Friday Blog

October 11 marks the 215th anniversary of the death of Meriwether Lewis. As a grade school student, I totally disrespected Lewis and his companion William Clark.  My heroes were warriors like George Washington, Andrew Jackson, and Davy Crocket. What did Lewis and Clark do except go on a long cross-country trip? I didn’t understand why history books gave so much space to two wussies who never fought at Yorktown, New Orleans or The Alamo.

My opinion changed when I read Stephen Ambrose’s brilliant book about Lewis and Clark. There is a reason Ambrose entitled the book ‘Undaunted Courage”. The two leaders led their expedition through thousands of miles of uncharted terrain. Invariably, the explorers used axes to cut their way through dense forests. When they did find a trail, they had to wonder who used it – friendly or non-friendly Natives? Danger lurked around every bend.

Meriwether’s Journey

In 1795, the army court-marshalled twenty-one-year-old Lewis for drunkenly challenging a lieutenant to a duel. Rather than being expelled, Lewis was transferred to a company commanded by Revolutionary War veteran William Clark.  In 1801, Thomas Jefferson appointed Lewis, who had grown up near Jefferson’s Monticello estate, as his presidential secretary.

The early nineteenth century witnessed significant tensions between the United States and two European empires. Spain owned Louisiana but allowed American explorers to freely traverse the Mississippi. When Spain sold Louisiana to France in 1800,  Americans feared Napoleon would close the port of New Orleans, thus blocking  America’s westward expansion.

Any plans Napoleon had of controlling the American South changed when slaves successfully revolted against the French regime in St. Domingue (modern-day Haiti). France’s sudden need for cash impelled Napoleon to offer the Louisiana territory to the U.S. The territory stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. It included all or a portion of 15 of today’s states. In 1803, President Jefferson commandeered the acquisition of the land that doubled the size of the United States for only $15M.

Jefferson started planning a scientific exploration to the West which would also hopefully discover a water route to the Pacific. He chose Lewis to command the mission. Lewis recruited 33 expert woodsmen who received five dollars a month and a promise of land upon their return. Lewis recruited his former superior William Clark because of Clark’s leadership and mapmaking skills. Eventually, Sacagawea a young Shoshone woman joined the expedition. She proved to be an expert guide and naturalist and her translation abilities extricated the explorers from some tense encounters with native tribes.

The expedition which launched from St. Louis in May,1804 stocked seven tons of nonperishable foods, including beans, dried pork, coffee, salt and lard. Records indicate that each pioneer consumed an average of nine pounds of meat daily (Yikes).

Expedition members endured everything from dysentery to snakebites but only one member died during the journey- from an illness Lewis diagnosed as “bilious colic”. Lewis himself was accidently shot in the buttocks by a colleague causing him several weeks of excruciating pain.

The pioneers crossed the Rockies and reached the Pacific coast. After wintering by the Columbia River the  explorers began the long return trip and arrived in St. Louis on September 23, 1806.

Throughout the grueling two-year, 8000-mile expedition, Lewis and Clark maintained meticulous notebooks that included detailed maps and observations about the native tribes. They also described 178 previously unknown plant species and 122 new animals including beavers and grizzly bears.  Most significantly, Lewis and Clark laid the foundation for future pioneers.

Sad Ending

Lewis battled depression throughout his life and his condition worsened when he returned in 1806 . He reportedly suffered from alcoholism and struggled in his appointed role as Governor of Louisiana. During an 1809 journey to Washington, Lewis was twice prevented from committing suicide. He eventually was found dead in an isolated cabin with gunshot wounds. He was 35.

Poor Meriwether – He picked the wrong century in which to be a hero. Today he would have at least received a trip to Disneyworld and certainly would be a regular on “Dancing with the Explorers”.

Have a great weekend.

Thanks to all of you who have purchased my book and thanks for all of the rave reviews. If you haven’t bought your copy please visit www.tedcurtinstories.com for direct links to Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

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August 30 marks the 127th anniversary of the birth of John William Mauchly who along with J. Presper Eckert invented the first electronic digital computer. Born in Cincinnati, Mauchly earned a PHD in physics from Johns Hopkins University in 1932.

Mauchly became chairman of the physics department at Ursinus College where he also pursued his lifelong interests in meteorology and electrical engineering. At the time, the analysis of weather patterns was a laborious process even with mechanical calculators. Mauchly was working on ground-breaking ways to automate these calculations when he answered the call to help the U.S. Army’s Ballistic Research Laboratory during WWII. His first project was the calculation of artillery firing tables and he then became involved in feasibility studies for the hydrogen bomb.

