New York Giants Quiz (1925 – 2000): 1) TD passes, season?
2) Receptions, career? 3) Receiving TD, season? [Hint: 13]
4) TD, career? 5) Identify these retired uniform #”s: 40, 42, 50.
Answers below.
Toy Stories
For Christmas, I thought we might explore the genesis of two
popular toys…Mr. Potato Head and Silly Putty.
There once was a chap by the name of George Lerner who had
seen everything when it came to his kids playing with their food.
And, let”s face it, nothing worked when he asked them to stop.
But one evening, Lerner, a model maker for a toy manufacturing
company, decided that instead of trying to get his kids to stop
playing with it, he would play with the food too. So he grabbed
a few potatoes, got some bottle caps and thumbtacks for the eyes
and mouth and then he added a strawberry for the nose. Well,
the kids thought that their dad was the funniest man around.
George began to make plastic molds for eyes, ears, and noses and
called them ”Funny Faces For Food,” but when he took his toy
kits to food companies, no one was interested.
More than 2 years passed before a cereal company signed
George Lerner to a contract for his idea. Lerner was paid $5,000
(which he thought was a pretty sum for those days) and the
breakfast food folks used Funny Faces as a premium in the box.
It was around 1952 and several months later George received a
call from Henry Hassenfeld and his son Merrill, the owners of
Hasbro Company. They had seen Funny Faces and wanted to
buy the idea from George and form a partnership, but there was
this issue of George having already sold the rights to the cereal
guys.
But Henry and Merrill didn”t give up and they offered the
company $2,000, plus George had to pay back his $5,000 and the
cereal folks stupidly accepted. George then went into
partnership with Hasbro and soon thereafter, George Lerner was
a millionaire, as the product was given a new name.Mr. Potato
Head.
And then there is the case of Silly Putty. During World War II
there was of course a severe shortage of natural rubber, so the
military asked General Electric if they could come up with a
synthetic substitute. At the lab in New Haven, CT, James Wright
was put to the task. He tried to come up with something using
every possible chemical in the table, but nothing worked until he
mixed boric acid and silicone oil (kids…don”t try this at home
without first asking your parents for permission). Together,
these two formed a rubbery compound.
Wright then started playing with the stuff and realized that when
he tossed it on the floor it bounced higher than normal rubber.
He could also stretch it, it held up in extreme temperatures
without cracking, and strangely the compound was able to lift
words and pictures off of newsprint.
Well, Wright certainly had something, but just what it was
became a source of amusement around the halls of G.E., because
his invention did everything but what it was asked to do, that
being a substitute for rubber, and the problem here was that the
stuff didn”t get hard enough.
Soon, Wright”s compound was given names like Nutty Putty,
Bouncing Putty, and Bouncing Blubber. But, bottom line, this
was viewed as the most worthless invention in the history of G.E.
Long after the war, however, James Wright”s boss suggested that
a contest be held to find a use for Bouncing Putty (the formal
name at this time), but not one soul came up with a good idea.
The boss even had Wright ship the putty to the world”s top
scientists and they didn”t have any success either.
Then one evening in 1948, Wright went directly from the office
to a party and he happened to have some Bouncing Putty with
him. He showed the folks in attendance some of the putty”s
properties and one woman, Ruth Fallgatter, thought the stuff
made for a great toy prospect.
Ruth, it turns out, owned a toy store herself, and, along with
Peter Hodgson, who helped Ruth with advertising and sales
material, they decided to put a line for Bouncing Putty in their
next catalogue. Ruth and Peter thought the stuff was for adults,
as per the description.
“Do a thousand nutty things with Bouncing Putty. Comes in a
handy clear plastic case. A guaranteed hoot at parties! Price:
Only $2.00!”
Guess what? Ruth and Peter sold more Bouncing Putty than
anything else in the catalogue. Peter, in particular, was really
high on the product, but he also was up to his eyeballs in debt.
Somehow he scrounged together $147 and bought as much of the
putty from G.E. as he could, then he hired students from nearby
Yale University to package it in plastic eggs. It was Peter
Hodgson who then changed the name to Silly Putty.
Peter headed off to the New York Toy Fair in 1950 and
Doubleday Bookstores decided they would carry it in their
stores. Then a few months later a reporter for the New Yorker
magazine wrote a column about Silly Putty and the rest is
history. Within 3 days of the piece, orders topped 250,000 and
Peter Hodgson became another great American success story.
