LSU's First Touchdown & First Win were in Natchez!!

1893 was the first year LSU had a football team, and they were coached by a professor. They played one game, which was against Tulane. LSU lost and never even scored. However, this was the beginning of the Purple & Gold. They wanted to use Mardi Gras colors on their uniforms, but they couldn't find any green ribbons because the Tulane Green Wave bought them all.

1894 LSU football team

In 1894, they got a real football coach (Albert Simmons) and played three games. Their first game was on November 30 and was against the Natchez Athletic Club in Natchez. Here they scored their first touchdown and went on to get their first win with a score of 36 - 0. The team's captain, Samuel Marmaduke Dinwidie Clark, became the first LSU player to ever score a touchdown.

Johnny Waycaster had heard this story and asked us if we had the Natchez paper for that time on microfilm. We looked, and sure enough there was an article in the Natchez paper, The Saturday Evening Banner. (You just never know the treasures and trivia your Library has available!) Here's the story - it's hilarious:

The foot-ball game between the University team of Baton Rouge and the Natchez team came off yesterday afternoon. The game was to have taken place on Thanksgiving day, but the visitors were detained on a sand-bar near Lehmann's Landing, on board the steamer Royal, until yesterday morning, when they came up on the Natchez. The game attracted a large crowd to the park, as a foot-ball match was something new for Natchez. It proved to be quite entertaining to those present, but the home team proved to be too weak for the visitors, the score standing 36 - 0. The visitors were entertained last evening at the hospitable home of Capt. F. J. Arrighi, whose son, Hughes Arrighi, is a member of the Baton Rouge team. They departed for home this morning well pleased with their visit, and the courteous treatment received while here. The Natchez foot-ball colors, red, orange, and blue, have been quite prominently displayed during the past few days.

So Natchez families have been sending their children to LSU for a long time - and Natchez hospitality and partying after games are obviously well established traditions.

LSU's second game that year and first home game was against Ole Miss, and LSU had their first loss to Ole Miss. LSU's only touchdown was scored by the coach, who was presumably a player-coach.

1895 LSU football team

In 1895, Coach Albert Simmons, in his last year at LSU, helped the Tigers to their first undefeated season  in LSU football history. The season also featured the first home victory in LSU history with a win over Tulane in front of 1,500 spectators. They did not play Ole Miss that year - but they did play Alabama in the last game of the season. Surely that will happen again on Monday!.

1896 LSU football team

In 1896, LSU played 6 games, was again undefeated, and won their first Conference Championship. This time, they beat Ole Miss for the first time. And this rivalry continued forever.






NOTE: The pictures and some of this information came from Wikipedia.

How Libraries Stack Up

In the United States, we go to libraries to find jobs, create new careers and help grow our small businesses. We borrow books, magazines, music, and movies. We learn to use the latest technology. We get tools and information needed to reenter the workforce. We get our questions answered, engage in civic activities, meet with friends and co-workers, and improve our skills at one of the 16,600 U.S. public libraries. Every day our public libraries deliver millions of dollars in resources and support that meet the critical needs of our communities.

Here are a few ways that our public libraries stack up:

Every day 300,000 Americans get job seeking help at their public library.

Most public libraries provide free wireless Internet access for their users. Nearly 12,000 now offer free Wi-Fi. That's more than Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, or Borders.

2.8 million times every month business owners and employees use resources at public libraries to support their small businesses.

Library cards are about as prevalent as credit cards. Two-thirds of American's have a library card. For many young people, the first card in their wallet is a library card.

More libraries - 5,400 - offer technology training classes than there are computer training businesses in the U.S. Every day, 14,700 people attend free library computer classes, a retail value of $2.2 million. That's $629 million worth of computer classes annually (based on 286 business days per year).

Every day, Americans borrow 2.1 million DVDs from libraries, and we spend over $22 million for DVD rentals at outlets like Netflix and RedBox vending machines.

Americans turn to libraries when searching for new jobs. Both public libraries and One Stop Career Centers provide career counseling resources, resume assistance, and help in filling out online applications.

More public libraries offer free meeting rooms than there are conference centers, convention facilities, and auditoriums combined.

