Flemish Hunting Deck

The Flemish Hunting Deck is a set of 52 playing cards owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is significant because it is the only complete set of ordinary playing cards from the 15th century. Estimate ranges of manufacture are between 1470 and 1480.

The set of cards is a complete regular set of playing cards, consisting of four suits with a king, queen, jack and ten pip cards. The suits are based on hunting items, consisting of game nooses, hound tethers, horns, and dog collars. The shown figures display fashion of the era, with short jackets, shortly cut hair and pointy shoes.

The cards are in very good condition, indicating they were used very little or not at all. The Dutch name for the set is Hofjaren Jachtpakket which translates as Courtyears hunting set.

THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER

This is what Memorial Day and America is all about! This is the story of how our National Anthem came into being — a story every American should hear!

Historical Trivia

Did you know the saying "God willing and the creek don't rise" was in reference to the Creek Indians and not a body of water? It was written by Benjamin Hawkins in the late 18th century. He was a politician and Indian diplomat. While in the south, Hawkins was requested by the President of  the U.S. To return to Washington . In his response, he was said to write, "God willing and the Creek don't rise." Because he capitalized the word "Creek" he was referring to the Creek Indian tribe and not a body of water.

In George Washington's days, there were no cameras. One's image was either sculpted or painted. Some paintings of George Washington showed him  standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back while others showed both legs  and both arms. Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people  were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted. Arms and legs are 'limbs,' therefore painting them would cost the buyer more. Hence the expression, 'Okay, but it'll cost you an arm and a leg.' (Artists know hands and arms are more difficult to paint.)

As incredible as it sounds, men and women took baths only twice a year (May and October). Women kept their hair covered, while men shaved their heads (because of lice and bugs) and wore wigs. Wealthy men could afford good  wigs made from wool. They couldn't wash the wigs, so to clean them they would carve out a loaf of bread, put the wig in the shell, and bake it for 30 minutes. The heat would make the wig big and fluffy, hence the term 'big wig'. Today we often use the term 'here comes the Big Wig' because someone appears to be or is powerful and wealthy.

In the late 1700's, many houses consisted of a large room with only one chair. Commonly, a long wide board folded down from the wall, and was used for dining. The 'head of the household' always sat in the chair while everyone else ate sitting on the floor. Occasionally a guest, who was usually a man, would be invited to sit in this chair during a meal. To sit in the chair meant you were important and in charge. They called the one sitting in the chair the 'chair man.' Today in business, we use the expression or title 'Chairman' or 'Chairman of the Board.'

At local taverns, pubs, and bars, people drank from pint and quart-sized containers. A bar maid's job was to keep an eye on the customers and keep the drinks coming. She had to pay close attention and remember who was drinking in 'pints' and who was drinking in 'quarts,' hence the phrase 'minding your 'P's and Q's'.

SSG Barry Allen Sadler

Barry Allen Sadler was an American military veteran, author, actor, and singer-songwriter. He was born in Carlsbad, NM, November 1, 1940 to John Sadler and Bebe Littlefield. Sadler served as a Green Beret combat medic with the rank of Staff Sergeant of the United States Army during the Vietnam War. Most of his work has a military theme, and he credited himself as SSG Barry Sadler, although his music credits read SSgt Barry Sadler. He is most famously known for his hit song "Ballad of the Green Berets."

Sadler dropped out of high school during the tenth grade in Leadville, CO and enlisted at age 17 in the US Air Force. After completing airborne training, he volunteered for the US Army Special Forces. Following lengthy training as a combat medic at Fort Sam Houston, TX, he was sent to South Vietnam. During May 1965, while on a combat patrol in the Central Highlands southeast of Pleiku, he was severely wounded in the knee by a feces-covered punji stick. He developed a serious infection in his leg, and was flown to Walter Reed Hospital in the United States, where his doctors were forced to surgically enlarge the wound to drain it and to administer penicillin. While he was recuperating, he heard Senator Robert F. Kennedy dedicate the new JFK Center for Special Warfare at Fort Bragg. Sadler promised himself that if he successfully recovered from the infection, he would give away the rights to a song he was then helping to write, "The Ballad of the Green Berets."

Sadler recorded his now-famous song, "The Ballad of the Green Berets", a patriotic song, encouraged by writer Robin Moore, author of the novel The Green Berets, on the RCA Victor Records company label. The book had become a 1968 movie, The Green Berets, starring John Wayne, with "The Ballad of the Green Berets" arranged as a choral version by Ken Darby as the title song of the movie.

The song "The Ballad of the Green Berets" came out during early 1966 and became a fast-selling single, scoring #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for five consecutive weeks from March 5 to April 2, 1966. It sold more than a million copies. He sang it for his television début for The Jimmy Dean Show. Sadler recorded an album of similarly themed songs which he titled Ballads of the Green Berets. It sold a million copies during the first five weeks of its release.



