Antoinette Powell

Author: Antoinette Powell

Back the Tanker Up To the Burger King® – No One Will Notice

greaseToday’s quiz: How many ways can you think of to legally transport edible grease? You can get take-out from KFC®. You can fail to wipe your hands before leaving a rib place. You can load yourself up with popcorn at a movie. But illegally transporting inedible grease takes some doing.

NPR reported this morning that a man in California was apprehended after being caught siphoning used cooking grease from in back of a Burger King®. He was charged with illegal transport of inedible grease, in violation of California Food and Agricultural Code, Section 19310-19317.

Sing from, listen to, or view Grease in the Mudd.

Crawl, Fly, Gallop Along – Nothing To See Here

crossingWe always knew those wacky British were animal-crazy, but we had no idea that passion extended to traffic control. On April 2, 1962, the “panda crossing,” a new style of pedestrian crossing was introduced in London, replacing the “zebra crossing.” It was quite simple, really:

“The panda crossing is activated when the pedestrian presses a button that lights up a “wait” sign. This results in a flashing amber light warning drivers to stop. After five seconds a pulsating red light tells the driver to stop and a ‘cross’ sign is illuminated indicating to the pedestrian that it is safe to cross the road. Eight seconds later the red light is replaced by a flashing amber light. At the same time the ‘cross’ sign begins to flash, at first slowly and then faster to warn the pedestrian that his time to cross the road is running out. After 17 seconds both lights are extinguished and the driver is free to drive on.”

The pandas were abandoned in 1969 in favor of the pelican crossing. But finally the high-tech puffin crossing was settled on. Stayed tuned. It is unlikely they will run out of black and white animals any time soon.

You know the Mudd has a book about crossing the street.

Marian the Librarian

marianWho is more multi-faceted than singer/actress Shirley Jones? She went from Academy Award-winner, playing a prostitute in Elmer Gantry, to the most wholesome of TV mothers on The Partridge Family. In between she portrayed Rodgers and Hammerstein heroines, solidified every stereotype of librarians in The Music Man and married both the suave Jack Cassidy and the goofy Marty Ingles. Had she stayed in Western Pennsylvania where she was born 74 years ago today, she might have ended up working in the family business, the Jones Brewery.

We’ve got her on video in Carousel, The Music Man and Oklahoma!

Marian the Piano-arian

pianistToday jazz pianist/composer/leader Marian McPartland turns 90. When she started out in the United States in the ’40’s, an English woman jazz piano player wasn’t standard fare. But she soon formed her own trio and played long engagements at clubs in New York. In 1978 she began taping the NPR series, “Piano Jazz,” which she still hosts today.

The Mudd has her autobiography, All in good time, and you can see her in the video Piano legends.

We Think We Prefer Snow

mudd floodIt was a dark and stormy night. The lightning was flashing, the thunder rolling. The roof of the library continued to be flat. Snow embraced each square corner and enveloped each drain. The reference librarian on duty made the rounds searching in all the usual spots for leaks. But a certain location, once renowned for drips but dry for eons, escaped this librarian’s scrutiny. Then the alert came: a student reported some water. Water. Not a leak, not a drip, but a cascade. Water pouring from the ceiling. Ceiling tiles in smithereens on the floor. The books were removed, the plastic draped, receptacles gathered.

See how our enterprising maintenance and security people saved the Mudd.

What You Want, You Know We Got It

macdonald'sThe Big Mac® is a handy punching bag, nutrition-wise. It’s made of meat, it’s fatty and it’s often the default bad guy in calorie comparisons. But did you know that a typical MacDonald’s meal (Big Mac®, fries and coffee) “contains at least 19 plant species from 12 families” which “originate in all of the eight global centers of cultivated plant diversity?” The current issue of the journal BioScience has an article detailing these attributes, Serban P, Wilson JRU, Vamosi JC, Richardson DM (2008) Plant Diversity in the Human Diet: Weak Phylogenetic Signal Indicates Breadth. BioScience: Vol. 58, No. 2 pp. 151-159, which you can read if you’re an LU person. The authors call the Big Mac® a “symbol of globalization.” So, please, a little more R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

At Graduation We Play “Also Sprach Zarathustra”

You’re lucky. Your space solutions most likely involve a few wicker baskets and a double-rod hanging system. But when NASA gets involved it’s a whole-nother kettle of fish.

The International Space University symposium, Space Solutions to Earth’s Global Challenges, begins today in Strasbourg, France. Here we’re talking SPACE space, as in outer. Some topics are a little out-there (“Why We Need an Elevator to Space!”) and some are downright bone-chilling (“The Intersection of Air Law and Space Law.”) And who knew there was an International Space University?

Listen to some Strauss while you ponder your future on the final frontier.