Underwater Adventure

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Jacques-Yves Cousteau, his sons and now his grandson. Exploring the deep, deep blue sea. Read on to wet your beak (so-to-speak) of exploring where it’s very, very hard to explore. Fascinating!!!!!

This past week I had the opportunity to go down to the beach in my town and take in the sites and sounds. Being in the 80’s, it was filled with swimmers, kids playing in the sand, and sun worshipers.  I’m so lucky to live so close to Lake Erie – a simple run or bike ride and I’m there.  While I was walking the shore, I thought about some of my favorite TV shows as a kid, including underwater documentaries made by Jacques Cousteau.  Born on this day in 1910, he became a world-renowned oceanographer, plus a French naval officer, conservationist (way before it was fashionable), inventor, filmmaker, scientist, photographer and sea explorer on his boat the Calypso.  I was mesmerized by his cool French accent, “undersea world” and seeing all the different creatures.  He made the sea a thing of intrigue and beauty.  I did some digging and found some good info on “Jacque”.  Enjoy, and thanks Wikipedia, You Tube and for the history.

A little tribute song by John Denver to enjoy while you read.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau, AC (/kuːˈstoʊ/) June 11, 1910 – June 25, 1997) was a French naval officer, explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water. He co-developed the Aqua-Lung, pioneered marine conservation and was a member of the Académie Française.

One of his great quotes: “The sea, the great unifier, is man’s only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: We are all in the same boat.”

Cousteau was born in Saint-André-de-Cubzac, Gironde, France, to Daniel and Élisabeth Cousteau. He had one brother, Pierre-Antoine. Cousteau completed his preparatory studies at the Collège Stanislas in Paris. In 1930, he entered the École navale and graduated as a gunnery officer. However, an automobile accident, which broke both his arms, cut short his career in naval aviation. The accident forced Cousteau to change his plans to become a naval pilot, so he then indulged his passion for the ocean.

In Toulon, where he was serving on the Condorcet, Cousteau carried out his first underwater experiments, thanks to his friend Philippe Tailliez who in 1936 lent him some Fernez underwater goggles, predecessors of modern swimming goggles.

On 12 July 1937 he married Simone Melchior, with whom he had two sons, Jean-Michel (born 1938) and Philippe. His sons took part in the adventures of the Calypso. In 1991, one year after his wife Simone’s death from cancer, he married Francine Triplet. They already had a daughter Diane Cousteau (born 1980) and a son, Pierre-Yves Cousteau (born 1982), born during Cousteau’s marriage to his first wife.

The years of World War II were decisive for the history of diving. After the armistice of 1940, the family of Simone and Jacques-Yves Cousteau took refuge in Megève, where he became a friend of the Ichac family who also lived there. Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Marcel Ichac shared the same desire to reveal to the general public unknown and inaccessible places — for Cousteau the underwater world and for Ichac the high mountains. The two neighbors took the first ex-aequo prize of the Congress of Documentary Film in 1943, for the first French underwater film: Par dix-huit mètres de fond (18 meters deep), made without breathing apparatus the previous year in the Embiez islands in Var, with Philippe Tailliez and Frédéric Dumas, using a depth-pressure-proof camera case developed by mechanical engineer Léon Vèche, an engineer of Arts and Measures at the Naval College.

In 1943, they made the film Épaves (Shipwrecks), in which they used two of the very first Aqua-Lung prototypes. These prototypes were made in Boulogne-Billancourt by the Air Liquide company, following instructions from Cousteau and Émile Gagnan. When making Épaves, Cousteau could not find the necessary blank reels of movie film so he had to buy hundreds of small still camera film reels the same width, intended for a make of child’s camera, and cemented them together to make long reels (talk about a PIA (Pain in the @$#) Job!).

During the 1940s, Cousteau is credited with improving the Aqua-Lung design which gave birth to the open-circuit scuba technology used today. According to his first book, The Silent World: A Story of Undersea Discovery and Adventure (1953), Cousteau started diving with Fernez goggles in 1936, and in 1939 used the self-contained underwater breathing apparatus.  Cousteau was not satisfied with the length of time he could spend underwater with the apparatus so he improved it to extend underwater duration by adding a demand regulator, invented in 1942 by Émile Gagnan. In 1943 Cousteau tried out the first prototype Aqua-Lung which finally made extended underwater exploration possible.

In 1948, between missions of mine clearance, underwater exploration and technological and physiological tests, Cousteau undertook a first campaign in the Mediterranean on board the sloop Élie Monnier.  The small team also undertook the exploration of the Roman wreck of Mahdia (Tunisia) – the first underwater archaeology operation using autonomous diving, opening the way for scientific underwater archaeology. Cousteau and Marcel Ichac brought back from there the Carnets diving film, presented at the Cannes Film Festival 1951.

In 1949, Cousteau left the French Navy and founded the French Oceanographic Campaigns (FOC), and leased a ship called Calypso from Thomas Loel Guinness for a symbolic one franc a year. Cousteau refitted the Calypso as a mobile laboratory for field research and as his principal vessel for diving and filming and underwater archaeological excavations in the Mediterranean.

With the publication of his first book in 1953, The Silent World, he correctly predicted the existence of the echolocation abilities of porpoises. He reported that his research vessel, the Élie Monier, was heading to the Straits of Gibraltar and noticed a group of porpoises following them. Cousteau changed course a few degrees off the optimal course to the center of the strait, and the porpoises followed for a few minutes, then diverged toward mid-channel again, evidence that they knew where the optimal course lay, even if the humans did not. Cousteau concluded that the cetaceans had something like sonar, which was a relatively new feature on submarines.

In the 1960s Cousteau was involved with a set of three projects named Precontinent I, II and III,  to build underwater “villages” aimed at increasing the depth at which people continuously live under water and were an attempt at creating an environment in which men could live and work on the sea floor.

A meeting with American television companies (ABC, Métromédia, NBC) created the series “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau”, with the character of the commander in the red bonnet inherited from standard diving dress intended to give the films a “personalized adventure” style. This documentary television series ran for ten years and a second documentary series, The Cousteau Odyssey, ran five more years on public television stations.

In 1975, John Denver released the tribute song “Calypso” on his album Windsong, and on the B-side of his hit song “I’m Sorry”. “Calypso” became a hit on its own and was later considered the new A-side, reaching #2 on the charts.

In 1977, together with Peter Scott, he received the UN International Environment prize.

On 28 June 1979, while the Calypso was on an expedition to Portugal, his second son Philippe, his preferred and designated successor and with whom he had co-produced all his films since 1969, died in a PBY Catalina flying boat crash in the Tagus river near Lisbon. Cousteau was deeply affected. He called his then eldest son, the architect Jean-Michel, to his side, a collaboration lasting for 14 years.

From 1980 to 1981, he was a regular on the animal reality show Those Amazing Animals, along with Burgess Meredith, Priscilla Presley, and Jim Stafford. And in 1985 received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

In 1992, he was invited to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the United Nations’ International Conference on Environment and Development, and then he became a regular consultant for the UN and the World Bank.

Reaching world-wide acclaim, Jacques-Yves Cousteau died of a heart attack on June 25, 1997 two weeks after his 87th birthday. He was buried in the family vault at Saint-André-de-Cubzac, his birthplace. An homage was paid to him by the town by naming the street which runs out to the house of his birth “rue du Commandant Cousteau”, where a commemorative plaque is placed.

Cousteau’s submarine rests near the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco.  His legacy includes more than 120 television documentaries, more than 50 books, sea diving inventions and an environmental protection foundation with 300,000 members. He liked to call himself an “oceanographic technician”, but was, in reality was a sophisticated showman, teacher, and lover of nature as his work permitted many people to explore the resources of the oceans.

His best legacy is the images and memories he gave us of the wonders of the ocean.

 

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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!!

