3 Well Known Companies Who Collaborated With The Nazi's

  Throughout history, companies worked with the government in power.  Its one way to stay in business even if the company didn't agree with the government's philosophies.  Most all of the companies mentioned here are familiar to most people.
 

1.  Hugo Boss Clothing - founded by Hugo Boss who was a fashion designer and founded a textile factory in 1923.  His company was awarded a contract to supply uniforms to the SA troopers, also known as Brown Shirts.  Once Hitler came into power, he joined the party and ended up providing additional uniforms to the SS, Hitler Youth, rail workers, postal workers and all the members of the German army, navy and air force. 

Unfortunately, he used slave labor from Poland and France to meet the demands of World War II.  When the war ended, Hugo Boss ended up paying fines for working with the Nazi's and had to transfer ownership of his business to his son-in-law because he was prohibited from owning and running a business.  In 1999, the company contributed money to be distributed to former slave workers.

2.  Volkswagen came about due to World War II and Germany.  Most cars at that time were luxury cars out of range of the average German consequently only two percent of the population own one and there was need of a car for the people.  In 1933, Mr Porsche of Porsche racing cars, created his concept car, named the Volksauto.  It had the basic bug shape with the air cooled engine in the rear. 
When Hitler came into power the same year, he began campaigning for a "Peoples car" that would transport two adults, three children, go 62 mph and cost only 990 RM or about $400.

Porche's car met the criteria but because none of the car manufacturing plants in Germany could produce this car, Hitler built a state fun factory to make the car.  Hitler even arranged for people to purchase it by paying 5 RM per week.  Soon after the plant came into operation, the war began and the factory was soon producing war materials.

At the end of the war, the factory was offered to Allied car manufacturers free of charge but no one wanted it so it kept producing and by 1948, the car became a German icon.  The plant in Wolfburg has continued to grow, making it one of the richest cities in Germany.

3. Fanta is also attributed to the War.  Prior to World War II, Coca-Cola was well liked in Germany to the point that sales records were set year after year.  Coca-Cola's German division had 43 bottling plants with over 600 local distributors when World War II broke out in 1939. The manager of the plant communicated with the parent company they would try to keep everything going but they could not get certain ingredients since they had to be imported from overseas.

This caused production to halt for a short time while the company tried to formulate a new formula using whatever they could use such as apple fiber left over from making apple juice, whey left over from making cheese and beet sugar.  Although Fanta is normally orange, it's flavors varied according to what they could get during wartime. 

Since it was a new soft drink, employees held a brainstorming session and someone shouted out "Fanta" which was accepted and production started again.  Germans loved the drink so much that they consumed over three million cases in 1943 alone ensuring the company continued to produce the drink.  During this time, the German plants lost contact with their American parent company but the manager kept extensive records and refused to join the Nazi Party.  At the end of the war, he turned over all profits and the recipe for Fanta.

I hope you enjoyed reading about these companies.  I'll report about some more in the future.  Have a great day and let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.

4 Early Women Entrepreneurs.

If you look at history, you'll find several businesses started and owned by women, long before it became standard.  At the time, most of these women lived, women were expected to be wives, raise children, and be their husbands property. They were not expected to found businesses in a male dominated world.

They women braved societal views to do what they needed to.  Let's look at some of them.

1.  Eliza Lucas Pinckney was born in Antigua, grew up in London before her family moved to America where her father bought three plantations.  At the age of 16, Eliza took over running the plantations near Charles Town, South Carolina when her mother died and her father returned to the West Indies.  

She realized America had a growing textile industry so she began growing indigo to produce indigo dyes.  By 1739, she was successful and indigo dyes were second only to rice as exports.  In addition to introducing indigo, she introduces flax, hemp, silk and figs.  Although she died in 1793, she was inducted into the South Carolina Business Hall of Fame in 1989.

2.  Mary Katherine Goddard who was born in New London, Connecticut before moving to Providence, Rhode Island in 1762.  Four years later, she became America's first woman publisher.  Nine years later, she became the first female Postmaster in Baltimore, Maryland but she is most famous for being the person who printed the first copy of the Declaration of Independence with all the names of the signers.  

3. Lydia Pinkham took her herbal home remedies and in 187, created a business based on them.  Her "Pinham's Vegetable Compound" became one of the best selling patent medicines of the time.  Furthermore, as she marketed her compounds to women, she also educated them about health female health issues.  She crusaded for women's health at a time when the medical community paid little attention to the topic.  Her company was bought out in 1968 by Cooper Laboratories but you can still find pills and liquids with her name on them at some stores.

4. Madam C.J. Walker is well known for starting a successful business from nothing.  She was the daughter of two former slaves and orphaned at the age of 7.  Her first product, released in 1905, was a scalp conditioning and healing formula developed because she had a scalp ailment that caused her to loose all her hair.  Soon she expanded her business to South America and the Caribbean and became one of the first self-made millionaires. 

Furthermore, as her business expanded, she trained beauticians who sold her product and shared her philosophies within the African American community. In 1917, Madam C. J. Walker organized and ran the first national meeting for business women in Philadelphia.  Aside from founding the first African American hair products and cosmetics company, she also opened the way for women entrepreneurs.  

Each of these women broke a glass ceiling of the time by running a successful business at a time when few women could.  let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

A Drink? But Not In This Form!

  When I was a teenager, the usual way my friends had alcohol was via a drink from a bottle of wine or beer.  Apparently, people have discovered a new way of imbibing it without it every passing their lips. 

You don't drink it, you inhale it.  You read that right.  Someone created a machine which takes liquid alcohol and changes it into a mist you can inhale.

Unfortunately when alcohol is consumed this way, it tends to be absorbed into the blood stream faster and reaches the brain sooner so you get drunk quicker.  If the alcohol fumes are heated or poured over dry ice, they can damage the lungs.

The way it works is alcohol is turned into a warm mist that people inhale into their lungs.  It is instantly absorbed into the lungs causing a quick and intense "high" because it is almost instantly delivered to the brain.  This means that people only need a small amount of alcohol to get drunk and its easy to become drunker than by drinking the alcohol.

One of the claims advertisers use for this method is that you can enjoy alcohol without absorbing the calories but that is not true.  A person will get the calories weather in liquid or mist form but the claim of no calories appeals to people who want the buzz without the calories and there is no hangover.

Some of the problems in consuming alcohol in this manner are:

1.  It can damage the brain which is not good in teenagers and young adults because the brain does not finish developing until around the age of 25.

2.  Normally, alcohol can irritate the stomach and cause vomiting which limits the amount of alcohol that is absorbed but when its in mist form, it bypasses the stomach and there is not vomiting so the amount of alcohol being absorbed is not limited. 

