Month: November 2016

Step aside, Black Friday. The Monday after Thanksgiving, dubbed Cyber Monday in 2005, promises some of the best deals of the season. And the best part? You don’t need to change out of your pajamas to score them. Here’s how to make the most of the shopping bonanza.

1. GET A HEAD START.

Cyber Monday may have Monday in its name, but last year, a handful of major retailers kicked off their discounts the Sunday night before, says Courtney Jespersen, retail and shopping expert at NerdWallet. “Sign up for email lists and follow the social media feeds of your favorite stores so you know the precise moment when deals drop,” Jespersen says. “If you show up to the sale too late, you may miss out on some of the best discounts.”

2. SIGN IN.

Just like at the mall, great deals can mean heavy traffic for online retailers. And this can cause inventory to move quickly, Jespersen says. “Last year on the online shopping holiday, Target shoppers had to wait in a virtual line to add deals to their cart,” she says.

Be prepared by making an online account at your favorite retailers before the traffic spikes. That way you don’t have to waste valuable time entering your billing and shipping information at the checkout.

3. APPLY COUPON CODES.

Before clicking “place purchase,” check for any additional promo codes you can add. You can usually find these in banner ads on the site or by using a resource like RetailMeNot. You may also get emailed a special one-time discount code if you sign up for the retailer’s mailing list for the first time, Jespersen says.

4. FOCUS ON CLOTHING AND SHOES.

The deals for these items are traditionally better on Monday than they are on Thanksgiving and on Black Friday, says Benjamin Glaser, features editor with DealNews. Conversely, Glaser notes that Black Friday is the best day to buy a laptop or television.

5. GET TEXT ALERTS FOR DEALS.

If you’re planning on making a big purchase, set up a text or email alert for that item on price-tracking sites, says Sarah Berger, columnist for Bankrate’s money-saving blog The Cashlorette. “That way, you’ll never miss a deal,” she says.

For starters: CamelCamelCamel will email you when the price drops on a product you’ve been watching on Amazon; SlickDeals watches prices on Amazon, Ikea, Buy.com, Newegg, Gamestop, and others; Get Invisible Hand will let you know if the item you covet is less expensive elsewhere; and CheapShark focuses on video game prices.

6. CHECK MESSAGE BOARDS.

Many people will post deals that they’re interested in and that they’ve found to shopping message boards, Berger says. She recommends you check out Fatwallet.com and Slickdeals.net for Cyber Monday intel.

7. USE THE LIVE CHAT FUNCTION.

Andrew Schrage, co-owner of the personal finance site Monday Crashers, says you may be able to convince a customer service representative to cough up a modest coupon code that you can apply to the store’s already-low prices.

8. ABANDON YOUR CART.

A few days before Cyber Monday, put the item you want into your virtual shopping cart—and then abandon the cart (leave without completing the purchase), Schrage says. “A few days later, you might find an email in your inbox with a discount code” to entice you to buy, he says.

Here’s something else to stress about for Thanksgiving: where to put the stress in the word Thanksgiving.

If you’re from California, Iowa, or Delaware, you probably say ThanksGIVing, with the primary stress on the second syllable. If you’re from Georgia, Tennessee, or the Texas panhandle, you probably say THANKSgiving, with the primary stress on the first syllable.

This north-south divide on syllable stress is found for other words like umbrella, guitar, insurance, and pecan. However, those words are borrowed from other languages (Italian, Spanish, French). Sometimes, in the borrowing process, competing stress patterns settle into regional differences. Just as some borrowed words get first syllable stress in the South and second syllable stress in the North, French words like garage and ballet get first syllable stress in the UK and second syllable stress in the U.S.

Thanksgiving, however, is an English word through and through. And if it behaved like a normal English word, it would have stress on the first syllable. Consider other words with the same noun-gerund structure just like it: SEAfaring, BAbysitting, HANDwriting, BULLfighting, BIRDwatching, HOMEcoming, ALMSgiving. The stress is always up front, on the noun. Why, in Thanksgiving alone, would stress shift to the GIVE?

The shift to the ThanksGIVing pronunciation is a bit of a mystery. Linguist John McWhorter has suggested that the loss of the stress on thanks has to do with a change in our concept of the holiday, that we “don’t truly think about Thanksgiving as being about thankfulness anymore.” This kind of thing can happen when a word takes on a new, more abstract sense. When we use outgoing for mail that is literally going out, we are likely to stress the OUT. When we use it as a description of someone’s personality (“She’s so outgoing!”), the stress might show up on the GO. Stress can shift with meaning.

But the stress shift might not be solely connected to the entrenchment of our turkey-eating rituals. The thanksGIVing stress pattern seems to have pre-dated the institution of the American holiday, according to an analysis of the meter of English poems by Mark Liberman at Language Log. ThanksGIVing has been around at least since the 17^th century. However you say it, there is precedent to back you up. And room enough to focus on both the thanks and the giving.

Although Thanksgiving is a North American holiday and a recent invention in the grand scheme of things, the tradition of breaking the wishbone comes from Europe, and is thousands of years older.

