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Nick Dandolos
Nikolaos Andreas Dandolos ( ; April 27, 1883 – December 25, 1966), commonly known as Nick the Greek, was a Greek professional gambler and high roller. Early life Dandolos was the son of wealthy parents. He attended the Greek Evangelical College and earned a degree in philosophy. When he was 18 years old, his grandfather sent him to the United States with an allowance of $150 per week. Although Dandolos settled in Chicago he eventually moved to Montreal where he began gambling on horse races. Dandolos was known throughout his life for winning and losing large sums of money. After winning over $500,000 on horse racing, he moved back to Chicago where he lost it all on card and dice games. He quickly became a master of these games, however, and became a prime attraction at casinos when he would play in them. Poker and gambling From January 1949 to May 1949, Dandolos played a two-person "heads up" poker match against poker legend Johnny Moss where the two played virtually ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rethymno
Rethymno (also Rethymnon; ) is a city in Greece on the island of Crete. It is the capital of Rethymno regional unit, and has a population of more than 35,000 inhabitants (nearly 40,000 for the municipal unit). It is believed to have been built on the site of the earlier city of Rhithymna. History Rethymno is believed to have been built on the site of the earlier city of Rhithymna. Some sources mention a city called Arsinoe which some scholars have proposed stood at the same site. Rethymno began a period of growth when the Venetian conquerors of the island decided to establish an intermediate commercial station between Heraklion and Chania, acquiring its own bishop and nobility in the process. Today's old town (''palia poli'') was almost entirely built by the Republic of Venice. It is one of the best-preserved old towns in Crete. From circa 1250 the city was the seat of the Latin Diocese of Retimo, which was renamed Retimo–Ario after the absorption in 1551 of the D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. The institution moved to Newark, New Jersey, Newark in 1747 and then to its Mercer County, New Jersey, Mercer County campus in Princeton nine years later. It officially became a university in 1896 and was subsequently renamed Princeton University. The university is governed by the Trustees of Princeton University and has an endowment of $37.7 billion, the largest List of colleges and universities in the United States by endowment, endowment per student in the United States. Princeton provides undergraduate education, undergraduate and graduate education, graduate instruction in the hu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Penguin Classics
Penguin Classics is an imprint (trade name), imprint of Penguin Books under which classic works of literature are published in English language, English, Spanish language, Spanish, Portuguese language, Portuguese, and Korean language, Korean among other languages. Literary critics see books in this series as important members of the Western canon, though many titles are translated or of non-Western origin; indeed, the series for decades since its creation included only translations, until it eventually incorporated the Penguin English Library imprint in 1986. The first Penguin Classic was E. V. Rieu's translation of ''The Odyssey'', published in 1946, and Rieu went on to become general editor of the series. Rieu sought out literary novelists such as Robert Graves and Dorothy Sayers as translators, believing they would avoid "the archaic flavour and the foreign idiom that renders many existing translations repellent to modern taste". In 1964 Betty Radice and Robert Baldick succee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972) was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and columnist for New York tabloids. He rose to national celebrity in the 1930s with Hearst newspaper chain syndication and a popular radio program. He was known for an innovative style of gossipy staccato news briefs, jokes, and Jazz Age slang. Biographer Neal Gabler claimed that his popularity and influence "turned journalism into a form of entertainment". He uncovered both hard news and embarrassing stories about famous people by exploiting his exceptionally wide circle of contacts, first in the entertainment world and the Prohibition era underworld, then in law enforcement and politics. He was known for trading gossip, sometimes in return for his silence. His outspoken style made him both feared and admired. Novels and movies were bas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Damon Runyon
Alfred Damon Runyon (October 4, 1880 – December 10, 1946) was an American journalist and short-story writer. He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway theatre, Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era. To New Yorkers of his generation, a "Damon Runyon character" evoked a distinctive social type from Brooklyn or Midtown Manhattan. The adjective ''Runyonesque'' refers to this type of character and the type of situations and dialog that Runyon depicts. He spun humorous and sentimental tales of gamblers, hustlers, actors, and gangsters, few of whom go by square (slang), "square" names, preferring instead colorful monikers such as "Nathan Detroit", "Benny Southstreet", "Big Jule", "Harry the Horse", "Good Time Charley", "Dave the Dude", or "The Seldom Seen Kid". His distinctive vernacular style is known as ''Runyonese'': a mixture of formal speech and colorful slang, almost always in the present tense, and always devoid of Contr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Mark Petrakis
Harry Mark Petrakis ( ; June 5, 1923 – February 2, 2021) was an American novelist and writer of short stories. He was best known for depicting the life of Greek-American immigrants in the Greektown neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. He died at his home near Chesterton, Indiana, in February 2021, at the age of 97. Early life Petrakis was born in June 1923, the son of the Reverend Mark Petrakis, a Greek Orthodox priest who immigrated to the United States with his wife Stella in 1916. They were villagers from central Crete, the village Vilandredon, near the city of Rethymnon, who came bringing their first four children (Dan, Barbara, Manuel, and Tasula). Harry Mark, the fifth child, was born on June 5, 1923, in St. Louis, Missouri. A sixth child, Irene, was later born in Chicago, where the family settled. Harry Mark (Greek name, "Haralambos") attended Koraes School, the elementary school of Sts. Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Church, his father's parish in Chicago. During G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poker Hall Of Fame
