COOKING IN THE DARK WITH COCHRAN & CHRISTIE

I think I smell something fishy, and it's not just that Fiamma is being nice to Trotter, again. I smell trout, rainbow trout. The rainbow trout is native only to the rivers and lakes of North America, west of the Rocky Mountains. Their coloring and patterns vary widely depending on habitat, age, and spawning condition. They are members of the salmon family and average about 20-30 inches long and around 8 pounds, but can grow up to 4 feet long and weigh up to 53 pounds! They prefer cool, clear rivers, streams, or lakes, but some adults will follow a river and migrate out to sea for several years. These are called steelhead because of their silver markings, but they must return to the stream where they were born to spawn.

Rainbow Fish is an award-winning book written and drawn by Marcus Pfister. It's about a fish that is more beautiful than all the other fish because it has shimmering scales. Rainbow Fish does not want to share his beautiful scales, but learns that sharing and having friends was more important than being the most beautiful fish in the sea. The stories focus on friendship, sharing, inner and outer beauty, and happiness.

There are five other Rainbow Fish stories:
Rainbow Fish to the Rescue: About the acceptance and integration of foreigners.
Rainbow Fish and the Big Blue Whale: About arguments and how to settle them.
Rainbow Fish and the Sea Monster's Cave: About irrational and rational fears.
Rainbow Fish Finds his Way: With the help of his new friends, Rainbow Fish finds his way back home.
Rainbow Fish Discovers the Deep Sea: About modesty and happiness.

To pay respect to one of our Native Americans, we would like to introduce Red Cloud (Makhpiya-Luta), 1822-1909, head Chief of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux). He was also known as John "Red Cloud" and his mother was Walks As She Thinks, and his father was Chief Lone Man. When his parents died in 1825, he was raised by his mother's uncle, Chief Old Smoke. A warrior and statesman, Red Cloud was one of the most important Lakota leaders of the 19th century because of his success in confrontations with the American government.

Red Cloud was born near the forks of the Platte River, near what is now North Platte, Nebraska, and much of his early life was spent at war. He gained enormous prominence within the Lakota nation for his leadership in territorial wars against the Pawnees, Crows, Utes and Shoshones. Beginning in 1866, Red Cloud orchestrated the most successful war against the United States ever fought by an Indian nation.

Red Cloud's strategies were so successful that by 1868, the U.S. government had agreed to the Fort Laramie Treaty, mandating that the U.S. abandon its forts along the Bozeman Trail and guarantee the Lakota their possession of what is now the Western half of South Dakota, including the Black Hills, along with much of Montana and Wyoming.

The peace, of course, did not last. Custer's 1874 Black Hills expedition again brought war to the northern Plains, a war that would mean the end of independent Indian nations. For reasons which are not entirely clear, Red Cloud did not join Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and and other war leaders in the Lakota War of 1876-77. However, after the military defeat of the Lakota nation, Red Cloud continued to fight for the needs and autonomy of his people, even if in less obvious or dramatic ways than waging war.

Standing: Red Bear, Young Man Afraid of his Horse, Good Voice, Ring Thunder, Iron Crow, White Tail, Young Spotted Tail.
Seated: Yellow Bear, Jack Red Cloud, Big Road, Little Wound, Black Crow, ca. 1860-1880.

Fearing the Army's presence on his reservation, Red Cloud refrained from endorsing the Ghost Dance movement, and unlike Sitting Bull and Big Foot, he escaped the Army's occupation unscathed. Thereafter he continued to fight to preserve the authority of chiefs such as himself, opposed leasing Lakota lands to whites, and vainly fought allotment of Indian reservations into individual tracts under the 1887 Dawes Act.

Chief Red Cloud's wife was Pretty Owl Woman, and they had three children. Cochran and I would like to show our respect by having Indian names as well. Maybe our readers can give us some ideas. We have decided to feature a Native American on our post each week to tell you their very important history and their fight to resist the conquest of their people.

