Big Mac Museum Pays Tribute to a Sandwich and a Man

by Jamie Rhein on

Can you say two-all-beef patties-special sauce-lettuce-cheese-pickles-onions-on-a sesame-seed-bun really fast? If not, try Big Mac. This is it’s 40th year anniversary. Already? It’s true. Frankly, I haven’t really given sandwich creators much thought–except for the 4th Earl of Sandwich who is credited with making the first sandwich ever. The guy who created the Big Mac, Jim Delligatti whipped up that special sauce 40 years ago. It was first served in Uniontown, Pennsylvania to customers who paid 45 cents for one.

To commemorate the grand occasion, there’s a new restaurant museum that pays tribute to this burger creation. The Big Mac Museum in North Huntingdon, PA is 40 miles north of Uniontown. If you want to see the world’s largest Big Mac, head here. It’s 14 feet tall and 12 feet wide. There’s also a bronze bust of Delligatti. If you have a hankering to get a bust of yourself in commemoration of your life, creating a sandwich is one option to get one. But, I’d guess the sandwich can’t just be any old thing. It has to grow in stature to be a cultural and economic icon.

If you think you might head here on the way to somewhere else–why not?–here’s a link to Huntingdon’s park and recreation page. There’s a fishing derby next weekend AND a map with nature trails among other things.

Up Up and Away to the Super Hero Museum!

by Neil Woodburn on

Nerds of the world unite!

There is now an entire museum dedicated to those fictional characters upon which you’ve projected your own feelings of inadequacy and impotency and vicariously lived out a fantasy life of vigilantism in which the evils of the world are all righted and life is grand indeed.

Yes folks, it’s the American Super Heroes Museum!

Located in downtown Indianapolis, the 3,300-square-foot museum honors Batman, Superman, and other American comic book heroes–and none of those wussy European ones, like Obelix, for example.

The collection features thousands of super hero “toys, games, posters, puzzles, figurines and collectibles,” as well as an impressive array of costumes featured in the numerous live action movies and TV series which have promulgated the super hero legend for more than half a century now.

The coolest thing, however, is the museum’s life size replica of the Batmobile. Even non-nerds like myself have a nerd-like obsession with this thing. I mean, haven’t we all wanted to cry out, “To the Batmobile!’ and then peel away burning some serious rubber? Yes, you know what I’m talking about!

Language and Landscape: Retaining Heritage Through Words

by Jamie Rhein on

When I heard and read about the number of indigenous languages dying off, I thought of the Appalachian Mountains where my mother grew up and where several of my relatives are buried in a small wooded family cemetery in Southeastern Kentucky. It’s not just other languages that are becoming obsolete, certain aspects of the English language are also changing. In the region where part of my heritage stems, as older generations die, phrases, expressions and a certain sentence structures are also disappearing. While people travel to Appalachia to take in the music, crafts and beauty of the scenery (providing coal mining leaves something behind), many people who once lived here have hit the highways long ago for points beyond and an income. Those that have stayed behind can flip on the TV and join the rest of the U.S. in the endless stream of coast to coast media blitz that, I think, is partly responsible for the growth of sameness.

There is an effort to retain the culture and language patterns here. People determined to retain and promote this sense of place through language are an integral part of the literary, music and art scene. I’ve been to the Appalachian Writers Workshop twice now, and Appalachian Family Folk Week once, both held at in Hindman, a town that has dwindled from the bustling county seat I remember from my childhood, to one where you can almost envision the tumbleweeds blowing through town in the late afternoon if this was in the west. The drugstore lunch counter is the one place to get a meal and that closes about 2 PM.

The Hindman Settlement School, established more than a century ago has operated both workshops for years. These endeavors have continued to nurture established writers like Lee Smith and George Ella Lyon while providing a venue for those who have moved from workshop participant status to presenter and successful published novelists in their own right. Silas House, and Gretchen Moran Laskas come to mind. All of them are travelers of the human spirit in this part of the world. This is where they call on words to sustain them and us in this place they call home.

For a wonderful read about one person’s experience with English use in this area, check out this essay, “Where the Creek Turkey Tracks: Wild Land and Language.” It is in the Winter 2007 edition of Appalachian Heritage.

The photo is of Uncle Sol’s cabin on the Settlement School grounds. Fred1st snapped this shot of the house where one of my great greats lived. Uncle Sol Everidge is one of my kin and credited with getting Katherine Pettit and May Stone to come to Hindman eons ago to establish the school and bring education to the mountain’s children.

Protection from the Sun: When Sunscreen Isn’t Enough

by Jamie Rhein on

It’s not uncommon in Asia to see umbrellas used for more than just a rain shower. Head out on a sunny day in Taiwan, and you could still be dodging them. I saw many women walking down the street in the protection of an umbrella’s shade on a day when the sun’s rays beat down. I would dodge them, wiping off perspiration, hoping that my sunscreen lasted. I’m sure that my freckles made me look mottled to most Taiwanese. Okay, so I like my freckles, but there is that pesky issue of skin cancer.

There’s a company, Soleil Chic with a mission to keep people’s skin shielded from the sun. After her husband died of skin cancer, Lynn Rose began making umbrellas and hats that block UVA and UVB rays. Even if you put on sunscreen, unless you reapply it every two hours, you’re not as protected as you might think.

This article in the Washington Post in August is about how umbrellas are becoming more common for anytime weather in the U.S. For those looking for better protection, Soleil Chic products look like a great option. However, as you travel about, don’t forget you have one of these umbrellas, and leave it behind somewhere. They aren’t that cheap, They are less expensive, however than a pair of high quality sunglasses.

Oktoberfest Lessons: The Chicken Dance

by Jamie Rhein on

To get you ready for this Oktoberfest season, we’ve advised you on what to wear– Lederhosen, given you instructions on how to eat a Weisswurst, shown you the best carnival rides to try, and pointed you towards the best beer. To recap, we’ve hit dress, food, entertainment and libations. What’s missing from this Oktoberfest round-up is dancing. To prevent the situation where you are left standing in your Lederhosen gazing into your beer mug, unsure of what to do on the dance floor, here’s a lesson on the Chicken Dance. Any Oktoberfest celebration wouldn’t be complete without it. Perhaps, you’ve seen it at a wedding. Even when guests are sloshed, this one is doable.

For the easy version, all that’s really required is that you:

  1. Put the fingers and thumbs of each hand together so that you have two chicken beaks–sort of
  2. Raise your beaks to at least shoulder level to look engaged an interested–higher is better–and open and close them four times to the other dancers
  3. Bend your arms at the elbows to simulate bird wings and flap four times.
  4. Wiggle your behind as you bend and your knees so you lower to the floor and comeback up as you continue to wiggle. (Try to do this to four beats in order to look like a pro.)
  5. Repeat the steps, but going faster and faster until the song ends.

Here’s a Chicken Dance how -to run down, complete with an animated chicken, and a You Tube video with a variety of Chicken Dances performed last year at the Oktoberfest in Leavenworth, Washington. As the video shows, you can do this dance several times in a day and it’s just a little different each time–as in a tad different, as in almost identical.