Podcasts about american national biography

In 1844 New Orleans was riveted by a dramatic trial: A slave claimed that she was really a free immigrant who had been pressed into bondage as a young girl. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe Sally Miller's fight for freedom, which challenged notions of race and social hierarchy in antebellum Louisiana. We'll also try to pronounce some drug names and puzzle over some cheated tram drivers. Intro: In 1992, a Florida bankruptcy judge held a computer in contempt of court. The 1908 grave of Vermont atheist George P. Spencer is inscribed with his credo. Sources for our feature on Sally Miller: Carol Wilson, The Two Lives of Sally Miller: A Case of Mistaken Racial Identity in Antebellum New Orleans, 2007. Paul Finkelman, Free Blacks, Slaves, and Slaveowners in Civil and Criminal Courts: The Pamphlet Literature, 2007. Gwendoline Alphonso, "Public & Private Order: Law, Race, Morality, and the Antebellum Courts of Louisiana, 1830-1860," Journal of Southern Legal History 23 (2015), 117-160. Emily West, "The Two Lives of Sally Miller," Slavery & Abolition 30:1 (March 2009), 151-152. Carol Lazzaro-Weis, "The Two Lives of Sally Miller: A Case of Mistaken Racial Identity in Antebellum New Orleans," Journal of Southern History 74:4 (November 2008), 970-971. Frank Towers, "The Two Lives of Sally Miller: A Case of Mistaken Identity in Antebellum New Orleans," American Historical Review 113:1 (February 2008), 181-182. Scott Hancock, "The Two Lives of Sally Miller: A Case of Mistaken Racial Identity in Antebellum New Orleans," Journal of American History 94:3 (December 2007), 931-932. Daneen Wardrop, "Ellen Craft and the Case of Salomé Muller in Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom," Women's Studies 33:7 (2004), 961-984. Patricia Herminghouse, "The German Secrets of New Orleans," German Studies Review 27:1 (February 2004), 1-16. Marouf Hasian Jr., "Performative Law and the Maintenance of Interracial Social Boundaries: Assuaging Antebellum Fears of 'White Slavery' and the Case of Sally Miller/Salome Müller," Text & Performance Quarterly 23:1 (January 2003), 55-86. Ariela Gross, "Beyond Black and White: Cultural Approaches to Race and Slavery," Columbia Law Review 101:3 (April 2001), 640-690. Stephan Talty, "Spooked: The White Slave Narratives," Transition 85 (2000), 48-75. Carol Wilson, "Sally Muller, the White Slave," Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association 40:2 (Spring 1999), 133-153. Ariela J. Gross, "Litigating Whiteness: Trials of Racial Determination in the Nineteenth-Century South," Yale Law Journal 108:1 (October 1998), 109-188. Carol Wilson and Calvin D. Wilson, "White Slavery: An American Paradox," Slavery & Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies 19:1 (1998). Wilbert E. Moore, "Slave Law and the Social Structure," Journal of Negro History 26:2 (April 1941), 171-202. "Case of Salome Müller," Law Reporter 8:7 (November 1845), 332-333. Nina C. Ayoub, "'The Two Lives of Sally Miller: A Case of Mistaken Racial Identity in Antebellum New Orleans,'" Chronicle of Higher Education, Oct. 19, 2007. Carol Edwards, "Story of German Slave Girl 'Extraordinary,' But Is It True?", [Charleston, S.C.] Post and Courier, March 20, 2005. Mary-Liz Shaw, "'The Lost German Slave Girl' Unravels a Mystery of Old South," Knight Ridder Tribune News Service, Jan. 26, 2005. Gregory M. Lamb, "The Peculiar Color of Racial Justice," Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 25, 2005. Linda Wolfe, "Sally Miller's Struggle to Escape Slavery Ended in Celebrated Case," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jan. 23, 2005. Debra J. Dickerson, "Making a Case for Freedom: Was a White German Girl Forced Into Slavery?" Boston Globe, Jan. 23, 2005. Jonathan Yardley, "The Case of Sally Miller," Washington Post, Jan. 20, 2005. "Strange Case in New Orleans," Alexandria Gazette, July 3, 1845. "City Affairs," New-York Daily Tribune, July 11, 1844. Madison Cloud, Improvising Structures of Power and Race: The Sally Miller Story and New Orleans, dissertation, Baylor University, 2015. Carol Wilson, "Miller, Sally," American National Biography, April 2008. Listener mail: David Lazarus, "Wonder Where Generic Drug Names Come From? Two Women in Chicago, That's Where," Los Angeles Times, July 23, 2019. "Naming Law in Sweden," Wikipedia (accessed April 30, 2021). "Baby Named Metallica Rocks Sweden," BBC News, April 4, 2007. Meredith MacLeod, "Sweden Rejects 'Ford' as Name for Canadian-Swedish Couple's Son," CTVNews, Nov. 9, 2018. "Naming Law," Wikipedia (accessed April 30, 2021). "Naming in the United States," Wikipedia (accessed April 30, 2021). Tovin Lapan, "California Birth Certificates and Accents: O'Connor Alright, Ramón and José Is Not," Guardian, April 11, 2015. "AB-82 Vital records: diacritical marks" (as amended), California Legislative Information, Sept. 15, 2017. This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Charlotte Greener. Here's a corroborating link (warning -- this spoils the puzzle). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Google Podcasts, on Apple Podcasts, or via the RSS feed at https://futilitycloset.libsyn.com/rss. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- you can choose the amount you want to pledge, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