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

 

Barbecue

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I’m soooo hungry from working on this. There’s nothing like a good barbecue. Unless it’s a good grilling out. Yes, there is a difference. Read on to find what that difference is. And don’t forget: plenty of napkins and carry your Tide Stick!  :)))

 

This past weekend, after the rain, wind and “felt like it was coming” snowstorm, I had a chance to relax a bit after helping the kids with some DIY projects at their homes.  Like most of us, I stood in the backyard, with my chicken grilling, and beverage of choice in hand, enjoying the wonderful aroma of barbequed chicken.  My results were delicious, although most of my grilling expertise comes from trial and error, not really knowing the inner secrets of great grilled barbeque chicken – marinades, high/low heat, cooking times, temperatures, resting time, etc.  So, I got on the internet and went hunting for some great chicken grilling tips and recipes – and of course, no surprise, there’s a ton of them.  I learned there’s a difference between “grilling” and “barbeque” and I found a fun site, girlsatthegrill.com filled with wonderful info, and also some great recipes, like picnic chicken, South American Chimichurri sauce, alfredo with grilled apples, and more (visit tasteofhome.com)  (man, just thinking about these is getting me hungry!!). Now, one of the best parts will be to see how many of these recipes can be used with other meats especially since one of my good buds doesn’t like chicken! Enjoy, and be sure to email me your favorite tips at skowalski@khtheat.com – and I’ll share with our readers.  Thanks to girlsatthegrill.com, tasteofhome.com, toriavey.com and YouTube for the info.  ENJOY!

The history of grilling begins shortly after the domestication of fire, some 500,000 years ago. The backyard ritual of grilling as we know it, though, is much more recent. Until well into the 1940s, grilling mostly happened at campsites and picnics. After World War II, as the middle class began to move to the suburbs, backyard grilling caught on, becoming all the rage by the 1950s.

A common misconception: grilling and barbecuing are not the same thing. While the terms are often used interchangeably, grilling and barbecuing are two very different cooking methods. Grilling is the most basic form of cooking—it is, quite simply, the method of cooking a food directly over an open flame or high heat source. Barbecue, on the other hand, is a low and slow method of cooking over indirect heat. Because of the long, slow cooking process, barbecued meat soaks up the smoky flavors and spice rubs, rendering the finished product moist and tender. Barbecue is more suited to bigger, tougher cuts of meat that do well with slow, even cooking (think brisket, tri-tip, ribs, and pulled pork). Grilling is reserved for foods that can cook more quickly—hamburgers, steaks, chicken, hot dogs, seafood and vegetables.

It’s impossible to pinpoint exactly where these cooking methods were first used. Anthropologists have never come to a consensus on when our earliest ancestors first learned to “cook” and prepare food. Current estimates place the advent of cooking anywhere between 2 million and 300,000 years ago—a pretty wide range.

Our American appreciation of barbecue has roots in the Caribbean. The word barbecue likely originated with the Caribbean Taino Indians, who would smoke or dry meat over a frame made of green sticks.

From its earliest Caribbean roots, barbecue settled in the state of Virginia, then moved south through North and South Carolina, Georgia, the Appalachians and into Tennessee and Kentucky. From there, barbecue moved westward as Americans began to settle the West. By the early 19th century, barbecue hit Texas (where it obviously made a big impression), then moved all through the Southwest before finally reaching the Pacific coastline. Today, barbecue is popular nationwide, but remains most culturally significant to the states of the South and West.

Barbecue also has strong ties to African American culture. Black communities in the South embraced barbecue as an affordable way to cook and enjoy meat, leading it to become one of several core soul food dishes. When migrating North in the early 1900’s, they brought barbecue with them. By the mid-century, barbecue restaurants run by black cooks and their families had cropped up in cities across the United States.

The direct descendant of that original American barbecue is Eastern Carolina-style pit barbecue, which traditionally starts with the whole hog and, after as many as fourteen hours over coals, culminates in a glorious mess of pulled pork doused with vinegar sauce and eaten on a hamburger bun, with coleslaw on the side.

Early colonial barbecues were often large group events – loud, unruly, and populated with heavy drinkers. (Glad to see we haven’t lost too much of the old-time traditions!)

It wasn’t until the 1890’s that barbecued foods became commercially available. As the popularity of barbecue grew, men who considered themselves to be barbecue experts recognized a market and began charging for their services during holidays and public ceremonies. At first, they cooked the food in temporary tents that could be moved from place to place. These barbecue tents eventually turned into permanent indoor structures, which became the earliest barbecue restaurants. While barbecue was fast becoming a commercial enterprise, backyard barbecues, often referred to as “cookouts,” saw a rise in popularity.

Over the years, regional variations developed, leaving us today with four distinct styles of barbecue.

  • Carolina-style has split into Eastern, Western and South Carolina-style, with variations largely in the sauce: South Carolina uses a mustard sauce; Western Carolina uses a sweeter vinegar-and-tomato sauce.
  • Memphis barbecue is probably what most of us think of when we think of BBQ — pork ribs with a sticky sweet-and-sour tomato-based mopping sauce.
  • Texas, being cattle country, has always opted for beef cooked “cowboy style” usually brisket, dry-rubbed and smoked over mesquite with a tomato-based sauce served on the side, almost as an afterthought.
  • Kansas City lies at the crossroads of BBQ nation. Fittingly, you’ll find a little bit of everything there — beef and pork, ribs and shoulder, etc. What brings it all together is the sauce: sweet-hot, tomato-based KC barbecue sauce is a classic in its own right, and the model for most supermarket BBQ sauces.

In suburban Chicago, George Stephen, a metalworker by trade and a tinkerer by habit, had grown frustrated with the flat, open brazier-style grills common at the time. Once he inherited controlling interest in the Weber Bros. Metal Spinning Co, a company best-known as a maker of harbor buoys, he decided the buoy needed some modification. He cut it along its equator, added a grate, used the top as a lid and cut vents for controlling temperature. The Weber grill was born, and backyard cooking has never been the same.

For those who like to “grill”, (no sauces) this comes from girlsatthegrill website – The Grilling Trilogy – The story of the holy trilogy of grilling (or Grilling Trilogy™ for short) is a simple one. Years ago, they developed this technique to use in grill trainings for chefs and food writers, teaching the techniques of grilling without the flourishes (of other flavors). Just oil, salt and pepper.

Oil is truly essential, and you don’t need to use very much. Coat all the outside surfaces with a thin layer of olive or vegetable oil. They prefer olive oil for everything, but you can use any kind of oil except butter because it burns easily. And remember, grilling is intrinsically low-fat and healthy because you aren’t frying or sautéing in oil or butter. If you don’t oil the food, it will dry out and become tasteless.

Likewise, salt is very important. It is a natural mineral, and used in moderation, and is the most important ingredient (besides the food itself) for great taste. There are a few things to keep in mind when cooking with salt. Season food with salt just before it goes on the grill, otherwise it will draw the juices to the surface of the meat. We want the juices to stay inside the meat so it is tender and juicy when we serve it. Start with a little and add to taste, as there is a fine line between just right and too much—it’s much easier to add than take away.

Notes on Salt: Use Kosher or sea salt for the grilling trilogy and everyday cooking. Splurge and buy Fleur de Sel (flower of salt—hand-raked once a year in France) for your table. The natural shape of the Fleur de sel salt crystals add a mild distinctive flavor and texture to salads, meat and vegetable dishes. But don’t stop there, try the Pink salt from Hawaii, Black salt from India, Grey salt from Brittany and any other salt you can find.

And last, but not least, pepper. Pepper is best freshly ground from a pepper mill or spice grinder every time you use it. The flavor that we get from pepper is propelled by the oils in the peppercorns, these oils dry up very quickly which is why already ground pepper has much less taste than freshly ground pepper.

Pepper Tip: Before putting the peppercorns in your pepper mill, put them in a dry sauté pan, stir occasionally and heat gently just until a wisp of smoke is present and you can smell the pepper. Remove and let cool before grinding. This is how you roast a spice to bring out the maximum flavor in the spice. You can do this with all whole spices before grinding them and they will all taste fresher and deeper in flavor. This is the same basic idea behind coffee roasting, and it’s up to you to decide how dark you like your spices—or coffee for that matter.

