Meanderings, 4 December 2021
Good morning from balmy Chicagoland! Chicago is known for its sometimes blisteringly cold winter spells but this year has not been one of those winters — yet!
Photo by Rula Sibai on Unsplash
ATWOOD, Kan. (KSNW) — Some call it rare. They call it a blessing. Three Kansas sisters have each reached 100 years old.
“I guess I have been around a while,” laughed Lucy Pochop.
“We are getting up there,” added her sister Frances Kompus.
“I am thankful for us girls being together all the time, my parents and my faith,” said sister Julia Kopriva.
Kopriva, 104, is the oldest of the three sisters, born on Nov. 5, 1917. Lucy Pochop, 102, is next in line with a birthday of June 11, 1919. The youngest, Frances Kompus, celebrated her 100th birthday on Nov. 11.
The three women, who are mothers and grandmothers, grew up on a farm in the small town of Beardsley, Kansas….
“We always had homemade bread, just plain potatoes, and gravy and meat. With those cookstoves, that was hard to bake. The temperature was hard to keep. Even if it didn’t come out good, we still ate it,” laughed Kopriva.
The female wardrobe was much different back then, too.
“We wore dresses. We didn’t have slacks or jeans,” said Kompus.
One of the biggest changes the women expressed to KSN is new inventions such as washers and dryers and improvements to transportation.
Just in case you missed the story for Small Business Saturday:
Participation in Small Business Saturday continues to grow year after year. In fact, American Express reported consumers have spent an estimated total of more than $120 billion at small businesses on Small Business Saturday over the past 10 years.
Learn what Small Business Saturday is, why it was started and how it helps your community.
Small Business Saturday is an annual holiday that encourages holiday shoppers to shop at local businesses. Small Business Saturday takes place on the Saturday following Thanksgiving.
Small Business Saturday started as a campaign launched by American Express on Nov. 27, 2010, to help small businesses gain exposure and to inspire consumers to shop within their own communities during the holiday season. The day became official in 2011 when Washington State mayors, governors, senators and President Obama shared their support for Small Business Saturday.
In 2012, American Express amplified the campaign by helping small business owners promote their businesses. The credit card company offered small business owners free personalized ads to spread across the web. That year, an estimated $5.5 billion was spent at small businesses nationwide. By 2013, communities began celebrating the holiday by pledging support to their local businesses and organizations.
In 2015, the number of people who shopped at small businesses on Small Business Saturday increased by 8% from 2014 to more than 95 million people and spending reached $16.2 billion. While 2016 and 2017 saw slight decreases in consumer spending at small businesses on Small Business Saturday, 2018 saw an increase to $17.8 billion.
Today, most Americans know what Small Business Saturday is and, of those who participate, nearly all recognize how important the holiday is to their communities.
Photo by Adam Przeniewski on Unsplash
(NEXSTAR) – It’s all fun and games until you move from San Diego.
A recent study from U.S. News and World Report has determined San Diego to be the “most fun” place to live in the United States, followed by the good-time towns of San Francisco, Portland (Oregon), Seattle and Nashville.
The study, released last month, took a number of fun-factors into account, including access to attractions such as parks, restaurants, theaters, live music, shopping, professional sports venues and bars. Visitation rates (in terms of airline arrivals) factored semi-significantly into the scores, too. …
The results, according to U.S. News, placed San Diego firmly at the top of the 30 “most fun” cities ranked on the list, thanks largely to its restaurant ranking relative to the country’s most populous metro areas (No. 1) and its plethora of parks, which allow residents plenty of outdoor leisure options. San Francisco and Portland, Oregon — both popular airline destinations with access to major nightlife and outdoorsy options — placed second and third.
The top 10 “most fun” cities can be found below.
San Diego
San Francisco
Portland, Oregon
Seattle
Nashville
Charleston, South Carolina
Los Angeles
Cleveland
Portland, Maine
Santa Rosa, California
A complete list of the 30 “most fun” places to live, as well as the study’s methodology, can be found at U.S. News and World Report.
(NEXSTAR) – Rover released its annual list of most popular pet names, and this year, the trends are pretty nerdy.
Rover, a company that pairs people with pet sitters and dog walkers, said it used its database of customers to assess which names are most popular. It also conducted a survey of 1,000 pet owners in the U.S. to collect even more data, the company said….
And we’re not sure why anyone would want their pet to remind them of COVID-19, but apparently pandemic-inspired names were on the rise in 2021. Rover reports a 270% increase in pets named Fauci and 35% more pets named Covid since last year.
“Each year our annual top pet names report showcases what cultural moments made an impact and clearly, the pandemic was a big factor. From sports to the TV shows we binge-watched, our pets’ names were shaped by a truly unique year,” said Rover’s Kate Jaffe in a press release.
While all those quirky names are trending upward, they still weren’t popular enough to crack the top-10 list.
Here are the top 10 most popular female dog names nationwide, according to Rover:
Bella
Luna
Lucy
Daisy
Zoe
Lily
Lola
Bailey
Stella
Molly
Here are the top 10 most popular male dog names nationwide, according to Rover:
Max
Charlie
Cooper
Buddy
Milo
Bear
Rocky
Duke
Tucker
Jack
For cat names go to the link above.
Wonderful for you Chassyon!
(NewsNation Now) — In the true spirit of the holidays, a 10-year-old Colorado boy saved the allowance he earned for a year to buy presents for those less fortunate in his community.
“I know that there’s kids out there that don’t have anything,’ Chassyon Murphy said during an appearance on Monday’s “Morning in America”. “And then I have a lot of toys. So I started buying stuff. And then I start giving them to kids.”
Santa shortage looms as holidays draw near
Chassyon bought twelve gifts with his hard-earned money and dropped them off at the Aurora, Colorado, police department to be given to boys and girls who need them.
“We just came up with the idea,” Chassyon’s guardian Susan Nieves said as there wasn’t an ongoing toy drive that prompted his donation.
Chazzy, as he is sometimes called, earned an allowance for doing chores around the house that he said he was just going to do anyway.
BANGOR, Maine (AP) — University of Maine researchers are trying to produce potatoes that can better withstand warming temperatures as the climate changes.
Warming temperatures and an extended growing season can lead to quality problems and disease, Gregory Porter, a professor of crop ecology and management, told the Bangor Daily News.
“The predictions for climate change are heavier rainfall events, and potatoes don’t tolerate flooding or wet conditions for long without having other quality problems,” Porter said. “If we want potatoes to be continued to be produced successfully in Maine, we need to be able to produce varieties that can be resistant to change.”
Around the world, research aimed at mitigating crop damage is underway. A NASA study published this month suggested climate change may affect the production of corn and wheat, with corn yields projected to decline while wheat could see potential growth, as soon as 2030 under a high greenhouse gas emissions scenario.
Maine is coming off of a banner potato crop thanks in part to the success of the Caribou russet, which was developed by UMaine researchers. But Porter fears that even that variety isn’t as heat tolerant as necessary to resist the future effects of climate change.
Pests are another factor. The Colorado potato beetle and disease-spreading aphids have flourished with the changing climate, said Jim Dill, pest management specialist at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension.
Breeding seemingly small changes like hairier leaves that make it difficult for insects to move around on the plant can cut down on pests’ destruction and also the need for pesticides, he said.
Breeding such characteristics into potatoes is a long process of cross-pollinating different potato varieties.
The process is well underway.