Eugene Bullard ran away from home in 1907 to seek his fortune in a more racially accepting Europe. There he led a life of staggering accomplishment, becoming by turns a prizefighter, a combat pilot, a nightclub impresario, and a spy. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll tell Bullard's impressive story, which won him resounding praise in his adopted France. We'll also accidentally go to Canada and puzzle over a deadly omission. Intro: The melody of Peter Cornelius' "Ein Ton" is a single repeated note. Thomas Edison proposed the word hello to begin telephone conversations. Sources for our feature on Eugene Bullard: Tom Clavin and Phil Keith, All Blood Runs Red: The Legendary Life of Eugene Bullard -- Boxer, Pilot, Soldier, Spy, 2019. Gail Buckley, American Patriots: The Story of Blacks in the Military From the Revolution to Desert Storm, 2001. Jonathan Sutherland, African Americans at War: An Encyclopedia, 2004. Alexander M. Bielakowski, Ethnic and Racial Minorities in the U.S. Military, 2013. Edmund L. Gros, "The Members of Lafayette Flying Corps," Flying 6:9 (October 1917), 776-778. James Norman Hall and Charles Bernhard Nordhoff, The Lafayette Flying Corps, 1920. John H. Wilson, "'All Blood Runs Red,'" Aviation History 17:4 (March 2007), 13-15. Brendan Manley, "France Commemorates WWI Lafayette Escadrille," Military History 33:3 (Sept. 2016), 8. Rachel Gillett, "Jazz and the Evolution of Black American Cosmopolitanism in Interwar Paris," Journal of World History 21:3 (September 2010), 471-495. Thabiti Asukile, "J.A. Rogers' 'Jazz at Home': Afro-American Jazz in Paris During the Jazz Age," The Black Scholar 40:3 (Fall 2010), 22-35. Tyler Stovall, "Strangers on the Seine: Immigration in Modern Paris," Journal of Urban History 39:4 (June 14, 2013), 807-813. Nicholas Hewitt, "Black Montmartre: American Jazz and Music Hall in Paris in the Interwar Years," Journal of Romance Studies 5:3 (Winter 2005), 25-31. Frederic J. Svoboda, "Who Was That Black Man?: A Note on Eugene Bullard and The Sun Also Rises," Hemingway Review 17:2 (Spring 1998), 105-110. "Air Force Honors Pioneering Pilot," Military History 36:6 (March 2020), 10. Ann Fotheringham, "Eugene Bullard," [Glasgow] Evening Times, June 8, 2020. Jeremy Redmon, "AJC Local In-Depth Georgia Hero," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Oct. 10, 2019. Jeremy Redmon, "Only in the AJC: Georgia Hero," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Oct. 7, 2019. Herb Boyd, "First Black Fighter Pilot, Eugene Bullard," New York Amsterdam News, Aug. 29, 2019. Janine Di Giovanni, "The Yanks Who Chose to Stay," [London] Evening Standard, March 23, 2009. Fred L. Borch and Robert F. Dorr, "Expatriate Boxer Was First Black American Combat Pilot," Air Force Times, Feb. 23, 2009. Brad Barnes, "'Flyboys' Uses Eugene Bullard as Model for Character," McClatchy-Tribune News Service, Sept. 22, 2006. Sherri M. Owens, "1st Black Combat Pilot: He Flew for Freedom," Orlando Sentinel, July 29, 2001. Michael Kilian, "Smithsonian to Honor First Black Combat Pilot," Chicago Tribune, Oct. 11, 1992, 6. "Exhibition Traces Role of Blacks in Aviation," New York Times, Sept. 26, 1982. "Eugene Bullard, Ex-Pilot, Dead; American Flew for French in '18," New York Times, Oct. 14, 1961. Dominick Pisano, "Eugene J. Bullard," Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Oct. 12, 2010. Robert Vanderpool, "African-American History Month: Eugene Bullard -- The First African-American Military Pilot," Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Feb. 29, 2016. Cori Brosnahan, "The Two Lives of Eugene Bullard," American Experience, PBS, April 3, 2017. Caroline M. Fannin, "Bullard, Eugène Jacques," American National Biography, October 2002. Listener mail: "A Tale of Two Sydneys: Dutch Teen Tries to Visit Australia, but Ends Up in Nova Scotia," CBC, March 30, 2017. Ashifa Kassam, "Land Down Blunder: Teen Heading to Australia Lands in Sydney, Nova Scotia," Guardian, March 31, 2017. "Italian Tourists End Up in Wrong Sydney," CBC, July 7, 2010. "Oops. British Couple Flies to Canada by Mistake," CBC News, Aug. 6, 2002. "No Kangaroos. But Can We Interest You in a Fiddle?" CBC News, Sept. 19, 2008. "What Is the Most Common City/Town Name in the United States?" U.S. Geological Survey (accessed Feb. 27, 2021). Robert C. Adams, On Board the "Rocket," 1879. This week's lateral thinking puzzle is taken from Anges Rogers' 1953 book How Come?: A Book of Riddles, sent to us by listener Jon Jerome. You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Google Podcasts, on Apple Podcasts, or via the RSS feed at https://futilitycloset.libsyn.com/rss. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- you can choose the amount you want to pledge, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

