George Vasey (botanist)
Overview
 
George S. Vasey was an English-born American botanist who collected a lot in Illinois before integrating the United States Department of Agriculture
United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food...

 (USDA), where he became Chief Botanist and curator of the greatly expanded National Herbarium
Herbarium
In botany, a herbarium – sometimes known by the Anglicized term herbar – is a collection of preserved plant specimens. These specimens may be whole plants or plant parts: these will usually be in a dried form, mounted on a sheet, but depending upon the material may also be kept in...

.
George Vasey was born in 1822 in Snainton
Snainton
Snainton is a village and civil parish in the Scarboroughdistrict of North Yorkshire, England.According to the 2001 UK census, Snainton parish had a population of 891.-Notable people:The actor Ben Kingsley was born in Snainton....

 near Scarborough, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, the fourth of ten children. His family emigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 the next year, and they established in Oriskany, New York
Oriskany, New York
Oriskany is a village in Oneida County, New York, United States. The population was 2,744 at the 2000 census. The name is derived from the Iroquois word for "nettles."The Village of Oriskany is in the Town of Whitestown, southeast of the City of Rome...

. He left school at 12 to take a job as a store clerk.

He took interest in botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

 after borrowing and, since he could not afford the volume, manually copying a book on the subject.
Quotations

I sit there and say, 'Please don't call me up, I am too shy.' But once I get up there, I take control of myself. Being onstage is magic. There's nothing like it. You feel the energy of everybody who's out there. You feel it all over your body. When the lights hit you, it's all over, I swear it is.

Snakes are very misunderstood. Snakes, I suggest, may be the oldest victims of bad press.

I have begun to see that even my father's harshness was a kind of love. An imperfect love, to be sure, but love nonetheless. He pushed me because he loved me, because he wanted no man to ever look down at his offspring. Now with time, rather than bitterness I feel blessing.… My initial fury has slowly given way to forgiveness.

"Heal the Kids" speech at the Oxford Union (2001)

I put a lot of mannequins in my room in the past, and I still have mannequins in my room, because I used to be very lonely, painfully lonely. You have no idea. I used to walk the streets looking for people to talk to. I'm talking about the height of one's career…. I would walk up to them, strangers, and say, "will you be my friend?" They'd go, "my god, Michael Jackson!" and that's not what I wanted.

The Michael Jackson Interview: The Footage You Were Never Meant to See (2002)

The record companies really do conspire against the artists. They steal. They cheat. They do whatever they can, especially the black artists.… Sony's Tommy Mottola is the president of the record division. He is mean. He is a racist, and he's very, very, very devilish.

Remarks at National Action Network headquarters (6 July 2002)

 
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