The Poker Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional poker in the United States. Founded in Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas, it was created in 1979 by Benny Binion, the owner of the Horseshoe Casino, to preserve the names and legacies of the world's greatest poker players and to serve as a tourist attraction to his casino. Binion was known for the creative ways in which he marketed his casino. In 1949, he convinced Johnny Moss and Nick Dandolos, Nick "The Greek" Dandolos to play high-stakes poker heads up poker, heads up where the public could watch them. In 1970, he invited a group of poker players to compete in what would be the first World Series of Poker (WSOP). When Harrah's Entertainment, later known as Caesars Entertainment Corporation, Caesars Entertainment, acquired the rights to the WSOP in 2004, it also assumed ownership of the Poker Hall of Fame. Currently, membership in the Poker Hall of Fame is handled directly by the WSOP. As of 2024, 61 people have been induct ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christmas Day
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A liturgical feast central to Christianity, Christmas preparation begins on the First Sunday of Advent and it is followed by Christmastide, which historically in the West lasts twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night. Christmas Day is a public holiday in many countries, is observed religiously by a majority of Christians, as well as celebrated culturally by many non-Christians, and forms an integral part of the annual holiday season. The traditional Christmas narrative recounted in the New Testament, known as the Nativity of Jesus, says that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in accordance with messianic prophecies. When Joseph and Mary arrived in the city, the inn had no room, and so they were offered a stable where the Christ Child was soon born, with angels proclaiming this ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an international border with the Mexico, Mexican state of Baja California to the south. With almost 40million residents across an area of , it is the List of states and territories of the United States by population, largest state by population and List of U.S. states and territories by area, third-largest by area. Prior to European colonization of the Americas, European colonization, California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America. European exploration in the 16th and 17th centuries led to the colonization by the Spanish Empire. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821, following Mexican War of Independence, its successful war for independence, but Mexican Cession, was ceded to the U ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eight Men Out
''Eight Men Out'' is a 1988 American sports drama film based on Eliot Asinof's 1963 book ''Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series''. It was written and directed by John Sayles. The film is a dramatization of Major League Baseball's Black Sox Scandal, in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox conspired with gamblers to intentionally lose the 1919 World Series. Most of the film was filmed at the old Bush Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. Plot In 1919, the Chicago White Sox have won the American League pennant and are considered among the greatest baseball teams ever assembled; however, the team's stingy owner, Charles Comiskey, gives little inclination to reward his players for a spectacular season. Gamblers "Sport" Sullivan, "Sleepy Bill" Burns, and Billy Maharg get wind of the players' discontent, asking shady player Chick Gandil to convince a select group of Sox—including star knuckleball pitcher Eddie Cicotte, who led the Majors with a 29–7 w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eliot Asinof
Eliot Tager Asinof (July 13, 1919 – June 10, 2008) was an American writer of fiction and nonfiction best known for his writing about baseball. His most famous book was ''Eight Men Out'', a nonfiction reconstruction of the 1919 Black Sox scandal. Biography Asinof was born into a Jewish family in Manhattan and lived in and around New York City for much of his life. In his youth, he worked in his family's tailoring business. He graduated from Swarthmore College in 1940, then played briefly as a minor-league first baseman in the Philadelphia Phillies' organization. During World War II, Asinof served in the U.S. Army on Adak in the Aleutian Islands. He was married for five years to Jocelyn Brando, an actress who was the elder sister of Marlon Brando; the marriage ended in divorce in 1955. After a baseball career ended in injury before he could make the major leagues, Asinof wrote extensively about baseball. His 1955 debut novel, ''Man on Spikes'', was based on the experienc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Superstition
A superstition is any belief or practice considered by non-practitioners to be irrational or supernatural, attributed to fate or magic (supernatural), magic, perceived supernatural influence, or fear of that which is unknown. It is commonly applied to beliefs and practices surrounding luck, amulets, astrology, fortune telling, Spirit (animating force), spirits, and certain paranormal wikt: entity, entities, particularly the belief that future events can be foretold by specific unrelated prior events. The word ''superstition'' is also used to refer to a religion not practiced by the majority of a given society regardless of whether the prevailing religion contains alleged superstitions or to all religions by the antireligion, antireligious. Contemporary use Definitions of the term vary, but they commonly describe superstitions as irrational beliefs at odds with scientific knowledge of the world. Stuart Vyse proposes that a superstition's "presumed mechanism of action is inc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
