Why do the buzzards come to Hinckley?

Spring officially began on March 20, but it unofficially began on March 15 in Hinckley with the annual return of the buzzards (technically known as turkey vultures) to Hinckley Reservation. According to the Hinckley Chamber of Commerce, the buzzards’ return was first pointed out by patrolman Walter Nawalaniec in 1957. He had been noticing them for six years, and his predecessor on the force had seen them fly in every March 15 for twenty-five years prior. Nawalaniec related the story to a Cleveland Press reporter and a local historian in February of 1957. The buzzards came back that year and every year since.

Why do they come to roost in Hinckley? No one’s sure. In a post on the Cleveland Metroparks blog, Foster Brown put forth two possible reasons. According to the first, more likely theory, Hinckley’s river, lake, ledges, and tall trees make it an ideal habitat for the buzzards, with nearby woodlands and farms providing a source of food. The second has the ring of legend to it. As the story goes, an enormous hunt in 1818 resulted in a pile of hundreds of animal carcasses, a veritable buzzard feast. Every year since then, the buzzards have come back in the hopes of finding more food set out for them.

For more information, check out Bruce G. Peterjohn’s The Birds of Ohio or Bill Thompson III’s Ohio Bird Watching: A Year-Round Guide, both available at the Newton Falls Public Library. 

Can I use "til" or "till" instead of "until"? Which one is correct?

English is a strange language. Words are easily confused and their meanings aren’t always intuitive. It looks as though “til” is short for “until” and “till” is an entirely separate word, but that’s not exactly the case.

“Till” does have a few different meanings. It can refer to a supply of money or the act of cultivating land. It can also be used interchangeably with “until.” In fact, all three are correct. According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, “till” developed from the Old English “til.” The “un-” (meaning “up to”) in “until” was added later. In the 18^th century, “’till” was the trendy spelling, as though the word were an abbreviation of “until” and not a word in its own right.

Anyone looking to further their understanding of English grammar is welcome to check out Strunk and White’s Elements of Style, Mary Norris’s Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen, or Michael Strumpf and Auriel Douglas’s The Grammar Bible. All of these books are available for borrowing at the Newton Falls Public Library.

Why do my dogs lick each other's ears?

“I have two Labradors and they’re always licking each other’s ears. Why do they do that?”

According to What Dogs Want by Arden Moore, Caring for Your Dog by Bruce Fogle, and the article “Why Do My Dogs Lick Each Other’s Ears?” by Lisa McQuerry, there are a few possible reasons. Dogs lick to relive stress or just for something to do, so they could be anxious or bored. It’s also a way to show submission – when two dogs meet, the lower-ranking dog will often lick the higher-ranking dog.

However, it’s also just a good-natured show of companionship. From a young age, dogs will lick each other to establish and re-affirm bonds. Mothers will groom their puppies, and the puppies will lick her muzzle to indicate that they’re hungry. If our patron’s Labradors are friendly with one another and otherwise content, they’re likely engaging in friendly allogrooming.

While this is likely a harmless display of canine friendship, McQuerry cautions to keep an eye on the dogs to be sure that moisture from excessive ear-licking doesn’t lead to an infection.

For more information on dogs, Decoding Your Dog and Myrna Milani’s Dogsmart are both available for borrowing here at Newton Falls Public Library.

Can you give me any information on how to clean suede?

Suede boots are particularly popular in the winter, but they’re unfortunately prone to stains and scuffing. We looked through several books and websites and found a collection of suede-cleaning tips.

Commercial suede-cleaning products are available (though be sure to only use cleaners specifically designed for suede, not general leather cleaners, as they can mat down suede’s signature soft nap). A suede brush, soft, dry toothbrush, or soft nailbrush is also useful. Brush against the nap to remove dirt, and then brush it back into place to restore its appearance.

If a stain doesn’t come off with the help of a brush, try an eraser – something called a “suede eraser” can be purchased for this very purpose, though an art gum eraser may also work.

There was one area where our sources disagreed – some recommended using undiluted white vinegar to lift stains and some cautioned against it. Anyone willing to try this method would probably do best to first test it in an inconspicuous area.

We found our information in Fix It, Clean It, and Make It Last and Jeff Bredenberg’s Clean It Fast, Clean It Right, and on the websites One Good Thing by Jillee and HowToCleanStuff.Net. Both of the books are available for checkout here at the library.

Can I get an obituary from 2000?

“I need a copy of an obituary that was in the Plain Dealer in 2000. Is there a way for me to get it?”

