pileofcrapola

Cinnamon-sugar toast may be firmly associated with your younger years, but in the above video from Tasting Table, the childhood classic gets a grown-up, but still very simple upgrade.

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A lot of store loyalty programs are more trouble than they’re worth. You tote the card around on your keychain, whip it out every time you make a purchase, and you’re rewarded with a free drink you might remember to redeem on your next visit. We want to know: which loyalty programs are worth it?

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If you eat fewer calories than you expend, you’ll probably lose weight. If you use McDonald’s food to prove this piece of common-sense weight loss advice, you make headlines as if you’re some sort of miracle worker, and it also lands you a gig shilling for the fast food industry by going to schools to speak to kids — at least until McDonald’s realizes maybe it’s kind of embarrassing and quietly pulls the plug on your educational program.

Two years ago, a teacher in Iowa got micro-famous after dropping a few dozen pounds by eating only McDonald’s. The company — trying to combat sagging sales and a consumer base shifting toward foods that while not necessarily any healthier, at least look less like something from a 1950s industrial film — then hitched their wagon to his star, making him a piece of a controversial program where he’d visit schools and talk about his weight loss.

Heck, the slimmed-down teacher didn’t even have to visit schools. McDonald’s made a documentary about how one man — armed with only some McDonald’s food and the determination to lose weight in a way that would make him momentarily popular on the internet — managed to lose the same amount of weight he would have lost if he’d eaten the same amount of calories from any other place.

Let’s watch that clip, shall we:

Not surprisingly, the program was criticized for putting it into kids’ heads that they too could lose weight by eating something with “special sauce” on it (or even worse, that kids would be inspired to make a headline grab with whatever “I ate nothing but [fill in the blank] for 30 days” idea would make the local news).

According to teachers who saw these presentations, “There was a suggestion that if you look at what you’re eating, you could eat at McDonald’s for several days.”

The above quote appeared in a Oct. 2015 Washington Post story on the program. Now the Post reports that McDonald’s sidelined these silly talks only a couple weeks after that story ran.

However, just like it keeps bringing back the McRib every few years, the company is apparently keeping this teacher close to its golden bosom.

The educator/corporate shill is “currently focused on the opportunities that make the most sense for our brand at this time,” a rep for McDonald’s explains to the Post, presumably while wondering why she didn’t do something more worthwhile with her life, like being a hobo.

The rep actually trots out the phrase “brand ambassador” — the second-most odious title after “social media influencer” — to describe an actual job and not a fictional title from some satire on consumer culture. In this capacity, explains the rep, the lord high ambassador of brand is “currently focused on internal and local community events, and he is not appearing at schools.”

Amazingly, that last statement falls exactly in line with a statement provided by the teacher to the Post, in which he explains that he’s “focused on and enjoying talking to employees and community groups about my story of choice and balance.”

That statement wasn’t at all vetted by McDonald’s legal team. He’s just so in sync that the directives dispatched from his burger embassy happen to hit the exact same talking points.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to start putting together my YouTube series showing that I can lose weight by eating 900 calories of dog food every day while doing some moderate exercise between meals. Sure, my dog will be mad (and hungry), but he’ll be so happy when we end up getting three minutes on a national morning talk show.

A sweetener switcharoo happens when a soft drink company swaps out the sweetener that customers are used to, and substitutes something else, usually a small amount of a non-calorie sweetener. We’ve previously shared customer outrage when this happened to Seagram’s ginger ale and Sierra Mist, when companies sneaked in small amounts of sucralose (Splenda) and of stevia respectively. Now Sierra Mist maker PepsiCo has changed things up again, rebranding Sierra Mist as Mist TWST, and switching the sweetener out for high fructose corn syrup.

You may remember when Sierra Mist marketed itself as a “natural” soft drink sweetened with cane sugar. Stevia does come from a plant, which is why the previous Sierra Mist bottle could say “No artificial sweeteners” on its label and keep up its “natural” marketing and technically be true. (The Food and Drug Administration calls them “high-intensity sweeteners.”)

We thought at first that the company planned to keep both versions on the market: Sierra Mist for both of the people who like the sugar-stevia blend, and Mist TWST for everyone else. We even spotted them side by side on a supermarket shelf:

It looks like that won’t be the case: the Sierra Mist Facebook page now redirects to the TWST page, and several annoyed beverage lovers make their way there each day.

We contacted Pepsi to ask about the change and whether original Sierra Mist will be discontinued, and they didn’t respond. If they send us anything, we’ll update this post.

WASHINGTON —The dog is safe at home, a new home that is. Daisy is a seven-week-old puppy that was discovered alone and crying outside the offices of the Savannah Bananas baseball team and is now a member of the front office.

After being added to the roster, Daisy has become a fixture at Grayson Stadium where she greets visitors who stop by to purchase tickets or merchandise for the Bananas who play in the summer collegiate baseball Coastal Plains League.

Team President Jared Orton and his wife Kelsey adopted Daisy. Daisy had no collar, tags, or microchip when she was found. A trip to a veterinary office revealed aside from being hungry and dehydrated, Daisy was in good health.

“We aren’t sure how big she’ll get, so it’s hard to say if she’ll be able to pick up a bat or just coach first base,” said Orton on the team’s website.

The post Daisy the puppy becomes newest member of Savannah baseball team appeared first on WTOP.

When you’re looking for a new job, there’s a lot that can go wrong, from formatting your resume improperly to being tripped up by questions during the job interview. Watch out for these 10 common mistakes job applicants often make.

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There will always be people who will try to bring you down without knowing any better. Treat them like toddlers, says author and entrepreneur Seth Godin: “Buy them a lollipop, smile and walk away.”

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Yes, you should try every kind of food in your waffle iron . This one’s the simplest, though: Just stick some premade puff pastry in the waffle iron and see what happens.

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Mandolines are efficient tools for saving time in the kitchen , but they can be dangerous if you don’t use them correctly. These four tips will get you slicing vegetables quicker than ever, and help you keep your fingers in the process.

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Putting things in muffin tins to make bite-sized versions of a dish is a popular kitchen hack, but some recipes work better than others. Lucky Peach tried three: a spaghetti and meatball muffin, a spinach dip bowl, and an apple pie, all to see which took well to the idea. Here’s what they discovered.

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Summer movie season has officially started. After you’re done watching trailers at home, you’ll want to find the best theater around to experience the films you want to see. Here’s how two of the biggest theater chains (and two of your most obvious choices.) Regal and AMC, compare.