3. The inhalation of alcohol can damage the lungs, and the brain.

4.  The alcohol potency is not diminished when delivered in this manner.

5.  The chances of alcohol poisoning and overdosing increases.

6.  You don't know exactly how much alcohol you are taking into your system because you cannot measure it.

Although there are no definitive human studies out on this yet, the studies done on rats have shown several disturbing things.

1.  After inhaling alcohol, rats displayed more alcohol seeking behaviors.
2.  They displayed more anxious behaviors.
3.  Alcohol in this form becomes addictive
4.  As rats consumed alcohol in this form, they needed more and more to get the same buzz because the brain was changing.
5.  They also exhibited alcohol withdrawal symptoms when they didn't get the alcohol.

I guess this is one of the "new" ways of getting drunk but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone and just for the record, I do not drink and am not interested in drinking but I felt this topic was important enough to cover it here.  It is worth a chat with your kids just so they know what could happen.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Even the Mafia Contributed to the War Effort.

 
It reads like a fiction plot from a book on World War II.  The main characters are the United States Government and the Mafia. The mention came in the movie Suicide Squad in which the boss lady stated the United States hired the Mafia to protect seaports.

Of course, it sounded like something out of a book so I had to look it up.  Back in 1942, after Pearl Harbor and after the suspect destruction of the cruise ship Normandie in Manhattan , the government became concerned about German or Italian infiltration of the docks.

 They'd lost over 20 vessels about 60 miles off Long Island.  They thought the people supplying the patrolling German U-boats were either disgruntled rum runners who'd been put out of business or agents living in New York.

Thus they began sending agents down to talk to dock workers but none of them were willing to talk to the government so they went  to Lucky Luciano, one of the early Mafia bosses, about shortening his prison sentence in exchange for his organization providing intelligence to the Navy.  Due to this agreement, he was released early in 1946 and deported back to Italy.

Their contact for Luciano came via a Jewish mobster who went after Nazi sympathizers in the states. He made the proposal and used Luciano's name to get everyone on board on the waterfront.   It is not known, how much information this agreement provided to the government but Luciano used his drug smuggling contacts to find associates who draw maps and find photos of the Sicilian coastline to assist the United States Navy prepare for the Allied invasion of Sicily also known as Operation Husky.  By the time of the invasion, the United States had a map filled with airstrips, navel bases, and power plants, so the Navy had accurate information for the invasion.

At about the same time, the government spoke with Lanza who ran the Fulton Fish Market in Manhattan.  He controlled the fishing up and down the east coast and anything he said was done. The government asked him for help so he and an associate worked with local fishermen to find the enemy.  In addition, they provided work cards so agents could infiltrate and even provided coded information.  Furthermore, all fishermen kept an eye out for any unusual activity.

It was all of the connections and help provided by these mobster which helped protect the docks in this country and helped make Operation Husky a success.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.


 It reads like a fiction plot from a book on World War II.  The main characters are the United States Government and the Mafia. The mention came in the movie Suicide Squad in which the boss lady stated the United States hired the Mafia to protect seaports.

Of course, it sounded like something out of a book so I had to look it up.  Back in 1942, after Pearl Harbor and after the suspect destruction of the cruise ship Normandie in Manhattan , the government became concerned about German or Italian infiltration of the docks.

 They'd lost over 20 vessels about 60 miles off Long Island.  They thought the people supplying the patrolling German U-boats were either disgruntled rum runners who'd been put out of business or agents living in New York.

Thus they began sending agents down to talk to dock workers but none of them were willing to talk to the government so they went  to Lucky Luciano, one of the early Mafia bosses, about shortening his prison sentence in exchange for his organization providing intelligence to the Navy.  Due to this agreement, he was released early in 1946 and deported back to Italy.

Their contact for Luciano came via a Jewish mobster who went after Nazi sympathizers in the states. He made the proposal and used Luciano's name to get everyone on board on the waterfront.   It is not known, how much information this agreement provided to the government but Luciano used his drug smuggling contacts to find associates who draw maps and find photos of the Sicilian coastline to assist the United States Navy prepare for the Allied invasion of Sicily also known as Operation Husky.  By the time of the invasion, the United States had a map filled with airstrips, navel bases, and power plants, so the Navy had accurate information for the invasion.

At about the same time, the government spoke with Lanza who ran the Fulton Fish Market in Manhattan.  He controlled the fishing up and down the east coast and anything he said was done. The government asked him for help so he and an associate worked with local fishermen to find the enemy.  In addition, they provided work cards so agents could infiltrate and even provided coded information.  Furthermore, all fishermen kept an eye out for any unusual activity.

It was all of the connections and help provided by these mobster which helped protect the docks in this country and helped make Operation Husky a success.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.
  It reads like a fiction plot from a book on World War II.  The main characters are the United States Government and the Mafia. The mention came in the movie Suicide Squad in which the boss lady stated the United States hired the Mafia to protect seaports.

Of course, it sounded like something out of a book so I had to look it up.  Back in 1942, after Pearl Harbor and after the suspect destruction of the cruise ship Normandie in Manhattan , the government became concerned about German or Italian infiltration of the docks.

 They'd lost over 20 vessels about 60 miles off Long Island.  They thought the people supplying the patrolling German U-boats were either disgruntled rum runners who'd been put out of business or agents living in New York.

Thus they began sending agents down to talk to dock workers but none of them were willing to talk to the government so they went  to Lucky Luciano, one of the early Mafia bosses, about shortening his prison sentence in exchange for his organization providing intelligence to the Navy.  Due to this agreement, he was released early in 1946 and deported back to Italy.

Their contact for Luciano came via a Jewish mobster who went after Nazi sympathizers in the states. He made the proposal and used Luciano's name to get everyone on board on the waterfront.   It is not known, how much information this agreement provided to the government but Luciano used his drug smuggling contacts to find associates who draw maps and find photos of the Sicilian coastline to assist the United States Navy prepare for the Allied invasion of Sicily also known as Operation Husky.  By the time of the invasion, the United States had a map filled with airstrips, navel bases, and power plants, so the Navy had accurate information for the invasion.

At about the same time, the government spoke with Lanza who ran the Fulton Fish Market in Manhattan.  He controlled the fishing up and down the east coast and anything he said was done. The government asked him for help so he and an associate worked with local fishermen to find the enemy.  In addition, they provided work cards so agents could infiltrate and even provided coded information.  Furthermore, all fishermen kept an eye out for any unusual activity.

It was all of the connections and help provided by these mobster which helped protect the docks in this country and helped make Operation Husky a success.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

First Black Friday, Then Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday is a dday that many people wait for because it means they do not have to fight crowds at the local stores to get a good deal.  I hate going into town on Black Friday, I usually wait till Cyber Monday to do all my shopping.

The term "Cyber Monday" was first coined in 2005 by Ellen Davis at the National Retail Federation.

People at the National Retail Federation noticed a spike in sales the Monday following Black Friday.  They theorized it was because once people got back to work, they could shop online without distractions and modem speeds had increased to a point where it was easier to shop online. Based on this observation, the National Retail Federation released a statement declaring the Monday after Black Friday as "Cyber Monday" because 77 percent of the  retail businesses noticed a significant increase on that day.

