This Day in History: Frisbees!

Thank you History Channel! If you would like to test your history knowledge, the History Channel has a game on their site so see how well you do...
http://www.history.com/genericContent.do?id=56082

and...

Toy company Wham-O produces first Frisbees
January 23, 1957

On this day in 1957, machines at the Wham-O toy company roll out the first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs--now known to millions of fans all over the world as Frisbees.
The story of the Frisbee began in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where William Frisbie opened the Frisbie Pie Company in 1871. Students from nearby universities would throw the empty pie tins to each other, yelling "Frisbie!" as they let go. In 1948, Walter Frederick Morrison and his partner Warren Franscioni invented a plastic version of the disc called the "Flying Saucer" that could fly further and more accurately than the tin pie plates. After splitting with Franscioni, Morrison made an improved model in 1955 and sold it to the new toy company Wham-O as the "Pluto Platter"--an attempt to cash in on the public craze over space and Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).

In 1958, a year after the toy's first release, Wham-O--the company behind such top-sellers as the Hula-Hoop, the Super Ball and the Water Wiggle--changed its name to the Frisbee disc, misspelling the name of the historic pie company. A company designer, Ed Headrick, patented the design for the modern Frisbee in December 1967, adding a band of raised ridges on the disc's surface--called the Rings--to stabilize flight. By aggressively marketing Frisbee-playing as a new sport, Wham-O sold over 100 million units of its famous toy by 1977.

High school students in Maplewood, New Jersey, invented Ultimate Frisbee, a cross between football, soccer and basketball, in 1967. In the 1970s, Headrick himself invented Frisbee Golf, in which discs are tossed into metal baskets; there are now hundreds of courses in the U.S., with millions of devotees. There is also Freestyle Frisbee, with choreographed routines set to music and multiple discs in play, and various Frisbee competitions for both humans and dogs--the best natural Frisbee players.

Today, at least 60 manufacturers produce the flying discs--generally made out of plastic and measuring roughly 20-25 centimeters (8-10 inches) in diameter with a curved lip. The official Frisbee is owned by Mattel Toy Manufacturers, who bought the toy from Wham-O in 1994.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do

ALA's Notable Books Council announces 2008 top picks

PHILADELPHIA - The Notable Books Council of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division American Library Association (ALA), today released its 2008 list of outstanding books for the general reader. The titles are selected for their significant contribution to the expansion of knowledge and for the pleasure they can provide to adult readers.
Since 1944, the goal of the Notable Books Council has been to make available to the nation's readers a list of 25 very good, very readable, and at times very important fiction, nonfiction and poetry books for the adult reader. The Council consists of members selected from the membership of RUSA's Collection Development and Evaluation Section (CODES).

This is "The List for America's Readers:"
FICTION
--Bloom, Amy, Away, Random House
--Carlson, Ron, Five Skies, Penguin-Viking
--Chabon, Michael, The Yiddish Policeman's Union, HarperCollins
--Clarke, Brock, An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England, Algonquin
--Clinch, John, Finn: a novel, Random House
--Englander, Nathan, The Ministry of Special Cases, Knopf
--Holthe, Tess Uriza, The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes, Crown
--Jones, Lloyd, Mister Pip, Dell
--McEwan, Ian, On Chesil Beach, Nan A. Talese
--Malouf, David, Complete Stories, Pantheon
--Pettersen, Per, Out Stealing Horses, Graywolf
--Trevor, William, Cheating at Canasta, Penguin/Viking

NONFICTION
--Ackerman, Diane, The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story, W.W. Norton
--Angier, Natalie, The Canon, Houghton Mifflin
--Ayres, Ian, Super Crunchers, Bantam Books
--Godwin, Peter, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, Little Brown
--Groopman, Jerome, How Doctors Think, Houghton Mifflin Company
--Howell, Georgina, Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations; FSG
--Isaacson, Walter, Einstein: His Life and Universe, S & S
--Kingsolver, Barbara, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, HarperCollins
--Margonelli, Lisa, Oil on the Brain, Doubleday-Nan Talese
--Weisman, Alan, The World Without Us, St. Martins

POETRY
--Bosselaar, Laure-Anne, A New Hunger, Ausable Press
--Kennedy, X.J., In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus, Johns Hopkins

This list will be available on the Notable Books Web page on the RUSA/ALA Web site(http://www.ala.org/rusa/notable.html) with annotations at a later date.

Did You Know?

The Social Security online site is a very user friendly tool. Besides the regular forms and bits of information, you can also see some trivia! Check out... http://ssa-custhelp.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/ssa.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=341

What are the most popular names given to babies?

Answer:
Every year, SSA's Office of the Actuary does a study of the most popular names given to applicants who were born in the current year.

The top ten boys names in 2006 are:
Jacob, Michael, Joshua, Ethan, Matthew, Daniel, Christopher, Andrew, Anthony, and William.

The top ten girls names for 2006 are:
Emily, Emma, Madison, Isabella, Ava, Abigail, Olivia, Hannah, Sophia, and Samantha.

The most popular names of twins born in 2006 are:
Jacob and Joshua; Matthew and Michael; Daniel and David; Ella and Emma; Isaac and Isaiah; Madison and Morgan; Landon and Logan; Taylor and Tyler; Brandon and Bryan; and Christian and Christopher.

