Among other things, Washington, D.C. is known for its thousands of beautiful cherry blossom trees, which flower spectacularly every March and April in an eye-popping explosion of blush-colored blooms. But on November 17, 1938, the gorgeous trees caused fireworks of a different sort.
The iconic trees have commanded attention for more than a century, with the first pair planted in 1912 by First Lady Helen Taft and the Viscountess Chinda, the wife of the Japanese Ambassador. A total of 3020 cherry trees of 12 varieties were eventually planted in the area, including East Potomac Park, the Washington Monument grounds, and the Tidal Basin. The trees grew and flourished for more than 20 years—and then the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Commission was formed, charged with planning the construction of the monument to our third president.
After much debate, the commission recommended that the Jefferson Memorial be erected on the Tidal Basin site where it stands today, which would require the removal of some of the cherry blossom trees. Washington society ladies, led by editor of the Washington Times-Herald Eleanor Patterson, immediately protested, horrified at the prospect of losing the natural splendor of the trees.
The media piled onto the problem, with one article estimating that nearly 600 trees would meet their untimely demises. President Franklin Roosevelt called the report “one of the most interesting cases of newspaper flimflam” he had ever come across. The trees, he promised, would be relocated—not chopped down.
Unconvinced by the president’s statement, 50 women marched on the White House on November 17, 1938, the day construction started, to deliver a petition to halt the wanton destruction of their beloved trees.
When that didn’t work, approximately 150 society ladies showed up to the construction site the next day, wearing furs and carrying chains. They snatched shovels from the workers’ hands, refilling freshly dug holes and even chaining themselves to the trees. They sang a version of Joyce Kilmer’s “Trees” poem and created their own chant: “Who is it wants these grand old trees displaced? Who is it wants our fair D.C. disgraced?”
“This is the worst desecration of beauty in the capital since the burning of the White House by the British,” a woman chained to a tree declared.
Roosevelt remained unmoved by the protests: If the activists didn’t remove themselves, he said, “the cherry trees, the women and their chains would be gently but firmly transplanted in some other part of Potomac Park.”
According to the National Parks Service, the women eventually left because they needed bathrooms; Roosevelt had the trees taken out in the middle of the night instead. The protesters may have lost the battle, but they would no doubt be pleased to know that the war eventually went their way—today, there are more than 3750 cherry trees in Washington.
Before the fall of the German Wall, East Germany lacked significant resources to manufacture cars. As a result, the Trabant automobile used recycled cotton waste for the body instead of steel.
Harrison Ford and Sean Connery filmed their conversation scenes onboard the Zeppelin in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade without pants on, because of the hot set.
Fried turkey is Thanksgiving’s answer to pufferfish: Delicious but potentially dangerous. Dropping a frozen turkey that hasn’t been fully thawed into a pot of boiling oil is a recipe for a traditional Thanksgiving explosion, but if you want a less stressful holiday dinner, Amazon is here to help. Prime members can get the Char-Broil Big Easy TRU-Infrared Oil-Less Turkey Fryer for just $79.99, with Prime shipping getting it to your door well before the big day. Amazon usually marks the oil-less fryer down to $88.19, but it’s knocking off another 10 percent for the holiday. The Big Easy can tackle turkeys that weigh up to 16 pounds. Since there’s no oil in play, you can rub the outside of your turkey with spices and seasonings, and the lack of oil makes the proceedings a bit healthier. Just hook up a propane tank and get cooking.
If you’re a turkey traditionalist who prefers an oven-roasted bird, Amazon hasn’t forgotten about you. It’s offering this non-stick 16-inch Calphalon roasting pan with rack, two stainless steel lifters, and an injection baster for just $67.99, a huge discount from its $170.00 list price. The pan is big enough to cook a 25-pound turkey, so start planning how you’re going to use those leftovers.
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Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 has long been hailed as one of the most divisive and important books of the 20th century. Its dystopian setting and social commentary regarding government censorship spoke to a world dealing with the ramifications of Nazi Germany, the rule of Joseph Stalin, and the overreach of McCarthyism. Not only was the book controversial when it was released in 1953, apparently it’s still causing a stir.
