‘Anonymous’ no more, thanks to N.C. sleuth

On this day in 1996 Random House published “Primary Colors,” a roman a clef based on the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign. It quickly sold more than a million copies in hardback. The author remained “Anonymous” until a document examiner in Wilmington exposed him as Newsweek columnist Joe Klein, who had repeatedly denied involvement.

This is an excerpt from “Serif Sleuth” by Warren St. John in The New Yorker:

“Around the time Joe Klein was working out the details of a management-imposed vacation from [Newsweek], Maureen Casey Owens was sitting in her office, wondering what all the fuss was about. ‘For me, it was just another handwriting case,’ Owens said.

“Owens spent 25 years in the laboratory of the Chicago Police Department…. In 1987 she went into private practice, and she now spends most of her time on civil cases, figuring out the clever and often not so clever ways people alter or fabricate wills, contracts, insurance policies and other potentially lucrative documents. In 1993 she helped prove the highly touted ‘Diary of Jack the Ripper’ was ‘not genuine,’ as she put it. And in July she received a call from  Washington Post writer David Streitfeld regarding the matter of Anonymous….

“Owens had a sample of Klein’s writing, which she compared with notes on an early draft of ‘Primary Colors,’ a book she has yet to read. Examination through the microscope revealed ‘a tendency toward an “open lowercase a” with a slight right-hand serif,’ Owens said, and ‘a “wide w” with a low center and a curved ending movement,’ not to mention ‘an “open g” with a straight downstroke.’

“Four days after receiving the writing samples, Owens called Streitfeld with her finding. The two samples, she said, were ‘entirely consistent’; they had their man.”

Milestones this day in 1906.

On this day in 1906 the Football Rules Committee legalized the forward pass. Also, the Dow closed above 100 for the first time, coincidence ?

P004-Athletics-Football-190

This 1901 game action photograph played at Emerson Field (site of present day Lenoir Dinning Hall) shows future journalist Louis Graves at quarterback, not sure if he ran the ball or handed it off.

Camp Davis: The view from Pearl Harbor

“From: Honolulu
“To: Tokyo
“December 6, 1941

“On the American Continent in October the Army began training barrage balloon troops at Camp Davis, [Onslow County], North Carolina. Not only have they ordered four or five hundred balloons, but it is understood they are considering the use of these balloons in the defense of Hawaii and Panama…. Though investigations have been made in the neighborhood of Pearl Harbor, they have not set up mooring equipment, nor have they selected the troops to man them….There are no signs of barrage balloon equipment….

“Because they must control the air over the water and land runways of the airports in the vicinity of Pearl Harbor, Hickam, Ford and Ewa, there are limits to the balloon defense of Pearl Harbor. In all probability there is considerable opportunity left for a surprise attack against these places.”

— Cable from the Japanese consul general, intercepted Dec. 6 but not translated by U.S. naval intelligence until Dec. 8. (Barrage balloons, tethered by metal cables, were positioned to interfere with low-flying enemy aircraft.)

A toe was lost, then a nickname found

catfishhunter

On this day in 1963 17-year-old Jim Hunter of Hertford in Perquimans County, hunting with his brothers on Thanksgiving Day, comes harrowingly close to ending his Hall of Fame pitching career before it starts. An accidental blast from a shotgun blows away his right little toe and embeds 45 pellets in his foot.

By June he has recovered sufficiently to sign a $75,000 contract with the Kansas City A’s. Flamboyant owner Charles O. Finley, dismayed that his “bonus baby” has no nickname, will concoct a story about Hunter’s running away from home at age 6 and being discovered fishing. Hence, “Catfish” Hunter.

Earhart to Charlotte: You really need an airport

On this day in 1931 Amelia Earhart, on a promotional tour for Beech-Nut chewing gum, landed her autogiro on the dirt field at Charlotte’s privately owned airport.

During her three-day stopover she demonstrated the experimental “flying windmill,” attended a United Relief Drive luncheon, made a sidetrip to Fayetteville for Armistice Day ceremonies and endeared herself to Charlotte officials by endorsing their plan to buy the airport: “A few years’ time will prove it necessary, unless a city wants to suffer the fate some towns brought upon themselves in years gone by when they refused to permit railroads. . . . ”

Charlotte Municipal Airport, paid for by a bond referendum and a WPA grant, opened in 1937.

Cape Lookout Lighthouse Anniversay

Cape Lookout

From the Cape Lookout National Seashore (National Park Service) webpage:

“On the evening of November 1, 1859, Lighthouse Keeper John Royal climbed the 216 steps to the lantern carrying a 5 gallon container of whale oil. Carefully stepping inside the giant glass lens, Keeper Royal filled the lamp with oil and installed and carefully trimmed the wicks. Then exactly at sunset, Keeper Royal lit the lamp and the new Cape Lookout Lighthouse shone its light out to sea for the first time.”

Happy 150th!

First woman to puff her way across the Atlantic

On this day in 1928: Exemplifying the cigarette industry’s effort to win over women, a full-page ad in Progressive Farmer magazine offers this testimonial from Amelia Earhart:

“Lucky Strikes were the cigarettes carried on the Friendship when she crossed the Atlantic. They were smoked continuously from Trepassey
[Newfoundland] to Wales. I think nothing else helped so much to lessen the strain for all of us.”

Four months earlier Earhart had become celebrated as the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, as a passenger in a Fokker tri-motor piloted by two men.