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Issue 750 - 3/14/2016
SNIPPETZ IS SPELLBOUND BY THE MAGICAL WORLD OF HARRY POTTER by Lindsey Harrison 
“We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.”
– Sirius Black in “Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix” When Joanne Rowling sat down to write a story about a young boy who learns that he is a wizard and begins his education at a wizards school, it’s likely that she had no idea that her story would turn her into a literal billionaire. If that name “Joanne Rowling” sounds only vaguely familiar, that’s because she is more commonly known as J. K. Rowling, the author of the “Harry Potter” book series. Arguably, one of the most successful book series of all times, Harry Potter has garnered fans from all age groups. And the fantastical world of wizards and magic has leapt from the pages to infiltrate just about every aspect of Harry Potter fans’ lives. That being said, there’s only so much that a wonderful little magazine like Snippetz can tell you about the Harry Potter books that you don’t already know. But that didn’t keep us from trying! Here are some interesting “snippetz” about anything and everything Harry Potter-related! IN REMEMBERANCE . . . It would be entirely inappropriate not to point out that the actor who played Professor Snape in the Harry Potter movies, Alan Rickman, recently passed away on Jan. 14, 2016. He played many other roles during his long career, but since this is the Harry Potter Snippetz issue, we wanted to make sure to acknowledge the great loss many of you super Harry Potter fans must have felt. We feel it, too. THE GREAT AND POWERFUL J. K. ROWLING What better place to start our wizarding journey than with the genius behind the whole thing? Many of you die-hard H.P. fans probably already know that Rowling and her most famous character share a birthday; July 31. But Rowling inserted more of herself into the book than just her birthday. She has said in interviews that she considers Hermione Granger, one of Harry’s best friends throughout the series, as a younger version of herself. Rowling even made Hermione’s “patronus,” a guardian which generally takes the shape of the animal with whom that person shares the deepest affinity, an otter . . . which just so happens to be Rowling’s favorite animal. For someone with so much natural imagination, it seems fitting that Rowling would write her notes, thoughts, pieces of inspiration that she would reference later, onto something more interesting than a pad of paper. In fact, inspiration for the names of the Hogwarts Houses came at a time when the only “paper” on-hand was airsickness bags and that’s what she used! For anyone who has ever struggled with depression, it probably comes as no surprise that the disease was the inspiration for Rowling’s dementors, the creepy ghost-like creatures that feed off human emotion. Pretty accurate, if you ask us. Oh, and remember that whole “Joanne/J. K. Rowling” thing? Well, it turns out that Rowling wanted to use her real first name on the books, but her publisher advised her to use just her initials instead to her books would appeal to male readers. She took the “K” from her grandmother Kathleen’s name, stuck in between her first initial and last name and voila! The “K” doesn’t stand for anything in her full legal name. As if it wasn’t already clear how intelligent Rowling is, the uber-successful author actually minored in Classics while at university. Using what she had learned, Rowling sprinkled various Latin-inspired phrases throughout the books. For example, the spells used in the books, were variations of real Latin words that Rowling combined for each specific purpose. Take “expelliarmus.” In the books, it was a spell to disarm your opponent by knocking their weapon from their hand. The real Latin words “expellere” (meaning drive out or expel) and “arma” (meaning weapon), when put together, make for an incredibly authentic-sounding spell. Rowling put her linguistic skills to work again when she named Lord Voldemort. Throughout the series, he is commonly referred to as “He Who Shall Not Be Named,” but if you did actually say his name, you would be saying the French words for “flight of death.” BEHIND THE MOVIE SCENES Of course, the movie version of a story rarely lives up to the book version. However, some would argue that the Harry Potter movies are the exception to that rule. Much of it has to do with the actors who were cast in each role. But there was plenty of behind-the-scenes antics that served to keep things interesting for the cast and crew alike. For instance, Tom Felton, the actor who played Draco Malfoy, had the pockets in his robes sewed shut because he kept trying to hide food in them to snack on while on set. Although we can’t confirm that it was a deciding factor in his being cast as Ron Weasley, Rupert Grint actually auditioned for the role via video tape. On it, he dressed up like his female drama teacher and performed a rap song about Ron Weasley. Speaking of Grint, he was actually removed from the set during the kissing scene between the horcrux versions of Harry and Hermione because he couldn’t stop laughing and it was becoming disruptive. Not much of an antic, and not very funny either, was the outbreak of lice that occurred among the child actors while shooting “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.” But it makes for a good Snippetz, doesn’t it? HARRY POTTER SNIPPETZ
Issue 751 - 3/21/2016
WHAT'S EASTER GOT TO DO WITH EASTER ISLAND? by Lindsey Harrison “Easter is meant to be a symbol of hope, renewal, and new life.” – Janine di Giovanni, America journalist Easter is finally here. That means spring, a season of rebirth, and yes, a very important Christian holiday. For years, people around the world have celebrated Easter by coloring eggs, eating pounds of jelly beans and enjoying the goodies left behind after the Easter Bunny visits. Now, we could sit here and try to analyze why we eat jelly beans on Easter, or what exactly the Easter Bunny has to do with, well, anything. We could, but we won’t. Frankly, that’s been done before. So this time around, Snippetz has decided take a different approach and look at other “Easter-y” things, like Easter Island for instance. What does Easter have to do with Easter Island? And what’s up with those creepy heads? Come with us as Snippetz hops on over to Easter Island! BEFORE EASTER ISLAND WAS EASTER ISLAND . . . Talk to anyone who has never heard of Easter Island and they’ll likely tell you it sounds like an awesome place! Easter eggs hidden all over, gigantic Peeps just waiting to be devoured, and everything is in varying shades of pastels. Of course, we all know that’s not quite right. Easter Island is very much like any other island. It measures a mere 64 square miles and is located about 2,200 miles off the coast of Chile in South America. From a technical standpoint, the island is a single ginormous volcano. On said ginormous volcano, there are three extinct, much smaller volcanoes. The tallest of the three measures 1,674 feet above sea level. Prior to being dubbed “Easter Island,” this little slice of holiday-inspired heaven’s name had nothing to do with any holiday. It was called Te-Pito-te-Henua or “End of the Land” and Mata-Ki-Te-Rani or “Eyes Looking at Heaven.” It wasn’t until 1722, when a Dutch ship landed on the island on Easter Sunday that it got its festive name. The island is often referred to as