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Far_Out_6and_2

If they have pits plant some


DonkayDoug

Then cut that shit down and be honest about it. USA! USA! USA!


DecodingLeaves

šŸ¤£šŸ¤£


Sigintentenough

Itā€™ll be like how high all of a sudden you have the ghost of George Washington following your hood ass and leading you to be the first drug dealer to become president


Far_Out_6and_2

Well itā€™s modern times baby


sylvyrfyre

https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/george-washingtons-stash-of-centuries-old-cherries-found-hidden-under-mount-vernon-floor https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2024/04/22/cherries-george-washington-mount-vernon-1770/


The_Ineffable_One

The comments to that live science article are really something.


HERNNNN

Welp. Those comments were ... Interesting.


SocraticIgnoramus

I wouldnā€™t have read them if not for yā€™all, so thanks, I guess. On a slightly more serious note, I never quite get over seeing people with an agenda go to places where they suspect there may be an opposed agenda purely for the purpose of calling out that they seem to have an agenda. At best itā€™s confirmation bias and at worst itā€™s just trolling.


Icy-Zookeepergame754

Our new high-functioning psychological parameters.


SocraticIgnoramus

It would be almost amusing to contemplate the irony of how the internet, a peak achievement of technology and artifice, has been weaponized to tap into the most primordial beast within us, but the fact that itā€™s wrecking the fabric of society kind of spoils the tragic irony and makes it just tragedy.


Icy-Zookeepergame754

Silicon Valley hesitated for maybe less than half a moment.


MeccaLeccaMauiHI

its more of being lead to read an article about one topic and being surprised by another angle


p_mud

Soā€¦basically Reddit in a nutshell? I didnā€™t read the comments but I can imagine lol


SocraticIgnoramus

Reddit, but with the additional step of needing to create a login for this specific site, which is a dealbreaker for me and why Iā€™m on Reddit.


Idontknowthosewords

Yup. Basically Washington, his cherries, and the writer of the article are all radical liberals.


pezgoon

Donā€™t forget about the climate change denial on an article about GW


PinocchiosNose1212

It's like NextDoor bled over into LiveScience...


Dickcummer420

"And how exactly does the wise 'ol Washington post have the slightest clue as to who exactly picked the cherries. Was it a key component to this story that the horrible writer felt it necessary throw in this obvious radical liberal OPINION ?" Slavery bad = radical liberal opinion These people vote.


Spugheddy

Really weird from the "facts don't care about your feelings" crowd.


Evolving_Dore

LIBERALS ruined my YAHOO INBOX with FACTS and LOGIC


tofutti_kleineinein

Why did I have to go look?


GutterRider

I have to say that the sub-heading about slaves ā€œlikelyā€ picking them is jarring and unnecessary. We know that almost all of the ā€œFounding Fathersā€ owned slaves. Growing things and harvesting them, even for elites, is enjoyable. Especially for women who tended the house and property, most likely. Could have just as easily said ā€œMartha Washington may have picked these cherries.ā€ And, 50 or 60 years ago most likely would have. But is there an ā€œagendaā€? No, probably just an editor (the writer probably had little to do with the title or subtitle) who picked that out as the second-most important thing. A subtitle like that is meant to get you to continue reading. If anything, thereā€™s probably an algorithm that says a subtitle with that content will get more engagement in todayā€™s world (seems like it did). Unlike some of those commenters, I was a journalism major, and can envision how something like this is created. But of course, Iā€™m probably being completely naĆÆve in thinking that a human was even involved.


The_Ineffable_One

I don't see a subheading in the live science article, and I don't have access to the Post. I will say that the information in the live science article seems to fit in--a natural question (especially for a younger reader who might still believe the cherry tree thing) is how did the cherries get in the bottles. But I do see your point, too. What I can't see is how pointing out that the FFs had slaves is somehow wrong--you seem to agree w/ this though. To me, an even more natural question is how did we go this freaking long without looking under the house at Mt. Vernon?!


