Tidbits of Grand Forks - November 10, 2022

Yee-haw! Tidbits has rounded up these facts about cowboys, the heroes of the American West.

• Although we tend to think of cowboys as figures of the Old West, they actually had their origins in Mexico. In the early 1500s, the Spanish who were migrating to North America were developing ranches to raise cattle and other livestock. Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes imported horses to begin horse-breeding in Mexico, and by 1553, there were an estimated 10,000 free-roaming horses there.

• Mexico’s native cowboys were hired by ranchers to care for the livestock, and became known as “vaqueros,” from the Spanish word “vaca” for “cow. They became proficient in riding, roping, and herding. The most experienced vaquero was referred to as the Segundo, Spanish for “second,” the one who rode with the trail boss.

• Ranching spread north to what is now Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona in the early 1700s. Cattle ranches expanded further when Franciscan priests began establishing missions in California in the 1760s.

What does a cowboy mean by “brown gargle?”

What is another name for “the devil’s rope?”

What word is another word for “riata,” the loop of rope thrown around a cow?

Another name for “cowboys,” also the back-up band for country singer Buck Owens. What year did John Wayne die?

Which city does AT&T stadium (home of Dallas Cowboys) reside in?

Which Clint Eastwood Western movie won an Academy award for Best Picture?

Which two country stars recorded a cover of “Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys”? What was John Wayne’s birth name?

The number of American cowboys dramatically increased immediately after the Civil War ended in 1865. The Union Army had depleted the supply of beef up North, and the demand was high. A steer selling for $4 a head in Texas was worth $40 in the North. There were thousands of outof-work soldiers with the War’s end, and many joined up with cattle drives to support themselves, along with European immigrants, Native Americans, and freed slaves.

• After making a fortune selling meat to the U.S. Union Army during the Civil War, Philip Armour opened up a meat packing plant in Chicago. Four million head of longhorn cattle were rounded up and cowboys began the long, grueling process of herding them toward railroad depots in Abilene, Kansas, Wichita, Kansas, and Ogallala, Nebraska, to begin their journey to Chicago.

• The cattle were driven just 15 miles each day to ensure that they didn’t drop too much weight before reaching the market. A herd of 3,000 required 8 to 12 experienced cowboys, led by the trail boss. A cowboy made about $25 to $40 per month. A typical drive lasted from as little as a few weeks up to five months.

• When not on the trail, cowboys broke horses, repaired fences and structures, did branding, along with other various ranch chores. They slept in a communal bunkhouse, a barracks-like lodge with narrow beds. It was a large open room, with little or no privacy, often referred to by the crew as the doghouse, dive, shack, dump, dicehouse, or the ram pasture. The wood stove was the center of the bunkhouse, where cowboys gathered to play music or cards. Poles were hung from the ceiling for the purpose of drying clothing.

COWBOYS (continued):

• Cowboys typically worked 15 hours a day, whether in the saddle or caring for livestock. Out of necessity for protection from the sun, the tradition of wearing large hats with wide brims began, along with bandanas around the neck that could be pulled up to protect their nose and mouth from dust. Leather chaps worn on the outside of trousers shielded their legs from cactus and rough terrain.

• In 1865, John B. Stetson founded his now-famous hat company, catering especially to cowboys out west. He designed his high-end felt hats with a dome-shaped crown and a large brim. The hat, known as the Boss of the Plains, served not only as a head covering, but as a drinking bowl for both the cowboy and his horse. By 1886, Stetson was the largest hat brand in the world. And by 1906, the company was producing 2 million hats a year. A Stetson was by no means an inexpensive hat – a new one sold for ten dollars back in the days of the cattle drives.

As ranchers grazed their cattle on the public lands of the open plains, it was necessary to have a practice that identified which animals belonged to which rancher. In Mexico, ranchers marked their herds with the family’s coat of arms. The Americans devised simpler symbols to be branded into the cattle’s hides, typically when a calf was about 60 days old. When it came time for the roundup and driving the cows to market, the cowboys had the daunting task of separating the cattle by the multiple ranches using the open range. Branding wasn’t anything new – the ancient Egyptians had been branding since around 3000 B.C.

• Open range grazing was pretty much history by the 1890s, when land became privatized. Ranchers employed the use of barbed wire and the big cattle drives dissipated. The Texas trail drives lasted just over 20 years, with 10 million Texas longhorns driven north between the end of the Civil War and 1890. Cowboys were hired on by private ranch owners and most gave up the open trail.

Bob and Jean Kiesau founded Home of Economy in 1939, serving the community as a retread tire outlet during World War II. After the war, Home of Economy continued to expand, supplying loyal customers a growing variety of merchandise. The company soon became a leading local retailer when it introduced discount pricing to the region.

