Life outside Little House
QUESTION
What became of the cast members of the TV series Little House On The Prairie? LITTLE House On The Prairie was one of the most successful TV series. It ran from 1974 to 1983 with 187 episodes and TV movie spin-offs. It was based on the nine Little House books, by Laura Ingalls-Wilder (1868-1957), recounting the lives of Scandinavian and German settlers who founded the town of Walnut Grove, Minnesota.
Ingalls-Wilder lived 1½ miles north of Walnut Grove along the banks of Plum Creek from the age of six to eight.
The TV series was based on Charles and Caroline Ingalls and their daughters, Mary, Laura and Carrie. Michael Landon, who played Charles, landed on his feet with this role after his long run as Little Joe in Bonanza.
He first found fame in 1957 as the werewolf in I Was A Teenage Werewolf. After Little House, he went on to another long-running TV show Highway To Heaven, but died in 1991, aged 54.
Caroline, played by Karen Grassie, was seen last year in the film Lasso. Their eldest daughter Mary, who went blind, was played by Melissa Sue Anderson, who will soon be seen in The Brits Are Coming. In 2010, Anderson published The Way I See It: A Look Back At My Life On Little House, an autobiographical account of her years acting on the show.
Laura ‘Halfpint’ Ingalls was played by freckle-faced Melissa Gilbert. She has appeared in many TV shows and films. In 2008, she went from the screen to the stage, starring as Caroline ‘Ma’ Ingalls in Little House On The Prairie, The Musical. Her 2009 biography is called Prairie Tale: A Memoir.
Baby Carrie was born during the series and was played by twins Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush. After a film career in the Eighties, they have retired from acting. The Ingalls’ adopted son, Albert, played by Matthew Labyorteaux, is still acting.
Other key characters were store owners the Olsons and their brattish daughter Nellie and son Willie. Father, Nels Olson, was played by Richard Bull, who carried on in films and TV until he retired in 2011. His last TV series was Boss. He died in 2014, aged 89. His scheming wife Harriet was played by Scottie MacGregor, a fine stage actress. Daughter Nellie was played by Alison Arngrim. Her latest film is the comedy/horror Grizzled! Willie was played by Jonathan Gilbert, who gave up acting to become a stockbroker. Many wellknown actors had cameos on Little House, including Johnny Cash and Sean Penn as a boy. Danny Darcy, Reading.
QUESTION
I have seen a picture of a reservoir covered with black plastic balls. Why is this done? FOR years, reservoirs around Los Angeles were covered in plastic black bird balls. The largest, LA reservoir, still has 96million balls. Originally, this was done to reduce pollution, but it was later discovered to prevent droughts.
In 2007, the Department of Water Protection detected high levels of bromate, a carcinogen that forms when bromide and chlorine react with sunlight, in the Ivanhoe reservoir. Bromide is present naturally in groundwater and chlorine is used to kill bacteria, but sunlight is the catalyst that produces the harmful substance.
When the DWP realised the problem, it began building an underground reservoir. While this was being built, they had to devise a way to protect the water in the original reservoir from sunlight.
The idea of a floating cover was dismissed as too dear and because it would take too long to install. DWP biologist Brian White suggested bird balls – used by airports to prevent birds congregating in wet areas alongside runways. They are made of high-density polyethylene – the type used to protect reservoirs have a carbon black additive to protect the plastic from ultraviolet radiation. In June 2008, 400,000 balls were dropped into the Ivanhoe Reservoir.
The balls had other benefits. In drought-prone California, they reduced evaporation by 85% to 90%, protected the water from dust and deterred birds and other wildlife from polluting the water.
In 2015, the federal government decided the bird balls would be replaced by floating covers. However, they remain at the LA reservoir because it would cost £17million to install a cover there.
Dr Ian Smith, Cambridge.
QUESTION
Why is reheated rice considered so dangerous? IT’S not reheating that causes the problem, but the way rice has been stored.
Uncooked rice is impervious to potentially harmful micro-organisms such as bacteria and mould. They don’t hold enough moisture for pathogens to proliferate. When the rice is cooked, that changes. Cooked rice is warm, humid and filled with nutrients just as useful to bacteria as to humans.
Uncooked rice, like other starchy foods, can contain spores of bacillus cereus, a bacterium known to cause food poisoning.
These can survive when rice is cooked. If rice is left standing at room temperature, the spores can grow into bacteria. These will multiply and may produce toxins that cause vomiting or diarrhoea.
The longer cooked rice is left at room temperature, the more likely bacteria or toxins could make it unsafe to eat. Cooked rice should be refrigerated as soon as possible. To be safe, it must reach a consistent temperature of 80C/165F. Following this, I’ve eaten reheated rice on countless occasions with no ill effects. Dan Holroyd, Bath, Somerset.
QUESTION
How did music producer Joe Meek create the eerie sounds in the first and last 14 seconds of the record Telstar? FURTHER to the earlier answer, I knew Joe Meek in the early Sixties when I was a junior sound engineer at IBC Studios.
Joe worked there, but left shortly after I arrived. However, he would call in at the studio from time to time to have a demo disc cut or to use one of the facilities he lacked to improve one of his tracks.
One time, I visited his home to deliver a recording or a disc. He showed me around his poky maisonette in Holloway Road, north London, which he’d turned into a makeshift recording studio.
He had two echo chambers, one in the kitchen and the other in the bathroom. His control room was the sitting room and the singer or group would be miked up in one of the bedrooms. He even used the stairwell when recording.
His equipment was fractionally better than that used by amateurs. I dare say he upgraded this after his big hit with Telstar. Joe was a great talent and it is tragic that it ended with him murdering his landlady and killing himself. L. Frank Plugge, London.
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