The mystery-mobile on the unfinished 101/280 overpass (San Jose, Ca., 1976) remained unsolved until the prankster outed himself 37 years later, in 2013.
TL;DR : The interchange between Highways 101 and 280 in San Jose was partially built but remained unfinished for I-don’t-know-how-many years, but it was a lot of years. There was an unfinished overpass that didn’t connect to anything at either end. One fine morning, the morning commuters saw a car sitting up there.
In other news: The identity of “Deep Throat”, the Watergate informant who talked to Woodward and Bernstein, remained a secret until he outed himself shortly before his death in, circa, 2008 or so.
My brother was regaling us with some pretty dodgy stories of his youth. ‘Of course Mum never found out’ he giggles, forgetting there have been some serious advancements in hearing aids since he was a kid and ‘earshot’ doesn’t mean what it used to around here. ‘Until now’ she shouts from the kitchen. :smack:
I remember driving from Redwood City down to the Monterey Bay regularly and seeing that car when I was a teenager. Too funny.
Still weird to drive past that junction with my kids and think “you know, for years, that was a just a Road to Nowhere set of truncated overpasses…”
Oh, and has for my “they never found out” moment: as maybe a 3 year old, I was in the front seat of my Grandma’s Chrysler - heavy plastic seat covers; no seat belt - jeez, I was a kid-missle waiting to happen. Anyway, she was backing into her spot at the apartment building she lived in, and I eased down the seat and tapped on the accelerator. No bad intent (if I can recall my 3yo brain) just “hey, that’s what Grandma was doing!” The Chrysler lurched into the retaining wall - fortunately it was a 60’s car, heavily built and suffered little/no damage and knocked over a cinder block or two.
My dad and grandma were estranged - I think this was the only time I may have seen her for a decade - so when she said “but little [WordMan] did it!!!” they all said “yeah, right.” I think I told them when I was in my 40’s.
My dad passed away last year, so in his honor I’ll tell the story of one of his “they never knew” escapades.
When Dad was in his early twenties, which would have been around 1940, he worked for the highway department building what would eventually become US Route 220 in southern Virginia. That area is very hilly, so they were having to blast their way through hills pretty often, and TNT was the tool of choice.
Dad and his friend Howard (also now passed) really did not get along with their work crew manager. To Dad and Howard, he was a tyrant and a jerk. Or so they say. The guy lived not too far from Howard, so they knew his house was set back quite a bit from the road. Right in the middle of his front yard was a huge oak tree that he really liked. So, a plan was hatched.
Over a few weeks Howard and Dad stole all the stuff they would need, with the main items being multiple sticks of TNT. Halloween night they snuck out there, tied multiple sticks of TNT to the tree and set up their prank. I don’t remember how they detonated it, I’m not sure Dad ever shared that level of detail. But what I do know is…
Apparently they vastly overestimated how much dynamite to use. Their plan was to blow the trunk apart, and basically have the tree fall like it had been cut down. Well, it seems it kind of did that. All except the huge piece of the trunk that landed about 30 yards away, and destroyed a small shed.
Dad and Howard had watched the carnage from a safe distance and hightailed it out of there immediately. Dad said his ears were ringing for hours.
Never got caught, even though everyone suspected him and Howard.
While in my sophomore year in college, my chemistry lab graduate student came up with what he thought was a synthesis that cleverly demonstrated whatever our lesson of the week was supposed to be. Turned out that the end product was something really, really unpleasant. After the nice young men in Level A suits cleaned up the lab, we were all hauled in to a lecture hall where we had a class in what products to avoid making.
The head of the dept started by asking us to name any chemicals that came to mind that contain 4 carbon atoms. No more, no less. It was a surprisingly small list… and it turns out that there is a good reason. They’re horrible. Almost all of them should be avoided whenever possible.
If you don’t remember what you made, there’s a very good chance that it was a 4-carbon. If you do remember what you made… well, please PM me.
*I dined with the Duchess at tea.
It was just as I feared it would be.
For her rumblings abdominal
Were simply phenomenal.
And everyone thought it was me!
*
