Railroaded

At one time Iowa was crawling with railroad depots.  You couldn't throw a cow catcher without hitting one even in the small, I mean small, towns.  From the amazing Iowa Heritage Digital Collections, Exhibit A here is a photo of a depot in Livermore, Iowa.  Population not so big.  It says MSTL under the picture and that stands for Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad.  I didn't even know that railroad ever existed! Not one of your top ten carriers, but hey, it stopped in Livermore.  Here's a fun book for you on the topic:  Regional railroads of the Midwest.  The pictures are in color!  Go nuts!

DDD

So will today's 3-D movies be a short-term phenomenon like they were in the 50's?  How could those mid-century marvels have faded away when such cheesy productions as Bwana Devil, Cat Women of the Moon,  Robot Monster and  Gog dominated the field?  The Gog! Plus there were classy 3-D's as well.  Hondo which was a John Wayne Western! Dial M For Murder! Kiss Me Kate! I had no idea! There were tons of theaters where you could watch them - at one time over 5,000 American cinemas showed 3-D movies. 3-D films went away after the 1950's, with the exception of a few doozies like Jaws 3-D.  But they never pulled in the kind of money 3-D movies do today.  Prepare yourself for a Jane Austen 3-D renaissance.  Yikes.  P.S. The library owns only 2-D format.  So far....

Graphic source:  ERBzine

Is it Here Yet? Baseball Season

Yep, soon the fierce strains of "Take me out to the ball game" will be electrifying the masses.  You'll be seeing the odd baseball posting on this very blog. Today's amazement: it's Cy Young's birthday!   On This Day in 1867 Denton True "Cy" Young popped into the world.  Can't imagine why he didn't keep 'Denton' as his nom de life.   Oh, wait - he acquired the nickname 'Cyclone' in 1890 when he joined a minor league team in Canton Ohio. As of 2005 "Young left behind an unmatched record of 509 wins and 316 losses as a major league pitcher."  Now all strong-armed men hope to earn the Cy Young Award which has been presented from 1956 to the present.  That Cy nickname sure stuck.

Biography Resource Center

Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition via EBSCOHost

My Top Picks for 2009 - TV

Fringe: Weird but not completely inscrutable. And riiiight up until the latest episode when Olivia broke down into "I'm frightened Auntie Em mode", one of the best female leads on TV.  Best mad scientist ever.
House: Relationships are all well and good, but medical mysteries are the real draw for me! I just don't want them to get too repetitive. I think we've had an-exotic-bug-passed-on-by-an-act-of-infidelity twice so far.
Medium: Love the family - I think it's the most realistic one on television. How odd is that?  Plus they get a billion bonus points for starring an actress who has gained weight and it's a complete non-issue.
Supernatural:  OK, Sam mopes too much but Dean is willing to make a complete fool of himself (pudding!) and I love monsters.
Aren't you relieved now?  All this time you've been wondering what I thought.  Happy watching!

Fringe. The complete first season
House M.D. Season one
Medium. The complete first season
Supernatural. The complete first season

Phoning it In

For years and years and years, in the olden days when you picked up the phone to call someone an actual person said "Number please".  Is that a hoot?  But it all came to an end for Des Moines in July of 1929.  Northwest Bell made the big switch early on Sunday July 28th and it apparently involved a cast of thousands!  One and one-half years in the making!  The unheard-of budget reaching $4,000,000!  Thenceforth when one picked up the phone in Des Moines, one heard a dial tone.  Welcome to the world of automated services.  The future was then.

Source: Des Moines Tribune, 7/28/1929 p. 1-2
Available on microfilm at the Central Library, 1000 Grand Ave.
Graphic Source:  Old Picture of the Day

Be the Boss of You

Are you interested in starting your own home-based business?  I know there's nothing like being your own boss!  Think of all the authority you'd have over you.  Sheer power! The East Side Library has added a nifty set of books to their collection, just for you.  They're targeted to specific businesses and will be more helpful than a general guide. 
How to start a home-based handyman business /
How to start a home-based housecleaning business /
How to start a home-based interior design business.
How to start a home-based jewelry making business /
How to start a home-based senior care business /

Book Sale at the East Side Library

Yay!  It's time for the Friends of the East Side Library's much-anticipated annual book sale.  It runs through Saturday March 27 and you can buy:  books, DVD's, videos, magazines, records! What are "records"?   Actually they're becoming collector's items rather than functioning as musical recordings. If you pick up some records at the sale you can check their value with this nifty item: Records & prices / edited by Peter Lindblad.  Now run along and have fun shopping for incredible, colossal  deals!

Friday Fun - Words Words and did I mention Words?

Remember Reader's Digest's 'Increase Your Vocabulary' feature?  Old much?  For all I know they still have it, but this is a more entertaining method of increasing your vocabulary.  "Why would I want to learn new words?" I hear you ask.  It's a game.  It's fun. As a bonus, when you get words right the folks who run the site will donate a certain number of grains of rice to the World Food Programme.  There, you've learned something already.  Program can be spelled with two m's.  If you're British. Maybe if you're lucky you'll play on a day when 'spline' is one of the words!  Spline!  Where else do you get that kind of quality edification?
FREE Rice

Late Late Craig

But he's still alive!  Remember when Craig Ferguson got the job as host of the Late Late Show?  We were all like, what's up with the guy from Drew Carey ? Where'd he come from? Turns out he came from interesting places.  He was born and raised on the mean streets of Glasgow, Scotland and they were really mean.  Gangs and lots of fighting and Ferguson in the thick of it.   Then there's the usual addiction and alcoholism, relationships ruined by the aforementioned; next the cleaning up and the finding true love as a reformed older guy.  The man fairly twinkles now.  Ferguson is very funny and candid which makes for a peppy biography.  You gotta love the cover!

American on purpose : the improbable adventures of an unlikely patriot / Craig Ferguson.