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If you have a little space for a garden, you’re probably growing seasonal vegetables—but there’s never a bad time of year to grow fruit, either. This graphic shows you plants that grow fruit at any time of year, including some year-round options that’ll feed you in the warm and cool months alike.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — From locker rooms and sex education classes to dress codes and overnight field trips, many U.S. public schools already are balancing the civil rights of transgender students with any concerns that classmates, parents and community members might have.

The Education Department is drawing on those practices to guide other schools as they work to comply with the Obama administration’s directive that transitioning children be treated consistent with their gender identity.

That has been the policy since 2013 of the Arcadia Unified School District in Southern California. As part of a settlement with the federal departments of Justice and Education that became the foundation for the national mandate issued Friday, students may use the bathroom, locker room or wilderness cabin that corresponds with their recognized gender outside school, Superintendent David Vannasdall said.

“This is absolutely not about a student on a day-to-day basis saying, ‘Today I’m a boy, tomorrow I’m a girl.’ That has never happened,” Vannasdall said. “By the time these students are at a point where they are asking for our help, they are presenting in all areas of their life as that gender.”

The administration had warned schools before Friday that denying transgender students access to the correct facilities and activities was illegal under its interpretation of federal sex discrimination laws. But the new guidance, for the first time, offers advice for accommodating the privacy needs of nontransgender youngsters.

Citing guidelines adopted by Washington, New York, the District of Columbia and Atherton High School in Louisville, Kentucky, President Barack Obama’s Education Department said schools could erect privacy curtains in changing areas, permit all students to make use of single-stall restrooms or work out other case-by-case arrangements as long as the burden doesn’t rest exclusively on transgender students.

“The concerns for right to privacy and safety of children applies to every single child, including the transgender child,” said Atherton’s principal, Thomas Aberli, who faced community opposition when he first allowed a transgender freshman to use the girls’ restrooms two years ago. Since that first student, about a half-dozen more have come out as transgender, Aberli said.

Asaf Orr, a lawyer who directs the Transgender Youth Project Staff at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said the guidance could help temper the transgender rights backlash that the restroom issue has engendered in states such as North Carolina by showing that minority rights and privacy rights can co-exist if schools respect all students’ need to be comfortable.

At least 13 states and the District of Columbia prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity in schools. Hundreds of school districts, from Anchorage, Alaska, and Tucson, Arizona, to Fairfax County, Virginia and Chicago, have adopted similar protections.

Nearly two dozen state high school sports federations have adopted rules governing the participation of transgender athletes on competitive teams, including the ones in South Dakota, Maryland and Nevada.

In Portland, Oregon, Lincoln High Principal Peyton Chapman recalls the “challenging times” about seven years when a transgender student who identified as female transferred there after being bullied at her previous school. The student made the cheerleading squad and “bathroom and locker rooms became an immediate issue with the cheerleading parents,” she said.

An anti-bullying campaign that focused on the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity diffused the situation, Chapman said.

“Some students may be uncomfortable with it, but we can’t let some people’s discomfort violate other people’s civil rights,” she said.

But there was a high level of discomfort as soon as the directive came out, with officials in several states saying they would defy the administration. The rallying cry was against what Mississippi’s Republican governor said was the federal government’s “forcing a liberal agenda on states that roundly reject it.”

While the guidance is not legally binding and the Supreme Court may ultimately decide whether federal civil rights law protects transgender people, schools refusing to comply could face lawsuits from the government and a cutoff of federal aid to education.

Even in areas of the country where such policies enjoy broad support, putting them into practice can be complicated.

The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference allows transgender students to play on teams that match their gender identities. Since the policy took effect in 2013, a few transgender boys have played on boys’ high school teams, said Karissa Niehoff, the group’s executive director.

Niehoff said that since the state has a policy prohibiting boys from playing on girls’ teams, a transgender girl would be allowed to play on a girls’ team, but not a boys’ team. She said students are allowed to establish eligibility to compete under a different gender once during their school careers to prevent players from bouncing between teams.

So far, there have been no complaints, she said.

“But had somebody said to us, ‘Hey, you have a transgender playing on the team and we think there is a physical disadvantage, well we support that student,” she said.

Boston’s public schools require staff members to use the names and pronouns requested by students, change school records to reflect them and acknowledge they’ve read the district’s policy regarding transgender students, according to Steven Chen, the senior equity manager.

But sometimes there are mistakes.

“If you’ve known a student for the first three years as one name and one pronoun, and then in year four the student has a different name and a different pronoun, I think just naturally you might make a mistake,” he said. “Honest mistakes are much different than affirmatively saying, ‘I’m not going to support my students on this.'”

___

Associated Press writers Jennifer C. Kerr in Washington, Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky, Collin Binkley in Boston, Astrid Gavlan in Tucson, Arizona, and Pat Eaton-Robb in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.

The post Schools offer guidance on transgender issues appeared first on WTOP.

The following information is provided by Graphiq and CareerTrends.com.

by Nick Selbe

The cost of gas in the U.S. is in a constant state of flux. The average price per gallon jumped by 9 cents in the past two weeks to $2.27 a gallon, likely a result of the hike in oil prices, according to the Washington Post.

Many people pay even more at the pump, and CareerTrends found the 50 locations with the highest gas prices in 2015. The data comes from the Council for Community and Economic Research’s Cost of Living Index. The list features the cost of one gallon of regular unleaded gas from a national brand, including all taxes.

At the top of the list are cities — such as San Diego and San Francisco — in which the cost of living is generally high, and these states tend to have high gas taxes. California features nine cities on the list, and all of them are in the top 21 — including five in the top 10.

Note: In the event of ties, the location with the largest population was ranked higher on the list.

