kmerwin

Kitty Litter’s Polka Dot Heels

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Ketchum Vuarnette, Kitty Litter sang in these polka dot heels.
Made by Cherie Kessler, MS 0801 Vuarnettes Collection

These polka dotted shoes were worn by Vuarnettes singer Cherie Kessler, aka Kitty Litter. An apres-ski music and comedy act, the Vuarnettes were a group of four singers and a backup band. This Ketchum homegrown group would create a theme each year, re-write lyrics to select pop music or classic rock songs. They produced their own shows. And with handmade costumes, they performed all winter. Some of the places they performed were the Creekside Restaurant in Warm Springs, the Boiler Room and Ore House in Sun Valley. Devoted fans and drinkers wouldn’t miss.

A Different Kind of Birdwatching:

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The F-15E Strike Eagle in Your Own Back Yard

Collections Manager, Cathy Butterfield, recommends your review of the environmental impact statement for Airspace Optimization for Readiness for Mountain Home Air Force Base.

Many kinds of books land on the donation table at The Community Library, from self-published  to hyperpopular bestsellers, from true SETI science to cryptozoologic memoirs, from first edition James Bond novels to a manual on Practical Lock Picking. However, a triple-taped high priority box from a Colonel in the 366th Fighter Wing on Gunfighter Avenue in Mountain Home did raise our jaded eyebrow. When the Air Force sends us a study, they like us to pay attention. The library now has on display the final edition of the environmental impact statement (EIS) for Airspace Optimization for Readiness for Mountain Home Air Force Base. And Appendices. Find them here. 

Note: We should pay attention: this is a key opportunity for informed residents to talk back to the government. The Air Force Base at Mountain Home launches training missions that cross a huge amount of wild terrain over much of southern Idaho, northern Nevada, and eastern Oregon. The aim of the Airspace Optimization proposal is to lower the altitude floor for training missions. The EIS is to report on the impacts of lowering flightpaths to as little as 100 feet above ground level for subsonic flights, and as low as 5,000 feet above ground level for supersonic flights. The EIS hardcopy and CD has been made available to libraries around the state of Idaho to inform the citizenry and provide an opportunity for public comment on the proposed changes to training exercises.

We should pay attention: this is a key opportunity for informed residents to talk back to the government. . . The aim of the Airspace Optimization proposal is to lower the altitude floor for training missions. 

The Airspace EIS contains favored and alternate proposals, environmental studies, cultural impact studies, geologic studies, and more. It is governmentspeak, but certain passages can stand out, such as, “Damage to structures from sonic boom overpressures would be possible but unlikely.” The EIS includes studies of wilderness and recreational areas from the Owyhee canyonlands to Jarbidge to the Sawtooth National Forest south hills, including areas harboring bighorn sheep and sage grouse. “There would be potential startle effects from sonic booms.” The study does mention certain areas they will try to avoid to lower impacts, under various alternatives. They do state in the environmental justice resource that lower income residents in Humboldt County and the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation and school system will be directly impacted by lower overflights.

Despite the acronyms and occasionally leaden language, the EIS comparison charts are succinct and informative. I recommend reading the Executive Summary first to get an overview, then locating maps in the main study chapters. I now know that AGL means Above Ground Level, and BASH appropriately means Bird/wildlife Aircraft Strike Hazard. If you have an interest in the overall environment of southern Idaho and the northern Great Basin/eastern Oregon plateau, it is worth coming in and paging through the documents, and even submitting comments. The 30-day review period started March 3 and runs through the close of business April 3, 2023. The Final EIS is available for download here.

Review of Books: Oceanographer Marie Tharp

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Children’s Librarian Helen Morgus recommends Ocean Speaks and Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea, both about oceanographer Marie Tharp. 

March is Women’s History Month.  As always, I am directing my cherished reader to the Children’s (Juvenile) Nonfiction section where you can delve as deeply or as superficially as you wish into any subject that pleases you. If you’re tuned in to Women’s History Month, you will find the famous well represented in our Biography section: from Cleopatra to Amelia Earhart to Sacagawea, and so many more.  

But what about the women whose names we don’t know as well? You’ll find many undiscovered treasures on the Biography shelves. And surprise! More gems are tucked into the sections where the women made their contributions to history—civil rights, sports, the arts, cooking, the sciences, etc. One of my favorite subjects of two beautifully illustrated books is Marie Tharp. 