The New York Times published the information and it was noticed that sales that year hit just about half a billion, an increase of 26 percent from the previous year.  It took several years for the public to accept it as a regular shopping day and many retailers didn't see it as anything special until 2014 when sales hit two billion dollars that day, making it one of the biggest sales day in history.

The line between Black Friday and Cyber Monday have blurred to the point that sales occur beginning on Thanksgiving and ending on Cyber Monday. Furthermore, due to heavy competitions between companies such as Wal-mart and Amazon, Cyber Monday became Cyber Week which is now quite standard

The latest statistics say in 2015, sales for Cyber Monday were $2.98 billion while it jumped to $6.59 billion two years later.  Many companies deeply slash desirable items to jump start everyone's purchases.  Many companies deeply discount clothing, laptops, and gaming systems to get people shopping. The idea is for this strategy to get shoppers thinking of what they can get others for Christmas.

Since then, the idea of Cyber Monday has caught on in other countries such as the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Canada. 

If you are wondering?  Yes I do shop the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales online because the closest store to my house is not much bigger than a convenience store.  I can't visit stores at 5 AM to check out the television, underwear and socks so his is the best I can.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear from you.  Have a great day.

More

Days After

Black Friday But Not What You Think!

  I'm sure the minute you read the words "Black Friday", dreams of bargains popped into your head.  If you are like an aunt of mine, you'll have scoured the papers, figured out which store opens at what time, and you've got your time table set, the GPS loaded, ready to head off for all the bargains.

As you know, the term "Black Friday" as we know it, began in Philadelphia back in the 1950's to describe the onslaught of shoppers who descended on the city for two days after Thanksgiving to shop. The same day when the police department had to make its officers work 12 hour days to handle the crowd.

Today's column is not about this.  Its not about the history of the sales day.  Its about the term meaning of "Black Friday" that predates this use.  The term was first applied to September 24, 1869, when two men tried to take over the gold market at the The New York Gold Exchange.

The two men, Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, headed the Erie Railroad and quite a lot of financial clout.  They were known on Wall Street as being ruthless and cutthroat.  They were known for issuing worthless stock while bribing judges and politicians to stay out of jail.  In fact, they were known for their ability to add to their fortune while ripping people off.

Early in 1869, Gould got the idea of going after the gold market it was still the official currency for international trade even though the United States no longer used gold as currency.  They issued "Greenbacks" during the civil war but after were willing to buy them back at a set price, thus the government controlled the price of gold.

He decided that if someone with enough money could buy enough gold out there, they could hoard it, cause the price to go up before selling gold at a significant price but to keep the government from selling off enough gold to keep him from succeeding he paid President Grants brother-in-law a cool 1.5 million to influence Grant from doing that.

The brother-in-law managed this by getting someone into the Treasury department who would listen to Gould and support him.  This new Treasury employee offered a $1.5 million share in the scheme and given a $10,000 loan.  Then he suggested that keeping gold prices high would help the farmer who sold product overseas and arranged for a meeting between Grant and Gould to discuss the issue.

By September, after everyone had a chance to speak to Grant, he decided the Treasury department should not release any gold for sale over the coming month.  Gould and others were thrilled because they'd begun stockpiling gold the previous month.  With this decision, they began buying more gold by using brokers and others such as Jim Fisk to make the actual purchases.

This caused the price of gold to increase to the point that a $100 began selling for $132 and then rose to $141 in greenbacks.  Suddenly, investors who were short sellers found themselves in trouble and called for the Treasury to sell its gold reserves. In addition, rumors began spreading that people were trying to drive the gold market up.  Gould and Fisk stayed quiet because by this point they had gathered $60 million in gold which was three times the public supply in New York.

At about the same time, Grant became suspicious when his brother-in-law kept after him to remain firm and not let the treasury flood the market.  Gould was told this on September 23rd but he didn't bother sharing the information with any of his cohorts yet he took steps to protect himself by secretly selling off his personal gold supply.

On September 24, 1869, people were getting upset.  They congregated on Wall Street because gold closed at 144 1/4 the night before and opened at 160.  Fisk kept purchasing gold, confident it would get to $200 soon but he was unaware that the president and the head of the Treasury were in communications.

It was announced that the government would sell off $4 million in gold the next day and prices started dropping immediately from $160 to $133. The stock market itself dropped 20 percent at the same time causing many Wall Street firms to go bankrupt or become unstable and many investors were left ruined. 

Due to financial wrangling, neither Gould nor Fisk served any time in jail and it appears they both survived the episode relatively intact financially but the economy suffered for many years afterwards.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Oswald The Rabbit! Disney's First Cartoon Character.

  Before Disney became an independent business owner and film maker, he produced a cartoon for Universal Studios.  His creation, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, predates Mickey Mouse by one year.  Oswald resembles Mickey's character but with a rabbitish face and ears. 

Way back in the early 1920's when Walt Disney worked with Ub Iworks, they created a version of Alice in Wonderland with a live action girl integrated into a cartoon background with cartoon characters.  This process was the basis for Mary Poppins, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and others.

This Alice was never commercially released but used to attract investors who began producing the 56 "Alice Comedies" which were then released.  In 1927, the distributor of these films negotiated an agreement to make 26 shorts starring the Disney created Oswald the Rabbit because Universal wanted to re-enter the cartoon market.

As per instructions, Disney and his partner began creating the first short "Poor Papa" but no one was happy with that first movie, so Disney redesigned Oswald to be sleeker with a personality of his own to set him apart from other cartoon creatures of the time.  He wanted Oswald to be Oswald rather than a string of gags.  The redone short came out two weeks later and they'd succeeded.  They created a movie with a character who was much more entertaining and the short received rave reviews.

The man who set up this opportunity, renegotiated the contract with Universal to produce more Oswald shorts without using Disney but instead, hiring many of his staff to do the work.  Unfortunately, this caused Disney to loose the rights to his creations but on the train trip back to California from New York City, he came up with Mickey Mouse

In addition, many of the animators who'd left Disney's employment, returned within a year to work for him once again.Universal kept Oswald and continued to make 26 shorts through the 1920's and 30's, up until 1943.  Many of the later ones were done by the man who created Woody Woodpecker but they were not of the quality as those produce by Disney and his crew.

If you get a look at one of the shorts, you'll see how much like Mickey, Oswald appears.  Over time, these Oswald movies became more gag heavy and lost the elegance Disney infused so Oswald disappeared into the annals of history. Within the last year,  one copy of "Neck n Neck", an early Oswald cartoon was discovered in Osaka Japan in the possession of a Japanese man who acquired it over 70 years ago.

