Month: September 2016

Although Sherlock Holmes ranks as one of the most frequently adapted fictional characters of all time, the producers of BBC’s Emmy-nominated Sherlock have managed to make the detective seem as fresh as when his print adventures first began appearing in 1887. While you wait for the Benedict Cumberbatch-starring fourth season to premiere in early 2017, check out some facts about the production, an unlikely Watson, and why the original pilot episode never made it on the air.

1. A SHERLOCK LANDMARK HELPED MAKE THE SHOW HAPPEN.

For years, writers Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss took a train to and from Cardiff while working on Doctor Who, and discussed various projects they were interested in doing; one that kept coming up repeatedly was a modern-day adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. This reportedly went on for some time, with neither man making any particular effort to get it off the ground, until Moffat’s wife, Sue, decided to invite both men for lunch. Her selection: the Criterion, a watering hole and eatery in London’s Piccadilly Circus. It’s the same place where the fictional John Watson, Holmes’s best friend, first hears of the famed detective. The two got the hint and began working on the series.

2. THE ORIGINAL PILOT NEVER AIRED.

When Moffat and Gatiss conceived of a modern-day take on Holmes for the BBC in 2008, the expectation was that their hour-long adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet would lead to a series. When they finished filming, however, those chances seemed slim: The pilot was more of a stodgy production than the cinematic, inventive style Gatiss and Moffat were hoping for. The BBC agreed to reshoot it with new director Paul McGuigan adding touches like having text messages appear onscreen. The less-polished prototype is available on the DVD release.

3. IT WAS INTENDED TO BE AN HOUR-LONG SERIES.

Although the original pilot was 60 minutes, the reshot episode was 90 minutes, leading Gatiss and Moffat to believe the best format for the show would be as a small season of movie-length episodes. The pair initially intended all episodes to run an hour, with more of them—up to six—per season. “That [pilot] was going to be the format of the series,” Gatiss said in 2014. “I think if we’d done that everything would be very different. We would do one where it was mostly Doctor Watson, or [landlady] Mrs. Hudson investigates or something like that.”

4. MATT SMITH AUDITIONED FOR WATSON.

While Benedict Cumberbatch was the first and only choice for Holmes, Matt Smith was among a number of actors considered for his counterpart, John Watson.The role eventually went to Martin Freeman (The Office, Fargo) because Moffat believed his chemistry with Cumberbatch was the best. Smith wound up auditioning for Doctor Who just a week later, and became the Eleventh Doctor.

5. HARRISON FORD GEEKED OUT OVER IT.

The quality of the series has not been lost on audiences, critics, or Harrison Ford: When the actor appeared on The Graham Norton Show alongside Cumberbatch in 2013, he told the actor the show was “amazing.” Ford’s wife, Calista Flockhart, told the Radio Times that she and Ford “can’t stop watching” the show. The family’s BBC gateway drug was apparently Agatha Christie’s Poirot, a long-running adaptation of the author’s elegant detective.

6. IT’S LED TO A RISE IN BOOK SALES.

The estate of Arthur Conan Doyle must have been pleased to note that the 2010 debut of Sherlock on BBC One correlated with a sharp uptick in sales of the author’s printed works. According to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks media sales, copies of Doyle’s titles moved roughly 57,000 copies in 2009. The year after, it was 88,000—with sales the week after the show premiered doubling from the week prior.

7. FANS HAVE CHANGED HOW THE SHOW IS PRODUCED.

When word gets out that Sherlock is filming exterior shots in Cardiff, fans gather using a Twitter hashtag (#Setlock) to watch—sometimes up to 300 at a time, all positioned behind barricades. Martin Freeman has described the experience as something “I don’t love,” since the crowd is effectively an uninvited audience. (They once broke into applause when he opened a bag of crisps.) Because of the distraction, Gatiss has noted that the show now arranges for fewer scenes set outside. “Large dialogue scenes outside are quite tough,” he said in 2014, adding that the actors had trouble concentrating.

8. PBS CUT A BIG CHUNK OUT OF EPISODES.

If your only exposure to the second season of Sherlock was on PBS in America, you’ve missed nearly a half-hour of the show. In 2012, executive producer Sue Vertue told the Independent that eight minutes from each of the three episodes had been snipped in order to make room for sponsor spots in the United States.  

9. THERE’S A MANGA ADAPTATION.

An adaptation of an adaptation, in 2012 Japan’s Young Ace magazine depicted the first episode of Sherlock in the country’s distinctive sequential art style. U.S. publisher Titan Comics recently compiled the four issues into an English-language trade paperback edition after several unofficial fan translations demonstrated a considerable demand for the work to be reprinted. Titan also publishes books in which Holmes fights aliens and vampires.

