About: Margaret Vander Weerdt

Besides being Friday tomorrow, National Chocolate Chip Day is celebrated on May 15, 2015. It's a day to celebrate the sweet and tasty small chunks of chocolate. Chocolate chips are a great invention and certainly deserve a little recognition. After all, where would chocolate chip cookies, cakes, and muffins be without the chocolate chip? Chocolate...

May is Beef Month, and I’ve been receiving lots of interesting trivia about beef. The first “beef on the hoof” in the U.S. were Longhorns, brought into the southwest by the Spaniards in the early 1500s. Sioux County is the county with the most beef cattle in Iowa, where cattle are raised in all 99 counties....

Today, Apr. 30, is National Honesty Day, which encourages us to be honest today and every day. Most people honestly try their best to be honest. Honesty is a great virtue. If we want people to believe us when it’s important, then we need to be open and honest all of the time. In order for...

Apr. 22 is National Jelly Bean Day. Who doesn’t love a jelly bean, from good old cherry, orange, or lemon to the more adventurous flavors like buttered popcorn, latte, and chili mango? Jelly beans are a classic candy with a soft, chewy center and a thin candy coating. The flavor possibilities are endless, which has...

Last week, I spent some time in the “Show-Me-State.” How did Missouri get that nickname? The state has no official nickname but “Show-Me-State” does appear on its license plates. There are several stories concerning the origin of the "show me" slogan. The most widely known story gives credit to Missouri's U.S. Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver...

Let’s have a raise of hands, who is happy the snow is mostly gone and the robins are back? I thought so, most people are very happy spring-like weather is here and the official first day of spring is tomorrow, Mar. 20. We’ve had much worse winters, but the winter just past seemed long, dark,...

Are you bothered by the number 13 or when the 13th day of the month falls on a Friday? If you are, you might suffer from triskaidekaphobia, or fear of the number 13. Every year has at least one Friday the 13th, but some years have as many as three of them, like this year....