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Issue 770
SNIPPETZ TAKES A TRIP TO OKLAHOMA, OKLAHOMA, OKLAHOMA, OKLAHOMA! by Lindsey Harrison “Something called ‘the Oklahoma Standard’ became known throughout the world. It means resilience in the face of adversity. It means a strength and compassion that will not be defeated.” – Brad Henry, American politician How much do you know about the individual states that make up our great nation? Unless you have an excellent memory from your days as a student or happen to be an American history teacher, chances are you don’t know a whole lot about most of them. You probably have a decent working knowledge of the state in which you live, but how about its neighbors? Here in Colorado, we are bordered by Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and Nebraska. If questioned, what could you say about each state that the average American doesn’t know? Well, keep reading this article because Snippetz has rounded up some great information about one of our great neighboring states, Oklahoma! OKLA-WHO-NOW? To truly get to know Oklahoma, we need to start at the very beginning with that interesting name: “Oklahoma.” It was derived from the Choctaw tribe’s words “okla” and “humma,” which translates to “red people.” The name was suggested in 1866 by Choctaw Chief Allen Wright while treaty negotiations with the federal government took place about what land would be reserved for the Native Americans and what would be fair game for the white settlers. HOLY WEATHER PHENOMENA, BATMAN! The state itself covers an area of 69,898 square miles, making it the 20th largest state in the Union. Although it is completely land-locked, it has roughly 11,611 miles of shoreline along its various lakes, 200 of which are man-made. With such a large expanse and unique position geographically, Oklahoma experiences weather patterns that vary greatly over fairly short distances and that can dramatically change in a short period of time. At no time was this more obvious than on November 11, 1911. On that day, Oklahoma City recorded a temperature of 83 ºF, which is remarkable on its own; but by midnight, a massive Arctic cold front swept the state and the temperature plummeted to 17 ºF. Not many places can say they reached their record high and record low temperatures on the exact same day. GET YOUR KICKS ON ROUTE 66 Oklahoma remains a major producer of natural gas, oil and various agricultural products. After oil was first discovered, a massive population boom occurred and the oil industry helped spur on the state’s early economic successes. In fact, the legendary “Route 66” began with Oklahoma businessman Cyrus Avery and John Woodruff from Springfield, Missouri in 1926. It all started in 1916, when legislation pushing for the creation of a public highway system first emerged. Although it would take nearly a decade to actually create a working version of the act, a plan was eventually put into place that was spear-headed by Avery and Woodruff that would create a highway connecting Chicago with Los Angeles. The original plans called for the Route 66 to follow along three highways but those plans were modified to follow faster routes. U.S. Highway 66 was signed into law in 1927 and work began shortly thereafter; the road would not be completely constructed and paved until 1938. When the Dust Bowl of the 1930s swept through the state, many families relied on Route 66 as they traveled west in search of agricultural jobs that had disappeared in Oklahoma. Additionally, Route 66 helped many small businesses weather the Great Depression since it passed through various small towns and provided easy access to smaller businesses like service stations and restaurants. SMARTY PANTS! When it comes to brains, Oklahomans are no slackers. In fact, several important inventions were the brainchildren (is that a word??) of people from Oklahoma. For instance, the shopping cart was invented by Sylvan Goldman, owner of the Piggly Wiggly chain of supermarkets in Oklahoma City, in 1937. This invention has served to imprison unruly children in the supermarket while their exhausted parents shop for groceries ever since. Oh, and it’s useful for carrying groceries, too. But we can do better than that. In 1968, an electrical engineer who graduated from Oklahoma State University named Edward Roberts, invented the personal computer. We at Snippetz salute you, good sir. Anyway, Roberts also happened to give Bill Gates his first job in the industry. Again, nice going, Mr. Roberts. Let’s not forget Gordon Matthews of Tulsa. He invented an electronic communication system that stashed away audio messages back in 1982. We call it voicemail now or possibly that obnoxious thing that people never leave messages on but instead make you call them back to find out what they wanted. Nonetheless, it’s a great invention. The next time you are merging onto a busy street and you only have to yield to oncoming traffic rather than stopping, you can thank Oklahoma. More specifically, you can thank Paul Rice and Clinton Riggs, the inventors of the yield sign. Riggs served as a police officer is Tulsa. WINNING THE LOTTERY! Land rushes in Oklahoma’s history were a bit chaotic to say the least. However, in 1901, it appeared that the federal government had learned from its mistakes and wanted to conduct a more civilized method of divvying up the unsettled land in the state. Instead of the land rushes of the past, the government opted for a lottery instead. Thousands of people from across the country came to Fort Sill to register for it. Now, it’s probably not surprising that when you have thousands of people milling around in heat topping 100 ºF, things didn’t go super smoothly. People were killed, others were nearly killed, and still others were arrested. Overall, about 160,000 people showed up between July 10 and July 26 to secure their chance at one of 13,000 homesteads. Once the winners had been drawn, they could file the claims for their new properties, starting on August 6. The interesting thing was that they could pick what shape they wanted 160 acres to be. Imagine being the unlucky neighbor of someone who decided a Z was the ideal shape for their property. And after all those hours of standing in line, hoping to have your number picked, there were still 1,362 winners who had to forfeit their acreage because they didn’t show up to file the claims for their properties. Oops. OKLAHOMA SNIPPETZ
Issue 771
SNIPPETZ IS READY TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL. ARE YOU? by Lindsey Harrison 
“August used to be a sad month for me. As the days went on, the thought of school starting weighed heavily upon my young frame.”