10. YOU ARE UNLIKELY TO EVER SEE A CROSSOVER WITH DOCTOR WHO.

Two of the BBC’s biggest successes are both filmed in Cardiff and both have the same showrunner; television crossovers have happened with less. Despite that, Steven Moffat—who oversees both shows—says the odds of the time-hopping Doctor crossing paths with Holmes are slim to none. In addition to the Sherlock cast being disinterested, Moffat told a Royal Television Society audience in 2014 the fact that Holmes has been presented as a fictional character in Doctor Who presents a difficult hurdle to overcome. “[The Doctor] has even dressed up as [Holmes],” the writer said.

11. THERE MIGHT BE A SHERLOCK THEME PARK ATTRACTION COMING.

Not many fictional detectives get their own theme park; Holmes might be a rare exception. The BBC is reportedly considering an amusement park based on their properties, including Sherlock and Doctor Who, for Kent, England, in 2020. The addition is expected to join a planned London Paramount Entertainment Resort that will also feature a water park.

12. THE SHOW MIGHT RUN FOREVER.

Sherlock has produced just 10 episodes in nearly eight years, a far cry from the 180-odd episodes a network series would have amassed in that time. But the erratic shooting schedule that sometimes frustrates fans might eventually work to the audience’s benefit. Because the series doesn’t shoot continuously, Moffat sees no reason the production can’t keep resuming indefinitely. “It’s an occasional treat when you get three movies,” he said in mid-2016. “That’s why I think it’s unlikely that we’ve completely finished it. There would be nothing strange in stopping for a while. It could go on forever, coming back now and again.”

Don’t despair, struggling writers: Even F. Scott Fitzgerald’s fiction was sometimes rejected. During the mid- to late-1930s, The Great Gatsby scribe wrote an assortment of short stories that, for varying reasons, were never printed by magazines. Now, nearly 80 years after Fitzgerald’s death, The Guardian reports that these final works will be released in book form. The collection is titled I’d Die For You and will be published in April 2017.

Don’t purchase the book expecting condensed versions of The Great Gatsby, Paradise Lost, and Tender is the Night. According to publisher Simon & Schuster, the collection’s stories are a far departure—stylistically and topically—from Fitzgerald’s bestselling novels. In these stories, Fitzgerald is “writing about controversial topics, depicting young men and women who actually spoke and thought more as young men and women did, without censorship,” the publisher said in a release.

Some editors of the era didn’t like Fitzgerald’s shift in tone, and rejected the works. Other major magazines accepted the tales for publication, but never printed a final product. Instead of revising his fiction so it would sell, Fitzgerald chose instead for it to remain private—even though he badly needed both cash and publicity.

The collection’s title story, I’d Die For You, is reportedly inspired by a sad period in Fitzgerald’s later life, when he was living—and drinking heavily—in North Carolina’s mountains as his wife, Zelda, stayed in a nearby mental hospital. Learn more about the upcoming work by visiting Simon & Schuster’s website.

[h/t The Guardian]

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Interested in the Cold War and have up to $20,000 to spare? Gizmodo reports that you could soon purchase a piece of history: a chunk of the Berlin Wall signed by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

Christie’s is selling hundreds of personal items from the Reagan family at auction in New York City on September 21 and September 22. (An online sale will run from September 19 to September 28.) According to The Dallas Morning News, the objects once resided in the couple’s Los Angeles home, and were packed up after First Lady Nancy Reagan’s death in March. Proceeds from their sale will go to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute.

Most of the catalogue’s offerings are pretty standard—books, music, silverware, knickknacks, paintings, and an assortment of Nancy Reagan’s jewelry and accessories, among other things. But look closely and you’ll spot some true collector’s gems, like Reagan’s personal, first edition copy of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead; a marine chronometer that was a gift from Frank Sinatra; and the President’s black quill ostrich cowboy boots, complete with a one-of-a-kind presidential seal crafted in gold and silver.

And then, of course, there’s the Berlin Wall piece. The two-foot-long, graffiti-covered concrete slab is by no means the auction’s most expensive item. However, it is expected to fetch anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000, largely because it evokes Reagan’s 1987 speech in West Berlin, in which he urged former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”

To learn more about the upcoming auction, visit Christie’s website. 

[h/t Gizmodo]

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According to historians, modern society can learn a lot from the myriad of ways people put food on the table during the Great Depression. While some people raised livestock and grew their own fruits and vegetables, others had to stretch every dollar and pinch every penny to get the most food for their buck during hard economic times. Here are eight recipes that might seem strange today but were regular features at mealtime in the Depression Era. For more recipes from that time, pick up A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression.

