fact
Since skywriters don’t have the luxury of pressing the delete key when they make a mistake, typos are one of their greatest fears. Here are 11 more secrets of these aerial acrobats.
If you want to throw a really traditional Thanksgiving dinner, you’ll need oysters. The mollusks would have been featured prominently on the holiday tables of the earliest American settlers—even if that beloved Thanksgiving turkey probably wasn’t. At the time, oysters were supremely popular additions to the table for coastal colonial settlements, though in some cases, they were seen as a hardship food more than a delicacy.
For one thing, oysters were an easy food source. In the Chesapeake Bay, they were so plentiful in the 17th and 18th centuries that ships had to be careful not to run aground on oyster beds, and one visitor in 1702 wrote that they could be pulled up with only a pair of tongs. Native Americans, too, ate plenty of oysters, occasionally harvesting them and feasting for days.
Early colonists ate so many oysters that the population of the mollusks dwindled to dangerously low levels by the 19th century, according to curriculum prepared by a Gettysburg University history professor. In these years, scarcity turned oysters into a luxury item for the wealthy, a situation that prevailed until the 1880s, when oyster production skyrocketed and prices dropped again [PDF]. If you lived on the coast, though, you were probably still downing the bivalves.
Beginning in the 1840s, canning and railroads brought the mollusks to inland regions. According to 1985’s The Celebrated Oysterhouse Cookbook, the middle of the 19th century found America in a “great oyster craze,” where “no evening of pleasure was complete without oysters; no host worthy of the name failed to serve ‘the luscious bivalves,’ as they were actually called, to his guests.”
At the turn of the century, oysters were still a Thanksgiving standard. They were on Thanksgiving menus everywhere from New York City’s Plaza Hotel to train dining cars, in the form of soup, cocktails, and stuffing.
In 1954, the Fish and Wildlife Service tried to promote Thanksgiving oysters to widespread use once again. It sent out a press release [PDF], entitled “Oysters—a Thanksgiving Tradition,” that included the agency’s own recipes for cocktail sauce, oyster bisque, and oyster stuffing.
In the modern era, Thanksgiving oysters have remained most popular in the South. Oyster stuffing is a classic dish in New Orleans, and chefs like Emeril Lagasse have their own signature recipes. If you’re not looking for a celebrity chef’s recipe, perhaps you want to try the Fish and Wildlife Service’s? Check it out below.
INGREDIENTS
1 pint oysters
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup butter
4 cups day-old bread cubes
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 teaspoon salt
Dash poultry seasoning
Dash pepper
Drain oysters, saving liquor, and chop. Cook celery and onion in butter until tender. Combine oysters, cooked vegetables, bread cubes, and seasonings, and mix thoroughly. If stuffing seems dry, moisten with oyster liquor. Makes enough for a four-pound chicken.
If you’re using a turkey, the FWS advises that the recipe above provides enough for about every 5 pounds of bird, so multiply accordingly.
November 14, 2016 – 1:30pm
When bears cross paths with humans, just about anything can happen. Here are eight stories about encounters that probably didn’t go as either party expected.
Douglas Harder has grown accustomed to getting visits from bears at his condo in Sandpoint, Idaho. “You know it’s very common, I live up on a mountain and this is the wilderness,” he told ABC news. In the spring of 2015, a mother black bear and her two cubs made a habit of emptying the birdfeeder on Harder’s second-story deck.
The following August, he returned home from a brief trip out of town to discover that some local ursid had broken into his kitchen through a partially open sliding door. Once inside, the intruder scratched up a wall and gobbled up some junk food before taking its leave. No sooner had Harder cleaned up the mess than a bear cub shoved its face through his cat door. One night later, the cub gave the tiny door another try, allowing Harder to snap some hilarious photographs that made the rounds on American news outlets.
A film crew sent to capture new footage for the 2015 nature series The Hunt was caught off-guard by a hungry polar bear who made a habit of dropping by their cabin in Svalbard, Norway. Within a 24-hour period, the animal barged into the building on no fewer than three separate occasions. During these forays, it devoured nearly all of the team’s food supply, eating everything from their dried pasta to a jar of the producer’s olives. And at one point, the crew returned to find the bear sleeping peacefully by the doorway with some of their red wine smeared across its face. One of the few things that wasn’t eaten, however, was a lone jar of Marmite—a yeast-based food spread whose slogan, appropriately enough, is “Love it or hate it.”
Kristen Jones of Knoxville was visiting her parents in Burke County, North Carolina last June when she decided to do some yoga on the banks of a nearby lake. Popping in her ear buds, Jones sat by the shore and began the exercise routine. That’s when her day took an unexpected turn. “I felt a sniff on my right shoulder and a lick up my neck,” Jones later recalled. Assuming that the neighbor’s dog had wandered over, Jones reached backwards to hug the animal—and received the shock of her life. As the Tennessee woman turned around, she spotted a full-grown black bear walking away. Terrified, Jones stumbled backwards into the lake while her visitor lumbered off.
