A rescue dog named “Bowie,” with unusual eyes that match his rock star namesake, needs a forever home—and the late singer’s son is trying to help him find one. This week, Duncan Jones, an English film director and child of David Bowie and model Angie Bowie, took the canine’s cause to social media, asking Twitter users to adopt him, Mashable reports.
Aside from his make-up, sequined suits, and blonde bouffant, David Bowie’s most striking characteristic was his different colored irises. One of them had a permanently dilated pupil, thanks to a fight he got into as a teenager, which made the blue iris appear brown. Canine Bowie—a three-year old lurcher, which is a cross between a sighthound and a terrier, herding breed, or large scenthound—also has one blue eye and one brown eye. The pup’s eyes are likely the result of a condition called heterochromia, which David Bowie didn’t have.
Bowie is currently under the care of Dogs Trust Bridgend, a canine rescue organization in Wales. Shelter workers told WalesOnline that hundreds of potential owners have passed up the needy dog because of his unique eyes. They also pushed for readers to adopt him.
Some hold the superstition that odd-colored eyes are unlucky, and as an especially unlucky day—Friday, January 13—approaches, shelter workers hope that won’t deter potential adopters.
“It’s such a shame that Bowie has been overlooked so far, but we’re confident we’ll find a home for him soon,” Angela Wetherall, a manager at Dogs Trust Bridgend, told WalesOnline. “Despite the superstition that Friday the 13th brings bad luck, we’re really hoping potential new owners will put any superstitions to one side and consider re-homing our blue-eyed boy Bowie.”
“Not only will you be offering a four-legged friend a happy home, but you will be gaining a new best friend,” Wetherall added. “We don’t see what’s so unlucky about that.”
Bowie is reportedly social and energetic, so he needs an owner with a personality to match. People who are interested in helping the canine find a new home are instructed to contact Dogs Trust Bridgend.
Never underestimate the appeal of retro gaming. One of the hottest gift items of the 2016 holiday season was the NES Classic, a palm-sized replica of the original Nintendo Entertainment System that didn’t do anything the 1985 original couldn’t but still managed to create waves of hysteria and inflated prices.
Now, Gizmodo reports, hardware distributor Retro-Bit is hoping to recapture some of that nostalgia-driven business this summer with the Super Retro Boy, a handheld device that mimics Nintendo’s original Game Boy with two key tweaks: it can play Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games and runs on a 10-hour rechargeable lithium battery.
Like Retro-Bit’s previous offerings, the Super Retro Boy doesn’t profess to have any claim to Nintendo’s intellectual property, although some of the legal issues behind hardware clones are still murky. One gaming site theorizes that because patents on old gaming devices expire after a period of time, third-party developers are free to replicate their internal construction, so long as they alter the chassis design.
The Super Retro Boy is due in August, with 10 bundled games (titles TBD) and a price tag of $79.99.
Making friends can be complicated (especially when science tells us that one out of two friendships is one-sided). But research from Dartmouth sociology professor Janice McCabe suggests that the types of social structures we form are surprisingly straightforward, Quartz reports. According to her paper [PDF] published last year in the journal Contexts, our friendship styles can be broken into three simple categories.
For her study, McCabe looked at 67 students at a four-year Midwestern university (a small sample size, to be sure). She found that most subjects fit under one of the three umbrellas: tight-knitters, compartmentalizers, and samplers. Members of the first group belong to a single social network where everyone’s connected in some way—in other words, you have one big group of friends. Tight-knitters have a net of social support to fall back on but also risk being dragged down by negativity in the group.
Compartmentalizers have a few small clusters of friends rather than one tightly woven web. These friend-makers have two to four friend groups that rarely mix, which gives them the benefit of being able to hop between clusters in order to satisfy different needs.
The last category, samplers, have many individual friendships collected from different parts of life. People who gravitate towards one-on-one relationships may be more independent in their personal lives, but they sometimes lack a sense of belonging.
McCabe entered into the study looking to see what effect, if any, peer groups have on performance in school. She found that while tight-knitters and compartmentalizers often turn to friends for academic support, samplers usually rely on themselves in that area. The classroom isn’t the only place where a strong network of friends comes in handy: After graduation, friendships can also help you get ahead and stay sane in the workforce.
Although most well known for its peas and corn, the Green Giant brand sells a variety of fresh, frozen, canned, bagged, and boxed vegetables (as well as hummus). Founded in 1903 as the Minnesota Valley Canning Company, the company changed its name in 1950 to Green Giant, though its recognizable mascot had been around much longer. Read on for 11 things you might not know about the veggie company.
1. THE COMPANY WAS AT THE FOREFRONT OF INDUSTRIAL CANNING.
In 1903, 14 merchants in Le Sueur, Minnesota joined forces to create the Minnesota Valley Canning Company. They started an industrial cannery, producing and selling 11,750 cases of white corn in their first year of business. In 1907, they started producing cans of Early June peas, and they continued to focus only on corn and peas until 1939 when they began also selling canned asparagus.
