Ruff Livin’

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The dog – person emotional connection is so amazing. If one lives with you, you know exactly what I mean. Puppy love. . . yeah, it’s a thing. 

Dogs.  Dogs have always been, and continue to be, one of our most loyal companions, providing love, help and comfort in so many ways. Most often, dogs are a loyal addition to families everywhere. They can be best friends, always ready to play or hunters, tracking through forests with the keenest senses. In some settings, dogs are rescue and guard animals, by the sides of police officers, firemen and EMS members. Sometimes, they are sled dogs, pulling people and cargo through cold wintry terrain or therapy dogs assisting in living daily life. But most often, they are just part of our households.  One thing that’s vital to a dog’s wellbeing and longevity is a good place to rest and sleep.  A recent article in Smithsonian Magazine shares a fun story, when the great  Frank Lloyd Wright agrees to design a doghouse for a little boy.  For all my “dog loving” readers out there, here’s some fun info about dog houses – be sure to check out the video on “over the top” designs.  And send me your stories on doghouses you’ve built – pictures too! (skowalski@khtheat.com). Special thanks to youtube, smithsonianmag.com, embarkvet.com and thehousedesigners.com for the info and images.  Enjoy!

Tune from Buddy Jones
Tune from Bobby Monroe (and his dogs)

  • For the longest time, domesticated dogs simply inhabited the outdoor elements. The earliest known structures were kennels made of mud. Doghouses would not become a commodity for people until well into the nineteenth century, but even at that point, design would remain extremely crude, as they were made of whatever material owners could scrape together.
  • Eventually, canine homes started becoming mass-producible in factories, which allowed for better materials such as framing lumber and plywood that resisted weather and proved sturdier over time. But a dog’s place of rest and retreat was still arguably very uncomfortable and not completely protective yet. By the 1960s, companies began switching over to making plastic doghouses, the style of which became a much more popular way to go, and things were looking up for the canines.
  • In the past couple decades DIY doghouses have become a growing trend as owners focus on keeping their dogs safe and comfortable when outdoors. There really is much to consider in giving our beloved pets the best possible home away home, but with today’s modern offerings, keeping them comfortable and protected can be easy, stylish, and even environmentally friendly.
  • The changing seasons, depending on where you live, can test the suitability of a doghouse all year round with different kinds of weather. For one, a dog’s space is a shady refuge for your pet from the summer heat. Yet some features can really enhance this luxury for them, such as ventilators that can be closed in the winter months, or fans with quiet motors that won’t disturb the animal when sleeping.
  • If having your dog stay in their home during the colder winter months becomes a necessity, you can fret less by getting insulated materials, such as special siding that both resists weather and prevents rotting over long periods of time. Doggie doors can also be made of insulated and durable material, and to truly keep the structure toasty warm you might also consider pet heaters, which can be weather-resistant and thermostat regulated.
  • Doghouses can be built with better and more earth-friendly materials, such as sustainable roofing shingles that can make for trendy but also energy efficient doghouse coverings. There are options for recyclable material for both roofing and flooring that still look great and resist scratching and molding.
  • Solar power is becoming increasingly available for doghouses as well. Heaters and fans can keep your pet cozy any time of year. They can be completely solar powered, charging up in the daytime and working capably at night. Lighting might be another important factor for your pet’s space, so consider solar powered and LED options.
  • Of course, the look of your dog’s space or house can be just as vital a step in the process to giving them the best possible personal home. If one fancies that classic feel of an actual dog ‘house’, they can come in a variety of models that would match the very style of your own home, from rustic to ranch to even Greek-revival! Everything, from the construction to accessories to coloring can be chosen today, with limitless options, to get the exact look and feel both you and your companion adore.
  • See some outrageous dog houses
  • Finally, it would take way too many pages / pictures to show all of the options for the inside of your homes!  So just do what makes sense, and love those doggies!

 

 

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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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Nick Name

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Nick names are funny. Sometimes they stick forever. Sometimes they don’t. But when they do stick we tend wear them like a big ‘ol badge of honor. 

Lefty, T Man, Snoop, Kevins, Sweetness, BooBoo, Missy, Big D, Monkey, A Rod, Papa, Max, Butcher, Finnigan, The Buckeyes, City of Lights, Slugger, Tinseltown, Slick Willie,  – the list goes on and on.  Nicknames are such a part of how we communicate with one another. When I was little, my big brother was in charge of all the family nicknames.  It’s quite a list – (with 17 siblings and his incredibly vivid imagination, we all had multiple nicknames that will / must remain in the family!  As I grew up, nicknames rolled on with me in HS, College, and married life I have a great group of friends that I’ve known for over 30 years, many of our nicknames unfortunately or fortunately can’t be listed or our wives would be less than happy! (something about wishing we would finally be growing up??).  I did some digging, and of course found a ton of more famous names and stories behind them – sports, history, music, politics, movies, etc.  Here’s some brief history of “eke” names.  When you can give me a call, or shoot me an email – I’d love to hear your names and the stories too (skowalski@khtheat.com) Thanks to wikipedia, washingtonpost.com, and all those mentioned here – (your secret origin is safe with me!!)

For a laugh
Music

  • The compound word ekename, literally meaning “additional name”, was attested as early as 1303. This word was derived from the Old English phrase eac “also”, related to eacian “to increase”. By the 15th century, the misdivision of the syllables of the phrase “an ekename” led to its rephrasing as “a nekename” and common day nickname.
  • Nicknames are to formal names what cartoons are to formal portraits, what slang is to formal language, what subjectivity is to objectivity, and, sometimes, what a graffiti mustache is to a face on an ad in the subway — a Bronx cheer from the peanut gallery. Nicknames have been codified, analyzed and interpreted by legions of linguists, sociologists and anthropologists.
  •  English nicknames are generally represented in quotes between the bearer’s first and last names (e.g., Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower, Daniel Lamont “Bubba” Franks, etc.).
  • Like English, German uses (German-style) quotation marks between the first and last names (e.g., Andreas Nikolaus „Niki“ Lauda). Other languages may use other conventions; for example, Italian writes the nickname after the full name followed by detto “called” (e.g., Salvatore Schillaci detto Totò).  In Spanish the nickname is written in formal contexts at the end in quotes following alias (e.g. Alfonso Tostado, alias «el Abulense.
  •  In Viking societies, many people had heiti, viðrnefni, or kenningarnöfn (Old Norse terms for nicknames) which were used in addition to, or instead of, the first name. In some circumstances, the giving of a nickname had a special status in Viking society in that it created a relationship between the name maker and the recipient of the nickname, to the extent that the creation of a nickname also often entailed a formal ceremony and an exchange of gifts known in Old Norse as nafnfestr (‘fastening a name’).
  • In England, some nicknames are traditionally associated with a person’s surname. A man with the surname ‘Clark’ will be nicknamed ‘Nobby’: the surname ‘Miller’ will have the nickname ‘Dusty’ (alluding to the flour dust of a miller at work): the surname ‘Adams’ has the nickname ‘Nabby’.
  • Other English nicknames allude to a person’s origins. A Scotsman may be nicknamed ‘Jock’, an Irishman ‘Paddy’ (alluding to Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland) or ‘Mick’ (alluding to the preponderance of Roman Catholicism in Ireland), and a Welshman may be nicknamed ‘Taffy’.
  • Giving colorful nicknames to colorful public personalities is an old American custom, as old as Old Hickory, Old Rough and Ready, Old Blood and Guts, Old Fuss and Feathers, the Ol’ Perfesser and Old Blue Eyes — as old, in fact, as Old Muttonhead, which is what John Adams, the first vice president, called George Washington, the first president, who was also known by a more affectionate nickname, “The Father of Our Country.”
  • Ever since America was invented, Americans have been inventing nicknames for public personalities, monikers that describe them or laud them or mock them, everything from Honest Abe to Tricky Dick to Slick Willie. American history can be written in a rollicking roll call of nicknames — the Swamp Fox, the Great Compromiser, the Little Giant, Stonewall, Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill, Billy the Kid, Calamity Jane, Lucky Lindy, Satchmo, Babe, Groucho, the Kingfish, the King, the Gipper, Air. The American landscape can also be mapped in nicknames — Jersey Joe Walcott, Philly Joe Jones, Broadway Joe Namath, Mississippi John Hurt, Memphis Minnie, Tennessee Williams, Utah Phillips, Minnesota Fats.
  • Nicknames beget nicknames in weird ways. In the 1880s, an English serial killer is nicknamed Jack the Ripper. Sixty years later, an American painter named Jackson Pollock starts dripping paint on canvases and — presto! — somebody dubs him “Jack the Dripper.” A popular book and movie provide a new title for a Mafia chieftain — “The Godfather” — and pretty soon, singer James Brown proclaims himself “the Godfather of Soul.” Two decades later, a rapper named Rahzel proclaims himself “the Godfather of Noyze.”
  • Back in the mid-’60s, Charles O. Finley, the owner of the Kansas City Athletics, signed a hot new pitching prospect named Jim Hunter. Finley asked the kid if he had a nickname. The kid said he didn’t. Finley immediately bestowed one — Catfish. It stuck.
  • The most prolific media nicknamer of our day is ESPN broadcaster Chris Berman, who coins comic pseudo-nicknames for ballplayers — Roberto “Remember the” Alomar and Bobby “Bad to the” Bonilla and Bernard “Innocent Until Proven” Gilkey.
  • Nicknames are also common among the kind of people who are not eager to advertise their real names — people who don’t generally hand out business cards, like gamblers and criminals and outlaw motorcyclists. Organized crime has its faults, but even its harshest critics can’t dispute that it has given America some great nicknames — Jimmy “The Weasel” Fratianno, Willie “The Rat” Cammisano, Charles “Cherry Nose” Gioe, Charlie “Monkey Face” Genker, Orazio “The Scourge” Tropea and many, many more.
  • Not only is the mob a wonderful source of names with internal quotation marks, it’s also a treasure trove of names followed by “a k a,” which is short for “also known as,” a phrase never applied to anyone you’d want your daughter to marry. The greatest a k a list in human history appeared on the cover page of a 1988 lawsuit titled United States v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters. It listed no fewer than 24 a k a’s, including “Joey the Clown,” “Jackie the Lackey,” “Matty the Horse,” “The Snake,” “Fat Tony,” “Tony Pro,” “Tony Ripe” and “The Nutcracker.”
  • Our American past can fill a page of folk heroes like the Babe and the Lone Eagle and the Georgia Peach as well as larger-than-life villains with names reminiscent of characters in the comic strips — Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, Machine Gun Kelly.  There were also comedians named Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Zeppo and Gummo. And ballplayers named Dizzy, Dazzy, Daffy, Ducky, Fuzzy, Gabby, Wee Willie and Pee Wee. Not surprisingly, when Walt Disney animated the Grimm’s fairy tale about seven unnamed dwarfs in 1938, he got into the spirit of the age and named them Sleepy, Sneezy, Happy, Grumpy, Bashful, Dopey and Doc.
  • Many rappers and hip-hop musicians are pumping new life into the tired American nickname and the scholars of names are beginning to take notice.  “The intent of a rap nickname is to communicate, Many include Slick Rick, Chill Will, Jazzy Joyce, Special Ed, Flavor Flav, Notorious B.I.G., Foxy Brown, Mista Sinista, Total Eclipse, Silkk the Shocker . . . could this be the advent of a new golden age?
  • See how many you recognize:  here’s a link to the top 100 in sports  Some of my favorites: Magic, Broadway Joe, Say Hey Kid, The Rocket, Iceman, Pistol Pete, The Glide, Sir Charles, Big Papi, The Bird, and of course, The Great One.

