Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / Float or Flight

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Float or Flight · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
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  Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the cabinet of curiosities. In America, the national
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  Speaker 1: parks are practically sacred ground, featuring majestic mountains and geysers
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  Speaker 1: that shoot water sky high. They stand as reminders of
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  Speaker 1: our past, hope for the future, and monuments to our restraint.
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  Speaker 1: F Dr said it best when he said the parks
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  Speaker 1: stand as the outward symbol of the great human principle,
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  Speaker 1: and people seem to agree given their three million annual visits.
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  Speaker 1: Not all parks are as awe inspiring as Yellowstone or
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  Speaker 1: the Grand Canyon, though, but that doesn't mean they aren't
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  Speaker 1: just as special. Local parks provide places for people to play, relax,
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  Speaker 1: walk our dogs, or exhaust the kids before naptime. The
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  Speaker 1: local park is a little taste of nature at the
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  Speaker 1: end of the block. There's one park in Portland, Oregon
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  Speaker 1: that's just such a destination, featuring lush greenery in the
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  Speaker 1: center of the city's downtown area. The park has a
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  Speaker 1: bit of a storied past. According to Dick Fagan, a
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  Speaker 1: columnist for the Oregon Journal newspaper in ninety The park
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  Speaker 1: started life as a plot of land across the street
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  Speaker 1: from his office. One day, according to him, while looking
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  Speaker 1: out his office window, he noticed something going on right
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  Speaker 1: in the middle of the property, digging a hole was
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  Speaker 1: a lepre con. Fagan ran across the streets and managed
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  Speaker 1: to capture the creature, which earned him a single wish
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  Speaker 1: for his efforts. Bagan had had one dream his entire life,
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  Speaker 1: and this was his chance to make it a reality.
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  Speaker 1: It always wanted a park of his own, somewhere he
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  Speaker 1: could visit during the day when he needed to get
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  Speaker 1: away from the hustle and bustle of the newsroom. The
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  Speaker 1: Leprechn relented, and suddenly Dick Fagan was the proud owner
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  Speaker 1: of a brand new park just for him. Except he
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  Speaker 1: hadn't specified how he wanted his park to look. Rather
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  Speaker 1: than green grass and tall trees, Fagan was left with
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  Speaker 1: nothing more than a hole the Leprechn had been digging.
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  Speaker 1: He didn't let such a minor inconvenience deter him, though.
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  Speaker 1: He planted his own greenery and named the space after
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  Speaker 1: his column in the paper. Mill Ends, also known as
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  Speaker 1: the Odd Pieces of wood left over at lumber Mills.
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  Speaker 1: Fagin took the writing stories about the Leprechn for Portland readers.
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  Speaker 1: When the town established in eleven o'clock curfew for all
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  Speaker 1: city parks, the Leprechn return and asked Fagan to publish
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  Speaker 1: his threat toward the mayor, daring him to evict him
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  Speaker 1: and anyone else from mill Ends Park after eleven pm.
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  Speaker 1: The mayor kept away, as did the authorities, and the
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  Speaker 1: Leprechn was allowed to stay in the park after hours. Sadly,
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  Speaker 1: Fagin didn't live to see his little plot of land
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  Speaker 1: become an official Portlands park in nineteen seventy six, having
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  Speaker 1: passed away from cancer just a handful of years before,
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  Speaker 1: but he's remembered each day as visitors passed by the
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  Speaker 1: circular park and gaze upon the lone tree standing at
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  Speaker 1: its center. Yes, mill Ends Park only has one tree.
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  Speaker 1: That's all it can fit. And of course it should
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  Speaker 1: come as no surprise that the Leprechn who had given
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  Speaker 1: Fagin the land didn't actually exist. He was a fabrication
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  Speaker 1: for the newspaper, something to entertain readers. The park, however,
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  Speaker 1: is very real, and it sits in the Median Strip
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  Speaker 1: on southwest NATO Parkway in Portland. It had originally been
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  Speaker 1: meant to hold a light pole, which was never installed.