– Henry Rollins, American musician For most kids, August feels an awful lot like how Mr. Rollins described it. The freedom of the long, lazy days of carefree play are on their way out and the structured, cooped-up classroom days are right around the corner. However, for the adults in their lives, school means something totally different. For the parent who’s home all day with the kids, school means a busy morning getting everyone dressed, fed and off to school. But after that, a sense of calm tends to settle over the household. And that calm, especially after the chaos of the summer, is usually more than welcome. Unless, of course, no one has taken the steps to get ready for the new school year. We don’t just mean buying the supplies and new clothes. We’re talking about true preparedness, the kind that leads to successful kids and (relatively) stress-free parents. Snippetz has everything you need to know to get ready for school this year! LUNCHTIME If you ask any parent who sends lunch with their kids to school each day, they’ll probably tell you that getting lunches around, especially ones that their kids will actually eat, is one of the most difficult tasks. Sometimes all it takes is planning a little bit ahead and thinking outside the typical peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwich box. For instance, try making this sandwich that is a twist on a classic: a BLT Waffle-Wich. Instead of bread, use waffles (either frozen that you toast before you pack everything or fresh using batter you whip together the night before). Layer on the bacon, lettuce and tomato, and if they happen to like mayonnaise, add a little packet or mini squirt bottle so they can have the fun of adding that during lunchtime. Maybe your kiddos have decided they literally will NOT eat sandwiches this year. For those of you with younger kids or perhaps no kids at all, this is a real thing; they like to randomly decide they are virtually allergic to something they devoured ravenously the day before. In that instance, here’s another quick lunch option: homemade alphabet pasta. Plus, you can sneak vegetables into the sauce to help pump up the health factor. The night before, prepare the pasta just like you normally would, however for the sauce, add in zucchini, carrots, bell peppers, anything that can be easily disguised in the typical red pasta sauce. Of course, if your kiddo is super picky, make sure the veggies are cut up super small. Store the pasta and sauce together in an air-tight container in your fridge so you can grab it, heat it up, add it to a Thermos to keep it warm, and send your little one on his or her way! ORGANIZATION If you’re like every other parent in the United States, you have great expectations of what the new school year will look like and how you will improve on the year before. However, a week or two into school, you’ve probably noticed how your kitchen table has become a catch-all for homework, newsletters, crafts and other various odds and ends. And it might make you want to tear your hair out. One sure-fire way to get ready for the new year is to make an organizational plan that you can stick to in order to make your days run more smoothly. For instance, get a calendar. Make sure it’s large enough so you can add in the various activities for each member of the family and post it someplace where everyone can see it. You can even use your calendar to help plan what dinners you’ll have throughout the week. Remember that whole catch-all-kitchen-table thing? A way to combat that is to get a bulletin board. Stick important notices, invitations, newsletters and the like to the bulletin board so they don’t have to sit on your table. And if you have trouble keeping your bulletin board from getting overcrowded, leave only a certain number of thumbtacks to which you can attach things. Once you run out of thumbtacks, you know you need to pare down the papers you’re keeping. When your kid gets sick and you have to call to excuse them from school, how easily can you find the number for the attendance line? If you have kids that attend more than one school, how do you keep track of the multiple numbers that may be important to have on hand? And don’t forget that you’ll probably need to get in touch with their doctor if they end up having to stay home. Creating a reference notebook or binder is a great way to keep all those important bits of information straight. You can add in various teachers’ extensions at the school and their email addresses as well. You can even include contact information for their coaches, tutors, and other extracurricular activity instructors. By and large, the majority of paperwork that seems to come home from school with our kids these days are various pieces of graded homework, quizzes, drawings, etc. And it may be very tempting to keep every little thing because, after all, your sweet little darling created it, didn’t they? Use magazine holders with specific labels to separate out the items. Homework can be in one, completed tasks in another, drawings or paintings in another (you get the idea). The homework one should essentially clear itself out. The completed tasks one can be easily gone through at the end of each week to determine what should be saved and what can be recycled. The drawings and paintings one may be more difficult, but that’s when it helps that your kids go to bed before you! If you don’t think they’ll miss it (and that you won’t either) toss it when they’re in bed and they’ll probably never know it’s gone. BEDTIME This one may seem pretty straightforward but it’s a major point of contention for many parents and kids. Just like anyone else, kids need plenty of sleep. If they’ve been up late all summer long, it may be difficult to get them to go to bed at a decent time once school starts. Enacting an earlier bedtime at least a few days in advance can be effective in making that struggle a bit easier. In turn, a decent bedtime will usually result in an easier morning when you have to wake those sleeping angels up to get ready for school. Leave yourself enough time to get yourself ready as well. It may even be a good idea to get yourself up a bit earlier than your kids so you have time to shower and start your morning in peace. Back-to-school time can be stressful and full of anxious situations for both you and your kids. But thinking ahead a little bit and preparing yourself and your little bundles of joy, you might just be able to start off the school year on the right foot . . . and carry on those same good behaviors throughout the year. Or at least until the first holiday break! Issue 772
SNIPPETZ SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT... ER. COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS DEBUNKED PART 2 by Lindsey Harrison “Ignorance cannot lead to evil; misconceptions lead to evil. It is not what people do know, it’s what they pretend they do.” – Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist Like him or not, Leo Tolstoy totally had a point when he said that evil comes from the misconceptions created by what people pretend to know. Of course, not every misconception is inherently evil. The point is that there are a lot of misconceptions floating around out there and who can we ever really count on to clear up all the confusion? Well, dear readers, you’ve come to the right place. We are, after all, setting the record straight on some more common misconceptions. And with the plethora of misconceptions out there that we had to choose from, it’s safe to say we will likely have a Part III and Part IV, etc. So be prepared to slip on your Smarty Pants because Snippetz is about to impart some impressive knowledge upon you to clarify some more common misconceptions! WATER CONDUCTS ELECTRICITY You’ve probably seen at least one action movie where one of the characters steps in a puddle of water and suddenly some sort of electrical device or power line falls into the same puddle and fries the person to a crisp. Based on those types of scenarios, plus incorrect facts passed down from generation to generation, most people assume that the water conducts electricity. That’s false. Pure water does not conduct electricity; is the minerals and impurities in the water that does. So how often do you run across pure water? Not very often. Even rain water isn’t pure. As it passes through the earth’s atmosphere, it collects various impurities which stay in each and every raindrop as it descends. Water that is potable, i.e. drinkable, also contains significant amounts of various impurities. Many are minerals while others are remnants of the cleaning and filtration process. Regardless, unless you intentionally purify the water, it will have something in it that conducts electricity. Based on that information, it’s still a good idea to stay out of the pool during a lightning storm and avoid dropping your radio into your bathtub. OH HAIL NO! Considering the beating parts of Colorado Springs took in July’s nasty hailstorm, we thought it only fitting