The province of Québec is immediately east of Ontario. A handy acronym to remember the main provinces is BASMOQ.
The “Eye of Québec” is an interesting feature viewable from space - one of Earth’s oldest known meteorite impact craters, or astroblemes. The ring of the lake was formed by the impact, and the island in the middle was formed by the post-impact uplift of the land.
The River Thames stretches for 215 miles (346 km). It is the longest river entirely in England, and the second longest river in the UK (the River Severn is the longest). The Thames, from Middle English Temese, is derived from the Celtic name for the river, Tamesas, which likely means “dark”.
Karsh’s famous portrait photo of Churchill was taken at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa during a war-time visit. Karsh was not happy with his first few takes, and then suddenly took Churchill’s cigar away from him and took the picture, showing a glowering, indomitable Churchill.
Due to the flatness of the Dutch countryside, most of the Dutch masters took to painting very dramatic clouds in their landscape paintings to give them visual appeal.
The packaging for Dutch Masters brand cigars features Rembrandt’s 1662 painting *The Syndics of the Drapers’ Guild (De Staalmeesters). * They sponsored Ernie Kovacs’ comedy show on early TV.
The two still-unidentified thieves who robbed the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum gained entrance by pretending to be officers of the Boston Police Department. The spaces from which the stolen paintings were taken remain empty, as Gardner’s bequest specified that none of the collection could ever be rearranged.
The BPD, Boston Police Dep’t, was established in 1838 but according to Wikipedia did not have its first commissioner until 65 years later when, in 1903, William H. H. Emmons became the first. The third commissioner, Edwin Upton Curtis, was the first commissioner to also have held the office of Mayor of Boston. Curtis was the Boston Mayor in 1895 before being the BPD Commissioner from 1918 to 1922.
While a practicing Ohio lawyer, William Howard Taft once was at a rural whistlestop and sent a telegraph down the line asking for the next train to “stop for a large party.” When it stopped and the conductor asked where everyone was, Taft stepped aboard and said, “I am the large party.”
Taft, CA is a city about 30 miles west-southwest of Bakersfield. Taft’s former city/town names include, in turn, Siding Number Two, Moro, and then Moron. (Yes, Moron)
Taft was originally Siding Number Two on the Sunset Railroad. In the early 1900s its residents wanted the name changed to Moro, but confusion with Morro Bay, CA led the name to be changed to Moron. At that time, the word moron had no association to mental retardation. After a fire burned much of the town, the name was changed to Taft in honor of William Howard Taft.
The 1964 Jan & Dean song “Dead Man’s Curve” refers to a dangerous section of Sunset Boulevard in West L.A. which had claimed at least three lives and caused over 25 accidents, including the near-fatal crash of famous voice actor Mel Blanc. William “Jan” Berry himself was nearly killed in an auto accident two years later; however, contrary to popular belief, Jan’s crash took place on a side street near Sunset, not on Dead Man’s Curve itself. (The actual “curve” was reconstructed in 1961 to become less dangerous.)
Wikipedia has a listing of Dead Man’s Curves in the United States that has locations in 18 states. The only one for Hawaii is on Oahu, at the end of Kapaa Quarry Road in Kailua. It has claimed at least 8 lives and is considered one of Oahu’s haunted roads.
The state flag of Hawaii is the only one to include the flag of another country, the Union Flag of Great Britain, in its canton. It was adopted as the flag of Hawaii in December 1845, more than a century before statehood.
The Union Jack is made up of the Cross of Saint Andrew (a white saltire on a blue background), the Cross of Saint Patrick (a red saltire on a white background) and the Cross of Saint George (a red cross on a white background). The design dates from a royal proclamation of 1801, merging the flags of Scotland, Ireland and England. The flag of Wales (a red dragon on a white and green background) is not included, nor is the Flag of Saint David (a yellow cross on a black background).