Early in July 2015, numerous guests and staffers of the USA Raft Company on the Nolichucky River sighted a dangerously skinny bear cub patrolling the river’s banks all by herself. “There was no sign of a mama bear,” general manager Matt Moses told the Knoxville News Sentinel. “She was obviously malnourished and appeared to be in distress. My guides kept coming back to me and saying they had no idea what to do.”
The bear was just as interested in the rafters. With each passing day, the little creature grew more intrepid, walking or swimming closer and closer to passing rafts. After four consecutive days of progress, she finally clambered into the raft of Danny Allen, a veteran guide who delivered the underweight animal to Moses. The Tennessee Wildlife Agency was called in short order, and the cub was given some much-needed medical attention. Once she’d regained some of her former strength, the animal was handed over to Appalachian Bear Rescue, a care facility based in Townsend. By then, her story had gone viral on Facebook, where she received the nickname “Noli Bear” (“Noli” being short for Nolichucky).
Back in 2004, rangers at Washington’s Baker Lake found themselves dealing with a boozy black bear. The trouble began when this critter opened up several unattended coolers on the campgrounds. As he foraged these campsites, the bear drank his way through the beer cans he came across—or at least some of them, anyway. “He drank the Rainer, but wouldn’t drink the Busch beer,” said resort bookkeeper Lisa Broxson. Reportedly, the ursine thief downed 36 cans of the former beer while deliberately ignoring all but one can of the latter. “
I’ve known them to get into cans,” Sgt. Bill Heinck of Fish and Wildlife told reporters, “but nothing like this… it definitely had a preference.” Noticeably buzzed, the bear didn’t put up much resistance when park rangers arrived to shoo him away. However, instead of leaving, he scaled a nearby tree and took a four-hour nap in its branches. Once the bear woke up, park employees were finally able to scare him off, only to see the big fellow come back for another round the next day. Undaunted, the rangers used donuts, honey, and—of course—two cans of Rainier to lure their bear into a humane trap. Following his apprehension, the four-legged lager enthusiast was successfully relocated.
On the morning of July 28, 2016, David Meurer of Evergreen, Colo. walked down his driveway en route to a church meeting. Along the way, Meurer couldn’t help but notice that the door of his wife’s SUV was slightly ajar. Closer inspection revealed an even bigger surprise: Somehow, a good-sized black bear had crawled into the car overnight. With Meurer watching, the intruder abruptly made its presence known to the whole neighborhood, shaking the vehicle and honking the horn as it thrashed about in the car’s cabin. The racket woke up a neighbor who cracked open the SUV door and then banged on some pans to scare the animal off.
Palmer High School in Colorado Springs nearly went into lockdown mode last year when a black bear cub was sighted near the grounds. However, when Blanca Caro, the school’s police resource manager, set out to locate this potentially dangerous animal, she couldn’t turn up anything on campus. So she ventured into the surrounding area.
While walking down Boulder Street, Caro was approached by a perturbed pizzeria employee who told an amazing story. Apparently, the bear had waddled into the eatery through a side door and made a beeline for the prep room. Foregoing the pizza ingredients, this hungry little critter lapped up some cinnamon bread icing before taking a nap on the backroom shelves. An officer from Parks and Wildlife arrived in short order to tranquilize the adorable freeloader. Nicknamed “Little Louie” after the pizza shop he’d invaded, the bear spent four months at the Wet Mountain Wildlife Rehabilitation Center before being released into the wild in January, 2016.
In his 2011 book The Great White Bear, science writer Kieran Mulvaney retells the true story of a polar bear who took umbrage with the flash unit on one very expensive camera. Former marketing director Robert Buchanan helped found the conservation group Polar Bears International in 1992. Now a world-renowned organization, PBI has come to play a big role in expanding our scientific knowledge of the Arctic’s most charismatic predator. As part of this research, its members have captured hundreds of original polar bear photographs over the years. Today, PBI cameramen snag ursine close-ups from the safety of a wooden cage. However, as Buchanan explained to Mulvaney, the process used to be a lot more complicated. “Before we built the cage, we tried to take photographs with a camera that was on the end of a long pole that I’d lower down [from a height],” Buchanan said.
