01.20.2009

Hello from the land of snow and cold. Saturday night we were at 11 below zero, which is the coldest we've had in almost 2 years. Now it's warming up a bit and here comes the snow. Had about 6 inches this morning. I sure am giving the snow shovel a workout! I heard from Phyllis and she has the flu and didn't feel like working on the newsletter this week. Last week I neglected to mention that Marie is in the process of moving so that's why we didn't have a joke from her. ~Toni
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Iowa

Ripley's Believe It or Not has dubbed Burlington's Snake Alley the most crooked street in the world.

The state's smallest city park is situated in the middle of the road in Hiteman.

Spirit Lake is the largest glacier-made lake in the state.

West Okoboji is the deepest natural lake in the state. Its depth is 136 feet.

The state's lowest elevation point (at 480 feet) is in Lee County.

Wright County has the highest percentage of grade-A topsoil in the nation.

Quaker Oats, in Cedar Rapids, is the largest cereal company in the world.

Clarion is the only county seat in the exact center of the county.

Herbert Hoover, a West Branch native, was the 31st president of the United States and the first one born west of the Mississippi.

Born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, John Wayne was the son of a pharmacist and grew up to become one of Hollywood's most popular movie stars.

Campers and motor homes are manufactured in Winnebago County. They're called Winnebago's.

Iowa is the only state whose east and west borders are 100% formed by water.

The National Balloon Museum in Indianola chronicles more than 200 years of ballooning history.
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Last week I had a comment on the blog from Paula. What a nice surprise! She had some additional information on Indiana that I found interesting, so I wanted to include it here:

Good morning. A Google Alert brought me to your blog. Would you mind a little more Indiana info? The town of Santa Claus is also home to the world's first theme park -- Holiday World http://holidayworld.com . And Lincoln lived four miles away in what is now Lincoln City from the ages of 7 to 21. There's a huge amphitheatre with a new play (called "Lincoln") opening in June, in honor of our 16th president's bicentennial. http://www.lincolnamphitheatre.com Great place to take the family!
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From Cheryl:

Getting Rid of Tablecloth Creases

Don't get out the iron. Instead, put the tablecloth in the clothes dryer with a damp towel and turn on the warm/low heat setting. Leave in for several minutes and remove immediately. When storing, place the tablecloth on a hanger.

Storing Potatoes

Put them in a dry dark place that's cool (40 to 50 degrees). Never keep them in the refrigerator because it will alter the texture and taste after a length of time.
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From Cathy:

If you do online shopping then this is something important to know.
http://www.snopes.com:80/computer/internet/https.asp
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Isaac Merrit Singer

Isaac Merrit Singer ran away from his Owego, New York, home in 1825, when he was only 12 years old. He joined a band of traveling players and remained an actor until he was 24. Then he decided to "get a real job." He worked at a machine shop, but continued as an actor part time.

In 1850, Singer headed to Boston with a device he had created to carve wood-block type. It never caught on. But while he was in Boston, Singer became interested in another device-the sewing machine. Such machines were rare, and those that did exist were large and unreliable. He borrowed $40 from a friend and started working on his own version of the machine.

In 1851, Singer received a patent for the device. It attracted the attention not only of tailors, but also of Elias Howe, often credited as the inventor of the sewing machine. Howe had patented his machine in 1846. He sued Singer, but they soon settled. Under their agreement, Singer and Howe pooled their patents and each received five dollars from every sewing machine sold. Singer was not sentimental about his machine. "I don't care a damn for the invention. The dimes are what I'm after," he once said. Singer's business partner, a man named Edward Clark, was responsible for another innovation--the installment payment plan. This payment option made sewing machines affordable for the first time in many homes.

In 1863, Isaac Singer was surrounded by scandal. The public learned that he had fathered 24 children by at least 5 different women. Clark was so shocked by the revelation that he ended his partnership with Singer. Isaac Singer had too much money to be worried. He moved to England, where the scandal did not reach him. He lived there until his death in 1875. The scandal had little effect on sewing machine sales, however. Mahatma Gandhi is said to have called the Singer sewing machine "one of the few useful things ever invented." Adm. Richard Byrd found them so useful that he carted six of them all the way to the Antarctic.

At its peak, Singer was producing 3 million sewing machines a year. In the mid-1970's, however, the number of people in America who sewed, or even repaired, their own clothes dropped sharply. The modern Singer company stopped selling sewing machines in 1986. Today it sells aerospace electronics.
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Marie sent these coffee filter uses to me before she moved:

Cover bowls or dishes when cooking in the microwave. Coffee filters make excellent covers.

Clean windows and mirrors. Coffee filters are lint-free so they'll leave windows sparkling.

Protect China Separate your good dishes by putting a coffee filter between each dish.

Filter broken cork from wine. If you break the cork when opening a wine bottle, filter the wine through a coffee filter.

Protect a cast-iron skillet. Place a coffee filter in the skillet to absorb moisture and prevent rust.

Weigh chopped foods. Place chopped ingredients in a coffee filter on a kitchen scale.

Hold tacos. Coffee filters make convenient wrappers for messy foods.

Prevent a Popsicle from dripping. Poke one or two holes as needed in a coffee filter.

Do you think we used expensive strips to wax eyebrows? Use strips of coffee filters.

Put a few in a plate and put your fried bacon, french fries, chicken fingers, etc on them. Soaks out all the grease.
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Don't want your jeans to fade? Turning them inside out before washing preserves their color. As for new jeans, wash them with older pairs so color bleeding from the new ones will be absorbed by the old, making them look newer.
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You can check your town's water quality by calling the EPA drinking water hotline at 800-426-4791.
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Not sure how old your spices are? Go to http://www.spicecheckchallenge.com, enter the code on the bottom of your McCormick jar and find out whether to toss or keep it.
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This is the web site of a West Virginia man that carves birds. I thought his work was amazing. Maybe there are some bird-lovers among our readers that would enjoy seeing his work. http://www.woodtofeathers.com/
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Make...How To...DIY
http://www.instructables.com/
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A smile is a curve that sets everything straight. ~Phyllis Diller
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Word origin grandfather clause

A grandfather clause is an exception to a rule that allows someone who previously had the right to do something to continue doing it even though the law forbids it to others. For example, when I turned nineteen, the state of New Jersey allowed me to drink alcohol. Later than year, they raised the drinking age to twenty-one, but since I was already of legal drinking age, I was grandfathered at that young age and could continue to legally consume alcoholic beverages. But why grandfather?

The term comes from discriminatory practices of certain Southern states against blacks. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, some Southern states had laws requiring payment of a poll tax or taking of a literacy test before one could vote. The poor and illiterate were denied the right to vote. This would have been a race-neutral measure except for clauses in the state constitutions that exempted someone from poll taxes or literacy tests if their grandfather had had the right to vote. This meant that virtually all whites, whose grandfathers could vote before the imposition of these laws, were allowed to vote, while most blacks were denied the right to vote. Over the years, the term has lost the racial stigma and no longer connotes racial bias.
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Here's a riddle for you. Answer next week.

What do you throw out when you want to use it, but take in when you don't want to use it?