fact
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries—the golden age of Spiritualism—many authors claimed they communicated with the departed while drafting their books. Here are six of these haunted works, which remain widely accessible today.
Fifty years before Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci tackled Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow (1999), Bing Crosby narrated the Gothic horror story for Walt Disney in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. For many, it’s become a Halloween staple on par with It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Here are a few things you may not have known about the creepy classic.
In 1946, Disney animators at work on an animated version of Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow realized they didn’t have enough material for the full-length feature they had planned. Rather than stretch the storyline thin, they decided to couple the short with another movie that was originally slated to be a full-length film: The Wind in the Willows. Work on the adaptation of the Kenneth Grahame book had been halted when World War II broke out, allocating Disney’s resources and budgets elsewhere.
Animator Andreas Deja has said that Gaston, the macho villain from Beauty and the Beast, was influenced by Katrina Van Tassel’s burly suitor. “[Brom] is a rich character, full of confidence and full of himself. Milt’s animation shows just the right amount of dash and bounce. Although the style of the film is pretty cartoony, Brom Bones’s physique required careful and somewhat realistic draftsmanship in terms of anatomy … This was great inspiration for myself, when I started work on Gaston in Beauty and the Beast.”
Despite the wholesome, family entertainment reputations upheld by both parties, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is the only time Bing Crosby and Disney worked together.
Before Crosby signed on, voiceover artist and longtime Disney collaborator Thurl Ravenscroft was tapped to sing the “Headless Horseman” song, even recording a version that’s decidedly creepier than Bing’s. The Ravenscroft rendition was later released on Walt Disney Records Archive Collection, Vol. 1. Ravenscroft, of course, also went on to sing “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.”
When The Legend of Sleepy Hollow made its television debut on the Disneyland TV show in 1955, it included a new 14-minute animated segment about the life and times of author Washington Irving. It hasn’t been made available to the public since, but you can see a bit of the intro above.
Though the cartoon (and most of the other Sleepy Hollow adaptations) leaves Ichabod’s fate rather murky, Washington Irving’s novel is more blunt: Ichabod survives the encounter, goes on to become a lawyer, and becomes a justice of the Ten Pound Court.
Though the cartoon hints that Brom Bones was masquerading as the Headless Horseman in order to scare Ichabod away from Katrina, Irving spells it out a little more in his original work: “Brom Bones, too, who, shortly after his rival’s disappearance conducted the blooming Katrina in triumph to the altar, was observed to look exceedingly knowing whenever the story of Ichabod was related, and always burst into a hearty laugh at the mention of the pumpkin; which led some to suspect that he knew more about the matter than he chose to tell.”
Walt Disney’s nine legendary animators all helped bring Ichabod and the Headless Horseman to life. Most of them served as directing animators, with Les Clark serving as an animator.
Composer Oliver Wallace worked for Disney for 27 years, contributing work to more than 100 projects. As he wrote the score for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Wallace recorded himself whistling to show how Ichabod was trying to keep his composure even as the spooky sounds of the forest make him more and more hysterical.
Ub Iwerks, co-creator of Mickey Mouse, split with longtime friend and collaborator Walt Disney and opened his own studio in 1930. Among Iwerks’s long list of shorts was The Headless Horseman (1934), a 10-minute film made with his own creation, the multiplane camera. By 1940, he and Disney had resolved their differences, and Iwerks found himself back on the payroll, eventually working on the visual effects crew for The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. You can check out his 1934 efforts below to see which one you prefer:
Though Disney shorts don’t get as much representation at the theme parks as the blockbusters do, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow makes the cut. Sleepy Hollow Refreshments at the Magic Kingdom serves waffle sandwiches, funnel cakes, and ice cream sandwiches—but what the hungry people standing in line probably don’t realize is that the building is an homage to author Washington Irving. It was designed to look like Sunnyside, his former residence in Tarrytown, New York (also known as Sleepy Hollow).
Additional source: The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation
October 27, 2016 – 10:00am
From underwater dog photography to morbid anatomy, there’s a calendar theme out there to suit every taste. If you’re feeling overwhelmed with calendar options as the new year approaches, consider a simpler choice for 2017. The DodeCal, recently featured by WIRED, fits all 365 days of the year into a wooden package.
