Month: October 2016

The Real Texas Chainsaw Massacre: How Ed Gein Inspired Classic Horror Movies. Psycho and Silence of the Lambs also were inspired by the real life killer.
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Hurricane Matthew Prompts South Carolina To Evacuate 1 Million. Georgia and Florida has declared states of emergency, too.
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This Is How To Tell If You’re In An Abusive Relationship. If you feel the need to erase your browser history after reading this, that’s another sign.
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The Unmasking of Elena Ferrante: Journalistically Defensible, Perhaps, But Morally Questionable. Does an author have a right to remain private?
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The Science Behind Senior Moments. Just as I thought, it happens when your brain gets full.
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Cat Scratch Fever’s Not Just an Infectious Song. Cat Scratch Disease is transmitted from fleas to cats to people.  
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The fascinating science of rainbows. They can tell us a lot about the world around us.
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The Haunted Hospital. Waverly Hills Sanitarium in Kentucky has seen more than its share of death.

City authorities in Istanbul, Turkey have immortalized a beloved neighborhood street cat by installing a bronze statue in his honor, The Independent reports.

Tombili (roughly translated as “chubby” in Turkish) was a tubby grey-and-white tabby known locally for his relaxed attitude, and worldwide for lounging on a set of sidewalk steps in the city’s Ziverbey section. The cat became famous online after a picture of him in repose circulated on social media. The much-adored feline died on August 1, 2016, following a mysterious month-long illness.

Locals mourned Tombili, and posted street flyers that read, “You will live on in our hearts, mascot of our street,” the Hurriyet Daily News reports. But some people wanted to erect a more permanent homage to the feline, and they launched a Change.org petition asking local officials to make it happen.

The petition garnered 17,000 signatures, and the Kadıköy Municipality gave Turkish artist Seval Şahin the green light to sculpt Tombili in his favorite position: sprawled on the pavement with one arm propping up his pudgy torso.

The statue was unveiled on October 4—World Animal Day—and visitors left food, flowers, and candles to pay tribute to the mellow kitty. Check out a few pictures of the sculpture below.

Sculpture of #Istanbul’s social media phenomenon #cat ‘Tombili’ is inaugurated today on #WorldAnimalDay. https://t.co/W7wVXRWbLQ pic.twitter.com/bGdbinajjB

— Turkey PM Press&Info (@ByegmENG) October 4, 2016

#Tombili the meme #cat honored with statue in #Turkey https://t.co/S0NmHAFZGX #catlovers #WorldAnimalDay pic.twitter.com/9KSFOADE15

— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) October 4, 2016

Got to see #Tombili!!! #istanbul #travel pic.twitter.com/0GDVpsxjsB

— Michelle J Brohier (@mjbrohier) October 4, 2016

[h/t The Independent]

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Stories of the Yeti have fascinated people for centuries. A ravaging creature similar to Bigfoot, the Yeti remains one of world culture’s most enduring legends. You might not believe the bipedal monster exists, but a few eyewitness accounts could sway your opinion. Here are a few of the places the creature has been spotted.

1. THE HIMALAYAS

Many Yeti tales originate in the Himalayas, the snow-capped mountains near India. In 1925, a photographer was hiking as part of a British expedition when he saw an unusual figure more than 300 yards away. Naked, it disappeared before the man could snap a picture. Heading down, he noticed five-toed footprints in the snow—indicating a conspicuous lack of footwear considering the elements. The photographer later declared he believed what he had seen was the Yeti.

2. SIBERIA

In 2011, a team of Yeti explorers combing Siberian terrain announced they had made a startling discovery: some strands of hair and footprints they believed belonged to the creature. The hairs were found in a cave—possibly the elusive prey’s home—along with a makeshift bed. Despite a lack of conclusive evidence, tourism to the cave in the Kemerovo region soared after the announcement.

3. NEPAL

An American television program, featuring Expedition Unknown’s Josh Gates, was filming in 2007 when the production staff came across intriguing footprints near the Manju River in the Khumbu region: all were oversized. The team captured molds of the prints, and one cast now resides at a popular theme park.

4. MOUNT EVEREST

In 1951, a group of mountaineers looking to reach the summit of Mount Everest spotted a series of strange footprints in the snow more than 16,000 feet up. The prints were said to be twice as wide as a normal human’s. Using ice picks and boots to identify their scale, the crew took some of the highest-quality photographs ever released of what could be the Yeti’s tracks. The originals fetched more than $8000 during a 2014 auction.