Every year, Americans visit the library more often then we go to the movies and six times more often than we attend live sporting events (includes professional and NACA football, baseball, basketball, and hockey).

U.S. public libraries circulate as many materials every day as FedEx ships packages worldwide.

Libraries are at the heart of our communities, a resource for people of any age to find what we need to help improve our quality of life.

Save some money - visit your Library!

Amazing Animal Facts

A cat can run about 20 kilometers per hour (12 miles per hour) when it grows up. This one is going nowhere today - it is too lazy !.

Bears whose brown fur is tipped with lighter colored hairs are called grizzly bears . The smallest species of bears is called sun or Malayan bears. Male bears are called boars. Bears are native to the continents of North America, Asia, Europe, and South America. Alaskan brown bears, world's largest meat eating animals that live on land, can weigh as much as 1,700 pounds (771 kilograms)

No two zebras have stripes that are exactly alike. Zebras' enemies include hyenas, wild dogs, and lions. Male zebras are called stallions. Zebras usually travel in herds.

There are more than 50 different kinds of kangaroos. Kangaroos are native of Australia. A group of kangaroos is called a mob. Young kangaroos are called joeys.

How do reindeers survive in the extreme cold? Most animals don’t eat moss. It’s hard to digest, and it has little nutritional value. But reindeer fill up with lots of moss. Why? The moss contains a special chemical that helps reindeer keep their body fluids warm. When the reindeer make their yearly journey across the icy Arctic region, the chemical keeps them from freezing—much as antifreeze keeps a car from freezing up in winter.

A cheetah can run 76 kilometres per hour (46 miles per hour) - that's really fast! The fastest human beings runs only about 30 kilometres per hour (18 miles per hour). A cheetah does not roar like a lion - it purrs like a cat (meow).

The largest frog in the world is called Goliath frog. Frogs start their lives as eggs often laid in or near fresh water. Frogs live on all continents except Antarctica. Frogs belong to a group of animals called amphibians.

Fun with Words and Letters

1. 1. The letters of the alphabet in order of their frequency of use in English are: ETAISONHRDLUCMFWYPGVBKJQXZ. This is useful knowledge for games like Wheel of Fortune, Hangman, etc.
2. 2. Onomatopoeia is making words based on how the named thing sounds. The word for a dog's bark in Japanese is wan-wan. Spanish cats go guau.
3. An anagram (same letters rearranged differently) of the name Michael Jordan is Lo! Nice, hard jam!
4. You've probably been disgruntled at one time or another, but have you ever been gruntled? There are some words that either never had a positive form or their positive form faded from use. Here are some more: debunk, defenestrate, dejected, disconsolate, disheveled, dismayed, feckless, gormless, impetuous, impromptu, inane, incessant, inchoate, incognito, incommunicado, indomitable, ineffable, inept, inert, infernal, inhibited, insidious, insipid, insouciant, intact, invert, misgivings, misnomer, nonchalant, noncommittal, nondescript, nonpareil, nonplussed, unbeknownst, ungainly, unnerved, unswerving, untold, untoward. Some words that do have positive forms, though they are rarely encountered: disarray, disconcerting, immaculate, impeccable, inadvertent, incapacitated, incorrigible, inevitable, innocent, inscrutable, insensate, insufferable, interminable, reckless, unbridled, unflappable, unfurl, unkempt, unmitigated, unrequited, unruly, unthinkable, unwieldy.
5. What do the words cookie, cosmos, cuckoo, message, museum, quack, sausage, sequoia, squeaky, and wages have in common? They are all comprised of only the odd-numbered letters of the alphabet: a, c, e, g, and so on.
6. The full name of the city of Los Angeles is El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula.
7. In 1740, Justice of the Peace Henry Fielding, under the nom de plume Captain Hercules Vinegar, summoned poet laureate Colley Cibber to court for the murder of the English language.
8. The first letters of the months July through November, in order, spell the name Jason.
9. The word galaxy comes from the Greek word for milk.
10. Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
11. The female name Vanessa is Greek for butterfly.
12. Aibohphobia is the term for the fear of palindromes - a word that is spelled the same way forward and backward. Go ahead, spell it backwards.
13. To foreign audiences, the title of the movie There's Something About Mary proved mystifying. So, country by country, the movie was renamed. In Poland, where blonde jokes are popular, the title became For the Love of a Blonde. In France, it was Mary at all Costs. In Thailand, it was My True Love Will Outstand all Outrageous Events.

