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Centennial Exposition

The Centennial International Exhibition, officially the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine, was held in Philadelphia from May 10 to November 10, 1876. It was the first official world's fair to be held in the United States, and coincided with the centennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence's adoption in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776.

It was held in Fairmount Park along the Schuylkill River on fairgrounds designed by Herman J. Schwarzmann. Nearly 10 million visitors attended the exposition, and 37 countries participated in it.

Precursor
The Great Central Fair on Logan Square in Philadelphia, in 1864, also known as the Great Sanitary Fair, was one of the many United States Sanitary Commission's Sanitary Fairs held during the American Civil War.

The fairs provided a creative and communal means for ordinary citizens to promote the welfare of Union Army soldiers and dedicate themselves to the survival of the nation, and the Great Central Fair bolstered Philadelphia's role as a vital center in the Union war effort. It anticipated the combination of public, private, and commercial investments that were necessary to mount the Centennial Exposition. Both had a similar neo-Gothic appearance, including the waving flags, a huge central hall, the "curiosities" and relics, handmade and industrial exhibits, and also a visit from the U.S. president and his family.

Planning
The idea of the Centennial Exposition is credited to John L. Campbell, a professor of mathematics, natural philosophy, and astronomy at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. In December 1866, Campbell suggested to Philadelphia Mayor Morton McMichael that the United States Centennial be celebrated with an exposition in Philadelphia. Naysayers argued that the project would not be able to find funding, other nations might not attend, and domestic exhibits might compare poorly to foreign ones.

The Franklin Institute became an early supporter of the exposition and asked the Philadelphia City Council for use of Fairmount Park. With reference to the numerous events of national importance that were held in the past and related to the city of Philadelphia, the City Council resolved in January 1870 to hold the Centennial Exposition in the city in 1876.

The Philadelphia City Council and the Pennsylvania General Assembly created a committee to study the project and seek support of the U.S. Congress. Congressman William D. Kelley spoke for the city and state, and Daniel Johnson Morrell introduced a bill to create a United States Centennial Commission. The bill, which passed on March 3, 1871, provided that the U.S. government would not be liable for any expenses.

The United States Centennial Commission organized on March 3, 1872, with Joseph R. Hawley of Connecticut as president. The Centennial Commission's commissioners included one representative from each state and territory in the United States. On June 1, 1872, Congress created a Centennial Board of Finance to help raise money. The board's president was John Welsh, brother of philanthropist William Welsh, who had raised funds for the Great Sanitary Fair in 1864. The board was authorized to sell up to $10 million in stock via $10 shares. The board sold $1,784,320 ($0 today) worth of shares by February 22, 1873. Philadelphia contributed $1.5 million and Pennsylvania gave $1 million. On February 11, 1876, Congress appropriated $1.5 million in a loan.

The board initially thought it was a subsidy. But after the exposition ended, the federal government sued to have the money returned, and the United States Supreme Court ultimately forced repayment. John Welsh enlisted help from the women of Philadelphia who had helped him in the Great Sanitary Fair. A Women's Centennial Executive Committee was formed with Elizabeth Duane Gillespie, a great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin, as president. In its first few months, the group raised $40,000. When the group learned the planning commission was not doing much to display the work of women, it raised an additional $30,000 for a women's exhibition building.

In 1873, the Centennial Commission named Alfred T. Goshorn as the director general of the Exposition. The Fairmount Park Commission set aside 450 acre of West Fairmount Park for the exposition, which was dedicated on July 4, 1873, by Secretary of the Navy George M. Robeson. The Commission decided to classify the exhibits into seven departments: agriculture, art, education and science, horticulture, machinery, manufactures, and mining and metallurgy. Newspaper publisher John W. Forney agreed to head and pay for a Philadelphia commission sent to Europe to invite nations to exhibit at the exposition. Despite fears of a European boycott and high American tariffs making foreign goods not worthwhile, no European country declined the invitation.

To accommodate out-of-town visitors, temporary hotels were constructed near the exposition's grounds. A Centennial Lodging-House Agency made a list of rooms in hotels, boarding houses, and private homes and then sold tickets for the available rooms in cities promoting the Centennial or on trains heading for Philadelphia. Philadelphia streetcars increased service, and the Pennsylvania Railroad ran special trains from Philadelphia's Market Street, New York City, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh. The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad ran special trains from the Center City part of Philadelphia. A small hospital was built on the exposition's grounds by the Centennial's Medical Bureau, but despite a heat wave during the summer, no mass health crises occurred.

Philadelphia passed an ordinance that authorized Mayor William S. Stokley to appoint 500 men as Centennial Guards for the exposition. Among soldiers and local men hired by the city was Frank Geyer, best known for investigating one of America's first serial killers, H. H. Holmes. Centennial Guards policed exhibits, kept the peace, reunited lost children, and received, recorded, and when possible, returned lost items, the most unusual of which were front hair pieces and false teeth.

Guards were required to live onsite and were housed at six police stations strategically located throughout the Exposition. A magistrate's office and courtroom were located at the only two-story police station located on the grounds and was used to conduct prisoner hearings. Officers slept in cramped quarters, which fostered health issues. Eight guards died while working the Exposition, six from typhoid fever, one from smallpox, and one from organic disease of the heart.

The Centennial National Bank was chartered on January 19, 1876, to be the "financial agent of the board at the Centennial Exhibition, receiving and accounting for daily receipts, changing foreign moneys into current funds, etc.," according to an article three days later in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Its main branch, designed by Frank Furness, was opened that April on the southeast corner of Market Street and 32nd Street. A branch office operated during the exposition on the fairgrounds. The Centennial Commission ran out of funds for printing and other expenses.

Philadelphia city officials appropriated $50,000 to make up for the shortfall.

Herman J. Schwarzmann
Herman J. Schwarzmann, an engineer for the Fairmount Park Commission, was appointed the main designer of the exposition. In 1869, Schwarzmann began working for the Fairmount Park Commission, which administered the site of the 1876 Centennial Exposition. It is one of the great urban parks of the United States; its importance in landscape history was surpassed only by Central Park. Schwarzmann was the chief architect for the Centennial Exposition, designing Memorial Hall, Horticultural Hall, other small buildings, and the landscaping around them. His work for the Centennial Exposition was informed by the Vienna International Exposition in 1873, which Schwarzmann visited to study the buildings and the grounds layout. The Vienna International Exposition in 1873 was marred by disastrous logistic planning and was taken as a cautionary example.

At the Vienna Exposition, there was no convenient way for visitors to reach the fairgrounds, and exorbitant rates were charged by carriage drivers. Drawing lessons from this failure, the Philadelphia exposition was ready for its visitors, with direct railroad connections to service passenger trains every 30 minutes, trolley lines, street cars, carriage routes, and even docking facilities on the river.

Structures
More than 200 buildings were constructed within the exposition's grounds, which were surrounded by a fence nearly three miles long. There were five main buildings in the exposition. They were the Main Exhibition Building, Memorial Hall, Machinery Hall, Agricultural Hall, and Horticultural Hall. Apart from these buildings, there were separate buildings for state, federal, foreign, corporate, and public comfort buildings. This strategy of numerous buildings in one exposition set it apart from the previous fairs around the world that had relied exclusively on having one or a few large buildings.

The Centennial Commission sponsored a design competition for the principal buildings, conducted in two rounds; winners of the first round had to have details such as construction cost and time prepared for the runoff on September 20, 1873. After the ten design winners were chosen, it was determined that none of them allowed enough time for construction and limited finances.

The architecture of the exposition mainly consisted of two types of building, traditional masonry monuments and buildings with a structural framework of iron and steel.

Main Exhibition Building
The Centennial Commission turned to third-place winner's architect Henry Pettit and engineer Joseph M. Wilson for design and construction of the Main Exhibition Building. A temporary structure, the Main Building was the largest building in the world by area, enclosing 21.5 acre. It measured 464 feet in width and 1880 feet in length.

It was constructed using prefabricated parts, with a wood and iron frame resting on a substructure of 672 stone piers. Wrought iron roof trusses were supported by the columns of the superstructure.

The building took eighteen months to complete and cost $1,580,000. The building was surrounded by portals on all four sides. The east entrance of the building was used as an access way for carriages, and the south entrance of the building served as a primary entrance to the building for streetcars. The north side related the building to the Art Gallery and the west side served as a passageway to the Machinery and Agricultural Halls.

In the Main Exhibition Building, columns were placed at a uniform distance of 24 feet. The entire structure consisted of 672 columns, the shortest column 23 feet in length and the longest 125 feet in length. The construction included red and black brick-laid design with stained glass or painted glass decorations. The Interior walls were whitewashed, and woodwork was decorated with shades of green, crimson, blue, and gold. The flooring of the building was made of wooden planks that rested directly on the ground without any air space underneath them.

The orientation of the building was east–west in direction, making it well lit, and glass was used between the frames to let in light. Skylights were set over the central aisles of the structure. The corridors of the building were separated by fountains that were attractive and also provided cooling.

The structure of the building featured a central avenue with a series of parallel sheds that were 120 ft wide, 1832 ft long, and 75 ft high. It was the longest nave ever introduced into an exhibition building up to that time. On both sides of the nave were avenues 100 feet in width and 1832 feet in length. Aisles 48 feet wide were located between the nave and the side avenues, and smaller aisles 24 feet in width were on the outer sides of the building.

