Hinsdale Reference: October 2005 Archives

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October 27, 2005

Rosa Parks, civil rights pioneer, dies at age 92

Rosa Parks died Monday, October 24th, 2005 in Detroit, Michigan. For years, she has embodied the ideal of an ordinary person making a difference by standing firm to her beliefs.

Ms. Parks made history in 1955 by defying the order of a Montgomery, Alabama bus driver to give up her seat to a white man. Tired of accepting a segregated public transit system, she refused and was subsequently arrested, jailed, tried, and convicted of disorderly conduct. Her unwillingness to back down mobilized the civil rights community in Montgomery. There, a young minister named Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., organized a boycott of the bus system in response to her trial. Her actions that day helped to spark the modern civil rights movement in the United States, which later achieved notable milestones such as the March on Washington in 1963, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Her simple action led to a chain-reaction of events which materially changed our society.

Major newspapers around the world covered her death. Here are a few notable news articles and editorials:

USA Today: Parks courage changed nation
Minneapolis Star Tribune: Parks leaves legacy of peaceful protest
Detroit Free Press: She showed the world what one person can do
Washington Post: Bus Ride Shook a Nation's Conscience
Indianapolis Star: Recalling Ms. Parks and the mighty 'no'
Houston Chronicle: America is a stronger nation because Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus.

The Hinsdale Public Library has a number of books about the life of Rosa Parks. In addition, one of our subscription databases, the GaleNet Biography Resource Center provides a great deal of information on her life, as well as the lives of countless other notable personalities. To reach the Biography Resource Center, click on the databases link at the top of the library's site and scroll down until you reach the Biography and Genealogy section.
[MBO]

Posted by hinsdalereference at 3:44 PM

October 21, 2005

World Series Fever!

Baseball fans love statistics and history. Just as there are many books on baseball and new titles published each year, there are many baseball Web sites covering all aspects of the game. Here is just a sample.

We will start, of course, with the home team. The Chicago White Sox Web site has just about everything you want to know about the team and includes a Kids section.

If you want to scrutinize the opposition for their weak points, take a look at the Houston Astros Web Site.

For more information on the Series, look at Major League Baseball's World Series site or the Baseball Almanac's section on the World Series - The Fall Classic.

The Ballparks of Baseball site has photos and statistics on the parks.

New to the game of baseball? Want to learn more? Take a look at the following Web sites.
Baseball Basics - Part of Major League Baseball's site.

Mom's Guide to Baseball - Part of the Mom's Guide to Sports site.

Baseball Scorecard includes a tutorial on keeping score, a glossary of terms and links to other baseball sites.

Looking for the history of the game? Give these sites a look and gather some trivia to stump your friends between innings.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum's Baseball History section includes "This Day in Baseball History."

The Baseball Library bills itself as "The Stories Behind the Stats," and includes information for various books and articles.

Historic Baseball publishes histories of players, teams and leagues.

Into statistics? Check out the following sites:

At Baseball-Reference.com statistics are browsable by player or team.

The Baseball Almanac claims to have "more than 110,000 pages of baseball history, more than 330,000 fast facts," and biographies of every Major League player (through completion of the 2004 season) in history."

And if you are still looking for more, take a look at John Skilton's Baseball Links which says it has "the Web's most comprehensive collection of links to baseball resources."

Go Sox!

[PP]

Posted by hinsdalereference at 11:41 AM

October 11, 2005

Down on the Farm

Summer may be over, but harvest season is still going strong. Many farms offer activities so families can spend the day. Find pumpkin patches, corn mazes, and activities for kids in the Chicago area at one of these sites.

The University of Illinois Extension Service lists apple orchards and pumpkin farms.

“Pick a Peck of Pumpkins” from Chicago Parent tells where to navigate a maze, take a hayride or pony ride, or take part in other fall activities with kids.

ChicagoFun lists corn mazes that offer other activities such as live music, petting zoos, and haunted houses.

It’s not just pumpkins and apples. The Illinois Crop Harvest Calendar charts when fruits and vegetables typically are ready to harvest, by month. Tomatoes, beans, and watermelons may be available into October.

