Happy Easter to All
What A Beautiful Time To Rejoice In God’s Blessings.
Happy Easter to all our KHT Friends
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Beautiful
Love this time of year. Renewal & beautification at home and at the office. There’s nothing like all that fresh color popping up everywhere. Time to get your hands dirty!!! :)))))))
Now that the doldrums of winter are behind us (please no more surprise storms) it’s time to turn to our gardens and and plan to put in some color to beautify our days. In full unabashed disclosure, between Jackie and one of my daughters Michelle I never have to worry about what is going to be planted. I am simply there as cheap labor and laughs! I went online in search of the “New” Plants for ’22, and hit the jackpot with ideas from savvygardening.com. Special thanks to Tara Nolan with her descriptions and introductions to new plants that come from an array of sources—trial garden visits, emails from growers and colleagues, presentations, seed and plant catalogs, along with her behind-the-scenes look at how growers come up with new plant introductions. Be sure to write them down, and then go hunting at your nearby garden center. I will say that later this year Jackie and I plan on visiting theBiltmore Estate which has some of the most beautiful gardens in the world!
When the weather is right, before you plant, here are some great “get ready” garden tips,:
1. Give your garden a ‘spring-clean’ – After the winter months, the garden will be in need of a good tidy-up. Sweep up dead leaves with a rake, pull out any weeds around the garden and borders, remove dead branches or plants and add these to your compost pile. In addition, late winter is the best time to prune (cutback) your plants and old flowers to remove any dead or diseased growth. Prune trees before they ‘leaf out’ to encourage new buds
2. Buy some summer-flowering bulbs and seeds – Now is the best time to order some summer-flowering bulbs which are ideal to plant in spring. Flowers such as lilies, dahlia and gladioli can be bought now to plant, and other seeds will benefit from being planted in pots indoors, before being transplanted into the soil. One can never have too many.
3. Prepare the soil – you need to get the soil ready in your garden beds. Your soil may be in poor condition due to frost from the winter, which makes it become compacted. In this case, you need to till or loosen the soil by turning it over with a tiller or spade. It’s advised to dig in a depth of 12-14 inches to work the soil and loosen it up. Add a fresh layer of mulch or compost to improve the surface of the bed.
4. Start your vegetable plot – If you want organic veggies, now is the right time to plant. Hardy vegetables such as potatoes, peas and some lettuces grow well in cool soil. Bear in mind, that as soon as your soil reaches 42-degrees Fahrenheit, you can start to sow directly outside. Other veggies you can sow include carrots, arugula, spinach, leeks and beetroots. By planting these vegetables now, they should be ready to eat by early summer.
Now, on to the show …
Spanish lavender (Lavandula stoechas) Primavera – I think this was my favorite new plant that I this year, probably because I planted it in my new favorite terracotta pot. I loved the flouncy blooms, or “flags” as they’re called, that wave above the flowers of ‘Primavera’ from Darwin Perennials. The blooms attract bees and butterflies, and the plant loved its sunny spot on my front porch area.
Leucanthemum ‘White Lion’ – This perennial beauty is called “the spring Shasta” on the grower’s website. Which means White Lion is a long-blooming, three-season perennial that will start its show in late spring. A new introduction from Kieft Seed, my two shasta daisy plants bloomed through the end of October in my front yard garden. Happy in full sun, it is hardy down to USDA zone 3b and extremely drought tolerant.
Cosmos ‘Apricotta’ – ‘Apricotta’, with its lush, pink flowers with hints of apricot and yellow are on my must-grow list. A new variety from William Dam Seeds, they will bloom through the first frost.
‘Frill Ride’ Bigleaf Hydrangea – I can never resist a ruffle or a frill, so out of all the new hydrangeas Bloomin’ Easy is releasing for 2022, I couldn’t resist ‘Frill Ride’. This big-leaf hydrangea features enormous deep-pink, frilly flowers. I imagine they’d look pretty stunning in a dried arrangement, too. This shrub is hardy down to zone 5 and prefers part sun (three to four hours a day of sun in the morning, with filtered sun the rest of the day). It grows to be about two to three feet tall and equally wide.
Easy Wave Sky Blue Spreading Petunia – Depending on the light, and I suppose, the plant (because sometimes certain growing conditions can affect the blooms), the Easy Wave Sky Blue petunia looks a lot like Very Peri, the Pantone Color of the Year. What I liked this plant was its contrast and slightly unusual blue-ish hue in a couple of my containers. The plants bloomed throughout the hot summer and into fall. They also spread nicely in a garden.
Suncredible Saturn Sunflower – This bright, cheerful Helianthus hybrid is everblooming, meaning season-long blooms. Part of the new Proven Winners lineup, the website suggests planting these as a living screen or along a fence. Plants reach up to three feet in height. Plants aren’t super fussy—they like rich soils but will grow in poorer soils. These drought-tolerant beauties also make great cut flowers and attract bees and butterflies.
Aurora Borealis Rose – I love the advances that have been made in rose breeding over the last several years to create hardy roses that have greater pest and disease resistance. This new kid on the block, from Vineland’s 49th Parallel Collection was developed really close to my home, too. I feel a certain pride when I tell people about this compact shrub. Aurora Borealis is the third rose in this collection.
The Velvet Fog Smokebush – I have a thing for texture, so the fluffy, soft-looking plumes of smokebushes always catch my eye. This one is pretty spectacular and apparently grows more flowers than a conventional smokebush. Clouds of pinky-red seem to hover atop the blue-green foliage of this showy shrub. Mature plants range from 60 to 96 inches (152 to 244 cm) tall and should be planted in part sun to full sun.
Aquilegia Earlybird – I don’t think I’ve even seen such a profusion of blooms all together in a columbine plant, in such a short little tidy clump. And you can see their faces! The blooms are so stunning, on all three from this series: Purple Yellow, Blue White, and Red Yellow. These plants are hardy down to zone 3a!
Visit https://savvygardening.com/new-plants/ to see dozens of more ideas to brighten up your garden this spring – and when things begin to bloom, be sure to send me a photo at skowalski@khtheat.com
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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.
Got it? Good. :-))))
Have fun!!
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Got Ya!
