<> Tomorrow's food holidays(s):
* 'National Raspberry Tart Day'. . Raspberry fruit filling over a pastry.
- From Wikipedia ():
'A tart is a baked dish consisting of a filling over a pastry base with an
open top not covered with pastry. The pastry is usually shortcrust pastry
the filling may be sweet or savoury, though modern tarts are usually
fruit-based, sometimes with custard. Tartlet refers to a miniature tart an
example would be egg tarts. Examples of tarts include jam tarts, which may
be different colours depending on the flavour of the jam used to fill them,
and the Bakewell tart.
The categories of 'tart', 'flan', 'quiche', and 'pie' overlap, with no
sharp distinctions. The French word tarte can be translated to mean either
pie or tart, as both are mainly the same with the exception of a pie
usually covering the filling in pastry, while flans and tarts leave it
open. Tarts are also typically free-standing with firm pastry, thick
filling, and perpendicular sides while pies may have softer pastry, looser
filling, and sloped sides, necessitating service from the pie plate. The
Italian crostata, dating to at least the mid-15th century, has been
described as a rustic free-form version of an open fruit tart
Early medieval tarts generally had meat fillings, but later ones were often
based on fruit and custard.
Tarte Tatin is an upside-down tart, of apples, other fruit, or onions.
Savoury tarts include quiche, a family of savoury tarts with a mostly
custard filling German Zwiebelkuchen 'onion tart', and Swiss cheese tart
made from Gruyere'.
[The Hankster says] I wonder if ancient C.S.I., would have convicted the Knave of Hearts (having sticky residue on his fingers), as indeed the one who took the Queen of Hearts confectionery, 'quite away'. With the White Rabbit as prosecution, the Mad Hatter as chief witness and the King of Hearts as judge, Alice had her defense cut out for her. After all, it was a wonderland.
* 'National Raspberry Bombe Day'. . Sherbet with heavy cream, sugar,
chopped nuts, candied fruit.
- From Wikipedia (Bombe glacée):
'A bombe glacée, or simply a bombe in English, is an ice cream dessert
frozen in a spherical mould so as to resemble a cannonball, hence the name.
Escoffier gives over sixty recipes for bombes in Le Guide culinaire. A
recipe for chocolate and meringue bombe is given in Mary Berry's Complete
Cook Book. The dessert appeared on restaurant menus as early as 1882'.
[The Hankster says] I like all sherbets, fancy shape or not.
<> Other holidays / celebrations
* 'National Son’s and Daughter’s Day'.
[The Hankster says] Mom and pop got their day. Now it's someone Else's turn.
* 'National Presidential Joke Day'.
Remembers August 11, 1984 when President Ronald Reagan was doing a
microphone test for his radio show and made a joke not realizing that the
microphone was on. He said: My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you
I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins
in five minutes.'
<> Awareness / Observances:
<> Historical events on August 11
* ' In 1866, With the invention of the quad skate, two roller rinks open.
One in a furniture store in New York and the world's first dedicated rink
in Newport RI.
- From Wikipedia: 'A roller rink is a hard surface usually consisting of
Hardwood, Rollerboard or Concrete used for roller skating or inline
skating. This includes roller hockey, speed skating, roller derby, and
individual recreational skating. Roller rinks can be located in an indoor
or outdoor facility. Most skating center facilities range anywhere from
under 14,000 square feet to more than 21,000 square feet.
Massachusetts businessman James Plimpton's 1863 invention of an improved
roller skate led to a boom in popularity in the late 19th century,
particularly in cities of the American East Coast. At first, people roller
skated at home, but within twenty years businesses dedicated to the
activity began to spring up. Plimpton himself is credited with opening the
first roller skating rink in New York City. Patrons who enjoyed ice skating
during the winter months participated in the similar activity, now
year-round. Early roller rinks varied greatly in size and type, both indoor
and outdoor. Many consisted of simple wooden platforms that sometimes
doubled as dance floors or ballrooms. While primarily an activity of
eastern cities, a few enterprising individuals toured the rural areas of
the Midwest and South with wagon-loads of roller skates. These
entrepreneurs went from town-to-town, often in conjunction with circuses or
carnivals, renting out skates and using whatever locally-available surface
as an impromptu rink. The post–World War II baby boom also saw a boom in
roller rinks across the United States. Having a roller skating birthday
party became something of a rite of passage for American children in the
1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Roller rinks in the United States underwent
significant changes in the 1970s. New plastics led to improved skate
wheels—ones providing a smoother, quieter ride—and easier-to-maintain skate
floors.
