Research Hole

"Can I tell you about one more plant?” could be my catchphrase at this point, but thank god I got someone to listen--my brother Joey! After we chat about the wonders of Wikipedia, I explain how I accidentally bought and subsequently learned about native plants. We get into the whole native plant debate as well as the conversation about whether cultivars of natives really count. I name some of my favorite native plants of the East Coast, and we decide that when it comes down to it, we’re all annuals. SHOW NOTES: The wikipedia page for Mary Kay Bergman is indeed as sad as Joey claimed. Keep listening to this podcast, because Joey’s other wikipedia page is getting its own episode. And, as Joey mentioned, the wikipedia page for Natalie Wood gives an overview of her very sad and mysterious death. Both daisies and asters come from the same family, Asteraceae (of which sunflowers are also a part!). Though daisies grow all over the U.S. at this point, they are native to Europe and Asia, whereas the majority of what we call “asters” (now classified in the genus Symphyotrichum, which is confusing) are native to North America. Peachy Pie Rose is not a real name for a type of rose but here are some actual rose cultivar names: Cherished Pet, Miss Congeniality, Love Always, Eyes for You.You can look up the studies on native species vs. native cultivars on PiedmontMasterGardeners.org. The article "The Native Plants Debate" on Winterbloomfarm.com outlines both sides and recommends some books if you want to read the anti-native plant movement point of view. I was fairly correct about the life cycle of trillium! They take five to seven years to bloom, and they actually spread seed once they start blooming, but then, of course, it takes another several years for that seed to grow into other mature, flowering trillium plants. Check out researchholepodcast.com for expanded show notes with pictures! And follow me at @vhowlett on instagram if you want more of this sort of thing.

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Mezzo soprano singer and pastoral musician Jamie Caporizo visits the pod to share something a little different: a research hole she would like to go down, but hasn’t started the research part yet. On the way, she teaches us plenty of other things, including the age when a female’s voice fully matures, what the Bel canto style of singing is, and a little bit about Leider. Take a drink every time Jamie says “another research hole” if you want to get tanked. SHOW NOTES: The Singer’s Ego: Finding Balance Between Music and Life is a book by professional singer Lynn Eustis about the “psychological conflicts that make up a singer’s world.”Did you know that sisters and nuns are not the same thing? According to the website Simply Catholic, a nun typically spends her life in prayer and work and silence in a cloistered convent, while a sister may or may not live in community, and lives an active life typically serving in health care or educational institutions.Sisters of the Holy Cross is a Catholic congregation of religious sisters that Jamie worked with as a choir director in South Bend, Indiana. Ministry is an important part of their mission. They also acknowledge and speak out against modern racism, have publicly disavowed some of Trump’s refugee policies, and aim to combat climate change. You can read their statements on various issues on their website.Jamie is still working with sisters in her role as the Senior Director of Mission and Ministry at Alvernia University. You can read the story of how the Bernadine Franciscan Sisters wound up in Reading on the Alvernia U website. In my vague attempt to explain the concept of scaffolding in education, I only managed to explain a small part of it. Upeople.edu has a broader breakdown of the concept in their article What is scaffolding in education? According to Brittanica, Frauenliebe und-leben (German for “Woman’s Love and Life”) song cycle by Robert Schumann, written in 1840, with text by the French-born German poet Adelbert von Chamisso. The text of the songs is written from a woman’s perspective. The text of the songs is written from a woman’s perspective, and all of Schumann’s songs for this cycle were written for the female voice. For "Love in Stages," Jamie’s concert-to-be: Here are some links to performances of the songs Jamie mentioned:Frauenliebe und-leben: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym9mHHsXvGIIf I Were a Bell from Guys and Dolls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMLq68cMMNkWhat I Did for Love from A Chorus Line: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ4VL2u6Yw4The song Jamie sang on the episode was E amore un ladroncello from Cosi fan tutte. Visit JamieCaporizo.com to listen to more recordings of her gorgeous voice!

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YA author Blair Thornburgh shares the appeal of her special witchcraft skill / future apocalypse job. Blair explains the challenge of planning for a garment and graces us with her Strong Opinions about historical costuming in movies. We learn the technical meaning of the word “notions,” wax poetic about the magical appeal of fabric before use, and detour into classic children’s books that really show their age. It was really fun, and I could’ve talked with her about sewing for three more hours. Hope you enjoy!SHOW NOTES: There’s a great video on youtube called “A Dress Historian Explains the Difference between Corsets and Stays” by Abby Cox that explains exactly that, with lots of pictures. Skip to 5:28 to get down to business. The LuLaNo reddit really does provide some sewing schadenfreude, if you need that sort of thing. At one point, Blair refers to the Belle Epoque - check out MyModernMet’s article on the Belle Epoque to learn a bit more about that time period. The wikipedia link that we looked at in “something I learned this week” was called List of Highest Grossing Media FranchisesHit up blairthornburgh.com to learn more about Blair and her projects!