 

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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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Berrylicious

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Strawberry love!! No matter your age, a strawberry will bring a smile to your face. Read on about these simple delights. 

Red, ripe and delicious.  That’s my take on strawberries – and I’m sure you’ll agree.  This time of year, the fresh berries are SOOOOO good, I can’t get enough of them. On cereal – yep, ice cream – yep (I have to admit I love Dairy Queens strawberry topping!), fruit trays – yep, or just one at a time. I’m not a big strawberry ice cream guy – prefer the berries on top of vanilla, (but I for sure won’t push it away).  One of my favorites is strawberries tucked inside angel food cake with whipped cream icing – creamy on the outside, yummy berries inside – hard to stop at one piece. Remember strawberries are also wonderful in any number of adult beverages.  I did a little digging on the history and info on berries, plus threw in some production videos and a few tunes to put in the right Friday mindset.  If you have a nice recipe, be sure to share (skowalski@khtheat.com).

Beatles
Harvesting
D. Carter
Strawberry Moon

The strawberry is a member of the rose family, with the most common varieties being a hybrid of the wild Virginia strawberry (native to North America) and a Chilean variety. The plant produces succulent, red, conical fruit from tiny white flowers, and sends out runners to propagate.

Although they have been around for thousands of years, strawberries were not actively cultivated until the Renaissance period in Europe.  The plants can last for five to six with careful cultivation, but most farmers use them as an annual crop, replanting yearly. Strawberries are social plants, requiring both a male and a female to produce fruit. Crops take eight to 14 months to mature.

Strawberries are among the first fruit to ripen in the Northeast. The flower buds formed last fall are tucked away under a layer of straw for the winter. Then an early-spring heat wave pushes the plants along, making the flowers open early.  Some growers keep busy protecting them from frost on cold nights, using sprinklers to form ice, which as funny as it sounds, gives off heat when it forms.

The health benefits of strawberry consumption include antioxidants, folate, potassium, vitamin C and fiber. This is part of the reason why per capita consumption of strawberries has increased steadily since 1970, from just less than 3 pounds to over 6 pounds today. The proportion of fresh vs. frozen has also increased during this period.

Not that long ago commercial strawberry production didn’t even exist.  True, the Roman poets Virgil and Ovid did mention the strawberry way back in the first century A.D., but they referenced it as an ornamental, not as a food.  Wild strawberries have been eaten by people around the world since ancient times, but not in large quantities since the fruits were small or tough or lacked flavor.

By the 1300’s the strawberry was in cultivation in Europe, when the French began transplanting the wood strawberry (Fragaria vesca) from the wilderness to the garden.  At the end of the 1500’s the musky strawberry (Fragaria moschata) was also being cultivated in European gardens.

In the 1600’s, the Virginia strawberry (Fragaria virginiana) of North America reached Europe. The spread of this new relatively hardy species was very gradual, and it remained little appreciated until the end of the 1700’s and early 1800’s when it was popular in England. At that time, English gardeners worked to raise new varieties from seed, increasing the number of varieties from three to nearly thirty.

Meanwhile, a French spy brought the Chilean strawberry (Fragaria chiloensis) from Chile to France in 1714. This species of strawberry had a quality the others lacked: size.  It had fewer but larger flowers and gave rise to larger fruit. However, the Chilean strawberry was not hardy and was difficult to grow inland, away from mild coastal climates.

These two New World species of strawberries were crossed in Europe, giving rise to the modern strawberry, Fragaria ananassa. It was the French who first accidentally pollinated the Chilean strawberry with the Virginia strawberry when pistillate Chilean plants were inter-planted with staminate Virginian plants and natural hybrids were made. The English did most of the early breeding work to develop the ancestors of the varieties we enjoy today.  All modern strawberry varieties have descended from this crossing of Virginia and Chilean strawberries.

‘Hovey’ was the name of the first American strawberry variety that resulted from a planned cross, and it is an ancestor of most modern varieties.  It was developed by Charles Hovey, a nurseryman in Cambridge, MA, in 1834.  ‘Wilson’ was originated in 1851 by James Wilson who selected it from a cross of ‘Hovey’ grown with other varieties. This variety was more productive, firmer and hardier than any other large-fruited variety and could be grown on nearly any soil. It was also perfect-flowered, so it could be grown by itself without another variety for pollination. Wilson changed the strawberry into a major crop grown all across the continent; the strawberry industry soon increased 50-fold, to one hundred thousand acres.

About 1909 the variety ‘Howard 17’ was introduced by E.C. Howard of Belchertown, MA.  It had tolerance to leaf spot, leaf scorch and virus diseases and it formed many crowns with early flower bud initiation. For decades it was important for commercial use and breeding.

Worldwide 8,885,028 tons of strawberry are produced per year.  China is the largest strawberry producer in the world with 3,221,557 tons production per year, followed by the United States of America with 1,021,490 tons, and Mexico with 861,337 tons.   According to the USDA, the average American consumes approximately 3.4 pounds of fresh strawberries per year.

New varieties

 

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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!!

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

Let’s Celebrate!

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MAN, I love pizza. I’m eating one right now…with my KHT peeps. A pizza party is always a great time. Young and old. Can’t get enough. And for me, the more toppings the better!!!!  :)))))))  The only draw back is when there is the dreaded last piece in the box. I’m always there to clean-up and I always offer Jackie the last piece. What a guy. 