SSG Barry Allen Sadler passed away November 5, 1989.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in the country's armed forces. The holiday, which is observed every year on the last Monday of May, was formerly known as Decoration Day and originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the Union and Confederate soldiers who died in the war. By the 20th century, Memorial Day had been extended to honor all Americans who died while in the military service. It typically marks the start of the summer vacation season, while Labor Day marks its end.

Many people visit cemeteries and memorials, particularly to honor those who have died in military service. Many volunteers place an American flag on each grave in national cemeteries.

The preferred name for the holiday gradually changed from "Decoration Day" to "Memorial Day", which was first used in 1882. It did not become more common until after World War II, and was not declared the official name by Federal law until 1967. On June 28, 1968 the Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which moved four holidays, including Memorial Day, from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day weekend. The change moved Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May. The law took effect at the federal level in 1971.

The first widely-publicized observance of a Memorial Day-type observance after the Civil War was in Charleston, SC on May 1, 1865. On May 26, 1966 President Johnson signed a presidential proclamation naming Waterloo, NY as the birthplace of Memorial Day.

On Memorial Day the flag of the United States is raised briskly to the top of the staff and then solemnly lowered to the half-staff position, where it remains only until noon. It is then raised to full-staff for the remainder of the day.

(Extracted from Wikipedia.)

Triskaidekaphobia

Triskaidekaphobia is fear of the number 13 and avoiding to use it; it is a superstition and related to the specific fear of the 13th person at the Last Supper being Judas, who betrayed Jesus Christ and ultimately hanged himself.

It is also a reason for the fear of Friday the 13th, called paraskevidekatriaphobia.

Hamons' Service Station

The Provine Service Station (later the Hamons Court, Hamons' Service Station or simply Lucille's Place) is a historic filling station on US Route 66 in Oklahoma, about half mile south of Hydro, and operated by Lucille Hamons from 1941 until her death on August 18, 2000. The building was added to the US National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

Lucille Hamons' generous assistance to motorists on US Route 66 during hard economic times at the end of the Great Depression would make her a US Route 66 legend, earning the nickname "Mother of the Mother Road."

The station was opened by Carl Ditmore in 1929, and it is one of the few remaining examples of a 2-story fuel station with the owner's residence above the pumps on an upper floor. W.O. and Ida Waldroup changed the name to Provine Service Station when they purchased it in 1934 and added tourist cabins to provide five motel rooms on-site.

Lucille and Carl Hamons bought the station in 1941, a few months before the US entered into World War II, which also brought wartime rationing of fuel and tires, causing civilian traffic on the highway to decline. Carl Hamons worked as an independent trucker, which left Lucille to operate the station and the motel. Traffic on Route 66 would then increase substantially during the 1950s and 1960s, but virtually died when Interstate 40 was completed through Oklahoma in 1971.

After the highway was bypassed by Interstate 40, the motel closed, and Carl and Lucille later divorced; but Lucille's would continue to serve a largely local clientele. The station became known for vending very cold beer from its old cooler. The last fuel was dispensed in 1986 and the station basically became a souvenir shop.

The original "Hamons Court" motel sign was donated by the Hamons family in 2003 to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is a modern celebration honoring one's own mother, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in the months of March or May. Similar celebrations honor Father's Day and Siblings Day.

The modern American holiday of Mother's Day was first celebrated in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother at St Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, WV which now holds the International Mother's Day Shrine.

She began her campaign to make "Mother's Day" a recognized holiday in the United States in 1905, the year her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, died.

The United States Congress rejected a proposal to make it an official holiday in 1908, among jokes they would also have to proclaim a "Mother-in-law's Day". Due to Jarvis' campaign efforts, by 1911 all US states observed the holiday, with some of them officially recognizing Mother's Day as a local holiday (the first in 1910 in Jarvis' home state of West Virginia.

In 1914 Woodrow Wilson signed the proclamation creating Mother’s Day, the second Sunday in May, as a national holiday to honor mothers.

CASABLANCA — One of My 3 All-Time Favorite Films

The film cost approximately $950,000, some $100,000 over budget. The initial $20,000 paid for the screen rights to an un-produced play called Everybody Comes to Rick's. It raked in a sum of $3,700,000 during the first year of release.

Rick never says "Play it again, Sam." He dictates to Sam: "You played it for her, you can play it for me. If she can take it, I can take it so Play it!". Ilsa says "Play it, Sam. Play As Time Goes By'.

The first shot of Rick sees him playing chess, a favorite game of Humphrey Bogart's.