5. SOVIET CENTRAL ASIA

In 1988, Ukrainian researchers paid a visit to the Pamir Mountains near the Afghanistan border. While there, they insisted they were roughly 100 feet away from a genuine Yeti. The creature emerged after the team had set up a camp for the night, lurking in the background before wandering away. 

6. WESTERN SIBERIA

In what remains one of the most intimate encounters with the creature reported to date, a Soviet scientist claimed in 1988 that she came face-to-face with the Yeti during a Siberian expedition. The researcher and her companions had settled into a cabin overnight when they heard a commotion. Stepping outside, they described seeing a six-foot, seven-inch creature covered in fur and sporting red eyes. Standing just 16 feet away, the beast was scared off when her dog began barking and chasing after it. 

Join the search for the Yeti with host Josh Gates on Expedition Unknown: Hunt for the Yeti, all new tonight at 9/8c only on Travel Channel.

It can be hard to imagine an Internet before Outlook, much less before Facebook, but such a world did exist. Those domains, however, didn’t go unused. Facebook.com was owned by AboutFace, a directory database company, while Outlook.com belonged to a technology consultant named Andrew M. Seybold, who ran a newsletter called “Andrew Seybold’s Outlook on Communications and Computing.”

EssayRoo, an Australian essay-writing service, put together a visual history of famous domains like Dropbox.com, Uber.com, Bing.com, and iCloud.com, with screenshots of what those sites looked like before they were taken over by the companies that made them household names.

Hopefully, the original owners got paid handsomely for their domain investments, considering how much a successful company’s can be worth. For instance, Google paid about $6000 to a man that the company accidentally sold its domain to in 2015, so we know that a good URL is worth bank, even if you, like one-time Google.com owner Sanmay Ved, only have it for one minute.

Know of something you think we should cover? Email us at tips@mentalfloss.com.

If you visited an older, well-established McDonald’s franchise during the latter part of the 1990s—specifically one of the corporation’s two-story restaurants boasting a “McDonald’s PlayLand”—you may have noticed some odd shapes and unfamiliar characters featured on the playground’s equipment. This was long before ball pits: The cornerstone of many a PlayLand (today referred to as a “PlayPlace”) was a huge blue-painted tower, topped by a pod that approximated a Big Mac sandwich with painted eyes and a hat that functioned as a climb-in jail, and an assortment of individual carousel horses sporting the head of a hamburger, a Filet-O-Fish sandwich, or other colorful craniums reminiscent of shaggy pom-poms with large, soulful eyes.

These outdated PlayLands featured aspects (or integrated whole character pieces) of characters from “McDonaldland”: A mass-market television campaign, launched in 1971, that established a fictional universe which was inhabited by Ronald McDonald and his comrades. Although advertising then was chock-full of colorful characters like Ronald McDonald—this was, after all, around the time that Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble began hawking Pebbles, and the Kool-Aid man started busting through walls—concocting an entire fictional world for the purpose of selling a product was a different story. This ingeniously effective format targeted kids at a very early age, introducing them to various McDonald’s menu items with the assistance of friendly mascots beyond Ronald McDonald—a character that, according to McDonald’s, “is second only to Santa Claus in terms of [brand] recognition … 96% of all schoolchildren in the United States of America recognize Ronald.”

COOKING UP MCDONALDLAND

In 1970-71, at the behest of the McDonald’s Corporation, the advertising agency Needham, Harper & Steers created a fantastic imaginary world they dubbed McDonaldland, and a cast of characters to populate it: Officer Big Mac, Grimace (a revision of a character who was once a four-armed villain), the Hamburglar, Mayor McCheese, the [Mad] Professor, Captain Crook and, of course, Ronald McDonald. The agency generated these characters and their world out of essentially nothing, using the McDonaldland Brand Specification Manual.

THE TOYS

It’s probably no surprise that a line of toys would follow McDonald’s uber-successful ad campaign. In 1976, Remco (then a subsidiary of Azrak-Hamway International) produced a line of 6-inch-tall action figures to celebrate the iconic McDonaldland characters.

