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naturecoaster · 11 months

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Hudson's Charm

Hudson, Florida is a hidden gem that’s too easy to miss while driving US19 along Florida’s Nature Coast. Located on the western side of Pasco County along the Gulf, the unincorporated modern-day coastal town has quite an interesting past. North of New Port Richey, Hudson started shaping up when Isaac Hudson and his wife Amanda moved their family from Alabama in 1878. The Hudsons made the trip from Alabama in two covered wagons with their boys herding cattle in front of the wagons. The move was prompted when Isaac’s doctor suggested the move to the warm salt air would help his bronchial problems. Three years after they arrived, Hudson and his wife Amanda established the first post office in their home. Prior to 1874, Hudson had a total population of 16. The area was rough, mostly consisting of wild animals, brush, and swamp land. Before Isaac Hudson arrived with his family in covered wagons the isolated area was rich with wild deer, boar, and turkey. Some of the Best Fishing (and Sponging) Waters in Florida In 1874, Hudson’s first settlers started the commercial fishing industry. The Bush, Lang, Frierson, Knowles, Stevenson, and Brady families were as rugged as could be. Mullet went for a penny each. At the time, a typical breakfast consisted of mullet and yams. A few years after the arrival of those first families, the first commercial fishing business is believed to have been established by John Lang. Fish were abundant, and the catches were large. Families would travel from other areas for days to load their barrels with salted fish in Hudson. Commercial Mullet Fishing in the early 1900s courtesy of Florida Memory. Settlers often traveled from as far as fifty miles to buy fish, which they would split, salt, and pack in barrels. The average family would transport five barrels to fill on a trip! With the improvement of transportation and facilities for ice storage in the early 1900s, the fishing industry became the main interest in the West Coast Florida town. During this period sponge divers from Key West brought their boats into Hudson’s landing for provisions. They began hooking sponges with long poles, holding glass-bottomed buckets over the water to see the sponges in the clear water below. Hudson became known as a small fishing village that had made it through the Civil War. It was not until later that the Greek sponge divers came to the bayou where Tarpon Springs now stands. The First Cemetery in Hudson https://youtu.be/RNf6snn05Sg A short video of the Hudson Cemetery and its historic marker by Dorothy Pyritz. Hudson Cemetery was established in 1878 by the family of Isaac W. and Amanda Hudson who had settled the Hudson community, originally known as Hudson's Landing. In 1980 the Pasco Board of County Commissioners erected a monument whose inscription reads, “This burial ground was established by the family of Isaac W. and Amanda Hudson who settled the Hudson community, originally known as Hudson's Landing. The first burial was that of their daughter Melissa in 1878. This rugged pioneer family came to Florida from Alabama and lived in Madison and Chipco before moving to the Gulf Coast area seeking a healthier climate.” After the Hudson family settled, more settlers came. Life was simple but very hard. Food was never a problem as hunting and fishing were abundant. There was plenty for everyone. The men hunted and constructed needed buildings, crafting the things needed to survive in Florida’s climate, while the women did a lot of cooking, sewing, and quilting. The first school in Hudson was a small log cabin and students attended only three months out of the year. Alfred Hudson (1872-1968), a son of Isaac W. Hudson, for whom Hudson, Florida, is named. Photo taken on Dec. 25, 1959, courtesy of Michelle McLaughlin, who writes, “Note the wood stove in the the kitchen in 1959. My grandmother said that he used that stove until his death. I can hardly believe that, but the picture of the home in 1946 (remodeled by Hershel) does show the stove pipe, so maybe it’s true.” Big Wheels start Turning in Hudson In 1885 a railroad between Tampa and Brooksville was built. The days of coastwise shipping by sail were numbered and soon after, this colorful period of Florida’s Gulf history was over. In 1902, a connecting railroad was nearing completion, called the Brooksville and Hudson Railroad. It opened in 1904, with free rides given from Brooksville to Hudson and back as part of the celebration. Turpentine and mill work were the two main sources of work before World War I in Citrus County. Of course, fishing and farming were the way people sustained their families. Image courtesy of Florida Memory. Another aspect of the early Hudson prosperity came from Week's turpentine camp. Then a big company from Georgia came in and built a huge woodmill. The town grew when the Fivay Company began cutting lumber and shipping it by rail to Tampa. Unfortunately, the mill shut down when there were no more trees to cut. Then the turpentine mill burned down. Hudson was forever changed. A Port for Soldiers and Smugglers During the Civil War, the coastline along Hudson was frequently used as a port for Confederate blockade-runners when the Federal Navy had all of the principal ports on the coast closed. Rumor has it that the coast was a rendezvous point for rum runners and smugglers during the prohibition era. The vast coves and inlets accessible only by boat allowed these real-life pirates to run their illicit operations with little interference. Prehistoric Discoveries On July 21, 2016, Beth Gray, a Tampa Bay Times correspondent wrote a fascinating article that tells the story of Heritage Pines resident Herb Elliott and his wife Paula coming across a 270-foot deep sinkhole with layers and layers of Paleo Indian artifacts. (The Paleo period is believed to be 9000 - 12000 years ago.) The Elliotts were excited about their find and recovered over 3,500 artifacts including arrows and various tools used by the Paleo indians. Today, pictures of the artifacts are viewable at the Heritage Pines clubhouse. A Town on the Move and a Public Beach Fivay.org tells us that on Dec. 24, 1953, the New Port Richey Press reported, “Street lights were installed this week in Hudson, on the Gulf. Hudson now has street lighting, telephone service, water system and other city conveniences. The purchase of the light fixtures and automatic switches was made possible by a fish fry and donations from the citizens of the community, with the cooperation of the Withlacoochee River Electric Co-op, who installed fixtures and switches. Seventeen lights were installed at this time, with automatic switches to operate them, lights will burn all night.” In 1959 Hudson boasted a beautiful new public beach. Development began in the area, with canals being carved out to build homes, which affected the commercial fishing business. A side effect of this development crippled Hudson's commercial fishing industry. Fortunately, today there is an abundance of fish and quite a few charter boats with captains for hire. There are some memorable sunsets to be enjoyed from Hudson. Image by Pat Manfredo Hudson Florida Offers Fun Activities, Dining and Magical Sunsets Today's Hudson is a beautiful little coastal town to live in or visit. There are several parks and plenty of popular local places to eat, drink, and have fun. A day on the beach at Sunwest Park is heavenly and exciting at the same time. The beautiful white sand and water await those looking for a calm day of rest and relaxation or an adrenaline-pumping adventure. Rest and relax at SunWest Park or get your adrenaline pumping at The Lift Adventure Park, located at SunWest Beach. Image courtesy of The Lift Adventure Park Facebook. The Lift Adventure Park is located at Sunwest Beach. They offer wakeboarding, a rope-free floating obstacle course for those who love adventure with no limits. There is also the floating bounce house, kayaking, and canoes. Professionals are on-site to provide support on all levels and these activities require reservations and cost. A visit to the Florida Exotic Bird Sanctuary is an unforgettable experience. A caring environment including parrots, macaws, cockatoos, and more is a wonderful experience. Trip101.com tells us, “Upon arrival, you’ll be greeted by a diverse array of colorful birds, including parrots, macaws, cockatoos, and many other fascinating species. Knowledgeable staff and volunteers will guide you through the facility, sharing insights into the birds’ stories and the importance of conservation efforts on its guided tours.” Reservations are required for tours. Reserve a guided tour at the Florida Exotic Bird Sanctuary in Hudson. Image courtesy of the Florida Exotic Bird Sanctuary's Facebook page. Thrill seekers can dive into an immersive experience at Hudson Escape Rooms full of twists, turns, and puzzles that must be completed before the clock runs out. Trip101 describes the experience as a “fantastic and immersive activity that challenges the mind and fosters teamwork in a thrilling setting." Hudson is a Great Day Trip on the Nature Coast Hudson is the place for adventure on the Gulf of Mexico. Right next to Skeleton Key Marina or Hudson Marina you can get a boat with a captain and head out to sea for the day. When you come back, the beach and ice-cold beverages will be waiting. Yes, the seafood is so good in Hudson that Cranes and Herons regularly fish the shores. Image by Dorothy Pyritz. If you’re a fan of coastal cuisine, there are many fantastic places to visit. Next to Hudson Beach, there is Sam’s Beach Bar where you can sit on the deck and watch the colors of a magnificent Gulf sunset right before your eyes. Some of the best seafood around is at Inn on the Gulf, where everything is fresh and delicious. Their escargot is to die for! For burgers and ice-cold beverages, there’s Ollies on the Beach. All of these wonderful spots have outside seating for your enjoyment. To top it all off, one can’t skip the Hudson Ice Cream parlor. Hudson is a small coastal town that perfectly captures the essence and feel of coastal Florida living. Resources: - Fivay.org - Hudsonfl.org - Trip101.com - Tampa Bay Times Read the full article

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xhxhxhx · 5 years

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I removed some books today.

I think of myself as a minimalist, but that doesn’t happen to be true. I have acquired more books than I will ever read. They still sit, stacked and unreachable, in piles by the walls, two dozen books tall and sometimes two books deep.

I don’t think I know where they all came from. I think more came from online than from any physical store. I bought them from Abebooks, the sales search platform that Amazon owns now. Abebooks tell you the names of the sellers, but they seem unconnected to any real place.

From Better World Books. From Thrift Books and Bookbarn. From Silver Arch Books, Motor City Books, Free State Books, Sierra Nevada Books, Yankee Clipper Books, and the Atlanta Book Company. From Green Earth Books and Housing Works Books. From Goldstone Books and Powell’s Books and Kennys Bookshop and Art Galleries. From Satellite Books and the Orchard Bookshop. From Blue Cloud Books and Hippo Books and Wonder Book.

They’re from all over, from places you’ve never been, places you’ll never be. They’re names on a box. But then there are the books from more intimate places, intimately connected

From library’s old bookstore, which sold paperbacks for fifty cents, hardcovers for a dollar. From the basement of the old independent bookstore down on Front Street, where they sold remaindered and overstocked books marked down with red-orange tape. From the thrift store across the street, which charged too much.

From the Chapters at the mall in your hometown, or the Chapters and Indigo in the places you’ve been to, from the shelves of marked-down items where you looked for bargains, for the books you knew you should read, and all the books you never would. Places where you could drink sweet cream and coffee and pretend to read.

From the Borders in Syracuse, where you idled while the family went to the fair, where they always said they were going to build the largest mall in America, but never did. There was another Borders in South Florida, where they were stripping fixtures from the walls because the books had not sold, and so the Borders had to be. They still have bookstores. I’m not sure what they sell now. Postcards, I think.

The books still in my room had postcards from people I will never know, dedications to people I will never see, business cards from people who have moved on to other work. But their spines are unbroken, their pages unmarked. I guess I wanted them that way. I bought them like that.

I sometimes worried they would break through the floor. I would wake up to the collapse of everything I have ever owned as I plummeted a few short feet to my death. I guess it would probably take longer than that. I would have to wait for them to crush me. That mass of books would fall on me, blotting out the light. Crushed beneath nearly everything I have ever owned.

That’s what happened to the clerk Toshiko Sasaki in John Hershey’s Hiroshima, who was seated at her desk on August 6, 1945, in front of a couple of bookcases from the factor library:

Everything fell, and Miss Sasaki lost consciousness. The ceiling dropped suddenly and the wooden floor above collapsed in splinters and the people up there came down and the roof above them gave way; but principally and first of all, the bookcases right behind her swooped forward and the contents threw her down, with her left leg horribly twisted and breaking underneath her. There, in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books.

Miss Sasaki made out alright, although not so well as to not ask the question “If your God is so good and kind, how can he let people suffer like this?” But then, I have more books than she did.

I removed some books today. I still have more I want to remove. I just don’t have the boxes for them. I took the boxes I did have in the back of my car to a mass-market thrift store, where they will end up on the shelves by the leather jackets.

Perhaps they will end on some other shelf, like a postcard from somewhere unknown, in someone else’s memory. But I don’t think they will. I don’t think they’ll sell. There aren’t enough people here who spend money pretending to read.

I don’t know what will happen to them. I suppose they will pulp them. Or perhaps they will end in a landfill, crushed beneath their own weight, suffocating beneath the earth we have made for them until life reclaims them.

I wrote out a partial list of the books I threw out. I don’t know what it says about me. There’s a double significance here: These are books I bought, for some amount of money, but these are also books I am throwing away, because I asked the question the woman told me to ask, which was whether they sparked joy, and I answered no.

Those books in the photo are the books that have not yet been thrown away. Here, below the fold, are the books that have:

Judith Fitzgerald’s Sarah McLachlan: Building a Mystery

Mordecai Richler’s Oh Canada! Oh Quebec!

Jonathan Coe’s The Rotter’s Club

Misha Glenny’s McMafia

Joinville and Villehardouin’s Chronicles of the Crusades

Michael Ignatieff’s The Lesser Evil

Russell Dalton’s Citizen Politics in Western Democracies: Public Opinion and Political Parties in the United States, Great Britain, West Germany, and France

Richard Finn’s Winners in Peace: MacArthur, Yoshida, and Postwar Japan

Ramachandra Guha’s India After Gandhi

Fox Butterfield’s China: Alive in the Bitter Sea

Anthony Sampson’s The Changing Anatomy of Britain

Masanori Hashimoto’s The Japanese Labor Market in a Comparative Perspective with the United States

Donald Keene’s Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era: Poetry, Drama, Criticism

Andrei Shleifer’s Without a Map: Political Tactics and Economic Reform in Russia

Peter Newman’s The Secret Mulroney Tapes

Nicholas Negroponte’s Being Digital

Lesley Downer’s The Brothers: The Hidden World of Japan’s Richest Family

Harold Vogel’s Entertainment Industry Economics

Stephen Goldsmith and William D. Eggers’s Governing by Network: The New Shape of the Public Sector

Donald Harman Akenson, Saint Saul: A Skeleton Key to the Historical Jesus

Philip Ziegler’s King Edward VIII

David Wessel’s In FED We Trust

Robert Dallek’s Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961--1973

David Halberstam’s The Reckoning

David Bell’s The First Total War: Napoleon’s Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It

Kevin Phillips’s The Cousins’ Wars

Yirmiyahu Yovel, Spinoza and Other Heretics: The Adventures of Immanence

Michael Oren’s Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East

Lawrence McDonald’s A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers

Richard Posner’s The Crisis of Capitalist Democracy

William Chester Jordan’s Europe in the High Middle Ages

William Cohan’s House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street

Bryan Burrough and John Helyar’s Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco

Linda Lear’s Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature

Jane Mayer’s The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals

Allan Brandt’s The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America

Garry Wills’s Head and Heart: American Christianities

Sarah Bradford’s Elizabeth: A Biography of Britain’s Queen

Andrew Gordon’s The Evolution of Labor Relations in Japan: Heavy Industry, 1853--1955

John Ardagh’s France in the New Century: Portrait of a Changing Society

Bob Woodward’s The Agenda: Inside the Clinton White House

John Julius Norwich’s Byzantium: The Early Centuries

Taylor Branch’s Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963--65

Michael Lewis’s Liar’s Poker

Tim Blanning’s The Pursuit of Glory: Europe, 1648--1815

Robert Fagles’s translation of Virgil’s The Aeneid

Karl Popper’s The Poverty of Historicism

P. D. Smith’s Doomsday Men: The Real Dr. Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon

Richard Rhodes’s Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race

Margaret Thatcher’s Downing Street Years

Alistair Horne’s Harold Macmillan, 1957--1986

Taylor Branch’s The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President

Ian Kershaw’s Hitler, 1936--1945: Nemesis

David Grossman’s To the End of the Land

Sean Wilentz’s The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln

Philipp Blom’s The Vertigo Years: Europe, 1900--1914

Jacob M. Schlesinger’s Shadow Shoguns: The Rise and Fall of Japan’s Postwar Political Machine

Peter Jenkins’s Mrs. Thatcher’s Revolution: The Ending of the Socialist Era

Martin Lawrence’s Iron Man: The Defiant Reign of Jean Chrétien

Marin Lawrence’s Chrétien: The Will to Win

Alastair Campbell’s The Blair Years

Tony Blair’s A Journey

David Kennedy’s Don’t Shoot: One Man, a Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-City America

Joshua Ferris’s Then We Came to the End

Kate McCafferty’s Testimony of an Irish Slave Girl

Martin Wolf’s Why Globalization Works

Charles Fishman’s The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World’s Most Powerful Company Really Works -- and How It’s Transforming the American Economy

William Easterly’s The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good

Karel van Wolferen’s The Enigma of Japanese Power: People and Politics in a Stateless Nation

Jeffrey Sachs’s The End of Poverty: How We Can Make It Happen in Our Lifetime

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sohannabarberaesque · 4 years

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Underwater America: The Outer Banks and the Graveyard of the Atlantic

