That’s Corny

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St. Paddy’s Day is a fun day!!  :))))

Eh laddies – Stephen O’Brien Kirkpatrick Schemas Finnigan O’Kowalski here – just getting you ready for one of my favorite days of the year – St Patrick’s Day. For me, it’s hard to think of St. Patrick’s Day without glittered shamrocks, parades, green beer, leprechauns, and of course, corned beef and cabbage. Surprisingly, if you went to Ireland on St. Paddy’s Day, you would not find any of these things except maybe the glittered shamrocks. Leprechauns are not jolly, friendly cereal box characters, but mischievous nasty little fellows. And, just as much as the Irish would not pollute their beer with green dye, they would not eat corned beef, especially on St. Patrick’s Day. So, here’s some trivia you can share around the dinner table as you eat like a king and raise a pint or two in good cheer.  Enjoy, and thanks to Smithsonian Magazine for the info.

Fun music while you read: CLICK

  • The unpopularity of corned beef in Ireland comes from its relationship with beef in general. From early on, cattle in Ireland were not used for their meat but for their strength in the fields, for their milk and for the dairy products produced.
  • In Gaelic Ireland, cows were a symbol of wealth and a sacred animal. Because of their sacred association, they were only killed for their meat if the cows were too old to work or produce milk. So, beef was not even a part of the diet for most of the population. Only the wealthy few were able to eat the meat on a celebration or festival.
  • During the early times, beef was “salted” to be preserved. The first salted beef in Ireland was actually not made with salt but with sea ash, the product of burning seaweed. Pigs were the most prevalent animal bred only to be eaten; from ancient times to today, it earned the reputation as the most eaten meat in Ireland.
  • The Irish diet and way of life stayed pretty much the same for centuries until England conquered most of the country. The British were the ones who changed the sacred cow into a commodity, fueled beef production, and introduced the potato. The British had been a beef eating culture since the invasion of the Roman armies. England had to outsource to Ireland, Scotland and eventually North America to satisfy the growing palate of their people.
  • Herds of cattle were exported by the tens of thousands each year from Ireland to England. But, the Cattle Acts of 1663 and 1667 were what fueled the Irish corned beef industry. These acts prohibited the export of live cattle to England, which drastically flooded the Irish market and lowered the cost of meat available for salted beef production. The British invented the term “corned beef” in the 17th century to describe the size of the salt crystals used to cure the meat, the size of corn kernels. After the Cattle Acts, salt was the main reason Ireland became the hub for corned beef.
  • Ireland’s salt tax was almost 1/10 that of England’s and could import the highest quality at an inexpensive price. With the large quantities of cattle and high quality of salt, Irish corned beef was the best on the market. It didn’t take long for Ireland to be supplying Europe and the Americas with its wares. But this corned beef was much different than what we call corned beef today. With the meat being cured with salt the size of corn kernels, the taste was much more salt than beef.
  • Ironically, the ones producing the corned beef, the Irish people, could not afford beef or corned beef for themselves. When England conquered Ireland, oppressive laws against the native Irish Catholic population began. Their land was confiscated and feudal like plantations were set up. If the Irish could afford any meat at all, salted pork or bacon was consumed. What the Irish really relied on was – you guessed right – the potato.
  • By the end of the 18th century, the demand for Irish corned beef began to decline as the North American colonies began producing their own. Over the next 50 years, the glory days of Irish corned beef were over. By 1845, a potato blight broke out in Ireland completely destroying the food source for most of the Irish population, and The Great Famine began. Without help from the British government, the Irish people were forced to work to death, starve or immigrate. About a million people died and another million immigrated on “coffin ships” to the US. To this day, the Irish population is still less than it was before The Great Famine.
  • In America, the Irish were once again faced with the challenges of prejudice. To make it easier, they settled together in mainly urban areas with the largest numbers in New York City. However, they were making more money than they had in Ireland under British rule. Which brings us back to corned beef. With more money for food, the Irish could afford meat for the first time. Instead of their beloved bacon, the Irish began eating beef. And, the beef they could afford just happened to be – corned beef, the thing their great grandparents were famous for.
  • The Irish Americans transformed St. Patrick’s Day from a religious feast day to a celebration of their heritage and homeland. With the celebration, came a celebratory meal. In honor of their culture, the immigrants splurged on their neighbor’s flavorful corned beef, which was accompanied by their beloved potato and the most affordable vegetable, cabbage. It didn’t take long for corned beef and cabbage to become associated with St. Patrick’s Day
  • The popularity of corned beef and cabbage never crossed the Atlantic to the homeland. Instead of corned beef and cabbage, the traditional St. Patrick’s Day meal eaten in Ireland is lamb or bacon. In fact, many of what we consider St. Patrick’s Day celebrations didn’t make it there until recently. St. Patrick’s Day parades and festivals began in the US. And, until 1970, pubs were closed by law in Ireland on St. Patrick’s Day. It was originally a day about religion and family. Today in Ireland, thanks to Irish tourism and Guinness, you will find many of the Irish American traditions.
  • Lastly, if you are looking for a connection to the home country this holiday, there are many other ways to be authentic. For starters, know that the holiday is either St. Patrick’s Day or St. Paddy’s Day and not “St. Patty’s Day”. (Paddy is the proper nickname for Patrick, while Patty is a girl’s name in Ireland.)

Recipe HERE

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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!!

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

Hickory Dickory

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Rhymes twist the tongue and tickle mind. Besides the rhymes in this blog, there are six more illustrated above. Can you name them all? Let me know in an email.  :))))

OK, I’ll admit it – I love being a Grandpa.  There’s just something about the little ones that make me smile and laugh out loud.  Seems, no matter how challenging my day is, or how many things are still on my “to do” list, I revel in the priority we make to “go see the grandkids”.  Playing silly made-up games, (my favorite is when they hand you a broken toy, and say “here, you be this guy”), or having them ask me to chase them around the house!  Climbing around on the floor with them, listening to them play by themselves, or just being together is a treat.  Recently I found myself reading some nursery rhymes – you know , those silly rhyming poems that don’t seem to make much sense. So, of course, I did some digging, and found some great history/trivia to share.  Much thanks to Wikipedia, Britannica.com, mentalfloss.comand interestingfacts.com for the insights. Now you know.  Enjoy!

A nursery rhyme is a verse customarily told or sung to small children. The oral tradition of nursery rhymes is ancient, but new verses have steadily entered the culture. Most nursery rhymes date from the 16th, 17th, and, most frequently, the 18th centuries, but some are much older.

A French poem numbering the days of the month, similar to “Thirty days hath September,” was recorded in the 13th century; but such latecomers as “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” (by Ann and Jane Taylor; pub. 1806) and “Mary Had a Little Lamb” (by Sarah Josepha Hale; pub. 1830) seem to be just as firmly established.

The earliest known published collection of nursery rhymes was Tommy Thumb’s (Pretty) Song Book, 2 vol. (London, 1744). It included “Little Tom Tucker,” “Sing a Song of Sixpence,” and “Who Killed Cock Robin?” The most influential was Mother Goose’s Melody: or Sonnets for the Cradle, published by the firm of John Newbery in 1781. Among its 51 rhymes were “Jack and Jill,” “Ding Dong Bell,” and “Hush-a-bye baby on the tree top.”

