News, Entertainment, Enlightenment
Sen. Everett Dirksen (R-Ill.) became the oldest person to have a Billboard Top 40 hit with “Gallant Men” on Jan. 7, 1967. He was 71 years.
He would lose the title two years later to Moms Mabley who was 75 when her cover of “Abraham, Martin and John” hit 35 on July 19. 1969. Ironically, that was just one day after John’s brother drove a car off a bridge and let a woman drown.
Here is Dirkson’s hit song “Gallant Men”:
So, how did groundhogs get their reputation as forecasters of spring? Male groundhogs leave their burrows in February to look for a female’s burrow and move in upon finding one. It’s just to introduce themselves. The mating doesn’t start until spring.
February’s name comes from februa which were instruments of purification used in the Roman festival dies Februatus also called Lupercalia.
Scientists can’t tell you why ice is slippery or why ice skates work.
The Union Army ethnic composition was but 45 percent native-born white Americans. About 10 percent were blacks, 4 percent Canadian, 7 percent non-European, and the rest European.
The centurion was the commander of the basic Roman military unit. There are five Roman centurion saints.
Old King Cole was a merry old soul but that’s about all we know about him. Some think he wasn’t even a king but a Reading, England cloth merchant from the 12 century named Thomas Cole-brook.
What was the largest army ever fielded? The Chinese? The Soviets? The Nazis? Nope, take a bow USA. In 1945, we had 12 million citizens in uniform. At no time before or since has that number been matched. The Soviet Union never exceeded 11 million.
What does Bottled in bond mean? It means it was aged in a federally bonded warehouse under U.S. government supervision for at least four years and bottled at 100 U.S. proof.
There were eight billion robocalls to U.S. cellphones in the final quarter of 2008. In the first quarter, there were five billion.
Wall Street Journal B4 1/2/2019