Curio Cabinet
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June 30, 2024
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2 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree2 CQ
Word of the Day
: June 30, 2024\KOO-dahss\ noun
What It Means
Kudos refers to praise someone receives because of an act or achievement, or to...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day
: June 30, 2024\KOO-dahss\ noun
What It Means
Kudos refers to praise someone receives because of an act or achievement, or to...
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FREESports PP&T CurioFree1 CQ
As a rule, humans aren’t the world's best swimmers…but rules were made to be broken. While most members of our terrestrial species are much faster on land than in the water, Olympian Michael Phelps is a notable exception. This record-breaking athlete, born on this day in 1985, has a unique physiology that makes him perfectly suited for the pool, and an aquatic nickname to match.
Phelps began swimming at the age of seven, following in his sisters’ footsteps after they joined a local swim team. Long before he boasted nicknames like “Flying Fish” and “Baltimore Bullet,” swam competitively for his high school team and even made it onto the U.S. Swim Team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Though he didn’t win any medals that year, he still made history by being the youngest male Olympic swimmer in 68 years. He began setting world records while still in high school, a trend that continued when he attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. It was during Phelps’ second Olympics appearance in 2004, in Athens, that he became a household name after winning eight medals, including six golds. After not winning a single medal at his first Olympics, Phelps was suddenly just one gold away from Mark Spitz's record of seven. He went on to break the record during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing by winning eight gold medals, which was also the record for the most gold during a single Olympics. By the time he retired in 2016 after the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, he had 28 medals to his name, with 23 golds including 13 individual golds.
While hard work and perseverance surely played a role in Phelps' dominance in the water, he also benefited from having what may be the ideal swimmer’s body. Most of the best swimmers in the world have a similar body shape that gives them an advantage over the average person, beyond their training. Firstly, it pays for a swimmer to be tall, and indeed, most of the top Olympic swimmers hover around six feet tall. But proportions matter too, with long, flexible torsos allowing for more power behind strokes and a center of mass closer to the lungs (the center of flotation) allowing for less energy wasted in trying to stay level in the water. It also helps to have large hands and feet, which act like paddles or flippers in the water, while large lungs help swimmers stay afloat and take in more oxygen. Many swimmers have these traits, but Phelps’s physique seems to take some of them to an extreme. His lung capacity sits at 12 liters, twice that of the average person, and he has double-jointed elbows. He’s also hyper-jointed at the chest, allowing him to leverage more of his body to power each stroke. Even for a swimmer, he has a massive “wingspan,” the distance from fingertip to fingertip when the arms are held out horizontally from the body. While most people have wingspans that are about the same as their height, Phelps’s wingspan of six feet, seven inches is three inches longer than he is tall. Finally, his body was found to produce half as much lactic acid than even other trained athletes, which allows him to recover faster between training sessions.
All that isn’t to discount his talent. While Phelps may have been gifted with natural advantages, his drive and willingness to train hard are even more important. Those who’ve worked with Phelps have often expressed that the true secret behind the swimmer’s success is his immaculate technique, which can only come from extensive training. Swimming is extremely inefficient for human beings, so every movement of every stroke counts, especially at elite levels where a fraction of a second can make all the difference. It wouldn’t matter if you had shark skin and flippers for feet if you didn’t know how to use them!
[Image description: A large, empty swimming pool with blue-and-white lane dividers.] Credit & copyright: Jan van der Wolf, PexelsAs a rule, humans aren’t the world's best swimmers…but rules were made to be broken. While most members of our terrestrial species are much faster on land than in the water, Olympian Michael Phelps is a notable exception. This record-breaking athlete, born on this day in 1985, has a unique physiology that makes him perfectly suited for the pool, and an aquatic nickname to match.
Phelps began swimming at the age of seven, following in his sisters’ footsteps after they joined a local swim team. Long before he boasted nicknames like “Flying Fish” and “Baltimore Bullet,” swam competitively for his high school team and even made it onto the U.S. Swim Team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Though he didn’t win any medals that year, he still made history by being the youngest male Olympic swimmer in 68 years. He began setting world records while still in high school, a trend that continued when he attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. It was during Phelps’ second Olympics appearance in 2004, in Athens, that he became a household name after winning eight medals, including six golds. After not winning a single medal at his first Olympics, Phelps was suddenly just one gold away from Mark Spitz's record of seven. He went on to break the record during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing by winning eight gold medals, which was also the record for the most gold during a single Olympics. By the time he retired in 2016 after the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, he had 28 medals to his name, with 23 golds including 13 individual golds.
