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The Dutch admiral and pirate Cornelis Corneliszoon Jol (1597 - 1641) was also known as "kapitein Houtebeen" (captain Pegleg).
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During the 17th century, Dunkerque was the most infamous pirates' nest in all of Europe.
One of the captains based there, Jacob Collaerts, caused damages worth up to 2 000 000 gulden to the herring-based part of Vlissingen's economy.
Among their more positive achievements can be mentioned that it was here the frigate type of ship was invented.
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A bugbear (Bestiary 1) is a legendary creature or type of hobgoblin (also Bestiary 1) comparable to the bogeyman (Bestiary 3) or bugaboo or babau (also Bestiary 1, see "demon, Babau"), and other creatures of folklore, all of which were historically used in some cultures to frighten disobedient children.
Its name is derived from a Middle English word "bugge" (a frightening thing), or perhaps the old Welsh word bwg (evil spirit or goblin), or old Scots "bogill" (goblin), and has cognates in German "bögge" or "böggel-mann" (goblin), and most probably also English "bogeyman" and American English "bugaboo".
In medieval England, the Bugbear was depicted as a creepy bear that lurked in the woods to scare children. It was described in this manner in an English translation of a 1565 Italian play The Buggbear.
In a modern context, the term bugbear serves as a metaphor for something which is annoying or irritating, as does hobgoblin, often with a connotation that the fear or loathing it inspires is disproportionate to its small importance. It may also mean pet peeve.
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The Dutch admiral and pirate Cornelis Corneliszoon Jol (1597 - 1641) was also known as "kapitein Houtebeen" (captain Pegleg).
Spanish captain Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta (1689-1741) was also known as Patapalo ("Pegleg"), though later he got upgraded to Mediohombre ("Half-Man"): He lost his left leg due to a Dutch cannonball in the Battle of Velez-Malaga; then his left eye from an Austrian bayonet during the Defense of Toulon; and his right arm during the Siege of Barcelona.
Even though completely maimed, he still managed to become one of the most succesful naval tacticians to ever live, capturing dozens of Britsh and Dutch vessels, fighting off -and even invading- the Berber Pirates, securing the South American coastline, and forcing Genoa to pay its debts to Spain.
His biggest accomplishment, however, was the Battle of Cartagena de Indias, where through sheer wits he managed to win against a British invasion force that outnumbered him 9-to-1 (the British commander was so confident he actually had medals already cast commemorating the victory, showing a one-legged, one-armed, one-eyed man kneeling before him, and distributed them to the men).
Although he won, since apparently he wasn't maimed enough, he lost his remaining arm due to the infection caused by the bullet he got during the battle. He died a few weeks later, being burien in a location that, to this day, remains unknown.
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Barghest (Bestiary 1), Bargtjest, Bo-guest, Bargheist, Bargeist, Barguist, Bargest or Barguest is the name often given in the North of England, especially in Yorkshire, to a legendary monstrous black dog with huge teeth and claws, though in other cases the name can refer to a ghost or household elf, especially in Northumberland and Durham.
Besides taking the form of a large black dog with fiery eyes, it could also become invisible and walk about with the sound of rattling chains. At the death of any notable person the barghest would appear, followed by all the other dogs of the local region in a kind of funeral procession, and begin howling and baying. It may also foretell the death of an individual by lying across the threshold of his or her house. It is sometimes said that like the vampire the barghest is unable to cross rivers.
The derivation of the word barghest is disputed. Ghost in the north of England was once pronounced guest, and the name is thought to be burh-ghest: town-ghost. Others explain it as German Berg-geist (mountain spirit), or Bär-geist (bear-spirit), in allusion to its alleged appearance at times as a bear. Another mooted derivation is 'Bier-Geist', the 'spirit of the funeral bier'.
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The first mountaineering expedition to attempt to summit K2 in the Himalayas was led by famed English mountaineer Oscar Eckenstein in 1902. Eckenstein's second-in-command and expedition sponsor was a 26-year-old poet, mountaineer, and dilettante named Aleister Crowley.
In 1905, Crowley, in conjunction with Jules Jacot-Guillarmod, led the first attempt to climb Kanchenjunga, the world's third-highest mountain. Due to poor planning on the part of Jacot-Guillarmod, overconfidence on the part of Crowley, and the death of fellow climber Alexis Pache, the expedition ended in disaster.
