The Flip Side of History: (Gift for Men Who Have Everything)

by Steve Silverman

Overview

In this collection of true, quirky history, Steve Silverman provides fascinating tales to astonish and entertain. Covering a wide variety of topics, these stories that have been lost to history highlight the quirks, complexities, and curious nature of our species.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781642502206
Publisher:	TURNER PUB CO
Publication date:	07/14/2020
Pages:	302
Sales rank:	642,847
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Steve Silverman has been a highly-regarded science teacher at Chatham High School in upstate New York for the past twenty-nine years and will retire in June 2020. Each year, on the second Tuesday in May, a number of students dress up as Mr. Silverman to celebrate Steve Silverman Day. He has previously published Einstein's Refrigerator and Lindbergh's Artificial Heart. His collection of unusual stories began with a desire to add some pizazz to his classroom lectures. As an early adopter of the internet, he quickly took advantage of the new opportunities that the World Wide Web offered and began to post some of his favorite stories online. His Useless Information blog was one of the first 25,000 websites ever. Few people noticed that the website existed until Yahoo! chose it as its Pick of the Week on July 9, 1997. In January 2008, the Useless Information Podcast was started and its audience has continued to grow ever since. The topics chosen for this book are a good reflection of the author's personality. First, his role as an educator is clearly evident in his writing style. The stories are humorous and fun to read, yet they unsuspectingly educate the reader at the same time.

Table of Contents

Preface 12

Part 1 Run-Ins with the Law 16

The Green Parrot Murder (1942) 17

One of my favorite true crime stories of all time. It's a case in which no one was talking but the green parrot.

Short Story: Sues for Canary's Lost Love (1917) 26

Tender Young Alice, They Say (1949) 27

A sad, yet unusual, human interest story that caught the attention of newspaper readers all across the United States.

Short Story: An Unusual Chicken Thief (1925) 32

A Date with Death (1938) 34

Just what happens when person A attempts to kill person B, who unknowingly gets person C to kill person D instead?

Short Story: Arrested for Eating Soup Loudly (1923) 44

Kidnapper Rides on Car Hood in Nightgown (1964)) 45

A woman in a nightgown was seen clinging to the front of an automobile as it was being driven down the road. If your first thought was that the woman's life was in great danger and that the car should have been stopped, well, you would be wrong.

Short Story: Woman Bites Dog (1941) 48

The Flying Bandits (1957) 49

The unusual story of two high-flying aviators who attempted to pull off the perfect crime.

Part 2 Entrepreneurs & Daring Minds 58

She Dared to Wear Slacks (1938) 59

Today, we take for granted the fact that women can wear slacks any day and everywhere. Helen Hulick was one of those women who fought for their right to do so.

The Wheelbarrow Man (1878)) 65

In the 1870s, newspapers were the blogs of the day. Almost daily, they reported on the Wheelbarrow Man as he made his way along his journey.

A King Without A Country (1893) 75

Just what would you do if you found a remote island that belonged to no country and that no person lived on? When James Harden-Hickey stumbled across the uninhabited Atlantic island of Trinidad, he claimed it as his own.

The Los Angeles Perfume Bombing (1948) 85

Some people will do anything to promote their product, even if that means bombing the city of Los Angeles with perfume.

Part 3 Inexplicable Oddness 94

Smokin' Bananas (1967) 95

There are some stories that simply make me smile whenever I think about them. This story about people who were smoking banana peels in the 1960s is one of them. It simply borders on the ridiculous.

Short Story: Fed a Yak at Midnight (1935) 107

Love for Lease (1965) 108

The crazy true story of how an elderly millionaire attempted to rent a beautiful, young woman from her husband for a one-year period.

Short Story: Husband's Life Is Saved by Wife's Thigh (1939) 114

Hee-Haw (1954) 115

Every Christmas, there's that one popular toy that every child must have. Always in short supply, such a gift is so desired by children that parents are willing to pay top dollar to get their hands on one. This is the story of a popular Christmas gift that couldn't fit under the tree. If anything, this unusual gift was more likely to eat the tree.

