Second Thoughts

Free Fallin’

Free Fallin’

10/03/2017

Updated on 10/08/2018

With the passing of the great American rock musician Tom Petty, SilverMedals.net would like to highlight his second-best-selling track, “Free Fallin”, which was included on the excellent album Full Moon Fever. The album was Petty’s first solo album (without the Heartbreakers, although Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell appeared frequently on the album) and included many great tracks in addition to “Free Fallin” such as…read more

Second U.S. Soldier Killed During the Vietnam War

Second U.S. Soldier Killed During the Vietnam War

09/28/2017

Updated on 10/08/2018

In honor of the excellent Ken Burns and Lynn Novick documentary The Vietnam War, which is currently showing on PBS, I thought it was a fitting time to highlight Harry Griffith Cramer, Jr., the person considered to be the second U.S. soldier killed during that conflict. Before we go on, it’s worth mentioning that this is a case where it is difficult…read more

Finding the World’s Second-Biggest Lake Island

Finding the World’s Second-Biggest Lake Island

09/11/2017

Updated on 10/08/2018

You’d think it would be easy to establish which is the world’s second-biggest lake island — a lake island being an island on a lake. For the most part, you can look at a map, figure out which bodies of water are the lakes, then look for the islands in them. Simple right? For the biggest lake island, it’s super…read more

Survivors

Survivors

06/14/2017

Updated on 10/08/2018

It looks like we can add “survivor of mass extinction” to the list of awesomeness associated with pronghorns. According to this piece on the BBC website, while mastodons, giant sloths, and camels were dying off like a bunch of evolutionary wimps 11,000 years ago, the pronghorn kept bounding along the American plains and deserts like a happy-go-lucky little smart-ass. That part…read more

From K2 to an Album Cover

From K2 to an Album Cover

06/02/2017

Updated on 10/26/2018

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was first released in the U.K. on May 26, 1967, and in the U.S. on June 2 of that year, exactly 50 years before this Second Thoughts entry. Widely regarded as the greatest album of all time, it is also one of the most widely recognized album covers. It features the four band members in their…read more

Polish Climbers Heading to K2

Polish Climbers Heading to K2

05/14/2017

Updated on 10/08/2018

One thing we never mentioned in the K2 article here at SilverMedals.net is that even though the mountain has been climbed many times, it has never been summited in the winter. That may not seem like much of a necessary fact for most readers, but for mountain climbers that is significant. For the most part, mountains are harder to climb…read more

JANCFU

JANCFU

04/21/2017

Updated on 10/13/2018

It was common during WWII for USAAF (United States Army Air Force) ground crews to write out little messages on bombs meant to be dropped on the enemy. It was a sort of middle finger to the soldiers whom they blamed for there being a war in the first place. There are even stories of bomber crew members throwing trash out the…read more

Stanford White

Stanford White

04/18/2017

Updated on 01/11/2019

This is one of those “only-people-interested-in-SilverMedals-type-stuff” entries. While researching two upcoming pieces for SilverMedals (“Thomas Jefferson’s Second Dome” and “The Second Madison Square Garden”), the famous architect Stanford White came to figure prominently in both, which was not something that I had anticipated. You may know Stanford White from such buildings as the Arch in Washington Square Park, The Bowery…read more