Today is National Pizza Party Day, and we’re celebrating here at KHT. Now, of all the wonderful food out there, one of my favorites is pizza.  Sometimes it’s the just the perfect meal – quick lunch, savory dinner with leafy chef salad, complimented by a fine wine, a quick snack when I’m doing a project, and of course, cold from the fridge the morning after.  And there are not many pizza toppings I pass on (still not sure on this little fishy things), so when someone orders “their” favorites, I usually just jump right in.  Like most popular foods, the debate rages on as to what’s best – thin crust, big fat crust, light toppings, piled high toppings, white cheese, yellow blends, and “who’s got the best sauce” – I love ‘em all.  (and how would you like to try and find “the best” – talk about a PIA (Pain in the @%$) Job!) Lately I’ve been enjoying simple pizza – light tangy sauce, cheese, oil and basil – love it when the basil is fresh.  I did some digging and found some fun history I think you’ll enjoy.  Thanks to Wikipedia.com, firstpizza.com, pizzeriaunodue.com, pizzaneed.com, bbc.co, and restaurantclicks.com for the info.

  1. Pizza is the world’s favorite fast food. We eat it everywhere – at home, in restaurants, on street corners. Some four plus billion pizzas are sold each year in the United States alone (an average of 48 slices (about six pizzas) per person!). But the story of how the humble pizza came to enjoy such global dominance reveals much about the history of migration, economics, and technological change.
  2. People have been eating pizza, in one form or another, for centuries. As far back as antiquity, pieces of flatbread, topped with savories, served as a simple and tasty meal for those who could not afford plates, or who were on the go.
  3. In Sardinia, French and Italian archaeologists have found bread baked over 7,000 years ago. According to Philippe Marinval, the local islanders leavened this bread. Foods similar to pizza have been made since antiquity. Records of people adding other ingredients to bread to make it more flavorful can be found throughout ancient history.
  4. In the 6th century BC, Persian soldiers serving under Darius the Great baked flatbreads with cheese and dates on top of their battle shields. And in Ancient Greece, citizens made a flat bread called plakous (πλακοῦς, gen. πλακοῦντος – plakountos) which was flavored with toppings like herbs, onion, cheese and garlic.
  5. These early pizzas appear in Virgil’s Aeneid. Shortly after arriving in Latium, Aeneas and his crew sat down beneath a tree and laid out ‘thin wheaten cakes as platters for their meal’. They then scattered them with mushrooms and herbs they had found in the woods and guzzled them down, crust and all, prompting Aeneas’ son Ascanius to exclaim: “Look! We’ve even eaten our plates!”
  6. But it was in late 18th-century Naples that the pizza as we now know it came into being. Under the Bourbon kings, Naples had become one of the largest cities in Europe – and it was growing fast. Fueled by overseas trade and a steady influx of peasants from the countryside, its population ballooned from 200,000 in 1700 to 399,000 in 1748. As the urban economy struggled to keep pace, an ever-greater number of the city’s inhabitants fell into poverty. The most abject of these were known as lazzaroni, because their ragged appearance resembled that of Lazarus. Numbering around 50,000 they scraped by on the pittance they earned as porters, messengers or casual laborers.
  7. Always rushing about in search of work, they needed food that was cheap and easy to eat. Pizzas met this need. Sold not in shops, but by street vendors carrying huge boxes under their arms, they would be cut to meet the customer’s budget or appetite. As Alexandre Dumas noted in Le Corricolo (1843), a two liard slice would make a good breakfast, while two sous would buy a pizza large enough for a whole family. None of them were terribly complicated. Though similar in some respects to Virgil’s flatbreads, they were now defined by inexpensive, easy-to-find ingredients with plenty of flavor. The simplest were topped with nothing more than garlic, lard and salt Now that’s healthy!). But others included caciocavallo (a cheese made from horse’s milk), cecenielli (whitebait) or basil. Some even had tomatoes on top. Only recently introduced from the Americas, these were still a curiosity, looked down upon by contemporary gourmets. But it was their unpopularity – and hence their low price – that made them attractive.
  8. For a long time, pizzas were scorned by food writers. Associated with the crushing poverty of the lazzaroni, they were frequently denigrated as ‘disgusting’, especially by foreign visitors. In 1831, Samuel Morse – inventor of the telegraph – described pizza as a ‘species of the most nauseating cake … covered over with slices of pomodoro or tomatoes and sprinkled with little fish and black pepper and I know not what other ingredients, it altogether looks like a piece of bread that has been taken reeking out of the sewer’ (I’m not sure sewer pizza is the right positioning?).
  9. When the first cookbooks appeared in the late 19th century, they pointedly ignored pizza. Even those dedicated to Neapolitan cuisine disdained to mention it – despite the fact that the gradual improvement in the lazzaroni’s status had prompted the appearance of the first pizza restaurants.
  10. All that changed after Italian unification. While on a visit to Naples in 1889, King Umberto I and Queen Margherita grew tired of the complicated French dishes they were served for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Hastily summoned to prepare some local specialities for the queen, the pizzaiolo Raffaele Esposito cooked three sorts of pizza: one with lard, caciocavallo and basil; another with cecenielli; and a third with tomatoes, mozzarella and basil. The queen was delighted. Her favorite – the last of the three – was christened pizza margherita in her honor – (I like her, as it’s one of my favorites too!).
  11. This signaled an important shift. Margherita’s seal of approval not only elevated the pizza from being a food fit only for lazzaroni to being something a royal family could enjoy, but also transformed pizza from a local into a truly national dish. It introduced the notion that pizza was a genuinely Italian food – akin to pasta and polenta.
  12. Nevertheless, pizza was slow to move out of Naples. The initial spur was provided by migration. From the 1930s onwards, a growing number of Neapolitans moved northwards in search of work, taking their cuisine with them. This trend was accelerated by war. When Allied soldiers invaded Italy in 1943-4, they were so taken with the pizza they encountered in Campania that they asked for it wherever else they went. But it was tourism – facilitated by the declining cost of travel in the postwar period – that really consolidated pizza’s position as a truly Italian dish. As tourists became increasingly curious about Italian food, restaurants throughout the peninsula started offering more regional specialties – including pizza. The quality was, at first, variable – not every restaurant had a pizza oven. Nevertheless, pizza quickly spread throughout Italy. As it did so, new ingredients were introduced in response to local tastes and the higher prices that customers were now willing to pay.
  13. But it was in America that pizza found its second home. By the end of the 19th century, Italian emigrants had already reached the East Coast; and in 1905, the first pizzeria – Lombardi’s – was opened in New York City. Soon, pizza became an American institution. Spreading across the country in step with the growing pace of urbanization, it was quickly taken up by enterprising restaurateurs (who were often not from an Italian background) and adapted to reflect local tastes, identities and needs.
  14. Shortly after the US entered the Second World War, a Texan named Ike Sewell attempted to attract new customers to his newly opened Chicago pizzeria by offering a much ‘heartier’ version of the dish, complete with a deeper, thicker crust and richer, more abundant toppings – usually with cheese at the bottom and a mountain of chunky tomato sauce heaped on top of it. At about the same time, the Rocky Mountain Pie was developed in Colorado. Although not as deep as its Chicago relative, it had a much wider crust, which was meant to be eaten with honey as a desert. In time, these were even joined by a Hawaiian version, topped with ham and pineapple – much to the bewilderment of Neapolitans.
  15. From the 1950s onwards, the rapid pace of economic and technological change in the US transformed the pizza even more radically. Two changes are worthy of note. The first was the ‘domestication’ of pizza. As disposable incomes grew, fridges and freezers became increasingly common and demand for ‘convenience’ foods grew – prompting the development of the frozen pizza. Designed to be taken home and cooked at will, this required changes to be made to the recipe. Instead of being scattered with generous slices of tomato, the base was now smothered with a smooth tomato paste, which served to prevent the dough from drying out during oven cooking; and new cheeses had to be developed to withstand freezing. (Americans spend about $4.5 billion on frozen pizza each year).
  16. The second change was the ‘commercialization’ of pizza. With the growing availability of cars and motorcycles, it became possible to deliver freshly cooked food to customers’ doors – and pizza was among the first dishes to be served up. In 1960, Tom and James Monaghan founded ‘Dominik’s’ in Michigan and, after winning a reputation for speedy delivery, took their company – which they renamed ‘Domino’s’ – nationwide. They and their competitors expanded abroad, so that now there is scarcely a city in the world where they cannot be found.
  17. Paradoxically, the effect of these changes was to make pizza both more standardized and more susceptible to variation. While the form – a dough base, topped with thin layers of tomato and cheese – became more firmly entrenched, the need to appeal to customers’ desire for novelty led to ever more elaborate varieties being offered, so that now Pizza Hut in Poland sells a spicy ‘Indian’ version and Domino’s in Japan has developed an ‘Elvis’ pizza, with just about everything on it.
  18. Today’s pizzas are far removed from those of the lazzaroni; and many pizza purists – especially in Naples – balk at some of the more outlandish toppings that are now on offer. But pizza is still recognizable as pizza and centuries of social, economic and technological change are baked into every slice.
  19. Let the debate begin. – rankings on favorite toppings

 

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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!!