to take a peek at a common misconception about hail. Of every continent on the face of the earth, which would you say has the most hailstorms per year? You’d probably guess Asia or Antarctica or even North America but you’d be wrong. It’s actually Africa and not super-southern Africa, either. The place with the most amount of days in which it hails is Kericho, Kenya. In case you didn’t know, Kenya straddles the equator. Anyway, for a country that is generally hot, dry and arid, it’s probably surprising to find out that it hails on average 132 days out of the year. The misconception is the Kenya never gets weather phenomena like hail when in actuality, it’s the most likely place for hail to occur! You may wonder how other places stack up in terms of hail days. Well, the United Kingdom averages 15 hail days per year. The eastern Rockies in the United States, considered the area most affected by hail in the entire country, only averages 45 hail days per year. Speaking of hailstones, the largest hailstone in recorded history was found in Aurora, Nebraska in 2003. It measured 7 inches in diameter, 18.75 inches in circumference, and weighed just under one pound. While most hailstones are measured in terms of “pea-sized,” or “golf ball-sized,” that monster was off the charts because it was literally the size of a small melon. When it hit the ground, it was going 100 mph, plenty fast enough to severely injure (or even kill) someone. It wouldn’t have been the first time someone died in a hailstorm; in Bangladesh on April 14, 1986, the worst hailstorm ever occurred, with stones weighing in at more than two pounds. At least 92 people were killed that day. WHAT’S THE “MATTER?” Think back to science class. Do you remember your teacher telling you about the different states of matter? If not, we can help. He or she probably told you that there are three states: solid, liquid, and gas. But man, were they wrong! They weren’t even in the ballpark, to be honest. So what are the various states of matter, you ask? Here’s the list: solid, amorphous solid, liquid, gas, plasma, supersolid, generate matter, neutronium, strongly symmetric matter, weakly symmetric matter, quark-gluon plasma, fermionic condensate, Bose-Einstein condensate, and strange matter. And if we’re to believe scientists, that list could literally be growing by the day. CENTIPEDES HAVE 100 LEGS By virtue of their name, most people believe that centipedes have 100 legs. And it’s easy to see why. The word centipede comes from the Latin meaning “a hundred feet.” So it’s really an honest mistake. However, it’s a mistake nonetheless. In fact, over the last century or so, not one species of centipede has been found that has exactly 100 legs. In 1999, scientists discovered a species that had 96 legs, broken down into 48 pairs of legs, but that’s as close as anyone has gotten to finding a true 100-legged centipede. Most centipedes have an odd number of pairs of legs, somewhere between 15 and 191 pairs. THE U.S.A. IS MADE UP OF 50 STATES This one, we’re sure, has you scratching your head. That couldn’t possibly be a misconception, could it? Seriously, we’ve all been taught since grade school that there are 50 states in our union. But if we get really technical, and at Snippetz we really love to do that, there are only 46 official states in the United States of America. But how could that be, you ask? Well, four states are officially commonwealths, rather than states and they’re as follows: Virginia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. So what’s the difference between a state and a commonwealth? Well, basically it was what the states decided to call themselves at the end of the War of Independence, signifying that they were no longer royal colonies controlled by the king of England. They don’t receive any special privileges by being commonwealths; the name simply indicates that they wanted to be governed by the “common consent of the people.” Currently, the U.S. has two additional commonwealths overseas: Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands, added in 1952 and 1975, respectively. MOZART’S MIDDLE NAME WAS AMADEUS Amadeus, Amadeus! Sorry, we were channeling Falco for a moment and his epic song, “Rock Me Amadeus.” Anyway, based on the name Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, you’re probably thinking that yes, Mozart’s middle name Amadeus. But based on this entire article, you’re probably rethinking that. If so, good, because his middle name was actually Wolfgang and here’s why: Mozart’s full name was Johann Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilius Mozart. Interestingly enough, Amadeus wasn’t part of his name at all. He often went by Wolfgang Gottlieb or Wolfgang Amadeus, and Gottlieb actually means “God’s love.” So where did Amadeus come from? Well, in Latin “God’s love” is Amadeus. Technically, he went around calling himself one form or another of “Wolfgang God’s Love.” Speaking of interesting middle names, did you know that Richard Gere’s middle name is Tiffany? Issue 773
SNIPPETZ WONDERS IF THE HOKEY POKEY REALLY IS WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT! by Lindsey Harrison “The dance is a poem of which each movement is a word.” – Mata Hari, Dutch dancer Since forever, dancing has been a way for people to express themselves without having to say a word. Sometimes the meaning behind a dance is deep and intense. Other times, a dance is just for fun. Either way, dancing is a universal way for people to enjoy themselves, unwind, convey an emotion or perhaps to say something that words just can’t express. So taking that into consideration, you may find yourself wondering what exactly is trying to be expressed by certain novelty dances, like the Hokey Pokey or the Chicken Dance? Were they created just for fun or is there some deeper meaning behind each of the movements? If Mata Hari is right and a dance is a poem with each movement representing a word, what are we saying to each other when we put our left hands in and then take our left hands out? If you know anything about us at Snippetz, you know that we couldn’t possibly just leave those questions unanswered and so we invite you to take a spin around the metaphorical dance floor with us as we explore the wacky world of novelty dances. THE HOKEY POKEY Probably one of the most popular novelty dances of all time (especially at roller skating rinks in the 1980s and 1990s) is the Hokey Pokey. However, there is definitely some uncertainty about the origin of the dance. One of the leading theories is that it is really a mockery of the Roman Catholic Latin mass. No, seriously. That might seem far-fetched unless you’ve actually ever been to a Catholic mass. Basically, the thought is that the Hokey Pokey dance stemmed from some smart-alecky member of a church congregation who decided to mimic the priest’s gestures and words as he presented them during Mass. Not convinced? That’s OK. But consider how hard it is to hear in a church, when the priest is facing the altar and speaking in Latin, more specifically saying the phrase, “This is my body,” which translates to Hoc est enim corpus meum. We dare you to argue of the impossibility that a particularly snarky member of the congregation could have misheard those words and made up the Hokey Pokey. But as we said, there is more than one theory about this dance’s origins. So if it wasn’t meant as a jab at the Catholic mass, then what else could it be? Well, an obvious one is the apparent likeness to the phrase hocus pocus, which appeared in the early 1600s. However, that’s about as far as that resemblance goes. Still others claim that the Hokey Pokey is a spin-off of a British dance called “The Cokey Cokey.” Copyrighted in 1942 by Jimmy Kennedy, who just so happened to have also written “Teddy Bear’s Picnic,” seems to have much of the same dance moves as the Hokey Pokey that Larry Laprise recorded with his group, the Rain Trio, in 1949. Thanks to the group’s recording, not only did the Hokey Pokey become a hit on the dance floor, Laprise came to be known as “The Hokey Pokey Man.” So then it must have been Kennedy who created “The Cokey Cokey,” which, in turn, became the Hokey Pokey, right? Not really, no. Kennedy actually said he based his song on a Canadian folk song, however there is speculation about that claim as well. In fact, one of the most likely origins is a remake of a Shaker song called “The Hinkum-Booby.” In that song, the words sing, “I put my right hand in, I put my right hand out, I give my right hand a shake, and now I turn it all about.” THE CHICKEN DANCE Another popular dance whose origin is shrouded in much less mystery is the Chicken Dance. Popular at weddings, this song was composed by the Swiss accordion player, Werner Thomas in the 1950s. It would take some time for it to reach any level of popularity and had various artists remake it time and again in the hopes of creating a hit. One such attempt was made by the Dutch band, “De Electronica” in 1980. The song, titled “De