Unfortunately, Disney was unable to get the rights back to Oswald during his life time but back in 2006 when sports commentator, Al Michaels, wanted to move from Disney owned ABC studios back to NBC,  the company took advantage of this and made returning the rights to them as part of the deal.  No one knew anything about Oswald at NBC but they researched, found the character and agreed to return Oswald and his rights back to Disney.

Once Disney had the rights, the could bring Oswald back in the form of a video game and they could begin selling merchandise to the public.  When Disney lost Oswald, he made sure he'd protect all his creations so no one could take them from him and never again lost anything.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.

Billy, Billie, and more Billies, Curses, and Other Delights.

Billy is a word we hear quite frequently in the English language.  Without hearing the context of the sentence, we  don't know which meaning is required. 

The first meaning is the shortened version or nickname for William - Billy or it could be the feminine version - Billie as in Billie Holiday the famous blues singer.

There is a theory that back in the middle ages, people swapped letters around and Will became Bill.  King William the 3rd of England who ruled in the late 17th century  was called King Billy.

It could also refer  specifically a male goat.  We often think of the billy goat from that story we read as children Billy Goat Gruff. Apparently, there is also the "Curse of the Billy Goat" laid against the Chicago Cubs Baseball Team, lading from 1945 to 2006.

The curse originated in 1945 when the owner of the Billy Goat Tavern was asked to take his goat away from Wrigley field due to its smell.  When he left during the fourth game of the championship, he declared the Cubs would never win another game.  The cubs promptly lost the series and did not win another game until 2006, on the 46th anniversary of the owners death.

Billy can also refer to a Billy Can which can be used to carry water and then heat it over a fire..  This version is Australian in nature and the Billy Can ranges from an empty can to something fancier such as a pot or kettle.

In addition, Billy or roving billy referred to a roving machine in the United Kingdom.  A roving machine turns wool into long strands of material that can be spun into yarn.  According to several articles, small rolls of fiber were taken to the apron of the billy where they were pressed together before being fed through the billy where they came out in rovings.  From the billy, the roving was taken to the cops on the Jenny which then spun it into yarn.

It can also mean a club used by the police or a wooden stuck that can be used as a weapon, also known as a cudgel.  Billy clubs date back to 1829 London when Sir Robert Peel established the first
 police force.  He believed that police officers should not carry lethal weapons so he outfitted his men with billy clubs.  The billy club, made of wood,  ranged between 14 and 36  inches depending on what it was needed for.  In Victorian times, officers decorated their clubs so they were individualized.

Finally, according to the Urban Dictionary, a billy can refer to a really nice guy.  Someone who is caring, takes good care of people, and is liked by his friends. I did hear someone say that a billy was some sort of measuring implement but I couldn't find any references to that.

Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse

  Yesterday, ninety years ago, Walt Disney released a movie that changed the history of that media.  On November  18, 1928, he released Steamboat Willie to positive reviews.

According to something I read, Disney had gone to see The Jazz Singer, one of the very first movies with speaking, and came out of it inspired to create a "talkie" for two new characters.

He'd already made two silent movies with Micky and Minnie Mouse but neither had done well.  In fact, he was doing so poorly, he was on the verge of bankruptcy because those two and other silents he made hand not been commercial successes.  The Jazz Singer showed him movies with long passages of song and dialogue attracted people.


So in July of 1928 and a budget of just under $5000, he began production on this movie. Many of his people didn't think this was a good idea but to prove them wrong, he took the bare film, brought together sound people and musicians to create the sound  at a test showing for the families of employees.  People loved it.

With this encouragement, he arranged to have a sound track created and synchronized with the film by hiring a studio in New York City to provide sound with a 17 piece orchestra and 3 sound professionals. Unfortunately, the orchestra's first attempt to play along with the movie didn't succeed so animators added a bouncing ball to keep time and the finished film had totally synchronized sound.

It was released on November 18, 1928 at the Colony Theater in New York City.  This date is the date given for the birth of Mickey Mouse.  It was so successful that he re-released it at the Roxy Theater in New York City, a place considered the largest theater in the world.

Critics saw this character as a mixture of Charlie Chaplin, Fred Astaire and Douglas Fairbanks as they watched Mickey turn animals into musical instruments while the ship itself joined in with puffs of smoke that were musical.

 The success of the movie encouraged Disney to go back and add soundtracks to the two earlier films.  Although Steamboat Willie was not the first cartoon with sound but it was the first successful one. What I find amazing is this black and white movie was only eight minutes long. This one movie made the silent cartoon's obsolete since he proved cartoons with sound could be done and people preferred them this way. 

This one movie gave Disney the chance to grow and ten years later, he released his Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs movie.

Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

This weekend.

Last Weekend.

FDA, You've Come A Long Way!

We've all heard of the FDA or Food and Drug Administration but did you realize they have been around for a very long time?  I certainly didn't.  The FDA as we know it was predated by the Department of Agriculture around 1862 and run by a chemist who set up a laboratory to analyze samples of food, soil, fertilizers, etc.

In fact, one of the first things they investigated was the question of whether adding sugar to wine to increase the amount alcohol was considered an adulteration.  At the time the answer was no but 40 years later when the FDA started, the answer changed to yes. 

The Department of Agriculture did not have the first lab due to Customs having established their own lab in 1848 due to the Import Drugs Act. This lab was needed because America had become the dumping ground for counterfeit, diluted, contaminated, and old, decomposing drugs and people were being injured but by the time the Department of Agriculture started its lab, the customs lab has faded away.

Over time as part of its investigation, the Department of Agriculture began investigating questions of food safety.  At this time, the population was moving from the country to the cities so food had to be moved quickly.  Unfortunately, the main way of refrigerating foods was by ice, milk was unpasteurized while cows were not being tested for tuberculosis.  In addition, manufacturers used chemical preservatives and toxic colors in the food making it dangerous.

Add to that the fact that medications were being sold with no monitoring and often contained heroin, cocaine, morphine, or opium that were not listed in the ingredients.  None of the medicines carried warnings so any "warnings" came via the mouth of those who had been hurt. 

In 1883, Dr Harvey W Wiley joined the Department of Agriculture Lab.  Over the next 20 years, he started pushing towards more government control over foods and medications.  In 1902, he convinced a group of prisoners to eat foods treated with chemical preservatives such as borax, salicylic acid, sulphurous acid, and benzoic acids along with formaldehyde.  This group was nicknamed "The Poison Squad" and it lasted 5 years but Dr Wiley was convinced chemical preservatives should not be used except in extreme circumstances.

Finally, in 1906 the FDA came into being to monitor both food and drug manufacturers to make sure everything was safe and it was headed by Dr Wiley.  One year, he hired the first 28 inspectors out of over 2000 who took the test.  One of the inspectors, Walter G. Campbell, wrote the first manual, set up the process needed to seize items, and created the system designed to ensure proper enforcement of the laws.

