BBB Etymology - All Tuckered Out

"Tucker" meaning "to tire, to weary" is an Americanism dating back to the early 19th century, based on the verb "to tuck," which comes from an ancient Germanic root meaning "to pull" (also the source of our "to tug"). By the 13th century tucker had taken on the sense of "to finish cloth" and later came to mean "to gather up in folds or pleats," "to put away or hide" and the modern "to fold in the ends of material" sense we use in "tuck in a sheet."

Midway though the 19th century, it became common to speak of a dog or horse whose flanks were drawn in from hunger or fatigue as being "tucked" or "tuckered," likening the animal's gaunt and haggard appearance to folds in fabric. So to be "tuckered out" today is to be profoundly and visibly exhausted.

Today in History - 1715

A hurricane strikes the east coast of Florida, sinking 10 Spanish treasure ships and killing nearly 1,000 people. All of the gold and silver onboard at the time would not be recovered until 250 years later.

From 1701, Spain sent fleets of ships to the Western Hemisphere to bring back natural resources, including gold and silver. These groups of ships were heavily fortified against pirates, but there was little that could be done to protect them from bad weather.

On July 24, 10 Spanish ships and one French ship left Havana, Cuba, on their way to Europe, carrying tons of gold and silver coins, about 14 million pesos worth. The Spanish ships stayed very close to the Florida coast, as was the custom, while the French ship, the Grifon, ventured further out from the shore. A week later, as the ships were between Cape Canaveral and Fort Pierce, in modern-day Florida, the winds picked up dramatically.

The hurricane advanced quickly and, one by one, the ships were wrecked. The Nuestra Senora de la Regla sank, sending 200 people and 120 tons of coins to a watery grave. The Santa Cristo de San Ramon went down with 120 sailors aboard. In all, somewhere between 700 and 1,000 people lost their lives in the wrecks. Meanwhile, the Grifon was able to ride out the storm; most of its crew survived.

News from all over - Rutgers

The combination of exercise and caffeine has been shown to increase destruction of precancerous cells that had been damaged by the sun's ultraviolet-B radiation, according to a team of researchers at Rutgers University.

In mice there is a protective effect from both caffeine and voluntary exercise, and when both are combined the protection is even more than the sum of the two, said Dr. Allan H. Conney of the laboratory for cancer research at Rutgers.
Source

Quotable Quote

If I asked for a cup of coffee, someone would search for the double meaning.
-Mae West

BBB Pulp Pick - Davy Crockett told his own tales

Often, tall tales start as stories of a rather ordinary person who did something extraordinary after which the wags have their way and by weaving reality with exaggeration, a good story becomes a great one. Turns out Davy Crockett spun his own yarns for pretty much anyone who'd listen or care to read. Here's one you might enjoy.

Today in History - 1955

The President signed into law a joint resolution of the 84th United States Congress declaring In God We Trust the national motto of the United States.

News from all over - Collinsville

A rural Illinois town east of St Louis has partnered with the H.J. Heinz Co. to fill an 8-foot-tall, 4-foot-wide plastic pouch with 1,500 pounds of the tomato goop for a school fundraiser.

Heinz donated 4,000 glass bottles of the condiment for people to buy for $1 and pour into the packet. Proceeds will go to the Collinsville Christian Academy, which was damaged by a fire this week.

Hundreds in the city, home to a 170-foot-tall water tower touted as the "World's Largest Catsup Bottle," showed up Saturday to participate in the ketchup filling and other fundraising activities. The feat is being submitted to Guinness World Records.

The giant packet will be sealed and kept in Collinsville, once home to a ketchup factory, for a few days before being taken to the Pittsburgh-based company's headquarters.
Source

So Now You Know

Collinsville, Illinois, and the surrounding area, is part of what is known as the American Bottom lands, a Mississippi River basin adjacent to St. Louis, Mo. carved out of the glaciers from the ice age, the soil is so rich in potash, a chemical nutrient on which horseradish thrives.

Approximately 85% of the world's supply of horseradish is produced in this fertile setting. Cold winters provide the required root dormancy. The long summers yield excellent growing conditions for the root to grow.