Remco was infamous for cobbling together inferior action figures in record time, but the McDonaldland action figures stood out against the company’s simple fare. The fully poseable dolls had multi-piece cloth outfits with stenciled and dyed fabric details, hard and soft plastic outfit accoutrements, and, with the exception of Grimace and Ronald, an interesting character-specific accessory. (Officer Big Mac had a badge, for example, while Mayor McCheese came with glasses and a sash.) Each toy also included a small protruding lever on its back that, when manipulated, would cause the character’s head to bob up-and-down or side-to-side (for all except Grimace). The high-quality pieces were Remco’s crowning achievement during the 1970s.

Ronald McDonald
McDonald’s primary mascot, a proud inhabitant of the fantasy world of McDonaldland, Ronald was first created and portrayed by television personality Willard Scott in 1963. Scott (a local radio host who also played Bozo the Clown on WRC-TV in Washington D.C. from 1959 to 1962) performed while using the name “Ronald McDonald, the Hamburger-Happy Clown” in three television commercials.

Ronald’s Remco action figure had high-quality rooted red hair and a body with red limbs, painted red hands, non-removable oversized shoes and molded socks. He wore a yellow clown jumpsuit with red-and-white-striped sleeves and non-removable dickey that had three functional vinyl pockets, and the jumpsuit could be snapped on or removed.

Officer Big Mac
With a double-decker head based on what would one day become the most iconic fast food sandwich in history—the McDonaldland advertising campaign was established in 1971, a mere three years after the Big Mac sandwich was introduced nationally—Remco’s Officer Big Mac was dressed to resemble a member of the Keystone Cops and replicated the silent film stars’ incompetence. As McDonaldland’s Chief of Police, Officer Big Mac’s appointed task was to prevent Captain Crook and the Hamburglar from stealing Filet-O-Fish and hamburger sandwiches, respectively.

The head of the Remco action figure was rendered in a soft plastic similar to that of a squeaky toy, and came with a silver whistle; plastic belt with the “M” logo; blue overcoat with decorative silver buttons and a hemmed collar; blue pants with elastic waistband and cuffs; and a silver fabric “star” label. Although the costume was removable, the character’s shoes were not, so anyone undressing the figure would have to take care—the delicate fabric tended to snag and pull.

Captain Crook (a.k.a. The Captain)
Based on the designs of Disney’s Captain Hook from Peter Pan (1953), Captain Crook was one of the two major adversaries of McDonaldland (along with the Hamburglar), who—as a seafaring villain—was obsessed with stealing Filet-O-Fish sandwiches. Eventually, his surname was dropped, his personality mellowed, and the character became known simply as “The Captain”—like the Hamburglar, his sinister countenance was modified to make his appearance seem more kid-friendly. As was the case with many of these characters, Captain Crook was eliminated from advertisements during the 1980s when the concept of McDonaldland was streamlined.

His Remco action figure came with a soft plastic orange sword (removable); a removable bircorne pirate’s hat with golden trim and a golden C (for Captain); a coat with lace cuffs, a lace ascot, hard plastic brown epaulets, and a two-piece removable dickey; and removable breeches with cuffs and an elastic waistband. The figure has one non-removable gold earring in its right ear.

Grimace
Originally sporting four arms and designed to be an adversary of Ronald McDonald, Grimace’s initial manifestation was quite different from the sweet, child-friendly dullard we grew to love in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Renowned for beginning each sentence with the word “duh,” both versions of Grimace are quite fond of McDonald’s Triple Thick Milkshakes. The latter, friendlier form of Grimace was retained by McDonald’s even after the corporation shut down their McDonaldland advertising campaign. He stuck around for decades, until approximately 2003.

Remco’s Grimace action figure wasn’t constructed of solid plastic like the other dolls. Instead, the doll had a furred purple felt outer body, with innards similar to the polystyrene material found inside of a bean bag. Calling Remco’s Grimace an “action figure” is a bit of a stretch, since the toy had very limited poseability: His arms and hands were flaps of furred purple felt, while his hard-plastic purple feet allowed him to stand. Even his expression—rendered by hard plastic eyebrows, eyes, and a mouth—was immobile.

Hamburglar
Initially called “The Lone Jogger,” the Hamburgular’s personality traits and design changed quite a bit over the course of the three decades during which he existed (like Grimace, he was retired in 2003). Originally, this character was a truly frightening scoundrel with stringy grey hair and a menacing black mask and cape; McDonald’s decided to soften the character’s disposition in order to make his personality more palatable for children. Throughout the years, however, the essence of McDonaldland’s preeminent villain remained the same: a compulsive criminal obsessed with burgling hamburgers. 