If you want to live in a "white cloud," you might want to try White Cloud, California; White Cloud, Indiana; White Cloud, Iowa; White Cloud, Kansas; White Cloud, Michigan; White Cloud Missouri; and White Cloud City, Nevada.

Cochran and I loved eating the orange sherbet push pops as kids! Now that we're older, we like to eat sherbet in the more sophisticated flavors - so refreshing! 

RAINBOW SHERBET CAKE

1 9-inch angel food cake

1 pint orange sherbet, softened

1 pint raspberry sherbet, softened

1 pint lime sherbet, softened
(I used Dreyer's Tropical Rainbow Sherbet for all three layers)

1 8-ounce container Cool Whip

Slice angel food cake crosswise to make four layers. Place the bottom layer on a serving plate and spread orange sherbet evenly on top. Repeat with remaining cake layers and sherbets. Finish with final layer of cake. Frost sides and top with Cool Whip and place in freezer for one hour, or until firm.

ENJOY!

Lisa Widén's idea to create the Cloud chair was born sitting on an airplane looking down at the clouds below. The Cloud chair is easily adjustable, meaning that the seat can become the back support and vice versa. This enables everyone, regardless of height or size, to find their own favorite position.



Lay back in your cloud chair and listen to the Colors of the Wind from Pocahontas!

FIAMMA'S FUN FACTS FRIDAY with Special Guest Hairy Trotter, Again

Fiamma to the rescue again! H.A.T. (Hot Air Trotter) - just kidding - Hairy A. Trotter wasn't able to do his post on Wednesday because of electronic malfunctions. We've been real close to "da feet" this week (thanks, Tom), but we are flying high today! Hairy wanted to tell you about hot air balloons, and I will be telling you about zeppelins.

The hot air balloon is the oldest successful human-carrying flight technology! The first tethered manned balloon flight was made by Etienne Montgolfier on October 15, 1783. On Nov 21, 1783, the first untethered manned flight was made by Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier and Francois Laurent d'Arlandes in a hot air balloon created on Dec 14, 1782 by the Montgolfier brothers. The first military use of a hot air balloon happened during the Battle of Fleurus (1794) where the French used the balloon l'Entreprenant as an observation post.

Today, hot air balloons are used primarily for recreation. On November 26, 2005, the world altitude record for the highest hot air balloon flight was 68,986 feet set by Vijaypat Singhania in India. The previous record of 64,997 feet had been set by Per Lindstrand on June 6, 1988 in Plano, Texas! In 1999, distance, endurance, and time records were set by Swiss psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard, Auguste Piccard's grandson, and Briton Brian Jones, traveling for 19 days, 21 hours, and 55 minutes. This was the first nonstop trip around the world by balloon (taking off from Switzerland and landing in the Egyptian desert 300 miles south of Cairo). Steve Fosset broke the record for shortest time around the world on July 3, 2002.

Unmanned hot air balloons are popular in Chinese history. Zhuge Liang of the Shu Han kingdom (220–80 AD) used airborne lanterns for military signaling. These lanterns are known as Kongming lanterns.

 

The 2011 Lions Balloon Festival is held every third weekend in August and is charity event run by the Highland Village Lions Club with help from the Lewisville Lions Club and The City of Highland Village, Texas. The balloon action runs from 6 am to 6 pm (Friday 5:00 pm to 10:30 pm. You can enjoy pancakes in the morning while watching the hot air balloons do their thing! Activities last all day. There will be live music, carnival rides, arts & craft exhibits, car bash, food, and beverages. Raffle drawing for prizes include a hot air balloon ride! Admission is free but parking is a $5 donation. All proceeds go to Lions Club Charities. There will also be collection boxes for eyeglasses, sunglasses, lenses, frames (adult/children), eyeglass cases, and old cell phones for soldiers.

The zeppelin is an airship that was pioneered by Ferdinand von Zeppelin, a German Count. His plans were patented in the U.S. in 1899. The first zeppelin flight was July 2, 1900. The first zeppelin used for commercial transport was the LZ6 in 1906. By 1914, state-of-the-art zeppelins were able to carry loads of around 20,000 pounds. They were typically powered by three Maybach engines of around 400 to 550 horsepower each, reaching speeds of up to 50 mph. They became popular in the 1920s and reached their heyday in the 1930s with transatlantic flights from Germany to North America and Brazil. The end of the era came after the Hindenburg disaster, along with economic and political issues.

