The Time Ohio and Michigan Almost Went to War

filed under: History
Image credit: 
Getty Images

Ohio State vs. Michigan is one of the best rivalries in sports. But two centuries ago, Ohio and Michigan were ready to go to war for real.

The story of The Toledo War begins in 1787, when the U.S. government enacted the Northwest Ordinance. The Ordinance described the border between Ohio and Michigan as “an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan.” Congress used the best map available at the time, The Mitchell Map (below), to create this east-west line, putting most of the west shoreline of Lake Erie within Ohio’s borders. This would include Maumee Bay, where the Maumee River and Lake Erie meet, giving Ohio a significant economic advantage for shipping.

However, it was discovered in 1803 that The Mitchell Map was incorrect—the tip of Lake Michigan was actually farther south. A straight line from the correct southern point would have cost Ohio almost all of Lake Erie. Hoping to avoid this loss, Ohio changed the description of the border so that it now ran northeast from the tip of Lake Michigan to Maumee Bay. This new description wasn’t an issue until 1833, when Michigan asked for statehood. Michigan kept the old Northwest Ordinance line description, but drew it from the correct tip of Lake Michigan. The overlap between Ohio and Michigan’s descriptions created the “Toledo Strip,” a ribbon of land five to eight miles wide, encompassing present-day Toledo.

In an effort to make Michigan concede the Strip, Ohio’s governor, Robert Lucas, used his political connections to convince Congress to deny Michigan statehood. Upset by Lucas’ scheme, Michigan governor Stevens Mason enacted the Pains and Penalties Act in February 1835. This law said that anyone caught in the Strip supporting the state of Ohio could be jailed for up to five years and fined $1,000 (roughly $25,000 today). To enforce his act, Mason raised a militia of 1,000 men and stationed them inside Toledo. In response, Governor Lucas sent 600 men. It was a fight just waiting to happen.

Feeling Stabby

For the next five months, a series of skirmishes, arrests, lawsuits, and general chest thumping occurred in the Toledo Strip. But no one was killed or seriously injured until July, when Michigan sheriff Joseph Wood attempted to arrest Major Benjamin Stickney for voting in an Ohio election. Stickney and his sons, named—I kid you not—One Stickney and Two Stickney, resisted. In the melee, Two stabbed Sheriff Wood with a pocketknife.

Though the sheriff’s wound was not life threatening, this scuffle was enough to instigate peace talks, and troops were withdrawn. Still, the political dispute raged on until December 1836 when Congress offered Michigan a compromise—give up the Toledo Strip, but gain statehood and a large portion of the Upper Peninsula instead. Michigan had spent so much maintaining the militia’s presence in the Strip that they were quickly running out of money. They weren’t happy about it, but they had no choice but to accept the compromise.

Even after the deal, legal battles between the states occurred periodically until 1973, when it took a Supreme Court ruling to resolve claims to the waters of Lake Erie. Now Ohio and Michigan citizens channel their border war tensions onto the college football gridiron.

This post originally appeared in 2008.


November 26, 2016 – 9:00am

What Goes in the Empty Box?

filed under: puzzle

I love a good brain teaser. I’m not sure this is a good brain teaser, but I spent way too long trying to figure it out, so I’ll toss it out here for you guys. What goes in the box? It’s not six.

While you think about it, here’s a different kind of puzzle. Can you spot the Oscar statuette hidden among the 3-CPOs?

OK, did you come up with the answer? If you’ve never driven a car with a manual transmission, it might have stumped you.

That was fun. Here are some other quizzes and puzzles:

Name the TV Titles Based on Their Antonyms
*
Pick the Only Vowel That Completes These Words
*
Can You Find the Cat in This Photo?
*
Name That Novel With Just Three Words

[h/t 22 Words]


November 14, 2016 – 1:00am

10 Quacking Facts About Ducks

filed under: Animals

by Jenny Morrill, Mental Floss UK

“From troubles of the world I turn to ducks,

Beautiful comical things”

– Ducks by Frank W. Harvey

From Jemima to Donald, ducks have permeated popular culture due to their friendly and entertaining nature. But far from just being waddling bundles of feathers, ducks are actually very complex creatures…

1. They follow the first animal they see


Image: Cute Overload

This is a phenomenon known as imprinting (nothing to do with the werewolf stuff in Twilight). The basic thought behind imprinting is as follows: a newly hatched duckling will adopt characteristics of the first animal they see. This is usually a mother duck, but could be anything from a dog to a human (which I assume is what happened to Donald Duck). There is even a known case of a group of ducklings imprinting on a cardboard box.