In 1945, Mauchley and Eckert introduced their Electrical Numerical Integrator And Calculator (ENIAC). The ENIAC was approximately 1,800 square feet in size and weighed 30 tons. Other mainframe computers that soon followed were so large that they filled entire floors of buildings. The computers were typically owned by large corporations or government agencies to perform complex calculations and scientific research.

How does the ENIAC compare to your laptop aside from the fact you don’t need a second house to hold your PC? The ENIAC had a processing speed of about 5,000 instructions per second. Your laptop is 30,000 times faster than the ENIAC, executing billions of instructions per second. Your iPhone crushes the ENIACs processing power with the iPhone 14 being capable of performing 17 trillion operations per second. And, an iPhone has tens of thousands of times more memory than the 30 ton ENIAC.

BITS and BYTES

John Mauchly received a doctorate from Johns Hopkins even though he never completed requirements for his bachelor’s degree. The list of college dropouts who became tech icons include Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey (Twitter) and Larry Ellison (Oracle).

Despite the wonderous technology that we can now hold in our hand, today’s most advanced devices are no match for the power of the human brain. The typical brain can process 38 thousand trillion operations per second and store more than 3580 terabytes of memories. 

The first webcam was utilized by Cambridge University researchers so they could monitor their  coffee maker. 

The longest word that you can type using the letters on only one row of your keyboard is “typewriter”.  

The first person to earn a Ph.D. in Computer Science in the United States was Mary Kenneth Keller, a Catholic nun.

In 1999, the world’s top two search engines were Yahoo and Excite. Google co-founder Larry Page offered his technology to Excite for $750,000 and 1% of Excite stock.  The deal fell through because the established company’s executives did not like Page’s insistence that Google would be Excite’s new search engine. Today, Google’s market cap is over $2 Trillion and most people don’t remember Excite.

Americans throw away 14 million mobile devices each year despite these devices containing precious metals like gold and silver. On an annual basis, Americans toss $60 million in gold and silver straight into the trash.

The decentralized digital currency Bitcoin launched in early 2009. The following year, the first Bitcoin transaction occurred when Laszlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas from 19 year old student Jeremy Sturdivan for 10,000 bitcoins. The value of the coins was $41.00 and Sturdivan quickly spent his take. The current value of a Bitcoin is 64,000 and Sturdivan’s mislaid coins would be worth $365M.

Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonym used by the person or persons that created Bitcoin and researchers still don’t know the actual identity (ies) of the people behind the curtain. So if you feel badly that you don’t understand Bitcoin – Don’t. And, as somebody who spent years in cyber security my advice is “Runaway”.

Have a great weekend. I won’t be blogging in September. Enjoy the rest of the summer.

Thanks to all of you who have purchased my book and thanks for all of the rave reviews. If you haven’t bought your copy please visit www.tedcurtinstories.com for direct links to Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

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At a recent alumni golf event, friends urged me to write a blog on golf.  As adult beverages flowed at the nineteenth hole, some requests seemed to turn into veiled threats. Thus, as an act of self-preservation here are some random musings about golf.

History

The modern game of golf can be traced back to fifteenth century Scotland. It is often said that the game is called golf because all of the other four letter words were taken. In actuality the word evolved from the Dutch term for club: “kolve” or “kolf”. The Scots modified the pronunciation to “goff” and eventually “golf”

Golf was strictly a man’s game until Mary Queen of Scots took up the sport. The avid golfer introduced  the game to France during a royal visit. She was guarded by French military aides known as cadets who also carried the clubs for golfers. Voila: the origin of “caddy”.

For a more amusing and concise explanation of how the Scots invented golf go to Robin William’s classic rant on the subject.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcnFbCCgTo4&t=202s

Hooks and Slices

The first golf handicap system was invented in 1893 by a woman: Issette Pearson. 

Before 1899, there were no golf tees. Golfers were provided a box filled with wet sand so that players could build mounds from which to strike their ball. In 1899, Dr. George Grant, the second African American to earn a dental degree received a patent for the first tee.

Insurance companies that underwrite hole-in-one contests calculate the odds of a pro making a hole-in-one at 3,000 to 1. For amateurs, it’s 12,500 to 1.

