Snow ~ Bruiser ~ Rain/Bruiser ~ Picture of the Day ~ Invention of Toilet ~ Three Bean Turkey Chili ~ Turk Dean ~ Jack Fimple ~ National Umbrella Day

Good 30º we got snow! morning. 

 

 

 

First thing Bruiser was out jumping around in it......

 

 

 

Yesterday the rain was heavy and blowing for awhile. Then about 9am the snow flakes started coming down. Weren't sticking, as it was still just 35º. Bruiser was out wandering around for a couple hours and FINALLY came back and was SOAKING WET!! Why in the world would a cat want to be out in the rain????

 

 

Picture of the Day..... LOL!!!

 

 

Just for you folks who don't know about the new California law.... plastic straws are now illegal! Only paper straws will be tolerated.

 

 

Interesting about the invention of the toilet....

 

The centerpiece of today’s modern bathroom, the flush toilet has equal roots in ancient sanitation practices, Elizabethan politics and Industrial Revolution know-how. Primitive latrines that utilized a constant stream of water to carry away waste date back at least 5,000 years, and early toilet systems were used by the several ancient civilizations, including the Romans and the Mohenjo-Dara and Harappa of the Indus Valley.

The first modern flushable toilet was described in 1596 by Sir John Harington, an English courtier and the godson of Queen Elizabeth I. Harington’s device called for a 2-foot-deep oval bowl waterproofed with pitch, resin and wax and fed by water from an upstairs cistern. Flushing Harington’s pot required 7.5 gallons of water—a veritable torrent in the era before indoor plumbing. Harington noted that when water was scarce, up to 20 people could use his commode between flushes. Harington described his device in a satirical pamphlet entitled ‘A New Discourse on a Stale Subject, called the Metamorphosis of Ajax”—a pun on the term “a jakes,” which was a popular slang term for toilets. Although Harington installed a working model for Queen Elizabeth at Richmond Palace, it took several centuries—and the Industrial Revolution’s improvements in manufacturing and waste disposal — for the flush toilet to catch on.

In 1775 English inventor Alexander Cumming was granted the first patent for a flush toilet. His greatest innovation was the S-shaped pipe below the bowl that used water to create a seal preventing sewer gas from entering through the toilet. In the late-19th century, a London plumbing impresario named Thomas Crapper manufactured one of the first widely successful lines of flush toilets. Crapper did not invent the toilet, but he did develop the ballcock, an improved tank-filling mechanism still used in toilets today. Crapper’s name would become synonymous with the devices he sold (although the English word “crap” predates him by centuries), thanks in part to American servicemen stationed overseas during World War I. These doughboys, unfamiliar with the relatively new-fangled invention, referred to the toilets as “crappers”—due to the Crapper brand’s ubiquity in England and France and brought the term back home with them after the war.

 

Here's a good easy cold weather meal...
Three Bean Turkey Chili

 

 

• 1 pound ground turkey breast
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
• 1 (16-ounce) can black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
• 1 (16-ounce) can navy beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 (15-ounce) can red kidney beans
• 3 (14-1/2-ounce) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

 

1. Coat a soup pot with cooking spray. Add turkey, onion, bell pepper, and garlic. Cook over medium-high heat 5 to 7 minutes, until no pink remains in turkey, stirring occasionally to break it up.
2. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 20 minutes.

 

 

Birthdays today of two great guys.... my super computer fixer Turk Dean is celebrating. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TURK!!!

 

Also celebrating today is one of my favorite Dodgers.... Jack Fimple. He was a catcher for the Dodgers from 1983-1987.

He lives in So. Oregon now and gave me one of his baseball cards and autographed it.

 

He is the director of operations for All Natural Pest Elimination in Medford.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK!!!

 

Historically this date.......

1863 – The fire extinguisher is patented.

I have one that was Jerry's... made in the early 1900's... that looks something like this:

 

Between 1900 and 1920, fire grenades resembling light bulbs could be purchased with a special bracket. This bracket had a spring device and a fusible link. When the fusible link melted, the spring would cause a metal arm to shatter the grenade and release its contents into the fire. Fire grenades of this era came in a metal case, such as the Shur Stop Kit that contained six grenades.

1962 – Captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.

1981 – A fire at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino kills eight and injures 198.

2005 – North Korea announces that it possesses nuclear weapons.

 

And births this date include....

1893 – Jimmy Durante, American actor and comedian (d. 1980)

 

 

1906 – Lon Chaney Jr., American actor (d. 1973)

 

1930 – Robert Wagner, American actor

Three wives, married Natalie Wood twice, then Marion Marshall, and last Jill St. John....

 

 

 

1961 – George Stephanopoulos, American political commentator

 

 

 

All I know. Nuff said. Happy Sunday. Ciao.

xo Sue Mom Bobo

National Umbrella Day is celebrated across the nation each year on February 10th.

On this day, we honor one of the world’s most useful inventions, the umbrella!  Not only does the umbrella help keep us dry from the rain, but it also protects us from the heat of the sun.  Umbrellas can also be used as a fashion accessory.

Umbrellas have been featured in many motion pictures, most notably:

* Singing in the Rain – 1952           * Mary Poppins – 1964

Interesting Umbrella TidBits:

The word umbrella comes from the Latin word umbra, meaning shade or shadow.  Brolly is a slang word for umbrella, often used in Britain, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.  Bumbershoot is a fanciful Americanism for an umbrella from the late 19th century.

The basic umbrella was invented over four thousand years ago.  There is evidence of umbrellas in the ancient art and artifacts of Egypt  Assyria, Greece and China.

It was the Chinese that first waterproofed umbrellas for use in the rain. They waxed and lacquered their paper parasols to protect them from the elements.

One of the first umbrella shops in existence opened in 1830 at 53 New Oxford Street in London, England.  James Smith and Sons operates regular hours at the same location still today. 

In 1928, Hans Haupt’s pocket umbrellas appeared.  In 1969, Bradford E. Phillips, the owner of Totes Incorporated of Loveland, Ohio, obtained a patent for the first “working folding umbrella.”

Umbrellas have also been fashioned into hats as early as 1880 and as recently as 1987.

In photography, umbrellas with a reflective inside are used by photographers as a diffusion device when employing artificial lighting and as a glare shield and shade, most often in portrait situations.