Ding Dong

It’s my favorite time of year! Girl Scout Cookie time. Time to stock-up. It’s for a good cause And they’re just plain GOOD!! You’ll see them at the grocery store, malls, and more. These kids seem to really have fun competing with other troops for prizes and funding for their projects, trips and patches for their vests and sashes. That third image from the bottom features some interesting patches, including the coveted Kowalski Heat Treating patch.  

It’s so seldom these days that the doorbell rings at the house.  When it does, I’m wondering if my latest on line purchase has arrived or if it’s someone canvasing the neighborhood for the latest social injustice signature or a young person selling a different cable provider.  I was quite surprised recently, and delighted, when I opened the door and found two adorable Girl Scouts, in uniform, politely asking me if I’d like to buy some cookies. (Let’s be honest, how can I possibly say no… given my love for food and love for cookies) Inside I had to laugh – “you’re asking “me” if I’d like some delicious food?  I of course said “sure”, followed by completing my name and address … but then the tough part – which ones to buy???  Do si dos. Peanut butter, Chocolate, Shortbread, Thin Mints (yep, I dance when I eat these – my favorites next to the peanut butter ones!)  I would love to tell you that I just said “give me one of each please”, but it doesn’t work that way for me.  After too many picks, I unloaded my wallet and thanked the girls for their efforts, as their bright eyes and smiles brought instant flashback to when my girls were in Brownies. My girls would go out and canvas the neighborhood and after coming home they would compare their results – from there they would then call their various aunts and uncles of which there are many! They soon learned that the uncles invariably bought more!  I sat back in my chair to reflect on such a wonderful tradition.  So, I jumped online and found some history on the Girl Scout cookies, recipes, and a few fun facts.  For more than 100 years, Girl Scouts and their enthusiastic supporters have helped ensure the success of the iconic annual cookie sale—filled with challenge and fun while developing valuable life skills and making their communities a better place every step of the way.  Enjoy!  And thanks to girlscouts.org for the info.

– Girl Scout Cookies had their earliest beginnings in 1910 in the kitchens and ovens of girl members, with moms volunteering as technical advisers, preserving fruits and vegetables in response to food shortages The sale of cookies as a way to finance troop activities beginning as early as 1917, five years after Juliette Gordon Low started Girl Scouts in the United States, when the Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee, Oklahoma, baked cookies and sold them in its high school cafeteria as a service project.

– In July 1922, The American Girl magazine, published by Girl Scouts of the USA, featured an article by Florence E. Neil, a local director in Chicago, Illinois. Miss Neil provided a cookie recipe that had been given to the council’s 2,000 Girl Scouts. She estimated the approximate cost of ingredients for six- to seven-dozen cookies to be 26 to 36 cents. The cookies, she suggested, could be sold by troops for 25 or 30 cents per dozen.  Throughout the decade, Girl Scouts in different parts of the country continued to bake their own simple sugar cookies with their mothers and with help from the community. These cookies were packaged in wax paper bags, sealed with a sticker, and sold door to door for 25 to 35 cents per dozen.  Check out the Original Girl Scout Cookie Recipe from 1922 HERE.

– In 1933, Girl Scouts of Greater Philadelphia Council baked cookies and sold them in the city’s gas and electric company windows. The price was just 23 cents per box of 44 cookies, or six boxes for $1.24! Girls developed their marketing and business skills and raised funds for their local Girl Scout council. A year later, Greater Philadelphia took cookie sales to the next level, becoming the first council to sell commercially baked cookies in a box.  In 1935, the Girl Scout Federation of Greater New York raised money through the sale of commercially baked cookies. Buying its own die in the shape of a trefoil, the group used the words “Girl Scout Cookies” on the box. In 1936, the national Girl Scout organization began the process of licensing the first commercial bakers to produce cookies that would be sold nationwide by girls in Girl Scout councils.  By 1937, more than 125 Girl Scout councils reported holding cookie sales.

– In the 40’s, Girl Scout Cookies were sold by local councils around the country until World War II, when sugar, flour, and butter shortages led Girl Scouts to pivot, selling the first Girl Scout calendars in 1944 as an alternative to raise money for activities.  After the war, cookie sales increased, and by 1948, a total of 29 bakers were licensed to bake Girl Scout Cookies.

