#That concludes 1957!! Already got two years down

[eurovisionart]

Birthe Wilke & Gustav Winckler - Skibet skal sejle i nat

[the-homicidediaries]

Mary Bell

The Tyneside Strangler

TW: child death, sexual abuse, genital mutilation

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Hello! So I’m back with another horrible story because people keep asking for them.

SO HERE WE GO

This is the story of Mary Bell, who is one of only a handful of the youngest murderers.. EVER.

Mary Bell was born to a 16 year old prostitute named Betty in Newcastle upon Tyne, England in May of 1957. (Yeah, this didn’t happen that long ago. Horrifying.)

Now, no one is entirely sure who Mary’s father is, but Betty made it very clear she wanted nothing to do with Mary from the very beginning, telling doctors, “Get that thing away from me.”

And the best thing the doctors could come up with was to continue to let Mary live with her mother.

Perfect. What could go wrong?

Well, a lot.

Things got way worse. Betty was away a lot in Glasgow for her “business trips”. When she wasn’t away, she subjected Mary to physical and mental abuse.

Betty’s sister testified that she once saw Betty try to give Mary away to a local woman who was unsuccessful in her adoption journey.

Betty’s sister also noted that Mary was very “accident prone”; i.e. “falling” down the stairs and “accidentally” overdosing sleeping pills.

After Mary’s “fall”, it was reported that Mary suffered horrible brain damage in her pre-frontal cortex, the part of the brain that deals with decision-making and voluntary movements.

(Richard Ramirez, John Wayne Gacy, Fred West, David Berkowitz, Ed Gein, Albert Fish, and several other serial killers also suffered brain injuries as they were growing up.)

(I want to mention here there is a bit of a debate amongst experts whether to Betty wanted to get rid of Mary because she wasn’t fit to be a mother OR Betty had Munchausen by Proxy, which should all know is my favorite mental illness. 😬

Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSBP) is a mental health problem in which a caregiver makes up or causes an illness or injury in a person under his or her care, such as a child, an elderly adult, or a person who has a disability. The most famous case was Clauddinea “Dee Dee” Blancharde abusing her daughter Gypsy Rose Blancharde.)

Back to Mary.

According to family members, Betty began prostituting Mary out by the time she was four years old. (That’s hideous. That’s a year younger than Shiloh, my baby baby. I hope it isn’t true.)

I also read that by the time Mary was five, she had already had a brush with death, watching her five year old friend being run over and killed by a bus.

By the time Mary was ten, she was quiet, manipulative, and isolated herself from everyone.

In May 11, 1968, just weeks before her first murder, Mary was playing with a three year old neighbor when he was horribly injured from a fall at the top of an air raid shelter.

His parents deemed it an accident.

After this, though, a few of the neighborhood mothers came forward to the police and said Mary had tried to choke their young daughters. No charges were filed, however.

On May 25, 1968, one day before Mary Bell turned 11 years old, Mary strangled four year old Martin Brown in an abandoned house. Mary fled the scene and returned back to the body with her friend Norma Bell, (no relation), but found they had been beaten by two local boys who had been playing in the abandoned house and stumbled upon the body.

Police were baffled by what they saw. Besides a little blood and saliva on Martin’s face, there were no obvious signs of violence. There was, however, an empty bottle of painkillers on the floor near the body. This led police to believe Martin had swallowed the pain pills and his death was deemed an accident.

Mary might have gotten away with this had she not gone to Martin’s family’s house and asked his mother to see Martin. She explained to Mary that Martin was dead, and Mary said she knew, she wanted to see the dead body in the coffin.

Martin’s mother slammed the door in her face.

Shortly after, Mary and her friend Norma broke into a nursery school and vandalized it with notes taking responsibility for Martin Brown’s death and promising to kill again. Police assumed the notes were a morbid prank.

The nursery school installed an alarm system shortly after and Mary and Norma were caught at the scene of the crime but were later seen as loitering and let off the hook.

Just.. YA KNOW!? All the signs are pointing to this girl.

Mary even told her classmates she had murdered Martin Brown.

It’s aggravating as hell.

BUT I DIGRESS

On June 31, 1968, Mary Bell, now 11, strangled three year old Brian Howe to death in the same area where she strangled Martin Brown.

She later went back to the body and carved an ‘M’ onto Brian’s chest with a razor and mutilated his thighs and penis with a pair of scissors.

In a sickening twist, Mary and Norma offered to help Brian’s sister look for him when his family realized he was missing. Mary even pointed out the cinder blocks where his body was, but since Norma said it wouldn’t be there, Brian’s sister dismissed it and looked elsewhere.

Y’all. I cannot.

When the coroner’s report came back on Brian, police were shocked to find the ‘M’ carved onto his chest and the coroner reporting this death was most likely caused by a child due to the lack of force used during the attack.

MORTIFYING

Mary and Norma were not conspicuous at all; they were interviewed by the police and excited to learn new news pertaining to the case.

Mary was spotted lurking outside of Brian’s house the day of his burial. She was laughing and rubbing her hands together when she saw the coffin.

The police called Mary in to be interviewed a second time and Mary made up a story about an eight year old boy she had seen hit Brian, (police knew she and Norma had seen him the day he died), in the head and that he had a pair of broken scissors with him.

The 👏🏼 police 👏🏼 hadn’t 👏🏼 disclosed 👏🏼 anything 👏🏼 publicly 👏🏼 about 👏🏼 the 👏🏼 scissors. 👏🏼

This is where Mary done goofed. Only investigators and the murderer would have known about this clue.

Upon further questioning, Mary and Norma broke down and began blaming each other for the murders.

During the trial, which took place in December, the jury agreed that Mary had committed the murders.

Did she receive a murder charge, you may ask?

Absolutely not.

While the jury did find Mary Bell guilty, a manslaughter charge was given because Mary’s lawyer and the court psychiatrists argued Mary suffered from psychopathy, and the court agreed she was not fully responsible of her actions.

😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐

Norma Bell, however, was regarded as an unwilling accomplice and was acquitted.

Let’s look at the difference between manslaughter and murder charges and why this is so important.

man·slaugh·ter

/ˈmanˌslôdər/

noun

1. the crime of killing a human being without malice aforethought, or otherwise in circumstances not amounting to murder.

mur·der

/ˈmərdər/

noun

1. the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another.

I obviously haven’t gone to law school, but I would argue that the little neighbor boy’s “accidental fall” and the mothers coming forward about Mary choking their young daughters could be viewed as premeditated. She was trying to kill them, she just managed to kill two little boys instead.

Yes she had a brain injury, but giving her a manslaughter charge is offensive to me. Offensive for the families who lost their sons. If she has a brain injury and there were several cases documented where she was hurting other children, she should have been locked away forever. Just my opinion. I agree with medication and therapy, but anyone could relapse at any time and I don’t think that’s a risk anyone should take. Again, just my unprofessional as h*ck opinion.

(Ed Kemper went to a mental institute and tricked and lied his way into letting the psychiatrists let him leave after he had killed both of his grandparents at just 15 years old. They assumed he was rehabilitated; he just learned the right answers to their questions. He later killed eight more people, including his mother.

Just an example.)

(Another example, they medicated Richard Kuklinski after he was arrested and did not feel the need to release him even though he showed signs of improvement.)

Moving on.

The judge concluded that Mary was a dangerous person and a serious threat to other children. She was sentenced to be imprisoned “at Her Majesty’s pleasure,” a British term that basically means the powers that be would release her when they felt she had been properly rehabilitated.

Apparently, they were very impressed with Mary’s treatment and rehabilitation and felt like it was appropriate to let Mary Bell out in 1980, T W E L V E Y E A R S after Mary committed these murders.

She was put in very strict probation but was able to live amongst her community as a normal person.

The cherry on top?

Mary Bell was given a new identity to offer her a new chance at life and to be able to avoid the press.

She had to move several times because the press kept tracking her down, however.

Today, Mary Bell and her daughter are in protective custody at a secret address no one knows.

Norma Bell passed away in 1989.

Do I feel Mary Bell needs court ordered protection and should be able to hide her identity? No.

Do I think they released her far too early? Yes

Do I think Martin Brown and Brian Howe got justice? No.

Does this story anger me even though I’ve heard it and read about it fifteen million times? Yes.

Her mother should be responsible. She should be responsible instead of hiding. The victim’s families deserve better.

Below are pictures of Mary Bell aged 11, Martin Brown, Brian Howe, and Mary Bell aged 51.

[crazy4tank]

Was the Studebaker The First Muscle Car?

New Post has been published on https://coolcarsnews.com/was-the-studebaker-the-first-muscle-car/

Was the Studebaker The First Muscle Car?

By Dave Ashton

Its commonly thought that all the first muscle car was the 1964 Pontiac GTO or even the 1949 Oldsmobile Rocket 88. The tick listing being a huge V8 engine in the small(ish) car, performance parts, generally two door and available to the standard car buyer. The origins appear quite well established, but according to classiccar. com , there’ h an argument for the R1 and R2 Studebaker Lark being the first sort of the breed.

The particular Studebaker Lark was launched in the drop of 1958, for the 1959 design and according to Wikipedia, ‘ the particular Lark was the first car from the size to offer a V8 engine. ’ (hmmmm…, check your facts Wikipedia) From 1959 to 1960 the fullbore engine consisted of the 259ci. (4. 2 L) OF V8, with a 289ci. (4. 7 L) V8 coming in 1961. One other sobre facto standard in a muscle vehicle is the supercharger, which apparently very first came to the 1957 Studebaker Fantastic Hawk coupled to a 289 OF V8. This one was a Paxton VS57, which usually increased power to 275HP, using a 2 barrel carburetor. For a full explanation of the car specifications, check out the complete article at classiccar. com.

The article compares the Pontiac GTO to the Studebaker for muscles car origins, concluding that the GTO, which sold in far bigger amounts won the title, mainly because of popularity. But it excludes the other side from the story, the 1949 Oldsmobile Skyrocket 88. The first rocket 88 included a 303 cubic inch OF V8 with 135HP(. debatable) and 283 lb-ft of torque and with an increased data compresion ratio, a 10% fuel performance was achieved. Performance wise, this particular equated to a 0-60 mph associated with 13 seconds and a top speed associated with 97 mph. Extremely rapid for that 1950’ s.

This didn’ t take long for other brands Dodge, Plymouth and Pontiac to have the same idea. while the Rocket 88 moved away from its roots plus became a much larger vehicle, evolving into a full-size sedan.

You could argue that the Rocket 88 was the first V8 engine vehicle to tick all the muscle vehicle boxes. The Studebaker also has an affordable say in the story. But , whenever talking about muscle cars, the 1964 Pontiac GTO is the nearest design template to the classic era of the past due 1960’ s and early 70’ s, especially with a more potent 389 ci. (6. 4 L) OF V8 producing 325hp.

  Like many changing muscle cars, the GTO strike its stride in 1968 with all the second-generation model. This body shape is exactly what we came to know as a traditional muscle car, along with a huge 400ci. (6. 6 L) or 455ci. (7. 5 L) V8. However as for which model was the very first out of the blocks, is not just open intended for debate, but as is the term by itself.

We’ ve already been down this rabbit warren a great bunch of times with these previous articles . There is no concrete moment in time where the term ‘ muscle car’ was first used. As long as the automobile has existed, it’ s been referred to through the years as having ‘ muscle. ’ Plus, the very debatable point around the Wikipedia muscle car page which usually says that the original muscle vehicles were actually referred to as ‘ supercars’. (if anyone out there can give more clarification on the supercar thing, make sure you comment below. )

Which means that the term will always be seen retrospectively, with the terminology being added to automobiles which were not referred to as muscle vehicles until many years later. Which means just about all three of the examples above might be muscle cars, none of them or maybe a single, depending on which side of the mattress you got out of.

Regarding conclusions, we don’ t genuinely have one. Apart from if you want to go off the current definition and this can still be unclear. The Mustang and Camaro are usually referred to as muscle cars, but firmly you should call them pony vehicles. Which means if you want to be liberal oriented about the whole affair, the Studebaker could be ‘ one’ of the authentic muscle cars.

Such as many great ideas, there’ t usually lots of reference points. It’ s clear that the late 1940’ s and 1950’ s introduced lots of innovation, with the need for good luck and performance. The V8 with no replacement for displacement were the mindsets and those should be the areas of celebration instead of who was the first out of the gates.

The post Was the Studebaker The First Muscle Car? appeared first on Muscle Car .

[thecrownnet]

Netflix's 'The Crown' dives into the ups and downs of a power couple in Season 2

LA Times Dec 1, 2017

In early May, the queen arrived at Hornsey Town Hall in London. The 1930s building, now an arts center, was standing in for a hospital on the final episode of the second season of “The Crown,” which premieres Dec. 8 on Netflix. The queen was actually actress Claire Foy, dressed in a perfectly crisp suit. A crowd gathered outside, watching Foy enter and exit a vintage car over the course of several takes, each time trying to get her motions exact. Later, inside the building, director Ben Caron debated with the crew over exactly how the hospital workers would greet their monarch.

These details are the essence of “The Crown,” created and written by Peter Morgan. Even areas of the Town Hall that wouldn’t appear in any shots were made up like the hallways of a 1960s hospital, a reminder that the show’s attention to the minutiae is one of the reasons it’s become such a success worldwide.

The 10 episodes of Season 2 were filmed on 398 sets with approximately 6,500 actors and extras over the course of nearly eight months. Morgan admits that it was a struggle to get Season 2 completed on time with his specifications, despite the reported production budget of $100 million. “It was only because they were so kind and agreed to shoot anything I wrote,” Morgan said. “They begged me to do fewer locations, but I don’t seem to be able to do that.” He added, “I just think the more specific you are, the better it is.”

Season 2 opens in 1956, detailing the response to the Suez Crisis, and runs through 1963, concluding with the retirement of former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan following the Profumo Affair. For Morgan, the challenge was to highlight iconic events of that time while also digging deeper to uncover events lost to the past. It took Morgan and his team of researchers a year to conceive and write the episodes.

“That process takes me ages,” Morgan said. “It’s what I spend the longest time doing — really mapping out the whole season. Part of the process is avoiding making this feel like one of those ridiculous history programs. You realize that history is so reductive and what has become the official narrative of the 1960s only tells part of the story. What you want to do is find some unexpected stories each time without making it obtuse and weird.”

One of these forgotten stories emerges midway through the season. In 1957, John Grigg, also known as Lord Altrincham, wrote an article speaking out against the queen. It marked the first time anyone had really criticized the royal family in a public manner and caused a serious outcry.

“It’s a real point of change for her and a real point of weakness in her character,” Foy explained of Elizabeth. “She becomes very affected by how the public perceives her. That’s not something she’s ever had to deal with — being criticized — really. Suddenly to be criticized and have her voice and what she looks like become something that everyone’s talking about, that’s when she’s really vulnerable.”

