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Of North Idaho

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WILDFLOWERSby Patricia L. Cook

Experts estimate that there are over 20,000 spe-cies of flowering plants in North America, belonging to about 300 different families. Wildflowers are the ones that grow in the wild, without cultivation. • There are “native” wildflowers that are indigenous to the continent and “naturalized” wildflowers that have been introduced from some other part of the world. Native and naturalized wildflowers share a common distinction: They are able to grow on their own in nature. • Wildflowers grow in cold and hot areas as well as in wet and dry places. Deserts may appear so dry that nothing will grow, but there will still be wildflowers when the conditions are right. Conversely, marshes and swamps appear so wet that flowers can not sur-vive, but they can have wildflowers as well. Many people have attempted to cultivate wildflower gar-dens. Some wildflowers are agreeable to this, and others refuse cultivation. • Wildflowers are varied in looks, growth forms and usefulness. Some are considered grand in appear-ance and wanted in home and park gardens, while others are a bane to our lawns and roadsides. Some are unusual with “personalities” that will amaze you.

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In April 2009, life changed for Susan Boyle, a sin-gle ordinary woman from Blackburn, West Lothian, Scotland. She may have looked ordinary, but she definitely didn’t sound that way.

• Boyle was born April 1, 1961, the youngest of nine children. Her mother was 47 at the time of her birth, and Boyle was deprived of oxygen briefly during the difficult birth. She has some difficulties learning and because of this was bullied as a child. • Singing in her local Catholic Church brought Boyle great joy and also helped her to express her-self. Her lovely voice was known by those in her hometown who had heard her. She also sang kara-oke locally and dreamed of singing professionally. Fred O’Neil, her voice coach, encouraged her to audition for “Britain’s Got Talent.”• When Boyle came onto the stage for the popular reality show, the reaction from the judges and the crowd was kind of ho hum — Here we go again with another bad audition! Although her looks were plain, her banter with the judges revealed her jo-vial, funny personality. Then she had the opportu-nity to wow the audience, the judges and the world, which she certainly did.• Boyle’s words while on stage, before singing, on January 21, 2009 (it aired on television on April 11), “I’m trying to be a professional singer. I’ve never been given the chance before but here’s hoping it’ll change.” Well, change happened, and it happened quickly.• Boyle sang “I Dream a Dream” from “Les Mis-erables” on stage that night, and her fame started spreading around the world like wildfire.• Boyle came in second place on “Britain’s Got Tal-ent,” but she captured the hearts and ears of fans worldwide and had a phenomenal year. People were watching her on YouTube and accessing her information on Wikipedia in record numbers imme-diately following the show. Her story was the No. 2 Top Story by the Associated Press in 2009. • On November 23, 2009, Boyle’s first album, “I Dreamed a Dream,” was released and the sales shot through the roof. Here are some of the sta-tistics for her album sales: the best selling female debut album worldwide ever; oldest person ever to have a debut album open at No. 1; No. 1 on Eu-ropean and World charts for seven weeks; fast-est selling debut album in United Kingdom history; highest one week sales ever in Australian history; and one of only two singers in the United States to sell over three million CDs in 2009. (Taylor Swift was the other singer, and it took her 12 months; Boyle’s album sold that many in less than six weeks!) By January 21, 2010, one year from the taping of “Britain’s Got Talent,” Boyle’s debut album had achieved Platinum sales status approximately 44 times in 12 countries and Gold in 15 more coun-tries. There were other honors that came her way in 2010 including official recognition by the “Guin-ness World Records” for several records.• Boyle’s autobiography, “Susan Boyle, The Wom-an I Was Born to Be,” was released on October 12, 2010, and her second album, “The Gift,” a Christ-mas album, was released on November 9, 2010. Both are sure to set some records as the story of the woman from a small Scottish village continues to inspire her loyal and admiring fans. Dreams re-ally can come true!

