Andy Griffith

 Andy Griffith plays the title character of criminal defense lawyer Ben Matlock in Dean Hargrove's American mystery legal drama television series Matlock. The program was created by Intermedia Entertainment Company, The Fred Silverman Company, Dean Hargrove Productions, and Viacom Productions and first shown on NBC and ABC, respectively, from March 3, 1986, through May 8, 1992.

Both Matlock and the 1980s Perry Mason television films were developed by Dean Hargrove. The concept of the program is identical to that of CBS' Perry Mason, with Matlock finding the offenders and then facing them in dramatic courtroom sequences. One distinction was that Matlock often won a jury acquittal at trial, but Mason typically cleared his clients in a pretrial hearing. Reruns of Matlock have been shown on TBS, INSP, Hallmark, CBS Drama, WGN America, FETV, PlutoTV, and MeTV since 1991.

The protagonist of the program is widower Ben Matlock (Andy Griffith), a famous, endearing, and cantankerous lawyer. Even though Matlock makes it clear that his only objective is to establish a reasonable doubt in the case of his client's guilt or to establish his client's innocence, in most cases the person who is on the stand being questioned by Matlock at the conclusion of the case is the actual perpetrator, and Matlock will expose him or her. After working as a public defender for a while, Matlock formed his own legal firm in Atlanta while living in a small farmhouse in a nearby neighborhood. Matlock studied law at Harvard Law School. He is renowned for visiting crime sites to unearth information that could otherwise go unnoticed and develop strong alternate interpretations of the particular event. Throughout the entire length of the series, Matlock owned three iterations of the Ford Crown Victoria—always an all-gray model—and was known for his very fussy sense of style. He often arrives in court wearing a recognizable light gray suit.

An Army of Frogs

 The traditional collective noun for a group of frogs is an army. This term is part of a broader collection of colorful and imaginative collective nouns in the English language, many of which date back to the Late Middle Ages. These group terms were often coined by hunters, writers, or poets to describe animals not with scientific precision but with flair, character, or humor.

Frogs are usually solitary creatures, but they do come together in large numbers during the breeding season, especially near water sources like ponds, marshes, or wetlands. When this happens, the sheer volume of frogs — often accompanied by loud croaking and energetic movement — can resemble an advancing force, which is likely how the term “army” came into being. Though not used in scientific writing, this term remains recognized in dictionaries and English language resources as the accepted collective noun for frogs.

This sort of naming isn’t unique to frogs. English has many such traditional collective nouns that are not based in biology but are instead steeped in creativity and convention. For example, you’ll find terms like a murder of crows, a parliament of owls, and a crash of rhinoceroses. These terms capture something vivid or behavioral about the animals — in the frog’s case, their sudden mass gatherings during rainy seasons or breeding times can seem like an amphibian invasion, hence the term “army.”

It’s important to note that while these terms are charming and memorable, scientific texts are more likely to refer to frogs in groups using neutral phrases like “a group,” “a population,” or “a breeding aggregation.” Still, “army” remains a beloved bit of English trivia, perfect for crossword puzzles, pub quizzes, and nature-themed games alike.

Alex P. Keaton

 Alex P. Keaton, the standout character from the 1980s sitcom Family Ties, was a young Republican with a love for capitalism, Ronald Reagan, and briefcases. Played by Michael J. Fox, Alex was the oldest child in a liberal, former-hippie household, creating constant comic tension between his conservative ideals and his parents' progressive values. His obsession with success, politics, and money was both a parody and reflection of 1980s America, and Fox's performance earned him multiple Emmy Awards and launched his career into stardom.

Thomas Edison

 Thomas Edison is credited with inventing the phonograph in 1877.  

A phonograph, sometimes known as a gramophone in later incarnations, a record player since the 1940s, or more recently a turntable, is a mechanical and analogue recording and sound reproduction device. As matching physical distortions of a spiral groove carved, etched, incised, or impressed into the surface of a revolving cylinder or disc, referred to as a "record," the sound vibration waveforms are captured. A playback stylus tracks the groove and is therefore vibrated by it to reproduce the sound by slightly rotating the surface while doing so. The stylus of early acoustic phonographs vibrated a diaphragm, producing sound waves that were connected to the open air through a flare horn or directly to the listener's ears using stethoscope-style earphones.

Emile Berliner, who invented the word "gramophone" for record players that play flat discs with a spiral groove extending from the edge to near the center, pioneered the switch from phonograph cylinders to flat discs in the 1890s. Later upgrades throughout the years included adjustments to the turntable's motor system, stylus or needle, pickup system, sound and equalization systems, and pickup system.

For the majority of the 20th century, the disc phonograph record dominated commercial audio recording formats. Cassette tapes and 8-track cartridges were developed as substitutes in the 1960s. Due to the popularity of cassettes, the development of the compact disc, and the subsequent arrival of digital music distribution in the 2000s, phonograph usage drastically decreased in the 1980s. However, records have seen a renaissance during the 2000s and are still a preferred medium for certain DJs, collectors, turntablists, and audiophiles.

San Francisco 49ers

The San Francisco 49ers are named after the prospectors who flocked to Northern California in 1849 during the California Gold Rush. Known as "forty-niners," these adventurers came from across the United States and around the world hoping to strike it rich. The influx of fortune seekers transformed San Francisco from a small town into a booming city almost overnight. When the football team was founded in 1946, the name "49ers" was chosen to honor the spirit of ambition, risk-taking, and discovery that defined that era.