1. POOR MAN’S MEAL

During the Great Depression, potatoes and hot dogs were very inexpensive, so many meals included either or both ingredients. In this video, 91-year-old Clara—who lived through the Depression—walks viewers through the process of making the Poor Man’s Meal: peel and cube a potato, then fry it in a pan with oil and chopped onions until they brown and soften. Then add slices of hot dog, cook a few minutes more, and serve.

2. CREAMED CHIPPED BEEF

Made with dried and salted beef, Creamed Chipped Beef was an easy and cheap dish that originated in Eastern Pennsylvania Dutch Country, New Jersey, and the Mid-Atlantic. To make if yourself, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a pot over a medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of flour to make a roux. Slowly whisk in 1.5 cups of milk until it thickens and boils. Later add 8 ounces of dried beef (like Hormel). Serve over toast.

Affectionately called S.O.S. (“Sh*t on a Shingle” or “Save Our Stomachs”), Creamed Chipped Beef on Toast was also a staple of the U.S. military during World War I and especially World War II.

3. HOOVER STEW

Hoovervilles—shantytowns that sprang up during the Depression—weren’t the only things named after our 31st president, who had the misfortune to be elected just before the Crash. Hoover Stew was the name given to the soup from soup kitchens or similarly thin broths. One recipe calls for cooking a 16-ounce box of noodles like macaroni or spaghetti. While that’s on the stove, slice hot dogs into round shapes. Drain the pasta when it’s almost done and return to the pot; drop in the sliced hot dogs. Add two cans of stewed tomatoes and one can of corn or peas (with liquid) to the pot. Bring the mixture to a boil and then simmer until the pasta is finished cooking. No need to use corn or peas; you can substitute those veggies for anything canned and inexpensive.

4. EGG DROP SOUP

Here’s Clara’s recipe for Egg Drop Soup: Peel and dice a potato and an onion. Slowly brown them in a pot with oil until soft, then add bay leaves and salt and pepper. Once browned, add half a pot of water to the mix to make broth. Simmer on the stove and add more salt and pepper to taste until the potatoes are cooked. While boiling, crack two eggs into the pot and stir until scrambled. Add two more eggs into the soup, so the yolk hardens. Add cheese to finish it off. Once completed, serve the Egg Drop Soup over toast.

5. CORNED BEEF LUNCHEON SALAD

In the 1930s, gelatin was considered a modern, cutting edge food. Dishes like Corned Beef Luncheon Salad—which consisted of canned corned beef, plain gelatin, canned peas, vinegar, lemon juice, and occasionally cabbage—were very popular and inexpensive to make. According to Andy Coe, the co-author of A Square Meal, the recipe was just “wrong in every possible way” when compared with today’s modern tastes and palate.

6. FROZEN FRUIT SALAD

Served during the holiday season as a special treat, Frozen Fruit Salad was made with canned fruit cocktail (or your favorite canned fruit), egg yolks, honey, and whipping cream.

7. SPAGHETTI WITH CARROTS AND WHITE SAUCE

One of the dishes Eleanor Roosevelt recommended and promoted with the development of Home Economics in schools and colleges during the Great Depression was Spaghetti with Boiled Carrots and White Sauce. It was spaghetti cooked until mushy (about 25 minutes) and mixed with boiled carrots. The white sauce was made from milk, flour, salt, butter or margarine, and a little bit of pepper. After mixing, pour into a tray and bake to make a casserole.

8. PRUNE PUDDING

Although he had a taste for fancy meals, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was served a humble seven-and-a-half-cent lunch, which included deviled eggs in tomato sauce, mashed potatoes, coffee, and, for dessert, prune pudding. Roosevelt’s White House ate modestly in “an act of culinary solidarity with the people who were suffering,” Jane Ziegelman, the co-author of A Square Meal, told The New York Times.

First established in 1890, Yosemite National Park predates the National Park System itself. Now, the iconic park is getting an addition. As NPR reports, 400 acres of new land has been donated to the property.

The conservation group the Trust for Public Land purchased the swath of land bordering the park’s west side from private owners for $2.3 million. Ackerson’s Meadow sits beneath the Sierra Nevada mountains and includes open grasslands, wetlands, pine trees, a creek connecting to the Tuolumne River, and at least two endangered species. In the past, the area had been used for logging and cattle grazing.

The meadow was included in the original boundaries proposed for the park, but until now the government hadn’t been able to acquire it. The Trust for Public Land’s gift marks the largest expansion of the park, which is just under 750,000 acres, since 1949.  

“The purchase supports the long-term health of the meadow and its wild inhabitants, and creates opportunities for visitors to experience a beautiful Sierra meadow,” Yosemite Conservancy President Frank Dean said in a press statement.

The new addition to the park coincides with the National Park Service’s centennial this year. The official anniversary was celebrated on August 25, but special events are being held in parks around the country through 2016.