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

Gone Fishin’

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Lake Erie fishing is a sport and a pastime that appeals to young & old, male & female, novice & competitive angler. Check out that whopper on the right side of row eight above. That’s a 51.5-inch Muskie. WOW!!!!!!!  Me? I’ll be at the grill with some sides ready to whip-up a tasty Walleye or Perch dinner. Yummmm!!!!!!! :))))

Now that the lake is starting to clear, and the ice is headed east, it’s time to get out the boat (or call a buddy with a boat) and do some fishin’.  Lake Erie fishing, especially for perch and walleye, is some of the most prized angling in the United States and the best fishing in Ohio. Anglers often carefully watch the fishing reports to plan annual treks to Lake Erie, sometimes several times a year, to enjoy the chance at catching an impressive haul after a day or weekend on the water.  I know that serious anglers love heading out really early in the morning (it’s my favorite time of the day!) when the water is calm, and the fishies are biting. I on the other hand will be glad to get the skillet or grill fired up!  I am not a fisherman, something about bobbing on the water doesn’t work well for my constitution!  Here is some good info for the novice fisherman, along with links for charters, and more.  So, call some buds, grab a hat and some sunscreen, light snacks, and head on out to enjoy the day.  Thanks to eriecharter.com, lakeeriewalleyecharterfishing.com, and planetware.com.  Enjoy, and call me when it’s time to eat!!

Play this tune while you read to get you in the mood.

Lake Erie is the fourth largest of the five Great Lakes serving as the international boundary between the United States and Canada. On a clear day on the open water, you can see the mainland of Canada and the Lake Erie islands.

Lake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes, and the entire shoreline stretches for 871 miles, touching the US state borders of Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York. There are so many fishing opportunities in this body of water, but most anglers come specifically for the walleye and perch.

In order to enjoy the best fishing that Lake Erie has to offer, you either need to hire a Lake Erie fishing charter, which is easy to do, or know a private captain who can take you. Fishing with an experienced captain on Lake Erie is essential.  Here’s some links: Try This and This

The weather conditions on the water are finicky, and the fishing regulations are strict. Having knowledge of the lake and its islands allows you to safely fish in just about any weather.

Lake Erie regulars know that the bait shop intel is some of the best information available. The walleye and perch are constantly on the move, and while most captains will know generally where they should be throughout the year, their specific locations and bite action will change by the day and oftentimes by the hour.

A favorite of Lake Erie fishing is perch.  Anglers say the best set-up is the hook sinker with a worm bait. Although you can also use a spinner tipped with a worm or a small jig head with a worm or minnow bait. Perch fishing with worms tends to produce the best results, but maggots, prawns and lobworms are also amongst the best bait for catching perch. Recently released Ohio Department of Natural Resources yellow perch hatch results indicate more of the same: overall mediocrity, leaning toward the not-so-good side.     )Depending on the fishing zones you choose, you will likely experience different results.

Many anglers also head to Lake Erie for the prized walleye. Walleye require different bait and fishing methods. Strict bag limit and size regulations for walleyes keep the fish populations in Lake Erie in check. It’s one of the reasons that the walleyes in these basins are able to grow to such large sizes.  People come from all over the region and US to fish for walleyes in Lake Erie, especially in the early spring and fall. The sheer quantity of fish and relative unavailability in the supermarket make it a popular sport fish.

There are various techniques used for getting bait into the strike zone for walleyes. Trolling is a common method that enables anglers to use crank/stick baits in the spring and fall and spoons and nightcrawler harnesses in the summer. All Lake Erie anglers have their own preferences when it comes to the use of planer boards, divers, downriggers, weighted spinners, or flatlining while targeting walleyes.

1. What to Know Before You Go. Lake Erie fishing is exciting, and you will relive the trip with every bite of perch and walleye that you cook for dinner, but there are some key things to know before you go. First things first: educate yourself on the Lake Erie fishing regulations. Since bag limits are reviewed each year, it is important to know what they are for the species that you are targeting, as the regulations are strict.

2.  Be sure to obtain a valid Ohio fishing license from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources or from the state you will be fishing from. Lake Erie is surrounded by the US states of Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York, which all have their own regulations and fishing license requirements.

3.  If you are susceptible to sea sickness, be sure to wear a motion-sickness patch or take motion-sickness prevention pills with you. The Lake Erie waters can mimic the ocean in inclement or windy weather, making for a rocky day on the boat. Hence the reason I do the cooking!!

4.  Hiring a Lake Erie fishing charter is easy to do, and it is one of the best ways to make sure you get right on top of the fish that you want to target. There are several types of charters available depending on your preference. You can hire a private charter, which is more expensive and generally takes groups of four to six people by pre-booking.

5.  Another option for Lake Erie fishing charters are walk-on head boats, where you just show up and go. These are nice options for people who decide to go fishing at the last minute because they are convenient. They are also more affordable than private charters, making them great options for families and groups who are on a budget.

6. Where to Depart. Lake Erie has three main basins from which anglers generally depart to fish for perch and walleye. Port Clinton is the Walleye Capital of the World, so it is the go-to launch for the Western Basin and that is where you will find the largest concentration of Lake Erie fishing charters. The Western Basin is productive in the spring during spawning season and in the fall.  The Central Basin, stretching along the northeastern Ohio border and part of Pennsylvania, is popular in the late spring and summer. Popular Ohio departures for the Central Basin include Huron, Lorain, Fairport, Geneva-on-the-Lake, Ashtabula, and Conneaut.  The Eastern Basin stretches from Pennsylvania to New York and Canada.

7.  Other Fish to Catch on Lake Erie. when it comes to Lake Erie fishing, there are other species that are great to target as well. Here are some of the other species that are likely to make an appearance:

Smallmouth Bass. The smallmouth bass in Lake Erie are a popular species for anglers. There are some strict regulations regarding smallmouth bass to help the populations get through spawning season, so you will want to review those if you plan to fish for this species in the spring or early summer. Smallmouth bass can be fun to catch, as they are active fighters and oftentimes jet out of the water.

Steelhead. Anglers enjoy fishing for steelhead because they are quite aggressive on the line. They also make for great table fare. The Ohio Division of Wildlife has been releasing steelhead trout in Lake Erie since the mid 90s, and they have become a popular fish for anglers.

Lake Trout. Lake Erie lake trout can grow quite large and are nice to catch. They are stocked in Ohio waters, so there are generally healthy populations.

Sheepshead. Often considered by anglers to be a junk fish, sheepshead are exciting to catch. These are quite popular to get on the end of your line while fishing for something else. Most anglers do not keep sheepshead, but they provide a lively intermission to your day of fishing.

8.  Planning a Lake Erie fishing trip is fairly simple and can become a yearly tradition as it is for so many anglers. Start your planning by deciding what type of species you want to fish for, as that will determine the time of year to go and the location of your departure.

If possible, give yourself a couple of days to make the most of the trip and ensure you have an ice chest full of fish to take home. At the very least, if one day is all you can do, try to plan the trip when you have the most flexibility to change the date if weather conditions are not favorable. Keep in mind that the captain has the final say when it comes to assessing the weather conditions.

Look up local resources like the Lake Erie Shore & Islands to find information on things to do in the area, lodging, and restaurants that you can plan to visit during your stay. They also provide daily weather and fishing reports that you can check before and during your time on the water.

Catch & Cook with Robert Field

How to Get a Fishing License in Ohio with pictures

 

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

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!!

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

Play Ball

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There’s nothing like going to Progressive Field. I like to get there early. I love the ballpark smell, (especially the food!!!!!!!!) the action of the game and the passionate fans. Oh, and did I mention the food?  :))))))) Read on for some fascinating facts about this great game.