Vogeltjesdans” was entirely instrumental and didn’t actually appear on the A-side (usually the one with the best songs) of their album; they had recorded it on the B-side. Luckily for everyone who loves the Chicken Dance (but maybe not so much for De Electronica), the A-side was essentially a flop so the local radio stations took a chance on what the B-side had to offer. With that one small decision, the birth of a world-wide dance craze was born. Since then, over 140 versions of the song have been composed and recorded totaling more than 40,000,000 records in all. And it’s all about pretending to be a chicken. Man, we humans will get a kick out of anything! THE TARANTELLA One of the lesser-known novelty dances is the tarantella. However, its origins are much more sinister than that of other such dances. For instance, the dance was created as a way to combat the poisonous bite of the tarantula wolf spider found in Taranto, Apulia, Italy. Here’s how it all happened: supposedly, the bite of the spider was so powerful that it led to hysterical dancing and convulsing, called tarantism. In order to avoid death by wolf spider bite, the afflicted person would dance to try to push the poison out of their system. Strangely enough, the person who was bitten was also prone to these dancing fits and, being the sensitive people that they were, the locals also made up a dance mocking those who had been bitten. You might think that such a strange type of dance wouldn’t last long but it you would be wrong. In fact, this type of dance has spawned its very own type of song, one that has been utilized by many famous composers including Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The tarantella song has a fast tempo and is generally considered a cheerful type of music, although that may be because people don’t know the truth behind its less-than-cheerful origins. LESSER KNOWN NOVELTY DANCES SNIPPETZ
Issue 774
WHAT'S SCIENCE FICTION GOT TO DO WITH IT? by Lindsey Harrison “Science fiction is trying to find alternative ways of looking at realities.” – Iain Banks, Scottish writer When you think of the phrase “science fiction,” you may think (as many people probably do) of a skinny, pale teenage boy sitting in his parents’ basement, watching Star Trek. Perhaps in your vision he even has some thick-lensed glasses with tape on the nosepiece, holding the frames together. Or maybe you envision a cheesy movie where a massive blob wanders the streets, killing (via absorption) every living thing in its path. If either of those images comes to mind when you think of “science fiction,” your summation is partly correct and partly incorrect. Science fiction as a literary genre is way more important and influential on our everyday lives than most people realize. It isn’t just about space or aliens or even monsters; it’s about a way of thinking that takes scientifically possible (but maybe not probable) ideas and meshes them with the imagination to come up with something that is conceivable and unbelievable all at the same time. If that makes no sense, that’s OK. In our quest to define science fiction and illustrate its lifespan thus far, Snippetz has uncovered some really great examples of the best works of science fiction that just might clarify a rather murky topic. So read on and enjoy! LET’S GET STARTED! As with any good story, the story of science fiction has a beginning . . . and that’s where we’ll start. By that, of course, we mean that we’ll start with where in the world the phrase “science fiction” even came from! Because how can you chronicle the history of something if you don’t even know what it means? You can’t. So here we go: science fiction as a term as first used in 1851. Although that may seem like a long time ago, in the grand scheme of time, it’s like it happened just now. Or, maybe two sentences ago. Anyway, “science fiction” first popped up in William Wilson’s A Little Earnest Book upon a Great Old Subject in which he wrote, “Science-fiction, in which the revealed truths of Science may be given interwoven with a pleasing story which may itself be poetical and true.” If that doesn’t quite make sense, here’s a perhaps more accessible definition, written by H. Bruce Franklin in his essay, Science Fiction: The Early History. He wrote, “Science fiction is the major non-realistic mode of imaginative creation of our epoch. It is the principal cultural way we locate ourselves imaginatively in time and space.” In case that definition didn’t clarify anything for you, let’s go back to when the first real science fiction story of our time (again, that’s a totally relative term) was published. ALL BECAUSE A DOCTOR BUILT A NEW MAN FROM OLD BODY PARTS In all reality, science fiction has been around since basically forever. Think of Homer’s Odyssey in which a man travels to distant lands and encounters monster like a one-eyed behemoth, a six-headed sea monster and reigning over it all are a host of gods living on something called Mount Olympus. But in the sense that most of us are familiar with, science fiction as a genre can really be traced to one story that started it all: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein which was published in March 1818. In all likelihood, the idea that Frankenstein is a work of science fiction doesn’t quite jive with what most people consider science fiction, but truly, it has all the necessary elements. You’ve got a scientist, technically a medical doctor in the story, and possible (although maybe not probable . . . remember that?) technology being used to reanimate the pieced-together remains of various corpses that results in a very imaginative type of monster. BOOM! Science fiction at its finest. But Shelley didn’t stop there. Just eight years later, the innovative author managed to bang out another masterpiece of science fiction in her 1826 novel, The Last Man. In this story, the main character (the last man, in case you couldn’t figure that out) wanders around a desolate and dead planer completely alone. Again, we see something that is possible and the way that is has been imagined into a very interesting, somewhat frightening, story of how our society, regardless of – or perhaps, thanks to – all our fancy-shmancy technology, still manages to implode and end in complete ruins. UP NEXT ON THE SCIENCE FICTION FRONT So where did science fiction go from there? To be honest, it went everywhere. From the likes of Edgar Allen Poe (think: The Telltale Heart or The Pit and the Pendulum) to Nathaniel Hawthorne (not so much The Scarlett Letter as The Blithedale Romance), thousands of authors have delved into the science fiction realm to achieve a style that might have otherwise been inaccessible. One that allows for the writer to couple cutting-edge or possibly not-even-thought-of technology with any number of imaginative things!! The unfortunate truth, though, is that science fiction has long been considered an almost laughable genre of literature. Perhaps the fanciful worlds and inspired technology are just too much for the serious literary types. One thing’s for sure: with the Industrial Revolution came the ability to mass-produce just about anything, including books. And when you have technology that is literally changing day to day, you’re going to end up with more than a few people interested in where that could lead in the future. In reality, it led to the science-fiction “dime” novel, that was aimed at appealing to the masses. The first of such novels is generally agreed to be Edward Ellis’s The Steam Man of the Prairie which he wrote in 1865. The general consensus was that if the “dime” novel and its science fiction storytelling was appealing to the masses, it wasn’t nearly as good as some other forms of literature and that stigma has never quite gone away. DON’T KNOCK IT ‘TIL YOU TRY IT While it may be tempting to agree with the opinion that science fiction is “less than,” give it a try! Seriously, some of the best works in literary history have been science fiction. Here’s a sampling of some of the most popular science fictions stories:
Out of all the above titles, you’ve probably heard of at least a few and chances are, you had no idea they would be considered science fiction. The genre itself is so broad and diverse that those readers who might consider themselves adverse to the idea of science fiction might inadvertently find themselves enjoying more than their fair share of science fiction stories (the writer of this article included). Don’t believe us? Well, this Christmas when you settle down to read the classic Charles Dickens story, A Christmas Carol, consider that it features (very prominently) the idea of time travel. And that, dear friends, is a science fiction theme! See? We knew you liked it! Issue 775