Rapa Nui. WAIT, WHAT ABOUT EASTER? Hang on a second . . . we don’t even know why Easter is called Easter in the first place. The fact of the matter is that there is no one hard-and-fast explanation. The closest we’ve come is from an Anglo-Saxon scholar and historian from the 600s named Bede. His theory was that the name “Easter” comes from the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre, who is associated with spring, rebirth and fertility. Given the timing of the vernal, or spring, equinox, it makes sense that the Easter holiday would supplant the other spring celebrations. So there’s that. MEANWHILE, BACK ON THE ISLAND OK, so we have that all cleared up. Easter Island has nothing to do with Easter other than that Dutch sea captain Jacob Roggeveen landed there on Easter Sunday in 1722. However, the first inhabitants of the island are thought to have arrived as early as 318 A.D., long before the Dutch ever set foot there. Those first inhabitants that we now know are of Polynesian descent, tell a legend of the discovery of their beloved island. According to said legend, the Chief Hotu Matu’a, or the “Great Parent,” left Polynesia with his family in a canoe in search of a new home. The chief landed on Te-Pito-Te-Henua and realized what a great place it would be for his family to live, with the abundance of natural resources available to them from both the island itself and the sea surrounding it. Feeling confident that his family would thrive on the island, Chief Hotu Matu’a instructed his people to build ceremonial sites called ahu that were essentially large stone mounds. Onto these mounds, they built the moai, the massive iconic stones heads for which Easter Island is commonly known. These moai were representations of notable chieftains who ruled the island over the years and were thought to be the embodiment of that chieftain’s spirit. With their backs to the ocean, the moai are said to provide protection for the islanders and bless them during their daily activities. Made from tuff (no, that’s not a typo), which is a soft volcanic rock native to the island, the moai stand at an average height of 13 feet and weigh about 14 tons each. How in the world did the islanders create these monolithic heads? Surely, they didn’t have these massive rocks just lying around in convenient enough places to carve out heads and be done with it. But if that’s not the case, the only other option is that they were moved to their current locations . . . somehow! A popular theory is that the people cut down palm trees and used their trunks to roll the heads across from one spot to another. This theory also goes a long way to describing the fate of the islanders. With a growing population on a relatively remote island, there’s only so many resources available, especially if those resources aren’t being replenished somehow. Although there were roughly 2,000 to 3,000 people living on the island when the Dutch showed up, estimates indicate there may have been as many as 15,000 inhabitants just a few decades before. What happened?! Consider roughly 15,000 people living on 64 square miles, vying for all the resources that small area had to offer and essentially you have a recipe for disaster. By the 1600s, no more forests existed on the island and records indicate the inhabitants suffered famine and possibly resorted to cannibalism to survive. Imagine an island completely devoid of natural resources, including the wood from which canoes and boats could be crafted. The islanders were stuck on a desolate island with no way to leave because they had stripped the landscape bare. Oops. STANDING TALL Even though the fate of the original islanders was less than cheery, the moai remain as silent sentinels that oversaw the implosion a culture. By 1877, barely 100 native people were left, but their numbers increased and by 1888, when Chile annexed the island, the population was on the rebound. As of today, there are roughly 2,200 descendants of the original islanders still living on Easter Island. The moai didn’t come out of the upheaval completely unscathed; all were knocked over at some point in time during the period of unrest. However, a current project is underway to raise the moai so they may continue to guard the island and its people. So far, 50 of the heads have “gotten a lift” so to speak and are back to their former glory. EASTER ISLAND SNIPPETZ
Issue 752 - 3/28/2016
SNIPPETZ RECOUNTS THE IMPRESSIVE LIFE OF SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL by Lindsey Harrison 
“You have enemies? Good.
That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” – Sir Winston Churchill, English statesman When you think of Sir Winston Churchill, what comes to mind? Perhaps it’s the image of an older, balding gentleman with a large cigar tucked between his lips. Or maybe the name brings to mind a rather surly expression on a soft, almost squishy face. What about a nice, black, structured Homburg hat atop his pale face, out of which shine intelligent blue eyes? Even if you have never seen a photo of Churchill, you get the idea. He was literally average in just about every physical way possibly. But the incredible thing is, he was so much more than average in what he accomplished and endured. As a very respectable magazine, Snippetz has the utmost admiration for Churchill’s ability to tell it like it was; mincing words was really not his style. Some of you reading this may be wondering, “What in the world are they talking about?” Well, dear readers, join us as we remember the incorrigible Sir Winston Churchill! EARLY LIFE On November 30, 1874, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was born to Lord Randolph Churchill and Jennie Jerome. Randolph Churchill, from the family of the Dukes of Marlborough, served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, or in layman’s terms, the finance minister of the United Kingdom. Jennie Jerome, or more formally Lady Randolph Churchill was the daughter of American millionaire Leonard Jerome. Although he was born in Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England, the young Churchill lived for four years in Dublin, where his governess attempted to teach him “reading, writing and arithmetic.” However, he was not exactly a fabulous student and generally had a poor academic record from the start and throughout the rest of his schooling years. Churchill’s time at Harrow School was certainly not helped by his red hair, stuttering speech and lateral lisp. In fact, those traits earned him the nickname “Copperknob.” Although his poor grades did not reflect his intelligent nature, Churchill was very bright and actually earned top rankings in history and math. After finishing his schooling at Harrow, Churchill took the entrance exam for the Royal Military College, but failed. In fact, he failed three times before finally passing in 1893. However, he was unable to attend immediately; he fell off a bridge near his aunt’s house and sustained a ruptured kidney. Churchill was unconscious for three days and spent the next three months bedridden as he healed. CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER . . . It would certainly be an understatement to say that Churchill had a thirst for knowledge. As a war reporter, he often lobbied to be assigned the stories that would send him to dangerous military zones. Churchill made a decent living writing of those experiences and selling them to the newspapers. By 1899, he had secured a