★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥
December 5th,2014

★~ Todays Quote:  You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality. ~  Walt Disney

★~ Sacher Torte Day:

And the sweets just keep on comin’!

The story of the world-famous Original Sacher-Torte began in 1832, when the all-mighty “coachman of Europe,” Wenzel Clemens Prince Metternich, ordered the creation of a particularly palatable dessert for his spoiled high-ranking guests.

“Take care that you do NOT make me look a fool tonight”, he warned. That very day, however, his chef was unavailable! The order was reassigned to a 16-year-old cook in his second year of apprenticeship. The quick-witted Franz Sacher presented a soft and fluffy chocolate torte to Wenzel’s guests, who were simple delighted. When Sacher ended his apprenticeship and became a fully qualified chef, he again cooked up his torte and offered it on a large scale. He was successful, and soon the “torte by a man named Sacher” was in great demand. The Original Sacher-Torte made it into the Guinness Book of Records in 1998, when the Hotel Sacher Wien made a single torte with a diameter of 2.5 meters (8.2 feet). Wonder how they put it in the oven to bake?

★~ Repeal Day: 

(Moonshiners developed some pretty clever tricks during the Prohibition. These shoes were known as “cow shoes” because they would leave a series of footprints that looked like cow tracks, making it harder for prohibition agents to tell where bootleggers were going.)

The turn of the twentieth century was a dark and desperate time in America. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union, which had been calling for the prohibition of alcohol for many years, believed that it was the cause of many, if not all, social ills. On January 16th, 1919, Congress passed the Eighteenth Amendment, outlawing alcohol and ostensibly putting an end to drunkenness, crime, mental illness, and poverty.

Prohibition lasted for thirteen long years, but December 5th, 1933 marked a return to the rich traditions of craft fermentation and distillation, the legitimacy of the American bartender as a contributor to the culinary arts, and the responsible enjoyment of alcohol as a sacred social custom.

Cheers!

★~ Day Of The Ninja:

In feudal Japan, ninjas were real, and really sneaky. Under cover of darkness, dressed in black, ninjas were hired assassins and spies. Ninjas didn’t strut around showing off their ninja-ness.

I would suggest wearing black today and going about your day with intense focus and concentration. See how often you can enter and leave a room unnoticed. Eavesdrop on other people’s conversations. Sneak up on someone and give them a kiss from behind or a cuff to the head (depending on your relationship), and if they are the jumpy type be prepared to duck. Another ninja quality is being prepared. Or you could just watch the Tom Cruise movie The Last Samurai.

★~ Today In History:

♥~ 1868 – The first American bicycle school opened in New York City. It announced courses for velocipede riding.

♥~ 1880 – Levi Strauss designed the very first pair of blue jeans. In the U.S. it is estimated that each person owns seven pairs of blue jeans!

♥~ 1876 – The Stillson wrench was patented by D.C. Stillson of Somerville, MA. What the heck is a Stillson wrench you ask? Actually, it was the first practical pipe wrench.

♥~ 1985 –A bottle of 1787 Chateau Lafite claret (initialed by Thomas Jefferson) sold at Christie’s London for 105,000 British Pounds ($157,500).

★~ Born Today:

♥~ 1901 – Walt (Walter Elias) Disney cartoonist: 1st color-animated cartoon: Steamboat Willie; creator of: Mickey Mouse, Disneyland; Emmy Award-winning producer: Disneyland film series [1955], Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color [1962-1963]; died Dec 15, 1966

♥~ 1932 – ‘Little’ Richard (Pennimann) singer: Good Golly Miss Molly, Tutti Frutti, Slippin’ and Slidin’, Long Tall Sally, Rip It Up, Ready Teddy, The Girl Can’t Help It, Lucille, Keep a Knockin’; preacher

♥~ 1934 – Joan Didion author: Run River, After Henry, Democracy, A Star is Born

♥~ 1973 – Shalom Harlow fashion model [Donna Karen, Ralph Laure, Marc Jacobs, Isaac Mizrahi, Christian Dior]; actress: In & Out, Head Over Heels, Happy Here and Now

♥~ 1985 – Frankie Muniz actor: Malcolm in the Middle, My Dog Skip, The Andy Dick Show, Dr. Dolittle 2

★~ Levi Gallimaufry:

Levi’s may be an American icon, but the stateside originals were first created by two immigrants. And Levi wasn’t the principal architect. That honor in fact goes to another European import, a Latvian immigrant named Jacob Davis. Working in Reno as a tailor, Davis had come up with an ingenious way of making work pants stronger: using copper rivets at key points. Looking to patent the design, he contacted Levi, his fabric supplier, who financed the patent application and jointly created the pants you’re probably wearing.

The man never wore his own jeans. Levi’s were designed as work apparel for laborers — like these California miners at La Grange Mine — and Levi himself was a wealthy merchant.

The world’s oldest pair of Levi’s are in a fireproof vault in San Francisco. They’re from 1879 and are estimated to be worth $150,000. They don’t look that different from the ones today.

Belt loops weren’t on Levi’s until 1922. Folks used cinches and suspenders instead to prevent wardrobe malfunction while on the job.

The zipper fly made its first appearance in 1954, and not everybody was thrilled. Someone allegedly wrote to the company asking, “Why the heck did you put a zipper in your jeans? It’s like peeing into the jaws of an alligator.”

Each pair of Levi’s is dyed with just 3 to 12 grams of indigo. Since indigo is so potent, most jeans don’t need much to turn that classic blue. Perhaps that’s why it washes out so easily? While Levi Strauss & Co. recommends avoiding washing your jeans to keep the dye in and avoid shrinkage, a company representative urged common sense on this classic point of contention: “Our advice is to wash less often, but clearly, you have to judge for yourself what’s appropriate. Hot day, dirty job? Wash your jeans.”

During WWII, Levi Strauss & Co. painted the arcuate — the double stitched arc on the pocket — to conserve thread.
With resources scarce due to war rationing, Levi’s had to eliminate some rivets, the cinch, and the trademark arcuate stitching on the back pocket, since that design was considered decorative and extraneous. However, the company managed to find a way to keep the look through alternative means — with a paint job. But despite losing those elements, the bare-boned version still had the structure to last, sacrificing none of its general strength and durability.

Levi’s weren’t called “jeans” until the 1950s. Jeans used to be called “overalls,” which was the old name for workwear. But after James Dean rocked a pair in Rebel Without a Cause, they became wildly popular. The kids wanted another name for “overalls,” though, since that was a term their parents used. So they started calling them jeans, which was actually a different fabric for workwear. Eventually, even the adults got on board and started calling the Levi’s denim classic “jeans.” Odd as the original term might seem today, it did make sense — original jeans fit similarly to bib-less overalls. So maybe your grandparents do know what they’re talking about…

Denim insulates the Levi Strauss & Co. headquarters. Of course it does. Instead of the more popular recycling method of reincarnating jeans as cutoff jorts, the company turned their old denim into insulation. You too can keep your house warm with denim!

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Odd Loves Company!

 

I am playing catch up – so I have closed comments on back dated posts. Thanks you for reading!