New movie – Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island

Laura: Lately I find myself gravitating towards documentaries. They can offer so much: enlightenment, education, amusement, opposing points of view – on just about any subject. So, for “R” month, one of the movies I was drawn to was “Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island.” What an eye-opener! This is the recounting of the stories of four concerned mothers, a two-woman legal team and a reporter who had much to say about the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident in 1979 – the worst commercial nuclear reactor meltdown in U.S. history. The myriad cover-ups, criminal actions and lies from the nuclear industry and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will shock you – I know they left me angry and paranoid. For example, residents were purposely lied to by telling them there was no danger. It took 24 hours of radiation exposure before the company released a warning of possible harm – yet scientists state that length of exposure was equivalent to up to 100,000 x-rays.  The film won several awards and although it was not a pleasant experience to watch it, I’m glad I am more aware of what happened 45 years ago when I was pregnant and fortunate not to be living in Pennsylvania.

New restaurant – ROOSTER ROADHOUSE

To get the awful taste of the coverup out of our mouths, we decided to drive to Denton for lunch at the Rooster Roadhouse. The menu really tickled our funny bones. Their tag line was “Redneck, White Trash, Blue Collar.” Since neither of us was in the mood to get dolled up, we think we fit the “white trash” moniker. We opted to share two of the dishes whose asterisk indicated they were the restaurant favorites: the patty melt that came garnished with caramelized onions and bacon jam and the brisket sandwich. We substituted the Rooster Tails (batter fried onions) for the homemade potato chips on one of the sandwiches. Boy was the food good, our faves being the brisket and rooster tails. We wished we had some kids with us just to be able to order something off the Little Peckerwoods Menu. The atmosphere was fun with things hanging upside down from the ceiling. Altogether an outing well worth the drive.

LEARNING CENTER:

Speaking of roosters and poultry in general, did you know:

Roosters’ crows are about 130 decibels, roughly the same loudness measured near a jet taking off. The auditory canals in a rooster’s head partially close when its beak is open. This prevents roosters from going deaf from their own crowing.

And to give some credit to their pals, the chickens, chickens that see another chicken bleeding will tend to attack it. In the early 1900s rose-tinted chicken glasses were marketed to farmers to keep hens from recognizing blood. Millions were sold. So next time you decide to look at things through rose colored glasses, have a chicken wing on us!