When he died in 1976, his estate was worth around $140 million.
I never did find out if James Wright got anything out of it,
though I imagine he was screwed on the deal.
[Source for both stories: “Toys,” Don Wulffson. A delightful
little book that would be great for stirring kids” interests in
science.]
World War I.Christmas Truce
Back in July of this year, a British gentleman by the name of
Bertie Felstead died, at the ripe age of 106. I saved his obituary
because one of Felstead”s claims to fame was the fact that he was
one of the last survivors of the informal Christmas truces that
took place between mostly British and German soldiers during
World War I, specifically, 1914.
By December of that year, the war had been picking up in
intensity for five months. Ironically, the feeling during the initial
phases was that everyone would be home by Christmas, though
little did they know it would be Christmas 1918.
On Christmas Eve, 1914, along the British and German lines, the
soldiers got into conversation with each other, and it was clear to
the British that the Germans wanted some sort of Christmas
Armistice. Sir Edward Hulse wrote in his diary, “A scout named
F. Murker went out and met a German Patrol and was given a
glass of whisky and some cigars, and a message was sent back
saying that if we didn”t fire at them they would not fire at us.”
That night, where five days earlier there had been savage
fighting, the guns fell silent.
The following morning German soldiers walked towards the
British wire and the Brits went out to meet them. They
exchanged caps and souvenirs and food. Then arrangements
were made for the British to pick up bodies left on the German
side during a recent failed raid.
Christmas Day, fraternization took place along many of the lines,
including a few of the French and Belgian ones. Some joined in
chasing hares, others, most famously, kicked around a soccer
ball. British soldier Bruce Bairnsfather would write, “It all felt
most curious: here were these sausage-eating wretches, who had
elected to start this infernal European fracas, and in so doing had
brought us all into the same muddy pickle as themselves.(But)
there was not an atom of hate on either side that day; and yet, on
our side, not for a moment was the will to war and the will to
beat them relaxed.”
In the air, the war continued, and the French Foreign
Legionnaires in Alsace were ordered to continue fighting
Christmas Day as well. And, to say the least, most of the
commanders on both sides were none too pleased. Nothing like
the Christmas truce of 1914 would occur in succeeding years
(outside of a pocket or two) and by December 26, 1914, the guns
were blazing anew.
[Source: “The First World War,” Martin Gilbert]
Top 3 songs for the week of 12/22/73: #1 “The Most Beautiful
Girl” (Charlie Rich.as country crosses over. ”Heyyyy…did
you happen to see.”) #2 “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” (Elton
John) #3 “Time In A Bottle” (Jim Croce. ”Hey, Jim, where do
you want the royalty check sent to?”…oops)
Stuff
NBC is going to have a special edition of “Fear Factor” to
compete with Fox”s coverage of the Super Bowl. When the
game goes to halftime, NBC will cut into its own programming
for a 20-minute “Fear Factor” segment with Playboy Playmates,
then resume this segment after the game ends. Meanwhile, the
Super Bowl halftime show on Fox will feature U2. So.here is
what we are doing at StocksandNews. If U2 plays “I Still
Haven”t Found What I”m Looking For,” I”ll stick with them.
Otherwise, the Bunnies get the undivided attention…between
trips to the fridge for another cold one, that is. Actually, what
am I saying?!..
New York Giants Quiz Answers: 1) TD passes, season: Y.A.
Tittle tossed 36 in just 13 games back in 1963. Tittle also
completed 60.2% of his passes in throwing for 3,145 yards that
year. For his career, most of it spent with San Francisco, Y.A.
had 212 TD – 221 INT and 28,339 yards. 2) Receptions,
career: Joe Morrison, 395. Morrison played from ”59-”72 for the
Giants and was one of the first true 3rd-down backs. Pretty pitiful
record for a 75-year franchise, though. 3) Receiving TD,
season: Homer Jones, 13 in 1967. As a young football fan, what
a neat guy to watch. “Go deep, Homer!” He only played from
1964-70 and caught just 224 passes, but he made them count to
the tune of a 22.3 average! In ”67, he had 49 receptions for 1,209
yards (24.7), to go along with his 13 touchdowns. 4) TD, career:
Frank Gifford, 78. 5) Retired uniform numbers: #40 Joe
Morrison, #42 Charlie Conerly, #50 Ken Strong.
Next Bar Chat, Friday. More Christmas goodies.
