The Treaty of the Danish West Indies, officially the Convention between the United States and Denmark for cession of the Danish West Indies, was a 1916 treaty transferring sovereignty of the Virgin Islands in the Danish West Indies from Denmark to the United States in exchange for a sum of US$25,000,000 in gold ($623 million in 2022). It is one of the most recent permanent expansions of United States territory. == History == === Background === Two of the islands had been in Danish possession since the 17th century and St. Croix since 1733. The glory days of the colony had been from aro...

Noun: pissabed (plural pissabeds)

1. The dandelion, formerly much used for its diuretic properties. [from 16th c.]
2. 2016, Alan Moore, Jerusalem, Liveright 2016, p. 139:
3. The tufted hillock […] had no buildings on and only golden clumps of piss-the-bed that were not yet gone into misty balls of seed.
4. (dialect) Any of various other wild plants with diuretic properties; bluet, oxeye daisy, etc.

A police lock is a type of high-security door lock. There are two distinct kinds of police lock. == Overview == The first is floor-mounted. It consists of a steel bar running on at a roughly 45° angle from the center of the door to the floor, on the inside of the area to be secured. At each end of the bar are slots or fixtures (one in the door, one in the floor) into which the steel bar is secured. This was designed by Emiel Fox (born 1869 or 1870, died 1941). Patents relating to early versions of the lock go back to at least 1907. Fox set up the Fox Police Lock Company in New York City t...

Johann "Jack" Unterweger (16 August 1950 – 29 June 1994) was an Austrian serial killer who committed murder in several countries – Austria, West Germany, Czechoslovakia, and the United States. Initially convicted in 1974 of a single murder, Unterweger began to write extensively while in prison. His work gained the attention of the Austrian literary elite, who took it as evidence that he had been rehabilitated. After significant lobbying, Unterweger was released on parole in 1990. Upon his release, he became a minor celebrity and worked as a playwright and journalist, but within months he resumed...

Dandelion Wine is a 1957 novel by Ray Bradbury set in the summer of 1928 in the fictional town of Green Town, Illinois, based upon Bradbury's childhood home of Waukegan, Illinois. The novel developed from the short story "Dandelion Wine", which appeared in the June 1953 issue of Gourmet magazine. The title refers to a wine made with dandelion petals and other ingredients, commonly citrus fruit. In the story, dandelion wine, as made by the protagonist's grandfather, serves as a metaphor for packing all of the joys of summer into a single bottle. The main character of the story is Douglas Spaulding...

Verb: manger les pissenlits par la racine

1. (informal, figuratively) to push up daisies

Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire is a book by American author David Remnick. Often cited as an example of New Journalism, it won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1994.The book is equal parts history and eyewitness account, covering the collapse of the Soviet Union. Opening with the excavation of the corpses of Poles killed in the Katyn massacre, Lenin's Tomb begins by describing the structural flaws present from the country's early days, and then uses individual accounts from a wide variety of contemporary individuals to display the modern consequences of these...

Calendula officinalis, the pot marigold, common marigold, ruddles, Mary's gold or Scotch marigold, is a flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae. It is probably native to southern Europe, though its long history of cultivation makes its precise origin unknown, and it may possibly be of garden origin. It is also widely naturalised farther north in Europe (as far as southern England) and elsewhere in warm temperate regions of the world.The Latin specific epithet officinalis refers to the plant's medicinal and herbal uses. == Description == Calendula officinalis is a short-lived aromat...

Tagetes patula, the French marigold, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native to Mexico and Guatemala with several naturalised populations in many other countries. It is widely cultivated as an easily grown bedding plant, with thousands of different cultivars in brilliant shades of yellow and orange. Some authorities regard Tagetes patula as a synonym of Tagetes erecta, the Mexican marigold. == Name == The Latin specific epithet patula means “with a spreading habit”. == Description == Tagetes patula is an annual, occasionally reaching 0.5 m (1.6 ft) tall by 0.3 m (1.0 ft...

Tagetes erecta, the Aztec marigold, Mexican marigold, big marigold, cempazúchitl or cempasúchil, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Tagetes native to Mexico. Despite its being native to the Americas, it is often called African marigold. In Mexico, this plant is found in the wild in the states of México, Michoacán, Puebla, and Veracruz. This plant reaches heights of between 20 and 90 cm (7.9 and 35.4 in). The Aztecs gathered the wild plant as well as cultivating it for medicinal, ceremonial and decorative purposes. It is widely cultivated commercially with many cultivars in use as ornamental...

Tagetes lucida is a perennial plant native to Mexico and Central America. It is used as a medicinal plant and as a culinary herb. The leaves have a tarragon-like scent, with hints of anise, and it has entered the nursery trade in North America as a tarragon substitute. Common names include sweetscented marigold, Mexican marigold, Mexican mint marigold, Mexican tarragon, sweet mace, Texas tarragon, pericón, yerbaniz, and hierbanís. == Description == Tagetes lucida grows 45–75 cm (18–30 in) tall and requires full sun to light shade. Depending on the variety or landrace, the plant may be fairly...