The Royal Tyrrell Museum is heading into the new year with the 2014 edition of Speaker Series.
    The program, which brings expert scientists in their field, out of the lab and onto the stage to share their work, has become a popular fixture over the last decade.
    “We have been really fortunate with the support of the Royal Tyrrell Museum Cooperating Society, that has provided funding, to bring in researchers from all over the world to present,” said Tyrrell curator of dinosaur palaeontology François Therrien. While he did not found the program, he has certainly played a role in building into what it is today.
    “We have people come from Australia, China, Japan, Europe and all over North America, and have always had very interesting presentations.”
    The presentations are aimed at a wide audience.
    “My goal when I took over Speaker Series was to not only to bring in researchers who would talk not only about dinosaurs and palaeontology, but also a little bit about different topic that could be general interest, but with a scientific background and context so people can learn more about the natural wonders of the world,” he said.
    One of the strengths of the program is while sometimes there are technical talks, Speaker Series is geared towards, not just the educated, but also the curious.
    “We always ask the presenters and guests to make a presentation that will appeal to a general audience that may be interested in science, but not have a science background, said Therrien.
    He sees this as important part of the museum’s responsibility.
    “The mandate of the museum is to conduct scientific research with top-notch researchers but also communicate the results of those discoveries not only through peer reviewed scientific articles, but to a general audience, the people that visit the museum. That can be through the galleries, where people come through every year, but also through Speaker Series, where the researchers can communicate directly with the audience,” said Therrien.
    Part of that outreach is to make Speaker Series available to an even wider audience. For the last few year they have posted each presentation online.
    “Now people, who can’t come to the museum because it is scheduled during a weekday, can log on to Youtube and watch the presentation at home whenever they want to,” said Therrien.
    Speaker Series kicks off on January 9 with Eric Snively from the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse. He will be speaking about dinosaur biomechanics. All talks begin at 11 a.m.

    One of Drumheller’s early citizens was Seeta Florence Duncan, the wife of Grover Cleveland Duncan who was the owner/publisher of The Drumheller Mail from the early part of the last century. (Mr. Duncan ran the paper from its beginnings in Munson around 1911 until he sold it to Hap Clarke in the 1940’s.)
    This story is not about Mr. Duncan who obviously gained his name from a former United States President Grover Cleveland, but about his wife Seeta.

    The Mail recently came into possession of a cookbook that she owned and has survived in amazingly good condition after all these years. The interesting part of the story is that Mrs. Duncan took an out of date printing price book from 1920 that Grover was about to discard, and she decided to use it as a recipe book. These price books were used for years in the commercial job shops that were an integral part of every small town newspaper in those days.
    According to a July, 1917, story in the Munson Mail, the Duncan’s were married that month, but Mr. Cleveland must have been so smitten with his new bride that he inadvertently omitted the day they were married. She was “supported” by her brother Albert, and, after a “dainty lunch”, the couple left for a honeymoon at the coast and points in the U.S. (Editor’s Note: It is certainly a mystery to this writer how, he would be able to take such a trip as publishing a newspaper in those days required a lot of work, and it is surprising he could afford the time off).
    The recipe book was leather bound, with seven rings and her collection is extremely well-preserved. She both wrote and pasted her recipes inside, on the reverse side of the pages that Grover would have used to price his jobs. It is also a bit of a who’s-who of the day, as some of the
recipes contained therein show the name of the friend she got it from.
    Names like Mrs. Shearlaw, who had to have been Joe’s wife, he was an insurance agent, gave her the recipe for date bars and oatmeal cookies. Mrs. Toshach, who was the wife of E.A. Toshach, owner of Toshach’s Department Store, offered her version of white fruit cake. Their son, Eneas, was a former Mayor of Drumheller.
    This opposed to a recipe from Mrs. Swain for dark fruit cake, which had to be Lottie Swain, who was the
wife of former mayor, Lou Swain.
    As well, Mrs. Duncan had clipped and saved household tips such as “the easiest way to cut marshmallows is
with wet scissors”, and, “to prevent clothes from freezing to the clothesline, wipe the line well with a cloth that has been dipped in strong salt water”.
    So, if readers want a recipe for “Red Flannel Hash”, “Oil Pickles”, or “Chinese Chews”, “Tessie’s Potato Flour Cake”, or Mrs. Adam’s “Prize Sponge Cake”, let us know. We’ll be happy to share and won’t leave out any ingredients.
    (Thanks to longtime resident John Liptak who rescued the book from his mother’s house on Riverside Drive, which used to belong to the Duncans, and kept it for us. We do remember greeting Mr. Duncan in later years who retired here after selling the newspaper.)