(YouTube link)
It's just cruel to tease a dog like this. I'm glad Clark doesn't really understand English that well. -via reddit
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
A home in Greenville County, South Carolina burned for hours as firefighters battled the blaze. The family was away from home, but Mia the one-year-old Belgian Malinois was inside. The dog saved herself by hiding in a bathtub in the basement!
Six hours after firefighters arrived, they found Mia, wet and sooty, but well. The cause of the fire has is not yet determined. Link -via Arbroath
Mia's owner, Chris Brumby, was amazed at how the dog survived, but said he knew she was smart.
"She acts like a human for most things," Brumby said. "And that kind of showed it. She knew where to go and hide."
He said Mia was able to get to a bathtub on the lowest level of the house, where she waited as firefighters doused the home with water. As the water ran down into the basement, it filled the bathtub and soaked Mia, keeping her safe from flames, Brock said.
Brumby said the dog has learned how to open doors throughout the house, and that she had to open four doors to get to the bathtub where she was found.
Six hours after firefighters arrived, they found Mia, wet and sooty, but well. The cause of the fire has is not yet determined. Link -via Arbroath
Craftster member blupony808 made this awesome plush angler fish out of fabric, garden hose, a night light, paint, and imagination. Yes, it lights up, too! This project won the monthly challenge at Craftster. See more pictures of how she built it. Link -via Rue The Day
BRACES ON THE BLACK MARKET
In the early 2000s, an unusual fashion craze hit Thailand after magazines there began featuring pics of teenage girls sporting colorful braces. Suddenly, every girl on the block wanted to strap metal to her teeth, even if she already had a perfect smile. But because most orthodontists refuse to apply braces to flawless teeth, the girls took their concerns to the black market, where hucksters and swindlers happily slapped on fake braces -sometimes using superglue. (Not the best idea, as the glue's side effects can include blood poisoning and nerve damage.) By early 2006, the craze had become so popular, and so dangerous, that authorities announced steep fines and jail time for anyone caught producing or selling fake braces. Unfortunately, neither the legal penalties nor the physical risks have done anything to diminish the fad. It looks like anxious parents will just have to wait for braces to stop being cool again.
NOTHING TO FEAR... EXCEPT TRUMPETS
The American Association of Orthodontists wants to put a few schoolyard rumors to bed. First off, wearing braces in a thunderstorm doesn't increase your chances of being struck by lightning. Also, braces don't set off metal detectors at airports or disrupt radio signals. But that doesn't mean braces are completely harmless. In fact, the corrective metal reserves a special terror for trumpet players, notoriously chafing kids' lips when they play. Thankfully, University of South Carolina music professor Dr. Keith Amstutz has a solution: the BRACEGUARD. The invention uses a piece of custom-molded plastic to separate players' lips from the metal, allowing teens to toot their own horns pain-free.
CELEBRITIES STRAIGHTEN UP
In early 2002, Tom Cruise took his children to the orthodontist and found out that his own bite was askew. So, he did what any other world-famous movie star would do: He got braces. Instead of a mouthful of metal, Cruise opted for ceramic braces, which use bone-color brackets linked by one arch wire resting in front of the teeth. Cruise wore his braces for the next year, flashing them at movie premieres and award shows, and in doing so, he helped make it acceptable for adults to wear them. By 2004, one in five Americans with braces was an adult- a 37 percent increase from a decade earlier. During the past few years, stars from Danny Glover to Alyssa Milano have followed in Cruise's toothsteps, changing what it means to smile like a movie star.
THE WIRELESS AGE
Recent advances in braces have made them less noticeable and more efficient. The latest development is "smart brackets," which are embedded with microelectronic chip to measure the movement of each tooth and reduce the amount of time teenagers spend under the wire. But the future of orthodontics involves getting rid of braces altogether. Scientists are busy developing a new kind of tooth-straightening device called an eruption guidance appliance, or EGA. Designed for childen between the ages of 8 and 11, and EGA is a retainer-like tray that works at night to guide teeth as they grow in, making braces unnecessary later on.
ORTHODONTICS BY THE NUMBERS
5 Million: Number of Americans with braces.
5,410: Number of orthodontists in the United States.
650: Number of orthodontists in Caifornia (the most of any U.S. state).
30: Number of orthodontists in West Virginia (the fewest of any U.S. state).
$206, 190: Mean annual income for an orthodontist in the United States.
