Let’s Keep Trying

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(left column top to bottom) Remember hay fever season? If you can’t get relief from a box of Zyrtec you could at least have a lot of tissue on hand … or on head;  Do you live alone? This pillow buddy is for you;  New shoes? This cool device will save them;  This is how to clean small messes without bending over; The eco minded can collect rain water on the way to work;  Eye drop glasses. Brilliant!;  An extender for your umbrella will keep your nice clothes nice and dry;  Solve this Rubics cube in one turn;  Never be late for work with this anti-snooze feature for your alarm; (right column top to bottom)  Now be stylish and prepared for rain;  Ahh, the solar flashlight;  Hey, kids are cute and now they can help keep the floors dusted;  Pets can help with the dusting, too;  This device will keep your lipstick off your face;  This device will keep your hair out of your noodles;  And this device will cool your noodles;  The shoe brush;  The commuter’s nap hat;  And the head prop for office naps. All wonderfully stupid devices.

 

Running a 24-7 business, focused on solving our client’s PIA (pain in the @%$) Jobs!™ is a blast.  All of my teams understand the importance of thinking, problem solving, testing and retesting, and just trying different approaches until we get it just right.  I encourage everyone to “free their mind” and challenge the status quo. Although, Jackie often tells me that I should focus more! Sometimes we “nail it” early on, or end up with extra solutions that don’t quite have an application. Sometimes, the solutions are so close we think we’re there, only to get a curve ball when not expected.  I was wondering what we could do with those “extras” and found a group out of Japan, that not only encourages inventive thinking, but actually developed a whole movement for those inventions that make sense on paper, but most likely will never see the light of day.  It’s called Chindōgu (www.chindogu.com) – (translated means “unusual tool”) and the definition fits it perfectly … ideas that lie in that gray area – “not exactly useful, but somehow not altogether useless”.  So remember for that someone who has everything!  Just some of my favorites…

  • A combined household duster and cocktail-shaker, for the housewife who wants to reward herself as she is working along.
  • The all-day tissue dispenser (basically a toilet roll fixed on top of a hat) for hay fever sufferers.
  • Duster slippers for dogs and cats, so they can help out with the housework too.
  • The all-over plastic bathing costume, to enable people who suffer from aquaphobia to swim without coming into contact with water.
  • The baby mop outfit worn by babies, so that as they crawl around, the floor is cleaned.
  • And my “laugh out loud favorite” – a solar powered flashlight (stop and think about this for a second).

Chindōgu it turns out, is a prank originating from Japan, which is done by a person seemingly inventing ingenious everyday gadgets that seem like an ideal solution to a particular problem but are in fact nothing more than a useless gag.  And there are thousands of them.  So, for this week, I pulled together a little history, and some meaningless examples – ENJOY, and thank chindogu.com and Wikipedia for the info.

  • The movement was started by Kenji Kawakami, Japanese gadget guru extraordinaire and anarchic progenitor of chindogu, inventions that are almost completely useless, or to borrow Kawakami’s word, “unuseless.”
  • He has created more than 600 examples of chindogu — a made-up word literally meaning strange tools’ in Japanese — and has built an international cult following of thousands through his books about them and appearances on TV, the Internet, in magazine columns and museum exhibits.
  • But what exactly is a chindogu? They’re more easily defined by what they’re not: neither useful, political, patented, or for sale. But they are seemingly serviceable, certainly silly and always analog. Like Zen koans of invention, chindogu are designed to be both profound contradictions and simple tools to awaken the heart and mind.
  • Kawakami began dreaming up doodads in the 1980s while editing popular home shopping magazine Tsuhan Seikatsu and has since produced such unuseless wonders as the Solar-Powered Flashlight, the Rotating Spaghetti Fork and the Velcro Jogger. Yet he doesn’t own any patents and has never made a single yen by selling his creations.
  • Said Kawakami, “In the modern, digital world, everything is so quick,” he says, picking up paper and electronic dictionaries to illustrate. “With the electronic one, it only takes two seconds to find a word, but it gives us no mental or spiritual satisfaction. Yet if you use your own hands to find it, you can enjoy the process. It’s a spiritual act.”
  • There are roughly 8,000 chindogu practitioners in Japan and 1,000 overseas, their ages ranging from 10 to 70, according to Kawakami.
  • Good chindogu happens when – You don’t need to have it explained to you. It’s just in you. It shakes you in a funny way that you can’t help but get in touch with the basic human quality of being alive. “Cause when you’re laughing and smiling, you’re alive,” he says.
  • People outside Japan have had mixed reactions to chindogu. In North America, they’re viewed as amusing Japanese party gags, in Europe as a new art form, and in Hong Kong and Taiwan as potential moneymakers. But because of their universal appeal, Kawakami doesn’t see chindogu as ‘Japanese’ at all. “Being free is the most important thing in life. Chindogu is the symbol of freedom, a free soul is needed to think of chindogu, to think of stupid, crazy things. You can never do it with common sense alone.”

 

 

Those Who Play, Understand

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Golf is a game for all ages and skill levels. It’s a game where no one is booed, everyone gets a big cheer for an outstanding shot and we all feel the pain when we see a hit into the trees or a missed putt because of a blade of grass. It’s a great sport that way. Even when the best players find themselves in the sand, they muster their skills to figure out that PIA (pain in the @%$) Job! And win!

