November 2018 NOVEMBER 2018

Champion of Mark Your Calendars

Chimpanzees

Jane Goodall had no formal November 3 Lee Senior Center training in animal behavior Medicare Plan Finder Assistance or anthropology when she 11am-3pm call to make an appointment 5722 Lee Highway Arlington VA 22207 703-228-0555 Mon-Fri. 10am-3pm ventured into the African jungle in Tanzania, East Africa. She simply wanted to observe chimpanzees in the November 8 Thanksgiving at Lee wild. What she discovered How to Build a Tree on Ancestry.com on November 4, 1960, changed the way humans 11:30am-1pm view animals forever. For the first time, a human Tuesday Nov. 13 witnessed another animal use a tool of any kind. Posture: Align Your Spine Up there with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, the In this case, a chimp used a twig to extract 11:30am-12:30pm Room 203 Turkey Trot and football, the Lee annual Thanksgiving termites from their mounds. Humans are Center Staff luncheon is a tradition that goes back over 20 years. called Homo sapiens, which means “man Identity Theft It’s also as popular as the other events mentioned the toolmaker.” Goodall’s discovery forced Adriana Carr 1-2pm Room 100 Sheila Budoff above! the scientific world to reconsider the idea that tool-making is unique to humans. Thursday Nov. 15 Front Desk Volunteers Each year, Harris Teeter at the Lee Harrison shopping Roberta Thibodaux center donates a traditional Thanksgiving meal that As in 1960, Gombe Stream National Park Seniors Prescription Drug Misuse and Susie Bachtel kicks off the Holiday season in fine style. This year, we in Tanzania is still the best place to observe Addiction 1-2pm Room 203 Judy Engebritson are pleased to continue the tradition. Join us Friday chimpanzees in their natural environment. November 16, 2018 for turkey and all the trimmings. Today, visitors are able to observe the three Lee/Madison Advisory The feasting starts at 1pm. To register for this event or amazing discoveries that Goodall recorded Committee for more information or if you would like to volunteer, in her research: (1) that chimpanzees are not please contact the Lee Senior Center staff. herbivores but omnivores, (2) that chimps make their own tools, and (3) that chimps use these Hockey’s First Masked Man Tom Sipusic Chair tools. In fact, chimps use an entire toolkit to help Jacques Plante was a goaltender them accomplish tasks. Stone hammers are used for the Montreal Canadiens, an Tom Curtis to crack open nuts. Heavy sticks chisel holes into All-Star, and a six-time Stanley Vice-Chair termite mounds. Blades of stiff grass are chewed Cup champion, yet perhaps his until frayed at the end to better extract the greatest contribution to the sport Eileen Bogdanoff termites. Chimps will even chew up leaves into was the hockey mask he invented. Treasurer a spongy mass and then use the sponge to soak In 1956, Plante had a sinusitis Penny Curtis up hard-to-reach water, which they then suck operation and so invented a dry. Much like their human cousins, these clever Secretary mask to protect animals have even been known to fashion sharp his face during hockey practices. His coach, spear-like tools to hunt small animals. At-large Toe Blake, believed Plante’s vision would be Caral Bennett impaired and forbade him to wear it during Ira Birnbaum When paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey became games. But on November 1, 1959, Plante’s Inge Ercolano aware of Goodall’s discovery, he said, “Now we nose was struck and broken by a puck. He was Fran Field must redefine tool, or redefine man, or accept taken to the locker room for evaluation, and Jean Jackson chimpanzees as human.” Other scientists were when he returned to the ice, he was wearing Eileen Kenna not as accepting. After a lifetime of being a the same crude mask he had worn those years Roberta Thibodaux champion of chimpanzees, there may be no before. Coach Blake insisted he ditch the mask, Mary Wingo better-known chimp expert than Jane Goodall, but Plante refused. When the team went on an who at her start, wanted nothing more than to be 18-game win streak, the mask was allowed to alone with the chimps. stay. Thanks to Plante, goaltenders ever since have enjoyed the added protection.

November 2018

Flew the Coop Cornhole is for Everyone! Fun Fact: Lightning in a Bottle Westover Library Corner

