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Short Stuff: Cherry Blossoms · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck and this is short stuff, and we're gonna
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: take a little tour, a little trip around the world
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: and do a little Washington, DC, and do a little Japan.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: And that's mostly it.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: I think everyone knows what we're talking about then, because
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: we're talking about cherry blossoms and the Japanese cherry tree,
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: which does not produce actual, like edible cherries that we
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: know and love. It does provide a little fruit berry
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: for animals and such, but it's not that kind of
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: cherry tree, So just stop asking. It's better.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: It is better. I mean, I like my cherries for sure.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: But if you've ever seen a cherry blossomed tree in
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: full bloom, is it's such a sight to behold that
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Japan essentially created an entire cultural season around it with
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: its own emotions and songs and all sorts of stuff.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: It is really moving. If you're American or North American,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: or you just like traveling to the United States and
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: happen to be here in the spring and go to Washington,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: d C. There's a good chance that you've seen the
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: cherry blossoms on the title basin blooming, and this is
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: about the time they're going to start. I think in
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty six. It's predicted the whole seasons from March
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: twenty it's to April twelfth. Yeah, but if you really
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: want to make sure that you're there for the peak,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: they usually say like the last day, last couple days
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: maybe in March is usually when they peak.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. Brooklyn Botanical Garden, by the way, shout
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: out to them. I know DC gets all the press
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: here in the United States for cherry blossoms, but they
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: do pretty good on their own. That's where I've seen them.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: But in Japan is where the real show is. They've
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: been cultivated there and really beloved since eighth century CE,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: and they first started appearing in poetry and in books
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: and in pictures and things like that. They have a
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: word for the cherry blossom, which is sakura. They have
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: quite a few words for this, as it turns out,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: because it's Japan. And then they're flower gazing when the
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: time rolls around where they're in bloom is called hanami,
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: And it's sort of a mixed bag in Japan because
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: it's definitely you know, spring and new beginnings, they start
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: the new school year, then it's the start of their
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: fiscal year. But it's also a little bittersweet because it
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: also symbolizes like the ending of things, right.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And the reason why is because cherry blossoms just
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: stop all of a sudden at their peak. They don't
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: like grow and peak and then fade. They grow and peak,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: and that's that, they just fall off and die. So
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: there's this idea, this concept of something dying in its prime,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: which is in and of itself quite bittersweet. Now they
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: have a word for that, this kind of nostalgic bittersweet
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: feeling that's kind of associated with cherry blossoms is not
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: which means exactly what I just said.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah for sure. And I was sort of laughing on
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: the inside there because they I got this from a
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: lot of different sources. But this may have been someone
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: how Stuffworks interviewed. The last name is Malot, and this
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: guy was like, if you're watching a Japanese movie or
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: TV show and it's some like awesome young person that
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: is the central character, and they're walking around and you
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: see the cherry trees blooming like that means they're going
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: to die in this movie.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: For sure right. That was a John Malot. He organizes
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: the Sakura Matsuri Japanese street festival in DC every April.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's the I guess, the Japanese version of
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: what we have in the United States, which is somebody
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: costs into a napkin and there's blood in it.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Oh. Yeah, that's always a bad sign, isn't it.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: You're always gone.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that never just becomes this thing that just happened
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: and the movie moves on.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: That would be a fun red herring to put in
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: a movie.
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  Speaker 1: Though, sure, I think that would be a mcguffin.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: Oh God, the emails. This is the new haiku.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Oh I forgot about haiku. I wonder somebody could write
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: a haiku about what a mcguffin is.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: It's coming.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: You asked for it, so you said that. There's other
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: words for cherry blossoms, and Japanese one of them is
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: okahka and tying into the idea of something dying young
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: and it's prime. That's what Japanese Kamakazi pilots were called
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: in World War Two Oka, and that's what they're planes.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: They're essentially human driven missile planes were called Oka as well,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: and they had like cherry blossoms painted on the side
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  Speaker 1: of the plane.
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  Speaker 2: That symbolism all over the place. So let's take a break.