Nursery rhymes have left a strong mark on many of our childhoods, but we often don’t realize where they came from. Some have evolved over centuries, bringing a whole new version to modern children, while others have remained tried and true since their inception. Here’s a couple favorites:

“Mary Had A Little Lamb” 

Mary had a little lamb
Little lamb, little lamb
Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow.

Poet Sarah Josepha Hale first published a version of this poem in 1830. Around 50 years later, an elderly woman named Mary Sawyer stepped forward as the real Mary. Sawyer’s story goes pretty much like the version we know and love today. She did take one to school. In a letter included in a 1928 book detailing the story, Sawyer says that the lamb grew up and had a few lambs of its own. 

“Ring Around the Rosie”

Ring around the rosie
A pocket full of posies
Ashes, ashes
We all fall down.

You may have heard the popular Black Plague origin story for this rhyme, with the titular “ring” representing the red rings that would appear on the skin of people with the disease. However, there are other variations of the rhyme, such as 1883’s “Ring a ring a rosie/A bottle full of posie/All the girls in our town/Ring for little Josie,” that present different theories.

When he analyzed this version, folklorist Philip Hiscock offered a less deadly translation. Religious bans on dancing in Britain and North America in the 19th century led to “play parties,” with ring games that were similar to square dancing but without music, so the events quietly flew under the radar. “The rings referred to in the rhymes are literally the rings formed by the playing children,” explains Hiscock. “‘Ashes, ashes’ probably comes from something like ‘Husha, husha,’ another common variant which refers to stopping the ring and falling silent. And the falling down refers to the jumble of bodies in that ring when they let go of each other and throw themselves into the circle.”  

“Rub a Dub Dub”

Rub-a-dub-dub,
Three men in a tub,
And who do you think they be?
The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker,
And all of them out to sea.

Most American children know a heavily revised version of this rhyme with only men in a tub. But you need the original version to understand the origins of this 14th-century phrase: Hey, rub-a-dub – Ho, rub-a-dub – Three maids in a tub – And who do you think were there? – The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker – And all of them going to the fair. According to author Chris Roberts, the “tub” here refers to a bawdy fairground attraction. “Today it would be perhaps a seedy venue,” Roberts said in 2005. “The upper-class, the respectable tradesfolk — the candlestick maker and the butcher and the baker — are ogling, getting an eyeful of some young ladies in a tub.” Mercy!

“Humpty Dumpty”

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

There’s nothing that makes Humpty an egg in this rhyme! That image was popularized by Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass in 1871, decades after the rhyme’s inception. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “humpty dumpty” had a few meanings before the wall came into it, including a drink with brandy and a short, dumpy, clumsy person. An 1881 book even features images of Humpty as a clown. A popular theory is that “humpty dumpty” refers to a cannon used during the Siege of Colchester in 1648. The idea that this rhyme is some kind of wartime ballad is pretty common. Before the cannon theory got traction, many believed the rhyme was about the usurpation of Richard III in 1483. However, according to the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, the root of this nursery rhyme could be more innocent. While it’s unclear whether this game predates the rhyme, Humpty Dumpty was a popular game in the 19th century where girls would tuck their legs into their skirts, fall back, and then try to regain balance without letting go of their skirts. “Eggs do not sit on walls,” authors Peter and Iona Opie write. “But the verse becomes intelligible if it describes human beings who are impersonating eggs.”

“Hickory Dickory Dock”

Hickory dickory dock
The mouse went up the clock
The clock struck one
The mouse went down
Hickory dickory dock.

Some believe this counting rhyme was inspired by the astronomical clock at Exeter Cathedral in Devon, England, which was plagued by mice. Around 1600, the presiding bishop directed carpenters to cut a hole in the door to the clock room — or, as the records said at the time, “Paid ye carpenters 8d for cutting ye hole in ye north transept door for ye Bishop’s cat.” The cathedral’s cats got easy access to prey, cutting down the vermin population. Centuries later, the door is still there. But there’s a reason mice were so common around the clockwork: Animal fat was often used to lubricate clock parts during that time. It’s possible it was just written about a pretty normal thing to be happening on a clock at the time, but that’s not as fun.

To learn more, CLICK HERE 

 

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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!!

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

Delivered

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Letters are still really special to receive. But special delivery letters were super special!!!  :))))

Often, we take things for granted. Flip a switch, and the lights work, turn on the faucet and the water flows, adjust the thermostat and the heat goes up or log into Google and do a search.  You can add, push a button, and the car starts.  Yesterday I got an extra early start at the office (for those that know me, that’s really early) and caught up on some mail awaiting my attention.  I got to thinking about the ease of which mail still works – write a letter, affix a stamp, leave for the mail carrier and it soon arrives at its destination. (Talk about a PIA (Pain in the @%$) Job! Seems a bit dated with the speed of email and Zoom conferences, but it’s still a key function of running a successful business. I looked online to learn a bit more about the history of our mail system, and found out today, March 3 had some meaningful postal  milestones, 1847 – US Post Office issues first postage stamp, 1855 – US Congress authorizes registered mail, 1863 – free city delivery replaces zone postage, and 1885 – US Post Office offer special delivery for first class mail… funny how they all fell on the same day of the year. We continue to see innovations and improvements to our mail system Interested in seeing how electric vehicles – automation gets implemented in the delivery process. I did some digging on Special Deliveries and wanted to share the following info.

For those SNL fans who remember “landshark”: CLICK HERE!!!!!

  • U.S. Special Delivery was a postal service paid for with additional postage for urgent letters and postal packets which are delivered in less time than by standard or first-class mail service. Different and separate from express mail delivery service, it meant that a postal packet was delivered from a post office to the addressee immediately once it arrived at the post office responsible for delivering it, rather than waiting for the next regular delivery to the addressee.
  • The U.S. Post Office in conjunction with the Universal Postal Union established a basis for a special service for speedier delivery of mail for an extra fee beginning in 1885. Special Delivery was at first limited to post offices that operated in townships with populations of 4,000 or more.
  • In 1885 Congress enacted the use of “a special stamp of the face valuation of ten cents … [that] when attached to a letter, in addition to the lawful postage thereon … shall be regarded as entitling such letter to immediate delivery.”
  • The first Special delivery stamp was printed by the American Bank Note Company and issued on October 1, 1885. It could not be used to prepay postage or any other service. The stamp bears the words “Secures immediate delivery at a special delivery office,”.
  • In 1886 Congress revised Special Delivery service to all U.S. post offices. Special Delivery service was in operation from 1885 to 1997 whereby the letter would be dispatched immediately and directly from the receiving post office to the recipient rather than being put in mail for distribution on the regular delivery route.
  • Five distinct issues showing the running messenger were made. Beginning in 1902 and continuing for 20 years, Special Delivery messengers were issued bicycles to deliver the mail and correspondingly a stamp was issued that year which depicted a messenger riding a bicycle and delivering the mail.
  • In 1908 a helmet of the god Mercury was briefly used for the design, with the stamp often called the Merry Widow issue after a popular opera in which the lead singer wore a large hat. The bicycle design was reinstated and continued with subsequent issues having differences in perforations and watermarks. The series ended in 1922 when a messenger riding a motorcycle was shown, replaced by a truck in 1925. In the following years the truck and motorcycle pictures reappeared as rates changed and various color, printing and perforation varieties were created.
  • Finally in 1954 a design featuring hands passing a letter went into use. The last image, instituted in 1969, portrayed arrows. Overall philatelists recognize 23 separate issues of special delivery stamps spanning the years 1885 to 1971.
  • Three Airmail Special Delivery stamps were issued in the 1930s, two regular ones and an imperforated issue. In used condition none of the special delivery stamps are particularly scarce. In 1977, the Postal Service introduced Express Mail; the two services operated concurrently for the next 20 years.
  • On June 7, 1997, the United States Postal Service terminated Special Delivery mail service which left many unused Special Delivery stamps in circulation that were no longer valid for such postage. The remaining stamps were allowed to be returned to the Post Office for their face value as “services were not rendered”.  Amazing the change since 1997 in the mail service and delivery in general!
  • In 2021, the following stats describe the scale of the US Post office:

                 Employees:  516,636

                Mail Volume:  128.9B

                First Class Mail:  50.7B

                Shipping/Packages: 7.6B

                Delivery Points:  163.1M

                Address changes:    36M

                Retail Offices:  34,223

                Total delivery Routes:  233,171

                Total Vehicles:  232,368

  • Announced in Dec ’22, USPS intends to deploy over 66,000 battery electric vehicles by 2028, making one of the largest electric vehicle fleets in the nation. The initiative is boosted by postal service “Delivering for America” network modernization and funding from Congress. The feasibility of achieving 100% electrification for the overall Postal Service delivery vehicle fleet will continue to be explored. Beyond vehicle mix changes, postal network modernization efforts will drive additional substantial carbon reductions through logistics improvements and reduced transportation.

 

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

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!!

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

Pearly Whites

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Even if the kids don’t brush quite right, they sure are fun to watch.  :)))))))

For those of you with young kids, or those with grandkids, you’ll agree each of them have a very specialized bedtime routine.  Specific times to “start the routine”, certain pjs to wear, games to play, books to read, prayers to recite and of course teeth to brush.  If your family is anything like mine, the little ones are not all that great when it comes to tooth care – a little paste, water, and quick pass on the enamel, with a rinse and spit. Often times I think the spitting is their favorite part! Looking in the medicine cabinet at all the tubes and brushes, I got to thinking about all those tooth brushes out there and the history behind it.  Come to find out, today marks the anniversary date of when the DuPont company introduced the nylon fiber used in toothbrushes way back in 1938. (be sure to check out the production video below).  So, I did some KHT digging and found out some fun stuff about toothbrushes. Now when you tuck the little ones in, you can share some of your toothy knowledge.  Enjoy, and thanks to Wikipedia and YouTube for the info.

Production Video

  • A toothbrush is an oral hygiene tool used to clean the teeth, gums, and tongue. It consists of a head of tightly clustered bristles, atop of which toothpaste can be applied, mounted on a handle which facilitates the cleaning of hard-to-reach areas of the mouth.
  • The predecessor of the toothbrush is the chew stick. Chew sticks were twigs with frayed ends used to brush the teeth while the other end was used as a toothpick. The earliest chew sticks were discovered in Sumer in southern Mesopotamia in 3500 BC, an Egyptian tomb dating from 3000 BC, and mentioned in Chinese records dating from 1600 BC.
  • The first bristle toothbrush resembling the modern one was found in China. Used during the Tang Dynasty (619–907), it consisted of hog bristles sourced from hogs living in Siberia and northern China because the colder temperatures provided firmer bristles. They were attached to a handle manufactured from bamboo or bone, forming a toothbrush.
  • The earliest identified use of the word toothbrush in English was in the autobiography of Anthony Wood who wrote in 1690 that he had bought a toothbrush from J. Barret. Europeans found the hog bristle toothbrushes imported from China too firm and preferred softer bristle toothbrushes made from horsehair. Mass-produced toothbrushes made with horse or boar bristle continued to be imported to Britain from China until the mid 20th century.
  • In the UK, William Addis is believed to have produced the first mass-produced toothbrush in 1780. In 1770, he had been jailed for causing a riot. While in prison he decided that using a rag with soot and salt on the teeth was ineffective and could be improved. After saving a small bone from a meal, he drilled small holes into the bone and tied into the bone tufts of bristles that he had obtained from one of the guards, passed the tufts of bristle through the holes in the bone and sealed the holes with glue.
  • After his release, he became wealthy after starting a business manufacturing toothbrushes. He died in 1808, bequeathing the business to his eldest son. It remained within family ownership until 1996 under the name Wisdom Toothbrushes. The company now manufactures 70 million toothbrushes per year in the UK.
  • The first patent for a toothbrush was granted to H.N. Wadsworth in 1857 (U.S.A. Patent No. 18,653) in the United States, but mass production did not start until 1885. The improved design had a bone handle with holes bored into it for the Siberian boar hair bristles. Unfortunately, animal bristle was not an ideal material as it retained bacteria, did not dry efficiently and the bristles often fell out. In addition to bone, handles were made of wood or ivory
  • During the 1900s, celluloid gradually replaced bone handles. Natural animal bristles were also replaced by synthetic fibers, usually nylon, by DuPont in 1938. The first nylon bristle toothbrush made with nylon yarn went on sale on February 24, 1938. In the US, brushing teeth did not become routine until after World War II, when American soldiers had to clean their teeth daily.
  • The first electric toothbrush, the Broxodent, was invented in Switzerland in 1954.
  • Johnson & Johnson introduced the “Reach” toothbrush in 1977. It differed from previous toothbrushes in three ways: it had an angled head, similar to dental instruments, to reach back teeth; the bristles were concentrated more closely than usual to clean each tooth of potentially cariogenic (cavity-causing) materials; and the outer bristles were longer and softer than the inner bristles. Other manufacturers soon followed with other designs aimed at improving effectiveness.
  • Inventors of course came up with other ideas – six sided toothbrush, retractable toothbrushes and a musical toothbrush – a type of manual or powered toothbrush designed to make tooth brushing habit more interesting. The music starts while child starts brushing, it continuously plays during the brushing and it ends when the child stops brushing.
  • About 4.7 billion toothbrushes are produced each year, with about 1 billion ending up as waste.

World’s largest toothbrush

World’s smallest toothbrush

 

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

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!!

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

Look up!

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The Chinese balloon shoot down last week got me to thinkin’…

As the news continues to come in about the recent airborne discovery, I must say I was quite surprised to hear about the “spy” balloon left drifting across the US. Seems like we hear more and more as the investigation goes forward. Now, I’m sure our armed forces were on top of things, but it did pique my curiosity and cause me to think about such an old technology in today’s high tech satellite systems.  Who’s behind this? What are they trying to learn? What about other balloons being allowed to randomly float around the globe?  And more. It also got me to think about old fashioned ballooning, so I went online and dug out some cool facts. I enjoyed learning more about balloons since I will never, ever, ever go up in one! Special thanks to www.nationalballoonmuseum.com and Wikipedia for the info, and YouTube for the video.  Enjoy!