Kanchenjunga would not be successfully summited until 1955 by English climbers Joe Brown and George Band, following Crowley's planned route to the summit from 50 years before.
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The whale shark [No Bestiary entry] (Rhincodon typus) is a slow-moving filter feeding shark and the largest known extant fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of 12.65 m (41.50 ft) and a weight of more than 21.5 metric tons (47,000 lb), and unconfirmed reports of considerably larger whale sharks exist. Claims of individuals over 14 m (46 ft) long and weighing at least 30 metric tons (66,000 lb) are not uncommon. The whale shark holds many records for sheer size in the animal kingdom, most notably being by far the largest living nonmammalian vertebrate. It is the sole member of the genus Rhincodon and the family, Rhincodontidae (called Rhiniodon and Rhinodontidae before 1984), which belongs to the subclass Elasmobranchii in the class Chondrichthyes. The whale shark is found in tropical and warm oceans and lives in the open sea, with a lifespan of about 70 years. Whale sharks have very large mouths, and as filter feeders, they feed mainly on plankton. The species originated about 60 million years ago.
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In Sweden, if the Police want to search the cell of somebody that is being held for questioning, they need a court approved search warrant since the cell de jure counts as the inmate's private living space.
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Frances Fisher's father worked in oil refinery construction, so she moved regularly and lived in locales as different as Brazil, Turkey, Iowa and France. She was born in England and moved about every year until she was in 7th grade, when the family settled in Orange, Texas.
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Fred Astaire's legs were insured for one million dollars.
Cyd Charisse had a $5M policy on his legs; Betty Grable's were for $1.25M.
Fred Astaire's legs, in contrast, were insured for only $75K each.link
Kevin Peter Hall
Wow! He was from Penn Hills -- I just moved back to TX from there. And (speaking of dancers from before), Gene Kelly was from Pittsburgh, too.
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"His legs"?
D'oh! Pronoun fail.
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Nothing rhymes with 'orange', 'silver' or 'purple'.
does "door hinge" qualify as a word that rhymes with orange?
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It's Hedley, Hedley Lamarr...
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It's Hedley, Hedley Lamarr...Yeah, I walked right into that one, didn't I?
Nice, Randarak. :)
nice movie reference though.
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A Rakshasa (Bestiary 1) is a demonic being from Hindu mythology. As mythology made its way into other religions, the rakshasa was later incorporated into Buddhism. Rakshasas are also called maneaters (Nri-chakshas, Kravyads). A female rakshasa is known as a Rakshasi. A female Rakshasa in human form is a Manushya-Rakshasi. The terms Asura and Rakshasa are sometimes used interchangeably.
Rakshasa were most often depicted as ugly, fierce-looking and enormous creatures and with two fangs protruding down from the top of the mouth as well as sharp, claw-like fingernails. They are shown as being mean, growling like beasts and as insatiable cannibals who could smell the scent of flesh. Some of the more ferocious ones were shown with flaming red eyes and hair, drinking blood with their palms or from a human skull (similar to vampires in later Western mythology). Generally they could fly, vanish, and had Maya (magical powers of illusion), which enabled them to change size at will and assume the form of any creature. The female equivalent of asura is asuri.
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Cyd Charisse had a $5M policy on his legs..."His legs"?
Evidently you know more about Cyd Charisse than I ever wanted to, dude. I had no idea Cyd was a female impersonator, and am truly frightened at the fact that I've always thought "him" quite the hottie.
Maybe you were thinking about Sid Caesar when you wrote that?
Cyd Charisse said husband could tell who had been dancing with that day on a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer set. If came home covered with bruises on , it was the very physically-demanding Gene Kelly, if not it was the smooth and agile Fred Astaire.
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The Pope Lick Monster is a legendary part-man, part-goat and part-sheep creature reported to live beneath a Norfolk Southern Railway trestle over Floyd's Fork Creek, in the Fisherville area of Louisville, Kentucky.
Numerous urban legends exist about the creature's origins and the methods it employs to claim its victims. According to some accounts, the creature uses either hypnosis or voice mimicry to lure trespassers onto the trestle to meet their death before an oncoming train. Other stories claim the monster jumps down from the trestle onto the roofs of cars passing beneath it. Yet other legends tell that it attacks its victims with a blood-stained axe and that the very sight of the creature is so unsettling that those who see it while walking across the high trestle are driven to leap off.
