Christmas gift ideas can be a very tricky thing! Is this the right gift? The right size? The right color? Will it be appropriate? Appreciated? Returnable? Where can you go to get ideas? Right here!
Redneck yeti
Portable tree stand
Stockings
Wind chime
Tattoo kit
Keyless entry
Fire alarm
And for you fellers out there looking for a special gift for the special someone…
Do-it-Yourself Boob Job
OR, if you’re really serious…a diamond ring!
True to their name, Bohemian Waxwings wander like bands of vagabonds across the northern United States and Canada in search of fruit during the nonbreeding season. High-pitched trills emanate from the skies as large groups descend on fruiting trees and shrubs at unpredictable places and times. These regal birds sport a spiky crest and a peach blush across their face. Unlike the familiar Cedar Waxwing, they have rusty feathers under the tail and white marks on the wings.
Bohemian Waxwing’s nomadic nature makes it difficult to predict if and when they might show up in your yard to visit a platform feeder. But they are fruit connoisseurs, so planting a native tree or shrub that holds its fruit late into the fall and winter may bring in any that pass through your area. Find out more about what this bird likes to eat and what feeder is best with the Project FeederWatch Common Feeder Birds tool.
Bohemian Waxwings are movers. One waxwing banded by researchers in British Columbia was recovered 13 months later in South Dakota. Another individual flew 280 miles in 11 days.
Bohemian Waxwings, unlike many songbirds, do not hold breeding territories, and they also don’t have a true song. Bohemian Waxwings communicate with high-pitched calls as they roam around in large groups looking for fruit.
Only three species of waxwings exist in the world, the Bohemian Waxwing of North America and Eurasia, the Cedar Waxwing of North America, and the Japanese Waxwing of eastern Asia.
Bohemian Waxwings have an uncanny ability to find fruit nearly everywhere, almost like they have a GPS tracker for berries. Flocks sometimes turn up in desert areas, find an isolated shrub, devour its fruit in minutes, and move on.
Waxwings have red, waxy tips on some of their wing feathers and yellow tips on the tail. The color comes from carotenoid pigments found in the fruit waxwings eat. As the birds get older, the waxy tips get bigger.
The oldest recorded Bohemian Waxwing was at least 5 years and 10 months old. Researchers banded the individual in 1968 in Saskatchewan and recovered the same individual in 1973.
The bohemian wanderings of this waxwing make them a little unpredictable to find. The best place for most people to see them is during migration and winter (September–March) in the northern United States and Canada, when they come south from their breeding range and move around in search of fruit. Check dense patches of fruiting shrubs like mountain ash and listen for their high-pitched trills. Watch the skies for tight flocks that descend en masse towards fruiting trees and shrubs. If you see or hear a group of American Robins or Cedar Waxwings, check the flock for Bohemian Waxwings as they sometimes flock together.
Poinsettia is a perennial shrub native to Mexico. It is most often grown as an annual for winter holiday display, but it can also be grown as a perennial garden shrub in regions where winter temperatures remain above 50 degrees Fahrenheit. The familiar red species has been joined by even flashier hues thanks to hybridizers who have expanded the range of colors from the familiar scarlet to white, cream, salmon, yellow, and pink. Its blooms are a cluster of tiny yellow flowers surrounded by large brilliant (usually red) floral bracts, which are modified leaves. Also known as Mexican flameleaf, these plants are forced into bloom in time for the holiday season, and they require specific care to look their best into the new year and beyond.
Contrary to a popular myth, poinsettias are not seriously toxic to people or pets. At most, they are mildly toxic to cats and dogs who ingest the plant material.
Poinsettia Care
There is no need to discard your poinsettia come January—you can keep it healthy and vigorous throughout the year with the right care. The trick: Provide enough filtered sun, warmth, and water, and your poinsettia will thrive. If you’re especially motivated and follow a regimen of specific care, your plant might rebloom next holiday season.
If grown as a landscape shrub in warm climates, poinsettia requires a sunny location and well-drained soil. Frequent pinching back of the stem tips will ensure seasonal color in winter.
Light
Poinsettia do best when placed in bright, diffused sunlight, so place your plant near a sunny window where it will receive at least six to eight hours of diffused light per day. Although the plants can survive with fewer hours of light, they won’t be as vigorous or as long-lived. Be aware that exposure to direct sunlight can burn bracts and leaves.
Soil
While poinsettias are typically purchased already potted from a garden center or nursery, if you’re planting (or replanting) a poinsettia, choose a well-draining peat-based potting soil for best success. In warm climates (zones 9 to 11), poinsettias can be planted into the landscape, where they thrive best in a well-drained, acidic to neutral soil.