Most libraries with a genealogy or local history department have newspapers archived, and there’s often a index to help find exactly which issue to look in. Since our patron was looking for an obituary from the Plain Dealer, we checked Cleveland Public Library.

We searched the Cleveland News Index for the name of our patron’s family member and found the issue, section, and page that their obituary was on. We emailed this information to the Cleveland Public Library Center for Local and Global History, and they were able to email us a scanned copy of the obituary. If our patron had been looking for something older, the Plain Dealer also has an online archive containing all their issues from 1845-1991.

Different libraries have different newspapers. Here at Newton Falls, we keep old copies of the Bridge and bound editions of the Herald in our Local History Room. The Akron-Summit County Public Library has indexed issues of the Akron-Beacon Journal (though only obituaries, not articles, are indexed from 1940-1984). Reed Memorial Library has all of the Record Courier on microfilm. An index for the Tribune Chronicle obituaries can be found at http://www.wtcpl.org/index.php/obituary-index.html, and the Warren-Trumbull County Library Local History and Genealogy Center can assist with getting copies of the obituaries in question. The Genealogy and Local History Center at the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County can access the Vindicator archives, though the pre-1920 indexes are incomplete which makes it more difficult to find information from that era. Finally, the McKinley Memorial Library has digitized local Niles newspapers, and they are available at http://mckinley.advantage-preservation.com/.

Of course, this is not a comprehensive list. Any patrons seeking an obituary (or any other information) are welcome to call the library and we will do our best to find it.

What is this strange thing?

“I found this strange item while cleaning out my mother’s house. Can you give me some information about it?”

The item in question was a sort of slanted oblong wooden piece about two and a half inches long and an inch wide. One of the short ends was closed off, and the other had a small hole surrounded by a round metal attachment. Three of the four long sides were closed, but one was open. Some kind of silver plating was visible through the open side. “D.R.P, ang” was carved into another side, and another was affixed with a stamp. The stamp shows an open eye and the words “HYGIENE-AUSSTELUNG DRESDEN MAI-OCTOBER 1911.”

While we haven’t yet been able to figure out what the object is, it seems to be some sort of souvenir from either the 1911 International Hygiene Exhibition or the German Hygiene Museum. “D.R.P, ang” most likely stands for “Deutsches Reichspatent angemeldet,” which means that a patent has been applied for or “patent pending.” The stamp is the logo for the International Hygiene Exhibition, a health-and-medicine-focused world fair that Karl August Lingner put on in Dresden in 1911. (Lingner made his money manufacturing mouthwash, so he may have had ulterior motives for emphasizing health and hygiene.)

The Exhibition was so popular that the exhibits were moved to a permanent home in the German Hygiene Museum, which is open to this day. The most famous exhibit is a transparent human figure, dramatically lit, through which one can see the systems of the body.

The museum went through an unsavory period beginning in the 1920’s when it became a supporter of “racial hygiene,” or eugenics. It continued to promote Nazi ideals through the 1940s, and even the transparent man was used in propaganda. In 2006, the German Hygiene Museum collaborated with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to host the Holocaust Museum’s exhibit, “Deadly Medicine.” The exhibit focused on eugenics and particularly how it was furthered by German doctors and scientists of the time. It continues to tour the world, and can even be viewed online.

Along with its permanent exhibitions on motion, the brain, eating and drinking, and sexuality, the German Hygiene Museum also currently has exhibits on AIDS as well as the dark side of the fashion industry.  

How do I make a resume on the computer?

Applying for jobs almost always requires a resume, and there are tools on the computer to help make it easier to set one up.

Typing “resume,” “free resume,” or “make a resume” into an online search engine will often bring up sites that purport to allow users to create resumes using their templates. However, once a user creates their resume, the site will then prevent them from saving it or printing it out until they pay a fee. It’s best not to bother with these sites at all.

Microsoft Word (a word-processing program that’s available on all of our library computers) provides a series of templates that are free to use. They include pre-formatted headings like “Education,” “Experience,” and “Career Objective” (or “Career Summary”), with spaces for job-seekers to fill in their own information. It’s also possible to build a resume without using any special template. Amazing Resumes, by Jim Bright and Joanne Earl, includes examples that can be recreated using only simple formatting tools such as centering, bolding, and italicizing.

We have a variety of books on resume-writing, such as David F. Noble’s Gallery of Best Resumes, Regina Pontow’s Proven Resumes, and Ron Fry’s Your First Resume. They suggest that job-seekers stick to clear, simple formatting, be specific in listing their responsibilities and achievements, and make sure to proofread their finished resumes. While complete sentences aren’t necessary, spelling, spacing, capitalization, and punctuation all need to be correct.