I love it when baseball begins.  It’s a sign that spring is “almost” here in Cleveburg, and becomes a regular destination point for me and family and friends throughout the season. I love heading to the ballpark on a nice day and taking in a game.  Everything about baseball is great – young and veteran talent on the field, big hitters, stealing bases, great pitching, defense … oh, and the food – not much I don’t like – popcorn, yep, peanuts, yep, dog and a beer, yep, nachos, yep, ice cream (in summer) yep, pizza, why not, brats, sure (stadium mustard of course) … I could go on – plus all the new-fangled ways they get me out of my seat in into the food court (chicken barbeque sandwiches – oh my!).  Walking back to my seats, I stopped and looked at the field – the “diamond” as it’s called and wondered where this all came from.  The pitcher’s mound, the batter’s box, coaches on the corners.  The field looks so big at times, and so small too, with the size, speed and athleticism of the players.  So, back at the ranch, I went online, and found a ton of cool info (could write pages on this), dating back to the early days when the game was first formed, and formalized.  Here’s some fun trivia you can take to the ballpark next time you visit.  Enjoy, and thanks to Wikipedia and 19cbaseball.com for the info.

19th Century Baseball: The Beginning
Contrary to popular belief, Baseball was not invented by a single individual, but evolved from various European “bat and ball” games. Russia had a version of Baseball called Lapta, which dates back to the fourteenth century. It consisted of two teams (five to ten members) with a pitcher and batter. The ball would be thrown to the batter who would attempt to hit it with a short stick and then run to the opposite side and back before being hit by the ball. (when we were kids, we played “running bases”)

England has played Cricket and Rounders for several centuries. The first recorded cricket match took place in Sussex, England in 1697. Cricket is played in a large open circular field and has two sides of eleven players that attempt to “put out” a “batsman” who tries to prevent a ball thrown by a “bowler” from knocking over “bails” placed on “wickets,” or three upright sticks. If the batsman makes contact with the ball, he runs to the opposite side of the “pitch” and continues running back and forth until the ball is retrieved by the opposing team.

Rounders, which shares more technical similarities to Baseball, dates back to Tudor times in England. This game consisted of two teams, six to fifteen players, including a pitcher, batter, “bowling square,” “hitting square” and four posts, similar to bases used in Baseball. Each player had to bat in each “inning” and the game lasted two innings. The pitcher tossed the ball to the batter who attempted to hit it. If contact was made the batter ran to the first post. Points were awarded depending on what post was reached by the batter and the manner in which the post was reached.

Town Ball – Germany played a game called Schlagball, which was similar to Rounders. The ball was tossed by the “bowler” to the “striker,” who struck it with a club and attempted to complete the circuit of bases without being hit by the ball. Americans played a version of Rounders called “Town Ball,” which dates back to the early 1800’s. In this game, the first team to score one hundred “talleys” won the game. In 1858 the rules were formalized as the “Rules of the Massachusetts Game of Town Ball.”

“Base Ball” Occasionally, early 19th century American newspapers would mention games listed as “Bass-Ball,” “Base,” “Base Ball,” “Base-Ball,” “Goal Ball” and “Town Ball.” The first known printed record of a game that was slightly different from Rounders and resembled a game closer to Baseball, is from an 1829 book called The Boy’s Own Book  in which the game is referred to as “Round Ball,” “Base” and “Goal Ball.” A crude field diagram was included with specific locations for four stones or stakes (bases), that were arranged in a diamond. The article described how to “make an out” as well as how to get “home.” The word “party” was used to describe a team, and the team at bat was called the “in-party.” Each party pitched to themselves, bases were run in a clockwise direction and players could be put out by swinging and missing three pitched balls or by being hit with the ball while moving between bases.

The Olympic Base Ball Club of Philadelphia – Perhaps the first town ball club to adopt a constitution was the Olympic Ball Club of Philadelphia, founded in 1833. It was formed by combining two associations of Town Ball players. One of the Town Ball associations may have begun play in the spring of 1831, in Camden, NJ on Market Street. The original group included only four players, playing “Cat Ball,” but eventually the number of players increased and the Saturday afternoon gathering usually included between fifteen to twenty players.

The constitution was first published in 1838 and consisted of 15 Articles. Duties of the Board of Directors, Members, and Captains were described. Practice days and a fine structure were also outlined.

Birthplace – Elysian Fields is widely considered the birthplace of baseball as the first officially recorded, organized baseball game was played there on June 19, 1846. The game used Alexander Joy Cartwright’s rules and was played between the New York Base Ball Club and the Knickerbockers.

Dimensions
The first written mention of the dimensions of the bases was mentioned in the 1857 playing rules. It was specified that the bases were to cover one square foot, made of canvas, painted white and filled with sand or saw-dust. All bases were to be fastened to the field at each corner. Third and first base were to be turned so that a line from home would go through one of the corners and exit the other and the center of the base would be 30 yard from home base. At this time it was not written that foul lines were to be drawn on the field. Second base was to be set so that the 30 yard mark from third and first would rest in the center of the bag and the base was to be placed so that one side would be parallel with the front line of the pitcher’s line. The bases had a “belt” that wrapped around the center and then through a metal loop which was attached to a wooden spike that was driven into the ground. The metal spike was concealed underneath the base.

Beginning in 1860 a Foul Ball Post was to be placed 100 feet from both third and first base in line with home base. The post was used to help the umpire judge whether a batted ball landed in fair or foul ground. In the narrative of the Beadle’s Dime Base Ball Player Henry Chadwick suggested that the correct size of the bases should be 17 inches by 14 inches. It is not known if bases these dimensions were ever used.

When the National Association was formed in 1871, it adopted the same rules used by the National Association of Base Ball Players regarding the bases and foul lines. Added was the rule that no fence could be erected within 90 feet of home base, unless it was to mark the boundary of the ground. If a pitched ball touched that fence, without hitting the batter and passing the catcher, all base runners advanced one base.

The NL, in 1880, named the 15 foot line the “Coaches Line” and the 50 foot line the “Player’s Line.” These lines were now required to be extended to the limits of the grounds. The American Association of Base Ball Clubs, which began operation in 1882, used the same layout of the bases, Foul Ball Lines and Foul Ball Posts as the NL.

When the National League and American Association used the same rules starting in 1887, two changes took place. Third and first bases moved seven and one half inches, toward second base, so that they were entirely in fair ground. Also the 30 yard mark fell upon the back rear corner first and third base. So not only were the bases in fair ground they were now also inside the 30 yard box on the diamond. The runner’s line, outside of the first base Foul Ball Line now extended 3 feet past first base.

In 1889, a rule was instituted that stated that a batted ball hit over a fence less than 210 feet from home base entitled the Batsman to two bases.  When the National League and American Association became the National League and American Association of Base Ball Clubs in 1892, the distance for a batted ball to be ruled a double was increased to 235 feet from home base.

Super Geek Out – (if you are building one in the backyard) Here are the exact specs:
Each Baseline                                     90’
Home to Second                                 127’ 3 3/8”
Home to Front of Pitching Rubber      60’ 6”
Home plate to backstop                      60’
Home plate circle                                26’
Dugout from Foul Line                        15’
Home plate to Left/Right Field            320-350’
Home plate to Center Field                 400+
Pitching Mound Diameter                   18’
Pitching Mound Height                       10”

I love this one… The pitcher was held accountable for “unfair” pitched balls in 1863, and the umpire was instructed to call these “balls” after warning the pitcher. After warning the Pitcher and calling three “unfair” balls, the batter was entitled to first base and any runner occupying a base also advanced one base whether forced or not.

With the Start of the first professional baseball league in the United States, The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, the batter was given a large advantage for the 1871 season. He was allowed to call for a “high” or “low” ball. A “low pitch” was a ball delivered by the pitcher that was between the striker’s knees and his waist and passed over Home Base. A “high pitch” was a ball delivered by the pitcher that was between the striker’s waist and his shoulders and passed over Home Base. The striker was also allowed to step forward in the act of striking as long as he was still astride the three-foot line and was not to stand closer than one foot to Home Base.

In 1872, the second season of the National Association, Home Base was required to be made of white marble or stone and placed even with the ground.

In the National League in 1885 Home Base was to be made out of white rubber or stone. The batter’s box was moved to six inches from Home Base and its size was increased to six feet long by four feet wide. The American Association changed the composition of Home Base to only white rubber but the batter’s box remained three feet wide and six feet long, one foot from Home Base.

