Recent content by oboro

Only “sci-fi” written by Mark Twain - a parody of Jules Verne. Still one of his most beloved stories Why We All Drive Diesels

Hindenburg’s “hidden burgers” were small-town Germans he thought would turn out to vote to keep Hitler from taking power. They didn’t But one German who came to the US after the war started the “Hidden Burger” franchise. Their gimmick? Their restaurants were made to look like other buildings...

After his retirement from racing, Dale Earnhardt became a B list actor, best known for the Eliminator series. A great movie for NASCAR fans, not so much for anyone else (Realized about 6 hours after I posted this that Dale Earnhardt was The Intimidator, not the Eliminator. Signed, Not a...

Not 100%, but I think there were phone calls from people on the plane to loved ones on the ground as they took it back - “Let’s roll” and all that…

The U.S. stays out of the war (or enters even later), the Albacore (somehow) becomes a complete fiasco, and the US provides its surplus, not-that-old Devastators to the RN once the TBF becomes available. Too implausible?

1965 Tv special on “The Irish Invasion” - where Irish rock took over. Despite the cringe title, Irish bands became huge in the 1960s, a wave that continued into the 90s with The Cranberries and U2. Wave of Mutilation

Part of the tv series on German fliers - after similar ones on Rudel and Reitsch. Although Hartmann didn’t get the chance to prove himself as a fighter pilot before the war ended in 1943, his efforts to expand the German civil air network across the conquered Soviet Union were well rewarded as...

Nickname given to the small, cheap Volksboots operated in the North Sea and English Channel. In contrast to the sophisticated Type XXI’s, smaller, lighter crewed, shorter ranged U-Panzers were operated as an emergency submarine fleet, in much the same way that He-162 Volksjagers were meant to...

1996 Spielberg movie about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who helped hundreds of Jews relocate to Palestine, sensing they would not be safe if they couldn’t leave the Third Reich. Germany’s invasion of France had stalled, and getting the Jews to safety in a British territory was no mean...

Refers to 1988, when an increasingly Objectivist Jack Kirby, incensed by Alan Moore’s take on the genre with Watchmen, moved to have him banned from publishing, while Frank Miller saw Stan Lee as becoming increasingly artistically irrelevant, and kidnapped him in an act of gonzo sabotage...

Alt history book by one Otto Kretschmer exploring how natives of the Namibian Desert grew to conquer the world, in a matter analogous to the expansion of the Mongols. Things start to take off when they establish cities on the southern coast of Africa, and then take Madagascar, from which they...

Fight song of the University of Bologna, known for their football, wrestling, fencing, and track and field teams - winning European Collegiate Championships since the 14th century. As for academics, not so much Ninja’d! (Which is good since I didn’t have a good prompt idea anyway) She-Hulk...

After filming The Conqueror, and the later realization that the exposure to radiation would shorten his life, John Wayne had a midlife crisis. Hoping for something better for humanity, he became involved in Star Trek, and helped “grit it up”. His status as executive producer kept the show...

Battlefield 2031: Moon Wars was Ed Woods attempt at a space opera in the 1970s. Of course it was awful, only becoming a cult classic in hindsight. Deterred by this, for the first time ever, he went on to make a more grounded, domestic story with Please Mommy, Stop Drinking!, which, ironically...

The Fourtg Congolese-Katangese War occurred after the 2nd but before the 3rd, as it was only discovered in retrospect. There had been years of infighting in central Africa, with one group wanting closer ties to foreign powers and the other wanting to preserve their own isolation. These wars...