Art by Hart

One way or another, the Covington-Tharps were all related

The flowers Gwen could never grow in garden soil grew like gangbusters in a swatch of nylon Redi-Cut carpeting

Pistachio and Shamrock and the other precious green puppies were the joy of Sally's life

Mr. Ed was bummed when Jockey suddenly canceled his 70-year endorsement contrac

Hoyer complained about Cecelia-Ann’s recreational shedding until he was blue in the face

Art and photos by Jane Hart

Out and About

Carolyn Reiss and Mimi and Bob Abramovitz recently checked out one of the near-by treasures: The New York Botanical Gardens. (Note: The gardens, as you’ll see in the first photo following, are hosting a display inspired by the Alice in Wonderland story.)

Alice’s rabbit in topiary

Exploring the native garden

The lily pond in close-up

Stopping to smell the roses

Resting by the Conservatory

Photos by Carolyn Reiss

Made in NYC: Brands, Trends, and Inventions That Began in the Big Apple

Minwax

Arthur B. Harrison invented a cotton waterproofing that became widely used in tunnels, bridges, and foundations. The company he launched is even better known. Minwax began in 1904 in Brooklyn, when Harrison developed the earliest version of “the Rolls-Royce of wood finishing products.” He eventually took over the business on his own, trademarking the name in 1914. It remained a family business for close to a century.

Schaefer Beer

Schaefer Beer seems like it should be a Milwaukee stalwart, but it started out in New York City — Manhattan to be specific. The F & M Schaefer Brewing Company, founded by Frederick Schaefer and his brother Maximilian, goes all the way back to 1842. Their first expansion was to Park Avenue and 51st Street, which is hard to imagine holding a brewery at any time. In 1916 they moved again, to bigger digs at the corner of Park and Kent Avenues in Williamsburg. They stayed on into the 1970s before finally leaving New York City for good.

Kickstarter

Although not the first crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter expanded the original concept to a wide range of creative projects. It remains a major force, responsible for more than 20% of the market. Some $7 billion has been pledged through the site. The company was born in New York City in 2009 and is still based in Brooklyn.

Source: Source: “Made In NYC,” by Ethan Wolff, March 2024, City Guide New York

Contributed by Bobbie Roggemann

To be continued . . .

I Never Knew That

How long is the world’s shortest commercial flight?

Passengers aboard Loganair Flight LM711, which travels 1.7 miles between the Scottish islands of Westray and Papa Westray, are airborne very briefly. On a good day, the world’s shortest commercial flight takes less than a minute — as little as 53 seconds, in fact. There’s no co-pilot, no lavatory, and only 8 passengers aboard the Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander aircraft. Tickets for the journey, which is made just 2 or 3 times a day, cost roughly $22. Both Westray and Papa Westray are part of the Orkney archipelago, a sparsely populated set of islands popular with adventurous travelers in search of a scenic journey that happens to include a record-setting flight.

Most of the world’s other shortest flights are likewise between islands. Those who’d prefer not to take the hour-long ferry connecting the Greek isles of Karpathos and Kasos can instead fly between them in just 5 minutes. Meanwhile, passengers flying the 12 miles from Sint Maarten (one of the Netherlands’ constituent countries) to Anguilla (a British Overseas Territory) can expect to be in the air for closer to 10 minutes.

Source: interestingfacts.com

Contributed by Jane Hart

Art by Hart

Ditz-E1 was hoping to be Microbe of the Year

The Small-fry Synchronized Swim Club was already dreaming of the L.A. Olympics

To Bibsy’s dismay, unsettled weather was forecast to continue for another 6 years

It seemed to George that a prom to celebrate the puppies successful completion of obedience training was over the top

Dr. Dromedary-Knox’s classes were extremely popular

Art and photos by Jane Hart

Made in NYC: Brands, Trends, and Inventions That Began in the Big Apple

Rainbow Cookies

Photo Credit: wEnDy/Flickr

You might guess this is an Italian export, but it’s a New York original. The dessert goes by many names: rainbow cookies, rainbow cake, Neapolitan cookies, seven-layer cookies, Venetian cookies, seven-layer cake, Italian flag cookies, tricolor cookies, and tricolore. New York City has been making (and eating) them for a century, beginning in Italian-American neighborhoods and being then picked up by nearby Jewish communities as well.