USS Los Angeles over southern Manhattan

On March 4, 1936, the Hindenburg made her first flight. It was the largest airship ever built. Because of a military embargo, the airship was filled with flammable hydrogen instead of helium. On May 6, 1937, while landing after a transatlantic flight, the tail of the ship caught fire, and within seconds, the Hindenburg burst into flames and was engulfed in flames in 34 seconds.

 

Let's watch Mr. Bean in his hot air balloon ride:

WHAT'S MAJOR TOM THINKING ABOUT TODAY?

Since this is a G-rated blog, let me just say that I'm thinking it's time to buy a new computer! Actually, while I was hanging my head about this situation,I started thinking about my pretty white feet. I'm flexing my right paw because mom was right in front of me taking my picture with her phone camera (her Nikon camera is having issues, too!) My little cat feet leads me to ponder a poem by Carl Sandburg entitled Fog. In this poem, fog represents grief. 

FOG

The fog comes

on little cat feet.

It sits looking

over harbor and city

on silent haunches

and then moves on.

Most of us are familiar with ground fog. This fog forms when a layer of warm, moist air forms low to the ground, then a layer of cooler, dry air forms overtop. As the ground cools, the warm, moist air is cooled quickly. As the air temperature lowers, small droplets of water condense, which we see as fog. This fog forms most often on cool, clear nights with a very slight breeze.

The foggiest place in the world is the Grand Banks off the island of Newfoundland, Canada, with over 200 foggy days each year! Fog is frequent here, as this is the meeting place where the Grand Banks meets the cold Labrador Current from the north and the much warmer Gulf Stream from the south. The cold Labrador Current runs over the Grand Banks, and when warm air passes over this water, a dense fog forms.

The fog, shallow waters, and drifting icebergs make navigation difficult in this region. About 150 km south of the Grand Banks lies the shipwreck of the Titanic, the largest steamship in the world, which sank four days into its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, in 1912. Besides Argentia and Labrador in Newfoundland, Point Reyes, California, has about 200 foggy days a year.

Make Your own Fog in a Bottle!

It's easy to simulate the formation of radiation (ground) fog. All you need are two bottles with a narrow enough neck that you can stick an ice cube into the mouth. Fill one bottle about half way with very hot water (it doesn't need to be boiling.) Fill the other bottle with about 1 inch of cold water. After several minutes, pour out all the hot water but one inch. Now place an ice cube in the mouth of each bottle. Observe what happens in both bottles.

Do you have the "foggiest" idea who Carl Sanburg is? Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) was born in Galesburg, Illionis, and was best known for his poetry. He won two Pulitzer prizes for poetry and one for a biography of Abraham Lincoln. From childhood, Sandburg loved and admired the legacy of President Lincoln.

 

He spent most of his life in the Midwest and was a reporter for several years for the Chicago Daily News. Sandburg was virtually unknown in the literary world until a group of his poems appeared in the nationally circulated Poetry magazine in 1914.

Sandburg wrote three children's books, Rootabaga Stories, in 1922, followed by Rootabaga Pigeons (1923), and Potato Face (1930). These were "American fairy tales" to match American childhood. The stores were created for his daughters and were filled with skyscrapers, trains, corn fairies, and the "Five Marvelous Pretzels."

In 1945, the Sandburgs moved with their herd of prize-winning goats to a 245-acre farm in Flat Rock, North Carolina, and he began writing his memoirs. In 1953, he published Always the Young Strangers, the autobiography of the first 20 years of his life. He published his last book of poetry, Honey and Salt, in 1963. The next year he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. To the end of his life, accolades continued to pour in, and he took special pride in the more than half a dozen public schools named in his honor.

