Replay - Who is Sanborn and Why do we have his Maps?

As far back as 1867 the Sanborn Map Company employees were busily dashing through municipalities large and small, scribbling out the street names, building use, construction details, property boundaries, house and block numbers, street and sidewalk widths and more!!!!  I checked my home town in 1909 and found out that the garage at 700 Lake Avenue had 75 gallons of 'gasolene' on hand. Whew! These people were bus-y. And it was all for the insurance companies. "The maps allowed underwriters to more accurately access the risks of a business, even if they were unable to inspect the property in person".* They are so cool. We bought the Iowa maps and you can go back in time to a small town and find out where the horse stables were. For example, in 1885 Algona Iowa had a Roller Skating Rink at 559 State Street. So everything was up to date in Algona. Candy for historians and genealogists.

*Source: A Brief History of the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps and the Sanborn Map Company

Digital Sanborn Maps of Iowa (use outside the library) You will need your Des Moines Public Library card and PIN to access this from outside our libraries.

Open Today and Cyberish

The earliest reference I can find to 'Cyber Monday' is from 2005.  You know, the Monday after Thanksgiving when online sales explode!  Cyborg Monday would be cooler but we're low on the 'borgs right now. Beaucoup shoppers purchase online, more every year!  "Number of Americans who shopped on Cyber Monday neared 100 Million"- a headline from the Hudson Valley Business Journal, 12/7/2009, pages 23-24.  An online plus:  you know what the mall is like after Thanksgiving.  Minus:  you have to pay shipping.  A problem with both traditional and online commerce:  shoppers' brain fog.  You see something that is so close to what you want that you know your heart's desire is out there and you just keep looking and looking ... will I ever find the perfect boots?  We should do what my friend does when she 'shops in her closet'.  But I know there aren't any boots in there.
If you feel the fog settling in already, check out:
Overcoming Overspending

Source:  Christian Science Monitor, 12/7/2005, p18
as accessed through EbscoHost

Closed Today and Bela Lugosi

I don't know when 'Black Friday' first came to mean the Friday after Thanksgiving.   Until that happened Black Friday meant only one thing to me - a scary movie!!!!  Scary if you're like, 10, anyway. In the 1960's.  Black Friday is part of our Bela Lugosi collection and features a fabulous cast:  Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Anne Nagel, (of Man Made Monster fame) and Anne Gwynne, from House of Frankenstein.  In Black Friday a partial brain transplant changes the patient's personality!  Classic! Not as good as a possessed transplanted hand perhaps, but it has its charms. If you want to take your mind off shopping there's nothing like an old horror movie.  It may not be the best way to take your mind off shopping, but there's nothing like it.
Old Horror Movies
All six locations of the Des Moines Public Library are closed today.

Closed Today and Gratitude

Thanksgiving.  It literally doesn't sound like being grateful, it sounds like turkey.  So I need to wake up and smell the happy. Gratitude as an emotional concept has been getting some attention in the last few years.  We have two, not one, but two books that claim to examine the science of gratitude.  Could be these books owe their existence to the publication of  Simple abundance : a daybook of comfort and joy, Sarah Ban Breathnach's  juggernaut of gladness.  Not that that's a bad thing.

Books all about the art of  Appreciation
All six locations of the Des Moines Public Library are closed today and tomorrow for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Holiday Closures Coming and Yum?

All six locations of the Des Moines Public Library will be closed Thursday and Friday for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Thanksgiving fact du jour:  One of the foods feasted upon at the first Thanksgiving was...eel.  I should not disparage this time-honored dish as I have never eaten eel, but it is difficult to eat something you can't bring yourself to look at. Or think about too much.  But don't let me stop you!

Here is a festive eel recipe from Executive Chef Brad Farmerie of The Monday Room in New York City.

Glazed eel with pickled bean sprouts
First rustle up some eel and pickled bean sprouts. 
Slice the fresh-water eel,  fun! and coat the pieces with a mix of soy sauce, palm sugar, star anise, cinnamon and sancho pepper. Brown them under a salamander.  Gotta be a cooking term but wasn't the eel enough?  Let the eel cool and mix it with the pickled sprouts, chopped chives, cilantro and 'chiffonade of Thai basil'.  That last bit sounds yummy.  If chiffonade means what I think it does, light and fluffy. Toss with a dressing of lime juice, lime zest and chile. Put the whole shebang into a spoon and top with half a soft-boiled quail egg. Finish with a sprinkle of Maldon salt.  I imagine you could make some ingredient substitutes, but one of the cool things about Des Moines is it's so diverse you can probably find all this stuff.

Source:  Instructor, Nov/Dec2000, p78, 2/3p
Nation's Restaurant News, 5/5/2008, p52-52
as accessed through EbscoHost

Railroads Spiked

I'm not surprised that items like railroad lanterns are collectible; they are attractive and come in many styles and colors.  Just like scarves!  But the spikes are collectible too.  There may not be a wide variety of colors, but there are different 'styles'.  Railroad nails were marked with the last two numbers of the year they were hammered in.  The numbers 08, for 1908, could appear indented or raised on the head on the nail.  When old spikes were replaced the new ones had the new year stamped on them. (Old spikes. Hard not to think of deodorant.) The heads are different shaped depending on the railroad - square, round or pentagonal or round.  The shank, or non-head part of the spike, varies in lengths and may be round or square.  See how many kinds of railroad nails you could collect!  And you could even tell them apart!  If you try really hard.

Source:  Des Moines Register 12/29/1970 p. 9

Back it up, Casey Jones

I did not realize that in the heydey of passenger trains some of the trains backed into the station.  I know they are on rails and really have nowhere else to go but the thought of it makes me nervous.  Not Peg Hansen. In 1981 she said that as a child she used to board the Santa Fe - a two car train at that point - in Atchison and when arriving in Topeka, said train would back its little self right  into the station. Across a bridge.  Not making me feel safer.  At one time Des Moines was a site for backward-train-running. Today Amtrak does this in some cities.  Everything old is new again.
Source: Des Moines Tribune 1/27/1981 p. 3
Photo courtesy Gerry Rowland

Lou Grant Hated It

Spunk.  Frankly it sounds like something that smells bad.  How did it come to mean courage, spirit, guts?  OK, guts wouldn't smell like roses either.  Anyway, the origin of Mary's Richardson's finest, if least appreciated, quality:  spunk started out meaning tinder or kindling.  Then 'spunking up a fire' meant stirring it up, making it hotter.  From here came the concept of getting fired up with courage. In 1885 a cowboy wrote that he 'finally spunked up' when he needed to draw his gun.  We now apply spunky as kind of a diminutive of brave for kids, and in the 1970's, women.  You don't hear people call Dr. Maya Angelou spunky.  That woman is brave.

I hear America talking  p 182-183

You're Kidding - it's Really a Gun?

How many nicknames do you know for firearms?  Beyond 'Saturday Night Special' I got nothing.  Here's a story for you.  It all started with Christian Sharp, who patented a .50 caliber hunting rifle in 1848.  (Nope, his name has nothing to do with the phrase 'sharp-shooter').  Enter Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, (1813-1877) an abolitionist and not your Ghandhi type of activist.  He stated outright that, in fighting slavery, Kansans wielding rifles would be more effective than those wielding arguments from the Bible. He was not fooling around. The Reverend used the money he raised to buy Bibles ... to send rifles to Kansas. Hence the term "Beecher's Bibles", occasionally used to refer to Sharps' rifles. You've been desperate to know, right?  Glad I could clear that up for you.

I Hear America Talking p. 92