Inklings

Category: history

  • Happy Trails, Kid

    America’s snack aficionados said adios to the beloved Twinkie over the weekend. Hostess Foods’ recent bankruptcy has the former snack cake sensation hitting the trail along with Captain Cupcake, Fruit Pie the Magician and Happy Ho Ho. Apparently the country’s growing health consciousness led to the bakery’s lagging sales. I’m not exactly lamenting the loss of a food stuff known to have a shelf life longer than grandma’s canned beets but I’ve heard hundreds have begun hoarding the remaining supply hoping to turn a profit selling the snacks to the highest bidder on eBay. I wonder what the margin is on expired Twinkies.

  • Never Forget

    memorialday

    With all the festivities surrounding the official launch of summer it’s often easy to overlook the reason for the holiday. Memorial Day (originally observed as Decoration Day) was intended to be a day to honor the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War. Logically this day has grown to encompass the remembrance of not only all U.S. service men and women but any loved ones that are no longer with us. Let us never forget them.

  • Watch Your P’s and Q’s

    I always thought the adage “watch your P’s and Q’s” had everything to do with letters. In the early days of printing the fact that the lowercase ‘q’ and ‘p’ were mirror images of each other would create mass confusion with early foundry type setters – or so I assumed. Turns out, supposedly, that the admonition was a phrase that originated in the world of beer. Rumor has it that brew pubs had to remind gluttonous patrons to keep track of their mead consumption. To assist in the task a chalkboard marking a customer’s ‘pints’ and ‘quarts’ drank was utilized. Interesting. I wonder which is the actual truth.

  • The Beloved Mr. Peanut

    If you’re a fan of Mr. Peanut, or peanuts in general, I apologize for this graphic posting. Don’t worry, the 94 year-old Mr. Peanut is still alive and well. Here’s a little history about the infamous American mascot: Planters Peanut Company (now a division of Kraft Foods) held a contest in 1916 to develop a company logo. The original Peanut Man, created by a 14-year-old schoolboy, was later “refined” when an artist added the top hat, spats, cane and monocle. The copyrighted image of Mr. Peanut has been illegally applied to a number of faked and fantasy collectibles by those attempting to cash in on the peanut company’s fame and fortune. Mr. Peanut is apparently worth more than peanuts.

  • Early Texting

    I’m amazed how we’ve become victims of our own progress. Our efforts to communicate in the most efficient ways have allowed us to become lazy and functionally illiterate. I fear that the generation that has learned to communicate via texting may suffer the worst. Sure, they can peck out the plot line to War & Peace in just seconds using thumbtack-sized keys, but their purposely condensed messaging comes at a significant cost. The 120 character minimum forces them to nix vowels, consonants and any other extraneous characters to get the word out fast. The problem is many of their abbreviated habits and typos rear their ugly heads when they try to express themselves in emails and… <gulp>… professional documents. AFAIK Joe Exec duznt wnt 2 hire u if u rite like ths in ur cvr ltr. ttyl