81: Number of Ugly Betty episodes that aired before Betty got her braces removed.
1: Number of The Brady Bunch episodes in which Marcia wore braces.
Be sure to visit mental_floss' website and blog for more fun stuff!
In the early 2000s, an unusual fashion craze hit Thailand after magazines there began featuring pics of teenage girls sporting colorful braces. Suddenly, every girl on the block wanted to strap metal to her teeth, even if she already had a perfect smile. But because most orthodontists refuse to apply braces to flawless teeth, the girls took their concerns to the black market, where hucksters and swindlers happily slapped on fake braces -sometimes using superglue. (Not the best idea, as the glue's side effects can include blood poisoning and nerve damage.) By early 2006, the craze had become so popular, and so dangerous, that authorities announced steep fines and jail time for anyone caught producing or selling fake braces. Unfortunately, neither the legal penalties nor the physical risks have done anything to diminish the fad. It looks like anxious parents will just have to wait for braces to stop being cool again.
NOTHING TO FEAR... EXCEPT TRUMPETS
The American Association of Orthodontists wants to put a few schoolyard rumors to bed. First off, wearing braces in a thunderstorm doesn't increase your chances of being struck by lightning. Also, braces don't set off metal detectors at airports or disrupt radio signals. But that doesn't mean braces are completely harmless. In fact, the corrective metal reserves a special terror for trumpet players, notoriously chafing kids' lips when they play. Thankfully, University of South Carolina music professor Dr. Keith Amstutz has a solution: the BRACEGUARD. The invention uses a piece of custom-molded plastic to separate players' lips from the metal, allowing teens to toot their own horns pain-free.
CELEBRITIES STRAIGHTEN UP
In early 2002, Tom Cruise took his children to the orthodontist and found out that his own bite was askew. So, he did what any other world-famous movie star would do: He got braces. Instead of a mouthful of metal, Cruise opted for ceramic braces, which use bone-color brackets linked by one arch wire resting in front of the teeth. Cruise wore his braces for the next year, flashing them at movie premieres and award shows, and in doing so, he helped make it acceptable for adults to wear them. By 2004, one in five Americans with braces was an adult- a 37 percent increase from a decade earlier. During the past few years, stars from Danny Glover to Alyssa Milano have followed in Cruise's toothsteps, changing what it means to smile like a movie star.
THE WIRELESS AGE
Recent advances in braces have made them less noticeable and more efficient. The latest development is "smart brackets," which are embedded with microelectronic chip to measure the movement of each tooth and reduce the amount of time teenagers spend under the wire. But the future of orthodontics involves getting rid of braces altogether. Scientists are busy developing a new kind of tooth-straightening device called an eruption guidance appliance, or EGA. Designed for childen between the ages of 8 and 11, and EGA is a retainer-like tray that works at night to guide teeth as they grow in, making braces unnecessary later on.
ORTHODONTICS BY THE NUMBERS
5 Million: Number of Americans with braces.
5,410: Number of orthodontists in the United States.
650: Number of orthodontists in Caifornia (the most of any U.S. state).
30: Number of orthodontists in West Virginia (the fewest of any U.S. state).
$206, 190: Mean annual income for an orthodontist in the United States.
81: Number of Ugly Betty episodes that aired before Betty got her braces removed.
1: Number of The Brady Bunch episodes in which Marcia wore braces.
_______________________
The article above, written by Adam K. Raymond, is reprinted with permission from the March-April 2011 issue of mental_floss magazine. Get a subscription to mental_floss and never miss an issue!Be sure to visit mental_floss' website and blog for more fun stuff!
By Sean J. Barry, University of California, Davis
Striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) are among the most familiar yet least understood of North American mammals. For example, people commonly think of these vividly marked animals as denizens of forests, prairie, swamps, and virtually any other terrestrial habitat, and many scientists argue that the skunk’s contrasting black and white dorsal stripes purposely advertise the skunk’s presence but simultaneously “warn” potential predators not to tangle with it. If a potential predator approaches a skunk too closely the skunk typically sprays an obnoxious musk that is commonly believed to deter further attack, but since there is no guarantee that the “musking” will actually protect the skunk some kind of advance warning might benefit the skunk (and the predator).