SCUBA diving is an oftentimes exciting experience. With each dive spot we visit, my crew and I gain a greater understanding of the underwater world—although let’s face it, some of us are in it for the thrill. In the past week we seemed to have plenty of them, exploring wrecks and coral reefs and interacting with the aquatic life that inhabit within. It had gotten to the point, of course, where we couldn’t seem to go a day without diving. Unfortunately, though, that seemed to be the case, as our next destination would be several states and many hours away. We were able to get some sort of a head start by leaving Key West late in the evening, sleeping at a motel in Melbourne, and leaving just before the break of dawn and before I-95’s familiar heavy traffic. “I’m bored,” Squiddly, riding shotgun that day, said to me, his tentacles barely moving. “Sorry, Squiddly. I know it’s a pain having to endure seeing nothing but cars for hours on end.” “Who said anything about boredom, to begin with?” was how Mildew Wolf parsed it—and, close at hand, Breezly Bruin could be starting to doze off, feeling slightly drowsy. “On the other hand,” Loopy de Loop remarked, “it always pays to imagine the very possibilities of our next diving journey—and after such a wonderful time in the Keys, who couldn’t swear it was almost like Paradise to a diver?” “I agree, Loopy baby, even if it seems like another day away!” Hokey chuckled, resisting the urge to try to put his feet up on the driver’s seat. “I guess we could use a little pick-me-up,” I said, sensing the need for nourishment as we drove past the Florida–Georgia line. “We won’t dive there today, but if you’d like, we could go to Hilton Head Island or Myrtle Beach and relax there. No exploring or anything.” “Which,” Magilla chimed in, “suits me just fine. Besides, I could use a little stretching of the old muscles every now and then!” To which Hardy Har-Har chimed in, “You can say that again—” “The name’s Magilla Gorilla.” “And I am Hardy Har-Har. Don’t let my myopic looks or personality fool you.” “Meanwhile, what’s there to be fooled in Magilla himself?” “This I have to see to believe!” was how Mildew Wolf snarkily parsed it. “Meanwhile,” Loopy de Loop chimed in with inherent Québécois charm, “I can’t help but recall just how wonderfully blue Okoboji was when we were diving there just weeks back…and how equally blue the waters off the Keys seem to be.” “Hence,” Mildew rejoindered, “I take back any and all remark about laundry bluing explaining the blueness of Lake Okoboji. It was more or less intended in jest.” “I’d have to concur with Loopy,” was how Magilla added to the conversation, “when it came to just how remarkably clear those Keys waters can get to be…on a par with Okoboji!” “We need to cool off!” Wally said, wiping sweat off his brows as the sun’s rays continued to hit. “All right, we’ll do it. We’ll stop for breakfast in a little while. I’m sure we’re all hungry, anyway.” After getting a diver’s breakfast at a restaurant in Brunswick, we continued up I-95, eventually crossing into South Carolina. The lighthouse with the red-and-white stripes—otherwise known as the Harbour Town Lighthouse—was the sign that we had arrived in Hilton Head Island, one of the South’s growing tourist resorts. We donned our masks, harnesses, tanks and fins and, following the customary dive-and-safety briefing, we waddled into the beach, much to the bemusement of maybe one or two people looking on, wondering about those weird animals and their hobbies. This moment of fun and sun would be the prelude—and antithesis—to a dive both dark and historical: the Graveyard of the Atlantic in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, a stretch of land and ocean that holds many stories and secrets.

Just about each of us had their own ideas for fun. “Just about,” I say, as I was content to just hold the film camera, slowly kick my legs as the fins bent upward and downward in a somewhat hypnotic motion, and watch. My friends discuss the joy that was had for about an hour that perfect day. As Magilla observed the town itself: “For a somewhat emerging resort as may not quite be Disney World, the underwater scene off Hilton Head may seem a little basic…but at least you had an opportunity to stretch out the muscles for the dive ahead.” And Mildew: “So it’s probably just ocean sand…yet you got an opportunity to basically recline on the bottom and kick back for just a few minutes.” Wally’s reply: “You know I had to join you. It never gets old, Mildew. Reminds me of the zoo! The better memories…” Breezly’s commentary: “Rather interesting dive discovery…and what an interesting way to relax, reclining on the sand alongside Mildew Wolf!” And here’s Squiddly: “Not interesting enough to go into the history books anytime soon, but whatever floats your boat, I suppose! Now this, meanwhile, is living…” he said, over footage of him spinning his tentacles as though they were the blades of a helicopter. Meanwhile, some others were playing tag, with Lippy commenting over grabbing Hardy’s fin: “Don’t sweat it, Hardy. Someday you’ll get the hang of underwater tag.” Here’s Loopy to close out the commentary: “‘Loopy,’ I said to myself, ‘is there nothing sacred when it comes to what you can do while diving?’ And I answer to myself, ‘what is there to be considered sacred?’” Without a boat, we simply came out the way we came in, like ten underwater monsters after human flesh. The hour well spent and our appetites well sated, we continued on our journey across I-95, reaching the town of Beaufort, North Carolina, in Cape Fear, by night, where we would get ourselves a nice dinner and lodging. Having consulted a guide book that evening for some possible wreck sites, I discussed a possible course of action for tomorrow with Magilla and Squiddly over some vending-machine coffee. Squiddly patiently waited for his cup to fill while I laid back against the wall with my cup in hand. “So we have two options,” I said to Magilla. “We could do a dive with more bottom time first, or the real deep one. The shallow dive will be the Hesperides while we tackle the City of Atlanta the day after. We can afford to do two days’ worth of dives here.” Magilla, nursing a cup of vending-machine coffee himself as was gradually becoming tepid by the long intervals between sips, couldn’t help but be fascinated at the idea offered. Especially considering where they would likely be able to do two days’ dives in the right conditions. “So, have any preference?” I asked the two of them, with Squiddly carefully handling his cup of coffee, rightly requiring two of his tentacles to do so. “We could do City of Atlanta first,” Squiddly said, wincing as he realized it was going to be difficult to set a cup of coffee down on the table with one tentacle holding the bottom, one wrapped around the cup, and both getting quickly warm. “That way I could go back there solo and get in a lot more deep wrecks. It’s no problem. You can go without me!” “Pretty amusing thing that Squiddly Diddly has for deep wrecks,” Magilla remarked. “And you wonder how that’s possible, particularly remembering his background as shallow-pool fodder back at Bubbleland.” “It’s not that I have a thing for them,” Squiddly replied with his brow arched as I helped him set down the cup. “It’s just that these wrecks may be deeper, and you oughta know you can’t do multiple deep dives like that with all that nitrogen buildup. That doesn’t affect me.” “Are you sure you’ll be fine?” I asked. “Now that the cup’s on the table, yeah, I’m sure,” Squiddly smiled. “That, plus the diving.” “Might it be possible,” Magilla asked, “that we might have to schedule the dive for just after daybreak, or maybe wait a couple hours after?” “We can conduct the dive late in the morning,” I said. “Given the depth, we wouldn’t want to be down that long.” But at any rate, even with Magilla’s coffee having become cold, he couldn’t help but sense a feeling of intrigue as to what could easily ensue at the sight of such an interesting wreck as the City of Atlanta. Especially the circumstances under which it was brought down. “As a matter of fact, Peter,” Magilla was prompted to ask, “what’s especially interesting about the City of Atlanta wreck?” “It’s got quite a history. It was one of the ships brought down by German U-boats during World War II. Plus, it’s within diving range for us. I’ll bring it up with the others,” I said, finding the coffee cool enough to finish with ease. “I’m sure there’ll be no objections.” And indeed, there weren’t. With the discussion over and my colleagues agreeing to the arrangement, we checked out just before seven in the morning in order to get breakfast, then continue north to the town of Buxton on Hatteras Island, where we would charter a boat to take us to our site. The conditions were right: few clouds, and the temperatures were considerably warm. Even so, we were prepared to take precautions given the depth of our dive. "Heavens to Jacques Cousteau!” Coming from the wheelhouse of the diveboat Diver’s Home Companion, such was certain to bring a sense of weird familiarity as our crew headed out to the City of Atlanta wreck site. “’Tis I, Snagglepuss, something of a legend among dive boat captains here in the Outer Banks.” “Jeez,” Mildew Wolf observed, “isn’t that voice a little familiar, albeit vaguely?” To which Wally Gator added, “Where have we last seen him?” Our team happily greeted Snagglepuss, a close friend of ours, upon hearing the familiar voice, although a few of us were curious as to what he was doing there. “That’s quite a coincidence,” Lippy said, scratching his head. “You’re on vacation, too?” Although I wouldn’t call it a vacation in the traditional sense, we were having good fun anyway. “Aaaaahhhh…to be among sea breezes, the gentle sway of the waves, the allure of the legendary wrecks as dot the Outer Banks—The Graveyard of the Atlantic, even!…Now what did you have in mind, Bluebeard’s legendary vessel, Queen Anne’s Revenge?” “Nope,” I said with a light chuckle. “We’re going to be exploring a World War II wreck, the City of Atlanta.” “I have heard something about the City of Atlanta in certain divers’ circles out this way,” Snagglepuss remarked. “It was U-boat action, wasn’t it?” “That’s right. We’re all going down there. You know, we could use one more.” “Provided we find a wetsuit that fits ya first!” exclaimed Hokey with his sly grin. “I do acknowledge,” Snagglepuss explained, “having done some diving here and there: Catalina Island, Hanamua Bay, the Florida Keys, even…and you can’t help but discover the challenges each dive brings about!” “You coulda joined us, Snag, old friend! We woulda spoken about old times inbetween dives!” Hokey said as he looked through the wetsuits to find out which was his. And in Loopy’s own case, it wasn’t quite hard to find his wetsuit—the one with a fleur-de-lis over his right breast, in the Québécois fashion. Fitting the wetsuit over such a furry body, however, could be regarded as easier said than done—particularly if you wanted to avoid getting the wetsuit’s zipper being caught in the fur. I, however, didn’t care much for fashion: just a simple black suit, with no markings to tell it apart: I was the only one who wore a wetsuit that large. “You didn’t dive alone, did you, Snag?” “I do acknowledge,” Snagglepuss remarked, “diving by myself…and finding a few companions here and there.” I groaned at the thought of such a dangerous thing. “Yeah, you shouldn’t do that,” I said, sighing as I zipped up. “If something happened to you, nobody’d be there to help you.” “I don’t think the fish swimming by you are that smart, anyway!” Squiddly added. Breezly chimed in, “I believe there’s an old saying to the effect of ‘dive alone, die alone’; am I correct?” I nodded. “I’m not much into sayings, but that’s absolutely correct. Although, Snag, you’ll have plenty of companions here, provided you join us!” “Hopefully, you do have a spare wetsuit as fits me!” was how Snagglepuss met the challenge. Hardy and Mildew offered to check the stock to find just the right one, and while it took a few minutes’ searching, one pretty close in size to Snag’s frame and dimensions did turn up. And once invited to fit the wetsuit, Snag admitted that it felt a little loose, but “at least it should suffice. Especially for such an interesting venue as you have in mind…and I guess we are approaching the same, judging by the coordinates you gave, Peter!” “We’ll be doing two dives in Buxton,” I said, showing Snag the map. “Tomorrow we’ll explore the Hesperides—it’s a dive with lots of bottom time and warmer waters.” “Oh, I’ve heard also of the Hesperides wreck! Didn’t that involve a load of pig iron complicated by a shifting sea bottom?” “Sure did. You’ll get to enjoy warm water against your fur tomorrow, but for now, we need to plot this dive out.” Snagglepuss piloted the dive boat miles out into the Atlantic Ocean. Once the boat came to a full stop, we hoisted the “diver down” signal and donned the rest of our gear. It seemed much heavier, since in addition to the usual gear we also had a wetsuit and a hood on. Although it was a very warm day, we weren’t about to take chances in what was ninety-foot water. Naturally, with the extra diver and extra equipment, it was a bit more crowded. Our dive time was going to be only thirty minutes at ninety feet with a five-minute stop at fifteen feet, so we had better make the most of all our time. Naturally, Squiddly would be there a bit longer to take care of any other nearby wrecks in the area and get off a few good shots. There was the usual safety briefing, and Snag was all ears this time. As we had an odd number of divers, I had Snag teamed up with Hokey and Wally. “All right, everyone,” said I, wearing the mask over the eyes, “Good diving.” With regulator in mouth between my teeth, we all entered backward in unison, Squiddly leading the way with a rope to aid in finding our way back. Believe you me, the wetsuit couldn’t have been rather comfortable. Such seemed to be the consensus among us in the dive, considering such rather chilly waters as these. Snagglepuss couldn’t agree more, considering the situation to hand; even then, the feeling of neoprene rubber against fur was a little unusual, it probably having been awhile since he dived thus. All of us stayed close as the sun penetrated the water less and less and things grew darker. We were about to go face-to-face with World War II history, one of the many casualties of America’s “Torpedo Junction.” Traveling from New York to Savannah, the City of Atlanta was noticed by a German U-boat on January 18, 1942, despite an attempt to remain discreet. Past midnight into January 19, one torpedo shot was fired—and was enough. The blast was so powerful that people from what is now the town of Avon, seven miles away, awoke. Of the 46 people on board, only three survived. We arrived at the stern of the ship, where we would all meet when we were done. We then started exploring the boat and discovered that most of whatever was left was flattened. Nevertheless, there was still plenty to explore. And given such a depth, and the general murkiness of the waters surrounding the wreck, flashlights and wetsuits seemed like welcome company considering just how intense the U-123’s shelling damaged the City of Atlanta enough to quickly bring her to ruin. Time, admittedly, did her number on the wreck, but the wheel as was one with its steering system could still be discerned though barnacles grew around its edges. Snagglepuss and companions in particular couldn’t help but notice how intact the engine and boilers remained; even shining a light on same revealed just how the barnacles had built up. Squiddly was able to get behind the boilers and film several divers—namely, Mildew and Loopy—swimming up and over it in the hope that the port side of the ship had anything interesting on view. The Diving Wolves, as they were, discerned a piece of the ship’s boiler which managed to survive the onslaught, chilled all these years in 90-feet waters…and even in the curiosity, Mildew’s flashlight gave out for some reason, prompting Loopy, through hand signs, to offer sharing with Mildew. Accepted. While Squiddly stayed with the wolves, I saw Hokey and Wally examining the port side, swimming along the sides of a boat to get a better idea of how it may have looked in a better time. While there wasn’t enough to go on, there was still plenty visible—never mind just how destructive the torpedoes from U-123 made quick work of the City of Atlanta, and the later flagging of the area as a hazard to marine navigation. It must seem rather amazing, Breezly Bruin thought to himself in the height of the dive, how the engine and boilers could have survived such destruction to begin with. Yet as a wreck, he had to be conscious of what it was and that care had to be taken around same, never mind the growths of barnacles all this time. Another interesting discovery: though barely visible through the sand of the bottom, Snagglepuss couldn’t help but notice a piece of the brass screw propeller as propelled the City of Atlanta all the while. Thankfully, Snag decided against shovelling out the propeller’s remains, recognising the wreck’s importance. Fortunately, I was able to get this discovery just as our time was just about up. We made our slow ascent at the rate of one foot every two seconds—it took a good two-and-a-half minutes to reach the decompression stage, which required an additional five minutes of waiting. Squiddly wanted to go up as well, if only to change the film in the camera for a new reel. Admittedly, we wouldn’t blame Squiddly for having to change the film, but decompression was decompression. And we could no doubt imagine what would emerge from the raw footage in the end. Once the decompression stop was complete, we climbed out of the water, eager to get out of the gear. Wally was one of those not ready to bake in the wetsuit. “Fuddle-dee-doo,” muttered Wally. “I understand the need for it, but it wasn’t that comfy!” Nor would Hardy Har Har have persisted in the wetsuit (“Ohh dear. How much longer would it have been likely before being dehydrated, as it were, in my wetsuit?”), but at any rate, he, among the others of the crew, were glad to pull off the suits of neoprene rubber, wondering what the stench would be like. Freed of the suits, we were all too eager to slap some of the sea water scooped up from the ocean waters onto our bodies. Squiddly, meanwhile, was the only one of us who appeared happy. He didn’t wear a wetsuit and was all too eager to go back for more, as soon as he loaded up another reel of film. “See ya in 30 minutes!” the octopus squealed excitedly, diving back in and swimming with a freedom the rest of us couldn’t cherish. As a bulwark against hypothermia, though, we were fine with dressing up just that one time. And thus was initiative more than anything to begin the debriefing over the City of Atlanta wreck, which Mildew Wolf opened by pointing out just how “stunning” it seemed to come face to face with as unlikely an item of history as that. “If we weren’t on such a schedule, we’d visit a lot more wrecks,” Hokey opined. They wished they could, but given the nitrogen buildup, it was best to wait a long time before they went under again. Breezly Bruin, for his part, admitted to a “certain sense of giddiness” at diving to such depths as the City of Atlanta wreck, contrasting such with his own diving experiences alongside Sneezly Seal in the waters of the Bering Sea off Nome: Somewhat bluish-green to the point of turning murky after awhile, chilly almost constantly, and the visibility somewhat limited, if that. Wally, listening attentively to Breezly, chimed in: “Shame I’ve been cooped up in the zoo so long. For a long time, I never quite experienced dives this deep before. As I became an independent ’gator I gained a lot of appreciation of the ocean’s blue bosom.” One could only imagine what Wally could have called the spring vent we witnessed a week or so prior. Loopy’s thoughts: “I have to admit that, back up among the Laurentians in Quebec, I’ve dived in a few lakes just to start the day more than anything while camping. More of a bracer than anything, but even then, some can get to be rather bluish-green after awhile. Depends on when you’ve got the turnover of warmer waters near the bottom such as drive colder surface waters itself to the bottom.” Magilla’s opinion: “I admit, being a gorilla myself kept in a pet shop window for attention’s sake, that it took awhile to find some interest in diving; this was after the surfboard escapade; I assume you remember that one.” And Mildew Wolf: “Pretty amazing how a lake can turn around as Loopy explained it, and yet not stink over a wide area!” Squiddly knew about Magilla’s brief dalliance with surfing; the gorilla had told him about it before with the energy of a ten-year-old on mescaline. However, the octopus was down there, earning his extra pay for the trip by shooting a few other wrecks within proximity. “So, Snag, any thoughts?” I asked, waiting on Squiddly to return. “Heavens to Neptune!” was how he began, in characteristic bombastic style. “And I have to acknowledge there that I was never much into wreck diving to begin with, but for a vessel of such size, as was to be imagined by the lay of the wreck, even allowing for parts of the engine and boilers to be exposed, was I impressed! Stunned, even!” Plenty of rest later, Squiddly returned from the water with plenty of extra footage in tentacle. We then took the boat back to shore and packed the gear into the trailer. One delicious seafood dinner later, we returned to our motel rooms to prepare for our comparatively leisurely dive to the wreck of the Hesperides. It was safe to say that the rest was well-deserved after as much the heartiness of the dinner as the exuberance of the dive into such an interesting wreck, not to mention plenty of the crew imagining what sort of footage, if any, would come out of Squiddly’s dive, and if it was of decent quality. The next morning, following another good breakfast, we piloted the boat carefully out toward the Hesperides, careful to stop so that we didn’t grind against the steering quadrant of the boat. We were very thankful that the weather was good enough for a dive such as this. “Just make sure, Peter,” Snagglepuss—again captain of the dive vessel—remarked, “that you’re able to clearly make out and discern the wreck from the water’s surface. The Diamond Shoals can be unpredictable, and that very unpredictability helped to explain what did the Hesperides in.” I brought the boat to a complete stop. A check of the map showed we weren’t over any part of the wreck; nevertheless, we slowly and carefully dropped anchor and hoisted the flag. And at any rate, gear was checked over and put on, fitted even, in Snagglepuss’ immortal style of phraseology. And who could fail to be impressed at the sheer clarity of the water whence the wreck was situated? Just let it be said that with the Hesperides at a comparatively shallower depth than the City of Atlanta was, who needed wetsuits? Particularly considering how the Hesperides landed where she was and was easily approachable at such depths. Sixty minutes at forty feet, in fact—enough time for us to explore, and there was plenty to see, unlike last time. We all entered in unison and, with the surroundings much brighter, split up once we determined our meetup point. Snagglepuss had been right in that the Hesperides’ downfall was on the shoals. A British steamer, she ran aground on those very shoals on October 9, 1897 while transporting iron ore from the River Plate Ports of Argentina back to England. Unlike our last exploration, the crew was not in any immediate danger, and all 24 of the ship’s men survived—even if took awhile for the life saving crew to come to the Hesperides’ aid owing to heavy fog. But back to the dive: It was nothing but sheer wonder to approach such a wreck in such shallower waters, and especially amazing was how the holds which carried the iron ore had managed to take on a life of their own, with plenty of soft coral having emerged on the surface of the ore hold all this time in spite of the sheer proximity of the colder North Atlantic Stream relative to the warmer Gulf Stream. Of particular focus was the bulkhead, or what remained of it: You couldn’t help but notice where hard and soft corals had accumulated over the years, and managed to thrive all along. I was able to get plenty of terrific shots of coral growing over most of the ship. I was near the bow, taking in some gorgeous light green coral, while Hokey and Wally noticed plenty of sheepsheads congregating near the boilers. What impressed Loopy, Breezly and Mildew in particular was the practically-intact engine, still standing stout and upright, and the portside boilers; corals could also be evident on such ruins. Nearby was what remained of the starboard boiler, which got knocked off its side thanks to tidal action over the years. No more impressive a sight was what remained of the steering section; as with much else of the Hesperides’ remains, corals and other marine growths could be discerned, not to mention plenty of marine life being evident. Sunlight filtering through the emerald-green waters made the perspective even more impressive. Another impressive sight was the vast number of fish around the steering quadrant. Taken as a still photograph, the busy sight of the marine life looked like flotsam from a still-fresh wreck. Here we managed to get a stunning sight of hundreds of small fish congregating close together. But the most impressive of all sights was in the ore holds, which years of coral and concreting growths covered to create a modest reef in its own right, attracting its share of reef fish attracted by such an unlikely junction of ocean currents converging on such a legendary wreck. It may not have been as spectacular as the reefs off the Florida Keys, but it was interesting to sense in its own right. And to sense how a vessel such as the Hesperides, stranded as she was in shoals known to catch the unsuspecting mariner trying to navigate the Gulf Stream as it crosses the North Atlantic such like the Diamond such, actually managed to remain intact in some measure impressed practically everyone in the party, even becoming a sort of mini-aquarium in its own way—especially in what remained of the ore holds! Satisfied with our dive, we returned to the surface after an hour had passed and climbed back onto the boat. Fortunately for us, there were no wetsuits to take off, along with the usual worry of smelling unpleasant. “Gentlemen, I’m sure you’ll agree I had a terrific time,” Hokey grinned, drying off his feet. And what a debriefing ensued about the Hesperides dive back on deck, over plenty of strong coffee come to think of it! What tales could be imagined of the discoveries to have ensued! Until a certain Hardy Har Har brought up the question of what ensued with Squiddly Diddly, who decided to do some discoveries in his own right after the City of Atlanta dive. It was something of a character trait of Hardy’s to be pessimistic, sometimes to the point of anxiety ensuing. “We’re going to pilot the boat over there,” I said in a reassuring tone. Indeed, the octopus took his own boat—a much smaller one—out to where we had been the day before. We arrived to find Squiddly just out of the water, packing up the reels. “Oh, hiya, gang!” was his call. “Didja have fun?” “You’ll say we did!” we cried out as one. To which Hardy Har Har was thinking aloud just how it was possible for Squiddly to have survived underwater all that time, and to produce so much footage of wrecks beyond the City of Atlanta such, no doubt bound to require plenty of editing. Even then, Snagglepuss was bound to know of at least one film processor on shore who could do a decent job on what Squiddly hath wrought. To think that Hardy didn’t consider the fact that Squiddly was an octopus and was born for the water!“I think that’s good enough for this episode,” I said, confident that we had enough footage to make a riveting episode. “We should head back to shore and get some rest. All of us.” Even as we imagined what sort of footage ensued of Squiddly’s discoveries, and how it would all turn out in the end.Anyway, we hope you enjoyed our tale of two wrecks, as well as the company of our friend Snagglepuss. Remember, if you are interested in the exciting world of scuba diving, please seek out proper instruction from a professional, and never dive alone. In our next episode of this series, we travel east of the Chesapeake Bay to explore one of the Eastern U.S.’s top beach destinations: Ocean City, Maryland. Until then, happy diving.

