Tidbits of the Northwest Valley Issue #1

OCTOBER 10, 2008 ISSUE #1SYNERGY PUBLISHING, LLC 800-264-3047 WWW.TIDBITSAZ.COM

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MAY CONTAIN NUTSby Audrey Cunningham

Are they healthy snacks or cholesterol-boosting no-no’s? Regardless of the medical community’s current opinion (and it seems to change daily), nuts are still a favorite of many Americans.

Georgia produces more peanuts than any • other state, with Texas close behind. Peanuts are Georgia’s offi cial state crop, and half of the peanuts grown in the Peach State are used to make peanut butter. And that’s a lot of nuts: It takes about 850 individual peanuts to make one 18 ounce jar of peanut butter.

Have you ever purchased a package of raw • cashews, still in their shells? Probably not. The shell contains urushiol, which causes a skin rash similar to poison ivy when it comes in contact with human skin. It can also be toxic if ingested. Even if you do fi nd cashews labeled as “unroasted,” they’re not just raw. They’ve been steamed in order to remove all traces of urushiol.

Almonds are usually considered to be nuts, • but they’re more closely related to peach pits. Almonds may be bitter or sweet. Sweet almonds are the ones you’ll fi nd in dessert recipes and in cans of mixed nuts. Bitter almonds contain prussic acid, which is used to make cyanide. But if properly processed, bitter almonds lose their toxicity and can be used in the kitchen. They’re a key ingredient in amaretto liqueur.

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TIDBITS GOES NUTS - Continued from page 1Walnuts grow on trees and are harvested using • three distinct machines. The fi rst shakes the walnuts to the ground. The second blows them into neat rows away from the tree trunks, and the third one “vacuums” them up.

Many jewelers still use fi nely ground walnut • shells to polish pearls and other gemstones. Similarly, some cosmetic companies (including Aveda) use walnut shells in their body and facial wash products as an exfoliant.

Despite their name, Brazil nuts are more likely • to come from Bolivia than from Brazil. Brazil nut trees can live more than 1,000 years. Of course, they develop an extensive root system in the process. Because of this, the trees leech a lot of natural barium from the soil, making Brazil nuts (ever so slightly) radioactive. A single Brazil nut can make a Geiger counter click, but scientists have deemed them safe. Consumption of the nuts has no noticeable impact on your typical daily exposure to radiation.

Peanut brittle was invented in America during • the early 19th century. And the novelty fake peanut brittle can with a spring-loaded “snake” inside? No, it wasn’t too far behind. That particular gag was invented in 1915.

Before they cut out free snacks altogether, • many airlines switched from nuts to pretzels. That’s to accommodate travelers with peanut allergies. Some individuals have nut allergies so strong that just sitting in the same aircraft as someone scarfi ng nuts in the back row will affect them adversely.

The pecan is the only tree-borne variety • of nut native to the United States. A single pecan tree can produce 1,000 pounds of nuts. Luckily, pecans can be frozen up to two years without losing fl avor or texture. They’re handy to keep for making those sinfully delicious pecan pies, which originated in

New Orleans. And for the record, the average pecan pie has 78 pecans.

Until the mid-1970s, most of the pistachios • that were consumed in the U.S. were imported from the Middle East. There, the method used to harvest the nuts commonly damaged the outer shells, leaving them discolored and bruised. That’s why, for many years, in-the-shell pistachios were dyed red. Today, virtually all U.S. pistachios are grown in California. And modern harvesting equipment allows the nuts to be harvested blemish-free, so “white” pistachios are becoming more common. Still, a few consumers insist that the red ones are better.

In North America, hazelnuts are only grown • in the Pacifi c Northwest: Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. They are used primarily for confections, such as pralines and chocolate truffl es. Hazelnuts are known as fi lberts in certain parts of the world. Extract from the nut can be used as fl avoring.

If you’re going to feed peanuts to your friendly • neighborhood squirrels, please give them the roasted (not raw) variety. Raw peanuts contain a chemical that can make the little critters ill by preventing the absorption of protein into their systems.

The term “peanut gallery” dates back to the • 1880s, when vaudeville acts were common. Typical theatres were divided into three sections: orchestra (“fl oor seats”), balcony (“second tier”), and gallery (“nosebleed section”). The spectators in the gallery were invariably the most critical. They were also quite vocal in their disapproval of any act that they didn’t fi nd suffi ciently entertaining. Roasted peanuts were the most common snack offered at these venues, so of course, displeased folks in the gallery often pelted onstage performers with peanut shells to emphasize their level of dissatisfaction.

Other than humans (and maybe angry • elephants), the only creatures capable of cracking open the tough outer shell of the Macadamia nut are Hyacinth macaw parrots. Good thing, since this nut is a staple part of their diet. Macadamia nuts are very toxic to dogs, however, so if you have both a parrot and a pooch, keep their food dishes separate.

