February 28, 2017
The Neatest Little Paper Ever Read®
Issue 00307
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March 2 has been designated Dr. Seuss Day in honor of the birthday of one of the world’s most beloved children’s authors. • Dr. Seuss was born Theodor Seuss Geisel in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1904. Seuss, a name with Bavarian roots, was his mother’s maiden name and was pronounced “Zoice,” (rhyming with “rejoice”), not “Soose,” the Anglicized pronunciation. • As a senior at Dartmouth College, Ted Geisel was the editor of “Jack-O-Lantern,” the college’s humor magazine, a medium he used to publish his cartoons. Prohibition was in full swing in 1925, and when Geisel and nine of his friends were caught drinking gin in his room, all the young men were put on probation. Geisel lost his position as editor of the magazine, but continued to publish his cartoons under several aliases, including T. Seuss. • Geisel continued his education at Oxford University, studying English literature. Although he got close to earning a doctorate, he dropped out to travel around Europe. • Because his father had always wanted him to be a doctor, Giesel added the “Dr.” to his pen name. • Geisel returned to the United States to pursue a career as an illustrator and cartoonist for several notable publications, including Vanity Fair and Life. The Saturday Evening Post was the first to publish one of his cartoons in their July, 1927 issue. Geisel received $25 for the cartoon, which prompted him to make the move to New York City. • Geisel branched out into advertising campaigns, and created an extremely successful campaign for a popular insecticide called Flit. The slogan “Quick, Henry, the Flit!” became the trendy catchphrase of the day.
“We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.” – Dr. Seuss
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® The unusual creatures invented by Dr. Seuss include the TizzleTopped Grouse, the Stroodel, the Kwigger, the Long-Legged Kwong, the Grickily Gractus, and the Single-File Zummzian Zuks.
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“A person’s a person, no matter how small.” – Dr. Seuss, in Horton Hears a Who
• While Geisel and his wife were aboard a ship crossing the Atlantic in 1936, he passed the time by putting words to the rhythms of the ship’s engines. The result was Dr. Seuss’ first children’s book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. It was the story of a boy named Marco, who imagines a procession of fantasy creatures as he travels along Mulberry Street. Although all Marco really saw was an old horse pulling a wagon, he spins a tale of whizzleworps and cholmondelets. The real Mulberry Street is less than a mile from Geisel’s boyhood home in Springfield, Massachusetts. The book was rejected 27 times before fate finally stepped in. Geisel was walking down the street and bumped into a friend who had just landed a job as an editor in the children’s section at Vanguard Press. Geisel told the friend he had given up and planned to destroy the book. The friend asked to have a look, and Vanguard published the book in 1937, when Dr. Seuss was 33. • Dr. Seuss’ second book, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, was published in 1938, followed by The King’s Stilts in 1939 and Horton Hatches the Egg in 1940. When World War II broke out, Ted Geisel supported the effort by designing posters for the Treasury Department and War Production Board. He became an Army captain in 1943, overseeing the Animation Department of the First Motion Picture Unit, creating training films, one of which was awarded the 1947 Academy Award for Documentary Feature. • After the war, Geisel returned to advertising,
which was his main source of income, although he continued to publish children’s books, including If I Ran the Zoo in 1950 and Horton Hears a Who in 1954. His big breakthrough came in 1957 with The Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss’ 13th book. • During World War II, Dr. Seuss had worked with William Spaulding, who went on to become director of the education division at Houghton Mifflin publishers. Spaulding, concerned that children were not learning to read, approached Seuss, with a list of 348 words that he felt were important for firstgraders to know. Spaulding asked for a book
containing 250 of those words, and only those words, a book “children can’t put down.” Nine months later, Seuss presented him with The Cat in the Hat, using 236 words from the list. The book was an immediate success, selling nearly a million copies by the end of 1960. • How the Grinch Stole Christmas was also published in 1957, and in 1958, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back! Seuss’ success led him to found Beginner Books, a division of Random House, books designed to help children learn
The word “nerd” was actually invented by Dr. Seuss, and its first documented use was in the 1950 book, If I Ran the Zoo. A boy named Gerald McGrew proclaimed that, if he ran the zoo, he would bring in a creature known as a Nerd from the land of Ka-Troo.