Campbell was also the one responsible for the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act passed in 1938 which is the base for all of our current rules. This version required drug companies to prove that new products were safe before marketing them, proof of fraud was no longer required to prohibit false claims for drugs, poisonous substances could no longer be added unless it could not be avoided but it had to fall within safe tolerances, factories could be inspected now, etc. 

Since then, the rules have been strengthened to protect Americans even more so now all drugs had to be tested and shown to be safe before being released to the consumer.  The laws even extend to monitoring infant formula so children receive only the best.

And that is a brief history of the FDA.  Let me know what you think, I hope you have a great weekend.

French Winemakers versus The Nazi's.

The other day, I stumbled across a book on Amazon about how the winemakers in France fought the Nazi's during the occupation of France. 

I'd never heard of the winemaker's fight to keep the Nazi's from profiting by taking over an industry that provided a living for about 20 percent of France's population.

When the Nazi's took over, they saw the wine industry as a way of bringing in additional funding by purchasing the wine at rockbottom prices before turning around and selling it for a tremendous markup with the profits going to the Fatherland.

At the beginning, in 1940, soldiers would march into various Chateaus, take the wine, and transport it by the truck away to be sold but within a very short time, they created a system but they didn't count on a certain lack of cooperation.

Although the Germans appointed their experts to be in charge of the process, many of them had established relationships with the winemakers dating back before the war, so the experts tried to make things easier for the French.  Thus the French seemingly cooperated but this was not exactly true.

Many winemakers made the decision to do what they could to prevent the Germans from profiting from selling French wines.  Some growers and restaurants built false walls to hide the better wines while janitorial staff kept the dust from cleaning to make bottles of cheap wine look dusty and old so the Germans believed they were getting the good stuff.

Unfortunately many of the vineyard workers were arrested placed in internment camps before being sent to Germany as forced labor. This didn't stop some of the winemakers from getting creative.   One stored his best wines in caves hidden from everyone while another buried his in the vegetable garden under tomatoes, squash, etc. 

There is a story of one owner who managed to get forged papers claiming the bottles were reserved for a specific officer. When a troop of soldiers arrived they were told the only place large enough to hold them was the same place where the wine was stored.  Since they were fearful the men would be unable to keep away from the wine, they were billeted elsewhere. 

As the Nazis became more brutal, winemakers began performing their own acts of resistance.  For instance, they labeled one shipment of wine for Homburg rather than Hamburg so it didn't get to its destination.  In other cases, they sabotaged trains to prevent the wines from being moved to Germany.  Or they might sneak aboard trains and steal some of the wine so it didn't go to the Germans, doing it again and again until complaints came back that the wine barrels were empty. 

Soldiers were stationed near the rail station and a floater of some sort was put in the top so they'd know if any were stolen but the resistance took the wine out and filled the barrels with water so no one would know.  Eventually, the Nazi's hired locals to help watch for the thieves but it didn't help because the ones hired were the ones doing it.

Other participated by hiding Jews or helping move members of the resistance across lines by hiding them in huge wine barrels.   In addition, they moved papers and arms using this same technique, but this was done with the possibility of being caught by the Germans or being turned in by collaborators.

There are more stories that could be shared but this is just a taste of how the French vineyard owners fought the Nazi's during World War II.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

HIstory of the Gallup Poll.

If you read yesterday's entry, you'll know that for the 1936 election, before the Literary Digest sent out its massive mailing to obtain the data for their prediction, a man popped up out of Princeton New Jersey stating their predictions would be wrong and even provided their prediction!

George Gallup, a man who spent time since he was in college wondering if there was a more efficient way of polling people other than going person to person. 

He began investigating the methods used by agricultural inspectors to test a supply of wheat or water.  In fact, his doctoral thesis 'A New Technique for Objective Methods for Measuring Reader Interest in Newspapers,' became the basis of the Gallup Poll.

As he conducted research on the topic and published the results in journals which lead to his becoming noticed by companies, one of whom, hired him to be their director of research in 1932.  In the same year, his mother-in-law ran in place of her deceased husband as a democrat in the very republican state of New Jersey.  She won despite not having run any sort of campaign but being of the same party as Roosevelt. 

This lead Gallup to wonder if he could use his sampling methods to predict the winner in elections so he ran a test using the 1934 Congressional elections and his results were only a percentage point off.  This lead to a gentleman seeing the earning potential in this type of predictions so he partnered with George Gallup to create the American Institute of Public Opinion.  The idea was that with such a prestigious name, people would be more likely to return results even though the institute only had a few workers who counted votes.

In 1935, George began writing a syndicated column in which he guaranteed he could predict the winner of the next presidential election with more accuracy than the Literary Digest and even offered a money back guarantee.  This allowed his partner to place "America Speaks" in 42 newspapers and set off a major competition between the two.

  The Literary Digest scoffed at Gallup and predicted Landon would win the election with 57 percent of the vote.  They'd predicted the previous winner but with the depression, they didn't have as much money available so they only polled 10 million people who belonged to a higher economic class because they only looked at those who owned automobiles and telephones. 

On the other hand, Gallup predicted Roosevelt would win with 54% of the vote.  He was off by about seven percent when Roosevelt won with 61 percent of the vote but his prediction was correct.  The Literary Digest went out of business within one year and Gallup emerged as the foremost authority on polling of his day.

He founded several other institutes in England and one in the United States to monitor movies.  His company asked question after question that most never thought about such as "Do you believe in God" but for all this data collection, he had trouble with the 1948 Dewey vs Truman election.  Due to the splintered Democratic party, it was believed that Truman had no chance to win so instead of completing the usual surveys, they only looked at the results from the national party attendees and predicted Dewey.  Truman continued campaigning and won leaving egg on the face of pollsters including Gallup.

This caused him to revise his polling methods and hang in there but the field began diminishing until the 1960's but in 1958, he founded the Gallup Organization which was his own polling company run by he and his son.  He moved the focus to marketing research but kept his academic methods.  The company began to grow and develop but not without problems.  In the 1968 election season, it was discovered that pollsters created fraudulent results from Harlem and were alleged to have ties to Nixon.  That aside, the company has continued to grow to become the powerhouse it is today.

The company merged with Select Institute back in 1988 but has retained its name and methods.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

History of Polling

In today's world, we are bombarded with polls, especially around election time but did you know political polls have been around since 1824 when the first one was conducted by the Harrisburg Pennsylvanian.  On July 24th, they published the results of a straw poll on the upcoming election between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson.

At this time, newspapers were not very impartial and were more often seen as mouth pieces for political parties but they needed to move away from this and become more objective to expand readership.  Unfortunately, straw polls were really extremely objective but were used until the beginning of the twentieth century.

During this time period, many newspapers published copies of the ballot within their pages, urging readers to cut it out before filling it in and either mailing it in or placing it in a special ballot box at the newspaper.  In fact, newspapers suggested readers buy more copies to add more ballots or to "stuff the ballot box" thus encouraging more sales and sacrificing accuracy.