The finished product may look simplistic, but the work required to make it a reality was anything but. Ric Bell, designer and head of the London studio Post, knew he wanted to engrave a calendar onto a 12-sided shape, but dodecahedrons usually consist of 12 equal pentagons. To avoid the awkwardness of printing a square calendar on a five-sided plane, he decided to go with a rhombic-dodecahedron instead.
Carving a 3D shape with 12 four-sided diamond faces was exceedingly tricky. He enlisted the help of a toy maker and a furniture maker with a degree in math to get the final design just right: The result is one visually striking paperweight.
After retailing for about $96, the first 100 DodeCals quickly sold out. Early holiday shoppers can sign up online to be included on the preorder list for the calendar’s second edition.
[h/t WIRED]
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October 27, 2016 – 9:00am
For hundreds of years, black cats in many countries have been given a bad rap due to the suspicion that they work with witches. But while we know now these dark-haired felines aren’t bad omens, it sometimes feels that way. Throw superstition to the wind in time for National Black Cat Day on October 27 with these tales of unlucky but endearing black cats.
Unlike the internet’s modern love for cats, felines haven’t always been revered as cuddly pets worth worshipping. During the Middle Ages, cats were regularly victims of cruelty, often in the form of beatings and burnings as a way to rid evil from communities. Black cats were heavily targeted since their dark coats were considered symbols of their allegiance to witches, demons, and the devil. Many towns created annual holidays to cleanse the streets of cats—in Ypres, Belgium, cats were thrown from church bell towers and set on fire each May 2 until 1817. It wasn’t uncommon for French courimauds—cat chasers—to set cats ablaze before chasing them through the street and distributing the ashy remains to townsfolk for good luck.
PORTRAIT OF HENRY WRIOTHESLEY, 3RD EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON (1573-1624) BY JOHN DE CRITZ.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS // PUBLIC DOMAIN
Trixie wasn’t sentenced to the Tower of London’s horrors, but she did do time with a purpose: keeping a friend-turned-owner alive. Henry Wriothesley, the Third Earl of Southampton, had been imprisoned in 1601 after supporting a rebellion against Queen Elizabeth. His time in the tower was spent with little food and taxing surroundings, but somehow Trixie, the cat supposedly painted into his portrait, developed a skill for smuggling Henry food, wiggling down a chimney to deliver scraps. The two became companions, spending two years in confinement together until they were released in 1603. While the tale of Trixie is well known, historians aren’t quite sure it’s true, and instead believe the cat featured in Henry’s portrait is a symbol with an unknown meaning.
Scientist Gustavus Katterfelto was considered by many to be a quack during the mid-1700s, and his trickery involving black cats might have had something to do with it. Katterfelto often drew viewers to his lectures and performances by advertising his “Famous Moroccan Black Cat,” only to reveal to the crowds that his cat was not evil at all. He took to using magic tricks and deception to hide the cat or a slew of black kittens into audience members’ pockets, snatching watches and money as he placed the kittens, or playing other pranks.
Edgar Allan Poe is known for his macabre tales, but his muse—a black cat—was supposedly the inspiration for one famous tale. “The Black Cat” tells the story of a drunkard who abuses a pet cat and kills his wife. While Poe adored cats throughout his life, his most famous being a tortoiseshell named Catarina, Poe knew that the strange activities of black cats were symbols of something much deeper: “the boundary between instinct and reason is of a very shadowy nature.”
Trim was a black cat best known for circumnavigating Australia with his companion Captain Matthew Flinders between 1801 and 1803. Flinders is credited with charting the southern continent, but in 1804 he was taken prisoner by the French in Mauritius. During that time, Trim went missing, and Flinders believed he suffered a horrible fate not worthy of a seafaring cat: being caught and eaten by hungry slaves. In a poem, Flinders memorialized Trim as “the best and most illustrious of his race, the most affectionate of friends, faithful of servants, and best of creatures,” and at least two different statues stand as tribute to the noble cat.
Most cats don’t like water. Unfortunately for Unsinkable Sam, he faced three separate instances where swimming was his only option. Sam was originally a German pet named Oscar who spent time aboard the Axis battleship Bismarck. But in May 1941, the ship sank and poor Oscar, floating on a plank, was rescued by the HMS Cossack. Along with his new allegiance, Oscar got a new name—Sam—and boosted ship morale until October of that same year, when the Cossack was torpedoed. Sam’s next assignment on the HMS Ark Royal ended within a month when the aircraft carrier was also torpedoed. After surviving all three attacks, Sam retired his sea legs for life on dry land before dying of natural causes in 1955.