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to read. • Fellow publisher Bennett Cerf bet Seuss that he could not write a book using 50 words or less. This challenge resulted in 1960’s Green Eggs and Ham, Seuss’ best-selling title and the fourth best-selling children’s book of all time. The text does in fact consist of just 50 different words. • Dr. Seuss wrote and illustrated 44 books, of which 40 are in rhyme. Twenty-two other books were illustrated by others, co-authored by Seuss, written under another name, or published after his death. Of the total of 66 books, only five are not written in rhyme. For the 10 books that Geisel wrote and others illustrated, he used the pen name Theo LeSieg, which is Geisel spelled backwards. These include Ten Apples Up on Top, I Wish That I Had Duck Feet, and The Tooth Book. •
1. Green Eggs and Ham is the 4th best-selling children’s book. What is #1? 2. Which Dr. Seuss book addressed the need to protect the environment? 3. What is the political meaning behind Dr. Seuss’ Yertle the Turtle? 4. Which university awarded Ted Geisel an honorary doctorate in 1956? 5. Who was asked in the 1972 Seuss book “Will You Please Go Now?”
Although Dr. Seuss married twice, he had no children of his own. He did have two stepdaughters with his second wife. When he was frequently asked how he could write so well for children, his reply was, “You have ‘em, I’ll entertain ‘em.” It’s ironic that he wrote his first children’s book in the same year that
his first wife learned that she could not have children. • Dr. Seuss’ books have sold more than 600 million copies and have been translated into 20 languages. • Of all the characters invented by Seuss, he said the one that was most based on himself was the Grinch. He once described himself as a “nasty anti-Christmas character,” and wrote the story to see if he “could rediscover something about Christmas” that he’d lost. • Dr. Seuss final book was Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, written in 1990, the year before he died. It has become a favorite gift for graduates with its wisdom, “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.”
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Ew, what’s that stench? If that beautiful flower smells disgusting, it just might be a corpse flower. Read along and discover the facts on this unusual plant. • Found in the humid rainforests of Sumatra, the corpse flower is the world’s largest flowering plant, reaching heights of 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.6 m), and blossoms up to 6 feet (1.83 m) wide, although the record-holding flower reached over 10 feet (3 m). It was first discovered in Sumatra in 1878 by an Italian botanist. Although it is cultivated at many arboretums worldwide, it grows wild in Asia’s tropical regions. • The corpse flower is an inflorescence, meaning that a cluster of flowers is arranged on one stem. A leafy sheath known as a spathe, and resembling a large petal, encloses the flower cluster. Irises and crocuses have the same construction. The corpse flower’s stem alone weighs about 110 lbs. (50 kg). • The large dark burgundy red flower of the corpse plant might lead you sample its scent. However, it emits a very strong displeasing odor similar to rotting meat or a decaying corpse beginning about 12 hours before it blooms. • It requires seven to ten years of growth before the corpse flower can bloom, and they usually bloom only once every few decades and remain open for just 24 to 48 hours. Because of this, nurseries and arboretums around the world schedule special events in conjunction with the blooming, gathering large crowds of visitors. • The bloom usually opens between midafternoon and late evening and remains open all night. After 12 hours, it already begins to wilt. The scent will linger another 12 hours afterwards. • So why does this unusual plant smell like rotting Willan flesh? ThChris e corpse flower has both male and female flowers, yet they are unable to pollinate. This meansHead theyGeek must attract pollinators in order to safeguard the continuation of the species. Carnivorous insects, such as dung
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beetles and flesh flies, feed on dead flesh. In order to draw these pollinators in, the flower is a dark burgundy color with a pungent odor that imitates a dead animal. The female flower opens first, then a day or two later, the male flower opens, thus preventing the flower from self-pollinating. • These flowers also have the unusual ability to warm up to 98 degrees F (36.7 C), which further boosts the odor and fools the insects into believing the flower is food. The spiked center part of the flower is covered with a large quantity of pollen. The bugs fly inside, then realize there is nothing to eat. They fly away, but their legs are covered with pollen that ensures pollination of the stinky plant. When the pollination is complete, the flower collapses. • What gives this rare flower its powerful stench? Several chemicals are released by the plant, including dimethyl trisulfide, the same chemical emitted by limburger cheese, and trimethylamine, also found in rotting fish and ammonia. The isovaleric acid found in the corpse flower is the same as that which causes sweaty socks to stink, as well as indole, a chemical that lends its aroma to human feces. Mixed in with these foulsmelling aromas is benzyl alcohol, a sweet floral scent that can be found in jasmine and hyacinth.