Have fun, experiment, and when you find something delicious, be sure to send it to us at KHT.

 

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

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!!

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

 

Memorial Day

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Get Out and Jungle

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Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!!  The zoo certainly is one of the most fun places to go. Read on to see why. Then go see for yourself!!!  

 

The weather here in NE Ohio has been absolutely amazing this past week.  Sunny skies, flowers in bloom, fresh air – all good for our post Covid activities. I started to think about all the cool places to go, and of course topping my list was our Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.  It’s a nationally renowned zoo, in an amazing setting – so fun to go strolling and visiting the animals. Jackie and I have visited on numerous occasions with our girls over the years, we are now looking forward to taking our grandchildren!  I looked on Wikipedia, and found a whole bunch of cool information on the history and development over the years (it’s kind of long, but great trivia).  For those who live nearby, be sure to visit, and for my out-of-town friends, it’s worth the trip (and also good for you to go to the zoo in your cities). Fun additional tidbit, this incredible zoo is free to residents of Cuyahoga County on Monday’s!  Enjoy, and be sure to talk to the animals I certainly have!

Fun Music Link while reading.

The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is a 183-acre zoo in Cleveland, Ohio. The Zoo is divided into several areas: Australian Adventure; African Savanna; Northern Wilderness Trek, The Primate, Cat & Aquatics Building, Waterfowl Lake, The RainForest, and the newly added Asian Highlands. Cleveland Metroparks Zoo has one of the largest collections of primates in North America, The Zoo is a part of the Cleveland Metroparks system.

The Zoo, originally named the Cleveland Zoological Park, first opened in 1882 at Wade Park where the Cleveland Museum of Art now stands, after Jeptha H. Wade donated 73-acres of land and 14 American deer to the City of Cleveland.  During its early years, the Zoo only held animals of local origin.

In 1907, the city of Cleveland moved the Zoo to its current location in Old Brooklyn, and the Zoo acquired its first elephant.  Today the Zoo’s official website states that it currently has 3,000 animal residents representing more than 600 different species.

Aside from walking, Zoo patrons may opt to ride the two “ZooTram” lines which shuttle visitors between the Welcome Plaza (near African Elephant Crossing) and the Primate, Cat & Aquatics Building; and between the Welcome Plaza (near the food court) and the Northern Trek.

The RainForest, opened in 1992, is one of the most popular exhibits at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. It is contained in a large, two-story building with over 2 acres of floor space, making it one of the largest indoor tropical environments in the world. The RainForest boasts more than 10,000 plants and over 600 animals from the tropical regions of Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The opening of the RainForest also introduced the Metroparks Zoo’s first permanent reptile collection since the flooding in 1959.

Cleveland Metroparks Zoo’s newer exhibit, African Elephant Crossing, opened on May 5, 2011. Spread over five acres of lightly wooded grasslands, African Elephant Crossing features two large yards for roaming, ponds for swimming, expanded sleeping quarters and a heated outdoor range. The naturalistic habitat is capable of housing up to 10 elephants at a time, including at least one bull and eventually calves. African Elephant Crossing is also home to meerkats, naked mole rats, an African rock python and a spectacular collection of colorful birds.

Willy, the first adult male elephant in Cleveland since 1962, has one tusk and is also the largest animal ever on exhibit at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo at 11-feet tall at the shoulder and 13,000 pounds.

The major animal of the Rainforest is the Bornean orangutan, of which the zoo has four: male Tiram and females Kera Wak, Kayla, and Merah. Merah is the most recent Orangutan baby at the zoo, born in 2014 to Tiram and Kera Wak.

Animals contained in the RainForest include: Straw colored fruit bats, Rodrigues flying foxes, giant anteaters, capybaras, scarlet ibis, prehensile-tailed porcupines, White faced whistling ducks, two-toed sloths, Asian water monitors, Ocelots, Clouded leopards, Ringed teals, green and black poison arrow frogs, macaws, Mouse deer, a reticulated python, green vine snakes, Roseate spoonbills, batagur turtles, Asian small-clawed otters, François’ langurs, extremely rare fishing cats, and several gharials as well as invertebrates, amphibians, turtles, and a Dwarf crocodile.

As part of Cleveland Metroparks Zoo’s focus on conservation, the Zoo constructed the Steffee Center for Zoological Medicine in September 2004. The center hosts medical, laboratory and surgical suites, in addition to a ward and quarantine area. Its veterinary hospital is equipped with the first CT scanner for use in a zoo hospital.

In 2011, the Zoo opened its new elephant exhibit, African Elephant Crossing. At a total cost of $25 million, the state of the art habitat quadrupled the elephants’ living space, allowing the zoo to increase its number of African elephants from three, to a herd of eight to ten. The exhibit features two large ranges—the Savanna and the Mopani—spread out over several acres. The ranges include deep ponds so that the elephants can swim, as well as expanded sleeping quarters. Periodically throughout the day, the elephants are shepherded across the pathway between the ranges, allowing visitors an up-close view of the animals. In addition to expanding the number of African elephants, the African Elephant Crossing exhibit introduced meerkats, naked mole rats, an African rock python and several species of birds.

The African Savanna area is located near the park entrance. Visitors can observe African lions, flamingos, giraffes, zebras, bontebok, a variety of African birds, black rhinos, Slender horned gazelles, and colobus monkeys. the African elephant crossing contains elephants and meerkats. In 2018, a baby rhino, named Lulu, was born to parents Forrest and Kibbibi.  On August 20 of the same year, another baby rhino, named Nia, was born to parents Forrest and Inge.
The Australian Adventure area is an 8-acre (3.2 ha) exhibit designed to resemble the Australian outback. It is home to wallaroos, kangaroos, Emu and wallabies that roam freely throughout Wallaby Walkabout.

Located in Koala Junction, Gum Leaf Hideout is home to the zoo’s collection of bettongs, koalas, Matschie’s tree-kangaroos, and short-beaked echidnas.

Modeled after a traditional 19th-century sheep station, the Reinberger Homestead offers Zoo visitors a look into Australian home life. The area contains animatronics of a koala and Kookaburra, who speak about the culture.

Designed to replicate the Australian outback, Wallaby Walkabout features winding paths that visitors share with kangaroos, wallabies, and wallaroos during the months of April through October.  The landscape includes vegetation intended to be consumed by the animals. Families can also take a train ride through the exhibit.

The artificial, 55 foot tall Baobab known as the Yagga Tree is the star of Australian Adventure. It contains exhibits for a prehensile-tailed skink, a cane toad, and a sugar glider, as well as another animatronic, this time a crocodile named Wooly Bill.

The Wilderness Trek area is home to cold climate animals such as Siberian tigers, grizzly bears, Tufted deer, Reindeer, the endangered Persian onager, and Red crowned cranes which remain active outdoors year-round. The California sea lion/harbor seal exhibits feature large pools for visitors to observe the animals at play. The Metroparks Zoo also contains one of the largest collections of bear species in North America, including grizzly bears, Andean bears, Malayan sun bears, North American black bears, and sloth bears.  On January 14, 2019 a female sloth bear named Shive gave birth to a female cub named Shala. Shala was the first sloth bear cub born at the zoo in 30 years

Wolf Wilderness gives visitors a comprehensive look into the environment and wildlife of a northern temperate forest. Wolf Wilderness is one of the principal North American habitats at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. The exhibit consists of the Wolf Lodge, a large woodland enclosure for the wolves, a 65,000-gallon pond, and panoramic viewing rooms.

The first exhibit room is dedicated to the six Mexican gray wolves contained in a vast, wooded area directly behind the Wolf Lodge. Zoo patrons can observe the wolves through a large viewing room with floor-to-ceiling windows, which look out into the habitat. Although visitors can also view the wolves from this room, the principal exhibits are the Canadian beaver habitat, the 65,000-US-gallon (250,000 l; 54,000 imp gal) freshwater pond, and the Zoo’s collection of bald eagles.[32] The Canadian beaver habitat features an artificial beaver dam with cross-sectional windows that grant visitors a chance to view the beavers’ nest within.