The exterior of the building featured four towers, each 75 feet high, at each of the building's corners. These towers had small balconies at different heights that served as observation galleries.

Within the building, exhibits were arranged in a grid, in a dual arrangement of type and national origin. Exhibits from the United States were placed in the center of the building, and foreign exhibits were arranged around the center, based on the nation's distance from the United States. Exhibits inside the Main Exhibition Building dealt with mining, metallurgy, manufacturing, education, and science. Offices for foreign commissioners were placed in proximity to the products exhibited along in the aisles along the sides of the building. The walkways leading to the exit doors were ten feet wide.

After the Exposition, the structure was turned into a permanent building for the International Exhibition. During the auction held on December 1, 1876, it was bought for $250,000. It quickly ran into financial difficulties but remained open through 1879 and was finally demolished in 1881.

Agricultural Hall
The third-largest structure at the exposition was Agricultural Hall. Designed by James H. Windrim, Agricultural Hall was 820 ft long and 540 ft wide. Made of wood and glass, the building was designed to look like various barn structures pieced together. The building's exhibits included products and machines used in agriculture and other related businesses.

Horticultural Hall
Situated high atop a hill presiding over Fountain Avenue, Horticultural Hall epitomized floral achievement, which attracted professional and amateur gardeners. Unlike the other main buildings, it was meant to be permanent. Horticultural Hall had an iron and glass frame on a brick and marble foundation and was 383 ft long, 193 ft wide, and 68 ft tall. The building was designed in the Moorish style and intended as a tribute to the Crystal Palace of London's Great Exhibition of 1851.

Inside, nurserymen, florists, and landscape architects exhibited a variety of tropical plants, garden equipment, and garden plans. In dramatic fashion, the exposition introduced the general public to the notion of landscape design, as exemplified the building itself and the grounds surrounding it. A long, sunken parterre leading to Horticultural Hall became the exposition's iconic floral feature, reproduced on countless postcards and other memorabilia. This sunken garden enabled visitors on the raised walkways to see the patterns and shapes of the flowerbeds. After the Exposition, the building continued to be used for horticultural exhibits until it was severely damaged by Hurricane Hazel in 1954 and was subsequently demolished. As a replacement, the Fairmount Park Horticulture Center was built on the site in 1976 as part of the United States Bicentennial exposition.

Machinery Hall
Designed by Joseph M. Wilson and Henry Pettit, Machinery Hall was the second largest structure in the exposition and located west of the Main Exhibition Building. With a superstructure made of wood and glass resting on a foundation of massive masonry, it had a main hall painted light blue, 1402 ft long and 360 ft wide, with a wing of 208 ft by 210 ft attached on the south side of the building. The length of the building was 18 times its height. With eight entrances, it occupied 558,440 sqft, had 1,900 exhibitors, and took six months to construct. The exhibits focused on machines and evolving industries. Machinery Hall was the show case for the state of the art industrial technology that was being produced at the time. The United States of America alone took up two-thirds of the exhibit space in the building.

One of the major attractions on display in the building was the Corliss Centennial Steam Engine that ran power to all the machinery in the building as well as other parts of the world's fair. The 1,400 horsepower engine was 45 ft tall, weighed 650 tons, and had 1 mi of overhead line belts connecting to the machinery in the building. It symbolized the technology that was transforming the United States into an industrial powerhouse.

Amenities available to the visitors within the hall were rolling chairs, telegraph offices, and dinner for fifty cents. Machinery Hall had 8,000 operating machines and was filled with a wide assortment of hand tools, machine tools, material handling equipment, and the latest fastener technology.

Some of the sandstone that was used to build the hall was from Curwensville, Pennsylvania.

Memorial Hall
The Art Gallery building (now known as Memorial Hall) is the only large exhibit building still standing on the exposition site. Constructed of brick, glass, iron, and granite in the beaux-arts style, it was the largest art hall in the country when it opened, with a massive 1.5 acre footprint and a 150 ft dome atop a 59 ft-high structure. The central domed area is surrounded by four pavilions on the corners, with open arcades to the east and west of the main entrance. It provided 75,000 sqft of wall surface for paintings and 20,000 sqft of floor space for sculptures. The exposition received so many art contributions that a separate annex was built to house them all. Another structure was built for the display of photography.

Memorial Hall was designed by Herman J. Schwarzmann, who basically adopted an art museum plan submitted by Nicholas Félix Escalier to the Prix de Rome competition in 1867–69. Memorial Hall became the prototype, both from a stylistic and organizational standpoint, for other museums such as the Art Institute of Chicago (1892–1893), the Milwaukee Public Museum (1893–1897), the Brooklyn Museum (1893–1924), and the Detroit Institute of Art (1920–1927). Libraries such as the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, and the Free Library of Philadelphia also emulated its form. Finally, Memorial Hall was the architectural inspiration for the German capitol, the Reichstag building in Berlin.

After the exposition, Memorial Hall reopened in 1877 as the Pennsylvania Museum of Art and included the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art. In 1928 the museum moved to Fairmount at the head of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and in 1938 was renamed the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Memorial Hall continued to house the school, and afterward was taken over by the Fairmount Park Commission in 1958. The museum school is now the University of the Arts. Used for a time as a police station, the building now houses the Please Touch Museum, which includes a faithful 20x30-foot model of the exposition grounds and 200 buildings.

Women's Pavilion
The Women's Pavilion was the first structure at an international exposition to highlight the work of women, with exhibits created and operated by women. Female organizers drew upon deep-rooted traditions of separatism and sorority in planning, fundraising, and managing a pavilion devoted entirely to the artistic and industrial pursuits of their gender. They had to build their own structure because they lost their spot in one of the larger pavilions (the Main Building) due to an unexpected increase in the participation of foreign countries. Their aim was to employ only women in the construction of the pavilion and even to power it, and they succeeded with the exception of the design by Hermann J. Schwarzmann. Their overarching goal was to advance women's social, economic, and legal standing, abolish restrictions discriminating against their gender, encourage sexual harmony, and gain influence, leverage, and freedom for all women in and outside of the home by increasing women's confidence and ability to choose.

A project of the Women's Centennial Executive Committee, the Women's Pavilion was commissioned in 1873 by the United States Centennial Board of Finance with the expectation that it would generate enthusiasm for the celebration of the fair and increase subscriptions to exposition stock. Elizabeth Duane Gillespie, president of the Women's Centennial Committee, led the effort to gather 82,000 signatures in two days to raise money for the pavilion. Gillespie also helped convince Congress to grant additional funding. It took only four months to raise the funds for the pavilion.

Much of the pavilion was devoted to human ecology and home economics. On exhibit were over 80 patented inventions, including a reliance stove, a hand attachment for sewing machines, a dishwasher, a fountain griddle-greaser, a heating iron with removable handle, a frame for stretching and drying lace curtains, and a stocking and glove darner. The Centennial women not only showed domestic production but also employed a popular means for justifying female autonomy outside of the home by demonstrating to visitors the many ways women were making a profitable living. Exhibits demonstrated positive achievements and women's influence in domains such as industrial and fine arts (wood-carvings, furniture-making, and ceramics), fancy articles (clothing and woven goods), and philanthropy as well as philosophy, science, medicine, education, and literature.

Mexico participated in the pavilion's exhibits, indicating the growth of a sector of elite women during the Porfirio Díaz regime of the late nineteenth century, with many individual women sending examples of woven textiles and embroidery.

Other buildings

Eleven nations had their own exhibition buildings, and others contributed small structures, including the Swedish School house referenced below, now in Central Park, New York City. The British buildings were extensive and exhibited the evolved bicycle, with tension spokes and a large front wheel. Two English manufacturers, Bayless Thomas and Rudge, displayed their high-wheel bikes (called "ordinary bikes" or "penny farthings") at the exposition. The bicycle displays inspired Albert Augustus Pope to begin making high-wheel bikes in the United States. He started the Columbia Bike Company and published a journal called "LAW Bulletin and Good Roads", which was the beginning of the Good Roads Movement.. The main British building, also known as St. George's Hall or the English Commission Building, survived at its original site as Fairmount Park offices until it was demolished in 1961.

26 of the 37 U.S. states constructed buildings along States Drive in the exhibition grounds. Only three such state houses are still extant: the Ohio House at its original location in Fairmount Park, the Maryland House, which was moved to Druid Hill Park in Baltimore, where it is extant today, and the Missouri House, which was moved to Spring Lake, New Jersey, along with several other exhibition buildings, some of which are still extant in various Jersey Shore towns.

The United States government had a cross-shaped building that held exhibits from various government departments. The remaining structures were corporate exhibitions, administration buildings, restaurants, and other buildings designed for public comfort.

Exposition
The formal name of the exposition was the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine, but the official theme was the celebration of the United States centennial. This was reinforced by promotional tie-ins, such as the publication of Kate Harrington's Centennial, and Other Poems, which celebrated the exposition and the centennial.