Making your kids laugh is fun. (they might think you’re weird but that goes along with the territory) And April fools Day is a great day to go for it!!!!! :)))))))
Today, April Fool’s Day, is a day for fun and laughter – and you’ll agree, we REALLY need some fun and laughter. Along with the typical tricks we play on co-workers or spouses, I thought I’d share some fun ideas to “get the kids involved.” I can remember one year that Jackie and I actually moved the girls stuff around into other rooms including all of the pictures off the walls while they were sleeping, so that when they woke up they were in “another room”! The girls loved to prank us as well. One year they buttoned all our shirts together in the closet! That certainly made for an interesting morning, when I was trying not to wake up Jackie before work!
The art of a good prank is to surprise someone with an unexpected event that will cause a reaction that immediately turns positive when they realize it is a joke. Pranks should be harmless – both mentally (doesn’t embarrass or cause stress) and physically (shouldn’t hurt the person or property around them).
Here are some fun, silly and harmless pranks you can pull on the kids.
- Tape the light switch so they can’t flip it. For younger kids, used colored tape. For older kids, clear tape molded to the shape of the switch is best. Make them wonder why the light is not moving!
- Decorate a sponge as a piece of cake. Coat a sponge with icing, and let it sit out on the counter. See if your kiddos can resist taking a bite.
- Have a note or short story appear in the toilet paper As they pull on the roll, the message pulls out, toward them. You need tape, toilet paper, and an unknowing participant.
- A little scare never hurts… Dig out the old baby monitor, keep the “baby” side with you, and put the adult one where your kids are. You can whisper as they are alone in a room, or as they do something innocuous, shriek at them, “Someone’s watching!”
- Make these meatloaf cupcake muffins. They will look like delicious cupcakes, so the kids will think they are getting dinner for dessert! (Maybe have a few actual cupcakes waiting in the wings for dessert). Why would this be considered a prank? It sounds delicious to me!
- Short sheet your kids’ beds! My grandmother did this to me once when I was growing up. I climbed into bed, and only had a foot or two of sheets. I re-made my bed, laughing the entire time!
- This one’s a little scary – hide in the closet with a mask on then call the home phone or their cell phone and ask the kids to go in and get something out of the closet. Then, when they came in, jump out at them.
- Pour cereal and milk into a bowl and freeze it. Then, pour a little milk on top to cover up the prank, and then get your camera ready for some confused little faces!
- Choose a silly side of an argument and start arguing with your child. Start with something like, “Stop begging! No matter how hard you fight, I just won’t allow you to go to school.” It catches them off-guard and then they start automatically arguing the other side. No matter what they say, keep misquoting them and pushing your silly argument. This often works well for bedtime battles, because eventually they are just worn out by the ridiculousness!
- Blow up a few extra balloons and remove the pillow from your child’s pillowcase and slip balloons inside.
- Put things inside your kid’s shoes – toys, plastic bugs, marbles – whatever is just enough to get them to laugh.
- Pretend you are going to work in your PJ’s. Just come downstairs, tell them you’ve decided to dress differently, and walk out the door.
- Put something silly in their underwear/sock drawer – spooky bugs, toys, or anything that will get a laugh. Tuck it under clothes so when they get dressed, out it pops.
- Dress backwards – have someone help you button your shirt or blouse backwards. Don’t say anything, and when they object, argue a bit that everything’s fine.
I’m sure you can come up with other ideas – just have fun today and get some laughter going inside your house. And email me with your own pranks…pictures welcome, too: SKowalski@khtheat.com
‘The Little’ – Day 1
Thank goodness for calendars!!! Some dates are more important than others. But we still need to track them, share them, and remember them. Take for instance my birthday, __?__?__?__. Good to know, huh?? :)))))
The other day I was looking at my calendar, planning my week, staff meetings and calls to help my customers solve their PIA (Pain in the @%$) Jobs! Thinking through the next few weeks and what was ahead of me (and when I might be able to hit some golf balls . I noticed that the first day of Ramadan (based on a lunar calendar) Good Friday and Easter Sunday (based on the numeric calendar) was clearly marked on my March calendar. As I flipped through April, and May dates, it got me thinking about “calendars” – what’s the history behind all this. I went online and “Wow”, did I uncover a TON of information, all started by a scholarly monk some 1700 years ago named Dionysis Exiguus, best known for his creation of a Christian based calendar (using the designations B.C. and A.D.) that led to our modern-day Gregorian calendar. For Dionysis, today, March 25th became “Day 1”. I did my best to pick and choose the history details (be sure to click the links to dig deeper into the backstory). Special thanks to Wikipedia, newadvent.org, brittania.org, and encyclopedia.com for the info. Enjoy!
- Roman scholar and theologian Dionysius Exiguus (c. 465 A.D.-c. 530 A.D.) is best known for his creation of a calendar that led to the modern Gregorian calendar. From his calendar stem the designations “B.C.” and “A.D.” Dionysius championed the system that is still used today to determine the date of Easter, and his many translations and writings have influenced canon law and helped preserve early Church texts for study.
- Dionysius Exiguus, the man, is something of a mystery to modern scholars; Writing in Anno Domini: The Origins of the Christian Era, Georges Declercq argued that “the epithet ‘exiguus’ was adopted by Dionysius himself as a sign of intellectual humility, not because he was small of stature (‘the Short or the Little’).” Beyond this issue of nomenclature, the specific details of the early life and career of Dionysius have been lost over the centuries.
- Modern scholars do know that Dionysius originally came from Scythia—an area that in antiquity covered parts of present-day Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan—where he was reputedly raised by a sect of Gothic monks before becoming a monk himself. A preface to one of his translations seems to indicate that Dionysius came from Scythia Minor, which today encompasses a portion of Romania that borders the Black Sea.
- Regardless of his place of origin, sometime around 496 Dionysius came to Rome; he was by that time already a well-known scholar who had been summoned by Pope Gelasius I to the city to organize the internal archives of the church “to compile a collection of texts of incontestable worth and authenticity.” Despite his origins, Dionysius was considered by contemporary Cassiodorus to be “a true Roman and thorough Catholic.”
- During his career, Dionysius worked in several fields of study. He translated many of the decrees issued by the Council of Nicaea, which created the first standard Christian doctrine; decrees by the Council of Constantinople, which created the first major revision of that doctrine; decrees by the First Council of Ephesus, which declared Mary to be the mother of God; and finally, decrees by the Council of Chalcedon, which established the difference between Jesus Christ the human and Jesus Christ the divine.
- Dionysius collected letters written by fourth-century Popes. These letters, together with his collections of council decrees, later served as important resources for the creators of canon, or church, law. He also translated a number of texts describing the lives of saints, as well as theological works that recount early doctrinal debates among different groups within the Church. The New Catholic Encyclopedia claimed that “Dionysius’s perfect knowledge of Greek and Latin is proved by his translations.”