 

There are certain rules in life, and in sports.  Step over the line, and you are out of bounds.  Grab an opponent incorrectly, and you are holding.  Interfere with play, and the ref blows the whistle. Then there is Golf.  An odd name for sure, and truly an even odder sport to perfect. A friend of mine shared with me the fine insights listed below, and I just had to pass them along.  Many thanks to the millions of players over the centuries who helped compiled these words of wisdom and marvelous “rules to play by”.  Oftentimes life just makes you smile and laugh!

Enjoy, and may the sun shine on your game.

  1. Don’t buy a putter until you’ve had a chance to throw it.
  2. Never try to keep more than 300 separate thoughts in your mind during your swing. (my longtime foursome companion’s favorite … “get new friends”).
  3. When your shot has to carry over a water hazard, you can either hit one more club or two more balls.
  4. If you’re afraid a full shot might reach the green while the foursome ahead of you is still putting out, you have two options: you can immediately shank a lay-up or you can wait until the green is clear and top a ball halfway there.
  5. The less skilled the player, the more likely he is to share his ideas about your golf swing.
  6. No matter how bad you are playing, it is always possible to play worse.
  7. The inevitable result of any golf lesson is the instant elimination of the one critical unconscious motion that allowed you to compensate for all of your other swing errors.
  8. Everyone replaces his divot after a perfect approach shot.
  9. A golf match is a test of your skill against your opponents’ luck.
  10. It is surprisingly easy to hole a fifty-foot putt. For a 10.
  11. Counting on your opponent to inform you when he breaks a rule is like expecting him to make fun of his own haircut.
  12. Nonchalant putts count the same as chalant putts
  13. It’s not a gimme if you’re still 5 feet away.(but, pick it up anyway, and confidently walk to the cart)
  14. The shortest distance between any two points on a golf course is a straight line that passes directly through the center of a very large tree.
  15. You can hit a two-acre fairway 10% of the time and a two inch branch 90% of the time.
  16. If you really want to get better at golf, go back and take it up at a much earlier age.
  17. Since bad shots come in groups of three, just think of your fourth bad shot as the beginning of the next group of three.
  18. When you look up too early, causing an awful shot, you will always look down again at exactly the moment when you ought to start watching the ball, if you ever want to see it again.
  19. Every time a golfer makes a birdie, he must subsequently make two triple bogeys to restore the fundamental equilibrium of the universe.
  20. If you want to hit a 7 iron as far as Tiger Woods does, simply try to lay up just short of a water hazard.
  21. To calculate the speed of a player’s downswing, multiply the speed of his back-swing by his handicap; I.e., back-swing 20 mph , handicap 15, downswing = 300 mph.
  22. There are two things you can learn by stopping your back-swing at the top and checking the position of your hands: how many hands you have, and which one is wearing the glove.
  23. Hazards attract; fairways repel. Keep this in mind
  24. A ball you can see in the rough from 50 yards away is not yours.
  25. If there is a ball on the fringe and a ball in the bunker, your ball is in the bunker. If both balls are in the bunker, yours is the one buried in the footprint.
  26. It’s easier to get up at 6:00 AM to play golf than at 10:00 to mow the lawn.
  27. A good drive on the 18th hole has stopped many a golfer from giving up the game.
  28. Golf is the perfect thing to do on Sunday because you always end up having to pray a lot.
  29. A good golf partner is one who’s always slightly worse than you are….that’s why I get so many calls to play with friends
  30. If there’s a storm rolling in, you’ll be having the game of your life.
  31. Golf balls are like eggs. They’re white. They’re sold by the dozen. And you need to buy fresh ones each week.
  32. It’s amazing how a golfer who does any repair work around the house will replace his divots, repair his ball marks, and rake his sand traps.
  33. If your opponent has trouble remembering whether he shot a six or a seven, he probably shot an eight (or worse).
  34. It takes longer to learn to be a good golfer than it does to become a brain surgeon. On the other hand, you don’t get to ride around on a cart, drink beer, eat hot dogs, talk smack, tell bad jokes, and fool yourself you are good at this if you are performing Brain Surgery !!!!

 

 

 

The Big Game = Big Food

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Have the essentials on hand:
Remote? Check.
Plenty of napkins? Check.
Add food from these starter recipes and your favorite beverage. Now sit, watch, eat, cheer!! 

 

This weekend, we get to watch “the big game” – a tradition in our house.  And with it, of course, is what I like to call “big food” – and lots of it.  It’s a chance for me to go off my regiment a bit, and enjoy pretty much everything Jackie, the girls and I put out in the kitchen – old favorites, new flavors and new dishes.  Aside from the traditional chips, dips, snacks, chili, vegies, desserts, and of course, my favorite (any meatball variation on the end of a toothpick or in a bowl!) I like to go looking for some recipes we may have not seen or tried before.  Touchdown!! – I found a great website called delish.com with a link titled “108 Amazing Super Bowl Party Foods That Are Guaranteed to Score” (HERE) and a perfect teaser line: If your eats aren’t touchdown-worthy, your team might lose. It was tough, but here are a couple of my favorites – with over 100 ideas, I’m sure you’ll find some to try – (the Reese’s peanut butter ball just made me laugh out loud).  Enjoy!

