Spatter

Wordless Wednesday - White Egret

"White Egret"

More Wordless Wednesdays

Honored

Today I was honored...truly honored...by Sandy.  If you look at the sidebar, you'll see it added: "The Girl Who Was Beautiful Inside".  I've not seen this award before and I've got to say, it took me aback to think that someone thinks this of me...it's such a profound sentiment.  If I do nothing else in this world, I will have done enough if I have done this. Thank you Sandy and right back at ya! 

I'd like to pass this award on to a few of the other people who have had the same impact on me:

Kerri at A Little Piece Of Me
Becca at Becca's Byline
Susan at Patchwork Reflections
Beth at Blue Ridge Blue Collar Girl
Leanne at Leanne Wildermuth: Artist by Nature
Shannon at Going Crunchy
Bonnie at Bonnie's Books
Colleen at Loose Leaf Notes

Off-line there are many more. Not wanting to use their names without permission, I hope they know who they are.

 

Project Green: Final Take

"Seedless"

Project Green is ending today. It's been fun doing it and I look forward to joining in on the next one. 

The End Times

Today I'm meeting a friend for lunch.  It's probably the last time I'll see her this season. It marks the beginning of the end of my time in Florida...the time of saying good-byes.  It's incredible to think how fast the past five months have gone. Just this last one month left, and then I'll be heading back to Floyd. 

I've begun the mental process of transition.

Quotable Quotes

Nothing stays the same...not the land, not the living, and not even the dead. It's always now. 

E.L. Doctorow

Returned To Sender

Earlier this month I wrote a letter to someone who appeared to have some common history with me.  It's now come back as undeliverable and I guess I'll never know if there's any connection between us.

I'm a bit disappointed not to have my curiosity satisfied...but then, I suppose not knowing the truth of the matter doesn't really matter.

Money Money Money

I never liked that the presidential races started so early this cycle. Not only does campaigning keep  politicians on the road instead of in their office tending to business, but campaigning takes money...lots of it...that could be spent on better things. 

In the aftermath of Clinton's victory in Pennsylvania, the pundits were noting that the future longevity of her campaign depends on her ability to keep money coming in. They went on to say that campaign costs for the candidates run about 1 million dollars a DAY!  My jaw dropped. 

It's no wonder that our system has been corrupted...perhaps to an irreversible point. I'm pained to watch it happening.

Project Green: Take 5

"Wild Coffee Berries"

More Project Green entries here.

Weekend Wordsmith: Grudge

To have a grudge is to resent...hold against...envy...loathe. To this I say: 

Let it out
get it out forever -
it has no place in your sacred soul.




More Weekend Wordsmith writings can be found here.

Friday Fact -Life Savers

Does anyone buy Life Savers any more?  I can hardly find the rolls in the stores, although it's said that they can be found in over a million places.  Is this yet another slice of life that has faded away? 

Life Savers candy was first created in 1912 by Clarence Arthur Crane, an Ohio candy maker and father of the famed poet Hart Crane. Crane was looking for a new "summer candy" to supplement his chocolate business, which slumped in hot weather.  Remember iced tea's Friday Fact?  That too was born from the needs of summer.

Crane envisioned a round, flat peppermint in preference to the pillow-shaped ones then being imported from Europe. Since he didn't have his own machinery, he hired a pharmaceutical pill maker to press his new mints into a circle. As luck would have it, the pill manufacturer's machinery malfunctioned and the pressing process only worked when the mints were stamped with a hole in the middle. It was their shape that inspired their name - they looked like the miniature throwable life preservers that were just beginning to come into use after the Titanic disaster. 

So Life Savers they became. "Crane's Peppermint Life Savers, to be exact. What we now view primarily as sweet things was first marketed as a breath improver: the original product packaging pictured an old seaman throwing a life preserver to a young female swimmer with the slogan "For That Stormy Breath." In fact, Life Savers' early market breakthrough came when saloon owners were sold on offering them in place of the free cloves they usually provided for their patrons to chew.

In 1913, Crane sold the formula for his Life Savers candy to Edward Noble for only $2,900.  Noble started his own candy company and began producing and selling the mints.  They were now known as Pep-O-Mint Life Savers.  Other flavors followed.

In 1921 fruit drops made their debut, but they were solid until  1925 when technology improved to allow a hole in the center of the fruit candies too. They were introduced as the "fruit drop with the hole" and came in four flavors: grape, orange, lemon and lime, each of which were packaged in their own separate rolls.

1935 brought us the classic "Five-Flavor" roll, offering a selection of five different flavors in each roll. 

Time brought different owners - Beech-Nut, Nabisco, Hershey, and Beta Brands all took their turns - and more flavors. As of now, there are twelve different roll varieties and twenty-five flavors all brought to you by Wrigley's.

And that's a Friday Fact!