Sadder Than Melted Ice Cream

Oh, the humiliation! Five years ago today Pluto was demoted.  Yes, the planet (ha!) that reminded my generation of a friendly cartoon dog, the food stuff in the mnemonic 'My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas', the little guy who only just became a planet in 1930 ... what was I saying?  Oh yeah. 424 picky astronomers attending the annual International Astronomical Union meeting in Prague voted to demote Pluto to a dwarf planet.  Does that make it Dopey?  At least it would keep it in the family.

Chase's Calendar of Events

American Industry! What Defines 'Food'?

While conducting research by using this book you may run across the heading Food and Kindred Products.  Plus its sub-heading 'Natural, Processed and Imitation Cheese'. Well that explains it - the whole 'cheese food' 'cheese product' mystery.  They could be kindred products, not unlike food but not exactly food either!  As for actual cheese it's been around since about 6000 B.C.  Not just tasty, cheese held up well enough to be a popular take-along for travelers and armies. How well does cheese hold up today?   Well let's find out.  Kraft Foods Inc., the leading cheese producer in the United States, collected $6.8 billion of cheesy revenue in 2009.  Not bad for a category that includes 'Kindred Products'.

Source:  Encyclopedia of American Industries as accessed through Gale Virtual Reference Library DMPL card number and PIN required for access

Man, These Stripes are Hard to Get Off

This is a picture of a Burchelli's Zebra, also known as the plains zebra.  Or, as most of us know it, A Zebra. There's more than one kind of these stripy beasts!  Who knew?  Another one grammatically owned by a person is Grevy's Zebra.  More stripes and they're thinner.  The stripes that is. The animals themselves are bigger.  Grevy's zebras weigh 990 pounds!  Let's call it a ton and get out of their way.  Then there's the mountain zebra with a tan muzzle and a dewlap.  A dewlap.  They've got little flaps on their necks, like a turkey's only way less gross. What the heck is that 'dewing' on a zebra?  Ha!  We try to leave you laughing, folks.  Or groaning?

Source:  Grzimek's animal life encyclopedia.
 Photo Credit: Glenn Franco Simmons

Signpost Up Ahead - The State Fair Zone?

More generator family fun! Kids having trouble finding the garbage they're supposed to take out?  Car keys going missing?  Laundry basket ignored?  Make a reeeeaallly obvious sign and point everybody in the right direction.  Don't make it a swivelly sign though.  That's just asking for trouble.

Directional Street Sign Generator

Tipping the Scale

When I was young and naive, a friend and I patronized the 'Guess Your Weight' guy at the State Fair.  We were very pleased that we 'won' since the gentleman could not indeed guess our weight.  It was years before I figured out that the dollar we paid for the 'guess' would have purchased 10 of the prizes we won.  But what the heck, it was fun. Should you choose to play some of the carnival games at the fair, here's a tip:

"Milk-Can Toss: Never throw the ball directly at the center, as you would a basketball. Instead, aim for the edge of the closest lip and make sure to throw with a big arc."

That milk-can money adds up. The country's largest fair, (but not The Best State Fair in Our State) the State Fair of Texas, takes in about $4 million from these games.  Yowsa.

Source: CARNIVAL KNOWLEDGE.  Newsweek, 7/8/2002, Vol. 140 Issue 2, p57, 2p 



As the Cow Flies

Was the movie'Twister' one of Iowa's well-known disasters?  It had Philip Seymour Hoffman, how cheesy could it be?  You decide. I kind of liked it.  On another note, Iowa has certainly seen its share of  non-fictional disasters. Four notable railroad accidents:

1.  August 29, 1877;  Rock Island Lines passenger train wrecks in Des Moines killing 20.
2.  March 21, 1910;  Train derailment in Marshall County kills 55.
3.  October 22, 1937;  Near Mason City, a Renwick school bus collides with a Rock Island Lines train, killing 10. 
4.  September 28, 1944;  Missouri Valley train wreck kills 9.

Was rail travel more dangerous than travel by plane?  Maybe not, but the accidents were just as tragic.

Source: Des Moines Register 7/25/1989 p. 5A

USDA Nutrition Database

Want to know how much water is in a bagel? What the lipid situation is? Does it have a lot of ash? I kid you not, ash. Then the USDA "National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference" is just the thing. It's easy to search, I just typed in 'bagel'. But I did get more hits with 'bagel' than I did with 'bagels'. Hmmm. The amount of info is staggering. I don't know what a kJ is other than some kind of energy measurement. But it's there when I need it. And of course it does not break out your brand name products, but you can choose the size of the food item which is handy. It even does lasagna, admittedly frozen. Even the USDA doesn't know what you put in your pasta dishes. Or do they?

USDA Nutrition Database When you want to know more than you want to know.

Racy Names

Race Horses, that is!  They have the best and oddest names.  War Admiral, Seabiscuit, Man o' War - they sound more like ships than steeds.  Then there's your Barbaro, your Dan Patch, your Funny Cide.  Whimsical names!  My favorites are the names that you'd never call your pet. The following are actual registered horse names,  brought to by the Jockey Club Registry

A Girl On Each Arm

D C Midnight Tango

Dinner At Jackies

Halo's Big Racquet

Umbrella Bag Nite

Jesse's Gone West

Maggie's Revenge

Now I know you want to read Race Horse Biographies!  To find more more more book lists from our Fabulous Readers Lists just click!

A Tip: How to Reach All of Us

How easy is it to speak with a live person when calling the Des Moines Public Library? Glad you asked! 283-4152 is the general number for all 6 libraries. None of the branches have direct lines, all the calls start at the Central Library. The folks at the Central Library try to answer your question, but you'll always be transferred to the branch when necessary. Here's the tip part: When you dial 283-4152 you get a recording. Said recording provides you with several options.  But if you need to speak to one of us humans, you don't have to listen to all that. As soon as the recording starts, press 3 and you'll be talking to an actual person.  No lie. We look forward to hearing from you!