Water
Water your poinsettia whenever the soil surface feels dry to the touch. Saturate the soil completely until water runs through the drainage holes in the bottom of the pot, but do not let the plant sit in water. If the pot was wrapped in decorative foil, be sure to poke a few holes through the bottom to allow excess water to drain away. Overwatering is the quickest way to kill a poinsettia, and wilting leaves and rotted plant roots are usually signs of overwatering.
Temperature and Humidity
To keep your poinsettia in bloom as long as possible, maintain a temperature of 65 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit during the day. A slight drop in temperature at night will not hurt the plant. However, cold drafts, allowing the leaves to touch a cold window, or more importantly, a lack of adequate light, can injure the leaves and cause premature yellowing and leaf drop.
Lack of humidity during dry seasons, particularly during winter, is an ongoing problem for most houseplants, including poinsettias. If your home tends to be dry, consider investing in a small space humidifier to increase humidity levels in the area surrounding your poinsettia.
Fertilizer
Do not fertilize these plants during their blooming period. When keeping the plant throughout the year, you can begin fertilizing in the spring at half-strength when there’s no growth, but not until then. Feed every three to four weeks until the plant is re-established.
How to Get Poinsettias to Rebloom
If you want to grow your poinsettia throughout the year and force reblooming for the next holiday season, you must follow a very specific process throughout the year. Achieving rebloom is not easy, so don’t be disheartened if you don’t succeed on your first try. Follow this schedule for best results:
December to Early Spring
Water your holiday poinsettias, keeping them moist but not soaked. Then, starting in early spring, do the following:
Gradually decrease waterings, allowing the soil to dry out between waterings. Be careful that the stem of your poinsettia does not begin to shrivel—this is a sign the plant is too stressed and is dying.
In a week or two, when the plant has acclimated to this drying process, move it to a cool spot, such as the basement or a heated garage. Keep the temperature around 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
May
In mid-May, do the following:
Cut the stems back to about four inches and repot your poinsettia into a slightly larger container filled with new potting soil.
Water well and place the newly-potted plant in front of the brightest window you have, and once again keep it at a temperature of 65 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
Continue watering whenever the surface of the soil feels dry and watch for new growth.
Once new growth appears, begin fertilizing every two weeks with a complete fertilizer.
Summer
Come summer, move your potted poinsettia outdoors. Keep it in a partially shaded location and maintain your watering and fertilizing schedule.
In early July, pinch back each stem by about one inch to encourage a stout, well-branched plant. If left unpinched, the poinsettia will grow tall and spindly.
By mid-August, the stems should have branched and leafed out. Once again, pinch or cut the new stems, leaving three to four leaves on each shoot. Bring the plant indoors and place it near your brightest window.
October
Poinsettias are short-day plants, meaning their bud set is affected by the length of daylight. To rebloom, poinsettias need about 10 weeks with 12 to 14 hours of absolute darkness per day. You will have to artificially create these conditions and remain diligent. At the very start of October, do the following:
Keep your plant in complete darkness from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m.—any exposure to light will delay blooming.
Use an opaque box or other material to block out all light, including artificial light. Many people place their plants in a closet, but if any light gets through cracks or if you open and use the closet, the exposure to light will affect the bud set.
Move the plant back to the sunny window during the daytime and continue watering and fertilizing.
November and December
About the last week of November, stop the darkness treatment and allow the plant to remain near the window. You should see flower buds at this point. Stop fertilizing around mid-December. Keep watering and treat your plant the way you did when you first brought it home in bloom. If all has gone well, bracts should begin to show color.
Types of Poinsettias
Besides the traditional red bracts, newer hybrids have been bred in a variety of colors, including shades of white, cream, yellow, salmon, purple, burgundy, and pink. Note that some unusual colors, such as blue, are produced using dyes, and if the plant reblooms, bracts will be their natural color.
At any given time, there are at least 100 different poinsettia cultivars to choose from. Some recent favorites (along with some long-time standards) include:
‘Christmas Eve’: This is a long-time favorite with pure red flowers, known for its long color season.
‘Plum Pudding’: This is the first purple hybrid introduced to the market.
‘Alaska White‘: As the name suggests, this is a pure white cultivar that blends well with red varieties.
‘Jingle Bell Rock’: ‘This variety is a mixture of cream and bright red with glossy dark green leaves.
‘Candy Cinamon’: This cultivar has dappled pink foliage, making for a softer appearance.
‘Golden Glow’: This soft yellow variety is compact and known to be more heat tolerant than other forms.
‘Lemon Drop’: This cheery variety has bright yellow bracts.
‘Gold Rush’: This stunning variety combines shades of pink and gold.
Today’s offering is a very festive one…Red Velvet Cake!