At the same time, the exposition was designed to show the world the United States' industrial and innovative prowess. The exposition was originally scheduled to open in April, marking the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, but construction delays caused the date to be pushed back to May 10. Bells rang all over Philadelphia to signal the exposition's opening. The opening ceremony was attended by President Ulysses Grant and his wife as well as Emperor Pedro II of Brazil and his wife. A cantata commissioned for the occasion written by Dudley Buck and Sidney Lanier was performed. The opening ceremony concluded in Machinery Hall, with Grant and Pedro II turning on the Corliss Steam Engine which powered most of the other machines at the exposition. The official number of first day attendees was 186,272 people, with 110,000 entering with free passes.

In the days following the opening ceremony, attendance dropped dramatically, with only 12,720 people visiting the exposition the next day. The average daily attendance for May was 36,000 and for June 39,000. A severe heat wave began in mid-June and continued into July, hurting attendance. The average temperature was 81 F, and on ten days during the heat wave the temperature reached 100 F. The average daily attendance for July was 35,000, but it rose in August to 42,000 despite the return of high temperatures at the end of the month.

Cooling temperatures, news reports, and word of mouth began increasing attendance in the final three months of the exposition, with many of the visitors coming from farther distances. In September the average daily attendance rose to 94,000 and in October to 102,000. The highest attendance date of the entire exposition was September 28. The day, which saw about a quarter of a million people attend, was Pennsylvania Day. It celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776, and exposition events included speeches, receptions, and fireworks. The final month of the exposition, November, had an average daily attendance of 115,000. By the time the exposition ended on November 10, a total of 10,164,489 had visited the fair. Among the attendees who were duly impressed by the exposition were Princeton University sophomore Woodrow Wilson and his minister father, Joseph Ruggles Wilson, visiting from North Carolina.

Although not financially successful for investors, the Centennial Exposition impressed foreigners with the industrial and commercial growth of the country. The level of exports increased, the level of imports decreased, and the trade balance grew in favor of the United States.

Inventions
The Centennial Monorail featured a steam locomotive and passenger car that straddled a single elevated iron rail. Mass-produced products and new inventions were on display within Machinery Hall. Inventions included the typewriter and electric pen along with new types of mass-produced sewing machines, stoves, lanterns, guns, wagons, carriages, and agricultural equipment.

The exposition also featured many well-known products including Alexander Graham Bell's first telephone, set up at opposite ends of Machinery Hall, Thomas Edison's automatic telegraph system, screw-cutting machines that dramatically improved the production of screws and bolts from 8,000 to 100,000 per day, and a universal grinding machine by the Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company.

Air-powered tools along with a mechanical calculator by George B. Grant were exhibited. John A. Roebling & Sons Company displayed a slice of their 5 ¾ inch diameter cable to be used for the Brooklyn Bridge. New food products such as popcorn and ketchup, along with root beer, were also exhibited.

Consumer products first displayed to the public include:
 * Alexander Graham Bell's telephone
 * The Sholes and Glidden typewriter (also known as the Remington No. 1)
 * Heinz Ketchup
 * Wallace-Farmer Electric Dynamo, precursor to electric light
 * Hires Root Beer
 * Kudzu erosion control plant species

Exhibits
The right arm and torch of the Statue of Liberty were showcased at the exposition. For a fee of 50 cents, visitors could climb the ladder to the balcony, and the money raised this way was used to fund the pedestal for the statue.

Technologies introduced at the fair include the Corliss Steam Engine. Pennsylvania Railroad displayed the John Bull steam locomotive that was originally built in 1831. The Waltham Watch Company displayed the first automatic screw-making machinery and won the Gold Medal in the first international watch precision competition. Until the start of 2004, many of the exposition's exhibits were displayed in the Smithsonian Institution's Arts and Industries Building in Washington, D.C., adjacent to the Castle building.

The German Empire, which had recently been founded after the German victory in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, did not send a very big contribution. Its main contributor were the Krupp steelworks, which sent in 37 civilian (mainly railway) items and 9 artillery items. Its big 35.5 cm gun of 57t was the showpiece of its contribution and drew quite some attention. It was kind of a tradition for Krupp to promote its trade mark by exhibiting its heaviest gun at each world's fair. However, the Philadelphia 57t gun was considerably lighter than the British 40 cm gun of 80t which was made at the same time.

The French contribution centered on art. Its showpiece was the Gothic Revival high altar that Edward Sorin, founder of University of Notre Dame, had commissioned from the workshop of Désiré Froc-Robert & Sons in Paris. After the exposition, the altar was installed at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Notre Dame's campus where it remains to this day.

For Mexico, which was emerging from a long period of internal disorder and foreign invasions, the exposition was an opportunity for the Liberal regime of President Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada to garner international recognition of his regime and to counter anti-Mexican public opinion in the United States. Prominent Mexican painters including José María Velasco, José Obregón, and Santiago Rebull exhibited there. Velasco's work was greatly admired, gaining him international recognition and enhancing his standing in Mexico.

The Swedish Cottage, representing a rural Swedish schoolhouse of traditional style, was re-erected in Central Park in New York City, after the exposition closed. It is now the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre.

The Japan exhibit included a pavilion, house, and garden with one of the first "dwarfed trees" to be displayed outside of Japan.

The official state pavilion of New Jersey was a reconstruction of the Ford Mansion in Morristown, New Jersey, which served as General George Washington's headquarters during the winter of 1779–80. Featuring costumed presenters and a "colonial kitchen" complete with a spinning wheel, the reconstructed mansion was accompanied by a polemical narrative about "old-fashioned domesticity". This quaint hearth-and-home interpretation of the colonial past was counterposed to the theme of progress, with the overarching theme of the exposition serving to reinforce a view of American progress as evolving from a small, hardy colonial stock rather than from a continual influx of multi-ethnic waves of immigration. It sparked an era of "Colonial Revival" in American architecture and house furnishings.

Beaver Falls Cutlery Company exhibited the "largest knife and fork in the world" made by Chinese immigrant workers, among others.

title: Centennial Exposition


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Culebra, Puerto Rico

Isla Culebra (, Snake Island) is an island, town and municipality of Puerto Rico and geographically part of the Spanish Virgin Islands. It is located approximately 17 mi east of the Puerto Rican mainland, 12 mi west of St. Thomas and 9 mi north of Vieques. Culebra is spread over 5 barrios and Culebra Pueblo (Dewey), the main town and the administrative center of the island. Residents of the island are known as culebrenses. With a population of 1,792 as of the 2020 Census, it is Puerto Rico's least populous municipality.

Originally called Isla del Pasaje and Isla de San Ildefonso, Culebra is also known as Isla Chiquita ("Little Island"), Cuna del Sol Borincano ("Cradle of the Puerto Rican Sun") and Última Virgen ("Last Virgin", due to its position at the end of the Virgin Islands archipelago).

History
Some sources claim that Christopher Columbus was the first European to arrive at the island during his second voyage on November 19, 1493. It is believed that the island was populated by Carib Indians during the colonization. After Agüeybaná and Agüeybaná II led the Taíno rebellion of 1511, Taíno Indians from the main island sought refuge on Culebra and allied with Caribs to launch random attacks at the island estates.

After that, the island was left abandoned for centuries. During the era of Spanish commerce through the Americas, it was used as a refuge for pirates, as well as local fishermen and sailors. Some sources mention a black overseer from British-ruled Tortola named John Stevens, who was put in charge of Culebra in the 1850s by the Governor of Vieques under the Spanish crown to protect the island from foreigners who, without proper permissions or payments of fees for despoiling Culebra, took fish, cut trees for lumber and prepared drift wood as charcoal for future sale elsewhere. Appropriating the unearned title of "Captain", he began a decades-long isolated sojourn on Culebra as enforcer of Spanish interests. In October 1871, however, Stevens was found dead outside his hut, his body viciously hacked apart. His heart and entrails had been placed in clay pots, in an apparent religious ritual to curse his soul. Spanish police from Vieques tracked down Tortolan foragers on Culebra who were suspected of the vicious murder. Eventually 21 of them were sentenced to forced labor on sugar plantations in Vieques as punishment. The affair caused an international incident, and, to satisfy demands from the British ambassador in Madrid, the Tortolans were finally freed by the Spanish Governor of Puerto Rico in July 1874. These events caused the government of Switzerland in June 1876 to recall an expedition destined for Culebra to establish a warm-weather sanatorium there. Fearing further foreign encroachments, the Spanish government decided to populate Culebra with its own subjects.

Culebra was then settled by Cayetano Escudero Sanz on October 27, 1880, when he completed his survey of the island that included subdivisions into usable lots. The Spanish government offered these parcels of land to anyone who would move to the island. The first settlers depended on rain for drinking water, as the island has no natural streams. Subsistence farming and cattle raising were established and a cistern was built for common use at one end of a natural harbor or Ensenada Honda in Spanish.

This first settlement was called San Ildefonso, to honor the Bishop of Toledo, officially San Ildefonso de la Culebra. Two years later, on September 25, 1882, construction of the Culebrita lighthouse began. It was completed on February 25, 1886, which made it the oldest operating lighthouse in the Caribbean until 1975, when the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard finally closed the facility.

Puerto Rico was ceded by Spain in the aftermath of the Spanish–American War under the terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1898 and became a territory of the United States. In 1899, the United States Department of War conducted a census of Puerto Rico finding that the population of Culebra was 704.

In 1902, Culebra was integrated as a part of Vieques. One year later, on June 26, President Theodore Roosevelt established the Culebra Naval Reservation. A bird refuge was established on February 27, 1909.

