Half-Pint Doll

I accidentally stumbled across this from Guiding Light back in 1998. Strangely enough I remember this sequence, but not the Little House on the Prairie reference. Normally I remember those.  Anyway the set up for this sequence was that a criminal on the run (Annie Dutton) has sent an artist doll that looks like herself to a little girl (Lizzie Spaulding). Harley Cooper (the girl’s soon-to-be step-mother) takes the doll back to her maker, Mrs. Beasley (a Family Affair joke – Mrs. Beasley was the little girl’s doll and is one of the most famous dolls in TV history) and when she’s trying to explain who she is she tells her that her mother (Nadine) had her make a Half-Pint doll from Little House on the Prairie. They don’t show the doll, but it sounds interesting. It probably had brown eyes.

http://www.youtube.com/user/IIheartbreakerII#p/u/16/HFehJWGGLho

Driving With Trains

This summer as part of the Geographic Alliance of Iowa class, we got to tour the national brain center of Union Pacific. It’s called the Harriman Center. Part of the tour was a presentation by Operation Lifesaver. The Union Pacific tries to prevent accidents through education. Keep an eye out for trains and drive safe. Union Pacific offers classes to both adults and youth groups. Back when trains carried passengers, they used to run to a schedule, but now there isn’t one. Any time is train time.

Vehicle	Stopping Distance
Car	200 Feet
School Bus	230 Feet
Semi	300 Feet
Amtrack (Less than 10 cars in a train)	600 Feet
Coal Train (Almost 18 football fields long)	5280 Feet

Trains can’t stop in time if they see you on the tracks and trains can’t swerve. The weight difference between a train and car is the same as a car and a pop can and hitting you will affect a train as much. Don’t stop, pass or shift your car on the track. Stay back, at the minimum a train sticks out 3 feet from edge of track. Things can stick out an additional 3 feet beyond that. Cars should be at least 15 feet behind the crossing sign post, that’s the law. Many accidents happen because one train passes and people don’t realize there are dual tracks and another train is coming. The number under the crossing sign tells you the number of tracks. Trains have the right away 100 percent of the time.

Pack your bug spray for De Smet

This week’s De Smet News reveals that just last month a brand new Mosquito breed was found in South Dakota. The new species is Aedes japonicus, popularly known as the Japanese rock pool mosquito or the Asian bush mosquito. The fun part of these is that unlike their fellow mosquitoes, who mostly bite at night or in the evening, these feed during the day. So pack your bug spray for your next Laura trip.

De Smet Catholic Church

Next time you are in De Smet, South Dakota you might want to take a look at some of the non-Laura historic buildings. In some ways De Smet seems to be a town of churches with many in town and quite a few in the surrounding countryside. The St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church of De Smet is getting some physical touch ups. This is the third Catholic church to sit in this location. The first church building burnt down. The second was damaged beyond repair by a tornado. The current building dates to 1920. The church was designed by Emmanuel Masqueray, a French architect who designed St. Joseph Cathedral in Sioux Falls.

St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church…can be found 1 block east and north of Washington Park at 512 3rd St. SW.  Sunday mass is at 9:00 AM.

The city government of De Smet provides the following list of active places of worship in De Smet.

http://tinyurl.com/DeSmetChurches

Volunteer in Comics

You might have noticed that this past two weeks many comic strips have been pushing hard to urge people to volunteer. Volunteering is always a wonderful way to make a difference in your community. Visit the website that is behind the campaign:

http://www.handsonnetwork.org/MakeADifferenceDay

More information on the comic campaign from a Washington Post blog.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/comic-riffs/2009/10/riffs_picks_from_comics_volunt.html

Pa’s Beard

Pa’s beard has always been a huge bone of contention between TV show and book fans. Landon’s lack of a beard is almost always mentioned in early critiques of the show by book fans and I still hear mentioned on a regular basis today. Pa’s real beard was absolutely horrible and I have only seen one beard as ugly on a living person. I thought you might enjoy reading what they were saying about the beard at the time the show first came out.