#50. Salt Lake City, UT

Price per gallon: $2.54
Population: 189,267

#49. Morgantown, WV

Price per gallon: $2.55
Population: 30,133

#48. Pierre, SD

Price per gallon: $2.56
Population: 13,885

#47. Yakima, WA

Price per gallon: $2.56
Population: 92,806

#46. Hartford, CT

Price per gallon: $2.57
Population: 125,211

#45. Bethesda, MD

Price per gallon: $2.58
Population: 63,491

#44. St. George, UT

Price per gallon: $2.58
Population: 75,469

#43. Bullhead City, AZ

Price per gallon: $2.60
Population: 39,480

#42. Pittsfield, MA

Price per gallon: $2.60
Population: 44,226

#41. Albany, NY

Price per gallon: $2.61
Population: 98,142

#40. Burlington, VT

Price per gallon: $2.62
Population: 158,686

#39. Minneapolis, MN

Price per gallon: $2.62
Population: 394,424

#38. Portland, ME

Price per gallon: $2.63
Population: 66,317

#37. Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA

Price per gallon: $2.64
Population: 40,009

#36. St. Paul, MN

Price per gallon: $2.64
Population: 291,728

#35. Moses Lake, WA

Price per gallon: $2.65
Population: 21,141

#34. Ithaca, NY

Price per gallon: $2.66
Population: 30,399

#33. Buffalo, NY

Price per gallon: $2.67
Population: 259,959

#32. Pittsburgh, PA

Price per gallon: $2.68
Population: 306,045

#31. Tacoma, WA

Price per gallon: $2.69
Population: 201,794

#30. Mount Vernon, WA

Price per gallon: $2.70
Population: 118,364

#29. Rochester, NY

Price per gallon: $2.70
Population: 210,461

#28. Chicago, IL

Price per gallon: $2.70
Population: 2.71 million

#27. Washington, DC

Price per gallon: $2.72
Population: 633,736

#26. Everett, WA

Price per gallon: $2.75
Population: 104,708

#25. Brooklyn, New York, NY

Price per gallon: $2.75
Population: 2.57 million

#24. Manhattan, New York, NY

Price per gallon: $2.76
Population: 1.62 million

#23. Glenwood Springs, CO

Price per gallon: $2.77
Population: 9,668

#22. Olympia, WA

Price per gallon: $2.79
Population: 47,847

#21. Modesto, CA

Price per gallon: $2.80
Population: 205,984

#20. Las Vegas, NV

Price per gallon: $2.81
Population: 597,353

#19. Bellingham, WA

Price per gallon: $2.82
Population: 82,080

#18. Seattle, WA

Price per gallon: $2.87
Population: 637,850

#17. Portland, OR

Price per gallon: $2.89
Population: 602,568

#16. Tracy, CA

Price per gallon: $2.93
Population: 84,573

#15. Reno-Sparks, NV

Price per gallon: $2.96
Population: 92,236

#14. Anchorage, AK

Price per gallon: $2.97
Population: 298,178

#13. Plano, TX

Price per gallon: $2.99
Population: 271,166

#12. Stockton, CA

Price per gallon: $3.00
Population: 297,223

#11. Oakland, CA

Price per gallon: $3.13
Population: 402,339

#10. Hilo, HI

Price per gallon: $3.14
Population: 44,549

#9. Bakersfield, CA

Price per gallon: $3.16
Population: 358,700

#8. Honolulu, HI

Price per gallon: $3.22
Population: 345,130

#7. San Francisco, CA

Price per gallon: $3.24
Population: 829,072

#6. Fairbanks, AK

Price per gallon: $3.28
Population: 32,100

#5. Juneau, AK

Price per gallon: $3.30
Population: 32,200

#4. San Diego, CA

Price per gallon: $3.31
Population: 1.34 million

#3. Orange County, CA

Price per gallon: $3.38
Population: 3.09 million

#2. Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA

Price per gallon: $3.39
Population: 13.06 million

#1. Kodiak, AK

Price per gallon: $3.54
Population: 6,280

Research More About Cost of Living at CareerTrends

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Prince William County community calendar Washington Post Bristoe Station Battlefield guided tours Learn about two Civil War battles that took place at the site in 1862 and 1863. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. second and fourth weekends. Tours leave on the hour, Bristoe Station Battlefield Heritage Park, 10708 Bristow Rd ... and more »

DALLAS (AP) — Now that it’s clear Texas’ complicated school finance system is here to stay, cash-strapped districts around the state must find a way to move forward — whether that’s pressuring lawmakers for more money or finding a taste for raising property taxes.

The Texas Supreme Court rejected arguments Friday by a coalition of 600-plus districts that the “Robin Hood” school funding system, in which wealthy districts share local property tax revenue with those in poorer areas, was unconstitutional.

The unanimous decision, which stemmed from a lawsuit over the GOP-led Legislature’s 2011 move to cut $5.4 billion in education funding, does not mandate the Legislature to do anything, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told Republicans at the party convention that the issue “for now, has been resolved.”

But that didn’t keep the justices from urging that lawmakers should do something. As Justice Don R. Willett wrote, they have “vast discretion in fulfilling their constitutional duty to fashion a school system fit for our dynamic and fast-growing state’s unique characteristics. We hope lawmakers will seize this urgent challenge and upend an ossified regime ill-suited for 21st century Texas.”

Whether lawmakers will accept that challenge remains to be seen. When the 2017 legislative session convenes in January, there will be a number of other financial obligations, including covering the continued costs of $3.8 billion in property and business tax cuts, fixing the state’s embattled foster care system and finding more money for a road and highway network overtaxed by a booming population.

Plus, Patrick has promised to make up $4 billion in federal funding for free and reduced-price school lunches that will disappear if Texas defies the Obama administration’s order to let transgender students use bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity.

Patrick and many other Republicans in the state Legislature seized on the ruling to advocate for increasing “school choice” in the form of expanded charter schools and voucher programs. Outnumbered Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, said 2017 should bring a major effort to strengthen traditional public schools — though that will be a tough sell.

“The issue requires the Texas Legislature’s undivided attention this next session,” said Buddy Guerra, a Democrat from McAllen on Texas’ border with Mexico. “The future of our state is at stake.”

The high court made clear that “kids deserve transformational top-to-bottom reform,” said Karen Rue, president of the Texas Association of School Administrators. What’s needed the most, she says, is a better understanding of what it costs to educate 5.2 million students — second-most in the U.S. after California.

“What does it take in today’s economic environment to actually turn on the lights, pay teachers, provide training” and does that amount ensure that students are ready for college, Rue asked.

The Texas State Teachers Association notes that the state spends an average of $9,561 per student annually, below the national average of $12,251. But Rue, who is a superintendent in a district north of Fort Worth, noted there’s an array of rankings to see how one state compares to the next. “Whether or not they fit us is really the point,” she said.

Texas’ overall funding mechanism is similar to ones found in many other states, with base funding that’s augmented by extra “weights” for those who need specialized or extra instruction, according to Allan Odden, a national school finance expert based in Chicago.