Scientific American

Scientific American is the US’s oldest continuously published magazine, counting Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla among its contributors (150 Nobel laureates have been featured on these pages over the years). It might seem like the offspring of California tech, but its origins are in New York City, with inventor Rufus Porter. The first issue was published on August 28, 1845 — not a bad run!

Chipwich

No less an authority than the New York Times has ranked this the #1 packaged frozen treat. You can find it anywhere, but it began in New York City. Brooklynite Richard LaMotta came up with the idea in 1978 and within two weeks he was selling New Yorkers 40,000 of them a day. By the time he sold the company to Coolbrands International in 2002, more than a billion Chipwiches had been sold.

Source: “Made In NYC,” by Ethan Wolff, March 2024, City Guide New York

Contributed by Bobbie Roggemann

There Were Heroes Among Us, by Norman Sissman

An Unsung Medical Hero

Recently I was reminded of an old medical hero of mine who is little known either by the general public or by the medical establishment. Because his story is so remarkable and interesting to me, I am presenting it to my Kendal readers for their enjoyment and edification.

He was William A. Hammond (1828-1900). Born and raised in Annapolis, MD, he joined the army after graduation from the NYU School of Medicine. Early in 1862, for reasons that have never been completely understood, Abrahm Lincoln, over the heads of many senior officers, appointed him to Surgeon General of the Union Army.

Almost immediately he initiated wide-ranging reforms of army medicine: 1) he convinced Congress to enact a law making the Medial Corp an independent unit; whereas previously army physicians could be used in combat if needed, now regiments could never be left without a medical presence. 2) He designed and built the first military ambulances, assuring that the wounded could be evacuated rather than left to die in the field, as they had been in all previous wars. 3) He designed and built new army hospitals. Although the cause of infection was not yet known (it wasn’t until the 1870s that Koch and Pasteur discovered bacteria as causes of disease), Hammond’s designs minimized the spread of infection: wards radiated like spokes of wheel from a central nursing area. They were well lit and had excellent ventilation. If infections began to spread, the wards could be quickly and easily isolated. 4) He established an Army Medical Museum, which is still the repository of one of the most extensive collection of old medical equipment and history in the world.

Hammond then issued an order that was his undoing. He banned the use of Calomel, a widely used medicine containing mercury. He realized that Calomel not only didn’t improve illnesses, but was detrimental to the health of its recipients. This was too much for the old guard. They refused to follow this order and organized what has become known as the “Calomel Rebellion.”

In addition, they invented an entirely false narrative that accused Hammond of embezzlement. He was court-martialed and sentenced to a dishonorable discharge from the army.

But that did not deter Hammond. He then set up a thriving practice of neurology in New York City. He wrote many medical papers on new aspects of neurology and authored a neurology textbook that was widely read for decades. He also wrote several popular novels in collaboration with his eldest daughter.

Times passed and opinions about Hammond changed. In 1878, Congress passed a law that nullified his court-martial and changed his discharge to honorable.

I Never Knew That

All Human Beings Are 99.9% Identical Genetically

Our diversity is part of what makes human beings special. Yet as far as our genes are concerned, we’re all fairly similar: humans share 99.9% of their genes with one another. To put this into perspective, bonobos and chimpanzees — the closest relatives to humans in the animal kingdom — share approximately 98.8% of their genes with humans. Clearly, even small differences in genetic similarity can have a major impact.

That may be especially true when it comes to human health. According to the National Institutes of Health, 9 of the 10 leading causes of death in the US (barring accidental deaths) are influenced by our genetics, and variations among individuals can mean significantly varying health outcomes.

In the 21st century, advances in our understanding of the human genome — thanks to the completion of groundbreaking scientific studies, including the Human Genome Project — have pushed medicine into the genetic frontier. Now doctors can screen newborns for genetic abnormalities and sometimes use gene-based therapies, while nutritionists are using genomics to tailor diets to specific genetic dispositions. According to some, the future of medicine is in our genes.

Source: interestingfacts.com

Contributed by Jane Hart

Art by Hart

Dr. Fisch’s advice was to cut back on the arugula

New sponsors and new cast, but “My Mother the Car” was back on air

The new girl group called themselves “5-Part Harmony”

The smallest compliment made Crumpleman blush

Lucinda had to tell everyone about the crazy dream she had last night — in detail

Art and photos by Jane Hart

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Photographs of life at Kendal on Hudson are by residents.