– In 1951, Girl Scout Cookies came in three varieties: Sandwich, Shortbread, and Chocolate Mints. With the advent of the suburbs, girls at tables in shopping malls began selling Girl Scout Cookies.  Five years later, flavors had evolved. Girl Scouts sold four basic types of cookies: a vanilla-based filled cookie, a chocolate-based filled one, shortbread, and a chocolate mint.

– During the 1960s, when Baby Boomers expanded Girl Scout membership, cookie sales increased significantly. Fourteen licensed bakers were mixing batter for thousands upon thousands of Girl Scout Cookies annually. And those bakers began wrapping Girl Scout Cookie boxes in printed aluminum foil or cellophane to protect the cookies and preserve their freshness.  By 1966, a number of varieties were available. Among the best sellers were Chocolate Mint (now known as Thin Mints), Shortbread, and Peanut Butter Sandwich cookies.

– In 1978, the number of bakers was streamlined to four to ensure lower prices and uniform quality, packaging, and distribution. For the first time in history, all cookie boxes—regardless of the baker—featured the same designs and depicted scenes of Girl Scouts in action, including hiking and canoeing. And in 1979, the brand-new, Saul Bass–created Girl Scout logo appeared on cookie boxes, which became even more creative and began promoting the benefits of Girl Scouting.

– In 1982, four bakers still produced a maximum of seven varieties of cookies—three mandatory (Thin Mint®, Peanut Butter Sandwich/Do-si-dos®, and Shortbread/Trefoils®) and four optional. Cookie boxes continued to depict scenes of Girl Scouts in action.

– In the early 1990’s two licensed bakers supplied local Girl Scout councils with cookies for girls to sell, and by 1998, this number had grown again to three. Eight cookie varieties were available, including low-fat and sugar-free selections.

– Early in the twenty-first century, every Girl Scout Cookie had a mission. New cookie box designs, introduced in fall of 2000, were bold and bright, capturing the spirit of Girl Scouting. Two licensed bakers produced a maximum of eight varieties, including three that were mandatory (Thin Mints®, Peanut Butter Sandwich/Do-si-dos®, and Shortbread/Trefoils®). All cookies were kosher. And, much to the excitement of our youngest Girl Scouts, Daisies started selling cookies!

– With the announcement of National Girl Scout Cookie Weekend and the introduction of the very first gluten-free Girl Scout Cookie, the decade was off to a big start.

– Ever since Girl Scouts first published the recipe for s’mores in 1925, the tasty campfire treat has been an iconic part of camping in the outdoors. In 2017, s’mores became the inspiration for a highly popular new cookie variety.  Who can forget the amazing moment in 2016 when Girl Scouts took the stage at the Academy Awards to sell cookies to Hollywood’s A-list? It was a stellar beginning to the nationwide celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Girl Scouts selling cookies.

– In 2020, the already iconic cookies reached a new level of awesome with incredible, brand-new packaging that puts goal-crushing Girl Scout Cookie entrepreneurs front and center and also showcases all of the amazing things girls learn and do through the Girl Scout Cookie Program and as Girl Scouts.

– It’s estimated annual cookie sales now reach over $750 million per year.  In 2011, thin mints account for $175 million of the profits. It could be the glorious mix between chocolate and mint, or maybe it’s because they have the most cookies per box. The next popular cookies, in order of profitability, are Samoas, Tagalongs, Do-si-dos and Savannahs and Trefoils.

Find your favorite recipe HERE.

And watch a little “Doorbell Comedy” HERE!!!

 

 

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

DO YOU LIKE CONTESTS?
Me, too.

