~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
March 29, 2012

Man o’ War

★~ Today’s Quote: There are now more obese people in the United States than there are overweight people. I think it’s safe to say that after all these years, Diet Coke is a complete failure. JAY LENO

★~ Mom-and-Pop Business Owner Day:

Our Gal Sundaymotto is “MOM-Run Family Fun.” In the beginning there were yellow postcards. Every Tuesday, mom and son would head out to hang yellow postcards to advertise Mom’s business. We had a set route of community bulletin boards we would stop at, and then we would walk the neighborhood, stopping to pat pups out on a walk and hand their owners our card. Son still remembers those days and will tease me on occasion by yelling, “Mom! Stop! Person with a dog.” He was my chief lookout officer. I supplied Pop with yellow paper, and he would use the copy machine at work to print the postcards for me. He was also our chief pooper scooper (best pooper scooper ever—those of you who knew him won’t be surprised). Soon our camp calendar was booked, and word of mouth replaced our yellow postcards.

Camp Run-A-Pup expanded about four years ago, and we started selling DSome Like It Hot. Grandmom and Grandpop joined the family business. Grandpop is in charge of shipping antlers, and Grandmom sorts each antler for quality control.

Camp Run-A-Pup has been family run for over 10 years. Our business plan is simple: “We do what works.” While we certainly miss Pop, our camp team is strong, with Son taking on more responsibility each year (this does not mean taking over his dad’s poop scooping legacy)—and, of course, the best helper in the whole world, Vickie Pupkins. (Do you know how hard it was to find a great helper that my campers adore and who has great people and organizational skills? Very hard. She’s MINE.)

Our family business would never have flourished without the support of our customers (friends, in many cases). I’m so grateful to our customers (friends, again, in many cases) for helping me grow a successful business that allows me to do what I love and support my family doing it.

I highly recommend giving Mom and Pop a chance to earn your business.

★~ Smoke and Mirrors Day:

Be careful when you wear your hoodie today!

★~ Lemon Chiffon Cake Day:

Lemon chiffon cake is a light, refreshing, lemon-flavored dessert that is perfect for any occasion. The secret to its texture is to beat the egg whites separately from the yolks. The recipe also calls for vegetable oil instead of butter or conventional shortening. The result is a fluffy and moist cake!

Chiffon cake was invented by Harry Baker in 1927, and it was the first type of new cake to be invented in over a century. Mr. Baker often sold his cakes to the Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles. In 1947, he sold his chiffon cake recipe to General Mills and its popularity spread nationwide.

Celebrate today with lemon chiffon cake!

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1848 – For the first time in recorded history, a time or two. An ice jam in the Niagara river above the rim of the falls caused the water to stop. Tours on the Maid of the Mist were canceled … and  ticket prices were refunded

♥~ 1886 – I believe this should be a national holiday!! John McLaughlin brewed the first batch of Coca-Cola in his backyard in Georgia.

♥~ 1917 – Man o’ War, the famous American race horse, was foaled.

♥~ 1937 – The radio serial, Our Gal Sunday, debuted. The question, “Can this girl from a small mining town in the West find happiness as the wife of a wealthy and titled Englishman?” was asked each day as the show continued for the next 22 years!

♥~ 1959 – Some Like It Hot with Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon was released in the U.S.

♥~ 1992 – Democratic presidential front-runner Bill Clinton acknowledged experimenting with marijuana “a time or two” while attending Oxford University, adding, “…I didn’t like it and I didn’t inhale.”

★~Born Today:

♥~ 1927 ~ John McLaughlin, TV host (“The McLaughlin Group”), turns 85

♥~ 1936 ~ Judith Guest, Author, turns 76

♥~ 1943 ~ Eric Idle, Comedian (“Monty Python”), turns 69

♥~ 1943 ~Vangelis, Composer (“Chariots of Fire”), turns 69

♥~ 1955 ~ Earl Campbell, Football Hall of Famer, turns 57

♥~ 1961~ Amy Sedaris, Comedian, actress (“Strangers With Candy”), turns 51

♥~ 1964 ~ Elle Macpherson, Model, turns 49

♥~ 1967 ~ John Popper, Rock musician (Blues Traveler), turns 45

♥~ 1968 ~  Lucy Lawless, Actress (“Xena: Warrior Princess”), turns 44~

★~ Did You Know:

♥~ 3.1% of all beverages consumed around the world are Coca-Cola products

♥~Coke makes so many different beverages that if you drank one per day, it would take you over 9 years to try them all

♥~Coca-Cola’s $35.1 billion in revenue makes it the 84th largest economy in the world, just ahead of Costa Rica

♥~ The Coca-Cola brand is worth $74 billion, while Budweiser, Pepsi, Starbucks, and Red Bull combined are worth about $50 billion, according to the BrandZ Top 100.

♥~If every drop of Coke ever produced were put in 8-ounce bottles and laid end-to-end, they would reach the moon and back over 2,000 times

♥~If you stacked up Coke’s 2.8 million vending machines, they would take up 150.2 million cubic feet of space — the size of 4 Empire State Buildings

♥~The red and white Coca-Cola logo is recognized by 94% of the world’s population

♥~Coca-Cola is the second-most understood term in the world, behind “okay.”

♥~Around the world, the average person consumes a Coke product every four days Coca-Cola spends more money on advertising than Microsoft and Apple combined

♥~Coca-Cola advertising budget (2010): .9 billion, Microsoft advertising budget (2010): .6 billion Apple advertising budget (2010): 1 million

♥~ On average Hispanics drink more Coke products than the average American, British, Indian, and Chinese combined

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How much do I love Coke? Just hope that I’m never asked to choose between ending the world and the end of Coke.  In a pinch, I will drink Dr. Pepper. I do not drink Pepsi and I do not drink diet drinks. When Cole was little I would let him drink Coke but I would not let him have “diet soda”  (Chicago speak).  I don’t eat fake butter or use artificial sweeteners either.  If something is going to be bad for you let it be be the REAL THING.

We may have found a car for Cole. Please pray or drink a coke and toast our potential success. I will be back to tell you about it later.

♥