Ice King (or Simon Petrikov) is a main character of Adventure Time, an American animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network. Ice King’s magical abilities are contained in his crown he uses to rule the Ice Kingdom. The series follows the adventures of Finn (voiced by Jeremy Shada), a human boy, and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake (voiced by John DiMaggio), a dog with magical powers to change shape and grow and shrink at will. Finn and Jake live in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo.
Note:Adventure Time launched as a Cartoon Network series on April 5, 2010. It’s been five years of Ooo!
Princess Bubblegum is a main character and the most recurring princess of Adventure Time, an American animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network. Princess Bubblegum is a scientist, inventor and ruler of the Candy Kingdom. The series follows the adventures of Finn (voiced by Jeremy Shada), a human boy, and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake (voiced by John DiMaggio), a dog with magical powers to change shape and grow and shrink at will. Finn and Jake live in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo.
Note:Adventure Time launched as a Cartoon Network series on April 5, 2010. It’s been five years of Ooo!
The Toast King is a large, anthropomorphic slice of toast who rules over the Moon, following his principle that “heat induces royalty.” He wears a crown bearing the initials “TK,” and is often depicted holding a golden pitchfork with a speared knob of butter. The Toast King’s friends include Insanity Prawn Boy and Moon Keith Moon, and he claims to rule over Moon Hitler’s Nazi Moon Base. British animator Jonathan “Jonti” Picking, also known as Weebl, created the On the Moon cartoon series and the rest of Weebl’s Stuff. Some of Weebl’s most famous creations include Cat Face, Weebl & Bob and 2003’s “Badgers” (plus a slew of other repetitive, overstimulating cartoons set to dance music). Since the release of the first On the Moon Flash cartoon in November 2005, 24 episodes have been produced. The most recent episode was released in August 2013.
Grace Kelly was an American film actress and Princess of Monaco as the wife of Prince Rainier III. After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of 20, she appeared in New York City theatrical productions and more than 40 episodes of live drama productions broadcast during the early 1950s Golden Age of Television. She starred in films from 1953 to 1956, including Dial M for Murder, Rear Window and The Country Girl (in which she gave a deglamorized, Academy Award-winning performance). She retired from acting at the age of 26 to marry Prince Rainier and enter upon her duties in Monaco. She retained her American roots, maintaining dual U.S. and Monégasque citizenship. She was born on November 12, 1929 and died on September 14, 1982.
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 realms of the 53-member Commonwealth of Nations (the “Commonwealth”). She is also the head of the Commonwealth and the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Upon her accession in 1952, Elizabeth became head of the Commonwealth and queen regnant of seven independent Commonwealth countries (since expanded to 16 realms). She is the longest-lived and, after her great-great grandmother Queen Victoria, the second longest-reigning British monarch. Now 88 years old, Elizabeth was born on this day in 1926.
The 2014 Winter Paralympics, officially the XI Paralympic Winter Games, will be held from March 7-16, 2014, in Sochi, Russia. Ray of Light (Fire Boy) and Snowflake (Snow Girl) were selected as the two mascots of the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games. The story goes that Ray of Light flew down to Earth from a planet where it was always hot.
P.S. Merry Christmas! I enjoyed this forum thread, which addresses King Moonracer’s possible villain status: “Was King Moonracer a fraud?” Indeed. Why was King Moonracer holding the misfit toys hostage for so long? Since he regularly flies around the world collecting unwanted toys, why wasn’t he already collaborating with Santa to find new homes for those toys? Moonracer only thought to contact Santa afterRudolph, Hermey, and Yukon showed up? Really? King Moonracer is very possibly a manipulative cult leader with megalomaniac tendencies who hoards rare, emotionally damaged toys. It seems like the unexpected arrival of visitors to his remote island shamed him into doing the right thing with his sad toy collection.
Prester John is one of my favorite historical/mythological figures. The legends of Prester John were popular in Europe from the 12th through the 17th centuries, and told of a Christian patriarch and king said to rule over a Christian nation lost amidst the Muslims and pagans in the Orient. Prester John was reportedly a descendant of one of the Three Wise Men and presided over a realm full of riches and strange creatures, including unicorns. His kingdom contained such marvels as the Gates of Alexander and the Fountain of Youth, and even bordered the Garden of Eden. Prester John was first imagined to reside in India, as tales of the Nestorian Christians’ evangelistic success probably provided the first seeds of the legend. After the coming of the Mongols to the Western world, accounts placed the king in Central Asia. But as the Mongol Empire collapsed, Europeans began to shift away from the idea that Prester John had ever really been a Central Asian king. Eventually, Portuguese explorers convinced themselves that they had found him in Ethiopia. The legend of Prester John affected several hundred years of European and world history by encouraging generations of Europe’s explorers, missionaries, scholars and treasure hunters to venture into India, Asia and Africa.