As you may know the Kowalski Heat Treating logo finds its way into the visuals of my Friday posts.
I. Love. My. Logo.
One week there could be three logos. The next week there could be 15 logos. And sometimes the logo is very small or just a partial logo showing. But there are always logos in some of the pictures.
So, I challenge you, my beloved readers, to count them and send me a quick email with the total number of logos in the Friday post. On the following Tuesday I’ll pick a winner from the correct answers and send that lucky person some great KHT swag.
So, start counting and good luck!  Oh, and the logos at the very top header don’t count. Just in the pictures area. Got it? Good.  :-))))  Have fun!!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

 

 


 

Trillion

(top) This is a penny; (row 2) This is a trillion dollars! More explanation below. Read on; (row 3) Money things you can buy with…well, money: Sheets of money like this sheet of two dollar bills HERE; (row 4) The Dollar Bills A-Line Dress HERE; Dollar Money Pattern Print Dress HERE; (row 5) Hundred Dollar Bills Round Neck Short Sleeve T-shirt HERE; The “I Need Money” T-shirt HERE; (row 6) Mad Money with Jim Cramer Logo Men’s Short Sleeve T-Shirt HERE; Men and Women’s “MONEY TALKS (PINK LIPS)” T-Shirt HERE; (row 7) Million Dollar Fleece Throw Blanket HERE; Money Luxury 4 Piece Bedding Set HERE; And the current trillion dollar companies. You could own a piece of each of them HERE.

What does it mean to have a market cap of a Trillion dollars?
The internet search giant Google became the fourth tech company — after Apple, Amazon and Microsoft — to reach the market milestone – one trillion in value. According to a NY Times article, “Numbers have long held a special significance at Google. When the internet company was founded in 1998, it based it’s name on the mathematical term “googol,” which refers to the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros. When it filed to go public in 2004, it said it planned to raise $2,718,281,828, which was the sum of multiplying $1 billion with the mathematical constant “e.”  And in 2015 when it reorganized under a parent entity called Alphabet, it announced it would buy back shares worth $5,099,019,513.59, a figure derived from the square root of 26 — the number of letters in the alphabet.  Last Thursday, Google hit another eye-popping number. The market cap of Alphabet vaulted above $1 trillion for the first time. That made it the fourth technology company to hit this milestone.”

I decided to see if I could find a way to visualize just what this looks like.  Here is a great story sequence to put it into context for us common folk.  Enjoy!  Special thanks to pagetutor.com – and be sure to view the videos – crazy fun.

 

We’re going to use $100 dollar bills, not $1 bills, and the following definitions of millionbillion and trillion

MILLION = 1,000,000
BILLION = 1,000,000,000
TRILLION = 1,000,000,000,000

We’ll start with one packet of one hundred dollar bills – It’s about 6″ by 2-1/2″ by 0.43″ high equaling $10,000 – a number we can imagine.


100 x $100 = $10,000


Next we’ll arrange 10 packets on the ground like so…equaling $100,000.  Think we can still comprehend this.

10 x $10,000 = $100,000


If we increase it to 10 layers high, we get $1,000,000 (one million dollars). I like this little pile – you can put it on my desk if you like!!

10 x $100,000 = $1,000,000
The pile is 12″ wide (2 x 6″), 12.5″ deep (5 x 2.5″) and 4.3″ high (10 x .43″).


Now we’ll look at a pallet, something we use all the time here at KHT.  For us, moving your parts around our plants and solving you PIA (@#$) Jobs, is much like driving around with “your parts = your money” – we take it very seriously!!.
If we start with one layer (7 packets wide by 16 packets deep) with each packet being $10,000 – a million, one hundred twenty thousand per layer.

7 x 16 = 112 packets per layer
112 x $10,000 = $1,120,000 per layer


Increase that to 90 layers and you have a stack 38.7″ tall (plus 4″ for the pallet) that is worth a little over $100,000,000 (one hundred million dollars).

90 x $1,120,000 = $100,800,000
For the sake of simplicity, we’ll round this down and consider a pallet to be exactly $100,000,000 (one hundred million dollars). We’ll just put the extra $800,000 aside and have ourselves a party. (with all this money sloshing around, who’s really gonna miss $800K?)


Next, ten pallets of $100 million are $1 billion…

10 x $100,000,000 = $1,000,000,000 (one billion dollars)
Here is where we may start run into problems. In some parts of the world, this may be referred to as a “thousand million” (or “milliard”) rather than a billion. At any rate, for our purposes here, we’re comfortably at one billion dollars ($1,000,000,000).


Next, a row of 50 double-stacked pallets (50 x 2 = 100 pallets total) – don’t get excited…we’re only at ten billion.