A great balloon song: LISTEN

Learn to make your own HERE

  • On November 21, 1783 the first free flight carrying a human occurred in Paris, France in a hot air balloon made of paper and silk made by the Montgolfier brothers. The balloon carried two men, Francois Pilatrê de Rozier and Francois Laurent, Marquis of Arlanders. the balloon’s skirt.  The balloon reached an altitude of at least 500 feet and traveled about 5½ miles before landing safely 25 minutes later. Legend says when they landed in the farming and vineyard area near Paris the pilots gave bottles of champagne to the startled farmers and peasants to calm their fears of demons appearing from the heavens, but that cannot be confirmed.
  • On December 1, 1783, just ten days after the first hot air balloon ride, the first gas balloon was launched by physicist Jacques Alexander Charles and Nicholas Louis Robert.  This flight too started in Paris, France and lasted 2½ hours covering a distance of 25 miles.  The gas used in the balloon was hydrogen, a lighter than air gas that had been developed by an Englishman, Henry Cavendish in 1776, by using a combination of sulphuric acid and iron filings.
  • Balloons were one of the first mechanisms used in air warfare. Their role was originally mainly for reconnaissance purposes.
  • Gas balloons soon became the preferred mode of air travel. . They continued to be the primary mode of air travel until the invention of the fixed wing aircraft  by the Wright brothers in America in 1903.
  • In the early days of ballooning, crossing the English Channel was considered the first step to long distance flying.  In 1785 Pilatre de Rozier, one of the men from the first balloon flight, and a man named Romain attempted to cross the channel in a balloon using an experimental system of hydrogen and hot air compartments. Unfortunately, this volatile mixture of highly flammable hydrogen with fire caused the balloon to explode thirty minutes after liftoff and both men were killed. The first successful crossing of the English Channel was later accomplished the same year by French balloonist Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries using a gas balloon.
  • Airships, often called blimps, began to be built in the early 1900’s.  They were inflated by hydrogen gas to keep them aloft.  Airships are cigar shaped balloons, some of which have a rigid frame to maintain their shape.  They had engines with propellers as well as flaps to control the direction and speed of flight.
  • The Van Zeppelin was the first large airship built.  It was 420 feet long and could travel 600 miles in 2 days. One of the first such ships in the U.S. was built in 1904.  These large ships became the first commercial airliners. Many were made for military uses but others had luxurious cabins for seating passengers.  By 1936 airships had become more common.  The most famous airship was the Hindenburg built in Germany in 1936.  It was 803 feet long and 135 feet wide and contained 7 million cubic feet of gas.
  • On May 6, 1937, the Hindenburg caught fire and burned in less than one minute while attempting to dock in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Of the 97 persons on board 35 were killed. Such ships had exemplary safety records until the spectacular demise of this famous ship.  (hear famous live radio announcer Herb Morrison struggle to share what he was seeing via radio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ad9tholMEM . After the crash, the use of such airships began to wane.
  • In 1960 Paul E. (Ed) Yost and 3 others formed Raven Industries in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and developed the modern hot air balloon and the propane gas burner which made sustained flight possible.  On October 22, 1960 Yost piloted the maiden flight of the new balloon on a flight lasting 25 minutes and traveling 3 miles.  The balloon was 40 feet in diameter with a volume of 30,000 cubic feet. This made modern sport hot air ballooning possible.
  • By 1963 Sport ballooning had grown enough so that the first U. S. National Hot Air Balloon Championship event was held in Kalamazoo, In 1964 the Nationals were held in Nevada where it remained for 3 years.  In 1970 the preliminaries for the Nationals were held in Indianola, Iowa with the final event at the State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, Iowa.  The National championships remained in Indianola for 18 years.
  • Beginning in 1989 the Nationals moved around to various parts of the country.  That same year the National Balloon Classic was born to take its place in Indianola.
  • Balloons using a combination of helium and hot air are now used for many long-distance flights such as the around the world flight of Steve Fossett in his balloon, “Bud Light Spirit of Freedom” on June 19, 2002.  This balloon was a hybrid hot air and gas balloon with two separate Helium gas cells and one hot air cell.  Inflated, the balloon stood 180 feet tall with a diameter of 108 feet.  Fossett launched from Northam, Western Australia in a seventh and successful attempt to be the first person to circumnavigate the globe solo in a balloon.  Fourteen days, 19 hours and 51 minutes later he landed in the eastern Australian Outback.
  • Gas balloons, such as NASA’s Ultra-Long Duration Balloon provide greatly enhanced scientific research.  Such balloons are used like satellites to study deep space and the Earth, but at a fraction of the cost of a satellite.  NASA balloons are made of a thin polyethylene material about the same thickness as an ordinary sandwich wrap.  In size they range up to 40 million cubic feet in volume and 600 feet in diameter and taller than a 60-story building.  When the experiment is complete, a radio command is sent from a ground station to separate the scientific payload from the balloon and a parachute opens and it floats back to the ground.  The balloon envelope collapses and falls to the Earth.

Another cool video:
B-Line to Space: The Scientific Balloon Story (20 min)

 

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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!!

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

Record Breakers

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The King at the top where he belongs, Elvis in 1956! Harry Belafonte next. A wall of gold records. Queen’s signed gold plaque. Glenn Miller and his band. And look there! A very young Johnny Cash admiring Kowalski Heat Treating’s very first gold record for PIA (Pain In The @%$) Jobs!!!!!!! That’s his manager, Sam Philips, standing and mugging the camera.  :))))))))

With the Super Bowl this weekend, many of us with be cheering on either the Chiefs or Eagles along with our favorite players while consuming way too many pre-game snacks, like Aunt Edna’s three bean touchdown cheesy chip dip.  Unlike most fans, those of us in Cleveland won’t be  pondering why “our” team didn’t make it again while watching future hall of famers showcase their talent. Some will also debate the GOATs (greatest of all time) while watching the game.  Old timers will fight for their era quarterbacks, linebackers, and receivers, while the younger set will stare aimlessly trying to figure out who they are talking about (Johnny U, Leroy Kelly, Bart Star, Jerry Rice to name just a few). While it’s fun to debate the gridiron elites, another “greatest” milestone took place on this day back in 1942, when the first gold record was presented to Glenn Miller and His Orchestra (hey grandpa, what team did he play for…and what’s an orchestra?). In the early days, selecting a “gold” song required counting the total sales of the song in its prime. So, for my audiophiles out there, here’s a little history on the rankings and awards along with some links to just some of the GOATs. Thanks to Wikipedia and YouTube and all the artists for these hits.  Enjoy!