German immigrants to the area began growing horseradish in the late 1800's and passed their growing method from generation to generation. The Keller farm in Collinsville, Illinois, has been a horseradish working farm for 100 years, and is still in the same family, like many other farms in the area. We also have J. R. Kelley, one of the processors in this area. The plant is not bothered by pests that ravage other crops. It's a labor-intensive crop that must be planted by hand. This is, perhaps, the reason that this area grows so much of the world's supply on so few acres.

BBB Destination - Riverside

James Tiberius Kirk will be born on March 22, 2233 in this small Iowa town. A proclamation declaring the town the "Official Future Birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk," signed by Gene Roddenberry, is housed, along with a carved wooden statue of James T. Kirk, at the Riverside Area Community Club. A large stone and plaque in the rear of a downtown building purports to be the site of the future farmstead and birthplace of James Kirk, and the home of his family, in the 2230s.

News from all over - Paterson

Daisy Valdivia woke Wednesday morning to find that her family's inflatable pool, hip high and 10 feet in diameter and filled with water, was stolen from her backyard in the middle of the night. There is no evidence that the 1000 gallons of water was poured out, pumped out, evaporated or drunk.

"I've never heard of a pool being stolen, let alone one with water in it," Valdivia said. According to Valdivia, the theft must have occurred between 1 a.m., the time her husband went to bed, and 5 a.m., the time she woke to put out the recycling. "For them to do something that fast, that's what amazes me," she said.

Although Valdivia said she is grateful nothing else was stolen, she was surprised that the thieves went through all that trouble for a pool. "We have two grills, chairs, umbrellas, they're much easier to take," she said.

In light of the theft, Valdivia said she is considering putting up a fence, She also has questions for the thieves who stole her pool. "I just want to know what the heck they did with the water," she said.
Source

Today in History - 1949

The world's first jet-propelled airliner, the British De Havilland Comet, makes its maiden test-flight in England. The jet engine would ultimately revolutionize the airline industry, shrinking air travel time in half by enabling planes to climb faster and fly higher.

In 1939, an experimental jet-powered plane debuted in Germany. During World War II, Germany was the first country to use jet fighters. De Havilland also designed fighter planes during the war years. He was knighted for his contributions to aviation in 1944.

Following the war, De Havilland turned his focus to commercial jets, developing the Comet and the Ghost jet engine. After its July 1949 test flight, the Comet underwent three more years of testing and training flights. Then, on May 2, 1952, the British Overseas Aircraft Corporation (BOAC) began the world's first commercial jet service with the 44-seat Comet 1A, flying paying passengers from London to Johannesburg.

Quotable Quote

You ain't gonna miss your water until your well runs dry.
-Bob Marley

BBB Geeky Novelty

If you are a fan of CSI (Las Vegas), you know about the "miniature killer" (spoiler), a person who creates miniature versions of crime scenes. Crime scene miniatures are not new, some detailed models were built in the 40s by by Frances Glessner Lee, a wealthy, eccentric Chicago woman who had been raised on Sherlock Holmes tales and had a lifelong fascination with sleuthing and created the "nutshell studies". Further, she founded Harvard's department of legal medicine, the first program in the nation for forensic pathology.

More recently, Adalberto Abbate creates miniature scenes including crime scenes.

Image detail of Lee's work: A B C D E
Image detail of Abbate's work: A B C D E
As far as is known, Abbate is not wanted for questioning in Las Vegas.

Today in History - 1908

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is born when U.S. Attorney General Charles Bonaparte orders a group of newly hired federal investigators to report to Chief Examiner Stanley W. Finch of the Department of Justice. One year later, the Office of the Chief Examiner was renamed the Bureau of Investigation, and in 1935 it became the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The federal government used the bureau as a tool to investigate criminals who evaded prosecution by passing over state lines, and within a few years the number of agents had grown to more than 300. The agency was opposed by some in Congress, who feared that its growing authority could lead to abuse of power. With the entry of the United States into World War I in 1917, the bureau was given responsibility in investigating draft resisters, violators of the Espionage Act of 1917, and immigrants suspected of radicalism.

Meanwhile, J. Edgar Hoover, a lawyer and former librarian, joined the Department of Justice in 1917 and within two years had become special assistant to Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. Deeply anti-radical in his ideology, Hoover came to the forefront of federal law enforcement during the so-called "Red Scare" of 1919 to 1920.