Asian Highlands opened June 12, 2018. This exhibit features expanded habitats for snow leopards, Amur leopards, and red pandas, and also includes takins on April 22, 2018 three snow leopard cubs were born.

Opened originally as the Primate & Cat Building in 1975, the Primate, Cat & Aquatics Building houses one of the largest collections of primate species in North America,[38] including western lowland gorillas, New World monkeys, aye-ayes, and several species of lemur. However, the building does not house the Zoo’s entire primate population; numerous primate species can also be found in the Rain Forest.

In 1985, the Cleveland Aquarium permanently closed and donated its collection of exotic fishes and invertebrates to the Metroparks Zoo.  A section of the Primate & Cat building was renovated to accommodate the new Aquatics section, which currently features 35 salt- and freshwater exhibits include piranhas, a giant Pacific octopus, electric eels, fish and hundreds of living coral.

The zoo’s slowest resident, the Aldabra giant tortoise, can be found in the enclosure directly across from its fastest resident, the cheetah. Several of the tortoises are over one-hundred years old.

The marshy shallows of Waterfowl Lake are home to Chilean flamingos, Black swan, and Canvasback ducks, trumpeter swans. During the summer months, Müller’s gibbons and lemurs populate the lake’s islands, and use ropes suspended above the water to navigate between them. Visitors can observe predatory birds such as Andean condors and Steller’s sea eagles in-flight within towering, outdoor flight cages on the lake’s eastern shore. The nearby Public Greenhouse contains hundreds of tropical plant species in addition to a seasonal butterfly exhibit.  Waterfowl Lake is also the site of Wade Hall, one of the oldest zoo buildings in North America. Today, the hall serves as a Victorian ice cream parlor for Pierre’s Ice Cream Company.

The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is one of five city zoos in Ohio. The ‘Buckeye State’ has been referred to as a “Zoo State”, as only California rivals Ohio in the sheer number of options zoogoers have for visiting reputable zoos.

A 2014 “Top Ten” ranking of the nation’s zoos by USA Today (based on data provided by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums) recognized the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo for being nominated for the USA Today award. Three other Ohio zoos were nominated and won awards for the ‘Best US Zoo’ contest: the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden and the Toledo Zoo.

Arguably the most famous animal resident in the Cleveland Metropark Zoo’s history, Timmy attained greater fame as a very prolific sire at the Bronx Zoo. Although, he was known as the “dud stud” at the Cleveland zoo, he proved to be quite virile after he arrived at the Bronx Zoo on loan. Timmy was managed indoors in human care for 25 years before being sent on breeding loan to the Wildlife Conservation Society’s main campus and headquarters at the Bronx Zoo.

The move was highly controversial. The consideration of separating Timmy from his companion Kate, was met with much protest by animal rights activists and was the subject of a federal court case.

However, Timmy went on to sire more than 13 offspring in New York, many of whom were conceived in the Bronx Zoo’s state-of-the-art Congo Gorilla Forest exhibit, which opened after his arrival in New York City.

Cleveland Metroparks Zoo’s annual fall event, “Boo at the Zoo”, takes place in October. Visitors can observe the various cold weather animals that still roam outside, and are encouraged to wear costumes to the park.[50] The Boo at the Zoo event is a safe Halloween option that offers animal shows, live performances, and other fall-related activities.

In Spring 2015, the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo opened a new reception event center, Stillwater Place. Offering scenic views of nearby Waterfowl Lake and a capacity of up to 300 guests, Stillwater Place is open year-round and caters to many occasions, such as weddings, birthdays, reunions and more.

 

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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!!

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

 

Road Trip!

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Back when there were 15 stars & stripes on our glorious flag, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned Captain Meriwether Lewis & Second Lieutenant William Clark on an expedition that would change our country forever.  Wouldn’t it be great to have seen the country back in those times? Some of the paintings above give a flavor of the beauty and how tough the going really was. And thanks to that expedition, I can use a car to take my family to see our beautiful US of A.  :))  Really interesting read.

 

Ever go for a walk, a run, or jump in the car and head off, not really knowing what’s ahead, or where you’ll end up?  I do, and really love the “unknown”. Back in the very early days of our Nation, it was called an expedition.  No, not the car – the old-fashioned kind, where incredibly brave men (and women) packed up their stuff, gathered up some wagons, boats, grub and strong animals and started exploring.  No maps, no GPS – just a direction – talk about a PIA (Pain in the @%$) Job!  On the surface, it seems pretty reasonable, right … “hey guys, just go in this direction and see where it takes you”.  As a kid, I used to love exploring the neighborhoods on my bike – go down a new street, find a different way home, cut through some woods or just peddle around looking for some of my buds.  Not much risk involved really. Dad and Mom on the other hand would take the family (all of us!) on incredible driving road trips, eventually a few of my siblings have actually been to all 50 states! But when the President of the United States says he’s looking for “the most direct and practicable water communication across this continent, for the purposes of commerce”, and commissions your team to go … well, I guess you go.  Today marks the day when The Corps of Discovery departed from Camp Dubois (Camp Wood) at 4 pm on May 14, 1804. Under William Clark’s command, they traveled up the Missouri River in their keelboat and two pirogues to St. Charles, Missouri, where Meriwether Lewis joined them six days later. The expedition set out the next afternoon, May 21, where as many as 45 members, including the officers, enlisted military personnel, civilian volunteers, and support team headed West.  Here is just some of the history provided on Wikipedia – it’s fascinating!  I left in a lot of the links, as the story has so many “legs” to it. Enjoy.  And get on your bike this weekend and go exploring!

The Lewis and Clark Expedition from August 31, 1803, to September 25, 1806, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select group of U.S. Army and civilian volunteers under the command of Captain Meriwether Lewis and his close friend Second Lieutenant William Clark. The expedition made its way westward, and crossed the Continental Divide of the Americas before reaching the Pacific Coast.

President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the expedition shortly after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 to explore and to map the newly acquired territory, to find a practical route across the western half of the continent, and to establish an American presence in this territory before European powers attempted to establish claims in the region. The campaign’s secondary objectives were scientific and economic: to study the area’s plants, animal life, and geography, and to establish trade with local Native American tribes.

For years, Thomas Jefferson read accounts about the ventures of various explorers in the western frontier, and consequently had a long-held interest in further exploring this mostly unknown region of the continent. In the 1780s, while Minister to France, Jefferson met John Ledyard in Paris and they discussed a possible trip to the Pacific Northwest. Jefferson had also read Captain James Cook‘s A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean (London, 1784), an account of Cook’s third voyage, and Le Page du Pratz’s The History of Louisiana (London, 1763), all of which greatly influenced his decision to send an expedition.

Two years into his presidency, Jefferson asked Congress to fund an expedition through the Louisiana territory to the Pacific Ocean. He did not attempt to make a secret of the Lewis and Clark expedition from Spanish, French, and British officials, but rather claimed different reasons for the venture. He used a secret message to ask for funding due to poor relations with the opposition Federalist Party in Congress (wow, what a surprise – funding battles in Washington). Congress subsequently appropriated $2,324 for supplies and food, (that’s it? – obviously a Kowalski was not on the food list) the appropriation of which was left in Lewis’s charge.

In 1803, Jefferson commissioned the Corps of Discovery and named Army Captain Meriwether Lewis its leader, who then invited William Clark to co-lead the expedition with him. Lewis demonstrated remarkable skills and potential as a frontiersman, and Jefferson made efforts to prepare him for the long journey ahead as the expedition was gaining approval and funding.

Jefferson explained his choice of Lewis: (I love this description) “It was impossible to find a character who to a complete science in botany, natural history, mineralogy & astronomy, joined the firmness of constitution & character, prudence, habits adapted to the woods & a familiarity with the Indian manners and character, requisite for this undertaking. All the latter qualifications Capt. Lewis has.”

