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Minute Recommended reading “The Great Lakes Reader: Essays on the States that Make the Great Lakes Great.” $10.95. 137 pages. Various authors. This collection of 13 essays about the states surrounding the Great Lakes offers intriguing personal views of the Midwest. One of the two Indiana essays was written by Viewpoint’s Terry Whittaker, and although it
talks of the influence of high school basketball as he grew up in Elkhart, the experience could easily translate to Columbus. You will enjoy these snapshots, road trips and memories. — Viewpoint Books
Landscape logic Preparing your tools and equipment for their winter with a little bit of attention now will be rewarded with years of good service. You can start to prepare your tools by giving them a thorough cleaning. Remove caked-on soil from shovels, hoes, trowels and spades. Scrub the blades and handles with soap and water and allow them to dry completely before storing. Putting a little linseed oil or similar protector over wood handles will keep the wood from drying and splitting. Sharpening your tools now will help ensure a quick start in spring when the gardening bug bites.
Drain water from garden hoses and sprinklers and hang them to dry before coiling the hoses for storage. Rinse and dry your fertilizer/pesticide spreader and oil all moving parts. Pesticide sprayers should be rinsed and allowed to drip dry before storing. When your lawn has seen its last mowing for this season, run your mower until it is out of fuel. Changing the mower’s spark plug and sharpening the blades now will save you some time next spring. — Purdue Extension educator Mike Ferree
HEALTHY HABITS Floss your teeth. Recent studies make a direct connection between longevity and teeth flossing. Nobody knows exactly why. Perhaps it’s because people who floss tend to be more health conscious than people who don’t?
Thought for the day: Floss and be your body’s boss. — Columbus Regional Hospital
Grab the girls and see a showing of “Julie and Julia,” starring Meryl Streep at Yes Cinema in downtown Columbus. The heartwarming film chronicles the rise of renowned chef Julia
Child. P.S. Husbands might like this film, too; they just won’t admit it. For show times visit yescinema.org.
Out and about
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