I’m a repository for curious facts, useless information, and odd anecdotes. Thus, I thought I’d add to substack posts a weekly “DID YOU KNOW?” post. This is the first.
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DID YOU KNOW? Six famous people’s day jobs:
* Writer Franz Kafka: Insurance company claims investigator
* Classical composer Alexander Borodin: Chemistry professor
* Alice in Wonderland Author Lewis Carroll: Mathematics professor
* Novelist Louis-Ferdinand Celine: Family physician
* Philosopher Eric Hoffer: Longshoreman
* Telegraph/Morse Code Inventor Samuel Morse: Art Professor
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Linus Pauling’s unique educational history
Two-time Nobel Prize-winning theoretical chemist Linus Pauling received his Ph.D. summa cum laude from Caltech and was a professor at Stanford and Caltech. Yet he never graduated from high school.
He left his Oregon high school early to help support his poor family, then later was able to enter a local college.
When he was a world-famous scientist his old high school gave him an honorary diploma, yet he still never finished the two classes required to be a graduate.
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Steve McQueen's troubled youth
Actor Steve McQueen was a rebellious and troubled youth, shuffled from family members to family members, in gangs, and often in trouble with the law.
When he was a teenager his family sent him to live on his uncle's farm in Missouri. McQueen years later described his uncle as "a very good man, very strong, very fair. I learned a lot from him." He said one of his fondest memories was when he finally left the farm and his uncle gave him a gold watch inscribed "To Steve, who has been a son to me."
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Just one example of why mirrors have for eons been considered magical things
A mirror mirrors what is in front of it. If you place an apple two feet in front of a mirror, an identical-looking apple will look as if it is the same distance behind or into the mirror. Triangulation is the standard mathematics, physics, and land surveying method used to calculate the distance to an object. If you use triangulation to measure the distance to the apple in the mirror, the apple will measure as being two feet behind the mirror. Both our eyes and scientific measurements say there is an apple two feet behind the mirror's surface.
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The greatness of Soviet pianist Svietolsav Richter
Legendary Canadian pianist Glenn Gould said he never liked Schuman's sonatas until he heard them played by Soviet pianist Sviatoslav Richter. After a tour of Russia, American pianist Van Cliburn said that Richter's playing was so powerful in person that it made him cry.
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The Doolittle Raid
During the April 18 1942 Doolittle Raid on Japan, done in retaliation to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the American planes did not have enough fuel to return home and crash-landed in China and Russia, with the crew members who survived the crashes having to evade the Japanese troops. Some survivors were captured and executed by the Japanese and some were captured and held by the Russians. It was the longest-flown mission in history to that point, and the planners and crew members knew beforehand that the planes did not hold enough fuel to return.
It demonstrated to the Japanese that the Americans could reach their mainland by air, and is considered one of the most daring feats in military history.
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Quote of the week:
"How old would you be if you don't know how old you are?"-- Satchel Paige, who played professional baseball until he was 59
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Henry & Baruch cartoon of the week:
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Another favorite tidbit re Richter: The Russian pianist Emil Gilels was among the the first of the Soviet school prodigies to come and concertize widely in the West. In a reply to an interviewer, he said, "You think I'm good? Wait until you hear Richter!"