While left-handers make up 10 to 12 percent of the overall population, only 5 to 7 percent of golfers play left-handed. However in Canada 30 percent of golfers play left-handed. That’s because nearly two thirds of Canadian hockey players shoot left-handed, making it an easy transition to swing a golf club from that side.

Despite his nickname, Phil “Lefty” Mickelson is right-handed. Aside from golf, Lefty does everything from the right side but chose to emulate his left-handed father’s swing.

Sam Snead became the youngest PGA Tour player to shoot his age when he recorded a 67 in 1979.  Thomas Edison Smith, an amateur from Minnesota, shot his age an  incredible 3,359 times. The oldest golfer to shoot his age was Arthur Thompson of Victoria, British Columbia who shot a 103 in 1972.

While Americans have a million to one chance of being struck by lightning. the odds for golfers are 250,000 to one. Still, statistics show that there is only one lightning related golfing fatality per year (fishing fatalities are much higher). The great Lee Trevino has been struck three times. He was hospitalized during the 1975 Western Open when rather than seeking protection in the clubhouse he stood under a tree with his umbrella open.

Nullarbor Links, located in Western Australia’s Golden Outback, is the world’s longest  golf course. The  848 mile track opened in 2009. The course was built to provide travelers with breaks from driving the dreary highway and to promote area tourism.  There is one hole in each participating town and the average distance between holes is 41 miles. Score cards can be purchased at either end of the route for A$70 plus an A$8 maintenance fee. Players provide their own clubs or rent them at each hole. If you plan on taking on these rugged outback fairways, be sure to watch out for hidden wombat holes and three species of deadly snakes. Also, beware that temperatures can reach 122°F.

If a round in Outback heat is not your idea of fun consider signing up for the annual World Ice Golf Championships which take place in Uummannaq, Greenland. Instead of greens, players putt on ice. Just beware that participating golfers often become afflicted with snow blindness.

Just Ask Hank

Golf is a difficult endeavor for even the world’s greatest athletes. Here is baseball immortal Henry Aaron’s summation: It took me seventeen years to get three thousand hits in baseball. It took one afternoon on the golf course.

Have a great weekend and hit em straight.

If you liked this blog you will enjoy my highly acclaimed book, ‘Get Smarter- Be Amazed”. Visit www.tedcurtinstories.com for direct links to Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

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Mary Jane West AKA “Mae” was born on August 17, 1893 in Brooklyn, New York. Mae’s mother was a German immigrant and her father was “Battling Jack” West a featherweight prizefighter of English and Irish descent.  She made her performing debut at a church social when she was five. By fourteen, she was a Vaudeville  actress known as Baby Mae.

West pushed the limits of social norms. She wrote and starred in several successful Broadway plays, including “Sex,” which sparked controversy but also catapulted her into the spotlight. Her productions drew mixed reviews from critics but New Yorkers filled the seats each night, expecting racy plots and risqué jokes.

Hollywood studios provided Mae with generous offers. In 1932, the 38- year- old finally left the Big Apple and signed with Paramount Pictures.   Her first movie appearance was in “Night After Night”. In a classic scene, a coat check girl admires Mae’s jewelry and exclaims, “Goodness! What lovely diamonds”. Mae replies, “Goodness had nothing to do with it”. 

Mae wrote nine of the thirteen films in which she starred. Before shooting 1933’s “She Done Him Wrong” West was reviewing a large book containing  pictures of leading men when she “glanced out the window and I saw this good-looking guy walk across the street. So, I said, “That’s about the best-looking thing in Hollywood: who is he?” So they said, “Oh, that’s Cary Grant. We haven’t used him in a picture as yet” I said, “Well, if this guy can talk, I’ll take him”. She gave Grant his first leading role and the film was nominated for the best picture Oscar. 

Mae West was credited with single-handedly saving debt-ridden Paramount from bankruptcy. By 1936, she was the highest-paid star in Hollywood and the second highest-paid person in the U.S. after newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst.

Partially because of West’s racy films, studios became the target of various morals crusades. Industry executives adopted a set of guidelines, commonly referred to as the Hays Production Code.  Instead of dealing with the new  puritanical rules, West set her sights on fresh horizons to conquer. She appeared on Edgar Bergin and Charlie McCarthy’s radio show and her lewd dialogue got her banned from that medium. She moved to Las Vegas where she performed on stage and in nightclubs.