In 1911 an exhausted man emerged from the wilderness north of Oroville, California. He was discovered to be the last of the Yahi, a people who had once flourished in the area but had been decimated by white settlers. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe Ishi's sad history and his new life in San Francisco. We'll also consider the surprising dangers of baseball and puzzle over a forceful blackout. Intro: Director Chuck Jones laid out nine rules to govern Road Runner cartoons. James Cook's third expedition to the Pacific discovered a surprising amusement in Hawaii. Sources for our feature on Ishi: Theodora Kroeber, Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America, 1961. Robert F. Heizer and Theodora Kroeber, Ishi the Last Yahi: A Documentary History, 1981. Orin Starn, Ishi's Brain: In Search of Americas Last 'Wild' Indian, 2005. Karl Kroeber and Clifton B. Kroeber, Ishi in Three Centuries, 2003. Saxton T. Pope, Hunting With the Bow & Arrow, 1923. Saxton T. Pope, The Medical History of Ishi, Volume 13, 1920. Nels C. Nelson, Flint Working by Ishi, 1916. Ronald H. Bayor, The Columbia Documentary History of Race and Ethnicity in America, 2004. Nancy Scheper-Hughes, "Ishi's Brain, Ishi's Ashes," Anthropology Today 17:1 (Feb. 1, 2001), 12. Alexandra K. Kenny, Thomas Killion, and Nancy Scheper-Hughes, "'Ishi's Brain, Ishi's Ashes': The Complex Issues of Repatriation: A Response to N. Scheper-Hughes," Anthropology Today 18:2 (April 2002), 25-27. Kathleen L. Hull, "Ishi, Kroeber, and Modernity," Current Anthropology 51:6 (December 2010), 887-888. Isaiah Wilner, "Wild Men: Ishi and Kroeber in the Wilderness of Modern America," Ethnohistory 58:1 (Winter 2011), 158-159. Dennis Torres, "Ishi," Central States Archaeological Journal 31:4 (October 1984), 175-179. Richard Pascal, "Naturalizing 'Ishi': Narrative Appropriations of America's 'Last Wild Indian,'" Australasian Journal of American Studies 16:2 (December 1997), 29-44. Saxton T. Pope, "Hunting With Ishi -- The Last Yana Indian," Journal of California Anthropology 1:2 (1974), 152-173. M. Steven Shackley, "The Stone Tool Technology of Ishi and the Yana of North Central California: Inferences for Hunter-Gatherer Cultural Identity in Historic California," American Anthropologist 102:4 (2000), 693-712. Duane H. King, "Exhibiting Culture: American Indians and Museums," Tulsa Law Review 45:1 (2009), 25. Bruce Bower, "Ishi's Long Road Home," Science News 157:2 (Jan. 8, 2000), 24-25. M.R. James, "Ishi Finally Comes to Rest," Bowhunter 30:2 (December 2000/January 2001), 25. Randy White, "Grandfather Ishi," News From Native California 29:3 (Spring 2016), 34-37. Andrew Curry, "The Last of the Yahi," U.S. News & World Report 129:7 (Aug, 21, 2000), 56. Ann Japenga, "Revisiting Ishi: Questions About Discovery of the 'Last Wild Indian' Haunt Anthropologist's Descendants," Los Angeles Times, Aug. 29, 2003. James May, "Spirit of Ishi Finally Free to Join Ancestors," Indian Country Today, Aug. 23, 2000. Kevin Fagan, "Ishi's Kin To Give Him Proper Burial," San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 10, 2000. Diana Walsh, "Ishi Finally Coming Home: 83 Years After His Death, Smithsonian Turns Over Brain of Famed Indian for Burial in California," San Francisco Examiner, Aug. 9, 2000, A-4. Jan Cienski, "Remains of Last Member of California Tribe Go Home at Last: Ishi's Brain Returned," [Don Mills, Ont.] National Post, Aug. 9, 2000. "Last of Yahi Will Finally Be Coming Home," Associated Press, Aug. 8, 2000. Michelle Locke, "Mind and Body," Salt Lake Tribune, Aug. 8, 2000, A1. Brenda Norrell, "Alliance: Eighty-Three Years Is Long Enough," Indian Country Today, May 31, 1999, A2. Stanley McGarr, "Repatriation Restores Strength to the People," Indian Country Today, May 10, 1999, A5. Jacqueline Trescott, "Relatives to Get Brain of Fabled Aboriginal," Calgary Herald, May 8, 1999, A18. Avis Little Eagle, "Respect the Dead, Don't Study Them," Indian Country Today, March 15, 1999, A4. Charles Hillinger, "Lost Tribe's Spirit Lives in Wilderness Area," Los Angeles Times, July 7, 1986, 3. "Archery of Ishi Stone Age Man Will Be Shown," Berkeley Daily Gazette, Nov. 29, 1916. "Tribe Now Dead," [Saint Paul, Minn.] Appeal, May 13, 1916. "Redskin Presents Lane With Arrows, Makes Secretary Tribe's 'Big Chief,'" San Francisco Call, Sept. 6, 1913. "The Only Man in America Who Knows No Christmas -- Ishi," San Francisco Call, Dec. 17, 1911. "Ishi Loses Heart to 'Blond Squaw,'" San Francisco Call, Oct. 16, 1911. "Ishi, the Last Aboriginal Savage in America," San Francisco Call, Oct. 8, 1911. "Find a Rare Aborigine: Scientists Obtain Valuable Tribal Lore From Southern Yahi Indian," New York Times, Sept. 7, 1911. Nancy Rockafellar, "The Story of Ishi: A Chronology," University of California, San Francisco (accessed Sept. 6, 2020). Richard H. Dillon, "Ishi," American National Biography, February 2000. Listener mail: Wikipedia, "Harold Russell" (accessed Sept. 8, 2020). Wikipedia, "The Best Years of Our Lives" (accessed Sept. 11, 2020). Richard Severo, "Harold Russell Dies at 88; Veteran and Oscar Winner," New York Times, Feb. 1, 2002. Mark Montgomery, "Remembering Harold Russell, the Soldier-Actor Who Won Two Oscars for 'Best Years of Our Lives,'" Los Angeles Times, Dec. 10, 2016. Jon Mooallem, "You're Out: The National Pastime's Shocking Death Toll," Slate, May 26, 2009. Aaron W. Miller, "Death at the Ballpark: A Comprehensive Study of Game-Related Fatalities, 1862–2007 (review)," NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture 18:2 (Spring 2010), 198-199. Mark R. Zonfrillo et al., "Death or Severe Injury at the Ball Game," Current Sports Medicine Reports 15:3 (May-June 2016), 132-133. This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Emmett B. You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Google Podcasts, on Apple Podcasts, or via the RSS feed at https://futilitycloset.libsyn.com/rss. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- you can choose the amount you want to pledge, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