With his mischievous grin, pair of prominent, rat-like central incisors, short stature, pointed nose, and peculiar clothing, the Hamburglar action figure’s early design sold quite well for Remco. The figure wore a removable striped convict outfit, polka-dotted plastic tie, and soft plastic hat brim (the top of his hat was molded atop his head, and the thin, round, plastic brim slid around it). In the early 1970s, the Hamburglar’s characteristic speech patterns were absolutely unintelligible to anyone but Captain Crook, who was kind enough to translate for the inhabitants of McDonaldland. Eventually, the Hamburglar would issue forth an occasional exclamation of “Robble, robble!”

The Professor
Originally known as the “Mad” Professor, in early appearances the character rarely spoke and functioned as a second-tier, background personality. Later in the McDonaldland campaign (around 1973 to 1975), the bearded and bespectacled Professor appeared more often and spoke in a high-pitched, excitable, academic manner about his latest zany invention—usually a device created to preserve the well-being of the good citizens of McDonaldland.

In the 1970s, the character appeared as a prototypical absent-minded scientist (note the two pairs of glasses molded onto the action figure’s head; one pair he wears, while the other is balanced on his forehead). He sported long, thinning gray hair with a full gray beard, and wore a long white lab coat featuring pockets bursting with tools and implements. The lab coat has two front pockets that could indeed hold items, but instead (to save money on tooling and plastic) the toy company decided to create thin fabric stickers with two-dimensional images of tools, which were factory-applied to draw attention to these bulging pockets. The action figure came with a silver wrench and a removable, two-piece red scarf.

In the 1980s, the Professor’s physical appearance was entirely reconfigured into a much sweeter, more kid-friendly scientist. Slightly balding with short white hair, a Franz Joseph-style beard, and black glasses worn over a pair of excited bright eyes, the newer Professor was largely unrecognizable from his previously established version of the 1970s.

Mayor McCheese
The iconic Mayor McCheese, who had a cheeseburger as a head, functioned as the unequivocally incompetent head of McDonaldland’s government. Regardless of which actor provided his voice in the McDonaldland commercials, the superbly quirky delivery for Mayor McCheese was directly based upon the late comedian Ed Wynn, who provided the voice for the Mad Hatter in Disney’s Alice in Wonderland.

The Remco Mayor McCheese doll comes complete with a bevy of impressive accessories, including removable yellow pince nez glasses; a removable purple sash emblazoned with the letter M; a fuschia tuxedo jacket with soft white plastic lapels; a removable soft white plastic flower with faux pearl; and a pinstripe sleeveless tuxedo jumpsuit with attached yellow vest.

THE PLAYSET

To complement these seven figures, Remco also made a superbly detailed McDonaldland playset, which even came with its own stationery (above). “Welcome to the fun and excitement of McDonaldland,” the back of the box read. “There’s so much to do”:

“The gathering place for Ronald McDonald and all the McDonaldland characters. Take a ride on the colorful wind up train featuring a Locomotive, Passenger Car and a Hamburglar Paddy Wagon, also seven pieces of track and a Stop-N-Go Signal Switch. Play with the swing on the enchanting Apple Pie Tree. Cross the Filet-O-Fish Lake via the Golden Arches Bridge. Put Ronald on stilts for real clown fun. Serve a tray with McDonald’s hamburger and drink at the famous McDonald’s Family Restaurant. All this on a 28 ½” x 30” Playland surface enhanced by an 11” colorful backdrop. Words for the ‘McFavorite Clown Song’ are printed on the play surface. Special McDonald’s Letterland Stationery included for personal messages. All plastic parts molded of strong, safe, non-toxic materials. Surely THE fun place to be.”

Today, it’s nearly impossible to find this playset unbroken, intact, and complete with all of its many delicate pieces and parts that were prominently featured in McDonald’s advertising campaign.

Compare Remco’s playset to the corporate image of the real-world fantasyland as built by Needham, Harper & Steers and taken from the McDonaldland Specification Manual. Remco’s set is astonishingly well-rendered.

