What is Greensboro’s unidentified grounded object?

“What’s that out in the field over there? Donna and Paul Hirsch encountered the strange construction in  the photo on a visit to  family in Greensboro, N.C. Mrs. Hirsch first wondered if the device might be agricultural, given the numerous nearby farms. She also thought it might have a purpose on the other end of the technology spectrum: Perhaps it was related to the many new-economy businesses in the Greensboro area. Go on, have a look from above.

“As it happens, there are quite a few of these doodads scattered across the landscape. You may have seen one yourself, on a road trip through the middle of nowhere, perhaps — or in a well-developed area like Greensboro. But what is it?”

— From What’s That Thing? Pastoral Doodad Edition” on Slate (June 7)

 

Rescue at sea raises questions about pilot

On this day in 1989: Lawyer Thomas Root blacks out while flying his Cessna 210 on a business trip from Washington to Rocky Mount. Tailed by 19 military planes for four hours, Root winds up ditching in the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahamas and is rescued, suffering from a mysterious gunshot wound in the abdomen. He speculates the .32-caliber handgun in the plane’s glove compartment may have gone off on impact, although Smith & Wesson says this is impossible.

 

 

Early Account of Chang and Eng Bunker

On this day in 1834, the Miners’ & Farmers’ Journal in Charlotte published a long account of the “Siamese Twins,” Chang and Eng Bunker. The twins were in the midst of a world tour, attracting considerable attention wherever they went. A few months after this was published, the twins visited the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, no doubt making note of the state that they would call their home starting in the late 1830s.

In looking through the article, this part stood out to me: “They are very fond of hunting, are quite expert with the fowling piece, and carry with them their shooting apparatus.” Regular readers will remember that the North Carolina Collection Gallery recently acquired a rifle once owned by the Bunkers, perhaps the very “fowling piece” mentioned here?

Click over to the full edition of the newspaper in the North Carolina Newspapers collection to read the whole story. The text is faded in parts, but you can make out all of the words if you zoom in all the way. To learn even more about the Bunkers, visit the Eng & Chang Bunker digital project.

Meet Doodles, the Carolina Parakeet

Mr. Bryan and Doodles

It can be hard to determine just what’s going on in this grainy, black-and-white photo. It’s a bird and a man; that much is clear. To be more specific, it’s a Carolina Parakeet comfortably perched on a man’s necktie.

This 1906 photograph is remarkable for a number of reasons. Among them is the man’s seeming nonchalance despite the alarming proximity of a bird to his face. But this is also an extremely rare photo of a live Parakeet, a bird that’s been extinct since about 1920. And the story of this particular Parakeet is even more remarkable than the photo.

A member of the family

The Parakeet was named Doodles. Doodles belonged to the Smithsonian scientist Paul Bartsch, who kept him as a pet. (Nowadays respected scientists don’t keep endangered species as pets, but those were different times.) The man in the photo is identified only as “Mr. Bryan,” who we might assume was a visitor to the Bartsch household.

Dr. Bartsch adopted Doodles after the bird had been rejected by his captive parents. Bartsch taught him how to feed himself and Doodles quickly became part of the family. In a reminiscence about Doodles, Bartsch wrote, “He shared our meals, was well behaved, and stuck to his own plate almost always.”

The “well-behaved” claim is belied by other tales Bartsch tells: Doodles prying jewels from their settings. Doodles escaping to run around the neighborhood with the local pigeons. But Doodles also seems to have been a very sweet bird, napping on Bartsch’s cheek in the morning, or nestling with a pet squirrel for company.

It’s hard to reconcile these latter stories with the image of the wild, squawking flocks presented by naturalists like John James Audubon. But such is the enigma of the Carolina Parakeet.

When Doodles died in 1914, he was one of the last known captive members of his species.

The Parakeet in the Gallery

If you’re curious about the Carolina Parakeet, or if you’re looking for an air-conditioned experience of nature, visit the North Carolina Collection Gallery’s exhibit “The Carolina Parakeet in Art: Images from the Powell Collection,” now through Sept. 30.