[h/t NPR]

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There’s no food fight quite like one that exists between two states fighting for ownership of an origin story. Take Pennsylvania and Maine, for example. For nearly 100 years, these northeast locales have been duking it out for whoopie pie supremacy. You read that right, whoopie pie.

The palm-sized, chocolate sandwich-like goodie anchored together by creamy vanilla filling has been at the heart of a multi-state tug-of-war with no end in sight. So which state owns bragging rights?

The earliest claim appears to belong to Maine. In 1925, Labadie’s Bakery opened its doors on Lincoln Street in Lewiston, then a small mill town nestled near the Androscoggin River. Soon after, they claim to have sold the first Maine whoopie. But, alas, there’s no documented proof. All of the bakery’s early files were destroyed in a fire. Evidence or not, Mainers insist the whoopie pie’s birthplace is the Pine Tree State. Dozens, if not hundreds, of bakeries throughout the state make and sell whoopie pies—as many as 100,000 per year, according to Robert S. Cox in his book New England Pie: History Under a Crust. It seems Maine has a solid foundation to back up their claim.

Folks in the Keystone State, however, beg to differ. They contend the creamy confections were first created in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, with recipes handed down through the generations. According to Pennsylvanians, Amish cooks made the first whoopies using leftover cake batter. Legend has it that children (and happy husbands) shouted “whoopee!” as they discovered these delicious treats in their lunch buckets. Mainers dispute that name claim as well: They’ll tell you the catchy name was derived from Gus Kahn’s popular ’20s show tune “Makin’ Whoopee.” “It’s a jazzy product name,” Sandy Oliver, a Maine-based food historian, told Philly.com in 2011.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “whoopee” was coined in the 1860s as an interjection to express joy. By the time the Roaring Twenties rolled around, the term had acquired slightly risqué undertones with the period’s flaming youth. So either state could be on to something. It’s just another mystery in the whoop-de-do over the whoopie pie.

What’s not a mystery is how far some people will go to stake their claim to this wondrous confection. Maine’s now-senator Paul Davis stirred things up in January 2011 when he introduced a bill to make the whoopie pie Maine’s official state dessert. The proposal, L.D. 71; H.P. 59, received bipartisan support despite opposing views (some felt blueberry pie deserved the recognition). Others were hesitant to support such a “weighty” bill. “Do we really want to glorify a dessert that lists lard as its primary ingredient?” Don Pilon, a Representative from Saco, asked during testimony. The designation was later changed to official state treat with blueberry pie being honored as the official state dessert.

Before it passed, word of the proposed bill made its way to Pennsylvania, and residents were not happy. “We do the original,” baker Nancy Rexroad told the Associated Press. “When something’s the original, you can’t improve on it.” The Pennsylvania Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureau immediately launched an online petition that read “Save Our Whoopie,” calling the Maine bill a “confectionary larceny.” Ouch. The effort included a tongue-in-cheek video that lampooned the “misguided moose-lovers.”

If that wasn’t enough, Josh Graupera of Lancaster was so outraged after hearing about Maine’s pending legislation that he and a friend organized a protest in downtown Lancaster in February 2011. More than 100 Pennsylvanians rallied, holding up signs with messages for their rivals up north: “100% PA Dutch”; “Mainers, You Go Eat Lobster”; “Give Me Whoopie, or Give Me Death”; and “Whoopie Pies from Maine Taste Like Moose Poop!” Double ouch.

“Generations and generations have been making and eating whoopie pies here in Lancaster,” one protester said. “My grandmother did in the ’30s and ’40s and her mother did before her.”

So why not put an end to this little quarrel like responsible, reasonable adults? Why not have a whoopie pie bake off and settle the debate once and for all? Well, because there’s a curve ball—called Massachusetts. It seems Bay Staters also want a piece of the pie.

When writing her book, Making Whoopies: The Official Whoopie Pie Book, author Nancy Griffin made a surprising discovery—one that took her away from claims that either Maine or Pennsylvania was the first state to make a whoopie. In her research, she uncovered a 1931 ad featuring a five-cent “Berwick whoopee pie” made at Boston’s now-defunct Berwick Cake Co. The faded declaration “Whoopee Pies” is still visible on the old brick Berwick building, and some believe that Berwick invented the whoopie pie to compete with Brooklyn’s Devil Dogs, which were introduced in the 1920s (while possibly taking inspiration from the Pittsburgh-area treat gob, which dates to around the same time).

