Miss Mizzou by J. B. Winter

Miss Mizzou was a secondary character in the Steve Canyon comic strip. She may not have stood out from the other bombshells in the cartoon pilot’s adventures, but she made quite an impression on the university from which she took her name (my alma mater, the University of Missouri) and the town that proudly housed it (Columbia). J. B. Winter talks about the girl in the overcoat (and maybe nothing else) and her impact in a mid-Missouri community in his book Miss Mizzou: A Life Beyond Comics.

Milton Caniff was a very well regarded cartoonist. His work on Terry and the Pirates was an inspiration to many in the field. He left that strip in 1947 to start another adventure comic, Steve Canyon, which he would own. He spoke at the University of Missouri in 1949. It bore the nicknamed Mizzou even before then though the university did not officially embrace it until 2004. Caniff apparently enjoyed the trip because he chose Mizzou as the name of a character he introduced in 1952, and made Columbia her hometown.

Caniff took inspiration from waitress he knew as a student at Ohio State University, Marilyn Monroe, and, more directly, dancer and model Bek Stiner. Miss Mizzou, played by Stiner, appeared was introduced on television before appearing in newspapers. Caniff and Stiner, in the characters overcoat, appeared on the Bob Considine Show about a month before her adventure with Canyon ran.

Columbians and Mizzou students jumped on the opportunity to celebrate. The Missouri Student Government Association organized publicity events that Stiner attended over a weekend about a month after the character appeared in newspapers. In 1954, a journalism fraternity proposed a Miss Mizzou-themed contest and calendar as a fundraiser; Caniff agreed to let them do it. The contest ran from 1955 to 1971, and the skits that became associated with it were popular.

Winter’s slender book is a quick read, but still very informative. He concentrates mostly on the character’s impact on the titular school and city than on her adventures in the comics. Even so, comics fans may enjoy the book because few character have been embraced by community in this fashion or had such an influence

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Men of Tomorrow by Gerard Jones

Superman versus the Ku Klux Klan by Rick Bowers

Will Eisner by Michael Schumacher

Winter, J. B. Miss Mizzou: A Life Beyond Comics. Lexington, KY: CreateSpace, 2014.

News from My Alma Mater

The University of Missouri’s College of Engineering (my alma mater) will hold an open house to celebrate the opening of new undergraduate laboratories and research space. The event will take place at Laferre Hall on the university’s Columbia, MO, campus. It will begin at 2 p.m. on November 5, 2009. The highlight of the event will, no doubt, be the blessing of St. Patrick, long recognized at the university as the patron saint of engineers.

What's New January 1, 2009

Happy New Year!

25 Book Reviews Posted on Keenan’s Book Reviews
Case Closed (Vol. 2) by Gosho Ayoama
Good Dog. Stay. by Anna Quindlen
Infrastructure Blogs (Updated)
Infrastructure Watch: Blog Reactions on Technorati
Keenan Patterson - Jefferson City / Columbia, MO Facebook
Rail May Get a Boost from Train-Riding Veep
State of Missouri On-line Bidding
What’s New Dec. 27, 2008
XING - Groups - All Groups - American Business Network - Article ...
XING - Groups - All Groups - Speakers, Presenters and Seminar ...

Interesting Stuff June 25, 2009

6 Intriguingly Shaped Communities As Seen On Google Maps
36 Reasons Streetcars Are Better Than Buses
Student Arrested for 'Barrel Monster'
Bill Phillips' 1949 Hydraulic Computer Uses Water to Predict the Economy
Blue Kenue ™ Hydraulic Modeling Software Available from National Research Council Canada
Captain America Comes Back to Life!
Columbia's water to undergo new disinfection process
Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball
Impress Pretty Girls With Your Infrastructure-Themed Ringtone
In Missouri, a Fight Over a Highway Adoption
Interesting Stuff June 3, 2009
Like Water for Money
Rest Stops, R.I.P.
Soldier's Rare Book Sells for $80,000

Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose

Ambrose, Stephen E. Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West. 1996. New York: Touchstone, 1997.

Undaunted Courage is a biography of Meriwether Lewis. It is also, to a large extent, an account of Lewis’ expedition, co-led by William Clark, up the Missouri River, across the Rocky Mountains, down the Columbia River to the Pacific Coast and back again.


The Lewis and Clark expedition, the bicentennial of which was celebrated in 2004 through 2006, is rightly presented as the centerpiece of Lewis’ life. Ambrose shows how Lewis’ early life in the plantations and wilderness of Virginia, as a militia officer during the Whiskey Rebellion and under the political tutelage of Thomas Jefferson uniquely prepared Lewis to lead a company of explorer-soldiers with a broad mission. His life after the expedition was brief and troubled.

The western exploration, beginning in 1804 and ending in 1806, is the major focus of the narrative. It was more than simply a trip. Lewis and Clark were charged with scientific observation (particularly geography, botany and zoology), Indian diplomacy, establishing trade, and what might be considered a touch of espionage. With the exception of Indian policy, Lewis, Clark and their men performed admirably.

Lewis, throughout the mission and afterward, wanted to make it clear that he and Clark had equal parts in the leadership of the expedition. It is extraordinary that this worked so well. One gets the impression for the book that Lewis was the senior of these equals, which may explain it. Even so, Lewis seemed to prefer the close companionship of trusted peers and friends.

Lewis achieved great success while still relatively young, in his early thirties. Early success can be tough, but Lewis seems like a man who can handle tough situations. However, his few years of life after the expedition seem to be characterized by failure. Certainly, the political situation in the Louisiana Territory, where Lewis was appointed governor, was very difficult, and he may not have been cut out to be a politician and bureaucrat. However, he left important matters that were easily within his grasp undone. Notably, he never published the expedition journals, which more than anything else may have sealed his fame, supported his policies and multiplied the fruit of his exceptional labor.

The final years of Lewis’ life, which ended in suicide, raises many unanswered, and possibly unanswerable, questions. Even so, Ambrose’s biography of the man is an interesting story, and sometime and exciting tale of his great adventure.

News from My Alma Mater

As you may know, I’m a graduate of the University of Missouri where I was a student in the Biological Engineering Department (formerly Agricultural Engineering). Here is some recent news from that department.

Associate Professor Allen Thompson is the principal investigator for a project to study stormwater best management practices (BMPs). The university, along with the Columbia and Boone County, are required to implement BMPs to protect Hinkson Creek. Engineering faculty and students will be working with Campus Facilities staff to implement and study these environmental compliance measures. (By the way, I took Dr. Thompson’s soil and water conservation class back in the day.)

Associate Professor Bill Jacoby is studying super critical water gasification. This is a high-temperature, high-pressure, low-oxygen process that decomposes biomass and produces hydrogen, carbon dioxide and methane. A portion of the biomass energy is consumed to fuel the process, but it can be an energy neutral process.

News from My Alma Mater

Congratulations to Fu-hung Hsieh, professor biological engineering and the University of Missouri (I’m a graduate of that department), and Harold Huff of the Food Engineering Lab for their development of a soy chicken product called Beyond Meat.  The work was featured in the Winter 2013 issue of Mizzou (you can find more on the web here→).  The university has licensed the product to a company that will be manufacturing it in Columbia, MO.

Apparently, it is easier to make soy look, taste, and feel like chicken than to get people to eat their vegetables.  That may be more of a social issue than an engineering problem.