PANCAKES Happy Pancake Week! In conjunction with Shrove Tuesday, February 28, Tidbits is flipping over this breakfast food! • International Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday takes place 47 days before Easter Sunday. Due to the variation of Easter’s date based on the cycles of the moon, Pancake Day can occur anytime between February 3 and March 9. It falls one day before Ash Wednesday, which is the first day of Lent. Over 1,000 years ago, the tradition of eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday began. It was a way of eating up all
Maybe you can’t get Jack Nicklaus to personally come and help your business, but you can sponsor “Play Better Golf with JACK NICKLAUS” and have this popular feature in Tidbits working for you every week, all year long! Call Jean 250-260-3600 Jean@tidbitsvernon.com
Call Today (250) 832-3361 * Use coffee filters to separate snacks in a dish, or to separate plates in a stack, particularly ones with gold paint or a raised pattern. * “I did some spontaneous cleaning in my favorite black tank top. I ended up with a couple of small but noticeable bleach stains on the front. My mother broke out a black Sharpie and colored the spots in. They are completely unnoticeable now. Thank goodness for moms, right?” -- E.I. in South Carolina * “For pin holes in the wall, many people know the old renters trick to use white toothpaste to fill. Did you know that you also can use toothpaste to level slight dents? Apply toothpaste to the wall, filling the dent. Scrape a spatula or flat plastic card over the dent to remove any excess paste, leaving a flat spot. Wait for it to dry, and reapply if needed. This only works for small dents, like, say, the one left behind by a doorknob (oops!).” -- M.W. in Washington * To make your own freezer gel packs, simply mix one part rubbing alcohol to two parts water. Use a freezer-safe plastic bag, add the mixture and close, being careful to release all the air from the bag. Take that bag and put it in another freezer-safe bag, and seal (in case the first bag leaks). Freeze and enjoy. You could use it for a lunch bag, or slip inside a small sock to ice boo-boos. * It’s spring-cleaning and summer insulation time! Forty-four percent of home energy dollars are spent on heating and cooling costs. Check for leaks in windows, doors and the chimney. But don’t forget outlets, plumbing fixtures, power boxes and the attic. If you felt it over the winter, you’ll likely feel it in the heat of summer, too. Prepare now. Send your tips to Now Here’s a Tip, 628 Virginia Drive, Orlando, FL 32803. (c) 2017 King Features Synd., Inc.
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1. FOOD & DRINK: Which plant sometimes is known as “pieplant” because its edible stalks often are used in desserts? 2. LITERATURE: Which of Shakespeare’s plays features a character named Viola? 3. MOVIES: Which movie featured the theme song “You’ve Got a Friend In Me”? 4. U.S. PRESIDENTS: Who served as vice president of the U.S. for 82 days before becoming president? 5. GEOGRAPHY: What two countries are connected by the Khyber Pass? 6. MUSIC: What bridge did Billie Joe jump off in Bobbie Gentry’s song “Ode to Billie Joe”? 7. ANATOMY: Where would the parietal bones be found in the human body? 8. RELIGION: What is the second book of the Old
Testament? 9. GEOLOGY: What kind of natural stone is known as Carrara? 10. GENERAL KNOWLEDGE: What is the official language of Brazil?