While hard work and perseverance surely played a role in Phelps' dominance in the water, he also benefited from having what may be the ideal swimmer’s body. Most of the best swimmers in the world have a similar body shape that gives them an advantage over the average person, beyond their training. Firstly, it pays for a swimmer to be tall, and indeed, most of the top Olympic swimmers hover around six feet tall. But proportions matter too, with long, flexible torsos allowing for more power behind strokes and a center of mass closer to the lungs (the center of flotation) allowing for less energy wasted in trying to stay level in the water. It also helps to have large hands and feet, which act like paddles or flippers in the water, while large lungs help swimmers stay afloat and take in more oxygen. Many swimmers have these traits, but Phelps’s physique seems to take some of them to an extreme. His lung capacity sits at 12 liters, twice that of the average person, and he has double-jointed elbows. He’s also hyper-jointed at the chest, allowing him to leverage more of his body to power each stroke. Even for a swimmer, he has a massive “wingspan,” the distance from fingertip to fingertip when the arms are held out horizontally from the body. While most people have wingspans that are about the same as their height, Phelps’s wingspan of six feet, seven inches is three inches longer than he is tall. Finally, his body was found to produce half as much lactic acid than even other trained athletes, which allows him to recover faster between training sessions.
All that isn’t to discount his talent. While Phelps may have been gifted with natural advantages, his drive and willingness to train hard are even more important. Those who’ve worked with Phelps have often expressed that the true secret behind the swimmer’s success is his immaculate technique, which can only come from extensive training. Swimming is extremely inefficient for human beings, so every movement of every stroke counts, especially at elite levels where a fraction of a second can make all the difference. It wouldn’t matter if you had shark skin and flippers for feet if you didn’t know how to use them!
[Image description: A large, empty swimming pool with blue-and-white lane dividers.] Credit & copyright: Jan van der Wolf, Pexels -
8 minFREEWork Business CurioFree5 CQ
As cities look to grow and innovate in the recovery from the pandemic, some are pushing for new sports stadiums. The idea is that fresh ballparks attract vis...
As cities look to grow and innovate in the recovery from the pandemic, some are pushing for new sports stadiums. The idea is that fresh ballparks attract vis...
June 29, 2024
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3 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree2 CQ
Word of the Day
: June 29, 2024\FEK-und\ adjective
What It Means
Fecund is a formal word that typically describes a person, animal, or plant ...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day
: June 29, 2024\FEK-und\ adjective
What It Means
Fecund is a formal word that typically describes a person, animal, or plant ...
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FREEGames Sporty CurioFree1 CQ
Chess might be the game of kings, but crokinole is the game of Canucks. The World Crokinole Championship took place earlier this month, continuing a proud tradition that started…who knows when. Crokinole is a popular parlor game in Canada, but its origins are mysterious. The earliest written record of the game is from 1860, and it describes it as already being popular. Nowadays, there are crokinole aficionados around the world, and the best of the best gather every year in Tavistock, Ontario, to test their mettle on the board at the World Crokinole Championship. The game involves taking turns flicking discs on a wooden board and can be played in singles or doubles formats. The center of the board has a hole worth 20 points, and the rest of the board is divided into concentric circles worth 15, 10, and 5 points. This year, first place went to defending champion Connor Reinman of Michigan, but one of the standout competitors was Ryotaro Fukuda, the first Japanese player to ever compete at the championships. Despite having only played the game for 18 months, Fukuda placed 10th overall. Organizers noted that crokinole seems to be spreading in popularity throughout the U.S., perhaps due to a growing interest in board games in general. Get your flicking fingers ready—crokinole might be coming to a table near you!
Chess might be the game of kings, but crokinole is the game of Canucks. The World Crokinole Championship took place earlier this month, continuing a proud tradition that started…who knows when. Crokinole is a popular parlor game in Canada, but its origins are mysterious. The earliest written record of the game is from 1860, and it describes it as already being popular. Nowadays, there are crokinole aficionados around the world, and the best of the best gather every year in Tavistock, Ontario, to test their mettle on the board at the World Crokinole Championship. The game involves taking turns flicking discs on a wooden board and can be played in singles or doubles formats. The center of the board has a hole worth 20 points, and the rest of the board is divided into concentric circles worth 15, 10, and 5 points. This year, first place went to defending champion Connor Reinman of Michigan, but one of the standout competitors was Ryotaro Fukuda, the first Japanese player to ever compete at the championships. Despite having only played the game for 18 months, Fukuda placed 10th overall. Organizers noted that crokinole seems to be spreading in popularity throughout the U.S., perhaps due to a growing interest in board games in general. Get your flicking fingers ready—crokinole might be coming to a table near you!
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8 minFREEWork Business CurioFree5 CQ
A rule of thumb is that market players don’t like uncertainty. The question this morning is whether there’s more or less of it in the wake of President Joe B...
A rule of thumb is that market players don’t like uncertainty. The question this morning is whether there’s more or less of it in the wake of President Joe B...
June 28, 2024
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7 minFREEWork Business CurioFree4 CQ
From the BBC World Service: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a security pact with the European Union during a visit to Brussels. We’ll delv...