In 1982, Blackie the Talking Cat was a bit of a sideshow act in Augusta, Georgia. His owners, Carl and Elaine Miles, reportedly trained the cat to meow phrases such as “l love you” and “I want my mama.” The couple charged “donations” for the curious act, but after weeks of moneymaking, their gig came to a halt when they were told a business license was required to continue profiting from Blackie’s talents. Despite purchasing a license, the Mileses sued the city of Augusta claiming free speech rights—and they lost, with a judge determining that Blackie wasn’t a person and therefore didn’t have his rights violated. Though, the judge did concede that Blackie was a pretty convincing oddity.
One British kitty learned how dangerous farm equipment can be when he lost his two rear legs to a combine harvester in 2009. Poor Oscar had a turn of luck when a veterinarian considered him a candidate for prosthetic legs. At first, Oscar’s owners felt odd about trying out the experiment (which cost at least £20,000), but were advised that it was the cat’s best chance for survival. Now deemed the “bionic cat” since adapting to his new legs, Oscar has become the star of a book and documentary exploring his near-death experience.
A Connecticut cat was the first feline to be placed on house arrest in 2006 after neighbors accused him of continued stalking and attacks. After multiple complaints, animal control personnel issued a restraining order against Lewis, requiring him to remain indoors or within a cage if outdoors. But after an escape and another attack, Lewis’s owner was arrested and charged with failure to comply with a restraining order and reckless endangerment. A court determined that Lewis could avoid euthanasia and keep his claws if he remained indoors, though his owner was required to perform 50 hours of community service.
In 2015, a black and white cat by the name of Bart was deemed the “Zombie Cat” (and also the “Miracle Cat”) after emerging from his shallow grave. After being hit by a car, Bart was believed dead and buried by a friend of his owner. But five days later, severely injured and dehydrated, Bart clawed his way out of the grave and was discovered by a neighbor who sought help. But poor Bart’s bad luck didn’t end there—he became the center of a well-publicized legal battle between the animal shelter where he received care and the family he belonged to. In September 2016, the Humane Society of Tampa Bay won the right to ownership, and Bart was quickly transfered to a new forever home.
It’s hard work being the UK’s Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, but some cat has got to do it. Humphrey was one of four cats given the honorary title (and duties) at the office of the Prime Minister. The large black and white feline—who was noted in one 1992 memo as being “a workaholic who spends nearly all his time at the office, has no criminal record, does not socialise a great deal or go to many parties and has not been involved in any sex or drugs scandals that we know of”—served between 1989 and 1997 during the Thatcher and Blair administrations. However, in 1994, a journalist visiting 10 Downing Street hinted that Humphrey killed a nest of robins. Humphrey’s representatives denied requests for interviews, stating “Unfortunately as Humphrey is a civil servant, he is bound by civil service rules and cannot talk to the press about his position.” It wasn’t until 2006 that a reporter fully explained the dead robin situation and called for a posthumous pardon for Humphrey.
Despite the perception that black cats are less likely to be adopted (studies by the ASPCA have shown that more black cats are adopted than any other color), it is true that more black cats are euthanized than other colors of cats. It’s mostly a numbers game: black fur is a common genetic trait for cats, meaning there are simply more black cats coming into shelters—possibly more than twice as many black cats are in the system than other lighter colors. Additionally animal organizations in the UK believe that in the age of internet sharing, black pets tend not to photograph well, and may therefore have a more difficult time being placed in homes. Blame it on selfies.
October 27, 2016 – 8:00am
Whether they were feasting on pickled oysters, jellied plums, or macaroni and cheese, the men who occupied our nation’s highest office knew how to eat well. Now, the New York City steakhouse Delmonico’s is giving diners the chance to eat like a president without receiving a special invitation from the White House. From November 1 to November 8, the historic restaurant will offer a “Presidential Palates” menu featuring meals served to commanders-in-chief spanning from Thomas Jefferson to George W. Bush.
The limited-time menu [PDF] is a collaboration between Delmonico’s executive chef Billy Oliva and former executive residence White House chef John Moeller. Guests will have their choice of meals that originated in the White House during the Bush Sr., Clinton, and Bush Jr. administrations as well as dishes served to presidents when they visited the restaurant.