Pretty soon pollsters began using telephone directories, voter lists, and automobile registrations to create sample lists.  They'd often choose say every 10th name to make the sample they'd contact for data on upcoming elections but this method had a bias towards only the wealthier people.  People were contacted using the mail and asking them to return the form.

They discovered mail was not the best way.  To get better results, pollsters began using the personal interview where they passed out pencils and ballots to people on the street.  Sometimes, they'd select a specific area to get information from say white or blue collar workers because they wanted a selection from cross economic groups.

Most newspapers conduction local or regional polls but beginning in the 1890's, several newspapers including the New York Herald Tribune began polling over larger areas.  By 1912, these polls covered areas containing up to 35 states.  In 1924, the Hearst empire tried to poll 43 states but there was error rate of 6 percent, however when they redid it in 1928, they managed to cover 46 states with only a 3 points of error.

Then in the 1930's the Literary Digest (the Time or Newsweek of the era) sent out over 20 million ballots covering 48 states.  They predicted Roosevelt would win the 1932 election with 59.85% of the votes.  Although many questioned their sample as focusing on the more well to-do, Roosevelt won the election with 59.14% of the vote.  In addition, they predicted he would take 42 states for 474 electoral votes compared to the actual 41 states with 472 electoral votes.

They began crowing about their success and were ready to predict the results of the 1936 election when a man popped up out of New Jersey saying their predictions were all wrong! More about that tomorrow.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Easier Weekend.

Thank you Veterans.

Two Intense Days

Veteran's Day History

  Sunday is Veteran's day, a holiday that is just under a century old.  Originally it was called Armistice Day in remembrance of the War to end all Wars.

Although World War I officially ended on  June 28, 1919 with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, fighting had ceased at "the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month" 1918 when a temporary armistice was enacted.

In November 1919, President Wilson declared November 11 as the first celebration of Armistice Day with parades, public meetings, and such beginning at 11:00 am.  It wasn't until 1926 that congress passed a resolution to celebrate it annually since 27 states had already declared November 11th as an official holiday.

Then in 1938, just before war broke out in Europe, Congress declared November 11th as a legal holiday known as Armistice Day in recognition of all those who fought in World War I.  It remained Armistice Day until the name was changed to Veteran's Day in 1954 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower because of the mobilization of military during World War II and the Korean War. 

The name Armistice was replaced with Veterans as a way to recognize the service of all living veterans who fought in World War II and the Korean War. Its for  people like my great grandfathers, grandfathers, uncles, cousins, etc, all of whom fought in a variety of wars from World War I to recent encounters.

In 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Holidays Bill which moved Veteran's day to the fourth Monday in October beginning in 1971 as a way to extend weekends to three days but many states disagreed with this and continued to celebrate it on its original date. So in 1975, Gerald Ford moved it back to November 11th due to its historical importance and lack of support by other states.

Other countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, France and Canada also celebrate their own version of Veterans day for those who fought in World War I and II.  In addition, Europe, Great Britain, and other Commonwealth countries celebrate two minutes of silence beginning at 11 am on November 11th.

Please remember those who fought in any war.  They have sacrificed a lot.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to her, have a good weekend.

7 More Common Sayings.

Today, I am revisiting more common sayings and their history.  Its always fascinating to learn more of where certain sayings come from, especially as many words have changed meanings since I was a child.

The history of some of them are quite fascinating.  Are you ready to come explore with me?  We're off.



1. White Elephant is a phrase most of us have heard, especially in regard to those parties where you wrap a "white elephant" up to regift it to someone else.  White Elephants were once considered sacred in Thailand and appeared on the flag up until 1917.  The term came about because if you offended the king, he might gift you with a white elephant.  Although it seems like a great gift, these animals were expensive to feed and take care of so owning one could easily ruin the owner.

2. Resting on Laurels came from Ancient Greek Times when Laurel wreaths were presented to winners of the Pythian Games to recognize their accomplishments because the Laurel plant was associated with Apollo and became recognized as a symbol of status and achievement.  The Romans adopted this custom and used it to reward Generals who won major battles.  Thus resting on laurels became associated with a person's past achievements but only in recent times has it developed the negative connotation of basking and reliving past glories.

3. By and Large does not originally mean what it means today.  It was actually a sailing term dating back to the 16th century.  At that time, large referred to a ship sailing with the wind at its back while by meant the ship was sailing into the wind.  Thus by and large means the ship is sailing the seas with no regard to the direction of the wind.

4.  The Third Degree is often heard in reference to grilling someone for information.  There are a couple of different theories in regard to its origin.  One theory states it refers to the different degrees of murder within the criminal code while another credits New York City Detective Thomas F. "Third Degree" Byrnes for his hard nosed questioning style. The last one believes it comes from the Free Masons or other group because you have to undergo a lot of questioning before moving up a degree.

5. Let the Cat out of the Bag originates back in the 18th century when suckling pigs were sold in bags.  Often enterprising artists would replace the pig with a cat before selling it to an unsuspecting mark and of course you didn't want to let the cat out of the bag.

6.  Don't Look A Gift Horse in the Mouth has it origins in two historical traditions.  One was that the way to tell a horse's age was to look at its gums.  As a horse ages, its gums recede leading to longer teeth so people would check the mouth if they were buying one but at the same time, it was considered an affront if you checked the teeth of a horse given to you as a gift.  This is where the phase came from.

7. Pulling Your Leg now a days refers to tease someone or jokingly lie but back in the 18th century it certainly did not have this meaning.  Back then, robbers would often pull a person's legs to get them to fall over, making it easier for the thieves to rob the victim.

Let me know what you think of these saying and their origins.  I'd love to hear from you.  Have a great day.

9 Childhood Games.

Do you remember the games you played as a child?  I do!  We played tag, Capture the Flag, Dodge ball, even Cowboys and Indians and so many others.  Don't worry, in our version, the Indians always won.

Now, I see so many kids whose idea of games is something on their digital device.  They don't know the games we played as children.  I remember so many and am sad they are not as well known.


1.  Jacks appears to have been around since ancient Greece except back then they used small bones or rocks. Originally, they were known as Knuckle Bones.  For a bit, the kids were playing their version of jacks but it was different than the one I played as a child. I suspect, it evolves as each generation plays it.

2. Red Rover was another game I played as a child.  We had two lines of player and the idea was to try to break through the other line after they chanted something about 'sending so and so over".  There are two theories as to its origin.  First thought is that it represents the 1828 steamboat of the same name that took people back and forth across the river while the other thought is that it was a taunt chanted by English children against the Vikings.

3. Blind Man's Bluff has been around for several centuries and variations can be found in almost every country.  It is said to be a favorite of King Henry VIII's court  during Tudor times.    References to the game have been found as early as 1590 in a play.

