Curator arrested for smuggling 1,500+ scorpions in luggage!

A man was detained in Turkey for trying to smuggle 1500 scorpions and spiders out of this country. Out of this country? Out of that country, rather into this country.

Ay-yay-yay. Plus, we're also going to be looking at how a portal between New York City and Dublin has reopened, the Doge doggy crossed the rainbow bridge, and how the Abraham Lincoln Museum may have bought a fake flag. Welcome back to Buy Amara.

This is a show. Just stop me.

I think I should just give up at this point. Anywho, welcome back to Buy Amara. This is a very disorganized show where we'll look at some of the weird, strange, downright odd things that have happened in modern history fields.

I'm your host and personal curator, Amara Andrew. I'm also very tongue-tied. Hi, welcome back to the show.

Normally it is a clusterfuck like this. So, if you're listening for the first time, welcome back. I am just sitting in my living room talking to myself and you, loyal listener, viewer.

Anywho, welcome to the show. As you can tell, I have not done this for quite a while. Last week was my week back to the show after a little bit of a hiatus, unintentional hiatus, but we're doing it.

So this is the part of the show called updates, where normally I have updates for stories. I don't have any because most of the stories happened like 16 million years ago, and I, frankly, just didn't really look into it. So I'm going to tell you about me.

Me, me, me. We went to… So for my business called MAVEN, it's a videography service business, and we fly to people, which is really fun.

So last week, after the last episode, we went to Charlotte, North Carolina to film with one of our top bananas, which is what we call the people that we fly to, which is very fun. We like silly things. But yeah, I've never been to either of the Carolinas before, so I was really excited to go.

I want to try to get to every single United State. State, why did I say it like that? Which really isn't that difficult this day and age, you just have to go there and then just be like, cool, I'm here.

So we went to Charlotte. It was a really cute city. I really liked it.

We frequented the Whole Foods quite a lot because that is just what we do. We didn't really… The hard thing about traveling for business is you don't really get to like go to the places to like look at all the cultural heritage sites and things like that.

I'm a huge museum person, so I really wanted to go to like various different museums, especially the Mint Museum. Not peppermint, not spearmint, not any kind of edible mint, but minting like coins and shit like that, which I thought would be really, really fun, but we just didn't have time. So with business trips, it's like so many people are just like, "Oh, that's so cool.

You get to see all these cities." Not really. We mostly just see like the Airbnb where we're recording or wherever we end up with the person, like recording out and about, which is really cool. So anywho, that was basically it.

I did make a rental car boo-boo.

Normally I try to do the rental car things way ahead of time, but for this trip I messed up because we switched rental car companies that we were using, so I forgot to rent a car until a couple days before we were going. So I was like, "Oh, shit. We need to do that." So I just like super quickly went on the site.

I was just like, " I just need a car," and it was between like a car and a pickup truck. And I was like, we're not pickup truck people. Like kudos if you are, but like that's just not our vibe.

And I was like to make it easier to park, first and foremost, I was just like we just need like a car, car, whatever. So I was just like on the site like, I'm going to rent whatever.

And then we get to Charlotte, we get off the airplane, we get to the rental car place, and then we go, and like we can just go directly to our car, and then we see and it's like, "Oh, shit. It's an electric vehicle." And I was like, "There's no fucking way I rented an EV." We had a little snafu before, which I wish I had actually made a video about it, but that's fine.

It was for my 30th birthday, we drove from Vegas to Malibu, kind of like a party and then like a relax kind of thing. And we had a Chevy Bolt, which sucked ass. It was I hated that little fucking car.

I drive a Tesla personally now and I love it, but it was just like it was just a really terrible experience because charging isn't super perfected yet, unfortunately. Like Tesla's done a really great job, but other car companies, not so much. So anyway,

So we're just like, "Okay, we never want to have to deal with that ever again, so we're not going to drive this EV." So instead, we go into the little kiosk thingy, and then we're just like, "Hey, we have an EV. We don't think we rented it," which I later found out I did actually rent it because it was the only other option and I wasn't fucking reading anything because I was like, "It's just a car, I need that." So we go in, we're just like, "Hey, we can't drive this, blah, do you have anything else?" And she's like, "Let me talk to my manager." So it took a little bit, blah.