All of this sounds good but is not supported by the facts. I’m prepared to show that in reality, striped skunks are virtually confined to an entirely different type of habitat than woods and fields and that far from being an advertisement the vivid white stripes enable skunks to occupy this habitat in almost total secrecy.
How it Works
Figure 1. Good and not so good highway behavior in the striped skunk. Figure prepared by Emily Barry.
This paper rests on a few simple, easily verified facts. First, if the number of live and dead striped skunks we see on highways versus those we see elsewhere is any indication, it’s clear that most striped skunks actually spend their entire lives on the highways, not in forests, prairies, or swamps. And I don’t mean along the edges of the highways or on the medians, I mean right on the highways. Now and again you might see a skunk in a public park or housing development, but these skunks are just dispersing and always find a road sooner or later.
Second, the highway is obviously a difficult place to live unless you (the skunk) are well adapted to survive in the midst of pervasive hazards. Such adaptation might
include great speed or agility, neither of which the skunk has, or it might involve concealment while on the highway through cryptic coloration. A simple comparison of skunks and highways shows that cryptic coloration is the correct interpretation. Skunks survive and reach great abundance on the highways because the white dorsal stripe is an incredibly precise “mimic” of the painted highway lane divider stripes (Fig. 1A). Rather than advertise the skunks’ presence, the skunks’ stripes blend right in with the highway stripes and no one sees the millions of skunks that populate the lane dividers. All a skunk has to do is to stay on the white lane divider line and it becomes extraordinarily difficult for any predator to detect.
What else factors into skunk/highway adaptation?
Well, for one thing, skunk survival on the highways is linked directly to skunk behavior. As long as the skunk stays longways on the painted lines the animal is relatively protected from any kind of attack (Fig 1A) but if the skunk moves off of the stripe (Fig. 1B) its visibility and vulnerability increase. If the skunk turns sideways (Fig 1C) the entire crypsis system breaks down and then the skunk is extremely vulnerable to any of a number of predators. In fact it is most often taken instantly by the most efficient skunk predator of all, the automobile. As common as these casualties are they are still several orders of magnitude below the millions of skunks that thrive for years on the highways just by staying longways on the stripes.
Likewise, life on the highway is in itself an efficient selective force that maintains striped skunk color pattern phenotypes within very narrow limits. Normally patterned striped skunks (Fig 2A) are, as previously noted, cryptic when positioned longways against the highway stripes (Fig 1A). However, crosswise striped (Fig 2B) and offset striped (Fig 2C) skunks are easily detected especially when positioned longways on the highway stripes. Consequently, these aberrant crosswise and offset color patterns are so rare in the striped skunk population that the only place I’ve ever seen them is in Fig. 2. Thus, only normally patterned, normally behaving striped skunks benefit maximally from life on the highway.
Figure 2. Adaptive and maladaptive striped skunk pattern phenotypes in the Wainwrightian context. Figure prepared by Emily Barry.
Earlier Progress on This Question
The only reference I could find regarding a cause and effect relationship between skunks and highways is Wainwright (1972),1 but although the fundamental observations that Wainwright reported were correct as far as they went, that author overlooked the cryptic coloration that is the foundation of this new paper. Nevertheless, in recognition of Wainwright’s seminal contribution to this research I propose the term “Wainwrightian Adaptation” for the newly discovered phenomenon reported here. Further investigation will probably show that other animals such as magpies and garter snakes also demonstrate Wainwrightian Adaptation and may even interact trophically with skunks in the same type of habitat. Research into Wainwrightian Adaptation shows great promise for investigators with the requisite speed, agility, and insurance.
Acknowledgements
Emily Barry prepared the two figures. I also thank Loudon Wainwright III, who likely has no idea why.
Literature cited
1. “Dead Skunk (in the Middle of the Road),” Loudon Wainwright III, Sound recording on Album III, Columbia KC 31462, 1972. A first edition copy of Wainwright’s 1972 study of skunks.
Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.
(Image credit: Flickr users Clinton & Charles Robertson)
I have solved a longstanding mystery: why skunks have their characteristic stripes.Striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) are among the most familiar yet least understood of North American mammals. For example, people commonly think of these vividly marked animals as denizens of forests, prairie, swamps, and virtually any other terrestrial habitat, and many scientists argue that the skunk’s contrasting black and white dorsal stripes purposely advertise the skunk’s presence but simultaneously “warn” potential predators not to tangle with it. If a potential predator approaches a skunk too closely the skunk typically sprays an obnoxious musk that is commonly believed to deter further attack, but since there is no guarantee that the “musking” will actually protect the skunk some kind of advance warning might benefit the skunk (and the predator).
