Curio Cabinet

This week, as the weather continues to warm, we're looking back on some of our favorite springtime curios from years past.
 
The fastest growing sport in the U.S. probably isn’t what you’d expect. With another spring comes another wave of outdoor activities, and for many fair-weather athletes, the name of the game is pickleball. Pickleball was invented in 1965 by three dads who wanted to keep their kids entertained during summer vacation. The sport’s founding fathers, Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum took a wiffle ball, lowered a badminton net to the ground, and with elements from tennis, ping-pong and badminton, they cobbled together a sport that was easy and fun.
 
Part of the appeal of the sport comes from the small court on which it is played, which allows for an exciting game for all ages. The paddles used are roughly twice the size of the ones used for ping-pong, and while the original versions were made out of scrap plywood, a number of manufacturers make pickleball-specific paddles and other equipment. According to the USA Pickleball Association, the sport is played on a 20 by 44 inch court with a net that hangs to 36 inches at the sides and 34 inches at the middle. It can be played as singles or doubles, just like tennis. Pickleball has experienced a surge in popularity recently, due to its soft learning curve and the pandemic which had people looking for easy outdoor activities with a social lean, but even before the pandemic, the number of players grew by 10.5 percent between 2017 and 2020. As for the name? Some claim that it was named after the Pritchards’ family dog, Pickles, while others claim that the dog was named after the sport and that the name is a reference to “pickle boats” in rowing, which are manned by athletes left over from other teams. Either way, grab a paddle!

[Image description: Yellow pickleballs on a blue court.] Credit & copyright: Stephen James Hall, Wikimedia Commons. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
 

This week, as the weather continues to warm, we're looking back on some of our favorite springtime curios from years past.
 
Would this be considered a throwback? It’s not a legacy that anybody wants to keep alive, but Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Zac Gallen recently echoed a memory of his team’s most celebrated pitcher, Randy Johnson, when his pitch killed a bird during a recent warm-up. Back in 2001, Johnson famously mangled a bird in mid-flight with a powerful pitch that sent a dramatic burst of feathers into the air. It was an incredibly unlikely and unlucky way for a bird to go—the left handed pitcher won 303 games throughout his 20 seasons, largely due to his incredible 100-mph pitches. No one knows why the errant bird (thought to be a mourning dove) decided to fly in front of home plate that day, but the pitch ended up being called a no-pitch by the umpire, and the game proceeded. The call was made because there is no rule regarding an animal interfering with a pitch and because the ball never reached the plate. Therefore, it never happened on paper. Johnson’s bird met its demise during a spring training game, but Gallen felled his during warm-ups before a game against the Oakland Athletics. According to witnesses, the bird was flying near home plate when it was struck by Gallen’s curveball. Afterwards, Gallen expressed sadness for the unfortunate animal, calling the incident “unfortunate.” Such a freak accident is a curveball in and of itself.

This week, as the weather continues to warm, we're looking back on some of our favorite springtime curios from years past.
 
Party on. In the US, most colleges give students a 1-2 week vacation in late March or early April. This "spring break" gives the students and faculty a nice break--but it also gives a select few destination towns an enormous influx of economic activity. John Laurie decided to write his dissertation for his PhD in economic development on this topic. Tersely titled Spring Break: The Economic, Socio-Cultural and Public Governance Impacts of College Students on Spring Break Host Locations, Laurie found some pretty amazing things. Each year, spring breakers inject $1 billion into tourist towns in Florida and Texas. In Panama City Beach, nearly half-a-million students spent $170 million over a six-week period. That's a lot, especially because it is concentrated toward a select few spring-break-geared businesses like hotels and liquor stores. Conversely, the people who carry the heaviest work load of spring break derive very little in profit. Most are city or government agencies like emergency responders, hospitals, street cleaners and park or beach workers. One strange byproduct of wealthy students descending on normally lower-middle class towns is an increase in entrepreneurship. People start businesses just to profit off of a few weeks of activity every year. The people most affected by spring break are police officers, whose citation rates jump dramatically in March and April. Those poor people should get a commission for every ticket they write to all the students behaving like idiots!
 

[Image description: Umbrellas and lawn chairs on a sandy beach.] Credit & copyright: Jebulon, Wikimedia Commons. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
 

This week, as the weather continues to warm, we're looking back on some of our favorite springtime curios from years past.
 
This fall, consider leafing your lawn alone. The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) recently advised homeowners to not rake up leaves in the fall, since they are beneficial to lawns and to wildlife. The topic of leaf-raking has always been a somewhat contentious issue among lawncare enthusiasts, but the answer of whether to rake or not is a bit complicated. Those who rake say that leaves can pile up and block sunlight, killing the grass. Those who don’t rake say that simply running over the leaves with a lawnmower on the “mulch” setting is enough to let light through and fertilize the lawn in the process. But now there is another reason not to rake: the leaves are a haven for beneficial insects and other critters.
 
Butterfly and moth caterpillars seek shelter under the leaves, and in the spring, they act as pollinators. Meanwhile, birds that eat mosquitoes and other pests also use the leaves as nesting material. Environmentalists are now asking that those who rake think twice before throwing out bags of leaves, as around 33 million tons of leaves are sent to landfills, accounting for 13% of all solid waste, according to the EPA. Once discarded, they are unable to properly decompose in the anaerobic environment of landfills, leading to the production of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
 
Throwing away leaves can also be akin to throwing away money, since they are very useful to overall lawn and garden care. Putting dead leaves on flower beds can help choke out weeds that come up in the spring, rendering expensive mulch and weed killers unnecessary. Extra leaves also make great compost, which can be used in potting mix or in vegetable gardens. Even just letting mulched leaves decompose on one’s lawn returns nitrogen to the soil, feeding the grass and promoting growth. Truly a natural resource worth falling for.

 
[Image description: White flowers grow in grass near rocks.] Credit & copyright: W.carter, Wikimedia Commons. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.