Then she's like, "Oh, okay, cool. Here's your new car. It's in spot fucking whatever, go look at it." So we get there,

And it's a minivan. That was amazing. I have never driven a minivan.

Oh, I guess I still haven't because I didn't drive it, Jeff did, thank god. And yeah, so we were minivan people for a couple days. Thankfully it was like a black minivan, so at least it fit our vibe, even though I'm wearing a white shirt with a giant smiley face on it today.

But it was very funny because I was like, "We are literally the least minivan type people, and we had a minivan." And I like sent Marcopolos to a couple of my friends, and I was like, "Oh my god, minivan." But anyway, so that is it for my updates. We went to Charlotte and drove a minivan, so very fun.

It's really fun, though. So not to sound negative about the travel, but it's just like it's just we don't really get to like see the places as much. So, but we get to see the people, which is honestly the most important part of it, which I'm just very fond of because I really love people.

So it was very fun. Anywho, I think I should just get straight into the show. Again, trying to do minimal editing, so there are going to be a lot of fuck-ups, but that's fine.

Just accept me for who I am. Okay, on to the show.

The portal between New York City and Dublin has reopened despite boobies and lewd imagery. Yes, I said boobies. The portal, first and foremost, what the hell is this portal that I am speaking of?

The portal itself is a public technology sculpture that's supposed to, quote, "bring people of two iconic cities together through a groundbreaking visual bridge," end quote. And it was opened on May 8th, 2024.

It was opened in the Flatiron District in New York City and then in Dublin, like I said, facing the capital's main street, O'Connell Street. So, two very trafficked areas in either of these cities, which was the whole point of it. The portal was actually created by Lithuanian artist and entrepreneur, Benediktas Gylys, apologies for mispronunciation as always.

And he intended for portal to serve as, quote, "an invitation to meet fellow humans above borders and differences and to experience our world as it really is, united and one," end quote.

I wonder how he felt about what happened after it opened. So, basically what this is, is it's a giant, if you're listening to this, I'm making hand gestures and movements, some lewd, some not, just teasing. But it's just a giant portal, like a giant circle.

It's shiny kind of around the edge, but basically what it is, is it's a livestream between both New York City and Dublin.

So, it's real-time livestream. I don't think there are any audio components to it. I'm not I wasn't able to find that out specifically, but it's basically just being able to have like a video chat with a large group of people all together, and it's a very big screen, too.

It's actually It's a really cool concept, but, of course, human nature. What are we going to do? We're going to draw penises on things, and we're going to do really silly, kind of stupid things, also, which I can't pretend that I'm above that because I would find it very funny in the moment, possibly.

Not some of the things that happened, but one thing in particular. So, anyway,

I said it opened May 8th, which is what I found on a couple sites and things like that. Portal was supposed to be open until fall 2024, so this year. It was supposed to be open until like late fall-ish kind of time, but it was shut down less than a week after it opened due to a number of happenings.

So, the first thing, like I hinted at that I found funny, was that an OnlyFans model flashed the Dublin crowd.

So, she was in New York New York City, and to promote her business, sorry if you hear thunder, it just started downpouring like crazy right now, so just fun fact, spooky. But anyway, so an OnlyFans model, she flashed the Dublin crowd from New York City, so that's kind of silly. However, the Dublin crowd really fucking escalated shit, and they were showing swastikas and footage of the 9/11 attacks in America and like to the portal screen.

So,

That was pretty egregious, I would say. So then the portals shut down immediately after that because it's like, okay, we can't really trust people with these things. So, the display on the portal read just "Portal's asleep, back up soon." So, with that said, the portal has actually now officially reopened despite all of this.

So, it reopened on May 19th,

But there are a few different things that are different about it.

That was pretty egregious, I would say. So then the Portal shut down immediately after that because it's like, okay, we can't really trust people with these things. So, the display on the Portal read just, "Portals asleep, back up soon." So,

With that said, the Portal has actually now officially reopened despite all of this. So, it reopened on May 19th, but there are a few different things that are different about it. So, if you go visit it now, it'll be kind of a different experience.

Before, it was just kind of autonomous. Like, you could do whatever you wanted.