A keelboat used for the first year of the journey was built near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 1803 at Lewis’s specifications. The boat was completed on August 31 and was immediately loaded with equipment and provisions. Lewis and his crew set sail that afternoon, traveling down the Ohio River to meet up with Clark near Louisville, Kentucky in October 1803 at the Falls of the Ohio. Their goals were to explore the vast territory acquired by the Louisiana Purchase and to establish trade and US sovereignty over the Native Americans along the Missouri River. Jefferson also wanted to establish a US claim of “discovery” to the Pacific Northwest and Oregon territory by documenting an American presence there before European nations could claim the land.

Jefferson’s instructions to the expedition stated: “The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River, & such principle stream of it, as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado or any other river may offer the most direct & practicable water communication across this continent for the purpose of commerce.”

The US mint prepared special silver medals with a portrait of Jefferson and inscribed with a message of friendship and peace, called Indian Peace Medals. The soldiers were to distribute them to the tribes that they met. The expedition also prepared advanced weapons to display their military firepower. Among these was an Austrian-made .46 caliber Girandoni air rifle, a repeating rifle with a 20-round tubular magazine that was powerful enough to kill a deer. The expedition was prepared with flintlock firearms, knives, blacksmithing supplies, and cartography equipment and also carried flags, gift bundles, medicine, and other items that they would need for their journey.

The route of Lewis and Clark’s expedition took them up the Missouri River to its headwaters, then on to the Pacific Ocean via the Columbia River, and it may have been influenced by the purported transcontinental journey of Moncacht-Apé . Jefferson had a copy of Le Page’s book in his library detailing Moncacht-Apé’s itinerary, and Lewis carried a copy with him during the expedition. Le Page’s description of Moncacht-Apé’s route across the continent neglects to mention the need to cross the Rocky Mountains, (oops, a small detail) and it might be the source of Lewis and Clark’s mistaken belief that they could easily carry boats from the Missouri’s headwaters to the westward-flowing Columbia.

From St. Charles, the expedition followed the Missouri through what is now Kansas City, Missouri, and Omaha, Nebraska. On August 20, 1804, Sergeant Charles Floyd died, among the first to sign up with the Corps of Discovery and was the only member to die during the expedition. He was buried at a bluff by the river, now named after him, in what is now Sioux City, Iowa..

During the final week of August, Lewis and Clark reached the edge of the Great Plains During the expedition, the group established relations with about two dozen Indian nations, without whose help the expedition would have risked starvation during the harsh winters or become hopelessly lost in the vast ranges of the Rocky Mountains.

After the expedition had set up camp, nearby Indians came to visit in fair numbers, some staying all night. For several days, Lewis and Clark met in council with Mandan chiefs. Here they met a French-Canadian fur trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau, and his young Shoshone wife Sacagawea. Charbonneau at this time began to serve as the expedition’s translator. Peace was established between the expedition and the Mandan chiefs with the sharing of a Mandan ceremonial pipe.

By April 25, Captain Lewis wrote his progress report of the expedition’s activities and observations of the Native American nations they have encountered to date: A Statistical view of the Indian nations inhabiting the Territory of Louisiana, which outlined the names of various tribes, their locations, trading practices, and water routes used, among other things. President Jefferson would later present this report to Congress.

They followed the Missouri to its headwaters, and over the Continental Divide at Lemhi Pass. In canoes, they descended the mountains by the Clearwater River, the Snake River, and the Columbia River, past Celilo Falls, and past what is now Portland, Oregon, at the meeting of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers. Lewis and Clark used William Robert Broughton’s 1792 notes and maps to orient themselves once they reached the lower Columbia River. The sighting of Mount Hood confirmed that the expedition had almost reached the Pacific Ocean.

The expedition sighted the Pacific Ocean for the first time on November 7, 1805, arriving two weeks later, where the expedition faced its second bitter winter camped on the north side of the Columbia River, in a storm-wracked area. Lack of food was a major factor. The elk, the party’s main source of food, had retreated from their usual haunts into the mountains, and the party was now too poor to purchase enough food from neighboring tribes.

On the south side of the Columbia River, 2 miles upstream on the west side of the Netul River (now Lewis and Clark River), they constructed Fort Clatsop. They did this not just for shelter and protection, but also to officially establish the American presence there, with the American flag flying over the fort. During the winter at Fort Clatsop, Lewis committed himself to writing and was determined to remain at the fort until April 1 but was still anxious to move out at the earliest opportunity. By March 22, the stormy weather had subsided and the following morning, on March 23, 1806, the journey home began.

They made their way to Camp Chopunnish in Idaho, along the north bank of the Clearwater River, where the members of the expedition collected 65 horses in preparation to cross the Bitterroot Mountains, lying between modern-day Idaho and western Montana. However, the range was still covered in snow, which prevented the expedition from making the crossing.

As the expedition encountered the various Native American tribes during the course of their journey, they observed and recorded information regarding their lifestyles, customs and the social codes they lived by, as directed by President Jefferson. By western standards, the Native American way of life seemed harsh and unforgiving as witnessed by members of the expedition.

One of the primary customs that distinguished Native American cultures from those of the West was that it was customary for the men to take on two or more wives if they were able to provide for them and often took on a wife or wives who were members of the immediate family circle. Sacagawea, sometimes called Sakajawea or Sakagawea was a Shoshone Native American woman who arrived with her husband Toussaint Charbonneau on the expedition to the Pacific Ocean.

On February 11, 1805, a few weeks after her first contact with the expedition, Sacagawea went into labor which was slow and painful, so the Frenchman Charbonneau suggested she be given a potion of rattlesnake’s rattle to aid in her delivery (yum – Lewis luckily happened to have some snake’s rattle with him). A short time after administering the potion, she delivered a healthy boy who was given the name Jean Baptiste Charbonneau. Sacagawea was not the guide for the Expedition, but was important to them as an interpreter and in other ways, as she played an important role in diplomatic relations by talking to chiefs, easing tensions, and giving the impression of a peaceful mission.

The Corps met their objective of reaching the Pacific, mapping and establishing their presence for a legal claim to the land. They established diplomatic relations and trade with at least two dozen indigenous nations. They did not find a continuous waterway to the Pacific Ocean but located an Indian trail that led from the upper end of the Missouri River to the Columbia River which ran to the Pacific Ocean. They gained information about the natural habitat, flora and fauna, bringing back various plant, seed and mineral specimens. They mapped the topography of the land, designating the location of mountain ranges, rivers, and the many Native American tribes during their journey. They also learned and recorded much about the language and customs of the Indian tribes they encountered, and brought back many of their artifacts, including bows, clothing and ceremonial robes.

Detailed timeline

 

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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!!

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

Mother’s Day

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I THANK YOU FROM DEEP IN MY HEART

FOR ALL YOU’VE DONE FOR ME

AND I BLESS THE LORD FOR GIVING ME

THE BEST MOTHER THERE COULD BE!

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY

WE LOVE YOU!!

Thanks to Town&Country Magazine for publishing these great quotes.

See all 30 HERE.

 

 

 

 

 

“All Can Make Cones”

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I don’t suppose all those small humans pictured above really care how the ice cream cone is made—but I do.  :)))))  Read on my friends!!!

 

Ice cream.  It’s awesome – in bowls is good with syrup and peanuts and dash of whipped cream. But I think the most fun is in a cone.  No matter your age, there’s just nothing like shaping, licking and spinning a cone, catching the drips and savoring the deliciousness.  As a “foodie”, I have pretty much tried every flavor out there – maple walnut (not a favorite), superman, cherry chocolate chip, moose tracks and of course good old vanilla.  Ben & Jerry have had fun with names and mixtures, but I think my favorite is vanilla, because it goes with everything! Stopping in the supermarket aisle, I’m amazed at the variety in container size and different taste choices.  And then there’s the cones – for me it’s a toss-up – traditional or waffle.  I saw online that today marks a great day in history linked to the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis.  Officially named the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, it has become a uniquely powerful magnet for food origin stories, including the hamburger, the hot dog, peanut butter, iced tea, the club sandwich and cotton candy. All have been alleged to have been invented on the fairgrounds in St. Louis in 1904, or at least popularized there. But none of them actually were.  There is one classic American food item, however, whose origins truly are linked to the 1904 Fair: the ice cream cone. Despite dramatic tales of quick-witted ice cream vendors running out of cups and rolling waffles into improvised cones, this is a story about good old-fashioned hustle, the ambition of newly arrived immigrants seeking their fortunes…and, of course, plenty of lawyers. How much more all-American could a food story be?  Here’s a detailed video and detailed history.  Enjoy the read, and thanks to YouTube and seriouseats.com for the info.

