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AUGUST 12, 2021 | The Jewish Home
Swim ‘N’ Win
James Savage is now the youngest person to swim the entire length of Lake Tahoe and complete the alpine lake’s coveted Triple Crown. He is 14 years old. Savage completed the 21.3-mile trip across the scenic lake, which straddles the California-Nevada line, in 12 hours on August 1. He earlier swam the other two legs of the Lake Tahoe Triple Crown, all 10 miles (16 kilometers) or longer. James said he enjoys swimming in pools, but they’re pretty much “all the same.” “Open water, you can swim in oceans, lakes, and you get to travel around,” he said. Last August, at age 13, Savage became the youngest to complete the 12-mile (19-kilometer) “true width swim.” He also swam the 10-mile (16-kilometer) Vikingsholm route that traverses the southern portion of Lake Tahoe, known for its pine tree-lined beaches and ski resorts. James has been swimming since he was young. And at age 8, he swam from Alcatraz to San Francisco. James’ mother was concerned that James would get bored during the long swim. “It’s not like he can sit and talk to us when he gets bored. His face is in the water and so really, he’s by himself,” Jillian Savage said. “But this time, he kept telling me, ‘Mom, I feel so much better mentally prepared this time.’ And he went out, and he just did such a great job,” she said. With the title of the youngest person to ever achieve the Triple Crown, James said he isn’t sure what he wants to do next. His mom says he’ll likely set his sights high. “When he started this whole open
water thing and he told me, ‘Mom, I want to swim from Alcatraz,’ and we kind of laughed in his face,” she said. “We let him do it kind of hoping and thinking it would be a one and done, and he got out and he said, ‘I want to do this again. When’s the next one?’” she said. “And it just kept going and going and going and his feats kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and I’m kind of afraid to see what he wants to do next. But whatever it is, we’ll make it happen.” Sounds like he’s really making waves.
The dolls have proven to be a popular throwback gift for newlyweds, to give to their parents. These examples of the gift represent gratitude for giving them life and feature an old baby photo and their birth weight. “In the case of the wedding celebration goods, the bride and groom give them to the respective parents with their pictures on them from when they were babies as a way of showing appreciation for giving birth to them,” Naruo said. Sounds really rice, I mean, nice.
Rice Babies
Collecting Coca-Cola
Some grandparents in Japan are being held back from holding their newest descendants by the coronavirus pandemic. In an effort to make up for the lack of cuddles, Japanese companies are offering rice babies instead. Japanese parents send the grandparents a bag of rice designed and shaped like a baby with the new arrival’s face printed on the front. They are then able to cuddle with the rice bag, as if they’re holding their newest grandchild for the first time. The rice babies are available in a whole range of designs and some are even shaped like a baby. They are even sold at the same weight as the baby’s birth weight. The weight determines the price. Some firms are charging one yen per gram, meaning a 3.5kg pack is priced at 3,500 yen ($33.77). Naruo Ono, the owner of Kome no Zoto Yoshimiya rice shop, shared how the idea of rice babies was born. “I first had the idea about 14 years ago when my own son was born and I was thinking about what I could do for relatives who lived far away and couldn’t come and see him,” he explained. “So we decided to make bags of rice that were the same weight and shape as the baby, so relatives could hold them and feel the cuteness.” Interestingly, it’s not only newborns that the rice babies represent.
Thought that the price of soda was going up? Perhaps it is, but nothing beats a purchase of a bottle of Coca-Cola that recently sold for a whopping $2,500 on eBay. This was no ordinary bottle of Coke sold on the shelves at Target. The special bottle commemorated the Summer Olympics that took place in Seoul, South Korea, in 1988. It was auctioned off in a commemorative cardboard box that had the Olympic art of that year on all sides. Despite the exorbitant price tag, this is not the most expensive bottle of soda ever sold. The modified prototype bottle of Coca-Cola from Root Glass Co., sold in 2011 at a price of $240,000. According to Morphy Auctions, Coca-Cola’s parent bottler, Bottling Company in Atlanta, launched a call in early 1915 for several large glass houses to submit designs for the standard bottle of the drink. Eight of these companies sent their prototype, and in the end the
Root Glass Co., designed by Earl R. Dean, won, although in the end it had to be modified. It was one of those bottles that demanded the high price tag.
Snake Fest
This is one party I am happy I wasn’t invited to. Last month, for ten days, hundreds of snake enthusiasts battled it out in the Everglades in Florida at the state’s 2021 Florida Python Challenge. The goal of the contest is to remove as many Burmese pythons as possible. The creatures are not native to Florida and a bad effect on wildlife in the state. They are found primarily in and around the Everglades, where they prey on birds, mammals and other reptiles. They can grow to be 26 feet long and over 200 pounds when fully grown. This year’s contest, held from July 9-18, led to the removal of a record 223 pythons from South Florida. Two of those slithering critters were more than 15 feet long. Six-hundred people participated in the hunt but Charlie Dachton came out on top. The snake-hunter from Southwest Ranches in Broward County, earned the $10,000 Ultimate Grand Prize for collecting a whopping 41 pythons. The local adventurer got a little help from his son Chance. Together, they scoured in the dark and encountered a nest with 22 python eggs. A female Burmese python may lay 50 to 100 eggs at a time. “Every one of those babies becomes a little monster,” Charlie Dachton said, “and each one of those monsters reproduce.” Brandon Call nabbed the longest snake, a 15-foot, 9-inch-long critter. Professional Dusty “The Wildman” Crum snagged the second longest python at 15-feet, 5-inches. Sss-ounds sss-pectacular.
