Spencer Ott

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

America burned Japan's first gift of cherry trees. All 2,000 of them, on President Taft's direct order.

The 1910 shipment arrived in DC crawling with insects and nematodes. Agriculture inspectors condemned the lot, Taft signed off on the bonfire, and the State Department braced for a diplomatic disaster. Tokyo's mayor, Yukio Ozaki, responded by sending 3,020 more, grafted from the famous grove along the Arakawa River.

Those trees have spent a century paying the friendship back.

Four days after Pearl Harbor, vandals chopped down four of them. Park officials renamed the survivors "Oriental" cherry trees for the rest of the war to protect them from axes.

Then came the twist. By 1952 the original Arakawa grove in Tokyo, the parent stock, had nearly died from wartime neglect. Japan asked Washington for help. The Park Service shipped budwood from DC's trees back across the Pacific and restored the grove that created them. When a flood wiped out more Japanese trees in 1982, horticulturists took 800 fresh cuttings from the Tidal Basin.

These 250 new trees solve a real problem too. The Tidal Basin is sinking, and a $133 million seawall rebuild forced crews to rip out roughly 150 trees. Japan offered replacements before anyone asked, timed to America's 250th birthday.

So the genetics run in a loop. Tokyo's grove seeded Washington's. Washington's saved Tokyo's. The saplings going in this spring descend from both.

114 years of diplomacy, running on grafted branches.

[Fran @frabigol]

Estamos perdidos, Estados Unidos aprendió a jugar al fútbol. Es el fin del deporte tal como lo conocemos, quedan máximo 10 años sin que sean campeones de todo y cambien las reglas para que entren superheroes de Marvel a dar publicidades cada 15 minutos. Aguantamos lo que pudimos.

[Caj @cajacs]

When I���ve got 12 at the blackjack table

[horse dentist @equine__dentist]

loving this genre of images

[biev🦫 @shadybiev]

I can name one September that was significantly worse.

[dan @Dansplainer]

turn your oven on right now just for fun #TurnYourOvenOn

[nancy reagan sexbot @luffymindset2]

i’m sorry is this that scene from no country for old men

[onionweigher 🧅⚖️ @onionweigher]

I’ve never tried boysenberry. Sounds too close to poisonberry, dont want to risk it

[microplastics nanobubbler @facetedcarapace]

I found something else you're gonna love, Justine

[Mike Beauvais @MikeBeauvais]

Prior to NFL legend Tim Tebow becoming a father, I had never really thought of fathers as humans.

Thank you for humanizing fatherhood, NFL legend Tim Tebow.

[Bart Funkhouser @BartFunkman420]

Just won $5 on blackjack and used it to buy a clash royale emote

[𝖇𝖊𝖉𝖇𝖚𝖌 (band) @bedbugOFFICIAL]

Guy in front of me at the DMV has never heard of "tap" or "insert" card as a payment method. He keeps laughing and telling the clerk "I'm a sliding guy"

[Your Old Droog @YourOldDroog]

Say you bagging hoes like Justin but it ain’t trudeau

[dinosaur @dinosaurs1969]

"thank you for choosing amtrak" no problem there are no other trains

[BuffaloRon @BuffaloRon]

There is no way a horse drew this.

its a photograph.

[Khem Birch Society @NBABabySecret]

Me when the samurai is suddenly behind me and is sheathing his blade

[legitimate elo terrorist @mr_sheldonator]

dogs when you hide a pill in their food:

[Miranda Parkin @mparkinb]

so sad Elvis died before he could see the lego movie he woulda been like mama those blocks are movin and shakin

[PointlessHub @HubPointless]

2003 kids getting dosed with 1000 rads of microplastics while Baghdad gets bombed live on TV