Home of Economy has since diversified far beyond the automotive parts that started the business. Our commitment to top-quality items from top brands helps us lead North Dakota in sales of workwear, work boots, outdoor cooking products, lawn and garden items, custom Amish furniture, and more.

The family legacy continues to grow, now with eight locations across North Dakota. Each store is stocked specifically to serve the needs of that area. Besides our Grand Forks flagship, Home of Economy stores dot the landscape of Minot, Williston, Watford City, Devils Lake, Jamestown, Grafton, and Rugby, the geographic center of North America. We like to think our grandparents would be proud.

COWBOYS (continued):

• It didn’t matter what the person’s name was, the camp cook was typically referred to as “Cookie,” and considered the most important person in the camp after the trail boss. Some cowboys called the cooks “biscuit shooters,” “belly cheaters,” and “bean masters.” Cookie worked longer hours than the cowboys, as he was in charge of setting up and breaking down camp. Breakfast had to be ready when the cowboys arose, and Cookie cleaned up the mess after dinner at night. He was also responsible for locating the North Star each night and turning the tongue of the chuckwagon toward it to alert the cowboys which way to head out the following morning. For his extra efforts, the cook was one of the best paid crew members.

• Occasionally, cowboys would have free time following a drive, and would hold competitions against each other, testing their skills of roping and riding against each other. As the number of drives decreased with fencing on the open range and expansion of the railroads, many cowboys were left without employment. This led to competitions between neighboring ranches becoming more and more popular, leading to the modernday rodeo. Prescott, Arizona, was the site of the first formalized professional rodeo on Independence Day, 1888, although Buffalo Bill Cody had awarded prize money to competitors at his 1882 Wild West Show. Cheyenne, Wyoming’s Frontier Days were established in 1897, followed by the Calgary Stampede in 1912.

by Lucie Winbourne

• In 2015, Colin Furze invented a creative alarm that would literally throw its user out of bed.

• A study in which researchers scanned actors' brains while they answered questions revealed that their brain activity differed depending on whether they spoke as themselves or as the character they were portraying.

• Female ferrets will die if they go as long as a year without mating, due to elevated estrogen levels.

• Prior to 2011, any drink in Russia with less than 10% alcohol content was legally classified as a soft drink.

• On Aug. 20, 2013, a group of students from Delaware built the tallest Lego tower in the world, standing at 112 feet tall and consisting of more than 500,000 pieces.

• Not that we think you're likely to drop an ant from the Empire State Building, but if you do, you should know ahead of time that it will walk away unharmed. Due to its proportions and tough exoskeleton, its terminal velocity won't be enough to kill or hurt it on impact.

• If the sun explodes, we won't know it until just over eight minutes afterward.

• Pretty much everyone finds TV ads annoying, but at least they don't normally last too long -- with the exception of a commercial for Old Spice that aired in Brazil in 2018 and ran a staggering 14 hours, earning it a Guinness World Record for the longest TV ad ever.

• In the early 1900s, tug of war, pigeon shooting and pistol dueling were Olympic sports.

• Studies suggest that "Huh?" is the closest thing humans have to a universal word. This expression is understood and used in almost every language. ***

Thought for the Day: "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts." -- Winston Churchill

Financial Solutions for the Military

Expanded Help for

by Freddy Groves

The Department of Veterans Affairs is giving a helping hand to veteran caregivers of all eras. The Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC) has been expanded to include eligible veterans who served after May 7, 1975, and before Sept. 11, 2001.

At-home caregivers have been the glue that held together any number of veteran programs, and now more of them will get the assistance they need. The program assists caregivers with health insurance and access to health care through CHAMPVA, peer support, respite care (30 days per year), education and training, financial assistance and monthly stipend, certain travel expenses, resources and more. The program includes both primary and secondary (backup) caregivers, although there are different services for secondary.

At the same time, the VA is extending the length of time that Legacy participants, veterans and their caregivers can stay eligible for the program. This date now runs through Sept. 30, 2025. "Legacy" means that a veteran was designed as eligible before Oct. 1, 2020.

Eligible veterans include those who had a serious injury or a serious illness during active duty during any service era. The veteran must have a disability rating of 70% or higher, have been discharged or have a medical discharge and need at least six months of personal care services for assistance such as feeding, supervision, safety and bathing.

To learn more about the Caregiver Support Program, call them at 855-260-3274 on Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. EST, and on Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST.

For an online application and specific eligibility criteria, go to www.va.gov/family-member-benefits/comprehensive-assistance-for-family-caregivers. Look for the link to VA Form 10-10CG. In addition, the veteran needs to be enrolled in VA health care. Apply for that on VA Form 10-10EZ on that same webpage. Don't send any medical records with your applications. The VA will ask for those later.

For even more information on PCAFC, go to www. caregiver.va.gov/support/support_benefits.asp and click on "Fact Sheets."

