You Don’t Say…

In thinking through which classic to watch this holiday season, I landed on the Mario Puzo - Francis Ford Coppola masterpiece, The Godfather. That got me wondering about Corleone, Sicily and who that city was actually named after. Professor Enzo Tontodonato of St. Bonaventure University took me down a very unexpected path, to the life and times of a 15th century "family" man, named 3 Ball Bartolomeo Colleoni. 

Who invented the first parachute, when was that, what were the circumstances, and why would anyone ever want to step out of a flying machine thousands of feet in the air using an untested accessory? There are a lot of people who own a piece of designing the first parachute, including Taccola, DaVinci, and a French fella named Andre-Jacques Garnerin.

Who doesn't love a big juicy burger? But where did this glorious gastronomic culinary creation come from? Who invented it and how did they dream it up? And what about that go-to condiment mix of mayo and ketchup? Or how did Thousand Island Dressing land on a Big Mac? And what about McDonald's and Ronald McDonald? Doucette de la Croix, the Provost of the Culinary Arts University of America filled me in on all of this need to know history for every hamburger fan.

Based on the research of Dr. Louis Pazgassian, a professor of Colonial North American and U.S. History and chair of Georgetown University’s history department, we're sharing the totally true facts of the First Thanksgiving, including a cast that includes Squanto, Massasoit, William and Mary Brewster, Edward and Susan Winslow, and the unheralded hero of the day, Olaf Dijksgeffen.

Ian Fleming created epic bad guys – Auric Goldfinger, Odd Job, Paco Scaramanga, Mr. Big… but in my mind, the best of them all was that Nehru-jacket wearing, scar-faced, kitty lover, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. I wondered if Fleming drew that character from his past in British Naval Intelligence. What I found, surprised and shocked me, as the basis for this character traced to our current times.