{"HeadlineLight14"/}Bingo
Bingo is popular with children and adults, but do you know anything about its history? It has its beginnings in Italy in 1530. The Italian National Lottery Lo Giuoco del Lotto d'Italia was organized, and it has been held on a weekly basis since then. The Italian government counts on this for part of its operating funds, as it brings in more than $75 million a year. In 1778, the French devised a lotto game that had a numbered playing card with nine vertical and three horizontal rows, with no two cards were alike. Germany introduced a lotto game in the 1850s, the purpose of which was to teach children multiplication tables. Today in the United States, Milton Bradley makes a lotto game featuring the Sesame Street Muppets.
In the U.S., salesman Edwin Lowe stopped at a carnival one evening in 1929, just outside of Jacksonville. There was only one booth open, which was packed with people. Lowe had to stand on tiptoes to see what was going on. A horseshoe-shaped table held numbered cards and dry beans. They were playing a variation of the lotto game and a caller was announcing numbers that he pulled from an old cigar box. Every time he called a number, people would scan their card, and if they had it, they would place a bean on the number. When someone filled a row they would cry out "Beano" and receive a Kewpie doll. Lowe wanted to play, but it was so crowded he couldn't get a seat.
Lowe spoke to the caller after the booth closed and learned he had gotten the idea from a German carnival the year before. The caller had changed the game slightly, renamed it "Beano," and found that it caught on like wildfire. When Lowe returned to his home in New York, he crafted a version of the game and invited some friends over to his apartment to play. His friends were just as excited as the crowd he'd seen at the carnival. One woman was so excited that, when she had a winning card, instead of shouting "Beano," she misspoke and shouted "Bingo" with a stutter. That was just the beginning of a long and happy career for Lowe. Bingo became so popular that the workers at his factory had 64 presses printing bingo cards 24 hours a day. You can lean many more interesting facts about bingo and even how to play at both bingo games and online. Visit these two sites for more: www.strangelife.com/bingodoc/bingohist.html and http://
entertainment.howstuffworks.com/how-to-play-bingo.htm.
{"HeadlineLight14"/}Summer Reading
"The Full Burn" by Kevin Conley looks at the lives of stuntmen and the work they do. Learn about the scary things they do, why their divorce rate is so high, and what it's like going to work not knowing if you'll be alive at the end of the day. Each person Conley interviewed explains what's been scariest and what their life as a stuntman is like. Conley, a stuntman himself, talks about going through the experience of a "full burn." The book is filled with some amazing and downright scary stories.
Fever Devilin has left his job in academics and returned to his hometown for some peace and quiet. A young man shows up at his house and claims to be more than 100 years old. While making these claims, he also waves a gun around. Fever doesn't know what's going on. When the police arrive, the gentleman is gone. The next day a corpse fitting the description of this man is found by the side of the road. The clothes are the same, but the man is not. Fever will try to unravel this case in "The Drifter's Wheel" by Phillip DePoy.
Gardening is in full swing right now. "The Garden Primer" by Barbara Damrosch talks not only about the essentials of planting, but also the upkeep of your garden. There is information on more than 375 plant varieties, how to extend the season, raising plants with less fuss and a section on native species. Good advice that will be helpful to gardeners.
Children will enjoy "A Babysitter for Billy Bear" by Miriam Moss. Mama reminds Billy Bear that she is going to pottery class and he'll have a baby sitter to put him to bed. The baby sitter reads to him, they sing songs, and they have a good time. When it's time for bed, he can't fall asleep. Why not?
Library Hours: Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-9 p.m.; Friday, 9 a.m-5:30 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Closed Sunday.
Marie Bruni is director of Huntington Memorial Library in Oneonta. Her column appears in the community section of The Daily Star every Thursday.
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