Where the second to call it gets shotgun!
Where there's a first, there MUST be a second!
Welcome to SilverMedals.net — The internet's premier blog and reference site celebrating the second greatest achievements, second-best records, and the almost extremes of the world we live in!
Items marked as Second Thoughts are short blog entries. Those marked as Feature Articles are informative, long-form, heavily researched pieces. Please also have a look at the SilverMedals.net Referencepedia for some quick facts of seconds.
09/17/2018
Updated 09/06/2022
By the time Burt Reynolds signed up for the movie Armored Command (Allied Artists, 1961), his second full-length feature movie, he had already put together a respectable resumé as a stage and TV actor having appeared in at least 15 television shows in not only bit parts but in regular roles. An ex-athlete from Florida with a rugged sexiness that…read more
06/28/2018
Updated 09/19/2022
It may seem like hyperbole to write that Fred Rogers was one of the finest human beings ever to appear on American television, but he really was a good guy. A musician, a minister, a teacher, a producer, director, actor, and a student of early childhood development, Rogers dedicated the greater part of his personal and professional life toward teaching…read more
05/29/2018
Updated 09/24/2022
When Alan Bean retired from NASA and decided to become a full-time professional fine-art artist, he had to shed his aeronautical engineering and astronaut self to allow his inner artistic vision come through to the canvas. Not an easy task for the former Apollo 12 astronaut, one of only 12 men to have walked on the surface of the moon,…read more
03/26/2018
Updated 01/11/2019
The world got a little smaller over the weekend, especially for those who live in the greater London and Perth areas. Qantas, the Australian airline once made popular by the character Raymond Babbitt1 in the movie Rain Man, just added a new nonstop route to its commercial route offerings. Passengers can now travel from Perth, Australia, to London, U.K., nonstop,…read more
03/08/2018
Updated 09/06/2022
Second feats and events can come to me from anywhere here at SilverMedals.net, and this one comes from an interesting book review in the The New Yorker by Adam Gopnik who wrote about composer Andrew Lloyd Weber’s new memoir, Unmasked. In the article, Gopnik expounds on the reasons as to why people love/hate Weber, his journey, his works, etc., but…read more
02/28/2018
Updated 09/20/2022
Finner, razorback, flathead, common rorqual, herring whale, finback whale — these are all names for the fin whale, an animal that few outside of the marine biology or maritime communities know or care about. But it is a majestic animal with sleek hydrodynamic lines and curves that roams the world’s oceans gulping down plankton and fish in astonishing quantities. Second…read more
02/22/2018
Updated 09/06/2022
Attempts to summit K2 begin in Islamabad. From there you will spend a day driving in a rickety bus toward the town of Skardu on the dangerous Karakoram Highway (and they’re using the term “highway” VERY loosely here). You’ll probably have an armed guard wth your party because aside from the road itself being dangerous, there are people on it who…read more
02/17/2018
Updated 10/11/2018
If you’re a rich person looking for a place to hide your money from the evil tax-collecting hoards in your home country, or maybe you’re a super rich drug dealer who doesn’t want your local government asking questions about that Bentley parked in your quarter-mile driveway when on your last return you reported earnings of only $28,000, then look no…read more
02/02/2018
Updated 10/08/2018
It’s February 2 — favorite day for SilverMedals.net enthusiasts! Not only is it the second day of the second month and the anniversary of the launch of SilverMedals.net, it is also Groundhog Day! Yes, it’s the day where fancy men in top hats stand outside in the freezing cold staring at the furry little rodents and their shadows. As a…read more