Imprinting takes place due to the duckling’s instinct to follow the first thing that passes by, because more often than not this is their mother. To prevent this it is common practice, when hand rearing ducklings, to feed them using a hand puppet of a duck, so that later on the duckling can integrate with its own species.

2. Puzzling parts


Image: Neatorama

Duck romance isn’t exactly moonlight and roses. While ducks pair off every mating season, this doesn’t stop rival males from forcing themselves on the female. The males of many duck breeds have developed spiky, corkscrew shaped penises, which give them an advantage over rivals when it comes to depositing sperm. This video, charmingly titled Explosive eversion of a duck penis, shows the extent of the weirdness.

However, female ducks do not take this lying down. Over time they have developed vaginas comparable to Hampton Court Maze, with dead ends, and parts that spiral in the opposite direction to the male’s penis.

It doesn’t end there. Some breeds of duck have penises so long they are able to use them as lassos (see picture above). Researches at the University of Alaska theorise that the Argentinian lake duck will sometimes lasso escaping females in order to mate with them.

Ducks have also been known to have sex with dead ducks. I think it’s fair to say that ducks are sex mad.

3. Not all ducks can fly 


Image: Karen Barclay

There is a breed of duck that has more in common with a penguin than with its anatine cousins. The Indian Runner is becoming increasingly popular with UK duck owners, thanks to its inability to fly and comical appearance; the most frequently used description among Indian Runner owners is “a wine bottle on legs”.

Even though the Indian Runner can’t fly, it can outrun many predators, and also its owner. Because of this, Indian Runners are occasionally used to train sheepdogs.

4. They’re not supposed to eat bread


Image: Down To Earth Mother

At some point in our lives, we’ve all been to the park to feed the ducks, usually clutching half a bag of stale Warburtons. However, feeding bread to a duck actually does the duck more harm than good.

While ducks are largely omnivorous, and have even been known to eat sand and grit for its mineral content, bread is actually one of the worst things they can eat. Apart from having no nutritional value, regularly eating bread can cause obesity, malnutrition, and a condition known as angel wing, which impedes the duck’s ability to fly. On top of this, rotting, uneaten bread will attract pests and predators to the duck’s environment.

Corn, oats and chopped vegetables are all good alternatives to try when feeding the ducks.

5. They have have 3 eyelids


Image: Flickr

This is the case with most birds. As well as the standard top and bottom eyelids, ducks also have a third, sideways lid, known as a nictitating membrane. The membrane acts like goggles do on humans, so the ducks can see while their heads are underwater. The membrane also removes things like grit and dust from the eyes.

6. You can tell a male from a female by the tail


Image: Flickr

While many breeds of duck are distinguishable by their colouring (for example, with the mallard), some have identical colouring regardless of sex. With these breeds, the most common way to tell the male from the female is to look at the tail feathers. In many breeds, the male will have curly tail feathers, in contrast to the female’s straight, stubby feathers.

7. Not all ducks quack


Image: Notes From The Wild Side

In fact, hardly any ducks produce the characteristic ‘quacking’ sound we’ve come to associate with them. The most common UK duck, the mallard, does quack, but other breeds croak, squeak, whistle, or remain mute. You can listen to a few different duck calls here.

And while we’re on the subject, duck quacks do echo.

8. Egg laying is affected by daylight


Image: Bebe Styles

Both ducks and chickens slow down their egg production when there is a shortage of daylight, due to the light levels affecting their hormones. This is why most breeds of duck and chicken don’t lay many, if any eggs during the winter months.

Ducks aren’t as affected by the dark as chickens however, and some breeds do lay all year round (the current record holder producing 364 eggs in one year).

Because of this, farmers and duck keepers are advised to introduce artificial light into the duck house in order to boost egg production.

9. Females are louder than males


Image: Pichost

Sorry ladies, our duck counterparts are giving us a bad name. With most breeds of duck, the female is considerably louder and more talkative than the male. In fact, some male breeds are virtually silent (desperately tries not do do a joke about being hen-pecked). People wanting to keep domestic ducks are often advised to keep only males if they have neighbours, as this will reduce the risk of annoying them with the noise.

10. They can be very indecisive

As this hilarious and adorable video shows –

Main image: Backyard Duck


June 1, 2016 – 2:10pm