The Pirate Queen

Zheng Yi Sao was an 18th century woman in China, which means she had three strikes against her already, but she was smart and ambitious. She understood power dynamics, politics, and spotting an opportunity. We don't know too much about her early life, but she stepped into history when she impressed and then married Zheng Yi, a powerful pirate captain, and demanded that she be an equal partner in his enterprises. This was apparently well worth it to him. Upon Zheng Yi's death, Zheng Yi Sao, who was already an equal partner, wasn't about to let her sons call the shots. That's how she got the title the Pirate Queen.

As she consolidated power and led raids on various communities, she became known as Ching Shi, commander of up to 80,000 pirates and thousands of ships. How did she wield such power? She commanded loyalty by sharing spoils among the pirates. She had strict rules, but they weren't all that onerous considering the rewards. Non-pirates were terrified of her, as the fleet's raids could leave thousands dead in the communities they plundered. Neither the Chinese government nor fleets of other countries could hold a candle to the confederate pirate fleet under Ching Shi's command. How did this reign of terror end? Not the way you'd think. Remember, the Pirate Queen was a master at spotting an opportunity.         

Whatever happened to Miss Cleo?

Many years ago, I was running a radio contest and was looking for the 9th caller. I picked up the phone, and said "KD99, you're caller six!" and the phone said, "Hello! This is Miss Cleo!" It was a robocall, and I hung up, but later joked that if she were a real psychic, she would have been caller number nine.  

Miss Cleo was everywhere back then, especially if you ever turned a TV on. Her persona was delightful, but actually calling her could cost you big time. Simon Whistler explains where Miss Cleo came from, where she went, and how much money was made in her name in between.  

On another note, Whistler mispronounces Tammy Faye Bakker in this video, which reminds me of Chill Dude Explains. It's common for people to mispronounce names they've never heard before, but one commenter took it as evidence that Dude might be an AI voice. Whistler is not, but is likely to be unfamiliar with Bakker. I remember the 20th century, but I looked up the pronunciation anyway. Google's AI search assistant says it's "Backer" for Tammy Faye and "Baker" for Jim. So Whistler is doing his research, but relying on AI for accurate information is a losing game. 

A Mime’s Silent Resistance Against Nazi Forces

The most famous mime ever was Marcel Marceau. Let's face it, he's the only mime you know by name. But the French performer had more on his resume than his stage act. During World War II, Marceau harnessed his acting talent to aid the French Resistance. Great Big Story lets us in on a bit of Marceau's wartime activities. (via Laughing Squid)

On The Far Side

You loved Gary Larson's comic The Far Side; we all did, where we learned about Thagomizers, Anatidaephobia, and that tramp Jane Goodall. But do you actually know anything about Larson, the man? Probably not much, but his life outside of The Far Side has been pretty interesting. He plays the banjo, and almost had a career in jazz (go figure). He keeps exotic animals. And there's more, all in this video from Today I Found Out.

Princess Diana's Tragic Life

People under 40 or so only know two things about Lady Diana Spencer, later known as Princess Diana. She was married to Prince Charles, the future King of England, until they were divorced. Then she died in a traffic accident in 1997 at the age of 36. Older people will remember the big news of the royal wedding in 1981 right after she turned 20. The way she was selected to be Charles' bride seemed a bit skeevy to Americans, but the young preschool assistant seemed happy. 

Yet underneath the royal trappings, Diana's life was no fairy tale. From the time she was born, her life was difficult, not financially, but psychologically. Still, she carried the weight of her family's expectations and then the world's expectations like a champ- until she couldn't. Then again, Diana's story contains elements of many stories we've heard before: the beautiful princess, absent parents, betrayal, a stiff upper lip, longing for love, and even a wicked stepmother. Maybe Princess Diana's life really was a fairy tale come true, just without the magic intervention and the "happily ever after" ending.  

100 Years of David Attenborough

In honor of Sir David Attenborough's 100th birthday, 60 Minutes Australia brings us an overview of his amazing broadcast career, including an interview from about ten years ago.  

Michael Jackson's Childhood

Michael Jackson is second on the list of the most successful recording artists in history, behind only The Beatles. That legacy is tarnished by the very weirdness of his personal life. Whether he was nefarious or just plain eccentric, he knew how to make headlines. But you might not know what came before. Yeah, that was the Jackson 5, which was the product of Joe Jackson. 

Jackson's father saw his musically-talented sons as a ticket to success, which must be cultivated by any means necessary. The cost was enormous for all his nine children, but especially for Michael. He spent his adult life rebuilding a fantasy childhood to make up for the normal one he never got. Weird History looks back in time to the Jackson family and their ascent to fame. 

Shakespeare's Personal Life

William Shakespeare is the most famous writer in history, but we know little about his personal life. You may have seen the 1998 movie Shakespeare in Love or the recent Hamnet, but the former is fiction and the latter is highly fictionalized history. The truth is that people in the 16th century weren't as curious about artists as they were about the art, and Shakespeare's biography has a lot of holes in it. Maybe Shakespeare liked his privacy. 

