Word: j
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...learn how to get out of a car under water (Finns like to drive on their frozen lakes, and dozens are drowned annually when their cars fall through thin ice), Jämsä drove a car, with its windows closed, off a ramp at 40 m.p.h. into 24 ft. of water, nearly panicked when a seat came loose and pinned him for a moment. But he found a layer of air under the roof, waited until the car filled with enough water to offset outside pressure, then opened the door and floated to safety...
...Matched against Jämsä in a contest to see who could stay buried alive longer in a coffin, a Finnish fakir was dug up in hysterics after 21 hours, subsequently gave up fakiry. Jämsä stayed down for 50 hours, showed no ill effects other than a determination never to try it again...
...Weary of beauty-queen contests, Jämsä strapped on a corset, fluffed up his flowing, brown hair, and entered himself in the annual Maid of the North contest in Rovaniemi, capital of Finnish Lapland. "I didn't drink then, was much slimmer, and managed to turn out really quite a beautiful face," recalls Jämsä. Well padded, he looked fine in the required Finnish national costume and evening dress, got through an interview with the judges by pleading hoarseness and hiding his hands under net gloves. The judges gave him third prize. J...
...Through." Son of a Turku railway-station official, Jämsä never did get to high school, began making news in his first reporting job on a provincial newspaper-he strapped on skis and ran an elk to exhaustion. Since 1953 he has averaged a story a week for Apu, often has his exploits reported in the Scandinavian and northern German press. One future assignment: hunting a bear with a spear (to prove that modern Finns are as strong as their ancestors...
Whatever psychological forces are at work, the trend ever since 1946 has been to longer, wider, more futuristic cars-and more chrome ("jewelry" to automen). Those who bucked the trend usually rued the day. Henry Kaiser's small, chromeless Henry J. was a dismal failure. So was the drab 1954 Plymouth, which was 4 in. shorter than the year before. Sales dropped nearly 36% to only 381,000 cars a year. A year later Plymouth rolled out the longest (204 in.) car among the low-priced three and promptly boosted sales back up to 647,000 cars...