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vacationsoup · 5 years

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New Post has been published on https://vacationsoup.com/ponce-lighthouse-adventure/

Ponce Lighthouse Adventure near New Smyrna Beach Florida

Ready for a Ponce Lighthouse adventure near New Smyrna Beach? Step back in time and climb 175 feet of fun in the Florida sun at the Ponce Inlet Light Station and Museum! Constructed in 1887, the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse has guided mariners along the Florida coast for more than 130 years.

17 Stories High

Standing 175 feet tall ,the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse is the tallest in Florida and one of the tallest in the US ( (the Cape Hatteras Light in North Carolina is taller at 207 feet). That is the equivalent of 17 stories high. Workers stacked 1.25 million bricks and an 8 feet thick wall at its base.

213 Steps

Not for the fainthearted or bad knees, climbing the lighthouse is no joke! The stairwell spirals up 213 steps (which are steep) with 9 landings to rest and read interesting historic information and see lighthouse artifacts. But the view at the top are worth it - breathtaking.

Enjoy the video of Ponce Lighthouse with its beautiful coastal backdrop below. This view is facing south with the Atlantic Ocean on the left, the Ponce Inlet and New Smyrna Beach directly behind it, and the intracoastal waterway (Indian River) on the right.

http://poncelighthouse.zsite.info/z/-vf.0.0.0.18.DB169BF567E34DBF1853365EABC8BEBDEA1229F9E0C2D791D3E7E089CF4265DF

Lighthouse's Many Uses

Divers swim on the shipwreck Spiegel Grove Tuesday, July 12, 2005, of Key Largo, Fla., in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Since it was fully sunk on June 10, 2002, the decommissioned Navy Landing Ship Dock has rested on its starboard side. But Monday, July 11, 2005, divers discovered the ship had rolled upright, apparently courtesy of waves spawned by Hurricane Dennis off the southeast coast of Cuba, according to a National Weather Service official. The ship is the largest in the world ever scuttled to become an artificial reef. NO SALES (Photo by Fraser Nivens/Florida Keys News Bureau/HO)

Prevent shipwrecks. Florida is home to many famous shipwrecks. Hundreds of Spanish sailors and would-be colonists and millions of dollars of gold, silver, and jewels being transported from South America back to Spain have sunk in the waters off of Florida.

Navigate. The Coast Guard assumed operation of the Lighthouse around 1939 and installed a radio navigational beacon. Ships use the Ponce signal plus signals from Jacksonville and Cape Canaveral to fix their positions relative to the Florida coast and to prepare to navigate around the dangerous Hetzel Shoal near Canaveral.

Wartime Defense. During World War II, the lighthouse tower was used as a spotting station for enemy aircraft and off-shore vessels. The Light Station was a Coast Guard training center and barracks during the War. There is a permanent exhibit of artifacts and information concerning the Coast Guard and the Light Station in World War II. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, changed life for everyone in America, including Ponce Inlet. On December 12, the light station was closed to the public, and unauthorized persons were not allowed on the beach. (Eventually, civilian guards would be stationed to check every car that crossed the bridges onto the peninsula.) The two keepers at the lighthouse were ordered to stand eight hour watches to spot possible enemy activity, and on December 29th, the Coast Guard decided to require round-the-clock watches.

Stephen Crane and the Ponce Lighthouse

In 1897, American author Stephen Crane, working as an undercover correspondent for the New York Post, joins a gun-running expedition to Cuba aboard the steam tug Commodore. Their goal is to reach Cuba with supplies to aid the rebellion against Spanish rule of the island. The morning after her departure from Jacksonville, the ship sinks about 12 miles off Daytona. Survivors credit the beacon from the lighthouse at Mosquito Inlet for giving them the direction in which to row their small boats. Eight men die in the sinking, but Stephen Crane survives and writes his famous short story, "The Open Boat."

17 Mile Lighthouse Beacon via Fresnel Lens

The Ayres Davies Lens Exhibit Building at the Ponce Lighthouse Museum contains the restored original 1st order rotating Fresnel lens along with exhibits on the history of lighthouse illumination, and a truly stunning collection of lenses and lanterns.

The original lamp burned kerosene; in 1909 it was replaced with an incandescent oil vapor lamp. In 1933, the lighthouse beacon was electrified in 1933 with a 500-watt lamp and the original, 1st order rotating Fresnel lens was replaced with a 3rd order rotating Fresnel lens. The fresnel lens blinks its beams 17 nautical miles away!

History of Lighthouse Lenses

One of the seven wonders of the Ancient World, the great lighthouse of Alexandria, built around 280 B.C., towered some 450 feet above Egypt's greatest harbor. At that height, it was the second tallest structure in the world, after another of the seven — the Great Pyramid of Giza. The light within, also state of the art, was an open flame.

From that time until the 18th century, the lights that warned ships that they were approaching land improved hardly at all. Some burned coal. Others stuck with wood. Oil lamps backed by mirrors eventually offered a bit more candlepower. Still, every coastline in the world remained littered with the ribs of broken ships whose captains didn't see the lighthouse until it was too late. Then, in 1822, a frail scientist with a passion for optics made a revolutionary breakthrough. His name was Augustin Jean Fresnel. Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/science-makes-a-better-lighthouse-lens-

As a child, Fresnel was a slow learner who showed little interest in language studies or in tests of memory. By the age of 8, he could barely read. Yet his boyhood friends, for whom he studiously determined how to increase the power of popguns and bows, called him "the genius." When applied to optics, his genius proved to be real and considerable. Where others had improved existing lighthouse technology, Fresnel leapt forward by studying the behavior of light itself. His studies both advanced the understanding of the nature of light and produced the most important breakthrough in lighthouse lights in 2,000 years.

Fresnel worked out a number of formulas to calculate the way light changes direction, or refracts, while passing through glass prisms. Working with some of the most advanced glassmakers of the day, he produced a combination of prism shapes that together made up a lens. The Fresnel lighthouse lens used a large lamp at the focal plane as its light source. It also contained a central panel of magnifying glasses surrounded above and below by concentric rings of prisms and mirrors, all angled to gather light, intensify it and project it outward.

The various reflector systems installed in lighthouses during the 40 years preceding the introduction of the 1822 Fresnel lens certainly had been improvements over the open fires or candles in lantern rooms. Still, they could trap only a small percentage of the light. All prior systems paled by comparison with the Fresnel lens. Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/science-makes-a-better-lighthouse-lens-170677431/

The Museum has something for everyone

The Ponce DeLeon Inlet Lighthouse Museum campus includes the lighthouse, a Museum and Gift shop, a Cuban raft exhibit, a Video Theatre, a giant old galleon anchor, the First Assistant and Second Assistant Keeper's Dwellings, the Lens Exhibit Building, and the 1000 lb US Lighthouse Service Fog Bell.

Children and adults will all enjoy the museum and lighthouse. Interesting unique history, optical science, beautiful coastal setting, The Gift Shop is full of unique books, art, and of course gifts - you could easily enjoy browsing there for an hour. Visitors should plan for at least a half a day. The local area also has a few waterfront marinas and seafood hangouts, fishing charters, water sports as well as a nature preserve, Lighthouse Point Park with beach, and a Marine Science Center.

Your Ponce Lighthouse adventure near New Smyrna Beach is about 30 minutes from our condo. We travel north up Route 1 to the first intracoastal bridge in Daytona Beach which is Dunlawton Blvd. Then turn right on South Atlantic Avenue to the end of end of the island!

4931 S. Peninsula Drive Ponce Inlet, FL 32127 (386) 761-1821

Hours of Operation

Sept. 3, 2019 – May 24, 2020 Open Daily, 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM (Last Admission at 5:00 PM)

#beach #Florida #Holiday In NewSmyrnaBeach #NewSmyrnaBeach #Vacation In New Smyrna Beach #VacationSoup #whattosee

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telegraphopera-blog · 5 years

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“The Tales of Kutcharitaville”

In the mid 70′s a small family restaurant opened at the address 2186 Hendersonville Rd. in Arden, North Carolina. The restaurant was called Kutchie’s Dine and Dance Supper Club. The proprietors were a husband and wife team named Kutchie and Anita Peleaz.

The restaurant later on changed its name and theme to Kutchie’s Key West Cafe, a tropical beach themed cafe. The last dated article mentioning the cafe as open was published on a local online news platform in 2006.

The cafe closed soon after the publication of the ‘06 article, after three decades of business. The property now sits vacant, having been partially demolished, but the land and remaining structure is still owned by a member of the Peleaz family.

Shortly after going out of business, strange mentions of the restaurant began to appear in internet key word searches, due to the fact that someone was obsessively posting about the now-closed restaurant, writing about it over and over. The mystery poster began leaving these mysterious posts online in the year 2009, despite the fact that the Key West Cafe had been closed for a few years. The posts were created for the next seven years.

These mysterious posts, positive glowing promotions for Kutchie’s Key West Cafe, were signed with many aliases, Jake Carson being among the most prominent, and they continued to be posted in news article comment sections for a total of seven years. The posts were also left below food and literary reviews, and even in the guest-book sections of online obituaries.

The appearance of these posts, which were written about a defunct cafe and posted for seven years straight, were a mystery to the internet. No one could understand why someone would rave about and promote a long-shuttered dining establishment for seven years.

If you look around the internet, many of the thousands of these now legendary posts can still be found, as well as YT videos on the topic, and a variety of links will take readers to web pages like 4Chan and Reddit, where people devoted to discovering who wrote the posts discuss the mystery.

For more info see the top pinned posts at: r/KeyLimePieMystery

My Analysis of the KLP Mystery

In 1958 charter boat Captain Tony Tarracino purchased 428 Green St, in Key West, Florida. He named it Captain Tony's Saloon. The building itself was home at one time to an ice slab morgue, and in 1898 it housed a wireless telegraph system instrumental in receiving messages from Havana during the Spanish-American war. After that the building housed a bordello, and a speak-easy and then became a bar and has continued to be a bar in some form or another to this day.

The famous address is most noted for being a hangout to many celebrities, including many well-known literary figures, including Ernest Hemingway, Truman Capote, and Shel Silverstein. During the bar's run as Sloppy Joe's in the 30's, Hemingway spent a lot of time there. Later, in the early 70's, it became a favorited haunt of Jimmy Buffet. Buffet played his music at the place until he opened his own bar, Margaritaville, around the corner on Duval St. He was allegedly paid in the currency of tequila, to play Captain Tony’s, and he even helped to immortalize Captain’s Tony’s Saloon with his famous song "Last Mango in Paris"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Tony%27s_Saloon

This recounting of the history of Captain Tony’s Saloon is significant, and this history of the Key West scene is vital to the theory I am putting forth, for many reasons, as it is some of the relevant information that supports the theory that Kutchie himself was the author of these posts.

We all know that Kutchie's Key West Cafe was a beach-themed cafe, made complete with the stylistic flavorings of the famous Key West scene. Kutchie masterminded this theme as the 2nd incarnation of the restaurant at some point after it's prior run as Kutchie's Dine and Dance Supper Club ended.