- In addition to translating important Church texts, Dionysius himself was a theologian who wrote on the early history of the Catholic Church. His biography in Science and Its Times stated that “he is credited with writing a collection of 401 ecclesiastical canons … that would become important historical documents about the early years of Christianity.”
- According to the New Catholic Encyclopedia, “the entire work of Dionysius had but one purpose: the reconciliation of the Churches of the Orient and the West.” At the time of Dionysius, Christian doctrine was not yet standardized; the Christian world had divided into eastern and western branches due to disagreements on doctrinal matters.
- One of Dionysius’s efforts to reunite the divided Church related to the calculation of the dates of Easter, the most important Christian feast day, on which believers celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. At the time, two methods competed for supremacy. One, the Alexandrine rule, had been created by the Council of Nicaea in 325. The other, used by the Church authorities in Rome at the time of Dionysius, declared that Easter must fall between March 25 and April 21 and relied on an 84-year cycle.
- Dionysius was also trained as a mathematician and an astronomer too (this guy rocks!!), and these skills surely helped him as he conducted studies into the calculation of dates. His work with the calendar stemmed from a request from Pope John I in 525 to extend the existing Easter tables for an additional 95 years. To do this, Dionysius chose to employ the Alexandrian method and to base his calculation on the Easter tables of St. Cyril, who had used the Alexandrian method, rather than those of Victorious of Aquitaine, which employed the cycle then endorsed by the Roman Church.
- A number of bishops asked Dionysius to explain this decision, and Dionysius responded to this request in the preface to his Book on Easter Reckoning, as quoted by Declercq. Declercq noted that Dionysius believed firmly that the Council of Nicaea endorsed the Alexandrian method, and summarized Dionysius’s explanation of the criteria of that method thus: “The beginning of the first lunar month, Nisan, from 8 March to 5 April inclusive; the lunar limits 15-21 for Easter Sunday; the theory of the spring equinox on 21 March as the earliest possible date for the Paschal [spring] or 14th moon; the calendar limits for the Paschal full moon (21 March to 18 April) and those for the festival of Easter itself (22 March to 25 April).” (we’ll be having a test on Monday…”)
- These criteria dictated that Easter would occur on the first Sunday following the 14th day of the lunar cycle—the full moon—that falls on or after the spring equinox. Despite the controversy caused by Dionysius’s use of this method, his tables noting the dates of Easter for the years 532-626 stood. (Western Christianity still calculates the date of Easter using this method, showing the lasting impact of Dionysius’s work).
- In the course of determining the date of Easter, Dionysius also created the Christian Era calendar, commonly used today and recognizable by its B.C./A.D. (“Before Christ”/“Anno Domini”) designations. Instead of relying on the modern Gregorian calendar, people of Dionysius’s time determined the year using the Julian calendar. This calendar was created by famed Roman statesman Julius Caesar in an attempt to correct the highly inaccurate Roman calendar of his day. This calendar numbered years commencing from either the foundation of the city in Rome, or from the first year of the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian.
- The Diocletian dating system was at the fore in the era of Dionysius. Preferring not to memorialize Diocletian, who had been a somewhat tyrannical emperor and had persecuted Christians, by basing the calendar upon his reign, Dionysius decided to renumber the years. Dionysius is quoted as stating that he wished to date the year “from the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, in order that the beginning of our hope should be better known to us and the cause of our recovery, that is the Passion of our Redeemer, should shine forth more clearly.”
- Dionysius thus renumbered the years beginning with the incarnation of Jesus Christ, beginning with the year 1 as the Roman numbering system had no way to indicate a zero. This meant that his Easter tables began with the year 532, instituting the Christian Era (also called the Incarnation Era) still used for reckoning the number of the year.
- The legacy of Dionysius Exiguus is evident throughout the world. His dating system, incorporated into the standard Gregorian calendar, is the most common reckoning of the year around the globe. The Alexandrian rule of calculating the date of Easter, introduced by Dionysius, remains the method used by Western Christianity to set this feast day. (nice job!)
- If interested, learn more online at: “Dionysius Exiguus,” Catholic Encyclopedia, (November 26, 2007).
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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.
Got it? Good. :-))))
Have fun!!
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Thanks Enrico
Man, vinyl records were the thing for a hundred years. How’d it all start? Well, that Frenchman in the second row, Edouard-Leon Scott started the ball rolling with that device next to him. Then a young inventor Thomas Edison (third row) developed the idea further. The next photo down shows the first recording super star, Enrico Caruso, on the right, listening to himself sing with his friends. The next photo is the inventor of the phonograph, Emile Berliner. Below him is a 1920’s kid with a toy phonograph. Today, vinyl record collecting and trading is HUGE!!! Read all about it below.
Remember album? Those vinyl plastic circles we used to rotate under a magic needle, and then dancing around in our bedrooms and basements. I’m pretty sure I have a whole crate of them in the basement – many of which the girls loved to play while we did family chores on the weekends. Invented by a famous fella you’ve never heard of, Peter Goldmark, who takes the prize as the inventor of the vinyl record we’re familiar with today (born in 1906, Goldmark ended up working at Columbia Records as an engineer and was the key developer of the 33 1/3 rpm LP “long play” record). As any audio enthusiast will tell you, there’s something special about listening to an album on vinyl that just cannot be emulated. Despite now living in an age of streaming, where access to all the music in the world is at our fingertips, there is still something special about the audio quality of virgin vinyl spinning on a finely calibrated record player. (you gotta email me and tell me what your top three albums were/are !! – skowalski@khtheat.com). For me it’s: My top three would have to be in no order, Pink Floyd-Dark Side of the Moon, Queen – News of the World and 5thDimension – Age of Aquarius. Today marks the day, in 1902 when Italian opera star Enrico Caruso made what’s considered the first recoding by a professional singer – talk about a PIA (Pain in the @%$) Job! Hats off to all the great entertainers who have (and still) delight our senses and give us an excuse to “dust the rug” every once in a while. Here’s some fun history and facts. Thanks to discmanufacturingservices.com, Wikipedia and YouTube for the info and videos. Enjoy!
- In the year 1857, a brilliant French inventor by the name of Edouard-Leon Scott, created a specialist device which utilized a vibrating pen which graphically represented sounds, onto small paper discs. This device was known as a Phonautograph, and it was primarily created to help us get a better understanding of the characteristics of sound. It wasn’t until Thomas Edison began showing an interest in this device however, that things really got interesting. In 1878, Edison took this concept and turned it into a machine that was capable of replaying the sounds that it recorded. The device utilized a stylus that was designed to cut grooves of sound onto cylinders and discs made of tinfoil.
