#steamboats

In return, he told me about the steamboat Arabia, which was a Missouri riverboat that was lost after the river changed course, and was dug up mostly intact in a farmer’s field outside Kansas City. It has the distinction (according to my new friend) of having the oldest known edible pickles (he swears one of the excavators ate some and checked).

It turns out that the Arabia museum will be closing this November! So everyone in the area go have a look!

William Heuman specialized in westerns and sports stories -- is the latter still a live genre? This 1952 paperback original is the kind of novel they don't seem to make anymore, unless they're printed on demand. It's under 200 pages, which apparently would make it unprofitable for publishers and maybe unpalatable for modern readers, unless I misperceive a preference for novels at least three times as long. There's no point in claiming this is a neglected classic, because it isn't. It's pretty generic in many respects, especially in its obligatory fistfight between the hero and an oversized brute with surprising speed and agility. Since the pulp West is full of such surprising brutes, why are the heroes always surprised? It'd be more surprising to encounter a big man who fights scientifically, but skill overcoming brute strength is important for the pulp tradition.

John Fitch – Scientist of the Day

John Fitch, an American clockmaker, gunsmith, and inventor, was born Jan. 21, 1742, in Windsor, Conn.