Baseball Popcorn Tins“0 Comments”
steve | 11:27 pm | October 21, 2007 | Gifts for Sons, Popcorn, Gifts for Dads, Gifts for Friends, Gifts for Sports Fans
As I write this, the Boston Red Sox are up 5-2 in the bottom of the 8th in Game 7 of the 2007 ALCS. With all respect to Yogi, I think it’s over. So I will go ahead and write my blog entry now, and write my congratulations to the Red Sox and the Rockies.
It should be an interesting Series. As you’re rooting on your favorite team in the 2007 World Series, why not celebrate with an official licensed Major League Baseball Popcorn Tin from The Popcorn Factory?
Or, if you know someone (oh, say the writer of this blog) who is still in mourning after watching their young pitching phenom attacked by bugs, or if you know someone who watched their team crumble towards the end of the season or someone who watched their team get swept, swept, swept, or swept, why not buy them a popcorn tin of their own fulled with delicious popcorn? They can drown their sorrows in the delicious caramel, butter, and cheddar cheese flavored popcorn, and maybe that can help them get through the long, dark winter until pitchers and catchers in February.
The Popcorn Factory has a deal and a half on one tin in particular. Since The Popcorn Factory is based in Chicago, it appears that they may have produced a wee bit too many Chicago Cubs tins with special blue and red colored popcorn. The popcorn is actually butter flavored (the red and blue is food coloring), and is completely fresh and delicious. These tins would certainly have been part of many Chicago celebrations had the Cubs made it to the NLCS and the World Series. But alas, the celebrations will have to wait another year, and the popcorn can’t. So you can get a huge tin of Chicago Cubs red and blue popcorn, ordinarily $21.99, for only $10.99.
It's Slinky! It's Slinky!“1 Comment”
steve | 12:37 am | September 16, 2007 | Christmas Gifts, Gifts for Daughters, Gifts for Nieces, Toys, Gifts for Sons, Gifts for Nephews
In 1943, a naval engineer named Richard James, stationed at the Naval shipyards in Philadelphia, was working on an instrument for the Navy to use on battleships. A spring he was using fell to the ground, and he noticed it kept moving. He told his wife Betty, “I think I can make a toy out of this.”
In 1945, The Slinky debuted at Gimbel’s Department Store in Philadelphia. After a 90 minute demonstration, all 400 Slinkys sold out immediately. James started a company to produce Slinkys in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. Betty James was instrumental in making the company the success it became, including introducing an ad jingle most of us know and love:
“What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs, And makes a slinkity sound?
A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing, Everyone knows it’s Slinky…
It’s Slinky, it’s Slinky, for fun it’s a wonderful toy!
It’s Slinky, it’s Slinky, it’s fun for a girl and a boy!
The Slinky has a storied history. University Physics departments use it to explain wave motion and seismology. In Vietnam it was used as antennae for radio transmitters. In 2001, the Slinky was named the official toy of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Betty James was inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame that same year. The rhythmic sound and feeling of transfering it from hand to hand even makes a great desk accessory for grown-ups (a better way to reduce stress and pass the time than any squeeze ball).
And of course, anywhere there is a kid and a staircase, it is unthinkable not to have a Slinky there too.
In 2005, the Slinky turned 60 years old. Hearthsong, in its Classic Toys collection, has two very special limited edition versions of the Slinky to celebrate. First, the original Slinky, in a replica box of the very first Slinky in the 1940’s. Second, a “bona fido” (shame on you, Hearthsong catalog writers!) replica of the first Slinky Dog.
In the last 60 years, over a quarter billion Slinkys have been sold. I accounted for about 9 of them throughout the 1970s and 1980s, four lost and five tangled beyond repair after countless trips down (and up!) the stairs. I’m all grown up now, but now that I realize that Hearthsong sells it I do plan to go for #10 as soon as I finish writing this.