An interesting thing I didn't know until today

[Sam]

Today I learnt there is/was a Women's Lunatic Asylum in Buenos Aires. And yes, the spelling with the 'y' is a very old and archaic one.

If you really want to see a lot of English-made ceramics, check out the Palacio de Aguas Corrientes – the old water board's main HQ – which is covered on all its external walls with brightly coloured tiling made by Royal Doulton and Bermantofts in Yorkshire. Three hundred thousand of them. It's one of my favourite buildings in the city.

[ad hoc]

Isn't asylum always spelled with a y?

[ursus arctos]

Go think about what you've done

[Sporting]

Private Sponge (Colin Bean) appeared in 76 out of 80 episodes of Dad's Army.

[Sits]

Private Sponge (Colin Bean) appeared in 76 out of 80 episodes of Dad's Army.

I always felt sorry for him, never being in the spotlight. As a child I had a soft spot because his names was Sponge.

[Hot Pepsi]

Isn't asylum always spelled with a y?

That’s what I thought too.

Google tells me the Spanish is “el manicomio.”

[Sam]

The archaic 'y' spelling is Buenos Ayres, as ursus and I suspect ad hoc know. (I didn't quote the post it was responding to because I didn't realise my comment was going to be at the top of a new page.)

[Satchmo Distel]

Some places retain the archaic spelling - e.g. an Argentinian-themed restaurant in Puerto Rico. A town in Trinidad has that spelling.

The oldest spelling (from an explorer) seems to be Buenos Ayrs. They all mean 'fair wind' AFAIK.

[Satchmo Distel]

Bank of America has an Italian founder who created the Bank Of Italy in San Francisco in 1904 to counter loan discrimination against Italian immigrants. It grew after the 1906 earthquake and numerous subsequent mergers.

[ursus arctos]

Giannini is still a big deal in the Bay Area and is celebrated as a hometown hero in s. aureus' place of residence

[1974ddr]

The song 'Leaving Here' was written by Lamont Dozier (thanks due to Bordeaux Education). I'd always thought that it was originally written by The Birds and covered by Motorhead.

[scratchmonkey]

Comic Sans was originally developed for use in Microsoft Bob, one of the funniest failed OSes.

[3 Colours Red]

Bob wasn't really an OS in and of itself because it wouldn't work without Windows already being installed - it was more like a highly elaborate skin, the kind of thing that a lot of PCs would come pre-installed with their own variants of in the mid-90s to make them more "welcoming" to people unfamiliar with computers.

[Felicity, I guess so]

I always felt sorry for him, never being in the spotlight. As a child I had a soft spot because his names was Sponge.

About 15 years ago, the British cycling championships came to Northumberland and I rode most of the route the day before. At the top of the decisive double climb of the Ryal banks some über nerd wits had painted "Allez Warmington-on-sea Wheelers! Allez Sponge!" on the road.

[Levin]

The Tabula Peutingeriana a 13th Century copy of possibly a 4th century Roman Road diagram.

Maybe I should have put it in 'Who Likes Looking at Maps'.

[colchestersid]

John Tyler, born 1790, 10th President of the USA (1841 to 1845) has a living grandchild.

Until a couple of years ago he had two living grandchildren....

[Sits]

John Tyler, born 1790, 10th President of the USA (1841 to 1845) has a living grandchild.

Until a couple of years ago he had two living grandchildren....

Amazing. The grandson still lives in the old slave plantation property, a quick Wiki check reveals.

[Sporting]

Private Sponge (Colin Bean) appeared in 76 out of 80 episodes of Dad's Army.

I bet everyone here has forgotten, or were unaware of, Private Thomas Bracewell. Planned to be one of the main characters, dropped after the first episode, which I watched last night.

[Jon]

Wow. To have a grandparent who was a) born in the 18th century and b) President of the US. That really is something.

[Satchmo Distel]

John Tyler, born 1790, 10th President of the USA (1841 to 1845) has a living grandchild.

Until a couple of years ago he had two living grandchildren....

That we know of (given he owned slaves)

[Patrick Thistle]

Something I learned from Mrs Thistle today - the "cookies" that Cookie Monster "eats" in a big flurry of crumbs on Sesame Street are actually rice cakes.

[Satchmo Distel]

80s New Wave band Missing Persons was founded by two musicians who worked with Frank Zappa.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Bozzio

[Lymeswold Snork]

Alexander Siddig (Siddig el Fadil), who played Dr Bashir in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, is the great-great-grandson of the Mahdi who led Corporal Jones's "fuzzy-wuzzy" adversaries.

[Janik]

Speciose - (biology) Rich in species, such as when many species are members of a single genus. adjective.

[Sam]

John Tyler, born 1790, 10th President of the USA (1841 to 1845) has a living grandchild.

Until a couple of years ago he had two living grandchildren....

Sort of related, in that it's related to something famous and American and doesn't instinctively feel like it ought to be at all possible: until a little over two years ago, when the daughter of the veteran who'd earned it died, the US government was still paying her a veteran's pension from the US Civil War. She was born in 1930 when he was 83 years old – oddly (or perhaps not) the Grauniad doesn't tell us when her dad died, but a quick google suggests it was in 1938, so that was presumably when she inherited his pension, although it might have been much later because her mum was 45 years younger than her dad.