Friday, March 29, 2024

Tidbits, June 28

Posted
Because our next edition comes out July 5, we hope you and your family had a happy Independence Day!

The Herald received a news story this week from the U.S. Department of Agriculture about safe food preparation for barbecues and picnics. To avoid food poisioning, the USDA recommends the following:

• Bring cleaning items with you to keep hands, utensils and surfaces clean. Bring separate plates and cutting boards so juices from raw foods don't contaminate cooked foods, and bring along a food thermometer to check for safe internal temperatures. Hamburgers should be cooked to 160 degrees and poultry to 165 degrees.

• To chill foods when transporting or storing leftovers, use a cooler with ice or freezer gels. Make sure it's at 40 degrees or below. For cold drinks, consider using a separate cooler you may open more frequently, and don't let foods sit out for more than one hour in hot weather.

If you have questions, the USDA has a Meat and Poultry Hotline: 1-888-MPHotline.

Annie Amerika update

Bridgeport's Gale Wilkison, known now across the U.S. as Annie Amerika, kicked off her 12th day of travel last Thursday in Lena, Ill., having driven 2,431.3 miles through nine states. She stopped in Antioch, Ill. to visit her father, then made a pit stop the next day so a nephew could change the oil in her 1985 Chevy camper van.

Still in Antioch on Saturday, Annie delivered tattered flags for proper retirement by Boy Scout Troop 190, then got her van washed by the local high school's field hockey team.

"I graduated from Antioch High School in 1975!" she wrote on her Facebook page, which as of Tuesday was up to 158 "likes."

Annie attended the homecoming Sunday of a Navy soldier from Afghanistan in Lake Villa, Ill. Michael Anthony Soto received a hero's welcome, she wrote, and she presented a new flag to him that day on behalf of herself and her late husband, John, who also served in the Navy.

She kicked off this week with 61 flags left to give to unsuspecting homeowners before her journey ends. On Monday she traveled through Indiana and into White Pigeon, Mich., where she presented the next flag to a couple whose family had military experience in Vietnam and Korea.

Annie reached her 3,000th mile Tuesday and ended the day on Lake Erie in Ohio after giving a new flag to a man whose son is currently in Iraq.

When she scours rural towns for homes in need of flags, Annie has a system.

"I look for old growth trees, these areas seem to have more flag poles," she wrote. "To find a home in need of a flag I normally wait until early afternoon before I drive up and down streets. Most people are not home during the day," she added.

You can follow along with Annie's adventures online at www.facebook.com/AnnieAmerika2012, or www.AnnieAmerika2012.blogspot.com. We'll continue to highlight her trip here in Tidbits through August, when Annie is scheduled to return to Bridgeport.

This day in history - June 28

1776: American colonists repulsed a British sea attack on Charleston, S.C.

1836: The fourth president of the United States, James Madison, died at Montpelier, his Virginia estate.

1894: Labor Day became a federal holiday by an act of Congress.

1914: Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife were assassinated, setting off World War I. The Treaty of Versailles to end the war was signed on the same date in 1919.

1939: Pan American Airways began the first transatlantic passenger service.

1950: North Korean forces captured Seoul, South Korea, one year to the day after the last U.S. troops were called home.

1953: Workers at a Chevrolet plant in Flint, Mich., assembled the first Corvette, a two-seater sports car that would become an American icon.

2007: The American bald eagle was removed from the endangered species list.
Opinion / Columnists

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