leftover fatty, rich, perishable foods before the fasting period of the Lenten season began. The term “Mardi Gras” is French for “Fat Tuesday.” • The word “shrove” is the past tense of “shrive,” which translates “absolve” or “confess.” Therefore, many Christians use the day as a day of self-examination, reflecting on any wrongs from which they need to repent. • Pancakes have been around for thousands of
years, with the earliest known made from ground grains and nuts, mixed with water or milk and cooked on hot stones. The first pancake recipe similar to what we know today appeared in an English cookbook in the 15th century. Citizens of Buckinghamshire, England were the first to celebrate Pancake Day in 1445. • According to French legend, if you hold a coin in one hand while flipping a pancake with other one, you can make a wish come true. • Although pancake batter is frequently made with milk (along with flour, sugar, butter, and eggs), those pancakes made with buttermilk are softer and fluffier. Before we had baking soda, cooks used fresh snow because it contained ammonia, which made the cakes fluffier. • How about some record holders in the pancake department? The world’s largest pancake to date was made in Manchester, England, in 1994. It measured 49 ft., 3 in. (15.01 m) in diameter and was 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick. Calorie count for the massive cake was estimated at 2 million. The fastest pancake flipper is an Australian chef, who flipped 140 in 60 seconds in 2012. The highest pancake flip occurred in Cheektowaga, New York, in 2010 when the cake’s flip was measured at 31 ft., 1 in. (9.47) meters. The longest continuing pancake flipping in a frying pan occurred in Niagara Falls in 1999, when Mike Cuzzacrea flipped cakes non-stop for 3 hours, 2 minutes, and 27 seconds. And the record for the most pancakes made in one hour by an individual was set in Washington state in 2013, when a restaurant made 1,092 pancakes in 60 minutes. • The earliest written record of the use of the expression “as flat as a pancake” is from 1611 according to the Oxford English Dictionary. • Aunt Jemima pancake flour was the first readymix food available on the grocer’s shelves. It
“This is not good. This is not right. My feet stick out of bed all night. And when I pull them in, oh dear! My head sticks out of bed out here!” — Dr. Seuss
Answers 1. Rhubarb 2. “Twelfth Night” 3. “Toy Story” 4. Harry Truman 5. Afghanistan and Pakistan 6. The Tallahatchie bridge 7. The skull 8. Exodus 9. Marble 10. Portuguese (c) 2017 King Features Synd., Inc.
1. What did Dr. Seuss’ license plate read? 2. Which book featured an adoptive father looking after Mayzie’s egg?
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How to Bathe a Cat in 6 Fun-Filled Steps DEAR PAW’S CORNER: My 3-year-old cat “Zuzu” loves to go outside and roll around in everything. She comes back in covered with burrs, or mud, or whatever funk she happens upon. I’m not sure why she does this -- isn’t that something dogs are known for? Thankfully, she rarely has fleas, since I give her a monthly flea treatment. But she hates baths. How can I keep Zuzu clean? -- Wit’s End in St. Paul, Minnesota DEAR WIT’S END: Before we get into the science of cat bathing, I have to ask: Has Zuzu been spayed? If not, that could be playing a role in her, um, adventurousness. Otherwise, try to limit her exploration to the yard if possible. Now, to the dreaded cat bath. This is rarely fun for cats or owners. Fortunately, most cats rarely need a bath; too-frequent baths can dry their skin, which can lead to bigger problems. Here’s how: 1) Use a sink or a large container, rather than a bathtub. Fill it with just a couple of inches of lukewarm to cool water. 2) Place a harness and leash on the cat if controlling her will be a problem. Then carry the cat to the sink, giving it lots of praise. 3) Carefully wet the cat up to its neck and add a small amount of perfume-free pet shampoo. Use a damp cloth to wipe its head and neck. 4) Dry the cat with a clean towel, give it a treat, and remove the leash and harness. 5) Let the cat be mad at you for a while. 6) Clean and bandage the scratches on your hands and arms. Send your questions, comments or tips to ask@pawscorner.com. (c) 2017 King Features Synd., Inc.
Asian Beef and Noodles Too cold to go out for Chinese? Try this recipe and stay in for the evening. 8 ounces extra-lean ground sirloin beef or turkey breast 1/2 cup thinly sliced green onion 1 1/2 cups water 1 (3-ounce) package Oriental flavor instant Ramen noodles 2 cups frozen Oriental stir-fry vegetable mixture, thawed 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger 1. In a large skillet sprayed with butter-flavored cooking spray, brown meat and 1/4 cup onions. Stir in water, Ramen noodles and seasoning packet. Add vegetable mixture and ginger. Mix well to combine. 2. Lower heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. When serving, top each with 1 tablespoon green onion. Makes 4 (1 cup) servings. HINT: Thaw stir-fry vegetable mixture by placing in a colander and rinsing under hot water for one minute. * Each serving equals: 183 calories, 3g fat, 17g protein, 22g carb., 527mg sodium, 65mg calcium, 3g fiber; Diabetic Exchanges: 1 1/2 Meat, 1 Starch, 1 Vegetable; Carb Choices: 1 1/2. (c) 2017 King Features Synd., Inc.