A poster on Reddit found microfiche “Help Wanted” ads in which Kutchie’s Dine and Dance Supper Club advertised its intention to hire workers in 1976. It was in the 70's that Jimmy Buffet was the toast of the town over in Key West and those years in particular were Buffet’s “pre-Margaritaville” heyday at Captain Tony's. During the 70's is when he spent his time playing Captain Tony's for tequila payments, as the legend tells it.

The first Margaritaville is listed as opening on Duval St. around the corner from Captain Tony's Saloon in 1985. It is not clear at what point the name and theme of Kutchie's Cafe changed, but at some point during it's approximate 30 year run, it changed it’s name from Kutchie’s Dine and Dance Supper Club and began doing business as Kutchie's Key West Cafe.

During this time, Kutchie created the Cafe, which we have seen referred to in the KLP posts as “Kutcharitaville,” which is a play of words on Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. The posts also refer to Kutchie as "The Captain," in the same fashion as Captain Tony Tarracino of Captain Tony's Saloon fame. Therefore what we know of Kutchie and his Key West Cafe, is that it too was influenced by Captain Tony's Saloon, Jimmy Buffet and his Margaritaville vibes, and by the Key West culture in general.

It seems obvious that Kutchie’s Key West Cafe's tropical phase intended to pay homage to and capitalize off the popular Key West culture of the day and throw back to it’s musical and literary heyday. While Kutchie built that creative cafe world for the entertainment experience of his diners, the posts created by the KLP poster also build a creative world for the readers. This is Kutchie’s World.

The Key West Cafe strived to re-create a slice of the delicious pie that is the famous Key West scene, within the perimeters of Kutchie’s world building, and the posts also work on a literary level to streamline Captain Kutchie’s Key West Cafe into the same pop-culture literary world of legend that Captain Tony’s Saloon and Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville also inhabited in popular culture through their mention in music and literature.

The posts attempt to create an alternate world in which Kutchie is a Captain, just like Captain Tony, and they link Kutchie’s little tropical paradise in North Carolina to the famous Key West literary and music scene through online world-building, same as Captain Tony’s and Margaritaville were immortalized by writers and artists in the popular media of the day. It is worth noting, that Kutchie himself has been known to build creative worlds for purposes of entertainment.

Therefore I believe that is reasonable to assume that this writing serves the purpose of further enhancing the historical pop culture relevance of Kutchie and his Key West Cafe and serves to allow Kutchie to continue to create parallels between his creation, the Key West Cafe and the real Key West scene.

The author of the KLP posts builds a fantasy world through their attempt at unconventional modern literature, much like Kutchie's Key West Cafe itself was a world built by Kutchie from his imagination, and was formed by him merging his personal interests into a “fantasy play” themed business.

In the world of the KLP posts, statements are made by the author in which Captain Kutchie is memorialized in the same breath as Captain Tony and also the two ”famous” Captains are cast in the role of buddies, having had adventures together in the world built by the KLP posts. Was this past friendship fantasy or reality? Only Captain Kutchie and Captain Tony know for sure. Perhaps it is all just wishful thinking, or tall tale telling, an old man spinning yarns.

"The Late Great “Captain Tony Tarracino” of Key West Fame was an Old Friend of “Captain Kutchie Pelaez”. Together the two of them Sailed Many Adventures Not Known To Much Of The World! Nighttime Runs Too Cuba And Back. Cheese Burgers, Rum, Scotch, Cigarettes, Cigars, Treasure Maps, Pizzas, Chocolate Bars and Key Lime Pies Helped The Two Make History. If You Can Believe It Even “Mel Fisher” Was Known To Hang With Them!"- Jake Carson FB

https://www.facebook.com/jake.carson.98284/posts/1854653334767359

“..And With An Extra “HEAVY-HEAVY HEART”, “Captain Kutchie Pelaez’s”, EXTRA GOOD FRIEND And OLD PARTNER IN CRIME….The Legendary….”YANKEE JACK”,..Of Key West and Boston, Mass. Has Passed Away, Much Too Soon..Rest In Peace Pisan…….Enjoy Your Key Lime Pies Buddy… .. …We Remember “Yankee Jack”, “Captain Tony”, “Jimmy Buffett”, “Mel Fisher”, “Captain Terry Levi”, “Captain Kutchie Pelaez” And Many Other Famous Characters Down In Key West In The Good Old Days. What A Blast Those Days Really Were!…. ....Do You Ever Wonder?..Who Writes All This Crap?..Well, We Sure Do. They Deserve Getting Awards For Such Literary Skills, We Hope They’re Getting Paid Well. This Stuff Is As Good As “Hemingway” Or “MAD MAGAZINE”!” -Jake Carson FB

In the above post, Captain Kutchie Peleaz is hailed by Jake Carson as a visionary in the same breath as Yankee Jack, Captain Tony, Jimmy Buffet and "many other famous characters" and then the author goes on to question if you have ever wondered who writes this crap and states that it’s as good as "Hemingway"

It is obvious that while the creator of the cafe strove to pay homage, it’s also obvious that there’s an intention in the writings to also create a modern experimental literary work that places Kutchie's Cafe somewhere in pop culture history, in the same way that authors such as Ernest Hemingway paid homage to Key West and recorded of it for posterity in history.

It is made clear when the author says, “This stuff is good as “Hemingway,”” that they fancies their work on the KLP posts to be a valid form of creative modern literature and that they are conceptualizing themselves as one of the vanguards of this new style of creative writing.

Hemingway and Buffet memorialized Key West and Captain Tony's Saloon in their popular writings. The KLP poster is memorializing the Key West Cafe in the now popularized KLP writings order to push the Cafe into the annals of pop-cuture history for posterity.

It’s not enough for the Key West Cafe to have been “like” a Key West haunt, it must also be recorded in pop culture history, in order to truly be legend, just like a real Key West hangout.

The Title of the Masterpiece is “The Tales From Kutcharitaville”

At one point, Jake Carson states "Hell, If You Didn't Know Better, You'd Probably Guess That This Is Just Another Chapter From That Famous Island Book Named "The Tales From KUTCHARITAVILLE"!...." It is here we are informed by the author that the pieces of work that have been placed all over the internet actually combine, like an old fashioned serial radio show or different books of the Bible, to form a modern internet literature masterpiece called “The Tales From Kutcharitaville" in which the KLP author memorializes his youth, his love of family, and their cafe, which was in the Peleaz families lives for around 30 years.

In the work, “The Tales From Kutcharitaville,” the KLP author takes you into Kutchie's world, by re-creating it for you on some level. For those who have never been to that famous Key West scene or even to Kutchie's Key West Cafe, the posts strive to recreate the energy from that moment when the two worlds were combined through the creative energy of one man.

In my opinion, I believe that this all works together to show that the author of the KLP posts is none other than Kutchiemon himself. The author builds a world in their posts to pay homage to the fame of the Key West Cafe much like Ernest Hemingway paid homage to Key West in his writing and much like Kutchie paid homage to the Key West scene by styling his Cafe according to influences from famous Key West characters like Captain Tony and Jimmy Buffet.

What We Also Know

We know that the Peleaz family has conservative leanings when it comes to politics, and the KLP poster seems to share similar political leanings, or so it seems from their writing. The pages the KLP poster comment on and the celebrity characters mentioned in the world they build also reference artists or celebrities from the boomer era. One example of this would be the attraction the author has to post the KLP writings on web pages covering performing artists like Don Rickles.

What I Believe

I believe in the years after Kutchie's Key West Cafe closed down, that Kutchie had nothing to do to foster his creativity, and missed building a fantasy Key West world, and thus moved onto the 2nd phase of world building surrounding the Kutchie's Key West Cafe, the phase in which the shuttered cafe was intended to be boosted to pop-culture literary infamy through the unconventional method witnessed in the author's use of free platforms to leave their mark.

The author has chosen to clue us into their creation of the KLP world through the use of real world communications platforms that traffic in promoting food and entertainments relevant to the author's world building experience in order to create an “organic feeling” of “manufactured fame” for Captain Kutchie's Cafe. I believe this is Kutchie's effort to create a world of literary legend for his own Key West cafe that will parallel the literary legend built by famous writers to convey the Key West scene's vitality and lore.

Through the writings, the Key West Cafe takes on a life of its own and becomes a little more famous in pop culture in the same way the original Key West scene is. This legend created, makes the Key West Cafe even MORE like the venues he modeled his cafe after, and also through these writings about the key West Cafe, the Key West scene itself is further immortalized, despite the fact that its even out of business now for over a decade.

I believe that the KLP posts constitute a new form of literature that is modern, interactive, and dynamic in nature. The works that comprise "The Tales From Kutcharitaville" make use of free platforms and interact much like an ARG within the real world, to create a parallel world in which Kutchies' Key West Cafe comes to literary prominence through the work of the KLP poster's world building much the same way that Captain Tony's Saloon and the Key West music and literary scene came to prominence after it was celebrated in world famous music and literature.

So we know that the author has also told us the name of this “book” that they have published through unconventional means and they have also explained to us that their work is on par with Hemingway and while many literary scholars would argue that the KLP posts do not constitute a valid form of literature, this author argues that they do, because the platforms on which we receive literature and how we interact with literature changes historically and always have.

This is why I believe the author of the KLP posts to be a sort of modern day Burroughs, or Bukowski. Insert the name of a famous ground breaking experimental author here and you get the picture.

I agree with the author of the KLP posts when they stated that the author deserves awards for their literary skills. I believe the world they have created rises above the level of "just some comments on a board," and that the format chosen and the mystery imbued in it elevates the writing to an interactive level of performance. The world draws the readers in. Unlike much of modern literature, the world of the author of the KLP posts grabs the reader’s attention and demands discussion.

I would argue that the KLP posts constitute a successful “life's-work masterpiece” by the author, and that the author is among a new modern vanguard of experimental underground literary figures that choose to self publish their works in unconventional formats.

Most would believe that to be considered literature, one must have a book for sale on the shelf, or on the internet, but the KLP posts rise above the commercial literature we know today and present an experience that is on par with a much more highly elevated art form. The book “The Tales From Kutcharitaville” is not just something that you read and set aside, it is something you consume voraciously, and discuss.

It pulls you in on its whirlwind adventure and also takes you along for the ups and down's in the life of the story's central figure, the Hero of the book “The Tales From Kutcharitaville,” Kutchie himself. It even casts you in a role, in which you become an actor in the story, an "investigator of literary mystery."

This engrossing experience is provided to you at no charge, the price that is paid is the fact that Kutchie’s little Key West Cafe that used to be on Hendersonville Road in Asheville goes down in literary history, much like Captain Tony's, and the earned posterity is valid and justifiable as the post-humous notoriety is gained through a dynamic, ground-breaking new style of literary presentation. As a matter of fact the fame brought to the Key West Cafe posthumously is the writer’s “Award.”

It goes without saying that Captain Kutchie and his Key West Cafe deserve the literary prominence granted through the posts. The entertainment provided by the literature works on two levels. On one hand we are caught up in this urban legend through the serialized postings and on the other hand, we are also whisked into the world of Kutchie's as actors, where we investigate this manufactured literary urban legend.

Loose Lips and Being Loved

My theory on why nobody in the know will disclose this author's identity- I believe for the urban legend to work on every level, the author can not and should not claim credit for their work. The mystery is part of the charm of the multi-level literary work, "The Tales From Kutcharitaville," and the mystery of not knowing who created the posts, combined with not knowing why they did it, is what propels the posts to the high level of dynamic performance art that allows them to inhabit both today's world of creative non-fiction, and also reside with one foot in the real world past.

The mystery of the WHO and WHY is what makes this literary sensation something we can all can obsess over, and ask questions about, and interact with on so many levels. It's what makes this mystery one of the most thrilling creative reads of modern times.

Some would argue that the posts veer into the crude, perverted, and disorganized, and at times show signs of a disorganized mental state. But many famous authors from literary history struggled with mental disorganization and many of them created their writing from within awkward disorganized mental states.

Author William Burroughs, for example, often wrote from an “unusual place” that people would say was born of mental disorganization. His work, much like for example, Bukowski’s, was often seen as crude and vulgar and sometimes when an author's literary works were fragmented, crude, and vulgar and showed signs of disorganization they were published and lauded anyways, as “samples of the real life mind” of the author.

If an authors world is disorganized, that is simply the world they are bringing you into. Vulgarity, perversion, and signs of mental disorganization do not invalidate the serialized work "The Tales From Kutcharitaville" from being considered as a modern-day literary masterpiece. These odd features actually help to propel it into its strange sense of notoriety. These features make the work more honest and interesting, as they provide a sense of genuine character to the work.

While it could also be a writer who frequented Kutchie's, or it could be one of Kutchie's own family members, or more than one party, I strongly believe all the available evidence points to Kutchie himself as being the author. I believe that as he aged and his mental and creative state changed, these factors, along with the prominence of the work finally coming into view of popular culture, he decided to stop posting because sometimes, enough of a good thing is enough. Once the posts caught on and began to provide the former Key West Cafe with a new infamy, and people began to write to, make calls to, and otherwise contact the Peleaz family, he stopped posting the posts, because of his health, and also because the posts had served their creative purpose probably more then he ever imagined they would.

Continuing to post the posts in the face of the public attention the posts are now receiving, would only serve to complicate the situation for the author and for the Peleaz family as a unit. If the KP works were created to make the Cafe famous post-humous it worked, but also the family began to face what amounted at times to fanatic harassment.

People’s Theories on “The Tales From Kutcharitaville”

Some have theorized that the Peleaz family have something to do with criminal actions, that somehow involve the KLP posts, but no evidence has ever been found to validate these assertions of criminal conspiracy. People have also speculated that the posts are the covert/overt comms of spies, as well, that the work is being done by a bot.

And while no one has ever been able to prove that the Peleaz family has any involvement in untoward affairs, and are proven pillars of their local society, the spy theory has never been substantiated even in the least either, nor has the bot theory. No theory has ever been proven.

The Pelaez family is an upstanding local family in a tight-knit community of mountain folk, hesitant to trust or embrace outsiders. They've lived there all their lives, and the patrons of the Cafe often grew up alongside of them, and went to school or even to church with them. The Pelaez family, by all appearances, are well-respected hard-working locals that are beloved by the residents of the Asheville-Arden-"Skyland" area. As a rule, they do not possess criminal records.

If Kutchie wrote the posts and someone who knew him well did know this, I believe that they would protect this fact from getting out, simply because all of the love that is shown in the posts for the Key West Cafe and its patrons. That love was very real and is returned by the people of Asheville-Arden to this day. To this day, the people who Kutchie loved, still love Kutchie and his little Key West Cafe back.

Many believe the secretiveness surrounding the topic of authorship indicates some sort of criminal conspiracy in the community of Asheville, but people are often very protective of the people they love. And regulars of Kutchie’s Key West Cafe say they were made to feel like part of the Peleaz family. To this day there is still brand loyalty to Kutchie’s Cafe.

It has been reflected that some believe that Kutchie is no longer well health-wise and some readers feel that the writing style of the KLP poster often demonstrates a decline of the poster’s mental health. I believe this is another reason why people would protect the identity of the author, especially if the people in their lives protecting their truth believe that the posts were a product of a looming mental health crises. Everyone loves Kutchie.

These posts are really about love. They are about Kutchie's love for life, his youth, his community, his Key West Cafe, Key West culture, and his family. The restaurant was the waiting room he spent the best years of his life in, during his time here on earth.

In the stories he is a figure of action, adventure, and good times, he as a protagonist is a provider of and creator of community. In this community there is a lot of love. In these posts Kutchie has been living it up once again, this time memorializing himself in a contrived literary hoax, in which he has adventures with his celebrity buddies and he has created this little world for himself to use to extend to us and the world at large, the love that went into the fantasy world building of his Key West Cafe and share with us his own brand of magic, much as he shared the Key West Cafe and its “beach in the country,” charms with the community.

I believe that the author of the KLP posts is a creative genius. I believe that creative genius living in his own self-made world is none other than the Captain himself.

Who else would place him as the action-adventure star in his own “internet fan-fiction” fantasy Rat-Pack, and who else would seek to elevate The Captain and his former Key West Cafe into the annals of modern literary history? And why? No one but Captain Kutchie himself has any motivation to build this world in which he is glorified. This is original Fan-Fiction, by the Captain, for the Captain.

The Copy Cat Posts/After The First Mention on Reddit

I believe that after the posts became a topic of discussion online, and people began to question the family members and contact them, that someone else in the family possibly began to reply to the public, or possibly participate in posting some of the posts.

I do think this is a possibility to explain why it seems like the posts/messages were at one time being replied to or perpetrated by a different party, while showing different styles of writing and sending quotes from a game like Silent Hill.

Another theory that I'm also leaning toward to support why this occurred is that at some point, some hacker folks who read about the KLP post mystery on Reddit managed to crack their way into some of the accounts in an effort to doxx the identity of the writer, and instead of do so, they used their opportunities looking around in the accounts, to reply to some of the messages themselves.

This could account for why the replies that were sent to people after the story broke on Reddit, seemed to be related to gaming themes. Gamers on Discord have been known to try to hack their way into these mysteries. I have found evidence as well, that places some of the family members in the online gaming community. This is why I embrace both theories as possibilities regarding the origin of the replies that didn't seem to come from the Original Poster of the KlP posts.