OVERCOMING THE ODDS:SUSAN BOYLE

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Six discs (three DVD, three Blu-Ray) containing both the 1956 Charlton Heston version and the original 1923 silent original, hours of special fea-tures, a 50-page book, a reproduction of the origi-nal 1956 souvenir program and more. If you’re not inclined to plunk down 90 bucks for this boxed set, there are more affordable DVD and Blu-Ray ver-sions of the film also being released this week.

TV SERIES“Ken Burns: The Civil War” Commemorative Edi-tion DVD“Upstairs, Downstairs” The Complete Series -- 40th Anniversary Collection“Mad Men” Season Four “Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends” Complete 5th Sea-son“Treme” The Complete First Season “In Plain Sight” Season 3“Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown”“Xena Warrior Princess” Season 2“Emergency: The Final Rescues”“Gangland: The Final Season”“Here’s Lucy” Season Four “Vegas” The Second Season, Volume Two“Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” Season Two“Everybody Loves Raymond” Seasons 6 and 7“Nova scienceNOW: What’s the Next Big Thing”

TOP TEN MOVIES1. Rango (PG) animated2. The Adjustment Bureau (PG-13) Matt Da-mon, Emily Blunt3. Beastly (PG-13) Vanessa Hudgens, Mary-Kate Olsen4. Hall Pass (R) Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis5. Gnomeo & Juliet (G) animated6. Unknown (PG-13) Liam Neeson, January Jones 7. The King’s Speech (R) Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter8. Just Go With It (PG-13) Adam Sandler, Jen-nifer Aniston9. I Am Number Four (PG-13) Alex Pettyfer, Timothy Olyphant10. Justin Bieber: Never Say Never: The Direc-tor’s Fan Cut (G) Justin Bieber, Usher

TOP TEN VIDEO, DVD of March 12, 2011

Top 10 Video Rentals1. Due Date (R) Robert Downing Jr.2. Unstoppable (PG-13) Denzel Washington3. Megamind (PG) animated4. Red (PG-13) Bruce Willis5. Life As We Know It (PG-13) Katherine Heigl6. You Again (PG) Kristen Bell7. Secretariat (PG) Diane Lane8. Paranormal Activity 2 (R) Brian Boland9. Let Me In (R) Kodi-Smit McPhee10. Conviction (R) Hilary Swank

Top 10 DVD Sales1. Unstoppable (PG-13) (Fox)2. Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 (G) (Disney)3. Paranormal Activity 2 (R) (Paramount)4. Life As We Know It (PG-13) (Warner Bros.)5. For Colored Girls (R) (Lionsgate)6. Red (PG-13) (Summit)7. Secretariat (PG) (Disney)8. You Again (PG) (Disney)9. Toy Story 3 (G) (Disney)10. Inception (PG-13) (Warner Bros.)

PICKS OF THE WEEK

“Tangled” (PG) -- The classic fairy tale “Rapun-zel” is the subject of Disney’s 50th animated feature, and it follows the studio’s tried-and-true formula to the letter. Rapunzel (voiced by Mandy Moore) is a girl on the verge of turning 18, and she longs to leave the tower where she’s been kept all her life so she can witness the floating lights that appear every year on her birthday. Her fortunes take a turn when notori-ous thief Flynn Ryder (Zachary Levi) climbs into her tower and the two make a run for it. As with all Disney films, songs will be sung, Important Lessons will be learned, and tie-in merchandise will be sold by the bushel. That said, I’m sure your little girl will love the film.

“Black Swan” (R) -- Natalie Portman won the Oscar for her portrayal of Nina, a ballerina driv-en to madness in director Darren Aronofsky’s often slow-paced psychosexual thriller.When the ballet company director casts Nina as both the Black and White Swan in his produc-tion of “Swan Lake,” Nina not only has to face the challenge of playing two emotionally dif-ferent roles, but also has to contend with her overbearing mother (Barbara Hershey), the whacked-out diva she’s replacing (Wynona Ry-der in a gripping performance) and a viciously ambitious newcomer (Mila Kunis).Although slow at times, and despite a few bits of scenery-chewing, Aronofsky manages to keep the suspense building throughout the film, cul-minating in an explosive and chilling final act.

