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AMERICANALMANAC (Jack Newsome) - Upstate New York town near Fort Drum ranked among America's least livable communities

LeRay, New York, a small town built around one of the busiest Army posts in the country, landed in the bottom ten of AARP's national Livability Index, dragged down by inflated housing costs, drinking water problems, and rock-bottom civic engagement. The town of roughly 25,700 residents, wedged against Fort Drum in far-upstate New York just […] The post Upstate New York town near Fort Drum ranked among America's least livable communities appeared first on American Almanac .

LeRay, New York, a small town built around one of the busiest Army posts in the country, landed in the bottom ten of AARP's national Livability Index, dragged down by inflated housing costs, drinking water problems, and rock-bottom civic engagement. The town of roughly 25,700 residents, wedged against Fort Drum in far-upstate New York just outside Watertown, scored a 38 on the AARP Livability Index, twelve points below the national average of 50. That score ties LeRay with Pahrump, Nevada, a community outside Las Vegas, for fourth worst among mid-sized communities nationwide. LeRay is the only New York State entry on the bottom-ten list, the New York Post reported . AARP's index grades communities on a 100-point scale using 61 measures…Open

AMERICANALMANAC (Alan Benson) - A boa constrictor named Princess lands a role at the Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera held auditions for a live snake to appear in its upcoming production of "Così fan tutte", and a yellow-peach boa constrictor named Princess got the part. The Met requires every performer who sets foot, or, in this case, belly, on its stage to audition. On Friday, August 28, the institution opened its […] The post A boa constrictor named Princess lands a role at the Metropolitan Opera appeared first on American Almanac .

The Metropolitan Opera held auditions for a live snake to appear in its upcoming production of "Così fan tutte", and a yellow-peach boa constrictor named Princess got the part. The Met requires every performer who sets foot, or, in this case, belly, on its stage to audition. On Friday, August 28, the institution opened its doors to a lineup of boa constrictors vying for a role in its adaptation of Mozart's 1790 opera, reimagined as a 1950s Coney Island carnival. The Associated Press reported that Princess, a large sun-glow boa constrictor, was selected on a trial basis, with a smaller brown boa named Nala tapped as understudy. The auditions were no formality. Zoe Ziegfeld, a carnival performer turned opera actor cast as the…Open

AMERICANALMANAC (Charles McAdams) - Four thousand swifts spiral into an Oregon church chimney in annual migration spectacle

Roughly 4,000 Vaux's swifts descended on a Salem, Oregon church at dusk, swirling above the steeple and plunging into its chimney in a display that had social-media viewers half-joking about the apocalypse. The birds funneled into the brick chimney of Salem First United Methodist Church on September 6, forming what onlookers described as a living […] The post Four thousand swifts spiral into an Oregon church chimney in annual migration spectacle appeared first on American Almanac .

Roughly 4,000 Vaux's swifts descended on a Salem, Oregon church at dusk, swirling above the steeple and plunging into its chimney in a display that had social-media viewers half-joking about the apocalypse. The birds funneled into the brick chimney of Salem First United Methodist Church on September 6, forming what onlookers described as a living cyclone above the building before vanishing inside, one wave after another, to roost for the night. Willamette University professor David P Craig captured the spectacle on video and shared it on Instagram , where the footage quickly spread. The event is part of a well-documented annual pattern. Vaux's swifts, tiny birds measuring no more than five inches long and weighing just over half an…Open

AMERICANALMANAC (Ken Jacobs) - Skeleton in a jar: archaeologists piece together a young Roman's final moments in Bulgaria

Archaeologists in Bulgaria have unearthed the skeleton of a young man who climbed into a storage jar to hide from attackers roughly 1,600 years ago, and never climbed out. Professor Lyudmil Vagalinski of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences announced the discovery on August 10, after his team dug through layers of construction debris at the […] The post Skeleton in a jar: archaeologists piece together a young Roman's final moments in Bulgaria appeared first on American Almanac .

Archaeologists in Bulgaria have unearthed the skeleton of a young man who climbed into a storage jar to hide from attackers roughly 1,600 years ago, and never climbed out. Professor Lyudmil Vagalinski of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences announced the discovery on August 10, after his team dug through layers of construction debris at the ancient Roman city of Deultum. Inside a burned-out defensive tower at the city's western gate, they found the lower half of a massive clay storage jar, and, crouched within it, the remains of a young man who had been sealed beneath a replacement floor for sixteen centuries. The find offers a grim, human-scale window into the collapse of Roman order along the empire's eastern frontier. Deultum, one of…Open