Some background music while you read

  • Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory.
  • The original gold and silver record awards were presented to artists by their own record companies to publicize their sales achievements. (interesting marketing trick).
  • The first gold disc was awarded by RCA Victor (under division imprint Bluebird Records) to Glenn Miller and His Orchestra in February 1942, celebrating the sale of 1.2 million copies of the single, “Chattanooga Choo Choo“. (great video!!!)
  • Other examples of a company award is the gold record awarded to Elvis Presley in 1956 for one million units sold of his single “Don’t Be Cruel”.
  • The first gold record for an LP was awarded by RCA Victor to Harry Belafonte in 1957 for the album Calypso (1956), the first album to sell over 1,000,000 copies in RCA’s reckoning.
  • The first silver disc was awarded by Regal Zonophone to George Formby in December 1937 for sales of 100,000 copies of “The Window Cleaner”.
  • At the industry level, in 1958 the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) introduced its gold record award program for records of any kind, albums or singles, which achieved one million dollars in retail sales. These sales were restricted to U.S.-based record companies and did not include exports to other countries.
  • (RIAA) was established for singles in 1958, and the RIAA also trademarked the term “gold record” in the United States. On 14 March 1958, the RIAA certified its first gold record, Perry Como’s hit single “Catch a Falling Star”. The Oklahoma! soundtrack was certified as the first gold album four months later.
  • For albums in 1968, this would mean shipping approximately 250,000 units; for singles the number would be higher due to their lower retail price.
  • The platinum certification was introduced in 1976 for the sale of one million units for albums and two million for singles, with the gold certification redefined to mean sales of 500,000 units for albums and one million for singles. The first was awarded to the Eagles compilation album Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) on 24 February 1976, and to Johnnie Taylor’s single “Disco Lady” on 22 April 1976.
  • In 1999, the diamond certification was introduced for sales of ten million units. In the late 1980s, the certification thresholds for singles were dropped to match that of albums.
  • In most countries, certifications no longer apply solely to physical media but now also include sales awards recognizing digital downloads (in the US and UK since 2004).
  • In June 2006, the RIAA also certified the ringtone downloads of songs. Streaming from on-demand services such as Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal and Napster has been included into existing digital certification in the US since 2013, and the UK and Germany since 2014.
  • In the US and Germany, video streaming services like YouTube, VEVO, and Yahoo! Music also began to be counted towards the certification, in both cases using the formula of 100 streams being equivalent to one download. Other countries, such as Denmark and Spain, maintain separate awards for digital download singles and streaming.
  • The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) was founded in 1996, and grants the IFPI Platinum Europe Award for album sales over one million within Europe and (as of October 2009) the Middle East. Multi-platinum Europe Awards are presented for sales in subsequent multiples of one million. Eligibility is unaffected by time (from date of release) and is not restricted to European-based artists.
  • The Independent Music Companies Association (IMPALA) was founded in April 2000 to grow the independent music sector and promote independent music in the interests of artistic, entrepreneurial and cultural diversity. IMPALA launched sales awards in 2005 as the first sales awards recognizing that success on a pan-European basis begins well before sales reach one million. The award levels are Silver (20,000+), Double Silver (40,000+), Gold (75,000+), Double Gold (150,000+), Diamond (200,000+), Platinum (400,000+) and Double Platinum (800,000+).
  • The plaques themselves contain various items under the glass. Modern awards often use CDs instead of records. Most gold and platinum records are actually vinyl records which have been vacuum metallized and tinted, while trimmed and plated metal “masters”, “mothers”, or “stampers” (metal parts used for pressing records out of vinyl) were initially used. The music in the grooves on the record may not match the actual recording being awarded. 
  • Individual plaque-makers produced their awards according to available materials and techniques employed by their graphic arts departments. The plaques, depending on size and elaborateness of design, cost anywhere between US$135 and $275, most often ordered and purchased by the record label that issued the original recording.
  • Elvis is the record holder of the most gold records.  (dad – who’s Elvis?)
  • Fastest song to go gold – just under two weeks – K.O released his latest single“Sete” featuring Blxckie and Young Stunna, The lead single from the veteran rapper’s upcoming fourth album “SR3” (Skhanda Republic 3), has achieved gold certification status (over 1.2 million streams) in record time.
  • Like many awards and recognitions these days, the industry has sort of outgrown the honor and prestige of hitting a milestone such as gold. But that’s ok – we’ll let it go by the wayside of buying and playing our vinyl records.  Check out Billboards “GOAT”.

15 Million (or more) Hard Copies Sold

1942    Bing Crosby — “White Christmas”

1997    Elton John — “Something About the Way You Look Tonight”/”Candle in the Wind

1946    Tino Rossi —  “Petit Papa Noël”

1970    Mungo Jerry — “In the Summertime”

1954    Bill Haley & His Comets —  “Rock Around the Clock”

1992    Whitney Houston —  “I Will Always Love You”

1960    Elvis Presley —  “It’s Now or Never”

1985    USA for Africa —  “We Are the World”

1939     The Ink Spots — “If I Didn’t Care”

1977    Baccara —  “Yes Sir, I Can Boogie”

1997    Celine Dion — “My Heart Will Go On”

1994    Mariah Carey — “All I Want for Christmas Is You”

1991    Bryan Adams — “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You”

1978    John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John — “You’re the One That I Want”

 

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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!!

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

Perfect Condiment

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Ok. Now I’m hungry. And I just had lunch!!!  :)))))

There are certain things that just go together.  Cookies and cream. Peanut butter and jelly. Chips and dip.  And for me, one of those things is French fries and ketchup. Now, I know some of you out there would insist on eating them plain, or for my northern friends, splashing a little vinegar on them too, but for me, French fries and ketchup just go together. Take a minute – close your eyes and think about McDonalds French fries, and one of those little ketchup packets – you leave the drive thru, open the bag, the aroma hits you and your find the fries, tear the corner of the tiny ketchup packet, squirt the yummy ketchup into the top of the fry holder, pick a few and … bam!  Now that’s good! I have always loved ketchup – in my humble opinion it is the perfect condiment!  As I finished my burger and fries for lunch the other day, it got me to thinking about ketchup – history, production, recipes, and more. For my foodies out there, here’s some fun info about ketchup (catsup?). Thanks to google, businessinsider.com, Wikipedia and allrecipes.com for the info, and YouTube for the video, and Mickey D’s for those yummy fries!  Enjoy!

What 1.8 Million bottles a day looks like

(the video above tests my plant logistics brain – tons of tomatoes/sauce, gallons of water, 1.8 million bottles, caps, 5 million labels, boxes, palettes, shrink wrap – wow – talk about a PIA (Pain in the @%$) Job! – and that’s DAILY!!!). WOW.

