~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
January 17, 2013

★~ Today’s Quote: Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain – and most fools do. Benjamin Franklin

★~ Kid Inventor Day

We celebrate the youthful spirit of invention on Benjamin Franklin birthday, he invented the first swim flippers at age 12. Other awesome stuff invented by kids: the trampoline, the snowmobile and popsicles. Conversely, things invented by adults include the treadmill, the filing cabinet, and paying taxes.

★~  Ditch New Years Resolutions Day

Forget about our January 12th Stick To Your New Years Resolution pep talk. You’ve put in enough effort and, realistically, there’s only so much self-improving you can do before you become unrecognizable to your friends and colleagues. You’re perfect just as you are.

★~  Hot Buttered Rum Day:

Hot-buttered rum is a warm alcoholic beverage flavored with butter, salt, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves. These ingredients form a batter that is then mixed with rich, dark rum. Mulled wines and other “toddies” originated in Europe, but hot-buttered rum is an American innovation. During the colonial period, merchants began importing molasses (the basis for rum) from Jamaica. The first rum distillery opened in the 1660s and it wasn’t long before the colonists began mixing the alcohol with spices to create a warm winter refreshment. Hot Buttered Rum.

★~ Today In History:

♥~ 1795 –  The Duddingston Curling Society, the oldest club of its kind, was organized in Edinburgh, Scotland. Curling is an olympic ice sport that began in Scotland and is played wearing Curling shoes which consist of a slider (the sole is coated with a Teflon-like material) and a gripper (usually a crepe rubber), stones and brooms. More about curling.

♥~ 1876 – The saxophone was played by Etta Morgan at New York City’s Olympic Theatre. The instrument was little known at the time in the United States.

♥~ 1945 –  The American record holder for the indoor one mile run, Gilbert Dodds, announced his retirement from competition to devote his time to running for a higher source. Dodds became a gospel preacher. He came out of retirement briefly, in hopes of competing in the 1948 Olympics. While training for the Olympics, he broke his own record by winning the Wanamaker Mile in 4:05.3. How’d Gilbert do in the Olympics? He didn’t. The mumps caught up to him before the trials and he permanently retired from running. (This one is for El Morno friend Irene!)

♥~ 1989 – Five children were shot to death at the Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, CA by a drifter who then shot and killed himself.

♥~ 2011 – Japanese researchers said they were launching a project to attempt to resurrect the long-extinct woolly mammoth. By using cloning technology, the scientists hoped to bring the ancient pachyderm back to life.

★~ Trending Today:

♥~ Manti Te’o: A linebacker, a made-up girlfriend and a national hoax

♥~ American Idol: Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj and the Hype Premiere at Last!

♥~ Reversing Course, Kelly Leaves Oregon to Become Coach of the Eagles

★~ Born Today:

♥~ 1706 – Benjamin Franklin statesman: oldest signer of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution; printer, author, publisher [Richard Saunders]: Poor Richard’s Almanack; scientist, inventor: Franklin stove, bifocals, lightning rods; established University of Pennsylvania; died Apr 17, 1790

♥~ 1899 – Al Capone ‘Scarface’: gangster, head of crime empire during Prohibition; died Jan 25, 1947

♥~ 1922 – Betty White Emmy Award-winning actress: The Mary Tyler Moore Show [1974-1975, 1975-1976], The Golden Girls [1985-1986]; The Betty White Show, Ladies Man; singer

♥~ 1962 – Jim Carrey actor, comedian: The Mask, Ace Ventura series, Dumb & Dumber, Batman Forever, The Cable Guy, The Truman Show, Me, Myself & Irene, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Majestic

★~ Did you know: Innovative Kids:

♥~ College Bound Candy Bar: Tucker Fish a 13 year old Santa Rosa-based teen invented the College Bound candy bar as a way to help save money for his own college education and to help others with scholarships. Currently, this teen entrepreneur is running a Kickstarter campaign to further develop the College Bound Bar. He says, “I’m a kid, so I know firsthand about the sweet tooth. Trust me, a candy bar made by a kid will get it right. Only a kid would know what kids really like in a bar.” Fish was recently featured on SFGate. Click to read his story…buy a candy bar too….I did.

♥~  Makin Bacon One Saturday morning in 1991, eight-year old Abbey Fleck was making bacon with her dad. They’d run out of paper towels, so he put it on the classified section of the newspaper. Mom wasn’t too pleased, prompting dad to growl, “I could just stand here and let it drip dry.” Ding! Young Abbey thought if they could make a rack to hang the bacon, with a dish underneath, they’d never need paper towels. And so, the Makin’ Bacon Dish for cooking bacon in the microwave was born. Not only does it save on paper towels, it’s healthier because the grease drips out. Today, the Makin’ Bacon dish costs less than $10 and is sold in Walmart stores — next to the microwaves. Abbey is now 27 and lives in Los Angeles where she works with special children. She’s married to a man who sells the Deflecktor, fuel-saving wheel covers for trucks, that her dad invented.

♥~ Wristies: Don’t you just hate when you’re outside and, even though you’re wearing mittens, the snow gets down the sleeve of your coat?  Most of us just complain about it, but one winter’s day 10-year-old KK Gregory was outside building a snow fort and decided to do something about it. She created the first pair of Wristies — a fingerless glove made of fleece that goes halfway up your arm, keeping your wrists warm and dry. You can wear them with or without mittens.  Wristies were a hit with her Girl Scout troop, so she decided to get a patent and start her own company.  KK’s mom helped her run the company while KK was in school, college, and during years immediately after graduating, when she traveled the world from California to Southeast Asia. KK, now 28, is back in Maine as the president of the company. Wristies are sold for $10 to $25 in select stores, on Amazon.com,Wristies.com, and in Plow Hearth magazine.

♥~ Trampoline:  Try to act surprised — the trampoline was also invented by a kid. It was 1930 and 16-year-old George Nissen, a member of his high school gymnastics and diving teams, was goofing off in his parents’ garage when he decided to stretch canvas over a rectangular steel frame, using materials he found in a local junkyard, according to MIT. Seven years later when he was in business school at the University of Iowa, he and his gymnastics coach refined the invention with nylon and started a traveling acrobatics troupe called the Three Leonardos. They initially called it a “bouncing rig,” but after traveling through the Midwest and Southwest, they learned the Spanish word for diving board, “el trampolin” and changed the name to Trampoline and got a patent.

♥~ Bottle-Cap Jewelry: Maddie Bradshaw of Dallas, Texas says her family has always been creative — and into recycling. When she was 10, she wanted to decorate her locker. So, her uncle, who had an old Coke machine, gave her 50 bottle caps. She painted them and put magnets on them, and even gave some to her friends, who loved them. She liked them so much she decided to turn them into necklaces so she could take them anywhere with her. With the help of mom, Diane, she withdrew $300 she had saved up from birthdays, Christmases and the tooth fairy, and went out to buy supplies. She took about 50 of the necklaces, called “Snap Caps,” to the local toy store, and they sold out in a few hours. She made her first million by age 13. Today, Snap Caps has 40 employees and sells over 60,000 necklaces per month in over 2,500 stores. They also make Snap Cap hair bows and Snap Cap “Huggers” to decorate your Ugg boots.

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Thanks one and all for wishing my Dad a Happy Fig Newton Day. He was touched and believes that Fig Newtons are well on their way to gaining the recognition they deserve. He suggested a slogan: “Leave No Fig Newton Behind….” We’re going to work on it.

Have a terrific Thursday

♥~