was invented in Missouri and made its debut in 1889. • The first International House of Pancakes, or IHOP as we call them, opened in Toluca Lake, California in 1958. Today there are more than 1600 locations. • What do you call your pancakes? Hotcakes, griddlecakes, flapjacks? The French call them “panne-quaiques” (what we know as crepes), while the Dutch say “pannenkoekento,” and the Austrians, “Palatschinken.”
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by Samantha Weaver * It was beloved 20th-century English novelist, journalist and critic Eric Arthur Blair -- better known as George Orwell -- who made the following sage observation: “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed; everything else is public relations.” * In August of last year, Charles City, Iowa, saw an over-the-top display of irony when a local bar named DeRailed was struck by -- you guessed it -a derailed train car. * Thanks to Peter Jackson’s films, you’re probably familiar with J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” series, even if you haven’t read the books. There’s been quite a lot of scholarship about the novels. Most of the research focuses on literary analysis and historical analogies, and understandably so; a work of fantasy doesn’t seem to lend itself to scientific analysis. However, the Journal of Interdisciplinary Science Topics recently published an article titled, “Simply Walking into Mordor: How Much Lembas Would the Fellowship Have Needed?” In it, Skye Rosetti and Krisho Manaharan make public their calculations of the caloric intake that would have been necessary for the Fellowship to walk 92 days to Mordor: precisely 1,780,214.59. * A survey from retailer Long Tall Sally found that 40 percent of American women own shoes that they know they can’t walk in, but wear them anyway. The average woman claims she can last two hours in painful shoes. * You probably know that “fuzz” has been a common slang term for police, but did you ever wonder why? It began in the United Kingdom, where police officers in London sometimes wore fuzzy hats. Thought for the Day: “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.” -- William J. Clinton. (c) 2017 King Features Synd., Inc.
Build a Shaklee business online while keeping your present job, using your computer and phone. Go to www.naturalfreedom.net to learn more.
There may still be some snow on the ground, but spring has sprung in the V.J.H. gift shop (just inside the south entrance to the Jubilee Building.) Be sure and check us out----We’ve got Spring purses, clothing, and scarves. We have new musical stuffies, Endless glass knots, Wishing thread crystals, Giving plates, and Acrylic ornaments. Remember when you patronize us you are helping YOUR hospital.
SPECIALITY SHARPENING
All your sharpening needs, BOOK WAREHOUSE and for your #35, Alpine Centre, 100 convenience, Kal Lake Road drop off and pickup at OPEN on WEDNESDAYS Vernon’s Water Store. and SATURDAYS 180, 4400 - 32 St 9 AM TO 1 PM (250)308-4866
Royal Albert MARGUERT Tea Set. 6 cups and saucers, cream and sugar, teapot, 6 pie plates and one large serving tray. $300 (250) 542-5698 ( Vernon)
Quality used books & more, most priced $1 or less Supporting Special Olympics, Vernon & other local charities Phone 250-275-2676 f or more info VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Lumby & District Community Showcase 2017 Join us on April 29th inside the Pat Duke Memorial Arena. If you and/or your business would like to take part, contact the Chamber! More information coming soon.
Armstrong-Spallumcheen Chamber Week Events ParticipACTION 150 Playlist! Celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday. Get active with these fun activities! Go to armstrong100 fb page for details. • Save the Date: April 12 Provincial All Candidates Meeting – Armstrong Seniors Activity Centre RSVP or questions? 250-546-8155 or staff@aschamber.com
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1. GRINCH 2. Horton Hatches the Egg 1. The Poky Little Puppy by Janette Lowrey 2. The Lorax (1971) 3. The evil of dictatorships 4. Dartmouth 5. Marvin K. Mooney
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