You can actually even see the Popularity of a Name. How they explain it is "To see how the popularity of a name has changed over time, enter the name and, optionally, the sex and number of years. Please note that the name you select must be in the top 1000 most popular names in order for the name to appear in the table produced by your request."

You can also see Popular Names by Birth Year (any year after 1879). So in 1960, you would find that David and Mary topped the list while 1970 and 1980 had Michael and Jennifer at the top of the list. By 1990, Michael was still the most popular boy's name while Jessica took the top spot for girls names. Michael was the most popular name from 1954 to 1998 except for one year, 1960 when David took the lead. Jennifer was the most girls popular name from 1970-1984. Thinking about how many Jennifer's you know, does this surprise you?

You can also see by state. In 2006 in Texas, Emma and Mia took the top spots. Michigan had Ava and Emma; South Carolina had Madison and Emma and New Mexico had Isabella and Alyssa. For boys, Alaska had James while Arizona had Angel; Michigan had Jacob, South Carolina had William; and Massachusetts had Matthew.

There is even a game!
Is there a trend to name children after cities? Just a few years ago, the name "London" was not in the top 1000 baby names, but in 2006 the rank was 353 (for girls). Similarly, the name "Paris" has become popular. These 2 examples are European cities that have become popular baby names in the United States.
But what about U. S. cities?
Play the City Name Quiz!
From the list of United States cities with populations of 100,000 or more (as provided by the U. S. Census Bureau), we have drawn those names that are in the top 1000 names for births in 2006.
Can you guess 5 of them?

I had three correct: Dallas, Austin and Madison. There are 20 possible correct answers and let me tell you that not all of them are of the modern variety (i.e. Dakota, Georgia if you were to use states).
You try...http://www.socialsecurity.gov/cgi-bin/citynames.cgi

Just a little fun from the Office of Social Security!

The Art Thief

Don't miss this chance to read "The Art Thief" by Noah Charney. I'm listening to it on audio right now and the lilt of Simon Vance's voice is captivating. Slow and steady, the story is coming to life with the beauty of his British accent that makes me not want to turn off the CD!

(Can I also tell you that I'm totally taken in by the reference to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft, tragic, which happened during my junior year at BU in Boston. Check this out...

In March 1990, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, was robbed by two unknown men. The thieves removed works of art whose value has been estimated as high as $300 million. These include: Vermeer, The Concert; Rembrandt, A Lady and Gentleman in Black; Rembrandt, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee; Rembrandt, Self-Portrait; Govaert Flinck, Landscape with Obelisk; Manet, Chez Tortoni.

and http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/arttheft/northamerica/us/isabella/isabella.htm)

Here is the synopsis...

Rome: In the small Baroque church of Santa Giuliana, a magnificent Caravaggio altarpiece disappears without a trace in the middle of the night.

Paris: In the basement vault of the Malevich Society, curator Geneviéve Delacloche is shocked to discover the disappearance of the Society's greatest treasure, White-on-White by Suprematist painter Kasimir Malevich.

London: At the National Gallery of Modern Art, the museum's latest acquisition is stolen just hours after it was purchased for more than six million pounds.

In The Art Thief, three thefts are simultaneously investigated in three cities, but these apparently isolated crimes have much more in common than anyone imagines. In Rome, the police enlist the help of renowned art investigator Gabriel Coffin when tracking down the stolen masterpiece. In Paris, Geneviéve Delacloche is aided by Police Inspector Jean-Jacques Bizot, who finds a trail of bizarre clues and puzzles that leads him ever deeper into a baffling conspiracy. In London, Inspector Harry Wickenden of Scotland Yard oversees the museum's attempts to ransom back its stolen painting, only to have the masterpiece's recovery deepen the mystery even further. A dizzying array of forgeries, overpaintings, and double-crosses unfolds as the story races through auction houses, museums, and private galleries -- and the secret places where priceless works of art are made available to collectors who will stop at nothing to satisfy their hearts' desires. Full of fascinating art-historical detail, crackling dialogue, and a brain-teasing plot, Noah Charney's debut novel is a sophisticated, stylishthriller, as irresistible and multifaceted as a great work of art.

Read more...
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=9781433203732&z=y

Ben Schott

If you happened to see CBS Sunday Morning then you probably heard about Ben Schott. They called him the Indiana Jones of the library, looking up tomes instead of tombs. He is the master of the miscellaneous.
http://www.benschott.com/en/index2.html

"If you haven't a clue... Ben Schott is your man. He's the king of carefully marshalled facts, published in quaintly antiquarian form to enormous success. Decca Aitkenhead presses him for a few details that don't appear in the books." Read more of the article at http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/referenceandlanguages/story/0,,1640631,00.html#article_continue.

Ever wonder how to say 'I love you' in Hindi? Whether blondes win more often than brunettes in the Miss America pageant? The answers lie in Schott's Original Miscellany. Part encyclopedia, part anthology, part lexicon, the book is a collection of inconsequential tidbits that you never knew, never thought to ask, but will love knowing. As hilarious as it is addictive."
Newsweek (USA)
Curious? See more at...http://www.miscellanies.info/author.asp

Now Mr. Schott is writing almanacs filled with the best of the last, as in the last year. If you are interested be sure to "check them out." Maybe at your library!