Luck of the Irish

March 17 is highlighted on my calender with a big green marker to remind myself it will be St Patrick's Day. It's my day to show off my heritage, to wear green, go to the parade in town, and search out a lucky shamrock - or even better catch a leprechaun and make him hand over that pot o' gold.

Did you know St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was not actually Irish? He was born on this day around the year 385 somewhere near Dumbarton, Scotland. When he was sixteen Patrick was captured by Irish raiders looking for slaves to work their farms. Six years later, he ran away, boarded a ship, and headed to Europe where he finished his education and had a vision from God telling him to return to Ireland and convert the pagans to Christianity. St Patrick is best known for ordering all the snakes to leave Ireland, an event that, according to legend occured on the mountain known as Croagh Patrick. On the last day in July every year, hundreds of pilgrims gather there to commemorate their patron saint. Here are some other interesting facts about the holiday:

• Each year thousands of Irish Americans gather with their loved ones on St Patrick's Day to share a traditional meal of corned beef and cabbage. Though cabbage has long been an Irish food, corned beef only began to be associated with St Patrick's Day at the turn of the century. Irish immigrants living in New York City's Lower East Side substituted corned beef for their traditional dish of Irish bacon to save money.
• Irish soda bread gets its name and distinctive character from the use of baking soda rather than yeast as a leavening agent.
• Lime green chrysanthemums are often requested for St Patrick's Day parades and celebrations.
• The first St Patrick's Day parade took place in the United States on March 17, 1762, when Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City.
• More than 100 St Patrick's Day parades are held across the nation. New York City and Boston are home to the largest celebrations.
• At the annual New York City parade, participants march up Fifth Avenue from 44th Street to 86th Street. More than 150,000 people take part in the event which does not allow cars or floats.
• The shamrock, which is also called the "seamroy" by the Celts, was a sacred plant in ancient Ireland, because it symbolized the rebirth of spring. By the seventeenth century, the shamrock had become a symbol of emerging Irish nationalism. As the English began to seize Irish land and make laws against the use of Irish language and the practice of Catholicism, many Irish began to wear the shamrock as a symbol of their pride in their heritage and their displeasure with English rule.
• It has long been told that during his time in Ireland, St. Patrick once stood on a hilltop with a wooden staff by his side and banished all the snakes from Ireland. In fact, the island nation was never home to any snakes. The "banishing of snakes" was really a metaphor for the eradication of pagan ideology from Ireland and the triumph of Christianity. Within 200 years of Patrick's arrival, Ireland was completely Christianized.
• Belief in leprechauns probably stems from Celtic belief in fairies, tiny men and women who could use their magical powers to serve good or evil. In Celtic folktales, leprechauns were cranky souls responsible for mending the shoes of the other fairies. Though only minor figures in Celtic folklore the leprechauns were known for their trickery which they often used to protect their fabled "pot of gold".
• Leprecauns had nothing to do with St Patrick or the celebration of St Patrick's Day. In 1959 Walt Disney released a film called Darby O'Gill and the Little People which introduced America to a very different sort of leprecaun. This cheerful, friendly leprechaun is a purely American invention, but quickly evolved into an easily recognizable symbol of both St Patrick's Day and Ireland in general.

St Patrick's Day is the one holiday where everybody can be Irish for the day. Folks run around with "Kiss Me I'm Irish" buttons, and I know a few of my friends who dye their beards green. Big cities celebrate by turning their rivers and harbors green (see the picture of Chicago). Local pubs serve green beer and hold Oh Danny Boy singing contests. All in all, it is a day of fun, and a day to reflect on one man's commitment to his faith.

St Patrick's Day is only two weeks away. For some fun activities for the family check out this website.

WHO DAT? NO ONE! Part II

Continuing our questions that Reference Librarians might have to answer about the Super Bowl in the future.

How many people watched the Super Bowl:
106.5 million people, which broke the previous record for a televised event in the US, held by the last episode of MASH.