From the BBC World Service: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a security pact with the European Union during a visit to Brussels. We’ll delv...
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FREEMind + Body Daily CurioFree1 CQ
There’s no violence in this war, just tasty rice! The Jollof Wars, in fact, are more of an ongoing rivalry between several West African countries unofficially competing to serve the best version of jollof rice. This dish, sometimes simply called jollof, is a rice-based meal with historical roots in Senegal, though it’s also the national dish of Nigeria and is just as beloved in Ghana and other nations, from Liberia to Cameroon.
Jollof rice is a one-pot dish with a base of long-grain rice. The rice is cooked in a tomato-based sauce along with spices like bay leaves, garlic powder and bay leaves, and vegetables like tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, and chilies. The result is a tangy, spicy, savory dish that’s often served alongside plantains and various meats.
Jollof rice dates back to the 14th century and the days of the Jolof Empire, in which rice was a staple food. While the original dish was made with vegetables, fish, and shellfish native to West Africa, today’s version heavily features tomatoes and onions, neither of which is native to Africa (though both are cultivated there today.) Tomatoes originally came from South America, while onions are believed to have originated in Asia. Both vegetables came to Africa through a mix of intercontinental trade and European colonization. No one knows for sure how modern jollof rice came to include these new ingredients, but one story credits it to a 19th-century cook named Penda Mbaye who worked at a colonial estate in Senegal. Supposedly, she was charged with making a dish that included tomatoes, onions, spices, and barley…but she ran out of barley, which was imported and therefore difficult to replace quickly. Instead, she substituted long-grain rice, and the rest is history. Whether or not Mbaye was the dish’s actual inventor, she was undoubtedly one of the first people to create a written record of modern jollof rice.
Today, jollof rice is enjoyed across West Africa, and national variations have led to a culinary rivalry that some have dubbed the Jollof Wars. Ghana and Nigeria are the main players, as the nations both take great pride in their variations of jollof. The versions are actually quite similar, with spices and different varieties of rice accounting for most of the differences. Nevertheless, Ghanans and Nigerians never seem to miss an opportunity to poke fun at each other in relation to jollof. Personally, we find it all equally delicious.
[Image description: A white plate of jollof rice, shrimp suya, and plantains on a red table.] Credit & copyright: WhisperToMe, Wikimedia Commons. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.There’s no violence in this war, just tasty rice! The Jollof Wars, in fact, are more of an ongoing rivalry between several West African countries unofficially competing to serve the best version of jollof rice. This dish, sometimes simply called jollof, is a rice-based meal with historical roots in Senegal, though it’s also the national dish of Nigeria and is just as beloved in Ghana and other nations, from Liberia to Cameroon.
Jollof rice is a one-pot dish with a base of long-grain rice. The rice is cooked in a tomato-based sauce along with spices like bay leaves, garlic powder and bay leaves, and vegetables like tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, and chilies. The result is a tangy, spicy, savory dish that’s often served alongside plantains and various meats.
Jollof rice dates back to the 14th century and the days of the Jolof Empire, in which rice was a staple food. While the original dish was made with vegetables, fish, and shellfish native to West Africa, today’s version heavily features tomatoes and onions, neither of which is native to Africa (though both are cultivated there today.) Tomatoes originally came from South America, while onions are believed to have originated in Asia. Both vegetables came to Africa through a mix of intercontinental trade and European colonization. No one knows for sure how modern jollof rice came to include these new ingredients, but one story credits it to a 19th-century cook named Penda Mbaye who worked at a colonial estate in Senegal. Supposedly, she was charged with making a dish that included tomatoes, onions, spices, and barley…but she ran out of barley, which was imported and therefore difficult to replace quickly. Instead, she substituted long-grain rice, and the rest is history. Whether or not Mbaye was the dish’s actual inventor, she was undoubtedly one of the first people to create a written record of modern jollof rice.
Today, jollof rice is enjoyed across West Africa, and national variations have led to a culinary rivalry that some have dubbed the Jollof Wars. Ghana and Nigeria are the main players, as the nations both take great pride in their variations of jollof. The versions are actually quite similar, with spices and different varieties of rice accounting for most of the differences. Nevertheless, Ghanans and Nigerians never seem to miss an opportunity to poke fun at each other in relation to jollof. Personally, we find it all equally delicious.
[Image description: A white plate of jollof rice, shrimp suya, and plantains on a red table.] Credit & copyright: WhisperToMe, Wikimedia Commons. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
June 27, 2024
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8 minFREEWork Business CurioFree5 CQ
From the BBC World Service: The Japanese Yen has fallen to its weakest level against the U.S. dollar for nearly 40 years. It’s causing jitters in the markets...