SNIPPETZ TAKES A PEEK INTO RUSSIAN HISTORY, SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW THE ROMANOVS? by Lindsey Harrison “Father asks us to remember that the evil which is now in the world will become yet more powerful, and that it is not evil which conquers evil, but only love . . .” – Olga Romanov, Grand Duchess of Russia The history of Russia is not a neat, tidy or even happy one. Not that any country’s history is all that pleasant, but it seems like Russia has had more than its fair share of devastation and misery. One of the most prominent and easily-recognizable family in Russia’s long existence is the Romanov name. It has ultimately become synonymous with Russian royalty. Generations of Romanovs have been in power at various times throughout history, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. Of course, that always depends on your perspective. But with such a longstanding place in the country’s annuls of rulers, there’s bound to be some bad seeds mixed in with all the good. Isn’t that what makes a family interesting? Well, we at Snippetz surely think so. And with that in mind, we’ve done some digging into the Romanov family tree. What we’ve found can only be described as astounding. Read on and you’ll surely understand why! THE EARLY ROMANOVS The House of Romanov was the second dynasty to rule over Russia, following the House of Rurik. Members of the Romanov family reigned from 1613 until 1917. The direct descendants from the male line of the Romanovs ended with the death of Elizabeth of Russia in 1762 but offshoots from other factions of the family took over and claimed the throne under the Romanov name. The Romanovs were truly a blue-blooded family, sharing their origin with more than 20 other noble Russian families. The earliest common ancestor these families shared is that of Andrei Kobyla around 1347, although there is speculation as to where the Kobyla family got their nobility. Apparently, “Kobyla” is Russian for “mare” and many of Andrei’s relatives had similar nicknames that referred to horses or other domestic animals. Regardless of how Andrei Kobyla became a member of nobility is sort of moot at this point, considering he is an ancestor to one of the most powerful Russian dynasties ever. But that power didn’t come from good will and merriment. No, the Romanovs were not exactly a friendly family and their ascent to power (and subsequent death-grip on that power) was achieved through violence, more often than not. THE VIOLENT ROMANOVS Most people have probably heard of Ivan the Terrible, who was more formally known as Tsar Ivan IV of the early Romanov ancestors. He reigned from 1547 to 1584 and is linked to several very violent and brutal incidents, including the Massacre of Novgorod. The time leading up to the massacre was one in which it became increasingly clear that Ivan’s mental state was swiftly deteriorating and coupled with his paranoia and deep mistrust of just about everyone, led him to form a private army with the “power to pronounce official disgrace upon execute and confiscate the property of disobedient boyars (nobility) without the advice of the council.” He was a loose cannon to say the least. As the name implies, the Massacre of Novgorod was just that: a massacre launched by Ivan in the face of suspected (and possibly completely fabricated) treason and treachery on the part of Ivan’s cousin, Prince Vladimir Andreyevich. OK, so that’s one violent man out of a century of Romanovs. Well, yes and no. Peter the Great was actually a bit on the violent side, too. He was apparently rather fond of beheading his enemies himself, rather than hiring an executioner. But the Romanovs weren’t always the violent ones. No, it appears that the Romanov name itself was enough to bring about violence. Take, for example, the murder of Nicholas II and his entire family by the Bolsheviks in 1918. Although it is sad to consider, it’s at least marginally understandable for a revolting party to murder the leader of the ruling party. However, there is a line that most people refuse to cross and that’s the slaughter of an entire family under the guise of having a picture taken. Nicholas’s family, including his wife, four daughters and young son, were led to the basement of the estate in which they were being held captive during the Bolshevik uprising, and told that they were going to have their photo taken to assuage any doubts about them still being alive. The family was told that, following the photo, a truck would then transport them to a safer location. Mind you, this was all done in the middle of the night. Once the family had gathered for their “photo,” Yakov Yurovsky, the commandant of the house in which they were imprisoned, gave the orders for a squad of secret police to open fire on the family. Ultimately, they all were killed. The reason? The Bolsheviks didn’t want to leave even one remaining member of the family to act as a beacon around which the anti-communist White Army could rally. THE WACKY ROMANOVS! Yes, the Romanov family had quite a few members who were less than concerned about humanitarianism and were perhaps a bit too trigger-happy, for lack of better terms. But aside from the violence and devastation brought both by the Romanovs and to the Romanovs, they still managed to leave a different legacy behind: one of strange, quirky behavior that lets us commoners have a good laugh. For instance, Empress Anna Ivanovna Romanova had a thing for firearms. She liked guns and thought herself to be quite the huntress. But does it count when the animals aren’t hunted in the wild but rather brought to an estate where the hunter (or huntress) can shoot them whenever and wherever he or she feels like? Maybe not, but that’s exactly what Anna did. Anna, whose father was Tsar Ivan V, ruled from 1730 to 1740 after the death of her husband Frederick William, Duke of Courland. The couple married when they were both 17, at the behest of Anna’s uncle, Peter the Great. Speaking of Peter the Great and his niece’s marriage to the Duke of Courland . . . at the wedding, Peter (being the eccentric that he was) arranged for two dwarfs to jump out of gigantic pies and dance around the tables during the feast the followed. Rumor has it that Peter actually requested this type of entertainment on more than one occasion, and may have even requested that the dwarves be naked. That fact is surprising under even the most normal of circumstances. But nothing about the Romanov family could ever really be considered normal, including the way that Peter came to power. He and his older brother Ivan (Anna’s father) actually co-ruled because Ivan had serious mental and physical disabilities that made it impossible for him to rule on his own. Therefore, Ivan’s younger half-brother Peter, ruled alongside him. And that’s another interesting Romanov story in and of itself; the brothers were both quite young when the people revolted in 1682, leading to their sharing of the Tsarism. Now, another rumor abounds that their older sister, Sophia, may have orchestrated the revolt in order to bring her younger brothers to power. Why would she ever do such a thing? Well, being the wonderful big sister that she was, Sophia wanted to help her brothers as they led the country and was often sitting in a chair directly behind their thrones, whispering directions and orders to them, which they, in turn, doled out. Issue 776
SNIPPETZ SAYS GOODBYE TO YET ANOTHER GREAT ARTIST, ACTOR GENE WILDER by Lindsey Harrison “I’m funny on camera sometimes. In life, once in a while. Once in a while.” – Gene Wilder, American actor, director, screenwriter and author We know what you’re thinking: the curse of 2016 has struck again. Gene Wilder, actor, director, writer and all-around funnyman was taken from us in August and we are seriously considering a strike. Come on, 2016, you’re just being greedy now. Let some of the upcoming years have a chance to claim someone great. You can’t take them all for yourself. How about if we all just decide to end 2016 right now and give 2017 a few extra months? Would that persuade you to back off a bit? Sorry. It’s just so hard to think that another person with amazing talent, who entertained us and took us to a “world of pure imagination” is gone and we’ll never get him back. Gene Wilder was truly one in a million, but actually more like one in seven billion, and so Snippetz has dedicated this issue to that incredible man! Although we couldn’t possibly attempt to tell everything there is to tell about Gene Wilder in this one magazine, we’ve focused on some of the most important parts of his life and career. Enjoy! EARLY LIFE Gene Wilder was actually born Jerome Silberman on June 11, 1933, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Incidentally, he changed his name to Gene Wilder at age 26, but more on that later. His parents were William and Jeanne Silberman, both of Russian Jewish descent. From all accounts, his upbringing was fairly unremarkable. However, when his mother was diagnosed with rheumatic fever when Wilder was just 8 years old, it’s safe to say the event had an impact on him. His mother’s doctor once told him, “Don’t ever argue with your mother, you might kill her. Try to make her laugh.” With that, Wilder began his lifelong journey as an actor