TATER TOT SKEWERS
(come on, just not fair – bacon, cheese and tater tots … should be outlawed!)
INGREDIENTS

  • 1 lb. frozen tater tots, defrosted
  • 12 slices bacon
  • 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
  • 2 tbsp. chives
  • Ranch dressing, for serving

DIRECTIONS

  • Preheat oven to 425º. Place a wire rack inside a large rimmed baking sheet.
  • Place a metal rack inside a large baking pan. On a skewer, pierce one end of a strip of bacon. Pierce and place a tater top on top of the bacon, then pierce the same strip bacon again (to top the tater tot) to form a weave. Repeat with two to three more tater tots, depending on the size of your skewers. Repeat to finish the rest of the bacon and tater tots. Place on wire rack and roast for 20 to 25 minutes, until bacon is cooked through.
  • Sprinkle cheese over the cooked skewers and bake until the cheese has melted, about 2-3 minutes more. Garnish with chives and serve with ranch dressing, for dipping.

JALAPEÑO CORN FRITTERS
(these are made with corn … so I figured they must be healthy, right?

INGREDIENTS

  • 3 cup fresh corn
  • 2/3 cup cornmeal
  • 1/4 cup shredded Cheddar
  • 1/4 cup cream cheese
  • 2 scallions, sliced
  • 2 slices cooked bacon, chopped
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 jalapeño, finely diced
  • kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
  • Juice of 1 lime, divided
  • Sour cream, for serving

DIRECTIONS

  • In a medium bowl, combine corn, cornmeal, cheddar, cream cheese, scallions, bacon, eggs, the juice of half a lime, and jalapeño. Stir to combine and season with salt and pepper to taste. Using your hands, form the mixture into small patties.
  • Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Working in batches, fry the patties until they’re golden brown, about 3 to 4 minutes per side.
  • Garnish each with sour cream and a squeeze of lime, if desired.

WAFFLE FRY SLIDERS
(OMG – fries and burgers and waffles – just shoot me!! – pickles too!!)

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 bag frozen waffle fries
  • 1 lb. ground beef
  • 2 tsp. yellow mustard
  • 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp. onion powder
  • kosher salt
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
  • 2 slices of cheddar, quartered into small squares
  • 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, thinly sliced
  • Bread and butter pickles, for serving
  • Lettuce, for serving

DIRECTIONS

  • Bake waffle fries according to package instructions. Pick out 16 large, round waffles to act as the buns.
  • Meanwhile, make the sliders. In a medium bowl, mix the ground beef, yellow mustard, garlic powder and onion together with a wooden spoon. Season to taste with salt and pepper and stir gently to combine. Form the mixture into small patties. You should end up with about 8 patties.
  • Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the beef patties and cook for about 3 minutes, until the bottoms develop a nice seared crust. Flip and cook for another 1-2 minutes, then add the cheese slices to the tops of the patties. Cover the pan with a large lid and cook until cheese melts.
  • Assemble the patties. Place 8 waffle fries (or however many patties you have cooked) on a serving platter. Top with cooked sliders. Then garnish with tomato slices, pickles and lettuce. Top with waffle fries and serve immediately.

If you have a family favorite, I’ll share it with the gang – just email me at skowalski@khtheat.com.

 

 

 

“Hey Jude” – Happy Birthday!

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You can watch the “Hey Jude” video HERE.  The video was first broadcast on David Frost’s Frost On Sunday show, four days after it was filmed. At that point transmission was in black and white although the promo was originally shot in colour. It was first aired in America a month later on 6 October 1968, on The Smotheres Brothers Comedy Hour. And get The Beatles 1 Video Collection HERE. 

 

“Hey Jude”, released August 26th, 1968, is a song written by Paul McCartney, and also credited to John Lennon of the Beatles. The ballad, evolved from “Hey Jules”, a song McCartney wrote to comfort John Lennon’s son, Julian during his parent’s divorce. The song begins with a verse-bridge structure, incorporating McCartney’s vocal performance and piano accompaniment – with a now famous shift to a fade-out coda that lasts for more than four minutes.

 

For our trivia and music buffs, here is some interesting trivia to go along with this great song (thanks Wikipedia!)

  • “Hey Jude” was the first single from the Beatles’ record label Apple Records. More than seven minutes in length, it was at the time the longest single ever to top the British charts
  • It spent nine weeks at number one in the United States, the longest for any Beatles single and tied the “all-time” record, at the time, for the longest run at the top of the US charts.
  • The single has sold approximately eight million copies and is frequently included on professional critics’ lists of the greatest songs of all time. In 2013, Billboard named it the 10th biggest song of all time.
  • In May 1968, John Lennon and his wife Cynthia Lennon separated because of John’s affair with Yoko Ono. The following month Paul drove out to visit Cynthia and John’s son, Julian, at Kenwood, the family’s home in Weybridge. (Cynthia had been part of the Beatles‘ social circle since before the band’s rise to fame in 1963).
  • McCartney later said he found it “a bit much for them suddenly to be personae non gratae and out of my life”. Cynthia Lennon recalled of McCartney’s surprise visit: “I was touched by his obvious concern for our welfare … On the journey down he composed ‘Hey Jude’ in the car. I will never forget Paul’s gesture of care and concern in coming to see us.”
  • The song’s original title was “Hey Jules”, and it was intended to comfort Julian Lennon from the stress of his parents’ separation. McCartney later said, “I knew it was not going to be easy for him”, and that he changed the name to “Jude” “because I thought that sounded a bit better”.
  • According to music journalist Chris Hunt, in the weeks after writing the song, McCartney “tested” his latest composition on anyone too polite to refuse. And that meant everyone. On 30 June, after recording the Black Dyke Mills Band’s rendition of his instrumental, McCartney stopped at a village in Bedfordshire and performed “Hey Jude” at a local pub.
  •  When introducing the composition to Lennon, McCartney assured him that he would “fix” the line “the movement you need is on your shoulder”, reasoning that “it’s a stupid expression; it sounds like a parrot.” Lennon replied: “You won’t, you know. That’s the best line in the song.” (McCartney retained the phrase and he later said of his subsequent live performances of the song: “that’s the line when I think of John, and sometimes I get a little emotional during that moment.”
  • Although McCartney originally wrote “Hey Jude” for Julian, John Lennon thought it had actually been written for him. In a 1980 interview, Lennon stated that he “always heard it as a song to me” and contended that, on one level, McCartney was giving his blessing to Lennon and Ono’s relationship, while, on another, he was disappointed to be usurped as Lennon’s friend and songwriting partner.
  • Music critic and author Tim Riley writes: “If the song is about self-worth and self-consolation in the face of hardship, the vocal performance itself conveys much of the journey. He begins by singing to comfort someone else, finds himself weighing his own feelings in the process, and finally, in the repeated refrains that nurture his own approbation, he comes to believe in himself.”

