ken atchity door to door: September 2022

Lizzo makes history by playing the Library of Congress’ 200-year-old crystal flute

On Friday 23 September the librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, tweeted Lizzo inviting her to play Madison’s 1813 crystal flute, which sits among the library’s collection of flutes – the largest in the world, comprising more than 1,800 flutes. “Like your song they are ‘Good as hell’,” she joked.

Lizzo replied with gusto: “I’m coming Carla! And I’m playing that crystal flute!!!!!”

On 27 September, Lizzo took to the stage with the dazzling historical item, first playing a single note to display its crystal clear tone, before branching out with a trill.

The flute originally belonged to James Madison, America’s fourth President from 1809 to 1817, who wrote The Federalist Papers with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay.

It was one of only two flutes made of crystal, and came from the workshop of Parisian flute-maker, Claude Laurent. According to an engraving on the silver panel that joins the headjoint to the body, the flute was made in 1813, specifically for James Madison.

As Lizzo coined on stage: “History is freaking cool, you guys!”

1940s Catalin radios

Browse them all on the Keen Collection. Found via Present & Correct.

The Blue People of Kentucky

When it comes to the Fugate family, you may think of the color blue. It’s not every day you get to see a person whose skin color is blue. This makes it easier to understand why people found the Fugate family as an interesting topic. It’s disheartening, but many of the members of the Fugate family remained hidden because of the uniqueness of their situation. You can’t truly blame either side, especially since it sounds almost impossible if you think about it. The possibility of the color blue as a skin tone becoming a hereditary trait feels like a cartoon show. Still, it was an actual situation for the family that was mixed with half-French and half-American. In fact, the Fugate family still exists to this day and their descendants still carry this gene.

The Fugate family has earned many nicknames over time. They’ve been called the Blue People of Kentucky, the Huntsville Subgroup, and the Blue People of Troublesome Creek Kentucky. This is because some members of the family had blue skin. A lot of people had different stories regarding the Fugate family’s skin origin, but the truth is that they have a genetic disease called methemoglobinemia.

Methemoglobinemia (MetHb) can be gained by hereditary means or through the consumption of specific medicines and food. The condition is a side-effect of the overproduction of methemoglobin. This makes oxygen distribution difficult to pass through body tissues, making them blue in color.

Methemoglobinemia in the Fugate family is passed down genetically. In most cases, both parents do not suffer from it, but both carry the gene. That wasn’t the case for Martin Fugate and Elizabeth Smith, as as they clearly have blue skin.

Random Facts

While children of identical twins are legally first cousins, genetically, they are actually half siblings. I found this one particularly interesting because I have twin daughters.

Did you know that chocolate can actually protect your teeth against tooth decay?

And that, 95% of us report washing our hands after using a public toilet....but a study of 8,000 people in big US cities found that the figure was actually closer to 67%? (Gross!)

Cats happily climb up trees, but do you know why they can't find their way down? Turns out a cat can't climb down headfirst because every claw on its paw points the same way. To get down from a tree, a cat must back down.

While Neil Armstrong got to be the first to take a step on the moon, Buzz Aldrin managed his own historic first, becoming the first person to urinate on the moon. (Take that, Mr. One Small Step!)

Zorita, the 1940s “Half and Half” Snake-wielding Burlesque Dancer

She was an American burlesque dancer. She was best known for a twenty-minute dance which she performed with two boa constrictors called ‘Elmer and Oscar’

Some of her other unique and subversive numbers:

In another act, she emerges from a giant spiderweb dripping in rhinestones. Dark ‘spider’s hands’ slowly peel off her clothes from the rear. Another one was called ‘The Consummation of the Wedding of the Snake”, where she stripped while holding an 8-foot boa constrictor. She described it as: “A gorgeous young maiden is going to be sold into slavery to an ugly old man. Instead, she dances with a snake, gets bitten, and dies.”

She was also known to walk her snakes on leads in public.

Found on Pinterest. She also has a pretty interesting Wikipedia page.

via Messy Nessy Chic

Proof Positive Reincarnation Jeffrey Keene

#LOL

#LOL - [via Nina Reznick]

Virginia Hall the "most dangerous of all Allied spies!"