But that’s not the only story out of the Bay State. The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink gives Durkee-Mower of Lynn, Massachusetts, the makers of marshmallow crème, credit for New England’s love affair with the whoopie pie. During the 1930s, Durkee hosted a variety show called the Flufferettes on the Yankee Radio Network. The last episode mentioned Durkee’s Yummy Book, a collection of dessert recipes including one for, supposedly, whoopie pies. But, there’s a problem: In 2009, The New York Times asked Don Durkee about the story, and after checking Durkee-Mower’s archives, he came up empty-handed. The best he found was that the company’s first mention of whoopie pies was from the 1970s. “I’m baffled,” he told the Times.

A few years before the whoopie pie became Maine’s official treat, the Maine Whoopie Pie Festival was established by the Center Theatre in the small rural town of Dover-Foxcroft. The annual event is held on the fourth Saturday in June, which also happens to be the state’s official Whoopie Pie Day. Though that date has passed, you can still catch Pennsylvania’s annual Whoopie Pie Festival this weekend, on September 10, at the Hershey Farm Restaurant & Inn in Lancaster County. The inn makes over 100 different flavors for the event.

With so many hands in the whoopie jar, we may never know whether the whoopie pie originated in New England or is the treasured, traditional treat of Pennsylvania. But as long as they’re readily available in each location, that seems like cause for … shouting whoopee!

In the summer of 1994, Nickelodeon handed three novice producers a monumental task: Create a hit television show for preschoolers, and do it on a shoestring budget. After 30 days holed up in a tiny conference room high above Times Square, the three came up a puzzle-based show starring a little blue dog. Over the course of 11 years, Blue’s Clues not only became the hit Nickelodeon sought—it exceeded everyone’s wildest expectations. On the 20th anniversary of the show’s premiere episode, we look back at Blue, Steve, Joe, and the show that redefined children’s television.

1. THE SHOW WAS STEEPED IN RESEARCH.

Todd Kessler, Angela Santomero, and Traci Paige Johnson—the trio that developed Blue’s Clues—wanted the show to be entertaining as well as educational. Along with co-creator Santomero, who had a master’s degree in child developmental psychology from Columbia University, the team enlisted the help of educators and consultants to craft a format that reflected the latest research in early childhood development.

Instead of the varied, nonlinear format popularized by Sesame Street and geared toward short attention spans, the team developed a narrative format. To keep kids engaged, they enlisted their help by having host Steve Burns pose questions to the camera, then pause to hear their answers. Simple, recognizable objects and sounds became the clues that eased young viewers into each episode, while the puzzles grew more challenging without becoming frustrating. The show had its own research department, which was rare for a kids’ program. Its research-based approach became what the production team called the “special sauce” in its recipe for success.

2. REPETITION WAS KEY.

The Blue’s Clues team wanted to promote mastery in children—that feeling that they were experts on a given topic. More than memorization or rote learning, mastery boosts kids’ self-esteem and ensures they’ll internalize information, which in turn better prepares them for school. Enforcing mastery requires repetition. So the show’s script repeated key words and phrases over and over in varying contexts. In the episode “Blue’s Predictions,” for example, second host Joe says the word “predict” 15 times to help viewers become acquainted with the word. After finding that kids’ engagement with the show increased with repeat viewings, Nickelodeon decided to air the same episode every day for a week before moving on to a new one.

3. THE PRODUCERS FIELD TESTED EACH EPISODE THREE TIMES.

After each script was finished, the show’s research team would test it on a classroom full of preschoolers, noting how the children responded to the material. The team would move on to another group, and then another, using the kids’ reactions to further develop the episode as it went into the animation phase. All told, each episode took around nine to 10 months to produce.

4. THE ORIGINAL PRODUCTION TEAM PROVIDED SOME OF THE VOICES.

Because they were working with such a limited budget, the production team provided voices for the show themselves rather than hire talent. Nick Balaban, who composed the music, played the role of Mr. Salt, while his co-composer, Michael Rubin, provided the voice of The Sun. In determining who would play the part of Blue, the team went around the table to see who had the best bark. The winner was co-creator Traci Paige Johnson, who filled the role throughout the show’s run.

5. BLUE WAS ORIGINALLY A CAT.

Johnson, Santomero, and Kessler’s first choice for their show’s main character was an orange cat named Mr. Orange. They didn’t like that color, so they turned the cat blue and named him Mr. Blue. However, Nickelodeon already had an animated series in the pipeline that featured a cat, so the network asked the team to pick a different animal. “We thought, it couldn’t be a little puppy, could it?” said Johnson in a behind-the-scenes special celebrating the show’s 10th anniversary. The team made the switch.

6. MR. SALT ORIGINALLY SOUNDED LIKE TONY SOPRANO.

In the anniversary special, Balaban gave viewers a taste of the voice he initially gave Mr. Salt. “‘Ey Mrs. Pepper! Blue’s in the kitchen and looks like he could use a little help,” the composer bellowed, in an accent reminiscent of The Sopranos’s leading mobster. Balaban quickly shifted to a softer-sounding French accent after the production team deemed the accent too gruff.

