Cite?
How Thomas Jefferson’s Obsession With Mastodons Partly Fueled the Lewis and Clark Expedition
Blockquote
By the 1800s, American mastodons—prehistoric relatives of the elephant—had been extinct for roughly 10,000 years. Thomas Jefferson didn’t know that, though. The Founding Father dreamed of finding a living, breathing mastodon in America, and this lofty goal ended up being a motivating force throughout much of his life.
I have read that as well: the reason was that the USA had an inferiority complex because no big animals lived there, which seemed to imply that it was a weak and declining continent. Elephants or mastodonts had to be found to restore the pride and virility of the young USA.
I read something similar, not specifically about mammoths, but general megafauna (because at that time Europeans were boasting that the old world fauna was “more robust” than the weakling new world fauna) in “A Short History of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson
(Triple simulpost!)
Yep, but you have the best reference. Or the most accurate memory.
It’s just that I read the book more recently, (last month).
We badly need the sort of science-fiction suits that people can comfortably wear all day in pressurized ships and stations, and then just pop on gloves, helmet and oxygen supply to go into vacuum.
I don’t think this is true. I thought that perhaps Washington might have been aware of dinosaur footprints, but the first of those weren’t discovered in North America until 1802, three years after Washington’s death.
I sidestep the issue of birds. Many of the quasi-mythological creatures said to be based on fossil animals were actually based on mammalian fossils, not dinosaurs (see Willy Ley’s articles on the topic). The only such creature that is well-known and based on dinosaur fossils that I’m aware of is the Griffin, which appears to be based on ceratopsian species like Protoceratops and Psittacasaurus .
Very entertaining book!
Indeed!
It’s been a long time since I’ve read it, but I liked it too. 
ETA: and I think that it’s no coincidence that regulars of this thread have read the book, it’s very much in the same spirit.
Chazz Palminteri cast Robert DeNiro as Cologero’s father in A Bronx Tale as a thank-you to DeNiro, who had given Palminteri his first break in films years earlier.
From what I’ve read Palminteri was really casting DeNiro as his own father because the film is essentially autobiographical. I don’t know if that’s 100% true, but it is true that Palminteri’s given name is Cologero.
you mean …
Make America Paleolithic Again
Today I learned that, in Weimar Germany, people were occasionally issued a transvestite pass, which essentially sanctioned their choice to present as a different gender.
This all stopped when the Nazis took power.
I didn’t know that, but it doesn’t surprise me much for the Weimar Republic, which was socially very liberal and allowed many subcultures to bloom during the roaring twenties. But what astounds me is that the first “transvestite passes” were handed out as early as 1908, still during the imperial period.
any coincidence with 2025 actions must be considered happenstance
/s
(Emphasis mine)
I see they honored their Scandinavian heritage unto the fifth generation. Ozzie’s paternal grandparents were Swedish immigrants and Gunnar as a name is about as Scandinavian as it gets.
Just around the corner from where I live is the Magnus Apotheke, a pharmacy named after that very same Magnus Hirschfeld, whose portrait in black and white looks beautiful in the window:
It is in the Motzstrasse, and he opened it himself about 100 years ago.
I did not know about the Transvestitenpass, but it is fitting that today this is still the gay quarter par excellence in Berlin.
ETA: Google Maps Streetview shows it too:
