Star’s 9/11 call to duty
Was actor Steve Buscemi a former New York firefighter?
Steve BuScemi was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1957. His quirky looks and acting style have made him the go-to actor for many top Hollywood filmmakers, including Quentin tarantino, Jerry Bruckheimer, and the coen Brothers.
After leaving high school at 18, Buscemi took the federal civil service exam. He was working as a furniture mover in manhattan, and as a stand-up comedian in the evening, when he was called up to the Fire Department of New York. He served as a firefighter from 1980 to 1984, with engine co. 55 in manhattan’s Little italy.
During his service as a firefighter, the Boardwalk empire star took acting classes and worked in a theatre group with Willem Dafoe. His big break came playing mr Pink in tarantino’s film Reservoir Dogs (1992).
immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York in 2001, Buscemi returned to engine co. 55 and worked lengthy shifts, helping to sift through the rubble of the World trade centre, while refusing to give interviews and pictures.
Kath Dyer, Luton, Beds.
Was Adolf Hitler nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize?
iN 1938 consternation followed the nomination of British prime minister Neville chamberlain for the Nobel Peace Prize. this was for his contribution to the 1938 munich Agreement, accepting Hitler’s claim that czechoslovakia had to cede the Sudetenland to Germany.
in protest, Social Democratic Swedish politician erik Gottfrid christian Brandt nominated Hitler for the Peace Prize.
in his nomination, he wrote: ‘i hereby humbly suggest that the Peace Prize for Firefighter: Steve Buscemi, here in TV’s Boardwalk Empire, helped search the rubble of the World Trade Centre 1939 is awarded to the German chancellor and Führer Adolf Hitler, a man, who in the opinion of millions of people, is a man who more than anyone in the world has deserved this highly respected reward.
‘By his glowing love for peace, earlier documented in his famous book mein Kampf, next to the Bible perhaps the best and most popular piece of literature in the world, together with his peaceful achievement — the annexation of Austria — Adolf Hitler has avoided the use of force by freeing his countrymen in Sudetenland and making his fatherland big and powerful.
‘Probably Hitler will, if unmolested and left in peace by warmongers, pacify europe and possibly the whole world.’
Brandt was an anti-Fascist and had meant the letter to be darkly ironic. many were outraged, failing to see the joke, with Brandt accused of being a Fascist.
Had Hitler won the Nobel Prize, he would not have been able to accept it. Angered by the peace prize being awarded to carl von Ossietzky, a journalist who exposed German re-armament, in 1935, he had banned Germans from accepting the award.
Tom Willams, Bracknell, Berks.
How does an airliner know if it has a head or tailwind?
To understand the effects of wind on an aeroplane, it helps to think about motor boats on a river — one upstream, and one downstream. the identical boats are both travelling at 20 knots.
the first boat is going in the same direction as the water (downstream). its speed increases because it combines its speed through the water with the speed of the river current: boat speed + river current speed = speed relative to the ground, so 20kts + 10kts = 30kts.
For the boat going upstream, the water is flowing towards it, so takes it longer to travel the same distance along the river bank. Boat speed - river current speed = speed relative to the ground, so 20kts - 10kts = 10kts.
Aeroplanes also move through a large external body — air. if our aircraft’s speed through the air is 450 knots and the air mass is moving at 160 knots in the same direction (a tailwind), our speed across the ground will be 610 knots (700 mph). When we fly in the opposite direction; the wind works against us. Now we subtract the headwind from our aeroplane’s speed: 450 knots - 160 knots = 290 knots (333mph) across the ground.
A pilot can easily compare airspeed, as shown on an indicator, with their ground speed, calculated using GPS.
if the instruments show that the airspeed is lower than groundspeed there is a tail wind, and if the airspeed is higher than ground speed there is a head wind.
Flights take winds into account. Pilots crossing the Atlantic eastbound to europe want to fly close to the jet stream to save time and fuel. Flying in the other direction, they will avoid it.
Arthur Jepson, Farnham, Surrey.
Was the BSA Bantam, the iconic post-war British motorcycle, based on a German design?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, another British 125 was based on the DKW 125. in 1938 the Jewish Dutch importer of the DKW Rt100 was prevented from obtaining supplies from Germany owing to his religion. He took the design to Royal enfield which copied it, upsized it to 125cc and renamed it the RB125.
During the war, Royal enfield produced them for parachute troops (to be dropped by parachute or glider) and to be landed on D-Day from troop carriers. .
Ian Abrahams, Dartford, Kent.
IS THERE a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London, W8 5TT; fax them to 01952 780111 or email them to charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.