- On this day, in 1902, Italian operatic tenor Enrico Caruso becomes the first well-known performer to make a record. Born into poverty in Naples, Enrico was the eighteenth child born in his family (I love big families) and the first to survive into adulthood. He went onto become the most famous Italian tenor of his generation and one of the first singers to achieve international fame through this new technology of recorded sound.
- A little over a decade later, German-born US inventor Emile Berliner patented the very first vinyl record player – the Gramophone. This device had to be manually operated at 70 RPM and functioned by playing a rubber vulcanite disc, 7 inches in size with small lateral grooves cut into its exterior.
- Over the next 13 years, vinyl records would undergo a series of material alterations and formatting changes, until 1901, where the Victor Company released its Red Seal line, capable of playing vinyl records in the form of ten inch, 78 RPM records. In terms of formatting, the 78 RPM format proved to be the most superior for the next 47 years. (my parents had a whole bunch of these – I remember how thick and hard the vinyl was).
- When a record is placed on a record player, it begins spinning, and a needle (also known as a stylus) is lowered into the grooves of the record. The needle sits in the grooves and follows them around the record, playing the sound contained in the grooves.
- In 1948, thanks to CBS, we were introduced to the world’s first LP (Long Play) record. Thanks to Peter Goldmark, this vinyl record had a capacity of around 21 minutes per side and was 12 inches wide, playing at a speed of 33 1/3 RPM. This changed the face of the music industry to the album-centric format we all still abide by today. Shortly after, RCA Victor introduced their own LP, which turned at 45 RPM and was just 7 inches in size. These records formats are the very same that we use today that is once again growing in popularity.
- The vinyl format is still widely hailed as the optimum in sound quality and listening pleasure, many challengers have come and gone but records have endured the test of time like no other.
- Across the Western world, vinyl records have made a remarkable comeback. Independent labels, some of whom had never stopped pressing vinyl, were quick to spot the changing tide and drive the need for a new era of short run vinyl pressing services. Once the major labels followed suit it was clear that the vinyl resurgence would be here to stay. New vinyl manufacturing plants continue to pop up, some recommissioning Soviet-era record presses to help meet the growing demand.
- There is a national day devoted to vinyl records called National Vinyl Record Day. It falls annually on August 12th.
- The term “like a broken record” doesn’t actually refer to a broken record, it refers to a scratched record. When a record has a scratch, the needle can become stuck in that scratch, and play the same thing over and over, which is the true meaning of the phrase “like a broken record”.In 2020 there were 27.5 million vinyl records pressed in the US, surpassing the volume about 19 million in 2019. CLICK
- How they are made!!
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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.
Got it? Good. :-))))
Have fun!!
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
WOW!
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are amazing. Just a few of their important projects:
1. New Orleans flood protection system
2. The Lincoln Memorial
3. The great lakes restoration project
4. The Pentagon
5. ICBM Silos
6. WWII – D-Day They made the landing happen
7. Cape Kennedy vehicle assembly building
8. The Library of Congress
9. The St. Lawrence Seaway
10. Hundreds and hundreds of other of other amazing waterway projects most of us take for granted
Of all the Corps has done, this project to protect New Orleans since the catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Katrina is a real engineering marvel!!!
Ever take the time to reflect on some of the “really” big projects that have been built in Ohio and in our country. Giant dams, long waterways, canals and harbors and so much more. Recently, I read an article about some really exciting projects coming to our beautiful “North Coast” – after years and years of talking, multiple groups will begin re-engineering some really great stuff (one idea is to create an island off the coast). On this day, March 11, 1779, Congress established the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help plan, design and prepare environmental and structural facilities for the U.S. Army, made up of civilian workers, members of the Continental Army and French officers. For nearly 250 years, they have tackled some amazing works (talk about PIA (Pain in the @%$) Jobs!). We salute all of those engineers, technicians, scientists and “hard workin’ guys and gals who helped shape our nation. Here’s some lengthy (but great) history, videos and tidbits I think you’ll enjoy. We salute you! Special thanks to historychannel.org, fpri.org, Wikipedia.org, ranker.com and YouTube for the info and videos. Love it!
The members of the Corps who had joined at the time of its founding in 1779 left the army with their fellow veterans at the end of the War for Independence. In 1794, Congress created a Corps of Artillerists and Engineers to serve the same purpose under the new federal government. The Corps of Engineers itself was reestablished as an enduring division of the federal government in 1802.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is America’s oldest and largest engineering organization, and at times, the most controversial. Since 1802, when Congress created the Corps within the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the army engineers have brought science into government and extended the federal responsibility for natural resources.
As the construction arm of Congress, the engineers managed some of the world’s most monumental construction, as the nation’s premier builders of water projects-dams, dikes, canals, harbors, hydro facilities, and navigation channels. Visit HERE for some of the “big” projects.
Both “Beast” and “Benefactor” the Corps is praised as a nation builder, elsewhere denounced as an out-of-control bulldozer. Following a “bigger-is-better” national ethos, the Corps had been grandiose and also at odds with American traditions. In a nation committed to private enterprise and states’ rights, the Corps has been denounced as a military agent of big-government centralization.
The Corps emerged from the formative conflicts that divided the young republic during the Federalist Era. George Washington’s America stood at a geopolitical crossroads between two great rivals in Europe: Britain and France. Britain was the great center of industrial capitalism. Its grandest construction projects were built by self-made private enterprise. France was the center of science and formal academic training. France’s most magnificent projects were tax-financed and military inspired.
Hamilton advanced the idea that roads, canals, and other public construction were necessary for public safety. The Constitution, said Hamilton, implied a federal authority to build lighthouses for the safety of shipping, to remove obstructions to river commerce, and to build highways for troops. Thomas Jefferson, although suspicious of bureaucracy, admired the French talent for comprehensive planning and scientific professionalism. The result was a so-called “mixed enterprise” that allowed Congress to purchase stock and otherwise subsidize local construction. Jefferson envisioned a military academy for engineers that would professionalize the army and coordinate public works.
French engineering inspired the Corps. At the U.S. Military Academy, an engineering school, West Pointers learned French, studied mathematics, and grounded engineering in theory. French schooling left the West Pointers with an attraction to federally funded networks of projects and a preference for complex design. In 1816, President James Madison recruited French general Simon Bernard to head a U.S. board of fortification planners. The Monroe administration expanded Bernard’s authority to roads and canals.
