On June 4, 1923, at NY's Belmont Park, Frank Hayes won the only race of his career, on the horse Sweet Kiss—but he won it dead. He'd suffered a heart attack, but the horse finished the race. The horse went on to earn the nickname "The Sweet Kiss of Death." Frank Hayes: The jockey who won a race despite being dead
Men make up 85% of child support providers, and only 43.5% of parents report receiving the full amount of child support due.
Whale is on my to-do list next time I'm in Japan. I make it a point to eat at least one endangered species on each visit.
Youtube for The Japanese Tradition Sushi, if you haven't seen it. SFW but most people here wouldn't get it.
What, pray tell, is SCA? One of my pet peeves is the use of acronyms known only to the cognoscenti in general conversation/correspondence. My [antiquated] view is that, as writers and purported communicators, it is our responsibility to convey to readers the information we are trying to convey. We should not resort to using acronyms that leave the reader wondering what the heck we're talking about.
Silly Campus Administrators? Sexy Corner Aqueducts? Symphonic Cornucopia of Adelaide? I'm running out of ideas here...
So if I tell you it is the Society for Creative Anachronism would you be any wiser? They are also the initials of my maiden name, which is much, much more important, and a closely held secret only to be hinted at by use of acronym.
Hah, I've seen that video before. If all of it were true, I'm not sure how many sushi chefs I've insulted so far.
Georgette Heyer's description of the Battle of Waterloo in her book The Infamous Army was so accurate that it was (and perhaps still is) on the recommended reading list for the British army's officer training.
There are a number of books that have ended up on official military reading lists that are somewhat surprising. As far as I know, Theodore Roosevelt's book on the naval part of the War of 1812 is still on the reading list at Annapolis. When I was a young Marine, Ender's Game was on the commandant's reading list because of its description of effective small unit leadership. Maximillian Uriarte's graphic novel The White Donkey is on it now due to its depiction of PTSD and loss among veterans. Spoiler I always feel weird now when I see Garcia in the comic. He didn't survive the Iraq war in the graphic novel.
Georgette Heyer was never a favorite author, but I'm re-reading Anya Seton's historical novel Katherine right now. It's a shame historical novels written by women in that era got lumped with cookbook romance which diminished them in the eyes of "serious" readers.
Ah, but SCA is much more than armored combat. There are dozens of activities appropriate for all levels of insanity. I always thought I'd like to participate, but I'm not a people person.
I spent yesterday putting up Christmas lights, and telling the dogs to leave the cats alone. When my wife got home all she had to say was to ask why I didn’t put up the rest of the stuff too.
One difference I've noticed between the World Cup games and American football is the frequency and duration of conversations between players and officials. Anybody know what language they speak? I'd guess English. Seems unlikely all the referees speak all the languages represented.
Living in a country where garages (that's gas stations to our American friends) double up as 24 hour convenience stores, it's something of a shock to the system when I go to other countries and their petrol stations sell... petrol (and other car related stuff).
The Blue Banana (also known as the European Megalopolis or the Liverpool–Milan Axis) is a discontinuous corridor of urbanization spreading over Western and Central Europe, with a population of around 111 million. Spoiler: Europe's Blue Banana
There are certainly few other contexts in which you would use Liverpool and Milan in the same sentence (outside of football/soccer).
Headline of the Day [speaking of retail workers] from The Wall Street Journal: All They Want For Christmas Is to Stop That Mariah Carey Song