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 bottles (1 ounce each) red food coloring
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-1/4 cups cake flour
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
Preheat oven to 350°. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in food coloring, vinegar and vanilla. In another bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating well after each addition.
Pour into 2 greased and floured 9-in. round baking pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. Cool layers 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely. Frost as desired.
ENJOY!
Marisa Tomei’s birthday is this month, so I thought I’d look at little known facts about My Cousin Vinny, which I think is her breakout movie.
From Mental Floss:
My Cousin Vinny was inspired by an encounter with a guy hoping to pass the bar.
My Cousin Vinny was one of the earliest ideas screenwriter Dale Launer ever had. “In the very early ’70s, I met a guy who … was waiting the bar exam results,” he told ABA Journal in 2012. Launer asked what would happen if he didn’t pass, and the guy said he could just take it again, and if he didn’t pass that time, he’d just take it again. And again. Until he passed. “So I said, ‘What’s the most times somebody has taken and failed and finally passed?’” Launer recalled. “He said, ‘Thirteen times.’ … I always thought that guy who took 13 times to pass the bar, or girl, is probably out there practicing law in some capacity. Now, how would you feel if suddenly you learned that guy is your lawyer? … What if you have been accused of a crime and clearly, you have what appears to be the worst lawyer in the country?”
Robert De Niro was Launer’s first choice to play Vinny Gambini.
After the script was written, a casting meeting was called and Launer met with Fox’s president, vice president, and CEO. When Launer suggested Robert De Niro for the part of Vincent LaGuardia Gambini, “the prez looked uncomfortable, embarrassed that I would suggest such an actor,” Launer told Writer Unboxed. “‘De Niro, uh … well … he’s not funny. And … his movies don’t make money.’ … Now … the only movies De Niro acts in that make money? Comedies! So, I feel vindicated. But I wish I could’ve been given a big fat check when I [ended up] being proved right.”
Joe Pesci based Vinny on guys from his neighborhood.
“There’s a lot of people around like that in smaller neighborhoods, so I put a few of them together and [came] up with Vinny,” Pesci, who grew up in New Jersey, told The Movie Show in 1992.
The studio initially wanted to cut Mona Lisa Vito from My Cousin Vinny.
n 2007, Launer told Writer Unboxed that the studio had wanted to get rid of Vinny’s Chinese-food-loving, unemployed hairdresser/car expert girlfriend. To keep the character, Launer reluctantly added a scene, requested by the studio president, to the second draft: “He wanted Vinny’s girlfriend to complain that he’s not giving her enough attention,” Launer said. “You often see movies where some guy is hell bent on accomplishing something, and you’re on the ride with him—and his wife/girlfriend/mother is feeling neglected. And she complains. And I HATE this! … Watching those scenes is simply boring. You want to fast forward it. Awful.”
Eventually, he said he “figured out a way where they’d HAVE to keep her and embellished her character … she does complain, but at least apologizes for bringing it up, and you don’t hate her for bringing it up largely because it’s funny. … Now, I thought if she brought this up at this point where he is simply going through hell—he should be pissed off. And he is. So he kinda tears into her.” Mona Lisa’s “biological clock” rant (above) became one of his favorite scenes in the script.
The studio took a chance on Marisa Tomei.
Tomei didn’t have a lot of film experience when she landed the part of Mona Lisa Vito. “I’d seen her [on the set of Oscar] working with John Landis and [had] gone with [him] to the cutting room to look at her performance,” Lynn said in DVD commentary.” She was playing a 1920s blonde flapper, very different, but I could see how funny and talented she was. And we got her in to read. She read wonderfully and we persuaded the studio to let me go with this unknown actress in the role. It was the best decision I ever made.” Lynn said he knew they’d gotten the right actress for the part when he saw the dailies from the first scene they shot with her—Mona Lisa and Vinny’s arrival in Alabama, when she tells him, “Oh, yeah, you blend.”
Marisa Tomei is from Brooklyn, but she doesn’t sound like her My Cousin Vinny character.
Tomei grew up in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, so “I really knew the neighborhood,” she told The New York Times in 1992. But that doesn’t mean she sounded just like Mona Lisa. “I don’t think that extreme, but I could be wrong,” she told NPR’s Fresh Air in 2010. “My mom was an English teacher, and she was on my butt about that kind of thing and correcting my speech from a young age.”
The legal system is portrayed very accurately in My Cousin Vinny.
