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[bk]

Well, you've read the notes, you are now hungry for a Tootsie Roll, and now it is time for you to post until the cows come home - they're trying to figure out why Goober's are called Goober's and I'm not telling them.

[bk]

And the word of the day is: INNOXIOUS!

[bk]

I must say this WUSSBURGERING (our last post last night was at nine o'clock) is reaching annoying and epidemic proportions.  

[George]

Yesterday BK, you wrote:

One should always have new toilets - haven't you seen The Conversation?

No, I haven't seen "The Conversation."  I assume that there is a scene with toilets?  Do I really want to watch this?? Actually, I've already added it to my Netflix queue, so I will be getting it as soon as I turn in one of the movies that I have now...that I still have yet to watch.

[George]

Last evening, my sister and I went to Lowe's and bought two, count 'em, TWO new toilets (and one toilet seat and lid...one toilet set included them and the other didn't) for my condo!  I'd post pictures of them, but the pictures from Lowe's website are too big.

Anyway, I'll bring them to the condo today at noon and the people who are fixing the floors (and who are being paid by the seller ) will install them.  After that, I'm going to the Puyallup Fair!  It'll be a fun day!  

[George]

Happy Actual 60th Birthday to DR Elmore!!

[move=left,scroll,6,transparent,100%] [/move]

[jhvw]

I second that happy actual birthday to DR Elmore. Have a wonderful day and enjoy being alive. That's my new goal anyway, getting all the good stuff out of life I can.

[Michael]

A happy Babes In Toyland birthday to Larry.

[jhvw]

What a long night (that's turning into morning) I have bad insomnia lately, it's annoying. I ran out of stuff to watch so my neighbor lent me 4 seasons of Ab Fab. I watched 2 seasons and had to quit. I miss my DVR so much. I signed up for netflix though and I should be getting The Broken Hearts Club in the mail soon. I've seen it before but I thought I'd give it another watch, it's cute. I think I'm really going to like netflix, they have a great gay and lesbian selection of movies, and you can't find ones like that anywhere around here. Ugh....what to do with my time.

[jhvw]

I just found Bent on netflix, that's moving to the top of my cue list. Thanks to DR Elmore I have a huge list of gay movies, alot I'd never heard of, to track down and see. It's kinda fun. I'm still looking for this Greg Araki movie called "totally F***ed up" It's about gay teens in LA. I can't find it anywhere. Well, I found it at a used store in Los Angeles but they wanted $40 for a used VHS, I'm not paying that. Anyway, if any of you know where to find it I would be very greatful.

[Ben]

Happy Birthday to our Dear Larry!

[Ben]

Good Morning to our Lady of Florida, Danise!

[Ben]

And on that note I leave you for the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund.

Later!

[Danise]

Good morning and a very happy birthday to our very Dear Elmore!

Here is a "live" picture of the sunrise here in Tampa that I took on the bus a few moments ago:



The sky was lighting up to celebrate DR Elmores Birthday!

[Danise]

Hi Dr Ben and Dear Reader Laura!

[Danise]

I spy the Birthday Guy Himself!

They say we are going to have a cold front (!) come through today and it will change the temps somewhat.  Winter--here we come!

[Danise]

Would you believe that all that beauty is already gone and the sky is just it's normal self now?

Well, I have to fly we're at the bus station and my stop will be coming up.

Have a wonderful day all!

[elmore3003]

Good morning, all!  Yep, the bitch is now officially 60, older than God and twice as mean.  Thank you all for the wonderful birthday felicitations.  They are greatly appreciated, and I feel so fortunate to kow so many wonderful folk from around the globe.

My email is still a mess, and I am currently relying on Roadrunner Web Mail. which tells me I'm overquota and occasionally returns mail.  No amount of rebooting will kick my rgular email into gear, and I am praying that the new modem arriving tomorrow will solve the problem.  Otherwise, it's time to buy a new Mac.  Oy!

So, today I have a morning at Toyland, edits and some things to do for my editing group's resources file.  After that, perhaps a trek to the NYPL, and then maybe I partay with a few friends.

Why was a Baby Ruth called that?  Where did Snickers getr its name?

[elmore3003]

A happy Babes In Toyland birthday to Larry.

Thank you, DR Michael S!  I have a reproduction of that poster hanging over my desk; it's a rather prettified reproduction of Bessie Wynn as Tom-tom the Piper's Son in the Act Two Toyshop scene, singing the BIG SONG.  Miss Wynn, to my eyes, is not the beauty she was touted to be; I think Amy Ricard as Contrary Mary was much more stunning by contemporary standards.

Miss Wynn did two more shows after BABES, then went into vaudeville.  During BABES, a publicity article said she was going to Europe to study opera.  In the early 1920s, she said in an interview that she was stuck by director Julian Mitchell in boys' roles in theatre and she preferred the haute couture of vaudeville.  In 1945 she played the Widow Piper in a touring production of BABES IN TOYLAND with Fred Kelly, Gene's brother.  She died in 1968, I recall.  Some of her vaudeville and radio arrangements are in the Harvard Theatre Collection.

[elmore3003]

Happy Birthday to our Dear Larry!

Hello, DR Ben!  DR Danise, what a wonderful photo.  I hope you both have a fantastic day.  In fact, all I that for all of our DRs.

[DERBRUCER]

II'm still looking for this Greg Araki movie called "totally F***ed up" It's about gay teens in LA. I can't find it anywhere. Well, I found it at a used store in Los Angeles but they wanted $40 for a used VHS, I'm not paying that. Anyway, if any of you know where to find it I would be very greatful.

