Seed Savers Exchange is a non-profit, 501(c)(3), member supported organization that saves and shares the heirloom seeds of our garden heritage, forming a living legacy that can be passed down through generations. Our mission is to save North America's diverse, but endangered, garden heritage for future generations by building a network of people committed to collecting, conserving and sharing heirloom seeds and plants, while educating people about the value of genetic and cultural diversity. At the heart of Seed Savers Exchange are the dedicated members who have distributed hundreds of thousands of heirloom and open pollinated garden seeds since our founding 35 years ago. Those seeds now are widely used by seed companies, small farmers supplying local and regional markets, chefs and home gardeners and cooks, alike. Seed Savers Exchange was founded in 1975 by Diane Ott Whealy and Kent Whealy to honor this tradition of preserving and sharing. Their collection started when Diane's terminally-ill grandfather gave them the seeds of two garden plants, Grandpa Ott's morning glory and German Pink tomato. Grandpa Ott's parents brought the seeds from Bavaria when they immigrated to St. Lucas, Iowa in the 1870s. Today, the 890-acre Heritage Farm, near Decorah, Iowa, is our home. We maintain many thousands of heirloom garden varieties, most having been brought to North America by members' ancestors who emigrated from Europe, the Middle East, Asia and other parts of the world. http://www.seedsavers.org/Content.aspx?src=aboutus.htm

Toledo-born Oliver F. Senn led a group of local chemical engineers who in 1949 devised a way to synthesize the sugar substitute saccharin, eliminating its bitter metallic aftertaste. Originally called the "Senn process," the method is now practiced around the world as the "Maumee process," a reference to the former Maumee Chemical Co. of East Toledo that Mr. Senn and the other chemists founded. The Maumee Chemical plant was destroyed on May 10, 1962, in what remains the second deadliest industrial fire in Toledo history. Clouds of multicolored smoke rolled across the city as the plant's chemicals burned. Ten people were killed and 46 were injured. The production of saccharin and the firm's other chemical products was soon moved to a plant in suburban Cincinnati. The Cincinnati facility, now owned by PMC Specialties Group Inc., still makes saccharin but is fighting for existence against lower-cost Chinese competitors. http://toledoblade.com/article/20110116/NEWS16/110119641/0/SPORTS17

Metropolitan population growth is just one of more than a thousand topics addressed in the U.S. Census Bureau's Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2011. The Abstract is perennially the federal government's best-selling reference book. When it was first published in 1878, the nation had only 38 states, people usually got around using a horse and buggy, Miami and Las Vegas did not yet exist, and Franklin D. Roosevelt had yet to be born. The Abstract has been published nearly every year since then. Contained in the 130th edition are 1,407 tables of social, political and economic facts that collectively describe the state of our nation and the world. Included this year are 65 new tables, covering topics such as insufficient rest or sleep, nursing home occupancy, homeschooling, earthquakes, U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions, organic farmland, honey bee colonies, crashes involving distracted drivers and cities with the highest transit savings. The statistics come not only from the Census Bureau but also from other governmental agencies and private organizations. The data generally represent the most recent year or period available by summer 2010. Most are national-level data, but some tables present state- and even city- and metropolitan-level data as well. http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/miscellaneous/cb11-07.html See 2011Abstract at: http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/

In 1887, Newton S. Conway unearthed what became the largest and most complete mastodon skeleton discovered up to that time from a swamp on his Ohio farm on the Clark-Champaign County line. The Conway Mastodon was an immediate sensation and made the rounds of several county fairs. The skeleton was eventually donated to Ohio State University and was on display in Orton Hall for 25 years. In 1970, when the Ohio Historical Center opened, the university loaned the Conway Mastodon to the Ohio Historical Society. It been greeting visitors to the society’s natural history exhibit area ever since. About 70 percent of the skeleton is complete. The mastodon’s enormous tusks, weighing more than a hundred pounds each, were deemed too heavy and were replaced with lightweight, fiberglass replicas. The real tusks now lie at its feet. Mastodons were distant relatives of modern elephants and lived during Ohio’s last ice age about 10,000 to 14,000 years ago. They were covered in heavy, shaggy, brown fur and lived on a vegetarian diet. Because mastodon bones have been found all across the state, it is thought that mastodons were once relatively common and that their meat provided a good foodstuff for prehistoric hunters. The Ohio Historical Center, located at I-71 and 17th Avenue in Columbus, is open Thursdays 10 a.m.–7 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Admission is $8/adults, $7/seniors, $4/youth (6-12) and free for children age 5 and under and Ohio Historical Society members. For more information, call 800.686.6124 or visit at www.ohiohistory.org. http://www.ohiohistory.org/about/pr/121410a.html
New Latin mastodont-, mastodon, from Greek mastos + odont-, odōn, odous, tooth First Known Use: 1811 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mastodont
Mastodonts and mammoths can readily be distinguished by their teeth, which in turn indicate different life habits. The chewing surface of the mastodont tooth is characterized by a series of cone-shaped cusps fused together. These cone-like cusps are covered by hard enamel and were well suited for snipping leaves and branches from trees and shrubs. Mastodonts probably frequented woodlands, swamps and ponds, where they could dine on vegetation associated with these habitats. Mammoths, on the other hand, are characterized by a more advanced tooth morphology, composed of a series of enamel plates (laminae) held together with a natural substance called cementum, forming a rather flat chewing surface. These teeth were well adapted for chewing highly abrasive vegetation, such as grasses. http://www.statemuseumpa.org/Assets/pdf-files/natural-history-notes-2.pdf