 

And for our musically inclined:

  • “Hey Jude” begins with McCartney singing lead vocals and playing the piano. The patterns he plays are based on three chords: F, C, and B flat (I, V and IV).  The main chord progression is “flipped on its head”, for the coda, since the C chord is replaced by E flat.  Everett comments that McCartney’s melody over the verses borrows in part from John Ireland’s 1907 liturgical piece Te Deum, as well as (with the first change to a B flat chord) suggesting the influence of the Drifters’ 1960 hit “Save the Last Dance for Me”.
  • The second verse of the song adds accompaniment from acoustic guitar and tambourine. Tim Riley writes that, with the “restrained tom-tom and cymbal fill” that introduces the drum part, “the piano shifts downward to add a flat seventh to the tonic chord, making the downbeat of the bridge the point of arrival (‘And any time you feel the pain‘).”
  • At the end of each bridge, McCartney sings a brief phrase (“Na-na-na na …”), supported by an electric guitar fill, before playing a piano fill that leads to the next verse. This vocal phrase serves to “reorient the harmony for the verse as the piano figure turns upside down into a vocal aside”. Additional musical details, such as tambourine on the third verse and subtle harmonies accompanying the lead vocal, are added to sustain interest throughout the four-verse, two-bridge song.
  • The verse-bridge structure persists for approximately three minutes, after which the band leads into a four-minute-long coda, consisting of nineteen rounds of the song’s double plagal cadence. During this coda, the rest of the band, backed by an orchestra that also provides backing vocals, repeats the phrase “Na-na-na na” followed by the words “hey Jude” until the song gradually fades out. In his analysis of the composition, musicologist Alan Pollack comments on the unusual structure of “Hey Jude”, in that it uses a “binary form that combines a fully developed, hymn-like song together with an extended, mantra-like jam on a simple chord progression”.
  • Riley considers that the coda’s repeated chord sequence (I-VII-IV-I) “answers all the musical questions raised at the beginnings and ends of bridges”, since “The flat seventh that posed dominant turns into bridges now has an entire chord built on it.” This three-chord refrain allows McCartney “a bedding … to leap about on vocally”, so he ad-libs his vocal performance for the rest of the song.

 

BONUS:  Can you guess the name of the single on the flip side of the 45?  Be the first caller with the right answer and I’ll send you a Kowalski collector t-shirt!

 

 

Curious?

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KHT people are a naturally curious lot. As many of you will loudly attest, I am certainly full of it!!

We love finding answers to your PIA (Pain In The %@$) Jobs. And we’re always excited to get on to the next challenge. Learning new things is a natural inclination we Kowalski Heat Treaters share.

So, want to know something that you didn’t know you need to know?

Well, if you like discovering interesting things like we do, try typing the phrase i’m feeling curious into Google’s search window. The card at the top will deliver a random question and answer with a link to the more detailed answer. After reading, click the “ask another question” button for more factoids. I burned an hour the other day and learned, among other things, that humans share 50% of their DNA with bananas. (I love bananas. Especially with p-nut butter dabbed on each bite.)  Here are some other random things I learned:

What percentage of DNA do humans share with bananas?
This is evidence that humans are related to every other species on Earth. The genes of organisms that look very different are surprisingly similar. For example, human DNA sequences are over 95% identical to chimpanzee sequences and around 50% identical to banana sequences.

Why do you vote on Tuesday?
In 1845, the United States was largely an agrarian society. Farmers often needed a full day to travel by horse-drawn vehicles to the county seat to vote. Tuesday was established as election day because it did not interfere with the Biblical Sabbath or with market day, which was on Wednesday in many towns.

When did Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd get married?
Mary Todd married Abraham Lincoln on November 4, 1842, at her sister Elizabeth’s home in Springfield, Illinois. She was 23 years old and he was 33 years of age.

Where is the world’s oldest operating amusement park located?
Bakken, located in Klampenborg, North of Copenhagen (Denmark), opened in 1583 and is currently the oldest operating amusement park in the world. The park claims to have over 150 attractions, including a wooden roller coaster built in 1932.

How long ago was the formation of the moon?
The moon was formed ~ 4.5 billion years ago, about 30–50 million years after the origin of the Solar System, out of debris thrown into orbit by a massive collision between a smaller proto-Earth and another planetoid, about the size of Mars.