In the lobby of Carl Sandburg Middle School, there is a finished split tree trunk with the quote engraved lengthwise horizontally:

"MAN IS BORN WITH RAINBOWS IN HIS HEART AND YOU'LL
NEVER READ HIM UNLESS YOU CONSIDER RAINBOWS"

I'm sure you know what I'm thinking now - let's watch Foghorn Leghorn in Pullet Surprise (1997).

HAMMIN' IT UP WITH BLOG HOG HAMILTON

We’ve seen a pig in the sky, so I wanted to show you a pig in the clouds (since it wasn’t included on Tabby’s post!) I know it has too many legs and it's actually formed by smoke clouds, but don't even be thinking about smoked pork products!

I found a stainless steel cloud on the ground in the windy city of Chicago! It's actually a sculpture called Cloud Gate, built between 2004-2006 in Millennium Park. It has a mirror-like surface that reflects the Chicago skyline, but its elliptical shape distorts and twists reflected images. This is Chicago’s second largest tourist attraction; the number one tourist attraction in Chicago is the Navy Pier.

Originally caled Municipal Pier #2, Navy Pier is a 3,300-foot long pier on the Chicago shoreline of Lake Michigan. The pier and its grounds encompass more than 50 acres of parks, gardens, shops, restaurants, and other entertainment. The pier was built in 1916 at a cost of $4.5 million, equivalent to $90.5 million today, and was the largest pier in the world when it opened to the public. In 1917-18, during World War I, the pier housed many soldiers, the Red Cross, and Home Defense units. It was officially named Navy Pier in 1927 in honor of the Navy personnel that served there during the war.

During World War II, the city leased the pier to the U.S. Navy as a training center. During this period, some 60,000 sailors and 15,000 pilots, including President George H. W. Bush, trained at the pier.

Time for my "fair weather" jokes:

Q: What happens when fog lifts in California?

A: UCLA!

Q: What’s the difference between a horse and the weather?

A: One is reined up and the other rains down!

Q: Why did the woman go outdoors with her purse open?
A: She expected some change in the weather!

Q: What happens when it rains cats and dogs?

A: You have to be careful not to step in a poodle!

Q: How do you find out the weather when you’re on vacation?

A: You go outside and look up!

I'm a little foggy on what we should watch today, but I've picked Kipper the Dog and the Rainbow Puddle. I'm thankful I was able to finish this post at work today!  Enjoy the weather wherever you are - like everything else, it will probably change tomorrow! Wouldn't you know it; I couldn't upload my video, so here's the link: http://youtu.be/IWALQbsQFpM

Trotter will not be able to post today because of computer problems, as well. Hopefully, we can get it fixed or replaced soon and will be able to continue. I can't even imagine what Tom's thinking right now!

DEAR TABBY

DEAR TABBY: I’m just sitting here on a cloudy day and wondering what you would say is the coolest thing about clouds. Also, do you have any cool “cloud pictures” you could show us today? RAY, ST. CLOUD, MINNESOTA

DEAR RAY:  I think crepuscular rays are a very cool aspect of clouds. They are commonly seen during crepuscular hours (sunrise and sunset), when the contrasts between light and dark are the most obvious. They are beams of light that seem to shine down from the sky and are formed when sunlight is scattered by particles in the air so that we see the “rays” of the sun. Crepuscular rays are usually red or yellow in appearance because the path through the atmosphere at sunrise and sunset pass through up to 40 times as much air as rays from a high midday sun.

The rays that form when the sun is high in sky often looks like they are pointing downward, especially when they break through a hole in the cloud layer. They're also called “Jacob’s Ladder, “Gateways to Heaven,” or "Stairways to Heaven.”

When the sun is low on the horizon, the rays look like they are pointing upwards.  These are also called anti-crepuscular rays or anti-solar rays.

This is a little "above" Tabby's level, but I also think the hypothesized Oort cloud is pretty amazing, too. Although no confirmed direct observations of the Oort cloud have been made, astronomers believe that it is the source of comets entering the inner solar system. It is literally thought to be a “cloud of comets” that is a light-year from the sun! This places the cloud at nearly a quarter of the distance to Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the sun. Astronomers believe that the matter composing the Oort cloud formed closer to the sun and was scattered far out into space by the gravitational effects of the giant planets early in the solar system’s evolution.