After 1824, with the passage of the General Survey Act and the first federal river improvement act, the French-led Corps of Engineers assumed an active role as transportation planners. Together with the U.S. Bureau of Topographical Engineers, the Corps planned lighthouses, bridges, and Great Lakes ports of refuge from Buffalo to Duluth and our French-trained army engineers pioneered urban planning and sanitation engineering in Washington, D.C.
Many times, Congress hotly debated the constitutionality of federal internal improvements, the most expensive federal projects were seacoast fortifications. From 1808 to 1861, army engineers built one of the world’s most sophisticated systems of fortified harbors-more than 50 massive projects. Army engineers also surveyed the competing routes for the Pacific Railroad. Only about 100 strong, the engineering elite of the army planned a dozen major canals, a national highway, hundreds of beach-front dikes, and thousands of miles of navigation channels.
Gradually the Corps also took responsibility for planning a system of flood levees on the Lower Mississippi. After 1902, civilian agencies such as the U.S. Geological Survey and the dam-building U.S. Reclamation Service rose to challenge the Corps monopoly over monumental construction. But the Corps, still the favorite of Congress, remained the nation’s foremost authority on water construction. Broad powers of implementation allowed the engineers to broker public assistance and direct federal aid.
Three missions have since dominated the Corps civil works. The first is navigation improvement-the channeling of rivers, the dredging of harbors, and the construction of locks and dams. For example, Corps-built navigation channels move oil from Tulsa to refineries above New Orleans. Barges of wheat and corn lock through Army engineered rivers from Omaha to Chicago. Soo Locks allow ships to travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes. The Corps’s Saint Lawrence Seaway connects the North Atlantic to the Great Lakes and the Mississippi tows push river barges through the Corps’s slackwater staircase from St. Louis to St. Paul. LINK
A second mission is flood control. This mission began in 1850 when a flood on the Mississippi excited the attention of Congress. After 1879, with the creation of the Corps-led Mississippi River Commission, engineers developed a sophisticated science of floodway design. In 1917, after another bad flood year on the Mississippi, Congress turned again to the Corps. On the Mississippi River and Sacramento River. In 1936, Congress expanded the federal flood program to the 48 states with $310 million for 250 projects.
The grandest result of the program was the Mississippi River and Tributaries project-the MR&T. Its vast system of levees and spillways funnels the dangerous river from St. Louis to New Orleans. Link to how the levees have been expanded by the Corps after the New Orleans disaster in the early 2000’s
A third mission grew from the same scientific tradition that made the Corps an expert on floods. Corps engineers led the scientific surveys that mapped water resources. The engineers also surveyed Yellowstone and Yosemite parks.
In 1899, the so-called Refuse Act extended the environmental mission, making the engineers responsible for obstructions in navigable streams. Here began the Corps’s controversial permit authority to regulate dumping. Legislation such as the 1972 and 1974 Clean Water Acts expanded that authority. With the rise of the environmental movement, and the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act in 1969, the Corps became the steward of fraying coastlines and vanishing swamps.
Like so many decisions in our history – The Corps-for better or for worse-has been the agent of this modernization, as Americans have learned that every engineering solution always has secondary consequences. For example, – Should we actually be building multi-million dollar homes over and over again on beaches and expecting a different outcome from major storms / hurricanes, and flooding?
Great Lakes and Ohio Valley Projects
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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.
Got it? Good. :-))))
Have fun!!
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Chillin’
The Yeti tumblers & coolers are truly amazing!! And they’re tough. Worth every penny.
Want to see what’s inside a Yeti Cup? Watch this father & son do some fun experimenting!!! :)))
Being a heat treating guy, I always look closely at things that are hot, and things that are cold. The other day, driving to work, I picked up my “insulated” coffee mug, and thought, “I wonder why this works so well.” Insulated tumblers, and coolers, like the successful Yeti brand, work really well to keep beverages cool or hot for very long periods of time (talk about PIA (Pain in the @%$) Jobs!). I have memories of being down on the lakefront at a Brown’s game, reaching for my thermos, and pouring out hot, creamy tomato soup, watching the steam rise. Of course, it was 13 degrees, with a wind chill of minus 72. Sipping the warm soup was ecstasy, as I watched my Brownies bungle another game. So, I searched the internet and found some great info on the Yeti tumbler and got in depth info on exactly how these things work to keep heat out or to keep temperature in. Enjoy, and thanks to huntingwaterfalls.com, study.com, byjus.com, hps.org and You Tube for the insights.
In a Yeti tumbler, while it just looks like a metal cup, it’s actually got an inner wall and it has an outer wall. They are made of vacuum sealed stainless steel. The vacuum is what keeps out the majority of the heat by stopping heat conduction and convection. We here at KHT know a thing or two or three about vacuums! The inside also has a copper plating to insulate against heat radiation as stainless steel itself is a poor conductor of heat. All of these elements combined with a plastic lid (another insulator) allow the tumblers to keep beverages cold or hot for so long.
In a “good” tumbler, there’s actually a gap in between the two walls and in between that gap is a vacuum. So, in manufacturing, they suck all of the air out of there so there’s basically nothing in there (or as close to nothing as they can get).
There’s different ways that heat is transferred from the outside air to the inside of your tumbler.
1. Conduction – you’ve got conduction which is the movement of heat from one object touching another. That’s the external heat from the air moving through the metal of the cup and into the contents inside your cup.
2. Convection – you’ve got convection, where air or water currents can move heat around.
3. Radiation – then you’ve got radiation which is heat that can pass through a vacuum.
Yeti tumblers are designed to effectively stop all 3 types of heat transfer, or minimize them as much as possible.
Now, let’s get serious on the “science” side: Conduction needs particles for heat to move through and because there’s a vacuum and because there’s nothingness in between the two walls of the tumbler there’s actually no way for heat to pass through in conduction. The only way for heat to do that is to actually hit the cup and actually pass through at the top of the cup where the inner wall and the outer wall is connected, as at the bottom of the cup the outer wall and inner wall aren’t actually connected. (got it?)
The only connecting point is the top of the cup and heat would need to move from the exterior of the cup all the way up to the top and all the way in – and that just doesn’t really happen.
Because thermos containers are made out of stainless steel (stainless steel is a terrible conductor of heat), the “lack of air” acts as an insulating material. This means the heat is unlikely to move from the outside up and around reducing conduction.
