★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
July 28, 2015

★~ Today’s Quote:  All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.~ Charles M. Schulz

★~ Milk Chocolate Day:

After it was imported from America beginning in the 16th century, the upper crust of Europe fell in love with chocolate — but they only knew it as a ground-up mixture that was made into a bitter-tasting drink. Back in those days, the expensive stuff was even made illegal in certain areas. Many believed that it was an aphrodisiac, a medicine, or a potion used by those who were up to no good.

It wasn’t until the late 18th century that the first “eating chocolate” began to be produced, mixing cocoa with sugar and adding thickeners. Francois-Louis Cailler discovered a way to produce chocolate in bar form and opened the first Swiss chocolate factory in Vevey 1819. By the mid-19th century, sweetened chocolate bars were the rage all across the continent.

Another Swiss chocolatier, Nestlé, soon brought a new format to the table by adding condensed milk to the mixture and developing milk chocolate. Switzerland and Belgium became world leaders in fine chocolate. In England, the Cadbury brothers opened a shop, and then in America, Milton Hershey’s name became synonymous with chocolate.

Indulge your chocolate sweet tooth today with Hershey’s, Cadbury’s, Nestle or Dove. Splurge on some Godiva, Sees, Burie, Del Rey, or perhaps even something from the famous Belgian chocolatiers, Goossens. Buy your chocolate delight in line at the grocery store, or at a chocolate boutique; it really does not matter as long as you celebrate Milk Chocolate Day with a piece of milk chocolate that makes you sigh with delight.

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1586 – The first potatoes arrived in England from Colombia, brought by Sir Thomas Harriot.

♥~ 1933 – The singing telegram was introduced.  The first person to receive a singing telegram was singer Rudy Vallee, in honor of his 32nd birthday.

♥~ 1973 – Over 600-thousand attended history’s largest rock festival at New York’s Watkins Glen raceway. Headliners were the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers, and the Band.

♥~ 1973 – On this day, exactly a year after their first date, TV’s Six Million Dollar Man, Lee Majors, married one of Charlie’s Angels, Farrah Fawcett. The new Farrah Fawcett-Majors was named one of the 10 most beautiful women on the campus of the University of Texas.

★~Born Today:

♥~1866 –  Beatrix (Helen) Potter children’s stories author: Peter Rabbit books; died Dec 22, 1943

♥ ~ 1907 – Ding dong! Carrot calling! Long before Avon patented their “Avon calling” catchphrase, Tupperware saleswomen were practicing “Carrot calling,” a technique that challenged women to put carrots in Tupperware instead of where they usually stored veggies to see which method kept them fresh longer. Parties were often booked after it became evident how much better the carrots fared in Tupperware. And who invented tupperware?   Earl Tupper who was working for the plastics division of DuPont during WWII, and became interested in finding a peacetime use for the company’s polyethylene once the war was over.

Tupper tried the material in various molds (he had amassed an interesting personal collection of molding machines) and tinkered with the formula until he found a perfect consistency for dishes and dinnerware. He developed Tupperware’s signature airtight lid by observing how well a paint can lid kept its contents fresh and duplicating it in plastic. Keen observations like these made Tupper’s “Wonderbowls” the winner of numerous design contests; the dishes were even sold at a standalone store on Fifth Avenue in New York. Still, Tupper just wasn’t making any real money on his product… and then there was Brownie.

An extroverted single mom, Brownie Wise’s sales of Tupperware single-handedly outdid the sales at the actual Tupperware store. When Tupper found out about her “home party” method of sales – essential for demonstrating that patented Tupperware “burp” seal – he promoted her to vice president of the company. The duo were extremely successful until they had a falling out and Tupper abruptly booted her from the company in the late ’50s. She left with just a year’s advance salary and no stock holdings; Tupper sold Tupperware Home Parties — Brownie’s division — for $16 million about a year later. He then  divorced his wife and bought an island. His legacy can now be seen in homes everywhere as families are  on their hands and knees searching for the one missing lid.

♥~ 1929 – Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis First Lady: wife of 35th U.S. President John F. Kennedy; wife of Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis; editor: Doubleday Publishing; died May 19, 1994

♥~ 1945 – Jim Davis cartoonist: Garfield

♥~ 1949 – Peter Doyle singer: group: The New Seekers: I’d like to Teach the World to Sing, Look What They’ve Done to My Song Ma

★~ Melted Chocolate Gallimaufry: 

In the early 1900s, at age 12, Percy Spencer, an orphan, was a grammar school dropout working in a mill. A castoff in the making, Spencer’s life diverted course when, at age 16, he joined the Navy. Using the skills he developed there, Spencer parlayed himself into a job at Raytheon, working on magnetrons — a device which creates radio signals, in Spencer’s case, to power radars.

One of the side effects of working on these magnetrons: a pocket of melted milk chocolate. One day, in 1945, Spencer noticed that a milk chocolate bar in his pocket was hot and had melted. This was not the first time a Raytheon scientist noticed something similar, but this time Spencer’s curiosity was piqued. Had the magnetron caused this? He sent an assistant out for some popcorn — a test, of sorts. Holding the popcorn near the magnetron created a violent reaction — an explosion of popcorn flew all over his lab. The next day, he tested with a raw egg, poking a hole in the shell, and discovered that the magnetron was, in fact, cooking the food.

By 1947, his discovery, patented, was available for sale — as the microwave oven.

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Off to Prairie Wolf today with our day campers. I am hoping for a cool breeze blowing our way.

Wishing you a terrific Tuesday and a chocolate bar. Not melted.

Odd Loves Company,