Smithsonian articles from November 2008

Smithsonian archives from November 2008

Standing tall; Niger's giraffes and our 16th president.(FROM THE EDITOR)(Abraham Lincoln)
November 1, 2008... JENNIFER MARGULIS has been interested in Niger's free-roaming giraffes for some 15 years, ever since she lived in that parched country working for a nonprofit development agency in 1992 and 1993. "It's hard to put into words how incredible it...

The Lincoln-Douglas debates.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... The Lincoln-Douglas debates ["Face the Nation"] show how trivialized American political discourse has become. Televised debates are little more than joint news conferences where questioners seem more interested in scandalmongering than in...

Photo finds.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... MANY THANKS to Nakki Goranin for her quest to save and document old photobooth pictures, a form of Americana that brought so many people a bit of fun for pocket change ["Four for a Quarter"]. In looking through mementos of my father following...

Sea changes.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... I WONDER if the editors are aware of a great irony in the September issue. The cover story "Victory at Sea" is about saving our oceans. The feature article "Macau Hits the Jackpot" is about destroying the environment out of greed; it includes...

Beetlemania.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... REBECCA SICREE's complaint about her family's close encounter with Asian lady beetles [Last Page: "The Bugs Who Flew Too Much"] is a perfect example of humankind's disconnection with the natural world. I live in rural Oklahoma and every year we...

Washington's roots.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... YOUR STORY about the recent discovery of the remains of our first president's third residence, in Virginia ["Washington's Bayhood Home"], fails to mention the near loss of the site. Wal-Mart had planned to build a store on the land, but strong...

Correction.(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... THE GENEALOGY ESSAY "Clan-Do Spirit" was fascinating, but let's hope the author's Hebrew is better than his German. Jewish converts to Christianity who took the name "Friedenheim" were not referring to their freedom but to their peaceful house...

Curious perspective; Robert Frank's book the Americans changed photography. Fifty years on, it still unsettles.(INDELIBLE IMAGES)
November 1, 2008... IT'S A SAFE BET that Robert Frank had never seen a denim-clad black couple on a Harley-Davidson before he came to the United States. Such a sight, like many others the 32-year-old Swiss emigre photographed in the mid-1950s for his quietly...

Wild things.(LIFE AS WE KNOW IT)
November 1, 2008... MYSTERY DEATHS SOLVED Multitudes of bats die around the world each year when they migrate through electricity-generating wind farms. University of Calgary researchers now say the main cause of death is "barotrauma": the turbines' large...

Greening a higher ground.(NOTABLE AMERICAN DESTINATIONS AND HAPPENINGS)(California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... SAN FRANCISCO The biggest green roof in the state, atop the new California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, is an undulating two-and-a-half-acre landscape of steep hills, wide meadows and nearly two million plants. Three stories above...

Much ado about Dickinson.(POINTS OF INTEREST)(Emily Dickinson)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... FOR DECADES after Emily Dickinson's death in 1886 at age 55, her family battled over her literary legacy. "My Verse Is Alive," an exhibition at the Emily Dickinson Museum through 2009, brings the feud to life. Dickinson (below), who never...

KP for the King.(POINTS OF INTEREST)(Elvis Presley)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... "TREAT PRESLEY like everybody else," one captain ordered when Elvis was drafted into the Army in 1858. So Presley, 23, scrubbed latrines and pulled kitchen patrol like other GI's. "Private Presley," an exhibition at Graceland, Elvis'...

Traffic Jam.(POINTS OF INTEREST)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... EVERY FRIDAY NIGHT in this tiny town in the Blue Ridge Mountains, folks from all around gather to play and hear gospel, bluegrass and other homegrown music at the country store and on the street. It's a must-stop on the Crooked Road, the...

No frills here: other towns may get more attention, says the novelist, but this is a place where things get done.(MY KIND OF TOWN)(Weybridge, Vermont)
November 1, 2008... YOU'VE HEARD OF TOWNS LIKE OURS. The kind of place about which city folks say, "Don't blink or you'll miss it!" You might as well go ahead and blink, because you are going to miss it. There's no real town center in Weybridge, Vermont,...

History ahead.(FROM THE CASTLE)
November 1, 2008... ON NOVEMBER 21, the Star-Spangled Banner, which, of course, inspired our national anthem, goes on display in a monumental, inspiring new gallery, the heart of a two-year, $85 million renovation of the National Museum of American History (NMAH)....

