Trivia Bits 01 June

 

Published in 1942, the semi-autobiographical novel The Pea Pickers was written by Eve Langely, an Australian-New Zealand novelist and poet.

Robin Williams had the title character lead in the 1993 movie Mrs Doubtfire which was directed by Chris Columbus and won the Academy Award for Best Makeup.

Bung the Court Jester is a character from the comic strip The Wizard of Id created by American cartoonists Brant Parker and Johnny Hart in 1964.

The shamisen is a three stringed instrument that originates from Japan.

The Rebellion Beer Company, a microbrewery in Marlow Bottom, South East England, uses the chalky water of the local Chiltern Hills as it has high levels of minerals and salts.

The Cuban Missile Crisis happened in 1962 and was the subject of the 2000 movie Thirteen Days starring Kevin Costner, Bruce Greenwood and Shawn Driscoll.

The River Kwai, also known as the Khwae Yai River, is in the Asian country of Thailand.

Amongst the Merry Men, the group of outlaws who follow Robin Hood in English literature and folklore, is Alan-a-Dale, a roving minstrel, who appears in the later ballad "Robin Hood and Allen a Dale", in which Robin helps him rescue his sweetheart, who is being forced into marriage with another man.

Gwynneth Paltrow covered Bette Davis Eyes for the 2000 movie Duets which also starred Huey Lewis who sings lead and plays harmonica for his band, Huey Lewis and the News.

A part of Antarctica nearly double the area of the United Kingdom was named Queen Elizabeth Land to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee year in 2012.

First seen on camera in 2013, the Kawahiva tribe live near the Rio Pardo of Mato Grosso, Brazil.

The highest peak in the Caucasus Mountains in Russia, near the border of Georgia, is Mount Elbrus.

The official language of Laos is called Lao.

The Comoros Islands form an archipelago of volcanic islands situated off the south-east coast of Africa, to the east of Mozambique and north-west of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean

Known for employing a literary style known as naturalism was the French author Emile Zola (1840-2012)

The picture in the Labour Isn't Working poster was used by both the UK Conservatives and the US Republicans in their respective 1979 and 2012 election campaigns.

TV series Mad Men use the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency on Madison Avenue in New York City.

Frederick Morrell Zeder became chief engineer of Studebaker Automobile Company in Detroit at the age of 28 in 1914.

A matinee is a showing of a film or a performance in the afternoon.

The earliest known variant of "The dog ate my homework" as an excuse dates to the 1905 issue of The Cambrian, a magazine for Welsh Americans when a dog was blamed for the partial destruction of a sermon for a minister in country Wales.

8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter is a 2002 American sitcom television series, originally starring John Ritter and Katey Sagal.