The United States Navy cited the 1900 Foraker Act to expropriate the land surrounding the natural harbor and in 1902 ordered the removal of all settlers so that a base for the South Atlantic fleet could be erected. Antonio Lugo Suarez, a Puerto Rican who had made his fortune in St. Thomas then part of the Danish West Indies and Pedro Márquez Morales, a Spaniard who had married a Puerto Rican woman from Vieques, were successful ranchers on Culebra. Each offered an alternate site to the displaced Culebrenses, so as to prevent the total abandonment of the island. The location identified by Márquez on Playa Sardinas became the town of Dewey.

A new church was built with materials taken from San Ildefonso and a customs office was constructed. Pedro Márquez (1850–1920) was appointed the first mayor under U.S. rule in 1905, replacing Leopoldo Padrón, the Special Delegate appointed for the transition from Spanish rule. Pedro Márquez was succeeded as mayor in 1912 by his son, Alejandro Márquez Laureano (1912–1914) who erected the first docks for the new town and installed electric lighting on the town's streets. He was succeeded as mayor in 1914 by Claro C. Feliciano, the first mayor who had been born in Culebra.

With the agreement reached with a new Cuban government to lease Guantanamo Bay as a naval base, in 1911 the U.S. reduced the size of its forces on Culebra and turned the installation to training purposes. In 1924, the U.S. Navy began annual maneuvers on Culebra taking advantage of its deep-sea waters to practice coordinating amphibious landings on its beaches.

In 1939, the U.S. Navy began to use the Culebra Archipelago as a gunnery and bombing practice site. This was done in preparation for the United States' involvement in World War II. In 1971 the people of Culebra began protests, known as the Navy-Culebra protests, for the removal of the U.S. Navy from Culebra. Four years later, in 1975, the use of Culebra as a gunnery range ceased and all operations were moved to Vieques.

Culebra was declared an independent island municipality in 1917. The first democratically elected government was put into place in 1960. Prior to this, the government of Puerto Rico appointed delegates to administer the island.

On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria struck the island of Puerto Rico. In Culebra, where Hurricane Irma had caused major damages a week prior, Hurricane Maria caused more destruction.

Geography

Culebra is an archipelago consisting of the main island and twenty-three smaller islands that lie off its coast. The largest of these keys are: Culebrita to the east, Cayo Norte to the northeast, and Cayo Luis Peña and Cayo Lobo to the west. The smaller islands include Cayo Ballena, Cayos Geniqui, Arrecife Culebrita, Las Hermanas, El Mono, Cayo Lobito, Cayo Botijuela, Alcarraza, Los Gemelos, and Piedra Steven. Islands in the archipelago are arid, meaning they have no rivers or streams. All of the fresh water is brought from Puerto Rico via Vieques by undersea pipeline.

Culebra is characterized by an irregular topography resulting in a long intricate shoreline. The island is approximately 7 by. The coast is marked by cliffs, sandy coral beaches and mangrove forests. Inland, the tallest point on the island is Mount Resaca, with an elevation of 636 ft, followed by Balcón Hill, with an elevation of 545 ft.

Ensenada Honda is the largest inlet on the island and is considered to be the most hurricane secure harbor in the Caribbean. There are also several lagoons on the island, like Corcho, Flamenco, and Zoní. Culebrita Island also has a lagoon called Molino.

Almost 80% of the island's area is volcanic rock from the Cretaceous period. It is mostly used for livestock pasture, as well as some minor agriculture.

Federal nature reserves
These small islands are all classified as nature reserves and several nature reserves also exist on the main island. One of the oldest bird sanctuaries in United States territory was established in Culebra on February 27, 1909, by President Teddy Roosevelt. The Culebra Island giant anole (Anolis roosevelti, Xiphosurus roosevelti (according to ITIS) is an extremely rare or possibly extinct anole lizard. It is native to Culebra Island and was named in honor of Theodore Roosevelt Jr., who was the governor of Puerto Rico at that time. There are bird sanctuaries on many of the islands as well as turtle nesting sites on Culebra. Leatherback, green sea and hawksbill sea turtles use the beaches for nesting. The archipelagos bird sanctuaries are home to brown boobies, laughing gulls, sooty terns, bridled terns and noddy terns. An estimated 50,000 seabirds find their way back to the sanctuaries every year. These nature reserves comprise 1568 acre of the archipelago's 7000 acre. These nature reserves are protected by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

Culebra has no natural large mammals. However, a population of white-tailed deer introduced in July 1966 (one male and three females) can be found on the eastern region of the island.

National protected area

 * Culebra National Wildlife Refuge

Important Bird Area
Culebra, along with its adjacent islets and cays, has been recognised as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because they support seabird breeding colonies of brown boobies, brown noddies, and both sooty and royal terns.

Barrios
Like all municipalities of Puerto Rico, Culebra is subdivided into barrios.

Sectors
Barrios (which are, in contemporary times, roughly comparable to minor civil divisions) are further subdivided into smaller areas called sectores (sectors in English). The types of sectores may vary, from normally sector to urbanización to reparto to barriada to residencial, among others.

Tourism
Culebra is a popular weekend tourist destination for mainland Puerto Ricans, Americans and residents of Vieques. Culebra has many beaches including Flamenco Beach (Playa Flamenco), rated third best beach in the world for 2014 by TripAdvisor. In November 2017 Forbes rated it #19 of the top 50 beaches around the world. It can be reached by shuttle buses from the ferry. The beach extends for a mile of white coral sand and is framed beautifully by arid tree-covered hills. The beach is also protected by the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources as a marine wildlife reserve.

The area west of Flamenco Beach and the adjacent Flamenco Point were used for joint-United States Navy/Marine Corps military exercises until 1975. Two old M4 Sherman tanks, which were used for target practice, can be found at the beach. Culebra and Vieques offered the U.S. military training areas for the Fleet Marine Force in amphibious exercises for beach landings and naval gunfire support testing. Culebra and Vieques were the two components of the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Range Inner Range. In recent years, only the shortened term "Inner Range" was used.

Other beaches are only accessible by private car or boats. Of the smaller islands, only Culebrita and Luis Peña permit visitors and can be accessible via water taxis from Culebra. Hiking and nature photography are encouraged on the small islands. However, activities which would disturb the nature reserves are prohibited, e.g. camping, littering and the use of motor vehicles. Camping, however, is allowed on Flamenco Beach throughout the year. Reservations are recommended. Culebra is also a popular destination for scuba divers because of the many reefs throughout the archipelago and the crystal clear waters. Because of the "arid" nature of the island there is no run-off from rivers or streams, resulting in very clear waters around the archipelago.

Landmarks and places of interest
To stimulate local tourism, the Puerto Rico Tourism Company launched the Voy Turistiendo ("I'm Touring") campaign, with a passport book and website. The Culebra page lists Playa Flamenco, Faro de Culebrita, and Reserva Natural del Canal Luis Peña, as places of interest. According to a news article by Primera Hora, Culebra has 10 beaches.
 * Flamenco Beach (Ranked #2 in the top 10 most exotic beaches in the world)
 * Brava Beach
 * Las Vacas Beach
 * Larga Beach
 * Pueblo Español
 * Punta Soldado Beach
 * Resaca Beach
 * Tamarindo Beach
 * Tortuga Beach
 * Zoní Beach

Festivals and events
Culebra celebrates its patron saint festival in July. The Fiestas Patronales de Nuestra Señora del Carmen is a religious and cultural celebration in honor of Mary, the mother of Jesus and generally features parades, games, artisans, amusement rides, regional food, and live entertainment.

Other festivals and events include:
 * Windsurfing competition – February
 * Fishing tournament – March
 * Craft festivities – November

In 2020, the descendants of Pedro Márquez erected a plaque commemorating the centennial of his death at the original site of his butcher shop, built on the main street that bears his name.

Economy
In past centuries, agriculture was the main source of economy in Culebra. At some point, the following products were produced and exported from the island: wood, turtle oil, shells, fish, tobacco, livestock, pigs, goats, cheese, plantains, pumpkins, beans, yams, garlic, maize, tomatoes, oranges, coconut, cotton, melons, mangrove bark, coal, and turkey.

Nowadays, Culebra's main source of revenue comes from construction and tourism.

2020
As of 2020, the municipality has a population of 1,792, making it the least populous in Puerto Rico.

10.8% of Culebra's population is of non-Hispanic origin, making it also the least Hispanic municipality in Puerto Rico. This represents an increase from 2010, when only 8.3% of the population was non-Hispanic.

Historic demographics
In 1894, written reports indicated that there were 519 residents living in five communities: San Ildefonso, Flamenco, San Isidero, Playa Sardinas I y II, and Frayle. There were 84 houses built, 24 of them in the San Ildefonso community.

Notable people from Culebra

 * Pedro Morales, (1942–2019) was a Puerto Rican professional wrestler. The first Latino to hold a world heavyweight championship when he became the WWF WWE World Heavyweight Champion in 1971.
 * Avenida Hermanos Avila, Culebra.jpgnos Ávila Esperanza - Military (Andrés; Pedro; Norberto; Justino; Guillermo y Tomás) - A street in Fajardo (Parcelas Beltrán) and Culebra (PR-251) is named after The Ávila Brothers. These six soldiers were honored for their exceptional work in the Korean and Vietnam wars and for returning home to Puerto Rico alive.