7. THE HOST WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FEMALE.

In conceiving the show, the production team envisioned a female host interacting with Blue and the gang. When it came time to cast the show, though, they opened up auditions to both male and female actors. After looking at more than 1000 eager young aspirants, they found that Steve Burns, a 22-year-old whose only previous credits included an episode of Law & Order and a Dunkin’ Donuts commercial, got the best response from test audiences. “There was something about this kid fresh out of Pennsylvania,” said Johnson in the anniversary special. “He knew just how to look into the camera and talk to the kids.”

8. STEVE BURNS DIDN’T LOOK THE PART.

As a young actor, Burns didn’t have his sights set on a kids’ show—quite the opposite, in fact. “I had moved to New York to become Serpico,” he said in a 2010 monologue at The Moth, a storytelling venue located in New York. As such, Burns sported a grungy ’90s look, complete with long hair, earrings, and facial stubble. Before he auditioned for Blue’s Clues, Johnson called up Burns’ agent and told him to clean up his appearance before he came in. He did, and immediately went from tough guy to kiddie favorite.

9. HIS GREEN POLO SHIRTS WERE UNCOMFORTABLE.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Burns joked that his signature green polos were “carefully handmade to be as uncomfortable as possible.” The shirts were a hit with kids, of course—perhaps too much so. After parents complained to the network that their children wouldn’t take off their green polo shirts—because Steve never did—producers decided to give replacement host Donovan Patton (a.k.a. Joe) a more varied wardrobe.

10. STEVE ONCE CRASHED A KID’S BIRTHDAY PARTY.

After being named one of People Magazine’s most eligible bachelors in 2000, Burns started getting a lot of date requests. One that particularly interested him came from a swimsuit model, who mailed him a picture with her phone number. Burns called and arranged dinner, and agreed to pick her up at her home in New Jersey. When he finally met her, he discovered a significant size difference between the two of them (Burns is 5’6”). Eager to impress, he saw a sign in front of her neighbor’s house for a Blue’s Clues themed birthday party. “I had the green polo and some toys in the back of my car,” he said during his appearance at The Moth. “And I thought, ‘This is the only game you’ve got right now.'” Bewildered parents watched as the television host burst onto the scene and entertained the delighted crowd. The party was a complete success. The rest of the date? Not so much.

11. THE PRODUCERS WERE VERY CAREFUL ABOUT LICENSING.

With more than 14 million young viewers tuning in every week, Blue’s Clues had massive earning potential in licensed toys, clothes, games, and other products. But Nickelodeon and the show’s creators didn’t just lend Blue’s image to any candy company or board game maker that came calling. Knowing that the show’s popularity came from its ability to educate and empower children, the team carefully reviewed every licensing opportunity. Many companies were turned away.

In reviewing a proposal from a clothing company, the Blue’s Clues team interviewed parents about their kids’ clothing needs. “We thought, what can we do to help children dress themselves?” Alice Wilder, director of research and development for the show, said in an interview. The result: a line of clothing with elastic waistbands and big buttons that color-matched with each buttonhole.

12. IT GOT SESAME STREET TO CHANGE ITS FORMAT.

When Blue’s Clues premiered in 1996, its main competition was Sesame Street, which had been on the air for nearly three decades. Within just a few years, Nickelodeon’s little blue dog had eclipsed Big Bird and company, prompting the PBS mainstay to change its long-standing format to include more interactive segments and other elements that appealed to preschoolers.

13. THE FLAMING LIPS INSPIRED BURNS TO LEAVE THE SHOW.

In 2001, at the height of Blue’s Clues‘s popularity, Burns suddenly announced he was quitting the show. The decision rocked the production team, who tried desperately to persuade him to stay. And it would go on to shock TV watchers, fueling death rumors that grew so pervasive, Burns had to go on The Rosie O’Donnell Show to prove he was still alive. But Burns had his reasons.

In an interview with SPIN, Burns talked about a party he had gone to the year before where he heard The Flaming Lips’ album The Soft Bulletin for the first time. “It completely rearranged my head,” Burns told the magazine. The whimsical, yearning alt-rock inspired Burns to begin writing music again, something he had done as a teenager growing up in rural Pennsylvania. After quickly penning three dozen songs, Burns knew he wanted to pursue a music career. In 2003 he made good on his decision, releasing Songs for Dustmites, a critically acclaimed album that featured The Flaming Lips’ Steven Drozd on drums.

