2 questions about a passage
[No strange blips had appeared on Canadian radar screens. It was an exceptionally quiet night, here and abroad. The only foreign news of note was a Labour victory in a British by-election and a Soviet note complaining about American convoys to Berlin. At home the Birdman of Alcatraz had died at seventy-three, Jimmy Hoffa's most recent trial had proceeded smoothly in Nashville, the Dow-Jones industrial average had closed at 732.65, and the American Legion post in Abilene, Texas, had removed a portrait of the President of the United States from its walls on the ground that he was controversial. Change a name here, a figure there, and the same stories could have been published a year earlier.]

1.why the word "Birdman" here is capitalized? does it indicate to anyone special?

2. does "on the ground" equal to "because of" or "thanks to"?

Question

2 questions about a passage
[No strange blips had appeared on Canadian radar screens. It was an exceptionally quiet night, here and abroad. The only foreign news of note was a Labour victory in a British by-election and a Soviet note complaining about American convoys to Berlin. At home the Birdman of Alcatraz had died at seventy-three, Jimmy Hoffa's most recent trial had proceeded smoothly in Nashville, the Dow-Jones industrial average had closed at 732.65, and the American Legion post in Abilene, Texas, had removed a portrait of the President of the United States from its walls on the ground that he was controversial. Change a name here, a figure there, and the same stories could have been published a year earlier.]

1.why the word "Birdman" here is capitalized? does it indicate to anyone special?

2. does "on the ground" equal to "because of" or "thanks to"?

Answer

1. Yes, the Birdman of Alcatraz was a real and "famous" person.  He was a criminal. He was sent to a prison on an island called Alcatraz Island (in the bay of San Francisco). He spent time with birds and, they say, he became a better person.

2. I think that the phrase is usually plural: on the groundS.

a. It means that a  reason is given for some decision. I think that many times the reason is not really true. 

i. In this case,  when people asked why they had taken his photo down from the wall, they said, "Oh! He is too controversial. And we do not want to be involved in anything controversial."  They did not want to tell the truth: They did not like him  -- because of his political views.

Answer

I have just googled this info:

1. His real name was Robert Franklin Stroud .

a. Born on January 28, 1890.
b. Died on November 21, 1963.

2. A motion picture made in 1962 depicts his life.

P.S. Now I understand the passage in your first post.  It is referring to the day on which something terrible happened to President Kennedy.  I will always remember that day and how I heard the news.

Answer

Hello!
1. I suppose this person was somehow well-known, not by his real name, but by this nickname. Therefore it is a proper name, and proper names and written this way.

2. "because"

Answers · 6

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