Lynn has a law degree from Cambridge University, and, he said in DVD commentary, “I get terribly irritated when I see films in which the legal procedure is obviously wrong.” In addition to Launer’s research, Lynn made adjustments to make sure the legal proceedings were correct. “I’m very pleased with the fact that, although this is heightened for comedic purposes, everything you see legally in this film could happen and is approximately correct,” he said. “Which, by the way, makes it the more frightening.” Lynn even sat in on a murder trial in the Monticello, Ga. courtroom that served as the inspiration for the Vinny courtroom set. “Some of the lines in the [Vinny trial] came directly from that trial,” he said, including Lane Smith’s pronunciation of heinous (“high-a-nus”) and his line about “our little old ancestors” in the opening remarks.
One scene in My Cousin Vinny was lifted from a book about comedy and the law.
The book featured real moments from actual courtrooms. Launer lifted the memorable voir dire scene of a potential juror for Vinny. The lawyers “ask them their opinion on capital punishment, and they said something like, ‘I think it should be left up to the victims’ families,’” Launer told Abnormal Use. “Then they then described exactly what the murderer did, and then that the juror actually said, ‘Fry them.’ So I put that right in the movie.”
My Cousin Vinny shot scenes in an actual prison.
The cast and crew shot for several days in a state prison in Gainesville, Georgia, in the wing where prisoners are kept in solitary confinement. “It does have a death row, right beside the wing where we were shooting, and I looked all around death row,” Lynn said in DVD commentary. “It was a very frightening building, and we were all pretty scared when we were there, even though we had guards with us at all times.”
It took up to 40 minutes to get from the outside of the building to where they were shooting inside. Whitfield told Abnormal Use that “When Ralph and I were walking through the prison the first time like holding our blankets and walking to our cell and you hear the prisoners screaming at us. Those are real prisoners, and they really were yelling at us. … They had to tone it down with what they put in the movie because they were saying some horrible stuff. Ralph and I were petrified.”
The prison guards in My Cousin Vinny aren’t actors.
The guards in the movie were real prison guards. The production used real prisoners as extras twice: once in the background when Stan and Bill are being brought into the prison, and during a short scene where the duo plays basketball during exercise time. “The prisoners were all extremely cooperative and did exactly what we asked,” Lynn said in DVD commentary. “I don’t know what incentives or threats were made in order to achieve that.”
Joe Pesci learned how to do a card trick for My Cousin Vinny.
In the scene where Vinny is convincing Bill to let him represent him, Vinny does a card trick. “It was important to me that the card trick wasn’t faked,” Lynn said in DVD commentary. “Of course you can fake anything by cutting and showing another shot, but I talked about this to Joe before we started shooting, and he learned how to do this card trick. So the scene in which he does it does not have any cuts in it. He actually fools the audience before their very eyes. He did it beautifully. I thought Vinny’s argument would be much less powerful if the audience could say oh well that was just faked by the way the scene was cut.”
The word yutes came from a real conversation with Joe Pesci.
The conversation between Vinny and Judge Chamberlain Haller about “two yutes” became “perhaps the most quoted piece of dialogue from the film,” Lynn said in DVD commentary. It was inspired by a conversation that Lynn and Pesci had when they were prepping the film at the Mayflower Hotel in New York City. “He said something about ‘these two yutes’ who were on trial and I said ‘what?’ and he said ‘what?’ and I said ‘what’s a yute?’” Lynn recalled. “I realized as we were having that conversation that that was something that ought to happen between Vinny and the judge, so I simply wrote it in the way it happened naturally.”
You can visit many locations from My Cousin Vinny.
Though the film is set in Alabama, the production actually shot in three separate small towns in Georgia. “Apart from the courtroom,” which was a set, “virtually everything was shot on location,” director Jonathan Lynn said in Vinny’s DVD commentary. “It wasn’t a very expensive movie, and that was the cheaper way to go. It also had more authenticity.” Which means you can visit a number of the film’s locations—including the Sac-O-Suds convenience store.
My Cousin Vinny was praised by the law community.
“The movie is close to reality even in its details,” lawyer Maxwell S. Kennerly wrote on his blog, Trial and Litigation. “Part of why the film has such staying power among lawyers is because, unlike, say, A Few Good Men, everything that happens in the movie could happen—and often does happen—at trial.” Professor Alberto Bernabe of The John Marshall Law School, who hands his students a list of law movies organized by category, puts Vinny under “Education,” not just because “it provides so much material you can use in the classroom. For example, you can use the movie to discuss criminal procedure, courtroom decorum, professional responsibility, unethical behavior, the role of the judge in a trial, efficient cross-examination, the role of expert witnesses and effective trial advocacy.”
The film has also been praised by a Seventh Circuit Court Judge; referenced by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia; and made it into a legal textbook.
Maria Tomei found out about her Oscar nomination for My Cousin Vinny in an unlikely place.