Despite its name, there are no legumes • in Chock Full O’Nuts brand coffee. The company’s founder, William Black, got his start in the business world by running a small nut stand in New York City. He later added a lunch counter, where he served sandwiches and coffee. Over time, there was such a demand for his special blend of coffee that he sold it commercially to grocery stores. He gave his brew the same name as his luncheonette: Chock Full O’Nuts.

Mr. Peanut has been the Planters mascot • since 1916 (see image). For much of the 1990s, however, the venerable little peanut man appeared mostly in the background of Planter’s ads. The company thought he might be a bit “old-fashioned.” Early in the new millennium, however, the company decided to reintroduce Mr. Peanut as a hip, yet dignifi ed, party-animal type of guy. He appeared in a series of animated commercials dancing away like a legume half his age. Sales of Planters’ products increased more than 15% the fi rst year. ❖

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Dog-Proof Your Home

DEAR PAW’S CORNER: I have a new puppy, and “Jake” keeps getting into everything -- garbage, pantry, laundry, you name it. He’s a big chewer, too. How do I get him to stop? -- Frank S., via e-mail

DEAR FRANK: Regular obedience training, along with increased attention, will help Jake stop exploring so much. However, healthy dogs never lose that urge to explore anything that smells so darn interesting (garbage, laundry, the pantry, you name it). So you’ve got to limit his access to those areas.

Remove garbage from the living areas of the house every day -- place it in the big containers

outside (or in your garage) and seal the lid against intrusion. Seal the pantry -- if it has no door latch, attach a short bungee cord from the cabinet knob to a screw-in hook you place in the frame, so you can latch and unlatch easily. Put your shoes away in a closet or close your bedroom door.

It’s especially important, no matter how well your dog is trained, to not leave anything lying around that you don’t want him to get at. Food, alcohol, cigarettes, chocolate, sharp objects or medication are big no-nos.

Do place chew toys around the areas that Jake is allowed to inhabit. This gives him a healthy focus for his natural chewing tendencies.

Now back to the increased attention. Take time every day -- an hour at least -- to train and play with Jake, outdoors or indoors. Puppies have lots of restless energy, which will fuel their curiosity, so help him work it off. In return, you’ll get a much better bond with Jake, and a well-trained dog.

Send your tips, questions and comments to Paws Corner, c/o King Features Weekly Service, P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475, or e-mail them to [email protected].

(c) 2008 King Features Synd., Inc.


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ALL THE PRESIDENTS TIDBITS:

GERALD R. FORDIn almost every case, the president of the United States has been a man either elected to the offi ce or who succeeded to the position after being elected vice president. The sole exception? A man who would become known as Gerald Ford.

Leslie Lynch King. Jr. was born on July 14, • 1913, in Omaha, Nebraska. His parents divorced when the tot was only two, and his mother married a gent named Gerald Ford two years later. The president-to-be’s new father legally adopted the child, and the family began to refer to him as Gerald Junior. (He’d later change his name legally.)

By the time he reached his twenties, Ford • was certainly a “well-rounded” individual. Physical skill? He was a star football player at the University of Michigan and was invited to try out for the NFL. Intelligence? That’s why he didn’t decide to play professional football – he chose to study law at Yale instead. Good looks? He appeared on the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine in 1942. Dedication? He was wearing his Navy offi cer uniform in that cover photo, and served in the South Pacifi c during World War II.

Having developed an affi nity for Michigan, • Ford returned there after the War. He joined the Republican Party and ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1948. After winning the election, Gerald married Betty Warren, and the two settled in for the long haul. He served as a U.S. Representative for a full quarter-century until 1973, when President Richard Nixon chose him to replace the recently-resigned Spiro Agnew as vice president. Republicans hoped that Ford’s popularity would help ease the public’s concerns over stories circulating about Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal.

Unfortunately, Ford took offi ce during • a period of diffi culty for America. The energy crisis was at its peak; consumer prices, infl ation, and unemployment had risen; and public faith in government had deteriorated. One of Ford’s fi rst actions in 1974 was to issue an unconditional pardon for Richard Nixon, an action that seemed to many Americans like politicians “taking care of their own.” It was a critical move, and many of those close to the president weren’t pleased. (In fact, White House press secretary and close personal friend Jerald F. terHorst resigned in protest.)

The new president felt that the action was • warranted, but it made it all too easy for citizens to criticize Ford. After all, they hadn’t voted him into offi ce. A few months later, when several states held elections for new members of Congress, the public voted in enough Democrats to give them control of Capitol Hill. As a Republican, this further eroded Ford’s ability to accomplish very much as commander-in-chief.