The Disco craze from popular 1970s culture led to another increase in the
popularity of roller rinks—or roller discos, as some became. Gone were the
staid lighting and old-fashioned organ music as a generally older clientele
were replaced by adolescents and twenty-somethings skating under mirror
balls and special lights to disco beats. The end of the Disco Era and the
advent of inline roller skates hit the roller rink industry hard, with many
rinks closing. However, as had happened throughout history, most rink
owners adapted and survived the economic storm. Roller derby, a
professional sport of the 1950s and 1960s once considered virtually dead,
has seen a DIY, grassroots rebirth in popularity in the early 21st century
with amateur and semi-pro teams forming leagues nationwide. Many rink
owners support this activity, along with roller hockey, speed skating, and
roller figure skating contests'.
* 'In 1874, Harry S Parmelee patents the automatic fire sprinkler system.
The previous system used overhead water pipes that had to be turned on
manually when a fire was noticed. His system used a sodder that melted with
the heat and started the sprinklers. .
- From Wikipedia: 'In 1812, British inventor Sir William Congreve patented
a manual sprinkler system using perforated pipes along the ceiling. When
someone noticed a fire, a valve outside the building could be opened to
send water through the pipes.
A large furniture factory had repeatedly burned down, and Hiram Stevens
Maxim was consulted on how to prevent a recurrence. As a result, Maxim
invented the first automatic fire sprinkler. It would douse the areas that
were on fire, and it would report the fire to the fire station. Maxim was
unable to sell the idea elsewhere, but when the patent expired the idea was
used.
Henry S. Parmalee of New Haven, Connecticut created and installed the first
automatic fire sprinkler system in 1874, using solder that melted in a fire
to unplug holes in the otherwise sealed water pipes. At the time he was the
president of Mathusek Piano Works. Parmelee invented his sprinkler system
in response to exorbitantly high insurance rates. Parmalee patented his
idea and had great success with it in the U.S. Parmalee called his
invention the automatic fire extinguisher He then traveled to Europe to
demonstrate his method to stop a building fire before total destruction.
His invention did not get as much attention as he had planned. Most people
could not afford to install a sprinkler system. Once Parmalee realized
this, he turned his efforts on educating the insurance companies about his
system. He talked about how the sprinkler system would reduce the loss
ratio, thus saving money for the insurance companies. He knew that he could
never succeed in obtaining contracts from the business owners to install
his system unless he could ensure for them a reasonable return in the form
of reduced premiums.
Back in the U.S., Frederick Grinnell, who was manufacturing the Parmalee
sprinkler, designed the more effective Grinnell sprinkler. He increased
sensitivity by removing the fusible joint from all contact with the water,
and, by seating a valve in the center of a flexible diaphragm, he relieved
the low-fusing soldered joint of the strain of water pressure. By this
means the valve seat was forced against the valve by the water pressure,
producing a self-closing action, so that the greater the water pressure,
the tighter the valve. The flexible diaphragm had a further and most
important function. It caused the valve and its seat to move outwards
simultaneously until the solder joint was completely severed. Grinnell got
a patent for his version of the sprinkler system. He also took his
invention to Europe, where it was a much bigger success than the Parmalee
version. Eventually, the Parmalee system was withdrawn, which left an open
path for Grinnell and his invention'.
* 'In 1896, Harvey Hubbell patents electric light bulb socket with a pull
chain .
- From Wikipedia: 'Harvey Hubbell II (1857 – December 17, 1927), was an
American inventor, entrepreneur and industrialist. His best-known
inventions are the U.S. electrical plug and the pull-chain light socket.
In 1888, at the age of thirty-one, Hubbell quit his job as a manager of a
manufacturing company and founded Hubbell Incorporated in Bridgeport,
Connecticut, a company which is still in business today, still
headquartered near Bridgeport. Hubbell began manufacturing consumer
products and, by necessity, inventing manufacturing equipment for his
factory. Some of the equipment he designed included automatic tapping
machines and progressive dies for blanking and stamping. One of his most
important industrial inventions, still in use today, is the thread rolling
machine. He quickly began selling his newly devised manufacturing equipment
alongside his commercial products.
Hubbell received at least 45 patents most were for electric products. The
pull-chain electrical light socket was patented in 1896, and his most
famous invention, the U.S. electrical power plug, in 1904, this brought the
convenience of portable electrical devices, already enjoyed in Great
Britain since the early 1880s, to the U.S'.
