Let's Measure Some Booze...!

The other day we talked about the measurements of time, so I kinda wanted to do the same thing with booze.

There are many, many old and unusual measurements used for alcohol, some of which are still in use today. I have heard of many of these, but i had no idea of what most of them were to be honest!

Alcohol

Volumes of alcohol had their own particular names. In Northern England, as well as being a small horse, a pony was two mouthfuls of fluid, or 30mL. Today, a shot of spirits is sometimes called a ‘pony shot’ after this, although shots are not standardized and their volumes vary greatly. 

Much of the system that was used in old times was based on combining doubles of jackpots. A jackpot was 74mL. Two jackpots made a gill, two gills made a cup, two cups made a pint, two pints made a quart, two quarts made a pottle, two pottles made a gallon, two gallons made a peck, two pecks made a pail, two pails made a bushel, two bushels made a strike, two strikes made a coomb, two coombs made a cask, two casks made a barrel, and two barrels made a hogshead. Phew! Hog’s Head Inn from Harry Potter is named after this volume of alcohol, about 250L.

A more recent alcohol volume measurement is the bottles worth, which is equal to a standard bottle of champagne (750mL).

Kind of confusing, isn't it? If you could memorize all these different measurements and quote them on demand, just think how you could impress folks at the next get-together! Only thing is, you would probably need to be sober to do it! Know what I mean?

Let's have coffee on the patio this morning. You can help me do a rain dance!

Boy, Do I Remember These...!

I can remember spending quite a few very pleasant evenings at the drive-in, usually in the company of a young lady!

The concept is really a nice one. Most of the drive-ins we went to were pretty nice as well! Heck, at one time I even worked in the snack bar! Some of the best popcorn I ever had, let me tell you!

Jun 6, 1933:

First drive-in movie theater opens

On this day in 1933, eager motorists park their automobiles on the grounds of Park-In Theaters, the first-ever drive-in movie theater, located on Crescent Boulevard in Camden, New Jersey.

Park-In Theaters--the term "drive-in" came to be widely used only later--was the brainchild of Richard Hollingshead, a movie fan and a sales manager at his father's company, Whiz Auto Products, in Camden. Reportedly inspired by his mother's struggle to sit comfortably in traditional movie theater seats, Hollingshead came up with the idea of an open-air theater where patrons watched movies in the comfort of their own automobiles. He then experimented in the driveway of his own house with different projection and sound techniques, mounting a 1928 Kodak projector on the hood of his car, pinning a screen to some trees, and placing a radio behind the screen for sound. He also tested ways to guard against rain and other inclement weather, and devised the ideal spacing arrangement for a number of cars so that all would have a view of the screen.

The young entrepreneur received a patent for the concept in May of 1933 and opened Park-In Theaters, Inc. less than a month later, with an initial investment of $30,000. Advertising it as entertainment for the whole family, Hollingshead charged 25 cents per car and 25 cents per person, with no group paying more than one dollar. The idea caught on, and after Hollingshead's patent was overturned in 1949, drive-in theaters began popping up all over the country. One of the largest was the All-Weather Drive-In of Copiague, New York, which featured parking space for 2,500 cars, a kid's playground and a full service restaurant, all on a 28-acre lot.

Drive-in theaters showed mostly B-movies--that is, not Hollywood's finest fare--but some theaters featured the same movies that played in regular theaters. The initially poor sound quality--Hollingshead had mounted three speakers manufactured by RCA Victor near the screen--improved, and later technology made it possible for each car's to play the movie's soundtrack through its FM radio. The popularity of the drive-in spiked after World War II and reached its heyday in the late 1950s to mid-60s, with some 5,000 theaters across the country. Drive-ins became an icon of American culture, and a typical weekend destination not just for parents and children but also for teenage couples seeking some privacy. Since then, however, the rising price of real estate, especially in suburban areas, combined with the growing numbers of walk-in theaters and the rise of video rentals to curb the growth of the drive-in industry. Today, fewer than 500 drive-in theaters survive in the United States.

Ya know, sitting at home on the couch with a date just isn't quite the same somehow. The drive-in will always hold a special spot in my memory as one of my favorite places to go!

Wish I had a place like that again, don't you?

Coffee out on the patio this morning, OK?

Time Talk For Tuesday...!

Time is one of those things that we often take for granted.

Many of the terms we use when referring to time may seem silly, but believe it or not many of them are actual measurements of time! Seriously! I wouldn't kid you about this!

Time

Has someone ever told you that they will only take ‘a jiffy’ or ‘a shake of a lamb’s tail’? Jiffies and shakes are real units of time measurement. A jiffy is 0.1 seconds and a shake is 10 nanoseconds. These are used for convenience in computing and nuclear engineering respectively. A moment, on the other hand, is 90 seconds long. In Medieval Europe, the Latin ‘atomus’ was often used, defined today as 160 milliseconds.

Other time measurements are dog years, which are based on the myth that 7 dog years are equivalent to 1 human year. Dogs actually do not experience time faster, they age differently based on breed, and inventing dog years to measure their age is as meaningless as inventing snail years for said mollusks. Nevertheless, the myth has become so popular that now a dog year is said to be one seventh of a standard year, making it 52 days long.

I know it seems a little strange, but that's the way it goes! Just like the old saying goes "truth is stranger than fiction!"