In the famous scene where the Marseillaise is sung over the German song Watch on the Rhine, many of the extras had real tears in their eyes; a large number of them were actual refugees from Nazi persecution in Germany and elsewhere in Europe and were overcome by the emotions the scene brought out.

Many of the actors who played the Nazis were in fact German Jews who had escaped from Nazi Germany.

At a salary of $25,000 for five weeks' work, Conrad Veidt was the highest-paid actor on the set and on loan from MGM.

Claude Rains was a non-smoker. In most of his scenes he is smoking a cigarette. He never inhales, however, using the trick of drawing the smoke into his mouth, holding it for a moment, then puffing it out without ever drawing it into his lungs.

Dooley Wilson (Sam) was, in fact, the only member of the cast to have ever actually visited the city of Casablanca. Wilson was a professional drummer who faked playing the piano. As the music was recorded at the same time as the film, the piano playing was actually a recording of a performance by Elliot Carpenter who was playing behind a curtain but who was positioned such that Dooley could watch, and copy, his hand movements. Sidenote: Wilson was borrowed from Paramount at $500 a week.

"Rick's Café Américain" was modeled after Hotel El Minzah in Tangiers.  It was one of the few original sets built for the film, the rest were all recycled from other Warner Brothers productions due to wartime restrictions on building supplies.

To prepare for working with Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman watched The Maltese Falcon (1941) many times.

Early in the production, Jack L. Warner offered the role of Rick Blaine to George Raft, but he actor turned it down. As the shooting script took shape, producer Hal B. Wallis began to envision Humphrey Bogart in the role. Since Bogart was under contract to Warner Bros. the role was assigned to him by Wallis, but after Bogart had been cast in the role, Raft reconsidered his decision and contacted Warner to say he had decided to accept the part after all. After consulting with Wallis, Warner decided to support Wallis  (Ironically, Raft turned down two previous roles which Bogart subsequently accepted: Roy "Mad Dog" Earle in High Sierra (1941), and Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon (1941).

Producer Hal B. Wallis nearly made the character Sam a female. Hazel Scott, Lena Horne, and Ella Fitzgerald were considered for the role.

What is a Diner?

A diner is a prefabricated restaurant building characteristic of American life, especially in the Northeastern United States, as well as in the Midwest. Some examples can be found throughout Canada and parts of Western Europe.
Diners are characterized by offering a wide range of foods, mostly American, a casual atmosphere, a lunch counter, and late operating hours. "Classic American Diners" are often characterized by an exterior layer of stainless steel — a feature unique to diner architecture.

The first diner was created in 1872 by a man named Walter Scott. He decided to sell food out of a horse-pulled wagon to employees of the Providence Journal in Providence, RI. Scott's diner can be considered the first diner with “walk up” windows that were located on each side of the wagon. Commercial production of lunch wagons began in Worcester, MA in 1887, by Thomas Buckley. Buckley was very successful and became known for his "White House Cafe" wagons. Charles Palmer received the first patent in 1891 for the diner. He built his "fancy night cafes" and "night lunch wagons" in the Worcester area until 1901. Like a mobile home, the original style diner is narrow and elongated and allows transportation on the roadway.

In the traditional diner floor plan, a service counter dominates the interior, with a preparation area against the back wall and floor-mounted stools for the customers in front. Larger models may have a row of booths against the front wall and at the ends. The decor varied over time. Diners of the 1920s–1940s feature Art Deco or Streamline Moderne elements or copy the appearance of rail dining cars (though very few are, in fact, refurbished rail cars). They featured porcelain enamel exteriors, some with the name written on the front, others with bands of enamel. Many had a "barrel vault" roofline. Tile floors were common. Diners of the 1950s tended to use stainless steel panels, porcelain enamel, glass blocks, terrazzo floors, Formica and neon sign trim.

Diners almost invariably serve American food such as hamburgers, French fries, club sandwiches, and other simple items. Much of the food is grilled, as early diners were based around a grill. There is often an emphasis on breakfast foods such as eggs, waffles, pancakes, and French toast. Some diners serve these "breakfast foods" throughout the business day and others who focus on breakfast may close around 3:00 pm. These are most commonly known as pancake houses.

Coffee is always present at diners and almost always of high quality. Typically, diners do not serve alcoholic drinks.

Like the British "greasy spoon", the typical American diner serves mainly fried or grilled food, i.e.: fried eggs, bacon, hamburgers, hot dogs, hash browns, waffles, pancakes, omelettes, deep fried chicken, patty melts, and sausages, usually with a side item of baked beans, french fries, cole slaw, or toast.

Many diners have transparent display cases in or behind the counter for the desserts. Typical desserts include a variety of pies, often on view in a separate transparent case.

The food is usually quite inexpensive, with a decent meal available for less than $10.