Tomei was sleeping on a friend’s couch—a friend who was pregnant and due at any moment—when she found out about her Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. Her friends were watching TV, and “there were shouts from the other room, and they awoke me,” she told David Letterman in 1993. “I didn’t know if she was going into labor or what.” Tomei would go on to win the Oscar—and yes, despite the urban legend that 74-year-old presenter Jack Palance announced the wrong name, the actress really did win.
There could have been a sequel to My Cousin Vinny.
In 2004, Lautner’s bio noted that “Joe wanted to do it, but Marisa didn’t. Now she does, and so does Joe, but the studio isn’t terribly interested in the remake, feeling too much time has passed since the initial release. Perhaps everyone who liked it has passed on. Or changed their minds. Launer hopes they will see the light.” According to Whitfield, the sequel might have involved Vinny going to Europe.
Joe Pesci made an album as Vinny Gambini.
Before he was an actor, Pesci was a lounge singer; six years after My Cousin Vinny came out, he released an album called Vincent LaGuardia Gambini Sings Just for You. It features the songs “Wise Guy,” “Take Your Love and Shove It,” “Yo Cousin Vinny,” and “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” a duet with Tomei as Mona Lisa. It debuted at No. 36 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart.
Patriots coach Bill Belichik referenced My Cousin Vinny during Deflategate.
Rudy Guiliani isn’t the only person who has randomly referenced My Cousin Vinny during a press conference. “I would not say that I am Mona Lisa Vito of the football world,” Belichik said when asked what he knew about football pressure. When she heard, Tomei texted Pesci. “We thought it was pretty funny,” she told The Rich Eisen Show.
SOURCE: MENTAL FLOSS
Dust Cloth Extraordinaire
Your socks should fit over your hands, so put one on when it’s time to clean the house. In addition to using it to dust the furniture, socks are especially suited to wiping baseboards, shutters, blind slats, ceiling fans and even houseplants. In the garage, use single socks to clean and polish your car inside and out. When you’re finished cleaning your house or vehicle, remove the sock from your hand by pulling it off inside-out, so the mess stays off your hand.
If your dog comes back from a walk wet or dirty, slip a sock on your hand and wipe off her paws and any other affected areas. You may also wish to put a sock on your hand when you’re tossing a ball, Frisbee or other toy that may be returned to you full of slobber.
Rejuvenate Dry Skin
Do you have a problem with dry and cracked skin on your hands or feet? One of the best ways to heal your skin is to cover the affected area with an appropriate moisturizer or petroleum jelly before you retire for the evening, then cover with a sock. The sock will keep the lotion or salve from getting all over your bedding, plus help your skin better absorb the moisturizing agent. (If both feet need moisturizing, just use two odd socks.)
One of the more annoying things in life is having a tight muscle in an area you can’t quite reach, like the middle of your back. When that happens, place a tennis ball into a long sock, knotting the end. Find a hard surface like a wall or door, then toss the sock over your shoulder and position the ball over the knot in your back. Press against the ball as you move it all over the knotted area to roll out that muscle.
Fill a stray sock with cat litter, knot the end, and place it in your tent before rolling it up for the season. This will keep mustiness at bay. You can also put coffee grounds or baking soda in leftover socks, knot them, and stick into your shoes for an overnight deodorizing. One more odor-buster: Place potpourri or lavender into a sock, secure the end, then place in a dresser drawer, gym bag or closet — any place where you’d like a fresh scent.
Sock puppets have been around for centuries, although they haven’t always been crafted from stray socks. Take those strays (longer socks work best) and add whatever embellishments you’d like, such as eyes, hair and glasses, to make your own puppet. You can also make stuffed animals from socks.
Prevent Drafts
If your home has a drafty door or window, take a sock (long ones and tube socks work best) and fill with popcorn kernels or dried beans, plus stuffing; e.g., quilt batting or polyester fiberfill. Sew the open end closed, then place against the bottom of your drafty door or window. The popcorn or beans will weigh down the sock so it stays in place, while the stuffing will block the wind from getting through any cracks or crevasses.
Typically made of compressed wool, plastic or rubber, dryer balls bounce between your clothing and sheets to prevent them from clumping together. They also combat static and wrinkles, soften clothes and fluff them out. But dryer balls can be pricy. To make your own, fold up one sock into a small ball, then place it on top of another sock. Then, roll the first sock up into the second, pulling the cuff over it all to make a larger ball. A slightly easier way to make a dryer ball is to drop a tennis ball into an old sock and secure the top. If you prefer store-bought dryer balls, you can still use a leftover sock to clean the dryer balls monthly. Simply place the balls in a few socks, tie the tops and toss into the wash.
Take a sock with a cuff several inches tall and cut off the cuff. Slip the sock cuff over a roll of wrapping paper to keep it tidy and in place.
