Tommy Contest Page 5
of the River Region
June 12, 2018 Published by PTK Corp.
The Neatest Little Paper Ever Read® To place an Ad, call: (334) 202-7285 TIDBITS® SALUTES SOME
HEROES by Kathy Wolfe Join Tidbits this week in a salute to heroes, both past and present. • The distinction of being the nation’s youngest living soldier to receive the highest military honor, the Medal of Honor, belongs to former Marine William Kyle Carpenter. The medal was awarded for his bravery during a 2010 tour in Afghanistan. Then 21 years old, Carpenter shielded a fellow Marine from a hand grenade lobbed at their location, saving the Marine’s life. Carpenter’s right arm was broken in more than 30 places, his jaw was shattered, he received shrapnel to his head, and he lost his right eye. After spending 2 ½ years in the hospital where his face was reconstructed, Carpenter was released, and enrolled in the University of South Carolina, graduating in 2017. He has also become a marathon runner. • During World War II, Polish resistance member Witold Pilecki deliberately got himself arrested by the Nazis. His purpose was to provide intelligence from within the concentration camp Auschwitz to the Polish Army and the Western Allies. During his 2 ½ years inside the death camp, Pilecki sent information of the atrocities inside the camp, trying to convince the Allies that five million people had been exterminated. He managed to escape from Auschwitz in 1943. • Born into slavery in Maryland, Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross) worked as a field hand and endured numerous beatings. After a daring escape, this AfricanAmerican abolitionist returned to the South 19 times to lead dozens of slaves to freedom through the network of safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. Despite the reward on her head, which swelled to $40,000, she managed to dodge bounty hunters, never losing a single person. In addition to her U.R. activities, she also operated as a Civil War scout and a spy. Because she was paid just $200 over a three-year period, Harriet supported herself by selling baked goods and homemade root beer. Following the war, she opened the Home for Indigent and Aged Negroes in New York, funded by (Continued next page)
Vol 7 Issue 24 paul@riverregiontidbits.com
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Tidbits® of the River Region (Front page continued)
1) Is the book of Lot in the Old or New Testament or neither? 2) From Judges 3, who was the left-handed Benjamite who killed Eglon? Geshem, Agag, Ehud, Joram 3) How many beasts rising out of the sea did Daniel have a dream about? 4, 7, 13, 20 4) What king wanted to see miracles when the arrested Jesus was before him? Pilate, Shishak, Herod, Solomon 5) From Judges 1:6, what king had his thumbs and toes cut off? David, Adoni-Bezek, Josiah, Herod 6) Whose biblical name means “messenger”? Aaron, Moses, Samuel, Malachi Comments? More Trivia? Visit www.TriviaGuy.com (c) 2018 King Features Synd., Inc.
By Chris Richcreek 1. In 2016, the Dodgers’ Julio Urias became the youngest postseason starting pitcher (20 years, 68 days old) in major-league history. Who had been the youngest one? 2. David Cone, Pedro Martinez and David Wells all tossed a perfect nine innings in a major-league game. Who of the three had the most career regular-season victories? 3. Donnel Pumphrey of San Diego State set a new record in 2016 for most career rushing yards (6,405 yards). Whose record did he break? 4. Who was the first athlete from the Dominican Republic to play in the NBA? 5. The Vegas Knights set a record in 2017-18 for most regular-season road wins by an NHL expansion team (22). Which team had held the mark? 6. Which Major League Soccer teams have won back-toback MLS Cup championships? 7. In 2018, Germany’s Kristina Vogel won her 11th women’s world cycling title. Who else has won 11 times? (c) 2018 King Features Syndicate, Inc.