Catering to customers in downtown Manhattan since 1837, Delmonico’s is the oldest fine dining restaurant in America. Its rich history and iconic reputation mean that a number of presidential clientele have passed through its doors, including Teddy Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, and John F. Kennedy. When planning out the special dinner, Chef Oliva sifted through old Delmonico’s menus from the New York Public Library to see what dishes presidents had been served in the past.
The items he chose to recreate include Turkey a la King, changed from the traditional chicken especially for John F. Kennedy, a roast duck and sweet potato bisque served to the notorious epicurean Martin Van Buren, oysters and macaroni pie served to Chester A. Arthur, and beef goulash, a Richard Nixon favorite. “Presidential Palates” even features a dish taken from Teddy Roosevelt’s Delmonico’s birthday menu: Crab “flake” a la Newberg, with cornflake crusted king crab and caviar.
For Chef Moeller’s contribution to the menu he selected special dishes served during his tenure at the White House. The Bush’s Christmas lamb chops, osso buco of salmon served to the prime minister of Italy, and Laura Bush’s favorite chocolate torte are a few of the highlights.
The culinary experience will be available alongside Delmonico’s standard menu in the week leading up to voting day on November 8. Given the divisiveness of this year’s election cycle, incredible food from bipartisan palates sounds like the perfect recipe for bringing together diners from across the aisle.
You can enjoy a sneak peek of the menu offerings below.
President Jefferson’s rice pudding with peach compote. Image credit: Paul Wagtouicz
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October 26, 2016 – 6:30pm
If you were to ask one thousand Cleveland Indians fans to name their all-time favorite player, a decent percentage might say Willie Mays Hayes or Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn. Such is the enduring appeal of Major League. Although there have been hundreds of baseball movies over the years, few have resonated so strongly with fans and players alike, or had such an impact on the game itself. As the real-life Tribe suits up for the 2016 World Series, let’s take a moment to revisit the greatest fictional team in Indians history.
“I’ve been a long-suffering Cleveland Indians fan since I was five years old,” said< /a>Major League writer-director David S. Ward. When Major League premiered in 1989, the Indians hadn’t finished a season within 11 games of first place since 1960, which is what inspired the film. “I felt at that point, if the Indians were ever going to win anything during my lifetime, I would have to write a movie where they did,” he recalled in 2016. “And obviously, given their futility at that time, it had to be a comedy.”
Although Major League is something of a love letter to Ohio’s second largest city, very few scenes were filmed there. Early on, the producers realized that it wouldn’t be easy to shoot a movie at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium while working around the Indians’s and the Browns’s schedules. “We were shooting late in the summer and the Browns were already playing pre-season games and there were football lines on the field all the time and that didn’t look real good,” Ward told ESPN. “There were also some union issues in Cleveland … So we went to Milwaukee.”
Most of Major League’s principal photography was filmed in Milwaukee, although Ward did manage to shoot the opening credits sequence in Cleveland, along with some establishing shots of Municipal Stadium. In Arizona, Tucson’s Hi Corbett Field—which was used by the Cleveland Indians from 1946 to 1992—provided the backdrop for some of the spring training scenes.
“Juuust a bit outside!” Colorful MLB player-turned-announcer (then actor) Bob Uecker was always Ward’s first choice for the role of Harry Doyle. “There was never anybody else up for this job,” Ward said. “I said, ‘Get me Uecker, I don’t care what it takes. We’ve got to have him.’ He contributed ad libs that were sensational.”
Ward actively encouraged Uecker to make up his lines on the spot. “David let me go,” Uecker once said. “He said, ‘I want you to be Harry Doyle. Say whatever comes into your head.’” Before the cameras started rolling, Uecker would be given “general directions” about whatever topic Doyle was supposed to be prattling on about. Then he’d improvise the actual dialogue. “Most of it was stuff I heard guys say in dugouts and clubhouses,” Uecker explained. “Like the line about the Pete Vuckovich character leading the American League in home runs and nose hair. Ball players rag on each other like that all the time.”
A few of Major League’s stars had at least some baseball experience under their belts. Tom Berenger (Jake Taylor) had played the game in high school, as had Corbin Bernsen (Roger Dorn). Meanwhile, Chelcie Ross (Eddie Harris) suited up for Southwest Texas State’s team during his college years. Then there was Charlie Sheen (Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn), who pitched so well as a teenager that he once received an athletic scholarship offer from the University of Kansas. “He could’ve played pro ball,” Uecker said of Sheen (who had starred in John Sayles’s Eight Men Out, about the Black Sox scandal, a year before Major League’s release).