position as a correspondent for the Morning Post, earning himself a tidy £250 per month, with all other expenses paid. The problem with being a war reporter is that you are just as vulnerable as soldiers around you and in fact, Churchill found himself in a very precarious position after the armored train he was on in South Africa was invaded by Boer soldiers during the Boer War. The train collided with a boulder put on the tracks to enable the invasion and Churchill threw himself into a ditch to avoid the conflict. He was discovered and found himself weaponless so he surrendered. But Churchill was not one to just give up; although he found himself in a prison camp in 1899, he also managed to escape said camp by climbing a wall during the night. He hitched rides on various trains and eventually made it to the capital of Mozambique, roughly 300 miles from the prison. A RICH POLITICAL AND VARIED CAREER Over the next 64 years, Churchill held a prominent place in British politics, beginning with his first positions as a majority member to his final post as an elder Member of Parliament in 1964. Not to be forgotten are his years as Prime Minister, from 1940 to 1945, and then again from 1951 to 1955. During that time, Churchill wrote about 20 books, painted close to 600 paintings and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He married Clementine Ogilvy Hozier just a month after asking for her hand, and the couple raised five children together. Their 57-year marriage remained strong by all accounts, including the pet names “Kat” (for her) and “Pug” (for him; if you’ve ever seen his photos, you’ll understand why!). Although his career wasn’t without its share of failures, he had many successes and upon his death on January 24, 1965, he was so well-loved, Queen Elizabeth II decreed that his body be laid in state in Westminster Hall for three days. That privilege was typically reserved for members of the British Royal family. NOTABLE CHURCHILLISMS As a man who knew how to make a point and leave a lasting impression, Churchill has left us with many fantastic quotes that help define who he was as a man but also give incredible insight into life in general. Here are some of our favorite Churchillisms:
LESS NOTABLE (BUT DEFINITELY FUNNIER) CHURCHILLISMS
WINSTON CHURCHILL SNIPPETZ
Issue 753 - 4/4/2016
SNIPPETZ GETS A HANDLE ON SOME STRANGE TOWN NAMES by Lindsey Harrison “There are a million tiny weird towns. You never know what you’re going to get into if you drive an hour into the wild.” – Bill Callahan, American musician There is no doubt that our country and indeed our world is full of quaint, unique and interesting towns. Some towns stand out because they are the home of the world’s largest ball of twine, or because they happen to have the tallest mountain in all of the Rocky Mountain range. Other times, the interest is simply because of the town’s name. Around here, we don’t have many funky town names. Monument, Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs, Denver. None of those names sounds like anything special, at least not from the outset. But what about a town with a name that is 58 letters long and essentially unpronounceable by the average American? That might just pique your interest. It certainly piqued ours here at Snippetz! So of course, it made us wonder what other strangely-named towns may be out there and how in the world they got those names. Here’s what our virtual travels have uncovered! TIGHTWAD, MISSOURI Here’s one story that makes you think twice about your dealings with folks in a small town. Early in the town’s history, a store owner, thinking to make a quick buck for himself, cheated a customer out of an extra $.50 for a watermelon the customer purchased. That customer also happened to be a postman and so he decided that, in order to get back at the shady proprietor, he would start calling the town Tightwad and began delivering the mail to the residents as such. Apparently, it stuck, all thanks to one penny-pincher. TOAD SUCK, ARKANSAS This very imaginatively-named town supposedly gets its name from a tavern located near the Arkansas River. Before the Army Corps of Engineers built a highway bridge that crossed the river, the best way to get over the river was by barge. The bargemen that manned the barges often spent time at the tavern, drinking and carrying on. Someone described the scene as saying the bargemen would “suck on bottles until they swelled up like toads.” PECULIAR, MISSOURI With a name like Peculiar, it’s easy to think that the way this town was named is actually a punchline to a bad joke. But here’s how it happened: the residents of this little yet-to-be-named town, located about 30 miles south of Kansas City, were content to leave their town unnamed until they were literally required to choose a name. When the U.S. government made that requirement, the postmaster of the town wrote to the government requesting the name “Excelsior.” Finding it was already taken, the postmaster wrote again and again, each time with a different name request and each time he was rebuffed. Eventually, he got tired of the game and wrote, “We’ll take any name you have available as long as it’s peculiar.” And now, it literally is! DING DONG, TEXAS Now, it’s interesting to consider the origin of this name. You might think it has something to do with the Hostess snack cake, or perhaps the fact that it’s located in Bell County. Or, perhaps it’s a tribute to the “Wizard of Oz” (get it? Ding dong, the witch is dead . . .). Well, none of those origins is correct. The name actually comes from a store owned by Zulis and Bert Bell. The pair hired a sign painted named C. C. Hoover to make them a new sign. As a way to attract more attention and hopefully more business, Hoover suggested having the sign feature two bells and the words “Ding Dong.” The Bells went with the idea and the community apparently favored the name as well, and chose it as their own. EMBARRASS, MINNESOTA AND EMBARRASS, WISCONSIN When one town decides on the name Embarrass, it’s interesting. When two towns choose that name, it makes you wonder what in the world is going on. But the reality is much less intriguing than the names suggest. They actually are both named for essentially the same reason. First off, consider the states’ locations; northern part of the U.S., near Canada. So it makes sense that these towns would have some measure of French Canadian influence. That’s where the name comes in: “embarrass” in French means “to hinder with obstacles or difficulties; to impede.” French Canadian fur traders and loggers in the areas either ran across or used the rivers, and both groups found that the rivers weren’t terribly easy to navigate. They named the towns Embarrass for the difficulty with which they were able to carry out their business tasks. BOOGERTOWN, NORTH CAROLINA This lovely little slice of mucusy-sounding heaven is located in unincorporated Gaston County. Why is the world would anyone choose to name their beloved town after boogers? Well, technically they didn’t. The story goes that moonshiners back in the day used to warn visitors that the bogeyman lived in the forest so people wouldn’t wander around and find their secret moonshine operations. One thing led to another and the town became known as Boogertown. How lovely, right? But to be honest, it’s much better than some of the reasons you could think of. BORING, MARYLAND You might think that a town named Boring wouldn’t have much going