100 x $100,000,000/pallet = $10,000,000,000 (ten billion dollars)


And now just multiply that by 100 rows…. bingo – one trillion! Be sure to notice the little guy at the bottom left corner – that’s me, examining my inventory.


100 rows x $10,000,000,000 = $1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion dollars)


Here’s another view oriented a little more to the front…

So, one hundred rows x 100 pallets per row is 10,000 pallets.  That’s a LOT of $100 bills! You know, it occurs to me…. if you were the guy stacking all those pallets and you “borrowed” one single bill from the top of each pallet, after you were done, you’d have yourself a cool $million. Nice.


|———Dimensions———|
Each individual pallet is 42″ wide by 40″ deep. The height of the bills is 38.7″. Add 4″ for a pallet and the total height of one pallet of bills is 42.7″. In the field of pallets above, the pallets are spaced 12″ apart.
The field is 50 pallets x 100 pallets by 2 pallets high, so…
width = (50 x 42″) + (49 x 12″) = 2100″ + 588″ = 2688″ = 224 ft
depth = (100 x 40″) + (99 x 12″) = 4000″ + 1188″ = 5188″ = 432.33ft
height = 2 x 42.7″ = 85.4″ = just a little over 7ft high
So our field of pallets is roughly 224ft x 432ft x 7ft high.  At 96,768 square feet, it’s about 2.2 acres and well over the size of a football field.  With the new buildings we’ve added to our production, assembly and distribution campus, this would fit nicely here at KHT!  (don’t worry – I discussed this with Jackie, and she’s fine with this!!).
And that gets us to better understand Goggle’s remarkable accomplishment.
With this in mind, in a small way – a million (billion and trillion) thank you’s to all my customers for allowing KHT to do your work – we are grateful.

Check Out This Video:  A trillion using ones.

 

Monkey Fist or Sheepshank?

Knots are so cool! And they’re everywhere you look. Shoes, hair (good knots and bad knots), clothes, presents, trees, food, clothing and more. 

Getting ready for my morning run today, I paused for a minute as I tied my running shoes.  Who came up with this knot and how come I can rely in it to perform while running?  And why do we use the same approach to hold things 1000’s of years after the first caveman laced up his Nike’s?  Think about it.  With so many different ways to fasten an item – buttons, Velcro, snaps, elastic, clamps, clips and more, we still use the simple shoelace knot, often referred to as a bow knot, for shoes, sneakers, boots and bow ties.
I think as a kid Mom called the loops “bunny ears” to help me master the technique. Jackie and I certainly used the same technique when teaching our girls how to tie their shoes, and it worked great!  As I love to do, I dove into the internet, and found some great references and stories about knots – one recently published in Smithsonian, where engineers used heat sensitive rope and microscopes to test the strength points of rope.  Of course, being the head “thermal distortion” geek here at KHT, working on your PIA (Pain in the @%$) Jobs! I gobbled up the article.  Take a stroll through the info below and enjoy a visit with Des Pawson, a remarkable keeper of all things knots in England.  Special thanks to Wikipedia, Smithsonian, and the New York Times for the info/articles and You Tube for the videos – great stuff.  And be sure to include the Knot Tyers Guild annual convention in your travel plans. Enjoy!