When the National League and American Association followed the same rules in 1887 it was stated that Home Base was to be made out of whitened rubber only. The batter was no longer allowed to call for a high or low pitch and a fair ball was one that passed over some part of Home Base and was between the batter’s knees and his shoulders.

In the National League in 1900, Home plate is converted to the present-day pentagonal shape, 17-inches wide.

Now you know – “batter up!!”

 

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

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!!

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

Sticky

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Look closely. Next time you get a piece of fruit check out those really little stickers. They’re really works of art!! Read all about them below.

It’s that time of year when I really enjoy fresh fruit from the supermarket.  Not only the strawberries or apples (but I must admit the apples are amazing lately), but the variety of oranges, grapefruit, and pineapple that arrive from Florida, California, and Mexico.  Jackie and I love to make a fruit salad, mixing whatever we pick up from our local grocery store, and combining the flavors – there’s something special about fresh grapefruit juice … especially when added to some of my favorite adult beverages!  I was noticing the tiny little stickers on each of the fruits, and then hit the internet to find out more.  Where did these come from, how do they get the tiny UPC code on them, who designs the stickers and keeps track of all the vendors and all the codes?  I found some great info about the stickers (never knew the stickers have become collector’s items) and worldwide coordination of markings and wanted to share.  Special thanks to fastcompany.com, cbc.ca.bonappetit.com, YouTube and Wikipedia for the info. Squeeze away!!

How Stickers are applied

  • Fruit stickers, or also known as “the world’s tiniest canvases for graphic design” have been around for almost a century.  Called a PLU sticker – short for Product or Price Look Up – feature a four- or five-digit number that lets cashiers know what the product is and then how much it costs.
  • Started back in the 30’s, with growth after World War II, the intricate illustrations gave way to more abstract graphics that made use of typography and striking colors. In recent years, some companies have continued to update their brand identity via the stickers. In the 1960s the brand Filosófo, for example, once sported a paper wrapper with concentric circles, illustrated stars, and a serif typeface. Today, it features a more contemporary typeface and a pristine, watercolor-like rendition of oranges adorned with blossoms. (the stickers are shaped like leaves).
  • The next evolution was a four-digit numbering system – numbers begin with a 3 or a 4 – which means the product was grown conventionally – five-digit combinations start with a 9 (then the product’s four-digit code), meaning it was organically grown.  An 8 was once used to denote GMO products, but that was dropped a few years back as the GMO designation didn’t affect price.
  • Whether you’re buying bananas from a store in Toronto, a shop in Kentucky or a stand in Cologne, Germany, the PLU is the same. Same goes for navel oranges (3107), seedless green grapes (4022) and even passion fruit (3038 for the granadilla variety).
  • According to Jane Proctor, vice-president of policy and issue management for the Canadian Produce Marketing Association, “it’s a global system.  In the U.S., in Canada, in Mexico, in the U.K., in New Zealand, in Australia, in Norway, in Sweden — in these countries, they’re used all the way through the supply chain. And any other country that is shipping to those countries is also using them.”
  • How are codes assigned when a new variety of fruit or vegetable is created that a grower or manufacturer thinks should have its own number, they can apply for a PLU (applications cost $1,000 for IFPS members; $2,000 for non-members.  An IFPS committee meets electronically, four times a year, to decide which applications should be accepted and which shouldn’t.
  • There are now some 1,400 codes in use.  The main requirement is that the product has to be sold by at least three retailers with 25 locations or more. Letters of support from the retailers are also asked for. With the use of bar codes, scanners, and tracking data systems, grocers are able to extract detailed buying behaviors using the UPC Bar codes.
  • The main purpose of the stickers is to allow a cashier to read the code easily through a clear plastic bag, so there are some design requirements.  For stickers with only a number, the type size has to be at least 14 points, and for newer PLUs, it has to include a barcode, which should be at least 10- or 12-point font. (there is no MAX size). It should also have as much contrast as possible, with black lettering on a white background considered ideal.
  • Manufacturers are free to come up with their own designs, making some stickers a collector’s item of sorts. Around the world, fruit stickers have become a collector’s item, replete with jazzy typography, vibrant illustrations, and playful branding that goes back over a century.
  • As one of the world’s largest exporters of fruit, Spain has them in droves. Since the country started exporting oranges and other citrus fruit at the turn of the 20th century, Spain has developed a robust infrastructure producing fruit stickers, paper wrappers, and custom-printed fruit crates.
  • These little “gems” of graphic design are now the subject of a new exhibition in Madrid. Featuring more than 300 Spanish brands, the aptly named Frutas de Diseño (Design Fruits) shines a light on the colorful history of fruit branding in Spain from the 1950s onward—and the wild variety of graphics that have been used to market fruits there and abroad.
  • The exhibition is located in CentroCentro, a striking cultural venue that was once Madrid’s main post office building. It includes 250 iterations of paper wrappers, a popular way of packaging fruit in Spain, more than 100 fruit crates stacked like totems, and a board with 360 real, tiny stickers in all kinds of shapes, from circles to ovals to leaves. Most of them depict a simple wordmark, with a few exceptions like an abstract version of the sun, or an illustrated lemon cut in half. Names like “Infinita” or “La Soculente” (The Succulent) helped businesses, often small family-run affairs, stand out from the crowd.
  • Over the past few years, some companies have been experimenting with lasers, etching numbers, and brand names on the skin on the actual fruit. While in its early days, the practice might gain steam in countries like France, which banned disposable plastic packaging and produce stickers across 30 fruits and vegetables.
  • Can you eat the stickers?  The short answer is yes, but you probably won’t want to.  There is not harm, but the stickers do not break down in the body … just pass through.
  • So next time you find yourself peeling a sticker from your orange, take a closer look before you chuck it in the trash, because you may be holding one of the tiniest forms of branding ever created.

 

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

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 Little’ – Day 1

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Thank goodness for calendars!!! Some dates are more important than others. But we still need to track them, share them, and remember them. Take for instance my birthday, __?__?__?__. Good to know, huh??  :)))))

The other day I was looking at my calendar, planning my week, staff meetings and calls to help my customers solve their PIA (Pain in the @%$) Jobs! Thinking through the next few weeks and what was ahead of me (and when I might be able to hit some golf balls .  I noticed that the first day of Ramadan (based on a lunar calendar) Good Friday and Easter Sunday (based on the numeric calendar) was clearly marked on my March calendar.  As I flipped through April, and May dates, it got me thinking about “calendars” – what’s the history behind all this.  I went online and “Wow”, did I uncover a TON of information, all started by a scholarly monk some 1700 years ago named Dionysis Exiguus, best known for his creation of a Christian based calendar (using the designations B.C. and A.D.) that led to our modern-day Gregorian calendar. For Dionysis, today, March 25th became “Day 1”.  I did my best to pick and choose the history details (be sure to click the links to dig deeper into the backstory).  Special thanks to Wikipedia, newadvent.org, brittania.org, and encyclopedia.com for the info.  Enjoy!