Illinois Fresh! is the University of Illinois Extension Service’s guide to U-pick farms, roadside markets, and farmers’ markets with all kinds of produce.
[NI]

Posted by hinsdalereference at 3:59 PM

October 6, 2005

Getting Your Garden Ready for Winter

After a summer of unpleasant weather that kept many of us indoors, many gardeners are eager to spend time puttering in the garden. Here’s how to spend those shortening days productively.

The University of Illinois Extension Service has a list of Fall Garden Chores.
Its Garden Calendar has a suggestion for what to do in the garden for almost every day of the year.

The Garden Helper has a list of tasks and projects to do in September and every month.

This year’s drought requires some changes to the usual routine. The Morton Arboretum recommends not fertilizing, for example. The Damaging Effects of Drought has recommendations to forestall further damage to your trees and shrubs.

Composting fallen leaves can be as easy as bagging what you rake. Here is a Simple Composting Method from Organic Gardening magazine and the Colorado State University Extension Service's method for Composting fall leaves.

Will those leftover garden chemicals still be good next year? Check What Is the Shelf Life of Pesticides? from the University of Illinois Extension. It has charts by ingredient, signs of breakdown, and recommendations for storage. When they’re no longer effective, Dispose of Pesticides Safely.

It may be too late to enjoy this season, but you can plan for next year. An Autumn Pathway—Designing for Fabulous Fall Color is one many designs from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Online Library of Gardening Information. And don’t forget our large selection of books about garden design at the library. Browse the shelves at 635 and 712.
[NI]

Posted by hinsdalereference at 3:10 PM

October 4, 2005

Chicago food off of the beaten path

There’s little doubt that Chicago is a great town for dining. Jonathan Hayes of the New York times recently wrote, "In 2005, eating in Chicago is almost painful; to choose one superb restaurant is to reject a dozen others." Restaurants like Spiaggia, Charlie Trotter’s, Topolobampo, Everest and Tru have received national attention for their cuisine, service and atmosphere.

But great food in Chicago is not limited to fine dining; there are many other reasonably priced places to eat in Chicago. How do you find these less heralded, but worthy dining destinations? It can be challenging. Here are some sources for information:

Chicago Restaurants by Zagat is unique and useful. Rather than giving detailed restaurant reviews, the Zagat guides provide average numerical scores based on feedback from many Internet users. While popular appeal may not be the best indicator of restaurant quality, it can give an interesting counterpoint to professional reviews. At the very least, the pocket-sized Zagat guides are handy sources for addresses and phone numbers.

Metromix can help you narrow your Chicago dining choices by allowing you to search by neighborhood, cuisine type, average entrée price etc. It provides a wealth of information, including public transportation options, hours, whether carry out is offered as well as customer reviews.

Food discussion forums are a little-known but fascinating source for restaurant information. Here are some of the best which discuss Chicago Restaurants:

The Chowhound’s Chicago Area Message Board is an active forum which covers dining in the Chicago area. According to their FAQ, chowhounds, “are iconoclasts who spurn trends and established opinion and sniff out secret deliciousness on their own. The places they find and frequent today will show up in newspaper reviews in two years and in Zagat in four (by which time the restaurants usually will have grown crowded, overpriced, and lousy).”

Some recent Chowhound message threads include:

For food lovers, Mike G's tip sheet for visitors to Chicago is a must-read index to the best postings on the Chowhound site. It will help with everything from how to order from the "secret menu" at local Thai restaurants to discovering what's good in the Loop.

The forums at RoadFood.com take a different approach. They focus on regional and local dishes. Messages include animated discussions about the best place to find a local specialty (e.g. the best BBQ brisket in Kansas City). There is no specific forum for Chicago food, but some traditional Chicago favorites like pizza, hot dogs and Italian beef sandwiches often appear in the forum.

Some RoadFood posts relevant to Chicago include:

Another site called LTH Forum was created to discuss the great neighborhood restaurants of Chicago, including its namesake, the “Little” Three Happiness restaurant in Chinatown (LTH).

Some restaurants nominated for the LTH Forum hall of fame include: