Tidbits of Grand Forks - October 27, 2022

By Kathy Wolfe

October is National Pork Month, the perfect time for Tidbits to delve into the source of pork … pigs!

• Pigs are one of the oldest domesticated ani mals, as long ago as 6,000 years. There are hundreds of different varieties of domesti cated pigs. A typical domesticated pig that has avoided the slaughterhouse lives 15 to 18 years, but some live as long as 20 years.

• It’s estimated there are as many as two billion pigs in the world on any given day. It doesn’t take long to produce a litter of piglets. The ges tation period is an easy one to remember – 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days – a total of 114 days. The mother pig, or sow, can give birth to 8 to 13 piglets each time, twice a year, with each piglet weighing around 3.5 lbs. at birth. That baby’s weight can double in a week. Once weaned, the piglet will be known as a shoat.

• The weight range of pigs is broad, with an adult pig weighing anywhere between 110 lbs. and 770 lbs. . The world’s smallest known pig breed is the Gottingen minipig, a breed devel oped in Europe. A typical adult of this breed weighs about 57 lbs.

Name Peppa Pig’s younger brother.

What was the name of the rat in the barnyard novel “Charlotte’s Web”?

Name the three different materi als used by the Three Little Pigs to build their houses. What is the favorite food of Winnie-the-Pooh’s best friend Piglet?

What country is both topproducer and top-consumer of pork?

Name the U.S. city that has been known as “Porkopolis” since the early 1800s. What are footballs, or pigskins, used in the NFL made from? Who is the voice behind The Muppet Show’s Miss Piggy? Name Porky Pig’s girlfriend.

• In 1933, Tennessee farmer Elias Butler raised a massive pig weighing 2,552 lbs. Butler named his Poland China breed hog Big Bill, which seemed fitting.

• Pigs’ sounds are much more than “oink, oink!” The sounds are everything from grunts and barks to squeals, coughs, and pants. Mother pigs grunt during feeding time, while barks might mean ei ther danger or playtime. An anxious pig or one in pain will squeal, but will cough when annoyed. If you hear a pig panting softly, he’s trying to be friendly! Their sounds are so distinctive that pig lets learn the tone of their mother’s voice at a very young age, and can recognize her call. Pig aficio nados have identified at least 20 different noises the animals use to communicate with each other.

• What’s the correct term for a group of pigs? It depends on their age. A group of piglets is a litter or farrow, but the group becomes a drove or drift when they are a little older. A group of older pigs goes by several different names – a sounder, pas sel, parcel, herd, or team. Males are boars, and fe males are sows, but a female that has never been mated is called a queen. If she has never been pregnant or is pregnant for the first time, she’s a gilt. A castrated male is referred to as a barrow.

• We’ve all heard the expression “sweating like a pig,” but it’s an inaccurate phrase, because pigs don’t sweat! When they need to cool them selves, they wallow in mud, getting rid of body heat through their skin and respiration. Once the outside temperature reaches between 63 and 70 degrees F, they will seek out mud, frequently covering themselves from head to toe. Wallowing serves as a sunscreen for their tender skin, as well as a way to get rid of lice and ticks. It’s also a way of marking their territory.

PIGS (continued):

Another erroneous phrase is “pigging out” or “eating like a pig.” They are slow-eating animals, savoring the taste, and easily digesting their food. Although pigs are omnivorous, meaning they will eat both plants and animals, the most popular pig farm diet is corn or soybeans. Pigs can’t fly, but they can run and they can swim! A domestic pig can run up to 11 miles per hour while the wild boar can reach a speed of 15 miles per hour. Pigs enjoy sunbathing and dipping in bodies of water to cool off. Some of the Caribbean Islands have designated places where humans and pigs can swim together!

It’s said that an elephant never forgets, but it’s ac tually pigs who don’t forget! They are believed to have a expansive memory that can recollect events from a young age. Pigs are extremely in telligent animals, perhaps smarter than dogs, and even a three-year-old human! They can be taught tricks just like a dog, and some learn their name more quickly than a dog does.