When The Daily Show writer Daniel Radosh’s son Milo came home with a permission slip to be able to read Fahrenheit 451 in his school’s book club, the comedy veteran knew the irony was a bit too good to pass up. Not only did he sign the slip, he also wrote a letter with his thoughts on the matter to school officials. Here is just part of his response:
“I love this letter! What a wonderful way to introduce students to the theme of Fahrenheit 451 that books are so dangerous that the institutions of society—schools and parents—might be willing to team up against children to prevent them from reading one. It’s easy enough to read the book and say, ‘This is crazy. It could never really happen,’ but pretending to present students at the start with what seems like a totally reasonable ‘first step’ is a really immersive way to teach them how insidious censorship can be. I’m sure that when the book club is over and the students realize the true intent of this letter they’ll be shocked at how many of them accepted it as an actual permission slip. In addition, Milo’s concern that allowing me to add this note will make him stand out as a troublemaker really brings home why most of the characters find it easier to accept the world they live in rather than challenge it. I assured him that his teacher would have his back.”
tfw your kid’s school makes you sign a permission slip so he can read Fahrenheit 451 ? ? pic.twitter.com/t9lmD8vKTu
Obviously this response is just dripping with sarcasm, but what else would you expect from someone working on The Daily Show? Apparently the book’s (mildly) profane language and Bible burnings caused the school to implement the permission slip, but it does make you wonder if they see the irony here. Maybe Milo can tell them all about it after he reads the book.
The Babylonians (c. 5000 BC) discovered Apple Cider Vinegar when a courtier found wine had formed from grape juice that was forgotten, leading to the evolution of vinegar. But it was Hippocrates, that first put it to use medicinally to treat wounds of soldiers. From there it evolved and is now used for cooking, cleaning, health, and beauty. With over 100 documented uses for Apple Cider Vinegar, it’s understandable you can be confused by how many are proven versus anecdotal. Below I focus on six of its uses supported by science, including details on how they work in your body.
In the summer of 1984, nerds were mainly perceived as guys who wore pocket protectors and had tape on their glasses. But in Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs was inventing the type of nerd culture we’re familiar with today. More than 30 years later, nerds rule the world.
Revenge of the Nerds starred then-unknowns Anthony Edwards (Gilbert Lowe), Robert Carradine (Lewis Skolnick), Curtis Armstrong (Booger), James Cromwell (Lewis’s dad), Larry B. Scott (Lamar), John Goodman (Coach Harris), and Timothy Busfield (Poindexter). In the movie, the jock-filled Alpha Beta fraternity bullies the geeks on the campus of Adams College, so to fight back, they form a frat chapter under black fraternity Lambda Lambda Lambda (Tri-Lambs), and take down the jocks. The movie’s plot and title come from a magazine article published around that time about Silicon Valley innovators—who just happened to be nerds.
The film, which was budgeted at $6 million, only opened on 364 screens (it eventually expanded to 877). Somehow the movie had legs and grossed $40,874,452 at the box office and ranked as the 16th highest-grossing film of 1984. It was successful enough to spawn three sequels, none of which were as popular as the original. Here are 12 geeky facts about the underdog comedy.
1. GREEK OFFICIALS OBJECTED TO THE MOVIE BEING FILMED ON CAMPUS.
The movie filmed at the University of Arizona, and involved the college’s Greek system. The Greek officials didn’t want the movie to be another Animal House, so they threatened to halt production. “We meet with the sororities, and we’re worried we’re about to deal with a bunch of feminists who are pissed because this is a fairly sexist movie,” the film’s director, Jeff Kanew, told the Arizona Daily Star. “I just say to them, ‘Look, I have kids, and I’ll tell you now, I’d let them see this movie. It’s about the triumph of the underdog, not judging a book by its cover. This is a good movie.’” The filmmakers won, and the Greeks allowed them to film there.
