As the Adult Programming Specialist at the Laramie County Library, I often tell folks I have the best job at the library!
I get to attend all kinds of fascinating and amazing programs. I get to listen to classical music. I get to look at the stars through a powerful telescope. I get to make art with local artists. I get to learn how to play chess and make Mozzarella and try homemade beer. Maybe best of all, I learn all kinds of new information. So I thought today I’d share some of what I’ve learned at library programs with you.
- If you want to know if the male in a bird species shares egg-sitting duties, just compare the male and the female. If they look the same, like geese, the male helps. If the male is seriously flashier than the female (like peacocks) he doesn’t help around the nest.
- Bees do not prefer to collect pollen from all different kinds of flowers at the same time. They’ll concentrate on dandelion pollen before moving on to apple blossom pollen.
- You can cook almost anything in a Dutch oven.
- Germans are so serious about their beer that they have purity laws about what can and can’t go into beer.
- Henna expires…you can paint old henna on your skin, but it won’t make a mark.
- The Cheyenne ordinance allowing backyard chickens does not allow ducks.
- Only single men were allowed in the Civilian Conservation Corps during the depression.
- It’s pretty dangerous to use an ATM card at the gas pump, lots of folks get their card numbers and pins stolen this way.
- Water rights in Wyoming have a fascinating history, including murder.
- “the dog days of summer” are named after Sirius the dog star because people used to think that summer was warmer because that star was nearer to the earth during the summer. Thus the dog days of summer.
- European German Shepherds are smaller than American ones.
- It’s a long process to make Feta, Mozzarella is much faster.
- Blues was the first fully American music that wasn’t Native American music.
- There are easier and harder ways of making pickles, so you don’t have to be afraid to try.
That’s just a short list of what I’ve learned going to library programs. You too, can learn things, build new skills, and start new hobbies at the library’s adult programs!
~Robin P.