“The Ten Commandments: Limited Edition Gift Set” (G) -- A mainstay of Easter Sunday televi-sion for decades, Cecil B. DeMille’s legendary biblical epic gets an equally audacious release this week:

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¥ It was Kurt Vonnegut, one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, who made the follow-ing sage observation: “There is no reason why good cannot triumph as often as evil. The triumph of any-thing is a matter of organization. If there are such things as angels, I hope they are organized along the lines of the Mafia.” ¥ That cork you pulled out of your wine bottle was made from the bark of a tree. The cork oak has to grow for 25 years before any cork is harvested, and then it’s stripped only every 10 years thereafter. ¥ If you can predict the future by watching the flight patterns of birds, you are engaging in ornithomancy. ¥ The coldest place on earth is a place known only as Ridge A in Antarctica. The average winter tem-perature there is -94 degrees F. ¥ According to archaeological research, the bikini is nothing new; evidence has been found that the two-piece garment was worn in parts of Italy as early as 2000 B.C.

¥ In 1950, 70 percent of all the cars, buses and trucks in the world could be found in the United States.

¥ According to the Consumer Electronics Associa-tion, the average television screen in United States homes is growing by 1 inch every year. ¥ It was Ambrose Bierce, in his “Devil’s Dictionary,” who defined “admiration” as “our polite recognition of another’s resemblance to ourselves.” ¥ Ever wonder why magazine publisher Hugh He-fner chose a rabbit as the symbol of his Playboy magazine? Evidently, when the mogul was a small boy, one of his treasured possessions was a blan-ket with bunnies all over it.

***Thought for the Day: “I’ve done the calculation, and your chances of winning the lottery are identical whether you play or not.” -- Fran Lebowitz

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WILDFLOWERS (continued):• Skunk cabbage is a swamp-loving plant that is well named. It blooms in February and March in swampy areas and produces an odd-looking flower before producing any leaves. The flowers resemble pins in a pincushion. When the plant is bruised, it smells awful. • Native Americans used the orange sap of the bloodroot plant to color or paint their faces for war-fare or ceremonies and to dye baskets. The flowers on a bloodroot plant are so delicate that it cannot be picked successfully. The petals fall off with the slightest touch or breeze. The sap comes from the stem.• Mistletoe is a plant we traditionally associate with Christmas. Unlike most wildflowers that are rooted in soil, this plant is termed a “semi-parasite” because it draws water and minerals from a host plant. It typically grows on hardwood trees in the southern United States producing small white ber-ries coated with a sticky substance that is toxic to humans.• Dodder or Love Vine is unusual because it is a true parasite. Unlike semi-parasitic mistletoe, which produces green leaves, dodder vines are gold in color. Shortly after dodder seeds sprout, root-like structures attach themselves to a host plant, and the dodder plant draws all of its nourishment from the host plant. Common Dutch clover is a host plant for several dodder species.• The Southern or evergreen magnolia is emblem-atic of the Southern states in America. The flower is the State Flower for Louisiana and Mississippi. What some readers may not know is the large size of this flower. Flowers range from 7 to 10 inches across — That’s the size of a dinner plate! Also in-teresting is that magnolia flowers are pollinated by beetles.• Wildflower festivals are popular in many differ-ent areas. The 25th Annual Mountain Flower Fine Art & Wine Festival in Dahlonega, Georgia, is held the third weekend in May. The Dahlonega Master Gardeners present wildflower displays, walks and tours.• The Mount Pisgah Arboretum in Oregon also has a Wildflower Festival in May. Always the Sunday after Mother’s Day, this year’s event will be May 15, 2011. Guided hikes are available, and 300 to 400 species of wildflowers are displayed.

Continued on page 7!

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For years, cities have had to come up with solu-tions for parking cars to allow access for employ-ees and people doing business as well as for visi-tors and tourists.