  • Knot enthusiasts like to say that civilization is held together by knots. (learn more at HERE.  Your shoes are undoubtedly tied with the first knot that you ever learned, the famous shoelace knot, the shoelace knot is: a doubly slipped reef knot formed by joining the ends of whatever is being tied with a half hitch, folding each of the exposed ends into a loop (bight) and joining the loops with a second half hitch. The size of the loops and the length of the exposed ends are adjusted when the knot is tied. It has the stability of the reef knot but is significantly easier to untie, simply by pulling the ends away from the center of the knot.
  • Glance in the mirror and you may find more knots: the one in your necktie, perhaps, or the one made by the elastic band that is wound around to hold your hair in place. Your hair itself might be plaited into a braid: another knot. Over the years I have successfully completed numerous French braids for my daughters!
  • Now consider the clothing you’re wearing. Your cable-knit sweater is a whole lot of knotting, as is your shirt, your pants, your socks, your underwear: These sewn or knitted or woven garments are likely held together by knots, and what’s more, the materials from which they’re made — cotton or wool or acrylic or what have you — are themselves glorified knots, fibers that have been twisted together to form stronger tensile strands.
  • How about the knot in the cinnamon bun on your breakfast table. There were definitely knots in the fishing net that caught the halibut on your dinner plate. Did everyone see how I was able to “TIE” this back to food!  Doctors staunch the bleeding in an open wound with tourniquets bound by knots, and they employ knots when stitching up a body after surgery.
  • Knots are used in the construction of houses and skyscrapers; the cables supporting suspension bridges extend time-honored principles of cordage and knotting to “ropes” of galvanized steel wire.
  • Knots are an ancient technology. They predate the axe and the wheel, quite possibly the use of fire and maybe even man himself: Some scientists have speculated that the first knotters were animals, gorillas who tied simple “granny knots,” interlacing branches to construct nests. But in a century of digital tech and robotics, knots remain indispensable, with an Englishman Des Pawson, committed to celebrating the history of knots. From his house that sits along a well-trafficked residential through street a couple of hundred yards from the River Orwell in the town of Ipswich, in Suffolk, southeast England. Use that door knocker and you will be greeted by Des Pawson, a vibrant 67-year-old man with large round eyeglasses, a white beard worthy of a biblical patriarch and hair that stretches down nearly to his shoulders.
  • Pawson’s mane is partially concealed beneath a red Kangol cap – (hope you read our KHT hats post from last week) Pawson says. “I want the rope makers, I want the riggers, I want the sailmakers to be recognized for their contributions. They are a huge part of the story of knots.”
    Pawson is one of the world’s foremost knot experts, a co-founder of the International Guild of Knot Tyers, and a prolific author of knotting books. His home, which he shares with his wife, Liz, is a shrine to knots. (see the video HERE ) (check out some of his books on this website too) Pawson opened the place in 1996; in 2007, he was awarded an M.B.E. (Member of the Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth “for services to the rope industry.”
    The museum also holds mementos of Empire — the glorious and sordid age when Britannia ruled the waves. Pawson points out an improbably chunky piece of age-blackened rope, more than two feet in circumference, as thick and gnarled as a tree trunk. It is a part of the anchor cable from the H.M.S. Victory, the ship that Lord Nelson commanded, and died aboard, in the Battle of Trafalagar. Another display case is filled with slim wooden sticks, handles wrapped in threaded rope. These nightsticks, or “coshes,” were sailors’ weapons. Pawson says: “If you’re in the stews of Liverpool or San Francisco, you want a bit of protection, don’t you?”

Alexander the Great cutting the Gordian Knot (Donato Creti, 1671-1749)

  • There are knots of legend, like the Gordian knot that Alexander the Great sliced open with a swing of his sword to become the leader of Europe – read the legend HERE
  • There are knots reputed to have magical properties: the knots tied by Laplander shamans in handkerchiefs, which, when loosed, would raise a mighty wind and knots used by witches to cast spells.
  • The Elizabethan poet Philip Sidney wrote. We speak of marriage as “tying the knot,” a figurative knot that is likely derived from literal ones — from so-called true lovers’ knots, various knot forms, found everywhere from Scandinavia to East Asia to Mexico, that symbolize affection, commitment and betrothal. Watch these crazy marriage proposals HERE  making plans to tie the knot.
  • Fibers that change color under pressure helped researchers predict knot performance
  • The new study, published in the journal Science, paired mathematical knot theory with a color-changing fiber developed in 2013. Because the fiber changes color under pressure, the researchers were able to measure physical properties and add data to their computational knot models. They came up with three rules that determine a knot’s stability.
  • The researchers identified three characteristics that allow a knot to put up with more strain:  1) knots are more stable with each additional crossing point, where one length of rope comes in contact with another. 2) if strands at neighboring crossing points rotate in opposite directions, it will create opposing friction and also increase stability. 3) friction from strands sliding against each other in opposite directions provides the final contribution.  In the future, this type of research could be used to choose or create the right knot for any application.
  • So, just how many knots are there, and what is the strongest knot ever? It appears mathematicians and scientists have created an amazing array of knots.  Click HERE to visit the Rolfsen Knot Tables, and click on any knot image to learn more about each one … (we’ll check back in with you in a few hours as this will tie you up for a bit – couldn’t resist)  And HERE is a link to one of the strongest molecular knots ever created. Which could make more comfortable surgical sutures and even more protective bulletproof vests.