“The one wrinkle for Texas is that special component to get resources from high-wealth districts to low-wealth districts,” Odden said. “That’s a unique Texas thing.”

What’s important for districts to determine, he said, is whether money is being used efficiently. Odden said studies don’t indicate whether student performance improves if a school focuses on small classrooms, and there’s no discernable benefit to offering more electives to keep students engaged.

Public schools rely heavily on property taxes because Texas has no state income tax, so unless the Legislature changes the funding formula, the only way districts will be able to keep up with rising costs is increasing taxes, Texas Classroom Teachers Association general counsel Lonnie Hollingsworth said.

But if that happens, then lawmakers need to ensure that money stays with the local school district instead of diverting it to other purposes statewide.

“Had this mechanism been in place years ago, the schools would be in a much better situation,” Hollingsworth said.

All told, the issue isn’t going away, said attorney Rick Gray, who represented more than 400 districts in mostly poorer areas in the case that the Supreme Court decided Friday.

“What school districts have to do is turn to the Legislature and ask, and try and force, Texas lawmakers to do their jobs,” Gray said. “There’s enough good Texans in the Legislature that will realize that changes need to be made.”

___

Associated Press writer Will Weissert in Dallas contributed to this report.

___

Follow David Warren on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/WarrenJourno

The post Few solutions in wake of Texas school finance ruling appeared first on WTOP.

BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) — News reports say a 23-year-old woman was bitten by a small nurse shark in Boca Raton.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel http://bit.ly/22bGTSu reported the woman was taken to the hospital by ambulance Sunday with the shark still attached to her arm.

A spokesperson for the Boca Raton Ocean Rescue told the newspaper the woman remained calm and there was a little blood. A splint board was used to support the woman’s arm and the shark as she lay on the stretcher.

The Boca Raton Regional Hospital operator told the AP that the woman had been treated and was in the process of being released Sunday afternoon.

The post Woman taken to hospital with shark still attached to her arm appeared first on WTOP.

AUGUSTA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say two people have been wounded at a high school graduation ceremony in southern Kansas after a man with a concealed weapon permit adjusted a sock he had stuffed a pistol into.

Augusta Police Chief Tyler Brewer said Sunday afternoon that the shooting was accidental and described it as a “knucklehead situation.” The bullet went through the man’s foot and traveled about another 50 feet before striking a woman in her calf. The woman has been released from a Wichita hospital, while the man has been admitted with an injury that’s not life-threatening.

Brewer says the Augusta High School commencement continued after the shooting, with most people unaware of what happened. Brewer says he plans to present the case to prosecutors because it’s illegal to carry a firearm on school grounds.

The post 2 people shot at high school graduation ceremony in Kansas appeared first on WTOP.

BENSALEM, Pa. (AP) — Authorities on Sunday charged a Philadelphia man accused of throwing a cup of gasoline on his girlfriend while she was smoking, starting a fire that killed her after a dispute between the two.

Kevin Small, 46, of Philadelphia, was arraigned on homicide, arson and other charges Sunday afternoon in the death of Mellissa Bacon-Smith, 46.

The fire started in a room of the Lincoln Motel in the Philadelphia suburb of Bensalem, police said. Small told authorities he bought the gasoline from a convenience store across the street from the motel, according to a criminal complaint.

The blaze was reported around 2:30 a.m. Sunday. Fire crews reported thick black smoke coming from two rooms. The blaze was declared under control in about a half-hour.

When reporters asked Smith if he had anything to say to Bacon-Smith’s family, he responded, “I’m sorry.”

It wasn’t immediately clear if he had an attorney to comment on his behalf.

At least three people were rescued from second-floor rooms following the fire. Several people were treated for smoke inhalation, but their injuries were not considered life-threatening.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Red Cross was assisting with displaced motel residents and customers, police said.

The post Police: Man threw gas on woman as she smoked, killing her appeared first on WTOP.

Sawyer outdoor products, running shoes, and AmazonBasics towels lead off Sunday’s best deals.

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Cats frequently get into mischief, whether they live inside, outside, or go back and forth. It's not surprising then that cats can end up with a variety of injuries, including damage to the tail. If your cat comes home and will not lift his tail or it seems bent or broken, your cat may have a tail injury or even a broken tail. You may even see an open wound, blood or bone. Cats most commonly damage their tails from crushing (an item falling on it or door closing on it), pulling (getting stuck then the cat tries to run away, young children, abusers), or both.^[1] Once you've determined whether the cat's tail is broken, learn to care for the cat during the healing period.

EditSteps

EditDetermining if the Cat's Tail is Broken

1. Watch your cat's behavior. Your cat's changed behavior might be one of the first signs you notice that alerts you to a tail injury. Your cat may begin dragging his tail or keeping it low to the ground all the time, dribbling urine randomly, or having diarrhea. Your cat may begin walking unevenly or losing coordination in his back legs.^[2]
   
   • Dribbling urine and having diarrhea are not symptoms of a broken tail on their own. If the tail injury was severe enough to cause these signs, the cat will definitely be dragging the tail.
2. Examine the cat's tail for injury. Gently feel along the length of the tail. Signs of injury or break include tender, swollen or bent areas. If you notice redness, tenderness, and swelling with fluid underneath, there may be an abscess, or pocket of pus, forming on your cat’s tail. If there is exposed bone or if the skin has been stripped from the tail leaving only bone this is called a ‘degloving’ injury.^[3]
   
   • If you happen to notice a hard, non-painful kink in your cat’s tail, it’s probably because he was born with the kink in the tail or it's an old, already healed injury.
   • Never pull or try to remove a severed portion of tail since there are tough tendons and sensitive nerves. If you pull or stretch the tendons, you'll damage the use of the tail, hind limbs, bladder and bowel functions. It may also cause arterial bleeding, which is difficult to control and potentially life-threatening for your cat.
3. Take your cat to the vet if you suspect a tail injury. The vet can address the injury without additional damage to the tail. Your cat may need a partial or full amputation of his tail if he has a degloving injury, deep cut, or if his tail is deeply or mostly severed.^[4] Your vet can also prescribe antibiotics to prevent infection which is highly likely with any open wound. Even if there are no external wounds, the vet can check your cat for other injuries. The vet may find neurologic damage from the tail being pulled during the accident.^[5]
   