Ocean Speaks, by Jess Keating, is found in the biographies section (J 92 THA). In lyrical prose, Keating tells the story of this woman who mapped the mid-Atlantic ridge in the 1940s and 50s, a discovery that led to the acceptance of the theory of continental drift, which frames geological research today. In Keating’s telling, Tharp immersed herself in an ocean of paper and ink, a substitute for immersion in work at sea. Even in the mid-twentieth century, her male colleagues were afflicted with superstition: women were bad luck at sea. Katie Hickey’s watercolor and pencil illustrations add a dreamlike quality to Keating’s narrative, and contrast Tharp’s spunky character with her male colleagues’ stuffy demeanors.  

Tharp immersed herself in an ocean of paper and ink, a substitute for immersion in work at sea. Even in the mid-twentieth century, her male colleagues were afflicted with superstition: women were bad luck on a ship.

Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea, by Robert Burleigh, is found next to the other books about earth science (J 526.09 BUR). Burleigh chooses to tell Tharp’s story in first person, bringing out more of Tharp’s internal life: her determination and her profound curiosity, as well as her sense of justice. Throughout the story, Tharp questions the lopsided, male-dominated system of making science, and in the end emerges triumphant. Tharp’s lifelong fascination with maps, her methods and data, play a larger part in this telling than in Keating’s, and Raúl Colón’s beautifully textured watercolor and pencil drawings are more precise and representational than Katie Hickey’s. 

Both books make great read-alouds to children in grade school. The illustrations will help keep the younger child interested, while a curious fourth or fifth grader will enjoy the depth of the back matter, and may go on to suggested further reading. And an adult who gets hooked on Marie Tharp can check out Soundings: The Story of the Remarkable Woman Who Mapped the Ocean Floor, by Hali Felt, from the main collection (526.092 FEL). 

And dear reader, PLEASE AND ESPECIALLY, read these books to your boys AND to your girls. Too much of children’s literature is trending toward “girls” books” and “boys’ books.”  These books help break down those stereotypes, for everyone’s benefit. 

If your pump is primed, here are more favorites about unsung women, all with wonderful illustrations and satisfying auxiliary material, found outside the Biography section. Wishing you delight and sparks of curiosity in your reading, this Women’s History Month! 

Women in World War II

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by Susan Johnston Taylor

World War II completely disrupted life in the United States and throughout the world, and it was an empowering turning point in U.S. women’s history. Some women joined the armed forces as nurses and pilots. Some went to work outside the home in factories producing munitions, and building ships and airplanes. Some even became spies! But despite all these accomplishments, women were rarely given the recognition they deserved or the same benefits as their male counterparts. This book tells their story.

Women are sometimes called the silent protagonists of history. But since before the founding of our nation until now, women have organized, marched, and inspired. They forced change and created opportunity. With engaging text, fun facts, photography, infographics, and art, this new set of books examines how individual women of differing races and socioeconomic status took a stand, and how groups of women lived and fought throughout the history of this country. It looks at how they celebrated victories that included the right to vote, the right to serve their country, and the right to equal employment. The aim of this much-needed set of five books is to bring herstory to young readers!

Find it in Juvenile Non-Fiction here.

    Girls Think of Everything

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    by Catherine Thimmesh

    In kitchens and living rooms, in garages and labs and basements, even in converted chicken coops, women and girls have invented ingenious innovations that have made our lives simpler and better. Their creations are some of the most enduring (the windshield wiper) and best loved (the chocolate chip cookie). What inspired these women, and just how did they turn their ideas into realities?

    Features women inventors Ruth Wakefield, Mary Anderson, Stephanie Kwolek, Bette Nesmith Graham, Patsy O. Sherman, Ann Moore, Grace Murray Hopper, Margaret E. Knight, Jeanne Lee Crews, and Valerie L. Thomas, as well as young inventors ten-year-old Becky Schroeder and eleven-year-old Alexia Abernathy. Illustrated in vibrant collage by Caldecott Honor artist Melissa Sweet.

    Find it in Juvenile Nonfiction here.

    Women Who Dared:

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    52 Stories of Fearless Daredevils, Adventurers & Rebels

    by Linda Skeers

    The perfect introduction for learning about women throughout history who dared to do the extraordinary. Inspire our new generation of women to explore, discover, persist, succeed, and fight like a girl. A great gift for girls 9-12.

    Women have been doing amazing, daring, and dangerous things for years, but they’re rarely mentioned in our history books as adventurers, daredevils, or rebels. This new compilation of brief biographies features women throughout history who have risked their lives for adventure—many of whom you may not know, but all of whom you’ll WANT to know, such as:

    • Annie Edson Taylor, the first person who dared to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel
    • Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman who dared to fly in space
    • Helen Gibson, the first woman who dared to be a professional stunt person

    And many more! If you and your child enjoyed She Persisted by Chelsea Clinton, Little Dreamers, Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls or Girls Think of Everything, you will love reading Women Who Dared.

    Find it in Children’s New here.

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