• A pig’s eyes are small and their eyesight is very poor, but that’s balanced by a keen sense of smell. They have nine different olfactory glands that en able them to recognize odors for finding food, looking for a mate, and assessing their surround ings. That sharp memory also helps them remem ber where they’ve found food before. And they really taste that food! A human has approximately 9,000 taste buds. The pig has an estimated 15,000!

PIGS (continued):

Not everything about pigs is good news, however. They can carry parasites and diseases that can prove fatal to humans. Roundworm parasites

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by Lucie Winbourne

Those of us who have a little difficulty success fully sealing wraps, gyros or burritos are at last in luck, thanks to a group of female engineering stu dents who came up with a solution called Tastee Tape. It will hold your food nicely in place during cooking or consumption. And yes, it is an edible tape.

• Only humans have chins.

• Ladybugs are cute, but they're also cannibals. These tiny spotted creatures will, if need be, eat fertilized ladybug eggs, ladybug larvae and even other adult ladybugs.

• Do you know someone who really loves to tell jokes? Here's hoping they aren't suffering from a rare syndrome known as Witzelsucht, or joke ad diction, affecting certain folks with an injury to their brain's right hemisphere. One such patient couldn't stop waking his poor wife in the middle of the night to share his jokes with her.

• The longest eyelash on record reached a length of 2.75 inches and belonged to one Stuart Muller, who attributed the record-setting strand to a "mu tant follicle."

• When the German football club FC Union Berlin faced bankruptcy in 2004, its loyal fans donated enough blood en masse that sufficient funds were raised to save it.

• King Charles III will receive his crown while sit ting on a throne containing the Stone of Destiny, a rock that was stolen from Scotland in 1296 and carried to Westminster Abbey by King Edward I, then returned to Scotland 700 years later. But why is it significant, other than its feature in a royal coronation? It is said to be the stone on which the biblical Jacob rested his head when he dreamed of a ladder ascending to heaven! ***

Thought for the Day: "The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot." -- Michael Alt shuler

Financial Solutions for the Military

The Department of Veterans Affairs recently re leased its 2022 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report. Suicide numbers are down, they say, for the second year in a row.

At the same time, they announced the Staff Ser geant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grants, a program that gives money to community organi zations to create suicide prevention programs, and authorized $174 million to be handed out over the course of three years to provide those services.

The list of groups that received the grants is im pressive, with most receiving the maximum amount of $750,000. But it's the groups that received lesser amounts that arouse curiosity. War Horses for Vet erans received one-third the maximum amount, yet they're very hands-on, matching horses with veterans and first responders under stress to help them recover from trauma. United States Veterans Initiative pro vides job assistance, rental assistance and much more, but they received only a small grant. Community Building Art Works received a similarly small grant to provide writing and art workshops for veterans and family members in all counties of three states. Legal Aid Society got half the largest amount to handle le gal assistance for the whole state of Kentucky.

Declining suicide numbers are no guarantee that veterans are under less stress. In 2020, there were 6,146 veteran suicides. That year had the lowest num ber since 2006, but we need to look at overall rates to see what it really means. While veteran suicide num bers fell by 9.7% between 2018 and 2020, the civilian numbers fell by 5.5%.

And just so you know, Staff Sgt. Parker Gordon Fox, for whom the grant is named, was a sniper instructor at Fort Benning, Georgia, when he died in 2020 of suicide at age 25. Fox, a talented musician, left his parents and many relatives, as well as his dog, Willie Nelson Fox, and a 1962 Gibson guitar.

If you or someone you know is in trouble, call 988 and press 1. Or go online to www.VeteransCrisisLine. net, and chat or text to 838255. There's help 24/7. Don't wait.

by Freddy Groves

Gordon Smith,

VENUS

It’s time to tune in to these facts about Venus, the third smallest planet in the solar system.

• Up until 1610, astronomers believed that the planet Ve nus orbited the Earth. After developing an improved telescope, the Italian scientist Galileo studied Venus, the brightest natural object in the night sky after the Moon, and observed that the planet went through a series of phases, which led him to the knowledge of its orbit around the Sun.

• During daylight hours, the Sun is the only object brighter than Venus, yet Venus can be visible to the na ked eye in broad daylight.