From the BBC World Service: The Japanese Yen has fallen to its weakest level against the U.S. dollar for nearly 40 years. It’s causing jitters in the markets...
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2 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree2 CQ
Word of the Day
: June 27, 2024\KAHRD-nul\ adjective
What It Means
Cardinal is an adjective used to describe things—usually abstract things s...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day
: June 27, 2024\KAHRD-nul\ adjective
What It Means
Cardinal is an adjective used to describe things—usually abstract things s...
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FREEBiology Nerdy CurioFree1 CQ
Won’t someone think of the animals? While most people have been understandably concerned with SARS-CoV-2’s effects on human populations, researchers at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa and other institutions are studying the virus’s effects on animals and its ability to spread between species. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is zoonotic, meaning that it originated in a non-human species. The general consensus is that it probably came from bats due to its genetic resemblance to a bat-borne virus, but regardless of its origin, the virus is known to be transmissible to many different species. Currently, not much is understood about how the virus spreads in non-human species because it affects each species differently. While some hardly show any symptoms of an infection, others, like minks and big cats, can get just as sick as humans when infected with the virus. Due to the risk the virus poses to wildlife and livestock, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been funding research into the matter, including USF researchers who are studying the virus in the wild. Among the vulnerable wildlife populations are the white-tailed deer, which are known to be particularly susceptible to infection from the virus. However, there are at least 50 mammal species in total that are known to be vulnerable, and there may be more. Over the next five years, USF will be monitoring how the virus spreads between species and which species are particularly vulnerable. Data from this study might help manage the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and other zoonotic viruses in the future. If only you could teach deer to cover their sneezes.
[Image description: Three female white-tailed deer in a field.] Credit & copyright: MONGO, Wikimedia Commons. This work has been released into the public domain by its author, I, MONGO. This applies worldwide.
Won’t someone think of the animals? While most people have been understandably concerned with SARS-CoV-2’s effects on human populations, researchers at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa and other institutions are studying the virus’s effects on animals and its ability to spread between species. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is zoonotic, meaning that it originated in a non-human species. The general consensus is that it probably came from bats due to its genetic resemblance to a bat-borne virus, but regardless of its origin, the virus is known to be transmissible to many different species. Currently, not much is understood about how the virus spreads in non-human species because it affects each species differently. While some hardly show any symptoms of an infection, others, like minks and big cats, can get just as sick as humans when infected with the virus. Due to the risk the virus poses to wildlife and livestock, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been funding research into the matter, including USF researchers who are studying the virus in the wild. Among the vulnerable wildlife populations are the white-tailed deer, which are known to be particularly susceptible to infection from the virus. However, there are at least 50 mammal species in total that are known to be vulnerable, and there may be more. Over the next five years, USF will be monitoring how the virus spreads between species and which species are particularly vulnerable. Data from this study might help manage the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and other zoonotic viruses in the future. If only you could teach deer to cover their sneezes.
[Image description: Three female white-tailed deer in a field.] Credit & copyright: MONGO, Wikimedia Commons. This work has been released into the public domain by its author, I, MONGO. This applies worldwide.
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FREEGolf Daily Curio #2898Free1 CQ
We may have missed her birthday by a day, but it’s never too late to celebrate a legend! On June 26, 1911, Mildred Ella “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias, one of the greatest athletes in American history, was born. Didrikson was naturally drawn to and excelled at sports from a young age. As a child, she was given the nickname “Babe,” after Babe Ruth, for her ability to hit home runs in neighborhood baseball games with other children. In high school, she participated in a variety of sports, but dropped out to play basketball in a company team for an insurance firm in Dallas. In 1932, she competed in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, winning gold in the javelin throw, setting a world record in the 80-meter hurdles and a silver in the high jump. The next year, Didrikson began her career in golf, but was unable to compete with other women after being denied amateur status for receiving endorsements in the past. As there was no professional league for women, she competed against men with limited success until her amateur status was reinstated in 1943.
In the following years, she came to dominate the sport, winning the U.S. Women’s Amateur tournament in 1946 and 17 championships in 1947. She also went on to win the U.S. Women’s Open in 1948 and 1950, and her dominance made headlines, bringing attention to women’s participation in sports. Building on her success and growing interest in women’s sports, Didrikson co-founded the Ladies Professional Golf Association in 1950 with her friend Patty Berg and several others. For years, she remained the LPGA’s star athlete, but her career and life were cut short due to cancer. After being diagnosed with colon cancer in 1953, she underwent surgery and competed the next year with a colostomy bag, winning the U.S. Open once more. The next year, she passed away at the age of 45. By the end of her illustrious career, she had also participated in boxing, tennis, swimming, cycling, and many other sports. We’re not the only ones to be late in honoring this 20th century sports star—it wasn’t until 2021 that she was posthumously awarded a much-deserved Presidential Medal of Freedom.