Still, athletically gifted as some of his performers were, Ward decided that everyone could benefit from some professional assistance. So he brought on longtime Dodgers catcher Steve Yeager to organize a training camp for the actors. Under his guidance, Sheen and company fine-tuned their pitching, fielding, and hitting over the span of a few weeks.
Wesley Snipes was still a relative unknown in 1989; at that point, one of his career highlights had been starring in the iconic, Martin Scorsese-directed music video for Michael Jackson’s “Bad.” Impressed by Snipes’s performance, Spike Lee offered the actor a minor part in Do the Right Thing. The actor declined so that he could take on a much bigger role: Willie Mays Hayes in Major League. However, Lee would later cast Snipes in Mo’ Better Blues (1990) and Jungle Fever (1991). In 2010, Snipes said that he considers himself “indebted to Spike for considering me and opening me up to that world.”
Being a 1980s comedy, Major League comes with plenty of montages. These allow the film to showcase some running gags; for example, the sequences repeatedly cut to two groundskeepers who disparage the Indians at Municipal Stadium. The two were portrayed by actor Kurt Uchima and his son, Keith.
Speaking of bit players: Jeremy Piven was cast as an irritable Cleveland bench jockey—but don’t bother looking for him in the film. To shorten the run time, his scenes were deleted. “I have the claim to fame of cutting a future star,” Ward jokes on the DVD commentary.
Best known today as 24’s President David Palmer and Allstate’s resident celebrity spokesman, Dennis Haysbert exudes an air of mystery in Major League as the Cuban-born slugger Pedro Cerrano. The character was loosely based on some real-life MLB stars—brothers Matty, Jesus, and Felipe Alou—who briefly became teammates as members of the San Francisco Giants. It was rumored (though never confirmed) that the three were deeply superstitious and would talk to their bats, just as Cerrano does onscreen.
During the shoot, Haysbert proved to be a talented ballplayer, as well as a great actor. Whenever the script called for his character to hit a homer, he actually did. “Every home run I was supposed to hit out, I hit out,” Haysbert said in the DVD documentary My Kinda Team: Making Major League. He kept this streak going through the climactic sequence, which sees Cerrano knock one out of the park at the bottom of the seventh. During the take, Haysbert sent the ball flying over the left field fence at Milwaukee County Stadium. His co-stars were awestruck. “Everyone stopped and applauded,” Ward told Sports Illustrated.
Question: If Rachel Phelps, the Indians’s ex-showgirl owner (played by Margaret Whitton) wanted the team to stink, why didn’t she just fire her manager? Or send her best players down to the minors? Or cut the club’s rising stars? The theatrical version of Major League never explains this glaring plot hole, but there’s a deleted scene that does. In the original script, the Indians manager confronts Phelps right before the huge playoff game against the Yankees. Calmly, she reveals that she secretly cares about the club and hoped they’d win all along. Moreover, Phelps claims to have personally scouted all of the players (except Hayes, whom she calls “a surprise”). “They all had flaws which concealed their real talent, or I wouldn’t have been able to get them,” Phelps tells the manager. “But I knew if anyone could straighten them out, you could. And if you tell them any of this, I will fire you.”
The scene was shot and incorporated into the first cut of the film. Once test audiences saw it, they didn’t react well to Major League’s third act twist. By the movie’s end, viewers had come to love hating Phelps. So in accordance with their wishes, Ward and producer Chris Chesser deleted the owner’s redemption scene. This forced them to re-shoot parts of the final Yankees sequence. Footage of Phelps cheering on the Indians was hastily replaced with new clips that showed her sneering, cussing, and—most memorably—criticizing Vaughn’s entry music.
“Let’s just say I was enhancing my performance a little bit,” Sheen revealed in a 2011 interview. The actor claims that he took PEDs for roughly “six or eight weeks” while Major League was being made. “It was the only time I ever did steroids … My fastball went from 79 to like 85.”
Since its release in the spring of 1989, Major League has given rise to the modern trend of MLB closers choosing their own entrance songs as they strut out onto the field.
Relief pitcher Mitch Williams drew Sheen’s ire when he adopted the nickname “Wild Thing” and changed his jersey number from 28 to 99—which happened to be Ricky Vaughn’s number. On top of all that, he chose the hit Troggs song “Wild Thing” as his personal theme, just like a certain Major League character did. Instead of seeing Williams’s antics as a tribute, Sheen felt that they stole his thunder. “I was pissed for years at Mitch Williams and said he never gave me credit,” the actor once fumed.
