Another Turtle Alert

It seems like all the news out of New York these days concerns turtles.

Anita Lewis of Elmira is desperately seeking the woman who bought a ceramic turtle from her on Saturday. Lewis was unaware that the large, brown turtle contained the ashes of her husband’s previous wife. [Link]

[Thanks, Nancy!]

Turtle Causes Panic in NYC

The weird vessel that caused a security scare in New York on Friday was a homemade replica of a Revolutionary War submarine.

Police held the artist, Philip "Duke" Riley, and two other Rhode Island men, Jesse Bushnell, 35, and Michael Cushing, 23, for questioning. But there was no indication the trio meant any harm with the replica of the 1776 "Turtle submarine."

One of the Rhode Island men claimed he was descendant of David Bushnell, the inventor of the original one-man vessel that inspired the replica, police said. [Link]

A Genealogical Life Well Lived

The "Local Life" featured in today's Washington Post is that of the recently departed Edna Somers. Not only was she a member of genealogy's embattled old guard ("Never a convert to computers, she wrote everything longhand"), she also was a friend to overturned turtles.

Years ago while driving on the Dulles Access Road, she saw a turtle on its back in the middle of the road. She found the first turnaround for emergency vehicles and went back to rescue the reptile. "She later said that if she had been stopped by a police officer, she would simply explain that for the turtle it was an emergency -- a matter of life and death," [her daughter Janine] Gates said. [Link]