* 'In 1909, SOS is first used by an American ship, Arapahoe, off Cape
Hatteras, NC. The first British ship was the Cunard liner RMS Slavonia on
June 10, 1909. .
- From Wikipedia: 'The use of the SOS signal was first introduced in
Germany as part of a set of national radio regulations, effective April 1,
1905. These regulations introduced three new Morse code sequences,
including the SOS distress signal.
In 1906, at the second International Radiotelegraphic Convention in Berlin,
an extensive collection of Service Regulations was developed to supplement
the main agreement, which was signed on November 3, 1906, becoming
effective on July 1, 1908. Article XVI of the regulations adopted Germany's
Notzeichen (distress signal) as the international standard, reading: Ships
in distress shall use the following signal: · · · – – – · · · repeated at
brief intervals The first ship to transmit an SOS distress call appears to
have been either the Cunard liner RMS Slavonia on June 10, 1909, according
to Notable Achievements of Wireless in the September, 1910 Modern
Electrics, or the steamer SS Arapahoe on August 11, 1909. The signal of the
Arapahoe was received by the United Wireless Telegraph Company station at
Hatteras, North Carolina, and forwarded to the steamer company's offices.
However, there was some resistance among the Marconi operators to the
adoption of the new signal, and, as late as the April 1912 sinking of the
RMS Titanic, the ship's Marconi operators intermixed CQD and SOS distress
calls. However, in the interests of consistency and water safety, the use
of CQD appears to have died out thereafter.
In both the April 1, 1905, German law, and the 1906 International
regulations, the distress signal was specified as a continuous Morse code
sequence of three-dits/three-dahs/three-dits, with no mention of any
alphabetic equivalents. However, in International Morse, three dits
comprise the letter S, and three dahs the letter O. It therefore soon
became common to refer to the distress signal as SOS An early report on The
International Radio-Telegraphic Convention in the January 12, 1907,
Electrical World stated that Vessels in distress use the special signal,
SOS, repeated at short intervals. (In American Morse code, which was used
by many coastal ships in the United States through the first part of the
twentieth century, three dahs stood for the numeral 5, so in a few cases
the distress signal was informally referred to as S5S)'.
* 'In 1929, Babe Ruth hits his 500th home run, becoming the first person in
history to achieve that feat. His life time total was 714. .
- From Wikipedia: 'George Herman Ruth Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16,
1948), better known as Babe Ruth, was an American professional baseball
player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from
1914 through 1935. Nicknamed The Bambino and The Sultan of Swat, he began
his MLB career as a stellar left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, but
achieved his greatest fame as a slugging outfielder for the New York
Yankees. Ruth established many MLB batting (and some pitching) records,
including career home runs (714), runs batted in (RBIs) (2,213), bases on
balls (2,062), slugging percentage (.690), and on-base plus slugging (OPS)
(1.164) the latter two still stand today. Ruth is regarded as one of the
greatest sports heroes in American culture and is considered by many to be
the greatest baseball player of all time. In 1936, Ruth was elected into
the Baseball Hall of Fame as one of its first five inaugural members.
Ruth's legendary power and charismatic personality made him a
larger-than-life figure in the Roaring Twenties During his career, he was
the target of intense press and public attention for his baseball exploits
and off-field penchants for drinking and womanizing. His often reckless
lifestyle was tempered by his willingness to do good by visiting children
at hospitals and orphanages. He was denied a job in baseball for most of
his retirement, most likely due to poor behavior during parts of his
playing career. In his final years, Ruth made many public appearances,
especially in support of American efforts in World War II. In 1946, he
became ill with cancer, and died two years later'.
* 'In 1942, Actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil receive a
patent for a Frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication system that
later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones and
Wi-Fi. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Hedy Lamarr (/'h?di/ born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, 9
November 1914 – 19 January 2000) was an Austrian and American film actress
and inventor of a radio guidance technology.
After an early and brief film career in Germany, which included a
controversial film Ecstasy (1933), she fled from her husband, a wealthy
Austrian ammunition manufacturer and secretly moved to Paris. There, she
met MGM head Louis B. Mayer, who offered her a movie contract in Hollywood,
where she became a film star from the late 1930s to the 1950s.
Lamarr appeared in numerous popular feature films, including Algiers (1938)
with Charles Boyer, I Take This Woman (1940) with Spencer Tracy, Comrade X
(1940) with Clark Gable, Come Live With Me (1941) with James Stewart, H.M.