on. But the truth is actually more mundane than even the name itself! The local postmaster, David Boring, inspired the new name. The railroad felt the change was necessary because the former name of Fairview was only one of many on the particular railroad line that passed through. See? That was even more “boring” than the name. Ha! YEEHAW JUNCTION, FLORIDA This town name sounds like it would be better suited in the southwestern portion of the country. And however goofy the current name sounds, it’s a major step up from the former name of “Jackass Junction.” Of course, the jackass referred to in that name is of the donkey variety which itself is a reference to the ranchers that rode their donkeys into town. But in the 1950s, the Florida legislature decided to change it to its current name. It’s still unclear why they chose that name . . . OTHER STRANGE TOWN NAMES ⦁ Nimrod, Minnesota ⦁ Muck City, Alabama ⦁ Goobertown, Arkansas (think they chose this name because Boogertown was already taken?) ⦁ Squabbletown, California ⦁ Oblong, Illinois ⦁ Toad Hop, Indiana ⦁ Bugtussle, Kentucky ⦁ Dry Prong, Louisiana ⦁ Frankenstein, Missouri ⦁ Hot Coffee, Mississippi (now THAT sounds like a great town!) ⦁ Truth or Consequences, New Mexico ⦁ Tick Bite, North Carolina ⦁ Knockemstiff, Ohio ⦁ Bowlegs, Oklahoma ⦁ Accident, Maryland ⦁ Hell, Michigan Issue 754 - 4/11/2016
SNIPPETZ ASKS, "ARE YOU MAD?" MAD MAGAZINE, THAT IS! by Lindsey Harrison “By the very nature of satire or parody, you have to love and respect your target and respect it enough to understand every aspect of it, so you can more effectively make fun of it.” – T. J. Miller, American actor For those of us cursed with a wicked sense of humor, one that often features snarky comments or the affinity to find a way to make fun of anything and everything, regular magazines, newspapers and other periodicals can be a bit dry. Sure, the all-important who/what/when/where/why/how information is crucial to getting the facts. But those types of articles or stories, by their very nature, are not able to address some of the bigger issues of a topic. Wouldn’t it be nice if they could just come right out and say what we are all thinking anyway? It’s pretty refreshing when you find a publication that does that! For years, MAD Magazine has been at the forefront of satirical commentary and as with any other type of media with staying power, there is a lot about the magazine that you probably don’t know. So we at Snippetz decided to turn the attention back on the publication puts everyone else under the microscope and find out everything we could on MAD Magazine! HUMBLE BEGINNINGS MAD Magazine didn’t actually start out as a magazine when it hit the stands in 1952. Initially, it was a comic book in the EC comic book line, owned by Max Gaines, who essentially paved the way for comic books to be a mainstay on newsstands in the 1930s. The original idea was for these books to be an inexpensive yet marketable form of comedic literature (a term we use relatively loosely) for kids. If you know anything about MAD, you know that it is most definitely NOT for kids. So what happened? Well, Max Gaines was sadly killed on August 20, 1947 at Lake Placid, New York when his motorboat was struck by another. His son, William Gaines, inherited the EC company and literally transformed it from its original “Educational Comics” slant to his preferred “Entertaining Comics” angle. Gone were the G-rated stories and drawings; instead, the younger Gaines ushered in a new era of sometimes gory, often satiric comic books, and MAD led the way. Early on, Gaines worked with Harvey Kurtzman, who suggested calling the comic book MAD and making it a sort of no-holds-barred format through which they were able to poke fun at anything and everything (sounds pretty awesome, if you ask us). The comic book debuted in 1952 and by 1955, it was clearly a success so Gaines allowed Kurtzman to change the MAD comic book to MAD Magazine. WARNING: CONTENT MAY NOT BE SUITABLE SOME ALL READERS As we mentioned before, MAD is not what it used to be. After it became a magazine in 1955, which coincidentally allowed the publisher more latitude in what could be printed versus what could run in a comic book, it was subversive and bold. It was one place where various aspects of American culture, like the sexual revolution, gun politics, and recreational drug use, could be both addressed and mocked. Not many media outlets took such a bold stance. Prior to its magazine status, this was not the case. But MAD found its niche and readers seemed to appreciate it. Really nothing was off-limits, which definitely set the magazine apart from others. However, over the years, the outlandish topics the magazine focused on in the first few decades of its existence are no longer outlandish in today’s society. To stay current, the magazine has had to adapt to the changing climate of our culture, and it has. But it has also spawned a whole generation of people who grew up reading MAD and realizing that the satirical, sardonic commentary was in high demand. Think: Stephen Colbert of “The Colbert Report” and Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show.” Robert Boyd of the Los Angeles Times perfectly summed it up when he wrote: “The magazine instilled in me a habit of mind, a way of thinking about a world rife with false fronts, small print, deceptive ads, booby traps, treacherous language, double standards, half-truths, subliminal pitches and product placement . . . it prompted me to mistrust authority, to read between the lines, to take nothing at face value . . .” BEHIND THE SCENES It takes a lot of work to put a quality publication together (just ask George Wilkins). That said, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that MAD Magazine has many little-known secrets hiding in their more than 50 years of existence. For instance, remember when we told you about MAD switching from a comic book to a magazine? Well, they already had 23 issues under their belt prior to the switch and apparently some people just weren’t mentally prepared to handle the change. It all started when Gaines had to step in for Kurtzman who ended up in the hospital with acute hepatitis. Gaines thought it would be funny to include a biography about himself that laid out his father’s Communist sympathies, his own bouts with pyromania, and his history as a drug dealer who found his best customers hanging out near a local preschool. Of course, the entire thing was made up but some vendors didn’t quite get the joke and threatened to boycott the entire EC line. Gaines ultimately wrote an apology letter to appease them. That was only the first time Gaines would have to apologize for his content. The second time, he printed a depiction of a raised middle finger on the cover of the April 1974 issue. Vendors, once again, worried about offending their readers, and returned the issues to the company. If you’ve ever read MAD, you probably remember the iconic “Spy vs. Spy” strip. If not, here’s the gist: two spies are constantly after each other, trying to outdo the other. That’s basically it. But the interesting part is that the strip was actually created by Cuban cartoonist, Antonio Prohias who fled the country after it became clear he was not all-in when it came to Fidel Castro and his ideals. Rumors started that he was working for the CIA, although he wasn’t, so he headed to the U.S. in 1960 to ensure his own safety. He popped in to MAD’s offices in New York and showed them his “Spy vs. Spy” concept and they loved it. And they lived happily ever after. The magazine’s beloved mascot, Alfred E. Neuman, easily recognizable with his large ears, gap-toothed smile and Alfalfa-esque haircut, became the symbol of the right to parody. But it’s unlikely that his creator (whose identity is still debatable) ever thought the magnificent Fred Astaire would sport an Alfred E. Neuman mask for a performance in 1959, on his T.V. special, “Another Evening with Fred Astaire.” And it wasn’t just any old mask, either. Astaire hired make-up artist John Chambers, who headed the team responsible for the masks in the “Planet of the Apes,” to create a credible, unnervingly realistic Alfred E. Neuman mask. Although it isn’t clear why Astaire chose to do this, it was carefully planned so it’s safe to say Astaire knew what he was doing, even if the rest of us didn’t! Issue 755 - 4/18/2016
