Crabs and Beer!

On this day in 1888, Bertha Benz became the first person to drive an internal-combustion automobile over a long distance. She was field testing the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, inventing brake lining and solving several practical issues during the journey of 105 km (65 miles). In doing so, she brought the Patent-Motorwagen worldwide attention and got their company its first sales. Bertha Benz was not allowed to study in the Grand Duchy of Baden, and her financial and practical engineering contributions have long been overlooked until the 21st century.

On 27 June 1869, during an excursion by the Eintracht Club, she met and fell in love with machine lover and tinkerer Carl Benz, who was five years her senior and penniless, but had a head full of crazy ideas, and who could talk better about technology than about feelings. Eventually, in December 1885, they finished work on the first horseless carriage, 13 years into their marriage. Karl Benz applied for the patent, but Bertha could not legally apply alongside him despite her financial and practical engineering contributions.

On 5 August 1888, 39-year-old Bertha Benz drove from Mannheim to Pforzheim with her sons Richard and Eugen, thirteen and fifteen years old respectively, in a Model III, without telling her husband and without permission of the authorities, thus becoming the first person to drive an automobile a significant distance.

She left Mannheim around dawn, solving numerous problems along the way. She cleaned a blocked fuel line with her hat pin and used her garter as insulation material. A blacksmith had to help mend a chain at one point. When the wooden brakes began to fail, Benz visited a cobbler to install leather, making the world’s first pair of brake linings. An evaporative cooling system was employed to cool the engine, making water supply a big worry along the trip. The trio added water to their supply every time they stopped. The car’s two gears were not enough to surmount uphill inclines and Eugen and Richard often had to push the vehicle up steep roads. Benz reached Pforzheim somewhat after dusk, notifying her husband of her successful journey by telegram. She drove back to Mannheim several days later.

In 1926, Benz & Cie. merged with Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach’s company to form Daimler-Benz, which became home to the Mercedes-Benz.

Bertha Benz

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Here’s a little Tuba Skinny. Enjoy the day…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZdMxFiUf9Q

August 4, 1693 is the date traditionally ascribed to Dom Perignon’s invention of champagne. He was a French Benedictine monk who made important contributions to the production and quality of champagne wine in an era when the region’s wines were predominantly still red.

The famous champagne Dom Pérignon, the prestige cuvée of winery Moët & Chandon, is named after him. The remains of the monastery where he spent his adult life are now the property of that winery.

Statue of Dom Pérignon at Moët & Chandon

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Once upon a time…

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CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS!!

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Here’s CHER… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n3A_-HRFfc

On this day in 1900, the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company was founded by…Harvey Firestone. The family name was originally Feuerstein (German for flint or firestone); Nicholas Feuerstein, Firestone’s paternal ancestor, immigrated from Alsace in 1752.

The company originally producing solid rubber side-wire tires for fire apparatus. The company later expanded to manufacture pneumatic tires for wagons, carriages, and other wheeled vehicles of the time. Recognizing the emerging market for automobile tires, Firestone was a pioneer in the mass production of tires. Harvey Firestone’s close relationship with Henry Ford helped establish Firestone as the original equipment supplier for Ford Motor Company vehicles, while also maintaining a strong presence in the replacement tire market.

In 1926, the company opened one of the world’s largest rubber plantations, extending over one million acres (1,560 sq mi; 4,050 km²), in Liberia, West Africa. In 1988, Firestone was acquired by the Japanese tire manufacturer Bridgestone, and the brand now operates as part of Bridgestone Americas, Inc.

Firestone (right) with Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, c. February 1929

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Some interesting quilts from up north…

Leaving the Dark (2018)

by Toni Major

(Ontario)

Urban Renewal (2023)

by Heather A Hager

(Ontario)

Frosty Fronds (2023)

by Margaret Sangster

(British Columbia)

Celebrate! (2024)

Joan Flett Kilpatrick

(British Columbia)

Can’t Keep Me Down (2024)

by Steph Kincade

(Nova Scotia)

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Today is the birthday, in 1961, of American double bass player Lee Rocker with The Stray Cats who spearheaded the neo-rockabilly movement of the early 1980s. They scored the 1980 UK No.9 single ‘Runaway Boys’, and the 1983 US No.3 single ‘Stray Cat Strut’. The Stray Cats sold nearly 10 million albums. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEtbfzMLVWU

Today is the birthday, in 1980, of Harry Potter. He is the protagonist of a series of seven novels which chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, among others, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Potter was an English half-blood wizard, and one of the most famous wizards of modern times. The only child and son of James and Lily Potter (née Evans), Harry’s birth was overshadowed by a prophecy, naming either himself or Neville Longbottom as the one with the power to vanquish his arch-enemy, Lord Voldemort, the most powerful and feared Dark wizard in the world.

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Signage…

Today is the birthday, in 1963, of Norman Cook also known by his stage name Fatboy Slim, English DJ, musician, multi-instrumentalist and record producer/mixer who with The Housemartins had the a cappella cover version of ‘Caravan of Love’ (originally by Isley-Jasper-Isley) which was a UK No.1 single. He was a member of Beats International who had the 1990 UK No.1 ‘Dub Be Good To Me’). Freak Power, who scored the hit ‘Turn On Tune In Cop Out’ and as as Fatboy Slim, had the 1999 UK No.1 single ‘Praise You’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCDIYvFmgW8

On this day in 1729, the General Assembly of Maryland passed an Act creating the Town of Baltimore on the north bank of the Patapsco River. Surveyors began laying out the town on January 12, 1730. By 1752 the town had just 27 homes, including a church and two taverns. Jonestown and Fells Point had been settled to the east. The three settlements, covering 60 acres (24 ha), became a commercial hub, and in 1768 were designated as the county seat.

Baltimore grew swiftly in the 18th century, its plantations producing grain and tobacco for sugar-producing colonies in the Caribbean. The profit from sugar encouraged the cultivation of cane in the Caribbean and the importation of food by planters there.

Baltimore established its public market system in 1763. Lexington Market, founded in 1782, is one of the oldest continuously operating public markets in the United States today. In 1774, Baltimore established the first post office system in what became the United States, and the first water company chartered in the newly independent nation, Baltimore Water Company, 1792. Baltimore, Jonestown, and Fells Point were incorporated as the City of Baltimore in 1796–1797.

The British bombardment of Baltimore in 1814 inspired the U.S. national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner”. The construction of the federally funded National Road, which later became part of U.S. Route 40, and the private Baltimore and Ohio Railroad made Baltimore a major shipping and manufacturing center by linking the city with major markets in the Midwest.

A panoramic view of Baltimore in September 2016, including the Inner and Outer Harbors at dusk

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Nothing to add here…

Today is the birthday, in 1944, of Jamaican ska and reggae musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer Jimmy Cliff who had the 1969 UK No.6 & US No.25 single ‘Wonderful World Beautiful People’, and the 1970 UK No.8 hit with his version of Cat Stevens’ ‘Wild World’. He starred in the film The Harder They Come, which helped popularize reggae across the world. He died of pneumonia on 24 November 2025 at the age of 81. At the time of his death, he was the only living reggae musician to hold the Order of Merit, the highest honor that can be granted by the Jamaican government for achievements in the arts and sciences. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrHxhQPOO2c