Peach recipes for Peach Day at the State Farmers Market.

This Thursday, July 12 is Peach Day at the State Farmers Market in Raleigh.  There will be ice cream, recipes, and a peach dessert contest.  Here are a few recipes to have a Peach Day of your own.

From Columbus County Cookbook II.

From The Charlotte Cookbook.

From Good Eatin’ from Duke Memorial United Methodist Church, Durham, North Carolina.

From Peace Cookbook.

From High Hampton Hospitality.

From What’s Left is Right: What to do with Leftovers When You’re Desperate.

Sea-level researchers dig our foraminifera

“The fact that sea levels are rising probably won’t come as a huge surprise. [Well…] But we now have some much-needed historical context for the melting icecaps and rising waters…and there’s zero doubt that, in geological history, higher sea levels meant higher temperatures.

“An international team led by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania created the first ever reconstruction of the last 2,000 years worth of changing sea levels. They were able to do this thanks to tiny fossils known as foraminifera, which can be found in sediment cores in North Carolina’s coastal marshes.

“To make sure these fossils could be used as an accurate barometer of sea level at different points in history, they compared the last 80 years worth of foraminifera data with contemporaneous North Carolina tidal gauge records. Once they had created the reconstructive technique, they then compared that with 300 years of global sea level records.

“Here’s what they found. The sea level changed very little between 200 and 1,000 C.E., then it began to climb by about half a millimeter per year for 400 years. This fits well with a known climate spike that began in the 11th century, which is known as the Medieval Climate Anomaly. Sea levels drop again in the mid-17th century, which is right on time for the advent of the Little Ice Age, which lasted from 1645 to 1715.

“That drop continues until the beginning of the late 19th century, when the industrial revolution was in full swing. At that point, sea levels start climbing at an average rate of two millimeters per year, and the seas have been rising that much ever since.

“The research confirms what has often been assumed, that there’s a very strong link between sea levels and temperatures. More worryingly, it also seems to confirm just how uniquely pronounced the current climate change really is.”

— From  “What happened the last time the icecaps melted?”  from i09.com (Jun 20, 2011)

 

Interracial baseball: Official game, but questionable score

On this day in 1933: Two semipro teams square off at Wearn Field in what is billed as Charlotte’s first official interracial baseball game.

The Charlotte News reports that Highland Park, a white mill team, beat the North Charlotte Black Yankees 11-10; The Charlotte Observer has the Black Yankees winning 10-7.

 

How Hillsborough missed becoming Talladega

“By the late 1960s…  pressure from local church groups, who didn’t like racing on Sundays, led Bill France to look elsewhere as he sought to build a larger, faster track. Unable to persuade local authorities to expand the Hillsborough site, he turned instead to a small town in Alabama and built the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway.

“Richard Petty won the final race at Occoneechee-Orange Speedway on Sept. 15, 1968; the next year, its slot in Nascar’s schedule would go to Talladega.”

— From “A Relic From Racing’s Early Years, Repurposed” by Robert Peele in the New York Times (July 7, 2012)

And this follows Peele’s Altamahaw-datelined  “The Wary Detente that Saved a Track from Extinction” (July 6).

Impressive coverage, especially for a paper that insists on spelling NASCAR “Nascar.” 

 

Griffith remembered toilet-seat scene as a let-down

In all three versions of “No Time For Sergeants” — TV, Broadway, movie — Andy Griffith played Will Stockdale, backwoods Georgian turned Air Force private. The naive Stockdale views latrine duty as an opportunity to shine and rigs the toilet seats to salute the inspecting officers.

“We had to have a big production meeting to decide whether we could show those toilet seats [in the movie],” Griffith told me in 1979. Although permission was granted, he said actually filming the famous scene was a let-down.

“On the stage, we had had had a man lying down with a handle in his hand — all the audience saw was me stomping and the seats flying up. But for the movie the latrine scene had to shot in pieces, and we never got the immediate response. I remember the disappointment I felt on the set that day, although I knew the laugh would be there…. That’s movies.”