Why is it called ebay?
Originally, the site belonged to Echo Bay Technology Group, Omidyar’s consulting firm. Omidyar had tried to register the domain name echobay.com, but found it already taken by the Echo Bay Mines, a gold mining company, so he shortened it to his second choice, eBay.com.

Who was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes?
Marie Curie was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes, and is one of only two people in the history of the Nobels to win in two different fields. She and her husband Pierre, along with Henri Becquerel, won the Physics Prize in 1903 for their discovery of radioactivity.

What element is a diamond made of?
Diamonds are made up of the element carbon. Also, graphite is also made up of carbon. The only difference between the two is the way that the atoms are bonded together.

Which planet has the fastest rotation?
Jupiter is the fastest spinning planet in our Solar System rotating on average once in just under 10 hours. That is very fast especially considering how large Jupiter is. This means that Jupiter has the shortest days of all the planets in the Solar System.

Who was the first Spaniard to set foot on what is now the United States?
Ponce de Leon had sailed with Columbus on his second voyage. He explored and conquered Puerto Rico and became its governor. He later sailed to North America landing in present day Florida searching for the Fountain of Youth. He was the first Spaniard to set foot in what is today the United States.

What are Taylor Swift’s fans called?
Taylor Swift Fans: Swifties. Taylor Swift fans refer to themselves as Swifties, a cute play on the singer’s last name. While some celebs like to bestow the nickname upon their fans, it looks as if the Swifties of the world came up with this one all on their own.

What percentage of species have been discovered?
Even after centuries of effort, some 86 percent of Earth’s species have yet to be fully described, according to new study that predicts our planet is home to 8.7 million species.

What makes up all living things?
The six most common elements in living things are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur. Atoms of these elements combine and form thousands of large molecules. These large molecules make up the structures of cells and carry out many processes essential to life.

How many dreams does the average person have in one night?
The average person has about 3 to 5 dreams per night, but some may have up to 7 dreams in one night. The dreams tend to last longer as the night progresses. During a full 8-hour night sleep, two hours of it is spent dreaming. It is not at all unusual for a person to have more than one dream per night.

How many glasses of milk does a cow produce in its lifetime?
One cow can produce 200,000 glasses of milk in its lifetime. In one year, a dairy cow produces 1,500 gallons, or 6,000 quarts of milk. The average U.S. dairy cow produces 22.5 quarts of milk per day.

Is the tongue a muscle or an organ?
The tongue is a muscular organ in the mouth. The tongue is covered with moist, pink tissue called mucosa. Tiny bumps called papillae give the tongue its rough texture. Thousands of taste buds cover the surfaces of the papillae.

How is food cooked in a microwave?
Microwaves are produced inside the oven by an electron tube called a magnetron. The microwaves are reflected within the metal interior of the oven where they are absorbed by food. Microwaves cause water molecules in food to vibrate, producing heat that cooks the food.

What state has the longest name?
The country’s smallest state has the longest official name: “State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.”

How many people have ever lived on earth?
Others have estimated the number of human beings who have ever lived to be anywhere from 45 billion to 125 billion, with most estimates falling into the range of 90 to 110 billion humans.

What part of the body never stops growing?
Bones, stop growing after puberty and muscle and fat cells also stop dividing. But cartilage – that’s the plastic-like stuff in ears and noses – cartilage continues to grow until the day you die. Not only does cartilage grow, but the earlobes elongate from gravity.

What does the S stand for in Ulysses S Grant’s name?
The congressman who appointed Grant mistakenly believed his first name was Ulysses and his middle name was Simpson (his mother’s maiden name). Grant never amended the error and went on to accept Ulysses S. Grant as his real name, although he maintained that the “S” did not stand for anything.

Who invented liquid paper?
Bette Nesmith Graham. Bette Claire Graham (March 23, 1924 – May 12, 1980) was an American typist, commercial artist, and the inventor of Liquid Paper. She was also the mother of musician and producer Michael Nesmith of The Monkees.

Who was the first woman to graduate from college?
Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to receive a medical degree from a regular American medical school, Geneva Medical College. Nancy Elizabeth Talbot Clark was the first woman to graduate from Western Reserve’s nine-year-old medical school. CWRU’s First Women – Case Western Reserve University

Have fun. Gain a little more knowledge. Be a little smarter than you were a minute ago. And, bet you can’t click just once.

Curious how we can help with your PIA (Pain in the @%$) Jobs! Call me: 216-631-4411. Or email SKowalski@KHTheat.com.

 

 

 

I’m So Lucky

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(top left) From my office window. (top right three photos) From my roof top. (second row left) Freighters pass everyday. (second row middle) A commemorative stamp to Great Lakes Transportation. (second row right) Great Lakes depth chart. (third row left) Frenchman Louis Jolliet first sighted Lake Erie in 1669. (third row middle) Great Walleye fishing! (third row right) Balloonist John Steiner’s first attempt at crossing the Lake Erie in a flimsy balloon didn’t pan out very well. But the whack job from Philadelphia finally made it in 1857. (bottom left) Cool view of Lake Erie from space. (bottom right) Cool view of Lake Erie from the lake during a storm in October. Sports photographer Dave Sandford’s passion is shooting Lake Erie’s monstrous waves. Read about this guy and see more of his images HERE

 

Years ago when Mom and Dad chose our current location, they knew it was special because of the visibility from the highway. They both wanted everyone to see KHT! Although they probably never realized just how special it was. Back then, inexpensive rent, open manufacturing space and capable local workers, coupled with easy “on/off” access to the highway was what caught their eyes. Being just outside of downtown, along with the local/regional “neighborhood” customers, made Dad’s decision a good one when he started KHT.

