves with the British.
Lake Champlain is near Lake Placid where, in the 1980 winter olympics, the USA hockey team kicked the shit out of the USSR hockey team on their way to the gold medal!!!
People on the New York and Vermont shores of Lake Champlain half-jokingly boast of a Loch Ness Monster-style creature, “Champ,” which supposedly lives in the lake.
Former Denver Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey was born in Folkston, Georgia. He attended the University of Georgia before playing in the NFL. He was an 11-time Pro Bowler. His real name is Roland Bailey, Junior.
Former Denver Broncos Quarterback John Elway was the starter for his losing team in the most lopsided Super Bowl ever, Super Bowl XXIV, when he lost to Joe Montana and the San Francisco 49ers, 55-10. The 55 points allowed by the Broncos remains the most points ever allowed in a Super Bowl.
The Denver Bronco set a new low score in yesterday’s Super Bowl, scoring only eight freaking points. The prior low score was 10, scored by several teams, including three times by the Broncos.
The Broncos’ score of 8 was accomplished in a single drive, with a touchdown and a two-point conversion. The Seahawks took *three *drives to get their first eight points, in the only other way that is possible: a safety and two field goals. They also scored on a kickoff return and an interception return as well as with both rushing and passing touchdowns, meaning the only ways to score that did not occur in the game were a punt return and a fumble recovery/return.
Off-game: there are at least two other ways to score eight points: A safety and a TD with a blocked conversion, and, much more unlikely, four consecutive safeties.
On-game: in the CFL, it is possible to score a single point by kicking the ball into the opponent’s end-zone. The receiving team has the opportunity to run the ball out, in which case no point is scored.
The CFL, or compact fluorescent light, has supplanted the long-lasting but energy-wasting incandescent bulb for most applications in the US and Europe. US CFL’s are typically helical, while European ones are loops.
Peter Cooper Hewitt, the inventor of the compact fluorescent light, also developed an early hydrofoil. He and Elmer Sperry also invented the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane, a type of early unmanned drone.
Elmer Driedger, QC, a lawyer with the federal government from Saskatchewan, was the drafter of the Canadian Bill of Rights, on the instructions of Prime Minister Diefenbaker, also from Saskatchewan.
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The low score in Super Bowls is 3 points by the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VI against the Dallas Cowboys when they lost 24-3. I think the next lowest is 6 points by the Minnesota Vikings when they lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 16-6. That was in Super Bowl IX.
Several teams lost and scored only 7 points, the first of which was when the NY Jets upset the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, 16-7.
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In play:
John Tiefenbacher (not quite Diefenbaker) is a geography professor at Texas State University. Texas State University has the largest geography department in the country.
President John F. Kennedy had already held meetings with senior political staff in preparation for his 1964 reelection campaign at the time of his death in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.
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