• Whether called a car park, parking garage, park-ing structure, parking ramp, parking deck, parkade or some other name, buildings equipped to hold lots of cars have become a necessity for crowded cities. Unique parking structures are found in cities around the world. Architects have not only worked to solve parking problems but have designed some memorable structures.• One of the earliest, if not the earliest, park-ing garages was the Botanic Gardens Garage in Glasgow, Scotland, built between 1906 and 1912. It had cages for the cars and a distinctive façade of green and white glazed terracotta tiles. Preserva-tionists have been fighting to keep it from demoli-tion. • The first known multi-story car structure in the United States was built in 1918 for the Hotel La-Salle in Chicago. It was demolished in 2005. • Designers of those first parking structures would be astonished at the size, design and automation available today.• Volkswagen’s Autostadt in Woofsburg, Germany, is an amusement park based on an automotive theme as well as a place to purchase a new car. It includes a car museum, car-factory tours, driv-ing courses and more. Two 20-story car silos hous-ing 800 new Volkswagens are attention-grabbing sites. If you decide to buy, a central robotic arm will travel up the tower and deliver your car to you with an odometer that reads zero. It is possible for six people to travel up the silo in the same way the cars do for a view of the towers’ interior.• A parking area combined with shopping, restau-rants, etc. in Tokyo Bay is quite a tourist destina-tion. Even though it is expensive to access by toll, the Umihotaru, “floating car park,” is a must see. Its design resembles a cruise ship, and it is built on an artificial island where Japan’s longest tunnel, the Aqualine, ends and becomes a bridge. • Another parking structure connected to water is Marina City on the Chicago River in Chicago that was built to discourage city residents from mov-ing to the suburbs. Two 65-story towers that were part of the complex and completed in 1964 contain 18 floors for parking. Each tower of the “corncob” structure accommodates 450 autos. • The Michigan Theater in Detroit, Michigan, is an-other unusual parking garage. Originally a grand theater built in 1926 on the site where Henry Ford built his first automobile, it was scheduled for demo-lition in 1976. Engineers saved the historic building by redesigning it into a three-story garage.• R. Omar Barker said it well in 1946: “Here lies an urban gentleman, who failed to make his mark, he died with his lifetime squandered, hunting some place to park!”

TRIVIA

1. GENERAL KNOWLEDGE: What is the first level of Girl Scouts?2. TELEVISION: Who was best known in the role of Alice Kramden in “The Honeymooners”?3. CHEMISTRY: What is the Latin name for iron?4. ANATOMY: Where is the pituitary gland lo-cated?5. COMICS: What is the dog’s name in the comic “Dennis the Menace”?6. AD SLOGANS: What product was adver-tised by the slogan “A little dab’ll do ya!”?7. GEOGRAPHY: What is the Canadian prov-ince known by the abbreviation NB?8. FAMOUS QUOTATIONS: Who said, “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”? 9. BIBLE: From which book does the quote, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to ev-ery purpose under the heaven,” come?10. MUSIC: Who wrote the song “Diamonds and Rust”?

ANSWERS

1. Daisy2. Audrey Meadows3. Ferrum4. Base of the brain5. Ruff6. Brylcreem7. New Brunswick8. William James9. Ecclesiastes10. Joan Baez

SPORTS QUIZ

1. Jacoby Ellsbury and Michael Bourn, the A.L. and N.L. leaders in stolen bases in 2009, re-spectively, combined for 131 stolen bases. When was the last time before 2009 that the two stolen-base leaders topped 131? 2. In 2009, Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay be-came the second pitcher to no-hit the Florida Marlins in their history. Who was the first to do it?3. When was the last time before the 2009 season that Ohio State and Oregon met in the Rose Bowl?4. In the summer of 2009, Quentin Richardson was traded four times. Name three of the five NBA teams involved in the deals.5. How many goaltenders played at least 70 games in the 2009-10 NHL season?6. Who was the first NASCAR driver to be named Athlete of the Year by The Associated Press? 7. Name the only Grand Slam event tennis player Justine Henin did not win during her ca-reer?

