Growing old means that people you once viewed as old are now younger than you. Life is always safest when you are buffered on all sides. We buffer ourselves with family and friends. Money is a buffer. The battlefield is safest if you’re the person in the middle, not the edges. Life’s edges bring great… Continue reading May They Forever Be Old: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Death at Age 44
Category: People You’ve Never Heard Of
The Strange Case of the U.S. Soldier Who Talked 162 Germans Into Surrendering
As with so many war stories, this one is hazy and sounds like it’s ready-made for a movie. Particulars are hard to pin down, since the only person who might corroborate them has been dead since 1955. This is the story of a U.S. soldier whose “super-salesman” silver tongue persuaded German soldiers to surrender to… Continue reading The Strange Case of the U.S. Soldier Who Talked 162 Germans Into Surrendering
Yosemite’s Daredevil Dancing Waitresses
Instant death from falling off of precipices at Yosemite National Park is a long-standing tradition at that park. One time, at Yosemite, time melted away as I found myself mesmerized by the Yosemite installment of the “Death In…” series of national parks books about all of the ways visitors meet their demise in our country’s… Continue reading Yosemite’s Daredevil Dancing Waitresses
Brutal and Effective: C. Fred Tarver’s Advertising Campaign
“These four men have one thing in common…” Who would you rather buy insurance from if you live in Alexandria, Louisiana. Fred Tarver? How about C.F. Tarver? Wait, what about Cleston Tarver? Or C. Fred Tarver? For close to three decades, residents of that city were familiar with Tarver’s repetitive ad for his State Farm… Continue reading Brutal and Effective: C. Fred Tarver’s Advertising Campaign
Arthur Tress: Best Photographer You’ve Never Heard Of
His name doesn’t provoke instant recognition to the photo layperson like Diane Arbus’ name does, but Arthur Tress has been diligently putting out fantastic images for the last half-century-plus that have some of the same nightmare-ish quality. This first photo, Flood Dream, is a part of a series in a book called Dream Collector 1972… Continue reading Arthur Tress: Best Photographer You’ve Never Heard Of