• Venus takes its name from the Ro man goddess of love and beauty, the only planet named after a fe male. Venus was considered the “mother of the Roman people.” Her Greek counterpart was Aphrodite. The planet is also referred to as the morning star and the evening star because of its brightness. In fact, the ancients believed it to be two separate heavenly bodies. Because the planet is so visible, the Mayans were recording their detailed observations as early as 650 AD.

• As the second planet from the Sun, (only Mercury is closer), Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system, with a average temperature of 867 degrees F, hot enough to melt lead. Its thick atmosphere is full of gasses such as carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid that trap heat that keeps the planet hot. Although closer to the sun, Mercury has a very thin atmosphere, with an average temperature of just 332 degrees F.

• Venus and Earth are very similar in size, with Venus just a bit smaller, with its surface area about 90% that of Earth. Venus has an unusual orbit, as it spins in the opposite direction of Earth and most other planets, known as a retrograde rotation. Its axis rota tion is very slow, taking 243 Earth days to complete just one day on Venus. Its orbit around the sun is once every 225 Earth days. This means a day on Ve nus (rotation on its axis) is longer than a year there (orbit around the Sun.)

• Venus is home to more than 1,600 ma jor volcanoes across its surface, with 167 of those more than 60 miles across. None are known to be currently erupting, pos sibly long extinct. There is evidence of phosphide, a form of phosphorus brought to the surface in explosive ways, in Ve nus’ atmosphere, perhaps indicating some kind of recent activity.

• The highest mountain on Venus is Ska di Mons, a peak in the Maxwell Montes range, a mountain that rises 37,795 feet. Compare this with Earth’s highest, Mt. Everest, with a height of 29,032 feet.

• The Mariner 2 was the first spacecraft to complete a successful mission to another planet, flying by Venus in December, 1962. Four years later, Russia’s Venera 3 carrying a radio communication system and scien tific instruments was launched with an intended mis sion of landing on Venus. Its systems failed before it reached the planet, and it’s believed it crashed onto the surface of Venus on March 1, 1966.

* Post-Halloween sales are a great time to pick up imagination-stimulating accessories and outfits for the dress-up bin.

* Using your fireplace? Try adding citrus peels to the logs for a nice aroma. They can be a good starter material as well.

* Those hide-a-key rocks can be a little obvious -- at least they are to me. I have a spare key hidden outside too, but I sealed mine in a plastic baggie and buried it in a spot known to our family members. Also, it's not right by the door. -- I.E. in Mississippi

* When closing up our cabin for the season, we brought a box of mothballs and scattered them around the porch perimeter. This keeps the small animals like mice and skunks from setting up shop there while no one is around. -- S.F. in Pennsylvania

* Now's a great time to start weatherstripping! Check and recaulk windows. Caulk along baseboards to deter drafts. Add insulation to electrical outlets and under sinks around plumbing. Seal it up to stay toasty this winter.

* Remember to turn off bathroom fans after 10 min utes. In the winter, if your house is on the dry side, don't use the fan at all: Open the door so the humidity from the shower or bath reaches into the house.

* "To remove the skin from salmon, I freeze it and skin it while frozen. The skin comes off much easier, and I waste less of the fish. I buy a large piece and parcel it into several smaller pieces, since it's just me. I like salmon, and it's healthy for me!" -- L.A. in Florida

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• On November 2, 1862, Mary Todd Lincoln wrote to her husband about the public sentiment against General George B. McClellan's cautious command, saying people "would almost worship you if you would put a fighting general in the place of McClellan." The president fol lowed her advice.

• On November 1, 1941, Ansel Adams shot a picture of a moonrise over Hernandez, New Mexico, that would be come one of photography's most famous images. Adams made more than 1,300 prints of it during his career includ ing one that sold at a Sotheby's auction for $609,600 in 2006.

• On October 31, 1955, out of loyalty to the crown, Eng land's Princess Margaret announced she would not marry Group Captain Peter Townsend. His divorced status would have forced her to give up her royal title, Civil List allow ance, and place in the line of succession to the throne.

