Clancy Tucker's Blog, page 58

18 March 2021 - THE UNKNOWN IDENTITY OF 'TANK MAN'

 

 THE UNKNOWN IDENTITY 

OF 'TANK MAN'

G'day folks,

In 1989, a single man stood alone in the way of a line of tanks, halting their progress toward Tiananmen Square in China.  The photo went on to become iconic. Moments after it was taken, the man was dragged off the street by two other unknown people, allowing the tanks to proceed towards their destination, where protesters were gathered to fight against government corruption and for freedom of speech.  
 British tabloids nicknamed the lone protestor Tank Man, but his true identity is still unconfirmed. Some believe he was executed for hindering a military operation, others claim he is safe thanks to his anonymity, as there are possible repercussions to what he did, even over 40 years later.  Time Magazine included the ‘unknown rebel’ on a list of the 100 most important people of the 20th century.    Clancy's comment: Let's hope he's safe and well.
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23 March 2021 - WHO WAS THE COMTE de SAINT-GERMAIN?

 

WHO WAS THE

 COMTE de SAINT-GERMAIN? 

 

G'day folks,

The Comte de Saint-Germain is an 18th-century adventurer whose true identity remains unknown.  While not the most contemporary figure on the list, Saint-Germain was very well-known in his day, he was even nicknamed the Wonderman. He knew nearly all the European languages and had a comprehensive knowledge of history. Not only that, but he was also a musical composer, a capable violinist, and his accomplishments as a chemist, on which he based his reputation, were in many ways considerable.   Considering all this, it's quite strange that Saint Germain’s real name, parentage, or place of birth are speculative at best. The most common version is that he was a Portuguese Jewish man. His travels took him from France to England to Russia and he most likely died in 1784, but some say people saw him in Paris in 1789.  Clancy's comment: Maybe he was a spy?
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13 March 2021 - WHO IS BANKSY?

 

WHO IS BANKSY?

G'day folks,

We tend to think that being famous automatically leads to everyone knowing every single detail of your life.  While that may be true for most celebrities and public figures, it isn’t the case for everyone. Some people became well known for their craft or their story but managed to keep their true identity a complete secret. In this day and age, remaining a private and even a mysterious person definitely takes some effort but turns out it is possible. 


The British graffiti artist who goes by the name ‘Banksy’ emerged onto the art scene in 1993, and his identity has remained a mystery ever since. Even if the name doesn’t sound familiar to you, you have likely encountered a Banksy piece at some point. His art - which usually comments on political and social issues - is originally displayed in places like public bridges, tunnels, and walls, and it later gets reproduced on countless prints and merchandise. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Banksy is currently one of the most famous artists in the world yet all that is known about him is his country of origin.  A few years ago, the Daily Mail claimed that Banksy’s real name is Robin Gunningham. But, according to Banksy’s own website, he states that he is “unable to comment on who may or may not be Banksy”. He rarely gives interviews, but even when he does, Banksy’s voice is altered to sound robotic. In this day and age, it’s incredible that such a prominent figure manages to keep their identity hidden. 
 Clancy's comment: Good for him. I'm ...  
 

11 March 2021 - THE LIFE OF LARRY KING

 

THE LIFE OF LARRY KING

G'day folks,

TV and radio host Larry King, known for his straight to the point interviewing technique, hosted 'Larry King Live' for 25 years.

Who Was Larry King?

Larry King was born November 19, 1933 in Brooklyn, New York. In 1978 he started a nightly coast-to-coast radio talk show, The Larry King Show, on the Mutual Radio Network. This work caught the attention of Ted Turner, who hired King to host his own talk show, Larry King Live, on CNN in 1985. In 2010, King announced he'd be ending his reign as host after 25 years.

Early Life

Born as Lawrence Harvey Zeiger on November 19, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York, King was the child of Jewish immigrants Edward Zeiger, a bar owner, and Jennie Gitlitz, a garment worker. When King was 9 years old, his father died of heart disease at the age of 44. King's mother had to go on welfare to support him and his younger brother, Marty. From an early age, King dreamed of a career in radio, but his father's death greatly affected his emotional stability, causing him to lose interest in school. He barely finished high school, and had little prospect of having a steady career. At this time, he went to work as a mail clerk to help support his mother.

 Radio Career

A chance meeting with a CBS television announcer set King on the pathway to a career in radio. The announcer told him to go to Florida, a state with a growing media market that was hiring inexperienced broadcasters. King got his first break on Miami radio station WAHR (now WMBM) in Miami Beach. Initially, the job was to clean up the station and perform odd jobs. But when one of their male announcers quit in May of 1957, King was put on to replace him. He must have impressed his manager, because King was immediately put on the 9:00 AM to noon shift. He also did two afternoon newscasts and a sportscast. Doing all this while receiving a $55 a week salary made the young King feel he was fulfilling his long-time dream.