Anyway, the documented facts about Shakespeare's personal life are few and far between, and only take up about half of this video from Weird History. Then there are plenty of rumors and tales that mostly arose after his death and may have been changed over time. They address those, too. What it all adds up to is that the most famous English artist of his time is now a rather blank slate for more stories to be written. 

RIP Rob Reiner

Rob Reiner and his wife Michele were killed by a knife attack in their home yesterday. Their son Nick has been arrested. We are all shocked and saddened. 

When I was a kid, my family never missed watching All in the Family. In its early years, I wanted to be Meathead, because he knew so much and wanted to make the world a better place. Then came This Is Spinal Tap in 1984, and I was in the perfect place to find it outrageously funny. Reiner's movies that followed were all good -or at least the ones that I saw. This 60 Minutes interview is from earlier this year, ahead of the opening of Reiner's last film This Is Spinal Tap: The End Continues. 

Dick Van Dyke Turns 100 Years Old

Happy Birthday, Dick! Actor, comedian, singer, and dancer Dick Van Dyke was born on December 13, 1925. Van Dyke became famous for this performance in the 1960 Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie, for which he won a Tony Award. That got him the starring role in The Dick Van Dyke Show from 1961 to '66 -and three Emmy Awards. He was cast in the 1964 movie Mary Poppins, which garnered him a Grammy Award for his performance on the movie's soundtrack album. He's been working steadily ever since. 

Other notable facts from Van Dyke's life include how he dropped out of high school to join the military as a pilot during World War II. He was rejected by the Army Air Force for being underweight until they accepted him as an entertainer. Van Dyke also wrote several books, including one for children based on his experience as a Sunday school teacher. There are other lesser-known facts about Dick Van Dyke's life and career you can read about here. 

Public Service

Arizona senator Mark Kelly is in the news these days. You already know he was a Navy pilot and hero in the Gulf War. Then in 1996 he went to NASA and became an astronaut, specifically a space shuttle pilot. This is what you call public service. But it's not the whole story.  

Kelly married Congresswoman Gabby Giffords (D-Arizona) in 2007. In 2011, she was shot in the head at a public event (six people were killed). She spent six months in the hospital and suffered brain damage. Kelly had no plans to retire from NASA before this, but he knew he needed to take care of his wife, so that's what he did. A couple of years later, NASA called him up and offered him a job where he could stay home. See, Kelly has an identical twin brother, Scott Kelly, who was also an astronaut at the time. They were going to study the effects of long-term space living, and Mark would be the control twin. Kelly jumped at the chance to continue his public service while taking care of Giffords. You can read more on that year-long experiment at Neatorama. 

Giffords recovered enough that she didn't need round-the-clock care. Kelly, who had left NASA in his 40s, wasn't done with public service. In 2020, he became a US senator (D-Arizona). 

Mark Kelly has spent his life in public service. That is, except for the years he spent in private service because he loves his wife and she needed him. Serving others for the greater good is ingrained in him. Contrast that with the life of our current president, who never spent one minute in public service until he was elected to the highest office in the land, and who is currently calling for Kelly to be labeled a traitor. Which kind of man would you prefer to be the leader of the whole nation?  

The Surprisingly Mysterious Life of Bob Ross

Bob Ross, the host of the calm, pleasant, and long running show The Joy of Painting, is remembered as a great guy because so many people loved to watch his show, and he encouraged so many people to enjoy painting. That's a pretty good legacy. But how much do we really know about the man? It turns out that no one knew all that much about him. Not that there's any deep, dark scandals to be found, but Ross was so private that people couldn't help but be curious about his life. Simon Whistler of Today I Found Out spills what we know and don't know about the affable but very reserved Bob Ross. (via Tastefully Offensive)

RIP Jimmy Carter

James Earl Carter, the 39th President of the United States, passed away today at the age of 100. His was a life of public service, from the US Navy to the governments of Georgia and the US, to his 44-year retirement, during which he never stopped trying to make the world a better place.

Carter grew up on a peanut farm in Plains, Georgia, population 600. He met his future wife Rosalynn when he was three years old and she was just three days old. They were married while he attended the Naval Academy in Annapolis and were together for 77 until her death last year.

As a navy lieutenant, Carter organized the dismantling of the Chalk River nuclear reactor after a meltdown in 1952. Listen to the story here. The harrowing project informed his later stance on nuclear policy.

In Georgia politics, Carter leveraged support from both civil rights activists and segregationists, and only revealed his anti-segregationist views after achieving the governorship.

As president, Carter inherited a country that had little faith in its government after Watergate, and a congress that had little faith in Carter. His anti-corruption stance, his reluctance to play the Washington game, and his tendency to micromanage put off the legislators whose support he needed to accomplish anything. He attempted to bring the country together in healing from the Vietnam War by pardoning all draft dodgers, which further divided the public's opinion on him. A poor economy was exacerbated by the energy crisis of 1979. Carter’s response was to ask Americans to cut back energy usage, which did not go down well.