giving speeches and selling copies of her biography. • Thomas Burnett, Mark Bingham, Todd Beamer, and Jeremy Glick all boarded United Airlines Flight 93 in Newark, New Jersey, on September 11, 2001 for different reasons. Burnett learned of the destruction of New York City’s Twin Towers via a cell phone call from his wife, and upon realizing that their own plane was controlled by terrorists, whose plan was to use the plane as a missile to destroy government buildings in Washington, D.C., the four men devised a plan to take the plane back from the hijackers. Jeremy Glick’s last words to his wife from the plane were, “We’re going to rush the hijackers.” Todd Beamer was the passenger who spoke the now-famous words, “Are you guys ready? Let’s roll!” Thanks to the heroic actions of the men storming the cockpit, the plane failed to reach Washington, D.C. However, the plane crashed into a field in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania, about 150 miles (240 km) northwest of the hijackers’ target, killing all 40 passengers and crew members. • More than 1,200 Jews and their 7,000 descendants owe their lives to a German industrialist named Oskar Schindler. Schindler was able to protect Jews during World War II by employing them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories in Poland and the Czech Republic. He gave large bribes and gifts to Nazi officials to prevent the Jews’ execution in Nazi concentration camps, and by the end of the war, he was bankrupt, having spent his entire sizeable fortune on bribes and supplies for his workers. After failing at several business ventures, he survived on donations from the “Schindlerjuden” (Schindler’s Jews), those he had saved, from all around the world. He died penniless in 1974. • Dale Beatty set out in his Humvee for a day of patrol across northern Iraq in 2004. His life was forever changed when the vehicle hit a land mine, sending the Humvee 50 feet (15.2 m) into the air. When Beatty woke up, his legs were pinned beneath the wreckage, an injury that necessitated amputation of both legs below the knee. After a year of recovery at Washington’s Walter Reed Hospital, Beatty hoped to build a handicapped-accessible home for his wife and two sons. His fellow church members, along with a fellow Iraq vet, John Gallina, helped him build the house on donated land. In 2008, the two vets founded Purple Heart Homes, a non-profit that helps provide homes for other disabled vets. Beatty and Gallina provide free renovations for the disabled, using donated labor and materials. The basis for the organization’s helping dozens of vets is Beatty’s statement, “We wouldn’t leave someone behind on the battlefield. Why would we do it at home?” • Mohandas Gandhi was renowned for his heroic methods of nonviolence in India’s fight for independence from British rule. A former lawyer, Gandhi organized India’s common population of peasants, farmers, and laborers to protest Britain’s excessive land taxes and discrimination, while advocating nonviolent civil disobedience, or “passive non-cooperation,” in the quest for civil rights. His approach involved “refusing to use brute force against the oppressor” and “seeking to eliminate antagonisms between the oppressor and the oppressed.” For all of his peacemaking efforts, Gandhi was named “Man of the Year” by Time magazine in 1930. When the magazine selected its “Person of the Century” at the end of 1999, Gandhi was the runner-up to Albert Einstein. • Colonial silversmith and engraver Paul Revere is famous for his midnight ride that warned fellow colonists of the approaching British armies in 1775. Having already established an intelligence network that spied on the British military, Revere received word that the King’s troops were on their way to capture Patriot leaders and seize supplies. Revere’s system of lanterns placed in the steeple of Boston’s North Church – “one if by land, two if by sea” – signaled the militia of the landing. Although legend has it that Revere shouted, “The British are coming!” eyewitnesses say his actual words were, “The Regulars are coming out.” • Born in Macedonia in 1910, Anjeze Bonxhe Bojaxhiu devoted her life to helping the sick and poor in India. After taking her vows as a nun, Anjeze traveled to India to become a teacher. After 17 years of teaching, she stepped away from that calling after seeing the slums of Calcutta, where she established a hospice, a center for the blind, aged, and disabled, and a haven for lepers. Known as Mother Teresa, this selfless woman received the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize for her aid to what she called “the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for.”
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by Samantha Weaver * It was computer guru Jef Raskin who made the following sage observation: “Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining.” * The Secret Service is well-known today as the protector of the U.S. president, so you might be surprised to learn that it was originally established to fight counterfeit currency. * The world record for the most published works by a single author is held by L. Ron Hubbard (who also, incidentally, founded the Church of Scientology). His first work was published in February 1934, and his final work -- number 1,084 -- was published in March 2006. * Doubtless you’ve heard of the Taj Mahal in India, but did you know that there is a tourist attraction in America that is so grand it is popularly known as the Taj Mahal of the West? In 1968, a group of Hare Krishnas founded the New Vrindaban Community near Wheeling, West Virginia. Though they began on 100 acres with no electricity or running water, the community now covers more than 1,200 acres and featuresÊPrabhupada’s Palace of Gold, an ornate edifice of gold, marble and hand-carved teakwood. The awardwinning rose garden alone is said to be worth a trip. * Those who study such things claim that in the wild, animals don’t die of old age. * The town of Key Largo, Florida, did not exist before the 1948 film of that name starring Humphrey Bogart made it famous. * Due to a series of earthquakes in 1811 and 1812, the Mississippi River ran backward for a time. *** Thought for the Day: “To fall in love is to create a religion that has a fallible god.” -- Jorge Luis Borges (c) 2018 King Features Synd., Inc.