and developed different accents he would use to try to entertain her. Wilder encountered yet another crossroads in his life that would lead him to acting when he was 11, as he watched his older sister perform onstage. She happened to be studying acting and Wilder saw his opportunity to get some training as well, so he approached her acting teacher to see about becoming his student. The teacher told the young Wilder that if he was still interested in acting by the time he turned 13, he would take the boy under his tutelage. It comes as no surprise that Wilder returned two years later (because if he didn’t, we may not even be talking about him now, right?) and for the two years following that, Wilder had himself an acting teacher. Although Wilder never had any major issues while studying in Wisconsin, his mother felt like he could further achieve his potential by attending a military institute in Hollywood called Black-Foxe. Unfortunately, his time at Black-Foxe was not a good one. He was constantly bullied for being the only Jewish student there, and even suffered an incident of sexual assault. Soon thereafter, Wilder returned to Milwaukee and threw himself into acting, becoming heavily involved in the acting community there. He secured his first onstage part in front of a paying audience at 15, when he played Balthasar in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. In 1951, Wilder graduated from Washington High School in Milwaukee, and from there he attended the University of Iowa, where he studied communication and theater arts. Wilder graduated from the university in 1955 and then headed to Bristol, England, where he attended the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. While he as at the Old Vic Theatre school, Wilder took up fencing and after six months, managed to become the first freshman student to win the All-School Fencing Championship. Regardless of his success in fencing, Wilder still felt that acting was his true passion and longed to perfect his craft. He headed back to the United States to study a method of acting developed by Constantin Stanislavski, called (unsurprisingly) the Stanislavski method. Essentially, Stanislavski’s method helps an actor seek for inner motives to justify outward actions, and Wilder felt drawn to learning more about it. ACTING CAREER After returning to the U.S., Wilder did a stint in the Army and when given the chance to pick his duty station, he chose to serve as a paramedic in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at Valley Forge Hospital. This placement allowed him to be near enough to New York City to continue his acting classes and eventually that paid off. He landed the gig as the Second Officer in Herbert Berghof’s production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Wilder, who had been studying at the HB Studio in New York, was soon approached with another opportunity by fellow actor Charles Grodin, and left HB Studio in favor of the Actors Studio. It was at this time that Wilder changed his named from Jerome Silberman to Gene Wilder. He said he just couldn’t imagine seeing “Jerry Silberman in Macbeth” on the marquee. Wilder said the name is a mixture of Our Town author Thornton Wilder, and a character from Thomas Wolfe’s first novel, Look Homeward, Angel, named Gene. Wilder later confessed that he couldn’t exactly see Gene Wilder playing Macbeth either, but by then, the name had stuck. For the next several years, Wilder made a name for himself in off-Broadway shows like Sir Arnold Wesker’s Roots and Graham Greene’s The Complaisant Lover. His first leading role was in Mother Courage and Her Children, which also happened to star Anne Bancroft. At the time, Bancroft was dating Mel Brooks and when Wilder and Brooks finally crossed paths, it changed the trajectory of Wilder’s career forever. Brooks told Wilder about a screenplay he was working on that Wilder would be perfect for. While he considered the proposal, Wilder traveled the country with different production teams and played in various roles, including his first role in a film, which was Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde in 1967. When Brooks and Wilder finally met up again, Wilder agreed to do a reading for Brooks’ film, alongside actor Zero Mostel. Both Brooks and Mostel thought Wilder was perfect for the part and he secured his first leading role in a feature film, The Producers, in 1968. Probably one of Wilder’s most notable roles was as “Willy Wonka” in the film adaption of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Roald Dahl. The quirky candy-maker role seemed almost written for Wilder which makes it interesting to note that he was initially hesitant to accept the role. But what finally pushed him over the edge was the agreement that Wilder, as Willy Wonka, would make his first entrance by coming out of a door to the chocolate factory carrying a cane and walking with a limp. When the crowd notices that Willy Wonka appears to be disabled, they begin to whisper to each other. Willy Wonka continues to approach them but suddenly his cane gets stuck in the cobblestones of the pathway. He continues to walk while his cane stays stuck upright in the path. When Willy Wonka realizes that he is walking without his cane, he starts to fall forwards but before hitting the ground, he tucks into a somersault and bounces back up to his feet. The crowd bursts into applause. That one scene, not originally part of the script, is indicative of Wilder’s career on the whole. He improvised, made the best of the situations in which he found himself, and bounced back! We will miss you, Mr. Wilder. Issue 777
SNIPPETZ DECLARES: "THE NUMBER 7 ISN'T JUST A LUCKY NUMBER" by Lindsey Harrison “777 – you are definitely on the right path in every area of your life. Stay balanced and spiritually aware so that you can continue moving forward on this illuminated path.” – Doreen Virtue, American author Numbers are all around us (pause for the sarcastic comment about stating the obvious). Yes, we know that you know that. But numbers can sometimes have an additional meaning or two besides the ones we’ve come to use every day. For instance, take this Snippetz issue: 777. Well sure, it’s a repeating set of sevens and yes, it represents the amount of Snippetz magazines that have been published to date. But does that particular number mean anything else to anyone? To the average everyday Joe, probably not. But to the person who is more dialed into the idea that numbers present themselves at certain times in specific ways to tell us more about the world around us, 777 could mean so much more. In fact, it’s got a biblical connection. Some of you probably know that, but for those of you who aren’t up to speed on your Bible reading, we’ve got you covered. Snippetz has decided that, in honor of our 777th issue, we need to look more carefully into the significance of that number and where that significance originated. WHAT IS NUMEROLOGY? OK, to start with, let’s define the study of numbers and how they relate to the world around us. No, it’s not just math. It’s actually called numerology and it involves the belief in the divine, mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. Additionally, it is the study of the numerical value associated with the letters in words, names and ideas. So with that in mind, let’s take a look at the number 777. Why would that number be special, especially in regards to anything biblical? We’ve all heard the superstition that 7 is a lucky number. However, that is not the significance behind 777, although perhaps the superstition about the luck of the number 7 stems from the original significance of 777. Does that make sense? Probably not. But it will. For now, just remember that numbers have meanings. 777 Let’s break down 777 into its individual numerals. In Christianity, 7 is a very important number. It symbolizes completeness and perfection, both physical and spiritual. There are seven days in a week, correlating to the time it took God to create the earth; six for the actual construction and the seventh for rest. Interestingly enough, the word “created” is used seven times when describing God’s creation of the earth in the book of Genesis. Originally, the Bible as a whole was divided into seven major sections and the total number of originally inspired books was 49, which is (taa-daa!) seven times seven! In the book of Hebrews, Paul the apostle refers to Jesus Christ with seven different titles. In Matthew 13, Jesus gives seven parables and seven parables are ascribed to David in the New Testament. In the book of Revelation, there are seven churches, seven angels to each of those seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets plagues, seven thunders and seven last plagues. Additionally, the first resurrection of the dead takes place at the seventh trumpet. Do you see where we’re going with this? We can go into even more detail about how 7, or more specifically 777 is important by illustrating the following: in the very first of the Bible, it is written that “God created the heavens and the earth.” That particular verse is made up of seven Hebrew words and 28 letters, and also lists three names, specifically God, the heavens and the earth. If you take the take the number of times God is mentioned (which is 86) plus the number of times paradise or heaven is mentioned (which is 395) plus the number of times earth is mentioned (which is 296), you get . . . wait for it . . . 