Pulham, Esq. (1941) with Robert Young, and Samson and Delilah (1949) with
Victor Mature. Director Max Reinhardt called her the most beautiful woman
in Europe
At the beginning of World War II, Lamarr and composer George Antheil
developed a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes, which used spread
spectrum and frequency hopping technology to defeat the threat of jamming
by the Axis powers. Though the US Navy did not adopt the technology until
the 1960s, the principles of their work are now incorporated into modern
Wi-Fi, CDMA and Bluetooth technology, and this work led to their being
inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.
Lamarr's earliest inventions include an improved traffic stoplight and a
tablet that would dissolve in water to create a carbonated drink. The
beverage was unsuccessful Lamarr herself said it tasted like Alka-Seltzer.
Copy of U.S. patent for Secret Communication System
With the ongoing World War, Lamarr was inspired to contribute to the war
effort, designing a jam-proof radio guidance system for torpedoes. With the
help of composer George Antheil, they drafted designs for a new
frequency-hopping, spread-spectrum technology that they later patented.
Lamarr and Antheil realized that radio-controlled torpedoes, which could be
important in the naval war, could easily be jammed, thereby causing the
torpedo to go off course. With the knowledge she had gained about torpedoes
from her first husband, and using a method similar to the way piano rolls
work, they designed a frequency-hopping system that would continually
change the radio signals sent to the torpedo.
Their invention was granted a patent on 11 August 1942 (filed using her
married name Hedy Kiesler Markey). Yet, it was technologically difficult to
implement, and the U.S. Navy was not receptive to considering inventions
coming from outside the military at the time. Only in 1962, at the time of
the Cuban missile crisis, did an updated version of their design appear on
Navy ships. The design is one of the important elements behind today's
spread-spectrum communication technology, such as CDMA, Wi-Fi networks and
Bluetooth technology.
They eventually received the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award
and the Bulbie Gnass Spirit of Achievement Bronze Award, given to
individuals whose creative lifetime achievements in the arts, sciences,
business, or invention fields have significantly contributed to society.
Lamarr was also featured on the Science Channel and the Discovery Channel.
In 2014, Lamarr and Antheil were posthumously inducted into the National
Inventors Hall of Fame'.
* 'In 1941, Glenn Miller and his Orchestra recorded 'Elmer’s Tune'. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Elmer's Tune is a 1941 big band and jazz standard
written by Elmer Albrecht, Dick Jurgens and Sammy Gallop. Glenn Miller and
his Orchestra and Dick Jurgens and his Orchestra both charted with
recordings of the composition.
Elmer Albrecht originally composed the song in the early 1920s. At the
time, he was a student at the Worsham College of Embalming in Chicago and
worked at Louis Cohen’s funeral parlor on Clark Street. According to
Albrecht, he originally worked out the tune on a piano in a back room of
the funeral parlor which at the time held the corpses of twelve men killed
in Chicago’s Tong Wars.
Over the years, Albrecht, who continued to work as an embalmer, played the
tune in honky tonks and small night clubs around Chicago. He offered it to
Ted Weems, who turned it down. Then, in February 1941, he approached Dick
Jurgens, whose band had a residency at Chicago's Aragon Ballroom. Albrecht
worked nearby and had an arrangement to use one of the pianos at the venue
during his lunch break. Albrecht made a nuisance of himself, and Jurgens,
who was inundated with requests from song promoters, finally agreed to
arrange Albrecht’s song for his orchestra .
A short time later, Jurgens and his band were preparing to perform the tune
(still nameless) on the radio. After a frantic effort by the radio
announcer and two lyricists to come up with a title, Jurgens casually
suggested “Elmer’s Tune” and the name stuck. Jurgens recorded the song as
an instrumental for Okeh Records (6209) on April 10, 1941. This version
reached no.8 on the Billboard Best Selling Retail Records chart in October
1941.
The popularity of the tune prompted Glenn Miller to ask Jurgens if he could
record a vocal version of the song. Robbins Music Company, the song’s
publisher, hired Sammy Gallop to write the lyrics. Miller recorded his
version of the song for RCA Bluebird (B-11274-A) on August 11, 1941 with
Ray Eberle on lead vocals and the Modernaires on backing vocals. This
version was an even bigger success than Jurgens’ recording, peaking at no.1
for one week on the Billboard Best Selling Retail Records chart for the
week ending December 13, 1941 in a 20-week chart run'.
* 'In 1962, Vostok 3 launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and cosmonaut
Andrian Nikolayev becomes the first person to float in microgravity. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Vostok 3 ( Orient 3 or East 3) was a spaceflight of the
Soviet space program intended to determine the ability of the human body to
function in conditions of weightlessness and test the endurance of the
Vostok 3KA spacecraft over longer flights. Cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev
orbited the Earth 64 times over nearly four days in space, August 11–15,
1962, a feat which would not be matched by NASA until the Gemini program
(1965–1966).
