4 ms·

The Man Who Walked Backward

32 points by prostoalex 8y ago

schoen 8y ago
I was surprised to see that the article ended without revealing whether he made it, but apparently it's an excerpt from a much longer biography. Wikipedia sort of answers that question but leaves open a ton of other questions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plennie_L._Wingo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plennie_L._Wingo Apparently Wingo published a memoir in 1982 under the title Around the world Backwards, and the new biography is called The Man Who Walked Backward: An American Dreamer's Search for Meaning in the Great Depression.
- TheAndruu 8y ago
  I can't believe how many words are written about everything except his journey. I kept skimming and skimming but there's so much fluff
  - mansilladev 8y ago
    I couldn’t agree more. Maybe we all just got Rick Rolled in long form.
- ChristianGeek 8y ago
  Looks like he made it 8000 miles in 6 months before Istanbul denied him a visa. Came home to find that his wife had divorced him in absentia. https://www.democraticunderground.com/1018707656 https://www.democraticunderground.com/1018707656
  - TheAndruu 8y ago
    You just summed up what I basically wanted to know. Thanks.
twothamendment 8y ago
When my son had just gotten to the point he could confidently walk, we watched as he went from the living room, around a corner, down the hall and around a corner into his room - backwards the whole way. He didn't turn his head or walk slow. We'd never seen him walk backwards before.
mirimir 8y ago
From the Wikipedia article: > He wears periscopic eyeglasses, fastened over his ears like regular spectacles, which enables him to see where he is walking. OK, that makes sense.
- amelius 8y ago
  I wonder if he could walk normally (forward) again after his backward trip. Perhaps this is related: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/nov/12/improbable-research-seeing-upside-down https://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/nov/12/improbable... And perhaps this Smarter-Every-Day video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0
  - mirimir 8y ago
    He started as an adult, so I doubt that there were permanent effects. It does remind me of those experiments with kittens, where researchers mounted prisms over their eyes, and then studied their optic pathways, using intracranial electrodes and so on. In those cases, brain development basically reversed whatever distortion the prisms caused. But damn, teaching a kid to ride that backwards bike is sick.

32 points by prostoalex 8y ago

I was surprised to see that the article ended without revealing whether he made it, but apparently it's an excerpt from a much longer biography. Wikipedia sort of answers that question but leaves open a ton of other questions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plennie_L._Wingo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plennie_L._Wingo Apparently Wingo published a memoir in 1982 under the title Around the world Backwards, and the new biography is called The Man Who Walked Backward: An American Dreamer's Search for Meaning in the Great Depression.

TheAndruu 8y ago
I can't believe how many words are written about everything except his journey. I kept skimming and skimming but there's so much fluff
- mansilladev 8y ago
  I couldn’t agree more. Maybe we all just got Rick Rolled in long form.
ChristianGeek 8y ago
Looks like he made it 8000 miles in 6 months before Istanbul denied him a visa. Came home to find that his wife had divorced him in absentia. https://www.democraticunderground.com/1018707656 https://www.democraticunderground.com/1018707656
- TheAndruu 8y ago
  You just summed up what I basically wanted to know. Thanks.

twothamendment 8y ago

When my son had just gotten to the point he could confidently walk, we watched as he went from the living room, around a corner, down the hall and around a corner into his room - backwards the whole way. He didn't turn his head or walk slow. We'd never seen him walk backwards before.

mirimir 8y ago

From the Wikipedia article: > He wears periscopic eyeglasses, fastened over his ears like regular spectacles, which enables him to see where he is walking. OK, that makes sense.

amelius 8y ago
I wonder if he could walk normally (forward) again after his backward trip. Perhaps this is related: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/nov/12/improbable-research-seeing-upside-down https://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/nov/12/improbable... And perhaps this Smarter-Every-Day video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0
- mirimir 8y ago
  He started as an adult, so I doubt that there were permanent effects. It does remind me of those experiments with kittens, where researchers mounted prisms over their eyes, and then studied their optic pathways, using intracranial electrodes and so on. In those cases, brain development basically reversed whatever distortion the prisms caused. But damn, teaching a kid to ride that backwards bike is sick.