Convection is the movement of particles. For example, if you make a really hot pocket of water in the bath by turning the tap on hot and you “push” the hot water around that’s convection. (when I make a bath for the grandkids, I make sure to “blend” the water before they jump in).
When you have a vacuum present, there’s nothing to push around. So convection doesn’t happen in Yeti brand, or other tumblers, for this very reason.
The last tip of info is radiation. The sun’s rays obviously travel through space (which is a vacuum) and then heat up the earth. Radiation is always happening and will be able to go through the vacuum. (So even though the cup has a vacuum, this doesn’t protect it against radiation).
To protect against heat radiation, the interior is actually copper plated. Copper is a great reflector of radiation and so having that copper lining reflects the radiation trying to get in. Learn more about shielding
The lid hole is the only space heat/cold can escape. The newer tumblers have a magnetic slide so you can close it shut when you’re not drinking out of it.
The full cup is acting as an insulator, the top and the plastic is acting as a bit of an insulator as well and that’s what allows these to work so well and to keep ice for so long.
Now that you know how the thermal management of conduction, convection and radiation – watch this video comparing a $400 Yeti cooler to a $50 standard cooler – (you might be surprised!!).
So, next time at the beach, or camping, or just driving to work, you know!
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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.
Got it? Good. :-))))
Have fun!!
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CAKE!
I looooooove CAKE! (I know, I know, I do love food of any kind) They’re good anytime but especially fun on birthdays. Everyone can celebrate the event with a great big smile. Don’t forget to make a wish when you blow out the candles! And get them all out in one breath!!!! :))))
Ah – the ritual of birthday cake. It’s one of mankind’s great inventions (along with frosting, sprinkles, candles, balloons and of course ice cream). I have a fun tradition with my golf buddies – every few weeks, we try to get together for breakfast and celebrate one of our group’s birthdays. Nothing fancy, just good coffee and good food and good laughs. It got me thinking about “cake”, so I dug up some interesting info on the topic. I never turn down a great cake – but I have to admit, my favorite desert is either Pineapple Upside Down cake or Boston Crème pie! . So, here’s a little history, fun facts about the birthday song, and world records. Special thanks to readersdigest.com, The History Channel, CNBC and Wikipedia for the info. Enjoy.
- A birthday cake is a cake eaten as part of a birthday celebration. Birthday cakes are often layer cakes with frosting served with small lit candles on top representing the celebrant’s age. Variations include cupcakes, cake pops, pastries, and tarts. The cake is often decorated with birthday wishes and the celebrant’s name.
- Birthday cakes have been a part of birthday celebrations in Western European countries since the middle of the 19th century. However, the link between cakes and birthday celebrations may date back to ancient Roman times.
- In classical Roman culture, ‘cakes’ were occasionally served at special birthdays and at weddings. These were flat circles made from flour and nuts, leavened with yeast, and sweetened with honey.
- The ancient Egyptians are credited with “inventing” the celebration of birthdays. They believed when pharaohs were crowned, they became gods, so their coronation day was a pretty big deal. That was their “birth” as a god – hence, birth day cake (get it?) So, they baked moon-shaped cakes to offer up to Artemis goddess of the moon, as a tribute. They decorated them with lit candles to make the cakes shine like the moon – hence, the reason we light our birthday cakes on fire.
- In the 15th century, bakeries in Germany began to market one-layer cakes for customers’ birthdays in addition to cakes for weddings.
- During the 17th century, the birthday cake took on its contemporary form. These elaborate cakes had many aspects of the contemporary birthday cake, like multiple layers, icing, and decorations. However, these cakes were only available to the very wealthy. Birthday cakes became accessible to the lower class as a result of the industrial revolution and the spread of more materials and goods. So, it has become the cultures and traditions to celebrate the birthday with delicious cake and beautiful wishes.
- There is no standard for birthday cakes, though the “Happy Birthday“ song is often sung while the cake is served in English-speaking countries, or an equivalent birthday song in the appropriate language of the country.
- The birthday cake is often decorated with small candles, secured with special holders or simply pressed down into the cake. the number of candles is equal to the age of the individual whose birthday it is, sometimes with one extra for luck. Traditionally, the person whose birthday it is makes a wish, which is thought to come true if all the candles are extinguished in a single breath.
- The phrase “happy birthday” did not appear on birthday cakes until the song “Happy Birthday to You” was popularized in the early 1900s.
- In many cultures the person whose birthday is being celebrated is invited to make a wish, and blow out candles. Though the exact origin and significance of this ritual is unknown, there are multiple theories which try to explain this tradition.
- Greek: One theory explaining the tradition of placing candles on birthday cakes is attributed to the early Greeks, who used candles to honor the goddess Artemis’ birth on the sixth day of every lunar month. The link between her oversight of fertility and the birthday tradition of candles on cakes, however, has not been established.
- Pagan: The use of fire in certain rites dates back to the creation of altars. Birthday candles are said to hold symbolic power. In the past it was believed that evil spirits visited people on their birthdays and that, to protect the person whose birthday it was from evil, people must surround the individual and make them merry. Party-goers made noise to scare away evil spirits.
- German: In 18th century Germany, the history of candles on cakes can be traced back to Kinderfest, a birthday celebration for children. This tradition also makes use of candles and cakes. German children were taken to an auditorium-like space. There, they were free to celebrate another year in a place where Germans believed that adults protected children from the evil spirits attempting to steal their souls.
- Swiss: A reference to the tradition of blowing out the candles was documented in Switzerland in 1881. Researchers for the Folk-Lore Journal recorded various “superstitions” among the Swiss middle class. One statement depicted a birthday cake as having lighted candles which correspond to each year of life. These candles were required to be blown out, individually, by the person who is being celebrated.
- The Happy Birthday Song is arguably the most frequently-sung English song in the world, giving “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” and “Auld Lang Syne” a run for their money. If you hear this song a lot in September, there’s a reason.
- Singing the Happy Birthday Song may actually make birthday cake taste better. According to a study by researchers from Harvard University and the University of Minnesota, indulging in a ritual before eating heightens our enjoyment of the food and helps us savor it.
- Here are some things you never knew about another birthday pastime: the “Happy Birthday” song. At a well preserved 125 years old, “Happy Birthday to You,” is the most frequently sung English song in the world. It was originally composed in 1893 as “Good Morning to All” by Patty Smith Hill, a kindergarten teacher and principal in Louisville, Kentucky, and her oldest sister, Mildred Jane Hill, a pianist and composer. Its lyrics went like this: Good morning to you, Good morning to you, Good morning, dear children, Good morning to all.