Over the years, as most of you know, we’ve acquired adjoining land, added buildings and built needed additions to handle our growth and our expanded array of PIA (pain in the @%$) specialty treatment services. We’ve remained “committed” to Ohio City and Cleveland, and see positive things happening all around us still today.

One great outcome of our location on the “Northshore” is the office view I have, designed to take advantage of the beautiful views of Lake Erie and downtown. Each morning, being the early bird I am, I get to come in really early, and watch the lake and the city come to life. With spring finally here, it’s even more beautiful – awesome trees, blue water, the return of lake freighters, sunrises/sunsets and the renewal of the highway and walkways across the street. If you are ever in town, swing by and take a peek with our telescope … and Thanks Mom and Dad for the great spot!!

So, for my engineers and trivia lovers out there, as I sit here soaking in the views, I thought I’d pass along some Lake Erie trivia. Enjoy.

  • Lake Erie is the eleventh largest lake in the world (by surface area), and the fourth largest of the Great Lakes.
  • The Lake is 241 miles long, 57 miles wide and has an average depth of 62 ft., with a maximum depth of 210 ft. The water surface area is 9910 sq. miles and its shoreline equals 871 linear miles.
  • Ninety-five percent of Lake Erie’s total inflow of water comes via the Detroit River water from all the “upper lakes” (Superior, Michigan and Huron) with help from the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair and numerous tributaries. The rest comes from precipitation. The lake’s water retention/replacement time is 2.6 years.
  • Lake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes and is especially vulnerable to fluctuating water levels, fast storms and choppy waters.
  • In 1669, the Frenchman Louis Jolliet was the first documented European to sight Lake Erie, although there is speculation that Étienne Brûlé may have come across it in 1615. Lake Erie was the last of the Great Lakes to be explored by Europeans, since the Iroquois who occupied the Niagara River area were in conflict with the French, and did not allow explorers or traders to pass through.
  • The name Erie comes from its southern shore which was at one time occupied by a nation known to the Iroquois League as the “Erielhonan,” or the “long-tails.”. This name is always mentioned by the early French writers as meaning “cat”; Lac du Chat means “Lake of the Cat.” (reference to the wild cat or panther).
  • Wind Setups (wind pushing the water from one end of the lake toward the other), usually from west to east, have produced large short-term differences in water levels at the eastern and western ends of the lake, the record being more than 16 ft. Throughout the lake’s history, winds have been so strong, they have stranded boats in the western basin harbors due to shallow waters.
  • In 1857, a balloonist named John Steiner of Philadelphia made an ambitious trip across the lake. During his trip, he arose to the height of about three miles, but said he thinks his balloon bounded from the water at least twenty times, striking and then rebounding like a ball, going into the air from twenty to fifty feet, while still rushing down the lake at railroad speed. Just off the shore of Canada, he splashed down, abandoned the balloon, leaped into the water and swam to a nearby boat.
  • During the Prohibition years, a “great deal of alcohol crossed Erie” along with “mobster corpses” dumped into the Detroit River, which sometimes washed up on the beaches of Pelee Island. According to one account, Al Capone hid a “fortune” in the walls of the Middle Island luxury club, that featured a basement casino with poker tables and slot machines. No money was found.
  • In 1999, the warm lake almost became a problem for two nuclear power plants which require cool lake water to keep their reactors cool. The warm summer caused lake temperatures to come close to the 85 °F, the limit necessary to keep the plants cool.
  • The Lake is home to one of the world’s largest freshwater commercial fisheries, and is the most abundant of the Great Lakes. Due to the lake’s relatively mild temperatures, it’s “loaded with superstars” such as steelhead, walleye, pickerel, smallmouth bass, perch, bass, trout and salmon.
  • The lake is also responsible for microclimates that are important to agriculture. Along its north shore is one of the richest areas of Canada’s fruit and vegetable production. Along the southeastern shore in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York is an important grape growing region, as are the islands in the lake. Apple orchards are abundant in northeast Ohio to western New York due to the climate created by the lake.

 

 

 

 

RUN CLE RUN

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(L) A past race passing the Kowalski Heat Treating headquarters. (Top right Steve & Katie representing the Kowalski clan. (Bottom right) You’ll see this banner again this year as you run by KHT’s front door.

 

This weekend marks the 36th running of the Cleveland marathon, now known as the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon. Over the years Cleveland has hosted premier world-class runners and their families, along with local and regional athletes. For those of you not involved in the events, here are some fun facts and things to do as The Marathon is actually three days of “fun and run”:

  • The event is one of the 50 oldest marathons in the country, dating back 35 years
  • An estimated 30,000-40,000 participants in the combined runs and events
  • Sunday is “big” race day – Marathon, Half Marathon & 10K at 7am starting at Quicken Loans Arena and then flowing through downtown and the suburbs.
  • 21,000 12 oz. water bottles will be used on Sunday’s race day
  • The average mile time for the marathon winner is 5 minutes, 36 seconds per mile
  • An estimated 165,000 5 oz. cups used on the course throughout race, along with 17,500 bananas eaten, 3,200 gallons of PowerAde, 14,500 cookies and lots and lots of water
  • 138 portable restrooms throughout the course
  • About 25 runners over age of 65 will finish the 26.2 mile run
  • Oldest male runner in 2011 78 – oldest female 75