Van Horn, Gail. “Walnut Grove residents celebrate fall TV show go-ahead.” Messenger Independent. 5 June 1974: 3B.

“An NBC press release notes, for those who know that Pa Ingalls always wore a full beard, illustrated by Garth Williams in Laura’s books, note that great pains were put into fitting Michael Landon with a beard, both of natural growth and by makeup artists. But it was decided that he just did not look good with any kind of facial hair. You may recall having seen Landon with a beard on one Bonanza show and so may know why the TV version of Pa will be beardless.”

Seed Savers Fall Festival

Burr Oak, Iowa is about 10 minutes north of Decorah. Decorah is home of the Seed Savers Exchange. This year’s fall festival included everything from a Best Harvest Soup contest to a sampling of more than 18 varieties of 19th century apples. There will be music by Western Home String Band, historic orchard tours, kids activities, and hiking.

http://www.seedsavers.org/fall_harvest.htm

They have other events all year, such as a lesson in apple grafting.

http://www.seedsavers.org/applegrafting.htm

Seed Savers is also a fascinating stop even when nothing special is going on. Consider dropping by on your next visit to Burr Oak.

Compliment Guys

How many people can honestly say that they do something each day to make the world a better place? It might not be as hard as you think. Take a look at Ian Skarbek and Brett Westcott of West Lafayette, Ind. They spend part of each day standing on their college campus and just giving away compliments. You don’t have to go to that extreme, but if you like to be complimented on something, try giving an unsolicited compliment to at least one person every day. After all you have to give them to get them. Pay it forward.

http://www.americanprofile.com/heroes/article/35448.html

P.S. Giving a comment on your favorite blog counts too.

Norman Borlaug Food Hero

One of the most famous living Iowan recently passed away. Norman Borlaug was the moving force behind the Green Revolution that saved billions of lives. Borlaug was the founder of the World Food Prize. He received the Nobel Peace Prize, the Congressional Gold Medal, and Presidential Medal of freedom.

Bill Gates recently said of him. “In the middle of the 20th century, experts predicted famine and starvation, but they turned out to be wrong – because they did not predict Norman Borlaug. He not only showed humanity how to get more food from the earth – he proved that farming has the power to lift up the lives of the poor.”

http://www.iptv.org/series.cfm/20529/freedom_from_famine_norman

Borlaug spent most of his life fighting so that people would have enough food. He is credited with saving the lives of billions of people by developing high-yielding crops that averted famine.

An editorial by Dirck Stiemel quoted his 2000 30th anniversary of his Nobel Prize speech:

“The world has the technology – either available or advanced in the research pipeline – to feed on a sustainable basis a population of 10 billion people. The more pertinent question today is whether farmers and ranchers will be permitted to use this new technology. While affluent nations can certainly afford to adopt ultra-low risk positions, and pay more for food produced by so-called ‘organic’ methods, the 1 billion chronically undernourished people of low-income, food-deficit nations cannot.”

A local group is working on the restoration and preservation of his birthplace and the one-room school he attended. They are putting together a full slate of activities honoring his legacy. Read about it here:

http://www.normanborlaug.org/index-orig.htm

For the U.S. Congress tribute, click here:

http://www.radioiowa.com/2009/09/30/u-s-house-honors-norman-borlaug

Read his obituary here:

http://www.mexidata.info/id2442.html

Little Great Auk

The Little Great Auk

Great Auk from Pa's Big Green Animal Book

Near the beginning of The Long Winter the Ingalls family discover a strange marine bird. It’s nearly frozen and they nurse it back to life, but nothing they have to feed it seems to go down. They said the bird looked like the image in Pa’s Big Green Animal Book of the Great Auk, only a miniature version.

The South Dakota birders think it was probably an Ancient Murrelet or a less likely a Dovekie. Both have occasionally been found far inland, but they don’t live long because they eat tiny marine invertebrates that aren’t found in fresh water. The Great Auk has long been extinct, but you can look for an Ancient Murrelet or a Dovekie next time you go to the ocean or in a natural science museum.