THE LAWSUITS

It didn’t take long for McDonaldland to come under attack. Mayor McCheese possessed a number of similarities to another personality created by producers Sid and Marty Krofft: H.R. Pufnstuf, who featured prominently on Saturday morning lineups from 1969 to 1973. Both McCheese and Pufnstuf were rendered as live-action, life-sized puppets with ridiculously large heads, and both had mayoral sashes as heads of their respective governments. (And while McCheese had an M or “mayor” written on his sash, Pufnstuf had a medal which hung down from the cummerbund and said “mayor.”)

The similarities didn’t end with the characters. Just as Mayor McCheese lived in McDonaldland, H.R. Pufnstuf inhabited his own imaginary realm, Living Island. Both fantasylands were comprised of similarly-rendered “magical” creatures, buildings, and backgrounds—which made sense, since Sid and Marty Krofft had been consulted by Needham, Harper & Steers before they landed the McDonald’s account. According to the Krofft’s lawsuit,

“In early 1970, Marty Krofft … was contacted by an executive from Needham, Harper & Steers, Inc., an advertising agency. He was told that Needham was attempting to get the advertising account of McDonald’s hamburger restaurant chain and wanted to base a proposed campaign to McDonald’s on the H. R. Pufnstuf characters. The executive wanted to know whether the Kroffts would be interested in working with Needham on a project of this type.

So in 1971, the Kroffts, believing that McDonald’s characters were based directly upon their own life-sized puppets, engaged in a series of legal battles with the McDonald’s corporation. In the midst of the conflict—a full five years after the Kroffts began pursuing litigation—Remco was asked to produce the fully-licensed toys for McDonald’s in 1976.

After a six-year battle, the courts ruled in the Kroffts’ favor. In Sid & Marty Krofft Television Productions Inc. v. McDonald’s Corp., the plaintiffs proved copyright infringement, showing: a) their ownership of [the] copyrighted work, b) the circumstantial evidence of access to work, and c) that there was a substantial similarity in both idea and expression. “We do not believe that the ordinary reasonable person, let alone a child, viewing these works will even notice that Pufnstuf is wearing a cummerbund while Mayor McCheese is wearing a diplomat’s sash,” the appeals court stated. Predicting the defendant’s appeal based upon the “Look and Feel” defense, the court concluded that McDonald’s had unjustly utilized the “total concept and feel” of the Krofts’ H.R. Pufnstuf program. McDonald’s was required to cease production of (many of) the characters and stop airing television commercials featuring the denizens of McDonaldland. They were also ordered to pay the Kroffts more than $1 million: $6000 for each commercial, $5000 for each promotional item, and $500 for other infringing acts.

Although some of these characters have been gone for nearly 40 years, the action figures survive as collectibles, making regular appearances on eBay. But what happened to the characters? A few years ago, I posed this question to McDonald’s then-Media Center Contact/Corporate Communications and Social Responsibility Team leader, Julie Pottebaum. Here—verbatim—was her reply: “Mayor McCheese and his friends are indeed alive and well, enjoying life in McDonaldland. Ronald McDonald has taken over the mayor’s responsibilities since being appointed Chief Happiness Officer. Ronald McDonald remains front and center, and he reminds us of the kid that lives in all of us.”

All photos courtesy of Mark Bellomo

Erik Sass is covering the events of the war exactly 100 years after they happened. This is the 252nd installment in the series. 

October 4, 1916: Brits Fear Growing Dependence On U.S. 

The unprecedented material demands of modern warfare, exemplified by the huge number of shells expended in the Allied offensive on the Somme (with British artillery firing 1.7 million in the opening bombardment alone) required the financial and industrial resources of whole empires to sustain – and even these proved insufficient. By the fall of 1916 Britain, France, and Russia found themselves relying more and more on the world’s biggest neutral nation, the United States, for loans as well as supplies of munitions, food, fuel, and other necessities. 

After initially steering clear of financial entanglements with the belligerents, starting in 1915 American banks – led by J.P. Morgan – opened lines of credit for the Allies, encouraged by a change of heart in the White House, as President Woodrow Wilson was angered by German intransigence over unrestricted submarine warfare. The Allies promptly turned around and spent the money on everything from explosives, oil and steel to wheat, beef and horses, fueling an economic boom across the U.S. 