In regards to it being driven by a bot, I could see how an independent Bot could somehow find the KLP posts and begin to re-incorporate them into their work, but I also believe that it's also likely that the KLP poster could have also purposely made use of a bot in order to spread their creative KLP posts more frequently than possible for them to do by hand on their own.

Human/Bot SEO Theory

It's also a possibility that someone involved with the Key West Cafe, Kutchie or a family member, was working online from home to create content to support an-SEO related internet promotion business and simply chose to discuss and post about their favorite topic, while at the same time endeavoring to use the SEO service they were providing content for to elevate the Key West Cafe to modern internet literary fame.

I believe that this is a faint possibility because the author of the KLP posts states something about hoping that the author will be paid well. If there is any case that this author received any payments for their work, in order to monetize the work, it would have to provide some sort of tangible real world value to some business or other, in order for the author to receive a payment, and if the writing is not being sold as a creative work through a traditional literary showcase format, it must somehow in the end contribute to enhance something that is monetized. There is no proof that anyone has received any payments, but the fact that the author mentions this possibility of a payment means that some could have been made, and there aren't many reasons someone would be paid to generate content like this. The content is either somehow monetized or its art. But it could be both.

I believe that the author intended for their work to make the Key West Cafe known post-humous but they never realized or understood what the outcome would be, or knew what effect the work would have on the public or the Peleaz family. At the time of authorship, I believe the authors intentions for the posts were sort of a dream that they eventually found actualizing before their very eyes. And they had no way to know that this dream would lead to calls, mail, and emails directed at the Peleaz family, inquiring to know who wrote the posts.

I am confident in my theory that Kutchie has written these posts himself and I believe that this is one of the most exciting and creative writing samples in this era of new writing and literary presentation to be found online. I believe the author has created a masterpiece and I am thankful to have been invited along on the action-packed, fantasy-driven, world-building ride.

I feel like I almost know Kutchie by now, as I have been inducted into his Famous World, through the thrilling artistic work, “The Tales From Kutcharitaville.”

I have been sat down at a table, I have been given the Pie. I have tried the Pie.

And it was good.

#Kutchie's Key West Cafe Key West Kutcharitaville Captain Kutchie

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17 terrifying creepypastas guaranteed to keep you up at night

The age-old tradition of telling ghost stories around a campfire has gotten a digital upgrade with creepypastas — scary stories or pictures that spread across message boards, becoming internet lore that are discussed both on and offline.

People around the word share their bizarre and terrifying creepypastas, hoping that the tales will gain popularity and become classics, often quoted or cited by horror fans and frightened netizens.

Like with the ghost stories of old, not all creepypastas are particularly scary or good, even if they are frequently passed around. Reading a long story with an interesting title or image is no guarantee of a frightening payoff, and the writers often forget that just having someone meeting a quick and unfortunate fate does not an interesting story make.

When a real gem of a creepypasta is found, it makes all the searching and scavenging worth it (at least until it's time to fall asleep). So grab a friend, turn off the lights, and prepare to be scared to scroll any further — here are 17 of the scariest creepypastas.

1. The Slender Man

A post shared by SLENDERMAN ™ ☛ALWAYЅ WATCHES (@slender.mxn) on Aug 23, 2018 at 12:40pm PDT

Before this pale, faceless ghoul had his own movie and video game series, he haunted the forums of the internet with his finely pressed suit and unnaturally long limbs. The Slender Man's story is not a narrative one, but a pseudo-historical look at this monster's history with humanity that is tied into several other creepypastas.

Typically, the Slender Man preys on children and those who become obsessed with his existence, though no one knows exactly what happens to the bodies since no one has ever escaped from an encounter with him. Suggested stories featuring the Slender Man include The Tall Man and the Marble Hornets videos.

In the real world, this creepypasta figure became a key figure during an assault and subsequent criminal case in 2014 involving three 12-year-old girls. Wisconsin teens Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser, lured their friend, Payton Leutner, into the woods during a game of hide-and-seek. In an reported attempt to appease Slender Man, the duo stabbed Leutner 19 times and left her at the scene. Leutner managed to drag herself to a nearby road where a cyclist found her, and she was immediately taken to a hospital where she recovered from her injuries.

Soon after the attack, Weier and Geyser were arrested and tried for attempted second-degree murder. In 2017, Weier was sentenced to 25 years in a mental institution, while her accomplice Geyser was sentenced to 40 years in a mental hospital in 2018.

2. Candle Cove

A post shared by Nicky (@burialshroud) on Mar 6, 2018 at 12:52pm PST

Everyone has a television show from their childhood that they fondly remember. Like those who nostalgically recall the adventures of Dora the Explorer, Mister Rogers, and Sesame Street, some adults rediscovered their favorite show from the 1970s, Candle Cove, on a television forum in this creepypasta. Slowly, their memories of the show grow darker and more disturbing until one of the adults asks his mother about the true nature of the show.

The forum format of the story adds a spooky realism to the tale, also making it easy to recreate and share on other boards. If you find this story particularly compelling, watch the first season of the Syfy original series Channel Zero, which is based off this creepypasta.

3. Robert the Doll

A post shared by 😱معرفی فیلم های ترسناک👻 (@filme_tarsnak) on Apr 3, 2018 at 12:48am PDT

Not for the faint of heart, Robert the Doll really exists. The myths surrounding him vary, especially since it became so popular on the internet. The doll was given to artist Robert Eugene Otto in the late 1800s or early 1900s by a servant working in his family home. The doll, which he named after himself, then took on a life of its own and began to terrorize the family.

Otto is said to have kept his doll into adulthood and it subsequently tormented his late wife to insanity. When the doll was found by another family, the girl to whom it was given was terrified of it and refused to have it in her room.

The doll is currently residing in the Fort East Martello Museum in Key West, Florida. Visitors must ask Robert politely if they want to take his photo. If they mock him or take his photo without permission, Robert is said to lay a curse on them.

4. Anasi's Goatman Story

A post shared by Only Stupid Answers (@onlystupidanswers) on Aug 15, 2016 at 10:04am PDT

Based on a Native American legend, this creepypasta was originally found on 4Chan's paranormal board /x/, where some of the best creepypastas can be found.

The story follows a teenager who goes down to Alabama to be with his extended family. While he, his cousins, and their friends are camping out in the woods, they see a strange figure — the Goatman — jerking and spouting gibberish as it follows them. They spend the rest of the night in fear as the Goatman slowly infiltrates the group, terrorizing the teens into a frenzied state of paranoia.

This mix of pre-existing lore and new narrative is not rare for creepypastas, but it's the strength of the writing that really makes this particular story worth sharing. There are variations of this story, but most follow a similar formula where a group is stalked by the titular monster with different outcomes.

5. The Russian Sleep Experiment

A post shared by All Things Horror Lover (@allthingshorrorlover) on May 5, 2018 at 1:10pm PDT

A staple of best creepypasta lists everywhere, the title of this story itself carries with it a sense of dread and horror. Shortly after World War II, five political prisoners are subjected to an experiment in which they have to remain awake for 30 days in a tank filled with an experimental gas. As with most science-gone-wrong stories, the test subjects begin to lose their minds among a number of other gruesome symptoms. The horror does not end when the experimenters try to save their subjects — far from it.

Just know that this story may not be appropriate if you are squeamish or dislike gore, as the narrative goes into graphic detail about the physical state of the patients. Thankfully there are no pictures, or this would be the ultimate nightmare fuel.

6. Jeff the Killer

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A post shared by @creepypasta_0505 on Sep 4, 2018 at 10:30pm PDT

If you've never laid eyes on the infamous image of Jeff the Killer before, consider yourself lucky. The basic story concerns Jeff, a serial killer who hides in the closet and whispers "go to sleep" to its victim before slaughtering everyone in the household. Even more disturbing than his M.O. is his appearance — his face is smooth and stark white, a huge grin and small lid-less eyes. He is one of the most easily recognizable creepypastas, with his eerie stare posted across forums.

His origin story involves a fight that resulted in a chemical burn on his face and caused him to suffer a mental break. Soon after, he murdered his family and disappeared into the night to make guest appearances in your nightmares.

7. BEN Drowned

A post shared by you shouldn't have done that (@ben.is.drown) on May 3, 2016 at 4:04am PDT

Hacked video games are often found in creepypastas, but none is more infamous than BEN Drowned, the story of Matt, a college-age boy who picks up a hacked cartridge of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask at a garage sale.

As the boy plays, he captures the strange occurrences in the game and real life until it ultimately culminates into a full haunting. The narrator and BEN's fates are left up to the reader's imagination, but the tale implies that a happy ending is not in the realm of possibility.

This creepypasta is one of the few that integrate multiple types of media into the story. There is the text of the story itself — both a formal post version that went up on 4Chan's /x/ forums in real time and a diary included on the final post — and videos of the disturbing gameplay under the YouTube channel Alex Hall (originally Jadusable). The footage includes a warped soundtrack, terrifying glitches, and a creepy statue that is supposed to be BEN following the player around.

While the story is clearly fictional, the level of dedication to creating this eerie story makes it worth the read.

8. Persuaded

A post shared by Dark Town (@darktown.cz) on Jul 12, 2017 at 6:29am PDT

Zombies definitely have a place in creepypastas, especially after having taken over the majority of pop culture. However, in the spirit of keeping readers on their toes, these zombies don't need frenzied biting to increase their numbers, which elevates this tale above and beyond other zombie-inspired creepypastas.

After a massive oil spill, all those touched by the substance begin to viciously attack other creatures, causing mass panic across the country. The nameless protagonist holes himself up in his apartment, waiting for the screaming, violent horde to come crashing through his door and tear him limb from limb. If only that had actually happened, instead of the two day-long nightmare that really unfolds.

9. Smile Dog

A post shared by Son Of Darkness (@son_of.darkness) on Aug 24, 2018 at 5:57am PDT

If there's any story on this list that best captures the message "be careful what you wish for," Smile Dog is it. The creepypasta deals with an image posted on an old bulletin board system back in 1992 called smile.jpg. Those who saw the image either disappeared or died, save for one Mary E., who the narrator goes to interview. What he eventually learns is that some things, even simple pictures, are better left as mysteries than dealing with the horrifying truth.

In case you were wondering, the story does come with an accompanying image, but you may not want to see it after reading the full story. Though, in the end, you may not have a choice.

10. Annora Petrova

A post shared by The Unknown (@daily_creepypasta) on Jan 4, 2015 at 9:27am PST

This tale reminds us that it's best not to Google yourself, no matter how tempting it may be. Annora Petrova was one of the most promising figure skaters in the United States, until she discovered a sentient Wikipedia page about her. After trying to selfishly alter her fate by editing the page, her life spirals out of control in the most unexpected ways, until she is a friendless orphan (which isn't even the worst part).

While the Wikipedia page does not actually exist, it's a harrowing tale about messing with the unknown forces of the internet. If you do check this story out, make sure you click on the image at the bottom of the email for an extra layer of spookiness.

11. NoEnd House

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Yo, if you're not watching #ChannelZero on #SyFy get 👏 on 👏 that 👏 shit! Each season is a different story, season 1 is on Shudder, the other two are on SyFy.com #horror #candlecove #noendhouse #butchersblock

A post shared by WHO GOES THERE PODCAST (@whogoestherepodcast) on Aug 18, 2018 at 9:34am PDT

Haunted houses are at the center of many famous scary narratives, and surviving the night in one earned teenagers instant respect. Still, is the potential trauma and death worth the admiration of people who you'll likely never see again after graduation? This creepypasta answers with a firm and decisive "no."

NoEnd House promises $500 to whomever can survive a trip through its nine rooms of torture, a challenge that our narrator David readily accepts. The rooms begin to grow increasingly sinister and evil, pushing the limits of David's psyche and humanity. Are nine rooms really worth such a small monetary compensation that won't even pay for one therapy session?

The Syfy series Channel Zero also covers this creepypasta in its second season if you want to add some visuals to this spooky story.

12. Psychosis

A post shared by The Art Of Milta Svartvis (@nordteufel) on Aug 24, 2018 at 6:31am PDT

Can you really trust what you see and feel? Is your life all a computer simulation? Do we live in the Matrix? Are we all just people in someone's else dream that is bound to end? Is this the real life, or is this just fantasy?

Existentialism may not be the scariest of philosophies, but Psychosis shows that proving human existence beyond innate fears and paranoia is an inner battle that can never be won.

John soon finds out that he's been cut off from the rest of the world — his only communication with other people is through electronic devices. He quickly becomes paranoid and becomes convinced that everyone around him is lying, trying to get him to come outside his door so an unknown entity can get him. His logic tries to defy his gut feeling, but he falls further into the belief that something has gone horribly wrong outside, and it's coming for him next.

13. Doors

A post shared by The Unknown (@daily_creepypasta) on May 17, 2014 at 1:48pm PDT

This creepypasta is popular for its Shyamalan-esque nature. The tale follows a family with a young male narrator who talks about their daily lives together.

One night, the household is attacked by a mysterious figure that our intrepid protagonist tries to chase out. Giving any more of the plot away would ruin the surprise, but this story proves that brevity can be an effective tool when used to properly horrifying and amaze.

14. Gateway of the Mind

A post shared by Synther (@creepypastap0sts) on Jun 23, 2013 at 9:29am PDT

Ever wonder what would happen if you couldn't see, hear, smell, taste, or touch? Well, this creepypasta is here to put that theory to the test in what is honestly the most terrifying science experiment.

The story centers around a group of scientists who wish to make contact with God, and they believe that this could be possible by removing the body of all five senses. After performing a complex sensory surgery on a test subject, the poor person is completely disoriented and begins to hallucinate and "hear" people who have passed away.

What happens at the end is extremely meta, but the grueling details involving the pure mental torture the subject goes through is enough to absolutely creep anyone out.

15. The Rake

A post shared by Creepypasta is my life❤ (@creepylenya) on Jan 20, 2018 at 12:35am PST

This monster may not be as famous as his cousin, Slender Man, but he sure is just as creepy. The Rake is a humanoid creature that is completely pale, hairless, and has a thirst for human flesh.

According to Know Your Meme, this creature was originally created in 4chan's /b/ board where someone opened a "make your own monster" thread. The description that eventually became a part of The Rake was, "no apparent mouth, pale skin, six feet tall when standing, but usually crouches and walks on all fours, no nose, no mouth," and many other disturbing physical features.

Eventually this creature played a central role in many creepypastas. Most of these stories primarily involve documented encounters with the monster, and more often than not, the person dealing with The Rake never makes it out alive.

16. Lavender Town Syndrome

A post shared by Aura\|/ (@aurablade0012) on Mar 11, 2016 at 7:55pm PST

A classic video game creepypasta that hits a little too close to home for those of us who grew up playing the original Pokémon Red and Blue during the late '90s. This creepypasta centers around the game Pokémon Green, which was only released in Japan in 1996.

According to the legend, rates of illness and suicide in children in Japan between the ages of 7-12 have reached a fever pitch. The common connection between all of them? They all played Pokémon Green and had reached an area known as Lavender Town whose theme music had extremely high pitches.

After conducting studies on this phenomenon that became known as "Lavender Town Syndrome," scientists realized that there was a certain tone in the town's music that only the ears of young children and teens could hear. This had essentially drove this demographic who played the game to insanity, causing them to have headaches, ear issues, and die from suicide.

While this sparked many theories and creepypastas surrounding Lavender Town and the original Pokémon games, this creepypasta is actually loosely based off a real-life incident involving a Pokémon episode that only aired in Japan in 1997.

During the airing of the 38th episode of the original Pokémon television series titled Electric Soldier Porygon, a scene that made use of extreme flashing images gave hundreds of children epileptic seizures.

17. The Expressionless

A post shared by the eEyore (@the.eeyore) on Jul 24, 2018 at 6:52am PDT

In this creepypasta classic, a woman wearing a white gown that was covered in blood stumbled into a hospital in 1972. According to the nurse who is recounting this event, she said that this woman had the appearance of a mannequin, but was very much human-like in her movement and mannerisms.

After throwing a kitten she had clamped in her jaws on the ground, doctors and nurses rushed the woman into a hospital room for evaluation. Little does the hospital staff know that they have no idea who, or rather what, they're dealing with.

WATCH: These are the creepiest dolls we've ever seen

This story was originally published in 2013 and updated in 2018.

#_uuid:1aadc453-4bc8-36d4-913b-77dbb7a37915 #_category:yct:001000002 #_lmsid:a0Vd000000DTrEpEAL #_author:Xavier Piedra #_revsp:news.mashable

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theultimatefan · 2 years

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Be Kind and Rewind as Sealed VHS Tapes Make Their Blockbuster Debut at Heritage Auctions June 9

One of the earliest known VHS copies of the Back to the Future trilogy, a pristine set owned by one of the stars of the films, will grab its share of the spotlight in Heritage Auctions’ inaugural VHS and Home Entertainment Signature® Auction June 9.

The event includes 262 lots of some of the most popular films over the last several decades, and celebrates the dawn of the ability for viewers to watch films over and over, in the comfort of their own homes.

“Everyone has a favorite movie, and so many of them were discovered by people because of VHS,” Heritage Auctions VHS and Home Entertainment Consignment Director Jay Carlson says. “They are artifacts, a piece of our history with these beautiful covers that transport us back to the first time we could own a movie and watch it as much as we wanted. The advent of VHS tapes forever changed the way people watched movies, and many of the films that were part of that wave can be found in this auction.