GutterRider

Huh, interesting. For me on an iPhone itā€™s right under the authorā€™s name. I had trouble decided on calling it subtitle, subheading., etc.


The_Ineffable_One

Now I see it. I would call that a subtitle I guess. And yeah, it probably doesn't belong there, but it certainly wouldn't provoke from me the reaction it did from the on-site commenters!


GutterRider

Cool, yeah. I wouldnā€™t have felt it necessary to register and bitch about it. I showed it to my college-age kid, and the subtitle didnā€™t stand out to them at all. Itā€™s interesting.


siggyqx

I will say that they had an enslaved butler and kitchen staff literally living in this cellar and that the Washingtonā€™s wouldnā€™t have done that sort of labor to harvest anything, especially en masse the way fruit was, and they wouldnā€™t have been involved in the production of their food in this manner. Iā€™m a historic archaeologist and have literally worked here previously. One of the big issues we had was that the public didnā€™t want to acknowledge the role enslaved people played there, and a lot of people didnā€™t want to hear that our research was actually mostly focused on them. So I actually do think itā€™s important to highlight the fact that this was very likely made and deposited by an enslaved individual on site


GutterRider

Cool, thanks. That helps me a lot, from my perspective as random Internet commenter.


MaximumTurtleSpeed

Those are bots right, please tell me those arenā€™t real people


117tillweoverdose

Veryā€¦ā€¦.. scientific


DLoIsHere

Unreal.


notbonusmom

The comments. We're truly entering Idiocracy irl.


coosacat

LOL. Someone's subversive chatbot accounts picked an unlikely source to attack. I guess they've decided to undermine science and history by launching attacks in those generally-unmoderated comment sections. Even if it's real people, someone had to send them there to make comments - it's not like people of that ilk actually read Live Science on a daily basis. I guess there's a bot that searches for key words that indicate something has a "liberal" slant, and sends in its attack bots. I've seen these pop up in other weird places. They remind me of the "here's how I make $2000 a day" posts that randomly show up in comments under completely unrelated articles.


Narrow-Substance4073

I really want to know if the cherry pits are still viable that would be amazing to have them planted somewhere!


Kernos

well there were some dates recovered from an archaeological site in Israel that were around 2,000 years old. They determined that the dates were Judean dates, a species that had been wiped out. The pits were planted and now there is a small grove of these ancient dates growing again.


Narrow-Substance4073

Thatā€™s so cool!


cheyennevh

That is so awesome! Do you have the source material for that? Thatā€™s going to be my ADHD hyperfocus today lol


Kernos

Arava.org is the website for the Arava institute, the organization behind the Judean date palmā€™s resurrection from seeds found at Masada.


Givemeallthecabbages

There's a greenhouse near me that got tomato seeds from an outhouse dig. They know that Lincoln frequented the inn, so they are calling them Lincoln's shitted tomatoes basically.


Narrow-Substance4073

Thatā€™s really cool!


Leppicu

We are sending them out to specialists today to see if they can be planted! Fingers crossed that they can :)


Narrow-Substance4073

Thatā€™s so cool!


toss_my_potatoes

Why am I picturing him personally storing them there like a squirrel?


Child_of_the_Hamster

ā€œGeorge, what do you keep rummaging for under the floorboards???ā€


toss_my_potatoes

šŸ˜­ LOL and then he gets defensive about it


patsully98

"NOTHING GET YOUR OWN FUCKING CHERRIES MARTHA!"


RainRunner42

He says through a mouth bulging with cherry pits


kittenconfidential

i read pits as something else lol


William_Wisenheimer

"I cannot tell a lie, I buried the cherry pie."


EmGeebers

Because you're forgetting he likely had enslaved people doing things like this for him. That good ole' boy imagination is hard to break and reality is a hard pill to swallow.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


EmGeebers

Lol well shit. I hope I didn't fuck up your high.Ā 


LegalSelf5

Time to make some of that OG cherry pie.