Andrew Jackson was of one of the most critical and controversial figures in American history. The dominant actor on the American scene in the half-century between Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, Jackson lent his name first to a political movement, then to an era, and finally to democracy itself. As the Hero of New Orleans, he became a symbol of American nationalism. As a frontiersman and military commander, he spearheaded the westward expansion of the nation and the subjugation of its native peoples. As the first westerner and first man of humble origins to reach the White House, he stood as the embodiment of American democracy and the rise of the common man. Jackson transformed American politics by governing in the name of what he called “the humble members of society – the farmers, mechanics, and laborers” against “the rich and powerful.” He remade the president's role from chief administrator to popular tribune. He also created the country's first mass political party and fashioned a disciplined party machine featuring the notorious “spoils system” of political reward.The Papers of Andrew Jackson is a project to collect and publish Jackson's entire extant literary record. After an extended worldwide search, the project has obtained photocopies of every known and available Jackson document, including letters he wrote and received, official and military papers, drafts, memoranda, legal papers, and financial records – some 100,000 items in all. In 1987 the project produced a microfilm edition of 39 reels, including all the new documents that had been found. It also issued a comprehensive Guide and Index, listing every known Jackson item by sender or recipient, date, and microfilm location.The project is now producing a series of seventeen volumes that will bring Jackson's most important papers to the public in easily readable form. PDFs of all published volumes are now available for free, immediate download via the University of Tennessee's Newfound Press. Also online is the Library of Congress's Andrew Jackson Papers, a digital archive that provides direct access to the manuscript images of many of the Jackson documents transcribed and annotated in our volumes. Rotunda's American History Collection hosts digital versions of all our volumes, with advanced features such as cross-volume and cross-collection searching and links pairing documents with manuscript images on the Library of Congress's Jackson Papers site.The Papers of Andrew Jackson is sponsored by the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and supported by grants from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Tennessee Historical Commission.-Daniel Feller is a Professor of History at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the Director of The Papers of Andrew Jackson. Professor Feller's scholarly interests encompass mid-nineteenth-century America as a whole, with special attention to Jacksonian politics and the coming of the Civil War. Besides the publications listed below, he has contributed to numerous historical reference works, including the Oxford Companion to United States History, the Reader's Guide to American History, the Dictionary of American History, and American National Biography. His critical essays and review articles have appeared in the Journal of the Early Republic, Reviews in American History, Documentary Editing, and on H-SHEAR. Professor Feller has been active in the Association for Documentary Editing, the Southern Historical Association, British American Nineteenth-Century Historians (BrANCH), and especially the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic (SHEAR), where he served from 1991 to 2004 as Conference Coordinator for its annual summer meeting. In 2000 he was a Commonwealth Fund Lecturer in American History at University College London. He is currently at work on a biography of Benjamin Tappan, a Jacksonian politician, scientist, social reformer, and freethinker. He is the author of The Public Lands in Jacksonian Politics and The Jacksonian Promise: America, 1815 to 1840.

The history of the American women’s suffrage movement is the history of determined community organizing, fierce protest, and the power of ideals. Susan Ware, however, tells us the history we know fails to reflect the diversity of the movement that won women the right to vote 100 years ago. She’s Susan Ware, this week on Story in the Public Square. A pioneer in the field of women’s history and a leading feminist biographer, Ware is the author and editor of numerous books on twentieth-century U.S. history.  Since 2012, she has served as the general editor of the American National Biography, published by Oxford University Press under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies.  Ware has long been associated with the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study where she serves as the Honorary Women’s Suffrage Centennial Historian.  The Library of America will publish a women’s suffrage anthology edited by Ware in 2020.  Ware has taught at New York University and Harvard, where she served as editor of the biographical dictionary Notable American Women: Completing the Twentieth Century.

As the Civil War fractured Washington D.C., socialite Rose O'Neal Greenhow coordinated a vital spy ring to funnel information to the Confederates. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe one of the war's most unlikely spies, and her determination to aid the South. We'll also fragment the queen's birthday and puzzle over a paid game of pinball. Intro: German officer Ernst Jünger likened the sounds of World War I shelling to "being menaced by a man swinging a heavy hammer." Bowdoin College compiled a list of odd how-to titles. NOTE: After this episode was originally released, some listeners objected to our handling of Greenhow's story, saying that we were treating her too sympathetically when she was defending the institution of slavery. They're entirely right about that -- I had focused on her personal story without being sensitive to its larger implications. I'm very sorry for that oversight. We're presenting the story here as it originally ran, and we'll discuss listeners' reactions to it in Episode 279. -- Greg Sources for our feature: Ann Blackman, Wild Rose: Rose O'Neale Greenhow, Civil War Spy, 2006. Ishbel Ross, Rebel Rose: Life of Rose O'Neal Greenhow, Confederate Spy, 1954. Karen Abbott, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War, 2014. Rose O'Neal Greenhow, My Imprisonment and the First Year of Abolition Rule at Washington, 1863. H. Donald Winkler, Stealing Secrets: How a Few Daring Women Deceived Generals, Impacted Battles, and Altered the Course of the Civil War, 2010. Michael J. Sulick, Spying in America: Espionage from the Revolutionary War to the Dawn of the Cold War, 2014. Allan Pinkerton, The Spy of the Rebellion, 1886. John Bakeless, Spies of the Confederacy, 2011. Ernest B. Furgurson, "The End of Illusions," Smithsonian 42:4 (July/August 2011), 56-64. Jack Finnegan, "Professional Results for an Amateur," Military History, suppl. "Spies and Secret Missions: A History of American Espionage" (2002), 34-35. Nancy B. Samuelson, "Employment of Female Spies in the American Civil War," Minerva 7:3 (Dec. 31, 1989), 57. "Seized Correspondence of Rose O'Neal Greenhow," U.S. National Archives (accessed Nov. 24, 2019). Rose O'Neal Greenhow Papers, Special Collections Library, Duke University. "The Wild Rose of Washington," New York Times, Aug. 22, 2011. "Spy Loved, Died in Line of Duty," [Wilmington, N.C] Morning Star, Dec. 31, 1999, 23. "Civil War Day by Day," Washington [D.C.] Herald, Sept. 30, 1914, 4. "Fair Southern Spies," [Savannah, Ga.] Morning News, Sept. 29, 1896, 5. "Blockade Running," [Winston, N.C.] Western Sentinel, Jan. 14, 1886. "A Rich New Year's Gift," Yorkville [S.C.] Enquirer, Feb. 6, 1862, 1. "The Female Traitors in Washington," New York Herald, Jan. 22, 1862, 2. "Mrs. Greenhow's Indignant Letter to Mr. Seward," New York Herald, Dec. 16, 1861, 4. Phyllis F. Field, "Greenhow, Rose O'Neal," American National Biography, February 2000. Listener mail: "Public Holidays in Western Australia," Government of Western Australia Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (accessed Nov. 27, 2019). Wikipedia, "Oscar Wilde" (accessed Nov. 27, 2019). Howard Markel, "No, Oscar Wilde Probably Didn't Die of Syphilis," PBS NewsHour, Nov. 30, 2015. Jon Henley, "Wilde Gets Revenge on Wallpaper," Guardian, Dec. 1, 2000. "What Are the Best Last Words Ever?", Atlantic 317:4 (April 2016), 13. "Grand Lakes St. Marys Educational Series: History of GLSM What You Don't Know," Lake Improvement Association (accessed Nov. 30, 2019). "Grand Lake St. Marys State Park: History," Ohio State Parks and Watercraft (accessed Nov. 30, 2019). Lew Powell, "Behind the Lines, Fighting Malaria With Whiskey," North Carolina Miscellany, July 10, 2011. Wikipedia, "Gin and Tonic" (accessed Nov. 30, 2019). Wikipedia, "Tonic Water" (accessed Nov. 30, 2019). "'The Book of Gin' Distills a Spirited History," Morning Edition, National Public Radio, Dec. 28, 2012. Kal Raustiala, "The Imperial Cocktail," Slate, Aug. 28, 2013. "The Largest Human-Made Lakes in the World," WorldAtlas (accessed Nov. 30, 2019). Wikipedia, "Lake Kariba" (accessed Nov. 30, 2019). This week's lateral thinking puzzle was inspired by an item heard on the podcast No Such Thing as a Fish. Here are two corroborating links (warning -- these spoil the puzzle). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Google Podcasts, on Apple Podcasts, or via the RSS feed at https://futilitycloset.libsyn.com/rss. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- you can choose the amount you want to pledge, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