“It is truly amazing to have something this special to offer as the centerpiece of our first auction, but it’s a lot deeper than these Back to the Future tapes. This inaugural auction is packed with many key early releases of iconic films like Ghostbusters, Jaws, Gremlins, Goonies, Star Wars, Friday the 13th, Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Karate Kid – titles that are sure to evoke memories of that magical time when movies became accessible to everyone in a way they never had been before. It was a time when our local video store was the center of the universe on Friday and Saturday nights – a place where you would bump into your friends and neighbors, all looking for that perfect film to bring home.”

Carlson said that the mere survival of these VHS tapes for decades is remarkable, so finding any in the condition that is evident on many lots in their auction represents an exceptional opportunity for collectors.

“You have to realize these tapes were made to be opened and watched,” Carlson said. “The shrink wrap got thrown away, the box got compromised. Finding these still-sealed tapes that have survived for 30 or 40 years or more is incredible, and to find them in such exceptional condition is incredibly rare.”

Among the films on the marquee for this historic event will be the Back to the Future set owned by Tom Wilson, whose portrayal as the films’ antagonist, Biff Tannen, made Wilson a legitimate co-star in the films that also featured Michael J. Fox, Lea Thompson and Christopher Lloyd. The original Back to the Future was 1985’s highest-grossing film and launched a trilogy that remains hugely popular to this day, with spin-off projects that included an animated television series and motion-simulation rides at the Universal Studios theme parks in California, Florida and Japan, as well as a video game and a stage musical.

Back To The Future VHS 1986 – VGA 80+ NM, Horizontal Overlap/White MCA Home Video Watermark, MCA Home Video, with its wraparound MCA Home Video watermarks and double stamped MCATM tape, comes to this historic event from Wilson, who has owned it since he received it directly from the studio. He resisted the temptation to open it over the years, meaning it remains in the same pristine condition in which it arrived.

“This is the first box set sent out from the studio of the Back to the Future trilogy,” Wilson says. “The urge to open this, to open the shrink wrap, to me, was nearly unbearable, because not only does it include Back to the Future I and II and III – mint – but also the documentary: Secrets of the Back to the Future Trilogy.”

Now, more than three decades after the original film was released, Wilson says he realizes that the legacy of early films on VHS extends beyond those who made them. Ultimately, he says, they changed the movie-watching experience for viewers everywhere.

“We didn’t know the effect it was going to have on the world … in so many ways – it’s incredible,” Wilson says. “Back to the Future … actually did affect the future, because this is such an early VHS. This is just the beginning of the time when you could watch a movie as many times as you wanted to. You would get this VHS, put it in your VCR, and watch it over and over and over and over again … and I’ve heard from many thousands of people around the world who did exactly that. When your friends came over, and Dad put this in the VCR … when you were (home) sick from school, and there was Back to the Future, like an old friend – it’s been an amazing thing.”

“Not only are they the original copies of their first release on VHS, which are so very difficult to find new in their original factory shrink wrap, but they come to us from the collection of Tom Wilson, whose work as Biff gave us one of cinemas most iconic villains,” Carlson says. “The copy of the first Back to the Future film has early wraparound MCA Home Video watermarks on the front and back of the tape, as well as a double stamped MCATM on the tape itself, which I don’t think anybody had ever seen before.

“Then the copies of the second and third film each had a note from Tom Pollack, who at that time was the Executive Vice President of MCA and Chairman of Universal Pictures, to Tom Wilson. Those latter two films have been beautifully encased by VGA to include those notes. And then we also have Tom Wilson’s copy of the Back to the Future trilogy, which was the first time all three films were collected and released as a set. VGA pedigreed each of the tapes when they were graded with a special gold label. If this wasn’t enough to make fans excited, Tom has also supplied a handwritten note for each one of the lots that perfectly relays his hilarious and offbeat sense of humor.”

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euroman1945-blog · 6 years

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The Daily Tulip

The Daily Tulip – News From Around The World

Wednesday 29th August 2018

Good Morning Gentle Reader…. The week has reached the middle, and the slope towards the week end is almost here, but we have Wednesday to contend with first and the sea mist is back again, and I saw the temperature as I left the house indicating 22c with a high later in the day of 32c .. I’m sure this mist will burn off and the beaches will be full of people… but now as Bella and I walk the town is quiet, all we can hear is the sound of the street cleaners spraying water onto the sidewalk and the occasional sound of snoring emitting from an open bedroom window… we cross over the main boulevard and walk by the ocean for a moment, hardly a wave, a single fishing boat is pulling his nets in and in the distance a supertanker sails silently by heading towards the Middle East.. we turn, things to do, places to be and coffee to drink…

500+ PEOPLE ILL IN US AFTER EATING MCDONALD’S SALAD…. McDonald’s stopped the sale of salads at 3000 restaurants last month. Federal health officials say they have confirmed more than 500 cases of people who became sick with an intestinal illness after eating McDonald's salads. The illnesses reported earlier this year are linked to the cyclospora parasite, which can cause diarrhoea, intestinal pain, nausea or tiredness. The Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that 507 cases have been confirmed in 15 states and New York City. McDonald's stopped the sale of salads at 3000 restaurants last month until it could find a different supplier. The FDA says it is still investigating the supplier of romaine lettuce and carrots. States with cases include: Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Officials also said people sickened in Connecticut, Florida, New York City, Tennessee, and Virginia had travelled in Illinois and Kentucky.

NEW RESEARCH THROWS WATER ON DRINKING’S ‘HEALTH BENEFITS’…. While some studies in the past have found that “moderate” drinking can have positive health effects, a meta-analysis of nearly 1,300 sources and studies indicates that even one daily drink can increase risk of premature death, cancer and other conditions. Alcohol, the study found, was the leading risk factor for people between the ages of 15 and 49 and linked to 3 million deaths per year. “If everyone cut their consumption in half,” said lead author Max Griswold, “We could save one million lives globally.”

LAB-GROWN MEAT COULD MAKE IT TO MARKET…. Can they meat in the middle? Food technology firm Memphis Meats and the North American Meat Institute have asked the White House to settle a regulatory tussle and allow cell-cultured meat to finally reach the American market. Under the plan, the Department of Agriculture, favored by major meat industry groups, and the Food and Drug Administration, which also seeks jurisdiction, would jointly monitor the foodstuff grown from animal cells to avoid slaughter. But it’s unclear whether other industry leaders, which hate culturing firms’ “clean meat” label, will support the plan.

POPE TO BE OFFERED SODA BREAD ‘TASTE OF IRELAND’ ON FLIGHT HOME…. The Pope will be offered a final taste of Ireland if he samples soda bread on his flight home to Rome. Chefs for the Republic's flag-carrier airline Aer Lingus will provide a traditional menu on EI2408 from Dublin on Sunday evening. Even the mozzarella cheese will have an Irish twist as it is produced by Co Cork company Toons Bridge Dairy. The butter is also sourced from the southern-most county, from Glenilen farm. The pontiff can choose between baked smoked salmon with braised savoy cabbage or a more Mediterranean basil pesto risotto with summer vegetables. A passion fruit mousse will be offered for dessert. The papal delegation travelled to Ireland with Alitalia. Aer Lingus provided the quick hop from Dublin to Knock airport in Ireland's west, where the pontiff is visiting Knock shrine on Sunday. Altogether, 16 cabin crew will service the Aer Lingus flights, led by Joan O'Neill and Jackie Bailey, who joined the airline in 1979, the year it carried Pope John Paul II on his trip to Ireland. A papal coat of arms has been applied to the plane's exterior, divider curtains installed as well as loud speakers for an onboard press conference to be held on the fight back to Rome. The papal flag and Irish tricolour will be flown from the cockpit for push back and landing in Dublin and Knock. The papal and Italian flags will be flown upon arrival in Rome. Papal blessings will be made as the delegation enters new airspace. The flight will accommodate 126 guests, including key members of the Vatican, security staff and journalists. Aer Lingus will present Pope Francis with a model of the airline's first aircraft, a De Havilland DH84 Dragon EI-ABI, a replica of the Celtic Crucifix of Athlone, which was on board the aircraft which carried Pope John Paul II in 1979.

SPAIN APPROVES PLAN TO DIG UP FORMER DICTATOR FRANCO…. Spain's centre-left government says it has approved legal amendments ensuring the remains of former dictator General Francisco Franco will be dug up and removed from a controversial mausoleum. Deputy prime minister Carmen Calvo said the minority Socialist government is certain that parliament will endorse the decision, probably next month. The amendments to Spain's Historical Memory Law of 2007 grant the government power to exhume Franco's body. That change aims to thwart legal efforts by Franco's descendants and supporters to block the exhumation. Removing the remains from the Valley of the Fallen, a mausoleum Franco ordered built 30 miles north west of Madrid, would be a momentous event in Spain which still bears social and political scars from the 1936-39 civil war.

Well Gentle Reader I hope you enjoyed our look at the news from around the world this, morning… …

Our Tulips today are suggesting you follow the yellow tulip road... wonder if there are any red slippers at the end?

A Sincere Thank You for your company and Thank You for your likes and comments I love them and always try to reply, so please keep them coming, it's always good fun, As is my custom, I will go and get myself another mug of "Colombian" Coffee and wish you a safe Wednesday 29th August 2018 from my home on the southern coast of Spain, where the blue waters of the Alboran Sea washes the coast of Africa and Europe and the smell of the night blooming Jasmine and Honeysuckle fills the air…and a crazy old guy and his dog Bella go out for a walk at 4:00 am…on the streets of Estepona…

All good stuff....But remember it’s a dangerous world we live in

Be safe out there…

Robert McAngus #Travel #Tulips #News #Estepona

#robertmcangus #robert mcangus #travel #spain #estepona #bella #news #blog #tulips

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webuyhousesworld · 3 years

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Housing Market Slowing Down?

Housing Market Slowing Down? In this video I discuss is the housing market slowing? As a mortgage broker who has worked with thousands of buyers, I feel like I can get a feel for buyer sentiment and market trends before the data hits the radar of analysts. This video is my hunch and my “feel” for what is going on. Please comment below how you feel about your market and let's discuss I love real estate and everything that has to do with real estate investing mortgage, and personal finance. If you enjoyed this video and found value, please consider subscribing! This time last year, housing industry insiders were predicting that the market would collapse under the weight of the pandemic. The opposite happened. Even as the economy suffered its worst year since World War II, the housing market boomed. But that doesn’t mean all is well. Rising prices have masked but not eliminated longstanding problems and vulnerabilities at the heart of America’s housing market. Most urgently, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—the government-sponsored enterprises that own or guarantee roughly half the $12 trillion mortgage market—lack the capital to survive the next inevitable downturn in home prices. The good news is that unlike the crisis in 2008, should the GSEs fail again, creditors, rather than taxpayers, can absorb the losses. That’s because the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which I direct, completed a new rule last month that creates a process to end taxpayer bailouts of the GSEs once and for all. Housing Market Slowing Down? By requiring the GSEs to maintain credible resolution plans known as “living wills,” the new rule will enable a failing GSE to be restructured without risk to business continuity or America’s mortgage market. Similar to the requirements put in place by the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. under the Dodd-Frank Act, the resolution plans will facilitate rapid and orderly resolution if necessary. For the first time in history, the GSEs are required to demonstrate how, in the event of insolvency, core business lines and charters would be maintained to support the housing-finance system without extraordinary government assistance. By establishing the rules of the road in insolvency, these living wills give future investors the information they need to price risk appropriately. This is a prerequisite for the GSEs to raise private capital, which is key to the housing market’s long-term stability. The housing market is hot — but is it too hot? That’s the question a lot of Americans appear to be asking themselves. Data from Google GOOGL, +2.21% underscore the concerns that many people have about the state of the market. Searches for the phrase, “When is the housing market going to crash,” are up 2,450% over the past month. Similarly, Americans are searching in droves for explanations about why the housing market is so hot and why home prices are rising, Google reported. Americans’ concerns are perhaps a natural by-product of today’s extremely competitive market, economists said. “If we see prices rising as quickly as we have, for some people it might spark some memories of the last time around,” Matthew Speakman, an economist with Zillow ZG, +4.69% Z, +4.46%, said. “After robust gains over the past five years, the nationwide nominal house price index is now 40% above its 2012 low-point and 4% above the peak reached in 2006. If 2006 was a historic bubble, then current price levels should be looked at more closely,” according to J.P. Morgan Research. ‘Slowing employment recovery and still-high unemployment levels are not supportive of long-term sustainable price growth.’ — Suzanne Mistretta, senior director at Fitch Ratings For some, today’s real-estate market might feel eerily similar to the market conditions that preceded the Great Recession. Given that the last housing boom triggered a global economic meltdown, these concerns are certainly understandable. But housing experts argue that Americans don’t need to get themselves too worked up — yet. Fitch estimates that national home prices are approximately 5.5% overvalued. “Slowing employment recovery and still-high unemployment levels are not supportive of long-term sustainable price growth,” wrote Suzanne Mistretta, senior director at Fitch Ratings, in a recent research note. And even the more optimistic forecasts from within the industry don’t see current prices lasting. Housing Market Slowing Down? “We’re not going to see a crash in the housing market, but we are expecting some cooling on the really unsustainable growth rates that we saw, particularly in 2020,” said Robert Dietz, chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders. “When home prices are growing faster than incomes, ultimately that is an unsustainable trend.” What’s going on in the housing market? Housing Market Slowing Down? A year ago, when COVID-19 cases first skyrocketed across the U.S., the home-buying market came to a screeching halt as people were advised to stay home to avoid getting sick. At the time, it seemed the housing market was poised for a downturn. What the News Means for You and Your Money Housing Market Slowing Down? Instead, the opposite occurred. When real-estate transactions were allowed to resume, Americans flocked to buy homes. With jobs turning remote and schools becoming virtual, families sought more space in the suburbs. Some city residents tired of their cramped apartments and decided to make a permanent move to more rural areas, while others merely opted to purchase second homes to escape to amid the stay-at-home orders. Fitch calculates that U.S. home prices in a quarter of the country’s metropolitan statistical areas are more than 10% overvalued. With the sudden crush of people seeking to buy homes, prices skyrocketed. By November, home prices were rising at the fastest pace since the Great Recession, and price appreciation has yet to slow. The demand for housing also triggered a building craze. Last year saw a 12% gain in the construction of single-family homes, Dietz said. The sudden increase in home-building activity has since caused a surge in the prices for lumber, driving up the prices of new homes even higher. Fitch calculates that U.S. home prices in a quarter of the country’s metropolitan statistical areas are more than 10% overvalued. Home prices in Idaho (30%-34%) and Nevada (25%-29%) are “becoming more unsustainably inflated while Texas (15%-19%) has become frothier over the last year. “ What’s more, markets like Rhode Island and Washington (both 10%-14% overvalued) that have traditionally experienced more sustainable house-price increases “are now seeing similar disconnects between home price growth and economic fundamentals in place to support the rate of growth,” Fitch added. Strong housing demand is pandemic-related But experts are hesitant to make apples-to-apples comparisons between this housing market fueled in part by pandemic-related demand and low-interest rates, and the one that preceded the Great Recession. The circumstances contributing to today’s booming housing market are very different from what precipitated the last boom and bust cycle. In particular, lenders are being far more careful. The housing boom that prompted the Great Recession stemmed from the rise of sub-prime lending. Banks and other mortgage lenders were originating riskier loans — often requiring little in the way of documentation from borrowers to prove they could afford their monthly mortgage payments. Many loans also featured adjustable rates that ballooned after an introductory period. At the time, homeowners were also treating their homes like ATMs, refinancing into these risky loans to cash out the equity they built up. Experts are hesitant to make apples-to-apples comparisons between this housing market fueled in part by pandemic-related demand and low-interest rates, and the one that preceded the Great Recession. — Danielle Hale, chief economist of Realtor.com By comparison, today’s lending practices are far more conservative. “Banks and mortgage lenders have been disciplined in extending credit, a very different approach than we saw in the previous housing boom,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist of Realtor.com. “In fact, banks have tightened underwriting requirements in the wake of lockdowns last year, so buyers today are more qualified than they’ve been in quite some time.” As evidence of that, mortgage lenders are offering loans to borrowers with higher credit scores. Mortgage credit availability plummeted in the immediate wake of the pandemic to the lowest levels in six years and has only slightly recovered since according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Mortgage credit availability plummeted in the immediate wake of the pandemic to the lowest levels in six years and has only slightly recovered since. With banks being so careful, the demand seen in the housing market today is much more organic. And the lifestyle changes brought about by the pandemic is not the only reason why demand has surged. “Current demand is built on a significant growing demographic wave, as we have many millennials turning 30 — a key age for first-time home buying,” Hale said. The common wisdom in real estate is that people are primarily motivated to buy a home not because of low-interest rates or the investment potential, but because of life changes. Millennials are the largest generation — and they are getting married and having kids. As they experience these major milestones, owning a home is becoming a bigger priority. Home shortages push prices higher Florida, a housing market that was hit hard by the Great Recession, is also experiencing potential overheating, according to Ken. H. Johnson, a real-estate economist and associate dean in FAU’s College of Business. Single-family homes, condominiums, townhomes and co-ops are more than 17% above their long-term fundamental house-price growth, but the extent of overpricing of these homes remains far below the 65% during the 2006 peak of overvaluations just before the Great Recession. The big problem for home buyers right now is that there are not many properties to go around. As with the surge in demand, the rise in home prices isn’t artificial, unless you consider the coronavirus pandemic a temporary and/or artificial force fueling house prices. “The heady home price appreciation during the pandemic certainly has some frothiness to it, but there is a substance not far beneath that froth,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president of market economics at Auction.com, a real-estate platform that specializes in foreclosed and bank-owned properties. Many home builders were burned by the last housing bust. Prior to it, some companies had engaged in speculative building practices, so when the market bottomed out they found themselves saddled with newly-constructed homes and few interested buyers. Single-family homes, condominiums, townhomes and co-ops are more than 17% above their long-term fundamental house-price growth. — Ken. H. Johnson, a real-estate economist and associate dean in FAU’s College of Business. As a result, home-building activity slowed considerably. Homebuilders have only ramped their operations back up in the last couple of years, experts say. In the meantime, many Americans were busy getting married and having kids — creating a huge gap between supply and demand. A recent report from Freddie Mac estimated that the U.S. is 4 million homes short of being able to meet the demand of home buyers. That figure has grown by 50% since 2018. Making matters worse, would-be home sellers have remained on the sidelines, constricting the availability of existing homes for sale. Some sellers are likely still nervous about the health risks associated with putting their home on the market amid a pandemic. Others are likely dismayed because they’re having just as hard a time finding a new home to live in, causing them to delay listing their home for sale. Will COVID-19 spark a rise in foreclosures? The housing market may be on solid ground when it comes to the demand for homes and the fast pace of home-price appreciation, but some risks to its health remain. The biggest of these might be the ongoing forbearance situation in the mortgage market. As the economy went into a downward spiral at the start of the pandemic, lawmakers and financial regulators quickly instructed mortgage lenders and servicers to offer relief to borrowers who may have lost work or income. In particular, Americans could request forbearance on their mortgage — allowing them to make reduced mortgage payments or skip them altogether — essentially without any questions asked. At the same time, a moratorium on foreclosures was enacted. By late June, more than 4 million Americans were in forbearance on their mortgage. Millions of homeowners have since exited forbearance and successfully resumed making their monthly payments. However, the federal government has extended both the forbearance program and foreclosure moratorium on multiple occasions. As of mid-April, roughly 2.3 million homeowners were still skipping mortgage payments, according to an estimate from the Mortgage Bankers Association. As of mid-April, around 2.3 million homeowners were still skipping their mortgage payments, according to one estimate. It’s not clear how many of those homeowners will be able to eventually restart paying off their mortgage, and the fate of the housing market could hinge on regulators’ success in preventing a wave of foreclosures. Having all of these homes go into default at once “would tank the market,” said Joan Trice, CEO of the Collateral Risk Network, an organization of real estate appraisers and risk managers. “The forbearance rate is two times what it was in the last crisis,” Trice added. “It would be chaos and devastating to the market.” The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently proposed extending the pause on foreclosures until 2022 and making it easier for borrowers to request changes to their home loans that would allow them to afford to stay in their homes. The consumer-watchdog agency also suggested it was going to scrutinize lenders’ and servicers’ practices to protect homeowners. Plus, regulations introduced under President Obama make pursuing a foreclosure more onerous than it was during the last housing downturn. ‘The forbearance rate is two times what it was in the last crisis.’ — Joan Trice, CEO of the Collateral Risk Network “Combine all of this and the risk of large-scale foreclosures diminishes substantially,” said Edward Pinto, co-director of the American Enterprise Institute’s Center on Housing Markets and Finance. To the extent that some homeowners may still go into default, it would not necessarily be widespread. Forbearance rates are higher among people who took out loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration, or FHA. Housing Market Slowing Down? “The biggest risk lies with Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-backed loans originated since 2014,” Blomquist said. These loans were riskier, featuring higher debt-to-income ratios. Many of these borrowers relied on down-payment assistance to purchase their homes. “Those FHA loans will be the most likely to fall into foreclosure post-pandemic, and markets with high concentrations of these loans could suffer as a result,” Blomquist said. The housing markets that have the highest risk based on FHA delinquency rates as of February include Atlanta, Houston Chicago and Dallas, according to research from the American Enterprise Institute. The good news for homeowners in a bind right now is that, generally speaking, they have built up equity in their homes. And given the high demand for housing nationwide, housing experts say that most of these families should be able to sell their homes — even for a profit — and return to renting. What happens if mortgage rates rise? Housing Market Slowing Down? Based on past econometric modeling, J.P. Morgan Research found that “a reasonable rule of thumb” is a 100 basis-point decline in mortgage rates is associated with a 10% increase in home sales. But, experts caution, the opposite is also true. The difficult forbearance situation isn’t the only threat to the housing market. Indeed, with home prices having risen as high as they have, many buyers are walking a fine line when it comes to being able to afford to purchase a property. Rising mortgage rates threaten that equilibrium. “An extremely rapid and sharp rise in mortgage rates could cool demand so abruptly that it quickly shifts the market from boom to bust,” Blomquist said. Most housing experts project that mortgage rates will only rise somewhat modestly this year. Interest rates have rebounded from the record lows set at the start of the year, but in recent works, they settled around 3%. Should rates resume their upward climb, home price growth is likely to slow in response, experts say. And that could give some buyers an opening, as affordability pushes others out of the market for the time being. We Buy Houses World Housing Market Slowing Down? #we #buy #houses #love #sell #realestate #instagood #homes #you #realtor #house #usa #home #us #invest #luxury #are #miami #instagram #architecture #the #realestateagent #hiphop #rent #luxuryhomes #beautiful #design #artist #sale #happy Read the full article