Government

Like all of Puerto Rico's municipalities, the island of Culebra is administered by a mayor, elected every four years in general elections. Initially, administrators were selected by the Spanish crown or by the United States government during the 19th and early 20th century.

In 2004, Abraham Peña Nieves was elected mayor of Culebra with 50.1% of the votes. He was reelected in 2008.

In November 2011, Peña died of prostate cancer. The next day, it was announced that his daughter, Lizaida Peña, might replace him until the 2012 general elections. However, in 2011, Ricardo López Cepero was elected by delegates to succeed Peña. López Cepero was defeated by Iván Solís in the 2012 general election.

The city belongs to the Puerto Rico Senatorial district VIII, which is represented by two senators. In 2012, Pedro A. Rodríguez and Luis Daniel Rivera were elected as district senators.

Government services
The United States Postal Service operates the Culebra Post Office.

Symbols
The municipio has an official flag and coat of arms.

Flag
The Culebra flag consists of five vertical stripes, three alternate yellow and two green ones. The yellow central stripe has the map of Culebra in green.

Coat of arms
The field is tierced in three, in the Spanish manner, vert, argent, or. The cross and the episcopal crozier symbolize Bishop San Ildefonso, because originally the island was called San Ildefonso de la Culebra. The crowned serpent (culebra means serpent) ondoyant in pale is the emblem of its name. The mailed arm refers to the coat of the Escudero family, first settlers of the island. The laurel cross refers to the civic triumph reached when Culebra obtained the evacuation of the United States Navy. The crest is a coronet bearing two masts, their sails filled by the wind.

Education
Due to its size and small population, there are only three schools on Culebra, one for each level. They are the San Ildefonso Elementary School, the Antonio R. Barceló High School, and the Luis Muñoz Rivera school. Education is administered by the Puerto Rico Department of Education.

Health care
There is a small hospital in the island called Hospital de Culebra. It also offers pharmacy services to residents and visitors. For emergencies, patients are transported by plane to Fajardo on the main island.

On September 20, 2020, Puerto Rico's Health Department reported that in the six months of pandemic, Culebra had reported only six cases of infection and no deaths. This was the lowest rate of infection in any municipality of Puerto Rico during the COVID-19 infections.

Transportation
The island of Culebra can be reached by private boat, the Culebra Ferry, or airplane. Ferry service is available from Ceiba. Ferries make several trips a day to the main island for an approximate fare of $4.50 (round trip).

Culebra also has a small airport, Benjamín Rivera Noriega Airport, with domestic service to the mainland and Vieques. The airport is served by small airlines:
 * Air Flamenco provides service from Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport in Isla Grande, Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, and José Aponte de la Torre Airport in Ceiba.
 * Vieques Air Link provides service to Culebra from San Juan, Vieques, Ceiba and, formerly, Fajardo.

There is public transportation available in the island, through public cars and taxis.

There is one bridge on the island.

Navy Culebra protests
The Navy–Culebra protests is the name given by American media to a series of protests starting in 1971 on the island of Culebra, Puerto Rico against the United States Navy use of the island. The protests led to the U.S. Navy abandoning its facilities on Culebra.

The historical backdrop was that in 1902, three years after the U.S. invasion of Puerto Rico, Culebra was integrated as a part of Vieques. But on June 26, 1903, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt established the Culebra Naval Reservation in Culebra. The suitability of Culebra and its topography for the technical requirements of naval gunfire and aircraft weapons exercises was recognized in 1936, and the Government of the United States declared Culebra and its adjacent waters as the Culebra Naval Defensive Sea Area in 1941. This military defense area included all coastal waters from high-tide elevation to three miles off shore. The naval gunnery and aircraft weapons ranges at Culebra played a considerable role, along with other gunnery facilities near Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, in the combat readiness of Allied Naval Forces during the Second World War. These Caribbean ranges again served as primary weapons training grounds for both Naval Gunfire Support Exercises and aircraft weapons systems proficiency during the critical period of the Korean War starting in the summer of 1950. The United States Naval exercises reached a peak in 1969, as many ships and air units were attached to the Atlantic Fleet for gunnery and aerial ordnance proficiency prior to their ultimate assignments to naval task forces stationed in Southeast Asia.

In 1971 the people of Culebra began the protests for the removal of the U.S. Navy from Culebra. The protests were led by Ruben Berrios, President of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP), a well-regarded attorney in international rights, President-Honorary of the Socialist International, and Law professor at the University of Puerto Rico. An ecumenical chapel was built on Flamenco Beach, in an action led by Catholic Bishop Antulio Parilla Bonilla, Baptist minister, Luis Rivera Pagán, and George Lakey of the Quaker Action Committee. Berrios and other protesters squatted in Culebra for a few days. Some of them, including Berrios, were arrested and imprisoned for civil disobedience. The official charge was trespassing on U.S. military territory. The protests led to the U.S. Navy discontinuing the use of Culebra as a gunnery range in 1975 and all of its operations were moved to Vieques. The case against the Navy was led by Washington lawyer Richard Copaken as retained pro-bono by the people of Culebra island.

The cleaning process of the island has been slow. At the end of 2016, the United States Army Corps of Engineers sent letters to the residents of Culebra citing active removal of undetonated explosive material still present on the island.

In popular culture

 * Two British sailing ships, the brig HMS Triton and the merchantman Topaz, are wrecked by a hurricane and come to rest with their crews on Isla Culebra in the novel Governor Ramage R.N. by Dudley Pope
 * As the site of an alleged buried treasure, Culebra is featured in the 2018 Netflix docudrama The Legend of Cocaine Island.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Culebra, Puerto Rico


text:
A grain of salt

To take something with a "grain of salt" or "pinch of salt" is an English idiom that suggests to view something, specifically claims that may be misleading or unverified, with skepticism or not to interpret something literally.

In the old-fashioned English units of weight, a grain weighs approximately 65 mg, which is about how much table salt a person might pick up between the fingers as a pinch.

History
The phrase is thought to come from Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia, regarding the discovery of a recipe written by the Pontic king Mithridates to make someone immune to poison. One of the ingredients in the recipe was a grain of salt. Threats involving poison were thus to be taken "with a grain of salt", and therefore less seriously.

The phrase cum grano salis ("with a grain of salt") is not what Pliny wrote. It is constructed according to the grammar of modern European languages rather than Classical Latin. Pliny's actual words were addito salis grano ("after having added a grain of salt").

The Latin word sal (salis is the genitive) means both "salt" and "wit", thus the Latin phrase cum grano salis could be translated to either "with a grain of salt" or "with a grain of wit", actually to "with caution"/cautiously.

The phrase is typically said "with a pinch of salt" in British English and said "with a grain of salt" in American English.

title: A grain of salt


text:
Talk:A grain of salt

The origional content of "Grain of salt" (now at Grain of salt/Poetic interpretations), while perhaps providing interesting poetic, artistic, or philosophical commentary on why this phrase might be appropriate and its "deeper meaning", harded seemed the stuff of an encyclopedia article. Thus I moved it to a less central page.

I'm not even sure a page for this phrase is compatible with Wikipedia's anti-dictionary policy.

-- Ryguasu

I have to agree...Wikipedia is not a usage guide. --Larry Sanger

So: move it or delete it? Ryguasu, it looks like you originated the current contents. It now exists just because the original non-encyclopedia article existed, but there is no reason that I can see for having an excursus on "grain of salt" in Wikipedia. Do you have an opinion about moving or deleting it altogether? --Larry Sanger

I have no particular feelings for the article. We do have articles on foreign-language "proverbs", and I think it would be inconsistant with those if there were not some space for English-language sayings as well. But I don't care what form that space might take. In the end, this article took all of about a minute to write, so it's not exactly something I value. -- Ryguasu

Actually, the grain of salt thing probably isn't a proverb. Perhaps a mere figure of speech, although I doubt there's a rigid distinction between the two. -- Ryguasu

Idioms have long been a part of every language. They have no relevant meaning on their own and thus should be considered a word or subject for study, a dictionary should not include idioms as they are considered "translations" of true meaning within a language, not words with factual meaning. I think it very appropriate of Wiki to include idiomatic phrases of any language in its repertoire. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tigereyedgirl1972 (talk • contribs) 03:19, 5 January 2013 (UTC)

I didn't know what this phrase meant.. now I do. Thanks wiki
 * me too - 210.69.138.108 15:46, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I found this article very useful. As with the article for "Greatest thing since sliced bread" and others like it, it helped to find the origin of the saying and to verify proper application. I also routinely will point others to these articles, and many have found them entertaining and beneficial. -- An honest quixtar ibo 15:02, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

Usefulness is not a sufficient criteria for inclusion here. I was surprised to find the article here. (John User:Jwy talk) 02:04, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

Historical Meaning
Are we sure that the Romans believed the head to be filled with salt? I have trouble believing that. That explanation also doesn't jive with the history given by dictionary.com, that it was part of an antidode. According to dictionary.com, Pliny used the phrase (possibly first) in that manner. No one's replied in almost a week, so I editted the stuff out and replaced it with info about Pliny. The info came from the above sources. Please feel free to comment if you disagree with the changes. -- Dpark 03:52, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Dictionary.com (with a grain of salt) (scroll down)
 * Dictionary.com (grain of salt)
 * Knowwhat.com archive (grain of salt) Excellent History, if accurate
 * Other 'pliny + "grain of salt"' results

-- Dpark

Not an antidote to poison.
Barbara Shack 15:35, 4 February 2006 (UTC)I added that salt is not really an antidote to poison. Some child, silly adult or self-destructive adult might try messing with poisons and salt and might end up dead.
 * Are we sure that salt isn't an antidote to any poison? — The Storm Surfer 00:41, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Is this article even close to accurate?
What I learned in Latin classes is that the phrase refers to the practice of paying Roman soldiers in salt; thus, a grain (or a pinch) of salt equivalently means "worthless" and is the rise of other phrases such as "Not worth his salt". The Latin word salt, salus, is from where English derives the word 'salary'. So taking something 'with a grain of salt' essentially means to take something but to afford it little value. Conversely, the somewhat new phrase to take something with a 'BIG grain of salt' is simple nonsense.

