‘Pocahontas’ vs The Donald
QUESTION Why did President Donald Trump call Democrat senator Elizabeth Warren ‘Pocahontas’?
ElizabEth WarrEn is the U.S. Senator for Massachusetts and has been mooted as a possible Democratic candidate to run in the next Presidential race in 2020.
She was formerly a professor of law and taught at the University of texas School of law, the University of Pennsylvania law School and, most recently, at harvard law School.
trump first used the label of Pocahontas in May 2016 after he’d become the republican presidential nominee; it was his sly response to Warren’s twitter barrage against him during which she vowed to battle his ‘toxic stew of hatred and insecurity’.
When he invoked the name Pocahontas during a ceremony honouring native americans, there was an outcry about racism and bullying. Yet it was a problem Warren might have brought on herself.
She had grown up with family stories about her grandparents on her mother’s side having Cherokee or Delaware blood, and in the mid-Eighties, when she was applying to harvard law School, she told administrators that her family tree included native americans.
a 1997 Fordham law review piece entitled intersectionality and Positionality: Situating Women Of Color in the affirmative action Dialogue described her as harvard law School’s ‘first woman of color’, and this led to accusations that Warren had used her supposed native american connection to improve her chances of landing a top job.
in response, she made the embarrassing claim that she believed in her native american roots, mainly because of family stories and the fact that her grandfather had ‘high cheekbones.’
the new England historical Genealogical Society seemed to back up her story, claiming that Warren was 1/32 native american, but it later recanted the claim, saying: ‘ We have no proof that Elizabeth Warren’s great-great-greatgrandmother O. C. Sarah Smith either was or was not of Cherokee descent.’ harvard law School professor Charles Fried, who served as President ronald reagan’s Solicitor General, said that any allegation Warren had received her professorship due to affirmative action was ‘false’ and ‘complete nonsense’.
One of the most absurd parts of the story was Warren’s contribution to a 1984 native american cookbook entitled Pow Wow Chow — it didn’t help that her recipes included one for crab with mayonnaise and herbed tomatoes that appeared to have been lifted from a French restaurant.
Martin Thompson, Newcastle upon Tyne.
QUESTION Whatever happened to Bill Raisch, the One-Armed Man in TV’s The Fugitive?
Carl WilliaM raiSCh was born to German immigrant parents in new Jersey in 1905. a dancer who worked for the ziegfeld Follies in the thirties, he lost his right arm in 1945 while serving in World War ii, fighting a shipboard fire.
With his stage career over, raisch moved to los angeles, where director ben hecht gave him a small acting part in Spectre Of the rose (1946).
in 1952, raisch became a stand-in for burt lancaster where he appeared as a double for the famous actor, and later appeared as a one-armed man in lonely are the brave ( 1962). he was subsequently offered the role of Fred Johnson, the One-armed Man, in the popular tV Series the Fugitive ( 1963). but raisch became so famous as the dastardly One-armed Man that he became typecast and struggled to find work on other shows.
Fugitive producer Quinn Martin put raisch on a retainer, giving him a degree of security. he subsequently worked for many years as a hollywood acting and dancing coach. raisch died of lung cancer in 1984, aged 79.
Jill Simonds, Stowe, Glos.
QUESTION What was so special about the Chrysler Hemi engine, beloved of hot-rodders and dragster drivers?
a hEMi is an engine with hemispherical combustion chambers — the combustion chamber is half a sphere. in 1951, Chrysler introduced its new line of V8 motors, and this was the first time a hemi engine was used in a standard american car engine.
to get as much power as possible out of an engine, it should burn as much fuel as possible; take full advantage of cylinder pressure; and waste as little energy as possible when sucking air and fuel in and pushing exhaust out.
in a hemi, the intake and exhaust valves are on opposite sides of the chamber. this is significant because it sends the combustion mixture flowing directly across the chamber. the hemi surface area is small, so less heat escapes during combustion — hotter fuel burns better.
Furthermore, because the valves are positioned on opposite sides of the chamber, they can be large — which means improved airflow through the engine — and much more powerful.
having only two valves per cylinder is great for drag racing or stock car racing because the rules limit engines to two valves per cylinder in these categories, but such engines are less useful for modern driving conditions.
Modern engines incorporate four slightly smaller valves, allowing the engine to ‘breathe’ more easily and reducing the heat lost during combustion.
because the valves on the hemi head must oppose each other, the engine requires a wide cylinder head and complex rocker arms. it can also only be fitted in larger vehicles. Perhaps most importantly, the hemi engine is more expensive to produce than compact engines.
Mike Hughes, Richmond, Surrey.