A bird’s wishbone is technically known as the furcula. It’s formed by the fusion of two clavicles, and is important to flight because of its elasticity and the tendons that attach to it. Clavicles, fused or not, aren’t unique to birds. You and I have unfused clavicles, also known as collarbones, and wishbones have been found in most branches of the dinosaur family tree.

The custom of snapping these bones in two after dinner came to us from the English, who got it from the Romans, who got it from the Etruscans, an ancient Italian civilization. As far as historians and archaeologists can tell, the Etruscans were really into their chickens, and believed that the birds were oracles and could predict the future. They exploited the chickens’ supposed gifts by turning them into walking ouija boards with a bizarre ritual known as alectryomancy or “rooster divination.” They would draw a circle on the ground and divide it into wedges representing the letters of the Etruscan alphabet (which played a role in the formation of our own). Bits of food were scattered on each wedge and a chicken was placed in the center of the circle. As the bird snacked, scribes would note the sequence of letters that it pecked at, and the local priests would use the resulting messages to divine the future and answer the city’s most pressing questions.

Continue reading “Why Do We Wish on the Turkey’s Wishbone?”

This Thanksgiving, you’ll gather with your friends and family to laugh, reflect, and stuff yourself silly. And for 65 percent of American households, that family includes a member with fur, feathers, or scales. Go ahead and let Fido or Fluffy join in the celebrations (and indulge in some table scraps) on Thursday, but be sure to follow the below safety guidelines outlined by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and ASPCA.

DO: FEED YOUR PET TURKEY.

Unless your dog or cat has an allergy, turkey is perfectly safe—with a few caveats. Keep the pieces small, make sure they are fully cooked, and be sure to remove all bones.

DON’T: SHARE YOUR BREAD DOUGH.

The yeast found in raw bread dough can cause painful gas and bloating in your pets that can quickly turn into a medical emergency.

DO: PREPARE A FEAST OF THEIR OWN.

To keep your dog occupied when the humans sit down to dinner, give him or her a delicious canine-safe treat. Before dinnertime, mix bits of turkey, sweet potato, and pumpkin puree in with your dog’s regular kibble, stuff it into a Kong, and stick it in the freezer. The frozen meal will keep Spot busy for much longer than his usual dinner would.

DON’T: LET THEM EAT CAKE.

Chocolate is a big no-no for dogs, as is an artificial sweetener called xylitol that is often found in sugar-free baked goods.

DO: KEEP THEM ENTERTAINED.

Remember: A tired and distracted dog is a happy dog. The excitement of guests arriving can be overwhelming for some pets. To keep your dog calm, make sure you take him to the park, dog run, or on a long walk in the morning to tucker him out. If all the excitement becomes too much, give your dog some “me time” with plenty of his favorite toys in another room or his crate.

DON’T: LEAVE THE TRASH OUT.

A full house makes for distracted hosts. To make sure your four-legged friend doesn’t stick his or her nose where it doesn’t belong while you’re looking the other way, make sure your trash is covered and properly stored out of reach.

DO: STAY ALERT.

Keep a close eye on your pet to make sure she doesn’t make a dash for the door in the midst of the chaos. (And you should always have the proper identification tags for your pet and get her microchipped just in case she gets out.) Immediate action can also make all the difference if your pet swallows a dangerous food, plant (here’s what’s hazardous for dogs and cats), or foreign substance.

Behold the coconut crab and its magnificent clampers. Scientists in Japan say the strength of the crab’s “mighty claw” is greater than most predators’ jaws. They published a report of their crab tests in the journal PLOS One.

Coconut crabs (Birgus latro) are strange, strange critters. They’re crustaceans, but they live on land. They climb trees, as if that’s a thing that crabs should be doing. They’re huge—adults can easily reach 3 feet across. They can lift more than 60 pounds at a time. They’ll feed on dead and decaying animals when they have to, but they prefer tropical fruit, especially the coconuts that gave them their name.

But as anyone who’s ever been stranded on a desert island knows, coconuts are not a convenience food. Getting inside requires desperation, persistence, and a very tenacious claw.

Researchers at the Okinawa Churashima Foundation wondered just how strong that claw could be. They didn’t have to go very far to find out; the island of Okinawa is a veritable coconut crab paradise.

 
The scientists rounded up 29 wild crabs, weighed them, and took measurements of their bodies, legs, and claws. Then they dangled stick-like metal sensors in front of the crabs, who predictably grabbed the instruments and clamped down as hard as they could. Once the test was over, the crabs were released … which must have been something to see.

The results of the pinch tests were impressive. The larger a crab was, the harder it could pinch. Using this formula, the researchers determined that a large crab could exert up to 3300 Newtons (N) of force with a single claw.

That’s a lot of Newtons. To put it in context: scientists estimate that human jaws have a bite strength of about 754 N. Wolves have 1267, black bears 1747 [PDF]. Pound for pound, a coconut crab’s claws come down almost twice as hard as a black bear’s jaws. The authors estimate that there’s only one land predator that can outclamp the coconut crab, and that’s an alligator.