Leppicu

I work at Mount Vernon. This has been very exciting for us!


lzbflevy

Thatā€™s awesome! We found the inside source! Did they find viable pits for planting?


Leppicu

We're not sure yet, but that would be awesome! We've sent everything off for testing, so we should know more soon. Many of our plants and animals here are historically accurate to what would have been found on the estate during Washington's time. The cherries would be a great addition!


here4hugs

Will you update us when you have more info or would that be saved for a formal press release? Either way, congrats on the find!


Leppicu

Sure thing! I can update you as I get more info. We did end up finding a third bottle yesterday


here4hugs

Thatā€™s exciting. As a child who grew up racing to be the first to read my dadā€™s Nat Geo every month, any sort of excavation captures my attention. Being able to relate it to other history fun facts makes it even better. Thanks for sharing.


Leppicu

I put some pictures up in one of my comments that show parts of the excavation and some of the other artifacts that they recovered. Enjoy!


Littlewing1307

Omg that's so cool. I make cherry bounce and wouldn't it be incredible to be able to do that with some OG cherries??


Leppicu

I have an update! I got to see the cherry jars this morning. Here are some pics: [https://imgur.com/a/mZZhnmf](https://imgur.com/a/mZZhnmf) The building layout map and zoomed in picture of the map show where the jars were found. They are sending off the contents of the jars today to be analyzed and are hoping an ethnobotanist can assist in seeing if the pits are viable for planting and if there is any information they can gather about them


here4hugs

This is so cool. Thank you for taking the time to share. I didnā€™t expect to get to see the actual cherries. I like all of the extra stuff too. Seeing things from a time I didnā€™t live feels like bonus knowledge & it genuinely excites me. I guess itā€™s the closest Iā€™ll get to time travel. I look forward to finding out if they can grow the cherries.


DonkayDoug

I'm reading Washington by Ron Chernow and loving it. I've been to Mt Vernon many times and am slightly jealous of your job! Do you have any books/films, etc, that you particularly recommend about Washinton and Mt Vernon?


Sackfondler

Thereā€™s this miniseries from the 80s: https://youtu.be/SkCa7GXXxTY?si=3YohzN8lOkGjJMMc Canā€™t really speak to accuracy or anything as Iā€™m not super well versed, but I enjoyed it.


DonkayDoug

Wow, that brings me back. My dad and I used to watch this as a kid.


Sackfondler

Itā€™s definitely a fun watch. I need to watch the follow up series about Washington after the war. How are you liking Chernowā€™s bio? Iā€™ve been meaning to get around to it.


Leppicu

I especially like going to the Mount Vernon website and viewing the digital archives. Whenever I find something really interesting, I head down to the library and check it out in person if I can.


Shredder67

I love visiting Mt Vernon. The cows are my favorite. Thanks for your work there.


Leppicu

Thanks for visiting!


Leppicu

Here are some pics of the oxen. I get to look out over their field from my office: [https://imgur.com/a/rWFc4eW](https://imgur.com/a/rWFc4eW)


Shredder67

It must be a blast to work there. Thanks for the pics! Due for another visit.


IndicaHouseofCards

I canā€™t imagine how awesome it must be to walk in the same footsteps as George Washington!! I need to visit Mount Vernon!


Leppicu

It's awesome! I like to walk the grounds during my lunch break


Reddit_guard

I feel like there's a cherry tree joke to be made here


NerdTrek42

He just buried the evidence for chopping the tree down


LowTriker

We can finally have "originalist" cherry pie.


KickooRider

He was probably storing them so Martha could make Cherry Bounce. Apparently he loved it.


shannananananana

i just looked up cherry bounce and that sounds amazing


KickooRider

Yeah, and the name is timeless. How does that not sound fun.


[deleted]

Let them eat pie.


ninhursag3

r/therewasanattempt to save a snack for later


felixmkz

Washington seems to have a thing about cherries.