  1. The word “ketchup” comes from the Hokkien Chinese word, “kê-tsiap”, which is a sauce that calls for fermented fish; a far cry from the ketchup we know today. Ketchup has come a long way from its roots in China as far back as the third century BCE, when cooks fermented seafood to create a salty, amber-colored sauce that resembles modern fish sauce (an anchovy-based condiment that adds umami flavor to many Asian dishes). Absolutely not a fan of fish sauce.
  2. The ketchup we slather onto hot dogs, burgers, and fries today once had a different purpose: Doctors believed it was best consumed as a health tonic. I am always telling Jackie that it’s heart healthy!
  3. By around the 16th century, British sailors had taken word of ketchup back to their home country, and British cooks tried to replicate it with their own versions made from walnuts and mushrooms.
  4. The word “catsup” first showed up in poems composed at Market Hill by Jonathan Swift in 1730 when he wrote about “Botargo, catsup, and caviare.” For a while the word “catsup” was more commonly used in North America, and then “ketchup” took over due to large-scale manufacturers like Heinz and Hunt’s calling is ketchup.
  5.  It’s not clear exactly when tomatoes came on the scene, though the first known tomato ketchup recipe appeared around 1812, published by Philadelphia horticulturist James Mease.
  6. It wasn’t until the 1830s that some doctors began rebranding tomatoes as a 19th-century superfood. One physician, Dr. John Cook Bennett, especially promoted tomatoes as cures for indigestion and other stomach ailments, encouraging a craze for the fruit that eventually saw the introduction of ketchup pills and extracts (one memorable jingle went, “tomato pills will cure all your ills”).
  7. The fad would last through around the 1850s, but soon enough home cooks focused on creating their own ketchups instead of taking the vitamin equivalents. The sauce then became an easily obtainable American dinner table staple in large part thanks to the H. J. Heinz Company, which released its first tomato ketchup in 1876.
  8. HJ Heinz was the son of immigrant parents. When Heinz turned six, he began helping his mother with her garden (1850).  By age eight, Henry began selling goods to neighbors out of a basket he would carry around (1852).  When he was nine, Henry was grinding and making his own horseradish sauce — it was his mother’s recipe (1853)
  9. Demand was so strong Heinz began to use a horse and cart to deliver his goods by age 12 (1856).  At 16, Heinz began making three weekly deliveries to Pittsburgh, Penn (1860).  By the time he was 25, Heinz had formed his first company with a friend. It was named Heinz Noble & Company (1869) and they sold canned beans.
  10. In just a few years they went bankrupt and shut down. Heinz quickly formed a new business with his cousin, the F & J Heinz Co. (1875).  In 1876 they began selling ketchup and the company
  11. In 1888, Henry bought out his family members and launched a major factory along the Allegheny.
  12. In 1896 Heinz added the 57 to the bottle, after seeing a shoe store advertise 21 styles of shoes. Although he was selling more than 60 products at the time, Heinz thought 57 was lucky.

TRIVIA:

  • Number of individual ketchup packets made by Heinz each year (as of 2020) – 12 billion
  • Approximate number of known tomato species – 10,000
  • Year the ketchup packet was patented – 1955
  • Weight (in tons) of tomatoes processed into ketchup each year by Heinz – 2 million
  • Top five brands – Heinz, Hunts, Del Monte, French’s, Primal Kitchen
  • The World’s Largest Catsup Bottle® stands proudly next to Route 159, just south of downtown Collinsville, Illinois – formerly a water tower: https://www.catsupbottle.com

If you want to make your own, here you go: CLICK

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

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!!

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

Baffled

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We hear enough words every day to fill a small dictionary. But not all of them have a recorded history. Really????? Really. Here are some of them. 

Being a grandpa is a magical experience.  It hits me in so many fun ways – watching them grow, having an “adult-child” conversation, getting those amazing, unexpected hugs, rocking them to sleep, or just playing together.  My favorite is watching either of them say to Jackie,  “Grandma do you want to play?” then taking her by the hand on their next great adventure!  Sometimes I get hit with an occasional “hey Grandpa” question that’s not so easy to answer.  While reading a book together recently, we came across the word “dog”. I paused for a minute to see if it registered and then I jumped into an adult explanation of “you know, a fun loving four-legged creature, covered with hair that eats and drinks and plays and barks and runs and slurps”.  Now, being a man of science and intrigue, I of course jumped online later to be sure I was right – (don’t want to alter my grandkids development).  Ha!  Talk about trying to solve a PIA (Pain in the @%$) Job! – I stumbled across a confounding tale (tail 😊).  Seems many are not quite sure of the origin of the basic word dog.  Of course, I went digging a bit further and found a whole bunch of words we use every day that are not seated in any language from the past (etymology – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology ).  I picked some of my favorites to share with you, so you’ll be better prepared than I.  Enjoy!  And thanks to Berlitz.com, dictionary.com, mentalfloss.com, Wikipedia, and google and Wiktionary.com (a new one for me!).

FUN – longest English words

All words started somewhere. Through the careful work of historical linguists and lexicographers, we can usually trace a word, if not to its ultimate origin pretty far back in time. We know that the word water, for example, goes back to an old Germanic source by comparing it with words from other Germanic languages: Dutch water, German Wasser, Old Icelandic vatr. We know the word fruit came to English from French because we first have evidence of its use during the period when the French Normans ruled England.

Sometimes, after much searching and analyzing, no satisfying origin explanation can be found. This is not so surprising for slangy or risqué words—if they aren’t the type of words that would be written down, it will be hard to find early sources for them—but there are a few pretty basic, run-of-the-mill words that have defied the best efforts of etymologists. One of their bitter triumphs is the ability to say ‘origin unknown.’”

Here are basic English words that have remained etymological mysteries.

1. Dog

English has the word hound, which is clearly related to other Germanic words like Hund, and the word cur, which is related to other Germanic words for growling. But the most common term is dog, which looks nothing like any other language. It seems related to similar untraceable English words pig, hog, stag, and the wig of earwig. Were they originally childish nicknames or slang? Many theories have been explored, but the answer has not been settled.

The Polish etymologist Piotr Gąsiorowski put forth a new proposal just a few years ago, by interpreting Old English docga as a pet form of dox/dohx ‘of a certain dark hue’ (cf. English dusk), like frocga/frogga ‘frog’ beside frox/frosc/forsc ‘id.’. That is to say, the name would originally have referred to a darker type of dog.  We won’t even try to figure out “hotdog” (a food or a person showing off??)

2. Bad

What could more basic than bad and good? We know that good is cognate with many other languages, from Gothic to Old Saxon to Dutch, and evil is from a Germanic root, but bad is on its own. Its earliest uses referred to food that had gone bad.  Learn more HERE

3. Big

Big is a pretty basic concept, but it was not the word of choice in the Old English period (when the word was mickle or great) and only shows up from the 14th century. Was it borrowed from a Scandinavian word for a rich, powerful man? Did it come from someone’s name? The status remains “origin unknown.”  This adjective, c. 1300, at first found chiefly in writings from northern England and north Midlands, with a sense of “powerful, strong;” a word of obscure origin. It is possibly from a Scandinavian source (compare Norwegian dialectal bugge “great man”). Old English used micel (see much) in many of the same senses. Big came into general use c. 1400. The meaning “of great size” is from late 14c., as is that of “full-grown, grown up.” The sense of “important, influential, powerful” is from c. 1400. The meaning “haughty, inflated with pride” is from 1570s. The sense of “generous” is U.S. colloquial by 1913.

4. Girl

Maiden is from a Germanic root, and damsel is from a French one, but where does girl come from? Perhaps an old Germanic word for dress or a borrowing from another word for child. We don’t know, but it used to be used for boys too. In the 1300s and 1400s, gurles or gyrles were children of either sex, and if you wanted to specifically refer to a boy child you could say “knave girl.”  The English word girl first appeared during the Middle Ages between 1250 and 1300 CE and came from the Anglo-Saxon word gerle (also spelled girle or gurle). The Anglo-Saxon word gerela meaning dress or clothing item also seems to have been used as a metonym in some sense.