 


 

Hats Off

 

Hats. They can help to define who you are, what you do, feed your ego, keep you safe or simply keep your head warm. Hey, don’t forget to click the link in the story below to see how one kind of hat is made. It’s pretty interesting.

 

I hope everyone had an amazing holiday break – I know I did.  Now that we’re all back on the job (some of us never left…) I wanted to share some interesting facts about a topic I thought I’d never write about … hats.  You see, for the past few weeks I’ve been torn as to what to wear, if anything at all, while running.  The temperature here in Cleveland has been WAY above average, with warm, sunny days and low winds, I’ve been a bit challenged as to what to place atop my most precious folic-ly challenged dome. When I go with one of my prized baseball caps, my ears tend to get cold.  When I use a knit cap, it’s often a bit too warn, and when I use one of my headbands … well, not so good on top. Now when I am dressing up, I either don my favorite wool “Ivy” or my KHT baseball hat – all depends on how I am feeling!  So being the curious type, I looked online for some “hat” info, and was blown away – wow! I never knew so many hat types existed. (check out the link at the end of the post).  So, for my trivia buds, test your knowledge of coverings – between the big floppy akubra and the tiny kippah – perhaps see if you can guess the difference between a deerstalker, homburg, patka or saturno.  Enjoy – and thanks Wikipedia, historyofhat.net, the BBC and mentalfloss.com. And thanks Mr. Hetherington for making that public nuisance.

 

Hats are worn for various reasons, from fashion to protection, for ceremonies and rituals, for women and men. Throughout history hats represented markings of a class to which a wearer belonged and used to differentiate nationalities, branches and ranks in military.

One of the first images that show a hat, is a painting in a Thebes tomb. It depicts a man that wears a conical hat made of straw. Pileus appeared also very early and it was a simple skull cap.

In Ancient Greece and Rome when a slave was freed, he was given a Phrygian cap as a symbol of freedom. That is why Phrygian caps were called Liberty caps while they were worn during French revolution.

The First hat with a brim is an Ancient Greek petasos.

One of the basic materials that hats are made of is felt. Felt was discovered at different times in different parts of the world. Ancient Egyptians found felt when they noticed that camel hair that falls into the sandals becomes compact from pressure and moist. Native Americans found felt in their fur moccasins. It is told that St. Clement found felt when he filled his shoes with flax fibers. That is why he is pronounced patron saint of felt hat makers.

In 16th century, women began to wear structured hats, similar to those that were worn by men. In 18th century milliners started appearing, usually women, that created hats and bonnets but also designing overall styles. Materials of the highest quality and best hats came from Italian city of Milan. That is where term “milliner” comes from.

A famous story out of England goes like this…
The man who gave hats a head start into fame and fashion was haberdasher John Hetherington who, on January 15th, 1797 appeared in court after he had stepped out onto the streets of London wearing the distinctive headgear and caused a sensation.

So much so that a crowd formed, and Hetherington was eventually arrested and given a summons for disturbing the public peace. In court, found guilty of wearing a hat “calculated to frighten timid people”, he was bound over to keep the peace in consideration of a sum of 50 pounds.

The arresting officer told the court that nobody had seen anything like it before: “He had such a tall and shiny construction on his head that it must have terrified nervous people. The sight of this construction was so overstated that various women fainted, children began to cry, and dogs started to bark. One child broke his arm among all the jostling.”

The next day, The Times newspaper reported: “Hetherington’s hat points to a significant advance in the transformation of dress. Sooner or later, everyone will accept this headwear. We believe that both the court and the police made a mistake here.”

The newspaper was right. The top hat, which went by several names including Toppers, Chimney Pots, and Stove Pipes, grew in popularity, finally achieving the ultimate stamp of respectability in 1850 when Prince Albert, no less, began to wear one, giving the headgear the royal seal of approval. There was no going back after that . . .

In the 19th century, brim size of bonnets changed from very large to small (when parasols became fashion). At the same time, hats reentered the scene and were in fashion as much as bonnets. They started as riding woman’s riding hats and were made as highland caps, little circular pork pie hats, doll hats decorated with feathers and tall hats.

