dromomania (11. 887)

Returning to his hometown of Waseca, Minnesota from the west, having departed on his journey accompanied by his brother and a mule nearly four years earlier and setting forth eastward, on this day in 1974, having walked just over twenty-three thousand kilometres, Dave Kunst became the first independently verified individual to have circumambulated the globe. Received by Princess Grace in Monaco and by chance meeting fellow adventurer Thor Heyerdahl in a restaurant in Italy, the epic walkers solicited donations to UNICEF along the way. Denied entry into the Soviet Union, about midway through their journey, the team continued through India and Afghanistan, where the two were tragically ambushed by bandits who believed they were carrying the monies pledged to the United Nations’ emergency children’s fund, killing his brother John, but Kunst finished after months recuperation, joined by his older sibling Pete. After the loss of his mule in the Australian Outback, a schoolteacher, who Kunst became enamoured with and eventually married, towed his supplies with her car for a thousand miles at walking pace, Dave keeping up alongside. Kunst’s trip consisted of twenty million steps and went through twenty-one pairs of shoes.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: wine and quinces (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: drawing logos from memory plus biofuels from moss

eight years ago: turning Twitter into a public utility, ghost signs plus an unpopular file format

nine years ago: the Norman Conquest and the Divine Right of Kings

ten years ago: Roman tax regimes

project skydrop (11. 886)

Corresponding with the previous post, another treasure hunt has just concluded with the discovery of a golden trophy and pot prize of money that grew as hunters joined in, totalling at the end of more than one-hundred-thousand dollars. The radius where the prize was hidden shrank incremental from an area covering Washington, DC to New Hampshire, eventually going down to a square foot. Tension building as the search area got smaller, but not minuscule and still a sizeable amount of forested terrain to explore, the treasure was discovered by a local weatherman who took advantage of meteorological data embedded in a live-feed, and found the trophy through a process of elimination according to where it might be clear or overcast.

sur la trace de la chouette d’or (11. 885)

Via Meta Filter, we learn that the world’s longest ongoing treasure hunt with a single prize is reportedly over with an individual finding the buried owl statuette after thirty-one years of searching (the bronze replica redeemable for one crafted in gold, silver and diamonds and worth an estimated three-hundred thousand euro)—if verified that the treasurer hunter correctly deciphered a series of clues and didn’t happen on it by chance or with a metal-detector. Writing under the pseudonym of Max Valentin, Régis Hauser designed the challenge in 1993, publishing a notebook of secrets, riddles whose solutions gave hints on where to search—launching a line of other treasure hunts through the early 2000s, but this first one defied resolution—the subsequent ones being solved much quicker, leading to a bit of remorse on making this puzzle so complicated and having devoted so much time and effort into crafting it, not living to see it found, having died, aged 62, in 2009. A highly esteemed communications and marketing consultant and early adopter of technological advances, Hauser released additional clues to put treasure hunters on the right trail and steering them away from false leads, like Notre Dame or Mont Saint-Michel. Shortly after On the Trail of the Golden Owl began, Hauser introduced a Minitel (see also) server to field questions about the game, answering thousands of queries from the public and creating a community of loyal enthusiasts (chouetteurs) that sustained the mystery through the decades. The record for the longest ongoing treasure hunt is Byron Preiss’ The Secret, which challenges seekers to find twelve boxes hidden in cities in North America (connected to personnages who played roles in colonial history) dates to 1982 with only three found so far.

tunnel vision from the outsider’s screen (11. 894)

Whilst returning to his Park Avenue apartment on this day in 1986, veteran news anchor Dan Rather was assaulted by an individual demanding to know, “Kenneth, what is the frequency?,” repeating the question and pummelling and kicking Rather, the bizarre and dubious encounter remained a mystery for more than a decade until a television critic connected the suspected assailant to man convicted of killing a gaffer working for a rival network’s morning show in 1994 for the stagehand’s alleged complicity in beaming messages into the attacker’s brain, storming the studio to try to ascertain the frequency so he could block it. The escalated inquiry was the subject of the REM track from their ninth album Monster, released the same year as the manslaughter incident that solved the earlier mugging. When the band came to Madison Square Garden for a concert in the venue, Rather was invited to rehearsals and the outtakes were aired on late night talk show David Letterman.

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synchronoptica

one year ago: a visit to Marktbreit (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: the continent of Zealandia plus assorted links worth revisiting

eight years ago: cocktails as still-life paintings, a vintage interior design catalogue plus St Dymphna

nine years ago: a visit to the Bamberg fleamarket

ten years ago: a visit to the Bamberg fleamarket 

einheitswippe (11. 893)

Long in planning, the Freedom and Unity Monument slated for Berlin (see previously) has missed another opportune inauguration and seems to be teetering towards collapse amid contract disputes with its designers. Conceived as a sort of seesaw where when enough people congregated on one side it would pivot towards revolution and reconciliation, it was planned to open in 2019 in deference to 1989, and while the foundations for the ramp has been installed and ready for the steel shell, the architects have had disputes with subcontractors and federal government fearful of what a failed dedication—with one’s thumb on the scales, so to speak—might project.

hello ghosties (11. 892)

Via Waxy, we find that Laura E Hall, for the tenth year in a row uploading the tradition, is issuing her occasional, popup newsletter chocked full of spooky and ghoulish citations for the season. Like a zombie hand emerging from the grave, it is reanimated every October, withdrawing as the enchantment of the month recedes to return next year. So far there are some seasonal soundtracks, a primer on David S Pumpkins and a survey of haunted hydrology.  Follow along at the link above.

now, how your daddy don’t mind (11. 891)

Inspired by the memory of trying to encourage a date to remain out past her curfew, Maurice Williams penned the tune seven years earlier, aged fifteen as the more compelling argument came to him all of a sudden lyrically, in 1960 recording the song as a demo track with his doo-wop group the Zodiacs. Picked up as a single by the label Herald Records and re-recorded (removing the verse “Let’s have another smoke,” so it could be played on commercial radio) in August, on this day that same year, “Stay” entered the Billboard Hot 100 on its way to top the charts on 21 November. The lightly pared down version at one minute and thirty-six seconds (extended recent rendition by the band below) is the shortest tune to reach the number one spot. Inclusion on the soundtrack for Dirty Dancing revived its popularity. 

 

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synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit plus the US Speaker of the House ousted

seven years ago: who played It better,  a uniquely American problem plus EU jargon

eight years ago: the physics of light-sabres, shifting zodiacal signs plus the US Motor Voter Act

nine years ago: the Crimean War, the voice acting talents of Paul Frees, actor Melina Mercouri plus more links to enjoy

eleven years ago: America in turmoil over Obama Care

big horn (11. 890)

Reminiscent of the bonkers Nazi plan to produce a quarry worthy of Nazis to hunt by bringing back the extinct aurochs, we learn that a gentleman in the US state of Montana has been sentenced and fined for his efforts to create a giant hybrid sheep though cloning and selective husbandry with Asian sheep as big game. Struggling to find a punishment to fit the crime, the judge settled on a suspended term—for lack of a criminal record—and imposed a hefty remittance to the US Fish and Wildlife Service for the upkeep of the Montana Mountain King, confiscated and in care until it can be transferred to a zoo, to discourage others from meddling with ferrel populations for trophy hunting.