   • The vet will examine the tail for signs of physical or neurological damage. If the vet suspects nerve damage, your cat may have an electromyogram test. Anal sphincter and tail muscles are tested for nerve input. This lets the vet know if the tail will be able to recover.^[6]
   • Your cat may still be in pain when you bring him to the vet's office. Stay close to him and speak in gentle comforting tones. You may want to loosely wrap your cat in a towel and place him in his carrier when you bring him to the vet's. This will calm him.^[7]
4. Understand treatments. Depending on where and how the tail is injured, your veterinarian will determine surgery or another treatment. If the tail is paralyzed, but your cat can still walk, the vet will probably amputate the tail. If the end of the tail has a break that's not causing problems for your cat, the vet may tell you to let it heal on its own.^[8]
   
   • Your cat may need to stay at the veterinarian's for a few days to either rest and heal, or to determine the extent of the damage to the tail.
   • If your cat's tail must be amputated, don't worry. It may take him a while to adjust to the lack of nerve sensation and change in balance. But, your cat will adapt to the change and his mobility won't suffer in the long run.^[9]

EditCaring For the Cat

1. Allow your cat to rest in a quiet space. Keep the cat inside to let him rest and prevent further trauma to his injuries.^[10] Try putting your cat in a small room (like a bedroom, bathroom, or laundry room). This way, you can easily find him, check on the injury, and administer medications.
   
   • Cats that are sick or injured often prefer to be away from children, other pets and a lot of noise or activity.
2. Monitor your cat's habits. You'll need to pay attention to your cat’s appetite, water intake and litter box habits. Tail injuries can sometimes affect bladder or bowel functions. If your cat is leaking urine or feces or not urinating or defecating at all, he could have nerve damage affecting these functions.
   
   • If you notice these problems continuing, talk to your vet.^[11] The vet may need to test your cat's urine for infection and adjust any medications.^[12]
3. Give your cat medication. It's easiest to remember if you give medications on a schedule. You'll probably need to give antibiotics to prevent infections for any open wounds. Only give pain medication if your vet instructs you and gives a prescription. Never give over-the-counter pain medications.
   
   • Many of these, like aspirin, or tylenol, are very dangerous to give to cats. They can have severe, even fatal, side effects in cats.^[13]
4. Keep any wounds or incisions clean. Check the wound at least once a day. Your cat may soil himself with urine or feces since it may be too painful to lift his tail or if there's nerve damage. Sometimes wounds will have crusted blood, discharge, hair, litter, or other debris stuck to or around them. You may need to clean the wounds gently with lukewarm water or very diluted betadine or chlorhexidine solutions, and some gauze or a washcloth. Tail wounds usually don't need to be bandaged.
   
   • Don't use soap and peroxide since they're irritating and damaging to tissues. If you see dry scabs, remember that they're good and don't scrub or pull them off.
5. Watch for infection. Whether or not you take your cat to the vet you will want to monitor the injury (or surgery) site very carefully. Don't let your cat lick any wounds. While there are some compounds in saliva that can help heal wounds^[14], excessive licking can irritate the skin and bacteria from the mouth can cause serious infections.^[15] Signs of infected wounds are redness, warmth, swelling, and discharge that is white, green or yellow in color.
   
   • You may want to keep an Elizabethan type collar on your cat to keep him from licking the injury. It could take up to 2-3 weeks for a tail fracture to heal, depending on the severity of the injury. Note that it may not heal perfectly, leaving a kink in the tail, but there should be no pain. All open wounds should also close up.

EditTips

• Your cat may have other injuries from the same incident. Cats whose tails are caught in doors may also strain their back legs trying to get free. Cats whose tails are pulled off instead of cut may have nerve damage that impairs their bowel functions.

EditWarnings

• Only follow this guide if your cat has a new kink in his tail. Some breeds of cats have naturally kinked tails which are not broken and will not need to be treated.

EditRelated wikiHows

• Take Care of a Kitten with a Broken Leg

EditSources and Citations

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NEW YORK (AP) — A collection of historic postage stamps issued when Hawaii was a kingdom is expected to fetch at least $2 million at auction.

Renowned stamp collector William H. Gross is offering 77 items on May 29 during the World Stamp Show at New York’s Javits Center.

The collection has “some of the most iconic rarities in Hawaiian philately,” said Charles Shreve, director of Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries.

It contains 10 examples of very rare Hawaiian Missionary stamps issued in 1851 — some unused, some cancelled and on original envelopes, some containing letters.

A 13-cent unused Missionary in near mint condition is expected to bring $50,000 to $75,000.

“There are only seven unused examples known and this is by far the finest quality example in existence” of that denomination, said Shreve.

The Missionaries, used primarily by missionary settlers, were Hawaii’s first postage stamps. They were issued in 2-, 5- and 13-cent denominations and printed on very thin paper called pelure that Gross likened to toilet paper.

They were Hawaii’s only postage stamps until the Kamehameha III issue, named for the king, in 1853.

“The Missionaries are extremely rare; to collectors they’re iconic. … They talk of an earlier time and place, a remote and far-off outpost,” said Daniel Piazza, curator of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in Washington.

Gross said in an interview that one of his favorite covers, or envelopes, in the sale is addressed to a New Bedford, Massachusetts, company. It combines stamps from two countries — known in the philatelic world as mixed franking.

“It’s a striking piece because of the five 13-cent Kamehameha stamps in combination with five U.S. stamps — four 10-cent George Washington stamps and one 12-cent George Washington stamp. Visually it’s just stunning,” said Gross, a Wall Street money manager who lives in Newport Beach, California.

The cover also has five 5-cent provisional surcharge stamps — handwritten on the 13-cent denomination due to a shortage of 5-cent stamps in 1857. It’s regarded as the most outstanding U.S. and Hawaiian multiple-rate franking cover outside the Missionary issue, according to the catalog. Its pre-sale estimate is $250,000 to $350,000.

The sale also has letters without postage stamps, used before the issuance of Missionary Stamps. The recipient paid the postage when collecting the letter at a post office.

One letter, written by a missionary to someone in Danbury, Connecticut, sheds light on the life of Pacific Island missionaries.

“We are fed and clothed and have nought to think of but our precious children and the souls by whom we are surrounded,” he writes. The work will exert “a great influence for good, or for evil” upon the indigenous population. It’s estimated to fetch $2,000 to $3,000.