The 20th century saw woman’s hat change from smaller to big with large brim to small again. It changed with fashion and hairstyles, economic and social changes, wars, rationing.

Man’s hats also changed through history. Simple skull caps changed into Capotain (tall hat with small brim and a belt with a buckle) and that one into a broad, round-brimmed hat that protected from sun and rain, which transformed into tricorne. Tricorne evolved into bicorn (Napoleon wore a bicorn hat).

Here are some Interesting Facts about Hats You Can Impress Your Friends With:

  • London black taxies are made tall so that a gentleman can ride in them without taking off a top hat.
  • In the middle of 19th century baseball umpires wore top hats during the game.
  • White tall chef hats traditionally have 100 pleats to represent hundreds of ways an egg can be prepared. They were invented by cuisine inventors Marie-Antoine Carème and Auguste Escoffier as a method of establishing hierarchy in the kitchen.
  • Elisabeth I had a law according to which every person older than 7 years had to wear a cap on Sundays and holidays.
  • Trilby, a variant of fedora, was named after heroine Trilby O’Ferral of a George du Maurier novel.
  • Process of making felt involved use of mercury which is toxic and prolonged exposure use can cause damage in nervous system, tremors and dementia. From that originates phrase “Mad as a hatter”.  Watch this great You Tube video from Australia of hat’s being made -WOW – tons of handwork!!
  • Fedora was first a women’s hat than men’s – Now it is both.
  • In 1920s there was an odd custom in America that it was common that if people wore straw hats after the September 15 they were beaten up.
  • First “Dunce” hat was introduced by medieval theologian John Duns Scotus (1265-1308). HIs idea was that a conical hat funneled knowledge from God into a head of the… dunce.
  • Panama hat has never made in Panama. It is made in Equador.
  • Those who supply men’s hats are called hatters while those who supply women’s hats are called milliners.
  • Vikings never whore horned helmets.
  • French Magician Louis Comte was first to pull out a rabbit from a top hat in 1814.
  • First record of a hat is in a painting in a cave at Lussac-les-Chateaux in Central France and it dates some 15.000 BC.
  • There is a law in Wyoming that prohibits wearing of a hat that obstructs a view in a theatre or some other place of amusement.
  • In Fargo, North Dakota, There is a law that forbids dancing while wearing a hat under the penalty of jail.
  • There is still a law in Kentucky that forbids a man to buy a ten-gallon hat if his wife is not present to assist in choosing a model.
  • The smallest hat worn by men was from 18th century and it was a small tricorn hat with dimensions of two inches by four inches and it was worn on the top of the wig.
  • Fedora was named after the Princess Fedora Romanoff from play Fédora by the French author Victorien Sardou.
  • Colors of hard hats can have meaning and are used to distinguish roles on construction sites and for safety. White hard hats are worn by supervisors or engineers, blue hard hats by technical advisers. Safety inspectors wear green hard hats. Yellow hard hats are worn by laborers while orange or pink is reserved for new workers or visitors.

For more history, go HERE.
For great hat trivia, go HERE.
For an amazing recap of hat types, go HERE.
For the top “most famous” hats wearers, go HERE.

 

 

And A New Year Begins

(top to bottom) Make Healthier Choices, Travel, Volunteer, Get a Pet, Find a New Hobby, See a Dentist, Pursue a New Career, Enjoy Life to the Fullest, and Call Me!

 

I get excited when the new year begins.  I find myself cleaning my desk and office, filing things that have been sitting around for months, and making new “to do” lists.  (I’m a list junkie, but also good at crossing things off once completed).  As I am writing this, I’m laughing because Jackie knows that I have somewhat of a challenge getting rid of “things”… yep almost all things! I enjoy updating my new KHT calendar and showing off my new socks I got for Christmas (I’m a bit of a sock nut, too). Check out my previous post!  I also have my list of resolutions – things I plan and sometimes don’t get to.  Here’s a nice reminder list from thoughtcatalog.com writer Anjana Rajbhandry – pick a few and give them a try.