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  Speaker 1: Not content to look at a dirt hole in the
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  Speaker 1: ground across from his office, Fagan planted flowers in the
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  Speaker 1: space and declared the spot mill Ends Park in his paper,
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  Speaker 1: then the leprechn Store he was invented to add some
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  Speaker 1: flavor to what was nothing more than a mild case
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  Speaker 1: of civil disobedience. The tale of Millens Park doesn't end there, though,
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  Speaker 1: spanning no more than two ft across, it was named
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  Speaker 1: the smallest park in the world by the Guinness Book
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  Speaker 1: of World Records in nineteen seventy one, and it's held
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  Speaker 1: that rank for almost forty years. That has also become
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  Speaker 1: the site of numerous St Patrick's Day festivities. The day
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  Speaker 1: that it was declared as an official park back in
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  Speaker 1: ninety six, and to this day, mill Ens Park stands
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  Speaker 1: not only as a record setting memory to one man's
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  Speaker 1: silent protest, but also, according to Fagin himself, as the
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  Speaker 1: only lepre con colony west of Ireland. The aftermath of
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  Speaker 1: World War Two left many European countries in die or straits.
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  Speaker 1: Cities had been reduced to rubble deaths numbered in the thousands,
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  Speaker 1: and economies had been reduced to fractions of their former worth.
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  Speaker 1: One such country was Italy, which had started the war
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  Speaker 1: as Germany's partner thanks to fascist leader Benito Mussolini. After
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  Speaker 1: it was captured by the Allies in nineteen forty three,
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  Speaker 1: Italy swhich sides. Italian leaders spent the years following the
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  Speaker 1: war purging the country of fascism and rebuilding what they
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  Speaker 1: had lost, namely their economy and their reputation among the
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  Speaker 1: rest of the world. In nineteen fifty one, an Italian
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  Speaker 1: shipping line based out of Genoa launched what it hoped
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  Speaker 1: would be an enormous step in the right direction, a
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  Speaker 1: seven hundred foot long ocean liner named the Andrea Doria.
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  Speaker 1: With the ability to carry twelve hundred passengers and another
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  Speaker 1: five hundred crew members. The Andrea Doria represented the peak
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  Speaker 1: of Italian luxury. It boasted three outdoor swimming pools, works
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  Speaker 1: of art hanging in the hallway, days of the first
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  Speaker 1: class cabins, and numerous state of the art safety features
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  Speaker 1: such as eleven watertight compartments, and a relatively new technology
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  Speaker 1: at the time known as radar. The Andrea Doria took
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  Speaker 1: her maiden voyage on January four, nine fifty three, from
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  Speaker 1: her home in Genoa, reaching her New York destination almost
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  Speaker 1: two weeks later on January. The ship went on to
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  Speaker 1: make fifty trips over the next four years, but it
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  Speaker 1: was on the fifty first trip in nineteen fifty six,
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  Speaker 1: when passenger Linda Morgan's life would change forever. She was
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  Speaker 1: traveling with her mother, her younger half sister, Joan, and
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  Speaker 1: her stepfather, Camille. Camille was a correspondent for the New
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  Speaker 1: York Times who had been in Spain on assignment. His
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  Speaker 1: story was complete and it was time for him and
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  Speaker 1: his family to come home. He, his wife, and their
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  Speaker 1: daughters eagerly boarded the Andrea Doria ready for their return
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  Speaker 1: to New York City. On July they took off on
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  Speaker 1: a nine day journey to the US and with them
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  Speaker 1: over sevent d other passengers and crew. One day before
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  Speaker 1: the end of the trip, at about a quarter to
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  Speaker 1: eleven at night, the Andrea Doria spotted another ship on
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  Speaker 1: its radar, the M S Stockholm from Sweden. Both ships
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  Speaker 1: had ample warning about each other's positions and adjusted to
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  Speaker 1: ensure they'd be nothing more than well. Two ships passing
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  Speaker 1: in the night, except a heavy fog had settled in
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  Speaker 1: and their courses were misinterpreted. Both liners attempted to pass
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  Speaker 1: each other on the starboard side, each ship traveling at