Prester John, the fabled king/priest invented by Crusader kingdoms, is basically the Forrest Gump of the Middle Ages (1100s-1500s). Dude was everywhere. For example, during the Mongol Empire, Prester John was identified as both Genghis Khan and a Nestorian Christian monarch defeated by Khan. The myth of Prester John was a comforting (if ethnocentric) symbol to European Christians of their religion’s universality, transcending culture and geography to encompass all humanity. Even the boneheaded Christopher Columbus cited the discovery of Prester John’s kingdom among the goals of his travels. Despite centuries of European exploration in search of treasure—and evangelizing the locals—the quest for the fictitious kingdom remained unfulfilled. But the legend served many medieval Christian kingdoms, and the Catholic Church, handsomely.
Sri Vikrama Rajasinha was the last of four kings to rule the last Sinhalese monarchy of the Kingdom of Kandy on the island of Sri Lanka. The Nayak kings were Buddhists who spoke Tamil. The king was eventually deposed by the British under the terms of the Kandyan Convention, in 1815, ending over 2,300 years of Sinhalese monarchy on the island. The island was incorporated into the British Empire.
Yes, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha really was the King of Kandy. I like to think he lived at the top of a gumdrop-adorned Kandy Mountain surrounded by kandy kane fences, referred to his palace as Kandyland and snacked on only the finest kandy korn. This information is not verifiable via Wikipedia. But I did find that the British Empire declared war on the Kingdom of Kandy in 1815 and the king was exiled to India, never to return. In a related story, Candy told me nothing really matters anymore.
A fictional heroine in the Filmation cartoon and series of toys produced by Mattel called She-Ra: Princess of Power. She is the alter ego of Princess Adora and the twin sister of He-Man. She-Ra was intended to appeal to young girls in the same way that He-Man appealed to young boys. She wielded her power through the Sword of Protection.
Remember the pink Crystal Castle playset? My sister still owns this She-Ra accessory. Her daughter plays with it now.
The King of All Wild Things and main character of Where the Wild Things Are, a 1963 children’s picture book by American writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak. The book has been adapted into an animated short, an opera, and, in 2009, a live-action feature film adaptation directed by Spike Jonze. Possibly my very favorite childhood book.
A DC Comics superheroine who first appeared in 1941, during World War II. She is a Princess of the Amazons (based on the Amazons of Greek mythology) and is known in her homeland as Diana of Themyscira. She utilizes the Lasso of Truth, which forces those bound by it to tell the truth, and has an invisible airplane.
Prester John – No. 622
Prester John is one of my favorite historical/mythological figures. The legends of Prester John were popular in Europe from the 12th through the 17th centuries, and told of a Christian patriarch and king said to rule over a Christian nation lost amidst the Muslims and pagans in the Orient. Prester John was reportedly a descendant of one of the Three Wise Men and presided over a realm full of riches and strange creatures, including unicorns. His kingdom contained such marvels as the Gates of Alexander and the Fountain of Youth, and even bordered the Garden of Eden. Prester John was first imagined to reside in India, as tales of the Nestorian Christians’ evangelistic success probably provided the first seeds of the legend. After the coming of the Mongols to the Western world, accounts placed the king in Central Asia. But as the Mongol Empire collapsed, Europeans began to shift away from the idea that Prester John had ever really been a Central Asian king. Eventually, Portuguese explorers convinced themselves that they had found him in Ethiopia. The legend of Prester John affected several hundred years of European and world history by encouraging generations of Europe’s explorers, missionaries, scholars and treasure hunters to venture into India, Asia and Africa.
Prester John, the fabled king/priest invented by Crusader kingdoms, is basically the Forrest Gump of the Middle Ages (1100s-1500s). Dude was everywhere. For example, during the Mongol Empire, Prester John was identified as both Genghis Khan and a Nestorian Christian monarch defeated by Khan. The myth of Prester John was a comforting (if ethnocentric) symbol to European Christians of their religion’s universality, transcending culture and geography to encompass all humanity. Even the boneheaded Christopher Columbus cited the discovery of Prester John’s kingdom among the goals of his travels. Despite centuries of European exploration in search of treasure—and evangelizing the locals—the quest for the fictitious kingdom remained unfulfilled. But the legend served many medieval Christian kingdoms, and the Catholic Church, handsomely.