Fortunately, for the Bureau, their image recovered when Fox Mulder and Dana Scully joined the effort in 1993.

News from all over - Mexico City

44-year-old Zhenli Ye Gon might have sprung from some pulp novelist's overheated imagination. Born in Shanghai, he lived in Mexico and ran a pharmaceuticals company -- a front, authorities allege, that supplied Mexican drug cartels with massive quantities of a chemical used to make the street drug methamphetamine. Police raided his luxurious Mexico City home in March, carting off what they said was $207 million, most of it in $100 bills that had been stashed behind false walls and in closets. The U.S. government called it "the largest single drug cash seizure the world has ever seen."
Source

So Now You Know

Whenever the Cigarette Smoking Man on the X-Files smoked on the show, the actor, William B. Davis was smoking herbal cigarettes. "Morley", of course.

BBB Swell Site

Avast, ye swabs! Pirates be off the port bow ... Puzzle Pirates. Free they be .. to a point. There is no limit on your ability to board ships and play any of the basic ship puzzle games (sailing, carpentry, bilge, and gunnery) for as long as you like. There are days of free play for the remaining crafting, parlor, and social puzzles on a rotating basis. Then there are some special places where you pay to play.

So, if you like to try yer peg on a pirate-based massively multi-player online roleplaying game, ye might want to give this one a try. And keep a fair weather eye out for Bogusbeard, the baldest, bearded pirate of all!

News from all over - Melbourne

Former couple Benjamin Jorgensen, 37, and Donna Hayes, 36, hoped to net $30,000 when they set out on April 1 this year to rob the Cuckoo Restaurant, in Melbourne's outer east.

The pair struck as the manager left the restaurant about midnight carrying a plastic bag. Jorgensen pointed a loaded, sawnoff shotgun at the manager and demanded he hand over the bag, police told the Melbourne Magistrates' Court.

But as Hayes ran up to Jorgensen from behind, he accidentally fired his gun and shot her in the left hip. The bandits escaped with what they believed was a bag of money, but which in fact contained $5 worth of bread rolls. The robbery was planned after Hayes was tipped off that the manager of the restaurant would have at least $30,000 in a plastic bag at the end of the shift.

The pair – who have two children together – pleaded guilty this week to one count of armed robbery and Jorgensen also pleaded guilty to negligently causing injury. After the robbery Jorgensen drove Hayes home and then a friend drove her to the hospital where she was arrested. Jorgensen was charged the following day at his home.
Source

Today in History - 1871

Though the patent describes perforated "wrapping paper", it came to be a household favorite (at least in the US) known as "toilet paper". Thanks be to Albany's Seth Wheeler.

So Now You Know

Mistpouffers are unexplained reports that sound like a cannon or a sonic boom. They have been heard in many waterfront communities around the world such as the banks of the river Ganges in India, the East Coast and inland Finger Lakes of the United States, as well as areas of the North Sea, Japan and Italy; and sometimes away from water. Around Seneca Lake and Cayuga Lake in the USA, they are known as "Guns of the Seneca" and, well, by other names as well (check out the link for more info on names).

BBB Etymology - Pleased as Punch

"Pleased as punch" refers to the classic British "Punch and Judy" puppet shows, which have been popular in Britain since the 1600's. Punch and Judy are husband and wife, and the standard Punch and Judy show involves a great deal of shouting and mutual clobbering (and, in the original Punch and Judy story, infanticide and multiple murders). Mr. Punch himself is a grotesque, hook-nosed hunchback who spends his time concocting a variety of evil plots. When Punch's wicked machinations go well, he struts and preens outrageously, and thus "pleased as Punch" or "proud as Punch" has meant to be very satisfied (especially self-satisfied) since around 1813.

Today in History - 1847

Completing a treacherous thousand-mile exodus, an ill and exhausted Brigham Young and fellow members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints arrived in Utah's Great Salt Lake Valley. The Mormons, as they were commonly known, left their settlement in Nauvoo, Illinois, and journeyed West seeking refuge from religious persecution. The final impetus for their trek was the murder of founder and prophet Joseph Smith on June 27, 1844.