How to Make Ice Cream Cone Inside the Factory
And Check This Out!

  • Antecedents to the ice cream cone certainly existed long before 1904. People had been eating ice cream from various cone-like containers for decades; they just didn’t eat the containers themselves.
  • Way back in 1807, Philibert-Louis Debucourt created an etching called The Interior of the Café Frascati, which shows, alongside elegant Parisians enjoying lemonade and punch, a woman lifting to her mouth an oddly spiral-shaped utensil, containing what might very well be ice cream. Culinary historian Robin Weir claims that this is the first pictorial evidence of an ice cream cone, and he might be right. (it could also be a really ugly spoon or the world’s first corn dog).
  • As ice cream grew in popularity in the 19th century, roving vendors began selling it on city streets in a variety of cups and containers, including cone-shaped glass utensils and the notoriously unsanitary “penny licks” —tiny stemmed glasses in which ices were sold at the British seashore and on London streets.
  • One of the earliest alternatives to the penny lick was “hokey-pokey,” devised by immigrant street vendors in London in the 1870s. A British journal described hokey-pokey as “a coarse kind of Neapolitan ice” made with a blend of one part water to two parts milk, sweetened and thickened with sugar and cornstarch. The mixture was frozen, pressed into rectangular molds, then cut into slices and wrapped in white paper, to be sold from vendors’ carts.
  • In both England and the US, Italian immigrants dominated the urban ice cream trade, and innovations within it.  In 1901, Antonio Valvona, an Italian citizen living in Manchester, England, filed a patent for an “Apparatus for Baking Biscuit Cups for Ice Cream.” The device was designed for baking “dough or paste…composed of the same materials as are employed in the manufacture of biscuits [that is, cookies], and when baked the said cups or dishes may be filled with ice-cream, which can then be sold by the venders of ice-cream in public thoroughfares or other places.”
  • The following year, Valvona teamed up with Frank Marchiony, an Italian immigrant in New York, to form the Valvona-Marchiony Company, which produced the patented cups and the ice cream sold in them. Valvona operated the firm’s factory in the UK, while Marchiony ran the American operations, first on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and then in Brooklyn as trade grew.
  • By 1904, Marchiony had advanced from pushing a solo street cart to operating “two big wafer and ice cream factories” and a fleet of 200 carts, according to a newspaper profile at the time. But Marchiony’s carts had plenty of competition on the streets of Manhattan, including from those of his cousin, Italo Marchiony, who had worked for the Valvona-Marchiony Company briefly, but by 1903 had established a rival ice cream firm. In September of that year, Italo Marchiony filed a patent for his own “molding apparatus used in the manufacture of ice cream cups and the like.”
  • Italo’s innovation, he claimed, was that his design made it possible to mold biscuit paste “in particular and unusual shapes” that were not possible before due to “the delicacy of the substance molded and the difficulty of forming and extracting the same from the molds.” Unlike Valvona’s two-part mold, which had a hinged top and bottom that closed like a clamshell.
  • And that’s where things stood on the eve of the St. Louis World’s Fair. People were eating ice cream from edible containers, but nothing that anyone today would consider an ice cream cone.
  • One thing we know for sure: Visitors at the World’s Fair ate plenty of ice cream in cones—or cornucopias, as they were called at the time. Mrs. F. M. Hicklin wrote home to her family in South Carolina that the “waffle cornucopia filled with ice cream” was a treat widely enjoyed on “the Pike”—the Exposition’s version of a midway, a mile-long strip lined with cafes, amusements, and food concessions.
  • The long cones have waffled sides and pointed bottoms, and they appear to resemble the molded type of waffle cone familiar to us today instead of just a rolled-up waffle. This suggests that the confection was neither an improvised creation from a waffle stand nor a product of Valvona’s or Italo Marchiony’s biscuit-cup mold.
  • Some suspect that it wasn’t the work of last-minute desperation, but rather a dodge to get around restrictive concessionaire licensing.  To sell any sort of item—from jewelry and souvenirs to food and beverages—vendors had to apply to and be accepted by the Exposition’s Division of Concessions and Amusements. The competition was stiff, for there was a fortune to be made from selling snacks and drinks to daily crowds of 35,000 or more captive customers.
  • All we know for sure is that the ice cream cornucopia had been introduced to America, and it was about to become an even bigger hit than it had been at the Exposition.
  • By May 1904, newspapers from Florida to North Dakota were running ads and articles that referenced “Cornucopia Ice Cream Sandwiches.” Many noted that the trendy new product had originated on the Pike in St. Louis.
  • In August, the Macon Telegraph profiled the Cornucopia Waffle Oven Company of St. Louis, which had just been awarded the cone concession for the Tri-State Fair in Georgia. “This company is introducing a new novelty for serving ice cream,” the paper reported. “They were first introduced at the great world’s fair at St. Louis and immediately, on account of its daintiness and neatness, became the most popular confection and have proven equally so in the East, and especially at the parks at Coney Island, Atlantic City, Chicago and various other famous resorts.” The ice cream cone had arrived.
  • Back in Brooklyn, Frank Marchiony’s business at the Valvona-Marchiony Company was thriving. A profile that year in the Brooklyn Eagle reported that Marchiony was “constantly adding to the plant” and that Valvona-Marchiony had become “the largest manufacturer of the kind in the United States.”
  • In the now-booming ice cream cone market, the Valvona-Marchiony Company had a valuable asset: Antonio Valvona’s patent for his “apparatus for baking biscuit cups.” The firm landed a big victory in 1905 when a federal judge sustained the validity of Valvona’s patent and ordered a competitor named D’Adamo to cease using his version of the device, which the judge declared to be “identical with the complainant’s, except in a trifling detail.”
  • In 1910, the Valvona-Marchiony Company’s lawyers started going after competitors selling cone-shaped containers, too, slapping patent infringement suits against companies from Missouri to Ohio to Indiana. Marchiony hired private detectives in Pittsburgh to infiltrate the Star Wafer Company’s factory and identify what they claimed were copycat baking molds. On July 10, 1910, Frank Marchiony even filed suit against his own cousin, Italo, who had since moved out to Hoboken, New Jersey, and was operating a large factory with his own patented molds.
  • In a surprising twist, the federal court in New Jersey ruled that Italo Marchiony’s patent was invalid and infringed upon his cousin’s firm. “Structurally and functionally the devices are substantially alike,” the judge determined, then added insult to injury by stating that “the defendant [Marchiony] never invented a single detail of the apparatus in question.” Italo was ordered to discontinue production and pay damages, but his lawyers secured a stay as they appealed the decision.
  • The Federal Court of Appeals in Philadelphia settled the matter once and for all in 1914, in a case that subsumed the Italo Marchiony appeal and that of many other manufacturers. The judge took a narrow reading of Valvona’s patent, concluding that his innovation was limited to details of the mold’s design related to heat conduction (now that’s something we love here at KHT) and in no way prevented others from creating other types of baking molds.
  • “All Can Make Cones!” the International Confectioner trade journal jubilantly declared. The Valvona patent became essentially useless, and the American ice cream cone industry has never looked back.
  • Curiously enough, none of the records from the many court cases make any reference to the St. Louis World’s Fair, and none of the defendants purported to have invented the ice cream cone by rolling up a waffle. It wasn’t until more than a decade after the Fair that people starting making such claims. Almost all the tellings involve an element of drama—typically, an ice cream vendor runs out of cups, or guests start ruining their clothes as they eat melting ice cream with spoons, and some crafty person saves the day with a rolled-up waffle.
  • With so many competing after-the-fact stories and so little tangible evidence, it seems unlikely that we’ll ever know who came up with the ice cream cone. Maybe the real lesson from this story is that the certainty and drama we crave in food histories—the idea that a single person had to have been the first, and that their invention was made in a flash of brilliance to solve an immediate emergency—what we here at KHT proudly call “solving you most pressing PIA (pain in the @%$) Jobs!”