Emma tells Emlyn about Ynes Mexia, the late-blooming botanist that collected over 150,000 plants during her short career, and Emlyn tells Emma about a new climate change podcast, the Warm Regards Podcast! PLEASE FILL OUT THE SURVEY: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScwuYfCujp_voMx1I37E4MB1Tk_UbncK6z8Khn4DC683fV-3A/viewform?usp=sf_link   Sources   Main Story - Ynes Mexia Siber, Kate. “How Finding Rare Plants Saved Ynes Mexia’s Life.” 2019. Outside Online. https://www.outsideonline.com/2390204/ynes-mexia-plant-collector Marks, Gabriela S. “Meet Ynes Mexia, late-blooming botanist whose adventures rival Darwin’s.” 2018. Massive Science. https://massivesci.com/articles/ynes-mexia-our-heroes/ Radcliffe, Jane. “Ynes Mexia (1870-1938).” California Academy of Sciences. http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/library/special/bios/Mexia.pdf "Mexia, Ynes (1870–1938)." Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. . Encyclopedia.com. (September 8, 2019). https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/mexia-ynes-1870-1938 Carter, Annetta. Interview of N. Floy Brocelin. "The Ynés Mexía botanical collections : oral history transcript / 1983."  https://archive.org/stream/ynsmexabotan00bracrich/ynsmexabotan00bracrich_djvu.txt Kiernan, Elizabeth. “Late Bloomer: The Short, Prolific Career of Ynes Mexia.” 2015. NYBG. https://www.nybg.org/blogs/science-talk/2015/02/late-bloomer-the-short-prolific-career-of-ynes-mexia/ Shor, E.  (2000, February). Mexia, Ynes Enriquetta Julietta (1870-1938), botanical collector. American National Biography. https://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-1302002   Women who Werk  Warm Regards Podcast - https://slate.com/technology/2016/06/introducing-warm-regards-a-new-climate-change-podcast.html https://soundcloud.com/warmregardspodcast/the-dangers-of-doing-science-in-the-field   Music “Mary Anning” by Artichoke   Cover Image California Academy of Sciences

Professor Miguel de Baca gives his second Terra Foundation Lecture in American Art on the work of Dave the Potter. Miguel de Baca joins the History of Art Department as the Terra Foundation Visiting Professor of American Art in 2017-18 from Lake Forest College, where he is the chair of the Department of Art and Art History. Miguel studies modern and contemporary American art; he is especially interested in issues of memory-making and the representation of history as they intersect the history of abstraction. Among his other interests are video and digital art, culture jamming, protest, artistic collaborations, and critical studies of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Miguel’s monograph, Memory Work: Anne Truitt and Sculpture, was published by the University of California Press in 2015. His current book project, Video Art and Public Culture, is about activist uses of video and digital art from the 1960s forward. Miguel was the recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant for his contribution to “Digital Chicago,” a multimedia online platform investigating Chicago’s cultural history from 1892 to 1933. He is an Advisory Editor for the American National Biography online, published by the Oxford University Press with the support of the American Council of Learned Societies, and serves as the Co-Chair of the Association of Historians of American Art.

Professor Miguel de Baca gives his third Terra Foundation Lecture in American Art on the works of Georgia O'Keeffe and Martha Graham. Miguel de Baca joins the History of Art Department as the Terra Foundation Visiting Professor of American Art in 2017-18 from Lake Forest College, where he is the chair of the Department of Art and Art History. Miguel studies modern and contemporary American art; he is especially interested in issues of memory-making and the representation of history as they intersect the history of abstraction. Among his other interests are video and digital art, culture jamming, protest, artistic collaborations, and critical studies of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Miguel's monograph, Memory Work: Anne Truitt and Sculpture, was published by the University of California Press in 2015. His current book project, Video Art and Public Culture, is about activist uses of video and digital art from the 1960s forward. Miguel was the recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant for his contribution to “Digital Chicago,” a multimedia online platform investigating Chicago's cultural history from 1892 to 1933. He is an Advisory Editor for the American National Biography online, published by the Oxford University Press with the support of the American Council of Learned Societies, and serves as the Co-Chair of the Association of Historians of American Art.