14. BURNS HAD OTHER REASONS, TOO.

In the years since his departure, Burns has revealed that his hair loss also influenced his decision to leave. “I refused to lose my hair on a kids’ TV show, and it was happening fast,” he said in the anniversary special. Burns has also discussed how the show’s runaway success made him uncomfortable, particularly since he didn’t intend to make a career in children’s television. “I began thinking, do they have the right guy here?” he said during his Moth monologue. “Maybe they need a teacher or a child development specialist. I was very, very conflicted about it.”

15. DONOVAN PATTON DIDN’T KNOW WHAT THE SHOW WAS ABOUT WHEN HE AUDITIONED.

Having never watched Blue’s Clues, the 24-year-old actor who would replace Burns thought the show was about a dog that played blues music. Luckily, that didn’t affect his audition for the role of replacement host. Like Burns, Patton was a hit with preschool test audiences—a reception he credited to a warm relationship with his 5-year-old sister. Burns worked extensively with Patton, and in 2002 viewers watched as Steve went off to college and his younger brother, Joe, took over.

16. BLUE’S CLUES WAS VERY EFFECTIVE.

In the years since Blue’s Clues debuted, study after study has venerated the show’s effectiveness as an educational tool. Researchers at the University of Alabama found that regular viewers displayed increased learning comprehension over non-viewers. Another study from Vanderbilt University suggested that the show’s participatory format increased social interaction in children, while others have shown that watching Blue’s Clues enhanced kids’ vocabulary. Imitation may be the greatest testament to the show’s value, with programs like Dora the Explorer following the interactive path Blue’s Clues set down.

Jennie Bushnell was beside herself. It was September 8, 1866, and the twentysomething had stunned her physician, James Edwards, by delivering six babies. To the best of his knowledge, no one in North America had ever birthed a half-dozen children at once—certainly not in an era that knew little of fertility treatments.

Edwards considered it a historic moment. Jennie did not. To his surprise, both the mother and father of the three boys and three girls begged him not to tell another soul. They made the same plea to the midwife, Prissilla Bancroft.

To the Bushnells, there was little joy in ushering six children into the world. It was a freak occurrence, and Jennie was terrified the world would treat them accordingly.

There’s no easily excavated record of when James Bushnell met Jennie, the British-born French actress who would become his wife. What is known is that after spending a portion of the 1850s and 1860s in Lockport, New York, James arrived in Chicago with Jennie and the two set about starting a family.

Their physician, Edwards, had quizzed the couple about their family heritage and discovered there was a history of multiple births: When Jennie became pregnant, Edwards had some expectation that she might eventually nurse twins or even triplets. But sextuplets were nowhere to be found in English medical literature. The competition for nourishment and life support in the womb was difficult for multiple babies, with complications and premature births lasting well into the 21^st century. Six seemed out of the question.

Against the odds, Jennie had her miraculous delivery. But she was struck by an abject fear that the children would be perceived as unusual or even as monstrosities, much in the same way carnival sideshow acts were often exploited for their atypical nature. Somewhere in Jennie’s life, it had been instilled in her that only animals gave birth to “litters” of offspring. The sheer volume she had produced made her feel like a beast.

Although Edwards and Bancroft were sworn to silence, Edwards had a duty to file an official birth certificate. After deliberating for a week, he finally wrote one up, mentioning all six children, and gave a copy to the Bushnells. (Although some news reports give the birth year as 1863, Edwards’s report is dated 1866.) No one in Chicago seemed to bat an eye; it’s possible the certificate was simply tucked away in the city’s logs without being examined.

The Bushnells had a larger problem: They didn’t want the children themselves to know they were part of an exceptional birth. Before a solution presented itself, the family was struck by tragedy—one of the boys, Layeburto, died at just four months. A girl, Linca Lucy, passed away at eight months. With four children left, Jennie and James put forward a story that they were quadruplets. It seemed to take most of the concern away from Jennie, who feared they could be harmed by people who considered the birth some kind of evil aberration.

The Bushnells and their four children—Alincia, Alice, Alberto, and Norberto—went on to live as though Layeburto and Linca Lucy had never existed. Close relatives knew the truth, but the children seemed satisfied with their mother’s explanation. (Happening upon their birth certificate was not going to be possible: their home burned down as part of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, taking their copy of the paper with it.) The family migrated to Buffalo and later back to Lockport, New York, where James found work as a grocer, before moving into bookkeeping at other towns nearby. The children grew into teenagers, unaware that the four of them once numbered six.

Around 1881, Jennie fell ill. It became clear she was not going to recover. One by one, she called each of her 15-year-old children to her to say goodbye and share the truth: that they once had another brother and sister.

“It was a well-kept family secret, and when Mother told us the truth, we were stunned,” Alincia told an NBC radio reporter in the 1940s. Interviewed for the same program, her brother, Alberto, said that Jennie revised history so “people wouldn’t think of us as freaks.”