TSK, TSK! SNIPPETZ REMINDS YOU TO MIND YOUR MANNERS! by Lindsey Harrison “To do exactly as your neighbors do is the only sensible rule.” – Emily Post, American author As a child growing up, you may have had those subtle reminders from your parents that you needed to mind your manners. Of course, as kids, we didn’t really care if it wasn’t polite to put our elbows on the table while we ate dinner, or if we had used the correct fork for our entrée. As adults, those strange customs that we call manners might seem a little more understandable. But, maybe they don’t. Think about it: who decided it was polite to shake someone’s right hand when first meeting them? We all essentially agree to certain societal behaviors, like stopping at a red light, because it makes sense. If you don’t stop at a red light, you could get in a car accident. Duh. But in our overly-individualized society where our differences are accepted and often praised, why do we still hold onto those old ways of behaving? There’s nothing blatantly inappropriate about choosing not to shake someone’s hand, but with our fragile egos, it can be considered a sign of disrespect. All across the world, there are many different examples of manners; some make incredible sense while others seem antiquated to say the least. And naturally, we at Snippetz just couldn’t ignore the intriguing topic of manners so come with us as we travel around the world (and back in time) to find out all about those all-important manners! EMILY POST, AT YOUR SERVICE In case you were confused by the quote from this incredibly well-written article, Emily Post is kind of the Queen of Manners. Her first book, titled “Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home” or more simply “Etiquette,” was published in 1922 and became a best-seller. “Etiquette” touched on a wide variety of situations in which a person may find themselves, as the name implies. Post literally broke down those situations into scenarios and then listed rules to follow so that readers could easily navigate the trials and tribulations associated with each scenario. Of course, what Post wrote in her book holds true (in her opinion) for Americans in 1922, not for the entire world then or now. Interestingly enough, generations of Post descendants have taken a page out of their famous relative’s famous book. Peggy Post is the current spokesperson for The Emily Post Institute and is a contributing writer on etiquette for the Good Housekeeping magazine. Peter Post writes the Etiquette at Work column for The Boston Globe, and has authored various best-sellers on etiquette. Anna Post is the author of “Do I Have to Wear White? Emily Post Answers America’s Top Wedding Questions” and has become a leading expert in the field of wedding etiquette. There are plenty more Posts where that came from, but you get the idea! Although the idea that etiquette and manners were such a big deal at the time, especially in our current, not-so-polite times, Post certainly had a lot of influence. In fact, in 1950, Pageant magazine dubbed her the second most powerful woman in America, alone behind Eleanor Roosevelt. And as if that wasn’t enough, her influence was most recently celebrated on May 28, 1998 when the United States Postal Service issued a stamp featuring Post as a part of the series called “Celebrate the Century.” INTERESTING MANNERS AND CUSTOMS ACROSS THE WORLD In most of the countries in the Middle and Far East, it is considered impolite, and actually an insult, to point your feet at another person. Even worse is to point the soles of your feet at them. Business cards are a great way to network and give your professional, pertinent information to another person. Just don’t fold, crumple, crease or tear that business card if you receive one from someone in most Asian countries; business cards are considered an extension of the person who gave it to you and defacing or abusing that card is a sign of disrespect. Imagine having a stranger run up to you and embrace you in a ridiculously tight bear hug. Most people wouldn’t particularly enjoy that; however, a good, firm handshake is usually an acceptable alternative. Unless you live in the Philippines, that is. A firm handshake is a sign of aggression, just as a random bear hug might be in the United States. In China, Afghanistan and India, to show your gratitude and appreciation for a meal, leave some of the food on your plate instead of aiming to be a part of the Clean Plate Club. If you finish all your food, your host is obligated to keep filling it because it appears that you have not had enough to eat. However, if you are a guest for a meal in Kenya or Germany, clean that plate! To not finish your food is an indication that you didn’t enjoy the meal. Word to the wise: know what country you’re in before you sit down for you dinner! Kazakstan has come up with a very unique if not subtle way to let guests know when they have overstayed their welcome. During tea, if you are served a full cup of tea, that’s your signal to move on out! However, if you are served a half cup of tea, feel free to stay awhile. Similarly, in Kuwait, when the host stands after a meal, whether you are finished eating or not, that meal is over. In Vietnam, it is considered impolite to touch or pass something over someone’s head or shoulders. Emily Post would probably approve of such a custom, given that, in her words, “A man of breeding does not slap strangers on the back nor so much as lay his finger-tips on a lady. Nor does he punctuate his conversation by pushing or nudging or patting people.” While Americans often give each other the OK sign (putting your thumb and index finger together to make a circle, while extending the rest of the fingers), we all need to be cognizant that it is actually an insult in Germany and much of South America. And what about the stupid “peace sign” thing high school girls seem to throw around in their selfies? The way it is often done today, with the palm facing in, is actually akin to “flipping the bird” if you are from the United Kingdom. The original “V for victory” sign that President Richard Nixon is often depicted as doing features the palms facing out and is perfectly acceptable. And for the coup de grace, have you ever wondered why so many Arabic countries doing just about everything with their right hands? They eat with them, pass food with them, shake hands or greet each other with them . . . so what’s that all about? Well, before the days of toilet paper, if you lived in the desert, there weren’t many options for, well, cleaning yourself. Instead of causing any hygienic confusion, they would reserve their left hand for those less appealing chores. To clean their hands, they simply rubbed it in the sand and went about their day. Clearly, knowing which hand is used for which actions is kind of a big deal in the desert. Issue 756 - 4/25/2016