Professor Miguel de Baca gives his second Terra Foundation Lecture in American Art on the work of Dave the Potter. Miguel de Baca joins the History of Art Department as the Terra Foundation Visiting Professor of American Art in 2017-18 from Lake Forest College, where he is the chair of the Department of Art and Art History. Miguel studies modern and contemporary American art; he is especially interested in issues of memory-making and the representation of history as they intersect the history of abstraction. Among his other interests are video and digital art, culture jamming, protest, artistic collaborations, and critical studies of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Miguel's monograph, Memory Work: Anne Truitt and Sculpture, was published by the University of California Press in 2015. His current book project, Video Art and Public Culture, is about activist uses of video and digital art from the 1960s forward. Miguel was the recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant for his contribution to “Digital Chicago,” a multimedia online platform investigating Chicago's cultural history from 1892 to 1933. He is an Advisory Editor for the American National Biography online, published by the Oxford University Press with the support of the American Council of Learned Societies, and serves as the Co-Chair of the Association of Historians of American Art.

Professor Miguel de Baca gives his first Terra Foundation Lecture in American Art on two depictions of suicide. Miguel de Baca joins the History of Art Department as the Terra Foundation Visiting Professor of American Art in 2017-18 from Lake Forest College, where he is the chair of the Department of Art and Art History. Miguel studies modern and contemporary American art; he is especially interested in issues of memory-making and the representation of history as they intersect the history of abstraction. Among his other interests are video and digital art, culture jamming, protest, artistic collaborations, and critical studies of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Miguel's monograph, Memory Work: Anne Truitt and Sculpture, was published by the University of California Press in 2015. His current book project, Video Art and Public Culture, is about activist uses of video and digital art from the 1960s forward. Miguel was the recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant for his contribution to “Digital Chicago,” a multimedia online platform investigating Chicago's cultural history from 1892 to 1933. He is an Advisory Editor for the American National Biography online, published by the Oxford University Press with the support of the American Council of Learned Societies, and serves as the Co-Chair of the Association of Historians of American Art.

Professor Miguel de Baca gives his third Terra Foundation Lecture in American Art on the works of Georgia O’Keeffe and Martha Graham. Miguel de Baca joins the History of Art Department as the Terra Foundation Visiting Professor of American Art in 2017-18 from Lake Forest College, where he is the chair of the Department of Art and Art History. Miguel studies modern and contemporary American art; he is especially interested in issues of memory-making and the representation of history as they intersect the history of abstraction. Among his other interests are video and digital art, culture jamming, protest, artistic collaborations, and critical studies of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Miguel’s monograph, Memory Work: Anne Truitt and Sculpture, was published by the University of California Press in 2015. His current book project, Video Art and Public Culture, is about activist uses of video and digital art from the 1960s forward. Miguel was the recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant for his contribution to “Digital Chicago,” a multimedia online platform investigating Chicago’s cultural history from 1892 to 1933. He is an Advisory Editor for the American National Biography online, published by the Oxford University Press with the support of the American Council of Learned Societies, and serves as the Co-Chair of the Association of Historians of American Art.

Professor Miguel de Baca gives his third Terra Foundation Lecture in American Art on the works of Georgia O’Keeffe and Martha Graham. Miguel de Baca joins the History of Art Department as the Terra Foundation Visiting Professor of American Art in 2017-18 from Lake Forest College, where he is the chair of the Department of Art and Art History. Miguel studies modern and contemporary American art; he is especially interested in issues of memory-making and the representation of history as they intersect the history of abstraction. Among his other interests are video and digital art, culture jamming, protest, artistic collaborations, and critical studies of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Miguel’s monograph, Memory Work: Anne Truitt and Sculpture, was published by the University of California Press in 2015. His current book project, Video Art and Public Culture, is about activist uses of video and digital art from the 1960s forward. Miguel was the recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant for his contribution to “Digital Chicago,” a multimedia online platform investigating Chicago’s cultural history from 1892 to 1933. He is an Advisory Editor for the American National Biography online, published by the Oxford University Press with the support of the American Council of Learned Societies, and serves as the Co-Chair of the Association of Historians of American Art.

Professor Miguel de Baca gives his first Terra Foundation Lecture in American Art on two depictions of suicide. Miguel de Baca joins the History of Art Department as the Terra Foundation Visiting Professor of American Art in 2017-18 from Lake Forest College, where he is the chair of the Department of Art and Art History. Miguel studies modern and contemporary American art; he is especially interested in issues of memory-making and the representation of history as they intersect the history of abstraction. Among his other interests are video and digital art, culture jamming, protest, artistic collaborations, and critical studies of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Miguel’s monograph, Memory Work: Anne Truitt and Sculpture, was published by the University of California Press in 2015. His current book project, Video Art and Public Culture, is about activist uses of video and digital art from the 1960s forward. Miguel was the recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant for his contribution to “Digital Chicago,” a multimedia online platform investigating Chicago’s cultural history from 1892 to 1933. He is an Advisory Editor for the American National Biography online, published by the Oxford University Press with the support of the American Council of Learned Societies, and serves as the Co-Chair of the Association of Historians of American Art.

