Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Spaceopoly Kill This Thread VI: The 24-Hour Version, Part II

The Marx Brothers' real names were, in order of birth: Leonard (Chico), Adolph Arthur (Harpo), Julius (Groucho), Milton (Gummo), and Herbert (Zeppo).

I would go with either Horse Feathers or Monkey Business myself, though I also have a certain fondness for Animal Crackers.

I do like Horse Feathers more than Duck Soup. The spitball fight always makes me laugh so hard it hurts.

I like the final scene of Duck Soup where the explosion has blown most of Zeppo's clothes off and he's in a torn undershirt and...is it getting warm in here?

I actually think one of the reasons Horse Feathers works so well is that it has far more Zeppo than most of the films.

Zeppo was always overlooked, but, in many ways he was the funniest Marx Brother. In real life, he was absolutely the funniest. He was also by far the best looking.

The most unfunny Marx brother was Karl or as he was known as Cappy.

The Marx most unworthy of public attention was Richard.

There's a funny scene in Katherine Anne Porter's short story Holiday in which the narrator notes that her wealthy landowner host likes to unwind at night by rereading an old copy of Das Kapital.

When I worked at the bank, there was one teller who would read Das Kapital on his breaks. He was of Armenian ancestry and one day he noticed a customer's last name meant "son of the Devil" in Armenian. He wondered what this guy's ancestor did to get that name. The next time that customer came in, he asked him if he knew that his name meant "Son of the Devil". I don't remember the customer's reaction.

Most Armenian surnames, like the word "Armenian", end in "-ian".

The few Armenian-Americans I've known did not have an '-ian' suffixed surname (like 'Fradon'), possibly through intermarriage with non-Armenians.

Sometimes they were changed at Ellis Island. Someted the family shortens them. I knew such a family when I was a kid. The suburbs just west of Boston where I lived when I was little have large Armenian-American communities.

I do recall one Armenian-American young woman I knew in the late 80s who seemed to be part of a cohesive Armenian community, but I do not recall her last name.

Ramona Fradon certainly had Armenian family connections, and talked about some family gatherings.

On a slightly related note, she apparently modeled Java (from Metamorpho) after her own brother.

Her daughter Amy also had a rather lovely song," Armenia," from the mid-90s: http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/2894349/a/Take+Me+Home.htm

I used to have a huuuugge crush on Amy, and saw her perform live at every chance I could (which in the early 90s was quite often).

"Fradon" is, according to her Wikipedia article, Ramon Fradon's married name. It doesn't list her maiden name.

Another Armenian-American was Arlene Francis, who was born Arlene Francis Kazanjian.

David Hedison, born Albert David Hedistian Junior, is also Armenian-American. I liked him as Captain Crane on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, but I haven't see the show since I was about 14. I have a feeling it doesn't hold up very well.

Hedison's co-star, Richard Basehart, played Admiral Nelson and was the subject of a crush from Gypsy, one of the robots on MST3K.

Hedison has two daughters, Alexandra and Serena. Alexandra is a former actress turned photographer and filmmaker. She dated Ellen DeGeneres for four years.

The cartoon "Totally Spies" has three female main characters who go by the name of Sam, Alex and Clover.

In my freshman year, I was classmates with a female Sam and Alex. Sadly, no Clover...

David Hedison was my all-time least-favorite Felix Leiter. In License to Kill, I rooted for the shark.

My favorite Hedison part (not that I ever thought he was a particularly talented actor) was as the politician who courted the youth vote in Wild in the Streets, a paranoid late-60s propaganda piece against lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 (just as the book Logan's Run essentially was).

Logan Airport in Boston is located in East Boston, right on Boston Harbor. When landing there, it often looks as if you're going to land in the water until the very last second when you see the runway.

In Quito, Ecuador, there used to be a movie theater near the airport which, due to its proximity, was named Cine Aeropuerto (Airport Cinema.) It also had a cute logo.

Logan Airport used to be three Boston Harbor islands. Governor's, Noodle, & Apple islands. The three islands were connected to the mainland by landfill when they expanded the airport in, I believe, 1943.

Fort Independence that is near where I live was also on an island (Castle Island) but has since become part of the mainland through landfill. Deer Island became a penisula when the channel seperating it from the mainland was filled in by the Hurricane of 1938. Deer Island is home to the Deer Island Water Treatment plant, the second largest water treatment plant in the US.

The rest of the harbor islands have become a national park. I have gone to Georges Island where there is Fort Warren, a Civil war era fort; and to Little Brewser Island where there is Boston Light, the only Coast Guard manned lighthouse in the US. The tour of Fort Warren is very good and at Boston Light you get to go up to the top of the lighthouse. If you ever visit Boston (in the summer) I recommend going to the harbor islands.

I've more often been to Logan as a visitor on the ground than using the airport for my own flights. In fact, I've never gone through security there, never begun or ended a trip there. I changed planes at Logan in 2000 en route to Halifax from Albany. I went there in 1989 to see my sister off on her flight to Italy. And I joined Quis in going there in 2005 to welcome inbound LWers for that year's Wizard World meet-up.

With all the mega-intrusive crap that's now a daily part of traveling by air, I'm almost relieved about being too damn poor to go anywhere.

There's a lot I miss the way air travel used to be. Probably most of all I miss being able to meet people at the gate. It was great having someone there to welcome you home!

I also miss "extras" that airlines got rid of, like meals and such.

My favorite airline to fly currently is JetBlue. I like the TV and radio in the seat and the snacks (if not a meal). Unfortunately, they only have two flights a day out of Houston, both to JFK. It's fine for going to New York (which I never do) or switching for Boston (which I don't do enough), but not for going to other places.