For Foy, a central theme of this season is how the queen reacts — or doesn’t react. We see the issues in her marriage to Prince Philip (Matt Smith) and her tenuous relationship to her sister Margaret (Vanessa Kirby), but in public, the queen historically has put on a careful, considered demeanor, sometimes even to her own detriment.

“I realized that, although she seemingly can handle everything in a calm, considered, unruffled way, I think in this [season] you see the wheels come off,” Foy noted. “You see how difficult she finds things and that actually her way of dealing with it is not healthy. She needs to lose her temper. She needs to let it out more. There is a point to where she could face up to the situation that she’s in and admit it to herself, but that would be too costly to do that and too painful.”

Elizabeth’s relationship to Philip takes center stage throughout much of the season, particularly as the couple faces raising several young children while running the country. For Smith, the tensions between the two are among the most interesting moments.

“He’s got a huge conflict in him between his duty to his wife and his duty to himself as a man,” Smith said. “All the conflicts in his marriage are always quite satisfying to play because it’s quite a rich tapestry emotionally.” He added, of the historical accuracy, “It’s Peter Morgan’s version of what happens. There wasn’t a camera in there recording these things. It’s impressionistic, but it’s based on as much fact as we can gather.”

Those intimate moments between the couple are one of the reasons viewers gravitate to “The Crown.” The Windsor family is unique in position and stature, but they’re like any other family in many ways.

“Ultimately it’s about the relationships between a mother and a daughter, a man and a wife, two sisters,” said Smith. “It’s about relationships in a work environment. It’s about things that are universal in nature and therefore I think it speaks to different cultures and people in different places around the world.”

“It’s a uniquely successful marriage, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its ups and downs,” Morgan added of Elizabeth and Philip. “In those stresses and strains, that we all experience, we can identify.”

For Foy, the appeal of “The Crown” is in the idea that a TV series doesn’t need an extreme premise to gain an audience. Although Netflix doesn’t release viewership numbers, it’s clear that the show has fans from multiple generations who connect to these key moments in time and relate to the royal family, even from afar.

“Sometimes you can make something beautifully and with real heart and truth and just make it really, really, really well,” Foy said. “I think people see that on-screen. They see it’s not a manipulation of them as an audience or trying to appeal to them every five seconds or trying to subvert anything every five seconds. And the idea of seeing behind the veil and seeing this family when you never normally would and getting to know them as people is why they have taken it to their heart.”

“There are very few human beings that are alive who haven’t had [Elizabeth] as a central iconic character in their lives,” Morgan added. “She binds together people internationally. Everybody has been conscious of this woman and her life and her position. The image of her face has been everywhere.” That face will change in Season 3, as new actors arrive to play the lead roles. So far only Olivia Colman has been cast to replace Foy for Seasons 3 and 4, after which another re-casting will take place for the planned final two seasons. Morgan’s intention was always to switch up the cast every two seasons, another instance of genuine detail. Colman was Morgan’s only choice to take over as Queen Elizabeth and according to him, she said yes immediately. She didn’t audition or read before being cast.

“It felt like a natural thing to do in the same way you see the queen’s portrait changing on the stamp,” Morgan noted. “It made sense to have somebody of the right age portraying her.”

Foy will miss the show, but has always been prepared for her inevitable exit. “We knew that from the very beginning,” the actress said. “These parts have already been reincarnated several times. I’m not the first person to play her. So that is in the nature of the story for them to carry on and change and evolve into someone else.”

The actress is aware of the power a show like “The Crown,” which reaches so many different people, can have. She doesn’t necessarily believe that we should look to the past for lessons, but Foy sees “The Crown” as a strong reminder that humanity does often reflect backward.

“It’s very important to look at what is happening now and think about how on earth it will be viewed in 60, 70, 80, 90 years and what future generations will think of the choices that we’re making now,” said Foy. “And what does it mean? What are the consequences of the decisions we’re making? Sometimes people could do with stepping back and going, ‘What is the message we’re trying to send out to our future generations about who we are now?’”

[ramajmedia]

Christian Bale's 10 Best Movies, According To Rotten Tomatoes

Few actors have managed to walk the line between tiny-scale indies and mega-sized blockbusters like Christian Bale has. He’s played a wide range of different roles – from John Connor to Patrick Bateman; Dick Cheney to Batman – working with all kinds of acclaimed, masterful directors, from Inception’s Christopher Nolan to Anchorman’s Adam McKay. Bale also has a longevity that not many movie stars can hope for, starting out as a child actor in Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun and still going strong today. He’s made a ton of movies: some good, some not so good, and a few great. Here are Christian Bale’s 10 Best Movies, According To Rotten Tomatoes.

RELATED: Christian Bale’s 10 Greatest Roles, Ranked

10 The Dark Knight Rises (87%)

There was no way that The Dark Knight Rises would live up to expectations. Tom Hardy’s Bane had to top Heath Ledger’s Joker, the opening IMAX sequence had to top The Dark Knight’s opening bank robbery, and the whole thing had to conclude Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy in a satisfying way. The fact that the movie ended up being praised by fans and critics – albeit acknowledging that it wasn’t as great as its predecessor – is nothing short of a Herculean feat. Nolan cashed in all of his chips, bowing out the trilogy with a gargantuan epic inspired by A Tale of Two Cities.

9 3:10 to Yuma (89%)

Ever since the western genre died out, it’s been tough for Hollywood to turn out a memorable entry in the genre. However, James Mangold managed it with 3:10 to Yuma, his remake of the 1957 movie of the same name that was an adaptation of the Elmore Leonard short story of the same name.

RELATED: Best In the West: Top 10 Western Movies of the 2010s, Ranked

Christian Bale plays a rancher whose livelihood is threatened by a drought. He takes on the difficult task of bringing an outlaw, played by Russell Crowe, to justice. It has the same black-and-white view of good and evil that has given the western genre such longevity.

8 Rescue Dawn (90%)

In this biopic directed by Werner Herzog, Christian Bale plays a German-American pilot named Dieter Dengler, who was shot down over Laos and captured by communist-sympathizing villagers during the Vietnam War. Rescue Dawn may have been a box office bomb, but it’s still a brilliant movie. Herzog’s direction immerses us deep in the jungles of Thailand, where the movie was shot. There’s no mistaking it for a backlot or a forest in California – this is the real deal. Plus, Bale’s performance as Dengler is captivating. He anchors the whole movie. It feels much more raw and honest than your average prisoner-of-war movie.

7 TIE: Little Women (91%)

There’s another film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel Little Women in the works from Lady Bird director Greta Gerwig. It’ll star Saoirse Ronan, Meryl Streep, Laura Dern, Emma Watson, and Timothée Chalamet. The last major film adaptation came out in 1994. In the 1994 version, Christian Bale played Laurie, the childhood best friend of Winona Ryder’s character Jo (the lead role to be played by Ronan in the new one) who grows up to fall in love with her. He spends the movie trying to get her to marry him, but she doesn’t want to, so he ends up with her little sister.

6 TIE: The Fighter (91%)

Christian Bale won an Oscar for his turn in The Fighter, David O. Russell’s impeccably crafted biopic of boxer Micky Ward and his half-brother Dicky Eklund. Bale lost a ton of weight to play Eklund, but playing the role required Bale to do more than just impersonate his Boston accent. He has very distinctive mannerisms that Bale had to lock down, and his dedication to the part was unparalleled. His performance is seamless from start to finish. Performances like this are why they hand out Oscars in the first place (even though no one really cares about them anymore) – they need to be recognized.

5 The Big Short (88%)

The mortgage crisis has been used as the basis for a number of movies in the past decade or so since it first happened, but the world of banking just doesn’t look that exciting when it’s portrayed on-screen. Adam McKay made his best effort to pull off an entertaining movie about men in suits looking at numbers on computer screens with celebrities explaining financial jargon in cameo appearances and A-list actors like Ryan Gosling and Steve Carell in the lead roles, but he still fell a little short. Although it’s not a particularly riveting movie, Christian Bale is still fantastic in it.

4 American Hustle (93%)

Years ago, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi set out to make a darkly comic movie about the FBI’s Abscam operation, but it never got off the ground. David O. Russell’s revival of this subject matter is just as darkly comic and star-studded as that movie would’ve been. It takes pretty obvious inspiration from the works of Martin Scorsese – the only downside being that it has Scorsese’s style without his substance. While the plot itself isn’t too compelling in American Hustle, its humor is as hilarious as it can be. One running joke in particular, involving Bradley Cooper trying to guess the end of Louis C.K.’s ice-fishing story, is brilliant (although, unfortunately, it involves Louis C.K.).

3 The Dark Knight (94%)

After 11 years of MCU installments, with a handful of inspired gems and a dozen others following a winning formula, it’s astounding that The Dark Knight still remains undefeated as the greatest superhero movie ever made. Christopher Nolan’s sequel succeeds due to pretty primal elements.

RELATED: 10 Ways The DCEU Would Be Different If It Started With The Dark Knight Trilogy

It builds on the dichotomy of Bruce Wayne and Batman (with a layered performance by Christian Bale to back it up), it presents the quintessential movie villain with a personal connection to the hero (making way for Heath Ledger to win an unprecedented posthumous Oscar), and it’s impeccably made, shot mostly on IMAX to feel genuinely cinematic.

2 TIE: Henry V (100%)

This movie based on William Shakespeare’s play Henry V was directed by Kenneth Branagh, one of the world’s foremost directors of Shakespearean film adaptations, who also wrote the script – retaining the play’s tight five-act structure – and played the lead role. Henry V is widely regarded to be one of the best Shakespearean movies of all time. Christian Bale only had a small role as Robin, the luggage boy, but he was just a child actor at the time, and any child who can keep up with that unwieldy, old-timey Shakespearean dialogue and follow what’s going on is pretty impressive – hell, that’s impressive for an adult.

1 TIE: Ford v Ferrari (100%)

Just two years after helming a beautiful, Oscar-nominated send-off for Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine with 2017’s Logan, director James Mangold is back with the true-to-life tale of the Ford racing team’s desperate efforts to finally beat the undefeated Ferrari team on the track. Matt Damon stars as the renowned car designer Carroll Shelby, while Christian Bale is playing his British driver, Ken Miles. Ford v Ferrari won’t hit theaters until this November, but it’s already had its world premiere and the critics’ verdict is in. From the film’s rare 100% score, it’s pretty clear that this one isn’t to be missed.

NEXT: Scarlett Johansson's 10 Best Movies, According To Rotten Tomatoes

source https://screenrant.com/rotten-tomatoes-christian-bale-movies/

[i-am-very-very-tired]

A pair of famous faces took center stage in London Wednesday night as Omega commemorated 60 years of its iconic Speedmaster. “I did say black tie,” George Clooney jokingly admonished to Buzz Aldrin onstage at Omega’s gala dinner, which took place at London’s Tate Modern Wednesday evening. Clooney was outfitted in his go-to Armani tux, but the legendary astronaut entered wearing a replica of his iconic Apollo 11 spacesuit—the original resides in Washington, D.C.’s, National Air and Space Museum—after a stunt double floated high above the 300-plus audience, a global mix of Omega VIP clients and journalists. For the briefest second you had to wonder if that just might be Aldrin up in the air—this is a man who has trekked to both the North and South Poles and down to the Titanic since he and Neil Armstrong first stepped on the moon on July 20th, 1969. But Aldrin is, after all, 87 years old, and while he remains filled with gung-ho energy (as his recent stint on Dancing With the Stars will attest), Omega was taking no chances with a bona fide American hero. Aldrin was just one component of the Swiss-based watchmaker’s plans for the gala, christened “Lost in Space.” In the dark, cavernous Tate Modern space, the event’s futuristic design seemed to reference a variety of space films—a heavily backlit, monolith-like entrance felt equal parts Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 2001: A Space Odyssey, while Aldrin’s stunt double tumbling through the air evoked thoughts of Clooney’s ill-fated character in Gravity. But ultimately this was a tribute to a watch, which likewise enjoys its own history in space: the iconic Speedmaster chronograph, celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. Originally developed in 1957 as a watch for racing and other sporting pursuits in which the ability to precisely time an event was key, the Speedmaster soon caught the eye of NASA, partly because a few of the test pilots in its burgeoning space program were already wearing it. Fast-forward to 1969, and it was a Speedmaster that Aldrin wore on the lunar surface, a moment that also earned the model its nickname: Moonwatch. (That was just the start of NASA’s relationship with Omega—indeed, Netflix Apollo 13 to be reminded of the integral role the watch played in that mission.) Earlier on Wednesday, Clooney got a chance to spend some private time with Aldrin, and while he’s participated in Omega ad campaigns for 15 years, at the gala he said he was there more as a fan than spokesman. “I was 8 years old, and we were watching live on television as Neil and Buzz were the first two human beings to step on the moon,” he remembered. “There have only been 12 people ever to do it in the world, so it’s an exceptional honor to meet him and be here with him tonight.” Clooney also noted that he owned a Speedmaster long before Omega approached him to participate in campaigns. “Speedmasters were a big part of my family growing up; my uncle and my father, we all had them because it was such a big part of the moon landing,” he said, adding that he received his first Speedmaster from his father as a graduation present. “There’s every reason to love them because they’re elegant watches. But I also love them because of the history.” That a Speedmaster was Clooney’s first watch didn’t surprise Omega president and CEO Raynald Aeschlimann. “We have a lot of people buying it as a first watch,” he said. “Even after 60 years, its power and charisma have not diminished.” Aldrin offered his reminiscences of the Apollo 11 experience after being asked if he had felt nervous before the perilous undertaking. “We weren’t scared,” he said. “We were proud to have been able to represent everyone and to have the skills and knowledge to carry out something that was very meaningful to us as astronauts, of course, but also to so many other people.” But he also didn’t miss a chance to rib Clooney for acting the part of a spaceman in Gravity. The Oscar-winning actor was ready with a response: “He’s just jealous because I had Sandy Bullock as [a fellow] astronaut.” But with a handful of fellow A-listers in the room—including Joely Richardson, Liv Tyler, Gemma Arterton, and Laura Carmichael—Clooney was quick to admit that play-acting ultimately will never compare to the real thing. “What we do is pretend,” he said. “We put on costumes and pretend to be Buzz, but we don’t really experience any of that, as you know.” His fandom of Aldrin and the space program was clearly in evidence as he concluded his remarks: “It mattered to all of us,” Clooney said. “What you did mattered to all of us, and I can’t thank you enough for your courage, your leadership, and everything you've done.” Omega’s celebration wrapped up around midnight with an appearance from ESKA; on a stage high above a towering wall of video monitors, the London-born singer performed a song originally released just five days before Apollo 11’s launch. You guessed it: David Bowie’s Space Oddity.