The Nazis considered Virginia Hall the "most dangerous of all Allied spies," yet the incredible feats of the "Limping Lady" are largely unknown today. Determined to help defeat the Nazis, Hall became the first female secret agent to operate in France, first for the British and later for the American spy agencies -- and she is now considered one of the greatest spies of WWII. To read the story of how Hall spent years undercover behind enemy lines -- along with her wooden prosthetic leg that she nicknamed Cuthbert -- visit https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=23977

HUGS! [via Nina Reznick]

In 2006 a high school English teacher asked students to write a famous author and ask for advice. Kurt Vonnegut was the only one to respond - and his response is magnificent:

“Dear Xavier High School, and Ms. Lockwood, and Messrs Perin, McFeely and Congiusta:

I thank you for your friendly letters. You sure know how to cheer up a really old geezer in his sunset years. I don’t make public appearances any more because I now resemble nothing so much as an iguana.

What I had to say to you, moreover, would not take long, to wit: Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.

Seriously! I mean starting right now, do art and do it for the rest of your lives. Draw a funny or nice picture of Ms. Lockwood, and give it to her. Dance home after school, and sing in the shower and on and on. Make a face in your mashed potatoes. Pretend you’re Count Dracula.

Here’s an assignment for tonight, and I hope Ms. Lockwood will flunk you if you don’t do it: Write a six line poem, about anything, but rhymed. No fair tennis without a net. Make it as good as you possibly can. But don’t tell anybody what you’re doing. Don’t show it or recite it to anybody, not even your girlfriend or parents or whatever, or Ms. Lockwood. OK?

Tear it up into teeny-weeny pieces, and discard them into widely separated trash recepticals. You will find that you have already been gloriously rewarded for your poem. You have experienced becoming, learned a lot more about what’s inside you, and you have made your soul grow.

God bless you all
Kurt Vonnegut

Weird Tracks in Texas Indicate Giant Sauropods Walking on Their Front Feet Only

Massive dinosaur tracks have been uncovered in a dried-up river bed amid a historic drought in Texas. Experts say the tracks belonged to a 60-foot, 44-ton dinosaur called the Sauroposeidon around 113 million years ago.

: Dinosaur Valley State Park

They were the largest animals to ever walk the Earth: sauropods, a dinosaur clade of such immense size and stature, they're sometimes dubbed 'thunder lizards'.
These towering hulks – including Brontosaurus, Brachiosaurus, and Diplodocus among others – needed four thick, powerful legs to support and transport their massive bodies. At least, most of the time. Perhaps.
Some mysterious, ancient tracks described in a 2019 study could offer fresh support for a disputed view in paleontology: that these lumbering giants sometimes got around on two legs, not four, belying what their quadruped status (and simple physics) would seem to demand.
Read more

Bless me Father ...

"Bless me Father, for I have sinned. I have been with a loose girl."

The priest asks, "Is that you, little Joey Pagano?"

"Yes, Father, it is."

"And who was the girl you were with?"

"I can't tell you, Father. I don't want to ruin her reputation."

"Well, Joey, I'm sure to find out her name sooner or later so you may as well tell me now. Was it Tina Minetti?"

"I cannot say."

"Was it Teresa Mazzarelli?"

"I'll never tell."

"Was it Nina Capelli?"

"I'm sorry, but I cannot name her."

"Was it Cathy Piriano?"

"My lips are sealed."

"Was it Rosa DiAngelo, then?"

"Please, Father! I cannot tell you."

The priest sighs in frustration. "You're very tight lipped, and I admire that. But you've sinned and have to atone. You cannot be an altar boy now for 4 months. Now you go and behave yourself."

Joey walks back to his pew, and his friend Franco slides over and whispers, "What'd you get?"

"Four months vacation and five good leads...

Japanese Students Send Letters on Tree Leaves and Actually Get Them Delivered

JAPANESE MAIL CARRIERS APPARENTLY DID NOT MIND DELIVERING LETTERS WRITTEN ON LEAVES. PHOTOS: COURTESY OF THE TARAYOU TREE PROJECT (LEFT); HAJIME ISHIKAWA

The students at Keio University have been mailing leaves of Ilex latifolia, a species of holly native to Japan and China, since April as part of a class project that spans science and history. Also known as tarayou … letters written on tarayou leaves go as far back as the Heian period (794-1185) and are believed to be the first postcards in Japan.

A group of university students in Tokyo has been writing letters on tree leaves and managing to get them delivered by the country’s renowned postal service with nothing more than a stamp.

The students at Keio University have been mailing leaves of Ilex latifolia, a species of holly native to Japan and China, since April as part of a class project that spans science and history.

Maho Omura, a first-year student in the group, came across the leaf of Ilex latifolia, also known as tarayou. Letters written on tarayou leaves go as far back as the Heian period (794-1185) and are believed to be the first postcards in Japan.