Determined to settle in an isolated region, the pioneers made their way across the plains and over the Rocky Mountains to Utah. They lost many of their party to disease during the winter months. By the time that they reached Utah, the desolate valley was a welcome sight. Potatoes and turnips were soon planted, and a dam was built. With solemn ceremonies, the settlers consecrated the two-square-mile city, and sent back word that the "promised land" had been found. By the end of 1847, nearly 2,000 Mormons had settled in the Salt Lake Valley.

July 24 is still celebrated as Pioneer Day in Utah and several other Western states. The bravery of the original settlers and their strength of character and physical endurance is commemorated with festivities including games and music, speeches, parades, rodeos, and picnics.

News from all over - Along the Danube

Two Austrians and a German were fined for cycling naked along the banks of the River Danube where a heatwave has sent temperatures soaring. "Police arrived after being alerted by passers-by," said police spokesman Stevan Krstic in the northern city of Novi Sad.

Temperatures in Serbia and other parts of the Balkans have hovered stubbornly for the past week at around 40 degrees Celsius. The three men were brought to a magistrate on charges of disrupting public peace and order and were fined 10,000 dinars each.
Source

So Now You Know

The Days of '47 Parade is a three-hour event held in Salt Lake City starting at 9:00 a.m. MST on Pioneer Day, a Utah state holiday. It is one of the largest and oldest parades in the United States.

BBB Pulp Pick - Doesn't look like a Calabash

Lots of actors profited from advertising cigarettes especially in the 40s and 50s. In this ad, there is a not-so-subtle reference to Basil Rathbone's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. Actually, Sherlock didn't limit his tobacco intake to pipes. Consider this from The Hound of the Baskervilles,

"Really, Watson, you excel yourself," said Holmes, pushing back his chair and lighting a cigarette.

Today in History - 1904

In case you thought the ice cream sundae was the only cold confectionery controversy, this ...

It is said that on this day, Charles E. Menches of St. Louis, Missouri conceived the idea of filling a pastry cone with two scoops of ice cream and thereby invented the ice cream cone. Yet there are other, perhaps stronger, claimants to that honor: Ernest Hamwi, Abe Doumar, Albert and Nick Kabbaz, Arnold Fornachou and David Avayou have all been touted as the inventor(s) of the first edible cone. Interestingly, these individuals have in common the fact that they all made or sold confections at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, known as the St. Louis World's Fair and it is from the time of the Fair that the edible "cornucopia," a cone made from a rolled waffle, vaulted into popularity.

Perhaps the ice cream cone was actually "invented" by an anonymous fairgoer who whimsically dumped some ice cream into a molded waffle and instantly spawned imitators, or by Italo Marchiony who in 1903 submitted a patent for a device to make edible cups with handles. Although paper and metal cones were used by Europeans to hold ice cream and pita bread was used by Middle Easterners to hold sweets, the ice cream cone seems to have come to America by way of "the Pike" (as the entertainment midway of the St. Louis World's Fair was called).

News from all over - Perkiomen Township

After spending $6,300 on the "Double Sunny" model, plus $4,000 for a four-inch layer of rubber mulch to cushion his son's falls, Richard "Rudy" Rudolph happened upon a satellite photo of his Montgomery County development on the Internet. Stunned, he spotted the play set, sprawling 43 feet by 21 feet behind the family's four-bedroom Colonial. From that far up, though, the best parts were a blur.
Source

So Now You Know

In the "Adventure of Black Peter," a Sherlock Holmes story published in 1904 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Holmes used the name Basil as an alias.

Today's Chuckle

BBB Destination - Body Worlds

On a recent visit to Portland Oregon, I was able to see Body Worlds3, an exhibition featuring "authentic human specimens preserved through a revolutionary process called Plastination. This remarkable preservation technique replaces bodily fluids and fat with reactive plastics, thereby preserving human tissue in its natural state". Truly remarkable, interesting and a wonderful way to understand human anatomy. Often the bodies are positioned artistically, somewhat to add interest but mostly to allow different perspectives of the human form. I wouldn't recommend it for the squeamish or for young children but other attendees likely will find it fascinating. The three exhibitions are in Charlotte NC, Montreal Quebec and Portland.