• On November 3, 1960, Congress passes an act cre ating the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. Morris County, New Jersey, residents and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey wanted to turn the swamp into a regional airport.

• On November 4, 1985, Soviet defector Vitaly Yurchenko announced his return to the Soviet Union, claiming he'd been kidnapped by the CIA. Yurchenko was awarded the Order of the Red Star by the Soviet government for the successful "infil tration operation."

• On November 5, 1995, Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell announces officially that he is moving the team to Baltimore. Months later, the NFL al lowed Modell to move the team, but he had to give up rights to the Browns name.

• On November 5, 2003, Jarome Iginla of the Cal gary Flames, one of just 20 players in NHL history to score 600 goals, became the first Black player in the NHL to become captain. The previous year, Iginla was the first Black man to win gold in the winter Olympics when Canada beat the U.S. at hockey in Salt Lake City.

Grand Forks

We’ve been watching pigs on big and small screens for decades. Let’s focus on some of these famous swine.

• “Babe the Pig,” the story of a pig raised by sheep dogs on an English farm, was nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1995, including a nomination for actor James Cromwell, in the role of Farmer Hoggett. That was unusual, considering Crom well had just 16 lines totaling 171 words of spo ken dialogue. Yet he received more screen time in “Babe” than in any of his previous films. There were 56 animal trainers involved in the production to handle 970 animals. Because baby pigs grow so quickly, 48 Yorkshire pigs were needed for film ing, along with one animatronic pig. A makeup artist added toupees and eyelashes to the piglets. Following the film’s release, sales of pet pigs dra matically increased.

• In the 1952 novel “Charlotte’s Web,” by E.B. White, a young farm girl named Fern Arable saves the runt of a litter of piglets, and names him Wil bur. In 1973, the book was adapted into an animat ed film, and in 2006 to a live-action movie. Similar to “Babe the Pig,” the 2006 version required 47 Wilburs as the piglets rapidly grew. When Wilbur was sold to the Zuckerman farm, he was befriend ed by a barn spider named Charlotte A. Cavatica, a word which refers to the spider’s scientific name, Aranea cavatica. An all-star cast of artists provid ed the animal voices in 2006, including Julie Rob erts, Oprah Winfrey, Cedric the Entertainer, Kathy Bates, Reba McEntire, and Robert Redford.

• The British animated series “Peppa Pig” debuted in 2004. It was the creation of two broke out-ofwork animators and their producer friend. The trio borrowed money from friends and family to pro duce the series, which has now been broadcast in more than 180 countries.

• “Peppa Pig” came under fire during its first two seasons, when the pig family didn’t wear seatbelts when out for a drive. When con cerned parents lodged complaints, the episodes were all edited and re-released, along with any scenes that featured the characters not wearing helmets when bicycling.

• Winnie the Pooh’s small, timid friend Piglet was introduced in A.A. Milne’s classic children’s book “Winnie-the-Pooh” in 1926, fol lowed by “The House at Pooh Corner” in 1928. The character was based on a stuffed toy owned by Milne’s son Christopher Robin. In the origi nal color illustrations in the books, Piglet has pale pink skin and green jumper. Piglet lives in a beech tree in the Hundred Acre Wood, fre quently visited by his best friend Pooh. Piglet’s squeaky, stuttering voice was first heard on the big screen in Disney’s 1968 short “Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day.” Christopher Robin Milne’s original stuffed toy can be seen on dis play in the New York City Public Library.

• Speaking of stuttering pigs, Porky Pig’s first appearance was in 1935’s Loony Tunes short “I Haven’t Got a Hat.” His name was derived from two childhood friends of that cartoon’s director Friz Freleng, brothers nicknamed “Porky” and “Piggy.” The character’s first voice artist was Joe Dougherty, who actually had a stutter, lead ing to Porky’s signature line, “Th-th-th-that’s all, folks!” spoken at the end of most cartoons. In 1937, Dougherty was replaced by Mel Blanc, who became Porky’s voice for the next 52 years until he passed away in 1989. Porky Pig is the oldest continuing Loony Tunes character, even longer than Bugs Bunny!