SOURCE: HOWSTUFFWORKS
Today’s project is SUPER EASY, but it’s one you can certainly dress up in many ways if you like!
The basic reindeer is a couple of wine corks—one for the body and one cut slight shorter for the head, several twigs for the legs, neck and antlers, a red bead for the nose (or brown bead if you’re not making Rudolph) and a little garland if you want for a decoration.
If you really want to jazz up your creations use beads for the legs and neck, pipe cleaners for the antlers and tail, and add a larger bead for the nose.
This version uses a thumbtack for the nose, some flannel scraps for scarves and added pompoms for earmuff or a little knitted hat.
Then there’s this one, which focuses on the reindeer head, although I’m not so sure about their antlers.
Finally, there’s the Village People Version…
Today is also GA/FL’s birthday!!!!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to a woman who is giving and loving and patient!!!
Located on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, Pearl Harbor is best known as the site of the Japanese military strike that propelled the United States into World War II. But Pearl Harbor’s contributions to history didn’t begin—or end—on what President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called “a date which will live in infamy,” December 7, 1941. From epic rock concerts to astronaut visits, the storied lagoon has seen quite a lot. Here are 10 things you might not know about it.
Pearl Harbor’s Hawaiian name is Wai Momi.
Unfortunately, overharvesting, pollution, and human-induced sediment changes decimated the harbor’s native oyster population by the end of the 19th century. But in February 2019, the U.S. Navy announced that it was teaming up with the University of Hawaiʻi’s Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resources Center and O’ahu Waterkeeper to reintroduce two native bivalve species: The Hawaiian oyster and the black-lip pearl oyster. Since they filter out pollutants, their presence may help clear the water in the Pearl Harbor area.
A shark goddess was said to live in Pearl Harbor.
According to Hawaiian legend, Kaʻahupahau was a former human who had transformed into a shark. It was said that she lived with her brother (or son) in the caves beneath Pearl Harbor. Together, the pair defended the scenic lagoon and the Indigenous people who fished there. In 1902, the entrance channel was artificially widened so large American ships could pass through. (Hawaii wouldn’t become a state until 1959, but it was annexed in 1898.) Locals became concerned that the project would upset Kaʻahupahau. When a newly finished dock collapsed in 1913, it was said to be the irate deity’s work. Others speculated that damage to the harbor caused Kaʻahupahau to leave—and she took the oysters with her.
Pearl Harbor’s resident naval station was established in 1908.
In 1887, 11 years before Hawaii’s annexation, the United States was given the exclusive right to set up a naval base in Pearl Harbor. But the federal government didn’t formally establish one there until 1908. Decades later, in 1940, that naval station became the main base of operations for what would soon become the U.S. Pacific Fleet, where it was intended to curb Japanese expansionism. The fleet’s relocation to Oahu set the stage for the devastating surprise attack.
The December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor came in two waves.
Before the assault on Pearl Harbor, Japan stationed six of its Imperial Navy’s aircraft carriers, which carried 414 planes in total, at a pre-chosen locale 230 miles north of Oahu. The ships maintained radio silence to keep their movements a secret. On December 7, 1941, at 6 a.m., the first wave of Japanese planes took to the air, and just before 8 a.m., they began an all-out assault on the Hawaiian base. Caught unaware, the American forces were pummeled by bombs and torpedoes.
A second wave arrived on the scene at about 8:50 a.m. Unlike its predecessor, this one didn’t include any torpedo planes and it inflicted less damage. Still, by the time Japan’s second wave pilots returned to their carriers at 9:55 a.m., the U.S. had lost 188 airplanes while 159 more sustained damages. Some 21 American ships were sunk or damaged. And then there was the human cost: 2403 Americans died in the attack, and an estimated 1178 others were injured.
Thirty-eight sets of brothers were on the doomed USS Arizona.
Nearly all the American vessels that were hit during the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack were later repaired, but the USS Arizona wasn’t so lucky. The 608-foot Pennsylvania-class battleship went under after an ammunition magazine exploded. Some 1177 marines and sailors perished aboard the Arizona. Altogether, there were 38 sets of brothers, representing a total of 79 men, on the battleship at the time. Within that group, 63 individual men were killed.
Pearl Harbor was rocked by mysterious explosions in 1944.
On May 21, 1944, a tank landing ship (or Landing Ship, Tank) in the lagoon’s West Loch suddenly burst into flame. Next came a string of explosions that killed 163 people, damaged more than 20 buildings, and took out a grand total of six LSTs. The disaster’s cause has never been verified, but it has been theorized that someone may have accidentally set the whole thing off by dropping an explosive mortar shell.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida visited Pearl Harbor in 1951.
