A Florence George Moment

 

Trivia Bits 11 October

 

After MGM's rights to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's Night Flight (poster pictured), a1933 aviation drama film produced by David O. Selznick, expired in 1942, the film was not shown again until 2011 and stars Lionel Barrymore, John Barrymore, Clark Gable and Helen Hayes.

A Bombay Duck is a fish native to the waters between Mumbai (formerly Bombay) and Kutch in the Arabian Sea, and a small number are also found in the Bay of Bengal.

Bird Island Nature Reserve situated 1.4 kilometres off the coast, near Budgewoi in the Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia has no introduced animals

The official language of Cambodia is Khmer with the official script being Khmer script.

Born in Georgetown, British Guiana, on Christmas day 1952m, CCH Pounder is noted for her roles in the TV series Warehouse 13 and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. CCH stands for Carol Christine Hilaria, her birth name.

In the British stop-motion animated children's television series Shaun the Sheep, the character Pidsley is a cat.

Flying direct north from Darwin, Australia, the first island to be crossed will be Melville Island which lies in the eastern Timor Sea and is the second biggest island in Australia, after Tasmania.

Starring as Noah’s wife in the 2014 movie, Noah, was Jennifer Connelly was joined in the cast by Russell Crowe as Noah along with Ray Winstone, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, Anthony Hopkins, and Douglas Booth.

The first husband of legendary American entertainer Liza Minnelli was Australian songwriter and entertainer Peter Allen whose songs were made popular by many recording artists, including Elkie Brooks, Melissa Manchester and Olivia Newton-John, with one, "Arthur's Theme", winning an Academy Award in 1981.

Arabian horse breeder William Robinson Brown founded the Maynesboro Stud in 1912 in northern New Hampshire, United States.

Quotables 11 October

 

A Florence Eldridge Moment

 

Trivia Bits 10 October

 

And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda written by Scottish-born Australian singer-songwriter Eric Bogle (pictured) in 1971 describes war as futile and gruesome, while criticising those who seek to glorify it which is exemplified in the song by the account of a young Australian soldier who is maimed at the Battle of Gallipoli during the First World War.

Oil Creek State Park in Pennsylvania is the site of the world's first commercial oil well when on August 27 1859 the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company drilled the first oil producing well.

The Bridal Veil Falls, American Falls and Horseshoe Falls are collectively known as the Niagara Falls that straddles the international border between Canada and the United States; more specifically, between the province of Ontario and the state of New York.

French physician René Laennec invented the stethoscope in 1816, while working at the Hôpital Necker and pioneered its use in diagnosing various chest conditions.

Tropical Cyclone Ita hit far north Queensland in April 2014.

During the bird flu pandemic of 2005, chef Alexis Gauthier removed bird related products from the menu at his Michelin starred restaurant in London, the Gauthier Soho restaurant in Soho, London.

Jean Mary Hardcastle is one of the main characters in the TV series As Time Goes By a British romantic sitcom that aired on BBC One from 1992 to 2002, starring Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer and follows the relationship between two former lovers who meet unexpectedly after not having been in contact for 38 years.

It is in the Burgundy area of France that the chardonnay grape originated and is a green-skinned grape variety used to make white wine.

The Australian tree Agathis atropurpurea, a species of conifer,is known as the black kauri or the blue kauri because of the colour of its bark is found only in Queensland, Australia and is threatened by habitat loss.

Michelangelo Merisi is better known as the Baroque artist Caravaggio, an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between circa 1592 and 1610.

Cake Decorating Day

 

Today is Cake Decorating Day celebrated worldwide.

Today is the perfect time to try sprucing up an otherwise basic cake. Whether using homemade frosting or store-bought, sparkly sprinkles, colourful candies or other fun decorations, an elaborate design or plain and simple can be created. The sky is the limit when it comes to cake decorating!

Quotables 10 October

 

A Fess Parker Moment

 

Trivia Bits 09 October

 

Australian billionaire, businessman, politician, political activist and politician, Clive Palmer (pictured), opened a dinosaur park at Palmer Coolum Resort a on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland in December 2013 after naming it Palmersaurus.

Three Men and a Baby a 1987 comedy film starring Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg, Ted Danson, and Nancy Travis, and directed by Leonard Nimoy was the biggest American box office hit of that year grossing US$167 million in the US alone and also winning the 1988 People's Choice Award for Favourite Comedy Motion Picture.

There are 100 tiles in the English language Scrabble set designed by Alfred Mosher Butts and published in 1938 by James Brunot.

The first of a 2012 record-breaking 26 consecutive formation loops performed by British aerobatic team The Blades based at the Sywell Aerodrome in Northamptonshire with blind bank manager Mike Newman taking control for the beginning of the stunt before co-pilot Myles Garland resumed control for the other loops.

If having a luxating patella, it is the knee cap that is moving.

The Hindu Kush mountain range is located between the borders of Pakistan and Afghanistan with the highest point being Tirich Mir (7,708 m or 25,289 ft) in Chitral District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

South Australian Adelaide Zoo as of April 2014 has approximately 300 species of animals in its display.

Among the best known religious sites in Beijing is the Temple of Heaven (Tiantan), located in southeastern Beijing, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site where emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties made visits for annual ceremonies of prayers to Heaven for good harvest.

A novella is a written work that is longer than a short story but shorter than a novel.

The 1984 novel Hating Alison Ashley by Robin Klein features the character Erica Yurken played by Saskia Burmeister in the 2005 movie directed by Geoff Bennett and also starring Australian international singing star Delta Goodrem in the title role of Alison Ashley.