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Kristin Everham, hand-lettering artist and card maker @hensonhandmade, is a programmer in her day job life. Today, Kristin shares some of the research holes she falls down at work. We talk about color wheels, the Element Inspector, and parts of websites you never think about that take programmers months to create. SHOW NOTES:The twitter thread about color guidelines can be found here: https://twitter.com/DanHollick/status/1417895151003865090Here is one of Baymard’s articles about why Quick Shop (or “quick views” as they call it) generally showcase usability issues on a site rather than solve them. Bigotry Encoded: Racial Bias in Technology explains the hand soap dispenser that Kristin mentions in the context of racial bias in tech overall. The piece that Leah shared about barber poles and bloodletting was on History.com, called “Why are barber poles red, white and blue?”

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Children’s author extraordinaire Julie Leung shares the fascinating story of her work-in-progress, a middle grade series about a Chinese American girl traveling back in time to various Chinese dynasties. The dynasty Julie focuses on in her first book is the Tang dynasty, and in this episode, Julie tells us the story of Emperor Gaozu’s three sons: Li Jiancheng, Li Shimin, and Li Yuanji, and their fight for the throne. We get into other fascinating aspects of Chinese history, as well as the challenges and surprise revelations of learning your own cultural history as an adult. SHOW NOTES:You can find a list of Chinese dynasties and their corresponding time periods on PBS.org and many other sites. Yu Chigong and Qin Qiong were the generals that guarded Emperor Gaozu (formerly ​​Li Shimin). They are now common door gods. You can watch a video about the history of door gods on youtube, on VisitChinaTV. Mythology Source offers a brief overview of the 8 Immortals, including Julie’s family’s patron immortal, Lu Dongbin. The Qingming festival, known as Tomb-Sweeping Day in English, occurs on the 4, 5 or 6 April in a given year. Thanks to listener Katie Molski for guiding us through the research hole of fan history! She graciously provided some links for us: LA Times article called Whirlwind History of Ceiling FansWikipedia article on Punkah fansHow to maximize the benefit of ceiling fans by changing direction - on Bob VilaVisit researchholepodcast.com for all links!

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YA author Maria E. Andreu takes us through her process of imagining an island in the sky for her work-in-progress. We talk a bit about real adaptations living things have developed to live at elevation, but mostly we imagine our way through her excellent thought experiment. Bonus topics: Snowpiercer, yaks, and circus fashion! Then we pivot real hard to the ground and share our best road rage stories. SHOW NOTES:I don’t know if this is the exact article Maria read, but BBC.com’s The Reason Zoom Calls Drain Your Energy brings up the mental strain of having to be ‘on.’ From the article: “An added factor, says Shuffler, is that if we are physically on camera, we are very aware of being watched. ‘When you're on a video conference, you know everybody's looking at you; you are on stage, so there comes the social pressure and feeling like you need to perform. Being performative is nerve-wracking and more stressful.’ It’s also very hard for people not to look at their own face if they can see it on screen, or not to be conscious of how they behave in front of the camera.”Visit https://www.researchholepodcast.com/episodes/life-in-elevation-with-maria-e-andreu-episode-10 to see an early map and aesthetic collage Maria made for her story. Dad’s road rage links: The article about brains and shifting attention is on the Amen Clinics blog, called Road Rage, Where Does it Come From?The article about threat and drive is called This Is What Road Rage Does to Your Body and can be found on Vice. Search Maria E. Andreu for her website to learn more about her books: Love in English and The Secret Side of Empty.

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The invisible star of the “Something I Learned This Week” segment joins me to help close out Season One. We learn: how he fell down some of his mini-research holes, which temporary Jeopardy host he loved best, and what he really thinks of Millennials. Doing my part to make my Dad slightly more traceable online! SHOW NOTES: Not many show notes today because we aren’t doing a specific hole! We mainly rehashed some of the Something I Learned This Week segments from the past season. If you’d like to go back to the original writing on these topics, check out the final part of each of these episodes: Polyglots: Episode 1 - Sailboats, with Rebecca JayJeopardy host tryouts: Episode 3 - German Chocolate Cake and Terrapin, with Laurie MorrisonGenerations: Episode 7 - Alleged Murderess Lillian Green, with Leah Felicity LucciJ.K. Rowling vs. trans people: this was a tidbit Dad wanted me to read on an episode and I didn’t feel like it worked for a quick something-I-learned-type discussion. So Dad and I got into it here. It was very hard to find a breakdown online that actually explains the impact of what J.K. Rowling said. The closest I found was the article “Harry Potter and the Author Who Failed Us” by Aja Romano on Vox. It has lots of links if you want to read Rowling’s original tweets, or if you want to read how the “science” she cites is flawed. The Foodie Flamingo picture book is now out! You can order it from your local bookstore. The city of Uruk: Here is the link listener Katie Molski shared with me: https://www.worldhistory.org/uruk/The link explains more about the people she referenced. Innana, for example, was a goddess of the region. She does appear in the Epic of Gilgamesh, but I believe Katie was more referencing what the link says about her.