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Tidbits® of the River Region
* On June 17, 1885, the dismantled Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France, arrives in New York Harbor packed in more than 200 cases. The copper and iron statue was reassembled and dedicated the following year.
Williams, Ronald Jeffrey White/Male 6’2” 195 lbs Age: 45 Hair: Brown Eyes: Brown
Outstanding Warrants: Theft of Property 1st
* On June 13, 1895, Emile Levassor drives a Panhard et Levassor car with a two-cylinder, 750-rpm, four-horsepower engine to victory in the world’s first real automobile race. He completed the 732-mile course in just under 49 hours, at a then-impressive speed of about 15 mph. * On June 15, 1917, two months after America entered World War I against Germany, Congress passes the Espionage Act. The act made it a crime to convey information intended to interfere with the U.S. armed forces prosecution of the war or to promote the success of the country’s enemies. * On June 12, 1940, Edsel Ford agrees to manufacture 9,000 Rolls-Royce-designed engines to be used in British and U.S. airplanes in World War II. A biography about Edsel’s father, Henry, later revealed that Henry had already accepted a contract to work with the German government. He eventually reversed his position. * On June 14, 1951, the U.S. Census Bureau dedicates UNIVAC, the world’s first commercially produced electronic digital computer. Weighing 16,000 pounds, UNIVAC used 5,000 vacuum tubes, and could perform about 1,000 calculations per second. * On June 16, 1963, aboard Vostok 6, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman to travel into space. She returned to Earth after 48 orbits, having spent more time in space than all U.S. astronauts combined to that date. * On June 11, 1979, actor John Wayne, born Marion Morrison in Iowa, dies at age 72. In his early acting jobs Wayne was credited as Duke Morrison, a childhood nickname derived from the name of his beloved pet dog. (c) 2018 Hearst Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Outstanding Warrants:
McDaniels, Risko DOB: 05/10/1976 Black/Male 6’4” 155 lbs Hair: Black Eyes: Brown
Wanted for: Failure to Appear Possession Marijuana 2nd/Failure to Appear Possession of Controlled Substance/Failure to Appear Failure to Register Vehicle/ Failure to Appear Driving While Revoked
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“Be known before you’re needed” Advertise with Tidbits (334) 202-7285 LIGHTNING
1. How did the 1976 hit “Moonlight Feels Right” finally get airplay? 2. Which singer-songwriter had a hit with “Shake You Down”? 3. “Got to Get You into My Life” appeared on which Beatles album? 4. Ry Cooder is best known for which instrument? 5. Name the song that contains this lyric: “After many tears fall from your eyes, A thousand times you ask yourself why the one guy you love has departed, You’re left alone and broken-hearted.” Answers: 1. The band Starbuck personally delivered copies of the record to 400 radio stations. One finally played it months later, thereby launching the song up the charts. 2. Gregory Abbott, in 1986. The song did well around the globe. 3. “Revolver,” in 1966 in the U.K. Once again Paul McCartney was the major songwriter, but the song was credited to Lennon-McCartney. The song didn’t appear in the U.S. as a single until 1976, six years after the Beatles broke up. 4. The slide guitar. Consider: “Feelin’ Bad Blues.” 5. “That’s the Way Love Is,” first by the Isley Brothers in 1967 and then Marvin Gaye in 1969. It was Gaye’s version that became the major hit, likely because producers took the up-tempo original version and slowed it down. (c) 2018 King Features Synd., Inc.