This explanation makes a lot more sense than anything written on the article page, and can be corroborated in the articles both on 'Salary' and 'History of salt'. I would take dictionary.com's There is also a story... with a grain of salt. (Updating History... page) — 72.40.155.239 19:17, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

 * Funny. I had always thought it meant to take something unpleasant.  bad news or whatever could taken 'with a grain of sale' to lessen the harshness.  Perhaps that just comes from my penchant for tequila, however and I have no clue where I might have otherwise got that idea.... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 72.45.66.141 (talk) 07:10, 3 May 2007 (UTC).

"to take something but to afford it little value" seems a much more accurate, concise and complete definition than the waffle currently in the first paragraph of this article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.154.33.122 (talk) 11:30, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

Did Pliny ever use the expression "cum grano salis"?
I've just browsed the whole of Pliny's Naturalis Historia (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/home.html) and was unable to find the phrase "cum grano salis". There is "cum mica salis" (book 25, 169), "cum salis mica" (book 24, 74), and "addito salis grano" (book 23, 149), but no "cum grano salis" as far as I could see. I think that someone needs to provide a direct reference to the expression "cum grano salis" in Pliny's NH or reconsider the origins of the expression to make sure we don't perpetuate a myth through this article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.79.246.179 (talk) 12:37, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

correct, the phrase in Pliny is "addito salis grano” when talking about a cure for snake bite poisoning - here it is unclear as to whether the salt should help the recipe be more effective or whether Pliny was being ironic (and not having much faith in the cure) - the orig. phrase seems to have been altered to the current usage —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.176.211.144 (talk) 19:23, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

 * Can we then clean up the article? If Pliny did not say cum grano salis, than it would seem that the article should not be having this argument with itself.--NapoliRoma (talk) 14:58, 31 October 2012 (UTC)

Lipstick on a pig
Hello, fellow editors … I just put some lipstick on this pig, but I'm dubious about the first reference … maybe Some Other Editor can track down the correct page on that site (Bartleby.com), or else remove it as WP:SPAM … I have no objection to the other two URLs as external links, in spite of them not being reliable sources. :-) Happy Editing! —  11:04, 2 July 2009 (UTC)
 * If the original source is not available online, sometimes a "convenience link" to a reliable third party hosting the original content is acceptable (google books for example). I do not know about Bartleby's reputation for accurately housing the third party materials, but for it to be a "convenience link", it would need to go directly to the material cited, and this link doesn't. It's been removed. -- The Red Pen of Doom  11:28, 2 July 2009 (UTC)
 * I found this cached version … maybe Some Other Editor can find a valid URL instead of the (obviously) default 404 error page reached with the one supplied. :-) — 138.88.93.15 (talk) 11:36, 2 July 2009 (UTC)

✅ … time for me to MOVE ON! — 138.88.93.15 (talk) 12:28, 2 July 2009 (UTC)

Salting the Earth
Proposing that lands that were taken with a grain of salt might have a connection for the history. I have no evidence to support this, it's just a theory. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.105.33.21 (talk) 05:28, 21 November 2021 (UTC)

Grain
The article adduces no evidence for the unlikely-sounding claim that the "grain" in the phrase refers to the unit of mass, rather than the more usual sense of a single crystal. It's certainly possible that that's true, but I don't see any support for it in the text or the references, barring the unsourced speculation that a pinch is about the same as a grain in the sense of a unit of mass. --Trovatore (talk) 02:05, 2 March 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:A grain of salt


text:
Mike Myers

Michael John Myers (born May 25, 1963) is a Canadian-American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. His accolades include seven MTV Movie & TV Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2002, he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2017, he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada for "his extensive and acclaimed body of comedic work as an actor, writer, and producer."

Following a series of appearances on several Canadian television programs, Mike Myers attained recognition during his six seasons as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1989 to 1995, which won him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series. He subsequently earned praise and numerous accolades for playing the title roles in the Wayne's World (1992–1993), Austin Powers (1997–2002), and Shrek (2001–present) franchises, the latter of which is the second highest-grossing animated film franchise. Myers also played the titular star in the 2003 live-action adaptation of the Dr. Seuss book The Cat in the Hat.

Myers acted sporadically in the 2010s, having supporting roles in Terminal and Bohemian Rhapsody (both 2018). He made his directorial debut with the documentary Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon (2013), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. He created and starred in the 2022 Netflix original series, The Pentaverate, and appeared in David O. Russell's Amsterdam.

Early life
Michael John Myers was born in the Scarborough district of Toronto on May 25, 1963, to data processor Alice "Bunny" E. (née Hind) and insurance agent Eric Myers. His parents were British immigrants from the Old Swan area of Liverpool. Both were World War II veterans, his mother having served in the Women's Royal Air Force and his father in the Royal Engineers. He has distant Scottish ancestry. He has two older brothers: Paul, a musician, and Peter, who worked for Sears Canada. He grew up in Scarborough and North York, where he attended Sir John A. Macdonald Collegiate Institute. He graduated from Stephen Leacock Collegiate Institute in 1982.

One of his neighbours and schoolmates was prominent voice actor Maurice LaMarche.

Early career
Myers began performing in commercials at two years old. At the age of 10, he made a commercial for British Columbia Hydro, with Gilda Radner playing his mother. At 12, he made a guest appearance as Ari on the TV series King of Kensington. At 16, he was the guest star of the season 1 episode "Boy on Wheels" of the TV series The Littlest Hobo.

After graduating from high school, Myers was accepted into The Second City Canadian touring company. He moved to the United Kingdom, and in 1985 he was one of the founding members of The Comedy Store Players, an improvisational group based at The Comedy Store in London.

The next year, he starred in the British children's TV program Wide Awake Club, parodying the show's normal exuberance with his own "Sound Asleep Club", in partnership with Neil Mullarkey.

He returned to Toronto and The Second City in 1986 as a cast member in The Second City's Toronto main stage show, Second City Theatre. In 1988, he moved from Second City in Toronto to Chicago. There, he trained, performed and taught at the Improv Olympic.

Myers made many appearances, including as Wayne Campbell, on Toronto's Citytv in the early 1980s, on the alternative video show City Limits hosted by Christopher Ward; Myers also made several appearances after the launch of MuchMusic, for which City Limits was essentially the prototype. Myers also appeared as Wayne Campbell in the music video for Ward's Canadian hit "Boys and Girls".

The Wayne Campbell character was featured extensively in the 1986 summer series It's Only Rock & Roll, produced by Toronto's Insight Production Company for CBC Television. Wayne appeared both in-studio and in a series of location sketches directed and edited by Allan Novak. Myers wrote another sketch, "Kurt and Dieter", co-starring with Second City's Dana Andersen and also directed by Novak, which later became the popular "Sprockets" sketch on Saturday Night Live.

Saturday Night Live
Myers began appearing on Saturday Night Live on January 21, 1989 and eventually became the first repertory player added to the show's cast in over two years. "He quickly became one of the show's biggest draws thanks to his talent for creating oddball characters with memorable catchphrases," according to Entertainment Weekly. In addition to "Wayne's World" and "Sprockets", Myers starred in the recurring sketches "Lothar of the Hill People", "Stuart Rankin, All Things Scottish", "Lank Thompson", "Middle-Aged Man", "Simon", "Coffee Talk with Linda Richman", "Theatre Stories", "Phillip the Hyper Hypo", and "Scottish Soccer Hooligan Weekly". Myers's last episode as a cast member aired on January 21, 1995 (exactly six years to the day after his first episode aired). He returned to host in 1997 and made an appearance as his movie character Dr. Evil in 2014.

Saturday Night Live characters

 * Dieter – host of Sprockets
 * Linda Richman – hostess of Coffee Talk
 * Japanese Game Show Host
 * "Handsome Actor" Lank Thompson
 * Simon – a young British boy who makes drawings in his bath tub and complains about having "prune hands" (the theme song for this segment was a slightly modified version of the theme song from Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings by Edward MacLachlan)
 * Wayne Campbell (SNL, the Wayne's World films)
 * Pat Arnold (SNL, Bill Swerski's Superfans)
 * Stuart Rankin – proprietor of "All Things Scottish"
 * Lothar (Of the Hill People)
 * Ed Miles (Middle-Aged Man) – An older man who helps young people with their problems
 * Kenneth Reese-Evans – host of "Theatre Stories"
 * Johnny Letter – an Old West citizen who writes polite, well-written letters of complaint.