One day, things went awry when the camera’s flash went off right in a bear’s face. Naturally, the animal didn’t appreciate this startling burst of light, but its reaction was rather low-key. Rather than swipe at the camera, the bear calmly extended one arm. Then, with a single outstretched claw, it touched the lip of the camera’s lens. “[He] didn’t try to hit it or anything,” Buchanan recalls, “…he just hooked that claw in there and was not going to let go of that camera.” In vain, the conservationist jerked the pole around, desperately trying to free his camera. But the bear stubbornly clung on, moving its paw in concert with the unit. After fifteen minutes of tug-of-war, Buchanan was about to give up when something remarkable happened. “I’d just written off that camera, and then he looked up at me as if to smile and… took the paw off as if he was saying ‘Just don’t flash me.’”
Buchanan was more than happy to comply. “They’re very smart,” he observed. “They’re just incredibly smart.”
November 14, 2016 – 1:24pm
When Hayao Miyazaki announced his retirement (again) following the debut of The Wind Also Rises in 2013, he told the press: “This time I am quite serious.” That proclamation lasted a grand total of three years. As the Anime News Network reports, the 75-year-old Japanese animator is coming out of retirement to complete one last Studio Ghibli film.
Though technically retired, the Spirited Away director has spent the past few years working on exhibits for the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo. One such project, “Kemushi no Boro” or “Boro the Caterpillar,” was born from an idea that’s been knocking around in Miyazaki’s head for two decades. When he developed it into a computer-animated short for the museum, he wasn’t happy with the final product. Now he’s looking to realize that vision as a feature film, an endeavor he hopes to have completed by 2019.
Miyazaki is waiting to receive a green-light from the studio, but that hasn’t stopped him from going ahead with the animation himself. The story, which follows a caterpillar “so tiny that it may be easily squished between your fingers,” will still be made into a short for the museum. The project has a year’s worth of work to go before it’s ready to screen.
Miyazaki has teased his exit from filmmaking several times in the past. After making Princess Mononoke, Japan’s highest-grossing title at the time of its release in 1997, he announced that the film would be his last. We all know how that went: A few years later he returned to animation to direct Spirited Away, the movie that broke that record and earned him an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
[h/t Anime News Network]
November 14, 2016 – 11:00am
Planning a post-election move to Canada? Don’t dig out your passport just yet. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not that easy to emigrate North. For Americans to become Canadian residents, they pretty much either need to land a job offer, or marry a Canadian citizen. But if you’re really determined (and single), Business Insider reports that a dating app called Maple Match will pair you with a paramour from the land of snowshoes and syrup.
Maple Match launched in May 2016. After a seven-month beta period, the iOS app was officially released on November 5—just in time for the presidential election. For the most part, Maple Match is similar to other dating apps, like Tinder, Hinge, and Bumble. But in addition to filling out a profile and selecting a picture, users are provided with the option of listing their citizenship, and stating which citizenship they’re looking to marry into. There’s also a survey designed to gauge users’ political views, and which ones they desire in a partner. Once your personal information is all filled out, Maple Match selects potential matches, and you can message the ones you’re most interested in.
Long-distance dating is hard, but plenty of people seem up for the challenge: As Vice reports, more than 4000 people signed up for Maple Match during its first week, and about 70 percent of those love-seekers were Canadian. There’s currently a waitlist.
[h/t Business Insider]
November 14, 2016 – 12:30pm
Oscar-Claude Monet is beloved for his series of oil paintings depicting water lilies, serene gardens, and Japanese footbridges. The French painter manipulated light and shadow to portray landscapes in a groundbreaking way, upending the traditional art scene in the late 19th century. In honor of his birthday, here are 11 things you might not know about the father of French Impressionism.
Born in Paris in 1840, Monet began drawing as a young boy, sketching his teachers and neighbors. He attended a school of the arts and, as a young teenager, sold his charcoal caricatures of local figures. He also learned about oil painting and en plein air (outdoors) painting, which later became a hallmark of his style. Monet’s mother encouraged his artistic talent, but his father, who owned a grocery store, wanted him to focus on the grocery business. After his mother died in 1857, Monet left home to live with his aunt and, against his father’s wishes, study art.
In 1861, Monet was drafted into the army. Forced to join the First Regiment of African Light Cavalry, he left Paris for Algeria, a territory that was then controlled by France. Monet’s father offered to pay for his son’s discharge if he would promise to give up painting, but Monet refused to abandon art. After serving one year of his seven-year military commitment, Monet got sick with typhoid fever. His aunt paid to get him released from the army, and she enrolled him in art school in Paris.
In his late 20s, Monet was frustrated with the Académie, France’s art establishment. He hated creating formulaic artwork, copying the art that hung in the Louvre, and painting scenes from ancient Greek and Roman myths. Although he tried to get his paintings into the Academie’s art exhibits, his art was almost always rejected. Depressed and struggling to support himself and his family financially, Monet jumped off a bridge in 1868. He survived his fall into the Seine and began spending time with other artists who also felt frustrated by the Académie’s restrictions.