5. Boy

Knave goes back to Old English from a Germanic root, but boy only shows up in the Late Middle Ages and in its earliest uses was an insulting term for slave, rogue, or wretch. Did it come from an old French word for “person in chains”? A Dutch word meaning messenger? It’s unclear, but the OED says that for words like girl, boy, lass, and lad, “possibly most of them arose as jocular transferred uses of words that had originally a different meaning.”  It’s thought the word “boy” comes from Middle English boi, boye (“boy, servant”), related to other Germanic words for boy, namely East Frisian boi (“boy, young man”) and West Frisian boai (“boy”).

6. Bird

The more common word in Old English was fugel, which can be traced back to an old Germanic root for flying (and which gives us the current word fowl), but somehow bird won out. Bird was originally spelled brid, which gave the idea that perhaps it was related to brood, but what we know about historical sound change rules makes that unlikely.  From Middle English brid, from Old English bridd (“chick, baby bird”), of uncertain origin and relation; but its stock root is possibly onomatopoeic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onomatopoeia ). Gradually replaced fowl as the most common term starting in the 14th century.

8. Log

There is an Old Germanic root laeg, related to lie, that became the word for a felled tree in Old Norse, but etymologists have ruled out this source because due to sound change rules, that would have ended up pronounced low in English. It may have been borrowed from a later stage of a Scandinavian language because of the timber trade, but it could also be from an attempt to imitate the sound of something large and heavy.

9. Toad

Toad goes all the way back to Old English, but it has no known cognates in any of the related languages.  With unknown origin it evolved from Middle English tode, toode, tadde, tade, from Old English *tāde, a shortened variant of Old English tādie, tādiġe (“toad”).

10. Kick

At first etymologists thought kick might come from Welsh cicio, but it turned out cicio came from English kick. The idea that it comes from an Old Norse word for “bend backwards, sink at the knees” is another possibility, but it hasn’t been generally accepted. For me, I get a “kick” out of writing these fund blog posts – hope you enjoy as well.

BONUS TRIVIA:  Why do cats purr and humans and animals yawn?  Send me you thoughts (skowalski@khtheat.com)

 

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

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!!

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

Mondegreens

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I found out some of my favorite song lyrics are not what I thought!  Whaaaaaaaat!!!!!!!

If you are like me, occasionally you find yourself singin’ in the car (you know from my past blogs, me singing in the house or in public is forbidden) – so when I’m alone, I get to crank up the tunes and sing as loud as I want.  My music is from all over the spectrum – (honestly, I enjoy singing Disney show tunes the best just ask my girls!). And if you’ve ever confused “Takin’ Care of Business” with “Makin’ Carrot Biscuits” or “Bennie and the Jets” with “Betty in a Dress,” you’ve been tricked by a mondegreen. This phenomenon occurs when a word or phrase “results from a mishearing of something said or sung.” We can thank American writer Sylvia Wright for the term, which she coined in a 1954 Harper’s essay. When Wright was a child, her mother read to her from the book Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. A favorite entry featured the line, “And laid him on the green,” which Wright misheard as “And Lady Mondegreen.”  And the name stuck. So, here’s a bit about Mondegreens, and also the “backstories” behind some of the most famous lyrics we’ve enjoyed over the years.  For a good laugh, be sure to click on the link below, and hear some mondegreen classics from comedian Peter Kay – he’s really funny!.  Thanks to You Tube, Wikipedia, interestingfacts.com and Good Housekeeping for the info. Enjoy!

Peter Kay…really funny guy.

A mondegreen occurs when there’s a communication hiccup between the syllables you hear and the meaning your brain assigns to them. Mondegreens are especially common when you hear music but cannot see the singer’s face, like when listening to the radio, especially if the singer has an accent.

Although mondegreens are perhaps most famously associated with song lyrics, they can also happen when everyday words and phrases are misheard. Occasionally, a misconstrued phrase is so common that it enters our lexicon. Such was the case with “spitting image,” which originated as “spit and image” (“spit” once meant “a perfect likeness”), and “nickname,” which began life as “an ekename” (“also-name”).

The creation of mondegreens may be driven in part by cognitive dissonance, as the listener finds it psychologically uncomfortable to listen to a song and not make out the words. Experts suggest that mondegreens are the result of the brain’s constant attempts to make sense of the world by making assumptions to fill in the gaps when it cannot clearly determine what it is hearing.

Some of my favorites: “there’s a bathroom on the right” (CCR) “and there’s a wino down the road” (Led Zeppelin), and “there’s nothing that a hundred men on Mars could ever do”.(Toto).

Lyrics
Ever wonder where some song lyrics come from?  I came across a fun article posted by interestingfacts.com about songs we’ve heard over and over, but never knew how the writers found the inspiration for the lyrics. These are fun, enjoy!

 

Aerosmith – Walk This Way – 1975
In late 1974, Aerosmith was messing around during the soundcheck at a show where they were opening for the Guess Who. They managed to land on the iconic guitar riff and drum beat that would eventually become “Walk This Way.” The lyrics, however, took a little longer. Steven Tyler would just scat nonsensical words — but then Mel Brooks came along. After seeing Brooks’ Young Frankenstein in early 1975, the band members were quoting lines from the movie at each other, including the part where Marty Feldman’s Igor tells Gene Wilder to “walk this way” and Wilder begins to imitate Igor’s hunched steps. Aerosmith’s producer heard the quote and suggested that it could make a great title for the song. Tyler worked his spontaneous scatting into lyrics, and a classic tune was born.

 

Elton John – Phildelphia Freedom – 1975
With lyrics like “From the day that I was born/I’ve waved the flag/Philadelphia freedom,” and because the song came out just a year before America’s bicentennial, it’s easy to assume that Elton John’s “Philadelphia Freedom” is about patriotism. In reality, it’s about tennis legend Billie Jean King. After becoming friends with King in the early ’70s, the British-born John told her that he wanted to write a song in her honor and came up with the idea to name it after her tennis team, The Philadelphia Freedoms. He debuted the rough cut of the song for King and her team during the 1974 playoffs; King immediately fell in love. “He said, during the part where he goes ‘Philadelphia’… ‘That’s you getting upset with an umpire.’ Walking up to the umpire … stomping: ‘PHIL. UH. DEL-phia.’ I was laughing so hard,” she said in an interview with eltonjohn.com.

 

Bonnie Tyler – Total Eclipse of the Heart – 1983
This epic ’80s ballad is certainly a heartbreaker, but the lyrics are just vague enough that it’s not entirely clear what the heartbreak is. In 2002, lyricist Jim Steinman — who was also responsible for Air Supply’s “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” (1983) and Meatloaf’s “I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” — came clean about the song’s origins. “I actually wrote [“Total Eclipse of the Heart”] to be a vampire love song. Its original title was ‘Vampires in Love’ because I was working on a musical of ‘Nosferatu,’ the other great vampire story. If anyone listens to the lyrics, they’re really like vampire lines. It’s all about the darkness, the power of darkness and love’s place in [the] dark.”  Steinman revived the idea for a musical called Dance of the Vampires that opened on Broadway in December 2002, but despite starring the legendary Michael Crawford (of Phantom of the Opera fame), the brief, 56-performance show was a flop. Costing $600,000 per week to produce, and ultimately producing a loss of $12 million, the New York Times deemed Dance one of the most expensive Broadway flops of all time.