By all accounts, the visit was a muted affair. Yoshida was returning from a diplomatic visit to San Francisco when he opted to spend a little time in Hawaii. On September 12, 1951, the prime minister briefly met up with Arthur Radford, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, at Pearl Harbor. Three other Japanese prime ministers have since visited the lagoon. Ichiro Hatoyama dropped by in 1956; Nobusuke Kishi made the trip in 1957; and Shinzo Abe gave a speech there (with Barack Obama by his side) in 2016.
Elvis Presley helped raise money for the USS Arizona memorial fund.
In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized the building of a USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor. Three years later, the king of rock ‘n roll put on a benefit concert to raise money for the project. Presley sang “Hound Dog,” “Heartbreak Hotel,” and 13 other classic songs before a roaring crowd of around 5000 fans in Pearl Harbor’s Bloch Arena. The big event raked in over $64,000 and created public interest in the memorial—which was officially dedicated in 1962.
After returning to Earth, the Apollo 11 crew made a pit stop in Pearl Harbor.
Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969. Due to concerns about lunar diseases, the astronauts were confined to a quarantine trailer—which was ferried to Pearl Harbor aboard the USS Hornet. The contraption was later transported to Houston, Texas, with all three space travelers still inside.
The naval base at Pearl Harbor merged with another military property in 2010.
Prior to 2010, Pearl Harbor’s resident naval base and the neighboring Hickam Air Force Base were two separate properties. But that year, they were combined into the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. According to its website, the base “provides services comparable to a large city to a population of active duty from all services, guard, reserve, family members and retirees.”
A version of this story originally ran in 2019; it has been updated for 2021.
SOURCE: MENTAL FLOSS
From: House & History
As you make your way through Wyoming’s Wapiti Valley, perched upon a hill just outside of Cody is a strange looking building known to locals as ‘Smith Mansion.’
The home was built over eighteen years by local man Francis Lee Smith. Smith, who worked as a full-time engineer in Cody, made the property in his spare time.
Francis Lee Smith, designed and built ‘Smith Mansion’ from scratch.
Unfortunately, the house didn’t have a fairy-tale ending one would hope for. In 1992, disaster struck, and construction on the property came to an end, forever.
THE HISTORY OF THE SMITH MANSION
In the 1970s, Smith was inspired by an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. After a huge fire on the nearby Rattlesnake Mountain, much of the timber was left up for grabs for anyone willing to lug it away.
Smith had a truck and two willing associates who helped him start loading up. Yet it appears Smith could never stop!
At first, Smith wanted to build a comfortable home for him and his family. But once the house was completed, the project just kept growing. Over the years, what was supposed to be a small family home, became a large tower featuring balconies and viewing platforms.
In the lower floor living spaces, you had named rooms, such as the “hot room” and “cold room.” Through the colder months, they would spend their time in the “hot room” which featured a wood-burning stove. In warmer months, they would use the cooler temperatures of the “cold room.” The house had no running water, and no plumbing or electricity, except for that provided by a small generator.
Unfortunately for Smith, the family home wasn’t to be. Despite living there with his family for some time, his obsession with it became a strain on his marriage, which lead to divorce. His wife, son, and daughter moved back into the nearby town of Cody.
This however, only drove Smith to focus more on completing the building. However, it wasn’t to be, one day in 1992, the 48-year-old was working on one of his slanted roofs when he fell (not for the first time) and died. Smith’s body wasn’t found until two days later.
THE SMITH MANSION TODAY
After the death of Francis Lee Smith, the Smith Mansion passed on to his family. The home is now looked after by Smith’s daughter Sunny Larsen, who was just 12 when her father died but still remembers living in the property as a child.
She said: “His original intent was to build a home for his family, and it just took on a life of its own.” It was only in later years that she realized her father had no blueprints, every addition was off-the-cuff. “He never knew what his next step was going to be.”
His daughter also rejects the idea that mental illness played a part in her father’s obsession. “He built,” she said. “He was an artist in every sense of the word.”
The property has been empty now for almost 30 years, exposed to the elements the wooden structure has begun to decay slowly. Teenagers from the nearby town of Cody routinely visit the property on the weekends and vandalize it.
This decay hasn’t stopped Ms. Larsen from trying to sell the property though. In August 2018, Smith Mansion was listed on the market for $750,000, as of yet it still has no buyer.
How a half-finished wooden structure with no plumbing or electricity on a hill in Wyoming could fetch $750,000 we don’t know. However, it would be a cool property to finish if you had the cash burning a hole in your pocket.
SOURCE: HOUSE & HISTORY
On the seafloor of the Northwest Pacific Ocean lives a very angry fish with a bizarre name and a parachute on its face, which it uses as a weapon. Named for its huge mouth and aggressive temperament, the sarcastic fringehead is a fascinating small saltwater fish, which exists in perpetual intense competition with others of its own kind.