Visit our Grand Forks Branch or online at servicecu.org.

OUT OF THIS WORLD

AIR

Breathe in, breathe out, and focus on these facts about air.

• What is air? It most often refers to the Earth’s atmosphere, a mixture of assorted gases and tiny dust particles. Its composition is about 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen. Tiny amounts of other gases make up the remainder -- 0.9% of argon, 0.04% carbon dioxide, along with trace amounts of neon, hydrogen, helium, methane, and krypton.

• Although air is primarily gases, there are also large quantities of tiny particles referred to as aerosols. These include dust and pollen, but also soot, smoke, and residue from cars and power plants. The air humans breathe also contains upwards of 1,800 different kinds of bacteria.

• The atmosphere around the Earth is divided up into separate layers, based on temperature and height. The first layer closest to our planet is called the troposphere, about 7 miles in height. For each 0.6 miles ascended into the troposphere, the temperature drops 6 or 7 degrees.

• The layer above the troposphere is known as the stratosphere, where temperatures stop decreasing, maintaining a temp of around -67 degrees F.

• The third layer of air is the mesosphere, about 32 miles above Earth. In this layer’s upper section, the mesopause, the temperatures once again start decreasing. Temps are around -130 degrees F.

• Above the mesosphere, about 56 miles above the Earth’s surface, is the thermosphere, where temps actually rise dramatically, reaching 1800 degrees F.

• Mountain climbers are well aware of how the air gets “thinner” as they scale the heights, requiring them to carry canisters of oxygen when climbing above 12,500 feet. There’s just not enough oxygen in the atmosphere for them to breathe because there are fewer air molecules at higher altitudes.

• You’ve heard the expression “lighter than air,” but it’s by no means light. Its weight pushing down on the Earth’s surface is what creates atmospheric pressure. Air pressure at sea level is high because the whole atmosphere is pushing, but low on a mountaintop because there is less atmosphere pushing down. It’s the difference in air pressure that causes your ears to pop at high altitudes.

• Air serves to insulate the Earth, preventing it from getting too cold or too hot. The gas ozone protects us from too much sunlight. Air also shields us from meteoroids, which, as they enter our atmosphere, rub against the air and are frequently burned into small pieces.

• When it’s a humid day, it’s because there is a large amount of water in the air. Relative humidity refers to the amount that can be held before it rains. Right before it rains, it reaches the highest level, 100%.

• Humans consume about 13.2 gallons of oxygen per hour. During the process of breathing, called respiration, we take oxygen from the air and give back carbon dioxide. Our lungs put oxygen into the blood, which carries it to your tissues, and cells use it to produce energy. Plants use the carbon dioxide, combined with sunlight, to make food through photosynthesis.

• When the body doesn’t get enough oxygen, whether through an interruption of breathing or an inadequate oxygen supply, asphyxia can be the result, putting the body into unconsciousness and often death. The word asphyxia has its roots in the Latin language, meaning “stopping of the pulse."

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Social Security Benefit for 2023

It's official: Our Social Security increase for 2023 will be 8.7%. They say it's the largest increase in 40 years.

For the average senior, that's going to mean a $146 monthly increase. Plus we're getting a small "rebate" on that massive Medicare Part B increase we faced last year when the cost went to $170.10 to pay for Aduhelm, an Alzheimer's disease drug that was said to cost $56,000 per year. (After facing criticism, manufacturers had to cut the cost in half, down to $28,200.) We'll now save $5.20 on our Part B premium, with the average monthly deduction being $164.90. The Part B annual deductible will drop to $226, a $7 savings.

What's disturbing is that only a few months ago the financial gurus were expecting we'd receive a 10.2% increase on Social Security, based on all the high prices we've been seeing this year and will likely see into 2023. Instead, they've lowered that to the 8.7% ... while prices have continued to rise.

The problem is how those annual increases are calculated. They use the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners And Clerical Workers (CPI-W), which calculates the prices of goods and services for things those urban workers care about: clothing, education, electronics and so on. That CPI-W covers 29% of the population. Instead, they should use the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E), which focuses on goods and services that seniors spend money on: medical, drugs, food, housing and so on.

The next time you call your senators and representatives, be sure to ask why the Elderly index isn't being used. After all, they've been thinking about it since the 1980s. Meanwhile, don't let the Medicare open enrollment period pass you by. Until Dec. 7 you have the option to make changes to your original Medicare Advantage plan, supplemental plan and prescription drug plan.

Matilda Charles

• On Nov. 14, 1889, journalist Nellie Bly took a page from Jules Verne's novel "Around the World in 80 Days" by following in the footsteps of the book's protagonist, Phileas Fogg, and embarked on her own adventure, starting in Hoboken, New Jersey. She chronicled the trip in her book "Around the World in 72 Days."