 

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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!!

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

Bierernst & Ninkasi

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I had a dream the other night after finishing this week’s blog post. I combined my love of beer with my love for my logo. I know, crazy right? Anyhow, any bar, restaurant, or back yard party I went to, people were drinking my beer… And loving it!!!!!  So I had some mockups made of the bottle label from my dream and put them on a brown bottle and a green bottle. (I like the brown bottle.) Then I thought I’d have different colored bottle caps for the different types of beers: Ales, Stout, Wheat, Lager, Porter, etc.  And in my dream I had 14 beer & brats trucks to go to local fairs and other events!!  Ha!!!  Not only that, I had a fleet of tankers that look like beer cans transporting my beers all over the country. Cool, huh.  Then there’s my beer taster, Dingo. Nothing goes out the door unless Dingo says so. (Dingo also protects the beer recipes.) Whacky dream, right? But so much fun. What do you think of the beer’s name in my dream: “Kowalski’s World Famous Brewskis”? Should I make this a beer brand?? Let me know. I’m tempted…really tempted. And now I’m really thirsty. And really hungry.  :)))

A little song to get you in the mood to read on.

Now that I have “both my shots”, I thought it would finally be fun to get out a bit and reconnect with some of my good friends.  (I hope this is something you all are doing as well).  After many text message exchanges, we decided to get our “boy’s” group (Actually, we call it our “playgroup”!) together. You are never too old to have a great playgroup! We decided to get in an early season round of golf.  Challenged by the NE Ohio weather, we caught a brisk, bright sunny day and enjoyed “knocking” the ball around (some good pars, bogies, doubles and yes, some not so good “snowmen”) Talk about a PIA (pain in the @%$) Job! All told, I have to admit – it was a blast.  Not having the opportunity to visit together for almost a year, we wrapped up our round and met in the clubhouse afterwards to share some good laughs about our “flog” while catching up on family, kids, grandkids, work, “jabs” and more.  For those of you who understand golf, our “19th hole” of course included having a snack or two (or three) and a fresh, cool draft beverage.  Our attentive waitress passed around a menu filled with dozens of beer choices – light, dark, lagers, stouts, ales, porters, IPA’s – oh my!  Perhaps it was the setting, or the fun of seeing friends, but I must admit, my selection was immediately refreshing and delicious. It got me to thinking about why we still have beer as a beverage option and how popular this truly ancient beverage still is today.  I went exploring online and found some cool info on the history and early regulations of beer.  With so much history to write about, I picked some of my favorite nuggets to share, with lots of links to help you dig deeper.  Thanks to Wikipedia, NPR & heinonline.com. Enjoy, and next time on the links, be sure to finish up with a “cold one” and think of your buds at KHT.

  • Beer is one of the oldest drinks humans have produced. The first chemically confirmed barley beer dates back to the 5th millennium BC in Iran and was recorded in the written history of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia before spreading throughout the world. Ancient Chinese artifacts suggest that beer was brewed with grapes, honey, hawthorns, and rice and produced as far back as 7,000 BC. (wonder if they played golf too??).
  • In Mesopotamia, the oldest evidence of beer is believed to be a 6,000-year-old Sumerian tablet depicting people consuming a drink through reed straws from a communal bowl. A 3,900-year-old Sumerian poem honoring Ninkasi, the patron goddess of brewing (of course there is a beer goddess!), contains the oldest surviving beer recipe, describing the production of beer from bread made from barley.
  • Beer became vital to all the grain-growing civilizations of Eurasian and North African antiquity, including Egypt—so much so that in 1868 James Death put forward a theory in The Beer of the Bible that the manna from heaven that God gave the Israelites was a bread-based, porridge-like beer called wusa. These beers were often thick, more of a gruel than a drink, and drinking straws were used by the Sumerians to avoid the bitter solids left over from fermentation.
  • Though beer was drunk in Ancient Rome, it was replaced in popularity by wine. Tacitus wrote disparagingly of the beer brewed by the Germanic peoples of his day. Their name for beer was brutos, or brytos. The Romans called their brew cerevisia, from the Celtic word for it.
  • It was discovered early that reusing the same container for fermenting the mash would produce more reliable results, so brewers on the move carried their tubs with them.
  • Beer was part of the daily diet of Egyptian pharaohs, made from baked barley bread, and was also used in religious practices. During the building of the Great Pyramids in Giza, Egypt, each worker got a daily ration of four to five liters of beer, which served as both nutrition and refreshment that was crucial to the pyramids’ construction. (Beer as nutrition – wonder if Jackie will buy that one??)
  • In 450BCE, Greek writer Sophocles discussed the concept of moderation when it came to consuming beer in Greek culture, and believed that the best diet for Greeks consisted of bread, meats, various types of vegetables, and beer (obvious these guys were golfers too!).
  • The use of hops in beer was written of in 822 by the Carolingian Abbot Adalard of Corbie. Flavoring beer with hops was known at least since the 9th century.  Hopped beer was perfected in the medieval towns of Bohemia by the 13th century. German towns pioneered a new scale of operation with standardized barrel sizes that allowed for large-scale export.
  • The use of hops spread to the Netherlands and then to England. In 15th century England, an unhopped beer would have been known as an ale, while the use of hops would make it a beer. Hopped beer was imported to England from the Netherlands as early as 1400 in Winchester, and hops were being planted on the island by 1428.
  • On this day, April 23,1516, William IV, Duke of Bavaria, adopted the Reinheitsgebot (purity law), perhaps the oldest food regulation still in use through the 20th century. The Gebot ordered that the ingredients of beer be restricted to water, barley, and hops.
  • Yeast was added to the list after Louis Pasteur‘s discovery in 1857. To this day, the Gebot is considered a mark of purity in beers, although this is controversial.
  • Recently excavated tombs indicate that the Chinese brewed alcoholic drinks from both malted grain and grain converted by mold from prehistoric times, (the resulting molded rice being (called Jiǔ qū in Chinese and Koji in Japanese)
  • Some Pacific island cultures ferment starch that has been converted to fermentable sugars by human saliva, similar to the chicha of South America. This practice is also used by many other tribes around the world, who either chew the grain and then spit it into the fermentation vessel or spit into a fermentation vessel containing cooked grain, which is then sealed up for the fermentation. Enzymes in the spittle convert the starch into fermentable sugars, which are fermented by wild yeast. Whether or not the resulting product can be called beer is sometimes disputed, but I’m guessing my foursome would pass on my “spittle” beer!
  • Asia’s first brewery was incorporated in 1855 (although it was established earlier) by Edward Dyer at Kasauli in the Himalayan Mountains in India under the name Dyer Breweries. The company still exists and is known as Mohan Meakin, today comprising a large group of companies across many industries.
  • The hydrometer transformed how beer was brewed. Before its introduction beers were brewed from a single malt: brown beers from brown malt, amber beers from amber malt, pale beers from pale malt. Using the hydrometer, brewers could calculate the yield from different malts. They observed that pale malt, though more expensive, yielded far more fermentable material than cheaper malts.
  • The invention of the drum roaster in 1817 by Daniel Wheeler allowed for the creation of very dark, roasted malts, contributing to the flavor of porters and stouts. Its development was prompted by a British law of 1816 forbidding the use of any ingredients other than malt and hops. Porter brewers, employing a predominantly pale malt grist, urgently needed a legal colourant. Wheeler’s patent malt was the solution.
  • In 1912, the use of brown bottles began to be used by Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the U.S. This innovation has since been accepted worldwide and prevents harmful rays from destroying the quality and stability of beer.
  • Modern breweries now brew many types of beer, ranging from ancient styles such as the spontaneously-fermented lambics of Belgium; the lagers, dark beers, wheat beers and more of Germany; the UK’s stouts, milds, pale ales, bitters, golden ale and new modern American creations such as chili beer, cream ale, and double India pale ales.
  • Today, the brewing industry is a huge global business, consisting of several multinational companies, and many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries. Advances in refrigeration, international and transcontinental shipping, marketing and commerce have resulted in an international marketplace, where the consumer has literally hundreds of choices between various styles of local, regional, national and foreign beers.
  • From my personal research, beer goes good with pretzels, chips, dip, crackers, pizza, wings, hot dogs, burgers, steak, spaghetti, cheese dip, nachos …. You?