They are found in the Pacific waters from San Francisco to central Baja California in the USA between 10 – 250 feet in depth. The sarcastic fringehead is a species of blenny, belonging to the order Blenniformes; a diverse group of species which can be found throughout the world in marine, brackish and freshwater habitats.
The family Chaenopsidae, of which the sarcastic fringehead is the largest member, is a group of scaleless, elongated blennies that strangely lack the lateral line found in the majority of other fish species. There are over 900 species of blenny, most of which are relatively small, benthic dwellers.
Blenniformids tend to be reclusive, either burrowing into soft sediments or occupying cracks, crevices and burrows. The sarcastic fringehead spend much of their time in their ocean floor dens, but when they do swim it’s in short, dart-like movements – to diet on small crustaceans, or fiercely defend its territory.
Interesting Sarcastic Fringehead Facts
‘Fringehead’ refers to the floppy tissue above the fish’s eyes
While ‘sarcastic’ is thought to derive from the Greek word sarkázein, which means ‘to tear flesh’ – referring to their aggressive behavior.
Sarcastic fringeheads are territorial homeowners
Many species within Chaenopsidae live permanently in holes or cavities, and sarcastic fringeheads are no exception. They stake a claim over a territory centered around an abandoned clam burrow, large empty snail shell or other suitable crack or crevice.
They’ll even live in man-made homes
As long as their home has the right dimensions, sarcastic fringeheads are not fussy over what it’s made from. They are often spotted living inside cans, bottles and other human rubbish that has made its way into the ocean.
They are fiercely protective of their homes
To a sarcastic fringehead, a high-quality home is a secure space of just the right size, positioned in an area with a dependable food source. These are few and far between, so fringeheads aggressively defend their territories against conspecifics, other ocean creatures and even human divers!
The best homes are worth competing for
Female sarcastic fringeheads choose males with the most desirable homes as their mates. This makes competition between males particularly intense, and is thought to be a large factor in the evolution of their extraordinary mouths.
They have an infamous ‘Demogorgon’ from Stranger Things mouth
When threatened by other Sarcastic fringehead, they are able to open their mouths to horrifying circumferences – larger than their own head, displaying two rows of sharp teeth. This is in an effort to say ‘I am bigger than you’ and scare away the competition.
Sarcastic fringeheads fight each other with a ‘kiss’
Riled individuals face-off by slamming their huge, open mouths together in a strange ‘who has the biggest mouth competition’. When sarcastic fringeheads perform their famous gape display, they emphasize their physical size, reveal their double row of teeth, and also flaunt muscles belonging to the adductor mandibular complex. These muscles are responsible for closing the mouth and their size gives an accurate measure of their bite force.
Evolving their weaponry has had its drawbacks
Their disproportionate jaw morphology of the sarcastic fringehead is thought to actually hamper its ability to feed compared to the smaller-mouthed species with which it shares its genus. This reflects the extreme selective pressure faced by males; when it comes to reproduction, being able to see off rivals is more advantageous to sarcastic fringeheads than being able to feed efficiently.
There’s more to their displays than meets the eye
The skin stretched around the elongated jawbones of the sarcastic fringehead is known as the buccopalatal membrane, and has been observed to reflect ultraviolet light. The yellow outer edges of their mouths are also fluorescent, and it is thought that the brightness of these pigments relates to the fitness of an individual.
When displays don’t work, sarcastic fringeheads resort to wrestling
If two males find each other to be physically well matched, the only way to resolve their disputes is by entering into single combat. Flaring their mouths as wide as they can, the two fish swim directly against each other, each trying to push the other backwards and thereby prove their superior strength.
Their aggressive nature has a purpose
The famous bad temper of the sarcastic fringeheads isn’t just because they’re feeling grumpy. Through their elaborate displays, individuals are able to accurately size each other up and avoid entering mismatched physical confrontations that could lead to injury.
Sarcastic fringeheads are caring fathers
Once a female has found a male with a desirable territory, she lays her eggs inside the male’s home and then leaves. The male then guards the eggs on his own until they hatch.
Their bizarre adaptations have evolved twice
Compared to their close taxonomic relatives, sarcastic fringeheads are larger, have particularly high levels of aggression, and are equipped with some freaky jaw morphology. Some truly unique adaptations? Nope! The long-jawed muscucker (Gillichthys mirabilis) has evolved a spookily similar set of features through convergent evolution; it is thought that their comparable burrow-dwelling lifestyles, extreme competition between males and a hefty dose of pure chance have driven these remarkable resemblances.
SOURCE: FACTANIMAL
Sew Colorful 