THIS LEAF READS: "THANK YOU, ALWAYS <3 I LOVE YOU. LET'S STAY TOGETHER, NOW AND FOREVER." PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE TARAYOU TREE PROJECT

Unlike most other tree leaves, the back of a tarayou leaf can be scratched to leave permanent black etchings. Once scratched, the surface of the leaf undergoes a Maillard reaction, the same chemical process that gives a steak or a loaf of bread its brown crust

“People said it looks like something from My Neighbor Totoro,” Mio Hirose, one of the students behind the project, told VICE World News, referring to the popular 1988 Japanese animated fantasy film.

Yoga Gives Back

Written by Kayoko Mitsumatsu

From Posture To Power: Microcredit Changes Lives On Both Sides of the Ocean

We can talk about making change. But affecting real change in the world comes from impacting the lives of individuals. It comes from empowering people to be independent and able to make a living on their own while at the same time being fully integrated in our interdependent global community. Sometimes it takes something that seems to be radical to make this change, but these shifts can be deceptively small. They can be even as small (or as large) as the cost of a Los Angeles Yoga class.

How could this be? In the practice of microcredit, lending seemingly small amounts of money to small-scale entrepreneurs allows them to succeed and change their circumstances. This is the fundamental basis of microcredit’s transformative power; it’s a revolutionary concept in finance. This practice shifts the emphasis from financial transactions being focused only about large loans and large scale businesses, which are out of reach of many one-person operations, institutions and organizations – to lending practices that actually make a positive difference in a person’s life. Microcredit practices based on social justice and empowerment operate through a combination of small-scale loans based on trust and community support, with structured repayment plans and programs that encourage savings. In these situations, people actually have the opportunity to solidify long-term change in their lives.

Dr. Muhammad Yunus and the Yoga Gives Back Team: Joel Bender, Leslie Hendry, Dr. Muhammad Yunus and Kayoko Mitsumatsu (left-right)

In 2006, economist Dr. Muhammad Yunus and the institution he founded, the Grameen Bank, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This award was in recognition of their revolutionary efforts to create this micro-credit model, support sustainable economic practices, and provide an alternative to what were exploitive norms. When a person is caught in a cycle of poverty, they may become trapped in the system, particularly since large banking institutions have historically ignored people without assets or credit histories, who are just starting out and who may not have already proven themselves. Most banks prefer to lend large sums of money that represent a greater profit margin and are set up only for large loans in order to make a profit themselves. And even making it more challenging, people at the bottom of the economic scale worldwide have had to rely on moneylenders charging usurious terms and interest rates to obtain funds to plant the next crop, buy inventory of new equipment, or upgrade a business in any way. Institutions such as the Grameen Bank and their affiliates are offering another approach. It’s one that has significantly impacted millions of people.

As Dr. Yunus described in an exclusive interview with Yoga Gives Back in May, 2009, “We started in 1976, and today within Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, eight million people borrow micro loans, ninety-seven percent of them women.” This represents an enormous potential for change and empowerment that just did not exist on a large scale in this form prior to 1976.

There is a social cycle in economics, and Dr. Yunus explained this: “Poverty is not inside the person. Poverty is forced from outside. Poor people are as capable [a] human being as anybody else. They have the same power and energy, same potential. But they are denied such facilities. They cannot express themselves. Money is one of the most important items missing in their lives. You need a dollar to catch a dollar. You cannot catch a dollar with an empty hand. So, that first dollar, nobody has given to her. So she remains dependent on someone else. She has to be hired, to slave; she has to work to make food available on the table. What we have done, we have put that first dollar into her hands as a banking proposition. Conventional banks never come to the poor people. They go to rich people to make more money. The person who does not have a dollar – she cannot get it. So we did it. We did it in a way that is affordable to her. Because we do not insist on collateral. There is no collateral.”

While that may seem like a radical concept, the Grameen Bank has proven that their success is much more than ideological. Dr Yunus cited statistics for us, “The repayment rate is almost 100%, without collateral or anything. This is the strength of microcredit which is now spread all over the world. There are by now at least 150 million borrowers in the world today. Bu it is still very small comparing to the need. We need more microcredit organizations in the world so that more people can be reached.”