This one-sided arrangement, with American goods increasingly paid for by American loans, was obviously bad news for both Britain’s balance sheet and its balance of trade, but there was no alternative as long as the war continued. More alarming was the possibility that Britain’s own wartime policies might alienate the U.S., jeopardizing London’s ability to raise loans and make vital purchases across the Atlantic Ocean. Of particular concern were the British blockade of the Central Powers, which hurt some U.S. business interests (even as others prospered selling goods to the Allies); British censorship of mail and telegrams; and finally a “blacklist” of firms still doing business with German counterparts via other neutral countries. 

Introduced in July 1916, the blacklist immediately became major point of contention with the U.S. business community, and therefore the U.S. government too. After diplomatic protests failed to obtain concessions from London, in early September the U.S. Congress passed a series of laws setting the stage for tit-for-tat measures including the bluntly named Retaliatory Revenue Act, threatening to ban British imports and detain British merchant ships in U.S. ports. 

While these threats proved to be mostly bluster, they set alarm bells ringing in the British government, in part because they might prompt demands from British business interests for further restrictions on American commerce (in other words, retaliation for the retaliation) when a trade war was the last thing the Allies needed. Faced with this awkward and complicated situation, on October 4, 1916 the British cabinet convened the first meeting of a new advisory group, the “Interdepartmental Committee on the Dependence of the British Empire on the United States,” to assess the likely impacts of any escalation in the diplomatic and commercial dispute between the countries. 

The committee’s conclusions, delivered on October 10, were painfully clear: further disturbance in the Anglo-American relationship could easily cause the British war effort to collapse, leaving the British virtually no leverage over their American cousin. As one member, Lord Eustace Percy, recorded in the minutes: 

… it developed at once… that there was really nothing to deliberate  dabout because our dependence was so vital and complete in every possible respect that it was folly even to consider reprisals. In munitions… all previous estimates of our being able to fill our own needs by a certain time have been entirely destroyed… In steel… we have been obliged to buy up the whole of the United States’ steel output; in foodstuffs and especially in wheat…, in all industrial raw materials and above all in cotton and lubricants American supplies are so necessary to us that reprisals, while they would produce tremendous distress in America, would also practically stop the war. 

This judgment was based, among other things, on a quick analysis of British and Allied finances by the economist and Treasury official John Maynard Keynes, who noted that Britain alone had spent $1 billion in America from May to September 1916, of which two-fifths had come from American loans. The terms were only going to get more lopsided, Keynes added, predicting that from October 1916 to March 1917 Britain would have to spend another $1.5 billion on American goods, with five-sixths of this financed by American loans. 

In case anyone failed to understand the central role American production played in the British war effort, another response to the committee’s inquiry from the Board of Trade stated bluntly:

To sum up, it is quite evident that any failure to obtain imports from the United States would at once affect this country irremediably from the point of view of our food supplies, of military necessities, and of raw materials for industry. For numerous articles important from one or other of these points of view, America is an absolutely irreplaceable source of supply. 

Not only was there currently no possibility of retribution in case of a trade war; to keep the munitions flowing from U.S. factories to British guns, Keynes warned that the scope of British borrowing in America would have to expand even further with bond offerings to regular American citizens. He added that this would require a careful public relations strategy: 

Any feeling of irritation or lack of sympathy with this country or with its policy in the minds of the American public (and equally any lack of confidence in the military situation as interpreted by this public) would render it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to carry through financial operations on a scale adequate to our needs. The sums which this country will require to borrow in the U.S.A. in the next six or nine months are so enormous, amounting to several times the national debt of that country, that it will be necessary to appeal to every class and section of the investing public. 

The unpleasant but unavoidable conclusion to be drawn from all this was that the United States, having surpassed Britain as an industrial power in the late 19^th century, would soon surpass it as the world’s dominant financial power too, if it hadn’t done so already. Of course, this would bring with it any number of uncomfortable changes, as America’s growing financial power translated into enhanced diplomatic influence and a bigger say in international relations – including, presumably, the eventual peace settlement and shape of postwar Europe. 

In that vein Reginald McKenna, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (comparable to a minister of finance) wrote in a memo to the cabinet on October 16: “If things go on as at present, I venture to say with certainty that by next June or earlier the President of the American Republic will be in a position, if he wishes, to dictate his own terms to us.” With a presidential election coming up in November 1916, and Democratic President Woodrow Wilson and his Republican opponent Charles Evan Hughes both emphasizing their commitment to American neutrality, there was plenty of reason for the British to be nervous about the outcome.

