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Structure
Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 20 general entries.
Special Topics
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 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 Origins of Phrases
With Prospectors, during the California Gold Rush. It was during the Gold Rush of the 1840's and 1850's that Levi delivered the goods.
Cards. He wrote books on the subject. The boxing expert was the Marquis of Queensberry.
| A 'malapropism' is a word that derives from the literary character of Mrs. Malaprop. Who is the author that created this character? | More Interesting Word Origins
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Richard Brinsley Sheridan. From one of his plays, 'The Rivals'.
It's named after the doctor who described the condition. Dr Alzheimer, early in the 20th centruy
Casanova was real; Lothario was fictional. Don't ask me about Don Juan
| The item known as 'knickers' is a shortened form of the word 'knickerbockers'. Which author used this word as a pen name? | More Interesting Word Origins
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Washington Irving. 'History of New York' by Diedrich Knickerbocker.
Alice in "Alice in Wonderland". The line is a quote from a dialogue between the Red Queen and Alice. To
this rule Alice objects that it MUST come sometimes to "jam to-day".
"No, it can't", said the Queen. "It's jam every OTHER day: to-day isn't any OTHER day, you know."
William Congreve. Congreve lived from 1670 till 1729.
The exact quote is:
" Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned."
Jean Harlow. Jean Harlow's film "Bombshell" dates back to 1933. She was born as Harlean Carpenter and lived from 1911 to 1937. David Stenn wrote a biography about her:" Bombshell. The Life and Death of Jean Harlow."
Jayne Mansfield was born on April 19, 1933 and died in a car-crash on June 29, 1967.
Marilyn Monroe was born on 1st of June 1926, in L.A. and died on 15 August, 1962, in Brentwood, ca.
Brigitte Bardot was born on 28 Sept.,1934 in Paris.
A typical quote from Jean Harlow herself: " I like to wake up every morning feeling a new man. "
Churchill about the actions to be expected of Russia during World War II. Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace, Nov. 30, 1874. He died on Jan. 24, 1965. Some of his speeches are part of the history of World War II.
De Gaulle, another great speechmaker. Born at Lille on Nov.22, 1890 ; died on Nov.9, 1970,at Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises. Even his very name seems to make him into a symbol of France, Gaulle referring to Gallia (= France). Ironically enough such a name also points to his ancestors having left the Gaulish area and having settled elsewhere. Possibly his ancestors came from Gaul and immigrated into the County of Flanders, which was bilingual "in olden times".
Lord Kitchener of Khartoum (born in 1850) was Secretary of War when, on Sunday May 7, 1916, his ship the armoured cruiser Hampshire was sunk west of the Orkneys. Famous because of the "Your Country Needs You"- poster.
Orson Welles was born on March 6, 1915, at Kenosha, Wisconsin. He died of a heart-attack on Oct. 10, 1985.
Marie Antoinette about the French peasantry. The story may be apocryphal but Marie-Antoinette is rumoured to have been so remote from any "worldly matters" that when she heard the peasantry had no bread to eat anymore, she expressed the view that no bread did not yet have to mean they could not have cake.
Anyway she is well-known to have paid heavily for this (supposed) " guilty ignorance".
At http://womanshistory.about.com/library/bio/blbio_marie_antoinette.htm the veracity of this anecdote is doubted.
The Bible. The quote is from Matthew 12.25
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