• The Dutch were the first Europeans to settle in what is now New York City in 1608. In 1626, the Dutch West India Company purchased the island of Manhattan from Native Americans for the equivalent of 24 dollars and named their community New Amsterdam. In 1664, The British captured New Amsterdam and renamed it New York City, in honor of James, the Duke of York, brother of England’s King Charles II. • By 1760, New York City had a population of 18,000. Fifty years later, it became the largest city in the Western hemisphere with a population of 202,589. […]
April 2023
Kenneth Batelle – PEOPLE WORTH REMEMBERING –
– PEOPLE WORTH REMEMBERING – In commemoration of Hairstylists Appreciation Day on April 25, Tidbits centers its focus on Kenneth Batelle, or Mr. Kenneth, as he was known, hairdresser of stars and celebrities. • Kenneth Batelle’s humble beginnings couldn’t have predicted his career of styling the hair of Jacqueline Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Lucille Ball, and Judy Garland. After his father abandoned his mother when Kenneth was 12, in the late 1930s, the adolescent became the main support for his mother and four sisters, washing dishes at the train station, short-order cooking, working as an elevator operator, and selling […]
TIDBITS® Delves into City Nicknames
by Kathy Wolfe Sit back and tour the country as Tidbits digs into the origins of the nicknames of some American cities. • Chicago may be known as “The Windy City,” but it’s far from the windiest city in America. In fact, it’s not even in the top ten. Three Texas cities, Amarillo, Corpus Christi, and Lubbock, all have higher average wind speeds, as do the cities of Boston, Dodge City, Kansas, Oklahoma City, Casper, Wyoming, and Great Falls, Montana. Although Chicago has some pretty nasty winds in winter, the nickname has its roots in the late 1800s when some […]
The Cane Toad Disaster
• In the 1930s, farmers in Australia were worried about their sugar cane crop, which was being ravaged by the cane beetle. To solve the problem, they imported 102 cane toads from Hawaii. The toads were kept in an enclosure to breed. In 1935, 2,400 cane toads were released into the sugar cane fields of Queensland, Australia, with the hope they would save the sugar cane crop from the cane beetle. It turned out to be an ecological disaster of unprecedented proportion. • For one thing, cane toads do not eat cane beetles, for several reasons. Cane beetles are active […]
The Craighead Twins – PEOPLE WORTH REMEMBERING –
– PEOPLE WORTH REMEMBERING – • Grizzly bears used to roam across the entire U.S., but they have been eliminated from 98% of their range. There used to be 100,000 bears in the lower 48 states, but now there are only around 1,000 left. Yellowstone National Park holds one of the densest populations. • Because bears are such a hit with tourists, concessionaires in Yellowstone drew the bears in by baiting them with garbage to locations near lodges. Hand-feeding bears along the roadside also became popular. Between 1931 and 1941, an average of 59 tourists were injured every year by […]
TIDBITS® Remembers Remarkable Bears
by Janet Spencer Come along with Tidbits as we remember several extraordinary bears! THE CANADIAN BEAR • When WWI started, Harry Colebourn of Winnipeg, Canada volunteered. He was on his way to report for duty in 1914 when he came across a man who had a young black bear cub for sale. The mother bear had died. Colebourn bought the cub for $20 ($475 today) and smuggled the cub all the way to England. He named the cub Winnipeg, or Winnie for short. • The bear became the mascot of his brigade. When they were mustered out to France, Colebourn […]
Caldecott Winners
• Randolph Caldecott was a renowned English illustrator of the Victorian Era, whose drawings changed the face of children’s picture books. Fifty years after Caldecott’s death, an award was proposed to honor the illustrator “who had created the most distinguished picture book of the year.” In 1938, the Caldecott Medal was awarded for the first time to Dorothy Lathrop for her work on Animals of the Bible. • The bronze medal features Caldecott’s illustrations, with one side featuring his work on a 1782 poem, and the reverse based on his drawings for the nursery rhyme “Sing a Song of […]
Margret and H.A. Rey – PEOPLE WORTH REMEMBERING –
– PEOPLE WORTH REMEMBERING – The names of Margret and H.A. Rey may not be familiar, but undoubtedly you know of their highly-recognizable creation – the stories of Curious George. This week, the extraordinary lives of these authors and illustrators are in Tidbits’ spotlight. • Both of the Reys were born to Jewish families in Hamburg, Germany, she as Margarete Waldstein, and he as Hans August Reyersbach. Although they first met when Margret was a teen at her sister’s 16th birthday party, years passed before they met again, in the unlikely place of Brazil, where they each had fled to […]
TIDBITS® Reads Some Favorite Children’s Books
by Kathy Wolfe International Children’s Book Day occurs during the month of April, and Tidbits is exploring the pages of some memorable ones. • The day starts out badly for a young boy in Judith Viorst’s 1972 book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Having gone to bed chewing bubble gum, he wakes up with it stuck in his hair. Arising from his bed, he trips on his skateboard. In the bathroom, he drops his favorite sweater in the water-filled sink. At school, his teacher points out his poor performance in front of the class. The […]
The Pacific Ocean
• The Pacific Ocean takes up 30% of the surface of Earth, and accounts for 46% of the total water surface. It is twice as big and has twice as much water as the Atlantic. Half of all the world’s oceanic water is in the Pacific. • It stretches more than halfway around the world. There are places where, if you went to the bottom of the Pacific and drilled a hole straight down, you’d come out on the other side of the world and still be in the Pacific Ocean. You could fit all seven continents in the Pacific […]
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