Best places to watch on Sunday:

  • Carnegie and Ontario across from Progressive Field (south-west corner at Tri-C)
  • US Bank Plaza at Playhouse Square (E. 14th and Euclid Ave)
  • Across from West Side Market – Lorain and W. 25th (10K)
  • Lincoln Park – Starkweather and W. 11th, Tremont
  • Detroit Ave. Between W.58th and 78th Street (Gordon Square Arts District)
  • Lakewood Park (Lake Avenue and Belle in Lakewood)
  • W 44th & Detroit (at The Harp, overlooking the Shoreway)
  • And of course, our front lawn at Kowalski Heat Treating

Best Race Day Parties on Sunday:

  • Tremont – Lincoln Park at Starkweather and W. 11th Street  – Block Party & music Mile 3.7 Runners from 7:00 – 9:00am
  • Ohio City – Lorain and W. 30th – St. Ignatius Band, cheering area – Mile 6.4- Runners from 7:10 – 9:00 am
  • Detroit Shoreway – Detroit Avenue between W. 58th and W. 78th – Gordon Park Arts District  Cheering & Music – Mile 7.6
  • Lakewood Park – Lakewood and Belle Avenue – Water Station & Music. Miles 14.5 and 20.25 (marathoners pass twice). Runners from 8:00am – 1pm.
  • Detroit Shoreway –  The Pep Club Dance Party @ The Harp, presented by Great Lakes Brewing Co. – Mile 11.8 (half), Mile 24.5 (full). Runners from 8:00 – 1:30pm.
  • 26.3 Mile Rock Party at the Finish Line! – Featuring Old Skool and Matt Lisi Productions (DJ)

For those “non-runners”, come by and enjoy the racers, events and scenery as we celebrate spring here in our hometown.

 

 

 

Because. Mom said so.

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To all the Moms out there, this weekend – Happy Mother’s Day. What would we do without you. Always teaching, guiding, nurturing, and loving us – no matter what. To salute you, we thought we’d look back at those special sayings and “pearls of wisdom” you had for us. (As I read these, I can’t help but laugh out loud – and love ya Mom). Enjoy!!  We all know, that no matter how old we get you never stop being Mom!

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Mom-isms:

  • Don’t look at me with those eyes.
  • Children are to be seen, not heard.
  • If you keep making that face, it’ll freeze that way.
  • If you’re going to act like a child, I’ll treat you like one.
  • Quiet down, I can’t even hear myself think.
  • One day you’ll thank me for this.
  • Why? Because I said so, that’s why!
  • As long as you’re under my roof, you live by my rules.
  • God gave you a brain, so use it.
  • Ask a stupid question and you’ll get a stupid answer.
  • Are your legs broken?
  • Let’s not tell your Dad about this, ok.
  • If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?
  • Jen’s mom lets her do (Blank). Fine, go live with Jen’s mom … I’ll help you pack.
  • Shut the door, were you born in a barn? (or think we’re heating the neighborhood?)
  • Your room looks like a cyclone ran through it.
  • Talking to you is like talking to a brick wall.
  • Let’s play the quiet game.
  • Someone better be bleeding.
  • Where are your manners – were you raised by wolves?
  • I’m not asking, I’m telling.
  • Don’t you use that tone with me Mister/Missy.
  • Stop crying or I’ll give you something to really cry about.
  • You better wipe that smirk off your face.
  • Don’t make me: tell you again / come back there / turn this car around, et al.
  • Don’t leave the house without clean underwear.
  • Just wait until your father gets home.
  • Remember, make good choices.
  • When you have kids, I hope they turn out just like you.

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“The Thrill of Victory. And the…”

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Top four rows: Stills from the most famous epic fail ever.
Bottom row: Vinko Bogota (the agony of defeat guy) received a standing ovation at the ABC Wide World of Sports 20th Anniversary event April 21, 1981. Little known fact: Mohamed Ali was the first (among an army of other famous athletes) to get his autograph. Catch this cool video tribute HERE

 

Do you know the rest? Etched in most of our minds is the classic theme song, stunning ski jumper crash visuals and announcer’s voice of the Wide World of Sports, which debuted on this day in 1961. What began as a simple idea – television coverage blended with human interest stories, all wrapped around small sporting events, has grown into a trillion-dollar world wide industry. Sports coverage and sports celebrities today saturate television, the web, radio, newspapers, magazines and more, popularized over 50 years ago when a small group of reporters at ABC contracted to cover little-known AAU college track meets.

The Wide World of Sports was the brainchild of Edger Scherick, who hired a young Roone Arledge to produce the show (Roone, went on to a fantastic career at ABC producing the breakthrough shows WWoS, Monday Night Football, ABC News Tonight, Primetime, Nightline and 20/20). The debut telecast featured both the Penn and Drake Track Relays, broadcast from Drake Stadium. Hosting the show was Jim McKay with field reporting from Jesse Abramson, Bob Richards, Jim Simpson and Bill Flemming, all who went on to great broadcast careers.

Using videotape to capture each event, along with personal interviews with the coaches and athletes, the group would “jet” back to NY, assemble and edit the shows and then air them on Saturday afternoons. The segment ran in the spring and summer, filling a low ratings slot on Saturday afternoons. Due to slower reporting back then (no internet of course), they were able to present the show in a “near live” framework, injecting athlete stories and real emotions (to also attract more women viewers), something never before done on television.