SNIPPETZ INVITES YOU TO LOOK DEEP INTO OUR EYES AND FEEL YOURSELF BE MESMERIZED! by Lindsey Harrison “Persuasion is often more effectual than force.” – Aesop, Greek storyteller As a child, you probably took something that was attached to a string, held it up in front of a friend’s face and gently swung it back and forth while saying, “You are getting sleepy . . .” Just about everyone has. There’s just something intriguing about the idea of having power over another person, whether it is the ability to put them to sleep or to plant an idea in their mind that leads to some desired action. Of course, most of us didn’t know the whole story about hypnotism when we were kids. In fact, many of us don’t know the full story now, even though the name of one of the pioneers of this technique has become incorporated into our everyday language. How could that be, you ask? Well, come with us as Snippetz journeys back into the mesmerizing world of Franz Anton Mesmer. See what we did there? Wink, wink! EARLY LIFE AND CAREER Franz Anton Mesmer was born in Germany in 1734, during the Age of Enlightenment, a time when European politics, philosophy, science and communication were overhauled and reoriented. Traditional ways of thinking and views of authority were questioned and people began to embrace the idea that humanity could be improved through rational, deliberate change. Alternative thinking methods likely created the perfect atmosphere for Mesmer’s techniques . . . but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. As a young man, Mesmer had trouble finding his niche in life. He started out on the road to the priesthood but apparently that didn’t suit him so Mesmer began studying astronomy. That didn’t suit him either, so he studied law which apparently wasn’t a good fit so Mesmer finally settled for a degree in medicine, which he received at the age of 32 from the University of Vienna. That medical degree allowed him to set up a practice in Vienna and begin treating people in the usual way for that time period. Blood-letting was common, as was the use of laxatives as a way to treat virtually everything. Mesmer’s clientele consisted of more upper-class people, thanks to the connections he made through his marriage to a wealthy widow. Not exactly a kept man, Mesmer was able to live very comfortably and practice his trade with perhaps a little more latitude than the average medical professional at the time. Mesmer became interested in a very trendy form of treatment involving magnets that were thought to induce a response in treated patients. He experimented with various methods of treatment and the effects he reported led to his determination that he was able to manipulate a person’s energy flows inside their body. Mesmer posed the idea that illnesses were caused by disruptions in those energy flows and he felt that he could put those flows back on track, ultimately restoring a person’s health. ANIMAL MAGNETISM Most people probably think of animal magnetism as a person’s undeniable, inescapable power of attraction. However, the original meaning was a bit different, and it was Franz Anton Mesmer who coined the phrase. He believed that his ability to manipulate a person’s energy flows was less to do with the use of actual magnets and more because he possessed “animal magnetism.” In order to put his animal magnetism to use, Mesmer would sit his patient in a chair and then sit in his own chair, facing the patient, with their knees touching. He would stare unblinkingly into the patient’s eyes while passing his hands over the person, focusing on the areas of complaint by actually massaging them. This treatment would frequently last hours until the patient felt the “magnetic flow” coursing through their body. Word quickly spread about Mesmer’s talent as a healer and eventually took his show on the road, traveling around Switzerland and Germany. He drew fairly large-sized crowds and impressed attendees with his ability to use his animal magnetism to induce specific symptoms in a member of the crowd and then turn right around and cure them. However, in 1777, Mesmer moved to Paris, in part to head to a place he had always wanted to live, and in part to escape a scandal in which he found himself. He had treated a blind piano player and temporarily restored her sight, which is admittedly incredible. But her audiences were no longer impressed because she wasn’t blind and her career was severely impacted. Although he was incredibly popular, the medical community never considered Mesmer the expert healer he had hoped they would. But that didn’t stop people from coming to him for treatment, and soon Mesmer had established himself so well in Paris that he had to stop taking individual appointments for treatment and instead, gathered groups of patients together to be healed. Using a device he called a baquet, which was a wooden tub with multiple iron rods sticking up from inside it, his patients held hands around the tub and Mesmer would wander back around the circle, manipulating their magnetic flows with a touch of his finger or staff. INDUCING A CONVULSIVE CRISIS (WHAT?) Mesmer felt confident in his techniques but knew that some people needed more treatment than others. His solution was to help that patient enter a trancelike state, essentially hypnotizing them, and while in that state, the patient would shake and moan. However, to keep from incurring bodily harm, the patient was carried to a special padded room until the episode stopped. During this convulsive crisis, as Mesmer called it, the patient would supposedly be brought back into a state of equilibrium with their magnetic flows. Mesmer became the subject of much ridicule, thanks to his popularity and unusual practices. In fact, the king of France established a commission to investigate the claims Mesmer made about animal magnetism and his healing methods in 1784. You may recognize the name of one commissioner member: Benjamin Franklin . . . heard of him? Anyway, the commission decided that any benefits a patient received from the treatment were imagined. Mesmer was devastated. All he had ever wanted was to be recognized and respected by the medical community and they had essentially discredited everything he thought he had achieved. FADING INTO THE BACKGROUND, BUT NEVER REALLY FORGOTTEN! Mesmer left Paris in 1785 and spent some time in Switzerland, but never managed to reestablish himself as a healer again. Even though his methods were all but debunked, Mesmer was holds the distinction as one of the founding fathers of modern hypnotherapy, which is widely- respected and well-recognized as a treatment in modern psychiatry. So the next time you want to brag about your animal magnetism or try to hypnotize your friends by slowly swinging a pocket watch in front of their face, remember who was behind those methods and the struggle he faced trying to get respect for developing them. MESMERIZING SNIPPETZ (WE DID IT AGAIN!)
Issue 757 - 5/2/2016
SNIPPETZ GIVES ANIMALS THEIR DAY IN COURT by Lindsey Harrison 
“It is difficult to make our material condition better by the best law, but it is easy enough to ruin it by bad laws.”