The name he was going by at the time, Larry Zeiger, didn't sit well with the station's general manager since he thought it sounded too too ethnic and was hard to remember. Minutes before the young King was to go on air, he chose the last name "King" after seeing an advertisement for King's Wholesale Liquor. King soon found popularity in the South Florida radio scene. In 1960, he premiered his first program on Miami television and built up a strong local following, adding a newspaper column in the entertainment sections of the Miami Herald and Miami News to his radio and television duties. During the 1960s, he met television legend Jackie Gleason, who was producing a national television variety show in Miami Beach at the time. King later credited Gleason for teaching him much about television production and called him a mentor.

 Television Career

In December 1971, King was charged with grand larceny by a former business partner, which immediately led to the loss of his broadcast and newspaper jobs. He was acquitted of all charges in 1972 but was deeply in debt and publicly disgraced. Over the next several years he worked to rebuild his career, writing magazine articles and working in West Coast radio. By the late 1970s, the incident had blown over, and he was able to return to Miami broadcasting. He was rehired by WIOD in 1978, starting a nightly coast-to-coast talk show, The Larry King Show, on the Mutual Radio Network. The show featured guest interviews and call-ins from the listening audience and became very successful, growing to over 500 affiliate stations. This work caught the attention of media mogul Ted Turner, who hired King to host his own talk show on the then-fledgling Cable News Network (CNN) in 1985.

Larry King Live became the first international TV call-in show. Over the course of the next 25 years, King developed a loyal audience who tuned in to watch the talk show host interview presidents, athletes, actors, national heroes, foreign dignitaries and obscure individuals who were thrust into the limelight. The show soon became the highest-rated talk show on air, and a requisite stopover for celebrities plugging any project. King's direct, non-confrontational interview style proved to be a hit with audiences and guests alike. As a testament to the show's influence, Ross Perot chose to announce his 1992 presidential bid on Larry King Live. In addition, King has also used his show as a portal for other fundraising events, including disaster relief in New Orleans and Haiti.

 Other Projects

Outside his career as talk show host, King has appeared as himself in several movies and television shows. He's also done voice work in such animated films as Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007), and Bee Movie (2007). He's also written several books on heart disease after he suffered a heart attack in 1987. King's autobiography, My Remarkable Journey, was published in 2009.

Personal Life

King also became well known for his repeat trips to the altar, marrying a total of eight times — twice to the same woman. King has been in and out of marriages most of his adult life, beginning with his marriage to his high-school sweetheart Freda Miller when he was 19. During his subsequent seven marriages, he has fathered four children. In 1997, King married his seventh wife, Shawn Southwick, a former singer and television host, in King's Los Angeles hospital room three days before he underwent heart surgery. Southwick is 26 years King's junior. The couple has two children together, Chance and Cannon. Southwick has a son, Danny, from her former marriage. The couple announced their separation, and impending divorce, on April 14, 2010. The couple has since stopped proceedings, however, claiming they did so for the sake of the children.

  

Clancy's comment: An extraordinary career in employment ... and in marriage.

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14 February 2021 - STUNNING BIRDS CREATED FROM PAPER

 

STUNNING BIRDS 

CREATED FROM PAPER

G'day folks,

Zack Mclaughlin is an artist inspired by the beauty of colorful birds. He makes his stunning sculptures from paper, wood and other mixes. He started making these paper birds a few years ago, with the designs becoming more and more lifelike, staying true to what he found so beautiful while also maintaining realism in his sculptures.

Zack cuts every individual feather with his scissors, from the big wing feathers to the tiny tail feathers. 

Now, let's see some of his work ...

 

 

Clancy's comment: Stunning art, involving hours of work.

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16 March 2021 - ANASTASIA THE FAKE

 

ANASTASIA THE FAKE 

G'day folks,

In July of 1918, Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra, and their five children were executed by the Bolsheviks in a basement in Ekaterinburg. However, rumors soon started to spread that Anastasia, the youngest Romanov daughter had managed to escape. These rumors were exploited by several imposters, but one of them went down in history as one of the greatest con artists ever - Anna Anderson.

In 1920, a nameless woman was pulled out of the Landwehr Canal in Berlin after a failed suicide attempt. She had no identifying documents and refused to talk, so the authorities sent her to a mental institution, where she stayed for 2 years. It was there that people started pointing out her physical resemblance to Grand Dutchess Anastasia, as well as her aloof demeanor and strange scars. When she finally started speaking again, it turned out that she also had a barely noticeable Russian accent. 

Many former aides and relatives of the Russian Royal Family came to visit Anderson to see if there was any truth to these claims. When she was shown old photographs of the family, her face would always turn red and she would become increasingly upset while refusing to speak. Only later that night she told one of the nurses: "The gentleman has a photo of my grandmother." She appeared to know many small details of the royal family's personal life. Though there were numerous inconsistencies in her stories and many doubted her legitimacy, word started to spread that Anderson was, in fact, Anastasia.

