Classical Caffine, Top Five Classical Numbers that Get You Moving in the Morning:

5. “O Fortuna” from Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana

4. “Ride of the Valkyries” (”Walkürenritt,” Act III of Die Walküre) by Richard Wagner

3. Overture to”Orpheus in the Underworld” by Jacques Offenbach (aka “Hell’s Gallop”)

2. “Dance of the Hours” from La Gioconda by Amilcare Ponchielli

1. “Night on Bald Mountain” by Modest Mussorgsky

Honorable mention : “Mars, Bringer of War” from Gustav Holst’s The Planets for heavy traffic

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Top Five Biopics Whose Subjects Died Just as the Movie was Released

5. Walk the Line: Released Nov. 18, 2005. Johnny Cash died Sept. 12, 2003; June Carter Cash: died May 15, 2003, both during pre-production or production.

4. Beyond the Sea: Released December 29, 2004. Sandra Dee received a lot of public attention as a result of the biopic about her late ex-husband, Bobby Darin. Then, Dee died February 20, 2005, with the film still in theaters

3. I know My First Name is Steven: Miniseries shown on TV May 21-22, 1989. About Steven Stayner, who was kidnapped when he was 7 and kept by a pedophile for 7 years; the guy had convinced Steven that his parents didn’t want him anymore and had moved away. Steven escaped at age 14 to be reunited with his parents. Received a lot of attention, Then, he was killed in a car accident September 16, 1989.

2. Ray: Released October 29, 2004. Ray Charles died June 10, 2004.

1. The Great Debaters: Released December 25, 2007. Henrietta Bell Wells, the only woman and last surviving member of the 1930 Wiley College Debate Team, whose story was dramatized in the recent Denzel Washington movie, died February 27, 2008, two months after gaining fame in the film.

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Staff writer Bethany gives us Top Five Works of French Literature Whose Titles are Often Retained in French when Discussed in English:

5. Les Misérables

4. Les Fleurs du Mal

3. À La Recherche du Temps Perdu

2. Madame Bovary

1. La Comédie Humaine

She adds: “Would these be better if we called them The Miserables, Mrs. Bovary, or the Human Comedy?”

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Top Five Prolific Living Writers

5. Stephen King/Richard Bachman—more than 50 books

4. Alexander Mccall Smith—57 books and counting (as of today)

3. Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine—at least 73 books

2. Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb/Sarah Hardesty/Jill March—over 150 novels

1. Joyce Carol Oates—help, we can’t count that high!

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Top Five Famous People Who Have Given a Child up for Adoption

Bethany, our staff Top Five writer, comments on her latest list: “We all know of many famous people who were adopted as children. We also know of many famous people who have adopted children themselves. But of famous people who gave up children for adoption, less is known. Giving a child up for adoption used to be, and often still is, surrounded by secrecy, sometimes accompanied by embarrassment or shame at transgressive behavior. A small number of now-famous people gave up children for adoption when they were young, poor, and/or in troubled circumstances. These are all the names I could come up with.”

5. Andy Kaufman: fathered a child with a girlfriend while in college, and gave her up for adoption

4. Joni Mitchell: gave birth to a daughter fathered by her college ex-boyfriend, and then gave her (Kelly Dale Anderson) up for adoption.

3. Kate Mulgrew: a former Star Trek captain, Mulgrew is a self described pro-life feminist who gave up a daughter for adoption when she was 19.

2. Dirk Benedict (the original Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica, as well as “Face” on The A-Team): He discovered recently that a child he never knew about had been the result of a youthful fling, and that child was given up for adoption.

1. Roseanne Barr: She’s probably been the most open about this. She says she got pregnant the first time she had sex, and gave her daughter up for adoption in 1971. After she became famous, she tracked down the daughter, Brandi Brown, and the two are allegedly close.

Extra: Albert Einstein and first wife, Mileva Maric, had a daughter, Lieserl Einstein, in 1902 while they were both unmarried students. They married about a year later, but their daughter’s fate is unknown. Some believe they gave her up for adoption, but efforts to trace her have been fruitless.

Extra extra: Horatia Nelson, illegitimate daughter of Admiral Horatio Nelson and Emma, Lady Hamilton, born January 29, 1801. Though Lady Hamilton was then married, it was thought impossible to pass off her child as having been fathered by her very aged husband, Sir William Hamilton. Instead, another admiral claimed the child to be his with another woman, and Horatia was then adopted by Admiral Nelson and Emma. As an adult, Horatia acknowledged that her father was Nelson, but always denied her relationship with Emma Hamilton.

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