Bygone building

London's Crystal Palace, was an enormous cast iron and glass Victorian monstrosity built for the 1851 Great Exhibition, which showcased Great Britain's industrial, economic and military might. It was moved to a new location in 1854 and eventually destroyed in a fire on November 30, 1936.

Cool computer animation of the interior and exterior here.

Proof positive

The age old question is finally answered. The Pope could not be reached for comment.

Gone to the dogs

Think your boss is doggone awful? How about this guy? He barks at everyone, and never throws his employees a bone.

Tea Time

CrackedPot and a friend spent a lovely afternoon pampering ourselves at a tea room, where we sampled various tea blends from delicate porcelain teacups and nibbled on scrumptious desserts. While prowling the tea room, which was jammed with various types of teapots for sale, CrackedPot found herself.

Someone please think of the children!

The original episodes of Sesame Street from the early 1970's are now available on DVD. They come with warnings that they are not suitable for children. Because, goodness knows, this might traumatize today's child. And look what poor Cookie Monster has been reduced to these days; he's now Organic Produce Monster Blue Fuzzy Puppet. If Jim Henson were still alive he'd likely be horrified.

Avoiding Black Friday

Although tradition has it that Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year, this isn't necessarily so. Nevertheless, the thought of all those bargain crazed crowds and the ensuing melee doesn't appeal to CrackedPot who won't be venturing near any stores this day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

If Norman Rockwell had been a redneck.

Turkey wrestling

CrackedPot had a similar experience with a turkey years ago, only the slippery bas bird kept ending up on the floor...along with CrackedPot. Since then, CrackedPot has preferred Cornish Game hens; they're much easier to manage.

More turkey commercials here, here and here.

Would you like fries with your order?

McDonald's sold its 50 billionth burger on November 20, 1984. Presumably it tasted just as bland as the previous 49,999,999,999 burgers.

CrackedPot dined as a child at the original McDonald's, pictured above left, which was located in San Bernardino, California. It has since been torn down. Corporate McDonald's doesn't really explain its existence, and instead claims the first McDonald's was built by Ray Kroc in Des Plaines, Illinois in 1955, a full 15 years after Dick and Mac MacDonald began serving up burgers. Ray Kroc built the empire, but it all started with a little hamburger stand in California.

Caffeine crisis

Not being a coffee drinker, CrackedPot, (who prefers tea, and caffeine free herbal teas at that), has never set foot in a Starbucks. Sugar³ is a big coffee drinker, but prefers to brew his own at home. We may be the only two people in the country who have never been to Starbucks. But Starbucks has apparently reached the saturation point. After growing like gangbusters for the past few years, the company reported huge losses for the third quarter.

More Mobius

August Ferdinand Mobius was born on November 17, 1790. He is best known for his co-discovery of the Mobius strip and as a pioneer in Topology, which Sugar³ is studying at present.

If you haven't already, check out yesterday's post featuring a cool video of Mobius Transformations.

Pretty math

Sugar³ often discusses Mobius Transformations but CrackedPot found them hard to visualize. This video not only shows how it works, but makes it beautiful.

Monet boats

Claude Monet, pictured right, was born on November 14, 1840. His Water Lilies (scroll down) are ubiquitous, but CrackedPot's favorite Monet paintings are the ones with boats,especially sailboats.

Far Side Favorite

Pictured is CrackedPot's favorite Far Side cartoon. I gave Sugar³ a boneless chicken ranch t-shirt for his birthday that he wore for years until it literally fell apart. Now it's a boat rag, so at least I get to chuckle when swabbing the decks.

Honoring those who served

See past Veteran's Day posters here. You may need to scroll down a little.

History of Veteran's Day here and here.

The President's 2007 Veteran's Day proclamation here.

Disclaimer: CrackedPot didn't have access to a computer yesterday, but wanted to post this anyway.

Happy 232nd Birthday USMC!

Semper Fi.

Ghost Ship

The Mary Celeste set sail from Staten Island, New York on November 7, 1872. She was later found abandoned near the Straits of Gibralter, and passed into history as a legendary ghost ship. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a fictionalized account of her abandonment that over the years came to be regarded as fact.

Dreamboat vs. reality

Someday CrackedPot and Sugar³ would like to own one of these. Here's an older 1979 Cabo Rico for sale with some nice pictures.

And here's what we have now. A 1974 Grampian 26.

Candy conundrum

Overheard from a trick-or-treater on Halloween, "If I eat these, does that make me a cannibal?"

A classic beauty

The boat pictured right is a scale model of "Columbia" the 1901 winner of the America's Cup. She also captured the cup in 1899, becoming the first America's Cup winner to defend a title. Columbia was designed and built by Nathaniel Herreshoff, one of America's greatest yacht makers.

The classic lines of Columbia and her sisters are much prettier than these ugly things.

The Father of Frozen Foods

Thanks to inventor Clarence Birdseye we can have DiGiorno instead of delivery.

The photo of Mr. Birdseye in the bio looks like a Norman Rockwell painting.

The "Flying Lumberyard"

Howard Hughes flew his Spruce Goose sixty years ago today. Disney Corporation took quite a drubbing from the local public, press and politicians when they evicted the Goose from its home in Long Beach, CA in the early 1990's. Fortunately the Goose found a new home. The last CrackedPot heard, the huge custom built hangar in Long Beach was being used as a soundstage for filming TV shows and movies. More on Hughes here, and movies of the Goose here.

Weather or not

In 1870, the U.S. Weather Bureau made its first meteorological observations. They were probably wrong.

In Southern California, where there really isn't any weather to speak of most of the time, tv weatherpeople find a multitude of ways to say, "Sunny with a light breeze," and then move on to spend most of their weather segments describing the smog levels and the earthquake reports. Really.