2011 Ohio History Day is April 30th at Columbus State Community College. National History Day in Ohio is a co-curricular program for students in grades 4-5 and 6-12. Each year, students conduct research based on the annual theme and create historical papers, original performances, media documentaries, creative exhibits and imaginative websites as a result of their research. National History Day in Ohio is open to all public schools, private schools, parochial schools, virtual academies, homeschools and independent students. http://www.ohiohistoryday.org/

The prospect of American settlement in the Ohio Valley after 1783 created immense opportunities for entrepreneurs. Businessmen and politicians such as George Washington legally purchased large tracts of government land in the hopes of profiting from the new wave of settlement. But speculation also could promote corruption, as French immigrant settlers learned in 1790, when they invested in the Scioto Land Company’s proposed settlement at Gallipolis, Ohio. The Company itself grew out of efforts by veterans of the American War of Independence to obtain payment for their military service in the form of land grants in the Ohio Valley. In 1786 the Ohio Company of Associates formed to press veterans’ claims before Congress, raise funds, purchase land, and encourage settlement. In 1787 Colonel William Duer (1747-1799), secretary of the U.S. Treasury Board, used his position to grant the Ohio Company’s request for land, with the secret proviso that the company act as a cover for his own speculation along the Scioto River in southeast Ohio. Representatives used misleading tactics to market their shares to potential investors in Europe, who purchased them with devalued U.S. bonds. Duer and the other principals stood to profit by using these same bonds, redeemed at face value, to pay off the initial debt. Problems plagued the settlers from the beginning. When the French immigrants arrived at the port of Alexandria, Virginia, in May 1790, the company’s representative failed to meet them. Those who did not return to France immediately remained in Alexandria for a month, plagued with unanticipated expenses. The Company failed to provide sufficient provisions in Gallipolis. Many of the settlers were members of the nobility, middle-class professionals, and well-to-do artisans, all poorly suited for land clearing and cultivation. When settlers learned that the Ohio Company was the true owner of the lands that they had purchased, most abandoned Gallipolis for Kentucky, Illinois, New Orleans, and the eastern seaboard. For two decades, Gallipolis remained a tiny, undeveloped, log-cabin village. http://memory.loc.gov/intldl/fiahtml/fiatheme5b1.html

Quote They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel. Carl W. Buechner

Six of us went to Findlay on January 21, the last day that Stately Raven Bookstore, reviewed as "Ohio's best bookstore" by Ohio Magazine, was open. People raved about the Raven, its remarkable furnishings, ambiance and murals painted by Toledoan Beth Covert. Books were sold at 75% off, and we bought ten, including works by Elmore Leonard, Alexander McCall Smith and William Gibson (the man who coined the word cyberspace). Beth told us that the bookstore actually had a good year but "saw the handwriting on the wall" and decided to sell. After our visit to Stately Raven, we went to Logan's Irish Pub in downtown Findlay to see more of Beth's art work on the walls and ceiling and have a hearty meal.

Jack LaLanne, whose obsession with grueling workouts and good nutrition, complemented by a salesman’s gift, brought him recognition as the founder of the modern physical fitness movement, died January 23 at his home in Morro Bay, Calif. He was 96. He started working out with weights when they were an oddity, and in 1936 he opened the prototype for the fitness spas to come — a gym, juice bar and health food store — in an old office building in Oakland. “The Jack LaLanne Show” made its debut in 1951 as a local program in the San Francisco area, then went nationwide on daytime television in 1959. At 60 he swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman’s Wharf handcuffed, shackled and towing a 1,000-pound boat. At 70, handcuffed and shackled again, he towed 70 boats, carrying a total of 70 people, a mile and a half through Long Beach Harbor. Mr. LaLanne, 5-foot-6 and 150 pounds or so with a 30-inch waist, maintained that he disliked working out. He said he kept at it strictly to feel fit and stay healthy. He built two gyms and a pool at his home in Morro Bay, and began each day, into his 90s, with two hours of workouts: weight lifting followed by a swim against an artificial current or in place, tied to a belt. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/24/sports/24lalanne.html?src=me