How much were the commercials than ran on the Super Bowl?
$2.5 - $3 million per 30 seconds. There were 47 minutes 50 seconds of commercials during the event, so CBS earned a big chunk of change.

Which was the most popular commercial?
Winners will be posted on February 17. In the meantime, you can go there and see them all and vote for your favorites. This blogger's favorite was Google's - the first time Google advertised on TV.

What were some of the most searched for Superbowl items?
Team:  Saints
Player:  Peyton Manning, followed closely by Drew Brees
Coach: Sean Payton
Recipes: buffalo chicken dip, guacamole, 7 layer dip, and pigs in a blanket
Advertisers: Dockers and Dennys - they used free in their ads

WHO DAT? NO ONE! Part I

Years from now Reference Librarians will be answering 7 February 2010 to questions about when the Who Dat Nation became the most powerful nation in the world. Which got us to thinking about what other questions might arise regarding yesterday's awesome Super Bowl victory by the New Orleans Saints. Here are a few we came up with. Which ones would you add?

How many extra copies of the New Orleans Times Picayune were printed on Monday, February 8, 2010?
193,000

Where was the Super Bowl played?
Officially, it's South Florida, but the stadium (Sun Life Stadium) was in Miami. The press headquarters were in nearby Fort Lauderdale.

What did it cost South Florida taxpayers to host the Superbowl?
About $6 million.

How many representatives of the media had credentials?
More than 4,500 members fromm 22 different countries.

Who was the half time entertainment?
The Who - should have been The Who Dat. Younger fans said The What?

What two Saints players had Indiana roots.
Saints quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees play college foorball at Purdue, which is in Indiana. Saints cornerback Tracy Porter - who made the game clinching interception and ran back 74 yards for a touchdown - played at the University of Indiana. Ouch!

What did losing quarterback Peyton Manning say to winning quarterback Drew Brees during the midfield handshake after the game?
Nothing. Manning went straight to the locker room without congratulating Brees.

Which Super Bowl records were broken?
Highest completion percentage, career: 82.1 - Drew Brees, Saints
Most completions in a game, both teams: 63 - Saints (32) and Colts (31)
Most field goals 40 and over: 3 - Garrett Hartley, Saints

Which Super Bowl records were tied?
Largest deficit overcome by a winning team: 0 - 10 Saints
Most completions in a game: 32 - Drew Brees, Saints
Most two point conversions in a game: 1 - Lance Moore,
Most first downs passing, game: 32 - Saints and Colts (16 each)
Fewest rushing attempts, game, both teams: 37 - Saints (18) and Colts (19)
Most yards, touchdown drives: 96, Colts
Most completions, game, team: 32 - Saints
Fewest times sacked, game, team: 0 - Colts
Fewest times sacked, game, both teams: 1 - Saints (1) and Colts (o)
Fewest fumbles, game, both teams: 0 Saints vs Colts
Fewest turnovers, game, team: 0 - Saints

What was the most surprising/pivotal/memorable play of the game?
Coach Sean Payton called an onsides kick by punter Thomas Morstead to start the second half - and it succeeded when safety Chris Reis recovered it.

How much were the tickets to the Super Bowl?
That depended on who was selling them, but the cheapest tickets were $1800 and went up to around $5000 for the good seats.

What was the best column prior to the game - according to your blogger?
Dear Miami: Get Ready for the Who Dat Nation coming for  the Superbowl

This will be a work in progress. After all, I have to do some real work today.

Interesting People & Strange Facts

There are so many web sites with interesting facts and trivia. The following facts and trivia came from this site. I find trivia like this very fascinating.

Interesting facts about Mark Twain

His real name is Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Twain adopted his pen name in 1863 in Nevada. While he was a teenager, Mark Twain worked as an amateur printer. Mark Twain published more than 30 books throughout his career. Twain was a steamboat pilot apprentice on the Mississippi River and eventually earned his pilot’s license. Twain was very interested in parapsychology. He often made bad investments, which resulted in serious financial problems. Twain served during the American Civil War. Mark Twain is famous for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. William Faulkner called him “the father of American literature” . Twain had four children: Jean, Susy, Langdon and Clara Clemens.

