Smith Journal – Volume Sixteen

Exhibit A: Ben Carlin. He’s the Perth man who dedicated much of his life to circling the globe in a floating car. He braved storms, financial ruin and ridicule for his crazy dream, but managed to triumph in the end. Also in the mix is the Indigenous tightrope walker Con Colleano. He spent years trying to land a near-impossible trick: the forward summersault. And when he finally did it, he became a global superstar (even Hitler and Mussolini called themselves fans). There’s an investigation of Brazil’s illegal hot air balloon subculture, too. It’s a scene populated by master craftsmen – and fearless gangs. Their golden rule: the person who reaches a downed balloon first, owns it. So, it pays to be speedy. On top of all that, there’s stuff about Fritz Kahn (the father of scientific infographics), Jimmy Ellis (a mysterious singer with a voice of gold), and Yoshi Kojima (the Indiana Jones of international butterfly smuggling).