Pieces of our past: history sleuths probe meaning of telltale American objects.(Around the Mall)
November 1, 2008... WHEN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM of American History reopens this month after a two-year renovation, visitors will get to see a display of 500 newly acquired and previously unseen objects from the three million-item collection. A new central atrium...

Jukebox.(Around the Mall)(Jim Nollman)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... A CHOIR OF TURKEYS In 1973, Jim Nollman was a recent college graduate with avant-garde musical aspirations. The San Francisco resident had learned that wild male turkeys can gobble on cue--especially in response to loud or high-pitched sounds....

Q&A; In the 1950s, WANDA JACKSON was one of the first women to record rock 'n' roll. Now 70, she is the subject of a Smithsonian Channel documentary airing this month she spoke with Kenneth R. Fletcher.(Around the Mall)(Interview)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... HOW DID YOU GET YOUR START SINGING ROCK 'N' ROLL? When I was in high school in Oklahoma City, I won a contest and got a little radio show of my own. One day after the show Hank Thompson [a singer-songwriter who sold more than 60 million...

Making history.(Around the Mall)(Modern Head)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... SILENT WITNESS The pop artist Roy Lichtenstein created the 31-foot-tall aluminum sculpture Modern Head in 1989. Its owner, the James Goodman Gallery in New York, lent it to New York City's Battery Park in January of 1996. On September 11, 2001,...

What's up.(Around the Mall)(Brief article)(Calendar)
November 1, 2008... CLOSE TO THE HEART Photographic jewelry, including pocket watches adorned with babies' photos (right: Girl Child) and brooches bearing lovers' likenesses, was all the rage in the mid-1800s. See these keepsakes at the National Portrait...

November anniversaries: momentous or merely memorable.(THIS MONTH IN HISTORY)
November 1, 2008... 70 YEARS AGO "THIS IS A REAL HORSERACE" In a matchup a year in the making, Seabiscuit, the West Coast's hard-luck horse turned top-earning Thoroughbred, takes on War Admiral, the East's Triple Crown winner, November 1, 1938, at...

Looking up: in desolate Niger, wild giraffes are making a comeback despite having to compete for resources with some of the world's poorest people.
November 1, 2008... IN THE DRY SEASON, they are hard to find. Food is scarce in Niger's bush and the animals are on the move, loping miles a day to eat the tops of acacia and combretum trees. I'm in the back seat of a Land Rover and two guides are sitting on the...

The world's first temple? Predating Stonehenge by 6,000 years, Turkey's stunning Gobekli Tepe upends the conventional view of the rise of civilization.
November 1, 2008... SIX MILES FROM URFA, AN ANCIENT CITY in southeastern Turkey, Klaus Schmidt has made one of the most startling archaeological discoveries of our time: massive carved stones about 11,000 years old, crafted and arranged by prehistoric people who...

One man's Korean war: reporter John Rich's color photographs, seen for the first time after more than half a century, offer a vivid glimpse of the "Forgotten" conflict.
November 1, 2008... ON THE JUNE MORNING in 1950 when war broke out in Korea, John Rich was ensconced in what he calls a "correspondents villa" in coastal Japan, anticipating a long soak in a wooden tub with steam curling off the surface and a fire underneath....

Banner days; The flag that Francis Scott Key saw flying over Fort McHenry was loved almost to death. Now, after a decade's conservation, the Star-Spangled Banner returns to its place of honor on the National Mall.
November 1, 2008... Long before it flew to the moon, waved over the White House or was folded into tight triangles at Arlington National Cemetery; before it sparked fiery Congressional debates, reached the North Pole or the summit of Mount Everest; before it...

Munich at 850: the livable, culture crazy, beer-loving capital of Bavaria is coming to terms with its history.
November 1, 2008... THE HOFBRAUKELLER BEER GARDEN IN THE MUNICH borough of Haidhausen was filled to capacity. Perhaps a thousand people, most in their 20s and 30s, sat shoulder to shoulder at long tables, quaffing liters of beer, munching on fact pretzels and...

Just follow the signs: politicians made more sense when they relied on oracles and omens.(THE LAST PAGE)
November 1, 2008... MANY OF US BELIEVE that the world has been going straight downhill since the fall of the Roman Empire. Rome, founded in 753 B.C., survived as a kingdom, a republic or an empire until about A.D. 476. Any society that can survive 1,229 years must...