Professor Miguel de Baca gives his second Terra Foundation Lecture in American Art on the work of Dave the Potter. Miguel de Baca joins the History of Art Department as the Terra Foundation Visiting Professor of American Art in 2017-18 from Lake Forest College, where he is the chair of the Department of Art and Art History. Miguel studies modern and contemporary American art; he is especially interested in issues of memory-making and the representation of history as they intersect the history of abstraction. Among his other interests are video and digital art, culture jamming, protest, artistic collaborations, and critical studies of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Miguel’s monograph, Memory Work: Anne Truitt and Sculpture, was published by the University of California Press in 2015. His current book project, Video Art and Public Culture, is about activist uses of video and digital art from the 1960s forward. Miguel was the recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant for his contribution to “Digital Chicago,” a multimedia online platform investigating Chicago’s cultural history from 1892 to 1933. He is an Advisory Editor for the American National Biography online, published by the Oxford University Press with the support of the American Council of Learned Societies, and serves as the Co-Chair of the Association of Historians of American Art.

Professor Miguel de Baca gives his first Terra Foundation Lecture in American Art on two depictions of suicide. Miguel de Baca joins the History of Art Department as the Terra Foundation Visiting Professor of American Art in 2017-18 from Lake Forest College, where he is the chair of the Department of Art and Art History. Miguel studies modern and contemporary American art; he is especially interested in issues of memory-making and the representation of history as they intersect the history of abstraction. Among his other interests are video and digital art, culture jamming, protest, artistic collaborations, and critical studies of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Miguel’s monograph, Memory Work: Anne Truitt and Sculpture, was published by the University of California Press in 2015. His current book project, Video Art and Public Culture, is about activist uses of video and digital art from the 1960s forward. Miguel was the recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant for his contribution to “Digital Chicago,” a multimedia online platform investigating Chicago’s cultural history from 1892 to 1933. He is an Advisory Editor for the American National Biography online, published by the Oxford University Press with the support of the American Council of Learned Societies, and serves as the Co-Chair of the Association of Historians of American Art.

Emlyn tells Emma about the "First Lady of Physics," Chien-Shiung Wu, and Emma tells Emlyn about horses remembering human emotions and about the winner of the AWIS Pinnacle Award!   Sources Main Story - Chien-Shiung Wu Atomic Heritage Foundation: https://www.atomicheritage.org/profile/chien-shiung-wu National Women’s Hall of Fame: https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/chienshiung-wu/ American National Biography: https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1302686 Madame Wu and the Holiday Experiment That Changed Physics Forever: https://gizmodo.com/madame-wu-and-the-holiday-experiment-that-changed-physi-1749319896 Inside Story: C S Wu – First Lady of physics research: http://cerncourier.com/cws/article/cern/51556 Channeling Ada Lovelace: Chien-Shiung Wu, Courageous Hero of Physics:https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/channeling-ada-lovelace-chien-shiung-wu-courageous-hero-of-physics/ Women who werk Horses remember peoples’ facial expressions (Article): https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)30364-6?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982218303646%3Fshowall%3Dtrue Science Daily Article about paper: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180426130024.htm Sue Desmond-Hellmann wins 2018 AWIS Pinnacle Award. https://www.awis.org/awis-announces-top-awards-for-stem-and-gender-equity-champions/   Trivia Article: “Almost a Fellow…” by the Royal Society http://blogs.royalsociety.org/history-of-science/2012/03/08/almost-a-fellow/

Emma tells Emlyn about the "Mother of Chromosomes," Barbara McClintock, and Emlyn tells Emma about the Bajau people and why male fruit flies like to mate. This episode gets a bit raunchy when we talk about fruit flies. You have been warned. Sources: Main Story - Barbara McClintock   A Feeling for the Organism by Evelyn Fox Keller The Tangled Field: Barbara McClintock's Search for the Patterns of Genetic Control by Nathaniel C. Comfort The Barbara McClintock Papers - NIH  https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/Narrative/LL/p-nid/45 Biography by Cold Spring Harbor Labs http://library.cshl.edu/sp/scientists/barbara_mcclintock/mcclintock_biography.html Biography by American National Biography http://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-1302550 Women who werk Shoutout #1 Larger spleens may help ‘sea nomads’ stay underwater longer: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/larger-spleens-help-bajau-divers-stay-underwater-longer?tgt=nr M. Ilardo et al. Physiological and genetic adaptations to diving in sea nomads. Cell. Published online April 19, 2018. doi:10/1016/j.cell.2018.03.054 Shoutout #2 Male Fruit Flies Love to Cum, and Turn to Alcohol If They Can't: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/43b87b/male-fruit-flies-love-to-cum-and-turn-to-alcohol-if-they-cant S. Zer-Krispil et al. Ejaculation induced by the activation of Crz neurons is rewarding to Drosophila males. Current Biology. Vol. 28, May 7, 2018.  doi:10.1016/j.cub.2018.03.039.   Trivia Article: “Almost a Fellow…” by the Royal Society http://blogs.royalsociety.org/history-of-science/2012/03/08/almost-a-fellow/