[auburnfamilynews]

Auburn football’s 2010s weren’t actually bookended by Outback Bowls. The 38-35 victory over Northwestern 10 years ago rightfully belongs to the 2009 season; if you count that as part of the just-concluded decade, you have to logically shift the Tigers’ recent 31-24 defeat to Minnesota to the 2020s.

But who cares about logic in the face of a narrative contrast like this? 10 years ago, Auburn went to Tampa with a 7-5 record, no top-25 ranking, and an SEC mark that left them sharing the West cellar with Arkansas and Mississippi State. But Gus Malzahn’s exciting offense, cathartic wins over West Virginia and Ole Miss, and a stirring challenge of undefeated Alabama had Auburn fans buzzing enough for the Outback folks to take the Tigers over several equally qualified SEC candidates. Against the Wildcats, Auburn didn’t play well at all — Northwestern racked up 34 first downs and outgained the Tigers by 196 yards — but squeaked out an OT win thanks to a bevy of Wildcat turnovers, missed field goals and general lack of explosiveness. With a five-star JUCO quarterback signee tailor-made for Malzahn’s attack already on his way, Auburn fans entered the offseason universally thrilled about the direction of the program.

A few weeks ago, Auburn went to Tampa with a 9-3 record, a No. 12 ranking in the polls (and a top-5 resume according to SP+), and the glory of another riveting, emotional Jordan-Hare victory over Alabama. But 10-win seasons for four other SEC teams meant an Outback bid nonetheless, against a Gophers team that had gone 10-2 itself. The Auburn defense struggled for much of the first half, the offense for much of the second half, and in the end the Tigers were outgained by 262 yards in a game that wasn’t as close as the 31-24 final. With major questions to answer along both lines of scrimmage and the offense’s continued habit of collapsing for long stretches against quality opponents, even Auburn fans who still support Malzahn enter the offseason ambivalent about the direction of the program.

Two seasons, two Auburn teams, one of which was easily better, one of which accomplished more, one of which represented a stronger and more stable Auburn program. But the other got a much easier opponent in its bowl, an opponent who played much worse. So that’s that team who gave Tiger fans the better feelings entering the offseason.

Two Outback Bowls, 10 years apart. The 2020 edition didn’t leave Auburn fans less happy because these Tigers weren’t as good. In fact, they were much better. The competition just got much harder.

There’s your decade.

Let’s briefly list Auburn’s accomplishments over the past 10 seasons:

— The program’s only national championship since 1957

— Two conference championships, tying with LSU for the most of any SEC team other than Alabama in that span

— Three SEC West titles, more than any team other than Alabama in that span. Among all SEC teams, only the Tide and Georgia claimed more division titles

— Four BCS or New Year’s Six bowl berths, tying Florida for the most in that span among SEC teams other than Alabama

— Four wins over Alabama, with the Tide ranked No. 9, No. 1, No. 1 and No. 5 at the time of Auburn’s victories. Those wins represented 36 percent of all SEC wins over Alabama during the decade, with the rest of the conference going a combined 7-70 against the Tide

— Defeated unbeaten No. 1 Georgia and unbeaten No. 1 Alabama in the space of three weeks in November 2017

— This

— This

— This

— This

— This

— This

Given the ruggedness of the current SEC and the depth of Auburn’s accomplishments, the 2010s were Auburn football’s greatest postwar decade aside from the 1980s. If you give extra weight to what we might call the program’s extracurriculars — a Heisman trophy winner and an all-time college football legend in Cam Newton, the most unexpected and exhilarating regular season in recent college football memory in 2013, the wonder of November 2017, the catharsis of beating Bama for Rod and Paula, nothing less than the greatest play in the history of college football — you could argue the 2010s were Auburn football’s greatest postwar decade, the end.

Either way, the person far and away most responsible for that decade is Gus Malzahn.

————————————-

It’s the rancor I don’t get.

Wanting Gus let go: that I do, sure. Despite the midseason run in 2016 and the records set in 2017, for six seasons now Gus’s offense has shown all the steady reliability of a teenage TCBY employee. Those offensive collapses have meant a long string of soul-pummeling defeats far more frustrating to experience than they appear to be on paper. (Given that LSU just cemented themselves as one of the best college football teams ever assembled, “LSU 23, Auburn 20” reads as the sort of score Tiger fans could look back on with fondness for a valiant effort. Nope!) That simultaneously keeping up with Saban’s Alabama, Smart’s Georgia and now Coach O’s LSU is a herculean task doesn’t mean it’s not the task assigned to Auburn’s head coach. If Gus can’t perform it — and as the Minnesota game reminded us, the offense’s vanishing act doesn’t seem like a problem he’s yet learned how to resolve — Auburn should try to find someone who can. In theory, that person would only have to maintain what’s already a more-than-capable defense while building an offense that simply has to avoid melting down like so much grilled cheese vs. the teams that matter. Shouldn’t be so hard, right?

I can’t bring myself to agree with that argument. But if you want to make it, be my guest. There’s a logic to it.

What there’s no logic to is looking at Auburn’s 2010s and snarling about how Gus sucks. There’s no thinking behind looking at everything Malzahn has brought to this program — as both coordinator and head coach, on the field and off — and yowling like a hurt cat that he needs to be fired yesterday. There’s nothing rational about being more angry over bowl losses to UCF or Minnesota than you are happy over Iron Bowl victories over Alabama.

College football fandom is an inherently irrational enterprise, I know, and I can’t sit here and guarantee that no other coach would have achieved what Malzahn did at Auburn these past 10 seasons. But I can guarantee an unholy crapton of coaches would not have. Many, many coaches would have lost that game on Nov. 30, would have let Derrick Brown and Marlon Davidson and Kam Martin and a whole lot of other good Auburn Tigers walk off Pat Dye Field for the final time as losers.

He didn’t. For goodness’ sake, some of you, show some damn gratitude.

———————————

I wrote before the Georgia game that Auburn football couldn’t stay in the same place. It needed to beat Georgia and Alabama and move forward with confidence under Gus, or lose to Georgia and Alabama and move forward under someone else, or split and watch Gus ride off into an Arkansas sunset.

The moment the Tide fell for Gus’s punt team shenanigans, none of those scenarios had a chance. Auburn wasn’t ever firing a coach that had gone 9-3 against that schedule with that win over Alabama. Gus wasn’t ever leaving a job where he can win a national title for one where he can’t if his seat isn’t white-hot.

So it turns out Auburn could enter the new decade in the same place after all. Gus will take another stab at stopping his offense from falling down a flight of stairs four times a year; the defense and recruiting will push ahead as their usual high-caliber selves; the fans will keep bickering in endless circles, trying and failing to make sense of a program that should be good enough to make us unambiguously happy but doesn’t.

Personally, y’all, I don’t know. I’ve given up on knowing. “I don’t want Gus fired, but I want a new coach, but there’s no new coach I want” is, obviously, gobbledygook. Nonetheless, it’s all true: I don’t want Gus fired. But I want a new coach. But there’s no new coach I want.

Gus hasn’t been nearly poor enough that I ought to want a new head coach. I know this. I remember all of the above. But for my entire Auburn life, a Tigers decade has been defined by a single coach: the ’80s by Dye, the ’90s by Bowden (mostly), the Aughts by Tubby, the 2010s by Gus. After 2018, after Florida and LSU and Georgia and Minnesota, I struggle to believe Gus still has enough of his offensive fastball to get Auburn off the train platform and onto somewhere better. The 2020s seem likely to belong to someone else.

I would like to find out who that might be. I would like an end to the endless arguments about Gus in my Twitter mentions. I would like to quit writing pieces addressing whether he should remain head coach. I would like to express my opinions about Auburn’s coaching position and have them not be gobbledygook.

But that’s not happening yet, and that’s OK, too. Another year of life in the muddled gray area won’t kill us (probably). Maybe having an experienced coordinator aboard Gus knows and trusts makes a difference. Maybe Tank Bigsby gives Auburn a Kerryon-esque anchor at running back, and that makes a difference. Maybe the lighter schedule makes a difference. It’s college football; there’s a hundred things we can’t see that could make a difference.

Another thing we can’t see: who on earth Auburn could hire who we’d confidently say would do better.

I’m ready for whatever the next stage of Auburn football might be. But considering what Gus Malzahn has given us — and that it’s unclear if anyone else could give us anything more in the near future than he will — I can wait for that stage a little while longer.

Photo via.

from The War Eagle Reader https://www.thewareaglereader.com/2020/01/a-decade-under-the-gusfluence/

[thewalkingsnapplecap]

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Who Started the Flat Earth Conspiracy Theory?

Contrary to popular belief, a decent percentage of the human population has known definitely the Earth was roughly spherical for over two thousand years. Hardly impressive, as noted in our BrainFood Show podcast, bees also use this fact in their own absurdly fascinating navigation and in communicating directions to other bees.

As for humans, we took a little longer to realize this, with Pythagoras (6th century B.C.) generally credited with being the first known person to have suggested a spherical Earth, though the idea didn't exactly catch on at this point. Aristotle (4th century B.C.) agreed and supported the hypothesis with observations such as that the southern constellations rise higher in the sky when a person travels south. He also noted that during a lunar eclipse the Earth's shadow is round. Much more definitively, the 3rd century BC head librarian at the Library of Alexandria, Eratosthenes, built on their ideas and managed to calculate the circumference of the Earth with remarkable accuracy. How? He simply used the knowledge that at noon on the Summer Solstice there was a well in Syene where the sun shown directly down to the bottom, with no shadow. Thus, at noon on Summer Soltice he used a rod to measure the angle of the shadow made in Alexandria and found it to be about 7 degrees or about 1/50th of a circle. With this information, he now just needed to know the exact distance between Syene and Alexandria to get the circumference of the Earth (about 50 times the distance between Syene and Alexandria). He hired a survey crew, known as bematists, to measure the distance, which they found to be about 5,000 stadia. He then concluded the Earth must be about 250,000 stadia around. Depending on which stadion measurement he was using, his figure was either just 1% too small or 16% too large. Many scholars think it likely that he was using the Egyptian stadion (157.5 m), being in Egypt at the time, which would make his estimate roughly 1% too small.

Moving on to the so called Dark Ages in which Christianity supposedly squashed such outlandish ideas as a spherical Earth, the truth is actually the opposite. In Christian medieval Europe, 7th century Catholic monk and scholar Bede produced an influential treatise that included a discussion of the spherical nature of the world. This work, The Reckoning of Time, was copied and distributed to clerics across the Carolingian empire. Later, in the 1300s, Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy also describes the Earth as a sphere and again nobody seemed to have a problem with this.

The Catholics and later other branches of Christianity weren't the only religious sects that seemed to have its clergy and scholars almost universally think the world was spherical. The Islamic world also concurred. As historian Jeffrey Burton Russell sums up,

With extraordinary few exceptions, no educated person in the history of Western Civilization from the third century B.C. onward believed that the Earth was flat.

Beyond the academics of the Western world, even the most empty headed sailor knew the Earth was spherical simply by the fact that ships disappear over the horizon with the bottom first and then the mast the last to be sighted. A similar effect is observed when spotting land from a ship. It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to realize the sea's surface must curve continually.

Despite this, there really still is a tiny percentage of the populace of the developed world who believe the world is flat.

You might at this point be wondering just how many? While internet comment threads make it seem as if the percentage is large, the reality is probably drastically less. (Comment trolls gonna troll.)

As for some numbers, according to a 2018 poll run by the massive market research firm YouGov, the 8,215 responses which were chosen to have a high probability of accurately representing the wider adult populace, showed,

84% of respondents said they have always believed the world is round

5% stated "I always thought the world is round, but more recently I am skeptical/have doubts",

2% stated "I always thought the world is flat, but more recently I am skeptical/have doubts"

and 2% went with "I have always believed the world is flat".

The remaining 7% stated "Other/not sure".

While the good people at YouGov certainly know their stuff with respect to getting accurate data that represents the wider populace, we were curious as to what a larger sample of our own audience would reveal, though with the caveat that a general internet poll can sometimes be notoriously inaccurate. But for the curious and for whatever it's worth, our poll asking more or less the same questions received over 72,000 votes. What were the results? Approximately

96% of respondents stated they "firmly believe the world is round",

1% went with "I used to firmly believe the world is round, but now have doubts"

1% voted for "I firmly believe the world is flat"

0% stated "I used to firmly believe the world is flat, but now have doubts"

1% noted "I am not sure what I believe on this issue."

These numbers seem surprisingly reasonable for an online poll when compared to something a little more rigorously implemented like the YouGov poll. While our numbers skew more towards Round Earthers, this is perhaps to be expected given we know definitively that our audience skews towards being much more educated than the general populace.

And just because we were curious about the many, many online trolls who, as stated, it's our pet hypothesis are actually making it seem like there are a lot more Flat Earthers than there actually are, we did a follow up poll which got 54,000 votes. For whatever it's worth, in this one, approximately

9% of respondents stated "I believe the world is round, but sometimes say online it's flat"

2% stated "I believe the world is flat and advocate this position online"

The remaining 89% stated "Neither applies to me."

(And, yes, we know those numbers don't add up to exactly 100% in either case, but YouTube's polling system rounds to the whole number, so here we are.)

Those numbers out of the way, this finally brings us to who started the relatively modern Flat Earth movement and how on God's oblate spheroid Earth this movement is actually growing in an era where nearly all human knowledge is almost literally at everyone's fingertips?

The genesis of the modern Flat Earth Society started in the mid-19th century thanks to one Samuel Rowbotham of London, England. Dropping out of school at the tender age of 9, Rowbotham would eventually become convinced, or at least claimed he was, that not only was the Earth flat, but that everything we see in the heavens is actually only a few thousand miles from the Earth- stars and all. While his ideas were absurd for an incredible number of reasons, even given the technology and scientific knowledge of his era, what Rowbatham had going for him was he was reportedly incredibly quick on his feet in debates and an extremely charismatic speaker, able to twist the words of even the best academics. It didn't matter if he was actually right or not, only that he was better at convincing laypeople than the academics he regularly debated, or at least good at creating reasonable doubt. As noted by a contemporary article published in the Leeds Times,

One thing he did demonstrate was that scientific dabblers unused to platform advocacy are unable to cope with a man, a charlatan if you will (but clever and thoroughly up in his theory), thoroughly alive to the weakness of his opponents.

Besides making a small fortune public speaking, he also wrote various works including a book aptly titled Earth Not a Globe. Rowbotham ultimately created the Zetetic Society, which, besides advocating for a flat Earth, also advocated that only facts one could prove themselves could be accepted as true. On the side, Rowbotham also began going by "Dr. Samuel Birley" and making money selling people on cure-alls and life extenders of his own invention, among other such activities.

