Today is the birthday, in 1886, of Clarence Birdseye. He is considered the founder of the modern frozen food industry. He founded the frozen food company Birds Eye. One of nine children, Birdseye grew up in New York City before heading to Amherst College and began his scientific career with the U.S. government.
He matriculated at Amherst College, where his father and elder brother had earned degrees. In the summer after his freshman year, Birdseye worked for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in New Mexico and Arizona as an “assistant naturalist”, at a time when the agency was concerned with helping farmers and ranchers get rid of predators.
He worked on a project surveying animals in the American West. He also worked with entomologist Willard Van Orsdel King (1888–1970) in Montana, where, in 1910 and 1911, he captured several hundred small mammals from which King removed several thousand ticks for research, isolating them as the cause of Rocky Mountain spotted fever, a breakthrough. Birdseye’s next field assignment, intermittently from 1912 to 1915, was in Labrador in the Dominion of Newfoundland (now part of Canada), where he became further interested in food preservation by freezing, especially fast freezing.
He was taught by the Inuit how to ice fish under very thick ice. In -40 °C weather, the Inuit also demonstrated that freshly caught fish could be then instantly flash frozen when exposed to air, and when thawed, still tasted fresh. He recognized the potential that this traditional knowledge held if it were to be employed in production. His invention of the double belt fast freezer was issued US Patent #1,773,079, considered by some as the advent of flash freezing and the commercial frozen fresh foods market. Birdseye patented other machinery which cooled even more quickly. In 1927, he patented the multiplate freezing machine which was used as the basis for freezing food for several decades.
In 1929, Birdseye sold his company and patents to Goldman Sachs and the Postum Company which eventually became General Foods Corporation, when its owner, Marjorie Merriweather Post, offered him $22 million (approximately $335 million in 2021 dollars) and the vice president position after touring the facilities. General Foods founded the Birds Eye Frozen Food Company as Post pioneered the frozen fresh food market by providing commercial freezers to wholesalers and retailers.
Clarence Birdseye
A LONG BUT WORTHWHILE JOKE
So there’s this nurse, Margaret.
And the fact that she’s a nurse isn’t really relevant here, but that’s what she is so why leave it out.
She lives in Nebraska, which also isn’t all that relevant, except that it can be hard to find a good man when you live in Nebraska.
And this probably also isn’t particularly relevant but Margaret has seventeen younger sisters. Yes, seventeen. Julia, Heather, Kristen, Helene, Alexandria, Isabella, Mia, Charlotte, Harper, Evelyn, Abigail, Alice, Amara, Chloe, Eloise, Grace, and Hazel. She came from a big family there in Nebraska.
But she was the oldest, of course, and having recently graduated from nursing school there in Nebraska, she began — as young women sometimes do — to think about the less fair sex. You know. Men. And in particular Margaret, having been from such a large family, was eager to get started in the process of making her own family. She was, as they say, hoping for a baby. What’s more, her parents were pretty eager to have one as well, given that Margaret was the oldest and thus the likely first one to have a kid.
So after surveying the dating pool a bit, she landed upon Tom. Now, Tom was a farmer, as men in Nebraska often are. And he was very vigorous in that certain department that would be critical to the one particular goal of Margaret’s that we have of late discussed. But, sadly, Tom was, how do I put this, shooting blanks. As a result, Margaret sadly had to put him to the side, as she could not marry a man who couldn’t give her a family.
Back into the dating pool she went, and soon landed upon another stout man from the plains, who by chance was also named Tom. Sadly, however, this Tom could not even achieve the merits of the first Tom, as the rocket, you might say, could not even stand up on the launch pad.
So back into the dating pool she went, swearing never to date another Tom. However, as she was sitting in a bar with her seventeen sisters, lamenting not only her failure to have a child but also, for that matter, the fact that none of them had succeeded in that department, a man walked in with a rippling chest, massive shoulders, and a full head of hair. He noticed Margaret right away, and walked up to her. Soon they were talking, and he asked her out. First, though, she asked his name. Unfortunately, it was Tom. Nonetheless, after much discussion with her seventeen sisters, she went out with him. Soon enough, it was confirmed that he was capable in the department that was so important to Margaret, they married, and nine months later Margaret had a happy, bouncing baby boy.
Which only goes to show you that the third Tom’s the charm.
(Thanks, Mike)
Today is the birthday, in 1956, of American drummer Thommy Price. In 1986, he started drumming for Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and was a member of the band for more than 28 years. He also played drums in Scandal and Blue Öyster Cult, performed with Billy Idol’s band and was in an in-demand session drummer and played on albums for Debbie Harry, Roger Daltrey, the Waterboys, Ronnie Spector, Ric Ocasek, Ronnie Wood, Mink DeVille, and the Psychedelic Furs. He died on 10 October 2025 age 68. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpNw7jYkbVc
Comments