Another Great Trivia Book

I unfortunately couldn't find the original 1994 edition cover for this entry, but I will tell you it contains all the classics; deer, cheese, baseball cards, fishing poles, duck decoy, pine bough, and beer.

I quizzed everyone I could find today at the Barrett Memorial Library, and most did pretty well on their Wisconsin trivia. Here's a special little quiz for you.

(1) Fonzie, Potsie, Ritchie, and Ralph were characters in what Milwaukee-based Tv comedy sereis that ran from 1974 to 1984?

(2) TSR, Inc. of Lake Geneva, founded in 1973, produces and markets what game?

(3) Who is the most famous person to graduate from UW-Superior?

Answers: (1) Happy Days (2) Dungeons and Dragons (3) Arnold Swarzenegger

Let's Play

Since it's summer and the weather is great, I've been hitting the links like crazy. Golf to me is one fantastic way to spend an afternoon outdoors. I know what you're thinking, all I ever do is read, but on the contrary. I've been golfing since I was an early teen, but it wasn't until I got older and found I was missing something. My golfing career started out casually so I didn't get to learn the details of the rules. That is where this book really somes in handy for me.

Pop Quiz

It's a stroke play tournament and there's a wait on the first tee. A player in the next group to start passes time by shipping a couple of balls onto the tee. Is there a penalty? If so, what is it?

A ball lies just outside a bunker. A loose impediment in the bunker interferes with the player's stroke. Is this player entitled to remove the loose impediment?

A ball lies in the rough. The player removes a twig that lies about six inches behind the ball. The ball does not move. A few seconds later, as the player is selcting a club, a gust of wind causes the ball to move. Does the player incur a penalty?

It's a match. A's ball is near the hole, but he doesn't mark and lift it. His opponent B putts. B's ball strikes that of A, and into the hole goes A's ball. What's the ruling?

To find the answers, check it out at your local library.

The Kitchen Linens Book

"We're shown how to apply a 1945 Butterick fabric transfer, and how to concoct Cousin Ann's crab pie. We're coached on how to glamorize breakfast, throw a tailgate, gather our friends for lunch, and entertain the extened family for Thanksgiving. We learn how to care for our linens; mix, match, and design with them; and, when necessary, reinvent them. In additon to showcasing her own vintage cloths and regaling us with personal commentary, Ellyanne shares the stories and cloth treasures she's gathered from friends and collectors around the country."

I know what you are thinking, I don't seem like the type to have such a penchant for antique linens, but indeed it is true. I love the colorful fabrics, and sundrenched hues in this book. Flip through it the next time you are in the Barrett Memorial Library.

Enormously Disturbing

This movie was so disturbing, in such a fantastic way.

King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast food nation. in King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes form. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified sees, nitrogen fertilizers, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America's most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow theri pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat - and how we farm.

This film will make you want to open your eyes to the food that we are eating.

More Great Young Adult Books

I'm hooked and I can't wait until the next installment of "The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel".

The series is based on both history and fantasy. You will find it in the YA section. Yes, another YA fantasy that adults will also enjoy. Michael Scott weaves figures and history into a planned six-volume fantasy. Twins Sophie and Josh find themselves in London in the third book and their powers are growing. Their goal is to get to Stonehenge where a portal can take them back to San Francisco. But Dark Elders have other plans.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, their guardian Flamel's gifted wife Pernelle survives clouds of poinsous insects and attacks from the octopus-legged Old Man of the Sea to escape from Alcatraz Island. Master yarnspinner that he is, Scott expertly cranks up the suspense while keeping his now-large cast in quick motion. He also continues to blur the line between the two sides, injecting the notes of ambiguity that will leave readers wondering. Ending in a welter of revelations, reunions and unresolved plotlines, this page-turner promises plenty of action to come.

True Mystery

I have always been fascinated with crop circles, everything about them really, who made them, why they are there, how are they so perfectly round. Lucky for me, I found this incredible book.

Now I was a fan of these crop circles, but I have never seen a crop snowflake. Have you ever seen a crop snake, or a crop triangle. Who would have thought that Aliens were such creative creatures. This is a book everyone should page through, absolutly stunning.

It is known that some fields have new crop art year after year. Polly Carson who has been accused of hiring 'forgers' to make designs in her crops year after year explains "We'd never be able to create anyting so perfectly beautiful!...There have been 'fakes' in their fields, Carson says, but 'They were very easy to tell from the other figures because of their shabby constuction."

The Truth About Diamonds

While scanning the shelves at the library a few days ago, I came across a familiar name, Nicole Richie. Now you might never have guessed it, but I am a huge "Simple Life" fan. I think it is one of the better reality shows to hit the airwaves, so think of my delite when I came across this book. I spent this last, rainy weekend engulfed in the drama that is this book.

The first time I stepped away from this book was at chapter 12, "The Mother of All Confrontations" and the book was finished before I put it down again.

The book, fiction with striking similarities to Richie's real life, is like reading an extended copy of any tabloid, light summer reading at it's best.