  1. Roman scholar and theologian Dionysius Exiguus (c. 465 A.D.-c. 530 A.D.) is best known for his creation of a calendar that led to the modern Gregorian calendar. From his calendar stem the designations “B.C.” and “A.D.” Dionysius championed the system that is still used today to determine the date of Easter, and his many translations and writings have influenced canon law and helped preserve early Church texts for study.
  2. Dionysius Exiguus, the man, is something of a mystery to modern scholars; Writing in Anno Domini: The Origins of the Christian Era, Georges Declercq argued that “the epithet ‘exiguus’ was adopted by Dionysius himself as a sign of intellectual humility, not because he was small of stature (‘the Short or the Little’).” Beyond this issue of nomenclature, the specific details of the early life and career of Dionysius have been lost over the centuries.
  3. Modern scholars do know that Dionysius originally came from Scythia—an area that in antiquity covered parts of present-day Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan—where he was reputedly raised by a sect of Gothic monks before becoming a monk himself. A preface to one of his translations seems to indicate that Dionysius came from Scythia Minor, which today encompasses a portion of Romania that borders the Black Sea.
  4. Regardless of his place of origin, sometime around 496 Dionysius came to Rome; he was by that time already a well-known scholar who had been summoned by Pope Gelasius I to the city to organize the internal archives of the church “to compile a collection of texts of incontestable worth and authenticity.” Despite his origins, Dionysius was considered by contemporary Cassiodorus to be “a true Roman and thorough Catholic.”
  5. During his career, Dionysius worked in several fields of study. He translated many of the decrees issued by the Council of Nicaea, which created the first standard Christian doctrine; decrees by the Council of Constantinople, which created the first major revision of that doctrine; decrees by the First Council of Ephesus, which declared Mary to be the mother of God; and finally, decrees by the Council of Chalcedon, which established the difference between Jesus Christ the human and Jesus Christ the divine.
  6. Dionysius collected letters written by fourth-century Popes. These letters, together with his collections of council decrees, later served as important resources for the creators of canon, or church, law.  He also translated a number of texts describing the lives of saints, as well as theological works that recount early doctrinal debates among different groups within the Church. The New Catholic Encyclopedia claimed that “Dionysius’s perfect knowledge of Greek and Latin is proved by his translations.”
  7. In addition to translating important Church texts, Dionysius himself was a theologian who wrote on the early history of the Catholic Church. His biography in Science and Its Times stated that “he is credited with writing a collection of 401 ecclesiastical canons … that would become important historical documents about the early years of Christianity.”
  8. According to the New Catholic Encyclopedia, “the entire work of Dionysius had but one purpose: the reconciliation of the Churches of the Orient and the West.” At the time of Dionysius, Christian doctrine was not yet standardized; the Christian world had divided into eastern and western branches due to disagreements on doctrinal matters.
  9. One of Dionysius’s efforts to reunite the divided Church related to the calculation of the dates of Easter, the most important Christian feast day, on which believers celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. At the time, two methods competed for supremacy. One, the Alexandrine rule, had been created by the Council of Nicaea in 325. The other, used by the Church authorities in Rome at the time of Dionysius, declared that Easter must fall between March 25 and April 21 and relied on an 84-year cycle.
  10. Dionysius was also trained as a mathematician and an astronomer too (this guy rocks!!), and these skills surely helped him as he conducted studies into the calculation of dates. His work with the calendar stemmed from a request from Pope John I in 525 to extend the existing Easter tables for an additional 95 years. To do this, Dionysius chose to employ the Alexandrian method and to base his calculation on the Easter tables of St. Cyril, who had used the Alexandrian method, rather than those of Victorious of Aquitaine, which employed the cycle then endorsed by the Roman Church.
  11. A number of bishops asked Dionysius to explain this decision, and Dionysius responded to this request in the preface to his Book on Easter Reckoning, as quoted by Declercq. Declercq noted that Dionysius believed firmly that the Council of Nicaea endorsed the Alexandrian method, and summarized Dionysius’s explanation of the criteria of that method thus: “The beginning of the first lunar month, Nisan, from 8 March to 5 April inclusive; the lunar limits 15-21 for Easter Sunday; the theory of the spring equinox on 21 March as the earliest possible date for the Paschal [spring] or 14th moon; the calendar limits for the Paschal full moon (21 March to 18 April) and those for the festival of Easter itself (22 March to 25 April).” (we’ll be having a test on Monday…”)
  12. These criteria dictated that Easter would occur on the first Sunday following the 14th day of the lunar cycle—the full moon—that falls on or after the spring equinox. Despite the controversy caused by Dionysius’s use of this method, his tables noting the dates of Easter for the years 532-626 stood. (Western Christianity still calculates the date of Easter using this method, showing the lasting impact of Dionysius’s work).
  13. In the course of determining the date of Easter, Dionysius also created the Christian Era calendar, commonly used today and recognizable by its B.C./A.D. (“Before Christ”/“Anno Domini”) designations. Instead of relying on the modern Gregorian calendar, people of Dionysius’s time determined the year using the Julian calendar.  This calendar was created by famed Roman statesman Julius Caesar in an attempt to correct the highly inaccurate Roman calendar of his day. This calendar numbered years commencing from either the foundation of the city in Rome, or from the first year of the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian.
  14. The Diocletian dating system was at the fore in the era of Dionysius. Preferring not to memorialize Diocletian, who had been a somewhat tyrannical emperor and had persecuted Christians, by basing the calendar upon his reign, Dionysius decided to renumber the years. Dionysius is quoted as stating that he wished to date the year “from the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, in order that the beginning of our hope should be better known to us and the cause of our recovery, that is the Passion of our Redeemer, should shine forth more clearly.”
  15. Dionysius thus renumbered the years beginning with the incarnation of Jesus Christ, beginning with the year 1 as the Roman numbering system had no way to indicate a zero. This meant that his Easter tables began with the year 532, instituting the Christian Era (also called the Incarnation Era) still used for reckoning the number of the year.
  16. The legacy of Dionysius Exiguus is evident throughout the world. His dating system, incorporated into the standard Gregorian calendar, is the most common reckoning of the year around the globe. The Alexandrian rule of calculating the date of Easter, introduced by Dionysius, remains the method used by Western Christianity to set this feast day. (nice job!)
  17. If interested, learn more online at: “Dionysius Exiguus,” Catholic Encyclopedia, (November 26, 2007).

 

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

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Thanks Enrico

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Man, vinyl records were the thing for a hundred years. How’d it all start? Well, that Frenchman in the second row, Edouard-Leon Scott started the ball rolling with that device next to him. Then a young inventor Thomas Edison (third row) developed the idea further. The next photo down shows the first recording super star, Enrico Caruso, on the right, listening to himself sing with his friends. The next photo is the inventor of the phonograph, Emile Berliner. Below him is a 1920’s kid with a toy phonograph.  Today, vinyl record collecting and trading is HUGE!!! Read all about it below. 

Remember album?  Those vinyl plastic circles we used to rotate under a magic needle, and then dancing around in our bedrooms and basements.  I’m pretty sure I have a whole crate of them in the basement – many of which the girls loved to play while we did family chores on the weekends.  Invented by a famous fella you’ve never heard of, Peter Goldmark, who takes the prize as the inventor of the vinyl record we’re familiar with today (born in 1906, Goldmark ended up working at Columbia Records as an engineer and was the key developer of the 33 1/3 rpm LP “long play” record).  As any audio enthusiast will tell you, there’s something special about listening to an album on vinyl that just cannot be emulated. Despite now living in an age of streaming, where access to all the music in the world is at our fingertips, there is still something special about the audio quality of virgin vinyl spinning on a finely calibrated record player. (you gotta email me and tell me what your top three albums were/are !! – skowalski@khtheat.com).  For me it’s: My top three would have to be in no order, Pink Floyd-Dark Side of the Moon, Queen – News of the World and 5thDimension – Age of Aquarius. Today marks the day, in 1902 when Italian opera star Enrico Caruso made what’s considered the first recoding by a professional singer  – talk about a PIA (Pain in the @%$) Job!  Hats off to all the great entertainers who have (and still) delight our senses and give us an excuse to “dust the rug” every once in a while.  Here’s some fun history and facts.  Thanks to discmanufacturingservices.com, Wikipedia and YouTube for the info and videos. Enjoy!

  • In the year 1857, a brilliant French inventor by the name of Edouard-Leon Scott, created a specialist device which utilized a vibrating pen which graphically represented sounds, onto small paper discs. This device was known as a Phonautograph, and it was primarily created to help us get a better understanding of the characteristics of sound. It wasn’t until Thomas Edison began showing an interest in this device however, that things really got interesting. In 1878, Edison took this concept and turned it into a machine that was capable of replaying the sounds that it recorded. The device utilized a stylus that was designed to cut grooves of sound onto cylinders and discs made of tinfoil.
  • On this day, in 1902, Italian operatic tenor Enrico Caruso becomes the first well-known performer to make a record.  Born into poverty in Naples, Enrico was the eighteenth child born in his family (I love big families) and the first to survive into adulthood. He went onto become the most famous Italian tenor of his generation and one of the first singers to achieve international fame through this new technology of recorded sound.
  • A little over a decade later, German-born US inventor Emile Berliner patented the very first vinyl record player – the Gramophone. This device had to be manually operated at 70 RPM and functioned by playing a rubber vulcanite disc, 7 inches in size with small lateral grooves cut into its exterior.
  • Over the next 13 years, vinyl records would undergo a series of material alterations and formatting changes, until 1901, where the Victor Company released its Red Seal line, capable of playing vinyl records in the form of ten inch, 78 RPM records. In terms of formatting, the 78 RPM format proved to be the most superior for the next 47 years. (my parents had a whole bunch of these – I remember how thick and hard the vinyl was).
  • When a record is placed on a record player, it begins spinning, and a needle (also known as a stylus) is lowered into the grooves of the record.  The needle sits in the grooves and follows them around the record, playing the sound contained in the grooves.
  • In 1948, thanks to CBS, we were introduced to the world’s first LP (Long Play) record. Thanks to Peter Goldmark, this vinyl record had a capacity of around 21 minutes per side and was 12 inches wide, playing at a speed of 33 1/3 RPM. This changed the face of the music industry to the album-centric format we all still abide by today. Shortly after, RCA Victor introduced their own LP, which turned at 45 RPM and was just 7 inches in size. These records formats are the very same that we use today that is once again growing in popularity.
  • The vinyl format is still widely hailed as the optimum in sound quality and listening pleasure, many challengers have come and gone but records have endured the test of time like no other.
  • Across the Western world, vinyl records have made a remarkable comeback. Independent labels, some of whom had never stopped pressing vinyl, were quick to spot the changing tide and drive the need for a new era of short run vinyl pressing services. Once the major labels followed suit it was clear that the vinyl resurgence would be here to stay. New vinyl manufacturing plants continue to pop up, some recommissioning Soviet-era record presses to help meet the growing demand.
  • There is a national day devoted to vinyl records called National Vinyl Record Day.  It falls annually on August 12th.
  • The term “like a broken record” doesn’t actually refer to a broken record, it refers to a scratched record.  When a record has a scratch, the needle can become stuck in that scratch, and play the same thing over and over, which is the true meaning of the phrase “like a broken record”.In 2020 there were 27.5 million vinyl records pressed in the US, surpassing the volume about 19 million in 2019.  CLICK
  • How they are made!!