All of this sounds good but is not supported by the facts. I’m prepared to show that in reality, striped skunks are virtually confined to an entirely different type of habitat than woods and fields and that far from being an advertisement the vivid white stripes enable skunks to occupy this habitat in almost total secrecy.
How it Works
Figure 1. Good and not so good highway behavior in the striped skunk. Figure prepared by Emily Barry.
This paper rests on a few simple, easily verified facts. First, if the number of live and dead striped skunks we see on highways versus those we see elsewhere is any indication, it’s clear that most striped skunks actually spend their entire lives on the highways, not in forests, prairies, or swamps. And I don’t mean along the edges of the highways or on the medians, I mean right on the highways. Now and again you might see a skunk in a public park or housing development, but these skunks are just dispersing and always find a road sooner or later.
Second, the highway is obviously a difficult place to live unless you (the skunk) are well adapted to survive in the midst of pervasive hazards. Such adaptation might
include great speed or agility, neither of which the skunk has, or it might involve concealment while on the highway through cryptic coloration. A simple comparison of skunks and highways shows that cryptic coloration is the correct interpretation. Skunks survive and reach great abundance on the highways because the white dorsal stripe is an incredibly precise “mimic” of the painted highway lane divider stripes (Fig. 1A). Rather than advertise the skunks’ presence, the skunks’ stripes blend right in with the highway stripes and no one sees the millions of skunks that populate the lane dividers. All a skunk has to do is to stay on the white lane divider line and it becomes extraordinarily difficult for any predator to detect.
What else factors into skunk/highway adaptation?
Well, for one thing, skunk survival on the highways is linked directly to skunk behavior. As long as the skunk stays longways on the painted lines the animal is relatively protected from any kind of attack (Fig 1A) but if the skunk moves off of the stripe (Fig. 1B) its visibility and vulnerability increase. If the skunk turns sideways (Fig 1C) the entire crypsis system breaks down and then the skunk is extremely vulnerable to any of a number of predators. In fact it is most often taken instantly by the most efficient skunk predator of all, the automobile. As common as these casualties are they are still several orders of magnitude below the millions of skunks that thrive for years on the highways just by staying longways on the stripes.
Likewise, life on the highway is in itself an efficient selective force that maintains striped skunk color pattern phenotypes within very narrow limits. Normally patterned striped skunks (Fig 2A) are, as previously noted, cryptic when positioned longways against the highway stripes (Fig 1A). However, crosswise striped (Fig 2B) and offset striped (Fig 2C) skunks are easily detected especially when positioned longways on the highway stripes. Consequently, these aberrant crosswise and offset color patterns are so rare in the striped skunk population that the only place I’ve ever seen them is in Fig. 2. Thus, only normally patterned, normally behaving striped skunks benefit maximally from life on the highway.
Figure 2. Adaptive and maladaptive striped skunk pattern phenotypes in the Wainwrightian context. Figure prepared by Emily Barry.
Earlier Progress on This Question
The only reference I could find regarding a cause and effect relationship between skunks and highways is Wainwright (1972),1 but although the fundamental observations that Wainwright reported were correct as far as they went, that author overlooked the cryptic coloration that is the foundation of this new paper. Nevertheless, in recognition of Wainwright’s seminal contribution to this research I propose the term “Wainwrightian Adaptation” for the newly discovered phenomenon reported here. Further investigation will probably show that other animals such as magpies and garter snakes also demonstrate Wainwrightian Adaptation and may even interact trophically with skunks in the same type of habitat. Research into Wainwrightian Adaptation shows great promise for investigators with the requisite speed, agility, and insurance.
Acknowledgements
Emily Barry prepared the two figures. I also thank Loudon Wainwright III, who likely has no idea why.
Literature cited
1. “Dead Skunk (in the Middle of the Road),” Loudon Wainwright III, Sound recording on Album III, Columbia KC 31462, 1972. A first edition copy of Wainwright’s 1972 study of skunks.
_____________________
This article is republished with permission from the September-October 2010 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can download or purchase back issues of the magazine, or subscribe to receive future issues. Or get a subscription for someone as a gift!Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.