Lightning strikes again! Tidbits commemorates Lightning Safety Awareness Week with this collection of facts. • Lightning occurs when there is an electrical discharge between storm clouds and the ground or within the clouds. Particles of rain, ice, or snow inside the storm clouds collide and create an imbalance, negatively charging the lower range of the clouds. Objects on the ground become positively charged. When the two connect, a flash of lightning equalizes the imbalance by passing current between them. That flash travels at 200,000 mph (300,000 km/ hr) as the electricity transfer takes place. • A lightning flash can heat the surrounding air to a temperature five times hotter than the sun’s surface. This causes the air to expand and vibrate, creating a thunder clap. A single bolt can contain up to one billion volts of electricity. It has enough energy to power a 100-watt light bulb for 90 days. • About 1.4 billion lightning flashes occur every year on Earth. About 25 million of those will strike. The average length of a single bolt is two to three miles (3.2 – 4.8 km). • There are about 2,000 deaths worldwide from lightning strikes each year. About 400 people are struck by lightning in the U.S. each year, but approximately 70% of those survive, although many suffer serious health problems afterward. Loss of memory, impaired hearing, vertigo, insomnia, and chronic pain are common effects. More Americans are killed by lightning each year than either tornadoes or hurricanes. • Florida is lightning’s deadliest state, comprising 10% of lightning casualties, twice as many as any other state. • Do you have an irrational fear of lightning? The fancy name for that is keraunophobia. Fear of thunder is known as brontophobia. • Who gets struck? Nearly two-thirds of casualties are people engaged in outdoor leisure activities, with fishermen accounting for the most fatalities, followed by those on the beach, campers, boaters, those doing yardwork, soccer players, and golfers. Many of the victims realized the danger and were headed for a safe place, but not in time to avoid the strike. • June, July, and August account for more than 70% of lightning strike deaths, with more deaths on the weekend than other days of the week. • The rule of thumb for safety is “When thunder roars, go indoors!” Sheds, picnic shelters, tents, or covered porches do not provide adequate protection from lightning. A fully enclosed building is the safest place. If one isn’t available, a hard-topped metal vehicle is the next best thing. Seeking shelter under a tree is a bad idea, with this being the second-leading cause of casualties. • It’s a myth that lightning victims carry an electrical charge and are unsafe to touch. First aid/CPR should not be delayed. • What are the odds of being struck by lightning? The odds are zero, provided you take the threat seriously. Otherwise, the average American has about a 1 in 5,000 chance over the course of a lifetime. • We’ve all heard the old saying that lightning never strikes the same place twice. Not so! It very often strikes the same place over and over. New York’s Empire State Building takes an average of 23 hits a year. A Virginia park ranger was struck by lightning seven times between 1942 and 1977, leading to many physical and psychological problems, including deep depression.
Joe Riley Please call 334-202-7285 within 7 days of this issue to claim your prize!
Tommy Count ______ This week’s winner receives a
$25 Dollar Gift Certificate from
The Gab Register to win by sending an email to entertommycontest@gmail.com or USPS to PTK Corp., PO Box 264, Wetumpka, AL 36092 with the following information: 1) Your name (first and last), and, 2) the number of times you find Tommy in the ads in the paper. From the correct entries a winner will be selected. You must be 18 years of age to qualify. The gift certificates will range in value from $25 to $100 each week. Entries must be received by midnight each Friday evening.
Last Week’s Ads where
Tommy was hiding:
1. Hypnosis Works, p.1 2. Fat Boy’s Bar-B-Que Ranch, p.6 3. Hart Spine & Rehab, p.8
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TidbitsÂŽ of the River Region
“Be known before you’re needed” Advertise with Tidbits (334) 202-7285 FOOD OF THE WEEK:
COTTON CANDY
BIBLE TRIVIA ANSWERS:
1) Neither; 2) Ehud; 3) 4; 4) Herod; 5) Adoni-Bezek; 6) Malachi
1. Bret Saberhagen was 20 years, 175 days old when he started in 1984. 2. Wells had 239 victories, Martinez 219 and Cone 194. 3. Wisconsin’s Ron Dayne, who rushed for 6,397 yards (1996-99, when bowl statistics were not included). 4. Tito Horford, with the Milwaukee Bucks in 1988. 5. The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, with 19 road victories in the 1993-94 season. 6. D.C. United (1996-97), Houston (2006-07) and the Los Angeles Galaxy (2011-12). 7. Australia’s Anna Meares.