4. Do you remember Tetherball?  The game with a ball attached to a rope that you hit and it wound around the pole it was attached to? there are two theories to its origin.  First it is thought it is an off shoot to the Maypole celebrations of long ago or second, it was developed from a game by the Tartars but in reality it appears to have been invented in 1875 in Britain before it spread to the United States in 1881 or so.   In 1895, a man from Oxford University was given credit for its creation.

5. Kickball has only been in existence about 100 years.  It was invented in 1917 in Cincinnati, Ohio by the supervisor of the Parks department.  At the time, it was known as Kick Baseball or Soccer Base because it was based upon Baseball but without batting. It was adopted quickly by P.E. teachers all over the United States and became a standard part of the curriculum by the 1920's.

6. Hopscotch, a game many of us played as youngsters, has a history dating from the early Roman times when the courses were 100 feet long and used to train soldiers while in full gear.  It is believed the game accompanied the Romans when they invaded Britain and the children there took the game and made their own version which is closer to what we play today.  The earliest record of it in the United States dates back to the 1677 edition of Poor Robin's Almanac. 

7. Marbles was not a game I played with I grew up but I know others did.  There are indications of marbles being played as early as the Pharaohs or the Aztec's based on archeological finds but the version played now only became possible when mass production of marbles started in the early 20th century around 1917.  The rules vary according to where its being played and by whom.

8.  Capture the Flag is a game whose origins are lost in the mists of time but it is thought to have begun by children who were imitating battlefields.  Historically, battles ended when the flag was captured or lowered in surrender.  It appears many of the rules evolved over time but I can't find when the rules were first printed.  It is known the Boy Scouts have played the game for over 60 years.

9. Farmer in the Dell appears to be German in origin.  It is said the game started as a courting game played by adults as early as 1820 but was brought to American by German immigrants.

There are other games, I may explore another time.  Have a great day and let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  

Why November? Why Tuesday?

Its that time of the year again, when national voting of some sort happens.  One always knows that there is an election on the first Tuesday of November but when did that start? When did the time become nationalized?

Originally, elections could be held within 34 days of the first Wednesday in December.  States had the right to choose the date within that month span. 

The main reason for this change is that with elections spread out over a month, it was quite possible that the results of the early elections could change voters minds and change the results of the elections. Furthermore, in the first election they wanted elections to be completed before the Electoral College met on the first Wednesday in December in 1792. 

However in 1845, Congress changed the laws so presidential elections had to happen on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November.  This was done to avoid having elections on the first of November which all Saints Day.

Tuesday was chosen for a very practical reason in 1845.  Much of the economy was agriculturally based and farmers needed to be able to get to markets on Wednesday and church was held on Sundays.  Add in the fact that most voters had to travel up to a day to get to the polling place, the best day to hold elections was  Tuesday. 

In addition, November was the perfect month because it fell between harvest and the winter months. They couldn't have it any earlier or it might interfere with planting, caring, or harvesting crops.  Any later in the year, and people might not be able to get to polling places.

The first election, this law applied to came three years later in 1848 when Zachery Taylor beat Lewis Cass in the presidential election.  Then in 1872, Congress moved the House of Representative elections to the same day as presidential elections. Then when the 17th amendment was enacted in 1913, it too was covered by the first Tuesday in November election rule.  If you aren't sure, the 17th amendment is the one covering the number of senators assigned to each state.

To accompany the set national election day, they also moved the beginning of the Electoral College from December to the second  Monday in January beginning in 1887 but another change on this was made in 1936 so all Electoral College members meet in their respective states on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December to vote.

So now you know why the election is always in the beginning of November.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

The Origins of Children's Nursery Rhymes

  I'm sure you remember reading children's nursery rhymes at some time in your life.  It might have been as a child or to your own children but you've read them. 

I remember one of my teachers mentioning that many of the children's nursery rhymes began as political satire or societal  commentary.  Of course, I didn't really believe her because, well as a teen, I knew better.

A few years later, I discovered she was right after all.  So today, I'm exploring the origin of several of those children's nursery rhymes.

1.  "Baa Baa Black Sheep" has someone asking them if they have any wool and of course they do but its only for the master, dame, and the last for a little boy who lived a bit a way.  Most scholars agree this is about a tax on wool, introduced about 1275 in England as part of the Great Custom. The tax was split between the king, the church, and the farmer leaving little for anyone else. 

The melody used when this is sung comes from an 1761 French tune, although its first known appearance in print happened in 1731At one point, people believed the poem actually had racial connotations which led to the poem being banned and a more politically correct version written but this allegation has never been proven. 

2." Goosey, Goosey, Gander" made its appearance in 1784.  Although it seems to be a fun rhyme, it was actually written about religious persecution when priests had to hide themselves in order to say their prayers in Latin because that was against the law.  At this point catholic practices were banned so they often hid in holes away and if found could be executed along with those who harbored them.

3. "Jack and Jill" seems so cool when you think of a couple of kids who end up falling down a hill but it appears the rhyme refers to King Charles I who tried to reform the taxes on liquid measures but when Parliament turned his suggestions down, he changed the amount in liquids to half and quarter pints.  The popular names for the half and quarter pints were Jacks and Gilles.  You might find a reference to this rhyme being about Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette going to the guillotine but that the rhyme showed up in 1765, about 30 years before this event.

4.  "London Bridge is Falling Down" a wonderful ditty we sang as I was growing up and I vaguely recall some sort of dance we did to it but no one is certain for sure what it refers to.  The most popular theory is that this refers to Olaf II of Norway, a Viking, who came to London around 1014 and supposedly destroyed the London Bridge but there is no real proof of this.  It dates back to 1744.

5. "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" seems to ask about a garden growing.  Unfortunately, the rhyme is actually about Queen Mary I of England, nicknamed "Bloody Mary". She believed so much in Catholicism that she  killed hundreds of Protestants over a five year period. Silver bells and cockle shells were the name of torture tools of the time, not gardening items. The rhyme did not appear until 1744.

6.  "Three Blind Mice" appeared in 1805 and seems to be about three Protestant bishops who plotted to overthrow Queen Mary but were discovered before they could succeed.  As punishment, they were burned at the stake.  Scholars believe the term "blind" refers to their religious beliefs.

7. In 1840 "Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush" first showed up. According to sources, this song is about female prisoners at England's Wakefield Prison who were walked about a mulberry tree for their regular exercise sessions. 

8. "Rock a Bye Baby" is said to be about the child of King James II and his wife.  It is believed the child was not actually theirs but another who was brought in to replace their child.  The rhyme is said to be from 1765 but the claim cannot be substantiated one way or the other.

9. "Ring Around The Rosie" has two possible origins.  The most widely known theory is that it refers to the 1665 Great Plague that killed about 15 percent of the population.  The "rosie" is the rash associated with the plague and the posie is a handful flowers designed to keep the smell down and protect the holder.  The other theory says the song developed when dancing was outlawed in many Protestant areas in Britain and North America.  The younger ones got around it by playing ring games without musical accompaniment. This is a fairly recent rhyme dating back to around 1881.