In 1873, Monet was spending his summer in a rented home in Argenteuil, a suburb of Paris. His friend Pierre-Auguste Renoir visited Monet to spend time together and paint outdoors. The two men connected over their mutual dislike of the traditional style of the Académie. During his visit, Renoir painted Monet painting in his garden, creating a painting within a painting. The painting, straightforwardly called Monet Painting in His Garden at Argenteuil, depicts Monet standing outside as he paints flowers.
Monet created a community with other frustrated artists, a group that included Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, and Paul Cézanne. The group, which called itself The Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Printmakers, etc., organized an exhibition in 1874. The exhibition included groundbreaking artwork featuring bright, vivid colors and loose, seemingly spontaneous brushwork. After a critic compared one of Monet’s paintings—”Impression, Sunrise”—to an unfinished sketch (or “impression”), the term “Impressionists” caught on to describe the artists who displayed these radically different, new paintings.
Monet frequently painted his first wife, Camille Doncieux, who worked as a model and had been in a relationship with the artist since the mid 1860s (they married in 1870). The couple had two sons, but Camille died, perhaps of uterine cancer, in 1879. Alice Hoschedé, the wife of a businessman and art collector, had been living with the Monets after her husband went bankrupt, and Monet may have started an affair with her while Camille was still alive. After Camille’s death, Hoschedé jealously destroyed all of her letters and photographs. Despite this, Hoschedé (along with her six children) lived with Monet and his two kids, and the couple married in 1892 after Hoschedé’s husband died. (Fun fact: One of Hoschedé’s daughters later married one of Monet’s sons, so the step-siblings became husband and wife.)
From 1883 until his death in 1926, Monet lived in Giverny, a village in northern France. Over the years, he hired gardeners to plant everything from poppies to apple trees in his garden, turning it into a beautiful, tranquil place for him to paint. Finally wealthy from sales of his paintings, Monet invested serious money into his garden. He put a Japanese footbridge across his pond, which he famously painted, and he imported water lilies from Egypt and South America. Although the local city council told him to remove the foreign plants so they wouldn’t poison the water, Monet didn’t listen. For the last 25 years of his life, he painted the water lilies in a series of paintings that showcased the plants in varying light and textures.
As Monet’s garden expanded, he hired six full-time employees to tend to it. One gardener’s job was to paddle a boat onto the pond each morning, washing and dusting each lily pad. Once the lilies were clean, Monet began painting them, trying to capture what he saw as the light reflected off the water.
Around 1908 when he was in his late 60s, Monet began having trouble with his vision. Diagnosed with cataracts in 1912, he later described his inability to see the full color spectrum: “Reds appeared muddy to me, pinks insipid, and the intermediate or lower tones escaped me.” When he became legally blind in 1922, he continued painting by memorizing the locations of different colors of paint on his palette. Monet delayed getting risky cataract surgery until 1923, and critics mocked him for his blurry paintings, suggesting that his Impressionist style was due to his failing vision rather than his artistic brilliance. After two cataract surgeries, Monet wore tinted glasses to correct his distorted color perception and may have been able to see ultraviolet light.
In 2015, an art dealer in London discovered an unknown Monet pastel that had been hidden behind another Monet drawing that he had bought at a 2014 auction in Paris. The pastel depicts the lighthouse and jetty in Le Havre, the port in France where Monet lived as a child. Art scholars authenticated the pastel as an authentic Monet artwork and dated it to 1868, around the time he jumped into the Seine.
In 1926, Monet died of lung cancer. Starting in 1980, his former home in Giverny has been open to tourists to see his gardens, woodcut prints, and mementos. Each year, hundreds of thousands of people visit Giverny to walk through the artist’s famous garden and refurbished home. Besides looking at a variety of flowers and trees, visitors can also see Monet’s bedroom, studio, and blue sitting-room.
November 14, 2016 – 12:00pm
McDonald’s Italy via Facebook
For Nutella fans in Europe, there’s now a new way to consume the chocolatey hazelnut spread: slathered between two burger buns. As Business Insider reports, the “Sweety con Nutella” is the latest concoction on the menu at McDonald’s Italy.
The item looks like a burger at first glance, but fortunately beef has been left out of the recipe. The official McDonald’s Italy Facebook page describes the fast food treat as “soft bread with a creamy, indulgent center.”
Instead of serving the product alongside traditional burgers over hot food counters, it will be available at McCafés. The post doesn’t specify how much customers will be paying for the glorified Nutella sandwich, but based on the 75,000 “likes” it has received so far, plenty of people are eager to give it a try. This isn’t McDonald’s first bold attempt to mix sweet with savory: A few years ago, the fast food giant experimented with bubble-gum flavored broccoli aimed at kid consumers. (It didn’t last long.) Time will tell if their latest endeavor has more success.