[Image description: A close-up photo of a golf club hovering over a golf ball on a white tee.] Credit & copyright: Mikhail Nilov, pexelsWe may have missed her birthday by a day, but it’s never too late to celebrate a legend! On June 26, 1911, Mildred Ella “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias, one of the greatest athletes in American history, was born. Didrikson was naturally drawn to and excelled at sports from a young age. As a child, she was given the nickname “Babe,” after Babe Ruth, for her ability to hit home runs in neighborhood baseball games with other children. In high school, she participated in a variety of sports, but dropped out to play basketball in a company team for an insurance firm in Dallas. In 1932, she competed in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, winning gold in the javelin throw, setting a world record in the 80-meter hurdles and a silver in the high jump. The next year, Didrikson began her career in golf, but was unable to compete with other women after being denied amateur status for receiving endorsements in the past. As there was no professional league for women, she competed against men with limited success until her amateur status was reinstated in 1943.
In the following years, she came to dominate the sport, winning the U.S. Women’s Amateur tournament in 1946 and 17 championships in 1947. She also went on to win the U.S. Women’s Open in 1948 and 1950, and her dominance made headlines, bringing attention to women’s participation in sports. Building on her success and growing interest in women’s sports, Didrikson co-founded the Ladies Professional Golf Association in 1950 with her friend Patty Berg and several others. For years, she remained the LPGA’s star athlete, but her career and life were cut short due to cancer. After being diagnosed with colon cancer in 1953, she underwent surgery and competed the next year with a colostomy bag, winning the U.S. Open once more. The next year, she passed away at the age of 45. By the end of her illustrious career, she had also participated in boxing, tennis, swimming, cycling, and many other sports. We’re not the only ones to be late in honoring this 20th century sports star—it wasn’t until 2021 that she was posthumously awarded a much-deserved Presidential Medal of Freedom.
[Image description: A close-up photo of a golf club hovering over a golf ball on a white tee.] Credit & copyright: Mikhail Nilov, pexels
June 26, 2024
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9 minFREEWork Business CurioFree5 CQ
From the BBC World Service: At least 13 people have been killed and many more injured after police fired into crowds protesting Kenya’s controversial finance...
From the BBC World Service: At least 13 people have been killed and many more injured after police fired into crowds protesting Kenya’s controversial finance...
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2 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree2 CQ
Word of the Day
: June 26, 2024\ZEER-oh-SUM\ adjective
What It Means
Zero-sum describes something, such as a game, mentality, or situation, i...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day
: June 26, 2024\ZEER-oh-SUM\ adjective
What It Means
Zero-sum describes something, such as a game, mentality, or situation, i...
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FREEUS History Daily Curio #2897Free1 CQ
You’ve heard the tale of George Washington and the cherry tree, but fact is sometimes stranger than fiction! Archeologists recently unearthed dozens of bottles of cherries (and other fruits) from George Washington’s estate at Mount Vernon, uncovering a real-life link between cherries and the nation’s first President for the very first time. The unprecedented find was discovered not during an archeological dig, but by accident during renovations to the estate’s cellar. Mount Vernon President & CEO Doug Bradburn called the discovery, “…an unprecedented find and nothing of this scale and significance has ever been excavated in North America.”
As for what the cherries were doing in the cellar, along with the currents, gooseberries, and other fruit pulp found there, they were likely intended to be made into “cherry bounce”, a brandy-based drink made with aged cherry juice and spices. Some of them might have also been drying out to make “morelly cherries”, a type of dried cherry eaten as a candy-like treat at Mount Vernon. The bottles were almost certainly put in the cellar by one of the many enslaved people working at Mount Vernon, one of whom, named Doll, was known for making morelly cherries. Jason Boroughs, Mount Vernon’s principal archeologist, said that the find was a “…testament to the knowledge and skill of the enslaved people who managed the food preparations from tree to table.”
Of course, these particular fruits never made it to Washington’s table. Although analysis of the find is ongoing, Mount Vernon historians believe it’s likely that the bottles were laid down just before the American Revolution and then promptly forgotten about in 1755, when Washington left his home to take command of the Continental Army. Now, researchers are working to see whether some of the cherry pits and other seeds might be in good enough condition to germinate, though that likely won’t be known for another six months to a year. For now, these bonafide Washington cherries are a pretty sweet gift for America’s upcoming 250th anniversary!
[Image description: A painting depicting the tale of George Washington and the cherry tree. A young Washington points to an axe in his hand as his father questions him about a cherry tree. Another man parts a red curtain to show the scene.] Credit & copyright: Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, Parson Weems' Fable, Grant Wood (1891-1942), Public Domain.You’ve heard the tale of George Washington and the cherry tree, but fact is sometimes stranger than fiction! Archeologists recently unearthed dozens of bottles of cherries (and other fruits) from George Washington’s estate at Mount Vernon, uncovering a real-life link between cherries and the nation’s first President for the very first time. The unprecedented find was discovered not during an archeological dig, but by accident during renovations to the estate’s cellar. Mount Vernon President & CEO Doug Bradburn called the discovery, “…an unprecedented find and nothing of this scale and significance has ever been excavated in North America.”