 

1. Make Healthier Choices – Everyone thinks about a new exercise program or just going for a walk to start. Do something active. Eat better. You don’t have to start a trendy diet, just start by avoiding processed and fried foods and cut back on the unnecessary sugars.

2. Travel – now is a great time to plan a trip.  Escape from the cold or visit somewhere exotic and fun.  Tons of spots in the US and abroad.  I’m heading to Florida and the West Coast – can’t wait.

3. Volunteer – there is nothing like being a coach or teacher.  Share your skills, especially in your local community.  Raise your hand and find the time to share and make a difference.  Whether it is at a food pantry or an animal shelter, there is always a need for help. Plus, it will make you feel so much better and happier.

4. Filter Your Clothes (and shoes) – Make it a point to get rid of all the clothes and shoes that you have not worn – that look is so last three years… Decluttering gives you unexplainable mental peace and opens space for some new finds.

5. Get a Pet – It has been proven that having a pet makes us happier, so why not get yourself a little dog or a cat? And if you don’t want that much responsibility- get a fish.  Watching fish swim can actually lower your blood pressure. If you can’t manage a pet, buy yourself a new plant and watch it grow.

6. Find a New Hobby – We spend so much time on our phones that we tend to forget there are other things to do out there. Knitting, cooking, hiking, painting, gardening and cooking – even learning a new language- keep learning, challenge that brain of yours. Jackie and I took up kayaking a few years back and we love it.

7. Buy a New Mattress – You know you need to. We spend more than half our lives in bed- sleeping, resting or watching Netflix. Your back and your body need the best support and comfort it can get. Good sleep is essential for overall health, so investing in a good mattress and soft sheets is a smart investment.

8. Go See a Dentist (and get a physical too) – It’s amazing how many people do not go to the dentist. A yearly checkup and cleaning will keep you on track and give more life to your pearly whites.  A lot of our health is under our control, how we treat our body is how our body will treat us back. A yearly visit to the physician is important to see everything is running okay and pay a little for the basic blood work- it’s always better to know your sugar and cholesterol numbers.

10. Pursue a New Career – If you ended the year complaining about your job, what have you been doing about it? Go to networking events, research online and pay someone to redo your resume – you will not regret it.  The job market has NEVER been better!

11. Talk to your Parents Weekly – and go visit –  I am so lucky to have Mom and Dad around – and all of my extended family – Make it a point to talk to your parents on a weekly basis because you have no idea how much they have done for you and how much it will mean to them – if you are a parent, you get it.

12. Make Plans to See Your Best Friends – Life happens, work happens, and relationships happen- but best friends go on forever. It is easy to get distracted and forget to make time with the closest friends in life. I plan a trip with my buds every spring – and it’s simply a blast.  Even our “planning” get togethers are fun.

13. Use Sunscreen and Quit Smoking – If you do not already, please start soon. The sun’s harsh UVA (causes aging) and UVB (causes burn) have been affecting your skin everyday so protect it. Being tan will never be more important than being safe. And, one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions does not need a January 1 date. The best time to quit is right now, not tomorrow or the 1st of any date. So quit that smoking habit- it is bad for you, for others, the environment and your pocket.

14. Enjoy Life to the Fullest – According to psychology, the key to enjoying life to the fullest is not making major life changes or big achievements- it is in enjoying the little pleasures of everyday life, like going for a walk or treating yourself to that ice cream. Also having a daily ritual adds a lot of satisfaction to life.  Stop watching polar politics and everything that’s bad … celebrate!

15.  Try the Serenity Prayer – we all know the prayer, or have heard of it, as it’s often associated with people in recovery.  But, if you say it out loud, and try a few of the versions, I think you’ll know what I thinking here – especially that “wisdom” part.  Give it a try:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer

AND, My Favorite – Call Me! – I absolutely love hearing from all of my customers, vendors, business partners and friends who read our blog – each week I get calls and emails from you – and it makes my day.  Give me a call and let’s catch up – I’d love to hear about your holiday, your business successes from last year, your plans for 2020, and all that’s fun in your life.  216-631-4411 (office) If I don’t pick up, I’m likely working on a very important PIA (pain in the #%$) Job! so leave me a message and I promise I’ll call back.  If email is easier, skowalski@khtheat.com and include a number so I can call you.

And did I mention: Get a Pet???