Carter's record in foreign policy was mixed. He signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty II with Russia, and engineered the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel. Carter's decision to allow the deposed Shah of Iran to come to the US for medical treatment exacerbated a bad relationship with the new government in Iran, which blamed the US for installing the Shah in 1941. Iranian extremists captured dozens of Americans at the US Embassy in Tehran and kept them hostage for over a year, until the very day Carter left office.

In the decades since Carter's presidency, the failures of his administration are often seen as due to his commitment to doing what he considered the right thing, even when it was politically damaging or divisive. He was just too ethical for the office.  

It was after Carter left office that he became the activist he wanted to be. In 1982, he declared war on the guinea worm, a parasite that caused untold misery in Africa. The infection went from 3.5 million cases per year to just 13 cases in 2022. Carter lent his name and his efforts, along with his wife Rosalynn, to Habitat for Humanity. Over 35 years, he helped build 4,390 new homes.

Carter also worked with world organizations to monitor elections in countries around the world. He worked with Nelson Mandela on issues of global justice and peace. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. He also taught at Emory University for years, and led a Sunday school class in his native Plains until just a few years ago. He wrote more than 30 books on subjects from global politics to poetry. There will never be another like him.

James Earl Jones

He was Darth Vader, Mufasa, King Jaffe Joffer, the voice of CNN, and a host of other characters. James Earl Jones' accomplishments included two Emmys, two Tonys, a Grammy award, and an honorary Oscar, making him one of the rare EGOTs, but he also had a slew of other awards and honors.

Jones was born in Mississippi and moved to Michigan as a child, He developed a stutter so bad that he refused to talk all the way through elementary school. After military service and graduating college with a drama degree, Jones became known for his Shakespearean roles on Broadway. The leap to movies came with a role in Dr. Strangelove in 1964, but really broke through when he reprised his Broadway role as Jack Jefferson in the movie The Great White Hope in 1970. Jones had already been on TV on the soap operas Guiding Light and As The World Turns, and on Sesame Street. Jones was asked to dub over the voice of David Prowse in the 1977 film Star Wars, and became the voice of Darth Vader forever after. He portrayed Alex Haley in Roots, Thulsa Doom in Conan the Barbarian, and King Jaffe Joffer in Coming to America, a role that, along with Madge Sinclair, inspired the look and sound of Mufasa and his mate Sarabi in The Lion King. IMDb lists 190 screen credits for James Earl Jones.

Jones died Monday at his home in Pawling, New York. He was 93.

The Diet of William Buckland

Like his father before him, Frank Buckland studied the world around him and ate a great portion of it. Buckland's goal was to eat every species, although that was never possible, as there are always new species being discovered. But nothing was off the table, so to speak, as he consumed mammals, reptiles, insects, and things that crawled around on the bottom of the ocean. Oh yeah, the term "zoophage" is just another way of saying "carnivore." Buckland was presumably more of an "omnivore." The Royal Society gives us an overview on Buckland and his rather adventurist family. Read more about Buckland in this Neatorama article. (via Nag on the Lake)

The Pixel Painter

Hal Lasko was a graphic designer and typographer by trade, and a painter for pleasure in his spare time. Art was his life. He eventually retired and, for his 85th birthday, his family got him a computer with Microsoft Paint. Now, we can make fun of the simplistic ways people used Microsoft Paint, but that's all in how you use it. For Lasko, it was a game-changer, especially as his eyesight faded. He could enlarge his digital canvas to see and manipulate his work at the pixel level. He was extremely patient and perfectionistic, taking months if necessary to get his art just the way he wanted it. In his later years, he became known as the Pixel Painter. Lasko painted on computer up until his death at age 98 in 2014, and got to see his art exhibited.

Lasko's story highlights the importance of computer technology to the disabled, and the importance of making this technology accessible to everyone. (via Kottke)

Twenty-Two Years Ago

Father Michael Duffy tells the story of a friend he will never forget. Neither will anyone who knew him, or has even heard about Mychal Judge.

Attila the Hun

As someone whose knowledge of world history is mostly self-taught, I must admit that I occasionally mix up Attila the Hun with Genghis Khan. They were both imperial conquerors from the east, both fierce warriors, both known by their titles instead of their birth names, both considered to be barbarian (by those they conquered), and both have unknown burial places thanks to lots of witnesses being murdered. But Genghis Khan lived 600 years later, and had a well-documented life. Not so for Attila. The Huns didn't write anything down, and the people who did write about them hated Attila. So in this mini-biography of Attila the Hun, you will hear "maybe" and "possibly" a lot. What we know about him is swamped by what we don't know for sure. (via Digg)

Mary Stepp Burnette Hayden

I love StoryCorps for bringing us the real lives of people who should be known and remembered. Mary Othella Burnette recalls her grandmother's unique life as a midwife in Black Mountain, North Carolina.

The Saint of Dry Creek

 

Country musician and pioneering gay activist Patrick Haggerty died on Halloween at age 78. He was the leader of the band Lavender Country, and was recording and performing up until he suffered a stroke earlier this year. You can learn more about Haggerty in multiple links at Metafilter. One that touched me was the StoryCorps video about his childhood, in which his father gave him some legendary advice.