 

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

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

WOW!

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are amazing. Just a few of their important projects:
1. New Orleans flood protection system
2. The Lincoln Memorial
3. The great lakes restoration project
4. The Pentagon
5. ICBM Silos
6. WWII – D-Day They made the landing happen
7. Cape Kennedy vehicle assembly building
8. The Library of Congress
9. The St. Lawrence Seaway
10. Hundreds and hundreds of other of other amazing waterway projects most of us take for granted

Of all the Corps has done, this project to protect New Orleans since the catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Katrina is a real engineering marvel!!!

Ever take the time to reflect on some of the “really” big projects that have been built in Ohio and in our country.  Giant dams, long waterways, canals and harbors and so much more.  Recently, I read an article about some really exciting projects coming to our beautiful “North Coast” – after years and years of talking, multiple groups will begin re-engineering some really great stuff (one idea is to create an island off the coast).  On this day, March 11, 1779, Congress established the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help plan, design and prepare environmental and structural facilities for the U.S. Army, made up of civilian workers, members of the Continental Army and French officers.  For nearly 250 years, they have tackled some amazing works (talk about PIA (Pain in the @%$) Jobs!). We salute all of those engineers, technicians, scientists and “hard workin’ guys and gals who helped shape our nation.  Here’s some lengthy (but great) history, videos and tidbits I think you’ll enjoy.  We salute you!  Special thanks to historychannel.org, fpri.org, Wikipedia.org, ranker.com and YouTube for the info and videos.  Love it!

The members of the Corps who had joined at the time of its founding in 1779 left the army with their fellow veterans at the end of the War for Independence. In 1794, Congress created a Corps of Artillerists and Engineers to serve the same purpose under the new federal government. The Corps of Engineers itself was reestablished as an enduring division of the federal government in 1802.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is America’s oldest and largest engineering organization, and at times, the most controversial. Since 1802, when Congress created the Corps within the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the army engineers have brought science into government and extended the federal responsibility for natural resources.

As the construction arm of Congress, the engineers managed some of the world’s most monumental construction, as the nation’s premier builders of water projects-dams, dikes, canals, harbors, hydro facilities, and navigation channels. Visit HERE for some of the “big” projects.

Both “Beast” and “Benefactor” the Corps is praised as a nation builder, elsewhere denounced as an out-of-control bulldozer. Following a “bigger-is-better” national ethos, the Corps had been grandiose and also at odds with American traditions. In a nation committed to private enterprise and states’ rights, the Corps has been denounced as a military agent of big-government centralization.

The Corps emerged from the formative conflicts that divided the young republic during the Federalist Era. George Washington’s America stood at a geopolitical crossroads between two great rivals in Europe: Britain and France. Britain was the great center of industrial capitalism. Its grandest construction projects were built by self-made private enterprise. France was the center of science and formal academic training. France’s most magnificent projects were tax-financed and military inspired.

Hamilton advanced the idea that roads, canals, and other public construction were necessary for public safety. The Constitution, said Hamilton, implied a federal authority to build lighthouses for the safety of shipping, to remove obstructions to river commerce, and to build highways for troops. Thomas Jefferson, although suspicious of bureaucracy, admired the French talent for comprehensive planning and scientific professionalism. The result was a so-called “mixed enterprise” that allowed Congress to purchase stock and otherwise subsidize local construction. Jefferson envisioned a military academy for engineers that would professionalize the army and coordinate public works.

French engineering inspired the Corps. At the U.S. Military Academy, an engineering school, West Pointers learned French, studied mathematics, and grounded engineering in theory. French schooling left the West Pointers with an attraction to federally funded networks of projects and a preference for complex design. In 1816, President James Madison recruited French general Simon Bernard to head a U.S. board of fortification planners. The Monroe administration expanded Bernard’s authority to roads and canals.

After 1824, with the passage of the General Survey Act and the first federal river improvement act, the French-led Corps of Engineers assumed an active role as transportation planners. Together with the U.S. Bureau of Topographical Engineers, the Corps planned lighthouses, bridges, and Great Lakes ports of refuge from Buffalo to Duluth and our French-trained army engineers pioneered urban planning and sanitation engineering in Washington, D.C.

Many times, Congress hotly debated the constitutionality of federal internal improvements, the most expensive federal projects were seacoast fortifications. From 1808 to 1861, army engineers built one of the world’s most sophisticated systems of fortified harbors-more than 50 massive projects. Army engineers also surveyed the competing routes for the Pacific Railroad. Only about 100 strong, the engineering elite of the army planned a dozen major canals, a national highway, hundreds of beach-front dikes, and thousands of miles of navigation channels.

Gradually the Corps also took responsibility for planning a system of flood levees on the Lower Mississippi. After 1902, civilian agencies such as the U.S. Geological Survey and the dam-building U.S. Reclamation Service rose to challenge the Corps monopoly over monumental construction. But the Corps, still the favorite of Congress, remained the nation’s foremost authority on water construction. Broad powers of implementation allowed the engineers to broker public assistance and direct federal aid.

Three missions have since dominated the Corps civil works. The first is navigation improvement-the channeling of rivers, the dredging of harbors, and the construction of locks and dams. For example, Corps-built navigation channels move oil from Tulsa to refineries above New Orleans. Barges of wheat and corn lock through Army engineered rivers from Omaha to Chicago. Soo Locks allow ships to travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes. The Corps’s Saint Lawrence Seaway connects the North Atlantic to the Great Lakes and the Mississippi tows push river barges through the Corps’s slackwater staircase from St. Louis to St. Paul. LINK

A second mission is flood control. This mission began in 1850 when a flood on the Mississippi excited the attention of Congress. After 1879, with the creation of the Corps-led Mississippi River Commission, engineers developed a sophisticated science of floodway design. In 1917, after another bad flood year on the Mississippi, Congress turned again to the Corps. On the Mississippi River and Sacramento River. In 1936, Congress expanded the federal flood program to the 48 states with $310 million for 250 projects.

The grandest result of the program was the Mississippi River and Tributaries project-the MR&T. Its vast system of levees and spillways funnels the dangerous river from St. Louis to New Orleans.  Link to how the levees have been expanded by the Corps after the New Orleans disaster in the early 2000’s

A third mission grew from the same scientific tradition that made the Corps an expert on floods. Corps engineers led the scientific surveys that mapped water resources. The engineers also surveyed Yellowstone and Yosemite parks.

In 1899, the so-called Refuse Act extended the environmental mission, making the engineers responsible for obstructions in navigable streams. Here began the Corps’s controversial permit authority to regulate dumping. Legislation such as the 1972 and 1974 Clean Water Acts expanded that authority. With the rise of the environmental movement, and the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act in 1969, the Corps became the steward of fraying coastlines and vanishing swamps.

Like so many decisions in our history – The Corps-for better or for worse-has been the agent of this modernization, as Americans have learned that every engineering solution always has secondary consequences.  For example, – Should we actually be building multi-million dollar homes over and over again on beaches and expecting a different outcome from major storms / hurricanes, and flooding?

Great Lakes and Ohio Valley Projects

 

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

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