more astonishers

tu 11 Dec 2012	Astonisher No.28: F1's first decade of racing was dominated by Argentinean Juan Fangio. The evening before the 1958 Cuban grand prix he was kidnapped from his hotel with responsibility claimed by Fidel Castro's 32nd of October revolutionary movement. The race started late in the hope that Fangio would appear and then abandoned when Armando Garcia Cifuentes crashed his Ferrari into the crowd killing and injuring many. Fangio was released unharmed.
mo 1 Oct 2012	Astonisher (quite) No.27: We weren't that surprised and definitely not astonished that Captain W E Johns the creator of Biggles wasn't a real captain but we were a little taken aback to discover that early in his career he was a sanitary inspector in Swaffham Norfolk.
fr 3 Aug 2012	Astonisher No.26: American poet and jazz funkster Gil Scott-Heron died last year; his father Gil Heron was the first black athlete to play football for Glasgow Celtic ... we know but there's more, Scott-Heron's uncle Roy served in the Norwegian marine during WWII before joining the Canadian army.
su 10 Jun 2012	Astonisher No.25: James Robertson Justice the bearded Sir Lancelot Spratt of The Doctor films tended goal for professional ice hockey team the London Lions ... we know but when you look at his build it's probably true.
sa 12 May 2012	Astonisher No.24: Basil Brush will be 50 next year and his first man was tv conjurer David Nixon, no that's not it, David Nixon helped fund the Mellotron a sort of early synthesiser before there were synthesisers ... and what's more only some 2,000 were ever made. ♫
th 3 May 2012	♫ Astonisher No.23: Johnny Johnson's big afro was in fact a wig ... you're going to have to trust us on this one.
sa 7 Apr 2012	Astonisher No.22: Canadian Jay Silverheels who played Tonto was in the 1930s a lacrosse professional with the Rochester Iroquois and Clayton Moore The Lone Ranger wore that worryingly lavender suit to personal appearances into his 80s despite the copyright owner briefly getting a court order to stop him in 1974.
we 22 Feb 2012	Astonisher No.21: When Abdulfattah Jandali managed a restaurant in Silicon Valley he was flattered to have Steve Jobs of Apple as a patron and on several occasions shook hands with him ... neither were aware they were father and son ... you'd think the genes would recognise each other wouldn't you?
fr 30 Dec 2011	Astonisher No.20: It is illegal in Japan to ride a tandem on a public road ... except for the province of Nagano ... and since 2008 Hyougo ... and since 2009 Yamagata ... you get the picture? Yes, we see.
mo 19 Dec 2011	Astonisher No.19: When Fred Astaire (b1899 in Omaha Nebraska!) made his first film with Ginger Rogers he'd already made one film ... she'd made twenty and OMG weren't they beautiful, watch Ginger's left arm, we think it's gently doing some sending up.
sa 29 Oct 2011	Astonisher No.18: BBC economics editor Stephanie Flanders is the daughter of the late Michael Flanders who died when she was six ... yes, that's what we thought, what's Robert Peston's job then? He's the business editor apparently.
fr 16 Sep 2011	Astonisher No.17: Broadcast only in the Midlands area in 1977 news reader Angela Legs Rippon was the first presenter of Top Gear not Jezza and chums ... although it does feel like they've been doing it for ever ... we know but it's true.
fr 27 May 2011	Astonisher No.16: Delicious Floella Benjamin who presented Play School and Play Away in the 1980s was made Baroness Benjamin of Beckenham last year and Chancellor of Exeter University in 2006 ... we know but it's true.
we 4 May 2011	Astonisher No.15: The great grandfather of actress the divine Helena Bonham Carter (we actually love her eyebrows more than Julianne Moore's nose) was prime minister Herbert Asquith, Britain's last Liberal pm ... we know but it's true.
sa 23 Apr 2011	Astonisher No.14: Lord Lucan's great-great-great-grandfather was the officer who told the Light Brigade to charge the wrong Russians ... we know but it's true.
sa 12 Mar 2011	Astonisher No.13: Just before Christmas 1960 legend Stanley Matthews played in a charity Tennis v Showbiz football match with his tennis player son. Matthews was reprimanded by the FA for breaking reg 18a playing with or against unaffiliated clubs and signed an undertaking to never do it again ... we know but it's true.
we 16 Feb 2011	Astonisher No.12: Israel qualified for the 1958 world cup without playing a game as the Arab countries in their group refused to meet them. FIFA then ruled that to qualify Israel should play Wales (Belgium having declined) and consequently Welsh national manager (and assistant Man U manager) Jimmy Murphy was in Cardiff not Munich. Scotland's first national (but still only part time) manager Matt Busby was in Munich and near death so the Scottish FA solved the problem by not sending a manager ... we know but it's true.
th 23 Dec 2010	Astonisher No.10: What do Stephen Stills (musician) and Charles Manson (serial killer) have in common? They both auditioned for the Monkees? Stephen Stills certainly did audition before forming Buffalo Springfield but Charles Manson was in prison 1961-67 for parole violation and couldn't have ... we know but it's true.
mo 13 Dec 2010	Astonisher No.9: At the 1898 FA Cup Final the teams were photographed with the cup before the match and at the photographer's suggestion eventual winners Nottingham Forest borrowed Derby County's lighter coloured jerseys ... we know but it's true.
sa 13 Nov 2010	Astonisher No.7: In 1947 by investing $50,000 in the then six man Ampex company singer Bing Crosby made tape recorders commercially available ... we know but it's true.
su 15 Aug 2010	Astonisher No.1: Country singer and songwriter Kris Kristofferson has a boxing blue from Oxford ... we know but it's true.

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