Downtown, Snake River Landing set Christmas by the River on Saturday

The crowd downtown for the 2011 Idaho Falls tree lighting ceremony

Now that Thanksgiving is over, even the holdouts can say the holiday season has started. In keeping with past years, Christmas on the River is coming this Saturday to Snake River Landing.

Brought to you by the folks at Snake River Landing, Downtown Idaho Falls and other local merchants, the day promises a full schedule of events, starting at 10 a.m. with the Christmas Gift 5k sponsored by Teton Running.

At noon, a reading of the Polar Express will ring in the holiday spirit while attendees warm themselves by fire rings, sipping hot cocoa and eating fresh cookies. Following the reading, Santa will be available for a visit and a quick photo in the Discovery Center. There will be fireside stories and kids' crafts available until 3 p.m. Snake River Landing is serving this year as a drop-off location for the Coats for Kids Program. Gently used coats can be donated to the program starting Dec. 1 through the end of January at the Snake River Landing Discovery Center, located at 901 Pier View Drive, Suite 104, or at any eastern Idaho Community Care location.

New this year is the Holiday Hope Canned Food Drive. Local students can bring canned food to be weighed-in on behalf of their schools. The school that donates the most items by weight will win $1,000, courtesy of Snake River Landing. All items will then be donated to the Idaho Food Bank to support local families during this holiday season.

At 3 p.m., head to cozy downtown Idaho Falls to visit with Santa at the Willard Art Center, followed by the tree lighting ceremony at 5 p.m. in Civitan Plaza, Park Avenue and B Street. Prior to the tree lighting, winners of the 5k will be announced and prizes awarded.

Available again this year at both locations will be the Trace Down Tracker scavenger hunt, the KLCE Cookbook giveaway, free trolley rides, fun Christmas lights and plenty of holiday cheer.

Christmas on the River 2012 is sponsored by Mountain View Hospital, Snake River Landing, the Idaho Falls Downtown Development Corporation, Z103, KBEAR 101, Classy 97, 105.5 The Hawk, Post Register and Wackerli Auto Group.

Here is a full schedule of the day's events at Snake River Landing and Downtown: http://downtownidahofalls.com/schedule-for-the-2012-christmas-on-the-river-saturday-dec-1-2012/

Advertising Federation solicits Gem Award entries

The Idaho Falls Advertising Federation is now taking entries for the 2012 Eastern Idaho Gem Awards. The competition is open to any company, organization or individual that produced advertising work in eastern Idaho. Finished work must have appeared in 2012.

The winners will be announced at a dinner Feb. 8 at the Idaho Falls Elks Lodge.

All the entry materials and instructions here: http://ifadfed.wordpress.com/gem-awards/2012-eastern-idaho-gem-advertising-awards-call-for-entries/. Entry requirements are different this year, and the categories are totally different as well. The hope is that they're a bit more streamilned and that they'll make more sense for the club.

The early-bird deadline is Dec. 21 and the final deadline is Jan. 11.

If you have any questions, call Steve Fischbach, this year's chairman, at 524-1777 or e-mail him at steve@mightymcs.com.

Also, just a reminder, the IFAF's annual holiday party is Dec. 7 at the Elks Club, featuring dinner, drinks, dancing and fabulous silent auction prizes. Here's a link to what's being offered: http://ifadfed.wordpress.com/how-to-join/

Teton Toyota files rezone petition for possible VW dealership site

The wheels are turning for a Volkswagen dealership on three acres of land across Pioneer Road from Teton Toyota.

General Manager Mario Hernandez has filed a petition with the city of Idaho Falls to have the land rezoned from C-1 (Commercial) to HC-1 (Highway Commercial). The latter zoning designation allows car lots.

The petition will come before the Idaho Falls Planning and Zoning Commission at its Dec. 4 meeting. The commission will make a recommendation to the Idaho Falls City Council, which will hear the issue  next year.

Skyline grad Joe Thiel named 2013 Rhodes Scholar

Idaho Falls native Joe Thiel was named a 2013 Rhodes Scholar this weekend.

Joseph W. Thiel, an Idaho Falls native and 2008 graduate of Skyline High School, was named a Rhodes scholar this weekend, one of 32 young Americans in the Class of 2013.

Thiel is a senior at Montana State University, where he majors in chemical engineering; he is also pursuing a B.A. in liberal studies, with a focus on politics, philosophy and economics.  He is the only student representative on the Board of Regents of the Montana University System.

Thiel was the vice president of Engineers Without Borders at Montana State and served as a student senator.  He has done summer work related to the storage of spent nuclear fuel and in biofilms engineering.  He is keenly interested in international development, and worked in western Kenya on an engineering project to provide water to rural primary schools.

He intends to do the M.Sc. in economics for development at Oxford.

The Rhodes Scholarship program was created in 1902 by the Will of Cecil Rhodes, British philanthropist and African colonial pioneer. The first class of American Rhodes Scholars entered Oxford in 1904; those elected this weekend will enter Oxford in October 2013.

