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Things I Want to Know

Skeleton of a giant?

Ed Babinski is trying to figure out the source for the above "photo." Some creationists have offered it as evidence that giant men once inhabited the Earth. If you have any ideas, see his page on the talkorigins.org site, Men Over Ten Feet Tall.

FOUND: Ed Babinski writes: Ron, I found out the origin of the alleged photo of a "Skeleton of the Giant." It is not a photograph at all, but an artists' illustration created to accompany an unsubstantiated story in a book called, The Tongue of Time.

Links about the origin of the drawing are here:
Nephalim - Giants in Old Testament Genesis - Request for info on the Nephilim - Giant Animals in past and Giant Human Being over ten feet tall


Know any details about 20th-century Hoosier poet Arthur H. Ortmeyer (1885-1943)?
His work was published in the American Courier newspaper in the early 1940s. He self-published a 51-page book of 300 of his humorous couplets in Braille entitled Lifelines of Wit and Humor (in Epigram). Examples of his writing can be found here. If you know anything more about him, let me know.

Does anyone remember the Bangkok electric trams that ran from 1894-1968?
If you have any reminiscences please let me know.  Here's what we have so far-> Bangkok Tramways (1894-1968)

Who was F.R. Engdahl?
Recently I was in Hong Kong. I walked along a winding road beyond Stanley Market and wandered through a military cemetery opposite St. Stephen's Beach. The cemetery holds the remains of many nationalities who died during World War II at the hands of the Japanese. Many of the graves had proper tombstones, one looked like it had been hand-carved. The crudely-etched letters read:

F.R. Engdahl
U.S. Consul
Died 14.5.1942
Aged 34

I just wondered who was this person was and why his tombstone was so rough. I've checked the net and some libraries, but with no luck.  If you know anything about this person, let me know.

May 6, 2004 - Greg Leck writes: I am currently researching and writing a monograph about the Japanese internment of Allied civilians in China and Hong Kong, 1941-1945.
I believe FR Engdahl was with the American consulate in Hong Kong at the time of the Japanese attack on December 8th, 1941. (About the same time as the attack on Pearl Harbor but across the international dateline.)
As far as I can determine, due to diplomatic status he was not interned in the big internment camp at Stanley in mid January, 1942, but was held in a hotel along with other diplomats. He most likely died of some illness or medical condition and buried at Stanley, where most of those killed in action during the Battle of Hong Kong were buried, as well as POWs and civilian internees during the war years.
The grave stone is crude because it was carved during a time of extreme civil unrest and breakdown of society - at the beginning of the Japanese occupation.


September 20, 2004 - Greg Leck writes: Just to let you know I came across a few more tidbits about FR Engdahl, whose grave you saw in Hong Kong.
Full name Felix Russell. He died of a skull fracture (basilar). No known next of kin, though it was rumored he had a wife in New York City.
The gravestones were made by two internees who were Hong Kong Policemen. They found a number of granite blocks in camp and chipped out the grave markers by hand. That explains the relative crudeness.


Are English-language verisons of Wang Lixiong's books available (particularly Yellow Peril)?
I have an English-language summary of Yellow Peril here.

OSHP logo
Know any details about the Old Swimmin' Hole Press?  Let me know. This Indiana-based firm published the works of Esther Kem Thomas & Barton Rees Pogue. The only other title I can find that they published is Some Decendants of James McCain, Sr. of Somerset County, New Jersey, by Mabel McFatridge-McCloskey, 1952.