- The song was part of a larger project of the sisters to create simple music that catered to children’s limited abilities. They workshopped songs on Patty’s class so that “even the youngest children could learn with perfect ease,” with Patty writing the words and Mildred setting them to melodies. They published GMTA in their 1893 book, Song Stories for the Kindergarten. Just like us, the sisters loved simple, shareable sentiments.
- For years, legal battles raged over the Hill sisters’ ownership of the Birthday Song and whether or not it should be in the public domain. A 2013 class-action lawsuit initiated by a New York filmmaker challenged the song’s copyright and demanded that the current copyright owner return all previous royalties it had collected for HBTY. In May 2015, U.S. District Judge George King was still hearing arguments for Good Morning to You Productions Corp. vs. Warner/Chappell Music. In February 2016, Warner Music finally ended the long-fought battle when it paid $14 million to put “Happy Birthday” into the public domain. In June of the same year, a judge approved it.
- The world’s largest birthday cake was created in 1989 for the 100th Birthday of the city of Fort Payne, Alabama. The cake weighed 128,238 pounds, 8 oz. and used 16,209 pounds of icing!
- A birthday cake loaded with diamonds and hand-sculpted fondant smashed the record for the most expensive dessert ever created. Price tag: $75 million. The decadent cake was created by British designer Debbie Wingham, who rose to fame when she crafted the world’s most expensive dress for $17.7 million. It took more than 1,100 hours to make, since all of the tiny edible figurines were hand-sculpted with Wingham’s couture clothing and accessories, including sunglasses and handbags. Much of the value comes from the bling. The cake has 4,000 diamonds, including a 5.2-carat pink diamond, a 6.4-carat yellow diamond and 15 five-carat white diamonds. Those 17 stones alone are worth more than $45 million. (now that’s when you wanna lick the frosting!!)
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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.
Got it? Good. :-))))
Have fun!!
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Just me, Jim and the sky
Look at all those book covers!! If you never read Huckleberry Finn as a kid, read it now. Then give it to your kids. It’s of a different era but the wisdoms are universal and still true today. At the top left is a nice caricature of the writer Mark Twain.
Sometimes we forget the wonderful lessons we learned reading novels as children. Today marks the 137th anniversary of the publication of Mark Twain’s masterpiece novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (it can be read online for free HERE. Ernest Hemingway said it was the best novel America has ever produced, and that all great American novels were inspired by it. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn offers us a meaningful view about life in 19th century Missouri, where the author himself spent most of his early years. It is a novel filled with incongruities and great life lessons about honesty, freedom, and friendships. Throughout the story, Huck is in moral conflict with the values of the society in which he lives – often unable consciously to rebut those values even in his thoughts. In the end, he makes a moral choice (TALK ABOUT A PIA (PAIN IN THE @%$) JOB!) based on his own valuation of Jim’s friendship and human worth – a decision in direct opposition to the things he has been taught. Twain, in his lecture notes, proposes that “a sound heart is a surer guide than an ill-trained conscience.” (wow – love it). Below are just some of the “lessons” we should have learned from the novel. I’m sure you have your own reflections on this classic, so be sure to email me at skowalski@khtheat.com and share. Many thanks to Youthtime Magazine, Prezi and Wikipedia for the insights. Enjoy!
Always keep your word.
An honest and warm friendship develops in the novel between Huckleberry Finn and Jim, a slave who lives in the house of the Widow Douglas. She is a woman who takes care of Huck and tries to civilize him. Huck’s father is a local drunk and he is not much support to Huck in that sense. After the two boys run away from home, their friendship gets stronger and stronger. At one point, Huck teaches us about integrity and loyalty. Even in situations when doing so might be dangerous:
Jim: “But mind, you said you wouldn’ tell—you know you said you wouldn’t tell, Huck.”
Huck: “Well, I did. I said I wouldn’t, and I’ll stick to it.”
Sometimes, you just have to accept social courtesies and play along.
At one dinner, Huck observes the people who are sitting at the table. And as he listens to their conversation, he notices that there are some implied agreements that seem like complete nonsense to him. But still – they are a fact of life:
“Mary Jane, she set at the head of the table, with Susan alongside of her. And said how bad the biscuits was, and how mean the preserves was, and how ornery and tough the fried chickens was—and all that kind of rot. The way women always do for to force out compliments; And the people all knowed everything was tiptop, and said so—said “How DO you get biscuits to brown so nice?” and “Where, for the land’s sake, DID you get these amaz’n pickles?” and all that kind of humbug talky-talk, just the way people always does at a supper, you know. It seems silly, but everybody does it, concludes Huck.”
Being a part of this world requires some lying skills.
Although Huck is, deep down, a good kid – he has come to realize that you have to be wily and play accordingly. If you wish to survive, being completely sincere is not a sign of strength. But a sign of weakness because the world will eat you up. Some amount of lying can be harmless, but of great use. Research shows that some people lie hundreds of times per day (what a number!) – either to avoid inconvenient situations or to make their lives easier. Here’s what Huck has to say about it, in one piece of dialogue:
“I reckon you ain’t used to lying, it don’t seem to come handy; what you want is practice. You do it pretty awkward.”
Having a get-away place is a good thing.
After Jim and Huck leave their homes, they create a sort of friendship pact that gets tested and ruined a few times through the novel. They build a raft together and start living on the river. It becomes a symbol of their rebellion and their refusal to be a part of their world and how pure values can give you a shelter – a safe place to go when you decide to take a break from all the problems:
“We said there warn’t no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy on a raft.”
People may refuse to take responsibility for their actions.
We can interact with many different people. Sometimes, we may think we know someone, but that person can disappoint us or let us down. People can be mean and act awful, but it’s just life. That fact isn’t something you will learn in school – it is something you will experience. Life still goes on! Here’s Huck’s resigned conclusion:
“That’s just the way: a person does a low-down thing, and then he don’t want to take no consequences of it.”
Doing what you feel in your gut is right.
The novel’s period, the 19th century in the state of Missouri. It was a time of horrible racism and black slavery. Jim, Huck’s friend, is a slave of the Widow Douglas, the woman who takes care of Huck. Huck is being taught by everyone that there are people whose lives don’t matter, he is being overwhelmed with all the propaganda. White children are taught that they will go to hell if they help a slave run away. The Widow Douglas takes on the obligation of civilizing Huck and teaching him about these values and about good manners. At one point, he writes a letter in which he rats out his friend Jim and practically betrays him. But then comes the moral climax of the story. Huck concludes that, if that means being civilized, he doesn’t what to be a part of civilized society.