So Now You Know

According to the PB&J (Peanut Butter and Jelly) Campaign ...

A PB&J will slow global warming ... you reduce your carbon footprint by saving the equivalent of 2.5 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions over an average animal-based lunch like a hamburger, a tuna sandwich, grilled cheese, or chicken nuggets.

A PB&J will save water ... about 280 gallons of water over the hamburger.

A PB&J will save land ... 12 to 50 square feet of land from deforestation, over-grazing, and pesticide and fertilizer pollution.

News from all over - Edmonton

Computer scientists at the University of Alberta have solved checkers, the popular board game with a history that dates back to 3,000 B.C.

After more than 18 years and sifting through 500 billion billion (a five followed by 20 zeroes) checkers positions, Jonathan Schaeffer and his colleagues have built a checkers-playing computer program that cannot be beaten. Completed in late April, the Chinook program may be played to a draw but will never be defeated.

"This is a tremendous achievement - a truly significant advance in artificial intelligence," said Jaap van den Herik, editor of International Computer Games Journal.
Source

Today in History - 1801

On New Year’s Day, 1802, President Thomas Jefferson received a gift of mythic proportions. Amid great fanfare, a mammoth cheese was delivered to the White House by the itinerant Baptist preacher John Leland. It measured more than four feet in diameter, thirteen feet in circumference, and seventeen inches in height; once cured, it weighed 1,235 pounds.
...
The colossal cheese was made by the staunchly Republican, Baptist citizens of Cheshire, a small farming community in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. The religious dissenters created the cheese to commemorate Jefferson’s long-standing devotion to religious liberty and to celebrate his recent electoral victory over Federalist rival John Adams.

On the morning of July 20, 1801, the devout Baptist families, in their finest Sunday frocks, turned out with pails of curds for a day of thanksgiving, hymn singing, and cheese pressing. The cheese was distilled from the single day’s milk production of nine hundred or more “Republican” cows. (Because this was a gift for Mr. Jefferson, the new Republican president, the milk of “Federalist” cows was scrupulously excluded.)

The cheese was transported down the eastern seaboard by sloop and sleigh, arriving in the Federal City on the evening of December 29. (By the time it reached Baltimore, one wag reported, the ripening cheese, now nearly six months removed from the cows, was strong enough to walk the remaining distance to Washington.) The “Mammoth Priest,” as the press dubbed Leland, recounted that along the route he paused frequently to preach to “large congregations” of curious onlookers.

According to press accounts, Jefferson personally received the cheese on New Year’s morning. Dressed in his customary black suit, he stood in the White House doorway, arms outstretched, eagerly awaiting the cheese’s arrival. The gift was received with cordial expressions of gratitude and exuberant cheese-tasting. The cheese-makers heralded their creation as “the greatest cheese in America, for the greatest man in America.”
Source

Today's Chuckle

BBB Geeky Novelty

A new patent granted to Lockheed Martin seeks to combine multiple lasers into a single, higher-power beam, which would, in theory, help achieve the power output needed for laser weapons. The patent outlines a method to "combine multiple laser beams into a single coherent beam without requiring insertion of optical elements into the laser beam."

Northrop Grumman has also taken the beam combining approach to achieve higher powers on solid state lasers. Lockheed's method of beam combining could be used for any number of lasers, according to the patent.

Today in History - 1909

The first undisputed unassisted triple play in major-league baseball was made by Cleveland Indians shortstop Neal Ball in a game against Boston. Ball caught Amby McConnell's line drive near second base in the top of the second inning, touched second to double up Heinie Wagner, and tagged Jake Stahl as he came from first base.

So Now You Know

When Grace Cathedral in San Francisco was being completed in the mid 1960s, Einstein was chosen to represent Natural Science in a twelve-window nave clerestory series called Human Endeavor. Designed in 1963 by Gabriel Loire of Chartres, France, the window is made of inch-thick faceted glass, chipped on the inner edges to create a jewel-like effect, and set in cement, like a translucent mosaic. Nearly a thousand pieces of glass make up the eight-paneled window. Located in the sixth bay of the north nave clerestory, over sixty feet above the floor, the window was installed in 1964. The window was given by Major Clarence Gould in memory of his wife Lottie, and by a portion of the legacy of Russell S. Springer.