Indeed, not long after the election the British would get another scare: on November 26, 1916 the newly-formed Federal Reserve warned American bankers that loans to the Allies were increasingly risky in light of the continuing deadlock and the growing possibility of a Central Powers victory. 

Fortunately for the Allies, they had some help from an unexpected quarter – Germany itself. While the British fretted about maintaining access to American loans and goods, America’s supplying munitions to the Allies convinced hardliners in Berlin that the United States was for all intents and purposes already at war with Germany, even if it was too cowardly and venal to actually engage in hostilities. In their view U.S. complaints about German U-boats sinking ships with American citizens on board was hypocritical and unreasonable, as a message sent by the U.S. ambassador to Berlin, James Gerard, to Secretary of State Robert Lansing on September 14, 1916, clearly conveyed: 

In general conversation with [foreign minister] Von Jagow recently he said that the offensive in the Somme could not continue without the great supply of shells from America. He also said that recently a German submarine submerged in the Channel had to allow 41 ships to pass and that he was sure that each ship was full of ammunition and soldiers but probably had some American… also on board and therefore the submarine did not torpedo without warning. He seemed quite bitter. 

Convinced that the U.S. wouldn’t fight, or would declare war in name only, the militarist faction led by chief of the general staff Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff were pushing Kaiser Wilhelm II and Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg to take the gloves off and resume unrestricted U-boat warfare for the third time. It would prove to be a disastrous miscalculation. 

See the previous installment or all entries.

We have many reasons to love dragonflies. They look cool, eat mosquitoes—and have some nifty nicknames across the U.S. In our continued partnership with the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE), we bring you 25 dramatic dragonfly designations from around the country.

1., 2., AND 3. DEVIL’S DARNING NEEDLE, DARNING NEEDLE, AND SEWING NEEDLE

Devil’s darning needle, darning needle, and sewing needle are just a few nicknames that come from the way dragonflies “fly back and forth over the same area as a needle travels when darning socks,” according to Hawaiian Nature Notes.

Devil’s darning needle is a chiefly northern term, while darning needle is mostly used in the Northeast, Inland North, and the West. Dining needle, a variant of darning needle, might be heard on Long Island; Spanish needle in Nebraska; stitcher in California and Massachusetts; and sewing needle in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Massachusetts.

Dragonflies are harmless but somehow gained a nasty reputation. A belief was that the “devil’s darning-needle [would] sew together the fingers or toes of a person who goes to sleep within its reach,” according to the 1899 book Animal and Plant Lore. It would also “sew up the mouths of scolding women, saucy children, and profane men,” “sting you to death,” and “enter the ears and penetrate the brain of a person.” Animal and Plant Lore isn’t the only place these ideas pop up: In The Insect Guide (1948), author Ralph B. Swain writes that “it was once popularly believed that [large dragonflies] sewed up the ears of truant schoolboys,” while a 1967 quote in DARE says “it would sew up your mouth if you told a lie.”

4., 5., 6., AND 7. EAR CUTTER, EAR SEWER, EAR NEEDLE, AND EYE STITCHER

Want kids to behave? Make up scary stuff about insects. The term ear cutter comes from the myth that dragonflies “will cut the ears of children who lie,” according to DARE. Synonyms include ear sewer and ear needle, the latter of which is probably a blend of ear sewer and darning needle. Eye stitcher comes from the frightening idea that dragonflies “will sew your eyes shut if you don’t behave.”

8. SCHNEIDER

Pronounced sneeder or snyder, this Wisconsin moniker comes from the German word for tailor and also refers to the daddy longlegs and other insects.

9., 10., AND 11. SNAKE SERVANT, SNAKE GUARDER, AND SNAKE HEEDER

A Pennsylvania term, snake servant apparently comes from the belief that dragonflies warned snakes “of approaching danger, and aided them in the acquisition of food,” according to the Journal of American Folklore.

Also in the Pennsylvania German area were snake heeder and snake guarder, according to A Word Geography of the United States. The latter term is a loan translation of the Pennsylvania German schlangehieter, while the former is a partial translation of the same word, according to DARE.

More snake-related nicknames include snake waiter, especially in Maryland; snake peter in Wisconsin and New Jersey; snake feeder in the Midland and Plains States; and snake charmer in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Montana, and the Northeast.