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orbemnews · 4 years

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Evaluation: Biden conjures hope and bears ache for a grieving nation In a transferring interlude to his inaugural tackle, silence fell over the US Capitol and the Nationwide Mall as Biden paused to guide Individuals in a second of silent prayer, to honor the greater than 400,000 fellow residents taken by Covid-19. However as he has completed all through a life scarred by household tragedies, Biden sought power within the second of mourning, prepared the nation to beat its divides, after admitting that ignoring their existence was a “silly fantasy.” “Now, we’re going to be examined. Are we going to step up? All of us?” Biden requested as he began into the nation’s huge inside on the West Entrance of the Capitol that was invaded by a marauding mob solely two weeks in the past. Regardless of warning of a “winter of peril,” Biden’s inaugural tackle was a uncommon second of hope and inspiration almost a yr into the nation’s battle with a virus that has shut down regular life and fractured group and households. The forty sixth President struck a pointy distinction with the darkish rant about “American carnage” issued by Donald Trump in his inaugural tackle 4 years in the past. The ex-President was unseen behind the partitions of his Florida resort membership on the hour when his tumultuous time period expired. Biden did not point out Trump. However by praising the survival of American democracy and condemning “shouting,” “exhausting outrage,” a “state of chaos” and politics as a “raging hearth destroying every part in its path,” Biden clearly sought to show the web page from the discord of the Trump years. He additionally pointedly rejected the signature attribute of the Trump period of lies which within the former president’s refusal to just accept his election defeat threatened the democratic constructions of the nation itself. “We should reject the tradition during which details themselves are manipulated and even manufactured,” Biden mentioned. Solely two weeks in the past, the platform on which Biden delivered his inaugural tackle was overcome by a pro-Trump mob on its solution to riot within the Capitol. Recollections of that outrage added poignancy to the brand new President’s remark that “at this hour, democracy has prevailed.” Biden’s tackle was much less hovering than some inaugural addresses. However its energy lay in the best way he gave the impression to be speaking to each particular person American, virtually like President Franklin Roosevelt in his fireplace chats during which he guided the nation out of the Nice Melancholy. “Let’s begin afresh, all of us, let’s start to pay attention to at least one one other once more, hear each other, present respect to at least one one other.” The swearing-in of Kamala Harris, America’s first feminine, first Black and first South Asian vp, will ship certified progress within the halting march to racial justice and gender equality. Biden’s empathy was cast within the unfathomable horror of burying his first spouse, toddler daughter and grownup son. Simply as he comforted bereaved supporters on numerous marketing campaign path rope traces, he’s now assuming the nation’s grief over the pandemic. After discovering new cause to dwell following his personal bereavements, he is difficult Individuals to honor their very own losses by uniting to win the battle to revive regular life. Biden’s first responsibility on his return to Washington Wednesday was to guide a transferring sundown vigil below a purple sky on the Lincoln Memorial for these misplaced — a step by no means taken by Trump, a longtime pandemic denier who appeared to consider that dignifying the lifeless stained his personal picture. The solemn occasion, that includes Michigan nurse Lori Marie Key, who sang “Wonderful Grace,” underscored Biden’s guarantees to revive decency to the middle of energy as he seeks to nurture the nation’s battered soul. Below the marbled gaze of the statue of Abraham Lincoln, who took workplace in maybe the one time when America has been extra divided than in the present day, traces of lights stretched like gravestones in direction of the distant Washington Monument. Biden’s grave challenges As he labored on his personal inaugural tackle, Biden needed to ponder a pandemic that has by no means been worse, a vaccine rollout that may be a complicated mess, an financial system pulverized by shutdowns and a technology of children who’ve missed essential months of in-person education. His challenges have grow to be much more acute because the election, as Trump’s refusal to confess defeat and try to steal Biden’s victory, in addition to an riot in opposition to Congress, hammered Biden’s legitimacy and uncovered a White nationalist inner insurgency that can pose an ongoing risk to US safety and democracy. America’s present chasms recommend but extra synergy between Biden and his second of historical past. Regardless of many years of worsening nationwide polarization, the President-elect nonetheless thinks he can enlist his previous Senate Republican sparring companion, Mitch McConnell, in passing components of his legislative agenda and a brand new pandemic stimulus plan. Many Democrats are extremely skeptical. And Republicans who dwell in worry of Trump and his 74 million voters haven’t any cause to make Biden’s presidency successful. However Biden’s old school wager on constructing an administration on compromise at a time when such sentiments have not often been much less incentivized was enticing to many citizens weary of Washington’s partisan wars. And after Trump tried to make it a legal responsibility within the marketing campaign, his half-century profession as a Washington insider would possibly simply equip him to overtake the lame federal response to Covid-19 and lead the nation out of its nightmare. An unlikely journey When Biden positioned his hand on the Bible on Wednesday and takes the oath of workplace, he accomplished a political and private journey that had appeared fated to fall in need of the White Home. The person who was as soon as one of many youngest senators in historical past grew to become at 78, the nation’s oldest president. At the present time would by no means have come had Biden adopted his preliminary instincts and given up the newly gained Delaware US Senate seat he gained in 1972 after his spouse and toddler daughter died in a automobile crash. Biden spent months by the facet of his surviving sons, Beau and Hunter, as they slowly recovered from critical accidents. Within the late Nineteen Eighties, he skilled his personal well being crises with a mind aneurysm that almost killed him. However he bounced again. Tragedy would go to Biden once more in Could 2015, when Beau, an Iraq Struggle veteran and Democratic rising star, died of mind most cancers. Biden at all times noticed Beau as a greater model of himself. A tearful President-elect on Wednesday confessed: “Girls and gentleman, I solely have one remorse: he is not right here as a result of we must be introducing him as president.” Beau’s dying finally satisfied Biden to not mount a bid for the Democratic nomination in 2016 in opposition to Hillary Clinton amid concern about his household’s emotional endurance for a race. However destiny referred to as him again into the political area due to Trump’s aberrant presidency and the commander in chief’s equivocation over condemning marches by White supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia. “Joe Biden has a therapeutic coronary heart. He has been by means of a lot,” former Vice President Al Gore advised CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday night. A modified man Biden is now a much more disciplined politician than he was for a lot of his profession. His portrayal within the seminal “What It Takes — The Approach to the White Home,” an account of the 1988 presidential marketing campaign by the late Richard Ben Cramer, was as a political charmer, with a stunning smile, glad-handing type and preening self-belief that the presidency was his future. However Biden’s 1988 marketing campaign dissolved amid a plagiarism scandal. In 2008, he dropped out after an anemic exhibiting within the Iowa caucuses. Even when he was chosen by Barack Obama as his vice presidential nominee, lots of the youthful aides across the soon-to-be president thought of Biden a loose-lipped caricature — an impression he strengthened by including to his lengthy checklist of political gaffes. However Vice President Biden’s regular stewardship of the Restoration Act — which added to his pedigree as he sought the presidency this time round — gained him admirers, and after eight years of loyalty to Obama, he was liked and revered within the White Home. Now, slowed somewhat by age, and with the windy opening statements that set eyes rolling within the Senate International Relations Committee only a reminiscence, Biden has displayed surprising late-in-life political adeptness. Solely a yr in the past, it appeared his political ambitions would once more founder after horrible leads to the Iowa and New Hampshire nominating races. However with trademark persistence, he hauled himself again up off the mat with a well-known win in South Carolina, which rocketed him to the Democratic nomination and the presidency. His dealing with of Trump’s unprecedented disruption throughout a treacherous transition was distilled from the knowledge of many years in excessive workplace, and a willingness to subvert his personal ego for the great of the nation — one other stark comparability with the outgoing President. His marketing campaign benefited from the curtailment of an exhausting journey schedule. However each time he wanted to point out gravitas and poise — like within the debates in opposition to Trump and on the Democratic Nationwide Conference — Biden delivered, exhibiting a brand new, spare talking type that was probably a preview of his presidential bully pulpit and was formed by his tragedies and redemption. That sturdiness within the face of non-public angst is the power that lastly propelled Biden to his longed-for vacation spot — the Oval Workplace — on Wednesday. And it is why he would possibly simply be the person for a dangerous American second. Supply hyperlink #Analysis #Analysis:Bidenconjureshopeandbearspainforagrievingnation-CNNPolitics #bears #Biden #conjures #grieving #Hope #Nation #pain #Politics

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architectnews · 4 years

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Tennessee Architecture, Buildings

Tennessee Architecture, Chattanooga Building, Architects, United States of America News

Tennessee Architecture : Buildings

Key American Architectural + Property Developments

Tennessee Building News

Tennessee Architecture News – latest additions to this page, arranged chronologically:

April 17, 2020 Garden Chapel Pavilion, Memphis Architects: archimania

One of the nation’s largest faith-based hospital systems was adding a new tower amidst a variety of aged buildings in an urban, land-locked environment. The campus has virtually no outdoor respite amenities and only a tiny, windowless space for reflection and prayer for its almost 10,000 associates, caregivers, and ambulatory patients. The hospital had scheduled a 1970’s concrete cooling tower for costly demolition and removal.

The architect suggested re-purposing this once nationally-heralded engineering achievement into a work of architecture—a chapel pavilion. A massive amount of embodied carbon exists in the well-crafted Brutalist concrete structure.

Its oversized cylindrical openings naturally lend themselves to the needed program of spiritual connection between the user and the open sky above. The project reveals an architectural solution while also making a statement about respecting and re-purposing the nation’s aging infrastructure.

Client: Methodist Healthcare Foundation General Contractor: Turner Construction

April 17, 2020 Alcove Residential Tower, Nashville Architects: Goettsch Partners image courtesy of architects office Alcove Residential Tower in Nashville Apartments Totaling 375,800 square feet, the building will feature such amenities as a rooftop game room, two pools and several communal alcoves.

June 21, 2019 Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Nashville Design: Solomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB) image courtesy of architects office Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Nashville

Dec 15, 2018 Miller Park Chattanooga Innovation District, Chattanooga Design: Spackman Mossop Michaels, landscape architecture firm & Eskew Dumez Ripple image Courtesy Spackman Mossop Michaels Miller Park Chattanooga Innovation District

Sep 7, 2018 Shelby Farms Park Buildings, Great View Drive North, Memphis Design: James Corner Field Operations and Marlon Blackwell Architects image courtesy of Chicago Athenaeum Shelby Farms Park Buildings in Memphis Shelby Farms Park, one of the largest urban parks in the country, has implemented a master plan, developed by James Corner Field Operations (JCFO), to revitalize the Park into a unique, 21st century landmark.

Aug 14, 2018 Memphis Teacher Residency Design: archmania, architects image courtesy of architects Memphis Teacher Residency Tennessee Building Memphis Teacher Residency, a faith-based, non-profit organization required a new space for recruitment, training, and supporting teachers through an urban teacher residency graduate program.

Jan 7, 2018 Barrel House 1-14 at the Jack Daniel Distillery, Lynchburg, Tennessee, USA Design: Tuck-Hinton Architects photograph : Andrew Pogue Building at Jack Daniel Distillery Anyone taking a guided tour of the Jack Daniel’s distillery would agree that visiting an active barrel house is an unforgettably profound olfactory experience. As a barrel of whiskey matures, a portion of its contents is lost to evaporation.

Oct 25, 2017 Crosstown Concourse in Memphis, Tennessee, USA photograph : Jamie Harmon Crosstown Concourse in Memphis In the heart of Memphis, Tennessee is the awakened community of Crosstown. The genesis of this urban revival dates back to 1927, where a premier Sears retail store animated the community. At its height, this art-deco building housed 1,500 employees.

Jun 4, 2014 Williams Street Loft Residence, Chattanooga Design: Hefferlin + Kronenberg Architects photo © Sarah Dorio Williams Street Loft in Chattanooga An outdoor gear and clothing mogul and his family came to us seeking to create an indoor/outdoor living compound in downtown Chattanooga. They purchased a 12,000 sf industrial building two doors down from their business headquarters. The property was a great fit for the industrial loft environment they desired.

Mar 25, 2014 Tennessee Affordable Residence, Chattanooga Design: Hefferlin + Kronenberg Architects photo © Harlan Hambright Fairmount Avenue Townhomes Tennessee – Chattanooga Fairmount Avenue Townhomes is an 18 unit, LEED Platinum certified, affordable townhouse development. The project is designed for the Chattanooga Housing Authority and provides low income housing in the desirable North Chattanooga Neighborhood.