“I took up the letter and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling, because I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: “All right then, I’ll go to hell”—and tore it up. It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming.”
Strive to be more than average and to live truly the life you’ve been given.
Average is such an awful word. To be average means to be safe, somewhere in the middle, not giving a bad or a good impression. To live average means to have a steady heartbeat at all times, it means not getting too involved in the world, not getting too exposed. It means staying quiet. Mark Twain sums it up in one sentence:
“The average man don’t like trouble and danger.”
You’ll have to live with your conscience, no matter what you do.
Doing the right thing is hard, but honorable. Just think about the alternative and whether you could sleep peacefully at night. As Twain says:
“What’s the use you learning to do right, when it’s troublesome to do right and ain’t no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?”
Life gives us a hard time, but it’s a good thing.
If you keep doing the same things over and over again, not only will you get bored, but you’ll be trapped in the status quo. Luckily, life makes sure that you don’t fall into a routine and that nothing ever goes completely according to plan. We go through tests and temptations, but it’s a good thing. As Twain says:
“We all go through a challenge in life because without a challenge there’d be no reason to keep going towards your future.”
————
Friendship. Honesty. Hard Work. Trust. Freedom. Faith. Virtues we often forget in this nutty world. Thanks Huck and Jim for reminding us what’s really important in life.
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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.
Got it? Good. :-))))
Have fun!!
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SWAK
I love Valentines Day and all the sweet things it brings!!
OK gang – this is public service “heads up” from your buds at KHT … next Monday is Valentines Day. That gives you the rest of today and the weekend to get something special for your loved one(s). I’ll admit, I’m a bit of a softie when it comes to Valentine’s Day – Jackie and I have a tradition on Valentine’s gifts going back to when we were dating. Since she still loves me I don’t mess with a good thing! Jackie has always found cool gifts for the girls (and now the grandbabies). I especially like chocolate covered peanuts or raisins or those little crunchy things (surprise?). As a kid, I can remember the little boxes we’d get, and the joy (or disappointment of taking a nibble into the candy – to find nuts or jelly or “eeuuuwww” not sure. Gently putting it back in the box was an art (hey, just sharing with my brothers and sisters). The legend of St. Valentine dates back to the Roman times, and many of the traditions built up over the centuries still carry forward today. Here’s some fun info – thanks to History.com and Wikipedia. Enjoy – and be sure to get something special this year – we all need some extra love these days!!
- Valentine’s Day occurs every February 14 across the United States and in other places around the world – candy, flowers and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine.
- The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Still others insist that it was Saint Valentine of Terni, a bishop, who was the true namesake of the holiday. He, too, was beheaded by Claudius II outside Rome.
- Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first “valentine” greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl—possibly his jailor’s daughter—who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed “From your Valentine,” an expression that is still in use today.
- Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories all emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic and—most importantly—romantic figure. By the Middle Ages, perhaps thanks to this reputation, Valentine would become one of the most popular saints in England and France.
- While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial—which probably occurred around A.D. 270—others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to “Christianize” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the ides of February, or February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.
- To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at a sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. They would then strip the goat’s hide into strips, dip them into the sacrificial blood and take to the streets, gently slapping both women and crop fields with the goat hide. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed the touch of the hides because it was believed to make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city’s bachelors would each choose a name and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage.
- Lupercalia survived the initial rise of Christianity but was outlawed—as it was deemed “un-Christian”—at the end of the 5th century, when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine’s Day. It was not until much later, however, that the day became definitively associated with love. During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of Valentine’s Day should be a day for romance. The English poet Geoffrey Chaucer was the first to record St. Valentine’s Day as a day of romantic celebration in his 1375 poem “Parliament of Foules,” writing, “For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day / Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.”
- Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, though written Valentine’s didn’t begin to appear until after 1400. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. (The greeting is now part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England.)
- Cupid is often portrayed on Valentine’s Day cards as a naked cherub launching arrows of love at unsuspecting lovers. But the Roman God Cupid has his roots in Greek mythology as the Greek god of love, Eros.
- According to the Greek Archaic poets, Eros was a handsome immortal who played with the emotions of Gods and men, using golden arrows to incite love and leaden ones to sow aversion. It wasn’t until the Hellenistic period that he began to be portrayed as the mischievous, chubby child he’d become on Valentine’s Day cards.
- Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began selling the first mass-produced valentines in America. Howland, known as the “Mother of the Valentine,” made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as “scrap.” Today, according to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated 145 million Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year, making Valentine’s Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year (more cards are sent at Christmas).
- By the 1840s, the notion of Valentine’s Day as a holiday to celebrate romantic love had taken over most of the English-speaking world. It was Cupid’s golden age: The prudish Victorians adored the notion of courtly love and showered each other with elaborate cards and gifts. Into this love-crazed fray came Richard Cadbury, scion of a British chocolate manufacturing family and responsible for sales at a crucial point in his company’s history. Cadbury had recently improved its chocolate making technique so as to extract pure cocoa butter from whole beans, producing a more palatable drinking chocolate than most Britons had ever tasted. This process resulted in an excess amount of cocoa butter, which Cadbury used to produce many more varieties of what was then called “eating chocolate.” Richard recognized a great marketing opportunity for the new chocolates and started selling them in beautifully decorated boxes that he himself designed.
- From that point, it was a quick jump to taking the familiar images of Cupids and roses and putting them on heart-shaped boxes. While Richard Cadbury didn’t actually patent the heart-shaped box, it’s widely believed that he was the first to produce one. Cadbury marketed the boxes as having a dual purpose: When the chocolates had all been eaten, the box itself was so pretty that it could be used again and again to store mementos, from locks of hair to love letters. The boxes grew increasingly elaborate until the outbreak of World War 2, when sugar was rationed and Valentine’s Day celebrations were scaled down. But Victorian-era Cadbury boxes still exist, and many are treasured family heirlooms or valuable items prized by collectors.
- About 60 million pounds of chocolate is sold in the seven days leading up to Valentines Day (video ), and about 145 million greeting cards are exchanged. (make your own)
I couldn’t resist sharing this photo… Happy Valentines Day!!!!!!
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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.
Got it? Good. :-))))
Have fun!!
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