The Backstory with Patty Steele

Imagine walking out your front door and not being able to see where you’re stepping because the air is so thick with yellow, greasy smog. This happened in London for 5 days back in 1952 and it killed 12,000 people!

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As we watch the royal family feud in the UK escalate, we’re reminded of our own sibling rivalries. Of course, theirs plays out in the media for our questionable entertainment. But William and Harry are just the latest in a long line of royal family battles that frequently turned violent. 

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You don’t have to be crazy about cats to be at least a little bit fascinated with them, hissing, murder mittens, and all. Great writers like Hemingway, Twain, and Dickens as well as folks like Lincoln, Churchill, Einstein, and Nightingale adored them. As did music icons like Freddie Mercury and John Lennon. They all felt cats gave them one thing . . peace.

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Believing in yourself is key to success. One of the best examples of that is Steven Spielberg. At the age of 18 he sneaked onto the Universal Studios lot and literally created a job for himself while nobody was looking. Eventually they noticed him, paid him, and he never left.

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The angelic sounds of choirs from 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries often featured the angelic voices of boy sopranos. But sometimes those angelic voices came from full grown male bodies. They were the castrati, little boys castrated so they’d grow up with powerful soprano voices. Where did they come from and why was this done? Just one castrati left a voice recording

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Love a good pirate story? This is a real life story of the most successful pirate in history. Black Bart Roberts was a gentleman who reluctantly became a pirate . . but who ultimately was a cold blooded killer as he plundered 400 ships in just 3 years, 10 times as many as Blackbeard! He was finally killed in battle at just 39 and it was the death knell for the Golden Age of Piracy.

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We’ve all dealt with scammers or hackers when it comes to our business or personal info. It can be mildly irritating . .or horrifying depending on what they get. One of the earliest and best hackers was Kevin Mitnick. But his life did an astounding 180 after he was finally caught and convicted.

Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . on Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele.

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Almost 40 years ago, the roof of a jetliner blew off at 24,000 feet. Amazingly, after a harrowing 13 minutes, the pilots managed to land the plane safely. All but one person survived. This was the flight that changed airline safety forever.

Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . On Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele

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We’re all pretty fascinated with the summer blockbuster ”The Odyssey” right now. So it’s a good time to revisit an unusual story about Socrates, Homer’s compatriot. Although he was born several hundred years later, Socrates admired Homer. But he was a different sort of guy. We all know major public figures who drive us crazy because they loudly share opinions we don’t agree with. But that’s democracy, right? So, this iconic Greek philosopher, Socrates, was exactly that kind of big mouth 2400 years ago in Athens . . where democracy was just being originated. Problem is, he angered the wrong big shots . . and wound up being executed in a really unusual way.

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A total solar eclipse is coming on August 12th. They're awe inspiring. But imagine it’s a normal day in ancient times and suddenly the sun begins to get dimmer and dimmer. Is it the end of the world? Are we being punished by Mother Nature? These folks had no way to explain an eclipse so they turned it into stories, myths, warnings, and eventually, science.

Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . On Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele.

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