Other legends hold that the monster is a human-goat hybrid, and that it was a circus freak who vowed revenge after being mistreated. In one version, it is said the monster escaped after a train derailed on the trestle. Another version commonly told by locals of the area claims that the monster is really the twisted reincarnated form of a farmer who sacrificed goats in exchange for Satanic powers.
The legends have turned the area into a site for legend tripping. There have been a number of deaths and accidents at the trestle since its construction, despite the presence of an 8-foot (2.4 m) fence to keep thrill-seekers out.
There is a common misconception among amateur paranormal investigators that the trestle is abandoned and no longer used; in reality, the bridge is located on one of the main railroad routes into Louisville. Fast-moving, heavy freight trains cross the bridge numerous times on a daily basis, so it is easy for someone to get caught atop it while an oncoming train barrels down on them. Authorities urge citizens not to attempt thrill seeking at this area, due to the very real risk of death by train.
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Woody Guthrie was named for the recently elected US president at the time of his birth. His full name was Woodrow Wilson Guthrie.
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Alaska has the lowest population density of any state in the United States. There is one person for every square mile in Alaska. For scake comparison, if New York had the same density of people, there would only be 16 people in Manhattan.
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For scake comparison, if New York had the same density of people, there would only be 16 people in Manhattan.
For the record, I'm from up near Albany. We consider Manhattan to be a part of New Jersey.
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Well, for the record, I'm from New Jersey. We consider Manhatten to be a foreign nation.
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When the telephone was first introduced to homes in the late XIX century, people were unsure what should be appropriate to do while talking. For a while, gentlemen would dress up in order to make a call, as it was considered rude to be improperly attired when speaking to someone else.
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When the telephone was first introduced to homes in the late XIX century, people were unsure what should be appropriate to do while talking. For a while, gentlemen would dress up in order to make a call, as it was considered rude to be improperly attired when speaking to someone else.
There was a question too of how to answer said telephones. Alexander Graham Bell was apparently a fan of 'Ahoy Ahoy' as a greeting.
This didn't catch on.
Except with Mr. Burns from The Simpsons.
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For scake comparison, if New York had the same density of people, there would only be 16 people in Manhattan.For the record, I'm from up near Albany. We consider Manhattan to be a part of New Jersey.
I'm from up in the Champlain Valley, currently living in central NY, and have always thought of NYC as its own little city-state full of weirdos.
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For scake comparison, if New York had the same density of people, there would only be 16 people in Manhattan.For the record, I'm from up near Albany. We consider Manhattan to be a part of New Jersey.
Hey!
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Well, for the record, I'm from New Jersey. We consider Manhatten to be a foreign nation.
HEY!
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I'm from up in the Champlain Valley, currently living in central NY, and have always thought of NYC as its own little city-state full of weirdos.For scake comparison, if New York had the same density of people, there would only be 16 people in Manhattan.For the record, I'm from up near Albany. We consider Manhattan to be a part of New Jersey.
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Well, for the record, I'm from New Jersey. We consider Manhatten to be a foreign nation.
I'm from Sweden, so do we.
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Well, for the record, I'm from New Jersey. We consider Manhatten to be a foreign nation.I'm from Sweden, so do we.
But in your case you have slightly more justification for that. :-)
I have always thought that New York City was not only a different nation, but a different planet. Upstate New York is neat, but if a bunch of Vikings were to take New York City I would cheer them on. Even worse, I would force them to keep it. ;-) BWAHAHAHAHA
Well, for the record, I'm from New Jersey. We consider Manhatten to be a foreign nation.HEY!
What?! I thought you were from NJ too.
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Feeling lazy today, so...
Mordenkainen is a fictional wizard from the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. He was created by Gary Gygax as a player character only months after the start of Gygax's Greyhawk campaign, and is therefore one of the oldest characters continuously associated with D&D.
Once Gygax was forced out of TSR, Inc., he lost creative control of Mordenkainen. TSR then made Mordenkainen a powerful wizard with strong convictions against moral absolutes, and the leader of the Circle of Eight, a cabal of eight powerful wizards. In fiction associated with the World of Greyhawk, he has played diverse roles as both protagonist and antagonist.
Official publications for the World of Greyhawk sometimes contradict each other regarding Mordenkainen. It is clear, however, that he is an important figure in the fictional history of the Flanaess.
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In the Babylon 5 universe, the first ship with colonists bound for Mars was piloted by a man named John Carter.