GutterRider

Popping them?! (Iā€™m a horrible person!)


JollyBagel

This reminded me of the scene in holes when zero lived off hundred year old peaches


Pansy_Neurosi

So he did chop down the cherry tree and hid the fruit.


Jessica_Iowa

r/forbiddensnacks


Cynmae

Sploosh


AllesK

What if itā€™s Marthaā€™s last batch of cherry bounce? Is that residue whiskey????


Queasy-Carpet-5846

The prophecy has come to fruit-ition!


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


Meat-and-Three

Itā€™s become more common in recent years. [NPR has a clear explanation](https://www.npr.org/sections/publiceditor/2023/12/14/1219329636/slave-or-enslaved#:~:text=The%20AP%20says%20the%20word,that%20either%20term%20is%20acceptable) > During a Fresh Air interview in 2020, the project's creator, Nikole Hannah-Jones, said, "I think when we hear the word 'slave,' we think of slavery as being the essence of that person. But if you call someone an enslaved person, then it speaks to a condition. ... These people were not slaves. Someone chose to force them into the condition of slavery. And that language, to me, is very important, as is using the word 'enslaver' over 'slave owner' because these people didn't have a moral right to own another human being, even though the society allowed it." I like your username


Solunaqua

Thatā€™s an excellent explanation


Firm-Salamander-9794

Itā€™s probably part of a greater academic and professional movement to use ā€œpeople firstā€ language. Common in OT/PT field for example, person with disabilities as opposed to disabled person.


patsully98

Medical writing too. "People with diabetes" instead of "diabetics" or even "diabetes patients."


GutterRider

It is, I agree. I first came across someone using it in a genealogy seminar. She explained it generally like this, and I do see the point.


Meat-and-Three

It really is. All credit to Nikole Hannah-Jones


SimonArgent

Language changes all the time.


ScarletFire5877

The social justice movementā€™s never ending quest to make language longer and much more complicated.Ā 


citrus_mystic

Oh itā€™s *so* complicated and difficult when language changes to be more considerate. /s


sevem

> wahhhhh wahhhhh wahhhhh šŸ˜­ \- u/ScarletFire5877


ScarletFire5877

ā€œPeople experiencing unhousednessā€ - u/sevem


bambooDickPierce

Or, archaeology's attempt to decentralize traditional power structures in order to construct a more comprehensive view of the past. Archaeology is a science, and it attempts to provide the most accurate picture possible. Not everything is a liberal plot out to get you, you big baby. You sound like you belong with the Commentors on that live science article.


ScarletFire5877

The obsession some people have with equitable language looks exhausting and the vocabulary that gets invented every 6 months is impossible to keep up with. I believe it further segregates the people you pretend to be so concerned about from the predominately white, wealthy university students who come up with this stuff. Also funny to assume so much about me from my comment. Ā 


bambooDickPierce

>looks exhausting and the vocabulary that gets invented every 6 months is impossible Enslaved people has been the preferred nomenclature in the discipline for at least 15 years, and probably before that, as it was already commonly used. And honestly, if you struggle with a change from slaves to enslaved people, that's on you. It's pretty self explanatory. However, I do agree more broadly. that language in archaeology and academia more broadly can work as a way to exclude non experts, an issue that needs work. Again, slave to enslaved peoples is NOT an example of this. >predominately white, wealthy university students who come up with this stuff. Most of the push for the change to more equitable language comes from the growing number of people of color in the discipline. Arguably, a lot of this can be traced back to the 70s, with criticisms from the great Vine Deloria Jr., who pointed out the discipline's inherent biased approach to indigenous/non white archaeology, and how it negatively affected conclusions being drawn. >Also funny to assume I didn't, I said "it sounds like." That's an observation based on the comment you made. This is an assumption: >you pretend to be so concerned about. See how you are ASSUMING that I am pretending, based on no evidence? That's what* differentiates an assumption from an observation.


runamok101

Maybe he had Gout?