While by the early 20th century the society he started had gradually faded into even more obscurity than it already was at its peak during Rowbotham's lifetime, all was not lost. The truth cannot be killed so easily! In 1956 when mankind was on the verge of putting a satellite in orbit, Samuel Shenton of Dover, UK, came across the former works of the Universal Zetetic Society, the successor to Rowbotham's, and was hooked. He then established the International Flat Earth Research Society (IFERS) which adopted some of the ideas of the Zetetic Society before it, most notably, as you might have guessed from their new name, that the Earth is flat.

Of course, his timing wasn't exactly ideal given the launch of Sputnik in 1957 which, beyond being in orbit, put out a signal that anyone with a little know-how could track, very clearly demonstrating the spherical nature of the Earth.

This didn't faze him in the slightest, however. He simply noted that satellites circled over the disc of the world and that, "Would sailing round the Isle of Wight prove that it were spherical? It is just the same for those satellites."

When pictures of the Earth were taken from space clearly showing the planet's spherical nature, the man who strongly advocated trusting what you can see with your own eyes stated, "It's easy to see how a photograph like that could fool the untrained eye."

When astronauts came back still believing the Earth wasn't flat, he went with the catch-all explanation for any conspiracy theory when no other suitable explanation can be thought up- "It's a deception of the public and it isn't right."

Despite the giant, roughly spherical mound of evidence staring the members right in the face, including the variety easily confirmed by anyone with a modicum of knowledge in physics, the society did not die completely, though by 1972 had dropped from a peak of about 3,000 members down to around 100 spanning the globe.

That same year Shenton died and Californian Charles Johnson more or less took over the remnants, creating the International Flat Earth Research Society of America. Johnson also advocated that there was a global conspiracy with regards to the very flat Earth, not just today, but spanning millennia. To quote him, this was a conspiracy that "Moses, Columbus, and FDR all fought" against. Beyond that Columbus most definitely thought that the Earth was roughly spherical, simply misjudging its circumference, we're guessing Moses didn't have to fight anyone on this one as the Ancient Egyptians firmly believed in the concept of a flat Earth, as did seemingly the Hebrews around the time he supposedly lived.

So what exactly do the world's governments and countless scientists and high school physics students throughout human history have to gain by convincing people the world is spherical instead of flat? Well, Johnson advocated that this is a tool used by scientists to get rid of religion. Of course, as noted, Christian scholars throughout history on the whole advocated for the very spherical Earth and we're not aware of any major religious denomination the world over today that goes with the flat Earth model, so no apparent conflict... But, hey, we guess Eratosthenes must have really had it in for those Ancient Egyptian and Greek gods...

In any event, despite Johnson's less than compelling arguments, over time this new society actually gained followers up to a peak of about 3,500 members under his leadership. Disaster struck, however, when a fire at headquarters destroyed some of the records of membership in 1997. Ultimately Johnson himself passed away in 2001 and the society was temporarily just as dead.

All was not lost, however, as there is no medium greater than the Internet at giving humans ability to discover the truth in anything for themselves... if we weren't all so lazy and our monkey brains not so chock full of cognitive biases.

And so it was that in 2004, one Daniel Shenton created a discussion forum home for the mostly dead Flat Earth Society and by 2009 a new wiki website was created in its place, with the society slowly growing from there to apparently around 500 members to date. There are also many Flat Earth pages and channels on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube sometimes exceeding 100K members or subscribers of a given page, channel, or profile, for whatever that's worth.

In the latest incarnation of the society, as with their forebears, the modern group strongly advocates for only accepting that which you can see with your own eyes and prove with your own efforts. As they note on their website,

The simplest is by relying on ones own senses to discern the true nature of the world around us. The world looks flat, the bottoms of clouds are flat, the movement of the Sun; these are all examples of your senses telling you that we do not live on a spherical heliocentric world. This is using what's called an empirical approach, or an approach that relies on information from your senses. Alternatively, when using Descartes' method of Cartesian doubt to skeptically view the world around us, one quickly finds that the notion of a spherical world is the theory which has the burden of proof and not flat earth theory.

As for the model of the Earth they go with, while there is some dissension among the ranks over exact details, the current belief advocated by the Flat Earth Society is that the the Earth is disc shaped. The North Pole lies at the center of this disc and there is an ice wall surrounding the outer most parts of the Earth that keeps the oceans contained. This wall is nearly impossible to reach owing to the fact that NASA is closely guarding it, ensuring no one ever gets close enough to see it for themselves. NASA also is extremely active in generating satellite photos of the Earth and generating other data all meant to keep people believing in a spherical Earth. Seemingly the Google Earth team must be in on it too, clearly abandoning the company's long held unofficial mantra of "Don't be evil."

As evidence of this conspiracy and how far reaching it is, they also point out on their website that the United Nations emblem strongly resembles the Flat Earth Society's view of what the Earth actually looks like.

(We guess clearly showing the logo design team, led by industrial designer Oliver Lincoln Lundquist, in 1945, didn't get the memo that the true shape of the Earth was supposed to be a secret. You had one job Lundquist!!!

To be fair, however, when his team designed it, it was originally just supposed to be used on the badges at the United Nations Charter signing conference, so only for people who already knew the Earth was flat... Fun fact, Lundquist did, however, make up for the screw up by later designing the classic blue and white Q-tip box.)

In any event, you might at this point be wondering how the Flat Earth Society believes commercial airlines and ships the world over continue to seemingly travel in one direction and manage to circle the globe. Well, this is because these ships and planes are literally circling. They state, "circumnavigation is performed by moving in a great circle around the North Pole."

As for how the ship and plane captains don't seem to be aware of this, in modern times it's because GPS devices and autopilots are designed in software to simply make it seem like the craft is circling a globe and not continually turning slightly. Of course, it's not clear how they account for people tricking themselves when navigating before or without GPS, which has only been ubiquitous for a couple decades or so. (See: Who Invented GPS and How Does It Work?)

There's also the fact that fuel burn on these ships and airplanes are carefully calculated, particularly important for planes where weight and balance is always an essential consideration if one doesn't want to die a fiery death. Thus, if they were really traveling in the way the Flat Earthers claim, the fuel requirements would be different, sometimes vastly so. (No surprise here that Big Oil must be involved...)

As for, you know, the whole day and night thing, this is explained on their website "The sun moves in circles around the North Pole. When it is over your head, it's day. When it's not, it's night. The light of the sun is confined to a limited area and its light acts like a spotlight upon the earth... The apparent effect of the sun rising and setting is...a perspective effect."

How exactly the light from the Sun only works as a spotlight isn't clear. It's also not clear how the phases of the Moon and lunar and solar eclipses work given this spotlight model and given they believe the Sun is always above the Earth...

Moving on- as for the many people who claim to be able to see the curvature of the Earth when on high altitude commercial flights, well, the Flat Earth Society, who advocated trusting your own senses over what anyone tells you. tells these people, to quote, "Quite simply you cannot... the windows on commercial aircraft are small and heavily curved. Even if they flew high enough for a person to see curvature, it would still not be visible to passengers."

As for the issue of someone with even a half way decent telescope being able to see the spherical nature of other planets in the solar system, including them spinning away, the Flat Earth Society claims,

Planets are orbiting astronomical objects. The Earth is not a planet by definition, as it sits at the center of our solar system above which the planets and the Sun revolve. The earths uniqueness, fundamental differences and centrality makes any comparison to other nearby celestial bodies insufficient - Like comparing basketballs to the court on which they bounce.

As for how gravity works in the flat Earth model, it turns out that, "The earth is constantly accelerating up at a rate of 32 feet per second squared (or 9.8 meters per second squared). This constant acceleration causes what you think of as gravity. Imagine sitting in a car that never stops speeding up. You will be forever pushed into your seat. The earth works much the same way. It is constantly accelerating upwards being pushed by a universal accelerator (UA) known as dark energy or aetheric wind."

You may have spotted a problem with this explanation given the whole issue of eventually exceeding the speed of light. In fact, if constant acceleration at 9.8 meters per second squared, it would only take about a year for the Earth to reach the speed of light.

Well, they've got you covered, explaining: "Due to special relativity, this is not the case. At this point, many readers will question the validity of any answer which uses advanced, intimidating-sounding physics terms to explain a position. However, it is true. The relevant equation is v/c = tanh (at/c). One will find that in this equation, tanh(at/c) can never exceed or equal 1. This means that velocity can never reach the speed of light, regardless of how long one accelerates for and the rate of the acceleration."

...

Anyway, as to what lies below the Earth, this is heavily disputed among Flat Earthers. But it doesn't really matter as you can't get there anyway. You see, to quote Flat Earther Robbie Davidson in an interview with Forbes, "We don’t believe anything can fall off the edge, because a big portion of the flat earth community believes that we’re in a dome, like a snow globe. So the sun, moon and stars are all inside. It’s very high but all contained inside. So there’s no way to actually fall off of the earth."

Given it only takes a modicum of effort to disprove pretty much everything said on their website and prove definitively for one's self that the Earth is roughly spherical without needing to trust any scientist or government, you might think the Flat Earthers just aren't trying. Well, you're kind of right, but there are exceptions! Case in point- limo driver Mike Hughes who managed to raise about $8,000 thanks to a Flat Earth fundraiser. Why? To build a rocket to reach the heavens with to once and for all prove the Earth was flat.

Reportedly the final hilariously fitting steam powered rocket and launch platform cost around $20,000 and took about ten years to build. With it, Hughes managed to achieve an altitude of almost 1,900 feet, which while kind of impressive for an amateur built home made rocket that could carry a human, was nonetheless not able to achieve his objective of getting him to space.

If only it was possible to build more powerful rockets... Or if there existed a balloon designed to be able to soar into the heavens with some sort of device on board that could capture and store what it sees through an eye like apparatus... Or, stick with us here people, if a human going along for the ride was a requirement to show NASA hadn't tampered with this futuristic visual capture device, some sort of bird-like machine that could carry humans above 1,900 feet...

On that note, for a mere $12,000-$16,000 Hughes could have purchase a charter flight ticket to not only take him higher than altitudes of 1,900 feet, but also take him to Antarctica to see the massive ice wall for himself. Or if the Flat Earth society wanted to pool together their resources, for prices from $25,000-$70,000 they could charter a flight to the South Pole itself. Though, a thing they don't tell you on the vacation package brochure is that while you can go visit the South Pole, NASA subjects everyone that does to severe mental retraining to ensure all memories of the ice wall have been erased and replaced with pleasant, but very wall free, recollections.

All joking and head scratching aside, it's always important to note that many of the core psychological quirks that see Flat Earthers intractably convinced the Earth is flat in the face of all evidence to the contrary exist in all of us. Monkey brain gonna monkey. We further all have many beliefs we firmly cling to just as tenuously supported by our level of knowledge on a subject, though thankfully for most of us the absurdity isn't quite so easy to spot, allowing us to safely continue to think of ourselves as superior to mere mortals with alternate ideas...

In the end, we all firmly believe many things that aren't true at all and no amount of evidence could ever convince any of us to change our minds on some of these things. Food for thought.

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy:

Who Started the Moon Landing Hoax Conspiracy Theory?

What Causes the Smoke Trails Behind Airline Planes High in the Sky?

The Mysterious Black Goo of Venezuela: La Mancha Negra

The Secret Society of Journalists Known as the Order of the Occult Hand

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[kevinsynnott]

Memories

C. Kevin Synnott

Introduction = Here it is!

Preface

I believe laughter heals. Belly laughs heal completely. I thoroughly enjoy making people laugh. I do not tell jokes, but rather find humor in life's ups and downs and other everyday activities.

I always keep a positive attitude toward life to the best of my ability regardless of what may be in my path. I believe that acting in a positive fashion in situations is the best course of action rather than reacting in the same situations.

I believe perseverance will always pay off if I keep a positive attitude and keep failing forward.

Memories

I was born in Waterbury Connecticut on January 19, 1945. My family moved to Cheshire Connecticut in 1948. My mother Peggy, father Charlie, sisters Carol and Monica, my brother Neil, and I lived on the corner of West Main and Grove Streets. Across the Street was a building with the West Cheshire Post Office in one half and Keane’s Grocery Store in the other half. Mr. Keane and his wife Lucille and their two sons lived with Mrs. Keane’s mother Mrs. Logan in a large house on the corner of West Main and Warren Streets. The building is still referred to as the “Logan House.” The Cruess family from Waterbury bought the grocery store when the Keans moved to Florida. They expanded the store when the West Cheshire Post Office moved to the Notch area of town.

My mother was a remarkable woman. She was teaching second grade at Sacred Heart in Waterbury at the age of 19 after two years of college. She left teaching to start a family. She loved animals and opened a pet store in the basement of our home. My mother became a single parent with four children ranging in age from seven to 13 in 1957. I was twelve years old, adorable, and a delight to behold. The other three were horrible children. (They might disagree with this assessment. However, this is my story.) When she could not support a family as a single mother based on the Pet Shop’s revenue, she returned to teaching. Dr. Thorp the Superintendent for the Cheshire School System made this possible. He was a patron of the Pet Shop. The conditions for this return involved completing the final two years of her four years of undergraduate college and earning a master’s degree. Mom began teaching second grade and taking one course a semester. She completed this daunting challenge at 55 years of age. During her teaching career she taught at Chapman, Darcey, Norton, Doolittle elementary schools and Dodd Junior High when Chapman was being renovated.

The following memoirs are presented in approximately chronological order.

Colorful Home

Last year my niece Rebecca shared photos on Facebook of the home my family lived in when we were growing up in Cheshire Connecticut. This sparked a memory from my nephew Chris who wrote, “I remember the walls of the bedrooms upstairs were wallpapered with the comics from newspapers.” I responded, “True, but they were the colored comics from the expensive Sunday Paper.” Some may think this is boasting. It is not. It was not my intention to make others jealous.

Deceased Flock Member

When I was about seven or eight years old, we found a small dead bird in our backyard. All the kids in the neighborhood including my sisters and bother decided we needed to bury her properly (I have no idea why we thought she was a female.) We used a small old cardboard box as a coffin.

We formed a single line of 10 or 11 mourners as a funeral procession and proceeded up Grove Street to the middle of a wooded section. We were very serious as we walked very slowly to her burial plot. We took turns digging a hole. We carefully placed the coffin in the hole. We all said kind words about her during the eulogy. She was a very good bird. She was an excellent daughter and sister who loved her family. She always got up early to find worms. She was very good to her flock friends and neighbors. We concluded the ceremony with several prayers, then walked in a procession back home.

I should leave it there, but full disclosure is in order. Two weeks later I dug her up to see if she was still dead. Unfortunately, she was still dead. I reburied her and told her how much we all missed her. I said some prayers and left.