2. GREEN GIANT PEAS WERE NAMED AFTER A BIG PEA FROM ENGLAND.
Until 1925, the Minnesota Valley Canning Company only sold Early June peas, a variety of small, sweet peas. When a company executive found a large pea in England that was tender and tasted sweet, he brought it back to Minnesota. At the time, the company couldn’t legally trademark the name Green Giant to describe the peas, so they created a mascot named Green Giant and sold the new type of peas under that name.
3. THE ORIGINAL GREEN GIANT MASCOT WAS NEITHER JOLLY NOR GREEN…
COURTESY GREEN GIANT
The original Green Giant mascot was a white (not green) man holding a giant pea pod in his arms. Starting in 1928, he appeared in ads for the peas. The Green Giant’s original incarnation was reportedly influenced by illustrations from Grimms’ Fairy Tales, a collection of German fairy tales from the early 1800s.
4. …BUT HE BECAME THE GENTLE GIANT WE KNOW TODAY THANKS TO THE CREATOR OF TONY THE TIGER AND THE PILLSBURY DOUGHBOY.
The advertising company Leo Burnett, which created other well-known food mascots such as Tony the Tiger, the Pillsbury Doughboy, and Toucan Sam, softened the Green Giant’s appearance in 1935. The revised giant had a smile to match his new name, the Jolly Green Giant, and he wore a toga of green leaves. He also got a backstory—he watched over the Jolly Green Giant Valley, protecting the crops.
5. GREEN GIANT HAS CLOSE TIES WITH LE SUEUR VEGETABLES.
Green Giant and Le Sueur are different brands under the same company. Because the Minnesota Valley Canning Company was founded in Le Sueur, Minnesota, the company named its canned vegetables Le Sueur Z. They dropped the Z in 1933, but Le Sueur still sells cans of peas, asparagus, and carrots today.
6. LITTLE GREEN SPROUT HAS BEEN LEARNING FROM THE JOLLY GREEN GIANT SINCE THE EARLY 1970s.
Green Giant introduced another company mascot called Little Green Sprout in 1973. Aimed at children, the young green boy with leaves for hair joined the Jolly Green Giant in the valley, learning about veggies and keeping him company. Little Green Sprout’s youth is reinforced with his high-pitched voice, a stark contrast to the Jolly Green Giant’s booming “ho, ho, ho” tagline.
7. YOU CAN VISIT A TOWERING 55-FOOT STATUE OF THE JOLLY GREEN GIANT.
Tourists to Blue Earth, Minnesota will probably marvel at the sight of a 55-foot statue of the Jolly Green Giant. Paul Hedberg, a radio station owner, wanted to encourage visitors who were traveling on Interstate 90 to stop in Blue Earth, so he contacted Green Giant to ask if a statue could be erected. Green Giant gave the okay, and Hedberg raised money from local businesses. The fiberglass statue, which has been towering over the town since 1979, even gets a giant red scarf placed around his neck each winter.
8. GREEN GIANT HAS INNOVATED VEGETABLE MANUFACTURING METHODS.
Green Giant has a history of being on the cutting edge of research and development. In 1929, the company invented Green Giant Niblets by canning vacuum-packed sweet corn in a new way. In 1933, the company used gravity separators—machines that measured and separated peas during the manufacturing process. And in 1969, Green Giant was the first company to sell frozen corn on the cob and mushrooms in glass jars.
9. GREEN GIANT FREEZES THEIR VEGETABLES AFTER HARVESTING TO PRESERVE NUTRIENTS.
Studies have shown that freezing vegetables at their peak ripeness can preserve the nutrients, so you can get just as much benefit from eating frozen veggies as eating fresh ones. Green Giant’s sweet corn, for example, is frozen and packaged within 24 hours of being harvested, and then shipped to a grocery store near you.
10. GREEN GIANT SUPPORTS BULLY PREVENTION.
Green Giant has partnered with Pacer’s National Bullying Prevention Center to help kids who are bullied. With the “Nominate A Giant” program, Green Giant encourages people in the community to nominate kids and adults who stand up against bullies. “From being friendly in the halls to inviting others to sit with you at lunch, your nice gesture is what makes you a Giant,” the company writes, and they reported that more than 12,000 people nominated “giants” on their social media pages.
11. THE JOLLY GREEN GIANT HAS BECOME A POP CULTURE ICON.
People love the Green Giant’s combination of brawn and gentleness. In Blue Earth, Minnesota, people can visit the Green Giant Museum and get a kick out of seeing the giant green footsteps that are painted on the sidewalks each summer for the town’s Giant Days festival and parade. For those not in Minnesota, Green Giant vintage merchandise such as dolls, kites, shirts, hats, coffee cups, and posters are available for sale online.
Dan, James, Andy and special guest Sara Pascoe discuss sympathetic pregnancy, the world’s most famous umbrellas and the surprisingly romantic life of coral.
Dan, James, Andy and special guest Sara Pascoe discuss sympathetic pregnancy, the world’s most famous umbrellas and the surprisingly romantic life of coral.