Interesting facts about Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison was partially deaf. He developed this problem in his childhood days. He built his own science laboratory at the age of 10. This was built in the basement of his home. Edison’s First Patented Invention was a flop. In 1910 he invented the Edison battery, which used an alkaline electrolyte. Edison was considered one of the most prolific inventors of his time, holding a record 1,093 patents in his name. Besides the light bulb, he invented these things to go along with it: the parallel circuit, a durable light bulb, an improved dynamo, the underground conductor network, the devices for maintaining constant voltage, safety fuses and insulating materials, and light sockets with on off switches. Edison had five dots tattooed on his left forearm. No one knew what the dots meant. The inventor of the electric light was not Thomas Edison. In 1802, 77 years before Edison perfected a filament for the incandescent lamp, Davy caused a platinum wire to glow by passing an electric current through it.

Interesting facts about Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1856. Sigmund Freud is the founder of the science of psychology . His book The Interpretation of Dreams began the complex theory of Psychoanalysis. Sigmund Freud had a morbid fear of ferns. Sigmund Freud was deathly afraid of the number 62 and would not book a room in any hotel with more than 62 rooms in case he was allotted that particular room! Diagnosed with cancer in 1923 due to frequent cigar smoking, Freud underwent over 30 surgeries over the next 16 years. Freud had a penchant for rejecting people who did not totally agree with him. In 1930, Freud received the Goethe Prize in appreciation of his contribution to psychology and to German literary culture. He was 83 years old when he asked his doctor to end his life, and died of a physician-assisted morphine overdose in London on September 23, 1939.

Interesting facts about birthdays 

Your birthday is a very special day. Only eighteen million other people share it (unless you were born on February 29, in which case you really are special since only 4.5 million people have your birthday). The custom of lighting candles originated with people believing that the gods lived in the sky and by lighting candles and torches they were sending a signal or prayer to the gods so they they could be answered. When you blow out the candles and make a wish this is another way of sending a signal and a message. The earliest birthday parties in history were held because it was feared that evil spirits were attracted to people on their birthdays.

Interesting facts about the Barbie Doll

Barbie is named after the daughter of the original inventor, Barbara. The first Barbie dolls were made in Japan. On the bottom of the right foot they are marked Made In Japan. The Barbie doll was introduced in Europe in 1961. Every second, two Barbie dolls are sold somewhere in the world. The first Black, and Hispanic Barbie dolls were introduced in 1980. Barbie has appeared in over 40 various nationalities. The first Barbie doll sold for $3. Barbie has had over 80 careers. The first was as a teenage fashion model. Only stamp collecting is more popular in the U.S. than doll collecting. Barbie has over 40 pets. Among them are cats, dogs, horses, a panda, a lion cub, and a zebra. Barbie is eleven and one half inches tall.

Other uses for toothpaste

Toothpaste contains calcium, antimicrobial agents that inhibits growth of bacteria and sodium fluoride.That is why it cleans the teeth and gets rid of toothache, filing teeth, leaving the teeth white, cleaned and disinfected. But few know that toothpaste, because its composition, can be used for other purposes. In case of burns, herpes, or scratches, you can apply a little toothpaste on the affected area at regular intervals and you will quickly get rid of troubles. Toothpaste can remove onion smell. If you spent a full day in the kitchen to cook and the smell of onions has not disappeared even after several washes with soap, try to wash your hands with toothpaste and you get rid of odor. Spots on the clothes have a fearsome enemy in toothpaste too. Rub the affected area of the coat a few minutes and rinse with water. Silver jewels which are blackened by time can be cleaned with a toothbrush and paste.

The Secrets of Mistletoe

Last weekend as I was decorating my house for the Christmas holidays, I was looking for just the right place to hang my fake mistletoe ball for maximum kisses and began to wonder about its place of tradition during the Christmas season. Being a reference librarian, the need to know sent me off to the stacks looking for holiday traditions, and this is some of what I found out.

We are all familiar with at least a portion of the mysterious mistletoe's story: namely, that a lot of kissing under the mistletoe has been going on for ages. Few, however, realize that mistletoe's botanical story earns it the classification of parasite. Fewer still are privy to the convoluted history behind the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe.