2. THE SET WAS ONE BIG PARTY.
Ted McGinley—who played Alpha Beta honcho Stan Gable—told The AV Club: “I was so embarrassed to say Revenge Of The Nerds.” Kanew cast him because he saw him on the cover of a Men of USC calendar, sold at the University of Arizona bookstore. His good looks attracted “hot girls” from the UofA campus to watch the dailies with the cast and crew. “They had beer and pizza and sandwiches,” McGinley said. “I mean, you just don’t do that on movie sets. It was just so much fun, and I thought, ‘It can’t be better than this!’”
3. CURTIS ARMSTRONG KNEW IT’D BE A GOOD MOVIE, EVEN THOUGH HIS CHARACTER WASN’T FLESHED OUT.
Curtis Armstrong filmed Risky Business but then was unemployed for a year before he got Revenge of the Nerds. “You have to realize the character of Booger in the original script was non-existent almost,” Armstrong told Entertainment Weekly. “What was there was just, ‘We’ve got b*sh!’ and ‘Mother’s little d**chebag’—those kinds of lines. I was looking at it and thinking, ‘How do I take this and even begin to make it likeable or accessible?’”
With its strong cast, writers, and director, Armstrong said, “It has to be a good movie. But I wasn’t sure how it was going to be taken as opposed to Risky Business, which was sort of an art-house-type movie. This was very much broader and very much cruder, but it had a message that went beyond sex jokes.”
4. THE SCENES BETWEEN BOOGER AND TAKASHI WERE IMPROVISED.
The actors would bring ideas to the director and vice versa, creating a lot of improvisation in the movie. In one scene, Booger and Takashi (Brian Tochi) engage in a friendly game of cards. But unbeknownst to Takashi, Booger tricks him. “We ran and got our cots, and Brian and I were next to each other,” Armstrong told Entertainment Weekly. “It wasn’t planned that we would be next to each other. It just happened that way.”
The production asked the guys to “come up with something” for them to film. “We had nothing at all!” Armstrong said. “We went to the prop people, and they had a deck of cards. And that’s where that scene [and Booger’s whole bit about taking money from Takashi] came from. And they liked it so much that, every time Takashi and I were in the room together, we would have to come up with something else.”
5. LAMBDA LAMBDA LAMBDA EXISTS IN REAL LIFE.
On January 15, 2006, the University of Connecticut founded the co-ed social fraternity. It’s “unaffiliated with Greek Life” and is “dedicated to the enjoyment and enrichment of pop culture and to the brotherhood of its members. Tri-Lambs does not discriminate based on race, gender, religion, class, ability, gender identity, or sexual orientation.”
6. BOOGER’S BELCH IS ACTUALLY FROM A CAMEL.
In one of the film’s more memorable scenes, Booger and Ogre compete in a belching contest. Booger takes a swig of beer and lets out a robust seven-second belch and wins the contest. But the effects were added in post-production. “I can’t even belch on command,” Armstrong told USA Today. “If you said to me, ‘Can you belch now?’ I couldn’t do it.”
To make up for Armstrong’s dearth of gas, “They wound up finding a recording of a camel having an orgasm,” Armstrong said. “They took this sound and blended it in with a human belch.”
7. ARMSTRONG WROTE A BIO ON BOOGER BUT IT TURNED OUT TO BE ABOUT HIMSELF.
Because his character wasn’t fully developed, Armstrong wrote a one-page bio for Booger. Years later he re-read the bio and realized he and Booger had similarities. “I’d basically retold my life as Booger without even being aware of it,” Armstrong told Entertainment Weekly. “[One detail] was that [Booger] used nose-picking and belching as a defense mechanism because [he’s] insecure. Now, mind you, I did not pick my nose and belch because I was insecure. However, I was insecure growing up. I didn’t have dates or anything like that; I was not good around girls. But I had other ways of defending myself other than being crude and picking my nose. When I look at it now with some distance, I realize all I was doing was writing about myself.”