Beer Mythology includes:

  • The Finnish epic Kalevala, collected in written form in the 19th century but based on oral traditions many centuries old, devotes more lines to the origin of beer and brewing than it does to the origin of mankind.
  • The mythical Flemish king Gambrinus (from Jan Primus (John I)), is sometimes credited with the invention of beer.
  • According to Czech legend, deity Radegast, god of hospitality, invented beer.
  • Ninkasi was the patron goddess of brewing in ancient Sumer.
  • The immense blood-lust of the fierce lioness Egyptian goddess Sekhmet was only sated after she was tricked into consuming an extremely large amount of red-colored beer (believing it to be blood): she became so drunk that she gave up slaughter altogether and became docile.
  • In Norse mythology the sea god Ægir, his wife Rán, and their nine daughters, brewed ale (or mead) for the gods. In the Lokasenna, it is told that Ægir would host a party where all the gods would drink the beer he brewed for them. He made this in a giant kettle that Thor had brought. The cups in Ægir’s hall were always full, magically refilling themselves when emptied. Ægir had two servants in his hall to assist him; Eldir [Fire-Kindler] and Fimafeng [Handy].
  • Recent Irish Mythology attributes the invention of beer to fabled Irishman Charlie Mops.

 

How does he do it???????

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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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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A Waaaaaaay Back

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I looove Baseball!!!!!  I love my logo, too.  :))))  Start counting contest friends.  So, I happened to find that photo, second from bottom. A guy’s son did this for school. (I think) He wanted to show the different insides of a softball, tee ball, Little League and Major League baseballs. Pretty cool, huh.  Lastly, I had this prototype made for the Kowalski team hat. Let me know what you think.  Happy reading!!

Isn’t it interesting how some everyday items have a “secret recipe” behind them – the colonel’s chicken, sauce for a Big Mac, Doubletree’s cookies, Heinz ketchup, Coca Cola, Bush’s Baked Beans, Hersey chocolate bar – I could go on, but getting very hungry.  One item that caught my attention recently is the Professional Baseball made by Rawlings Sporting Goods.  I came across this article in the Wall Street Journal, and just had to share.  I can remember as a kid cutting open a baseball, and unwinding it (golf balls too), and was amazed at the amount of string used – it just keeps going and going. According to Rawlings, it takes them about 10 days to make a major-league ball—but just don’t ask too many questions about the wool at its core.  Here’s some cool info, nice video courtesy of YouTube, and some fun facts.  Enjoy – and with baseball back in full swing (get it?) next time you are at the ballpark, you’ll have a better idea of what’s behind those long balls flying out of the stadium.  GO TRIBE!!
Cool video on how balls are made
Little baseball music to get in the mood

  • About 1.2 million major-league baseballs are made by Rawlings Sporting Goods that can pass inspection to achieve “pro” grade each year.  But a lot about the official ball is kept secret.  The exact color of red used for the laces? Proprietary. The kind of wool that encases the cork-and-rubber center? Confidential. The number of balls that fail to meet quality-control standards?  Don’t ask. (But if you must know, a committee appointed to study whether juiced balls led to the recent surge in home runs reported that only 55% pass inspection).
  • Here’s what Rawlings, the maker of the official balls since 1977, was willing to reveal about its product ahead of next Thursday’s Opening Day, when as many as 5,400 balls will be rubbed up for use by Major League Baseball’s 30 teams.
  • A baseball’s center is a multilayered formulation of cork and rubber that measures 1.37 inches in diameter—a little smaller than a golf ball.
  • The pill, as it’s known, is coated in a tacky adhesive and wound in three layers of wool, including one four-ply and two three-ply yarns. A fourth, and final, winding is done with a thin poly-cotton for a smooth finish to help the ball’s leather cover adhere to the fiber.
  • The factory in Costa Rica where all major-league balls are made isn’t open to the public, but Mike Thompson, Rawlings’s chief marketing officer, described portions of the operation.
  • The ball windings, he said, are done with proprietary machines Rawlings has devised over the years. After the pill is wrapped with each length of fiber, its circumference and weight are measured to ensure it falls within specifications.
  • According to MLB rules, a finished ball, including its leather cover, shall weigh not less than 5 ounces nor more than 5¼ ounces and measure not less than 9 inches nor more than 9¼ inches in circumference.
  • After the pills are fully wound with yarn and string, they’re ready for leather.
  • These days, the balls are clad in American cowhide, rather than the horsehide of the past. The leather is supplied by Tennessee Tanning Co., a Rawlings subsidiary located in Tullahoma, Tenn.
  •  Top-grain leather, the second-highest quality behind full-grain, is used to avoid blemishes and wrinkling, but not all of the hide is suitable.  “Belly leather stretches too much,” Mr. Thompson said. “The strongest is from the back area.”
  • The cover is made of two pieces of leather shaped like figure eights that fit together to make a sphere. Each panel is punched out with a hydraulic press fitted with a die that also perforates the perimeter with 108 holes to accommodate the ball’s laces.  The figure eights are weighed and cut into thin layers to meet thickness and weight requirements.
  • A single cowhide yields about 250 figure eights – meaning the hides of roughly 9,600 head of cattle are used each year to make MLB baseballs.
  • Before the final layer is attached, they’re moistened for a minimum of 20 minutes to make the leather more pliable.  The pills are tumbled in a container to lightly coat them with a tacky adhesive to hold the softened leather in place.
  • To hold the covers in place, the balls are then clamped into sewing vises in a large room where 300 to 400 workers, depending on the production schedule, hand-stitch the covers into place. The workers sew the leather panels together using pairs of 4-inch-long needles, each threaded with 110 inches of red lacing.
  • The operators sew with both hands at the same time, pulling thread through the holes and extending their arms up in the air. It’s a concert of arms.  It takes about 15 minutes to stitch each ball.
  • Afterward, the workers use a pick-like tool to align the stitches into the familiar formation of “vees,” and a final turn in a rolling machine ensures the seams are consistent.
  • The finished balls are then stamped with the MLB emblem, the commissioner’s signature and the Rawlings logo.  Start to finish, it takes about 10 days to make one ball.
  • On average, teams use seven dozen to 10 dozen balls a game, not including those used for batting or fielding practice.
  • A committee commissioned by MLB in 2020 studied the spike in home runs and concluded that small differences in the hand-sewn seams combined with the current style of hitting, which emphasizes launch angles to help lift hard-hit balls out of the park, were responsible for the rash of dingers.  To offset this trend, Rawlings confirmed it has loosened the tension of the first layer of wool wound around the pill to reduce its bounciness and shave a foot or two off the distance a long ball can travel.  While the adjustment could reduce the number of homers, so far in spring training, not much luck.

Special thanks to Jo Craven McGinty at the Wall Street Journal for the insights.

 Indians Baseball 1960’s

Wahoo Cleveland 2007

 

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

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!!

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

 

The glory and the promise…

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May the glory and the promise of this joyous time of year
bring peace and happiness to you and those you hold most dear.

And may Christ, Our Risen Savior, always be there by your side
to bless you most abundantly and be your loving guide.

— Author Unknown