• On Nov. 15, 1949, Nathuram Godse, Narayan Apte and six of their co-conspirators in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi were hanged at the Ambala jail. Godse, unhappy over Gandhi's accommodation of Indian Muslims, had shot Gandhi the previous January while Gandhi was out for his evening prayers.

• On Nov. 16, 1990, Fabrice Morvan and Rob Pilatus, known to the pop music world as Milli Vanilli, were humiliatingly stripped of their Grammy award for the "Girl You Know It's True" album when it was revealed they hadn't sung even a note of it.

• On Nov. 17, 1827, the Delta Phi fraternity, America's oldest continuous social fraternity, was founded at Union College in Schenectady, New York. With just 10 active chapters today, it has resisted expansion in order to create an "intimate, personal experience" for its members.

• On Nov. 18, 1872, American civil rights activist Susan B. Anthony and 14 of her brave female cohorts were arrested for voting illegally in the United States presidential election of 1872. Though she was fined $100, she refused to pay a cent of it.

• On Nov. 19, 1493, Christopher Columbus set foot on the island called Borinquen, which he had viewed for the first time the day before. He rechristened it San Juan Bautista, but today we know it as Puerto Rico.

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On Nov. 20, 1805, Beethoven's only opera, "Leonore, or The Triumph of Marital Fidelity" (later known as Fidelio), premiered in Vienna -- not to its originally intended audience of the aristocracy and Imperial court, who had fled before Napoleon's advancing army, but a small audience of French officers. Their unsurprising lack of enthusiasm shelved the project for nearly a decade.

Grand Forks

Movie goers have been in love with cowboys for decades. Let’s take a look at some of the most famous on-screen cowboys who brought the Old West to life.

• Tom Mix was the first movie cowboy, with his debut film “The Cowboy Millionaire” released in 1909. The following year came “Ranch Life in the Great Southwest,” a documentary that showcased Mix’s skills as a cattle wrangler. During the 1920s, he made upwards of 160 cowboy films, and Mix, along with his horse “Tony the Wonder Horse,” always saved the day. Between 1909 and 1935, he appeared in 291 films, of which 282 were silent movies. He was making $7,500 a week starring in movies, but moved over to touring with a circus from 1929 to 1931 for a reported salary of $20,000 a week (about $316,000 in today’s dollars).

• John Wayne’s first leading role was in 1930’s “The Big Trail,” in which the 23-year-old Wayne (born Marion Robert Morrison) played a young fur trapper, not a cowboy, for the sum of $105 per week. The film was a box office flop. Wayne was a singing cowboy (via dubbing) in 1933’s “Riders of Destiny,” and received his first “A” movie break in 1930 as The Ringo Kid in “Stagecoach,” launching his career of 179 film and television productions. He was a cattleman driving his herd on the Chisholm Trail in 1948’s “Red River,” and again in 1972’s “The Cowboys.” But Wayne’s stardom wasn’t limited to cowboy films, as he starred in several war dramas and romance stories. But we remember him well for his 80 Westerns throughout his career.

NUGGET OF KNOWLEDGE

Cowboy vaudeville performer and actor Will Rogers earned a place in the “Guinness Book of World Records” for his ability to throw three lassos at once. The first went around the legs of the horse, the second circled the animal’s neck, and the third looped the rider.

• Clint Eastwood’s first well-known cowboy role was that of Rowdy Yates on the long-running TV series “Rawhide,” chronicling the saga of the adventures of an 1860s cattle drive. Eastwood was paid $750 per episode for the first season, which premiered in 1959. By its final season in 1965, that number had jumped to $119,000. Production frequently called for filming 12 hours a day, six days a week. Eastwood went on to star in 12 notable Westerns, including “Fistful of Dollars," "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," “High Plains Drifter,” "Pale Rider" and "Unforgiven." He’s a four-time Oscar winner.

• Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones starred as two former Texas Rangers on a cattle drive to Montana in 1989’s four-part mini-series “Lonesome Dove.” The program received 7 Emmy wins out of 18 nominations, including a Best Actor win for Duvall. It was watched by 26 million viewers. Duvall was a cattle drive cowboy again in 2003’s “Open Range” opposite Kevin Costner as their crew drove cattle crosscountry. Duvall broke six ribs during the filming after being bucked off a horse. There were 250 cattle on the movie set, handled by professional cowboys.

• A lighter version of the cattle drive movie was released in 1991, when Billy Crystal starred in “City Slickers.” His character along with two of this friends, all suffering from a mid-life crisis, embarked on a two-week Wild West cattle drive, where they were under the intimidating eye of Curly the trail boss. There was nothing easy about this vacation, with the Manhattan residents experiencing lost cattle, assisting in the birth of a calf, and fistfights among crew and guests in this comedic “cowboy” movie.

Quiz Answers

Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson Marion Morrison