Sounds Like Something You'd Put in Your Lawnmower

The 80-35 Music Festival, that is.  This delightful, boisterous, decibel-producing event takes place right by the Central Library and as a result said library will be closed this Saturday.  Four other library locations will be open their regular hours, 10-5.  So you have many many options for filling your library needs.  Just speculating, but there's a good chance you would not have been able to find a parking place downtown anyway.  Plenty of free parking at the East Side, Forest, Franklin, and South Side libraries!  (All locations will be closed Monday in observance of the July 4th holiday.)

Walnuts

I hate walnuts.  Peanuts are delicious, almonds are pleasant, most other nuts are inoffensive.  There I am, reading a horrible serial killer mystery and savoring a luscious brownie when Bleah!  Once I hit that walnut I can't taste anything else.  Remember the other day when I wanted a panacea?  OK, you don't, but anyway.  It appears that the vile walnut is in the running as a sort of cure-all.  Some of the potential positive effects of walnut chewing - still in testing:
     Lower your risk of breast cancer.

     Lower your risk of heart disease by diminishing the 'ratio of cholesterol to HDL ("goood") cholesterol'. 

     Get a brain boost
I still don't think I'll be choking down a handful of walnuts any time soon.  More for you! 

Sources:   

Saturday Evening Post; Nov/Dec2006, Vol. 278 Issue 6, p68-70

Tufts University Health and Nutrition Letter; 7/09, Vol. 27 Issue 5, p6
As accessed through EBSCOhost;  DMPL library card required for access.

Speeding? Really?

According to the Moines Tribune 4/4/1979 p. 8B, the first speeding ticket was issued in 1902.  Ford and their affordable assembly-line cars weren't even available yet.  According to AAA there were approximately 23000 cars wandering around the U. S. at this time. So it's not like they were a big problem.  Want to know how fast the speed-demon was going?  Mr. T. H. Shevlin of Minneapolis was tearing along at over 10 miles per hour.  He could have hit a cow.  Cows are really slow.  Who knows if T. H. could find the brakes in time.

Anyone Need Help Applying for a Job Online?

They make it hard to get a job if you don't have computer skills.  Many employers will only accept online applications, and then you have to have an email address so they can contact you. Not easy for computing newbies. The Forest Avenue Library and the Central Library are working with ISED (Iowans for Social and Economic Development) to provide assistance. Through Opportunity is Knocking you'll get help using the computer for job searching and applying for jobs. It's all free!  And for those of you reading this, feel free to pass this along to your acquaintances whose computer skills are not quite up to your level.  You thought I was an idiot, didn't you?  "If I can find this blog, I already know how to use a computer.  Duh."  Don't think I can't hear you.

The programs are offered:

At Forest Avenue Library, Tuesdays and Thursdays 1 PM

At Central Library, Mondays and Fridays, 1 PM

List of sessions on the DMPL Events/News Calendar

Color Me Sleepy

Color Psychology: the supposition that the color you choose to paint your room may have a profound effect on your mood. If you wish to feel:

Dynamic - Jewel Tones!  Forget the coffee because you won't be able to sleep anyway!

Nurturing  - Aahh, pastels. When you need to run screaming from your dynamic room you can cuddle up in your baby blanket colors.

Whimsical  - Bright but toned down from the jeweled hues. The energy is more lighthearted.  Your playtime room!

Tranquil  - Gentle blues, gentle greens, water tones.  Pretty much you walk in this room keel over and fall asleep.  I'd put the mattress just inside the door.

Wasn't this fun?  Especially since I exaggerated everything!  For something resembling actual facts, take a look at this article:

the colors of life. 

Positive Thinking, Mar/Apr2008, p38-45, 8p,

as accessed through EBSCOHost

I Want a Panacea and I Want It Now!

A real one. That works.  Panaceas! Cure-alls, snake oil, patent medicines, the stuff of quackery.  Here are a few of the nostrums from the 1887 Sears and Roebuck Catalogue, found under the heading Patent and proprietary medicine:   

Hoble's Sprague Kidney Pills
Jayne's Tonic Vermifuge
Piso's Consumption Cure
Schenck's Mandrake Pills
Fellow's Hypophoshites
Hire's Root Beer!!!! At least this one probably didn't do any harm.
Aren't mandrakes the screaming roots in Harry Potter?  Vermifuge!  It is to shudder.  I'm so rattled I have to go take some scullcup now.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.

The 1902 edition of the Sears, Roebuck catalogue

Your Brain - One Simple Secret To Losing the Flab?

You can use brain exercises to keep yourself sharp while you and it inevitably age.  One book with 'brain teasers' is Visual IQ Tests.  Know how I figured out this book is British?  I open it up and the first question I see is "Which bottle is not proper?"  Ummm - the one eating spaghetti with its fingers?  By the way, I picked the wrong bottle.  And I think that test was an easy one.  Now scientists are saying brain exercises delay the onset of dementia, but once dementia hits it gets worse faster in patients who did brain exercises.  However the amount of time spent in this declined state is shorter than it is for brain non-exercisers.  If you keep up with your crosswords and Sudoku and brain push-ups, you may still get dementia and it may get worse faster but it won't last as long.  Definitely still worthwhile, just not quite what we'd hoped.

Source:  Active minds delay dementia, at first. USA Today 9/2/2010
as accessed through EBSCOHost

Brain Exercise Resources

Tornado Tragedies

Oh, those heart-breaking photos from Joplin.  The devastation of  what they hold dear - as we all know, it's not just a house - is hard to comprehend.  Of course much worse is the loss of life.  153 folks have died in Joplin Missouri as a result of this tornado.  I don't remember Iowa having twisters causing harm on a level anywhere near Joplin's.  You have to go back over a century.

On June 30, 1860 a tornado ripped through 6 Iowa counties. Hardin, Linn, Marshall, Cedar, Jones and Clinton counties were hard hit. 125 people were killed by this 'Camanche' tornado. The storm was named for the town of Camanche which was leveled by its ferocity.

On July 6, 1893, 71 citizens died when a tornado nearly wiped out the small town of Pomeroy.  As a poignant memorial, the people of Pomeroy have posted online the names of the victims of that storm. 

People Killed in the Pomeroy Cyclone on July 6, 1893
Des Moines Register 07/25/1989 p5A

If you want it ...

You know how you can call us to request that we purchase an item not yet in our collection?  Sure you do.  Now you, the dedicated reader and library user, can make requests online!  Even at 3 in the morning when your jammies can't sleep.  Just go to our online catalog, and at the top one of your options is Suggest a Title.  Click on this and you are in our Patron Suggestion Form, the patron being you.  The form is a long one and we do need all that information.  There are 10 spots on the form with little orange asterisks next to them and all those spots must be filled in.  It's so cool that you put in the link to the book/movie/cd/what-have-you because then we're sure we are getting the one you want.  A few tips.  It's less likely that we will buy a book more than a couple years old unless it's replacing a classic.  Barnes and Noble lists all kinds of books that are available in Nook form only, so beware these if you want a print book.  All the online bookstores list out-of-print items, so if it says 'not available' that's one to avoid.  To prevent the electronic burial of your friendly library employees we are setting a limit of 10 requests per month.  Have fun, Library Nation!