Loco

I spent part of Friday evening in the 5-degree cold watching my friend Susan feed her horses, and I noticed that she added to their feed a scoop of vitamin E and selenium powder.
She explained that both are key nutrients in a horse's diet, and said she had heard years ago that a selenium problem in horses had somehow played a role in the 1876 defeat of  Lt. Col. George Amstrong Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana.
I checked this out online when I got home (and my fingers warmed up enough to type), and it appears that an excess of selenium may have been to blame.
According to Karen E. Davison, manager of equine technical services for Purina Mills:

Custer’s demise at the Battle of Little Bighorn has also been attributed to selenium toxicity by some accounts. Some believe that Custer would not have been defeated at the Battle of Little Bighorn if the troops of [Capt. Frederick] Benteen and [Major Marcus] Reno had arrived in time. One report indicated that the horses and mules in the pack train with Benteen and Reno were lame and acting crazy, which delayed their arrival. The lameness may have been caused by selenium toxicity but the odd behavior was more likely caused by swainsonine, which along with high selenium levels, is found in some types of locoweeds that grow in the region. So, Custer’s last stand might have been avoided if Benteen and Reno had known their animals were grazing on locoweeds.

Congrats!

I was thumbing through the annual list of awards presented by the Antique Automobile Club of America for car restoration and saw that Lou Mandich, of the Last Chance Garage in Unionville, received a Historic Preservation award for his 1955 MG at the Eastern Division National Fall Meet in Hershey in October. Well done!

Globally

Apologies to my friends who drive school buses and plow roads, but I was underwhelmed by the Jan. 12 storm. "Severe weather!" warned weather.com, churning out multiple text messages the day before. As it was, we got only about four inches and the road was already plowed when I woke up. Schools had a two-hour delay, and I made it to my gym class as usual.
I work with a lot of wonderful software people in the Hebbal section of Bangalore, India, where it rarely drops below 55 degrees F, and they worry about me in the winter.
"I heard that a Snowstorm has hit the East Coast of the US. Are you all safe there?" asked Kiran via email.
"I hope that the weather has improved in Pennsylvania as is not as cold as it was last month," fretted Smitha.

A pirate's life for me

"If sharing is stealing then Librarians are Pirates," read the sandwich board in front of the Bayard Taylor Memorial Library. Baffled, I asked the Sandwich Board Coordinator for an explanation. She explained that it was in response to some curmudegeonly TV personality who had expressed the view that public libraries were no more than common thieves, cheating authors out of their royalties by allowing people to check books out instead of buying them.

Careful with that wrench, Eugene

Those of you who grew up in the 1970s will doubtless recall listening to Pink Floyd, loudly, either through headphones while sulking in your room or grooving with your pals on a worn-out sofa in somebody's rec room.
I decided to give "Meddle" a listen after many years. You may recall (but probably not) the 23-minute piece "Echoes." It consists of trippy electric organ and guitar noodling and lots of electronic and real bird chirps, and toward the end they add these "plink" noises. Plink...a few seconds...plink....a few seconds...plink plonk.
All I could think of was the leaky bathroom faucet that I really should see to.
I am getting so old.
(Extra-credit question: What body part does the cover photo depict?)

Over my head

There's a vertical branch dangling from a tree above the westbound lane of Hilton Road at Route 796. Even with all the wind we've had this winter, it's been hanging there precariously for weeks now, like the sword of Damocles, just waiting to fall and spear any oncoming motorist. I have to confess that I deliberately cross into the other lane to avoid it.

Darn!

I was so sorry to hear this afternoon that Simon Pearce, the restaurant on the Brandywine at Lenape, is closing. I had a lot of fine meals there, including a memorable salmon en croute with cauliflower. I don't remember how the cauliflower was prepared, but it was the first time in my life that I actually enjoyed that vegetable.

They also made their own glassware, and it was exquisite. Pictured here are a Champagne flute (with a mimosa) and a vase (with summer flowers).
Old-timers will remember that the restaurant used to be called the Lenape Inn, and it was considered very ritzy back then -- not the place for a family meal. And the Pocopson post office used to be located on the building's ground floor, on the river side. There were usually geese loitering around.