American geologist Clarence King led a strange double life in the late 1800s: He invented a second identity as a black railroad porter so he could marry the woman he loved, and then spent 13 years living separate lives in both white and black America. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll consider the extraordinary lengths that King went to in order to be with the woman he loved. We'll also contemplate the dangers of water and puzzle over a policeman's strange behavior. Intro: Artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster arrange household trash to cast shadow self-portraits. Participants 140 meters apart can hold an inaudible conversation across South Australia's Barossa Reservoir dam. Sources for our feature on Clarence King: Martha A. Sandweiss, Passing Strange, 2009. Bill Croke, "The Many Lives of Clarence King," American Spectator, Feb. 28, 2011. John Koster, "He Tried to Solve Earth’s Mysteries And Left a Few Mysteries of His Own- Clarence King," Wild West, February 2014. William Grimes, "Recalling a Geologist, Adventurer and Raconteur Whom Henry Adams Looked Up to," New York Times, Feb. 22, 2006. David L. Beck, "A Geologist's Secret Life," St. Petersburg Times, April 12, 2009. William Howarth, "Sex, Lies and Cyanide," Washington Post, May 20, 1990. Michael K. Johnson, "Passing Strange," Western American Literature 44:4 (Winter 2010), 404-405. Martha A. Sandweiss, "Ada Copeland King," American National Biography (accessed March 23, 2018). Thurman Wilkins, "Clarence Rivers King," American National Biography (accessed March 23, 2018). "American Lives: The 'Strange' Tale of Clarence King," Morning Edition, National Public Radio, Aug. 18, 2010. Annette Gordon-Reed, "Color Blind," Washington Post, Feb. 22, 2009. Jennifer Greenstein Altmann, "Sandweiss Unearths a Compelling Tale of Secret Racial Identity," Princeton University, Dec. 17, 2009. Baz Dreisinger, "A Transracial Man," New York Times, March 5, 2009. "American Lives: The 'Strange' Tale of Clarence King," WBUR News, Aug. 18, 2010. Elinore Longobardi, "Two Lives," Columbia Journalism Review, Feb. 4, 2009. "King Peak," Antarctica: An Encyclopedia, 2011. Listener mail: Wikipedia, "Bhopal Disaster" (accessed March 23, 2018). Alan Taylor, "Bhopal: The World's Worst Industrial Disaster, 30 Years Later," Atlantic, Dec. 2, 2014. An example of a current safety manual warning of the dangers of rust in steel tanks, from Gillian Brent. "The Case of the Rusty Assassin," Maritime Accident Casebook (accessed March 25, 2018). Steve Selden, "Polar Bear Encounters on Rise in Churchill," Churchill Polar Bills, Feb. 29, 2016. A Colorado bear breaks into Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Scott Miller. Here's a corroborating link (warning -- this spoils the puzzle). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on iTunes or Google Play Music or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- on our Patreon page you can pledge any amount per episode, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

In 1856, an American clipper ship was approaching Cape Horn when its captain collapsed, leaving his 19-year-old wife to navigate the vessel through one of the deadliest sea passages in the world. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll tell the story of Mary Patten and the harrowing voyage of the Neptune's Car. We'll also consider some improbable recipes and puzzle over a worker's demise. Intro: In 1943, the U.S. considered releasing glowing foxes in Japan to frighten Shintoists. Rice University chemist James Tour fashions stick figures from organic molecules. Sources for our feature on Mary Patten: Paul W. Simpson, Neptune's Car: An American Legend, 2018. Glenn A. Knoblock, The American Clipper Ship, 1845-1920, 2014. Sam Jefferson, Clipper Ships and the Golden Age of Sail, 2014. David Cordingly, Seafaring Women, 2010. Jane D. Lyon, The Great Clippers, 2016. Bill Caldwell, Rivers of Fortune, 2002. Julie Baker, "The Troubled Voyage of Neptune's Car," American History 39:6 (February 2005), 58-65. Raymond A. Rydell, "The California Clippers," Pacific Historical Review 18:1 (February 1949), 70-83. Ann Whipple Marr, "Mary Ann Brown Patten," Oxford Dictionary of American National Biography, Dec. 2, 1999. "Neptune's Car," Ships of the World, 1997, 356. Kenneth J. Blume, Historical Dictionary of the U.S. Maritime Industry, 2012. "Mary Patten, 19 and Pregnant, Takes Command of a Clipper Ship in 1856," New England Historical Society (accessed Feb. 2, 2018). "The Story of Mary Patten," National Sailing Hall of Fame (accessed Feb. 2, 2018). "Women in Maritime History," San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, National Park Service (accessed Feb. 2, 2018). Alan Flanders, "Clipper Neptune's Car Saved From Disaster by Quick-Learning Wife of Stricken Skipper," [Norfolk] Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 15, 2000, 3. George Tucker, "Woman's Touch Helped Clipper Ship Make History," [Norfolk] Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 14, 1999, B3. Joanne Lannin and Ray Routhier, "The Ladies of Maine," Portland Press Herald, March 13, 1996, 1C. "A Noble Woman," Sailor's Magazine, April 1857. "A Heroine of the Sea," Friends' Intelligencer 14 (1857), 46-47. "A Heroine Arrived -- The Young Wife Who Took Neptune's Car Around Cape Horn," New York Times, March 18, 1857. "A Wife Worth Having," New York Times, Feb. 21, 1857. "Report of the Select Committee on the Rights of Married Women," Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Ohio, 1857, 110. "Modern Female Heroism," Annual Register, March 1857. "The Heroic Mrs. Patten," Boston Evening Transcript, June 23, 1857. "Marine Matters," New York Times, March 24, 1857. "Neptune's Car," New York Times, July 27, 1857. "Funeral of Capt. Joshua A. Patten," New York Times, Aug. 31, 1857. "Personal," New York Times, Sept. 23, 1857. "Marine Matters," New York Times, March 20, 1857. "Personal," New York Times, March 20, 1861. Listener mail: Jeffrey Gettleman and Kai Schultz, "India's Punishment for Plant-Eating Donkeys: Jail Time," New York Times, Nov. 28, 2017. Faiz Siddiqui, "Donkeys Destroy Plants, 'Jailed' for 4 Days in Orai," Times of India, Nov. 28, 2017. "50,000 Meows by @hugovk," github, Nov. 1, 2014. "Delicious Recipes," scootah.com (accessed Feb. 23, 2018). Wikipedia, "Echo Answer" (accessed Feb. 23, 2018). Lindsay Flint sent this example of answering yes/no questions in Welsh. This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Gillian Brent. You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on iTunes or Google Play Music or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- on our Patreon page you can pledge any amount per episode, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

Dr. Anne Foradori has appeared in recital, concert, and opera in the Midwest. She has performed works by several American composers, and has presented at national MTNA and NATS conventions. She made her New York debut at Symphony Space in 2007. Dr. Foradori has published in the Journal of Singing and contributed to the American National Biography. Dr. Foradori teaches voice and coordinates opera and musical theatre at the University of Nebraska at Kearney where she is Professor of Voice. Mentioned in this episode: Prairie Suppers www.prairiesuppers.com University of Nebraska at Kearney