– Theodore Roosevelt, American president To many people, their pets are more like members of the family. How many times have you heard someone refer to their cat or dog as their “fur baby?” It may seem like a more recent development, given that animals have traditionally been either our meals or our helpers in one form or another. The whole “fur baby” thing probably is a more modern way of looking at our animals, but the idea that animals should be treated like humans has actually be around for a long time. But the interesting thing is that the equitable treatment really only extended into the courtroom. If that seems a bit strange to you, you’re correct. It is. And that’s why Snippetz has decided to testify about animals who had their day in court. WHERE DID IT ALL BEGIN? While the most recent trial involving an animal was held in 2007, the practice has been around for literally centuries. That probably isn’t terribly surprising, but perhaps something that is a bit startling is that trials of something that is now widely considered not capable of standing trial did not actually start with trying animals. What? Confusing, we know, so we’ll explain. Back in Ancient Greece, a trial was held in order to protect the equilibrium of morality. Basically, if you do something to someone, you must be tried and held accountable to balance out the universe. Mostly, these trials were held as a result of a murder. So, if these murder trials didn’t start with murderous animals, what DID they start with? Objects. They started with objects. If a stone fell from a cliff and killed someone, or perhaps a beam in a house collapsed and mortality wounded a person, that object would be taken to trial for the murder. The whole idea was that if a human life is taken, the culprit must be tried for his/her/its crime in order to prevent the wrath of the Furies, those wondrous spirits of justice. REPEAT ANIMAL OFFENDERS Of all the types of animals (and insects) that have been put on trial for various crimes over the years, the overwhelming majority are pigs. That may have to do with two facts: 1). Most animal trials were conducted during the Middle Ages; and 2). During the Middle Ages, pigs were given incredible freedom to roam the streets and just about wherever else they pleased. Knowing that, it probably isn’t surprising to learn that attacks or assaults by pigs were not exactly uncommon. For instance, in 1379, two herds of pigs that roved the grounds of a monastery in France became agitated and attacked one Perrinot Muet. Poor Mr. Muet did not survive the attack and the pigs were put on trial for murder, as was customary for such an infraction. It wasn’t just the “murderers” that were tried, though. All the pigs were tried because, according to witness accounts, the spectator pigs’ “cries and aggressive actions showed that they approved of the assault.” Every last pig was sentenced to death, however all but three were essentially pardoned when the monastery’s prior, Friar Humbert de Poutiers, pleaded with the Duke of Burgundy for leniency. The friar stated that the monastery couldn’t survive the economic loss of all the pigs. The Duke granted the pardon. Not much later, in 1386 in Falaise, France (what’s going on, France?), a child was killed and partially consumed by a sow and her six piglets. Of course, the townspeople were rightfully outraged so they decided to put the pigs on trial. The sow was actually dressed in men’s clothing and taken to trial, where she was found guilty of murder and hanged from the gallows in the town square. Her piglets were acquitted due to their youth and their mother’s less-than-stellar example. Stranger still, is the instance when a pig was brought to trial for killing her own piglets. Often, the smothering death of a sow’s piglets was an accident, but in the Middle Ages, it was taken as a sign of evil. PROPERTY DISPUTES While certain animals, being larger and easier to contain, were often put on trial for things like murder, insects and the like were often tried for their “illegal” habitation of an area. For example, in 1451, a pond near Lausanne, Switzerland became overrun with leeches. The local Bishop decided to take judicial action against the leeches and was ordered to bring the leeches to the local magistracy so they could be presented with notice that they were being sued. During the trial, the leeches were found to be at fault and told they had three days to leave the area. Of course, they didn’t and so the court performed on exorcism on the leeches, in the hopes of driving out the evil residing within them and ultimately, regained the pond, sans leeches. They had died during the exorcism. FROM TRIALS TO RIGHTS Although holding trials for animal infractions may sound strange (and trust us, we think so, too), there is definitely something good to have come from it. Author E. P. Evans wrote a book called The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals in 1906, in which he addressed various aspects of animal trials. Thankfully, he went beyond just discussing animal trials and brought up the idea of animal rights. Evans quoted Henry Salt who said, “If animals may be rendered liable to judicial punishment for injuries done to man, one would naturally infer that they should also enjoy legal protection against animal cruelty.” Those words are incredibly important and still very much apply to current society. In fact, the federal Animal Welfare Act was signed into law in 1966 and is the only federal law that regulates the treatment of animals in transport, exhibition, research and by dealers. Of course, there are other laws and policies that address treatment of specific species, or provide regulations for animal care and use, but each of them refers back to the Animal Welfare Act as the foundation of the minimum acceptable standard of animal treatment and welfare. ANIMAL TRIALS SNIPPETZ
Issue 758 - 5/9/2016
SNIPPETZ PAYS HOMAGE TO A MEMBER OF MUSIC ROYALTY, PRINCE by Lindsey Harrison 
“Despite everything, no one can dictate who you are to other people.”
– Prince, American musician Very few people can pull off a name like “Prince.” The name implies a certain regality and need to be in the spotlight. Certainly, not just any average Joe could suddenly decide to call himself Prince. But it takes even more guts and an extremely special type of person to eschew the name Prince in lieu of a name that wasn’t actually a name at all, but rather a symbol. That fact is that the one and only musician named Prince is really the one and only person who could ever have pulled all that off. His musical influence is widely felt and his individuality has been the source of both awe and ridicule over the years. Regardless of how you may personally feel about his music, lyrics, style, or any other aspect of his personality, Prince was undoubtedly an artist who talent was a force to be reckoned with. Our world has had to say goodbye to so many talented people recently, and it’s sad to have to include Prince among those ranks. As has become our tradition, Snippetz looks back on the life of the irreplaceable artist formerly (and currently) known as Prince. EARLY LIFE On June 7, 1958, Prince Rogers Nelson was born to Mattie Della and John Lewis Nelson in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Prince’s father was a singer and songwriter who went by the stage name Prince Rogers and performed with the jazz band, the Prince Rogers Trio. His mother was a musician in her own right, as a jazz singer who also sang with the Prince Rogers Trio. As a young boy, Prince struggled with epilepsy and often suffered seizures. This ailment would have a fairly significant impact on his life in various ways, including his self-proclaimed need to be flamboyant and ostentatious as a way to distract bullies from his disease. At the age of seven, Prince wrote his first song, called “Funk Machine,” which he produced on his father’s piano. As he grew older, his musical talent developed and he eventually added the guitar to his self-taught repertoire. By the time he reached junior high school, Prince caught the attention of other aspiring musicians and they joined together in high school as the band Grand Central. Prince’s childhood friend André Anderson and cousin, Charles Smith were his bandmates initially, but Smith was later replaced by Morris Day on the drums. As the band grew in popularity, they changed their name to Champagne, citing various musical influences including Earth, Wind & Fire, Miles Davis and Carlos Santana to name a few. BUDDING CAREER Although he would eventually make a name for himself as a producer, guitarist and singer, Prince’s early successes came in the form of guitar contributions on various albums, including one for the band 94 East. The band was made up of Prince’s cousin’s husband, Pepe Willie, Marcy Ingvoldstad and Kristie Lazenberry. At 17, Prince created a demo tape with Chris Moon, who turned the tape over to Minneapolis businessman Owen Husney. Prince was immediately signed on as Husney’s artist, who managed and helped