The window shows a caped Einstein gazing upward, surrounded by electron orbitals and nuclear particle paths. At the top, the tail burn of a rocket blasts past the cratered lunar surface, expressing Einstein’s impact on astronomy and cosmology, and the new space frontier of the 1960s. At upper center, in red, is a portion of the Lorentz transformation, the square root of v/c, reconciling the fixed speed of light with differing inertial frames. At bottom left is an idealized helium atom, reminding us of Einstein’s groundbreaking insights on nuclear physics, and his serious concerns about the misuse of atomic power.

News from all over - Oklahoma City

Four federal inmates were indicted Tuesday on allegations that they copyrighted their names, then demanded millions of dollars from prison officials for using the names without authorization.

The indictment alleges inmates Russell Dean Landers, Clayton Heath Albers, Carl Ervin Batts and Barry Dean Bischof sent demand notices to the warden of the El Reno federal prison, filed liens against his property and then hired an individual to seize his vehicles, freeze his bank accounts, and change the locks on his house.

Then, believing the warden's property had been seized, the inmates demanded to be released from prison before they would negotiate with the warden to give his property back, according to the indictment. But the person hired by the inmates turned out to be an undercover FBI agent.
Source

BBB Swell Site

Who says you can't bring the worlds of color and astrology together? Certainly not the folks behind Colorstrology where you can find the pantone color ideal for you. I even enjoyed the intro.

News from all over - Hanover

A German man who startled his neighbors when he hurled his computer out of the window in the middle of the night, was let off for disturbing the peace by police who sympathised with his technical frustrations.

Police in this northern German city said they would not press charges after responding to calls made by residents in an apartment block who were woken by a loud crash in the early hours of Saturday.

Asked what had driven him to the night-time outburst, the 51-year-old man said he had simply got annoyed with his computer. "Who hasn't felt like doing that?" said a police spokesman.
Source

Today in History - 1936

The first Wienermobile vehicle cruised the streets of Chicago. A giant replica of Oscar Mayer's popular sausage, it weighed about as much as 150,000 hot dogs.

From the "tongue in cheek" department ...

According to Uncyclopedia ... "At his request, [Oscar Ferdinand Mayer] was run through the meat grinder in lieu of cremation, then stuffed into the longest sausage skin ever commercially produced (417 feet). Traditional burial was impossible, so his remains were butted up against the decorative stone edging along the memorial gardens, then marked with a really long plaque."
Source

Today's Chuckle

BBB Etymology - Skeleton in the Closet/Cupboard

According to Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ...

A woman had an only son who obtained an appointment in India, but his health failed, and his mother longed for his return. One day he wrote a letter to his mother, with this strange request "Pray, mother, get someone who has no cares and troubles to make me six shirts." The widow hunted in vain for such a person, and at length called upon a lady who told her to go with her to her bedroom. Being there she opened a closet which contained a human skeleton. "Madam," said the lady, "I try to keep my trouble to myself, but every night my husband compels me to kiss that skeleton." She then explained that the skeleton was once her husband's rival, killed in a duel. "Think you I am happy?" The mother wrote to her son, and the son wrote home: "I knew when I gave the commission that everyone had his cares, and you, mother, must have yours. Know then that I am condemned to death, and can never return to England. Mother, mother! there is a skeleton in every house."

Today in History - 1954

The first Newport Jazz Festival was held on the grass tennis courts of the Newport Casino in Newport RI. Eddie Condon and his band played Muskrat Ramble as the opening number of the world's first jazz fest.

News from all over - London

A nef (new economics foundation) report last year rated Vanuatu as the happiest nation on Earth. The ratings are based on its Happy Planet Index (HPI). Countries score points for how happy citizens rate themselves to be and how long they live, and lose points for their per-capita carbon output.

"Countries like Iceland... demonstrate that living within our environmental means doesn't mean sacrificing human wellbeing," said Nic Marks, founder of nef's Centre for Wellbeing.
Source

So Now You Know

John Frum (or Jon Frum; John From) is a figure associated with cargo cults on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu.

He is depicted as an American World War II serviceman, who will bring wealth and prosperity to the people if they follow him.