12. SNAKE DOCTOR

While dragonflies might be the stuff of bratty kids’ nightmares, they were apparently a boon to snakes. Snake doctor, chiefly used in the Midland and South, comes from the idea that dragonflies could “cure snakes” or snakebites. According to the 1893 book Some Peculiarities of Speech in Mississippi, the “two bumps sometimes seen on the [dragonfly], just behind his wings, are called his saddlebags, and in them he is reputed to carry medicine for the snakes.” Meanwhile, an Alabama resident told DARE dragonflies “picked off the gnats that would gather in a small cloud around a sunning snake.”

Other doctor epithets include witch doctor, especially in the South Midland, and mosquito doctor, probably a blend of mosquito hawk, another nickname for the dragonfly, and snake doctor.

13., 14., AND 15. DEVIL’S DRAGON, DEVIL’S RIDING HORSE, AND DICKINSON’S HORSE

Dragonflies were considered devilish in some regions, with devil’s dragon quoted in Tennessee; devil horse and devil’s horse in Wisconsin, Alabama, and Mississippi; and devil’s riding horse in North Carolina. In Iowa you might hear Dickinson’s horse or Dickinson’s mare where, we’re speculating, Dickinson might be a variation on Dick, Dickens, and other old-fashioned names for the devil.

16., 17., AND 18. HORSE DOCTOR, MOSQUITO HORSE, AND HORSE STINGER

Horse-related idioms are another variation. You might hear horse doctor in Tennessee, Texas, and Arkansas, where one resident said it might be “bad luck for ‘horse doctors’ to fly around near the fish pole.” Mosquito horse might be heard in Mississippi and Georgia. In Nebraska, horse stinger comes from the old-timey belief that dragonflies stung horses and even sucked their blood, according to the book Hill County Harvest.

19. AND 20. MULE KILLER AND BEE-BUTCHER

Similarly, mule killer comes from the incorrect belief that dragonflies killed mules, and not-so-similarly, bee-butcher from their true habit of eating bees and other small insects.

21. FOUR-EYES

Not just a schoolyard taunt, four-eyes might be a dragonfly designation in Illinois, referring to its compound eye, according to DARE. Sarah Zielinski writes at Smithsonian that “nearly all of the dragonfly’s head is eye, so they have incredible vision that encompasses almost every angle except right behind them.”

22. AND 23. HELICOPTER AND AIRPLANE

Then there are the regionalisms related to how dragonflies move. According to Zielinksi, they’re “expert fliers” and can “fly straight up and down, hover like a helicopter and even mate mid-air.” So it’s no surprise that the dragonfly is known as a helicopter in areas like Indiana, Pennsylvania, and the Upper Midwest. Meanwhile, over in California, Delaware, Washington, and South Dakota, the insect might be called an airplane, airplane bug, and airplane fly.

24. GLOBE-SKIMMER

According to Hawaiian Nature, a particular species of dragonfly known as the globe-skimmer takes “advantage of any little puddle of water in the lowlands to breed,” which is why “this species is so abundant, even in the driest localities.” The species migrates 11,000 miles—the farthest of any insect.

25. LONG-ASS BUTTERFLY

And if you’re ever in the Buckeye State, be like one Ohioan jokester who referred to a dragonfly for what it is: a long-ass butterfly.

From Connecticut to California, creepy clowns are a national problem. It all started in August in Greenville, South Carolina where, according to Vocativ, the local police received reports of a group of people dressed up as clowns attempting to lure kids into the woods. (One rogue clown in the same area reportedly waved at a woman from the street; she waved back.)

Since then, creepy clowns have been a trending topic both in the news and on social media, with 23 states now reporting some type of unusual clown activity. While it sounds like a story pulled from your own personal nightmares, the trend is even more frightening to members of the World Clown Association, a worldwide organization for professional clowns, who are disturbed by the fact that these hellraisers are being referred to as “clowns” at all.

WCA president Randy Christensen took to social media to address the growing creepy clown concern with a three-minute video, aimed at his fellow clowns, in which he made it clear that, “Whoever is doing this crazy stuff is not a clown. This is somebody that’s trying to use a good, clean, wholesome art form and then distorting it. This is not clowning, this person is not a clown.”

Christensen urged his red rose-wearing brethren to, “Go out and provide a positive image of clowning. Show them what it is really all about. Gain their confidence, make them enjoy it, make them laugh and they will come to realize that all clowns are not a scary-type character.” Try telling that to a coulrophobe.

[h/t: Vocativ]