Short Story: Jerry the Mule Facing Execution (1936) 122

The Shoe Bandit (1956) 123

Just what would make someone want to steal another person's shoes?

Short Story: Educated Women Are Unfit as Wives (1904) 130

The Womanless Library (1930) 131

During the Great Depression, Le Mars, Iowa, was front-page news for three seemingly unrelated stories, all tied together by an incredibly misogynistic bequest made by one of its prominent attorneys.

Part 4 Hoaxes & Con Artists 148

The Search for Lucinda Trow (1938) 149

Maybelle Knox was the center of perhaps the greatest mystery to ever occur in Le Mars. A story so fantastic, it captured the attention of an entire nation.

The Salem Trade School Football Team (1929) 155

Perhaps the worst high school football team to have ever played was located around Salem, Massachusetts. There was a very good reason as to why they performed so poorly, and it had nothing to do with the quality of the team's players.

The Strange Case of the Jitterbug Coal (1944) 164

You've certainly heard about Mexican jumping beans, but have you ever witnessed jumping coal? Such a phenomenon was observed at a schoolhouse. At first, no one could explain why the coal was acting so strangely. Was it alive? Could the school have been haunted?

Short Story: Man Inherits Fortune from Women He Never Met (1912) 169

Two Weeks on Venus (1956) 171

In 1954, Harold Jesse Berney, head of a Washington, DC, television antenna manufacturing operation, said he was chosen by the United States government to be its main contact with Uccelles, a prince visiting our planet from Venus.

The Crayola Caper (1973) 181

The Concord Hotel in Kiamesha Lake, New York, was once the largest resort in the Catskill Mountains. Few people remember today, but it was once central to one of the most bizarre extortion schemes ever.

Part 5 Heroes & Survivors 188

The Rescue of Charles Nalle (1860) 189

The amazing story of the only person in the United States to have been rescued from slavery four times.

Short Story: It Doesn't Always Pay to Be a Hero (1957) 200

Beached Steel (1868) 201

Nothing on earth is permanent. As sure as there are forces that push mountains upward, there are opposing forces that will eventually bring them all back down. And no matter how hard humans may try, nature always wins in the end.

Short Story: Falling Girl Saved by Spike (1911) 207

The Last Man Standing (1885) 209

Nearly everyone wishes for a long, healthy, happy life. But a long life will most likely make you outlive everyone you know, which begs the question: is living a long life worth it?

Short Story: Can't Take It Anymore (1936) 216

Part 6 Newsworthy: Past & Present 218

The Average Man (1927) 219

How would you describe the average man? Clearly, there is far more to him than physical characteristics like height and weight. In 1927, a search was held to find the man who best typified the average male.

Short Story: One-a-Day Triplets (1950) 228

Ferryboat O'Brien (1952)) 229

The strange, true story of Michael Patrick O'Brien. He belonged to no country, and it seemed as though he'd be stuck sailing the same back-and-forth trip every single day for the rest of his life.

Short Story: Inventor of the Other Teddy Bear (1940) 237

New York's Romeo and Juliet (1939) 239

A story about two lovers who wished to marry over parental objections.

Short Story: Sixty-Seven-Year-Old Has His First Birthday Party (1920) 251

Mary Jane (2004) 252

Sources 256

Acknowledgements 298

About the Author 299

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This was quite a curious and interesting book to read. The biggest hook for me was that it was ALL true, no fiction, no embellishments. Each account described is a real event already documented in history in some way, be it by newspaper, editorial, news broadcast, something. It is clear that this wasn’t just a ‘sit down and churn a book out’ kind of project. It’s very well written and logically organized, allowing the information to truly just flow from page to page and from the page to the mind of the reader. Fascinating circumstances with specific and precise details easily create the array of images I’m sure the author is projecting into the mind of the reader.”
—The Horror Report