And that wasn’t all. Ford was also forced to • deal with the aftermath of Vietnam, the continuation of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, and OPEC’s refusal to deal fairly with nations that had supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War. He also survived two assassination attempts within days of one another in 1975. The public was critical of Ford’s decision to sell wheat to the Soviet Union and to negotiate for Panama to take control of the Panama Canal.

Few were surprised when Ford failed to • win the 1976 election. Two years later, wife Betty successfully began to battle a long-term addiction to alcohol and pain killers brought on by stress. When Gerald passed away in 2006, he was the oldest ex-president in history: 93 years and fi ve months of age.


by Matilda Charles

Suddenly Raising Grand-children

When grandchildren suddenly come to live at your house and become your responsibility, there’s usually no advanced notice. A sudden turn of events -- a tragedy, substance abuse, a set of military orders to a hostile area -- followed by a knock on the door, and you’re back to raising children. This time it’s your grandchildren you fi nd yourself responsible for.

There are sure to be complications: Maybe you’re in an adults-only community. Maybe you’re barely making ends meet. Maybe you’d always planned to retire and travel the world -- alone. Maybe your health isn’t that great lately. Maybe you still work a fulltime job.

If you fi nd yourself in this situation, you’re not alone; more than 2 million grandparents are raising grandchildren. Fortunately, there are resources. Here are two:

Go to aarp.org and look at the GrandCare • Toolkit. There’s more to suddenly being responsible for raising grandchildren than one might imagine, until you’re thrust into the situation. The Toolkit has links to a wealth of information: where to fi nd help, legal issues (you might need legal guardianship before you can even register your grandchild in school or authorize medical procedures), fi nances and public benefi ts, health insurance, tax considerations, childproofi ng a house and even a beginner’s guide to computing with grandchildren.

See www.raisingyourgrandchildren.com for • links to local and state resources, advice for dealing with stress, information on fi nancial assistance you might qualify for and ways to help children who may be coming out of abuse or neglect situations.

While these sites won’t do the hard part -- the actual raising of your grandchildren -- it might help to know you’re not alone and that there is help out there.

Matilda Charles regrets that she cannot personally answer reader questions, but will incorporate them into her column whenever possible. Write to her in care of King Features Weekly Service, P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475, or send e-mail to [email protected].


Save Money With Yankee Ingenuity

It’s almost as though Yankee Magazine had today’s shaky economy in mind when it published “Living Well on a Shoestring” back in 2000. The book’s subtitle, “1,501 Ingenious Ways to Spend Less for What You Need and Have More for What You Want,” certainly applies to us now as we struggle to conserve every possible dollar.

“Living Well” is loaded with more tips than you’ll likely ever use for holding onto your money. Many are just plain common sense, quite a few are pure Yankee ingenuity, but most of them are worth trying. As the book notes, frugality is about fi nding clever ways to save money.

Throughout the book you’ll fi nd fi rst-person stories and hints about saving money. While some of them are a bit over the top, for the most part they’re creative and ingenious ways to accomplish or acquire what you need and keep your money (or most of it) in your pocket. Small savings steps, as the book points out, can add up to a big difference.

Some of the categories in the book include: inexpensive games to make for kids, health-care home remedies, spending less on hobbies and sports, automotive (buying a car, taking care of it, basic maintenance), cutting costs in your home offi ce, and electronics and small appliances (repairs and troubleshooting).

The chapters on spending less at the grocery store and preparing thrifty meals at home offer practical, down-home ideas. One hint suggests deleting one unnecessary item from your weekly grocery list on a permanent basis, and multiplying the cost by 52 weeks to see how much you’ll save in a year.

For those who are either looking for a job or have one and need to maintain the appropriate look, the chapter “Thrifty Ways to Dress Well” offers tips on spotting a quality garment, how to give old clothes new life with a few basic alterations, how to darn socks and repair a zipper, stain removal and more.

Perhaps one of the best things about consulting an older book such as “Living Well” is that it’s generally available at a reduced cost. Look online for used copies, some as low as a dollar, or hunt through book sales in your area.

David Uffi ngton regrets that he cannot personally answer reader questions, but will incorporate them into his column whenever possible. Write to him in care of King Features Weekly Service, P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475, or send e-mail to [email protected].



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POSTER PEOPLEby Dallas Wasmund

They were originally rough art prints, and then 8”×10” glossy photographs called “pin-ups.” But as technology advanced, artwork and photos of attractive men and women grew in size and popularity. They soon launched a craze for what became known as “posters.”

The image on the well-known “I Want You” • U.S. Army recruiting poster featuring Uncle Sam was painted by James Montgomery Flagg back in 1916. In the next two years, more than four million copies were printed to inspire men to enlist in the military during World War I. Flagg used his own face as the basis for Uncle Sam in order to avoid having to pay a model for posing.