PDA: Then and Now

When I was 13 years old in 1958, I was walking down Maple Avenue in Cheshire, Connecticut holding hands with a girl. I said goodbye and headed home. It took about ten minutes to reach home. Someone had already called my mother to inform her that "He's at it again." Public displays of affection are different today. One can observe a couple of teenagers in a mall who are "an item." The girl puts her left hand in the boy's back left pocket, the boy puts his right hand in the girl's right back pocket, and they waddle through the mall. I never would have seen 14 if I had thought of that when I was 13.

Waddling in public alone is okay.

A Case of Mistaken Identities

My seventh grade class went to CHS. However, with the school system expansion in progress our eighth grade class went to CHS in the morning. Afternoon classes met at St. Bridget’s for the first half of the year and then the second floor in Dodd for the second half of the year. The first floor was used for elementary classes.

One day Bob S. and I were kept after class. I am certain that it was due to mistaken identities regarding some mischievous behavior during a class. The teacher assigned to monitor detention instructed us to clean all the erasers and the blackboard in the classroom where we were being held. We were doing an excellent job when suddenly for no apparent reason one of the erasers flew out an open window just as the monitor passed by the classroom. Bob was sent to see the principal. I was not so lucky. I was sent to my mother’s second grade classroom on the first floor.

Favorite Brothers and White Gold

We have snow headed our way this afternoon and evening. This reminds me of my first date when I was 9 years old. My brother Neil and I were would shovel snow together in the winter and mow lawns together in the summer to earn money. We would walk up and down our neighborhood streets knocking on doors looking for customers to shovel walks and driveways or mow lawns. Our competitive advantage over the other kids was that we were adorable. (This is my story and I’m sticking to it.)

One day in December 1954 when I was 9 years old and Neilly was 8 we shoveled the walkway for the parents of a girl in my fourth-grade class. When we were paid, I asked to see my classmate. When she came to the door, I asked her if she would like to goto the movies with me now that I had money. She said yes. We went to see a movie at the Cheshire Theater with chaperones. This was my first date (I cannot speak for her). The adults thought this was cute.

Bullying Gone Wrong

When I was 12 years old and my little brother Neil was 11 years old, we lived in Cheshire Connecticut close to the railroad train tracks. A canal ran alongside the tracks. It had been used to transport cargo barges. The cargo barges were pulled by horses on the path that eventual became the roadway for the train tracks.

One day I walked behind a neighbor's house and saw a kid my age pinning Neil to the ground with his knees on Neil's arms. He hit Neil, and Neil called "Uncle." The kid stopped and got up. He stood there all puffed up with himself with his hands on his hips. He said in a very loud voice, "Anybody else?" I said, "Yea, me." I threw him in the canal about four or five feet away. I stood on the bank and stared at him. He stayed in the water and did not move. The next day he said he slipped. (If he could slip five feet by accident, he should have tried out for the long jump on the track team.) He never bothered Neil again.

Cheshire Rifle Club

My brother Neil belonged to the Cheshire Rifle club in the 1950s. He was on the junior team then the senior team. My mother gave him a J. C. Higgins single shot 22 rifle for his Christmas present in 1957 when he was 11 years old. I went shooting with him once at the range. The shooting range was in the Chapman Elementary School. I remember walking with his rifle from West Main Street, on Willow Street, up Cornwall Avenue, and then over Oak Avenue to a sand pit. No one paid any attention to that behavior then.

The Men's Room Entrepreneur

When I was 14 years old our Neighbor Mr. Persio who worked as a manager at the very fancy Waverly Inn restaurant in Cheshire asked me if I would like to work one New Year’s Eve. I agreed to keep the men's room clean and treat the customers with respect.

I had a flash of inspiration (possibly the last one). I decided to hand each man a paper towel when he washed his hands. I also brushed invented lint off their suits. Almost every one of them tipped me 50 cents or a dollar (multiple times throughout the evening). To put this in perspective, the minimum wage at the time was about $1.00 an hour. I made a great deal of money that New Year’s Eve in 1960. There is money in imaginary dirt.

A New, New Year's Resolution

Rather than resolving not to make resolutions this year, I suggest sharing our drawers with others. We all probably have many items in dresser drawers that we will probably not wear again. We can search our drawers for one or two items of clothing once a month and donate them to people who need clothing. For example, we can drop the clothes in any one of the many charitable clothing drop boxes; bring the items to local churches or rehabilitation facilities; mail clothing to disaster areas, and so forth.

Also, old smartphones can help others. Many of us often upgrade our smartphones and keep our old functioning phones but do not use them. We can donate these phones to worthy causes. For example, Verizon has collected more than 10 million phones and given them to victims of domestic abuse. Individuals do not need a contract to dial 911. Many colleges, universities, and towns have Veterans Affairs offices that collect old smartphones and distribute them to soldiers.

Individuals who decide to donate their old phones must erase all personal information before doing so.

Using Favorite Brother's Head

I remember in my early teens we played a lot of baseball. One day we were playing ball in our backyard. My favorite brother Neil was pitching, and I was at bat. I hit the ball that was a sure fly out. Fortunately, it hit Neil on the top of his head and went over the fence for a homerun.

Thank goodness Neil had his head in the game.

Being a Semi-good Catholic in Cheshire

When we were teenagers growing up in Cheshire Connecticut, we were very good Catholic children. In fact, my favorite brother Neil and I were altar boys at St. Bridget's Church. Neilly was always a better boy than I was as I remember.

We would go to confession every week or two. I remember I would sit very close to the confessional door in order to hear other people's confessions. Then I would watch to see how long they prayed when they got out. This helped me determine what their penance was and how bad they were. (No, I never confessed this behavior.)

Sometimes when I was very bad, I would take the bus to the Immaculate Conception Church on the Green in Waterbury. I would confess my sins to a deaf priest. He would look through the screen so he would know when my lips stopped moving. It did not matter what I confessed; the penance was always three Hail Marys and three Our Fathers. It was worth the bus fare.

Summer Baseball at Humiston Elementary School

I have very fond memories of growing up in Cheshire, Connecticut in the 1950s. The summer days were special when my brother Neil, my friend Dan Sheehan, and I were in our early teens. A typical day consisted of playing baseball at Humiston Elementary School in the morning. Humiston School was on Spring Street with the front of the building facing the main road. The ball field was in the back on Spring. Home plate was kitty-corner across the square. The third base line was three or four yards from a fence that separated the schoolyard from St. Peter's Cemetery. Center field was along the building and the right field fence was parallel to Spring Street.

Kids from Grove Street, West Main Street, Robin Lane, Deepwood Drive, Ives Row, and other areas of town closer to Humiston School would ride their bikes or walk and meet at the school at the same time every day. We always had eight to nine players on each team.

One day something incredible happened. Most families at the time had milk, butter, and cream delivered to their homes. The driver would put the order in a small box next to the front door and place ice on the top. One day a milk truck was delivering milk to homes on Spring Street while we were playing a game. Home delivery milk trucks had open doors on both sides so the driver could go out either door depending on what side of the street the house to deliver to was on. One of the kids hit a homerun to right field over the fence on Spring Street as the milk truck passed by. The ball went through one door and out the other door without hitting the driver. He continued without knowing about the ball.

Another day one of us hit a homerun to left field and broke a window in the building. One of the kids yelled, "What if it hit Mr. Y?" Mr. Y was the custodian. Then another kid yelled, "What if he's dead. ? We all ran as fast as we could, jumped the fence into the neighboring cemetery, and hid behind the tombstones. We waited until we thought it was safe to leave. Then we ran home.

After the games, on most days, we went to Heath's Restaurant across from the new Saint Bridget’s Church on Main Street. Heath’s was owned by Mr. Ray Rochford and his wife Mary. They worked in the restaurant daily with their sons Dave and Ed, and Mrs. Rochford’s sister Mrs. Cook. Later the restaurant was called Ray and Mary’s. We would drink a glass of chocolate milk and eat a jelly donut from the Connecticut Time Bakery on Whitney Avenue in Hamden. Connecticut Time Bakery jelly donuts were the best jelly donuts that all jelly donuts are compared to, even today.

After our late morning snack Neil, Dan and I would go home for lunch. After lunch we would meet other kids and ride our bikes two miles to Mixville Pond to go swimming. Neil was a lifeguard there several years later. However, at this time we had what were called “mud breaks.” We all had to get out of the water for one hour periodically, so the mud would settle.

From time to time there were very special days. For example, I might have been picked to play on one of the teams second or third instead fifth or sixth. Perhaps I hit a homerun or got on base a couple of times. Our team might have won although an hour later not one of us would remember who won. On these very special days when we went to Heath's Restaurant after the games, I would have extra money from mowing lawns with Neil. This made it possible to buy a chocolate milkshake instead of a glass of chocolate milk and two jelly donuts instead of one. Mr. Rochford made the best milkshakes in the world. All other milkshakes pale in comparison, even today. He would make the milkshakes in a large metal container. First, he put in vanilla ice cream. Second, he pumped in chocolate syrup. Third, he filled the container with milk. Finally, he put the container in a green kitchen appliance to be stirred. I remember sitting there watching the green appliance stirring my milkshake impatiently, wondering if Mr. Rochford forgot it. He never did forget. I always ended up smiling with a chocolate milkshake mustache.

Since then I always refer to wonderful days as Mr. Rochford chocolate milkshakes and two jelly donut days.

A Deal with God

I remember in the ninth grade taking French I. I took this course because I did not do well in Spanish I twice. Towards the end of the year I realized that only Divine intervention would save me from failing. I decided to ask God to help me. I realized that I would need to offer Him something in return for His assistance. So, I made a deal. I agreed that if He helped me pass the class, I would be good for the entire summer.

I passed the course with a D. I was very happy and ready to keep my end the bargain. Then I learned that I needed a C to continue to French II. I informed God that although He did keep his part of the agreement, He must have known that I needed a C to continue to French II. After all, that was the goal of passing the course. Therefore, because of my values I could not with a clear conscience keep my end of the bargain.

Rationalization

My friends and I from time to time discuss the topic of rationalization. I was guilty of rationalizing my behavior often to feel better. I was adept at justifying any behavior to explain away why I behaved the way I had when it was clearly inappropriate. This topic so intrigued me that some time ago I decided to determine when I first started to use this self-defense thought process.

I engaged in a thorough internal memory search that led to my early teens. I learned that the first time I rationalized improper behavior was when I was thirteen. Two fellows and I were hanging out wondering what to do. Although it has been a long time since then I will not incriminate these fellows by using their real names. Consequently, I will refer to the first fellow as Tom and to the second fellow as Neil. (Wow, talk about a coincidence.)

Tom, Neil and I decided to visit Tom's neighbor's home. We went into the home through the back door using a hidden key under a pot Tom knew about. (Did I mention the neighbors were away on vacation?) We found our way to the basement where we noticed a large freezer. Upon closer investigation inside the freezer, we found a large ice cream cake. As I recall we thoroughly enjoyed eating that very delicious cake. Unfortunately, a short time later we felt extremely guilty.

We felt so guilty in fact that we went to Saint Bridget's Church in Cheshire to confession. After confession, we compared notes regarding what we said to Father. Tom said, "Bless me Father for I have sinned, it has been two weeks since my last confession and this is my sin, I am guilty of stealing an ice cream cake." Neil said, "Bless me Father for I have sinned, it has been two weeks since my last confession and this is my sin, I am guilty of stealing an ice cream cake." Finally, I went into the confessional and said, "Bless me Father for I have sinned, it has been two weeks since my last confession and this is my sin, I ate stolen goods." (I was probably the one who boosted it.)

Be Where You Are Supposed to Be

When I was sixteen years old, I was a busboy at a fancy restaurant in Cheshire Connecticut called the Waverly Inn. I had to wear black pants, a white shirt, a black bow tie, and a black cummerbund.

One day at work I was not in the dining room where I supposed to be but in the walk-in cooler sitting on an empty milk crate eating freshly baked rolls and butter. Suddenly the door opened, and the owner was standing there watching me. He said, "Hello, how are the rolls?" I said, " Hello, very delicious." He responded, "Good" then left. I was back in the dining room before the cooler door closed. I forgot to mention that I was adorable.

I had to edit this post due to the avalanche of comments regarding my statement "I was adorable." The overwhelming consensus was that I should have mentioned my current state of adorableness. I apologize, but this oversight was clearly driven by the high level of humility I achieved .

The Pole Vaulter

I was on the Cheshire High School track team in for almost a complete season. I did not run fast, and I did not have the endurance necessary for long distance running. I suspect smoking cigarettes played a large role in that. I turned to pole vaulting. The pit high jumpers and pole vaulters landed in was not the thick foam pits of today. The pit consisted of sawdust and in the early spring chunks of ice. We had to be sure to land on our feet. The pole was metal not like the flexible poles of today made of fiberglass.

I enjoyed pole vaulting and practicing regularly with the team. The practice paid off. I placed third in a meet at a neighboring town and earned a point towards the letter I would not earn. I was very excited about this victory because I was certain I was on my way to the cover of the Wheaties Box. I walked with a spring in my stride, I smiled more, and exhibited the confidence of other great athletes.

That all changed several days later when I read in the sports section of the newspaper that a fellow on a university track team jumped higher without a pole.

My Brother the Lifeguard

My favorite brother Neil was a lifeguard at Mixville Pond in Cheshire, Connecticut for years when we were in our teens. This was the Town's swimming recreational area. Facing the water there was a ramp on the left side of the sand that went out into the water. There was an anchored floating raft 10 feet by 10 feet about 30 feet from the beach. Kids would play on the raft and dive into the water. A small snack bar on the beach was approximately 75 feet from the water facing the raft. I remember one day I was coming out of the water by the ramp; Neil was at the snack stand; and the other lifeguard was standing in the water. Suddenly, a man about 40 feet out in the water yelled for help. Neil took off running at full speed and hit the water just like the Olympian swimmers do when they start a race. The other lifeguard also took off at the same time. Neil swam past him and reached the man first. He saved the man and brought him safely to shore. Neil was always very modest when it came to these heroic actions. He never boasted about these lifesaving acts. He was credited with saving numerous people of all ages from drowning during his time as a lifeguard.

My Best Thinking at the Time

I had a VW Beetle when I was 20 years old. I enjoyed riding around different towns, smoking cigarettes, drinking cold beverages, listening to rock and roll, and daydreaming.

One day my car was parked in front of our home when another car hit it from behind causing a great deal of damage. I was not home at the time. However, my favorite brother Neil was home, and he took care of dealing with the police and the driver's insurance information and so forth. The car was taken to an auto body shop within walking distance of our home.

After waiting for two weeks for the car to be repaired I was told that the car would be ready in three days. They only had to attach the front bumper and adjust the headlights.

