In 1967, when FBI agents closed in on James Robert Ringrose, one of America’s 10 Most Wanted criminals, he was ready. He presented them with a Get Out of Jail Free card from a Monopoly game. Nice try. But that’s not how it works. Monopoly fans are well-acquainted with the orange card from the Chance pile and the yellow card… Read more »
When it comes to receiving meaningful names, some of us are winners. Others are losers. Then there’s the family with both a Winner and a Loser. In 1958 Robert Lane and his wife, who lived in public housing in Harlem, New York City, became parents of their sixth child. Dad, in a joyful mood, decided to name his little boy… Read more »
In 1985 Julie Gold, an administrative assistant who dabbled in songwriting, came up with lyrics and a melody that she thought sounded promising. None of the artists or record companies she contacted, however, thought it was worth recording. A year later she asked “folkabilly” singer Nanci Griffith to assess whether her work had potential. Griffith was so impressed that she… Read more »
A humble building known as the Abbot Pass Hut is one of the Western Hemisphere’s most intriguing structures. It was constructed 98 years ago as a shelter for mountaineers attempting to scale either Mount Victoria or Mount Lefroy, two of the higher peaks in Banff Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada. The hut continues to serve as an overnight waystation for hikers… Read more »
Maya Angelou’s life did not have a hopeful beginning. At the age of eight she was sexually abused and raped by her mother’s boyfriend. Maya told her brother what had happened. The boyfriend was apprehended. Incredibly, he was jailed for only one day. But four days after his release he was murdered, almost certainly by Maya’s uncles. The trauma of the rape now… Read more »
How much is a trillion? A trillion is the number one followed by 12 zeroes. Mathematically, it represents a million millions or a thousand billions. If you stack a trillion one-dollar bills on top of each other, the stack would be 68,000 miles high – one third of the way to the moon. If you count off a trillion seconds, one at a… Read more »
City Slickers is a film about three Manhattan men, lifelong friends, who are wrestling with the harrowing approach of middle age. Together they head out West in the hope of finding adventure (and maybe even themselves) by participating in a cattle drive. One of the characters, named Phil (played by Daniel Stern, wearing the white hat), has recently seen his… Read more »
When Dick and Judy Hoyt became parents on January 10, 1962, it quickly became evident that something had gone terribly wrong. The umbilical cord was wrapped around their son’s neck. Because of oxygen deprivation to his brain, little Rick had cerebral palsy. He would never be able to walk or talk. Numerous physicians assured the Hoyts that their son was… Read more »
There’s a Hall of Fame for almost everything. Seriously. Almost everything. The Polka Hall of Fame is in Cleveland. In New York City you can visit the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame. The Barbed Wire Museum and Hall of Fame is found in Lacrosse, Kansas, which advertises itself as the Barbed Wire Capital of the World. Want to experience… Read more »
Benjamin Franklin was savagely denounced by a fellow member of the Pennsylvania legislature in the mid-1700’s. His antagonist, who apparently enjoyed talking about him, had never even bothered to talk to him. Franklin promptly initiated a response. He had all kinds of weapons at his disposal. A master of linguistic cleverness, he could have nailed his adversary with a few Twitter-length putdowns. An… Read more »