Tidbits wishes you a happy National Cotton Candy Day on June 11 by bringing you the facts on its history and manufacturing process. • It’s a little ironic that dentists first invented cotton candy, a confection whose only ingredient is sugar. A Nashville dentist named Dr. William Morrison teamed up with candy maker John Wharton in 1897 to invent a machine that melted sugar and spun it through tiny holes in a fine screen using centrifugal force to create sugar threads. After receiving their patent, the pair improved their packaging method and took the product they called fairy floss to the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, where they sold 68,000 boxes for 25 cents each. In today’s money, that’s around $6.75 a package. • Another gentleman named Thomas Patton patented a different type of cotton candy machine in 1900, one that caramelized sugar, forming the threads using a fork. A gas-fired rotating plate spun the sugar into threads. Patton marketed his candy at the Ringling Brothers Circus. • In 1921, a New Orleans dentist, Dr. Josef Lascaux, improved on the machine design as well as trademarking the name “cotton candy.” He first introduced his candy at his dental practice! • The process of making cotton candy begins with melting granular sugar into a liquid state. The sugar is funneled into an extruder, a rotating metal cylinder perforated with holes, along with a heating element. The spinning of the extruder propels the strands of melted sugar through the holes. When the sugar hits the air, it cools, and solid threads form. The threads are thinner than human hair. • We might call this confection cotton candy, but other countries use different terms. In New Zealand, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom it’s called candy floss. Australians still use the original term fairy floss, while the South Africans call it tooth floods. The French refer to it as Papa’s beard, while the Greeks use “old ladies’ hair” to describe the sweet treat. In the Netherlands, cotton candy is known as “sugar spider.” In China, candy makers blend peanuts and coconut into the sugar and call it “dragon’s beard candy.” The Himalayan nation of Bhutan spices it up a bit by adding chili pepper to the mix. • Even though the sole ingredient of cotton candy is sugar, there is a lot more sugar in a 12-oz. can of soda pop than in a cone of cotton candy. There is really more air in cotton candy than there is sugar. • Gold Medal Products debuted a more reliable machine in 1949. They went on to formulate the two most popular flavored colors – blue raspberry, which they call “Boo Blue,” and pink vanilla, trademarked as “Silly Nilly.” Cotton candy machines were greatly improved upon during the 1970s, and a modern machine today now has a rotating bowl that spins 3,450 times a minute. • The world’s largest cotton candy manufacturer is Tootsie Roll of Canada, Ltd., a company that bags a fruit-flavored variety they call Fluffy Stuff . • The idea of spun sugar has actually been around since the 1600s, when chefs decorated cakes and pastries with melted sugar whipped into strands with a fork. • Cotton candy is so delicious that there are three different days designated as National Cotton Candy Day – June 11, July 31, and December 7.
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Old Wagon Holds a Portable Garden Beautiful things can emerge when you dig right in. A natural, glorious garden that just happens to be edible is a great place to start. So find an old wagon at a garage sale, or use one that your kids have outgrown, let the soil run through your fingers, and plant a garden on wheels together. This is an easy project for the beginning gardeners in your family, and the results are so rewarding. Children can plant, water, weed and tend their own plants without becoming overwhelmed by a big garden plot. And since the garden on wheels is portable, they can move it around the yard or deck for maximum sun exposure throughout the day. Here’s the stuff you need: --an old wagon, wheelbarrow or wagonlike toy on wheels --drill and 1/4-inch drill bit --wire mesh screen, such as window screen (optional) --potting soil mix --potted edible plants, such as herbs (parsley, basil, tarragon, thyme, etc.), lettuce and kale --kid-size gardening tools --watering can --Tinker Toys and waterproof pens for plant markers (optional) Here’s the fun: 1. An adult should drill several drainage holes in the bottom of the wagon or wheelbarrow about 6 inches apart. You may wish to lay mesh screen over the bottom to keep soil from falling through the holes. Fill with potting soil mix. Leave at least 3/4 inch to the wagon edge. 2. Plant potted plants, keeping in mind their eventual size: Put taller plants in the middle, small plants along the sides. You also could plant a few lettuce seeds placed in the soil in the shape of the letter of your child’s first name. Or, choose a colorful edible flower or two. 3. Water with a watering can or slow-running hose. It’s a good idea to give it six hours of direct sun each day. Add plant food throughout the growing season, and you’ll have the loveliest garden on wheels ever. 4. If your child wishes to make small identification markers for planted seeds and plants, simply attach a Tinker Toy wheel to a stick, and draw a picture with a marker on the wheels. Poke into the dirt by the seedlings or plants. Most importantly, enjoy your bountiful wagon harvest as summer and the wagon roll along! *** Donna Erickson’s award-winning series “Donna’s Day” is airing on public television nationwide. To find more of her creative family recipes and activities, visit www.donnasday.com and link to the NEW Donna’s Day Facebook fan page. Her latest book is “Donna Erickson’s Fabulous Funstuff for Families.” (c) 2018 Donna Erickson Distributed by King Features Synd.
Tidbits® of the River Region