Why Does the Flag Have Stars With Seven Points Instead of Five?

“I noticed the display with books donated in memory of deceased members by the American Legion Post 234. There is a flag on the table with the number 76 and thirteen seven pointed stars. Why do the stars have seven points instead of five?” The Newton Falls Public Library staff wondered about this difference from the more familiar five pointed fifty star flag and asked the owner. He informed us that it is a Bennington Flag and he had purchased it during the Bicentennial

Flag: an American biography by Marc Leepson has a picture of this flag. It is “the Bennington Flag, one of several militia flags with thirteen stars and thirteen stripes . . . thought to have been flown by the Green Mountain boys at the August 16, 1777, Battle of Bennington in Vermont.[color insert pages]” It is also known as the Fillmore flag after the original owner Nathaniel Fillmore who fought in the Battle of Bennington. Leepson also says there are differences of opinion about this flag. Some feel that was actually made in the 1800s and dates either from the war of 1812 or the nation’s jubilee celebration in 1826 [p.26].” In Saga of the American Flag: an illustrated history by Candice M. DeBarr and Jack A. Bonkowske notes that Nathaniel Fillmore was the grandfather of Millard Fillmore, our 13^th president [p.20].

We still had not discovered the significance of this flag’s seven pointed stars, so we extended our search online. The Bennington Museum states that the stars may have Masonic significance.  The website Revolutionary War and Beyond says that seven point stars were common on flags in colonial times. The 13 Stars and Stripes: a survey of 18^th century images by David Martucci published in NAVA NEWS  Number 167(April-June 2000) says “Considering the number of points on the stars, it is a mixed bag and would appear that any number was used, even different numbers of points on the stars of a single flag. . . After the Revolutionary War, the star arrangements are very mixed.”

We were not able to find definitive historical information for our patron as to the reason the Bennington Flag has seven pointed stars. The description at www.legacyproject.org lists a variety of reasons for selection of seven pointed stars.  “In mythology and some religions it represents integration, the unity of mind, body, and spirit. Seven is a lucky number. This star is also used to represent the seven liberal arts of classic antiquity: geometry, astronomy, mathematics, logic, grammar, rhetoric, and music. In engineering, the seven-pointed star represents the supremacy of reason.”

I Think We Have a Skunk Under Our Shed

“I think we have a skunk under our shed; the dog is going crazy. How can we get rid of it before it meets up with the dog?” Skunks are a critter none of the Newton Falls Public Library staff wants to meet, so we can understand the urgency of this request

All the editions of Harold E. Bailey’s book, The Friendly Trapper say that skunks find ammonia to be repulsive and cower away from it. He also suggests a poison gas cartridge like ones used for groundhogs. Our patron preferred the former option, as she only wished to discourage the skunk from living so close to her home.

If her dog should meet up with the skunk before she is able to remove it, we also searched for how to deal with the results. The Merck/Merial Manual for Pet Health recommends dealing with skunking while the spray is still wet as it is an oil. They encourage using a commercial product, as many homemade concoctions can be too harsh especially in the eye and ear areas or will bleach the dog’s coat. A recipe for a homemade treatment can be found at the Humane Society’s website. The instructions do come with cautioning notes not to get it near the pet’s eyes, leaving on too long and bleaching his fur, and premixing as it can explode if left in the bottle. It also includes follow-up instructions for cleaning the owner’s clothing by washing in laundry detergent and baking soda.

Does Turning Off TV During Commercials Save Electricity?

“By turning off TV at each advertisement would I save electricity, prolong the life of the TV, or would this do harm?”  The Newton Falls Public Library staff is always interested in money saving ideas.

Energy usage certainly depends on the television owned. A chart of energy efficiency at CNET

shows HDTV power consumption costing yearly anywhere from $10.59 for the calibrated settings on a 32” Sharp LCD to $108.07 for a 58” Panasonic plasma television. But this did not tell us if the cost would go up or down by turning it off frequently.

Unable to find the exact information for our patron online, we decided to contact a television repair business. Our staff phoned Portage Electronics in Ravenna. They informed us that each time the power button is pushed it creates a 5 volt spike of electricity, which in time will burn out the microprocessor. They recommended that turning it on and off would cause more damage to the television than would save her money in electricity.

We did find that conversely avoiding the viewing of commercials can save you money. “According to Boston College sociologist Juliet Schor, ‘Television viewing results in an upscaling of desire. And that in turn leads people to buy.’ Her study found that every additional hour of TV viewing per week boosts spending by roughly $200 a year.” 

It seems that leaving your television on during commercials will protect it, saving you money in repairs. Leaving the room or muting the commercials when they come on will keep you from being tempted to spend money.

Who Bought the General Motors Penguin?

“Who bought the General Motors [GM] penguin when they had those painted penguins in Youngstown about 7 years ago?” The Newton Falls Public Library staff recalls the fiberglass Youngstown penguins which were painted by local artists.

Online searching was required for this question. We typed the words “Youngstown painted penguin sculptures” into a popular search engine. On the website of the Business Journal Daily we found that the GM penguin was named Cobalt. It was the first of the 31 completed penguins to be previewed and “was designed by Todd P. Fowler of Youngstown, a 2002 YSU graduate . . . he developed the design in honor of his father, Robert, who painted cars at GM for 35 years . . . Fowler used the same automobile paint that GM workers use to paint cars to craft his penguin, saying it was his goal to capture the luminosity, depth, finish and shine of a new car in his design.”