The auction proceeds will be divided between the Hawaii Foodbank and the postal museum in Washington, where a gallery is named after Gross. To date, he has sold nearly $25 million of his non-U.S. stamp collection to benefit charities.

Hawaii became a U.S. territory in 1898, and the 50th state in 1959.

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ROCK ISLAND, Ill. (AP) — An 1886 Winchester rifle that once belonged to a man who helped capture Apache leader Geronimo has sold for $1.2 million at an auction.

The Rock Island Auction Co., of Illinois, says it became the most expensive single firearm ever sold at auction when it was presented for sale in late April. It went to an undisclosed buyer.

George Albee was working for Winchester and was able to secure serial No. 1 of their newest rifle design in 1886. He presented the rifle as a gift to a Civil War buddy, U.S. Army Capt. Henry Ware Lawton, who had just led the operation that captured Geronimo.

The auction company says other guns have sold higher as a pair, but the Winchester brought in the highest price for a single firearm.

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Popular Kindle books, a Yeti tumbler alternative, and mosquitos’ worst nightmare lead off Saturday’s best deals.

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PINEDALE, Wyo. (AP) — The man still sought for allegedly luring a woman and her four teenage daughters to a Utah house and tying them up was arrested late Saturday night in Wyoming.

Authorities arrested Dereck James “DJ” Harrison, 22, hours after the surrender of his father, Flint Wayne Harrison, 51, the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office said.

Both men face a variety of charges including aggravated kidnapping and possession of a controlled substance

Sublette County Sheriff’s Office said that shortly after 10 p.m. MDT, the younger Harrison was arrested without incident in the Half Moon Lake area of western Wyoming and booked into the county jail.

His father had turned himself in earlier in the day and had been helping authorities find his son, officials said.

The forested back country around the lake had been the focus of a daylong search after officials determined that the younger man was in the area, possibly armed with rifles with high-capacity magazines and two knives. He had also made threats to law enforcement, the sheriff’s office said.

During the search, authorities evacuated a campground and urged area residents to stay inside.

The arrest came shortly after the department had announced that the search for the younger man was suspended for the night.

“Law enforcement officials who were manning the roadblock and patrolling the roadway, observed a male matching the description of Dereck, walking south towards the deputies,” the department said in a news release.

“This is an incredible end to a very stressful day,” Sheriff Stephen Haskell said.

Meanwhile, authorities said the woman and her daughters are recovering after the attack Tuesday in Centerville, Utah.

The men are accused of tying the mother and daughters up with zip ties. When the elder Harrison hit the woman with a baseball bat, the teens began to break their ties and try to escape, according to charging documents. In the struggle that followed, one girl slapped away a shotgun pointed at her throat and another grabbed the bat and hit the son, police said.

The victims managed to escape.

The father and son had been using methamphetamine heavily over several days and falsely believed the woman had reported them to authorities, police said.

The younger Harrison was a close friend of the woman’s family. He often visited the home for dinner or picked the girls up from school. The teens, aged 13 to 18, had known him for several years.

The Harrisons fled and were eventually picked up by someone who took them to Salt Lake City, where they spent Tuesday night in a hotel.

The elder Harrison is a registered sex offender. He surrendered in Pinedale for reasons still unknown to police. Investigators think the father and son had been in Wyoming since Thursday.

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SEATTLE (AP) — Hundreds of climate activists on Saturday marched to the site of two refineries in northwest Washington state to call for a break from fossil fuels, while a smaller group continued to block railroad tracks leading to the facilities for a second day.

Protesters in kayaks, canoes, on bikes and on foot took part in a massive demonstration near Anacortes, about 70 miles north of Seattle, to demand action on climate and an equitable transition away from fossil fuels such as oil and coal.

A day before, about 150 activists had pitched tents and set up camp on nearby railroad tracks to block the flow of oil flowing to the nearby Shell and Tesoro oil refineries.

“We can’t wait anymore. We’ve got to do things now,” Clara Cleve, 76, of Edmonds, said Saturday. “Direct action is very effective. My grandchildren are not going to have a place to live unless we move quickly now.”

Cleve said she plans to spend another night in a tent on the tracks and is prepared to be arrested for trespassing if necessary.

The protests are part of a series of global actions calling on people to “break free” from dependence on fossil fuels. Similar demonstrations are taking place in Los Angeles and Albany, New York, on Saturday and in Washington, D.C., on Sunday.

In upstate New York, climate activists gathered at a crude-oil shipment hub on the Hudson River in an action targeting crude-by-rail trains and oil barges at the Port of Albany. A group of activists sat on tracks used by crude oil trains headed to the port. Police did not report any arrests as of midday Saturday. Albany is a key hub for crude-by-rail shipments from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale region.

In Washington state, organizers are targeting two refineries that are among the top sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the state. Tesoro has started shipping Bakken crude oil to its refinery, and Shell is proposing an expansion project that would similarly bring in Bakken crude oil by train.

Officials with both Shell and Tesoro said in earlier statements that they respect the right of people to demonstrate peacefully, and that safety is their highest priority. A Shell spokesman also noted that the company, which employs about 700 workers at the refinery, is proud to be a part of the community and the refinery is a vital part of the region’s energy infrastructure.

BNSF Railway spokesman Gus Melonas said no trains are scheduled through Saturday but he declined to say whether any are expected to run Sunday.

“We had anticipated this and therefore adjusted scheduling with customers,” Melonas said. “At this point, we’re allowing the protest on our property.”

There had been no word of any arrests during the day, Given Kutz, a spokesman for the Skagit County Emergency Coordination Center, said late Saturday night.

The tracks, which connect BNSF’s mainline to Anacortes, serve the two refineries, as well as other customers who ship animal feed, steel and lumber by rail, Melonas said.

Skagit County spokeswoman Bronlea Mishler said authorities are monitoring the situation. Crowd estimates of the march range from several hundred to about 1,000 people, she said.

Bud Ullman, 67, who lives on Guemes Island, participated in the march, which he described as good-spirited, peaceful.

“The scientists are right. We have to get away from our dependence on fossil fuels, and it has to be done in a way that takes into serious consideration the impact on workers, families and communities,” he said.

The three-day event ends Sunday and has included “kayaktivists” demonstrating on water, community workshops and an indigenous ceremony.

“I’m here because there’s nothing more important to me than protecting the Earth,” said Elizabeth Claydon, 24, who lives in Seattle. “This is an urgent matter, and traditional ways are not working.”