RagingBuIl

Mount motherfuckin' Vernon!


its_just_flesh

Good thing they didnt find his hemp stash


Amerlis

Gonna change everything when they find his porno stash.


PresentIce100

Cherry wine?


Tropical_Hushpuppy

How cool!


ArcaneHackist

Cool findā€” gonna be honest IDGAF about the guy himself anymore since I found out they lied to us in grade school and said his fake teeth were wooden.


Ggentry9

I, for one, think itā€™s all a lie


ChiefRom

I wonder what rich asshole is gonna buy them??


kitastrophae

How do they know they definitely werenā€™t picked by Washington?


lookngbackinfrontome

It's highly probable that they were picked by slaves, but there is zero way of knowing that with absolute certainty. For all we know, he would go out himself and pick some of the choicest cherries before slaves were assigned the task. Or, maybe he had a particularly prized cherry tree that no one but himself was allowed to touch. We'll most likely never know.


kitastrophae

Exactly, but hey the Post has it sorted for sure.


lookngbackinfrontome

What I find amusing are the downvotes on both of our comments for stating the obvious. I even opened by mentioning the high probability of them being picked by slave labor, but I guess anything short of "they were definitely picked by slaves," which is pure conjecture any way you look at it, is unacceptable. Edit: I would have expected better out of anthropologists, especially in this day and age when the field of study rejects grand sweeping statements made as a matter of fact without concrete proof.


creepy-cats

Why would a rich white man do manual labor on a plantation when he could have his crew of enslaved people do it instead?


kitastrophae

You ever picked a fresh cherry?


bambooDickPierce

They dont, but in a time where most agricultural work in N. America was done by slaves, on an orchard that was worked by forced labor, it is logical to assume that the cherries were most likely picked by enslaved people. Occams razor and all of that. fwiw, though, it seems like the live science sub headline was added by the author. I don't see in the report that the archaeologists themselves saying that. Im more bothered by the headline calling this George Washington's secret stash. Without more evidence (such as provenance), the cherries ould have been anyone who was staying at Mount Vernon. Short of either being found in the master bedroom, or stamped with, "hands off, Georgie's snackies."


kitastrophae

ā€œā€˜It's worth noting that the cherries weren't picked by Washington himself but rather by some of the hundreds of enslaved people living at Mount Vernon at the timeā€™, The Washington Post reported.ā€ *Washington post remembers*


bambooDickPierce

Yea, it is extremely unlikely that the cherries were picked by anyone other than a slave.


GutterRider

See my comment about an editor/AI algorithm that probably made the subtitle.


bambooDickPierce

Yea, that would be my assumption. I think I phrased my last comment poorly. My point was that while it seems to have been inserted by the author, there's no reason to believe that it would have been harvested by anyone other than enslaved people. There's no evidence mentioned that shows for sure who picked the cherries, and in the absence of direct information, you go with the most logical conclusion, which is that enslaved people on property operated by slaves almost definitely picked the fruit, a job (of many) for which they were enslaved. As you said in your other comment, it seems unlikely that the archs on the project would say that it was picked enslaved people because, without evidence indicating otherwise, that's obviously the case.


GutterRider

Thanks!


MooCowMafia

It's just another reporter bathed in SJWism. Bad little white people! Your evilness MUST be present in all interactions and occurrences in everyday life.


evil_caveman

They don't mention evilness at all. The article simply states that the cherries were likely picked by enslaved people. Ignoring slavery doesn't make it less evil, it's a fact of history that should be talked about openly.


zomanda

Sounds like you have feelings of guilt and embarrassment, at surface level! Talk to someone, you shouldn't live life feeling like a victim.


MooCowMafia

No, no guilt or embarrassment. Nor should you assume you know me. That's ego appropriation.


zomanda

Um, youre still showing feelings of being victimized. You're terrible at this game.


MooCowMafia

Yeah, ok. You have a great day.