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  Speaker 2: We've covered some of Japan, and now we're going to
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  Speaker 2: talk about DC right after this.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Josh and.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: South here, all right, So we promised talk of Washington,
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: d C. The most famous purveyor provider rather of cherry
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: blossoms here in the United States. And it all started
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: on March twenty eighth, nineteen twelve, when the Washington Post
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: ran a little story with the headline, missus Taft plants
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: a tree. And that is when Helen Nellie Taft, wife
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: of William Howard Taft, the President, planted a couple of
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: cherry blossom trees that were gifts from Tokyo. But the
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: story is a little more interesting than that, right.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Well, apparently the Washington Post journalist left in the middle
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: of it just a plant's a treat, So it's not
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: even a correct ineffective headline. Yeah, but yes, that is
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: just the broad stroke. That's the end result of decades
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: of organizing and campaigning by a woman named Eliza Skidmore.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: She was the first board member of Sorry, the first
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: woman board member of the National geographic Society. She was
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: very well traveled. She loved to go to Japan, and
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: so having traveled to Japan, she had been exposed to
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  Speaker 1: the cherry blossoms and was like, these are the greatest
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  Speaker 1: things ever. We should get some of these back in Washington, DC.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm sure that she thought this would be no
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: problem whatsoever. Well, fast forward almost thirty years and she
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: finally gets this thing done, but it's thanks to the
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: intervention of two other people who just also happened to
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: be men.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, I do love this quote though. I
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: want to read it because it just shows how enchanted
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: she was Potomac Park there on the river, they were
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: reclaiming it at the time, and this was an eighteen
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: eighty five and she wrote that basically like they had
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: to plant something there in this space, and she said
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: they might as well plant the most beautiful thing in
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: the world, the Japanese cherry tree. Yeah, it's very sweet.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: But yeah, you mentioned a couple of dudes. One guy
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: was named David Fairchild. And it's kind of cool when
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: you look back at how all these convergent things kind
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: of take place to make something happen. I love stories
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: like this, but This was a guy who was the
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: He worked at the USDA, which is a new thing
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: at the time for our Department of Agriculture. Is a
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: job that I want. I don't if they still have it.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: But he was a plant explorer, so he would travel
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: all over the world looking for plants that they could
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: cultivate in the United States.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: They do not still have that, man, I.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: Can't imagine anything better.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: They had it until like last year.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: I think, yeah, and I wish told me so.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: David Child was like, Hey, these actually can work in Washington,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: d C. I think he transplanted a few and showed
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: that they could live. Skidmore found out about this, and
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: she was like, Okay, I'm going to try one last time.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: I'm going to get in touch with this new first lady,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Nellie Taft, and I'm going to say, please, for love God,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: hear me out about these cherry trees. Everybody thinks it's
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: a good idea. Please, let's start planning cherry trees in DC.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: She got a reply two days later after she sent
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  Speaker 1: the letter, and Nellie Taff said, I have taken up
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: the matter, and the promised the trees, and all of
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: a sudden things just started looking up for Eliza Skidmore's idea.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, after twenty five years, can't imagine how
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: she felt. She got in touch with a guy named
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: doctor Takamini who was a wealthy Japanese chemist, and he
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: had been beating the cherry tree drum for New York
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: City for a while and she knew this. They were
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: fellow enthusiasts. So she said, hey, missus taff said, like,
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: she's going to try to make this thing happen. He
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: was like, well, I'm a wealthy Japanese chemist, so I
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: can pull some strings. Why don't we make this like
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: an official, like state gift from Japan to the United States.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: The great idea. So Japan said, here are two thousand
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: cherry blossom trees, and also here's a bunch of insects
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: and disease in that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Fortunately they're lousy with Japanese beetles and god knows what
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: disease that cherry trees get. Yeah, so they had to
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: burn them. And Japan was like, did you have to
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: like take a photograph and send it to us of
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: all the cherry trees burning. Yeah, So they send them
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  Speaker 1: three thousand more and those are the ones that included
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: the two that missus Taff planted. The next day after those,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: that second shipment of three and twenty healthy trees arrived.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: That's right.
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  Speaker 2: I guess they hedge their bets and sent the extra
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: thousand plus twenty, which is kind of funny. They line
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: the title basin there in DC Potomac Park kind of
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: right there around was it the Jefferson Memorial? I think, yeah, yeah,
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: it's gorgeous. If you've ever been there, I know you
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: lived in DC, right, so she's probably all over that.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: I bet oh, all over she would roll in them.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Park rangers would be like, please, you're not allowed to
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: do that again. I can't help myself.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: So yeah, that's DC. You know peak bloom you can,
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: Like Josh said earlier, you never know exactly when it's
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: going to happen. So it's kind of one of those things.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: It can be heartbreaking if you, you know, have to
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: book your ticket ahead of time and you have no
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: flexibility in your schedule. There have been plenty of people
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: that missed the Cherry Bloom in DC when they have
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: gone just for that, So yeah, I know it's it's
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: super sad when that happens. So maybe don't aim. This
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: is my advice, maybe don't aim for peak bloom. Just
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: try and be there at some point during that that timeframe.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: And it is something to see. You're just surrounded by
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: blooming cherry trees.
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  Speaker 2: Gorgeous.
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  Speaker 1: But you can also I mean, if you can't make
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: it to DC, or you made it and you miss
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: your mark, you can plant a cherry tree. They're really beautiful.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: I would recommend the autumn analysis because they're not only
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: blooms in the spring. It blooms in the autumn. Two
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: do you have one? No, I planted plenty of them,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: but I do not. We have a weeping cherry. It
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: only blooms once a year. Is that why it's said, Yeah,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: it was like an autumn.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: Oh man, I have not. Oh man, have I seen
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: the DC. I don't know if I've actually seen the
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: DC bloom. I feel like I did one time visiting
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: my sister years ago. But I also think I would
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: have known it because there's so many more trees than
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: even the ones in Brooklyn.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I've not seen the DC ones unless I
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: just don't remember them. But we were in Japan around
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: this time, but a little before it was, so there
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: was some sporadic blooming.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: But the thing I do remember is that the Starbucks
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: there had a sakura like coffee latte. Oh, they just
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: made up a taste because obviously cherry blossoms don't have
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: a taste. But it's one of the best tasting lattes
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: I've ever had, and of course it was right.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: Can you recall a note an e flat wiseacre?
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: You got anything else?
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: No, Just you know, it's not just DC and Japan.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: These things grow and temperate climates all over the world,
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: and they're certainly planted a lot for you know, tourism
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: and the wow factor, so you can you can see
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: them all over the place. So just if DC and
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: Japan are off the map for you, you can probably
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: find some nearby.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Sure. I think that's it for short stuff, right, Yeah,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: that means we're out.
• 12:41
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• 12:44
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