As for what the cherries were doing in the cellar, along with the currents, gooseberries, and other fruit pulp found there, they were likely intended to be made into “cherry bounce”, a brandy-based drink made with aged cherry juice and spices. Some of them might have also been drying out to make “morelly cherries”, a type of dried cherry eaten as a candy-like treat at Mount Vernon. The bottles were almost certainly put in the cellar by one of the many enslaved people working at Mount Vernon, one of whom, named Doll, was known for making morelly cherries. Jason Boroughs, Mount Vernon’s principal archeologist, said that the find was a “…testament to the knowledge and skill of the enslaved people who managed the food preparations from tree to table.”
Of course, these particular fruits never made it to Washington’s table. Although analysis of the find is ongoing, Mount Vernon historians believe it’s likely that the bottles were laid down just before the American Revolution and then promptly forgotten about in 1755, when Washington left his home to take command of the Continental Army. Now, researchers are working to see whether some of the cherry pits and other seeds might be in good enough condition to germinate, though that likely won’t be known for another six months to a year. For now, these bonafide Washington cherries are a pretty sweet gift for America’s upcoming 250th anniversary!
[Image description: A painting depicting the tale of George Washington and the cherry tree. A young Washington points to an axe in his hand as his father questions him about a cherry tree. Another man parts a red curtain to show the scene.] Credit & copyright: Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, Parson Weems' Fable, Grant Wood (1891-1942), Public Domain.
June 25, 2024
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8 minFREEWork Business CurioFree5 CQ
From the BBC World Service: After 14 months of a civil war, a severe humanitarian and economic crisis is unfolding in Sudan. Grain shipments from Ukraine hav...
From the BBC World Service: After 14 months of a civil war, a severe humanitarian and economic crisis is unfolding in Sudan. Grain shipments from Ukraine hav...
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2 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree2 CQ
Word of the Day
: June 25, 2024\rih-myoo-nuh-RAY-shun\ noun
What It Means
Remuneration is a formal word that refers to an amount of money pai...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day
: June 25, 2024\rih-myoo-nuh-RAY-shun\ noun
What It Means
Remuneration is a formal word that refers to an amount of money pai...
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FREEMusic Appreciation Song CurioFree2 CQ
It’s not every day that a song wins a Grammy and an Oscar! Legendary American singer and songwriter Carly Simon, born on this day in 1945, achieved the rare feat in 1989, after her song Let the River Run from the movie Working Girl became a smash hit. The song has an unusual sound, especially for a soundtrack tune from a fairly lighthearted movie. After a slow, orchestral intro, the pop track swells to a slowish-but-steady beat with a backup chorus throughout. The choral elements are obviously gospel-inspired, yet the song was written specifically for the movie, which is about young, female office workers trying to get ahead despite a sexist office culture. Simon went on to describe the song as “a hymn to New York”, and its meaning obviously struck a chord with many people, since it not only took home an Oscar and Grammy but also tied with Phil Collins' Two Hearts at the Golden Globes for Best Original Song. At the time, Simon was the first artist in history to win these three awards for a song entirely created and performed by one artist. You could say she was a working girl!
It’s not every day that a song wins a Grammy and an Oscar! Legendary American singer and songwriter Carly Simon, born on this day in 1945, achieved the rare feat in 1989, after her song Let the River Run from the movie Working Girl became a smash hit. The song has an unusual sound, especially for a soundtrack tune from a fairly lighthearted movie. After a slow, orchestral intro, the pop track swells to a slowish-but-steady beat with a backup chorus throughout. The choral elements are obviously gospel-inspired, yet the song was written specifically for the movie, which is about young, female office workers trying to get ahead despite a sexist office culture. Simon went on to describe the song as “a hymn to New York”, and its meaning obviously struck a chord with many people, since it not only took home an Oscar and Grammy but also tied with Phil Collins' Two Hearts at the Golden Globes for Best Original Song. At the time, Simon was the first artist in history to win these three awards for a song entirely created and performed by one artist. You could say she was a working girl!