Film
Myers made his film debut when he and Dana Carvey adapted their "Wayne's World" Saturday Night Live (SNL) sketches into the feature Wayne's World (1992). It was among the most successful films of the year and was followed in 1993 by Wayne's World 2; Myers starred in So I Married an Axe Murderer the same year. He took a two-year hiatus from performing after the end of his time as an SNL regular.

Myers returned to acting with the film Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), followed by the sequels Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) and Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002). Myers played the title role (Austin Powers) and the villain (Dr. Evil) in all three films as well as a henchman (Fat Bastard) and another villain (Goldmember) in the sequels.

One of Myers's rare non-comedic roles came in the film 54 (1998), in which he portrayed Steve Rubell, proprietor of New York City's famous 1970s disco nightclub Studio 54. The film was not critically or commercially successful, though Myers received some positive notice.

In June 2000, Myers was sued by Universal Pictures for US$3.8 million for backing out of a contract to make a feature film based on his SNL character Dieter. Myers said he refused to honor the US$20 million contract because he felt his script was not ready. Myers countersued and a settlement was reached after several months where Myers agreed to make another film with Universal. That film, The Cat in the Hat, was released in November 2003 and starred Myers as the title character. It received negative reviews and was unsuccessful at the box office.

In 2001, Myers provided the voice of Shrek in the animated film of the same name, having taken over the role after the originally planned voice actor Chris Farley died in December 1997 before recording all of his dialogue. He reprised this role in Shrek 4-D (a theme park ride) in 2003, Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007), the Christmas and Halloween television specials Shrek the Halls (2007) and Scared Shrekless (2010), and Shrek Forever After (2010).

Myers received the MTV Generation Award in June 2007, making him the second Canadian to win the award (following Jim Carrey in 2006).

In 2008, Myers co-wrote, co-produced and starred in the poorly received The Love Guru, and in 2009 had a minor role as British general Ed Fenech in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds.

In 2018, after an eight-year hiatus from feature films, Myers appeared in supporting roles in Terminal (2018) and Bohemian Rhapsody (2018).

As of May 2022, Myers would neither confirm nor deny plans for Austin Powers 4. In July 2024, Myers was announced to reprise the voice of the title character in Shrek 5, scheduled for release on July 1, 2026.

Other work
Myers had a cameo appearance in Britney Spears' music video "Boys" as Austin Powers. Britney Spears, in turn, made a cameo in Austin Powers in Goldmember, performing "Boys". In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted among the top 50 comedy acts by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.

Myers is a member of the band Ming Tea along with The Bangles' guitarist and vocalist Susanna Hoffs and musician Matthew Sweet. They performed the songs "BBC" and "Daddy Wasn't There" from the Austin Powers films. In 2011 Myers returned to The Comedy Store in London to perform a one night only comeback of his role with The Comedy Store Players. The UK comedy website Chortle praised his performance.

Myers's 2013 directorial debut, Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon, was selected to be screened in the Gala Presentation section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.

From 2017 to 2018, Myers hosted a re-boot of The Gong Show in heavy makeup as a fictional British host known as Tommy Maitland, though his identity was not confirmed until the second season.

An avid follower of the Monty Python comedy troupe, in July 2014, Myers appeared on stage at the O2 Arena on the final night of their 10 dates live show, Monty Python Live (Mostly), and also appears on the documentary telefilm Monty Python: The Meaning of Live.

In April 2019, Variety reported that Myers will be starring in and executive producing a comedy series for Netflix, which will last for six episodes and involve him playing multiple characters. In June 2021, the series title was announced as The Pentaverate, which serves as a spin-off of So I Married an Axe Murderer. Then created the cartoon "Axe me Questions!" with American Hero, Tom Hanks.

In March 2022, author and security specialist Gavin de Becker shared that segments of The Gift of Fear Master Class had been directed by Myers.

Personal life
Myers began dating actress and comedy writer Robin Ruzan in the late 1980s after meeting at an ice hockey game in Chicago, during which Myers caught a puck and used the incident as an icebreaker to strike up a conversation with Ruzan. The couple married on May 22, 1993, and Myers later referred to Ruzan as "his muse". The couple filed for divorce in December 2005.

In 2006, Kelly Tisdale confirmed reports that she and Myers were dating. Myers and Tisdale married in New York City in a secret ceremony in late 2010. Tisdale is a scenic artist who works in the entertainment industry and a former cafe owner. They have a son and two daughters. They reside in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City.

Myers is a Dungeons & Dragons player and was one of several celebrities to have participated in the Worldwide Dungeons & Dragons Game Day in 2006. He supports the Toronto Maple Leafs ice hockey team, and named two characters in the first Austin Powers film Commander Gilmour and General Borschevsky, after then-Maple Leafs players Doug Gilmour and Nikolai Borschevsky. He is also a fan of his parents' hometown football team Liverpool FC.

Myers has played for Hollywood United FC, a celebrity soccer team. He played in the 2010 Soccer Aid for UNICEF UK football match, England vs. R.O.W (Rest of the World) and scored his penalty during a sudden-death shootout after the game ended 2–2 (June 6, 2010). The Rest of the World team beat England for the first time since the tournament started.

In 2014, Myers starred in a commercial with his brother Peter for Sears Canada, using "humorous banter to spread the message that, despite rumours, Sears wasn't shutting down". Peter at the time was senior director of planning at Sears' head office in Toronto, and he was laid off in 2017 after Sears Canada filed for bankruptcy.

In 2016, Myers published a book, Canada, a memoir interwoven with reflections on his native country's history and popular culture and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

In June 2018, during a guest appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Myers stated that England is a "rooting interest" for him during soccer games in part because of his parents and because he is also a citizen of the country.

Music videos

 * Madonna: "Beautiful Stranger" (1999) as Austin Powers
 * Britney Spears: "Boys" (2002) as Austin Powers
 * Smash Mouth: "Hang On" (2003)

Honours

 * In 2002, Mike Myers was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7042 Hollywood Boulevard.
 * Also in 2002, Myers was honoured in his native Scarborough, Toronto with a street named after him, "Mike Myers Drive".
 * In 2003, he was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.
 * In 2014, his face was put on a stamp by Canada Post.
 * In, 2017, he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada by Governor General David Johnston for "his extensive and acclaimed body of comedic work as an actor, writer and producer."

title: Mike Myers


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David Wells

David Lee Wells (born May 20, 1963) is an American former baseball pitcher who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for nine teams, most notably the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees. Nicknamed "Boomer", Wells was considered one of the league's top left-handed pitchers during his career and made three All-Star appearances. In 1998, he pitched the 15th perfect game in baseball history. Wells also appeared in the postseason as a member of six teams, tied for the most with Kenny Lofton, and won two World Series titles. Following his 2007 retirement, Wells served as a broadcaster for MLB on TBS and was the host of The Cheap Seats on FOXSports.com.

Early life
Wells was born in Torrance, California. His parents were never married. He was raised by his mother, Eugenia, a member of Hell's Angels also known as "Attitude Annie". Wells grew up with the belief that his father, David Pritt, was dead. However, at the age of 22, he learned that Pritt was alive and tracked him down to start a new relationship with him.

Growing up in the Ocean Beach neighborhood of San Diego where he attended local public schools, Wells was dependent on his mother, who worked numerous jobs to support him and his four siblings. He graduated from Point Loma High School, where he played baseball and basketball, in 1982 and was a self-described "gym rat" who spent most of his time at the Ocean Beach Recreation Center and Robb Field. Wells was Point Loma High School’s star pitcher and threw a perfect game his senior year.

He had Tommy John surgery in July 1985.

Toronto Blue Jays (1987–1992)
Wells debuted for the Toronto Blue Jays in 1987 as a reliever and did not secure a job as a full-time starter until he was 30 years old. During his six seasons with the Blue Jays, Wells compiled a 47–46 record and a 3.88 ERA. Wells was a member of the 1992 World Series winning team, the first time he got a championship ring. He was released by the Blue Jays during spring training on March 30, 1993.

Detroit Tigers (1993–1995)
A few days after he was released by the Blue Jays, Wells signed with the Detroit Tigers on April 3. In 1993, Wells made 32 appearances (30 starts) with an 11-9 record and a 4.19 ERA. In 1994, a season that was cut short due to a strike, Wells started 16 games, finishing 5-7 with a 3.96 ERA and 5 complete games. He emerged as a top-flight pitcher in 1995, when he was 32. After starting the year at 10–3 with a 3.04 ERA for the struggling last-place Tigers, Wells made his first All-Star Game appearance.

Cincinnati Reds (1995)
On July 31, Wells was traded to the Cincinnati Reds for C. J. Nitkowski, Mark Lewis, and minor leaguer Dave Tuttle. With Cincinnati, Wells compiled a 6–5 record and a 3.59 ERA.

Baltimore Orioles (1996)
After the 1995 season, Wells was traded to the Baltimore Orioles for Curtis Goodwin and minor leaguer Trovin Valdez. In 1996, he pitched a then-career high 224 innings but finished with an 11–14 record and a 5.14 ERA.