Early Friday morning, I predicted that Princess Beatrice's hat would be the instant meme to arise from the royal wedding. Now it's all over the place. You've really hit the heights of instant pop culture when you are enshrined in a cupcake. Wir Machen Cupcakes of Munich, Germany created this lovely tribute to Princess Beatrice's hat. Link -via The Daily What
People love a race. They began to race cars before any of the kinks in such an undertaking were worked out. Consider the 1903 Paris to Madrid road race:
But that was just one race. Things got considerably worse in the next, when locals shot at passing vehicles! Read all six stories at Cracked. Link -via Buzzfeed
As a result of the constant, unremitting horror that unfolded on the first day, the race officials just drew a new finish line in Bordeaux.
Given the nascence of car manufacturing, not many people understood yet the inherent danger of traveling that fast in a wood and steel shell filled with explosives. All day, cars crashed into trees, burst into flames, careened into groups of spectators or just straight up disintegrated. Out of all the hundreds of racers that started, more than half crashed out in that first day, at least eight people died including one of the founders of Renault.
But that was just one race. Things got considerably worse in the next, when locals shot at passing vehicles! Read all six stories at Cracked. Link -via Buzzfeed
(YouTube link)
The White House prepared a movie trailer for president Barack Obama's routine last night at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner. It's a sequel to The King's Speech.
We brought you the stories of some extraordinary prom rides a few years ago, but this takes the cake... or maybe the hot dog! Ben Ross was seriously hurt in a motorcycle accident. A joke he made while in the hospital led his mother to petition the Oscar Mayer company to take Ben and his girlfriend Molly Muchow to their prom in the Weinermobile. The company came through, and Ben and Molly were driven in the 27-foot vehicle to the L.D. Bell High School prom last night at the Dallas Trade Center. Link -via Fark
(Image credit: Kylie Nellis/WFAA contributor)
(YouTube link)
Jell-o, is it a solid or a liquid? Watch it being dropped on a hard surface in slow motion and you'll see it is both. And hypnotically entertaining, too. -via The Mary Sue
The following is an article from the book Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges Into History Again. The East German government called the Berlin Wall "the Anti-Fascist Protection Barrier." But the machine guns along its length were pointed inward, toward East Berlin, not outward.
Shortly after midnight on August 13, 1961, the city of Berlin was cut in two. Soviet and East German troops moved in and ringed the city. Train service between the two cities was stopped. Telephone lines were cut. Streets connecting East and West were sealed off. The construction of the Berlin Wall had begun. The people of East Berlin were being locked in.
EAST SIDE, WEST SIDE
At first, the wall consisted of barbed wire, concrete barriers, and tanks. When complete, it was 100 miles (161 km) of pure concrete, 10 to 13 feet (3 to 4 meters) high. It extended 28 miles (45 km) through the heart of Berlin and some 70 miles (113 km) around the city to isolate West Berlin from the rest of East Germany, which surrounded it.
The wall was painted white, not to make it prettier, but to make it easier for border guards to see and shoot at anyone attempting to climb over it. A second wall was built 100 yards (91 meters) to the east of the first wall. In the no-man's-land (known as the Death Zone) between them were 293 watchtowers along with searchlights, killer guard dogs, self-firing guns, and land mines. Over the years, the wall was rebuilt three times to make it harder and harder to breach.
THE GREAT ESCAPES
April is almost over and May is coming at us at the speed of time. Soon, we'll be busy with Mother's Day, graduation, Memorial Day, and school vacation. Just remember, when you get really busy that it's always a good idea to take a break and recharge with the fun and interesting stuff on Neatorama! Here's what you need to catch up on from the past week.
Jill Harness has two feature article his week. Cool Non-Literary Uses for Books has recycling projects that are "bound" to impress.
And her post The 11 Coolest and Weirdest Tumblr Blogs should keep you quite busy.
We learned about The Great Moon Hoax (of 1835) from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader.
The Annals of Improbable Research gave is a lesson in Horse Calculus.
Wales, the Almost Nation came to us from mental_floss magazine.
Alex received a promotional goodie box concerning the new movie Thor and decided to share the contents in a game called What's Inside The Box. We had lots of winners, who were named in the followup post.