8. A DALLAS TEST SCREENING ALMOST KILLED THE MOVIE.
The film tested well in Las Vegas—an 85—but when the Fox executives took the movie to Dallas, the number dipped. “You’re gonna send us to Dallas to screen a movie that celebrates nerds and in which the black guys intimidate the white football players?!” director Kanew told the Arizona Daily Star. The movie scored in the 60s, which caused Fox to cut marketing for the film and only release it on 364 screens. “I don’t really understand what happened, but it hung around and grew and grew and grew,” Kanew said.
9. POINDEXTER WAS ORIGINALLY NAMED AFTER A PROP GUY.
When Timothy Busfield auditioned for the movie, his character didn’t have many lines, so he had to read Lamar’s lines. At the time, the character was named Lipschultz, after the prop guy. All that was written for the character description was “a violin-playing Henry Kissinger.”
“There was one line Lipschultz had in the original, but our prop guy was named Lipschultz, and he didn’t like the fact that there was a nerd named Lipschultz, so they changed it to Poindexter,” Busfield said during a San Francisco Sketchfest Nerds reunion. Busfield found Poindexter’s costume at a thrift store and showed up to the audition with his hair parted, and danced to “Beat It.”
10. THE SEQUEL TO REVENGE OF THE NERDS AFFORDED ANTHONY EDWARDS A POOL.
Anthony Edwards told The AV Club that he didn’t want to appear in Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise, but acquiesced because the producers talked him into it. He’s hardly in the film, but the money he earned afforded him a simple luxury. “I ended up with a pool in my backyard that I called the Revenge of the Nerds II pool,” Edwards said. “Not that I’m complaining, but they seriously overpaid me for my weeks of work on the film, so I used it to put in a pool.”
11. A REMAKE (THANKFULLY) GOT SHUT DOWN.
After two weeks of filming in the fall of 2006, a Revenge of the Nerds remake stopped production. Emory University in Atlanta pulled out of filming, but according to Variety, the real reason was because a Fox Atomic executive “was not completely satisfied with the dailies.” The cast included Adam Brody and a not-yet-married-to-Channing-Tatum Jenna Dewan.
12. IT PUSHED NERDOM INTO THE MAINSTREAM.
“I’m not going to say Revenge of the Nerds was responsible for everything in nerd culture, but I do think you could make an argument that that attitude began with the last scene in Revenge,” Armstrong told Huffington Post. “The last scene—the scene I probably love above all in that movie—we’re at the pep rally and come out in front of everybody as nerds, and encourage these people of different generations to join them in their nerdness. I get teary thinking about it, and you could certainly make an argument that that was the beginning of embracing nerd culture by everybody.”
Apple is a company that inspires more extreme devotion than most, but their latest release will really separate the superfans from the run-of-the-mill admirers. It’s an entire coffee table book full of pictures of the company’s technology, as Ars Technica reports. The collection is called Designed by Apple in California.
The hardcover, linen-bound book—all white, naturally—is full of 450 eye-candy photographs tracing 20 years of Apple’s evolving design work. It features old-school favorites like the 1998 iMac to the game-changing original iPhone to the unremarkable 2015 Apple Pencil. The book was created with the idea of exploring Apple’s design philosophy and its history of innovation.
“This archive is intended to be a gentle gathering of many of the products the team has designed over the years,” said Jony Ive, the company’s longtime design guru, in a press statement. The book is dedicated to Ive, who’s arguably been the most influential leader at the company aside from Steve Jobs. “We hope it brings some understanding to how and why they exist, while serving as a resource for students of all design disciplines,” Ive said.
There are two versions of the book, a 10-inch by 13-inch copy, and a 13-inch by 16-inch copy. Sort of like choosing the iPhone 6 or the iPhone 6 Plus. The smaller version comes with a slightly smaller price tag, at $199, while you can expect to shell out $300 for the bigger book. Even the paper is highbrow: the company describes the book being filled with “specially milled, custom-dyed paper with gilded matte silver edges, using eight color separations and low-ghost ink.” (Ghosting is when an unwanted image appears on a page due to a flaw in the printer system.)
If you are a normal person who probably won’t spend $300 on a book full of gadget pictures, it’ll be on display at Apple stores, where you can browse it for free.