On November 24, 1971, an airline passenger What is the appeal of the mason jar? It conjures Gift giving season is fast approaching! traveling from Portland to Seattle handed a note Cornhole is America’s favorite backyard game! rustic romanticism and good, homemade food. Come and upcycle with us! Turn your old to a flight attendant that read, “I have a bomb It can be played anywhere and is fun for all Some even say that it captures summer in a jar, greeting cards into gift tags. Greeting cards ages. It’s easy--all you have to do is throw a in my briefcase. I will use it if necessary. I want to be uncapped and enjoyed in the long, cold and supplies will be provided, and please bag filled with corn toward a raised platform you to sit next to me. You are being hijacked.” winter. Perhaps you’ll even be inspired to preserve bring your own cards to upcycle if you have with a hole at the far end. You score more something tasty in a jar yourself on November 30, any at home you'd like to give a new life. Join So begins the legend of D.B. Cooper, points if you get the bag in the hole, but still get Mason Jar Day. us Tuesday, November 13, 7:30pm at points if it lands on the platform. Players take the mysterious man at the center of Westover Library in the Longfellow Room. turns throwing up to eight corn bags toward the the FBI’s only unsolved case of air John L. Mason didn’t set out to See you there! hole. Two people can play, or you can get the piracy. D.B. Cooper was not his become famous when he invented whole family together! real name. He used the name Dan the mason jar on November 30, Cooper to purchase the ticket but 1858. In fact, he didn’t invent the We’re thinking of starting a cornhole game a reporter erroneously dubbed him D.B. The crew jar at all but rather the unique two- here at Lee, and would like your input. Please eventually complied with Cooper’s demands. piece metal screw cap. Mason let us know if you are interested in playing. was, after all, a tinsmith, so he They landed the plane in Seattle, where he was was well-versed in the utility of given $200,000 and four parachutes. Then the jet metal. Heat-based canning as a method to took again to the skies with a skeleton crew headed preserve foods was common in kitchens prior to for Reno, Nevada. But Cooper never made it to Mason’s invention. The one problem common to Reno. While flying over southwest Washington, this type of preservation was a faulty seal. As soon the crew was alerted that the rear stairs had as air entered the jar or can, food began to spoil. been opened. When they checked the back Mason’s airtight lid solved that problem beautifully, of the plane, they discovered that Cooper had Hat Trick advancing the efficiency of the canning process. jumped out, wearing a parachute and holding Don’t let your head go bare on While his airtight lid kept food fresh, the clear glass the $200,000. Cooper was never seen again, November 25—it’s International jar made the contents appetizing. and treasure hunters have scoured southwest Hat Day! Certainly, a baseball Reel Page Turners Movie Book Club Washington state ever since, hoping to find the cap can fit the bill on this holiday, The most popular mason jar manufactured Have you joined your fellow book and movie loot and uncover the true identity of D.B. Cooper. but why not explore some more today is the ubiquitous Ball brand jar. Ball jars lovers yet? Lee Senior Center and Westover exotic and symbolic fashions? were first manufactured in 1884, and today, they Library have partnered to bring a new movie- This past June, a team of FBI investigators The fancy, floppy wool beret are created at a rate of 17 jars per second. Not themed book club to our community. Reel made a startling announcement. They believed is instantly recognizable as only is the glass favored over plastic jars made Page Turners meets monthly. that they had finally uncovered the true identity French. It began with synthetic chemicals but these jars are also of D.B. Cooper. After analyzing a series of letters as a hat worn by the poorest classes, such as appreciated for their versatility. A mason jar is no Our next book and movie will be The Glass allegedly written by Cooper in the months following farmers and artists. The wide-brimmed sombrero longer singularly used to preserve foods like jam or Castle, by Jeanette Walls. The book may be synonymous with Mexico, but hats like pickles; the jars are also used as soap dispensers, the skyjacking, investigators think the thief was a discussion will take place on December 5 at this were worn by horsemen in Mongolia as far planters, vases, and drinking glasses—not just for Special Forces paratrooper and Vietnam veteran 1:30pm at Lee Senior Center and the film back as the 13th century. If you feel a chill in moonshine but for trendy cocktails. named Robert Rackstraw. Rackstraw was screening will take place on December 12 at the air, then opt for the Russian ushanka, the eliminated as a suspect by the FBI in 1979, 1pm at Westover Library in the Longfellow cylindrical fur hat with earflaps that can be tied A mason jar is as authentic a piece of Americana yet the FBI has safeguarded evidence pointing Room. up over its crown. The modern ushanka can be as a cowboy hat. Collectors even seek out rare to Rackstraw ever since. Rick Sherwood, an Army Registration required. For more information, traced to the Russian Civil War when the ruler and valuable mason jar specimens. The Universal specialist in code cracking, believes that Rackstraw please visit the library events page at of Siberia ordered a winter hat be issued as part jar is worth thousands. Produced in Buffalo in sent coded letters to various newspapers in the https://library.arlingtonva.us/events, and click of the standard uniform. The fez of the Ottoman 1937, only 50 were ever manufactured. Even more months following the heist, egging on investigators. “book clubs” or call Peg at the Westover Empire was originally meant to be a symbol highly prized is the extremely rare Buffalo jar made Sherwood linked both the writing style and branch at (703) 228-6327. of equality and a means to show a common in amber glass by the Ball company, of which only the codes back to other codes known to be national identity amongst its wearers. Choose four are known to exist. From the mundane to the

Rackstraw’s. Whether the FBI reopens the case your hat wisely, for hats from any country are magnificent, mason jars have captured both food against Rackstraw remains another mystery. and the public’s imagination for over a century. rich in both history and symbolism.