 

Neil Diamond – Sweet Caroline – 1969
The story of “Sweet Caroline” seems to be ever-evolving. For decades after the song first charted in 1969, no one knew who the mysterious Caroline was. Diamond revealed that the woman of the hour was Caroline Kennedy -he saw a picture of her riding a horse in a magazine. The song itself was about his then-wife, Marsha. Because the two syllables in her name didn’t fit the scheme of the song, the singer racked his brain for a three-syllable substitute that would roll off the tongue. He recalled the famous photo of the young Caroline Kennedy riding a horse, and that’s when he realized that her name (“Sweet Car-o-line” was so good, so good, so good.  If you’ve ever been to an Ohio State football game, there’s nothing like 90,000 fans singing this classic at the top of their lungs.

 

The Beatles – Blackbird – 1968
The lyrics “Take these broken wings and learn to fly” have inspired many people from many different walks of life in the 50-plus years since Paul McCartney wrote “Blackbird.” But at a concert in 2016, he revealed that he had written the song with a very specific issue in mind: civil rights in the U.S. Although he has mentioned the connection several times over the decades, it was particularly poignant when he talked about his inspiration during a 2016 concert in Little Rock, Arkansas.   “Way back in the Sixties, there was a lot of trouble going on over civil rights, particularly in Little Rock,” McCartney said. “We would notice this on the news back in England, so it’s a really important place for us, because to me, this is where civil rights started,” he told the “We would see what was going on and sympathize with the people going through those troubles, and it made me want to write a song that, if it ever got back to the people going through those troubles, it might just help them a little bit.

IF THIS HAS PEAKED YOUR INTEREST, VISIT THIS SITE  and read about some more classics.

 

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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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Not So Temporary

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What a face!!!  :))))))))))))) 

Growing up, I loved to read the comics. I’d wait for Dad to finish with “the paper” (yes, we actually got two delivered to the house a day … one in the morning and one later in the day .. and a big one on Sundays!!) –  I liked many of the characters, especially Spiderman and Funky Winkerbean.  Comics are always a simple escape from the day-to-day.  And many times, just put a smile on my face. Today marks a fun anniversary in the history of comics.  On this day in 1930, Walt Disney himself wrote the first Mickey Mouse comic strip.

Coming off the success of producing “shorts” for the film industry (I think everyone knows Steamboat Willie), Walt himself took on the task of creating a daily comic strip – talk about a PIA (pain in the @%$) Job! With the help of his drawing assistant Ub Iwerks and his inking assistant Win Smith, Mickey and Minnie came to life – and the strip lasted over 90 years!!  Here’s a little history on the series, the people behind the drawings and the themes, many based on the events of the day, that drove the success for so many years.  Enjoy, and thanks to disneydiary.com, Wikipedia and YouTube.  Enjoy!

short video history 

Walter Elias Disney was born in 1901 in Chicago to a family of modest means. In 1919, he met Ub Iwerks while working in commercial art studios in Kansas City. Three years later, the two started their own, ultimately unsuccessful, animation studio. Disney regrouped in California, forming the company we know today with his brother, Roy, as business manager and Iwerks as lead cartoonist.

Though it may seem like Mickey Mouse has always been with us, this most well-known of cartoon characters sprang to animated life on November 18, 1928. The high-spirited, mischievous mouse debuted in Steamboat Willie, a short film designed and animated by Ub Iwerks, the chief animator with the then-nascent Walt Disney Company, with direction from Walt Disney. They cast Mickey Mouse as a shipmate on a steamboat captained by a surly cat. Scheduled to be the opening for a feature-length film, Steamboat Willie was given an initial modest run at the Colony Theater in New York. But audiences and critics went wild for the impish, round-bellied mouse and for the premiere of the first cartoon with synchronized sound.

Two weeks later, Steamboat Willie was re-released at the Roxy, also in New York, and the largest theater in the world at the time. It made silent animation obsolete and launched the Disney empire, as Walt proclaimed…”sound is here to stay”.

After releasing Steamboat Willie, the struggling company began to thrive and to introduce other characters—like Donald Duck and Goofy—into popular culture. As the American economy crumbled during the Great Depression, the Walt Disney Company rose, a paradox explained by the delight, even relief, that its cartoons brought to Americans and audiences worldwide, hungry for a respite from harsh daily realities.

A Mickey Mouse comic strip was suggested by Joseph Connolly, the president of King Features Syndicate, in a July 24, 1929 letter to Disney animator Ub Iwerks: “I think your mouse animation is one of the funniest features I have ever seen in the movies. Please consider producing one in comic strip form for newspapers. If you can find time to do one, I shall be very interested in seeing some specimens.”

The comic strip launched on January 13, 1930 was written by Disney himself, with art by Ub Iwerks. The strip begins with young Mickey as an optimistic, imaginative young mouse living on a farm, and dreaming of becoming a great aviator like his hero, Charles Lindbergh. In a sequence based on the 1928 short Plane Crazy, Mickey puts together a homemade plane, and takes a flight with his girlfriend Minnie. She falls out of the plane, and Mickey travels through a storm to land on a deserted island, inhabited by fierce natives who want to cook him alive.

As these first strips were being released, Iwerks left the Disney studio, signing a contract with Disney competitor Pat Powers to leave Disney and start an animation studio under his own name. Win Smith, who had been inking the strips, took over the penciling as well with the February 10th strip. Smith left the studio in April after a fight with Disney, who wanted him to take over writing the strip.

As a “temporary replacement”, Disney asked a young inbetweener at the studio named Floyd Gottfredson to fill in. Gottfredson’s first strip was published on May 5, and he took over the scripting two weeks later. He would continue as the creative force of the strip for more than 45 years. (WOW!).

While the early months of the strip did have a loose plot, the pace and style were still the standard gag-a-day approach to comic strips. With adventure and daily continuity strips like The Gumps and Wash Tubbs becoming increasingly popular, King Features Syndicate asked Disney to make Mickey Mouse a more serious adventure strip.

This led to the first adventure storyline, “Mickey Mouse in Death Valley”, which ran from April 1 to September 20, 1930. The story—begun by Smith, and continued by Gottfredson—involves a crooked lawyer, Sylvester Shyster, and his thuggish associate Peg-Leg Pete, who kidnap Minnie in order to find a map to her Uncle Mortimer’s hidden gold mine in Death Valley. Mickey and Minnie race Shyster and Pete to the desert, to lay claim to the mine.

Over decades Gottfredson used extended main themes inspired from Disney’s animation department to support the storylines, such as “The Great Orphanage Robbery”, The Case of the Vanishing Coats”, “The Robin Hood Adventure”, “Mighty Whale Hunter” and “Lil Davey” based on Davey Crockett.

Years later, many of these themes became book titles, extending the series into children’s bedrooms.  I can remember reading some of the storybooks to the girls when they were little (For a full list, CLICK.) and now enjoy reading to the grandkids.

Thanks Walt and team!

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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!!

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