West returned to Hollywood in 1940 to film “My Little Chickadee” with W.C. Fields. The pairing resulted in a successful movie but off-screen Fields and West despised each other. West would only make a handful of appearances on the screen before her death in 1980. These included the dreadful ‘Myra Breckinridge” and a guest slot on “Mr. Ed” (how did I miss that).

A Rich and Famous Lifestyle

West didn’t drink or smoke but loved  dating younger men. Her long-term partner Paul Novak was 30 years her junior.

Her enormous ego compelled Mae to throw barbs at other female stars including Rita Hayworth and Elizabeth Taylor.  She did have nice things to say about Marilyn Monroe before adding  “Of course, she copied me.”

West resided in The Ravenswood, a Hollywood apartment building that also housed Judy Garland, Clark Gable and Ethel Merman. When West began to date Black boxing champ Gorilla Jones, management banned him from the building because of his race. West promptly purchased the building and terminated the ban. West also dedicated her time and resources to many charitable causes, focusing primarily on social welfare organizations especially those benefiting children.

Quotes

“When caught between two evils I generally pick the one I’ve never tried before”.

“I only like two kinds of men: Foreign and Domestic”.

“I generally avoid temptation unless I can’t resist it.”

“She’s the kind of girl who climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong.”

 “That woman speaks eight languages and can’t say ‘no’ in any of them.”

I still can’t believe I missed that Mr. Ed episode.

Have a great weekend.

If you liked this blog you will enjoy my highly acclaimed book, ‘Get Smarter- Be Amazed”. Visit www.tedcurtinstories.com for direct links to Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

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Recently, I was surprised to discover that Keurig Dr Pepper is headquartered in Massachusetts. I knew from my many business trips to Dallas that Dr Pepper is a long-established Texas company. And Keurig? Must be a European entity, I thought.

The reality is that Keurig was the brainchild of John Sylvan and Peter Dragone who were roommates at Maine’s Colby College in the late 1970s. After a few years in the high-tech industry, Sylvan, a lifelong tinkerer, quit his job to devote his time to solving what he considered an inconvenient problem – stale office coffee.

Sylvan designed a coffee pod system and a machine to brew the pods. Dragone was serving as director of finance at Chiquita Brands when Sylvan called him for help with his business plan. The pair founded Keurig in 1992 in Woburn, Massachusetts. Keurig is the Dutch word for excellence. Realizing that they needed significant capital, the entrepreneurs approached Green Mountain Coffee Roasters for financial backing.  Once Green Mountain’s nose was in the tent, Green Mountain brought in hordes of backers and executives to kickstart Keurig (I had always envisioned Green Mountain as a couple of mellow Bernie Bros sitting by a campfire). The new environment frustrated Sylvan, forcing him to quit in 1997. He sold his shares for only $50,000. Dragone departed soon after.

The company experienced explosive growth selling to offices and coffee shops worldwide. In 2004, after much trial and error, the company introduced a home version that was affordable and small enough to fit on kitchen counters. Sales exploded due to pent up demand from workers who loved their office Keurig.  Coffee pods became a hot seller in supermarkets worldwide. 

In 2006 Green Mountain assumed full ownership of the corporation and began marketing their technology to companies including  Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks.

Selected Stats

40% of Americans own single serving machines- up from 10% in 2012.

27% of Americans use Keurigs.

Keurig produces 10 billion K-cups per year – Nespresso produces 14 billion coffee pods annually.

The Downside: 29,000 coffee pods enter landfills every minute (yes, minute). – These containers will take 500 years to decompose.  Keurig began working on recyclable materials in 2011 . Their goal is that 90% of the k-cups  will be recyclable.  Other brands are far ahead of Keurig in the sustainability arena- some allow consumers to reuse their pods.

Enter Dr Pepper

In 2018, Keurig Green Mountain merged with the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group to create a new company generating over $11 Billion in annual sales. Not that you asked but Dr Pepper is a former software client of mine. Employees are fiercely loyal to their brand and even proud of the Dr. Pepper Museum.

Dr. Pepper was originally formulated by Brooklyn-born pharmacist at a Waco, Texas drug store. As with the formula for Coca Cola, the recipe for Dr Pepper is a trade secret. The formula is allegedly secured in two halves in safe deposit boxes in separate Dallas banks. Dr. Pepper was first sold in 1885, one year before the introduction  of Coca-Cola. Amazingly almost 140 years later those two brands rank as the top two best-selling carbonated soft drinks in the U.S. The history of the two rivals is filled with failed potential mergers and dozens of lawsuits ranging from trade theft to anti-trust.

