Ironically, in the last decades of her life, a telephone landline became her only means of communication with the outside world, although in 2019 a minor planet of the inner Solar System was named after her, Asteroid 32730 Lamarr, if you are curious to know.
The 4th Earl of Sandwich, besides being First Lord of the Admiralty, was supposedly the brains behind you-know-what. The Earl wanted something manageable to eat without having to leave the card table (a cad might sneak a peek at his cards) and I guess they didn’t supply free crisps or peanuts as nibbles for nobles. Other gamblers began to order, “The same as Sandwich!” which soon became, “A Sandwich!”
The Wall Street Journal described the sandwich ironically as ‘Britain’s biggest contribution to gastronomy,’ and added snidely that ‘seldom has an Earl accomplished so little.’ Clearly, they knew nothing of Gene Chandler’s song, ‘Duke of Earl’, which became a US No.1 in 1962: “Nothing can stop the Duke of Earl.” So there. The actual Earl of Errol was murdered in the Happy Valley in Kenya, which couldn’t have made him all that happy.
A second string to one’s bow is always good for the purse strings, although I’m not sure how it might affect your archery. George Clooney is a tequila mogul and is rumoured to taste every batch before bottling. No wonder he drinks so much coffee. President of Cuba, Fidel Castro, was a pretty good baseball player, but by no means a revolutionary one, although he outlawed professional sports in Cuba in 1961. Whoopi Goldberg was formerly a morgue beautician. Don’t ask.
Some celebrities had second jobs for a while that mirrored facets of their full-time careers. Johnny Depp sold videotapes over the phone, which suggests they may have been pirated. Ozzy Osbourne, lead vocalist of Black Sabbath, whose nickname was ‘The Prince of Darkness,’ worked in a slaughterhouse, no surprise there. James Stewart was an architect. “It’s a wonderful life,” he said. Charles Bronson held on to his job as a knife-sharpener for the longest time: “You were always assured of repeat customers unless they were in prison.”
Once he had redistributed all the wealth in the Nottingham area, what would Robin Hood have done? Nowadays, he would likely have his own TV show called Make a New Life in the Town. (“Ex-Woodsman swaps the greensward for a city-centre high-rise.”) Not many merry men would want to follow him there. Maid Marion? She probably worked as a chambermaid in The Castle Inn in Nottingham, where else?