Vostok 3 and Vostok 4 were launched a day apart on trajectories that
brought the spacecraft within approximately 6.5 km (4.0 mi) of one another.
The cosmonauts aboard the two capsules also communicated with each other
via radio, the first ship-to-ship communications in space. These missions
marked the first time that more than one manned spacecraft was in orbit at
the same time, giving Soviet mission controllers the opportunity to learn
to manage this scenario'.
* 'In 1984, Carl Lewis duplicates Jesse Owens' 1936 feat, wins 4 Olympic
track golds .
- From Wikipedia: 'At the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Lewis was
entered into four events with realistic prospects of winning each of them
and thereby matching the achievement of Jesse Owens at the 1936 Games in
Berlin.
Lewis started his quest to match Owens with a convincing win in the 100 m,
running 9.99 s to defeat his nearest competitor, fellow American Sam
Graddy, by 0.2 s. In his next event, the long jump, Lewis won with relative
ease. But his approach to winning this event stoked controversy, even as
knowledgeable observers agreed his approach was the correct one. Since
Lewis still had heats and finals in the 200 m and the 4 × 100 m relay to
compete in, he chose to take as few jumps as necessary to win the event. He
risked injury in the cool conditions of the day if he over-extended
himself, and his ultimate goal to win four golds might be at risk. His
first jump at 8.54 m (28 ft 0 in) was, he knew, sufficient to win the
event. He took one more jump, a foul, then passed his remaining four
allotted jumps. He won gold, as silver medalist Gary Honey of Australia's
best jump was 8.24 m (27 ft 01/4 in). But the public was generally unaware
of the intricacies of the sport and had been repeatedly told by the media
of Lewis' quest to surpass Bob Beamon's legendary long jump record of 8.90
m (29 ft 21/4 in). Lewis himself had often stated it was a goal of his to
surpass the mark. A television advertisement with Beamon appeared before
the final, featuring the record-holder saying, I hope you make it, kid. So,
when Lewis decided not to make any more attempts to try to break the
record, he was roundly booed. When asked about those boos, Lewis said, I
was shocked at first. But after I thought about it, I realized that they
were booing because they wanted to see more of Carl Lewis. I guess that's
flattering.
His third gold medal came in the 200 m, where he won in a time of 19.80 s,
a new Olympic record and the third fastest time in history. Finally, he won
his fourth gold when the 4 × 100 m relay team he anchored finished in a
time of 37.83 s, a new world record'.
No. 1 song
Top movie
Monthly holiday / awareness days in August
Food
National Catfish Month
National Goat Cheese Month
Rye Month
Health
Children's Eye Health and Safety Month
Children's Vision and Learning Month
National Breastfeeding Month
National Immunization Awareness Month
National Minority Donor Awareness Month
National Spinal Muscular Atrophy Awareness Month
Neurosurgery Outreach Month
Psoriasis Awareness Month
Animal / Pets
Other
American Adventures Month
American Artists Appreciation Month
American Indian Heritage Month
American History Essay Contest
Black Business Month
Boomers Making A Difference Month
Bystander Awareness Month
Child Support Awareness Month
Get Ready for Kindergarten Month
Happiness Happens Month
Motor Sports Awareness Month
National Read A Romance Month
National Traffic Awareness Month
National Truancy Prevention Month
National Water Quality Month
Shop Online For Groceries Month
What Will Be Your Legacy Month
XXXI Summer Olympics: 5-21
August is:
August origin (from Wikipedia): Originally named Sextili (Latin), because it was the sixth month in the original ten-month Roman calendar: under Romulus in 753 BC, when March was the first month of the year.
"About 700 BC it became the eighth month when January and February were added to the year before March by King Numa Pompilius, who also gave it 29 days. Julius Caesar added two days when he created the Julian calendar in 45 BC giving it its modern length of 31 days. In 8 BC it was renamed in honor of Augustus
According to a Senatus consultum quoted by Macrobius, he chose this month because it was the time of several of his great triumphs, including the conquest of Egypt.
"
August at Wikipedia: More
If you couldn't afford 90 cents for a movie ticket, 50 years ago,
or your 45 RPM record player was broke, you might watch one of these shows on TV.
From this Wikipedia article: More
Best selling books of 1966 More
Sites for downloading or reading free Public Domain eBooks. Available in various formats. More