While fi lming • You’ll Never Get Rich in 1941, up-and-coming actress Rita Hayworth took time out for a photo shoot with Life magazine. One shot featured her in a silk and lace nightgown, kneeling on a bed fi tted with satin sheets. Four months after that issue of Life hit newsstands, the U.S. entered World War II. When the magazine heard that American GIs were tearing that picture out and taking it with them overseas, a larger rendition of the photo was released as a pin-up.

In 1943, Frank Powolny took a photo of • box offi ce darling Betty Grable glancing coyly over her shoulder, clad in a bathing suit and a pair of high-heeled pumps. For Powolny, it was just another photo shoot, one of many he’d done in his career. But something about Grable’s photo struck a chord with U.S. servicemen fi ghting in World War II. Sure, Betty had nice legs, but it was that teasing peek over the shoulder that reminded the men of the girls waiting back home for them. Fox Studios ordered thousands of postcards bearing the famous photo, which were distributed to American military men around the world.

The granddaddy of motivational posters • is the one depicting a kitten clinging desperately to a tree branch, with the caption “Hang in there, baby!” One of them even appeared on the wall in the offi ce of Vice President Spiro Agnew shortly before he resigned in 1973.

Swimming superstar Mark Spitz was the fi rst • athlete to win seven gold medals at a single Olympic Games. He became even more popular when a poster appeared depicting him wearing his swimming medals and a stars-and-stripes Speedo swimsuit. Look carefully at Spitz’ famous poster, however, and you’ll notice his hand is casually obscuring the Speedo logo. He did so in hopes of avoiding any “confl ict of interest” lawsuits, since he was under contract with German swimsuit manufacturer Arena.

In early 1976, a friend of a co-founder of • the Pro Arts poster company noted that college-aged men had found a new love. Students were actually buying women’s magazines to clip out advertisements for their dorm room walls: specifi cally, Wella Balsam shampoo ads featuring a blonde beauty named Farrah Fawcett. He tracked down Fawcett and arranged a photo shoot beside the pool at her home in Bel Air, California.


By Samantha Weaver

Unless you’re a professional dairy farmer • who milks cows on a daily basis, it’s unlikely that you’re aware of the fact that it takes, on average, 350 squirts to get a gallon of milk.

It was American businessman -- and, of • course, the inventor of the light bulb -- Thomas Alva Edison, who made the following sage observation: “We don’t know a millionth of 1 percent about anything.”

If you’re like the average American, you eat • more than 12 pounds of chocolate every year.

Experts claim that parts of California are • sinking 4 inches every year.

The name for that lovely lavender stone, • amethyst, is derived from the Greek for “not drunk.”

The record at hand doesn’t go into details • about why King Philip I of France was widely known during his reign as “The Amorous,” but we can probably imagine.

Jewelry lovers, pay attention: Oysters aren’t • the only creatures with the capability to make pearls. Pearls can come from any mollusk that makes a shell, including mussels, clams, conchs and even land snails.

From the fi les of inexplicable criminal • activity: A Virginia man was arrested in 2004 at a Motel 6. His crime? He had smeared the entire room with Vaseline. There were 14 empty tubs of the petroleum jelly found at the scene.

The world-famous Caesar salad was actually • invented in Tijuana, Mexico.

You probably won’t be shocked to learn • that the sport that is the object of the most online betting is horse racing, followed by soccer. It’ll probably come as something of a surprise, though, to fi nd that that most genteel of sports, tennis, ranks third in online betting.


By Chris Richcreek

1. When was the last time a New York Yankees player before Alex Rodriguez (156 in 2007) had as many as 155 RBIs in a season?

2. When was the last time the Cincinnati Reds played in the postseason?

3. Since the NFL expanded to four divisions in each conference in 2002, only two divisions have had all its teams win at least one division title. Name them.

4. Who won the fi rst NIT men’s basketball fi nal in 1938?

5. Name the fi rst European to capture the NHL’s Conn Smythe trophy (MVP of the Stanley Cup Playoffs).

6. Who was the only athlete to win the Boston and New York City marathons in the same year twice?

7. Name the last gold medal winner for the U.S. in boxing.

See below for answers.


1. Joe DiMaggio had 155 RBIs in 1948.

2. In 1995, the Reds beat Los Angeles and then lost to Atlanta in the playoffs.

3. The NFC South and the AFC West.

4. Temple beat Colorado for the title.

5. Nicklas Lidstrom in 2002.

6. Bill Rodgers in 1978 and 1979.

7. Light heavyweight Andre Ward in 2004.

Answers to Sports Quiz

Tidbits of the Northwest Valley Issue #1

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