[h/t Business Insider]
November 14, 2016 – 11:30am
In 2014, the Federal Trade Commission sued Amazon on behalf of millions of parents whose kids spent money on in-app purchases without permission, on the grounds that the tech company made it far too easy for children to run up unlimited charges without any kind of permission from the account holder. Now, a federal judge has ruled that Amazon needs to set up a payment plan for the eligible customers to begin in 2017, Reuters reports.
The FTC alleged that, beginning in 2011, Amazon’s lack of parental permission guards resulted in $86 million in unauthorized charges for mobile games targeted toward kids like “Ice Age Village,” and subsequent updates to the in-app purchase process did little to fix the issue. According to the FTC, “kids’ games often encourage children to acquire virtual items in ways that blur the lines between what costs virtual currency and what costs real money.” A 2012 update to the charge system limited the amount of money kids could spend without parental permission, but still allowed charges of up to $20 without any kind of approval from a parent’s account. Internal communications from Amazon show that employees knew the extent of the problem, and likened the situation to “near house on fire.”
A U.S. district judge in Seattle found the company liable in April 2016, and has now ordered the company to begin paying out eligible customers. Regulators had argued for a $26.5 million lump-sum payout, but the judge found those damages to be too high. Instead, the company will have to alert customers who are eligible starting next year, and begin reimbursing them in cash (not gift cards, as Amazon requested).
Amazon is not the first tech company to be held accountable for profits reaped from kids buying digital goods without their parents’ knowledge. Apple and Google have previously been targeted by the FTC over similar issues, and began paying refunds out in 2014.
[h/t Reuters]
November 14, 2016 – 11:15am
As a recurring feature, our team combs the Web and shares some amazing Amazon deals we’ve turned up. Here’s what caught our eye today, November 14.
Mental Floss has affiliate relationships with certain retailers, including Amazon, and may receive a small percentage of any sale. But we only get commission on items you buy and don’t return, so we’re only happy if you’re happy. Good luck deal hunting!
4M Doodling Robot for $11.87 (list price $15.99)
Casio Men’s MRW-S300H-4BVCF Tough Solar Watch With Black Resin Band for $20.76 (list price $49.95)
Seiko 5 Black Dial Stainless Steel Automatic Mens Watch SNZF17 for $144.20 (list price $299.00)
Oggi Stainless Steel Ice Bucket with Tongs, 3 L for $22.49 (list price $40.00)
Prep Solutions by Progressive Adjustable Bread Keeper for $11.68 (list price $17.95)
Lodge L9OG3 Cast Iron Round Griddle, Pre-Seasoned, 10.5-inch for $10.59 (list price $24.00)
Norpro 18 by 16-Inch Microfiber Dish Drying Mat, Gray for $5.95 (list price $17.25)
LINKYO French Coffee Press – Stainless Steel Coffee Maker 34oz, 1L for $20.77 (list price $49.99)
Epica 4-in-1 Immersion Hand Blender for $41.95 (list price $129.95)
Nordic Ware Natural Aluminum Commercial Baker’s Half Sheet for $10.24 (list price $20.00)
AmazonBasics Premium 18-Piece Knife Block Set for $48.00 (list price $64.99)
EDGY Wine Foil Cutter Accessory, Black for $9.97 (list price $19.99)
Bellemain Stainless Steel Measuring Cup Set, 6 Piece for 18.95 (list price $24.95)
RTIC 30 oz. Tumbler for $11.99 (list price $59.95)
Lodge L8DD3 Cast Iron Double Dutch Oven, 5-Quart for $37.96 (list price $64.00)
Pyrex Easy Grab 9.5″ Glass Pie Plate, 2 Pack for $10.86 (list price $14.99)
Vinturi Essential Wine Aerator for $14.99 (list price $39.95)
Hamilton Beach Electric Carving Knife with Case (74275) for $17.99 (list price $24.99)
OXO Good Grips Swivel Peeler for $8.99
KitchenAid Wide Basting Brush, Black for $3.92 (list price $7.79)
OXO Good Grips 4-Cup Fat Separator for $14.95