777! 666 VERSUS 777 So we are starting to understand a bit more about 777, right? But you might be wondering about all this 777 talk when the number you’re probably more familiar with, in terms of very specific biblical meaning, is 666. The truth is that they are both important but on opposite ends of the spectrum. For instance, take Revelation 13:18 in which is it written, “Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” For those of you not familiar with what that means, it means the number of the beast is 666. But let’s not forget that it also mentions that 666, or more specifically, just 6 (since on the sixth day, God created man) refers to man. Why would God consider man on the same plane as the beast, i.e. Satan? In seriously simplified terms, we can think of it in the most literal sense, that the number of man and the beast is 666, while the number of God is 777. Which number is greater? Yes, 777 because it’s higher. The whole point is that, according to Christianity, God is the highest of the high. However, Satan has always sought to ascend above God, right? And when man listens to Satan, he sometimes thinks he might be greater than God, too, right? This is considered satanic pride, the idea that anyone could ever ascend above God. But to make it easy for those of us who may not be as well versed in the Bible as others, the simple fact remains that 777, the number of perfection and God, no matter how you slice it, is always greater than 666, the number of man. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR US MERE HUMANS? You may be wondering what exactly all this number talk means for those of us who perhaps weren’t a part of the Bible. In actuality, numerology, which you’ll recall is the belief in the divine relationship between a number and an event, is all around us, all the time. For some, the idea that numbers can have a deeper meaning might be a bit of a stretch. For others, they see numbers, especially ones like 777, as messages from spirits or even angels. Numerologists attribute various traits to people who happen to see specific number combinations repeatedly throughout their lifetimes. For example, it is generally agreed that people who see 777 often, whether it be on a receipt from the grocery store, on the license plate of the car in front of you, or even as the number of emails you have sitting in your inbox, are considered good at following clues and thinking objectively. People who see 777 often are thought to be perfectionists and find an affinity towards the arts. When people see their special number, like 777 for some, the idea is that you can take comfort in the fact that your spirit guides or angels are with you and helping to guide you. You can set your fears aside while at the same time feeling a stronger sense of strength and courage. It’s a good indication that you might be trying to control a situation too much and that you need to let go and let the universe (or God, or whomever you believe is in control of those things) steer the ship for a while. Issue 778
THESE RULERS ARE WHACKOS! SNIPPETZ PRESENTS: ECCENTRIC RULERS PART 1 by Lindsey Harrison “The people have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge – I mean of the character and conduct of their rulers.” – John Adams, second president of the United States We’ve all heard crazy stories about the leaders of our country and their odd behavior. Luckily for us, we’re not alone. Throughout the centuries, countries around the world have had their fair share of wacky kings, queens, emperors, prime ministers, etc. Having power might be one draw to become the leader or ruler of a country, but the fact that your every move goes into the history books, especially if you do something a bit off the wall, might make any sane person reconsider the opportunity. But power is pretty intoxicating and when the chance to become the ruler of their respective nations presented itself, the eccentric rulers we’re talking about today just couldn’t say no. Not that any of them wanted to . . . but if they had known how strange their behavior would seem in the years following their reign, they might have perhaps toned down their eccentricities a bit. Or not. Who knows? Snippetz invites you to come with us as we travel back in time, around the world, chronicling some of the most bizarre behavior of some of the most powerful people in history! QIN SHI HUANG OF CHINA Let’s start nice and early with Qin Shi Huang, who ruled in two capacities (the King of Qin and the Emperor of China) from 246 B.C. to 210 B.C. It’s not uncommon for a king or emperor to be worried about an assassination attempt. Qin Shi Huang was no different; however, he took his personal safety to an extreme. For instance, he never slept in the same place twice and was often seen carrying a ginormous crossbow for protection. His fear was so out-of-control that he spent much of his life on the quest for immortality. Probably the strangest of Qin Shi Huang’s behaviors was his obsession with being killed by a sea monster. He claimed to have dreamed that sea monsters were plotting his death and so he never left his palace without a cadre of guards. Ironically enough, while on the hunt for the sea monsters he so feared, the emperor attacked a beached whale and died a few days later from an illness that may or may not have been the result of his attack. ZHU HOUZHAO OF CHINA Also known as the Zhende Emperor, Zhu Houzhao is the epitome of an eccentric (and irresponsible) ruler. He took the throne in 1505 at the age of 14 and from then on, it became clear that he was more interested in what the title of Emperor afforded him than actually ruling the country. As with many male rulers, his interests included drinking and chasing women, but Zhu Houzhao also had a fondness for animals. So much so, that he actually built extravagant palaces to house exotic ones like tigers and leopards, and would occasionally have them released so he could hunt them down himself. But that’s not even the weirdest of the things Zhu Houzhao did. Because he couldn’t exactly walk the streets like any other person, the emperor would have his servants dress up in street clothes and decorate the inside of his palace like a typical city block. He would wander the make-believe town as his servants pretended to be vendors and other citizens who were out and about, living their normal everyday lives, while he pretended to be one of them. Just your Average Joe, who also happened to be an emperor. The kicker, though was his obsession with becoming a soldier. In 1518, he declared himself to be a General and led a military trip to the Jiangxi province to apprehend a prince who had started an uprising. However, Zhu Houzhao was too late and the prince had already been captured. Not to be robbed of his desire to be a successful general, he ordered that the man be released so that Zhu Houzhao himself could recapture him. Zhu Houzhao’s reign came to an end in 1521 when he fell into a canal while he was drunk and contracted an infection that killed him. CHARLES VI OF FRANCE With today’s modern medicine and diagnostic techniques, we can generally determine if someone has a mental disorder based on their behavior. Back in 1380, when Charles VI became the ruler of France, those techniques weren’t around yet, so behavior that we could categorize today as “eccentric” may possibly have been a mental disorder. That’s likely the case with Charles VI, who is theorized to have been schizophrenic. The first instance in which his disorder made itself known was during a trip through the forest on horseback. Apparently, he became disoriented and scared and lashed out at his servants and knights before he was subdued. The attack left one knight dead and the rest of the traveling party on their toes. Charles VI had many more instances that called his sanity into question, including an episode in which he refused to bathe or change his clothes for months on end. It was also not uncommon for the king to run madly around his palace, for no apparent reason, forcing his servants to board up certain doors to keep him safe. Probably the most “eccentric” of King Charles’s activities was recounted by Pope Pius II, who said that the king had convinced himself that he was made of glass and could shatter into pieces. He decided to wear padded clothing to keep from breaking. EMPEROR NORTON I (OF THE UNITED STATES???) That’s right. Back in 1859, a man named Joshua Abraham Norton from San Francisco decided he was going to be the Emperor of the United States. Nothing screams eccentric