Upon her release from the asylum, Anderson’s circle of supporters grew, and they even began a long battle to win her legal recognition as Anastasia. By 1927, an alleged former roommate of Anderson claimed that her name was Franziska Schanzkowska, not Anna and certainly not Anastasia. This didn’t stop Anderson from indulging in her celebrity life and trying to get hold of the royal inheritance. 

 

She ultimately lost her case in the legal proceedings that dragged on for decades, but she stuck to her story until her death in 1984. Years later, the bodies of the Royal Family were recovered and a posthumous DNA test finally proved that Anderson was indeed a fraud. If anything, she was likely Franziska Schanzkowska, a Polish factory worker who had gone missing in 1920.

Clancy's comment: Interesting story, eh?

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15 March 2021 - WHO INVENTED KAYAKS?

 

WHO INVENTED

 KAYAKS?

 

G'day folks,

Kayaks were used throughout the Arctic and subarctic region. Native Americans living in the northern regions of North America made kayaks by stretching walrus or sealskin over wooden frames. 

 

According to historians, the Native Americans developed the kayak as they needed a small, narrow boat to navigate choppy rivers. These kayaks even had a sealed cockpit to protect the paddler from sinking. These kayaks were made using a double paddle to increase the speed and were about 19 feet (5.7 meters) long. 

 

It is said that the kayaks were an important part of the Native American culture and were regularly used for seal and walrus hunting. Children were given a kayak by the age of 10 and they were expected to build their own by the age of 20.

Clancy's coment: There ya go. Something to pass onto your kids and grandkids.

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6 March 2021 - WHO INVENTED SNOW GOGGLES?

 

WHO INVENTED 

SNOW GOGGLES?

 

G'day folks,

Not many of us are aware of the skills and knowledge that the native people had. From the tip of South America to the Arctic, Native Americans contributed countless valuable things to the world in the form of inventions. People all over the world have enjoyed the fruits of many indigenous American inventions without realizing their origin.
Snow goggles were designed by the North American and Arctic cultures to reduce the amount of sunlight reflecting off the snow. This helped them prevent snow blindness when outdoors. While not much is known about these early twentieth-century goggles, we do know that they were made from wood, bone, antler, or seal ivory. The designs were made in a way to completely cover the eyes and let just enough light from horizontal slits to allow the wearer to see. These small slits also minimized the harm done to the eyes by UV rays. Sometimes even tiny holes were drilled into the top of the goggles to provide ventilation.


Clancy's comment: There ya go. Necessity is the mother of invention, eh?
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7 March 2021 - I Street Bridge West Sacramento, California

 

I Street Bridge West Sacramento, California G'day folks,
I Street Bridge is the heaviest swinging center bridge in the United States. 

 Built in 1911, the I Street Bridge is 363 feet long, weighs over 7 million lbs., and has two decks; one for highway traffic and one for railroad traffic.

The swing-span bridge pivots 90 degrees clockwise to allow ships access to the Sacramento River, and carries approximately 10,000 cars and trucks and 40 railroad trains every day.

As of early 2017, the City of Sacramento is planning to reroute car, bus, and bicycle traffic onto a more modern bridge upriver in coming years. However, railroad traffic will remain on the structure even after the new bridge is built.

Just downstream of the bridge on the east side of the river is an information board, entitled “Prisoner of the River,” relating to the vessel, LaGrange, a floating prison which sank there in 1859.

 If you sign up for the River Ferry Cruise you will go under this bridge. The view is pretty stunning. There is a bicycle/walking trail along the eastern shore of the Sacramento River near the California State Railroad Museum that is a particularly good vantage point to see the bridge swing open. (A short way downriver, also visible from this trail, is the Tower Bridge, which is a vertical-lift type movable bridge.)

 

Clancy's comment: Amazing structure, and I doubt that there are many swing bridges left. 

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9 March 2021 - INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT TOWER BRIDGE, SACRAMENTO

 

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT

 TOWER BRIDGE, SACRAMENTO

 

G'day folks,

While it’s hard to miss this bright, golden structure while speeding by on US 50, it’s what visitors don’t see that makes this bridge unique.

Constructed in 1935, the center section of this bridge lifts 100 feet above the SacramentoRiver, allowing large watercraft to pass below. Unlike typical vertical lift bridges, the towers were shrouded in steel to conceal the inner-workings. Beneath the gleaming facade are the counterweights for the 1,150-ton center span. Two 100 horsepower electric motors are all that is needed to lift the deck.

The Streamline Moderne style of architecture adds a sleek appearance to an otherwise utilitarian design. This type of Art Deco style was more commonly used in buildings and vehicles. The Tower Bridge is a rare example of this style used on a bridge.

Although it’s made of steel, in keeping with its Streamline Moderne styling, it was originally painted silver to represent aluminum.

The bridge is operated by the state and is designated as State Route 275. At 738 feet long, it is one of the shortest state highways in California. 

 

Clancy's comment: Wow, that's a short highway - 738 feet long. 

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