Video games can transport players to historic war zones, fantastical realms, and alien planets in far-off galaxies. They can also recreate mundane activities from life without any of the real-world responsibilities that go with them. Such is the case with Farming Simulator 17, a new game that allows players to experience the relaxing aspects of farming, all from the comfort of home.
According to New Scientist, the game is the latest installment in a series from Swiss developer Giants Software. Players progress by planting and harvesting crops, raising livestock, and buying new land and equipment with the money they earn. There is some strategy required, but the real appeal is in the soothing activities like driving your tractor up and down a field for an hour at a time (for harvesting, of course).
The Farming Simulator series isn’t just popular among city-slickers with idyllic visions of farm life: Even professionals are known to play. Mason, an employee on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania, told New Scientist, “At work my boss tells me what he needs me to do and I do it. In the game I am the boss, I decide what to buy when I need it.”
Farming Simulator is one of several trendy video games that forgo action for monotony. In Virdi, for instance, players are tasked with the sole responsibility of taking care of succulents. Playing as a farmer is slightly more high-stakes—you do get to operate heavy machinery, after all. The game is now available through a variety of platforms, starting at $5 for mobile.
When sports promoter Leo Seltzer got the idea to organize a roller skating marathon in 1935, he probably didn’t expect that his event would provide the basis for a fledgling sport known as roller derby. Those early contests had skaters circling a track for thousands of miles over a period of a month to test their endurance; the current incarnation is more of a contact sport that involves players protecting—or blocking—a player known as a “jammer” who is trying to skate past the opposing team for points.
A popular sport through the 1950s and 1960s, derby briefly lost some of its luster when a bit of the theatricality usually found in pro wrestling made its way to the tracks to bolster television ratings in the 1970s. While today’s derby still maintains some of that showmanship—players often compete under pseudonyms like H.P. Shovecraft—you’d be wrong to characterize its players as anything less than serious and determined athletes. mental_floss asked several competitors about the game, the hazards of Velcro, and the etiquette of sending get-well cards to opponents with broken bones.
1. THERE’S A GOOD REASON THEY USE ALTER EGOS.
Derby players looking to erase the image of the scantily-clad events of the ‘70s sometimes bemoan the continued use of aliases, but there’s a practical reason for keeping that tradition going. According to Elektra-Q-Tion, a player in Raleigh, North Carolina, pseudonyms can help athletes remain safe from overzealous fans. “It’s kind of like being a C-level celebrity,” she says. “Some players can have stalkers. I have a couple of fans that can be a little aggressive. Using ‘Elektra-Q-Tion’ helps keep a separation there. If they know my real name, they can find out where I live or work.”
2. THEY CAN’T ALWAYS RECOGNIZE OTHER PLAYERS OFF THE TRACK.
For many players, derby is as much a social outlet as a physical one—but meetings outside of the track can sometimes be awkward. Because of the equipment and constant motion, it can be hard to register facial features for later reference. “You don’t really get the opportunity to see them move like a normal person,” Elektra-Q-Tion says. “People can identify me because I’m really tall, but if someone comes up and says we’ve played, I have to do that thing where I hold my hand up over their head [to mimic their helmet] and go, ‘Oh, it’s you.’”
3. THEY SUFFER FROM “DERBY FACE.”
Extreme concentration, core engagement, and other aspects of the game often conspire to make players somewhat less than photogenic. “’Derby face’ is common,” says Barbie O’Havoc, a player from the J-Town Roller Girls in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. “You’re pretty focused on trying not to fall over or get beat up.”
4. THEY CAN KISS THEIR FEET GOODBYE.
Hours of practice in skates usually precedes an unfortunate fate for feet. “Your feet become pretty gross,” Elektra-Q-Tion says. “People sometimes say it’s because skates don’t fit right, but it can happen with custom skates. You get calluses, your toenails get worn and fall off, your bones shift, you get fallen arches. One time a doctor thought I had MRSA. He actually recoiled from my foot. I had a blister on my blister.”
