Top dog at Westminster show traces genes to Scandia

The winner of the Best in Show trophy at this year's Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show has ties to Scandia.

Sky, a 5-year-old female wire fox terrier, was born after award-winning breeder Betty Seaton of Scandia traveled to South Carolina to breed one of her top dogs with another dog. Since then, the dog has won top honors at dozens of national and international competitions.

Wire fox terriers, originally bred in England to hunt foxes and small vermin, are "outgoing, intelligent but independent," according to the Westminster Kennel Club's website.

"Their compact size, handsome appearance, and happy disposition combine to make them appealing as show dogs and companions," the site said.

Sky's win was the 14th time the breed has won the Best in Show prize, more than any other type of dog. The famed dog show, now in its 138th year, is one of the oldest sporting events in the United States.

"Who Was Adolf Hitler?", a presentation by historian David Steele, will take place at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 25, in the public meeting room of the Lake Elmo Public Library, 3537 Lake Elmo Av. N., Lake Elmo.

Steele will discuss what made one of history's most hated and feared persons tick. He will focus on Hitler's work habits, personal health, sexuality and other factors that influenced his rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s and final decline near the end of World War II. Was Hitler Jewish? Was he always a megalomaniac? When and why did he become an anti-Semite? How did he become the absolute dictator of Germany?

Steele grew up in Stillwater, is a Lake Elmo resident and is director of the Grants and Research Office at the University of St. Thomas.

The Washington County Historical Society is offering a scholarship for postsecondary education.

The scholarship is available to graduating seniors enrolled in a Washington County high school or a student in a college or university program currently residing in Washington County who is focusing on history, American studies, architecture or a history-related field of study.

Applicants must have a grade-point average of 3.0 or higher and must be a member of the Historical Society or have an immediate family member who is a member of the organization.

The goal of the scholarship program is to encourage historic preservation and interpretation and to encourage students to study history by providing financial assistance in the form of an educational scholarship.

Lift Bridge Brewing Co., 1900 Tower Dr., Stillwater, is releasing its Irish Coffee Stout at a celebration featuring Irish music, food and good cheer from 3-10 p.m. on March 8.

There is a $5 cover charge, which includes a beer to toast with.

Irish Coffee Stout is a combination of beer, whiskey, coffee and cream. Russian Imperial Stout is aged in whiskey barrels and blended with a big Milk Stout before it's finished off with local free-trade organic roasted coffee.

Irish Coffee Stout will be out the following week at stores and bars. For tickets, go to https://www.eventbrite.com.

Gardeners of all ilks looking for a chance to exercise their green thumbs will get that opportunity at a free landscape workshop on March 29 at Woodbury City Hall, 8301 Valley Creek Rd.

Three 45-minute presentations will be held on popular landscaping topics, such as selecting plants based on their ability to attract pollinating bees, using local landscapes "to create interest in all seasons," and building rain gardens.

Refreshments will be served.

For more information, visit www.mastergardenersinwashingtonco.org or e-mail wcmg@umn.edu.

"And Then There Were None," Agatha Christie's most popular murder mystery of all time, will be presented from Feb. 27 to March 30 by the Lakeshore Players, 4820 Stewart Ave., White Bear Lake.

Ten people, each with something to hide and something to fear, are invited to a lonely mansion on an island where they are cut off from everything but each other and the inescapable shadows of their own past lives. One by one, the guests share the darkest secrets of their wicked pasts. And one by one, they start to die.

A glass artist participating in the "Capturing Light" exhibition opening Sunday, Feb. 23, at ArtReach St. Croix was misidentified in a brief last week. He is Alan Honn of Shafer, Minn.