The What Is It? game was not all that easy this week. It took a while, but Edward K had the right answer. This is a pet ID holder. You can slip paper inside it and attach it to a dog’s collar. The funniest answer came from Randall, who called it “A hummelfubertapfer. Scandenavian beer drinker would use this timy hammer to break of the ice that formed on their beer as they drank it. This led to the colloquial joke of ‘Is that your wife’s nose or a Hummelfubertapfer?’ after which the the joke’s subject would either fly into a rage or laugh uproarously, depending on their level of inebriation.” Both win t-shirts from the NeatoShop!
And we have a contest that is still open as this post is published! The Frowning Royal Wedding Flower Girl: What Was She Thinking About? is a caption contest of sorts in which you can win a funny t-shirt from the NeatoShop!
Once you've read what we have to offer for this week, you can delve into the archives for our past exclusive articles at The Best of Neatorama, or check out other links around the web with the NeatoHub. And thanks for spending some of your time with us!
Jill Harness has two feature article his week. Cool Non-Literary Uses for Books has recycling projects that are "bound" to impress.
And her post The 11 Coolest and Weirdest Tumblr Blogs should keep you quite busy.
We learned about The Great Moon Hoax (of 1835) from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader.
The Annals of Improbable Research gave is a lesson in Horse Calculus.
Wales, the Almost Nation came to us from mental_floss magazine.
Alex received a promotional goodie box concerning the new movie Thor and decided to share the contents in a game called What's Inside The Box. We had lots of winners, who were named in the followup post.
The What Is It? game was not all that easy this week. It took a while, but Edward K had the right answer. This is a pet ID holder. You can slip paper inside it and attach it to a dog’s collar. The funniest answer came from Randall, who called it “A hummelfubertapfer. Scandenavian beer drinker would use this timy hammer to break of the ice that formed on their beer as they drank it. This led to the colloquial joke of ‘Is that your wife’s nose or a Hummelfubertapfer?’ after which the the joke’s subject would either fly into a rage or laugh uproarously, depending on their level of inebriation.” Both win t-shirts from the NeatoShop!
And we have a contest that is still open as this post is published! The Frowning Royal Wedding Flower Girl: What Was She Thinking About? is a caption contest of sorts in which you can win a funny t-shirt from the NeatoShop!
Once you've read what we have to offer for this week, you can delve into the archives for our past exclusive articles at The Best of Neatorama, or check out other links around the web with the NeatoHub. And thanks for spending some of your time with us!
Questions of logic don't apply to Hollywood movies, but science fiction fans like their stories to make some kind of sense. So the discussion turned to the logic of using a Death Star to blow up a planet.
What follows is a cost-benefit analysis from various members of the Think Tank. Read the rest at (where else?) Overthinking It. Link -via Metafilter
What’s the economic calculus behind the Empire’s tactic of A) building a Death Star, B) intimidating planets into submission with the threat of destruction, and C) actually carrying through with said destruction if the planet doesn’t comply?
Doesn’t the Empire take a huge economic loss from the lost productivity of an entire planet? They were presumably paying taxes and providing resources to the rest of the Empire. Presumably the loss of that planet’s output would have to be made up by increased output from other planets that were either slacking in productivity due to rebellion or threatening to rebel and withdraw from the Empire altogether. It doesn’t seem to make good economic sense.
What follows is a cost-benefit analysis from various members of the Think Tank. Read the rest at (where else?) Overthinking It. Link -via Metafilter
Rick Hill of Lunenburg, Massachusetts went on vacation to Hawaii and took an unplanned visit to Waikiki Beach. There he met resident Joe Parker, who went on an unplanned errand to the beach as part of his job. Parker recognized Hill's accent and made an offhand remark that led them to a discussion about how they both grew up in the same area of Massachusetts.
The two men spent a week becoming acquainted. Link -via reddit
And then the name game began. Parker threw out several, including Dickie Halligan. Hill responded, “That’s my father!’’
Standing in the glistening white sand, Parker lowered his sunglasses, squinted at Hill, and declared, “That’s my dad, too!’’
A flood of emotion hit everyone like the high-arching waves crashing nearby, they said. Tears flowed down Howe’s cheeks as the two men studied each other’s face and hugged.
“I can’t really put it into words,’’ Parker said yesterday in a telephone interview from Hawaii, describing the feeling of meeting his half brother for the first time, some 6,000 miles from where they grew up. “If I had to, I would say it was chilling, paralyzing, and an out-of-body experience all at once.’’
The two men spent a week becoming acquainted. Link -via reddit
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