The kissing under the mistletoe myth comes from Norse mythology. Baldur’s mother, Frigga, Goddess of Beauty and Love, went to all plants and animals asking them to protect her son and cause him no harm, since he was the God of the Summer Sun. She overlooked one, mistletoe. Loki, God of Evil, found this out and got another to kill Baldur with a spear laced with mistletoe. Baldur was eventually brought back to life. Frigga cried tears of little white berries, like the ones found on mistletoe. Out of admiration, Frigga vowed to kiss anyone who walked under the mistletoe, so beginning the kissing under the mistletoe myth.

Washington Irving, in Christmas Eve, relates the typical festivities surrounding the Twelve Days of Christmas, including kissing under the mistletoe. Irving continues his Christmas passage with:
We have conveniently forgotten the part about plucking the berries (which, incidentally, are poisonous), and then desisting from kissing under the mistletoe when the berries run out!

“The mistletoe is still hung up in farm houses and kitchens at Christmas, and the young men have the privilege of kissing the girls under it, plucking each time a berry from the bush. When the berries are all plucked the privilege ceases.”

At Christmas time, a young lady standing under a ball of mistletoe, brightly trimmed with evergreens, ribbons, and ornaments, cannot refuse to be kissed. Such a kiss could mean deep romance or lasting friendship and goodwill. If the girl remained unkissed, she cannot expect to marry the following year. In some parts of England, the Christmas mistletoe is burned on the twelfth night lest all the boys and girls who have kissed under it never marry. Whether we believe the myths or not, mistletoe always makes for fun and frolic at Christmas celebrations.

Along with the Christmas holly, laurel, rosemary, yews, boxwood bushes and, of course, the Christmas tree, mistletoe is an evergreen displayed during the Christmas season and symbolic of the eventual rebirth of vegetation that will occur in spring. But perhaps more than any other of the Christmas evergreens, it is a plant of which we are conscious only during the holidays. One day we're kissing under the mistletoe, and next day we've forgotten all about it (the plant, that is, not the kisses).

When the Christmas decorations come down, mistletoe fades from our minds for another year. Particularly in regions where the plant is not native (or is rare), most people do not even realize that mistletoe does not grow on the ground, but rather on trees as a parasitic shrub. That's right: as unromantic as it sounds, kissing under the mistletoe means embracing under a parasite. Most types of mistletoe are classified as hemi parasitical (i.e., partial parasites). They are not full parasites, since the plants are capable of photosynthesis. But these mistletoe plants are parasitic in the sense that they send a special kind of root system (called haustoria) down into their hosts, the trees upon which they grow, in order to extract nutrients from the trees.

Mistletoe’s popularity has not waned in present times, and its pretty leaves and berries are one of the most fun and endearing parts of our Christmas celebrations today.

Fun and Interesting Random Facts

When it comes to random facts, not all of them are created equal. I have pulled just a few interesting facts that you might not know. See if there're at least a couple of random facts in the post that you did not know.

Do you know how to determine when Easter is? Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after March 21. Using this method, Easter can only occur between March 22 and April 25.

It is impossible to fold a dollar bill in half eight times, doubling it each time. In fact, it cannot be done even with a large piece of paper. Try it.

To keep a banana from ripening too quickly, keep it at a temperature of 57 degrees. A bunch of bananas is called a hand while a single banana is referred to as a finger.

Get out your five dollar bill. All 50 States are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.

The city of Los Angeles' full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La REina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula." ("The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels on the River Porciuncula")

Dogs have no sense of "time" and are NOT 100% color blind.

4 of the 5 original designers of the Macintosh computer were left-handed.

Honey is the only food that doesn't spoil.

The average major league career of a baseball is 5 to 7 pitches.

Elvis had over 600 recorded songs, but never wrote any of them. He was the biggest tax payer in the US in 1973.

Hopefully you've learned at least one new thing by reading this fun post of interesting random facts. If you knew everything in this read, you should apply for Jeopardy!

You can find more interesting facts like these online, there are lots of different topics. It was fascinating to read some of them and there where so many I really had a hard time deciding what to post.