Now, there's security on either side. So, on the Dublin side, you'll have people who are, I think they said they're wearing like yellow jackets, kind of like just regular like event security in a way, but just making sure that people keep it in line. Also, on the New York side, as well.

You're also not allowed to get as close to the Portal as you originally were, apparently. If you get too close to it now, both feeds, both in New York City and in Dublin will actually blur out so you won't be able to interact with each other.

And then, finally, there are now set hours where you can actually use the Portal. In Dublin, that's from 11:00 a.m. To 9:00 p.m.

Dublin local time. And then, in New York City, it's from 6:00 a.m. To 4:00 p.m.

New York time. So, that's how the time zones are able to interact and things like that. So, this also, fun fact, isn't actually the only Portal out there.

I thought this was, but then upon further research, there's also another Portal installation connecting Lublin, Poland,

With Vilnius, Lithuania, which I thought was interesting because also the artist is from Lithuania, fun fact. So, I wonder if any of these happenings have happened at that other Portal site. I actually don't know if there are other Portals, but maybe there will be in the future or something like that.

But I just wonder if these kind of happenings also happen there or if it was much more, mild-mannered. So, anyway, if you're in Dublin or the New York City area, definitely check it out. I actually really want to go, so maybe we'll have to make a little

Little pilgrimage journey up there and go visit it. I don't know. It seems fun.

I like the idea of it because then you can interact with people in real time, which would just be kind of fun and just to be a part of it. I also wonder if they record it actually for posterity. Interesting thought.

That was not to kudo me. I just wonder if that would be a thought. Anyway, so if you can, definitely go visit it.

Now, on to our next story, which is a little sad, but it's very sweet.

Much sad. The doggy who inspired the Doge meme has crossed the Rainbow Bridge, which is very sad. This is super, super short, obviously, because there isn't a whole ton to it, but I don't know.

I just felt like it was This doggy was such a cultural Well, let me just talk about what the fuck I'm even talking about first.

So, Kabosu, and apologies, I may be mispronouncing that. I'm an idiot, so sorry. Kabosu, the Japanese Shiba Inu who inspired the famous meme his meme, has passed away.

She passed away in her sleep at age 18, so she was a little bit older, which is good. But she had a struggle with canine leukemia and liver disease, which is very sad. Kabosu was adopted by Atsuko Sato, or Sato.

Sato,

Probably Sato. Sorry. In 2008 as a rescue from a puppy mill, which is so cute.

So, 2 years after she adopted Kabosu, Sato, sorry. 2 years after she adopted Kabosu, Sato shared a photo of her little doggy with the paws crossed and a skeptical side eye, which we all know. Not all.

Some of us may know. I loved this little doggy meme. So, it would just be like You're very skeptical, and it would just have like, "Much wow," or "Very" What Like, it would just have nonsensical words and phrases underneath it, just to like, "Much wow.

Very" Fuck. I can't even think of one right now. I should probably just look them up instead of just sounding like an idiot.

But, essentially, it was just a little doggy meme that totally took the world by storm, named Doge, mispronounced, or misspelled, rather, on purpose, also. Fun fact.

So, this meme wasn't just a meme. It also influenced Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer to name their cryptocurrency, Dogecoin. Like, it was literally a huge cultural moment.

I mean, all memes, basically, were. But this little doggy, I don't know, it's just so cute. Like I said, super short story, but just she was memorialized in her hometown of Sakura with a statue of her in her little iconic pose on November 2nd, 2023.

Why did I

Say the entire year like that? 2023, which was her 18th birthday. So, I'm really glad they did it like in time.

I wonder if maybe the owner knew like the doggy wasn't doing super well or whatever. There's also a couple cats on the sculpture, apparently, too. So, then, it's it's like she's on this little bed, and then there are cats around it to signify, I guess, like working together and things like that.

The sculpture itself was actually crowdfunded by Own The Doge,

Which is, apparently, an organization committed to doing good works in her name in Kabosu's name, which I thought was very cute. So, again, super short story, but if you want to pay your respects to the statue, you can go visit it at the Sakura Furusato Riverside Park. So, just fun fact.

So, on to our next story.

It is raining so hard right now in my house. If you can hear it or see it. I don't know.