Mar 21, 2014 Art Studio in Chattanooga Design: Hefferlin + Kronenberg Architects photo © Tim Street-Porter Akhriev Art Studio in Tennessee Hefferlin + Kronenberg Architects received an AIA award of excellence for the design of an art studio and apartment in a redeveloping downtown neighborhood of Chattanooga called the Southside District.

Mar 20, 2014 Tennessee Riverside Residence, Tellico Plains Design: Hefferlin + Kronenberg Architects photo © Sara Dario / Harlan Hambright Tellico Cabin Tennessee Hefferlin + Kronenberg Architects designed a cabin on the Tellico River for a doctor and his wife. He has been fishing the Tellico since childhood and the site holds an important sentimental value to him.

Jan 9, 2014 Alumni Hall – Vanderbilt University Development in Nashville Design: Bruner/Cott Associates photo : Richard Mandelkorn Vanderbilt University Nashville Building This project comprises the renewal of the university’s original student center, a 1925 Tudor Revival building designed by Henry C. Hibbs as a World War I memorial that is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Jul 29, 2008 Franklin Woods Community Hospital, Nashville

More Tennessee Building projects online soon

Location: Tennessee, USA

Architecture in the United States of America

US Architecture Designs – chronological list

Developments in Neighbouring States

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Website: Memphis, Tennessee

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Comments / photos for the Tennessee Architecture page welcome

Website: Tennessee, United States of America

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zeroviraluniverse-blog · 7 years

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25 Amazing Books by African-American Writers You Need to Read

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25 Amazing Books by African-American Writers You Need to Read

Black History Month gives us 28 days to honor African Americans and the ever-expanding contributions they make to culture. Literature in particular has been a space for black authors to tell their stories authentically, and bookworms seeking good reads can choose from an array of fiction, poetry, historical texts, essays, and memoirs. From literary icons to fresh, buzzworthy talent, we’re highlighting 25 books by African-American authors you should add to your reading list today.

1. KINDRED // OCTAVIA BUTLER

Background: iStock. Book cover: Amazon.

Octavia Butler’s Kindred (1979) is one of a string of novels she penned centering black female protagonists, which was unprecedented in a white-male dominated science and speculative fiction space. This story centers Dana, a young writer in 1970s Los Angeles, who is unexpectedly whisked away to the 19th century antebellum South where she saves the life of Rufus Weylin, the son of a plantation owner. When Dana’s white husband—initially suspicious of her claims—is transported back in time with her, complicated circumstances follow since interracial marriage was considered illegal in America until 1967. To paint an accurate picture of the slavery era, Butler told In Motion Magazine in 2004, she studied slave narratives and books by the wives of plantation owners.

2. HUNGER: A MEMOIR OF (MY) BODY // ROXANE GAY

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In the second entry of her divulging 2017 memoir Hunger, Roxane Gay reveals, “… this is a book about disappearing and being lost and wanting so very much, wanting to be seen and understood.” The New York Times best-selling author pinpoints deep-seated emotions from a string of experiences, such as an anxious visit to a doctor’s office concerning gastric bypass surgery and turning to food to cope with a boy raping her when she was a girl. In six powerful parts, the daughter of Haitian immigrants and National Book Award finalist reclaims the space necessary to document her truth—and uses that space to come out of the shadows she had once intentionally tried to hide in.

3. THE FIRE NEXT TIME // JAMES BALDWIN

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James Baldwin is a key figure among the great thinkers of the 20th century for his long range of criticism about literature, film, culture, and revelations on race in America. One of his most widely known literary contributions was his 1963 book The Fire Next Time, a text featuring two essays: one a letter to his 14-year-old nephew, in which he encourages him not to give in to racist ideas that blackness makes him lesser. The second essay, “Down At The Cross,” takes the reader back to Baldwin’s childhood in Harlem as he details conditions of poverty, his struggle with religious authorities, and his relationship with his father.

4. BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME // TA-NEHISI COATES

Background: iStock. Book Cover: Penguin Random House.

After re-reading James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, Ta-Nehisi Coates was inspired to write a book-long essay to his teenage son about being black in America and forewarns him of the plight that comes with facing white supremacy. The result was the 2015 National Book Award-winning Between the World and Me. New York magazine reported that after reading, Toni Morrison wrote, “I’ve been wondering who might fill the intellectual void that plagued me after James Baldwin died. Clearly it is Ta-Nehisi Coates.” Throughout the book, Coates recounts witnessing violence in “the streets” and police brutality growing up in Baltimore, his time studying at historically black Howard University, and asks the hard questions about the past and future of race in America.

5. INVISIBLE MAN // RALPH ELLISON

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Ralph Ellison’s 1952 classic Invisible Man follows one African-American man’s quest for identity during the 1920s and 1930s—and decades later, this is a struggle that many continue to encounter. Because of racism, the unnamed protagonist, known as “Invisible Man,” does not feel seen by society and narrates the reader through a series of unfortunate and fortunate events to fit in while living in the South and later in Harlem, New York City. In 1953, Invisible Man was awarded the National Book Award, making Ellison the first African-American author to receive the prestigious honor for fiction [PDF].

6. BELOVED // TONI MORRISON

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Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1987 novel Beloved puts Sethe, a former slave in 1873 Cincinnati, Ohio, in contact with the supernatural. Before becoming a freed woman, Sethe attempted to kill her children to save them from a life of enslavement. While her sons and one daughter survived, her infant daughter, “Beloved,” died. Sethe’s family becomes haunted by a spirit believed to be Beloved, and Morrison provides a layered portrayal of the plight of post-slavery black life with a magical surrealism edge as Sethe learns she must confront her repressed memories of trauma and her past life in bondage.

7. ALL ABOUT LOVE: NEW VISIONS // BELL HOOKS

Background: iStock. Book Cover: Goodreads.

In the 2000 book All About Love, feminist scholar Bell Hooks grapples with how people are commonly socialized to perceive love in modern society. She uses a range of examples to delve into the topic, from her personal childhood and dating reflections, to popular culture references. This is a powerful essential text that calls on humans to revise a new, healthier blueprint for love, free of patriarchal gender limitations and dominating behaviors that don’t serve mankind’s emotional needs.

8. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X // MALCOLM X, ALEX HALEY

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In 1963, Malcolm X would drive from his home Harlem to author Alex Haley’s apartment down in New York’s Greenwich Village to collaborate on his autobiography. Unfortunately, the minister and activist didn’t live to see it in print—The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1965, not long after his assassination in February of that year. The books chronicles the many lessons the young Malcolm (born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska) learned from witnessing his parents’ struggles with racism during his childhood; to his troubled young adulthood with drugs and incarceration; and his later evolving into one of the most iconic voices in the movement for black liberation.

9. THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD // ZORA NEALE HURSTON

Background: iStock. Book Cover: Harper Perennial.

During Zora Neale Hurston’s career, she was more concerned with writing about the lives of African Americans in an authentic way that uplifted their existence, rather than focus on their traumas. Her most celebrated work, 1937’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, is an example of this philosophy and brings to light Janie Mae Crawford, a middle-aged woman in Florida, who details lessons she learned about love and finding herself after three marriages. Hurston used black southern dialect in the characters’ dialogue, as to proudly represent their voices and manner.

10. THE NEW JIM CROW: MASS INCARCERATION IN THE AGE OF COLORBLINDNESS // MICHELLE ALEXANDER

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The Jim Crow laws of the 19th and 20th century were intended to marginalize black Americans during the Reconstruction period who were establishing their own businesses, entering the labor system, and running for office. Although a series of anti-discrimination rulings, such as Brown vs. Board of Education and the Voting Rights Act, were passed during the Civil Rights Movement, Michelle Alexander’s 2010 book argues that mass incarceration is the new Jim Crow impacting black American lives, especially black men. In the text, Alexander explores how the war on drugs, piloted by the Ronald Reagan administration, created a system in which black Americans were stripped of their rights after serving time for nonviolent drug crimes.

11. SISTER OUTSIDER: ESSAYS AND SPEECHES // AUDRE LORDE

Background: iStock. Book Cover: Penguin Random House.

Originally published in 1984, Sister Outsider is an anthology of 15 essays and speeches written by lesbian feminist writer and poet Audre Lorde. The titles of her works are as intriguing as the content is eye-opening. For example: “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power,” examines the way people, especially women, lose when they block the erotic—or deep passion—from their work and while exploring their spiritual and political desires. In “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House,” Lorde explains how feminism fails by leaving out the voices of black women, queer women, and poor women—which are ideas that are still shaping conversations within feminism today.

12. THE AUDACITY OF HOPE: THOUGHTS ON RECLAIMING THE AMERICAN DREAM // BARACK OBAMA

Background: iStock. Book Cover: Canongate Books

Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope was his second book and the No. 1 New York Times bestseller when it was released in the fall of 2006. The title was derived from a sermon he heard by Pastor Jeremiah Wright called “The Audacity to Hope.” It was also the title of the keynote speech the then-Illinois State Senator gave at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. Before becoming the 44th president of the United States, Obama’s Audacity of Hope outlined his optimistic vision to bridge political parties so that the government could better serve the American people’s needs.

13. THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS: THE EPIC STORY OF AMERICA’S GREAT MIGRATION // ISABEL WILKERSON

Background: iStock. Book Cover: Penguin Random House.

During the Great Migration, millions of African Americans departed the Southern states to Northern and Western cities to escape Jim Crow laws, lynchings, and the failing sharecropping system. Isabel Wilkerson, the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in journalism, documented these movements in her 2010 book, which involved 15 years of research and interviews with 1200 people. The book highlights the stories of three individuals and their journeys from Florida to New York City, Mississippi to Chicago, and Louisiana to Los Angeles. Wilkerson’s excellent and in-depth documentation won her a National Book Critics Circle Award for the nonfiction work.

14. BROWN GIRL DREAMING // JACQUELINE WOODSON

Background: iStock. Book Cover: Penguin Random House.

Jacqueline Woodson’s children’s books and YA novels are inspired by her desire to highlight the lives of communities of color—narratives she felt were missing from the literature landscape. In her 2014 National Book Award-winning autobiography, Brown Girl Dreaming, Woodson uses her own childhood story in verse form, to fill those representation voids. The author came of age during the Civil Rights Movement and subsequently the Black Power Movement, and lived between the laid-back lifestyle of South Carolina and the fast-paced New York City. Through her work, we are reminded of how family and community play a role in helping individuals persevere through life’s trials.

15. REDEFINING REALNESS: MY PATH TO WOMANHOOD, IDENTITY, LOVE & SO MUCH MORE // JANET MOCK

Background: iStock. Book Cover: Amazon.

Janet Mock, an African-American and Hawaiian transgender activist and writer, began her career in media as a staff editor at People. In 2011, Mock decided to share her story with the world and came out as a transgender woman in a Marie Claire article, and after landing a book deal, she released this New York Times bestselling memoir in 2014. Mock used her platform to speak in full about her upbringing as a young girl of color in poverty and identifying as transgender—a courageous move that set her on a path to being an inspiring voice for those facing difficulty in accepting their identity.

16. FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES // CHARLES M. BLOW

Background: iStock. Book Cover: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

In his 2014 memoir Fire Shut Up in My Bones, New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow opens up about growing up in a segregated Louisiana town during the 1970s as the youngest of five brothers. In 12 chapters, Blow offers an extensive look at his path to overcoming the odds of poverty, the trauma of being a victim of childhood rape, and his gradual understanding his bi-sexuality. Although these are hard truths to tell, Blow told NPR in 2014, he wrote this book especially for those who are going through similar experiences and need to know their lives are still worth living, despite their painful circumstances.

17. I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS // MAYA ANGELOU

Background: iStock. Book Cover: Amazon.

If you read anything by the late, great, prophetic poet Maya Angelou, her 1969 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings should be at the top of your list: It provides an in-depth look at the obstacles that shaped her early life. Angelou’s childhood and teenage years were nomadic, as her separated parents moved her and her brother from rural Arkansas to St. Louis, Missouri, and eventually to California, where at different times she lived in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland. Besides the blatant racism she saw unfold around her in the South, a young Maya also faced childhood rape, and as a teen, homelessness and pregnancy. Angelou, who was at first reluctant to write the book, achieved much success with the text as she became the first African-American woman to have a non-fiction bestseller.

18. BABEL-17 // SAMUEL R. DELANY

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In 2015, Samuel R. Delany told The Nation that when he first began attending science fiction conferences in the 1960s, he was one of only a few black writers and enthusiasts present. Over the years, with his contributions and the work of others like Octavia Butler, whom he mentored, he opened doors for black writers in the genre. If you’re looking for a sci-fi thriller taking place in space and centering a woman leader protagonist, Delany’s 1967 Nebula Award-winning Babel-17 is the one. Rydra Wong, a spaceship captain, is intrigued by a mysterious language called Babel-17 that has the power to alter a person’s perception of themselves and others, and possibly brainwash her to betray her government.

19. SPLAY ANTHEM // NATHANIEL MACKEY

Background: iStock. Book Cover: New Directions Publishing.

Readers of Nathaniel Mackey’s poetry are often intrigued by his ability to merge the worlds of music (particularly jazz) and poetry to create soul-grabbing rhythmic prose. Splay Anthem is a masterful work exhibiting his style, and the 2006 collection includes two poems Mackey had been writing for more than 20 years: “Song of the Andoumboulou,” a ritual funeral song from the Dogon people of modern-day Mali; and “Mu.” Splay Anthem is woven into three sections, “Braid,” “Fray,” and “Nub,” in which two characters travel through space and time and whose final destinations are unclear. Mackey’s nonlinear form is deliberate: “There’s a lot of emphasis on movement in the poems, and there’s a lot of questions about ultimate arrival, about whether there is such a state or place,” he said in an excerpt from A Community Writing Itself: Conversations with Vanguard Writers of the Bay Area.

20. THE HATE U GIVE // ANGIE THOMAS

Background: iStock. Book Cover: HarperCollins.

Angie Thomas is part of a new crop of African-American authors bringing fresh new storytelling to bookshelves near you. Her 2017 debut young adult novel, The Hate U Give, was inspired by the protests of the Black Lives Matter movement. It follows Starr Carter, a 16-year-old who has witnessed the police-involved shooting of her best friend Khalil. The book, which topped the New York Times bestseller chart, is a timely fictional tale which humanizes the voices behind one of the largest movements in present times.

21. NOT WITHOUT LAUGHTER // LANGSTON HUGHES

Background: iStock. Book Cover: Penguin Random House.

Take it back to where the Harlem Renaissance legend Langston Hughes began his novelistic bibliography. In 1930’s Not Without Laughter, Sandy Rogers is an African-American boy growing up in Kansas during the ’30s—a story loosely based on Hughes’s own experiences living in Lawrence and Topeka, Kansas. Hughes vividly paints his characters based on the “typical Negro family in the Middle West” he grew up around, he explained in his autobiography The Big Sea. In this way, Hughes paved the way for more storytelling about black life outside of urban big city settings.

22. SALVAGE THE BONES // JESMYN WARD

Background: iStock. Book Cover: Amazon.

Jesmyn Ward’s 2011 novel Salvage the Bones merges fiction with her real life experience surviving Hurricane Katrina as a native of a rural Mississippi town. Ward tells a new story through the eyes of Esch, a pregnant teenage girl who lives in poverty with her three brothers and a father who is battling alcoholism, in a fictional town called Bois Sauvage. Through this National Book Award-winning tale, Ward writes an emotionally intense and deep account about a family who must find a way to overcome differences and stick together to survive the passing storm.

23. DON’T CALL US DEAD // DANEZ SMITH

Background: iStock. Book Cover: Amazon.

Don’t Call Us Dead is a cathartic series of poems that imagine an afterlife where black men can fully be themselves. Danez Smith’s poignant words take heartbreaking imagery of violence upon the bodies of black men, and juxtapose them with scenes of a new plane, one that is much better than the existence they lived before. Upon arrival, it’s a celebration, as men and boys are embraced by their fellow brothers and are able to truly experience being “alive.” Smith’s prose sticks, and you will think more deeply about the delicacy of life and death, long after you’ve put the book back on the shelf.

24. THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD // COLSON WHITEHEAD

Background: iStock. Book Cover: Amazon.

Colson Whitehead brings a bit of fantasy to historical fiction in his 2016 novel The Underground Railroad. Historically, the underground railroad was a network of safe houses for runaways on their journey to reaching the freed states. But Whitehead invents a literal secret underground railroad with real tracks and trains in his novel. This system takes his main character, Cora, a woman who escaped a Georgia plantation, to different states and stops. Along her journey, she faces a new set of horrific hurdles that could hold her back from obtaining freedom.

25. DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS // WALTER MOSLEY

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If you’re into mystery but don’t know Walter Mosley, it’s time to catch up. The crime-fiction author has published more than 40 books, with his Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins series being his most popular. Mosley’s 1990 debut (and Easy’s debut as well) Devil in a Blue Dress takes the reader to 1940s Watts, a Los Angeles neighborhood where we are first introduced to Easy, who has recently relocated to the City of Angels after losing his job in Houston. He finds a new line of work as a detective when a man at a bar wants him to track down a woman named Daphne Monet.

#25 #AfricanAmerican #Amazing #Books #read #Writers #Facts

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