Many of the nearly 40 groups involved in organizing the event were also involved in large on-water kayak protests against Shell’s Arctic oil drilling rig when it parked last year at a Seattle port.

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DALLAS (AP) — At 5, the girl identified as S.A. entered the Texas foster care system. Within months, she reported being raped by an older child. She was moved more than 45 times, including to psychiatric hospitals, and missed several chances for adoption because of paperwork delays. At 18, after aging out of the system, she walked into traffic and was hit by a car. At last report, she was living in a homeless shelter.

Her story, detailed in court records, was among scores of chronic foster care failures that led a federal judge to declare the Texas system unconstitutionally flawed and order an independent overhaul. Unlike most other states under similar orders, Texas is fighting the ruling — even as two court-appointed administrators face a September deadline to present a reform plan.

The system, which has about 30,000 children in homes and institutional settings, is “broken, and it has been that way for decades,” U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack said in her December ruling. That’s especially true for those labeled permanent wards of the state, she said, who “almost uniformly leave state custody more damaged than when they entered.”

That label, covering about 12,000 children on whose behalf the suit was brought, can be affixed after a child spends just a year in custody and means they receive less care and oversight, Jack said.

Another troubling aspect of Texas’ system, the judge wrote, was allowing “foster group homes.” Texas’ stated allowance of up to 12 children in such homes, including the caregivers’ own, was exceeded, Jack said, calling them “a hybrid” between traditional foster homes and institutional facilities that provided “fewer benefits … and fewer safeguards.”

Jack said the sexual assault of and by foster children was a special problem in the foster group homes. She noted a boy identified as D.I. who was sexually abused from age 8, saying the system tried to cover it up and there was no indication he was ever placed in a single-child home. An expert testified that D.I. had become “a high risk for sexually harming children.”

Kristopher Sharp, who spent eight years in the Texas system and advocates for reform, is heartened by the judge’s ruling. “We’re constantly being told no, we’re making stuff up or it’s not that bad or whatever. And here it is, this federal judge is saying it’s just as bad as people are saying it is — and in fact, it’s even worse.”

The judge directed the two special masters to decide whether the foster group homes should exist. She also suggested setting up a 24-hour hotline to report abuse and neglect, figuring out manageable caseloads for workers and tracking child-on-child abuse. The two began working with state officials in April.

Texas contends it was already reforming foster care and has challenged the appointment of the special masters. It’s asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to make the judge craft the reforms herself so that the state will have a final judgment to appeal rather than waiting — and paying — for the special masters to complete their work.

“It’s unfortunate and disappointing that millions of dollars that could have gone to serving youth in the Texas foster care system and hiring more caseworkers will now be spent on the legally baseless special master process,” said John Wittman, spokesman for Gov. Greg Abbott, who declined an interview.

Far more states settle such lawsuits. Leecia Welch of the National Center for Youth Law, which was not involved in the case, said there’s currently comprehensive litigation or ongoing settlement agreements in more than 15 child welfare systems across the U.S.

Experts say having up to 12 children in one home wasn’t something they’d seen elsewhere and the trend among states was a move away from group settings. “It’s this bizarre hybrid that seems to exist only in Texas and should exist nowhere,” said Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform.

A 2013 report from Generations United and the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law found that state allowances for foster homes vary from four to eight children, including host family kids. Texas’ traditional foster homes allow up to six children, including the host family’s children.

In addition, being designated a permanent ward of the state is “like being moved to the backburner,” said attorney Sara Bartosz of Children’s Rights, which filed the lawsuit.

A healthy system will get a child reunited with family members or in a long-term placement with relatives “fairly quickly,” or get them adopted within two years, said Sandra Gasca-Gonzalez, director of the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative.

Texas “ignored 20 years of reports, outlining problems and recommending solutions,” Jack wrote. “Although some foster children are able to overcome these obstacles, they should not have to.”

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Washington Post

Off the grid: How a violent offender slipped through the DC justice system Washington Post SECOND CHANCE CITY | This is the first installment in a series that will examine issues related to repeat violent offenders in the District of Columbia. A pedestrian walks on a sidewalk along A Street SE in the D.C. neighborhood where Antwon Pitt is ...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A street artist in Lithuania has adorned a barbecue restaurant with a poster showing Donald Trump locking lips with Vladimir Putin.

Restaurant owner Dominykas Ceckauskas said Saturday the presumptive U.S. Republican presidential nominee and the Russian president both have huge egos “and they seem to get along pretty well.”

He said the image is “an ironic view of what can be expected.”

Local artist Mindaugas Bonanu created the wheat paste poster for the eatery in the capital Vilnius on Friday. It’s on the outside of the Keule Ruke restaurant— Lithuanian for “Smoking Pig” — along with the text “Make Everything Great Again” — a play on Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again.”

Ceckauskas said the poster was a nod to a 1979 photograph of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev kissing East German ally Erich Honecker on the mouth — once a customary greeting between Socialist leaders. The iconic shot was later painted on the Berlin Wall.

There have been no calls to remove the more than 2-meter (6 ½-foot) poster.

Berlin once was the symbol of the Cold War, Ceckauskas noted.

“We think that the border now is not in Berlin, but somewhere here in the Baltic states, between (the) East and the West,” he told The Associated Press.

Lithuania — and its Baltic neighbors Estonia and Latvia — regained its independence in the early 1990’s after nearly five decades under Soviet occupation and the 1991 Soviet collapse. More than a dozen people were killed and scores were injured in a Soviet crackdown on Lithuania’s independence drive in January 1991.

All three Baltic nations have since joined NATO.

___

Liutauras Strimaitis in Vilnius, Lithuania, and Vitnija Saldava in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A journey of 411 National Park Service sites begins with a single monument.

Mikah Meyer visited the Washington Monument on Friday, April 29, just like more than 600,000 other people do every year. But for Meyer, it was especially momentous: the first stop, he says, on a three-year trip to visit every single Park Service site in the country.

In the coming months, Meyer plans to quit his two jobs, dump his possessions at his pastor’s house, move from his North Bethesda apartment to a utility van and set out to become the youngest person ever to visit all 411 Park Service sites.

The trip will take the 30-year-old Nebraska native to 25 battlefields and military sites, 19 nature preserves, 129 historical spots, 112 memorials and monuments, four scenic roadways, five national rivers, 10 national seashores and more.