I felt trapped after all this time without a car and decided to take my extra set of keys and take the car from behind the auto body shop that night. It had been snowing, but the roads were clear. I was enjoying my ride smoking cigarettes, drinking cold beverages, listening to rock and roll, and daydreaming. Suddenly, an astute police officer pulled me over because one headlight was shining into the houses on the right and the other was shining straight up into the trees. I got a verbal warning. I thought I should turn around and head home. I was about twenty miles from home.

It began to snow again. I turned down this dirt road that led to a sand and gravel company. I got stuck in the snow and could not move. Fortunately, I came up with a brilliant idea. (Note: the consumption of the cold beverages unquestionably played a role in this thought process.) The plan was sound, but the implementation proved to be problematic. The Beetle had a throttle. A throttle for those of you under 60 was a knob one could pull out and increase the intake of gas without stepping on the gas pedal. I pulled out the throttle, put the car in gear and got out. The rear tires were spinning. So far, so good, I thought. I pushed and pushed and finally the car got traction and began to move forward. Unfortunately, it gained speed and I could not catch it. It stopped about fifty yards ahead when it hit a large boulder. The car was seriously damaged, but I was still able to drive it. I drove it back to the auto body shop and parked it were it was earlier.

The next morning, I walked to the auto body shop. I inquired if my car was ready. I was told that someone had driven into it during the night damaging it and that it would take more time to repair it. I told them that I was absolutely appalled. However, I was magnanimous and said that I did understand their situation.

Tan to Look Good Man

I was invited to a formal dance at a private girls’ high school when I was nineteen. I agreed to go to the dance and began to prepare for the big event. I rented a white sports jacket and I purchased a wrist corsage.

I wanted to look good and realizing that the dance was held in January I investigated methods of tanning because I had light skin. I purchased a bottle of Man Tan. This lotion when applied was supposed to turn the skin into a golden tan. I followed the instructions and applied it two days before the dance.

The day of the dance I was a bright orange. The color was in the skin and would not work its way out for weeks. I determined I could not let my date down, so I decided to attend the dance.

I recall ringing her doorbell and being greeted by her parents. Although they tried, they could not conceal their amazement caused by looking at the bright orange young man in a white sports jacket holding a wrist corsage in the doorway. They did recover and graciously invited me in.

We had a good time at the dance. Most, if not all, of the participants spent time, a lot of time "digging" the orange guy. We had many laughs that evening.

I did get the last laugh. The photos taken before and during the dance were in black and white. When the developed photos were returned by mail two weeks later, I looked gorgeous.

The Oilman

When I was in my late teens, I worked as a truck driver in the Cheshire Lumberyard. I delivered building materials in the spring, summer, and fall and home heating fuel during the winter.

I enjoyed delivering home heating fuel to homes in Cheshire and the surrounding towns. The one real concern I always had was encountering dogs at different stops. When I heard the dog's license and chain jangle, I would run to the truck and safety.

One day I stopped at a customer's house that I knew owned a large dog. I looked around carefully and did not see the dog, so I got out of the truck. Then I heard that dreaded jangle and jumped back inside the truck. I waited and waited, and I did not see any dog. Then it occurred to me that what I heard were the keys in my pocket when I got out of the truck. I recovered from my self-inflicted terror and was able to refocus on the task.

I may have overreacted that day since two weeks earlier I was bitten by a large dog. I was pulling the hose up a slight grade when this large dog came out from behind the house. It rushed at me and bit me in the stomach then walked away. I fell on my back. The hose went flying off in one direction and my "Then Came Bronson" knit hat went flying off in the other direction. I called the office on the two-way radio to report the incident. The manager asked if I was bleeding. One of the servicemen who was listening in on his radio cut in. He said, "That is extremely doubtful, that dog does not have any teeth." Knowing that I was gummed did not really help. I was still afraid of small dogs, big dogs, dogs with teeth, dogs with one tooth, and dogs with no teeth.

Enjoying Quality Time with The Oilman

Another day I had to make a delivery from the street to a house that had the fill pipe in the back left corner. The oil trucks were equipped with heavy rubber hoses that were 150 feet long. I knew the location of the fill pipe for this home meant I had to use the entire 150 feet of hose. Once I started to pull the hose I did not stop until I reached the fill pipe regardless of how far the fill pipe was from the truck. I wanted to keep my momentum strong. I got out of the truck and put the customer's ticket in the meter. I began to pull the hose. About halfway to the fill pipe I wondered why it was so much more difficult this time pulling the heavy hose than usual. I thought the hose might be tangled on the wheel in the truck used to roll up the hose after deliveries. However, I kept pulling until I reached the fill pipe. When I turned around and looked toward the truck, I was very surprised. Three little kids were riding the hose. The children were laughing and having a grand adventure. I laughed heartily at the sight.

Hose Pull Came up Short

Another morning I had to park on the street to make a delivery to a house that had the fill pipe in front of the house on the left side. The house was up a very long and very steep hill. The oil trucks were equipped with heavy rubber hoses that were 150 feet long. I knew the location of the fill pipe for this home meant I had to use the entire 150 feet of hose. On this day the snow, although not deep, was glazed over with a thin coating of ice. I got out of the truck and put the customer's ticket in the meter. I began to pull the hose. I struggled because each step broke through the ice and made traction slippery. I finally made it to the front of house. Unfortunately, I was two inches too far away to insert the nozzle into the fill pipe. I knew that I had to back the truck a foot to be able to reach the pipe. I carefully navigated my way back down the hill leaving the hose in place at the top. I backed the truck a foot. Unknown to me, this movement jostled the hose. When I got out, I heard a terrible sound. The sound was the hose sliding 149 feet 10 inches down the very long, very steep iced covered snowy hill.

Favorite Brother Comes to the Rescue

I went to the Newport Folk Festival three times in the 1960s. Although I never went to the concerts, I did have the opportunity to listen to music. There was always music on the beach day and night where I slept. When I was not at the beach, I spent a great deal of time in a dimly lit type of restaurant listening to rock and roll on the jukebox, drinking cold beverages, and daydreaming.

One year I was on the beach drinking cold beverages with several hundred other individuals when suddenly the Newport Police accidentally arrested thirty of us. I am sure that I was arrested by mistake because this is how I remember it. I spent the rest of that day and night in jail.

The next day we were informed that we could not leave without paying a $15.00 fine. I did not have any money, so I called my brother Neil and told him I needed $20.00 to get out of jail. Favorite brother wired me the money and I was set free. I was and am very grateful to have had such a great brother. I felt very, very guilty about lying to Neil about needing $20.00 when I really needed only $15.00. I used the extra $5.00 to buy some cold beverages. I confessed in 2016.

Speak Softly, Avoid Consequences

One day when I was in basic training the drill instructor ordered us to "Police the area." This meant for us to pick up litter. He then said, "If it doesn't move pick it up." I said to the guy next to me, "Hey, go pick up the Sergeant." My Irish luck was not with me at that moment. He heard me. Then………………………...

Living in Waterbury I

Forty three years ago I moved to Waterbury Connecticut. I lived in the Morris House for 10 months. The Morris House was a type of boarding house for men. I moved in with my matching Irish luggage (three large black plastic garbage bags). My room had a curtain for a door. The bed was an old hospital white metal bed. I remember one day I was taking a shower in the communal bathroom with snow blowing in a broken window. This was the most important experience of my life. I truly love this house.

A major part of my morning routine was to take a walk. Once or twice a week when I had a little money, I would stop to have a coffee at the lunch counter in the S. S. Kresge Department Store. This was part of a chain that evolved into Kmart. It was two blocks from the House on a corner across from the Green.

My routine crossed paths would some very interesting people. For example, I remember one fellow who would come in after me every week on the same day. He was a fascinating chap. First, he walked around the plastic chair he was going to sit in three times. Then he would tilt the chair up holding the back and tap the front legs on the floor three times. This would remove any real or imaginary crumbs. Then he circled the chair in the other direction and sat down. He ordered his coffee. When his coffee was served, he carefully added cream and sugar and stirred it vigorously. Then he lit a cigarette and doused the match in his coffee and placed it in an ashtray. I thought this was an awesome routine and looked forward to seeing him every week .

Interesting people still fascinate me today.

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Living in Waterbury II

I learned over the years that the greatest pleasures in life are the small things. Every so often when I had an extra 88 cents, I would buy a brand-new pair of socks at the S. S. Kresge Department Store. After I had my coffee at the lunch counter, I would take my time and thoroughly enjoy looking at all the different colors and styles of socks on display. I would carefully choose a pair, pay for them, and leave the store. I always put my new socks in my pocket instead of a store bag. That way when I got home to the Morris House the guys would not ask what I bought. After lunch, I would shower and put on my brand-new socks. No one knew that I was wearing new socks but me. I always felt good when I was wearing new socks. Even today, many years later, wearing new socks is special.

The Evaluation

I was the director of a volunteer program in St. Mary's Hospital's Alcohol Program in Waterbury, CT in the late 1970s. The Program had two components. The first component was the Detoxification Unit which was a locked ward. Every day, 365 days a year, two volunteers led a one hour rap session in the morning and two other volunteers led a one hour rap session in the evening. The purpose of the sessions was to introduce patients to recovery from alcoholism and other drug addiction. A volunteer coordinator was assigned to insure coverage for the 14 sessions each week.

The second component was in the Emergency Room. We had a small office manned from 4:00-11:00 every day 365 days a year. Two volunteers covered two or thee hour periods waiting in the office to assist the Emergency Room staff if an alcoholic or family member came in for help. A different volunteer coordinator was assigned for each day of the week to insure coverage.

We had approximately 200 volunteers. Many of the volunteers were from the recovery community in Waterbury and the surrounding towns. Thanks to the dedicated volunteer coordinators and the other committed volunteers the program was very successful.

I was responsible for evaluating the volunteer coordinators and the other volunteers regularly and my supervisor was responsible for evaluating me annually. My annual evaluation consisted of the supervisor filling out a rating form related to my performance. Once I filled out the same form, we would meet to discuss the evaluations of my performance.

One year we met for my annual evaluation and as I recall the results were glowing. When we were ready to part my supervisor said, "I was going to mention something, but it is not that important." I said, "Please tell me." He replied, "No, it really is not that important." I said, "I insist, please tell me." He relented and said, "You do not take criticism very well." I responded in a loud voice, "You're crazy."

A Very Exciting Achievement

I attended Quinnipiac College part-time and full-time during the 1960s and early 1970s. I earned 30 transferrable credits. My dream was to be a college graduate, but I did not apply myself.

When I moved to Waterbury in 1976, I attended Post College primarily to receive my Veterans' benefits. However, something extraordinary happened when I started classes. I enjoyed learning. I completed my associate degree a year later. I was very excited. In fact, I was so excited that I asked someone in the Registrar's Office if the diplomas were ready and if the President signed them. I realized later that the President did not sign each diploma individually but that the printed diplomas included the President's signature. I laughed good naturedly because of my childlike joy and excitement. One month later, I received my diploma. I have not experienced that intensity of excitement or feeling of achievement since. I was no longer saying I could do something if I tried; I was trying to do something. Dreams come true if I try

My Wife Understands Me

When I was 64 years old, I said to my wife, "Regis I am thinking about getting a tattoo. I am also considering buying a HOG, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle." I added, "Yes, that's right and you can ride on the back and be my old lady." She asked, "What do you really want?" I said, "a flagpole." She said, "ok." Later, I got on my knees and thanked God that my plan worked. It is a great flagpole with a light.

How to Handle Marital Disagreements

Yesterday a young person asked me how I deal with disagreements with my wife without getting into a big fight. I replied when we have a disagreement I say, " Regis, I apologize for allowing myself to become provoked and I forgive you." She usually laughs. However, when she does not laugh, I remember that I have work to complete in the garage.

Regis's New Pants

Several years ago, my wife Regis came downstairs after dressing. She was very upset. I asked what was bothering her. She said, "Look at these pants, they shrunk two inches after being washed. I can't wear them." I said, "Maybe they will stretch with time." She responded even more upset, "They're totally ruined." Trying to be helpful I said, "Maybe you will shrink into them." I really thought that one through. Fortunately, I remembered I had something to do in the garage

The Cat with The Cheshire Grin

Years ago, we had a cat we both loved dearly named Perceval, also known as Perce-evil. He would jump up and hang off my butt when I was wearing nice slacks, but never when I was wearing dungarees. He also jumped up and grabbed the door frames and would slide down scratching the wood. That really bothered my wife. I would take him to the side out of hearing range from Regis and tell him how proud I was of him because he could jump so high.

I remember one evening when the family was relaxing watching television. I was in my recliner and Regis was on the sofa with Percy on her lap. She was looking at him lovingly rubbing his belly while he purred loudly. She looked over to me and said, “You know if he was a dog, we would both be dead.” Truer words were never spoken.

One Christmas we bought him a beautiful scratching post. He thoroughly enjoyed playing with the wrappings, the bow, and the box for weeks. When I die, I want to come back as my cat.

One Christmas I bought him a beautiful scratching post. He thoroughly enjoyed playing with the wrappings, the bow, and the box for weeks. When I die, I want to come back as my cat.

A Ringtone in the Classroom

I was at the desk in the front of the classroom with my roll book on a book stand taking attendance for a class of 35 college seniors. I heard a cellphone ring. I said, "Please shut off all cellphones." I leaned forward and continued to take attendance when I heard the ringtone again. I said, "Turn off all cellphones." Once again I leaned forward and continued to take attendance when yet again, I heard the ringtone. I said, "I will find out who the owns the cellphone and we will meet after class."

A student near the front of the class said, "Dr. Synnott, I think the sound is coming from your briefcase." I looked down and realized what had happened. I was wearing a navy blue tie with shamrocks and every time I leaned forward to take attendance it contacted the lectern and began to play when Irish Eyes are Smiling. The students thought that was hilarious and one asked, "Are you going to meet with yourself after class?"

Be Smart If You Lie, Hide

One day after class I received an email from a student who was absent. He wrote that he was sick at home and could not make it to the eight o'clock class. He said he would bring his report that was due during that class to the next class. I wrote back saying, “I saw you in the Library on my way to class at 7:50. I do not accept late papers.” The next class he said nothing.

Alcohol Abuse Lectures can be Humorous

For the past 39 years every semester I dedicate an hour to lecture on college students and alcohol abuse. The lecture includes information regarding students’ misperceptions regarding their peers’ consumption of alcohol. Students think that their peers drink more alcohol than they consume. The issue is that some students may drink more to fit in. They already fit in, but they do not know it.

Several years ago, I finished the lecture and assigned a case study related to the topic for students to analyze in their small work groups. I was visiting each group to see how they were progressing when a student asked, “Are you an alcoholic?” The girl sitting next to him was totally shocked and blurted out, “You can’t ask someone that. It’s like asking him if he has a tapeworm.” I kept a straight face and responded, “Yes, I am.” He then asked, “How long are you sober?” I looked at the clock and asked, “What time is it now?”