Dr Pepper enjoys dubious bragging rights because while the Food and Drug Administration classifies Coke as a cola, the agency does not classify Dr Pepper as such. Nor does the FDA classify the Texas institution as a root beer or a fruit flavored soft drink. Instead, Dr Pepper has been given its own category called “pepper soda”.

Bottom’s Up.

Have a great weekend.

If you liked this blog you will enjoy my new book, “Get Smarter-Be Amazed”. Visit www.tedcurtinstories.com for direct links to Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

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August 9 marks the 97th anniversary of the birth of actor and novelist Robert Shaw. He left us way too soon in 1978, four years after his memorable performance as Quint in ‘Jaws”. Shaw was an accomplished Shakespearian actor who was nominated for an Oscar for his role as Henry VIII in the 1966 movie, “A Man for All Seasons”. He also excelled in performances including “From Russia with Love”, “The Sting”, and “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three”. Meanwhile Shaw maintained a prolific writing schedule and authored several bestselling novels.

Most movie fans would cite Quint as their favorite character portrayed by Shaw. And since this is the 50^th anniversary of the publication of Peter Benchley’s novel “Jaws”, here are some fun facts about the movie that hit theaters in1975.

Lee Marvin was Steven Spielberg’s first choice to play Quint despite the director’s reticence to cast big-name actors. When Marvin replied that he would rather go fishing, Spielberg approached Robert Mitchum who also deferred. Spielberg turned to Sterling Hayden but that didn’t work because any income Hayden earned would be taken by the IRS for an outstanding tax liability. Robert Shaw had his own serious IRS troubles and the agency limited the number of days Shaw could spend in the U.S. Shaw was able to become Quint when Spielberg agreed to fly the actor to Canada on his days off. Shaw based his performance on Crain Kingsbury, a local fisherman and legendary eccentric who was able to secure a role in “Jaws”.

Charlton Heston wanted the role of Chief Brodie but Spielberg decided not to cast the icon because of his “saving the day” roles in recent movies, “Airport 75” and’ “Earthquake”. Spielberg reasoned that if Heston were cast audiences would feel the shark had no chance. Heston was enraged and vowed never to work with Spielberg. The director chose the relatively unknown Roy Scheider.

Jon Voight, Jeff Bridges, and Jan-Michael Vincent were considered for the role of Hooper. Fortunately Spielberg chose Richard Dreyfuss because the palpable tension we saw on the screen between Dreyfuss and Shaw was real – they despised each other.

Screenwriters Peter Benchley and Carl Gottleib struggled with Shaw’s “Indianapolis” monologue and so Shaw rewrote it to the screenwriters’ overwhelming approval. Shaw’s was so drunk during the first filming of the soliloquy that none of the tape could be used. When he sobered up, a remorseful Shaw begged Spielberg for a reshoot. The actor delivered a masterpiece in only one take. Scheider described Shaw as “a perfect gentleman” but all he needed was one drink to turn into a “son-of-a-bitch.”

Lee Ferro who played the grieving mother was a local who performed in stage productions at the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse . She only made two other movies including the “The Mistover Tale“ when she was  87. Fiero was unable to fake a slap and as a result, Scheider said the smacks he received in the seventeen takes were some of the “most painful” of his career.

Random Chum

The original 52 day schedule expanded to 155 days primarily due to extreme weather conditions. Spielberg could have chosen to film in a Hollywood tank or a protected lake. Instead, he insisted on filming  at sea with a life-sized shark. He claims that it was youthful foolhardiness and ignorance of mother nature that led him to film on the ocean. He was dismayed by the phoniness of the fake shark, so he shot it from awkward angles for only moments at a time so viewers wouldn’t get too close a look.

When composer John Williams played the score for director Steven Spielberg, The director laughed and said, “That’s funny, John, really; but what did you really have in mind for the theme?” Spielberg later admitted that the movie would not have been nearly as successful without  Williams’s score.

“Jaws” won three Academy Awards but lost Best Picture to “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest”

The line “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” was not scripted but was ad-libbed by Scheider.

Have a great weekend and don’t go in the water.

If you liked this blog you will enjoy my new book, “Get Smarter-Be Amazed”. Visit www.tedcurtinstories.com for direct links to Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

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