Trivia Bits 18 January

 

British fashion designer and couturier Alexander McQueen (pictured) was born in Lewisham, London was the youngest of six and who as teenager joined the Young Ornithologists’ Club spending after-school hours bird-watching from the roof of his block of flats and later incorporating feathers and wings into his fantastical designs and creations.

The 2005 American TV sitcom How I Met Your Mother is narrated by the character Ted Mosby, an architecture teacher and the central character of the series played by Josh Radnor.

Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer, dancer, Broadway actress, and film star Carmen Miranda, popular from the 1930s to the 1950s, was often shown wearing platform sandals and towering headdresses made of fruit, becoming famous as "the lady in the tutti-frutti hat."

Queen Elizabeth II has owned over 30 Welsh Corgi dogs since she ascended the throne in 1952 with Monty, Willow and Holly appearing in the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony when James Bond (portrayed by Daniel Craig) arrived at Buckingham Palace to escort the Queen to the event.

Ulan Bator, or Ulaanbaatar, literally meaning "Red Hero", is the capital and the largest city of Mongolia founded in 1639 as a movable (nomadic) Buddhist monastic centre and in 1778 was settled permanently at its present location after having changed location twenty-eight times prior to 1778.

The herb wild marjoram is better known by the name of Oregano with its most prominent modern use is as the staple herb of Italian cuisine.

The 1995 novel The Rainmaker was written by John Grisham and was his sixth novel which in 1997 was adapted into a film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Matt Damon, Danny DeVito, Claire Danes, Jon Voight, and Danny Glover.

An American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate, Al Capone’s was born Alphonse Gabriel Capone in 1899 in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City to Italian immigrants.

Lemon juice is used in traditional French cuisine Allemande sauce thickened with egg yolks and heavy cream and seasoned with lemon juice.

Danish composer, concert organist, and pianist Frederik Magle required the use of the thigh bone from a giraffe as an instrument in his symphonic suite Cantabile in the second movement the Cortège & Danse Macabre which premiered on June 10, 2009 at a concert in the Copenhagen Concert Hall.

Ratho Golf Links in Bothwell, Tasmania, is the oldest golf course in Australia and is one of the oldest surviving golf courses outside of Scotland being first laid out and enjoyed by the pioneering Reid family, who emigrated from Scotland and settled Ratho in 1822.