ANSWERS

1. Brian Hunter (74) and Tony Womack (60) combined for 134 in 1997. 2. The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Ramon Marti-nez, in 1995.3. It was after the 1957 season.4. The Knicks, Grizzlies, Clippers, Timber-wolves and Heat.5. Six -- Martin Brodeur, Henrik Lundqvist, Miikka Kiprusoff, Jonathan Quick, Craig An-derson and Evgeni Nabokov.6. Jimmie Johnson, in 2009.7. Wimbledon was not among her seven Grand Slam titles.

The Tidbits® Paper is a Division of Tidbits Media, Inc. • Montgomery, AL 36106(800) 523-3096 • E-mail: tidbits@tidbitsmedia.com • All Rights Reserved ©2008

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FLASHBACK TRIVIA

1. Who is Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero? What was the name of her first U.S. No. 1 hit?2. Which solo artist wrote and released “Blame It on the Boogie” before the Jacksons did?3. Who released “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher,” and when?4. Name the band that released “I’ll Be There for You.”5. What was the original band name of Tava-res, aka The Tavares Brothers?6. Who first sang “A Lover’s Question,” written by Brook Benton and Clyde Otis?

ANSWERS

1. Connie Francis. Her first No. 1 hit was “Ev-erybody’s Somebody’s Fool,” followed imme-diately by “My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own” in 1960.2. The song was written and released by Eng-lish artist Mick Jackson (no relation) in 1978. The Jacksons’ version did better on the charts, but not much.3. Jackie Wilson, in 1967. Rita Coolidge fol-lowed with her own cover of the song in 1977.4. Bon Jovi, in 1988. The song was the New Jersey group’s final No. 1 hit.5. Chubby and the Turnpikes in 1959. Their first R&B No. 1 was a 1974 cover of “She’s Gone,” written by Daryl Hall and John Oates.6. Clyde McPhatter, in 1958. Country music singers Del Reeves and Jacky Ward had suc-cessful remakes of the song in the 1970s.

• The Waterton Wildflower Festival is a nine-day event in June at Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada, across the border from Glacier National Park. Waterton is an International Peace Park and World Heritage Site. Due to the conjunc-tion of prairie and mountain ecosystems, the park has a truly unique variety of wildflowers. It is home to more than 50 of Canada’s rarest flowers includ-ing 30 species that aren’t found anywhere else in the world. In fact, Waterton has more flowers than any other mountain park. The festival has educa-tional courses, art exhibits, workshops, hikes and even horseback rides.• Crested Butte, the official wildflower capital of Colorado, began hosting a wildflower festival in 1986. Now the week-long celebration has over 200 classes, including art and cooking classes with wildflowers. The 2011 event is set for July 11-17.• The Wildflower! Arts & Music Festival is a multi-day arts and music festival celebrating its 19th an-niversary this year. Held north of Dallas in Rich-ardson, Texas, it got its name from the wildflowers planted throughout the parks, medians and road-sides of Richardson.• Do you know which United States’ First Lady is considered the “Environmental First Lady”? Clau-dia Alta Taylor Johnson, otherwise known as Lady Bird, was the wife of the 36th President, Lyndon Johnson. (The nickname was supposedly given to her by a nursemaid when she was a child who said she was “as purty as a lady bird.”)• While she was First Lady, Mrs. Johnson created the First Lady’s Committee for a More Beautiful Capital. She wanted to create natural landscaping to preserve the beauty of the nation’s capital. Later she expanded the program to include the entire nation. • In 1982, Lady Bird Johnson and actress Helen Hayes founded the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, originally called the National Wildflow-er Research Center, “to introduce people to the beauty and diversity of wildflowers and other na-tive plants.” •The center in Austin, Texas, has public gardens, woodlands and meadows and is an internationally influential research center. In 2006, the center be-came an Organized Research Unit of the Univer-sity of Texas at Austin. • Wildflower research has far-reaching implica-tions. One wildflower that has made a huge dif-ference in many lives worldwide is Wild Foxglove, botanically known as Digitalis purpurea. The medi-cine derived from this plant is widely used today to treat heart disease. As Lady Bird has said, “Surely there are others like digitalis waiting out there.”

WILDFLOWERS (continued)

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