fact
Meet the Artist Who Works in New York’s Sanitation Department
Meet Mierle Laderman Ukeles, the unsung (and unpaid) hero who, for half a century has been working as the New York City Department of Sanitation’s artist-in-residence.
The 19th century was a heady time for American whalers, and, consequently, a pretty awful time for whales around the world. But cetaceans weren’t the only ones to take a hit. A forthcoming study of whaler ship logs found that thousands of other animals, from walruses to kangaroos, all fell prey to whalers’ weapons.
The study itself began as a midterm project for undergraduates in Joshua Drew’s Historical Ecology class at Columbia University. Drew wanted to give his students something other than lectures, he tells mental_floss, and thought he might be able to help prepare them for academic life after college. “There’s this idea that when you get accepted to a graduate program somebody bops you on the head with a magic wand,” he says, “and suddenly you know how to write papers.” (Spoiler: “That’s not the case.”)
Drew knew that Massachusetts’ New Bedford Whaling Museum had scanned and digitized dozens of logbooks taken from whaling ships. “It was a great dataset, just sitting there,” Drew says. He set his class a task: Identify and add up all the non-whale animal kills recorded in each of 79 logs from 1846 to 1901.
This was slightly harder than it sounds. The whalers who kept the logs were, well, whalers, not scientists. Different people used different names to refer to the same animal, and sometimes lumped several species together.
And then there was the handwriting—beautiful to look at, but a huge pain to decipher. “Ugh,” Drew remembers. “It was like Elvish script.”
But the students loved it. After the midterm, they asked if they could keep going, and Drew decided to extend the project for the rest of the semester. Drew and his seven students conducted a formal study from start to finish, beginning with recording and classifying every single animal’s death from the scanned primary source documents.
The students analyzed the data and compared their findings with climate data and merchants’ records. The last two weeks of class were dedicated to writing and preparing the study for publication. On the final exam, each student had to draft the paper’s abstract. “By this point in the project, they definitely should have known enough about it to write one,” Drew said. “Plus, I hate writing abstracts. I figured I’d give them the pleasure instead.”
The resulting paper—soon to be published in the journal Ecology and Evolution—is full of surprises. As expected, non-whale animal deaths were widespread, but they were also astonishingly diverse. “There were tons—literally, tons—of walruses being caught,” Drew says. There were seals and cod and caribou, otters and ptarmigans. More than 150 rabbits. Seventeen polar bears. Seven bears. Four beavers. Two kangaroos. The whalers had been busy.
Terse and no-nonsense though the logbooks might have been, they managed to create a vivid picture of life at sea. Gaps of time between entries suggest “days and days of boredom punctuated by life-threatening exhilaration,” Drew says. The men aboard these ships were hungry for action, for a payday, and for something other than the disgusting preserved food in the hold. When an opportunity to go ashore and hunt arose, they were going to take it.
These were desperate and dangerous days, and not just for the whalers’ quarry. “The logs talked about people being killed or getting incredibly sick,” Drew says, “and they were just trapped on these boats in the middle of the ocean.” He says the lists of kills are, in their own way, tinged with a sense of loneliness.
This is the power of historical ecology, Drew says: to show us how we got here, for better or for worse. He says, “It’s like lifting that veil and seeing this wonderful complexity, this drama and dance, that led to the world being the way it is now.”
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September 27, 2016 – 10:30am
Although its run was short-lived, ABC’s mid-1980s cop spoof Sledge Hammer! made a significant imprint in the minds of primetime viewers. David Rasche starred as the title character, a trigger-happy police detective who “shot first and asked questions never.” In honor of the 30th anniversary of the show’s premiere on September 23, 1986, we’ve got a few facts about the series that should hit the mark.
In 1971, 10-year-old Alan Spencer snuck into a screening of Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry by buying a ticket to Fiddler on the Roof and switching theaters once he was inside. Impressed by the movie and its sequels, Spencer decided to write a script lampooning the renegade cop trope. At 16, he began circulating Sledge Hammer! around the business to readers who didn’t understand the kind of satire Spencer was aiming for. One agent called it “the work of someone with serious mental problems.”
Spencer persevered: Nearly a decade later, another Dirty Harry sequel arrived in theaters and reinvigorated interest in a send-up of the genre. Reworked as a half-hour sitcom, Sledge Hammer! suddenly became a hot commodity.
Leonard Stern, who produced the 1960s spy spoof Get Smart, knew of Spencer’s script and connected him with HBO. The network wasn’t sure what to make of the excessive violence and dark humor and wanted Spencer to revise it to fit the persona of Rodney Dangerfield, who they wanted to have starring in the project. Spencer declined and took the idea to ABC, which was receptive to it—provided all of the profanity was deleted. The writer and network cast Second City’s David Rasche and Anne-Marie Martin as Sledge and partner Dori Doreau, respectively. (Martin went on to marry Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton.)
Composer Danny Elfman created the track for the Sledge Hammer! opening credits sequence, which was shot in romantic close-up of Sledge’s beloved .44 Magnum firearm. In a James Bond homage, Rasche was supposed to then pick up the weapon and fire it directly at the viewer, “shattering” the television screen. ABC nixed the idea, fearing the abrupt visual might prompt heart attacks in susceptible viewers. (He fired it offscreen instead.)
Oddly, Sledge Hammer! the series and “Sledgehammer” the song had absolutely no connection with one another, but both were released within a few months of each other in 1986. With the song a hit, ABC convinced (and obviously paid) Peter Gabriel to allow them to use it in promotional spots for the series.