Nordic Ware Leakproof Springform Pan, 10 Cup, 9 Inch for $13.00 (list price $17.45)
Tissue Turkey Centerpiece Party Accessory (1 count) (1/Pkg) for $3.95 (list price $5.86)
Regency Baker’s Twine Cone red and white for $3.94 (list price $10.50)
All-Clad 4110 10-Inch Stainless Steel Tri-Ply Fry Pan, Silver for $96.23 (list price $115.00)
Marquis by Waterford Markham Double Old Fashioned Glasses, Set of 4 for $28.93 (list price $100.00)
Honeywell HWM705B Filter Free Warm Moisture Humidifier, Black for $22.99 (list price $34.99)
Panacea 15251 Log Tote, Black for $9.99 (list price $18.12)
OXO Good Grips Hideaway Compact Toilet Brush for $15.95
Lasko 754200 Ceramic Heater with Adjustable Thermostat for $18.28 (list price $35.99)
Carters Smiley Happy Piggy Bank, Silver for $12.08 (list price $20.00)
ScoopFree Ultra Self Cleaning Litter Box – Purple for $129.99 (list price $159.95)
Crystal Skirt/Pant Hangers (Pack of 12) by Utopia Home for $10.99 (list price $29.99)
Saganizer 4 Bag Laundry Organizer, Chrome / White for $38.87 (list price $50.00)
SimplePosture Lower Back Pain Relief Lumbar Support Pillow/Cushion for $29.99 (list price $99.99)
Twist Scrub Sponges- 6 Count for $3.34 (list price $17.04)
Vornado VFAN Jr. Vintage Air Circulator, Green for $58.87 (list price $79.99)
Yankee Candle Company Balsam & Cedar Large Jar Candle, Green for $20.95 (list price $27.99)
ClosetMaid 8996 Cubeicals 6-Cube Organizer, White for $32.72 (list price $49.99)
O-Cedar Hardwood Floor ‘N More Microfiber Mop for $14.44 (list price $88.59)
Emerson CKS1708 Smart Set Radio Alarm Clock for $18.99 (list price $24.99)
Sunbeam 731-500 Heating Pad with UltraHeat Technology for $10.99 (list price $15.99)
Ziploc Slider Storage Bags, 96 Count for $9.59 after on-screen coupon (list price $14.40)
Casabella Sink Sider Soap Dispenser with Sponge Holder and Sponge for $9.60 (list price $10.00)
Baby Banana Infant Training Toothbrush and Teether, Yellow for $6.48 (list price $8.49)
Aveeno Active Naturals Daily Moisturizing Lotion, 18 Ounce for $5.99 (list price $15.18)
Men’s Rogaine Foam, Three Month Supply for $39.49 (list price $50.13)
Gillette Venus Embrace Women’s Razor Blade Refills 4 Count for $16.04 (list price $20.49)
Aveeno Therapeutic Shave Gel, 7 Oz for $3.83 (list price $9.99)
CeraVe Foaming Facial Cleanser, 12 Ounce for $8.44 (list price $16.25)
Burt’s Bees Mama Bee Belly Butter, 6.5 Ounces for $8.65 (list price $16.50)
Gillette Venus Original Women’s Razor Refill Cartridges 8 Count for $11.91 (list price $23.99)
Philips Norelco Electric Shaver 2100, S1560/81 for $29.95 (list price $39.99)
Suavecito Pomade Firme Hold 4 oz for $12.95 (list price $14.95)
It’s a 10 Miracle Leave-In Product, 10-Ounce Bottle for $23.19 (list price $35.94)
NOW Solutions Castor Oil, 100 % Pure, 16 ounce for $5.39 (list price $11.40)
Colgate Wisp Portable Mini-Brush Max Fresh, Peppermint, 24 Count for $4.09 (list price $7.99)
Braun Series 3 3010 Electric Shaver for $35.99 (list price $79.99)
Faber Castell Premium Color Pencils, 48 Colors for $17.80
Easel Document Holders, Adjustable, 10 x 2 x 14 Inches, Black for $7.47 (list price $16.00)
Martin Angelina Aluminum Table Top Easel for $11.10 (list price $24.99)
Sharpie Permanent Markers, Brush Tip, Assorted, 12 Pack for $10.09 (list price $27.57)
Parker Urban Black and Gold Fountain Pen kit with 4 Ink (1760841) for $35.66 (list price $75.60)
Derwent Super Point Manual Helical Pencil Sharpener (2302001) for $17.35 (list price $36.99)
Toysmith Build and Paint a Birdhouse for $9.80 (list price $12.99)
Epson WorkForce WF-100 Wireless Color Mobile Printer Refurbished for $155.00 (list price $177.03)
Pentel Icy Automatic Pencil, 0.5mm, Assorted Barrels, 3 Pack (AL25TBP3) for $6.47 (list price $9.33)
Barbecue Grill Light – 10 LED for Grilling at Night – Cave Tools for $18.69 (list price $21.99)
Black Flag Handheld Bug Zapper, Black for $4.86 (list price $9.99)
Coleman 9 Can Cooler, Green for $10.00 (list price $29.99)
