Wal-mart/Sam's Club and Costco are in the process of switching to a re-designed milk jug.
posted to MetaFilter by dirtdirt at 12:53 PM on June 30, 2008 (193 comments)

The last standing member of the Council Oaks, a group of 14 oak trees located in what is now downtown Austin, Texas, the Treaty Oak has stood for more than 500 years. The Treaty Oak got its name from the (probably apocryphal) story of how Stephen F. Austin signed a boundary treaty with local tribes under its branches. In 1927 the Treaty Oak was called "The most perfect specimen of a North American tree". In 1937 the City of Austin (prodded by the Campfire Girls of Port Arthur and other schoolchildren) purchased the quarter acre of land upon which the Treaty Oak stood and believed that this ancient tree, and its 128 foot canopy, was safe. Of course, the did not know that in 1989 someone would dump enough of the herbicide Velpar around its roots to kill 100 trees.
posted to MetaFilter by dirtdirt at 8:39 AM on May 12, 2008 (33 comments)

1897, Eastland, TX. A cornerstone was being laid in the foundation of the new county courthouse (to replace the old county courthouse, not to be confused with the original county courthouse). People put various items in the hollow space in the marble, time capsule style. Just before they sealed the box court clerk Ernest Wood (E.E. to his friends), acting on a whim, grabbed a horny toad that his son, Will Wood, had picked up on the way in to town and placed it in the box. Entombed forever. But...31 years later, 1928. Eastland, having decided it needed a NEW new courthouse, was about to demolish the old one. Someone recalled the time capsule, and the unfortunate horny toad, and 3,000 people showed up to see the poor dead lizard. "As a county official held up the dusty reptile, his leg twitched, and then his whole body came alive."
posted to MetaFilter by dirtdirt at 9:23 AM on September 28, 2007 (22 comments)