As I posted on 18 Aug:



Well, if someone want's to give you a belated B-Day present, that DVD is available at AMAZON for $22.99

($15 gets you a DVD from a second-source seller)

der Brucer

[Ginny]

Happiest of birthdays to dear, dear DR Elmore from your old hometown

[DERBRUCER]

I feel so fortunate to kow so many wonderful folk from around the globe.

So advancing age has hit its mark: you can do only half a kowtow

der Brucer

[DERBRUCER]

Dear bk:



HISTORY

1896
Austrian immigrant Leo Hirshfield brings to the U.S. his recipe for a chocolatey, chewy candy, which he begins producing in a small store in New York City.

Hirshfield names the candy after his five-year-old daughter, whose nickname is "Tootsie."

der Brucer

[DERBRUCER]

Why was a Baby Ruth called that?  

Well that poser's worth a lecture:



Ask Yahoo offers:

According to the National Confectioner's Association, the candy bar was named for Grover Cleveland's baby daughter, Ruth -- although she died in 1904, and the candy was not manufactured until 1920, by the Curtiss Candy Company in Chicago. Another source, quoted in Tom Burnham's 1980 book, More Misinformation, suggests that the chocolate, caramel, nougat, and peanut log was first named for the granddaughter of the president of the Williamson Candy Company, where the recipe originated.

Curtiss Candy gave away thousands of Baby Ruths in promotions and priced the product at five cents, half the going rate. In 1921, when children began sending their candy wrappers to ballplayer Babe Ruth for him to autograph, the Yankee slugger demanded royalties for use of his name on the best-selling product. But the business of sports endorsements was in its infancy, and the courts turned him down.

WIKIPEDIA elaborates:

Although the name of the candy bar sounds nearly identical to the name of the famous baseball player, Babe Ruth, the Curtiss Candy Company has traditionally claimed that it was named after President Grover Cleveland's daughter, Ruth Cleveland. Nonetheless, the bar first appeared in 1920, as Babe Ruth's fame was on the rise and long after Cleveland had left the White House and 16 years after his daughter had died. Moreover, the company had failed to negotiate an endorsement deal with Ruth, and many saw the company's story about the origin of the name of the bar as merely a way to avoid having to pay the baseball player any royalties. Ironically, Curtiss successfully shut down a rival bar that was approved by, and named for, Ruth, on the grounds that the names were too similar in the case of George H. Ruth Candy Co. v. Curtiss Candy Co, 49 F.2d 1033 (1931).

A couple of twists to the story are referenced in the trivia book series Imponderables, by David Feldman:

In the edition called What Are Hyenas Laughing At, Anyway? (1995), p.84, he reports the standard story about the bar being named for Grover Cleveland's daughter, with interesting additional information that ties it to the President: "The trademark was patterned exactly after the engraved lettering of the name used on a medallion struck for the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, and picturing the President, his wife, and daughter Baby Ruth."

The next edition, How Do Astronauts Scratch an Itch? (1996), p. 288-289, brings out a new and potentially more plausible (and prosaic) explanation. The author was tipped off by a letter writer, referring to another trivia collection, More Misinformation, by Tom Burnam: "Burnam concluded that the candy bar was named... after the granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Williamson, candy makers who developed the original formula and sold it to Curtiss." (Williamson had also sold the "Oh Henry!" formula to Curtiss around that time.)
 
The writeup goes on to note that marketing the product as being named for a company executive's granddaughter would likely have been less successful, hence their "official" story.

As if to tweak their own official denial of the name's origin, after Babe Ruth's Called Shot at Wrigley Field in the 1932 World Series, the Chicago-based Curtiss company installed an illuminated advertising sign for Baby Ruth on the roof of one of the flats across Sheffield Avenue, near where Ruth's home run ball had landed in center field. The sign stood for some four decades before finally being removed.

Satisfied?

der Brucer

[DERBRUCER]

 Where did Snickers getr its name?

WIKIPEDIA:

In 1930, the Mars family introduced its second brand, Snickers, named after one of their favorite horses.
...
In the United Kingdom and Ireland, Snickers bars were originally sold under the name "Marathon". In 1990, Mars standardized many of its global brand names, and the name was changed to Snickers.

And for a killer of a birthday treat:

In 2006, the UK Food Commission highlighted celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson's "Snickers pie", which contained five Snickers bars among other ingredients, suggesting it was one of the unhealthiest desserts ever; one slice providing "over 1,250 calories from sugar and fat alone", more than half a day's requirement for an average adult.

der Brucer (HHW research librarian at-large)

[DERBRUCER]

That's my new goal anyway, getting all the good stuff out of life I can.

Well, as Tom Lehrer observed: "life is like a sewer: what you get out of it depends on what you put into it."

der Brucer

I like: "Life is like computer software.  It never functions exactly as intended, has plenty of bugs, and is constantly being upgraded.  Moreover, the upgrades may not be better, but they are certainly more complicated."  

And there is always: Life is like a vacuum cleaner - sometimes it sucks, sometimes it doesn't.

[jhvw]

As I posted on 18 Aug:



Well, if someone want's to give you a belated B-Day present, that DVD is available at AMAZON for $22.99

($15 gets you a DVD from a second-source seller)

der Brucer

Awesome! Thank you so much! I don't know why I didn't try there in the first place.

[Cillaliz]

I second that happy actual birthday to DR Elmore. Have a wonderful day and enjoy being alive. That's my new goal anyway, getting all the good stuff out of life I can.

You go guy! And congrats, at some point you went from "newbie" to "Jr. Member" I just noticed it.

[Cillaliz]

And Happy 60th to our esteemed DR Elmore!!! Hope you have a very wonderful day. Looking forward to seeing you soon