Altogether spooky

When I was a kid in the early 1960s, I loved the TV show "The Addams Family." Based on characters created by cartoonist Charles Addams, it was about a loving, happy, and quite eccentric family.
Last fall I said to a young member of my family that if he didn't get a haircut soon, he would start to look like Cousin Itt. He gave me a blank look.
Well, I decided then and there, this cannot be. No child should grow up ignorant of Cousin Itt, and Lurch, and Thing, and Cleopatra the carnivorous plant. I bought the DVD set as a Christmas present and waited with some trepidation for the verdict, worried that the simple black-and-white series would seem hopelessly quaint to a youngster raised on Wii and high-tech computer games.
I needn't have worried. He LOVES the program. He didn't want to watch the Eagles in the playoffs on Sunday afternoon. No, he wanted us to watch "The Addams Family." He has taken to quizzing me on Addams Family trivia (What is Pugsley's pet?), says "You Rang?" and snaps his fingers at the drop of a hat, and couldn't wait to tell me that he knew the answer to the "Jeopardy!" question about who could light up a light bulb in his mouth (Uncle Fester).
There is hope for the next generation.
Oh, and by the way: is Thing left-handed or right-handed?

In Your Wardrobe

"Six Items or Less began as a small experiment between friends and quickly grew to become a global movement questioning the power of what we don’t wear."

Perhaps you've heard of this "experiment" where you choose six items of clothing and wear nothing else for a month straight. You're allowed to do laundry ad libitum, and underwear, workout clothes, shoes, accessories and coats are excluded from the six items.
A blogger I know is getting herself into a tizzy selecting her clothes for this ascetic month, but for me, and I suspect for a lot of my country neighbors, six items would work just fine. Jeans or leggings, a turtleneck, and a fleece pullover are my daily winter uniform. Add a skirt and nice top for any festive occasions that come up. Done. Summer would be even easier.
A lot of men already live by the six-or-less rule, blue shirt, white shirt, navy blue sport jacket and tan trousers.

As my friend Susan said, "I wear the same sweat pants and shirt every day to clean the barn. Do I win anything?"

Observant

I stopped off at the Jennersville Giant after working out today to stock up for the impending storm. At check-out, the elderly gentleman in front of me told the cashier that the six-pack of steak rolls was on sale for $2.79, but he was being charged more. The cashier called over her supervisor. The supervisor phoned the bakery department, confirmed that $2.79 was the correct price, pushed a few buttons on the register and said, "There. Now you got them for free."
The guy absolutely beamed. I'll bet those rolls will taste extra-good.

Good signs

The sign at a house for sale along Wollaston Road reads, "Unionville-Chadds Ford School District," in big red letters, right where agents usually like to tout the house's biggest selling point. That's certainly a vote of confidence for the district -- and good news for homeowners.

More than coincidence?

Posted on The Whip's Facebook page on Monday, Jan. 10: "Starting next Wednesday, we will be starting "Locals" Happy Hour! Bar patrons whose photo ID has a zip code which falls within a 5 mile radius of the pub will get $2 of drafts from 5-7PM."
Hmmm. Might this have something to do with the longstanding disagreement the Whip is having with "locals," namely some of its close neighbors in Springdell? And the fact that the zoning hearing set to consider the dispute is scheduled for . . . Wednesday evening, Jan. 19?

Mainland

Coming back from an afternoon of errands in Delaware, I was driving south on Route 1 past Hank's when I saw a Honda Fit with a Hawaii license plate. It was purchased at the Honda Windward dealership in Kaneohe. How on earth did it get here?

Little orbs

Thanks to all my readers who reminded me that Barnard's Orchards stocks local eggs from the Wickersham farm year-round. I will definitely stop by the next time I need them. Whether you use them in baking or for breakfast, there's really no comparison between "the real thing" and the supermarket variety.