It probably looks very dark right now, but wowsers, it's coming down. Anywho, on to our next story. So, a curator was arrested for smuggling over 1,500, yes 1,500 scorpions and spiders in his luggage!

I could not believe what I was reading when I read this, and it is very interesting. Lorenzo Prendini is curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. He was detained at the Istanbul Airport after allegedly attempting to smuggle 1,500 creepy crawlies in his luggage to bring back to the United States.

He had them split amongst 88 tubes and 58 bags within his luggage. He claims he had Turkish government permits to be able to transport these back to the United States. But the police, apparently, ignored the documents and, instead, they, quote, "relied on the testimony of an expert who has a conflict of interest with my collaborators and whose scientific research is highly questionable," end quote.

I am so curious what is going on there. That is a very interesting and loaded statement that he has made. So, he actually did end up being exonerated, and he was released, but didn't comment any further on the situation, which makes sense, cause the museum was probably like, "Shut up." So, the American Museum of Natural History is also expected to make a statement.

I don't believe they have yet, as of this recording, I don't believe they have. Maybe they will soon, so we'll see. And

That's basically it for the story. I just thought it was a very weird headline to see that he was trying to smuggle in 1,500 scorpions and spiders. I was like, "You keep that shit in Turkey.

I'm good." Also, at the museum, he primarily works with scorpions and spiders, so it's not super crazy. It is raining like Can you hear that?

It is really coming down. Anyway, but he primarily works with scorpions, spiders, ticks, and centipedes and millipedes. So, it makes sense that he was transporting these.

It wasn't just like a random act. Anywho, on to our fourth and final story.

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum may have bought a fake flag dating to 1818. And this isn't the first time that they have made a boo-boo of any sort like this, particularly with their acquisitions. But we're going to talk more about that a little bit later.

This museum sounds very interesting.

So, a manager at the museum failed to consult a collections meeting before purchasing a 21-star flag that was slated as a, quote, "rare banner marking Illinois's 1818 admission to the Union," end quote. Short, sweet, and to the point. The hand-sewn flag measures 77 in by 89 in, or about 7 and 1/2 ft by 6 and 1/2 ft.

And it's known as a grand luminary because it has 21 stars that are arranged in the shape of a star. And all the stars on this flag are of the same size, which is notable because other flags with the similar star kind of shape and pattern are known as great luminaries. So, this is a grand luminary, but the overall encompassing terminology for this style of flag is great luminary.

And

Typically, the stars were arranged in the shape of a large star, but there would actually be one central star that would be a little bit larger. Sometimes they'd all be the same size, but, typically, it would actually be a little bit larger. I don't know, I'm not a flag expert, which I'm There is a very cool word for flag expert, also, which, of course, there is.

But I'll tell you that in a minute. But the design of this flag is further unusual because instead of having red stripes on the top and bottom, it actually has white stripes on the top and bottom.

Not super weird, though, for the time period, because it wasn't actually regulated what your flag should look like. It was just kind of like keep it sort of within this idea, but it wasn't super like forbidden or anything at the time. So, back to the flag, specifically.

The flag was purchased from Heritage Auctions, an online auction platform, for over $15,000.

The museum's acquisitions chief, Ian Hunt, submitted a request to buy the flag on November 6th, 2023. The flag had been part of the prestigious Zaricor Flag Collection, which is, quote, "a massive collection dedicated to conserving, preserving, exhibiting, studying, documenting, teaching, and learning about flags and flag-related artifacts throughout history," end quote.

So, it is a very

Prestigious place where it came from. So, it has less like what is that, where did this come from, less question about provenance, I should say. However, that is still a sticking point, which we're going to talk about.

If you actually want to view the collection, too, for the Zaricor Flag whatever, it's really cool. You can view it online. I think in person, as well, but online, they have a lot of it documented, so definitely check it out.

Anywho, back to the auction. So, Hunt

Sent an email that he wanted to acquire this flag November 6th. He won the flag on November 13th in the auction. So, that was about a week after his request.

The museum paid, in total, $15,625 for the flag using the King Hostick Trust Fund, which is an endow- endowment to finance state historic research and artifact acquisition. The museum, though, also has a policy, and this is where it gets a little tricky, two things that make it tricky.