Yoga Gives Back is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization begun in LA, with the goal to provide a way for Western Yoga practitioners to give back to India, the birthplace of Yoga, which has given us so much. We’re heeding Dr. Yunus’ call to reach more people through expanded opportunities for and awareness of microcredit and have targeted India and Indian families, women, and would-be entrepreneurs, who would be otherwise stuck in the cycle of poverty that Dr. Yunus described. Yoga Gives Back supports microfinancing operations in India, through the Grameen Foundation, headquartered in Washington, DC. Donations go directly to Grameen Koota, Bangalore, South India and our YGB awareness campaign focuses on the real stories of how poor women are changing their lives with small loans from Grameen Koota.

Ms. Vinatha M Reddy

Grameen Koota was started by visionary teacher and philanthropist, Ms. Vinatha M Reddy (pictured, above) in 1999, who learned about Nobel Peace Recipient Dr Muhammad Yunus’ microfinancing and immediately began exploring ways of replicating his work in her hometown. In 2000, she started providing small microcredit loans, averaging $25.00 a month, to fifty local women. Today, Grameen Koota’s work is reaching out to over 280,000 women in Bangalore, Mysore and many areas of Karnataka state, in South India, making real impact on these women’s lives as well as on the local economy.

Yoga Gives Back

The Los Angeles-based Yoga Gives Back has a worldwide reach and began out of the inspiration and dedication of my Yoga mentor Joel Bender and me. Our group has suddenly started growing almost daily and our mission is shared by a quickly expanding and loving Yoga community.

When I was growing up in Japan, which is a very middle-class society, I had never experienced or seen any real poverty, especially growing up in Tokyo in 1960s and 1970s, when Japan's post-war economic miracle was taking place. Then, I had a chance to live in Brazil in the late 1970s for two years, where as a teenager, I saw the divide between poverty and wealth, the reality of the real slums, kids on the streets begging every time you stopped the car at the traffic light, all very much like India. Social injustice hit me hard.

Once I started Yoga practice and feeling my life being so enriched by it , I felt a need to use my resources to help others. I was producing a documentary on Social Entrepreneurship and learned about microfinancing. I shared this information with Joel [featured in the teacher profile in this month’s issue of LA YOGA] who had been looking for the way he could give back to India since his first visit there – so we teamed up.

When I think about the growth of Yoga Gives Back thus far, I give a lot of credit to the entrepreneurship and volunteer spirit of Americans, willing to embrace and support a new grass roots campaign like ours.

Kayoko Mitsumatsu, co-founder of Yoga Gives Back, is a documentary filmmaker whose films deal with social justice issues, including First They Killed My Father a memoir of a Cambodia’s Killing Fields’ survivor.

A Life Changing Story of Microcredit: Jayashree

Jayashree

Jayashree lives in the suburbs of Bangalore and is married and the mother of two children. We visited her at her humble dirt floor one room home for the first time in 2007. We were touched by her warm smile and most generous hospitality, serving us hot tea and cookies.

Jayashree was born into a very poor family in Bangalore. When she was a child, her family’s financial situation became so severe that she had to drop out of school and work at a garment factory. She toiled throughout her childhood and after she got married at fifteen, her meager earnings had to support her ailing in-laws. She had two children. Her husband’s rickshaw business was not enough to pay her sons’ education or secure food for the family.

In 2007, Jayashree learned from her neighbors about Grameen Koota’s microcredit program and applied for her first loan. She was granted a first loan of 7,000 rupees ($175), and immediately bought her husband’s auto rickshaw. Owning their own rickshaw business increased their income significantly.

Jayashree was able to pay back her entire loan in one year and became eligible for her second loan in 2008. Having proven her diligence, her second loan amount doubled to 15,000 rupees ($375). This time, she bought a sewing machine and started stitching bags. The family’s earnings have now tripled and she is earning 150 rupees ($3.75) a day. In addition, she opened a small shop next to her house to sell her products which is earning her an additional 100 rupees ($2.50) a day.

She is sending her elder son to a medical school. Her son dreams of becoming a doctor and thanks his mother’s business for providing his education, their own home and daily food.

To participate in a Yoga practice where the proceeds support Yoga Gives Back and directly impact the transformation of not only your own life, but that of someone in India, start your Thanksgiving week at Yogaglo, Sunday, November 22, 10:00 A.M. - 12 noon. Some of the teachers include John Sahakian, Felicia Tomasko, Alexandra Aiken and Ally Hamilton; more to be announced. Yogaglo.com; yogagivesback.com.

For more information on Yoga Gives Back or to host a Yoga Gives Back class at your own studio or location, visit: yogagivesback.org or contact yogagivesback@earthlink.net.