Shrine to Jobu erected between Mike Napoli and Jason Kipnis’ locker. pic.twitter.com/MuuNDUKBDf
— paul hoynes (@hoynsie) June 22, 2016
Maybe the Indians should thank Pedro Cerrano for their recent winning ways. This past summer, second baseman Jason Kipnis and first baseman Mike Napoli converted an empty locker in the team clubhouse into a shrine to Jobu, the fictional deity Cerrano worships. Their ensemble includes a tiny figurine of the religious figure, along with a sweater that quotes Pedro’s famous line, “It’s very bad to steal Jobu’s rum.” Evidently, this shrine is having the desired effect. “We’ve had Jobu there for a little bit,” Kipnis said after a win in late June, “He’s been working. He didn’t like the airport vodka we left him. So we tried Bacardi and that seems to be working.”
October 26, 2016 – 6:00pm
Happy Bat Week! If you’ve already hung up your bat-themed garlands and are looking for other ways to celebrate, we’ve got you covered with two brand-new live streams of vampire and fruit bats at the Cranbrook Institute of Science.
Bats are important contributors to our planet. In addition to eating tons of disease-carrying mosquitoes and other bugs, they also pollinate plants—including agave, without which we wouldn’t have tequila. (So, thank a bat for that margarita.)
Many bats are small and fluffy. Some tilt their heads like puppies when hunting bugs. Some even sing to their mates. If none of this has convinced you that bats are great, then head right to the video and see them for yourself.
Tip: Unlike wild bats, the ones at Cranbrook are diurnal, which means it’ll be more fun to watch them during the day.
The fruit bat colony includes a Malayan flying fox, straw-colored fruit bats, and Egyptian fruit bats:
And your classic vampire bats:
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October 26, 2016 – 5:30pm
The Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn is filled with chemicals, waste, and junk. But for those interested in New York’s past, its murky depths might also contain intriguing historical debris. Over the next four weeks, The Village Voice reports, cleanup workers will dredge 36 large items from the water, including two wrecked ships and a fallen tree. Onlookers who swing by the canal’s Fourth Street Turning Basin might be able to catch a glimpse of these forgotten artifacts for themselves before the contractors finally dispose of them.
This project marks the pilot stage of a multi-year endeavor to rid the notoriously filthy Gowanus Canal of its toxins and debris. Built in the mid-19th century, the nearly 2-mile-long body of water was once used as an industrial transportation hub that emptied into New York Harbor. Over the decades, it became severely contaminated with waste from factories, chemical plants, and nearby sewer systems. Today, the Gowanus Canal is considered to be one of America’s most toxic bodies of water. To tackle the pollution head-on, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designated it as a Superfund site and called for an ambitious, multi-million dollar cleanup initiative.
The EPA used sonar to locate large items, like a 63-foot sunken ship that was once used to ferry passengers to Fire Island, and a floating sculpture that sank in 2015. Over the next month, contractors will pull them out of the water, use a barge to transport them to a staging area near Smith and Huntington streets, and then dispose of them. (Ultimately, the final graveyards of these items will be determined by how toxic they are.) None of the items are expected to be historically significant, but there “might be some surprises,” the EPA’s community involvement coordinator Natalie Loney told DNAinfo.
Once all the debris is finally removed from the basin, cleanup crews will dredge contaminated sediment out of the basin, take steps to ensure that remaining toxins can’t leak out, and then focus their attentions on other sections of the canal. The entire project is expected to be completed by 2022.
[h/t The Village Voice]
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October 26, 2016 – 5:00pm
A majority of people in the U.S. with mental health issues aren’t getting help, according to Mental Health America’s newly released rankings of all 50 states and Washington, D.C. However, not all states were equally bad for those suffering from mental illness, as The Huffington Post reports. The study found that Nevada was the worst at addressing the mental health needs of its residents. Connecticut ranked No. 1.
The research found that out of 40 million Americans with mental health concerns, 56 percent of adults aren’t receiving treatment for their conditions. The rankings were determined according to 15 measures of publicly available data on the number of adults and young people with mental illness or addiction issues in each state, as well as the rates of treatment, insurance coverage, medical costs, and the availability of mental health providers.