A Teenager in Love

One semester before a morning before class I overheard a female student who was very upset talking to her friends. I heard her say, "I cannot believe he cheated on me." She lamented for more than five minutes hysterically. Finally, she said, "The most horrible part is he is the only guy I did not cheat on."

Accidental Learning

When I was teaching full time, I was responsible for advising students regarding their plans of study and helping them choose courses. One day I received an email from a freshman girl who needed to make an appointment. She wrote, "Hi, like, my name is Tiffany and like, i just found out that you are like, my advisor and that like, i have to make an appointment to see you." She then described the times she could not meet. First, she wrote her entire schedule of classes. Second, she wrote, “i cannot meet on Monday mornings because like, me and Susie joined the Dance Club and like that is when we practice. i cannot meet on Monday afternoons because like, i have classes. i cannot meet on Wednesdays because like, me, Susie, and Jen go the Eastbrook Mall for lunch. i cannot meet on Thursday mornings because like, me and Julie work part-time. i cannot meet on Fridays because like, me and Susie leave early to go home for the weekend. i can meet with you on Tuesday afternoon at 1:00." I wrote back, "Hi Tiffany, my office hours are Mondays and Wednesdays from 8:00 to 10:00 and Thursdays from 1:00 to 2:00. I am looking forward to meeting with you."

Sue and Bob Axiom

Sue is a junior who has never missed a class in three years. She sometimes relates the story of driving during a blizzard to class, when two miles from campus she slid off the road into a snowdrift. She emphasizes the fact that she walked to the campus in snow three feet deep with a driving wind bombarding her with ice and snow. Yet, she made it to class on time. She also recounts the time she attended a wedding on the opposite coast on a Sunday at 2:00 and made it to an 8:00 class on Monday morning.

Sue loves everything about the course and me. I heard from the grapevine that she loves the textbook, the lectures, the group activities, her classmates, the readings, the class discussions, and the written assignments. She thinks I am funny (clearly a very bright and astute individual). In addition, she tells her friends to take my courses and that she will take me again for as many courses that I teach. She always participates and adds to the activities. I enjoy having Sue in class.

On the other hand, Bob who is also a junior never attends classes. I saw Bob only twice during the semester. He was present for the first class and the midterm examination. A friend turned in his written assignments. Bob hates everything about the course and me. I heard from the grapevine that he hates the textbook, the lectures, the group activities, his classmates, the readings, the class discussions, the written assignments, and even the color of the linoleum floor. In addition, he tells his friends to avoid taking me at all costs.

The time for evaluations has come. Sue is absent, of course. Bob is present, sitting in the front row with two sharpened pencils.

Tomorrow

This is a wonderful time to be living. Yet some people of all ages choose to settle into comfortable behavioral patterns of inactivity. They may contemplate engaging in different activities while sitting on the sofa, but think, “maybe tomorrow.”

I firmly believe that people enjoy learning once they begin to experience the benefits of participating in activities designed to engage their minds. Connecticut residents have many opportunities to do so. We have state universities and community colleges that offer credit and noncredit courses. Some individuals begin by taking one course, enjoy the experience, and continue taking one course a semester. For some, pursuing a degree is the challenge. For some, learning for the sake of learning is the goal. For example, the challenge of learning a second language is appealing to some.

In addition, high schools in many of our towns offer an array of adult education classes that interest people of all ages. Some enjoy the learning experience and continue for a high school diploma. Others enjoy the companionship of others engaged in similar learning activities. Physically challenged individuals, not able to attend learning activities in person, may join in the activities online.

How Thinking Changes with Time

When I was in my teens and twenties and dating; I was always concerned about whether she loved me. I wondered did she really love me; I mean really, really love me. Whoever I was dating at the time.

How times have changed. About two years ago I was driving down Route 6 in Andover when out of the corner of my I eye I noticed a woman wearing a bikini mowing her lawn. I almost broke my neck trying to see what kind of mower she was using.

Squirrels are People Too

Several years ago, I was driving home. My friend Dave who moved to Maine lived one town over from me at the time, was following me. Unfortunately, I hit a squirrel. I turned around and went back to make sure it was dead because I did not want it to suffer.

When I told Dave why I came back he said, “The poor squirrel was lying there in no pain because of the paralysis caused by being hit; relaxing and enjoying looking up at the sun and puffy clouds when he saw you coming back.” Dave said the squirrel probably thought, “Oh no, here he comes again to finish the job.”

Rigid Versus Rigorous Honesty

Recently a young fellow asked me what the difference was between being rigidly honest and being rigorously honest. I used the following example to explain my interpretation.

Let's say your sweet pea spends an entire day pampering herself. First, she goes to a beauty spa. There she begins the beautification process by being completed covered in seaweed for one hour. This treatment is by followed by the total mud treatment for 30 minutes. This process concludes with a full body massage.

Second, feeling relaxed and invigorated she goes to her favorite nail salon.

Here she enjoys the best pedicure they offer. Then she has her nails done. She decides to try something different. The manicurists attach one inch nails and then paints them with Christmas colors of red, white, and green.

Third, she has her hair done in a new style and color.

Finally, she goes shopping and finds the perfect new style dress. One shoulder is missing. A slit goes up the outer side from the bottom of the dress to her thigh. She settles on an off shade of purple even though it clashes slightly with her new hair color of burned blond with blue frosted tips. She decides to wear the new dress home to surprise you.

When she walks in the door you are flabbergasted. You think she looks hideous. She asks, "How do you like my new do?"

A rigorously honest reply might be the following: "I love it, you look gorgeous." Rigidly honest replies result in divorce.

Walking Straight Again?

I was in a car accident when I was in my early twenties. I walked with a noticeable limp as a result. Luckily for me, five years ago I was diagnosed with arthritis in the knee of my other leg. I walk with a limp as a result of the pain in that knee. Now that I limp on both legs it appears that I walk normally. Positive perception makes all the difference.

People Believe the Dumbest Things

Yesterday I was sharing with a friend who for some reason reminded me of the most mind boggling stupid thing I have ever heard. Several years ago, I was talking to a middle-aged man. He was an interesting chap who had some odd ideas, but I really enjoyed our conversation. However, towards the end of our chat he said, "I truly understand women." I smiled. He said, "No, I really mean it, I do in fact understand women, it's a gift." I just nodded and thought KMN. (For those of you who are less hip and cool, KMN means kill me now.)

Many people find the Holidays difficult.

Even those of us who enjoy them feel a sense of relief when they are over. We still have one more coming, New Year's Eve and New Year’s Day. If we encounter feelings of being overwhelmed, we can pause and write 10 good things in our lives that we am grateful for now. I believe living in the now is very important and that practicing this daily helps me when I encounter difficult times. The past is thought, and the future is thought. If I live in thought, I miss what good things are in front of me.

I refuse to allow the flood of advertisements beginning in August by Madison Avenue to change my love of the season.

New Happy Memories Replace Old Sad Memories

The holidays can be painful times for people due to unpleasant memories from past holidays. I believe that painful memories weaken with time. I also know that we can speed up this process. We can make new enjoyable memories. The new happy memories replace the older memories that can cause painful feelings. As time passes, we think more and more about recent good memories and less and less about old sad memories.

Several ways we can develop pleasurable new memories is by helping others. For example, we can happily give up a parking place for a stranger in a crowed parking area; pick up a piece of litter, so that a worker does not have to bend over to do so; leave bags of empty returnable bottles in bottle return areas at stores to surprise lucky patrons; drop change in a parking lot for children to find; sneak a dollar bill in the open hoodie of someone standing in front of us in line at a checkout; and visit or call a nursing home and ask to speak to someone who never has visitors. The list is endless.

Last Thing I want to Hear

Yesterday I started to think about what the last thing was I would want to hear. I believe the last thing I would want to hear is midway through a colonoscopy the doctor shriek, “What the heck is that”?

God Has a Sense of Humor

Yesterday I was thinking of last summer's heat to warm up. It reminded me of an experience I had when I was in my twenties. God showed me that He has a sense of humor. I had a new car with air conditioning. One very hot day with the temperature in the nineties, I was driving around town with the air conditioner on high, drinking cold beverages, listening to rock and roll, and daydreaming. I felt quite superior to the people suffering in the heat as I passed by them and the drivers of cars with the windows open. I was thoroughly enjoying myself when I ran out gas and had to walk more than a mile to the nearest gas station, and then walk back to the car.

Jack and Grill

Twenty or twenty five years ago my in-laws received an unassembled very fancy outdoor gas grill as a present for some occasion. The key word is unassembled. My father in-law Jack and I started to assemble the grill by laying out all the parts. There were at least 50 parts for this very complex grill. We competed the assembly in a little over three hours. We had several parts left over. There were several nuts and bolts and a small whatchamacallit. This did not concern us as this was common in most complex assemblies of this type.

We connected the propane tank, turned the on dial to high and pushed the start button. Nothing happened. We took turns trying to start the grill 5 or so times by pushing the button and getting the same results (sound familiar?). Then Jack said, "I guess we should look at the instructions.' We found that the whatchamacallit was labeled the igniter. We had to disconnect the propane tank and disassemble more than two-thirds of the grill to install the igniter. We reassembled the grill. We connected the propane tank again, turn the on dial to high and pushed the start button. The grill worked.

The Supervisor

Three years ago, I realized that the seats on our picnic table needed to be replaced. I began the project by removing the old 2" by 10" by 8' boards. I planned on using the same pressure treated boards to replace the old ones.

Fortunately for me my wife Regis, the Supervisor, was home from work that day and decided to help me. The Supervisor got comfortable on the breezeway steps in an excellent position to watch the project. She said, "Maybe we (me) could buy the composite material that doesn't need painting for the seats." I replied, "That's a good idea." I drove to Home Depot and purchased four 1" by 6" by 8' boards (the only size close enough for the project). I placed the new boards in place on the table. The Supervisor said, "The boards sag in the middle, you'll have to make a brace." I replied, "Yes, I can do that."

Then the Supervisor had another idea. She said, "It might be a good idea to replace the top boards with the same material." I said, "That's a good idea." I drove to Home Depot to get the boards. When I returned, I began to take the old top boards off very carefully in order not to damage the structure of the table. There was a total of 36 bolts and nuts holding the six boards in place that needed to be removed. It took approximately 45 minutes to remove the first bolt.

The Supervisor said, "Maybe you should rent a truck and take it to the dump." I was very grateful to the Supervisor for making that suggestion before I got to the last bolt. I immediately got my chain saw and cut up the table. The Supervisor has been known to change her mind.

How I Start my Day

I learned if I rush in the morning, that will set the tone for the rest of the day. If I give myself plenty of time, that sets a completely different pace for the rest of the day. I also

start my day on a positive note by looking in the mirror and saying, "Love you Kev, you look great." You might try this. (It will work better for you if you use your name.)

Take care!

[crazy4tank]

Was the Studebaker The First Muscle Car?

New Post has been published on https://coolcarsnews.com/was-the-studebaker-the-first-muscle-car/

Was the Studebaker The First Muscle Car?

By Dave Ashton

Its commonly thought that all the first muscle car was the 1964 Pontiac GTO or even the 1949 Oldsmobile Rocket 88. The tick listing being a huge V8 engine in the small(ish) car, performance parts, generally two door and available to the standard car buyer. The origins appear quite well established, but according to classiccar. com , there’ h an argument for the R1 and R2 Studebaker Lark being the first sort of the breed.

The particular Studebaker Lark was launched in the drop of 1958, for the 1959 design and according to Wikipedia, ‘ the particular Lark was the first car from the size to offer a V8 engine. ’ (hmmmm…, check your facts Wikipedia) From 1959 to 1960 the fullbore engine consisted of the 259ci. (4. 2 L) OF V8, with a 289ci. (4. 7 L) V8 coming in 1961. One other sobre facto standard in a muscle vehicle is the supercharger, which apparently very first came to the 1957 Studebaker Fantastic Hawk coupled to a 289 OF V8. This one was a Paxton VS57, which usually increased power to 275HP, using a 2 barrel carburetor. For a full explanation of the car specifications, check out the complete article at classiccar. com.

The article compares the Pontiac GTO to the Studebaker for muscles car origins, concluding that the GTO, which sold in far bigger amounts won the title, mainly because of popularity. But it excludes the other side from the story, the 1949 Oldsmobile Skyrocket 88. The first rocket 88 included a 303 cubic inch OF V8 with 135HP(. debatable) and 283 lb-ft of torque and with an increased data compresion ratio, a 10% fuel performance was achieved. Performance wise, this particular equated to a 0-60 mph associated with 13 seconds and a top speed associated with 97 mph. Extremely rapid for that 1950’ s.

This didn’ t take long for other brands Dodge, Plymouth and Pontiac to have the same idea. while the Rocket 88 moved away from its roots plus became a much larger vehicle, evolving into a full-size sedan.

You could argue that the Rocket 88 was the first V8 engine vehicle to tick all the muscle vehicle boxes. The Studebaker also has an affordable say in the story. But , whenever talking about muscle cars, the 1964 Pontiac GTO is the nearest design template to the classic era of the past due 1960’ s and early 70’ s, especially with a more potent 389 ci. (6. 4 L) OF V8 producing 325hp.

  Like many changing muscle cars, the GTO strike its stride in 1968 with all the second-generation model. This body shape is exactly what we came to know as a traditional muscle car, along with a huge 400ci. (6. 6 L) or 455ci. (7. 5 L) V8. However as for which model was the very first out of the blocks, is not just open intended for debate, but as is the term by itself.

We’ ve already been down this rabbit warren a great bunch of times with these previous articles . There is no concrete moment in time where the term ‘ muscle car’ was first used. As long as the automobile has existed, it’ s been referred to through the years as having ‘ muscle. ’ Plus, the very debatable point around the Wikipedia muscle car page which usually says that the original muscle vehicles were actually referred to as ‘ supercars’. (if anyone out there can give more clarification on the supercar thing, make sure you comment below. )

Which means that the term will always be seen retrospectively, with the terminology being added to automobiles which were not referred to as muscle vehicles until many years later. Which means just about all three of the examples above might be muscle cars, none of them or maybe a single, depending on which side of the mattress you got out of.

Regarding conclusions, we don’ t genuinely have one. Apart from if you want to go off the current definition and this can still be unclear. The Mustang and Camaro are usually referred to as muscle cars, but firmly you should call them pony vehicles. Which means if you want to be liberal oriented about the whole affair, the Studebaker could be ‘ one’ of the authentic muscle cars.

Such as many great ideas, there’ t usually lots of reference points. It’ s clear that the late 1940’ s and 1950’ s introduced lots of innovation, with the need for good luck and performance. The V8 with no replacement for displacement were the mindsets and those should be the areas of celebration instead of who was the first out of the gates.