Those siblings weren’t bothered by the secret or its revelation, but their sister, Alice, was. According to Alincia, Alice shared her mother’s opinion that having six children was like having a litter.

History would eventually prove there had been some substance behind Jennie’s concerns. In 1934, a woman named Elzire Dionne gave birth to quintuplets—five girls who survived the precarious nature of multiple births and subsequently found themselves under a magnifying glass. Their father wanted to exhibit them; Ontario seized them as wards of the state and turned the hospital they lived in into a glorified tourist attraction where they were viewed in the manner Jennie had feared—like circus animals. An estimated three million people made the trek to see them before a custody battle eventually returned them to their parents.

When Alberto spoke with the Daily Messenger in 1936 about the Dionne hysteria that was already brewing, he revealed that a circus promoter named Dan Rice once made similar overtures to his family; Jennie had refused to ever consider such an arrangement. Alberto also insisted that Queen Victoria once offered to subsidize their living expenses, apparently because Jennie was a British-born citizen. If the Dionnes are any example, Jennie may have spared her children considerable distress.

After Norberto and Alberto died in 1933 and 1940, respectively, Alincia (sometimes spelled Alinca) became the oldest surviving Bushnell sextuplet until she died in 1952 at the age of 85. The following year, a physician named John Nichols wrote to Life magazine in response to a recent story about multiple births with a startling statement, one Alinca had related several years prior.

In both accounts, as well as in a 1952 Herald-Journal obituary for Alincia, it’s claimed that the sextuplets weren’t Jennie’s first experience with an unusual delivery. She had delivered triplets in Chicago in 1865, and after the sextuplets, became pregnant once more in Lockport with triplets, then again with quintuplets, for a total of 17 children. (Nichols placed the count at 16, writing that Jennie delivered quadruplets.) Of those, only four lived.

It’s hard to know for certain if Jennie did indeed have such a prolific time in the delivery room. Of the siblings, only Alincia spoke of the other births. Then again, Jennie was never one to share more than she absolutely had to.

A few special design features make the new Public Safety Answering Center in the Bronx remarkable. In addition to serving as a blast-resistant emergency shelter, the building also houses a “living wall” that cleanses and enriches the air, FastCo.Exist reports.

The green wall of plants is a collaboration between RPI’s Center for Architecture, Science, and Ecology (CASE), the architects at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), and engineers at AECOM. The 911 call center isn’t the first building to feature a plant wall, but this one does have one major distinction: the lack of dirt. The Active Modular Phytoremediation, or AMP wall, relies on hydroponics instead of soil to flourish. This makes the installation a natural air purifier as well as an appealing piece of interior design.

Having a sustainable air filtration system built in was an important consideration when designing the call center; the idea is that the AMP wall will keep air inside the building fresh in case it’s ever shut off from the outside during a disaster. The boost in air quality employees enjoy on a daily basis is an added bonus.

This living wall cleans the air inside New York’s new emergency center. #LivingWalls https://t.co/oSC3oDLnEH pic.twitter.com/swnXkTwlO7

— Plant Solutions (@plantsolutions) July 20, 2016

[h/t FastCo.Exist]

All images: SOM // Instagram

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What do newspaper headline type and the New Deal have to do with the Oakland Raiders and Philadelphia Eagles? Here are the stories behind the nicknames of the NFL’s 32 teams—and what they were almost called.

ARIZONA CARDINALS

The franchise began play in Chicago in 1898 before moving to St. Louis in 1960 and Arizona in 1988. Team owner Chris O’Brien purchased used and faded maroon jerseys from the University of Chicago in 1901 and dubbed the color of his squad’s new outfits “cardinal red.” A nickname was born. The team adopted the cardinal bird as part of its logo as early as 1947 and first featured a cardinal head on its helmets in 1960.

ATLANTA FALCONS

Shortly after insurance executive Rankin Smith brought professional football to Atlanta, a local radio station sponsored a contest to name the team. Thirteen hundred people combined to suggest more than 500 names, including Peaches, Vibrants, Lancers, Confederates, Firebirds, and Thrashers. While several fans submitted the nickname Falcons, schoolteacher Julia Elliott of nearby Griffin was declared the winner of the contest for the reason she provided. “The falcon is proud and dignified, with great courage and fight,” Elliott wrote. “It never drops its prey. It is deadly and has great sporting tradition.” Elliott won four season tickets for three years and a football autographed by the entire 1966 inaugural team.

BALTIMORE RAVENS

Ravens, a reference to Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem, beat out Americans and Marauders in a contest conducted by the Baltimore Sun. Poe died and is buried in Baltimore.

Continue reading “What’s in a Nickname? The Origins of All 32 NFL Team Names”