New York Yankees (1997–1998)
In 1997, Wells signed as a free agent with the New York Yankees, his favorite team because of a lifelong interest in baseball legend Babe Ruth. He asked for uniform number 3, Ruth's long-retired number, but was denied. He ended up taking 33 for the Yankees. On June 28, 1997, Wells took the mound wearing an authentic 1934 Babe Ruth hat, which he had bought for $35,000. Manager Joe Torre made Wells take it off after the first inning because it didn't conform to uniform standards. He also fined Wells $2,500, which Wells was happy to pay and later said it was a small price to pay for the thrill of wearing the hat on the field even for one inning—even though Wells then blew a 3–0 lead as the Cleveland Indians won 12–8. After posting a 16–10 mark in 1997, Wells pitched very well in the Yankees' record-setting 1998 season. He rang up an 18–4 record, finished fifth in the league in ERA (3.49), was third in voting for the Cy Young Award, and won a second World Series ring.

Perfect game
On May 17, 1998, Wells pitched the 15th perfect game in baseball history, when he blanked the Minnesota Twins, 4–0. Wells attended the same San Diego high school, Point Loma High School, as Don Larsen, whose perfect game for the Yankees in the 1956 World Series was the only perfect game or no-hitter ever thrown in postseason play until 2010, and was until then the only perfect game thrown by a Yankee. David Cone would add a third Yankee perfect game in 1999. Wells claimed that he threw the perfect game while having a "raging, skull-rattling hangover". Comedian Jimmy Fallon, who partied with Wells the night before the game, backed up this claim.

On September 1, 1998, Wells came fairly close to recording a second perfect game. Pitching against the Oakland Athletics, he allowed no walks and only two hits, the first of which came with two outs in the seventh inning when Jason Giambi fought off an 0–2 count and singled.

Second stint with the Toronto Blue Jays (1999–2000)
After the season, Wells returned to the Blue Jays as part of a trade for Roger Clemens, along with Homer Bush and Graeme Lloyd. He continued to win north of the border, with records of 17–10 and 20–8 over the next two years.

During this stint with the Blue Jays, Wells appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated just prior to the 2000 All Star Game. Though Wells said it was an honour to be on the cover, he criticized the article, "The David Wells Diet: Chips, Beer and American League batters" written by Jeff Pearlman, saying that Pearlman focused on Wells' diet and body shape instead of his accomplishments.

Chicago White Sox (2001)
Wells and pitcher Matt DeWitt were traded to the Chicago White Sox, in a deal that was quickly mired in controversy. The primary player being traded by the White Sox, starting pitcher Mike Sirotka, was injured at the time of the deal and never pitched in the major leagues again. Toronto's general manager, Gord Ash, had not made the deal contingent on the results of a medical examination, however, and MLB ruled in favor of the White Sox. The Blue Jays thus received only Kevin Beirne, Brian Simmons, and minor leaguer Mike Williams, and the mistake ultimately cost Ash his job.

The deal did not turn out particularly well for the White Sox, either, as Wells struggled with back problems in 2001 and pitched only 100⅔ innings, finishing the 2001 season with a 5–7 record and a 4.47 ERA.

Second stint with the New York Yankees (2002–2003)
After a short season with the White Sox, Wells returned to the Yankees, a deal that was again immersed in controversy as he had already reached an oral agreement to join the Arizona Diamondbacks. Despite having lost some velocity from his fastball, he retained his excellent curveball and his control, and posted an outstanding 19–7 record in 2002.

Wells was the subject of some controversy prior to the 2003 season, when his autobiography Perfect I'm Not: Boomer on Beer, Brawls, Backaches and Baseball, was published. The book upset the Yankees' management, and Wells was fined $100,000 by the team for disparaging comments which appeared in it. One of them included himself having a hangover when he pitched his perfect game. Among the other controversial statements were claims that he strengthened his pitching arm as a youth by throwing rocks at homeless people and that his minor league team, the Kinston Blue Jays, had segregated stands in 1983 despite ample evidence to the contrary. Wells claimed to have been misquoted in the book, which was presumably penned by a ghost writer. The problems didn't carry over to the field, however. Wells posted a 15–7 record and the Yankees won another pennant.

On September 28, 2003, the final day of the regular season, Wells earned the 200th win of his career in a game managed by Clemens, who had won his 300th game earlier in the season and was thought to be retiring from baseball (Clemens ended up delaying his retirement). Regular Yankees manager Joe Torre let Clemens manage the final game of the regular season, and Clemens pulled Wells from the game in the eighth inning.

Wells was criticized by some Yankees fans for not being able to pitch during Game 5 of the 2003 World Series. He started the game, but left during the first inning because of a bad backache, which forced Torre to use his bullpen to finish the game. The Yankees lost the game and the series to the Florida Marlins in six games.

San Diego Padres (2004)
On January 1, 2004, Wells was signed as a free agent by the San Diego Padres to a one-year contract. Wells posted a 12–8 record with a 3.73 ERA to start off his second stint in the National League.

Boston Red Sox (2005–2006)
On December 11, 2004, Wells signed a two-year deal with the Boston Red Sox and took the uniform number 3, in honor of Babe Ruth. He started the season poorly, and by the end of May, Wells and shortstop Édgar Rentería — another new Red Sox player who had gotten off to a slow start — switched uniform numbers, with Wells taking Rentería's 16 and Rentería taking Wells' 3, after Rentería paid Wells for the privilege. After a stint on the DL, Wells became the same dominating pitcher he was in the past. He went on to post a 15–7 record, with a 4.45 ERA.

After the 2005 season, Wells requested a trade back to the West Coast, but he eventually withdrew that request and resigned himself to one last year pitching for the Red Sox.

Wells began the 2006 season on the disabled list, as he was still recovering from surgery performed on his right knee. After pitching one game on April 12, he was again placed on the 15-day disabled list. He announced that if his knee did not improve he would retire. Wells came off the disabled list on May 26, to make his second start of the year against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Second stint with the San Diego Padres (2006–2007)
On August 31, 2006, with the Red Sox postseason chances fading, Wells' wish of finishing his career playing for a West Coast team and a playoff contender was granted when he was traded back to the Padres for top catching prospect George Kottaras.

Following the 2006 season, Wells filed for free agency. For players who are already planning on retiring, this is a customary move in case one changes his mind. Wells' agent had stated the pitcher will keep his options open but his physical condition will play a large part in making the final decision whether or not to return for another season. Eventually, Wells decided to stay with the Padres, agreeing in principle on a one-year deal worth $3 million in base salary with a possible $4 million more in incentives.

On March 18, 2007, the media revealed that Wells has been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. This form of diabetes is more closely associated with lifestyle factors, such as diet, but the condition of people with a genetic disposition for diabetes can be exacerbated with chronic high blood sugar, as insulin resistance can be an adaptation of insulin in the wake of too-high blood sugar over time.

On August 8, the Padres announced they would cut ties with Wells when Chris Young was ready to come off the disabled list.

Los Angeles Dodgers (2007)
On August 23, 2007, Wells was signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers. His first start with the Dodgers was on August 26 against the New York Mets. He pitched five innings and allowed two earned runs. Wells also reached first base on a bunt single, scored a run, and earned the victory. He was the oldest pitcher to start a game for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

On September 13, 2007, against his former team, the San Diego Padres, Wells had his first multi-hit game of his 21-year career at the age of 44. He hit a single and a double off former teammate Greg Maddux. Wells finished the season with the Dodgers going 4–1 with a 5.12 ERA. Wells filed for free agency after the 2007 season.

Old Timers Day and retirement
On August 2, 2008, Wells took part in the 62nd Annual Old Timers Day at Yankee Stadium, where he said that he was not going to officially retire, but admitted that his pitching career was probably over.

Personal life
As of 2011, Wells has lived in San Diego with his wife and two sons. He has tattoos of Babe Ruth and his two sons.

Broadcasting
Beginning in 2009, Wells began working for MLB on TBS doing regular and postseason coverage. In 2011, Wells became host of The Cheap Seats on FOXSports.com. In 2019, Wells began providing color commentary for the YES Network.

Interviews, biographies, and autobiographies
In 2010, David Wells was interviewed by Jane Mitchell for the television show One on One. In addition to David's story in his own words, the interview featured Kevin Towers, Trevor Hoffman, Josh Barfield, Chris Young, Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, Clay Hensley, family, and friends, all sharing their personal experiences and thoughts about David.

Coaching
Wells served as a baseball assistant coach at his alma mater Point Loma High School for several years. The high school announced on June 17, 2014, that Wells would be its head baseball coach, starting with the 2014–2015 school year. The team's home field was named David Wells Field in 2010. In 2014, David Wells Field went through a $2-million renovation which was underwritten by the San Diego Unified School District and David Wells. In 2018, Wells stepped down as head baseball coach at PLHS, saying he needed more time to spend on his other pursuits and projects.

Career bests

 * Wins in a Season: 20, with Toronto Blue Jays in 2000
 * Strikeouts in a Season: 169, with Toronto Blue Jays in 2000
 * Best Cy Young Result: 3rd, with New York Yankees in 1998
 * Strikeouts in One Game: 16 with New York Yankees, against Oakland Athletics, July 30, 1997
 * Innings Pitched in One Season: $231 2/3$, with Toronto Blue Jays in 1999
 * Best Single Season ERA as a Starting Pitcher: 3.14, with Toronto Blue Jays in 1990
 * Fewest Walks Per 9 Innings in a Season: .85, with New York Yankees in 2003

title: David Wells