Gatorade 32 Oz Squeeze Water Sports Bottle -Pack of 2 – New Easy Grip Design for $12.85
BUG Leather Canvas Backpack, 2 Way to Carry-Grey, Medium for $54.99 (list price $119.99)
Physix Gear Sport Kinesiology Tape 2″ x 16.5′ Pro (Black) 2 Pack for $26.99 (list price $29.99)
Metal Oscillating Sprinkler, 3600 Square Feet for $7.99 (list price $39.99)
Coghlan’s Camp Grill for $9.98 (list price $16.99)
Hot Shot No-Pest Strip2 (HG-5580) (1 ct) for $5.67 (list price $9.34)
WESTERN 78055 Hickory Cooking Wood Chunks for $7.99 (list price $9.59)
Evenflo Maestro Booster Car Seat Thunder for $58.97 (list price $84.99)
MidWest Deluxe Bolster Pet Bed for Dogs & Cats for $8.64 (list price $19.99)
MidWest Foldable Metal Exercise Pen / Pet Playpen for $33.16 (list price $44.99)
Premium Set of 28 Double Six Dominoes with Wood Case, Brown for $8.88 (list price $19.99)
Certified Refurbished Amazon Fire TV with Alexa Voice Remote for $64.99 (list price $89.99)
McAfee 2017 Total Protection-5 Devices [Key Code] for $24.99 (list price $79.99)
TP-Link AC750 Dual Band Wi-Fi Range Extender (RE200) for $29.95 (list price $69.99)
NETGEAR AC750 WiFi Range Extender (EX3700-100NAS) for $39.98 (list price $69.98)
Joy Fish Cable Tie 8 Inch 50LBS 100 Pcs/Pack – Black for $3.08 (list price $5.95)
Carrand 97372AS AutoSpa Interior Car Detail Duster for $4.58 (list price $5.99)
Meguiar’s G17748 Ultimate Wash and Wax – 48 oz. for $10.87 after on-screen coupon
IRWIN Tools Combination Square, Metal-Body, 6-Inch (1794468) for $7.56 (list price $12.28)
Pro-Lift F-767 Grey Low Profile Floor Jack – 2 Ton Capacity for $40.95 (list price $72.35)
Omega 91000 Black 40″ Foldable Z Creeper for $53.85 (list price $118.16)
Irwin Industrial Tools 316015 Cobalt Drill Bit Set, 15-Piece for $19.64 (list price $30.19)
3M Indoor Window Insulator Kit for 5 Windows for $11.39 (list price $22.54)
PORTER-CABLE C2002 Oil-Free UMC Pancake Compressor for $99.00 (list price $318.78)
BLACK+DECKER BDEJS600C 5.0-Amp Jig Saw for $29.98 (list price $36.01)
DEWALT DWE315K Multi Material Corded Oscillating Tool Kit for $129.00 (list price $297.33)
Black & Decker TLD100 Thermal Leak Detector for $25.99 (list price $52.80)
BearMoo Whetstone 2-IN-1 Sharpening Stone 3000/8000 Grit Whaterstone, Rubber Stone Holder Included for $22.09 (list price $39.99)
IRWIN Tools Speedbor Max Speed Bit Set, 3-Piece (3041003) for $9.75 (list price $22.35)
Makita 9557PBX1 4-1/2-Inch Angle Grinder with Aluminum Case for $77.99 (list price $178.00)
Smith’s PP1 Pocket Pal Multifunction Sharpener, Grey for $6.75 (list price $9.99)
Streamlight 61052 Septor LED Headlamp with Strap for $26.99 (list price $51.00)
Coast G20 LED Inspection Beam Flashlight for $10.97 (list price $18.00)
Gerber Bear Grylls Ultimate Multi-Tool [31-000749] for $31.49 (list price $75.00)
Franklin International 1414 Titebond-3 Ultimate Wood Glue, 16-Ounce for $6.97 (list price $10.95)
Franklin International 1414 Titebond-3 Ultimate Wood Glue, 16-Ounce for $6.97 (list price $10.95)
November 14, 2016 – 1:20pm
Set in 1951 in the fictitious tiny Indiana town of Hickory, Hoosiers (1986) starred Gene Hackman as Norman Dale, a man whose promising career coaching college basketball was forever ruined when he hit one of his players. After spending more than a decade in the Navy, Dale gets a second chance at coaching with the Hickory High School Huskers, where he quickly discovers how important even high school basketball is to the town and to the Hoosier state.
Slowly, Dale manages to win over the town and its former star player, Jimmy Chitwood (Maris Valainis), when his seemingly unusual tactics begin to yield positive results on the court. By changing Jimmy’s mind and helping to get the local drunk, Shooter Flatch (Dennis Hopper), on the wagon with the promise of an assistant coach position, Dale also impresses his world-weary colleague, Myra Fleener (Barbara Hershey). In honor of the film’s 30th anniversary, here are 10 facts you might not have known about the Oscar-nominated sports classic.
