Florida’s Invaders: Chinese Privet

Another landscape plant that has escaped cultivation and become invasive, the Chinese Privet reverses the normal pattern—it is extensive in the northern part of Florida but has not penetrated into the south.

Chinese Privet

Bagpipes: A History

Although the bagpipes are quintessentially identified with the Highland clans in Scotland, they are not native to the British Isles or even to Europe, and their history stretches back before the time of the Romans.

Champ: America’s Loch Ness Monster

Lying along the border between New York and Vermont (and extending a few miles into Canada) is Lake Champlain, one of the largest and deepest freshwater lakes in the northeast. It was the site of several naval and land battles in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, and is celebrated now as a vacation spot, with pleasure boating and nature-viewing along its shores and the surrounding mountains. But Lake Champlain is perhaps most famous for its lake monster, known affectionately as “Champ”—America’s own homegrown version of Scotland’s Loch Ness Monster.

“Champ”

To Fight Another Day: The Ships From Pearl Harbor

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 was a severe blow to the US Navy, resulting in heavy damage to the fleet and the end of the battleship as the queen of the seas. But the attack was not actually as devastating as most people think: of the eight American battleships in the harbor that day, only two were permanently lost. The rest were eventually repaired, rejoined the fleet, and helped defeat the Japanese and Germans during the war. But today, of the one hundred US Navy ships that were at Oahu during the attack, only one still survives afloat.

The US Coast Guard ship Taney