The post Was the Studebaker The First Muscle Car? appeared first on Muscle Car .

[itsworn]

Could Be the Most Original 1971 Plymouth Hemi ’Cuda on the Planet

“OK, if we do it, it needs to be a 1971 Hemi ’Cuda, unrestored, a High Impact color, a build sheet, a four-speed, and from the original owner.”

Lars Skroder was talking with his brother Tor when he said those words back in February 2013. The brothers began collecting quality muscle cars some years ago, focused mostly on Chrysler performance models. Their process is deliberate and selective. When a low-interest investment Tor had made was coming due, with little hope of improvement, he told Lars they should buy another car instead of letting the money just “sit in a bank.” Lars suggested a few other financial possibilities, but Tor insisted on adding one more treasure to the garage. Younger brother Lars then threw down the gauntlet and listed the impossible. Figuring it would take months, if not years, to find something that matched those requirements, just three weeks later Lars located the exact car he had imagined.

He says, “After we had talked, I was going through the web and found a story on YouTube about this amazing original 1971 ’Cuda without really expecting to. I thought, No way would it be for sale, but I chased down Scott Smith, who had done the video, and he told me that he and Mr. Peterson had talked recently and were actually considering a sale. So I called Tor and we got serious.”

Greg Peterson of Illinois was the car’s one and only owner. Back in late 1970, Greg was a big farm kid whose good high school grades had made his father and grandfather proud. When he was accepted into the mechanical engineering program at the University of Illinois, the older men thought he deserved a new car and gave him a choice, a Corvette or a ’Cuda. The 16-year-old Greg, whose regular ride was a turbocharged 1965 Corvair, compared the sales brochures and picked the Plymouth.

His dad thought a convertible would be perfect, but Greg didn’t want a plastic back window. He says, “Muscle cars aren’t convertibles!”

He sat down and listed what wanted: hardtop, no vinyl roof, and painted EV2 TorRed (or Hemi Orange) to match the engine under the hood. He did not want the big body-side Hemi billboard advertising either, as he remembered how difficult waxing the woodgrain body decal on the family’s station wagon had been. His dad did insist on power windows, and the car also got leather interior, AM/FM with rear speaker, body-color mirrors, a four-speed with the Hurst Pistol Grip, and 15-inch Rallye wheels. Finishing up with the A33 Performance Axle Package meant a 3.54 Sure-Grip gear went into the Dana 60. After adding it all up, his dad and grandpa haggled with the dealership on the price, finally getting what they wanted because the small dealership’s salesman said he had always wanted to sell a Hemi!

Greg admits that he wasn’t one of the “cool kids,” and the car was frankly a “wild ride.” He pushed the speedometer up to 150 mph a time or two on the highway late at night, but he was not a street racer. He never got a ticket, nor had an accident, and had not messed around under the hood except to check the oil. Frankly, when he left for college, he found that the unwieldy car was not the easiest thing to park in the tight confines of campus. After a half-year of that, and now with a little more than 11,000 miles on the odometer, he did what every logical engineer would have done. He parked the ’Cuda and got his Corvair back out. To make sure the Hemi engine would stay fresh, he pulled the plugs and poured fresh motor oil down each cylinder until it reached the plug tube level. The family farm had buildings for storage, so in 1974 the car was put inside a barn, prepped for long-term stability, and would not run again for more than 30 years.

Time passed. Greg was successful in his work; you might even be using something he was involved with every time you pick up your cellphone. A chance talk with his hometown barber brought up memories of the old car, and Greg decided maybe it would be good to get it running again. You know, take off all the old belts and hoses, put on some fresh tires, disassemble and rebuild the carbs, and drive it a little. So he got on the internet and began asking questions.

When we talk about original cars, it is easy to nitpick. Like those chrome wheelwell trim pieces. Who added them? They were not available on the Hemi ’Cuda due to factory wheel lip trimming for tire clearance. (This was why there was a fender tag that states “Hemi Fender” on these cars.) The day Greg’s car showed up at the dealer in January 1971, there was wheel trim installed on one side from the factory and not on the other. He noticed this when he went to wash it for the first time a week later. Greg went back to Carlson Motor Sales and asked about it; the embarrassed dealer added the two missing wheel trim pieces at no charge. Greg had gotten the longer Rallye wheel valve extensions from the dealership that day as well, but only three were in the sealed Chrysler envelope, and to this day one wheel does not have one.

All that would have probably gotten “fixed” if Scott Smith from Harm’s Auto in Washington State had not become involved. A carb and tune-up specialist by trade, Scott was contacted by Greg in 2006. The more Scott heard about this car, the more he knew it should not be touched. Besides, Greg had already been watching car auctions on TV, so he knew it was worth some money. A lot of money. After seeing a handful of photos, Scott agreed to fly out to just see the beast.

“The first time I viewed the car, I simply could not believe how original it was,” Scott says now. “While most ‘survivors’ are ‘largely original,’ this car was simply beyond comprehension. The list of parts that have ever been removed or replaced can be counted on one hand. Here it is: the battery, the negative battery cable, the thermostat housing gasket, the oil filter, and a 6-inch fuel hose to the fuel pump. Absolutely nothing else on the entire car had ever been removed or replaced! Simply incredible.”

Greg even had the parts the dealership had changed during tune-ups, including the fuel pump and the cracked fuel hose. The original factory spark plugs were still in the engine! Yet he still wanted to hear the big engine run again. On Scott’s second trip out, they performed the proper reanimation duties, including a complete oil change and an oil pump prime with a drill motor to ensure the bearings had what they needed. A small fuel jug was used as a temporary fuel source since the gas that remained in the tank was “a little old.” Ironically, the carburetors Greg was concerned about didn’t need a thing, idling very nicely after fire-up. They drove it to the family farmhouse just down the road from the barn, Scott took pictures and video, and then the car went back into storage and internet infamy. Our sister magazine Mopar Muscle featured it, as did Tom Cotter in his book The Corvette in the Barn.

The Skroder brothers did not have a Hemi E-Body yet, so Lars pushed for the ’Cuda. They and Greg agreed on a price, and the Cornfield ’Cuda, as it’s known on You Tube, left its original home for the first time ever. The brothers have stored it ever since, leaving it in the same condition they found it, recognizing that once it is brought back to running condition it will never again be a time capsule of this magnitude. The brothers met us this spring and we push-positioned the car into place to get our pictures.

One of the most impressive things is the excellent and unfaded paint. It shows some factory runs. The decklid metal is a little wavy on the edge, which Greg recalls was the result of him playing the big guy and pushing down a little hard to close it one day in his high school parking lot. No rust, though. The interior is also all original, as is the trunk. The jack and spare have never been moved. From inside the trunk the rear speakers look as they did the day they were installed.

When the car was displayed at MCACN in late 2016, Greg came by to see it and revealed even more little things and told more stories about it. Originality expert Frank Badalson examined it and concluded it was probably the most original 1971 Hemi ’Cuda he had ever seen. He would know, as he bought his first ’71 in 1975 and has looked over a large number of others since then. Each discrepancy pointed out by the best in the hobby as they pored over it resulted in Greg remembering why: why no billboards or vinyl top, why the EV2 paint, why the Pistol Grip, and so on. It let anybody listening get a real appreciation for how an original buyer of a car did what was done, and why some of the little things that were not “right” actually are. As Greg Peterson stated that afternoon, “There is 1970 air in those tires.” Look at the details in these images. Want to see a Hemi car that is nearly exactly as it looked on day one? This is it.

At a Glance

1971 Hemi ’Cuda Owned by: Tor and Lars Skroder Restored by: Unrestored original Engine: 426ci/425hp Hemi V-8 Transmission: Hemi 4-speed manual Rearend: Dana 60 with 3.54 gears and A33 Track Pak Interior: Black leather bucket seat Wheels: 15×7 Rallye Tires: G70-15 Goodyear Polyglas GT Special parts: Shaker hood, road lamps, hoodpins, billboard delete, EV2 TorRed paint, power windows, leather upholstery

As a reward for good grades, Greg Petersen was given the choice between this ’Cuda and a new Corvette. His father had owned a 1957 DeSoto with a Hemi, and his grandfather had owned an early 1960s Sting Ray. They pitched the attributes of each to Greg and let him choose. He chose the color to match the engine.

Greg had not messed around under the hood except to check the oil, leaving this as an amazingly original testament to the factory installation. Even on the few parts the dealership worked on under warranty, Greg kept the originals.

Unlike the stripped-down drag racing specials, this Hemi was decked out with leather bucket seats, power windows, console, and AM/FM radio with rear speakers. The interior has not been restored; it is completely original.

Unlike buyers who select components for racing, Greg picked options for personal reasons, not necessarily performance. For instance, that Hurst Pistol Grip had the same feel as his treasured Colt Woodsman handgun his grandmother gave him as a young boy. The car got a four-speed as a result.

When Greg parked the car in 1974, he even left a half-eaten pack of antacids in the console. They are still there. Greg has noted that the car sometimes stressed him out. “It was hard to turn a corner without spinning out.”

Due to the wide, 60-series tires, the factory trimmed or folded back the lip stamping to prevent rubbing or tire damage. As a result, you could not order wheelwell trim on a Hemi E-Body with that tire. Nonetheless, someone on the line installed the chrome trim on one side during the assembly. When Greg pointed out the discrepancy a week after delivery, the dealer added matching trim to the other side.

When you got the 15-inch Rallye wheel, you needed an extension to the valve stem, and the factory had a set of them as a Mopar part. The envelope that Greg’s came in only had three instead of four, so one wheel doesn’t have the extension to this day. It never needed it; the air in the tire is original.

Greg had never been to a collector car show before MCACN in 2016, and he fascinated attendees who asked him questions about how the car was ordered, maintained, and delivered.

Here is a page from Greg’s high school yearbook showing him and a picture of him in the car with a placard and the words “Chevy Eater” on it. He was not a street racer and never got a ticket in this car.

Untouched! Check out the detail on this unrestored 1971 Hemi ’Cuda. The carbs are so original that they retain the plastic adjuster covers and correct factory ID tags used when the engine went through final assembly. From the driver’s side, one sees the unaltered spring and linkage positions. With very light preparation, Scott Smith was able to get the car purring along in an afternoon, allowing Greg Peterson to enjoy it one final time.

Everything? Yes, Everything Greg Peterson kept everything associated with his car. The paperwork includes not just the dealership materials but even his own handwritten notes about the options he wanted. When Scott Smith helped Greg pull the ’Cuda out of storage—seen here right after it left its home of 30 years—he located a very nice broadcast sheet tucked into the seat springs. Oh, and that 1965 Corvair Peterson drove before and after he got his ’Cuda? He still has it as well.

The post Could Be the Most Original 1971 Plymouth Hemi ’Cuda on the Planet appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

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Was the Studebaker The First Muscle Car?

New Post has been published on https://coolcarsnews.com/2021/02/01/was-the-studebaker-the-first-muscle-car/

Was the Studebaker The First Muscle Car?

By Dave Ashton

Its commonly thought that all the first muscle car was the 1964 Pontiac GTO or even the 1949 Oldsmobile Rocket 88. The tick listing being a huge V8 engine in the small(ish) car, performance parts, generally two door and available to the standard car buyer. The origins appear quite well established, but according to classiccar. com , there’ h an argument for the R1 and R2 Studebaker Lark being the first sort of the breed.

The particular Studebaker Lark was launched in the drop of 1958, for the 1959 design and according to Wikipedia, ‘ the particular Lark was the first car from the size to offer a V8 engine. ’ (hmmmm…, check your facts Wikipedia) From 1959 to 1960 the fullbore engine consisted of the 259ci. (4. 2 L) OF V8, with a 289ci. (4. 7 L) V8 coming in 1961. One other sobre facto standard in a muscle vehicle is the supercharger, which apparently very first came to the 1957 Studebaker Fantastic Hawk coupled to a 289 OF V8. This one was a Paxton VS57, which usually increased power to 275HP, using a 2 barrel carburetor. For a full explanation of the car specifications, check out the complete article at classiccar. com.

The article compares the Pontiac GTO to the Studebaker for muscles car origins, concluding that the GTO, which sold in far bigger amounts won the title, mainly because of popularity. But it excludes the other side from the story, the 1949 Oldsmobile Skyrocket 88. The first rocket 88 included a 303 cubic inch OF V8 with 135HP(. debatable) and 283 lb-ft of torque and with an increased data compresion ratio, a 10% fuel performance was achieved. Performance wise, this particular equated to a 0-60 mph associated with 13 seconds and a top speed associated with 97 mph. Extremely rapid for that 1950’ s.

This didn’ t take long for other brands Dodge, Plymouth and Pontiac to have the same idea. while the Rocket 88 moved away from its roots plus became a much larger vehicle, evolving into a full-size sedan.

You could argue that the Rocket 88 was the first V8 engine vehicle to tick all the muscle vehicle boxes. The Studebaker also has an affordable say in the story. But , whenever talking about muscle cars, the 1964 Pontiac GTO is the nearest design template to the classic era of the past due 1960’ s and early 70’ s, especially with a more potent 389 ci. (6. 4 L) OF V8 producing 325hp.

  Like many changing muscle cars, the GTO strike its stride in 1968 with all the second-generation model. This body shape is exactly what we came to know as a traditional muscle car, along with a huge 400ci. (6. 6 L) or 455ci. (7. 5 L) V8. However as for which model was the very first out of the blocks, is not just open intended for debate, but as is the term by itself.

We’ ve already been down this rabbit warren a great bunch of times with these previous articles . There is no concrete moment in time where the term ‘ muscle car’ was first used. As long as the automobile has existed, it’ s been referred to through the years as having ‘ muscle. ’ Plus, the very debatable point around the Wikipedia muscle car page which usually says that the original muscle vehicles were actually referred to as ‘ supercars’. (if anyone out there can give more clarification on the supercar thing, make sure you comment below. )

Which means that the term will always be seen retrospectively, with the terminology being added to automobiles which were not referred to as muscle vehicles until many years later. Which means just about all three of the examples above might be muscle cars, none of them or maybe a single, depending on which side of the mattress you got out of.

Regarding conclusions, we don’ t genuinely have one. Apart from if you want to go off the current definition and this can still be unclear. The Mustang and Camaro are usually referred to as muscle cars, but firmly you should call them pony vehicles. Which means if you want to be liberal oriented about the whole affair, the Studebaker could be ‘ one’ of the authentic muscle cars.

Such as many great ideas, there’ t usually lots of reference points. It’ s clear that the late 1940’ s and 1950’ s introduced lots of innovation, with the need for good luck and performance. The V8 with no replacement for displacement were the mindsets and those should be the areas of celebration instead of who was the first out of the gates.

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