like declaring yourself an emperor in a country that has already set into a place a governmental system that has nothing to do with an emperor. Norton apparently came to the U.S. in 1849 from Great Britain, with lots of money at his disposal. However, his time in America would not prove to be as profitable as his time in the U.K. In fact, within a few years, Norton was nearly flat broke. It’s believed that his financials issues caused his eccentricities, which ultimately could be termed delusions of grandeur. When Norton began calling himself the Emperor in 1859, a few local papers published the claim as a joke. But Norton wasn’t joking. He actively tried to dissolve the U.S. congress, which he felt was corrupt. The San Franciscan locals fed into his delusion by making a uniform for him and even calling him “your highness” in public. Another interesting display of eccentricity was Norton’s decision to create and issue his own currency. It was actually accepted by many local merchants and he was often given special treatment at fancy restaurants. In return, Norton would place an imperial seal of approval on the front door of the establishment, publicly declaring his endorsement of the place. But nothing tops Norton’s decision regarding a certain word: in 1872, he decided that anyone who was caught referring to “his” San Francisco as “Frisco” would be fined $25. Apparently, that word was “abominable” and wouldn’t be tolerated. How Norton planned to enforce the fine was apparently a detail he never worked out fully. Issue 779
SNIPPETZ SAYS GOODBYE TO GOLF LEGEND ARNOLD PALMER by Lindsey Harrison “Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated.” – Arnold Palmer, professional golfer Alright, 2016. We thought we had cleared this up already. You cannot, repeat CANNOT, take the lives of any more incredible people. We’ve just lost too many. Unfortunately, Arnold Palmer is the most recent one and golfers around the world are in mourning over his death. But it’s not just golfers who are feeling the loss; although he was the King of Golf, Arnold was much more than that. He was an entrepreneur, businessman, visionary, and even the inspiration for the name of a popular drink. He will be missed by many and remembered in various ways, but in true Snippetz fashion, we decided it was imperative that we pay homage to another great that fell victim to 2016. Maybe if we all pray really hard, we can finish out the rest of this tragic year without losing anyone else! Until them, follow us as we journey through the life and times of Arnold Palmer. EARLY LIFE Arnold Daniel Palmer was born on Sept. 10, 1929, to Milfred and Doris Palmer in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Golf played a large part in his life from the get-go, since his father was the greens keeper and head professional at the Latrobe Country Club. Arnold often accompanied his father to work and took up his first set of golf clubs at 4 years old, a set that his father had cut down to size. Palmer found that he had a knack for the game and was soon beating the other caddies at the club. By the time he was 11 years old, he began caddying himself and would eventually hold just about every position available at the country club at one time or another. As he grew older, Palmer’s ability grew as well. In high school, he was soon the one to beat, securing himself the Pennsylvania state high school championship two times. At 17, Palmer won his first West Penn Amateur Championship. He would go on to win that tournament four more times. That same year, he competed in various other national junior events and even started his collegiate career at Wake Forest University. There, Palmer earned himself the title of No. 1 golfer on the men’s team. TRAGEDY CHANGES PALMER’S TRAJECTORY Many of us have found ourselves in the midst of a tragic event at least once in our lives. Sometimes it’s the sudden loss of a job that helped provide for your family and other times it’s the loss of someone so dear to you that you can’t imagine your life ever going on the same as before. For Palmer, that tragic event was the death of a close friend, Bud Worsham, who died in a car accident. Palmer withdrew from college during his senior year following the accident and joined the United States Coast Guard. He spent three years serving his country there, but golf stayed with him even during this time. After his time in the Coast Guard, Palmer returned to college and began to compete in golf again. In 1945, he won the U.S. Amateur tournament and decided to go pro and see how he faired. Now, you’re probably wondering how Palmer’s trajectory changed after the death of his friend. Well, the time his spent in service to the United States gave him an appreciation for the military that would color his views of military men and women for the rest of his life. In fact, an organization called “Arnie’s Army” was established in his honor and as you can imagine, the “Army” actually has to do with the military community. ARNIE’S ARMY Arnold Palmer was the defending champion at the Masters in 1959 in Augusta, Georgia. The co-founder of the Augusta National, Clifford Roberts, brought in soldiers from Fort Gordon (previously Camp Gordon), the nearby Army post at which Roberts had spent two years as a soldier, to help work the scoreboard for the tournament. Because golf tournaments in those days weren’t always sell-out crowds and Roberts wanted this particular Masters tournament to be well-attended. It was only the second time in history that the event was to be televised so he wanted the crowd to be full and not sparsely-attended as it had been before. To bring in more people, Roberts offered free passes to any soldiers who showed up for the tournament in uniform. Since Palmer was the reigning champion, many of the soldiers decided to become part of his “gallery,” the group of onlookers who follow a player from hole to hole as they play through the course. Looking out into the crowd as they descended upon the back nine holes, a soldier who was working the scoreboard said it looked like “Arnie’s Army” was headed his way. Palmer went on to win his second Masters title a year later, and made sure to thank the “army” of supporters who came out to cheer him on. From then on, a veritable army of people proved themselves to be dedicated Arnold Palmer supporters, especially at the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills in Denver. At that particular tournament, Palmer trailed Mike Souchak, the third round leader, by seven strokes after the Saturday morning session. In the afternoon session, Palmer came on strong and managed to pull ahead of Souchak, eventually shooting a 65 in the final round, which was the lowest score ever in U.S. Open history at the time. It also represented the largest comeback in the Open’s 65-year history. Of that amazing feat, Palmer himself said, “The cheers of the crowd that day will always be among my greatest memories. I know the support of Arnie’s Army had as much to do with my winning the championship as the shots I played.” THE ARNOLD PALMER DRINK It wouldn’t be right to simply forget about Arnold Palmer’s contribution to the beverage world. And no, he didn’t just decide one day to call his favorite concoction the “Arnold Palmer.” Here’s how it all happened: yes, Palmer had a bit of an affinity towards mixing his iced tea with lemonade. And so he would often order said drink when he was out and about, touring as a professional golfer. At the 1960 U.S. Open (the same one in which he had his infamous comeback against Mike Souchak), Palmer ordered his favorite drink at the bar. A woman overheard his beverage choice and asked the bartender to make her “that Palmer drink.” Word spread that the mixture of lemonade and iced tea was an Arnold Palmer and the name simply stuck. For those who are on the more daring side, an alcoholic version of the “Arnold Palmer” (typically including vodka) is called a “John Daly.” Of course, there is some contention about exactly WHICH tournament was the birthplace of the Arnold Palmer drink designation. Some say it was the tournament in Denver while others say it was one in Palm Springs, California. Either way, we can all rest assured that the drink’s namesake is completely and totally uncontested. Aside from the drink’s eventual popularity and success, and that of his professional golfing career, Palmer found incredible success in other ventures as well. In 2008, Golf Digest reported that Palmer earned $1,861,857 in 734 PGA Tour competitions spanning 53 years; however, he earned an estimated $30 million off the course for his various other business ventures. Not too shabby. Palmer was certainly no slouch on the golf course and the same can be said for every other aspect of his life. He is an inspiration to generations of golfers but to anyone who appreciates a little hard work and elbow grease. His absence will be acutely felt by many around the world. RIP, Arnold Palmer. |
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