It is not known whether the religion arose spontaneously or was deliberately created; nor is it clear whether an individual named "John Frum" existed in the first place; the name is sometimes considered a corruption of "John from (America)", which the natives heard from US GIs during World War II. Frum is an extremely rare name in the English-speaking world, appearing only four times in USA telephone directories and not at all in either the 1851 or 1901 censuses of the United Kingdom. There are no records of the John Frum religion before 1940.

The power of John Frum appeared to be confirmed by the post-war influx of tourists to the region, who brought with them a degree of material prosperity to the islands. The cult is still active today. The followers believe that John Frum will come back on a February 15 (the year of his return is not known), a date which is observed as "John Frum Day" in Vanuatu.

BBB Pulp Pick - Scout at Ship's Wheel

During my sojourn, I happened across the Norman Rockwell Museum of Vermont which contains hundreds examples of Rockwell's magazine cover and advertising art work. While not as well known as the museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, it's a fun place to stop and recognize how prolific Rockwell was - and pick up a print or two. [Rockwell lived in Vermont from 1939-1953 when his wife became ill and they moved to Stockbridge.]

Scout at Ship's Wheel was the first magazine cover Rockwell produced. Before the Boy Scouts magazine published this painting on its September 1913 cover, readers had become familiar with him through his article and story illustrations - he became art director of Boys' Life the same year at the tender age of 18. Boys' Life was a fairly new publication - the first issue was published in 1911.

Today in History - 1935

The first automatic parking meter was installed in Oklahoma City, OK.

Although it is sometimes disputed, Carl C. Magee is generally credited with originating the parking meter. He filed for a patent for a "coin controlled parking meter" May 13, 1935. The patent, #2,118,318, was issued May 24, 1938. Mr. Magee had been appointed to the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce traffic committee, and was assigned the task of solving the parking problems in downtown Oklahoma City. Apparently, folks who worked in the area were parking on downtown streets, staying all day, and leaving few spaces for shoppers and others who visited the central business district.

Magee's solution was to install parking meters, charge for the use of the parking spaces, and turn over those spaces that would otherwise have been filled by all day parkers. In addition, the parking meters would generate revenue for a growing city. It must have worked, as the idea of metered parking eventually caught on worldwide. From that early beginning, the use of parking meters by municipalities, colleges and universities, and private parking facilities has increased to the point that today, in the United States alone, there are an estimated five million parking meters in use.

News from all over - Gloucester

An 18-foot-tall South Jersey landmark at 1337 in the township's Hilltop section is being remodeled to look like a cross between Supergirl and Wonder Woman. She also will get a new name -- Nitro Girl.

Instead of her trademark green miniskirt and teal top, the Werbany Motors attraction will be decked out in flashy patriotic gear: A star-covered blue skirt, a white blouse with red sleeves, and even more stars in her hair, which will remain black.

Owner Ed Werbany Jr., whose father bought Miss Uniroyal for $300 in 1965, says that the change is just a sign of the times. "The kids were complaining that her clothes looked so blase, so we decided to change it up," he said.

The idea to remake the image into a patriotic superhero. "Because of the war effort, to support the war, we (decided to) fly our American flag," Werbany said.

The new name is also a tie-in to the "Nitrogen Advantage," which removes the oxygen from the compressed gas used for inflating the tires Werbany sells at his shop. It helps tires perform better and last longer, he said.

Doing the makeover are Linda M. Shelley of Hi-Nella and Karen Baxter of Stratford, two painters who can be seen daily high atop the statue. The pair even brought up cutouts of two bikini-clad women to join them while they paint -- to have a good laugh and get motorists honking at them. The cutouts are modeled after Shelley and Baxter.

"We did the cutouts ourselves," Shelley said. "It looks just like us, (but) very enhanced."
Source

So Now You Know

You might note that the iconic signature is missing from that first Rockwell cover. To this date, Boy's Life covers were not signed by the artist. Rockwell signed his first cover illustration the next month with October 1913's edition.

His previous work for Boy's Life, article illustrations, had always been signed. He used the early "Norman P Rockwell" signature in those illustrations. He later dropped the "P" since he didn't like his middle name, Percevel.