First-time feature film writer Angelo Pizzo and equally-green director David Anspaugh grew up in Indiana and were roommates at Indiana University, so naturally they wanted to make a movie about the state and its love of basketball. But while they had heard and been inspired throughout their lives by the story of the tiny 1954 Milan High team that shocked everybody by winning the state championship, Pizzo discovered they were “too nice” and had “no real conflict,” so instead he made the team out of five of his friends from high school, created an assistant coach from scratch, and made Dale with Bobby Knight, Indiana University’s longtime—and legendarily volatile—head coach in mind.
“I wondered what would happen if Knight punched a player,” Pizzo said. “I utilized Knight’s offensive philosophy: four passes before a shot. I also created an arc for him where he actually listened to a player.” (In real life, Knight was accused of several acts of violence, and eventually dismissed from his position at Indiana for what the school’s president described as a “pattern of unacceptable behavior.”)
After reading the script, Nicholson told Pizzo and Anspaugh, “I have to play this character.” However, he was unable to take the role because he was serving as a witness in a lawsuit, which sidelined him for six months. After the film came out, Nicholson said to Anspaugh that the movie and its stars were great, but that it would have been a “megahit” if he been its star.
Venerable character actor Harry Dean Stanton was offered the role of Shooter, but passed. In 2013 he expressed regret over saying no to the film, and couldn’t remember his reasons for declining it. Dennis Hopper was also reluctant to play Shooter, as he had “just stopped drinking,” but eventually signed on and earned an Oscar nomination for his efforts.
The lone non-Hoosier was David Neidorf, who played Shooter’s son Everett. (He auditioned at the Beverly Hills Y.) The rest were picked from an open casting call in Indianapolis for anyone who could play hoops. Estimates on how many people auditioned range from 400 to 800 hopefuls.
The athletes studied 1950s game film and trained and rehearsed for over two months. “We’d spent all our lives learning to play one way, and then we had to start shooting a completely different way,” Steve Hollar, who played Rade, said. “No behind-the-back passes, no hand-checking.”
Hackman and Anspaugh clashed throughout most of the production. “Gene had me on the verge of a nervous breakdown,” Anspaugh told Vulture. “He gave me my first anxiety attack: One morning I woke up and I couldn’t walk, the room was spinning. I thought every day on the film was going to be my last because Gene’s agent was trying to get me fired.“
According to Anspaugh, the only thing that saved his job was the dailies. “The producers said, ‘Look, David’s not getting fired,'” the director recalled. “And we showed a half-hour of dailies to Gene’s agent and he saw that what we were making was actually pretty good.”
During a happy montage of Hickory winning a string of games, Dale was shown saying something to Shooter on the bench that made Shooter laugh. It wasn’t until years later that Anspaugh learned what Hopper was laughing at: Hackman had told him, “Hopper, I hope you’ve invested well, because you and I are never gonna work after this movie. This is a career-ending film for both of us.”
Hopper had acted alongside James Dean in both Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Giant (1956). For a scene where he needed to act drunk in the latter film, Dean asked director George Stevens for 30 seconds so that he could spin around to better feel the inebriation. Remembering this, Hopper asked Anspaugh for the same 30 seconds.
There’s another connection between Hoosiers and Dean: in 1951, the Marion, Indiana-born actor had played basketball against the Milan High School team.
In the original script, Shooter leaves rehab to watch the state championship. Hopper, who had just gotten sober, thought it was detrimental to the story. “We sat down over coffee, and he said, ‘Guys, I wish I had brought this up earlier. I knew there was something that bothered me about this scene. It doesn’t work. It can’t happen. It would suggest Shooter didn’t take his sobriety seriously. And I know from experience that Shooter made a real commitment, and there’s no way he would leave that hospital,'” Anspaugh recalled. “And Angelo and I had been living with that scene in our heads for years. And we really argued against [cutting] it. And Dennis said, ‘No, trust me.’ And we trusted him, and he was absolutely right.”
Anspaugh and Pizzo wanted to release their two-hour-and-48-minute version of the movie. The studio insisted that they needed to cut it down to 114 minutes. Among the many scenes excised was Buddy (Brad Long) asking back on the team and two scenes that developed Norman and Myra’s budding romance more. Anspaugh said “the audience really got cheated and robbed” over the cuts.
Hackman insisted on viewing the movie before he agreed to go in to re-record some of his audio. “Angelo and I knew that if he didn’t like the movie, he wouldn’t show up at the studio to re-record his dialogue,” Anspaugh said. “But he showed up. He walked in to the room, took his glasses off, looked me in the eyes, and said, ‘How the f*ck did you do that?'”
November 14, 2016 – 10:00am