This is even more "above" Tabby's level, but very fascinating!

• 1943: Astronomer Kenneth Edgeworth suggests that a reservoir of comets and larger bodies resides beyond the planets.
• 1950: Astronomer Jan Oort theorizes that a vast population of comets may exist in a huge cloud on the distant edges of our solar system.
• 1951: Astronomer Gerard Kuiper predicts the existence of a belt of icy objects just beyond the orbit of Neptune.
• 1992: After five years of searching, astronomers David Jewitt and Jane Luu discover the first KBO, 1992QB1.
• 2002: Scientists using the 48-inch Oschin telescope at Palomar Observatory find Quaoar, the first large KBO hundreds of kilometers in diameter. This object was photographed in 1980, but was not noticed in those images.
• 2004: Astronomers using the 48-inch Oschin telescope announce the discovery of Sedna (2003VB12).
• 2005: Astronomers announce the discovery of 2003UB313. This object, later named Eris, is slightly larger than Pluto.
• 2008: The Kuiper Belt object provisionally known as 2005FY9 ("Easterbunny") is recognized in July as a dwarf planet and named Makemake (pronounced MAHkeh-MAHkeh) after the Polynesian (Rapa Nui) creation god. In September, 2003EL61 ("Santa") was designated a dwarf planet and given the name Haumea after the Hawaiian goddess of fertility and childbirth.

“Whether” you agree with me or “weather” you don’t, I love seeing crepuscular rays – I think I like even saying the name!

Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin (written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant) is often rated as one of the greatest rock songs of all time. Dolly Parton did an acoustic version of the song in 2002; Tabby is a big fan of the three P's: Page, Plant, and Parton!

Stairway to Heaven (originally released as A Matter of Life and Death) was a movie released in 1946 about a World War II pilot who is forced to bail out of his plane without a parachute. He wakes up to find he has landed on Earth utterly unharmed, which wasn't supposed to happen, according to the rules of Heaven. A celestial court argues over whether or not to claim Carter's life or to let him survive.



No dark cloudy days here. Check out these fluffy cloud pictures:

Bunny cloud



Car cloud



Face in the clouds

Horse cloud

I'm puffed up and ready to listen to The Rainbow Connection by Kermit the Frog. It was written in 1979 for The Muppet Movie. The song's name has been used by a number of charitable organizations. It was sung by Debbie Harry of the group Blondie's in a duet with Kermit on The Muppet Show in 1981. 

Weezer is currently recording the song for their tribute album to the music of the Muppets titled “The Muppets: The Green Album,” to be released August 23. In 2002, the Muppets teamed up with Weezer in their Keep Fishin' music video.

There's a great mysterious world out there for lover, dreamers, and me - let's go see it!

Let's float on over and listen to Somewhere Over the Rainbow sung by Judy Garland from The Wizard of Oz:

GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE CLOUDS by Blog Dog Dan

Well, he can't really help it - he's so tall! When someone says this to you, they're telling you to "be practical, come back down to Earth." The highest clouds are located in the Earth's mesophere at altitudes of 47-53 miles (250,000-280,000 feet). These are called noctilucent clouds or "night-shining clouds" because they can only be seen at deep twilight. They are made of crystals of water ice and occur from mid-May to mid-August in the northern hemisphere and between mid-November and mid-February in the southern hemisphere. They are normally too faint to be seen, colorless or pale blue, and can only be observed in twilight around sunrise and sunset when the clouds of the lower atmosphere are in shadow but the noctilucent cloud is illuminated by the sun. They are considered a "beautiful natural phenomenon."

Photographed by the crew of the International Space Station

Luke Howard (1772-1864) developed the International Cloud Atlas which classified 10 types of clouds. Number 9 was the white fluffy cumulonimbus (cumulus + nimbus). This is where we get the expression "on cloud nine," which means floating free on a downy white cushion, presumably without a care in the world.