The museum has a policy that states the actual Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum has a policy that states any purchase over $2,000 has to be met with committee vote. But the panel didn't meet until December 7th, so almost an entire month after he sent his first email and acquired said flag. So,

The committee did meet December 7th, and the vote was 7 to 2 in favor of acquiring the flag. But, in the footnotes in the meeting minutes, or in just the documentation that the meeting happened, you can actually see that some people were citing questioning of the authenticity of the flag, so specifically asking for provenance.

Provenance is basically just where did this come from, who's owned it, all that fun, wonderful stuff.

There were also complaints, too, that this purchase side-stepped the committee vote, which maybe it did, maybe it didn't. I don't know. That is just sort of speculation at the point.

Additionally, a noted vexillologist

Well, let's try that again. Additionally, a noted vexillologist,

Or flag expert, yeah, that's a word, which is really cool, his name is Jeff Bridgman, so we're just going to go by Bridgman, he stated that this flag actually may not be from 1818. Yikes. He states that its construction and materials may indicate it was actually produced decades later, possibly during the Civil War, and may actually be a Southern exclusionary flag that only includes stars to represent states that supported the Union or that were loyal to the Union during the Civil War.

Very different context. This guy stocks roughly 3,000 mostly 19th-century flags, so he seems to be pretty credible. The flag, though, flag, though, had actually been tested in 1995 by a respected vexillologist, Howard Madaus, apologies, and he determined that the flag was made from cotton and was from about circa 1818 to 1820.

Bridgman, though, actually states, respectfully, that this other flag expert may be wrong. Bridgman, while he hasn't personally inspected the flag, he believes that high-resolution images show that the blue is actually wool or a wool blend, which would have been typical of a Civil War era flag, primarily because the holes in it are long and narrow.

He states, quote, "Cotton doesn't do that. Wool absolutely does," end quote. Additionally, to support Bridgman's claims, in 2003, a report was done by a conservator to determine that part of the flag was made of wool.

So, there could be some credibility there, especially if only one person is stating that it's cotton. I don't know. Very interesting.

The museum, though, hasn't yet tested the flag because they just acquired it. There's supposedly major conservation work being done to it about I think about $18,000 just to clean it up and get it

Housed properly. That was also something in the meeting minutes that one of the comments was, "How are we going to house it? We don't really have that yet." Because it is definitely falling apart.

Like, it's not perfectly all in one piece. I think it's in multiple pieces. So, anywho, they're going to figure out what it's made of and possibly what year while it's being conserved.

So, I did tease, though, at the top of this story that this actually isn't the first boo-boo that this museum has made. They have a stovepipe hat that was appraised for $6 and 1/2 million and is alleged to have belonged to Mr. Lincoln.

However, there have been allegations that the evidence linking Lincoln to this hat is very questionable. So, that's one

Big, scary boo-boo. Additionally, in 2019, a museum director was fired after sending a copy of the Gettysburg Address that was handwritten by Mr. Lincoln himself, allegedly.

They sent that copy to a Texas exhibit operated by conservative political commentator Glenn Beck without any approval from the institution itself, which is bonkers to me. Like, you cannot do that.

Having worked in this capacity, you cannot do that. Okay, anyway, the spokesperson from the museum states that regardless of its history, the flag has, quote, "solid pedigree." Quote, "We're always open to learning more about it. And if it turns out that it's from a different story,

Sorry, that it's from a different era with a different story, that's the way it goes. We'll tell that story, and it just so happens that the story is a good one, too," which I thought was a very beautiful, poetic way of saying, "We may have fucked up, but, you know, whatever. It is what it is," which regardless, if it is from the Civil War, that still would have a tie to Lincoln, which would be fascinating.

So, anyway, you just You do the best with what you can. So, I do wonder if the person who

Did actually purchase it will keep their job, what's going on with that? That is I admire the ask for forgiveness, not permission. However, in this capacity, it may come back to haunt them, but I have no idea.

So, anyway, that was this episode of Amara. Be sure to like, comment, subscribe, tell me what your favorite flag is. Actually, that would be very interesting.

There's so many flags, also, which is really cool. Yeah, tell me what your favorite flag is, now that I want now that I posited it.

Be sure to do what you want in life. I'm just going to end this episode. Okay, I'm Amara Andrew.

Never stop creating.

Get it together, lady.