Vote vote vote vote.....................vote

Pundits expect a record number of voters in this election. Let's indulge them and vote like maniacs. Don't know where to vote? Click here to Find Your Polling Place. Polls are open from 7 AM to 9 PM. You may be asked to show identification if:

You registered to vote by mail after January 1, 2003, and you have never voted in a primary or general election in your county;

Your voter registration is inactive;

You have moved from the address where you are registered to vote;

Your right to vote is challenged;

The precinct election officials do not know you.

A current photo ID will suffice, but there are other options. For more information, go to Voting on Election Day and click on 'Identification'. Ok, now you're prepared. Vote! Because you can.

Graphic Source: Library of Congress American Memories

Presidential Pastimes

As we prepare to choose a President, I thought I'd bring to your attention what's really important. The hobbies and/or sports chosen by those in highest office. Here's a few:

Indian Clubs - Coolidge

Townball - Lincoln According to World Wide Baseball Association this was rounders,a type of stick-ball.

Pitching Hay - Coolidge

Medicine Ball - Hoover Now there's a version called 'Hooverball'.

Jujitsu - Roosevelt, Teddy

Croquet - Hayes

I just chose the ones I thought were least likely to be chosen by contemporary presidents. Although Hooverball is making something of a comeback. Jujitsu, anyone?

Facts about the presidents : a compilation of biographical and historical information

Graphic: Project Gutenberg EBook of A Course In Wood Turning

Scary Movies

Trick-or-treat is over, but by golly tonight is still Halloween. Looking for something spooky to watch? The American Film Institutes loves lists almost as much as I do. I was trying to find you a list of Horror Movies, but they lump them into the 100 Thrills category. These are the top-ten 'Thrills' movies that I would consider horror. Plus where they appear in the AFI list. Can you believe Alien is 29 years old? Still mighty unsettling - can't watch it when I'm home alone.

1. PSYCHO 1960

2. JAWS 1975

3. THE EXORCIST 1973

6. ALIEN 1979

7. THE BIRDS 1963

9. ROSEMARY'S BABY 1968

12. KING KONG 1933

29. THE SHINING 1980

46. CARRIE 1976

60. THE SIXTH SENSE 1999

American Film Institute

Graphic: Kat Black's Film Noir

Tonight's the Night! Let the candy-flinging begin!

All ready? You've got candy, maybe something a little Halloween-y to wear, and a light turned on so everyone can tell you are one treat-giving machine. Plus, you are prepared to listen to the same joke over and over and laugh like a maniac each time. Now here's an idea. If you get a really little person who is terrified by the whole experience and incapable of telling a joke, why don't you tell them one? Here are a few to get you started:

How do you fix a jack-o-lantern? With a pumpkin patch.
What goes "Ha-ha-ha . . . THUD!" A monster laughing his head off.
Knock, Knock. Who's there? Olive. Olive who? Olive Halloween!!!!!
How can you tell that a vampire likes baseball? He turns into a bat every night.

So you've got some not-too-scary jokes with which to break the ice. Of course there's always the chance that the wee one just wants to get away from your door as soon as possible. In that case, just give 'em the candy.

Joke Source:Hickory Daily Record (NC); 10/17/2008 as reprinted in EBSCOHost (scroll down on page)

Bad Candy

So once a year, at night, in the dark, you go to people's houses and knock on their door. Say the magic words and they give you candy! Free! As a child this was the most important holiday for me. Made even better by the fact that I trick-or-treated with lots of siblings and friends and we would go to the basement, dump everything out of our bags and start trading. I hated Chicken Bones, Boston Baked Beans and black licorice. Oh, and Heath Bars. Why would you put a slab of hard toffee inside perfectly good chocolate? If it was the only candy I had I would gnaw off the chocolate and toss the now-gooey toffee. No wonder I never got invited to dine with the Queen.

Heath Bar Graphic

It's All the Apple's Fault

Bobbing for apples. Easy - dunk your head, get your teeth firmly buried and you're out, secure in the knowledge that you'll meet your true love or some such thing. If you want to spend a little more time there's all kinds of fun you can have with an apple. At midnight on Halloween stand in front of a mirror, eat an apple, comb your hair and you'll see your spouse-to-be in the mirror over your left shoulder. Want to kick it up a notch? You still have to wait for Halloween midnight. In front of a mirror, cut an apple into 9 pieces. One at a time, stick a knife in the pieces and hold them over your left shoulder. As soon as you see the ninth piece in the mirror - boom! There's the spouse-to-be. Seems like combing your hair would be a lot less work. The most entertaining method of apple divination involves taking the wet seeds out of the apple, naming them for all the people you're dating and sticking the wet seeds on your face. The last seed to fall off will be the person who gets serious. I don't care about the results, I just want to see somebody stick a bunch of apple seeds on their face. Any takers?

Source: Halloween : customs, recipes, spells / Silver RavenWolf

Des Moines - Haunted!

The ghost of University Avenue: it could show up in the shape of a man, or just a cloud that smelled like kerosene. Turned out in 1881 a man from Des Moines who was wearing kerosene-covered clothes went up in flames. Go figure. This apparition hasn’t been seen since 1945….or has it? Hahahahaha

The Terrifying Table of Francis Avenue. In 1937 Mr. and Mrs. James Weaver brought home a seemingly innocuous table. But no! It was a small table apparently inhabited by a ‘confused spirit’. And not a quiet one. The table kept making rapping noises! The horror! These shenanigans went on until Mrs. Weaver (whose first name has apparently been lost in the mists of time) grabbed the table and read it the Bible. Shenanigans ceased. Case closed. They kept the table.

For these and more exciting tales of metaphysical mayhem, stop in at the Central Library and take a look at our reference book The National Directory of Haunted Places.

Graph Source: CLIPARTGUIDE.COM

October - Squirrel Awareness Month

There are black squirrels in the Council Bluffs area. And they are actually protected - or at least they were. Reports Field & Stream Oct 2004, p. 20: "Last April, a man in Council Bluffs, Iowa, was fined $325 for "annoying" a squirrel when his dog chased one.... Police cited the perpetrator for violating the town's Black Squirrel Ordinance, which makes it illegal to "annoy or worry" the Council Bluffs mascot." Don't mess with them.
Then there are those that find your garden variety squirrels a nuisance. An article in Countryside & Small Stock Journal; Jan/Feb 2008,p.80, provides a recipe for a homemade spray that includes Red Savina and orange Habanero peppers so hot the author advises you not to touch them with your bare hands. No wonder it deters squirrels. Now my husband likes to jump out from behind a tree and throw a bucket of water at the critters. Guess I'd better keep him out of Council Bluffs.

From the EBSCO Host MasterFILE Premier database:
Countryside & Small Stock Journal; Jan/Feb2008, Vol. 92 Issue 1, p80
Field & Stream; Oct 2004, Vol. 109 Issue 6, p20

Graphic courtesy Gerry Rowland

October - Self Promotion Month

Me! Me! Me! Look at me! Pay attention to me! That's how a 2-year-old would do it. But adults have options, strategies, steps for getting across the notion that you are just the greatest while avoiding jumping up and down and screaming. Here are some books that might assist you in getting what you want. Now! Although 'now' may still be too late for this ray of sunshine and her sewing.

Winning nice : how to succeed in business and life without waging war

Promoting yourself : 52 lessons for getting to the top-- and staying there

Sell yourself without selling your soul : a woman's guide to promoting herself, her business, her product, or her cause with integrity and spirit

Shine : a powerful 4-step plan for becoming a star in anything you do

Graphic: Daguerreotypes at the Library of Congress