Harriet Tubman’s residence near Auburn, New York is now closer than ever to becoming an official national historic park, the Associated Press reports.
According to New York state senator Charles Schumer, the Department of the Interior has finalized a land transfer agreement that allows for the National Park Service to create the park. Now, all the Harriet Tubman National Historic Park needs to become a reality is approval from the secretary of the interior. (Congress approved legislation to create the park in December 2014, along with a similar park near Tubman’s birthplace on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.)
In 1859, the famed Underground Railroad conductor moved to the Auburn area—then home to a strong abolitionist community—after New York senator William Seward offered to sell her his home. Tubman lived there with her parents, and in 1896, purchased 25 acres of adjoining land to build a housing community for elderly African-Americans, eventually called the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged. In 1903, Tubman deeded the home to a local church, the Thompson Memorial AME Zion Church, on the condition that they manage the home.
The Harriet Tubman National Historical Park will include several properties, Syracuse.com reports. The land transfer deal approved by the Department of the Interior allows for the Harriet Tubman Home, Inc. and AME Zion Church to sell its ownership of the church and the Home for the Aged Rectory to the federal government. Meanwhile, Tubman’s former home, the Home for the Aged, and a historic barn will be jointly run by the National Park Service and Harriet Tubman Home, Inc. through a preservation easement.
“As a New Yorker and an American, I’m deeply proud to see Tubman Park finally become a reality,” Schumer said in a statement quoted by Syracuse.com. “The Tubman Historic Park in Auburn will be a magnet for visitors that will tell the amazing story of Harriet Tubman’s life, an extraordinary American, and her story deserves to be shared with our children and grandchildren. This park will serve that solemn purpose and preserve her legacy for countless generations to come.”
They all sparkle. They all bubble. And they’re all water. But club soda, seltzer, and sparkling water are not interchangeable. Here’s what you need to know the next time you reach for one.
CLUB SODA
Club soda is just water with a few add-ins: carbon dioxide for carbonation and “mineral-like” ingredients such as sodium bicarbonate, sodium citrate, and potassium sulfate. It’s unflavored, other than the slightly mineral-y taste, which is why club soda is a great cocktail mixer.
Why is it called club soda? According to Culinary Lore, the beverage was once called Club Soda (note the proper noun). The water was—and still is—trademarked in Great Britain and Ireland by Dublin-based beverage company Cantrell & Cochrane. In 1896, C&C lost a lawsuit against a Jamaican company that had used the term “club soda,” which is probably why it remains a generic term everywhere else.
By the way, there’s not much truth to the idea that club soda is a champ at getting stains out; plain water typically works just as well.
SELTZER
Like club soda, seltzer is also just plain water with carbon dioxide added for carbonation, but without the mineral additions. Unlike club soda, seltzer can be sweetened and flavored, often with citrus or other fruits. Interestingly, seltzer was also once a trademarked product, this one sold in Germany as far back as 1728. European immigrants brought it with them when they came to America, and the term eventually became used more generically.
SPARKLING WATER
Sparkling mineral water usually comes from a natural spring or well, which may provide natural carbonation. There’s also sparkling water that isn’t mineral based and doesn’t come from a spring; it’s simply carbonated water, sometimes flavored.
BONUS: TONIC WATER
Tonic water is also—wait for it—carbonated water. The big difference is the addition of quinine, an ingredient found in the bark of the South American cinchona tree. Quinine was originally used as malaria medicine; according to legend, British soldiers started mixing the bitter stuff with soda water, sugar, and gin, to make it go down easier. It’s also fluorescent, so the next time you’re enjoying a gin and tonic, find yourself a black light and revel in its blue glow.
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There’s no need to travel to the fromageries of France or the dairy farms of Switzerland to sample the best cheese on Earth. According to the judges of 2016’s World Championship Cheese Contest, it can be found in the American Midwest. The Wisconsin-made “Roth Grand Cru Surchoix” was named Best in Show at the competition, marking the first time since 1988 that an American cheese has won the title, Condé Nast Travelerreports.
Though it doesn’t always receive the same level of respect as products made across the pond, Wisconsin cheese is a big deal. According to the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, the state’s cheeses have received 4835 national and international awards, more than any other state or nation. But there’s one prize, Best in Show at the World Championship Cheese Contest, that has remained elusive for decades. Wisconsin cheesemakers have snagged the award in the past (they won six out of the seven competitions from 1957 to 1968), but for 28 years they’ve been passed over in favor of entries from Europe and Australia.
Emmi Roth USA’s Roth Grand Cru Surchoix, an Alpine-style cheese similar to Gruyère, was the cheese that finally broke America’s losing streak. It’s a firm product that’s aged for at least nine months to develop complex notes of mushroom, fruit, and caramel. The sample that was submitted for judging was aged for 14 months, and ultimately bested 2959 entries for the top honor. If you aren’t lucky enough to live in America’s cheese capital, you can order the decorated Wisconsin cheese for $13 from Walmart.