Quotables 09 October

 

A Fernando Lamas Moment

 

Trivia Bits 08 October

 

Built in 1909–1910, the Wallowa County Courthouse (pictured) in north-eastern Oregon is a massive Romanesque style building with Queen Anne architectural elements in some exterior features and was constructed in 1909 out of local volcanic Bowlby stone, which was quarried nearby.

The only bird that can fly backwards is the Hummingbird and are named because of the humming sound created by their beating wings, which flap at frequencies audible to humans.

The name of the fictional magazine used in the 1997 American television sitcom Just Shoot Me is Blush.

Built in 1926, The Waiʻoli Tea Room in Hawaii has also been a Salvation Army job skills program with a replica of the ʻĀinahau grass guest house that Robert Louis Stevenson occupied in 1889 when he visited Princess Ka'iulani and her father Archibald Scott Cleghorn also on the property,

The 17^th century play The Tempest was written by William Shakespeare and is believed to have been written in 1610–11.

British inventor and engineer of the Napoleonic period Henry Nock, the maker of the seven-barrelled volley gun used by Patrick Harper in the British series of television dramas Sharpe, founded a company which became Wilkinson Sword whose origins are in the manufacture of swords but now a brand name for companies that make gardening tools and razors.

Dementors are creatures in J K Rowling’s Harry Potter series described as soulless creatures and among the foulest beings on Earth.

Alfred Hitchcock in one of his cameos roles sits next to Cary Grant in a bus in the 1955 romantic thriller movie To Catch A Thief which also starred Grace Kelly.

Donald Cameron of Lochiel, a major figure in the Jacobite Rising of 1745, was nicknamed the Gentle Lochiel being known for his magnanimous and gallant nature.

The Karawanks mountain range lies on the border of Slovenia and Austria with a total length of 120 kilometres (75 mi) in east-west direction, the Karawanks chain is one of the longest ranges in Europe.

Quotables 08 October

 

A Faye Dunaway Moment

 

Trivia Bits 07 October

 

Science fiction novella by H. G. Wells (pictured), published in 1895, The Time Machine features the Morlocks and the Eloi.

Hurricane Bob was the first male name ever used for a hurricane in the Atlantic basin bringing moderate damage to portions of the United States Gulf Coast and areas farther inland in July 1979.

In the 2011 American horror black comedy mockumentary television series Death Valley, UTF stands for Undead Task Force with the TV series only lasting for one season of 12 episodes.

American physician, psychiatrist, surgeon, and pioneer in the fields of organ transplantation and addiction treatment, Dr. James West, the founding medical director of the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California, in 1982, was an alcoholic when he was a student and later wrote as a newspaper columnist about alcoholism and alcohol abuse.

Timbuktu is a city in the West African nation of Mali situated 20 km (12 mi) north of the River Niger on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert.

Diamonds are mined at the Argyle mine in Western Australia which is located in the East Kimberley region in the remote north of Western Australia being the largest diamond producer in the world by volume.

YooHoo and Friends an American2011 animated television series based on plush toys that features Lemmee and the Pookees.

Black pepper, native to south India, is a flowering vine cultivated for its fruit, which is dried and used as a spice and seasoning and is known as a peppercorn when dried and accounts for approximately 39% of all spices traded worldwide.

Australian Football League, AFL, player Gary Ablett won the Coleman Medal in 1993, 1994 and 1995 and is awarded to player who kicks the most goals in home-and-away matches in that year.

Originally opened on April 1, 1912 Manseibashi Station in Tokyo was rebuilt after the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake destroyed the original station building, and a simpler station building was erected in its place and the Railway Museum moved into Manseibashi Station in 1936.

Quotables 07 October

 

A Fay Wray Moment

 

Trivia Bits 06 October

 

The population of Portuguese millipedes (pictured) became so large in the 1970’s that it prevented trains running through the Adelaide, South Australia area of Belair.

Pakistani cricketer, Saqlain Mushtaq took 19 five-wicket hauls during his career in international cricket, and achieved two hat-tricks in One Day International matches, both against Zimbabwe.

Imelda Marcos was the first lady of the Philippines and remembered as a symbol of excess during her husband's twenty-year rule because of her collection of more than a thousand pairs of shoes.

Tasseography also known as tasseomancy or tassology is a divination or fortune-telling method that interprets patterns in tea leaves, coffee grounds, or wine sediments.

The 1934 detective novel The Thin Man was authored by Dashiell Hammett who never wrote a sequel, but the book became the basis for a successful six-part film series which also began in 1934 with The Thin Man and starred William Powell and Myrna Loy. A Thin Man television series followed in the 1950s.

No Irish-trained racehorse had won the British 1,000 Guineas Stakes in more than five decades until Pourparler, a bay mare bred in County Limerick, Ireland, did so in 1964.

Eliche, orzo and ziti are all types of pasta.

The smallest dinosaur Anchiornis is a variety of small, feathered dinosaurs containing only the type species Anchiornis huxleyi named in honour of Thomas Huxley, an early proponent of biological evolution.

2012 Australian Paralympic goalball player Michelle Rzepecki introduced children with visual impairments in Bolivia to goalball where participants compete in teams of three, and try to throw a ball that has bells embedded in it into the opponents' goal.

High profile artist Andy Warhol survived an assassination attempt on June 3, 1968, when radical feminist writer Valerie Solanas shot Warhol and Mario Amaya, art critic and curator, at Warhol's studio.

Quotables 06 October