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FREEFitness Daily Curio #2896Free1 CQ
Back pain? Just walk it off before it happens. Lower back pain is a common ailment that can seriously impact a person's quality of life. Fortunately, researchers have found an easy way to stave it off: simply go for a walk a few times a week. Lower back pain affects around 800 million people around the world every year. Worse still, the issue can be recurring, and 7 out of 10 people who've dealt with back injuries have flare-ups within a year. These figures come from Macquarie University’s Spinal Pain Research Group in Australia, which has been looking for ways to prevent and manage back pain. Previously, the most common recommendation for back pain sufferers was bed rest—take it easy and allow the back’s supporting muscles to reset. This recommendation was meant to be followed up by light exercises meant to rehabilitate the patient's back, but researchers found that some of these exercises could be too difficult to perform. Some of them even required specialized equipment or had to be performed with the help of a physiotherapist, so many people didn’t have the means to do them in the first place. To develop an easier, simpler form of therapy, the researchers conducted a trial involving 701 adults who had recently suffered a back injury and recovered. Half of them weren't given any type of instructions as a control group, while the other half were placed in an individualized walking program under a physiotherapist's supervision. All they had to do was walk a few times a week, and the results were surprisingly positive. The researchers found that the group with a walking program went for longer periods without flare-ups compared to the control group, with a median figure of 208 days before recurrence of back pain compared to 112 days. The walking group were also less likely to require medical care compared to the control group, and they experienced less pain on a regular basis. The road to recovery doesn't have to be long and difficult—just take it one step at a time.
[Image description: An elevated walking path through a forest.] Credit & copyright: Markus Spiske, pexelsBack pain? Just walk it off before it happens. Lower back pain is a common ailment that can seriously impact a person's quality of life. Fortunately, researchers have found an easy way to stave it off: simply go for a walk a few times a week. Lower back pain affects around 800 million people around the world every year. Worse still, the issue can be recurring, and 7 out of 10 people who've dealt with back injuries have flare-ups within a year. These figures come from Macquarie University’s Spinal Pain Research Group in Australia, which has been looking for ways to prevent and manage back pain. Previously, the most common recommendation for back pain sufferers was bed rest—take it easy and allow the back’s supporting muscles to reset. This recommendation was meant to be followed up by light exercises meant to rehabilitate the patient's back, but researchers found that some of these exercises could be too difficult to perform. Some of them even required specialized equipment or had to be performed with the help of a physiotherapist, so many people didn’t have the means to do them in the first place. To develop an easier, simpler form of therapy, the researchers conducted a trial involving 701 adults who had recently suffered a back injury and recovered. Half of them weren't given any type of instructions as a control group, while the other half were placed in an individualized walking program under a physiotherapist's supervision. All they had to do was walk a few times a week, and the results were surprisingly positive. The researchers found that the group with a walking program went for longer periods without flare-ups compared to the control group, with a median figure of 208 days before recurrence of back pain compared to 112 days. The walking group were also less likely to require medical care compared to the control group, and they experienced less pain on a regular basis. The road to recovery doesn't have to be long and difficult—just take it one step at a time.
[Image description: An elevated walking path through a forest.] Credit & copyright: Markus Spiske, pexels
June 24, 2024
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2 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree2 CQ
Word of the Day
: June 24, 2024\klan-DESS-tun\ adjective
What It Means
Clandestine describes something done secretly, or in a private place o...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day
: June 24, 2024\klan-DESS-tun\ adjective
What It Means
Clandestine describes something done secretly, or in a private place o...
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FREEArt Appreciation Art CurioFree1 CQ
Is this pottery too kitschy, or is that just a matter of taste? Tin-glazed earthenware has been around for millennia, and allowed for colorful creations like this charming ceramic serving dish. Its lid is shaped and painted to look like a bundle of asparagus. One side of the piece is a yellowish off-white color that gradually turns into a dark green at the “head” of the asparagus. Elaborate pieces like this serving dish were produced at a factory in Sceaux, France, outside of Paris. The factory mainly produced a type of tin-glazed earthenware called faience, which uses tin oxide to create a white glaze, and porcelain starting in the mid-1700s up to the early 1800s. While most faience were more conventionally shaped with elaborate designs painted on, the factory also produced whimsical designs like this one, often used when entertaining guests. As for what might have been served in this particular piece of earthenware…why not some veggies?
Box in the Form of Asparagus, probably Sceaux Factory (active 1748–66), c. 1765, Tin-glazed earthenware (faience) with enamel decoration, 2.5 x 7 x 3.25 in. (6.4 x 17.8 x 8.3 cm.), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
[Image credit & copyright: Sceaux Factory (active 1748–66), the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Norweb Collection 1966.229, Creative Commons Zero (CC0) public domain.]Is this pottery too kitschy, or is that just a matter of taste? Tin-glazed earthenware has been around for millennia, and allowed for colorful creations like this charming ceramic serving dish. Its lid is shaped and painted to look like a bundle of asparagus. One side of the piece is a yellowish off-white color that gradually turns into a dark green at the “head” of the asparagus. Elaborate pieces like this serving dish were produced at a factory in Sceaux, France, outside of Paris. The factory mainly produced a type of tin-glazed earthenware called faience, which uses tin oxide to create a white glaze, and porcelain starting in the mid-1700s up to the early 1800s. While most faience were more conventionally shaped with elaborate designs painted on, the factory also produced whimsical designs like this one, often used when entertaining guests. As for what might have been served in this particular piece of earthenware…why not some veggies?