These are the four main types of clouds:

Cumulus - These look like clouds that are piled on top of each other. They are fluffy and can be white or gray. When they’re white and puffy, that usually means it’s not going to rain right away. If they grow into big gray clouds, you can usually expect rain.

Stratus: These look like a huge gray blanket that hangs low in the sky. If it’s warm, then you will get rain; if it’s cold, you will get snow. When stratus clouds are near the ground or on the ground, this is called fog. 

Cirrus: These are very high in the sky and look very thin and wispy. These are made of ice crystals, not water drops, because they are formed where it is high enough to be cold and freeze the water drops into ice. If the sky is blue with only cirrus clouds present, it’s going to be a nice day!

Nimbus: These clouds mean that a thunderstorm is brewing and there may be thunder and lightning soon. When you see a nimbus cloud, rain or snow will likely be falling out of it.

A rainbow occurs when the sun shines onto drops of water (rain, mist, and dew) in the atmosphere that takes the form of an arc. Rainbows caused by sunlight always appear in the section of the sky directly opposite the sun. It is impossible to see any rainbow from water droplets at any angle other than the customary one (which is 42 degrees from the direction opposite the sun). Every rainbow contains these colors in order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

Rainbow Brite was a character  introduced by Hallmark Cards in 1983, with the animated television series starting in 1984. Here's the Rainbow Brite premise: A little orphan girl named Wisp is taken by an unknown force to the Colorless World. She must find the Sphere of Light, but upon doing so, she befriends a sprite, Twink, and a majestic white horse known as Starlite. She rescues the seven Color Kids (one for each color of the rainbow) and finds the Color Belt, which is the tool she needs to bring color to the land. After using it to defeat the King of Shadows (also known as the Evil Force and the Dark One), an evil hooded being with twitchy fingers, the unknown force renames Wisp as Rainbow Brite. She and the Color Kids (and their helpers, the Sprites) live in Rainbow Land and are in charge of all the colors on Earth.

The seven Color Kids are:

• Red Butler (Romeo) - an adventurer.
• Lala Orange (OJ) -  girly girl.
• Canary Yellow (Spark) - a dancer.
• Patty O'Green (Lucky) - a jokester.
• Buddy Blue (Champ) - an athlete.
• Indigo (Hammy) - an actress.
• Shy Violet (IQ) - a smart girl.

I'm on Cloud 9 and would love to see Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer (Part 1):

COOKING IN THE DARK WITH COCHRAN & CHRISTIE

We know some “colonels” in the military - Army worms. Army worms can destroy an entire crop of corn in a matter of days and then the entire "army" will move to another area for food. They migrate at night when it's cool or when it's cloudy, so the vast damage is often seen after they've moved on. Of course, the Army caterpillar matures into an Army moth - I guess being "all that they can be."

I think we need the Salvation Army, which was founded in 1865 by William Booth, a London minister who left the pulpit and went to the streets to spread his message to the poor and the homeless. During World War II, The Salvation Army operated 3,000 service units for the armed forces, which led to the formation of the USO. Today, The Salvation Army operates in over 106 nations around the world. I love this slogan!

Some of our most favorite foods were first sold and sampled at state fairs!  Elmer Hires served the first root beer in 1866 and shared his invention at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. Cotton candy (called fairy floss) and Dr. Pepper were served for the first time at the St. Louis World Fair in 1885. Also in 1885, Charlie Nagreen, also known as "Hamburger Charlie," was making meatballs (ground beef patties were called meatballs) at the Seymour Fair in Wisconsin and decided that he would flatten a meatball and put it in between two slices of bread so that it would be easy to carry. The hamburger was born!

The World's Fair: Columbian Exposition, also called The Chicago World's Fair, was held in Chicago and ran from May to October 30, 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher's Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Forty-six nations participated in the fair (it was the first world's fair to have national pavilions). The exposition covered more than 600 acres, featuring nearly 200 new (but purposely temporary) buildings, canals and lagoons, and people and cultures from around the world.