Nevada’s poor showing in the rankings reflects the lack of treatment rates for adults with mental illness and a shortage of available mental health professionals to provide that treatment. More than 67 percent of adults with mental health issues in the state aren’t receiving treatment, and there is only one mental health worker per 570 people. The rates of young people not receiving treatment for depression were even worse, at almost 72 percent.
But even the best states aren’t doing great. The current best state for mental health treatment, Connecticut, only has a little more than 50 percent of its mentally ill adult population in treatment, and one mental health worker for every 300 people.
“It isn’t just about what states are red and what states are blue,” Mental Health America CEO Paul Gionfriddo said in a press release accompanying the rankings. There are left-leaning states and right-leaning states on either end of the list. “But political environments in states do seem to matter,” he said. “Those that invest more in mental health clearly have to throw away less money on jails and prisons.” Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama had the least access to mental health care in the rankings (Alabama has one mental health worker for every 1200 people), and in turn, the highest rates of imprisonment. There are 57,000 prisoners with mental health conditions in those three states.
[h/t The Huffington Post]
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October 26, 2016 – 4:30pm
Ever wonder why some homes sell in a day and others linger for months? We’ve got tips from the experts to get your place off the market, stat.
A fresh coat of paint for your front door sets the tone of a well kept, updated place, says Julea Joseph, lead stylist and owner of Reinventing Space, based in Palos Park, Illinois. Joseph likes a line of paint by Benjamin Moore called Grand Entrance (it comes in 11 colors), which was designed specifically for the front door. “I always choose a color that makes a bit of a statement, yet complements the home’s existing exterior colors,” she says.
First, prep the door by cleaning it and give it a light sanding to smooth out any old paint lines. Use a good brush to apply the paint.
Buying new cabinetry is expensive, and full custom cabinetry can take months to complete. But you can update your existing cabinets by painting them white, says Sheri Schueller, broker associate with Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty in Chicago. Schueller also suggests painting the island cabinetry gray (she recommends Benjamin Moore’s Kendall Grey), which will contrast nicely with the white.
The most luxurious homes have Calacatta gold marble kitchen countertops, but if you’re updating for a sale, Schueller says to consider swapping out old granite with less expensive marble that has a similar look. “Carrera marble is one of my favorites for a more reasonable cost,” she says.
The focal point of any master bedroom is the bed, and the bedding has to look magazine-worthy, like something you’d want to jump right into, Joseph says. “People buy homes because they fall in love with them, so make that master bedroom an emotional statement with an irresistible bed,” she says. A duvet cover set will allow you to slipcover your existing comforter and a few of your pillows.
To make your bed look irresistibly cozy, create layers by adding another comforter folded at the end of the bed, plenty of pillows, and a few accent pillows, Joseph says. If you don’t have a headboard, or if your headboard isn’t a statement maker, a few Euro-size pillows (26×25) will fill the gap. And Joseph says you should never be able to see under a bed or to see sheets hanging down, so if needed, use a bed-skirt and proper bed-styling on days your broker takes photos or shows the house.
Homes listed on Thursdays sell faster and for more money than homes listed on other days of the week, according to a 2015 study by Redfin. Redfin’s study shows homes listed on a Thursday have a 22 percent chance of selling above list price (compared to the 17.5 percent chance they have when listed on a Sunday).
You never know when your broker might call you about scheduling a last-minute showing, so you need to be prepared, says Greg Jaroszewski, real estate broker with Gagliardo Realty in Oak Park, Illinois. “The beds should always be made and the dishes should never be left in the sink,” he says.
If you’re willing to have an open house, do it within the first week: The Redfin study found that holding an open house during the first week that the home is listed will help your home sell for 2 percent more than what it would sell for if you held your open house later. It will also help you sell your home within 90 days.
Your home will sell up to three weeks faster if your pictures are amazing, and you’ll get $3400 more for it, according to Redfin.
Your photographer should take a minimum of 40 pictures, and some should include the community, says Michael Mahon, president of First Team Real Estate in California. For example, if your home is near a beach, make sure the photographer includes a picture of the surf. If it’s near a popular shopping mall, include a photo of the mall, Mahon says.
Your house will get five times more visits the first day it hits the market than it does a week later, which means everything has to be perfect the first day. Testing the waters with a higher price and planning on a price drop later could scare away prospective buyers.
October 26, 2016 – 4:00pm
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