The name Simpson means, ultimately, Son of Simon.
St. Simon Stylites spent 39 years atop a platform on a large pillar, setting an unbreakable the record for flagpole sitting even before it became a sport in the 1920s*.
*One of my favorite dirty jokes that snuck by the censors in early talkies was the exchange in 42nd Street:
Male Dancer: Want to sit on my lap?
Female Dancer: I ain’t no flagpole sitter.
In 1966, the IRA blew up Nelson’s Pillar, a statue on Dublin’s O’Connell Street, which honored British naval hero Lord Nelson.
Lord Horatio Nelson was killed at The Battle of Trafalgar by a sniper.
At the Battle of Copenhagen Nelson, believing he could win the battle, famously responded to a signal meaning “retreat” by holding his telescope to his blind eye and saying " I really do not see the signal, Damn the signal" and sailed ahead into the battle, which he won.
One of Tommy Chong’s most popular comic creations was an elderly blues musician named Blind Melon Chitlin’.
“Eyesight to the Blind” is the one cover song on the Who’s album Tommy
In her autobiography Tina Turner said that when she sang the song/played the character of the Acid Queen in the movie version of Tommy she had no idea what acid (in the LSD sense) was (which I found hard to believe since her husband was a major drug user, she was in California and the music scene in the 60s, and she even toured with the Rolling Stones, but so she said).
“Turner”, a common English surname, was originally given to one who spun a lathe to earn his daily bread.
David Gates wrote and sang such hits as “Guitar Man” and “Baby I’m a Want You” for the soft rock band Bread.
Matt “Guitar” Murphy is an accomplished blues guitarist, though he may be best known for his membership in the Blues Brothers Band, and playing Aretha Franklin’s husband in the “Blues Brothers” movies.
NM
Audie Murphy was the most decorated American soldier of WW2 and played himself in the movie version of his autobiography, To Hell and Back; while his acting career never took off, in the 1960s and through his death in 1971 he raised awareness of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (dismissed as cowardice by some) when he discussed his own battle with the illness.
The Search for Bridey Murphy was a best selling (supposedly) nonfiction book about a woman who remembered a past life in Ireland.
Everybody knows that Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. Most people don’t know he’s the patron saint of Nigeria, as well.
A portion of present-day Nigeria was known as the Oil Rivers Protectorate from 1891 to '93.
The Oregon State Justice Department has a special unit devoted to fighting Nigerian financial scams.
In the “Smokey and the Bandit” movies, Jackie Gleason played corrupt, blustering Sheriff Buford T. Justice.
Although the U.S. Cabinet has had an attorney general from the earliest days of the republic, the Justice Department was not created until 1870.
… and Big Enos was played by 6’8" Pat McCormick, better known as Johnny Carson’s head writer on “The Tonight Show”. A native of the Cleveland suburb of Rocky River, his work provided the impetus for the popularity of Cleveland jokes.