produce Prince’s demo recording, which netted the young musician a fair amount of interest from several record companies. A ROYAL STAR IS BORN With Husney’s help, Prince signed a record contract with Warner Bros. Records, who agreed to give the young artist creative control for three albums, including the ownership of the publishing rights. Prince released his first album, which he recorded in Sausalito, California, called “For You” at Record Plant Studios. The album was released on April 7, 1978, just two months shy of his 20th birthday. According to the album’s credits, Prince wrote, arranged, composed, and produced every song, and somewhere in there, found the time to play all 27 instruments on the record. The only song he didn’t essentially make entirely on his own was the song “Soft and Wet,” which featured lyrics co-written by Chris Moon. Prince was almost always in the recording studio pumping out song after song. In fact, at the time of his death on April 21, 2016, he had catalog of more than 600 songs credited to his name, although not all had been publicly released. He even took a backseat to other superstars during his career in order to contribute his astounding musical talent to their albums. For example, he played guitar on Madonna’s “Like a Prayer,” although not all of what he performed made it into the recorded version. THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS PRINCE Probably one of the most discussed, controversial and interesting things about Prince’s career, all came down to his name. It was no secret that Prince had a plethora of nicknames under his belt, including The Kid, The Purple Purv, The Purple One, The Minneapolis Midget, Christopher Tracy and Alexander Nevermind, not to mention his female alter-ego, Camille. Probably the most popular of all his nicknames was “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince.” Now, if you’re thinking that the name is a bit long and random, you’re right. But the problem was that Prince actually changed his name to a symbol that no one could pronounce. Why? Well, in 1993, during negotiations over the release of his album, “The Gold Experience” through Warner Bros. Records, Prince and the company didn’t quite see eye-to-eye. A legal battle began over the financial and artistic control of his music. Prince appeared in public with the word “slave” written across his cheek and informed the public that he had changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol to break away from his contract with Warner Bros. With that, he became the much easier to pronounce “Artist Formerly Known as Prince.” The symbol, eventually called the “Love Symbol,” would be his special icon for the rest of his life. He even had a guitar created in its image. PRINCE SNIPPETZ
Issue 759 - 5/16/2016
JOIN SNIPPETZ AS WE TIPTOE THROUGH THE TULIPS! by Lindsey Harrison 
“Flowers . . . are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities in the world.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet As springtime descends upon the Rocky Mountains, many of us find our thoughts turning to outdoor activities, like hiking or gardening. In other places, people have probably already planted their flowers and are seeing the fruits of their labors begin to blossom. In Colorado, many of us are just now working on planting everything, knowing that a late frost is not exactly a possibility, but more of an eventuality. Perhaps one of the prettiest and most iconic springtime flowers is the tulip, with its wide variety of colors and hearty disposition. Now, we know all about the War of the Roses from a previous issue of Snippetz, but did you know there was actually a drama over tulips as well? These beautiful little flowers were way more important in 17th-century Holland than many of us ever knew. So besides giving you some great tulip information, we’re going to walk you through the tulip dispute that literally crippled an economy for a period of time. And here we go! NOT JUST A DELICATE FLOWER You’re probably curious about how such a beautiful little flower like the tulip could cause the devastation of an economy, especially since you probably never learned about it in your high school history class. Seriously, it’s interesting stuff! So here’s how it all played out: It all started in the late 1500s with a man named Carolus Clusius. The Frenchman was originally educated as an attorney but was persuaded by one of his professors to change his field of study to botany instead. Although it’s unclear why the change was recommended, it seems to have been a good move because Clusius eventually became one of Europe’s leading botanists, gathering plant specimens from all around the globe. In fact, he was held in such high esteem that Austrian emperor Maximilian II actually named Clusius as the court physician and the general overseer of the royal medicinal garden. Apparently, Clusius was not overjoyed with his new position and in 1593, he decided to settle down in the Netherlands where he was appointed as the prefect of the University of Leiden, a horticultural academy. He planted a teaching garden and a private garden on which he grew and showcased hundreds of different plant varieties, including a few different tulip bulbs he acquired from a friend, the Austrian ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq. Those tulips were an entirely new flower to the people of the Netherlands, who had never before seen either a tulip bulb or blossom until Clusius showed up. As with any new fad, the tulip took the Netherlands by storm, creating a “Tulipmania,” if you will. People simply could not get enough tulips and because there was such a small supply, they immediately became a highly-coveted acquisition. And as with anything that is in short supply but in high demand, the price for tulip bulbs quickly rose to astronomical heights. Aristocrats obviously had more funds at their disposal with which to purchase the flowers, but other less affluent people found ways to obtain the coveted tulip bulbs; they simply stole them. Clusius, as the main holder of these precious flowers, had immense power to sell off whatever he wished for nearly any price but he declined to sell his own personal stockpile. His refusal resulted in multiple nighttime raids on his gardens and at one time, more than 100 bulbs were stolen in a single evening. Although Clusius died in 1609, the tulipmania continued and in the 1620s, as the Dutch Republic began to climb towards the ranks of a global power, it secured a trade monopoly with the East Indies and Japan. The government’s monetary policy required that the national currency be backed 10 percent by gold and silver deposits, which were held by the Bank of Amsterdam. The economy was thriving. As the economy grew, so did the people’s ability to obtain (and spend) more money than they ever had before. It probably comes as no surprise that many of those newly-wealthy-ish people found ridiculous ways to spend their extra cash, including sinking thousands into tulips. That’s right; they literally spent thousands on tulips. To put it in perspective, in the 1600s, the average worker in the Dutch Republic made about 150 florins per year. In 1623, a single tulip bulb sold for 6,000 florins. They became a symbol of status and wealth. That doesn’t exactly sound like a bad thing for the economy, right? Well, the problem came when the tulip trading market turned into one that run on almost purely speculation by 1636. The tulip bulbs were bought and sold in taverns multiple times before they were even dug out of the ground! The Dutch actually called this practice windhandel, or “wind trade.” The Dutch guild of florists, which had essentially lost its foothold in the floral market thanks to all the windhandel trading going on, decided to change all futures contracts on tulip bulbs into options contracts in February 1637. Basically, they determined that all bulb buyers could break the contracts they had created with the bulb sellers at a fraction of the actual value of that bulb. So, if tulips were so popular, what was the big deal, right? Well, on April 27, 1637, the Dutch government made a devastating decree in which they determined that tulips were products, not an investment. Sinking thousands of florins into tulips was no longer considered a good investment. Coupled with the increasing number, and eventual oversupply, of bulbs, the value of the tulip plummeted, taking the market with it. Buyers had no obligation to honor the contracts they had created and simply walked away from them. Sellers couldn’t get rid of their supply and couldn’t even collect on the ones they had already “sold” through futures contracts. From 1635 to 1637, the number of bankruptcies in Amsterdam doubled, in large part to the massive crash of the tulip market. Eventually, the economy recovered but the tulip market never really reached its former glory. And that’s the story of how the tulip took down the Dutch economy during the 1600s. TULIP SNIPPETZ
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