As a kid, I loved tuning into the WWoS, and watching the events. Didn’t matter what it was – bowling, racing, skiing, climbing – I was intrigued by the grit and determination of the athletes. Looking back, it probably taught me the importance of hard work and determination, the thrill of winning and the reality of defeat. It also reminds me what a pioneer my Dad was, walking away from a good job, to start his own business, focused on engaging and delighting his audience. In his own way, he set out with a simple idea, and with the help of his family and team, guided KHT forward – kind of our “Roone”.

So next time you have the remote in your hand and you are searching for Derbyshire World Toe Wrestling, European Military Bed Racing, Wife Carrying in Finland, Bossaball in Spain, or Naked Bike Racing in the Alps (painful!), remember the early days of sports coverage and the “agony of defeat.” We are all better as a result!

 

 

Finally – Super Bowl 50.

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For some of us, it’s hard to imagine the Super Bowl has been around for fifty years.  Seems everyone loves to watch the Super Bowl, so in Kowalski Heat Treating fashion, we thought we’d give you some Super Bowl Trivia (SBT) trivia to use during the game parties, along with some “oh yea, But Did You Know” (BDYK) come back “Cliff Claven Style” nuggets to really impress.  Enjoy!

SBT:  Super Bowl 50 will feature Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers vs. Peyton Manning of the Denver Broncos.
BDYK:  Newton became just the third player to win the Heisman Trophy, a College National Championship and be the NFL’s No. 1 overall pick in the same academic year. (other two are Leon Hart ’50-Notre Dame/Detroit Lions and Angelo Bertelli-Notre Dame/Los Angeles Dons ’44).  Peyton Manning, also chosen #1, wears #18 in honor of his older brother Cooper who he idolized in HS, and comes from a quarterback family – Dad Archie, New Orleans Saints, originally drafted for pro baseball, and his #1 NFL pick brother Eli Manning of the NY Giants).

SBT:  Odds: The Panthers are favored by 4.5 points with the over/under set at 45 points.
BDYK:  The largest spread was 18 points when the SF 49ers met the SD Chargers in SB 29.  The 49ers covered it with ease as Steve Young threw six touchdowns, a SB record, and San Francisco blew out San Diego 49-26 – the teams’ 75 total points is still a SB record.

SBT:  It’s estimated Americans will consume 1.5 billion chicken wings. (Yes, billion!) Don’t worry I do my part!
BDYK:  The creation of “Buffalo Wings” (1964) was at the Anchor Bar on Main Street in Buffalo, NY-when Teressa Bellissiomo threw left over wings into hot oil, doused them with Franks Hot Sauce and butter, and served them with blue cheese dip to cool the heat.  Today, Chef Ivano Toscani, a classic collector car and motorcycle buff, keeps the tradition alive, serving 4-5,000 pounds of wings each day.

SBT:  The Super Bowl is second highest snack day to Thanksgiving. Wings are #1, followed by pizza (50 million orders), chips (12 million pounds), pretzels (5 million pounds, and over 120 million pounds of avocado dip, followed by salsa and candy.
BDYK:  The Snickers bar was named by Franks Mars after his favorite horse;  Pringles chips only contain about 42% potatoes, and a typical serving of avocado (100 g) is moderate to rich in vitamins B, K, C, E and potassium – known to help resist drunken Broncos fans.

SBT:  It’s estimated over 325 million gallons of beer will be consumed during the game.
BDYK:  It’s also estimated over 7 million people will not show up for work on Monday.

SBT:  First teams to play: Green Bay Packer v Kansas City Chiefs.
BDYK:  No network footage exists of Super Bowl I. It was taped over, supposedly for a soap opera.  Most recently, the game has been “recreated” by NFL films, pasting together all 135 plays from original film footage recovered in the archives – now called SB 1 – “The Lost Game”

SBT:  A 2016 :30 commercial costs about $5 million, and about $1 million to make.
BDYK:  The first super bowl game was actually simulcast on CBS and NBC at the same time.  Back then, TV commercials only cost about $40,000 each for an audience of about 51 million viewers.  Pepsi owns the Top 10 “Best Ever Commercials” honors (six times) with the #1 best ever in ‘95 when a little boy (Jake Schuttler) gets sucked into a Pepsi bottle. Jake went on to be an actor and star in a ’96 movie called Mother.

SBT:  Coldest Super Bowl – 39 degrees in New Orleans 1972
BDYK:  Classic coldest NFL football game on record – Green Bay vs Dallas ‘67 – Bart Star keeps ball to score winning touchdown (-13 degrees, wind chill -30+).

SBT:  Coin flip history – 24 heads, 25 tails – and one of the most popular SB sports bets.
BDYK:  Craziest coin flip ever – when a dead woman (Katherine Dunton), who had just died of cancer in 2006, won re-election to a school board in rural Alaska after her opponent (Dona Highstone), called heads and lost a coin flip meant to break a tie.

SBT:  First player to say “I’m going to Disney World was Phil Simms in 1987.
BDYK:  Simms wasn’t being candid (he was paid $75,000.)   Jane Eisner, the wife of Disney CEO Michael Eisner, supposedly concocted the idea.  And, the unseen voice posing the question is Mark Champion, currently a popular radio play-by-play voice in Detroit.

SBT:  Pittsburgh, Dallas and now Denver will each have appeared in SB 8 times.
BDYK:  Cleveland fans still hate Pittsburgh, followed by Dallas and Denver – coincidence?  (Yankees too!)