Rhodes Scholars are chosen in a two-stage process.  First, candidates must be endorsed by their college or university.  This year, approximately 1,700 students sought their institution’s endorsement; 838 were endorsed by 302 different colleges and universities.   

Applicants in the United States may apply either through the state where they are legally resident or where they have attended college for at least two years. The district committees met separately, on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 16 and 17, in cities across the country.

The Rhodes Scholars from the United States will join an international group of scholars chosen from 14 other jurisdictions around the world.

The Rhodes Trust pays all college and university fees, provides a stipend to cover necessary expenses while in residence in Oxford as well as during vacations, and transportation to and from England. It is estimated the total value of the scholarship averages approximately $50,000 per year.

Just over 1,900 American Rhodes Scholars, including former President Bill Clinton, are living in all parts of the U.S. and abroad.

Ever wonder what happens to a Twinkie when ... ?

Hostess Brands has declared bankruptcy, and while I can't say I'm terribly broken up about it I'm not too proud to admit I enjoy a Twinkie now and then.

Despite the company's demise, I expect the Twinkie will remain part of American life. It's too embedded in popular culture for somebody to not acquire the rights to it. Still, I wonder if it will be the same.

In the meantime, I thought I would reprint a piece by food writers Jane and Michael Stern detailing some experiments they performed on Twinkies. This appeared in the July 1989 edition of Spy Magazine. 

"Twinkie, Twinkie,
Little suet-filled sponge cake Crisco log,
Now I know just what you are."
                    
"Animal, vegetable, Mineral, or Food?''

In an effort to clarify questions about the purported durability and unusual physical characteristics of Twinkies, we subjected the Hostess snack logs to the following experiments:

EXPOSURE:
Twinkie was left on a ... window ledge for four days, during which time an inch and a half of rain fell.  Many flies `were observed crawling across the Twinkie's surface, but contrary to hypothesis, birds -- even pigeons -- avoided this potential source of sustenance. Despite the rain and prolonged exposure to the sun, the Twinkie retained its original color and form.  When removed ... the Twinkie was found to be substantially dehydrated.  Cracked open, it was observed to have taken on the consistency of industrial foam insulation; the filling, however, retained it adverstised ``creaminess.''

RADIATION:
A Twinkie was placed in a conventional microwave oven, which was set for precisely 4 minutes -- the approximate cooking time of bacon. After 20 seconds, the oven began to emit the Twinkie's rich,
characteristic aroma of artificial butter.  After 1 minute, this aroma began to resemble the acrid smell of burning rubber.  The experiment was aborted after 2 minutes, 10 seconds, when thick, foul smoke began billowing from the top of the oven ... a second Twinkie was subjected to the same experiment ... this Twinkie leaked molten white filling ... when cooled, this now epoxylike filling bonded the Twinkie to its plate,  defying gravity; it was removed only upon application of a butter knife.

EXTREME FORCE:
A Twinkie was dropped from a ninth-floor window, a fall of approximately 120 feet.  It landed right side up ... then bounced onto its back.  The expected ``splatter'' effect was not observed.  Indeed, the
only discernible damage to the Twinkie was a narrow fissure on its underside ... otherwise, the Twinkie remained structurally intact.

EXTREME COLD:
A Twinkie was placed in a conventional freezer for 24 hours.  Upon removal, the Twinkie was not found to be frozen solid, but its physical properties had noticeably ``slowed'' .. the filling was found to be the approximate consistency of acrylic paint, while exhibiting the mercurylike
property of not adhering to practically any surface.  It was noticed that the Twinkie had generously absorbed freezer odors.

EXTREME HEAT:
A Twinkie was exposed to a gas flame for 2 minutes.  While the Twinkie smoked and blackened and the filling in one of its "cream holes'' boiled, the Twinkie did not catch fire. It did, however, produce the same "burning rubber'' aroma noticed during the irradiation experiment.

IMMERSION:
A Twinkie was dropped into a large beaker filled with tap water. The Twinkie floated momentarily, began to list and sink ... viscous yellow tendrils ran off its lower half, possibly consisting of a water-soluble artificial coloring.  After 2 hours, the Twinkie had bloated substantially. Its coloring was now a very pale tan -- in contrast to the yellow, urine-like water the surrounded it.  The Twinkie bobbed when touched, and had a gelatinous texture.  After 72 hours, the Twinkie was found to have bloated to roughly 200 percent of its original size ... the water had turned opaque, and a small, fan-shaped spray of filling had leaked from one of the "cream holes.'' Unfortunately, efforts to remove the Twinkie for further analysis were abandoned when, under light pressure ... the Twinkie disintegrated
into an amorphous cloud of debris. A distinctly sour odor was noted.

SUMMARY OF RESULTS
The Twinkie's survival of a 120-foot drop, along with some of the unusual phenomena associated with the ``creamy filling'' and artificial coloring, should give pause to those observers who would
unequivocally categorize the Twinkie as "food.''  Further clinical inquiry is required before any definite conclusions can be drawn.

Believe it or not, this was only a sidebar to a much larger piece. Here's a link to the July 1989 Spy (the Sterns' article starts on Page 89): http://books.google.com/books?id=VdRQYCi-SX8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false