10. "Old Mother Hubbard" is said to have been written about Cardinal Thomas Wosley who refused to grand King Henry VIII so he could marry his current favorite, Anne Boleyn. This refusal lead to the Cardinal's downfall.  It made its appearance in 1805. 

Hope you like this.  I'll do more later on when I've had a chance to check others out.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

6.

Other Days

Some Days

10 Odd and Unusual Hotels.

This is a saying there is a hotel out there for everybody.  I'm the one who looks for a hotel that is relatively inexpensive with either a kitchenette or comes with breakfast.  I once stayed at a place advertising a continental breakfast but what I got was a packaged muffin and a cup of coffee.  Not my idea of breakfast but it worked.

Other people love the more expensive hotels that offer fine dining, rooms with the best sheets, etc.

Then there are the people who look for adventure when booking a hotel room.  These hotels are more for the unconventional person or those who want adventure.

1.  Are you a fan of Lord of the Rings?  If so head off to Boulder Canyon, South Dakota to check out the Hobbit House designed with 16 foot ceilings, round doors and windows.  In addition, there are hobbit slippers, inscriptions in Elvish, Sauron mask along with a gauntlet cradling the one ring.  The place is actually part of a four bedroom vacation home.

2.If you are in Paris, you could always stay in a shark proof room at the Aquarium de Paris.  The room contained inside a glass capsule about 33 feet down inside a 3 million liter tank. The room sleeps two and while down there, there are 35 man-eating sharks swimming in the water above the tank. 

3. On the other hand, you can headup to Quebec City in Canada to stay at the Hotel de Glace made completely out of 30,000 tons of snow and 500 tons of ice.  The Hotel has 44 themed suites plus an array of things such as saunas, fireplaces, ice sculptures, snow carvings, etc to make your stay even better.  Be warned ahead of time that the hotel is only in operation for 3 months.

4. If you'd prefer staying in caves, head over to Turkey to stay at the Yunak Evleri hotel composed of caves dating from the 5th and 6th centuries.  The caves have been redesigned into 40 luxurious suites stone fireplaces, carved windows and doors, etc. 

5. In Stockholm, Sweden, someone took a retired 747 and re-purposed it into the Jumbo aka Sky Hostel.  It has 25 suites, each one about 64 square feet, and over head storage.  There is a first-class lounge, bar, deck, cockpit suite and even a suite where the engines used to be.

6. Want something really different? Head over to Berlin to stay at the Propeller Island City Lodge also referred to as the Upside Down Hotel.  This hotel specializes in the odd room such as the coffin room complete with coffin to sleep in, the green leather suite, the mirrored room, the upside down suite where everything is on the ceiling instead of the floor and other crazy rooms.

7. Have you ever wanted to sleep in Jail without committing a crime?  You have a choice of two possibilities. The first used to be the Charles Street Jail in Boston but it was purchased in 1972, renovated and reopened as the Liberty Hotel.  Now you can in a place with exposed red brick walls, chandeliers,  beautiful arched windows, the bar lounges complete with jail bars, and you can go anywhere as long as you have a cell key aka your room key.

8. The other choice is to stay at the Longholmen hotel aka the Prison Hotel.  This hotel allows people to be "inmates" for the day complete with "jail breaks" and gang riots.  Visitors has the choice of staying in a regular suite or in a locked cell with the proper type of prison doors, barred windows, and bunk beds.  To ensure the experience is proper, inmates are issued prison gear and are guarded by jail guards.

9. On the other hand if you are a techy geek type person, you can stay at Henn-na Hotel in Japan with robots and humanoids who replace the receptionists, porters, room check-in, etc but there are humans around as back up just in case something happens.

10.  If you like to stay at inexpensive places, go to Austria for the Das Park Hotel made out of repurposed sewer pipes.  The rooms are just large enough for a bed, lamp, power outlets, blankets, and a bit of storage but if you have to use the restroom, you'll need to use the public ones nearby but you get to choose what to pay for the night.

I hope you found some of these places interesting and might intrigue you enough to check them out.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to her.  Have a great weekend.

14 Facts About Alice in Wonderland.

Alice in Wonderland is classic that is still in print and has been made into several movies.  Last week I told the story of how the book came to be but today I'm going to share some interesting facts about the book and the author, some you are probably unaware of.

1.  Alice the main character was named after Alice Liddel, daughter of the dean of Christ Church College, the same place Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) taught Mathematics.  He knew the whole family.

2. The children kept asking him to tell them the story of Alice again and again until he finally wrote it down for Alice Liddel as a Christmas gift in 1864.

One year later, he self published the book which had doubled in length from the one he presented Alice Liddel.  The expanded version had the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat which did not appear in the earlier one.

3. Carroll hired a prominent artist of the time to provide illustrations for his book but John Tenniel was not happy withe they way they came out in the first printing so Carroll dumped all the books and used more than half of his yearly salary to have the book reprinted.

4. In 1903, two British filmmakers made Alice in Wonderland into the first movie version.  It was only 12 minutes long but it was the longest ever made in the United Kingdom.  One of the filmmakers played the Frog Footman while his wife played both the White Rabbit and The Red Queen.

5.  The title Alice in Wonderland was not Carroll's first choice for a title but it was the one he went with.

6. The original illustrations were first drawn on paper, then carved into wood, before being made into metal electrotype reproductions for the printing press.

7. Many of the events were based on Alice's real life such as the reference to the Mock Turtle receiving lessons in sketching and drawing from someone who came once a week.  This actually referred to her own tutor.

8. When Carroll included the Dodo it was actually a reference to himself.  The name is based on his real last name of Dodgson which came out as Do-do-dodgson due to his stammer.

9.  The original book "Alice's Adventure Underground" belongs to the British Library and seldom leaves it.  This book is the one he hand wrote and gave to Alice for the early Christmas gift.

10. Lewis Carroll is given credit as the first person to work with manufacturers to bring related products such as a postage stamp case with Alice's picture on it.  He also authorized other products such as her image on a cookie tin.  In addition, he reproduced a facsimile of "Alice's Adventure Underground" for sale and a shorter version for younger children.  He was ahead of his time.

11. After reading Alice in Wonderland, Queen Victoria asked him to dedicate his next book to her.  He did but it was one of his math books, not the sequel to Alice.

12.  Carroll suffered from a rare neurological disorder which was not discovered until 1955.  The disease causes strange hallucinations in which the size of objects are distorted so the sufferer often feels bigger or smaller than they really are.  The disease was named "Alice in Wonderland" syndrome or Todds syndrome for the doctor who discovered it.

13. In 1931, China banned the book because animals should not use human speech.

14. The tree the Cheshire Cat sat in can be found in the garden at Alice's house in Oxford.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.