Coffee on the patio this morning while it's still cool! Gonna be hot again today!

One Scary Vehicle...!

I don't know about you, but I don't want to drive anything without brakes!

It must have been an exciting time for everyone involved, especially the guy in front, riding a bicycle and serving as a rolling road block! Still, this simple vehicle sure did start something!

Jun 4, 1896:

Henry Ford test-drives his "Quadricycle"

At approximately 4:00 a.m. on June 4, 1896, in the shed behind his home on Bagley Avenue in Detroit, Henry Ford unveils the "Quadricycle," the first automobile he ever designed or drove.

Ford was working as the chief engineer for the main plant of the Edison Illuminating Company when he began working on the Quadricycle. On call at all hours to ensure that Detroit had electrical service 24 hours a day, Ford was able to use his flexible working schedule to experiment with his pet project--building a horseless carriage with a gasoline-powered engine. His obsession with the gasoline engine had begun when he saw an article on the subject in a November 1895 issue of American Machinist magazine. The following March, another Detroit engineer named Charles King took his own hand-built vehicle--made of wood, it had a four-cylinder engine and could travel up to five miles per hour--out for a ride, fueling Ford's desire to build a lighter and faster gasoline-powered model.

As he would do throughout his career, Ford used his considerable powers of motivation and organization to get the job done, enlisting friends--including King--and assistants to help him bring his vision to life. After months of work and many setbacks, Ford was finally ready to test-drive his creation--basically a light metal frame fitted with four bicycle wheels and powered by a two-cylinder, four-horsepower gasoline engine--on the morning of June 4, 1896. When Ford and James Bishop, his chief assistant, attempted to wheel the Quadricycle out of the shed, however, they discovered that it was too wide to fit through the door. To solve the problem, Ford took an axe to the brick wall of the shed, smashing it to make space for the vehicle to be rolled out.

With Bishop bicycling ahead to alert passing carriages and pedestrians, Ford drove the 500-pound Quadricycle down Detroit's Grand River Avenue, circling around three major thoroughfares. The Quadricycle had two driving speeds, no reverse, no brakes, rudimentary steering ability and a doorbell button as a horn, and it could reach about 20 miles per hour, easily overpowering King's invention. Aside from one breakdown on Washington Boulevard due to a faulty spring, the drive was a success, and Ford was on his way to becoming one of the most formidable success stories in American business history.

Maybe I could build one of these to run back and forth to the store, ya think? I'm afraid that I would have to have brakes on mine though. Guess I'm just a sissy!

Let's have our coffee outside this morning, OK?

Sunny Sunday Smiles...!

Even though the weekend got off to a shaky start, I figured we could all use a little humor to start the new week.

I can think of a more appropriate way to start it off than with the ageless chase of the Roadrunner and the Coyote! Besides, after Friday night and Saturday morning, I need me a good humor fix!



Now here is a side of these two you may not have seen before!



I can't help but wonder if Pops had the same trouble as Young Wiley! I'm thinking he did!

Coffee outside on the patio this morning. Looks like it's gonna get hot in a bit!

Emergency Room Visit...UPDATED!

Had to take Mom to the emergency room after she had a fall in her house.

I won't be posting until I find out something.

UPDATE...

Sorry about the delay in getting this posted, but you know how it is when you go to the emergency room!

Mom had an MRI done on her head and all checked out just fine! What happened was that she was walking from the den to the kitchen without her cane (or her walker) and she tripped on a carpet runner. She landed on her left knee and left elbow, went sideways and hit the back of her head on a pie safe that was near-by!

She wasn't close to her call button (which she won't wear) or the phone, so she crawled into the laundry room and started yelling to try and get my attention. Luckily I heard her and went in to help her get up into a chair and we started checking for immediate injuries.

Because of the big bump on the head and the size of the knot, we decided that the ER was where we should go. This was before 9:00 pm and we managed to get home about 12:50, which all things told wasn't too bad!

Main thing is...Mom is OK, but will be sore for a couple of days. I just wish I could convince here to always use her cane, even indoors!

Thanks for bearing with me on this one. Normally I pre-post on the night before the post is dated. This one started out on Friday night, and here it is just after 1:00AM Saturday!

Don't know about you, but I need some fresh, STRONG coffee this morning! I'm getting way too old for all this adventure!

This Bit Of American History May Suprise You...!

Just when you think you have this early American history all figured out, up pops a surprise!

I'll be the first to admit that this info took me totally off guard. I don't know why, but maybe because this settlement has been here so long and is still active!

Forget Jamestown. The oldest settlement in the United States is Acoma Pueblo.

It’s no revelation that Native American settlements predate European ones, but it may surprise some people that Acoma Pueblo, west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, has been continuously occupied since the 12th century. The Acoma still inhabit their “Sky City,” a settlement of about 4,800 people that sits atop a 365-foot high mesa. 

Traditionally hunters and traders, the Acoma people now make their income from a cultural center and casino complex. Coincidentally, the oldest state capital in the United States is Santa Fe, which recently celebrated its 400th anniversary.

Well, like I said...short and sweet today! It really doesn't take long to find a topic that makes for interesting study. I'm thinking that would make an interesting settlement to research.

Better have our coffee in the kitchen this morning, just in case the rain comes back!