“It’s not just Grand Canyon, Acadia, Yellowstone,” he said, standing at the base of the monument. “It is this whole system of things that make us Americans.”

The 1,116-day road trip he has mapped out is a spiritual quest to connect with his late father, he says. It’s also a chance to demonstrate that gay men can be outdoorsy — and to persuade youngsters glued to their smartphone screens to check out the natural beauty in their home states.

At the top of the Washington Monument, Meyer looked down at the Mall and mused on the nation’s front lawn, his first stop on a tour of the United States’ shared property, its natural wonders and recreational lands and collective memories.

“In England, how many gardens are set aside just for the queen?” he said. Not so in the United States: “This is for people, playing gay kickball leagues.”

Then he pulled out his smartphone. “I’ve got to write that down so I don’t forget.” The thought will go on his blog.

He wants to take this massive trip now, while he is healthy and somewhat unencumbered. (His boyfriend balked when Meyer told him, a few weeks into their relationship, that he was planning to eventually skip town for a three-year road trip. But they’re still together, and his boyfriend is considering coming along on the road.)

Meyer’s father, a Lutheran minister, died of cancer at age 58, when Meyer was 19. He never got to take the road trips he envisioned for his retirement. “He always said if he weren’t a pastor, he would have been a trucker,” Meyer said.

Meyer missed out on the annual trips that his three older sisters said they cherished most, when their father drove them to college out of state. By the time Meyer started college, his father was in hospice. “These road trips are kind of a way I can get those road trips with him,” he said.

Starting April 29, which was the 11th anniversary of his father’s death, Meyer is using his down time to check off all the parks in the Washington area. The Mall area alone accounts for at least a dozen, since the park service counts each memorial as a separate unit. Farther afield, Prince William Forest Park, the George Washington Memorial Parkway, Rock Creek Park and many more regional sites make the list.

He is still working for now — he directs residential programming at a boarding school and sings in the National Cathedral’s professional choir. But in June, he’ll hit the road full-time, for years.

The National Park Travelers Club recognizes people who make it to every park (and even hosts conventions for them). So far, 37 people have done it, according to the club’s secretary, Craig Bailey.

Meyer would become the youngest, beating out Alan Hogenauer, who finished at age 39 in 1980, when there were just 320 Park Service sites. The next-youngest, Shigenori Hiraoka, finished at age 45 in 2012. Bailey noted that Hiraoka, from Japan, is one of two foreigners who have made trips to the United States to visit every Park Service site.

Many are retirees, Bailey said; the average age is 63.5. He also noted that these adventurers tend to be male. Of the 37 people who’ve done it, 11 are women — and all made the trips with their husbands.

But Bailey said Meyer’s plan is perhaps more notable for his attempt to visit all the parks in one go, not for his age. He does not know of any person who has ever done all the sites in one odyssey, rather than multiple vacations over a lifetime.

“I wish it was me doing what he’s doing,” said Bailey. He has made it a goal to visit at least 10 parks a year, especially since he gets good vacations in his work at a school. He started collecting park service stamps in 2001, and now, at age 32, he has visited 259 parks.

“I think it’s really neat he’s trying to do them all one go of it. He’s gonna leave and just go, go, go, go, go,” Bailey enthused. “I don’t know of anyone that has just headed out on the road and just kept going.”

Meyer met up with one of those 37 who has already completed the feat for some advice.

“We sat down and I went through every park. He knew from memory what the right amount of time to spend at each of them was. He said, ‘three hours, two days, two weeks,’ ” Meyer said. On his own itinerary, he has blocked off the most time for the Grand Canyon — two whole weeks, if he can cover the cost of rafting there.

Meyer is financing the trip through his savings as well as donations he’s soliciting online. He has budgeted up to $10,000 per year for gas alone.

And he has emailed about 500 companies, asking them to sponsor him. So far, he has succeeded with just a handful — a backpack company that sent a few items, a survival supplies brand, an architect in Fairfax County, Virginia, who is outfitting his van so he can live in it for years.

But he hopes to find someone, perhaps an airline or a travel website, that will pay for plane tickets by the end of the trip: Somehow, he has to get to Hawaii, Puerto Rico, American Samoa and Guam, all of which are home to national parks.

His most significant concern was a van — and just days after he started looking for it, he found it. “I’ve never had God work so fast in my life,” he said.

He found a sympathetic seller on Craigslist, who took a four-month trip himself after his wife had died of cancer.

Brett Austin agreed to sell the vehicle to Meyer on an unusual installment plan: $10,000 up front, plus an I-owe-you for $15,000 more, which Meyer can make up through sales from the candle company that Austin operates in Baltimore County. For every candle bought using a special code, 40 percent of the price will go toward paying off Meyer’s debt.

The National Park Foundation is also helping Meyer promote his trip. He arrived for his first park visit two weeks ago wearing a “Find Your Park” T-shirt, promoting the park service’s theme for commemorating its 100th anniversary in 2016.

“No matter who you are, your story is told,” Meyer said. He recalled standing on the Mall during President Obama’s second inauguration, when the president referred to “Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall,” the latter of which is on its way to becoming perhaps the 412th park unit.

“He said Stonewall and I teared up. Because it was like somebody acknowledged who I was,” said Meyer, who founded a group for young gay Christians in the District that has more than 300 members.

He had not come out as gay yet — hadn’t even totally figured it out himself — when he was 19 and his father died. But his faith tells him that his father sees what his life has become, 11 years later: the affectionate man holding his hand and handing him his camera as they peer out the windows of the Washington Monument. “He knows now,” Meyer said.

He took his first road trip just a few days after his father’s funeral, in his father’s car. It still smelled of his smoke and rattled with his sunflower seeds.

At 25, he embarked on a much longer trip with his father’s atlas, a nine-month drive that the circled all of the United States.

Two months in, he felt his heart almost beating out of his chest. “I had this sensation, and I’ve never had it since,” he said. “I’m so insanely happy, my body wants to physically, like, sunshine.”

It happened over and over, but only on the road. He concluded: “This is what living is.”

That trip also brought a deeply spiritual moment. “The only mystical religious experience I’ve ever had was in Watervliet, Michigan, in a Taco Bell parking lot.”

He was checking his tire pressure. Not much, but it was something his dad would have done. All of a sudden, “I had this warm energy. It felt like my hands were my dad’s hands.”

That split second, he said, felt like hours of conversation with his father — and with God. “Both of them were saying: Just get back on the road and keep driving.”

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