As the 2010 U.S. Census ramps up in March, you should be on the alert for potential scams. Con artists could use the event to acquire personal information that can lead to identity theft. Most Census forms will arrive in the mail March 15 to 17. Census workers will then go door-to-door from the end of April to July to households that didn't return the questionnaire. One thing to watch for is a form or person asking for a Social Security number and financial information, such as bank-account numbers. Another red flag: email. The Census Bureau won't contact you by email. And the form can't be completed online, says Census Bureau spokesman Michael Cook. Census takers will carry an ID badge with an expiration date and a Department of Commerce watermark. You also can request contact information for a supervisor or the local Census office for verification. Census takers are trained to do business outside the door, says Mr. Cook. So be wary of people trying to enter your home as well as anyone soliciting donations. To report a scam, contact your regional Census center, the Better Business Bureau and local law enforcement if necessary. You also can report fraudulent emails to ITSO.Fraud.Reporting@census.gov and fraudulent mail to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (postalinspectors.uspis.gov). by Anna Prior
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126732806113553329.html?mod=WSJ_PersonalFinance_PF4

Petroleum Marketing Monthly, March 2010 with data for December 2009
Monthly price and volume statistics on crude oil and petroleum products at a national, regional and state level. http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/petroleum_marketing_monthly/pmm.html

2009-2010 edition of Congressional Directory now available
"The Congressional Directory is the official directory of the U.S. Congress, prepared by the Joint Committee on Printing (JCP). It presents:
Short biographies of each member of the Senate and House, listed by state or district.
Committee memberships, terms of service, administrative assistants and/or secretaries, and room and telephone numbers for Members of Congress.
Lists officials of the courts, military establishments, and other Federal departments and agencies, including D.C. government officials, governors of states and territories, foreign diplomats, and members of the press, radio, and television galleries.

The earliest fasteners used by man were straight pins, usually simple thorns. Relics of prehistoric man 20,000 years old include bone needles with eyes, and pins with decorated heads. The art of pin making actually predates agriculture, pottery, and metalworking. The Egyptians didn’t use the safety pin or button, but they did fashion straight pins and needles from metal. Every period of classical Greece and Rome had its own forms of safety pin and clasp. Presumably, almost all early Greeks used safety pins to fasten their tunics, since the button wasn’t to arrive from Asia Minor until considerably later. Athenian women used long, dagger-like pins to fasten their chitons over their shoulders. According to Herodotus, when a group of angry women used the pins to stab to death an Athenian soldier, the city forbade the wearing of all but the Ionian tunic, which did not require pins. The law was later revoked; but by then, women were using buttons and safety pins. The Romans called the safety pin fibula, a term still used for a clasp and also for a certain leg bone. The Goths who overran the Roman Empire used straight pins, made most often from horn or bone, to fasten their mantles over their shoulders. In Medieval Europe, the wealthy used elaborately fashioned safety pins of ivory, brass, silver, and gold, while the poor had to make do with simple wood skewers. By the fifteenth century, pins were being manufactured from drawn iron wire, and a pin-making industry was well established in France. But for centuries, metal pins remained rare and costly items reserved for the rich. You’ve heard the expression pin money, meaning a small sum allotted by a husband for his wife’s use, or money for incidental items. Well, when the term originated in the fourteenth century, “pin money” was just that, for at the time, pins were expensive enough to be real items in the budget. By custom, a husband would present his wife on the first or second of January with enough money to buy her pins for the year. “Pin money” went by the boards in the nineteenth century, when mass-production made pins the inexpensive purchase they are today.
http://www.bigsiteofamazingfacts.com/history-of-safety-pins

In 1893 Whitcomb Judson of Chicago (who also invented the 'Pneumatic Street Railway') marketed a 'Clasp Locker' a complicated hook-and-eye shoe fastener. The clasp locker was an assemblage of hooks and eyes that Judson thought would save people time and sore backs fastening their shoes with one hand. Together with businessman Colonel Lewis Walker, Whitcomb launched the Universal Fastener Company to manufacture the new device. Swedish immigrant and electrical engineer, Gideon Sundback was hired to work for the Universal Fastener Company. Good design skills and a marriage to the plant-manager's daughter Elvira Aronson led Sundback to the position of head designer at Universal. He was responsible for improving the far from perfect 'Judson C-curity Fastener.' By December of 1913, he came up with the modern zipper. The popular 'zipper' name came from B. F. Goodrich Company president Bertram G. Wrok, when they decided to use Gideon's fastener on his "Mystic Boot", which were rubber boots or galoshes, and called it the Zipper Boot. http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/Teasers/Teasers/ZipperHistory.htm

Button-like objects have been found in the Indus Valley of ancient Pakistan and date back to around 2000 B.C.E. These were not used for fasteners, but for ornaments. Before they were used for fastening, pins, leather lacing and belts were used to secure clothing. Before buttons could be used as fasteners, the button hole had to be devised. Evidence dates the first button and button hole closure systems to the 13th century in Germany. This may have been a solution to the problem of how to secure clothing that was becoming more and more form-fitting, without having to resort to sharp pins.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Buttons---History-and-Facts&id=915658

Margaret Bourke-White, the camera queen article by Richard H. Parks from Modern Mechanix, March 1937 http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/08/28/the-camera-queen/?Qwd=./ModernMechanix/3-1937/camera_queen&Qif=camera_queen_1.jpg&Qiv=thumbs&Qis=XL

In France and Belgium the tartine is a slice of bread with fresh cheese spread on it, usually accompanied by radishes and scallions—not a bad idea for a light supper.
The Americanized version for me is a slice of coarse and chewy whole grain bread toasted over a stove burner, maybe rubbed with garlic, then topped with shavings of sharp American cheddar. The Splendid Table March 3, 2010