~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
September 10, 2014

★~ Today’s Quote:  Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.” ― Marie Curie

★~ TV Dinner Day: 

According to the American Frozen Food Institute, the average American eats 72 frozen meals a year, making frozen foods a $22 billion industry.

Relying on frozen convenience foods is nothing new — who actually invented them, however, is a bit more contentious. Though credit is widely given to the Swanson brothers, it took a combination of a stocking error at Swanson, a light bulb idea by Swanson company salesman Gerry Thomas after a visit to Pan American Airways in Pittsburgh and some smart marketing to give rise to the TV dinner.

Some may credit Clarence Birdseye with inventing frozen meals. He developed a system of packing and flash-freezing fresh food back in 1923. By 1949, Albert and Meyer Bernstein were selling frozen dinners on compartmentalized aluminum trays in the Pittsburgh area. But it was Swanson’s massive 1954 advertising campaign that sealed the deal on TV dinners for consumers.

The first TV dinners produced by Swanson were in answer to a problem they had with Thanksgiving turkey leftovers. Not just a few Tupperware containers, either — we’re talking about 260 tons (235 metric tons) of turkey leftovers. So they appealed to their workers to come up with ideas. Gerry Thomas had just seen the airplane-friendly compartmentalized aluminum trays used by Pan American Airways and introduced the idea to the Swanson brothers back home in Nebraska. They packaged turkey, corn bread stuffing, peas and sweet potatoes and hung their advertising campaign on the newest craze to hit the nation: TV. That year, Swanson sold more than 25 million TV dinners to hungry Americans, at 98 cents per package. TV dinners were a hit.

Over the years, frozen meals have continued to develop to meet Americans’ wants. More menu options were added. Desserts, too. In the 1960s, Swanson expanded its line of meals to breakfast and lunch. In 1973, TV dinners got supersized when the Campbell Soup Company (Swanson’s parent company) introduced Hungry-Man, extra-large frozen meals targeted toward, well, hungry men.

A glance into the freezers at your local supermarket is all you need to know that today’s frozen entrees are distant cousins to the turkey TV dinners of the 1950s. Butternut squash ravioli, lemongrass coconut chicken, beef tips Portobello … the options read like the menu of a gourmet restaurant. Research conducted by the Nutrition Business Journal shows sales of natural and organic frozen dinners and other frozen convenience foods have seen steady growth (between 10 to 14 percent a year) since 1997; in 2001, consumers spent $380 million on them [source: Ferrier]. Additionally, some companies offer specialty frozen foods for people with food allergies (including gluten-free options), restricted sodium intake, as well as meals for vegetarians and vegans.

★~ Swap Ideas Day:

Two heads are better than one right?  Right. Today is dedicated to sharing great ideas and tips amongst friends, family, the butcher, the baker, and the Starbuck’s barrister. Good idea’s are meant to be shared and passed around.

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 490 BC Some historians believe that the Battle of Marathon between the Greeks and the Persians happened on September 10th in 490 B.C.  According to legend, a messenger ran non-stop more than 20 miles from the battlefield to Athens to deliver news of a Greek victory. That legend inspired the first “marathon” foot race during the Athens Olympics of 1896.

♥~ 1935 – “I’m Popeye the sailor man…” toot! toot! Popeye was heard for the first time on NBC radio. The show was based on the Elzie Crisler Segar comic strip, which featured Popeye, Olive Oyl, Brutas, Wimpy and Sweepea. Now, eat your spinach in celebration!

♥~ 1955 – Bert Parks began a 25-year career as host of the Miss America Pageant on NBC. The show became a TV tradition as Parks sang to the newly-crowned beauty queen, “There She is … Miss America”. The song was composed by Bernie Wayne and was sung for the first time on this day. Sharon Kay Ritchie was the first Miss America to be honored with the song. When she married singer Don Cherry (Band of Gold), There She Is was part of the wedding ceremony.

♥~ 1960 -1061 – A belt with a gold buckle, called the Hickok Belt, was created to honor the top professional athlete of the year in the U.S.  Two years in a row, in 1960 and 1961, the winner of the Hickok Belt was an athlete born on September 10th…golfer Arnold Palmer (born in 1929), followed by baseball home-run record-setter Roger Maris (1934).

♥~ 1964 – Rod Stewart recorded his first tune, titled Good Morning Little Schoolgirl, for Decca. It was not one of his more successful recordings.

♥~ 1972 – The U.S. lost an Olympic men’s basketball game for the first time, when the Soviet team took the gold medal game, 51-50.  Members of the American team felt that the championship was stolen from them when the Soviets were given three chances to score the winning basket.  The Americans refused to accept the silver medal.

♥~ 1989 – Deion Sanders intercepted a pass and scored a touchdown for the Atlanta Falcons. Four days earlier he hit a home run for the Yankees. Two American dreams in one week.

♥~ 1989 – Zippy Chippy lost his 100th race at the Northampton Fair at the Three County Fairgrounds. He went off at odds of 7-2 making him the second betting choice.. A host of fans were there that day to cheer him at the start and to take his picture. Said his jockey, “It would be nice if people took photos at the end of the race too.” Zippy came in last. Click for more Zippy facts.

★~ Famous Birthdays:

♥~ 1914 – Robert Wise Academy Award-winning director: The Sound of Music [1965], West Side Story [1961]; Two for the Seesaw, The Andromeda Strain, Star Trek: The Motion Picture; died Sep 14, 2005

♥~ 1929 – Arnold Palmer golf champion: 1st million $ winner; Masters Champion: [1958, 1960, 1962, 1964], U.S. Open [1960], British Open [1961, 1962]

♥~ 1942 –   Stephen Jay Gould. Popular science writer, known for work as an evolutionary biologist, advancing the theory of punctuated equilibrium, which addressed jumps in evolution. Most of his work was done on land snails.

♥~ 1950 – Don Powell musician: drums: group: Slade: Get Down and Get With It, Coz I Love You, Mama Weer All Crazee Now, Cum on Feel the Noize, Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me, Merry Xmas Everybody, We’ll Bring the House Down, My Oh My, Run Run Away

♥~ 1953 – Amy Irving actress: Yentl, Crossing Delancy, The Competition, Benefit of the Doubt, Carrie, Honeysuckle Rose; singing voice of Jessica Rabbit: Who Framed Roger Rabbit

♥~ 1960 – Colin Firth actor: Pride and Prejudice, Circle of Friends, Hostages, The Advocate, Valmont, Apartment Zero, The Secret Garden, Another Country

♥ ~ 1972 – James Duval actor: Independence Day, The Doe Boy, The Weekend, Window Theory, Frog-g-g!, Pledge of Allegiance, Amerikana, Gone in Sixty Seconds, Go, Wild Horses

★~  Video Gallimaufry:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/YoB8t0B4jx4[/youtube]

[youtube]http://youtu.be/eupIKc5Z1qU[/youtube]

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Sleep is allusive so I decided to check in on Odd and see if some of the internet glitches had been iron out from yesterday. It seems better. If leaving a comment is a problem, I’m sorry!  it isn’t you, or Odd. I’d explain more, but I don’t really know how and I’m pretty sure most of you aren’t all that interested beyond wanting your comment to appear as posted. Let’s hope that happens because as you know….Odd Loves Company!

My teen  is off to test drive a Tesla today. I can’t wait to hear how he likes it. Nope, we’re not in the market for a car, he’s just going for a  the test drive.

Have a wonderful Wednesday.