A man who talks to and sleeps with his gun probably is in need of some kind of mental evaluation. But Spencer’s original catchphrase idea for Sledge—“I’m crazy, but I know what I’m doing”—was axed by ABC, which refused to allow any admission the character might be mentally ill. The phrase became “Trust me, I know what I’m doing.”
Spencer was not a fan of Mr. Belvedere, the genteel 1980s sitcom about an English butler who charms his American employers. Sledge took several shots at the show—which aired on the same network—prompting Belvedere star Bob Uecker to criticize Sledge while a guest on The Tonight Show. The war of words was never resolved.
As an acquired taste, Sledge Hammer! didn’t resonate with viewers, who preferred it a distant third to time slot competitors Dallas and Miami Vice. Believing the first season would also be the last, the show’s producers aired a finale that featured Hammer accidentally activating a nuclear warhead that reduced his city to rubble. When ratings improved for the apocalyptic finale, ABC decided to renew it—forcing the show to frame subsequent episodes as having taken place years prior to the explosion.
Lasting just two issues, Marvel’s Sledge Hammer! took the detective into the sequential art world, including a guest appearance by Spider-Man. The cover of the first promised a faithful adaptation of the “show that refuses to die.” (Marvel’s onetime Hulk, Bill Bixby, directed several of the show’s episodes.)
At the time Sledge Hammer! aired, studios and networks were mostly concerned with rights issues relating to videocassette releases. The network therefore didn’t bat an eye when Spencer, who loved laserdiscs, had it written into his contract that he be a profit participant in any “disc format” releases of the show. Sledge was released on DVD in 2004, a “disc format” the network could never have anticipated, and earned Spencer a significant cut of the profits.
In 1992, Spencer received word that New Line Cinema was interested in adapting Sledge Hammer! as a feature film. The creator passed when it became clear the studio wanted to move forward with a new cast and new characters.
Not everyone took the satire of a gun-loving fascist as a joke. Spencer told Splitsider in 2012 that when Sledge Hammer! premiered, the National Rifle Association (NRA) bestowed him with an honorary membership for contributing to pro-gun awareness. “A lot of people took [the show] very seriously,” he said.
September 27, 2016 – 10:00am
Leonardo da Vinci created plans for a “mechanized knight,” – a robot-like creation reliant on a system of pulleys. When these plans were found almost 500 years later and built according to Leonardo’s specifications, the design worked perfectly.
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s parents thought he was gay because his bedroom walls were covered with posters of men.
The design of the tallest residential building in the world, 432 Park Avenue in Manhattan, is inspired by a trash can.
On Jose Fernandez’s 4th attempt to defect from Cuba to the US, a person fell overboard. Jose jumped into the waters and saved the person. He recalled, “I don’t remember much, just diving in the water and swimming towards this woman. As I was getting close, I could see it was my mother”.
Yuengling sent a truckload of beer to the White House the day Prohibition ended to show their appreciation to President Roosevelt.
As the many products designed to help you fall asleep on airplanes indicate, comfort and air travel aren’t a natural fit. The problems begin on solid ground for some travelers: A delayed flight or an extended layover can leave you stranded in an airport for hours with no place to curl up and rest.
A furniture pod concept from designer Rafael Martin envisions an innovative solution. According to inhabitat, the aDream is a steel-framed and plywood structure designed to be tucked discreetly into the hallways and lounges of airport terminals. Two mattresses fold out from either side and a light, drawer, and electrical socket invite visitors to get comfortable. Someone in need of a quick rest would be able to rent a unit for a certain time window and swipe in with a key card.
The sleek pods are just a design for now, but travelers willing to splurge on even more luxurious digs might be in luck. A handful of airports have cozy “suites” that include desks and daybeds guests can rent by the hour—there are even a few in the U.S.
[h/t inhabitat]
Know of something you think we should cover? Email us at tips@mentalfloss.com.
September 27, 2016 – 9:00am
Humankind’s relationship with alcohol may be thousands (or even millions) of years old, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t on an ongoing quest to push things forward. Especially when it comes to the hangover.
David Nutt, a professor at Imperial College London in England, has patented 90 different synthetic alcohols, Esquire reports. The so-called “alcosynths” are an alternative to traditional booze, and Nutt claims they mimic the effects of the regular stuff, but don’t come with the dreaded headaches and nausea that often accompany overindulgence.
Nutt told The Independent that he believes alcosynth could replace alcohol as we know it by 2050. In addition to being a “healthier” option for your liver and heart, Nutt says the alcosynths have a built-in limit—the buzz hits its max point at around four or five drinks and then plateaus. The specifics of Nutt’s formula are still a secret, but he is currently in the process of testing two of the drinks.
While the idea seems to hint at the promise of a hangover-free future, the product is still in its infancy and hasn’t received any funding or support from the Department of Health. (Nutt served as a government drugs advisor until he was reportedly fired for saying ecstasy was less dangerous than horseback riding.)
Still, a Department of Health spokesperson told The Independent, “It would be great for producing better workforce efficiency if no one was hungover.”
This isn’t the first time a hangover-free booze has been introduced: Earlier this year North Korea claimed to have invented one using ginseng and glutinous rice.
[h/t Esquire]
Know of something you think we should cover? Email us at tips@mentalfloss.com.
September 27, 2016 – 8:30am