Information in the article cited Youngstown State University’s [YSU] involvement in the program, so we expanded the search to include YSU.  YSU student newspaper, the Jambar, says that Cobalt was revealed on May 13, 2004. www.ysu.edu/penguinparade has photographs of each of the sculptures. The YSU pages about the penguin parade say the auction was to be held on October 29, 2004.

The list of purchaser was located on the 2005 Annual Report of the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley. Cobalt was bought by Dick & Marlene Hill.

Signed Old Book

The caller said to the Newton Falls Public Library staff, “I have an old book that says it was given to Clyde Howes by Ada Alderman, teacher. It was dated Feb. 24 1893. I was wondering if this could be true, that these people really existed.”

Library users in Ohio can access Ancestry.com through the library’s databases on OhioWebLibrary. We typed in both Ada Alderman and Clyde Howes. Looking at the dates and locations given, we found some compatible people in the 1930 census. There was an Ada Alderman born about 1867 who lived in Windsor, Ashtabula County, Ohio. This would make her about 26 years old in 1893. The same census says that Clyde A. Howes was born about 1884, so he would have been about 9 years old when the book was signed. In 1930 he lived in Mesopotamia, Trumbull County, Ohio. These communities are not far from each other.

Extending the search to the birth, marriage, and death indexes at the aforementioned site, we found that Clyde Howes was born on January 21, 1886 in Windsor, Ohio. The death records for Ada Alderman were inconclusive, so we extended our online search using a popular search engine. Using the words, Ada Alderman teacher Windsor Ohio, we found a link to starbeacon.com/archive/x1449203863 which has a photograph of “Ada Alderman, teacher at the Alderman School in Windsor, was photographed in her sleigh in front of the school . . . “

We next searched for the Alderman School in Windsor. History of the Western Reserve, Volume 2 by Harriet Taylor Upton, Harry Gardner Cutler digitally stored at books.google.com, included the history of the Alderman family. Ada was the eldest of the children, born March 13, 1867. She began teaching at 16 years of age, and taught in Windsor, Huntsburg, Trumbull, Mesopotamia, and New Lyme. She was also the first woman to be elected to the Windsor School Board. The Upton History also includes a photograph of Ada, her parents and her brothers.

Searching using the words Clyde Howes 1886 Ohio, we found a link to the site www.findagrave.com.  The information there said that Clyde was born in 1883 and died in 1971. He is buried in the Windsor Township Cemetery.  We were able to inform our caller that the information in the front of the book seemed to match actual people during this time period.

Gingerbread and Sauerkraut

The winter holidays are coming. This week we received two interesting seasonal food questions. “I’m looking for a gingerbread recipe which uses flour, eggs, milk, baking soda, and yeast.” The Newton Falls Public Library staff thought this sounded like a ordinary gingerbread recipe until the caller got to the last ingredient; yeast is not a commonly used ingredient for this item. She was from out of town and unable to come into the library and did not own a computer, so we searched online for recipes. Cheftessbakeresse.blogspot.com had a recipe for yeast-raised orange gingerbread and Georgene-a-bramlage.suite.com had an assortment of gingerbread recipes for Christmas and winter. We gave the caller the recipes we found for her which fit your ingredients list.

The second interesting question was “I’m making sauerkraut in a crock pot and am concerned about mold-like stuff growing on the top. Is this normal?”  Alton Brown of the Foodnetwork.com states “Check cabbage every other day for approximately 2 weeks and skim the surface of scum, if necessary.” Since this stated in his recipe, apparently our patron’s concern was a common one. The book, The Self-sufficient Life and How to Live it: the complete back-to-basics guide by John Seymour also had information about making sauerkraut and our patron took home this resource.

Questions Needing Simple Answers

The librarians of the Newton Falls Public Library enjoy finding the answers to the questions asked by our patrons. During the day, many of the questions asked are of a similar type needing simple answers.

Some examples of these questions are:

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           “What is the phone number for AT&T corporate headquarters?” The www.att.com page for investor relations includes their main telephone number and a note explaining that “while corporate headquarters are in Dallas, the main telephone number uses a San Antonio area code.

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           “I need the plus 4 numbers following the 44444 zip code for my address.” The postal service website, www.usps.com, has a link to Look Up a Zip Code. Typing in the full street address with the 5 digit zip code brings up the additional 4 numbers specific to that address. The library’s full code is 44444-1608.

·         “I’m writing a paper and I need journal articles about substance and drug abuse.” The library has access to a wonderful online database which patrons can use to find a wealth of print resources stored electronically. This patron was directed to the library’s homepage, www.newtonfalls.org. Selecting the Ohio Web Library link, the patron next needs to select Resources; then in the section Magazines and Newspapers choose MasterFile Premier (EBSCOhost). By typing in the needed topic, expanding the search to related words and within the full text of the articles, and limiting the results to full text only the patron should be find all she needs. When citing information for papers, the bibliographic citations are also included.