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Award-winning author, queer visionary, and Val’s wife Carmen Maria Machado reads us fascinating old-timey articles she found while searching for answer to a seemingly simple question: when was the first tiger brought to America? On this long and winding road, we learn about a very old tiger named Jim, two historical badass 70-year-olds in a fight with a big cat, menagerie hippos with very Irish names, and the “panda-monium” of Washington D.C. in 2004. I promise Tiger King is only referenced once.SHOW NOTES: Tigers are known to live roughly 8-10 years in the wild. They can live up to 25 years in captivity because of the lack of natural predators. So Jim the Tiger was indeed very old. (Source: KidsFeed.com)Here is Carmen’s twitter thread about the tiger: https://twitter.com/carmenmmachado/status/1404089399453831172Titles of articles Carmen read aloud during this episode: “Fight with an American Tiger,” January 29th, 1853. Found via the New York Times Article Archive. “A Dying Bengal Tiger,” December 28, 1885. Found via the New York Times Article Archive. “Jim the Tiger Dies of Old Age,” January 15, 1886. Found via the New York Times Article Archive. “Boy Killed by Tiger: Lion Cub Keeper in Indianapolis Absentmindedly Enters the Wrong Cage,” February 16th, 1901. Found via the New York Times Article Archive. “A Baby Hippopotamus: Mr. and Mrs. Caliph Murphy Are to Be Congratulated,” December 3, 1889. Found via the New York Times Article Archive. The baby hippopotamus turned out to be male and was named McGinty, but he died seven days after his birth of pneumonia. (Source: New York Times Article Archive.) Fatima and Caliph did breed several more times and Fatima bore about ten offspring total, though not all survived. You can find an article on the old Central Park menagerie and the controversy over its practice of giving its animals Irish names on a blog called The Hatching Cat: True and Unusual Animal Tales of Old New York. Book recommendation from both Val and Carmen: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy FowlerDad’s infographic on zoos was originally printed on the website Treehugger. PETA & racism: I didn’t do a deep dive, but I found an article on USA Today called “PETA ridiculed, criticized for comparing 'speciesism' with racism, homophobia and ableism” and an article on CivilEats called “Is the Vegan Movement Ready to Reckon with Racism?”There is an article in Mental Floss about the young black man held captive in the Bronx zoo in 1906. His name was Ota Benga, and he was a member of the Mbuti pygmy tribe from what was then known as the Congo Free State. We can’t tell you about Carmen’s story yet, but I will upload this note once she is able to announce it! Stay tuned.

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[Episode alt. title: Thank You Sky Daddy.] Val tells the incomplete story of “Allentown’s prettiest widow” who was accused of poisoning her husband with strychnine in 1912. Leah asks hard-hitting questions like, “Has historical rat poison ever killed a single rat?” Old-timey snack johnnie cakes and modern food-adjacent items Diet Coke, Lean Cuisine, and Hemotogen candy also get mentions. ~SHOW NOTES: Jim Thorpe (full name James Francis Thorpe) was the first Native American to win a gold medal for the United States. He won two--in classic pentathlon and decathlon. In addition to his Olympic stardom, he was also a major-league baseball player, co-founder of the National Football League and even pro basketball player, a stunt performer, and Hollywood character actor.Jim was a Sac and Fox Indian, and when he died in 1953, his funeral was held where he was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Then his third wife Patricia made a deal with Mauch Chunk to have his body interred there. Jim’s son Jack filed a lawsuit in 2010, but it was unsuccessful. Jim Thorpe’s body remains in a Pennsylvania town he never visited. (Sources: Smithsonian Magazine, Wikipedia)You can find a short summary of the execution of the Molly Maguires on ExplorePAHistory.com, but there is plenty of in-depth reading about that period in history. A thing I meant to mention about the Molly Maguires that I didn’t actually get to was that it was entirely run by the private sector. The corporation that hired the detective agency was private, and a private police force arrested the defenders, and they were prosecuted by private attorneys for the coal companies. The wikipedia page is really detailed if you’d like to read more. You can find a picture of the creepy handprint in the old Jim Thorpe jail in a Philadelphia Inquirer article titled “For sale: Historic NE Pennsylvania jail haunted by the ghosts of hanged coal miners.” Apparently the Molly Maguire who imprinted his hand said, “This handprint will remain as proof of my innocence.”Check out The Reno Gazette Journal article "Experts weigh in on use of paralytic drug in executions" to learn more about that. Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker is the book Leah referenced. It’s true that crime rates have gone down over very long periods of time. In the U.S., the homicide rate went down each century since the 1700s. However, there was a peak in homicides in the 1960s - 1900s, with a steady decrease afterward. So it isn’t a simple, continual downward trend. (Source: Wikipedia) Here is a piece on Generation Jones or “Jonesers”: https://timeline.com/generation-jones-baby-boom-923270cb2010(Turns out “keeping up with the Joneses doesn’t refer to a tv show but is a long-ago expression referring to generic neighbors, originating from an old cartoon.)You can find links to all these articles as well as photos on our website, researchholepodcast.com.

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