Considering that our near future looks to include California Governor Ranier Wolfcastle, it's time to turn away helplessly and consider, once again, the comfortably dead past. Although I'm afraid of having to re-christen this the Wombat File 19th-century quiz, here's yet another field trip to the fun-fact-ery of yesteryear.
One hundred forty-five years ago this month, Julia Archibald Holmes wrote in her journal "I have accomplished the task which I marked out for myself . . . Nearly everyone tried to discourage me from attempting it, but I believed that I should succeed . . . " She became the first woman on record to accomplish the task to which she referred. 35 years later, Katharine Lee Bates also did it, and the poem she was inspired to compose will be familiar to most readers.
What did Mrs. Holmes do in the summer of 1858?
First correct answer posted to comments wins a 5-day internship with the Gary Coleman For Governor campaign organization. No Googling or asking the barkeep. One guess per comment, but comment as often as you'd like.
Posted by BT at August 08, 2003 09:51 AMshe reached Pike's Peak.
Posted by: Doozy on August 8, 2003 11:32 AMWhere is everybody?
My guess: swimming the English channel.
Ms. Holmes, that is. Not your readers.
Posted by: KF on August 8, 2003 12:58 PMI'll bet Doozy has it. I know what Katharine Lee Bates wrote, and it's a hell of a lot better than God Bless America.
Yes, it's Doozy (who is either an identity-cloaked regular or a brand-new participant) who nails it: Julia A. Holmes was the first (Western?) woman to ascend the peak which, I think, was pronounced unclimbable by the eponymous Mr. Pike. Congrats to the D., whoever you are.
Soren slyly alludes to the K.L. Bates poem in question, "America the Beautiful." This lovely verse has now, sadly, become a mandatory stand-along at baseball games during the seventh-inning stretch.
Now, for an unrelated follow-up. In 1979, Columbia released a parodic Western directed by former stuntman Hal Needham, who had previously helmed Smokey and the Bandit in 1977. Kirk Douglas and Ann-Margaret were two of the stars (with Paul Lynde in a bit role), but who played the young hero?
Posted by: BT on August 8, 2003 01:27 PMI've thought about this for about 10 hours. I'm gonna say The Governator: Arnold Schwarzenegger. As I recall the producers didn't want to have to spell his name in the credits (just like I didn't want to in the previous sentence) so they gave him a pseudonym of "Arnold Strong." For the bonus round: the character name was "Handsome Stranger" as I recall.
Or I'm thinking of the wrong movie.
Sorry for the delay, teenidol -- you are correct. I don't know about "Arnold Strong" but the Governator did indeed play "The Handsome Stranger" in "The Villian", released in the UK as "Cactus Jack."
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0080097
Director Hal Needham's career as a director seems resolutely Burt-centric, as his most recent directorial credit shows:
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0169989
I just double checked. "Arnold Strong" was in 1970's "Hercules in New York."
Posted by: teenidol on August 10, 2003 05:09 PMDirector Hal Needham's career as a director seems resolutely Burt-centric, as his most recent directorial credit shows
Meanwhile, I can't believe I actually committed the above sentence to Web. Ugh. I will refrain from deleting it as a rebuke to what's left of my pride.