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  Speaker 1: a speed of roughly twenty knots. By the time the
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  Speaker 1: fog cleared and they were able to regain visual contact,
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  Speaker 1: it was too late. They were only a few miles
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  Speaker 1: away from each other. Turning such large vessels at that
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  Speaker 1: speed and distance apart was impossible without incident. Just after
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  Speaker 1: eleven PM, the Stockholm collided with the Andrea Doria off
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  Speaker 1: the coast of Nantucket. The blow was fatal to the
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  Speaker 1: younger ship, as several of its apartments filled with water
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  Speaker 1: and caused it to list over twenty degrees to its
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  Speaker 1: starboard side, and such a steep dip proved too much
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  Speaker 1: to handle, and eleven hours after the collision, the Andrea
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  Speaker 1: Doria sank to the bottom of the Atlantic. Now eleven
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  Speaker 1: hours was a long time to sink, long enough for
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  Speaker 1: almost all of the Andrea Doria's passengers and crew to
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  Speaker 1: make it off the ship and into lifeboats before it
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  Speaker 1: went under, and despite its crushed bow, the Stockholm remained
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  Speaker 1: afloat and stable enough to carry some of the survivors
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  Speaker 1: to New York, leaving the remaining rescue effort to other
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  Speaker 1: ships responding to the Andrea Doria's distress call. Unfortunately, though
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  Speaker 1: not everyone made it off the ill fated liner. Lynda
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  Speaker 1: Morgan and her family had been sleeping in Upper Debt
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  Speaker 1: cabins fifty two and fifty four, her parents sharing one
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  Speaker 1: while she and her sister Joan share the other. These
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  Speaker 1: cabins happened to be in the path of the Stockholm's
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  Speaker 1: bow as it crashed into the ship. Camille and Joan
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  Speaker 1: died almost instantly. Their mother, with help from a doctor
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  Speaker 1: in the next cabin, managed to make it safely aboard
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  Speaker 1: the Stockholm, albeit with severe injuries from the collision. And
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  Speaker 1: then there was Linda. She was nowhere to be found
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  Speaker 1: in the chaos of the crash. Everyone assumed she had
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  Speaker 1: been crushed or had sunk to her death in the
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  Speaker 1: Atlantic below. According to initial reports, it appeared that her mother, Jane,
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  Speaker 1: had been the only survivor of the party. Linda's father,
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  Speaker 1: ABC radio personality Edward P. Morgan, reported the news of
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  Speaker 1: the sinking on his show. He knew about the casualties,
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  Speaker 1: of course, but didn't mention his daughter, which was probably
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  Speaker 1: a good idea. Shortly after the collision, a Stockholm crew
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  Speaker 1: member heard a noise coming from an area near the
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  Speaker 1: bow of the ship. Well what was left of it,
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  Speaker 1: that is. It was a girl's voice calling for her
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  Speaker 1: mother in Spanish. The crew member investigated the sound and
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  Speaker 1: stumbled upon a confused girl who was battered and bruised
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  Speaker 1: but otherwise okay. With the help of another crewmate who
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  Speaker 1: spokes s Banish, they were able to communicate with her.
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  Speaker 1: I was on the Andrea Doria, she said, where am
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  Speaker 1: I now? Linda Morgan had been tossed from her bed
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  Speaker 1: aboard the Andrea Doria and onto the m S Stockholm.
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  Speaker 1: She'd survive the impact that had killed her sister and
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  Speaker 1: stepfather with only a broken arm. Naturally, the press dubbed
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  Speaker 1: her the Miracle Girl. Upon learning of her survival, Linda's
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  Speaker 1: father returned to his broadcast the next day and gave
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  Speaker 1: the world a little bit of good news. I hope
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  Speaker 1: you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
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  Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
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  Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Manky, in partnership with how
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  Speaker 1: Stuff Works, I make another award winning show called Lore,
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  Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show and
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  Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the world
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  Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
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  Speaker 1: H