The crab’s “mighty claw” is what’s allowed it to survive, the authors write. Not only is it a weapon, but it’s also a tool, allowing the crab to get inside just about any organism, plant or animal, it wants.

So, kids, for your fingers’ sake: Please don’t tease the coconut crabs. Leave that to the professionals.

Composers have long pushed the boundaries of classical music by writing parts for new and innovative instruments—but not all of them have ended up a permanent fixture in the orchestra …

1. SARRUSOPHONE

The sarrusophone (above) was invented in 1856 and named in honor of the French military bandleader Pierre-Auguste Sarrus. It was originally developed as a replacement for relatively quieter woodwind instruments in military bands: its rich, deep, saxophone-like tone was stronger and better suited to outdoor performances than that of smaller woodwind instruments, like the oboe.

Although never a particularly widely used instrument, the sarrusophone enjoyed a burst of popularity in the early 1900s when a number of big-name composers—including Maurice Ravel, Frederick Delius and Igor Stravinsky—wrote parts for it in a number of their compositions. But probably the most famous work to include a sarrusophone part is The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by the French composer Paul Dukas, which was famously put to use in the 1940 Disney movie, Fantasia. Nowadays, however, the unfamiliarity and unpopularity of sarrusophones means that these parts are more often than not taken by the contrabasson.

2. GLASS ARMONICA

Invented by Benjamin Franklin, the glass armonica (or “harmonica”) comprises a revolving set of glass cups or rings which produce a shimmering sound when played with dampened fingers. Despite its relative obscurity, plenty of classical composers—among them several major names, including Mozart and Beethoven—have written works for the glass harmonica, although it seldom appears in larger ensemble or orchestral settings. One well known exception is Camille Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals: in the Carnival’s famous Aquarium movement, an echo of the flute melody is played one beat later on the glass harmonica.

3. HECKELPHONE

The heckelphone is essentially a cross between a bassoon and an oboe that was invented by the German instrument maker Wilhelm Heckel—apparently at the request of Richard Wagner—in the late 19th century, although it didn’t make its first appearance in classical music repertoire until the early 1900s.

In compositions of the time, the heckelphone was often listed under the title of “bass oboe,” but that designation was also given to the similar hautbois baryton, another deep-pitched woodwind instrument, making it all but impossible to tell which instrument the composers in question wanted: Gustav Holst’s famous Planets suite, for instance, includes a part for a bass oboe, but it’s unclear whether he had the heckelphone in mind or not. One composer who made his intentions clear, however, was Richard Strauss, who singled out the heckelphone in the score for his enormous Alpine Symphony in 1915.

4. THEREMIN

Invented by Leon Theremin in the early 1920s, this bizarre electronic instrument is probably best known to modern audiences for providing the spooky, high-pitched droning sound used in classic sci-fi movie soundtracks like Bernard Herrmann’s The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951). But several more composers of the early-to-mid 20th century wrote parts for the theremin in their orchestral works, including composer and musical theorist Joseph Schillinger: his First Airphonic Suite (1929) made superb use of the theremin’s curious sound alongside a full symphony orchestra. Here is a video of a theremin being played by a cat.

5. WAGNER TUBA

It’s not strictly speaking a tuba, but it was at least invented at the request of Richard Wagner: Wagner tubas or Wagnertuben first became popular in the mid-19th century and were first used by Wagner in his score for Das Rheingold (1854) as a richly-toned instrument intended to fill the tonal space between the tuba, the trombone and the French horn. Since then, Wagner tubas have been used (albeit relatively infrequently) by a number of famous composers, including Igor Stravinsky, Richard Strauss, and Béla Bartók.

6. PREPARED PIANO

Classical composers have been writing piano concertos since the late Romantic period; Mozart wrote his first piano concerto in the mid-1760s when he was just 11 years old (largely based on others’ works). Since then, the piano concerto has become one of the most popular of all orchestral arrangements, with Beethoven’s Emperor (1811) and Edward Grieg’s Concerto in A minor (1868) being among the most famous and most frequently performed.

Maverick American composer John Cage, of course, had to go one better by writing a concerto for prepared piano—namely, a piano with everything from drawing pins and rubber bands to corks, forks and cotton balls inserted among the strings and hammers to give the instrument a bizarre range of percussive sounds and tones. Written for piano and chamber orchestra, the concerto premiered in New York in 1952.

7. CANNON

Admittedly, a cannon can hardly be classed as a musical instrument—but that didn’t stop Tchaikovsky from writing “a battery of cannons” into the score of his monumental 1812 Overture in 1882. Although actual cannon fire is sometimes used in larger (and, for obvious reasons, outdoor) performances of the 1812, typically most modern performances replace the cannons with audio recordings or theatrical sound effects, or else hand the 16 cannon blasts the score requires over to a similarly loud percussion instrument, like a bass drum or timpani. No matter how it’s handled, however, the effect is a rousing conclusion to a piece of music Tchaikovsky himself dismissed as “very loud and noisy.”