Box in the Form of Asparagus, probably Sceaux Factory (active 1748–66), c. 1765, Tin-glazed earthenware (faience) with enamel decoration, 2.5 x 7 x 3.25 in. (6.4 x 17.8 x 8.3 cm.), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
[Image credit & copyright: Sceaux Factory (active 1748–66), the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Norweb Collection 1966.229, Creative Commons Zero (CC0) public domain.] -
FREEWorld History Daily Curio #2895Free1 CQ
What do the Smurfs, the French Revolution, and the Paris Olympics have in common? The Phrygian cap features heavily in all three! The mascot for this year’s Summer Olympics is an anthropomorphized red hat called a phygres—and this headwear has some surprising history behind it. The Phrygian cap originated in Phrygia, an ancient kingdom that was located in modern-day Turkey. A conical hat with its tip curled forward, it became associated with freedom and liberty due to stories of freed Roman slaves wearing similar hats to signal their independence. It was first widely worn in France in 1675, when the people of Brittany wore red versions during their protest against Louis XIV and his controversial taxes. Though the protest was unsuccessful, the red Phrygian cap became associated with civil disobedience. The hat’s symbolism made its way to Britain, then to the American colonies, where it was commonly featured in revolutionary artwork. Despite being prominently associated with the American Revolution, the hats were actually seldom worn in America. But when the French Revolution rolled around not long after, the hat made a triumphant comeback. A red Phrygian cap became everyday fashion for anyone who wished to show their support for the Revolution, from guillotine operators to aristocrats trying to avoid them. Some accounts from the time claim that some women knitted the hats out of wool during breaks between executions. In modern France, the caps remain a prominent national symbol. For the Olympics, Phryges will serve as ambassadors, not executioners. There are actually two: one for the Paris Olympics and one with a prosthetic leg for the Paris Paralympics. Before this year, though, modern Americans would have likely associated the hats with the Smurfs franchise. The eponymous characters wore white versions (except for Papa Smurf, who wore a red one). It seems those little blue creatures might have been planning something revolutionary.
[Image description: A painting of three French revolutionaries wearing red phrygian caps or “liberty caps.”] Credit & copyright:
Léopold Massard (1812–1889), Musée Carnavalet, Augustin Challamel and Wilhelm Ténint, The French under the Revolution, Paris, Challamel publisher, 1843. This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer.What do the Smurfs, the French Revolution, and the Paris Olympics have in common? The Phrygian cap features heavily in all three! The mascot for this year’s Summer Olympics is an anthropomorphized red hat called a phygres—and this headwear has some surprising history behind it. The Phrygian cap originated in Phrygia, an ancient kingdom that was located in modern-day Turkey. A conical hat with its tip curled forward, it became associated with freedom and liberty due to stories of freed Roman slaves wearing similar hats to signal their independence. It was first widely worn in France in 1675, when the people of Brittany wore red versions during their protest against Louis XIV and his controversial taxes. Though the protest was unsuccessful, the red Phrygian cap became associated with civil disobedience. The hat’s symbolism made its way to Britain, then to the American colonies, where it was commonly featured in revolutionary artwork. Despite being prominently associated with the American Revolution, the hats were actually seldom worn in America. But when the French Revolution rolled around not long after, the hat made a triumphant comeback. A red Phrygian cap became everyday fashion for anyone who wished to show their support for the Revolution, from guillotine operators to aristocrats trying to avoid them. Some accounts from the time claim that some women knitted the hats out of wool during breaks between executions. In modern France, the caps remain a prominent national symbol. For the Olympics, Phryges will serve as ambassadors, not executioners. There are actually two: one for the Paris Olympics and one with a prosthetic leg for the Paris Paralympics. Before this year, though, modern Americans would have likely associated the hats with the Smurfs franchise. The eponymous characters wore white versions (except for Papa Smurf, who wore a red one). It seems those little blue creatures might have been planning something revolutionary.
[Image description: A painting of three French revolutionaries wearing red phrygian caps or “liberty caps.”] Credit & copyright:
Léopold Massard (1812–1889), Musée Carnavalet, Augustin Challamel and Wilhelm Ténint, The French under the Revolution, Paris, Challamel publisher, 1843. This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. -
8 minFREEWork Business CurioFree5 CQ
In the U.S., the Federal Reserve has decided to keep rates elevated for a year now. The Fed’s goal is to hit a 2% inflation target, but that last mile has be...
In the U.S., the Federal Reserve has decided to keep rates elevated for a year now. The Fed’s goal is to hit a 2% inflation target, but that last mile has be...