5. THEY HAVE TO CONVINCE DOCTORS THEY’RE NOT BEING ABUSED.
Flying, crashing bodies skating at velocity will become heavily bruised, with players sporting black eyes and large-scale blemishes. If they need to seek medical attention when something is broken, those superficial marks often raise suspicion. “The first question people will ask is, ‘Are you okay?’” says Elektra-Q-Tion. “Once, my husband took me to the emergency room because I had broken my hand. The nurse asked him to leave the room and asked me, ‘Did he do this to you?’”
6. THEIR GEAR SMELLS PRETTY BAD.
“Derby stink is very much real,” says Barbie O’Havoc. “It comes down to body chemistry. Some players don’t have a problem. Others can wash their gear all the time and it still stinks. After I sold my car that I used to haul my gear in for years, my sister told me it smelled awful. The entire car.”
7. NO PLAYER WEARS A “1” JERSEY—AND FOR GOOD REASON.
Attend a derby bout and it’s unlikely you’ll see any player sporting a “1” on their jersey. “I’ve always heard you shouldn’t use the number 1,” says Cyan Eyed, a player for Gem City Roller Derby in Ohio. “But not everyone is aware of the 1937 bus crash.” On March 24 of that year, a bus carrying 14 skaters and 9 support staff was driving from St. Louis to Cincinnati when it crashed, killing 21 passengers. Joe Kleats, a veteran player who was riding on the bus, wore the number; when he and the others died, the sport retired it in memory of the tragedy.
8. THEY HAVE SKATE MECHANICS.
The pounding endured by skates, wheels, and bearings often requires attention from someone versed in repair and maintenance work. Enter the skate mechanic, typically an official or significant other of a player who doubles as the team’s wheel-person. “Players are afraid of taking their expensive skates apart,” Elektra-Q-Tion says. But she’d prefer that skaters know how to care for their own wheels. “I don’t like the idea of someone not understanding how they work. What happens if the ref retires?”
9. VELCRO IS THEIR ENEMY.
Much of a derby player’s gear, such as knee and elbow pads, is held in place with Velcro, that useful-but-dangerous adhesion system. “The problem with Velcro is the close contact,” Elektra-Q-Tion says. “If people don’t have it on correctly or part of it is peeling off, they’ll scrape you with it and you won’t realize it until you’re in the shower later and the water hits it, which is a miserable feeling.”
10. THEY TRY TO BE POLITE EVEN AFTER SMASHING SOMEONE.
Injuries are expected in derby, but if you unwittingly broke someone’s nose, it’s considered polite track manners to check up on them later. “I remember seeing a nasty injury and our league sent her flowers and a card,” Barbie O’Havoc says.
11. THEY CAN WATCH OTHER TEAMS PRACTICE.
Good luck allowing members of an NFL team to drop in on an opposing team’s practice. Derby, which prides itself on a communal atmosphere, doesn’t mind opening its doors for visiting rivals. “If I go to, say, San Diego and ask to practice with the local team there, most of the time they would say yes,” Elektra-Q-Tion says.
12. A PENNY CAN SPELL DOOM.
It’s not often something as tiny as a coin can bring a sporting event to a complete halt, but that’s what happens when you’re dependent on skate mobility. Barbie O’Havoc says that although tracks are swept and cleaned before bouts, the odd foreign object can still pop up, causing wheels (and feet) to go flying. “There’s a washer on the toe stop that can fall off,” she says. “And I’ve seen people lose their wedding rings.” Pebbles and other tiny hazards will prompt a time-out until they’re found and disposed of.
13. THEY DISLIKE HOLLYWOOD.
Whenever television crime dramas depict derby, it’s typically presented as a bunch of “bad girls” with sour attitudes and a thirst for blood on the track. “That seems to be very attractive to movie and television people,” Elektra-Q-Tion says. “Usually someone gets murdered.” 2009’s Whip It, a comedy-drama starring Ellen Page and directed by Drew Barrymore, didn’t fare much better in terms of believability—but players will give that one a pass. “Whip It was great press for us. That’s when we had most of our new audience and skaters come in.”