Most of it was unfinished on opening day. To hasten the painting process during construction of the fair in 1892, Franci Davis Millet invents spray painting! The famous Ferris wheel (the original Ferris wheel built by George Ferris) was a major attendance draw and helped save the fair from bankruptcy. Buffalo Bill set up his highly popular show next door to the fair and brought in a great deal of revenue that he did not have to share with the developers. Nonetheless, construction and operation of the fair proved to be a windfall for Chicago workers during the serious economic recession that was sweeping the country.

The Exposition drew nearly 26 million visitors. It was the inspiration for the Emerald City of the Land of Oz and Walt Disney theme parks. Walt Disney's father, Elias, was a construction worker on some of the buildings at the fair. Early in July, a Wellesley College English teacher named Katherine Lee Bates visited the fair. The White City inspired the reference to "alabaster cities" in her poem America the Beautiful! White City was an area at the fair where the buildings were made of white stucco and that used a lot of street lights which made the boulevards and buildings usable at night.

Frederick William Rueckheim and his brother Louis sold Cracker Jack at the Chicago World Fair. At the time, it was a mixture of popcorn, molasses, and peanuts and was called "Candied Popcorn and Peanuts." It was sold in large tubs until 1899, when Henry Gottlieb Eckstein developed the "waxed sealed package,"  known then as the "Eckstein Triple Proof Package." 

"Take Me Out to the Ball Game" was written in 1908 by Jack Norworth with the line "buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack!" In 1958, on the 50th anniversary of this song, the Major League Baseball, Inc. presented Jack Norworth with a gold lifetime ball park pass. Beginning in 1912, prizes were included in every box of Cracker Jack. In recent years, the toy and trinket prizes have been replaced with paper prizes displaying riddles and jokes.

Fred Rueckheim's grandson, Robert, was put on the box in his sailor suit with his pet dog Bingo. They called him "Jack the Sailor." Sadly, Robert died of pneumonia at the age of eight. The sailor boy image acquired such meaning for Fred Rueckheim that he had it carved on his tombstone, which can still be seen in St. Henry's Cemetery in Chicago. Bingo was based on a real-life dog named Russell, a stray dog adopted by Henry Eckstein in 1917, who demanded that the dog be used on the packaging. Russell died of old age in 1930.

In 2004, the New York Yankees baseball team replaced Cracker Jack with the similar Crunch 'n Munch at home games. After a public outcry, the club immediately switched back to Cracker Jack! 

Poppycock was invented by Harold Vair in the 1950s as a snack for road trips. It is clusters of popcorn, almonds, and pecans covered in a candy glaze. Fiddle Faddle was introduced in 1967 and is popcorn covered with either caramel or butter toffee and mixed with peanuts. This is similar to Crunch ‘n Munch, which has fewer peanuts than Fiddle Faddle, but Fiddle Faddle has smaller popcorn pieces.

Poppycock is also an expression that means rubbish or nonsense. Fiddle and Faddle were also Secret Service code names for two White House secretaries employed by John F. Kennedy (hmmmm).

THE WORLD'S BEST CARAMEL CORN

3 bags buttered, salted microwave popcorn

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup dark brown sugar (packed)

1 cup light corn syrup

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup butter

Lay a 30 x 30 sheet of foil on your counter. Spray the foil lightly with cooking spray.

Pop the popcorn and place in a very large bowl. Transfer by handfuls to another very large bowl, letting the "grannies" drop to the bottom.

Place the other ingredients in a large, heavy pan. Cook over medium-medium high heat, stirring occasionally, until the caramel almost reaches the Firm Ball stage (240-245 degrees on a candy thermometer). Pour over popcorn and combine with a LONG wooden spoon (so you don't burn your hands).

Pour this mixture onto the foil and let cool.  SWEET!

ENJOY!



You had to know that Tom and Jerry were going to "pop" up soon! "Popcorn" was originally composed by Gershon Kingsley in 1969 on his album Music to Moog By! The most well-known version was by Hot Butter in 1972.