UK 2023 - Car Boot Sale

On the ground in the wild north of England.  After sleeping like the dead for about ten hours we got up and started getting organized.

High on the list was an expedition to the Hexham Car Boot Sale.  A "boot" in this context means the trunk of your car, but practically speaking this is a big ol' flea market.  Just the place to pick up an extra jacket and a book or two at bargain prices.  Things that can be left behind at the end of the trip.  And of course it is a cultural experience.  I go there to understand the UK.  Sometimes it just raises more questions....

A disturbing unicorn in nappies.

Some sort of ape.  Boot sales have a lot of stuff that came there from overseas.  Some in times of Empire, some on more recent holidays.

One that got away.  My wife and I both thought that a "Windy Knickers" game sounded interesting.  But I said we did not have cargo space to take such nonsense home.  We walked on, but realized in a minute or two that it could be inflicted on one of my digging friends.  Alas, we went back and it had been snatched up.

As the old saying goes.  US and UK.  Two nations divided by a common languages...

The boot sale can either be held in open air or, when the weather is moist, inside the big building used for sheep and cattle sales.  There are stalls.  Literal stalls.  And sawdust on the floor.

Don't know.  Don't want to know.  The Rainbow beanie makes me wonder about this one.

Perhaps poor Boris is about to launch another career.

Weather permitting, excavations start in the morning.

Up and Away.....

Off to England.  Days in the trenches, nights in the pub.  Once I get settled posting should be frequent as the excavations are looking very tasty this year.

At the Movies in Old Chippewa

Last week I gave a program for our local Community Education folks.  The topic was "Historic Movie Theaters of Chippewa Falls".  

Because I'm easily bored doing things the normal way I asked if we could have the program in the current, modern movie theater....complete with concessions, popcorn and a couple of 1915 silent movies featuring a local lad made good.

No problem.....they pretty much let me do anything that I think is entertaining.  To myself mostly but we did have a full house.  The theater folks had to make extra pizzas.

I freely admit when my expertise is dubious.  Heck I didn't even want to research this subject but sometimes you stumble across things while doing other research.  And when you do, well its your obligation to do something with it.  I liken it to being out on a walk, encountering a cute but mangy stray dog.  You stop to scratch its ears and it will follow you home and become your responsibility.

And sure enough, others knew things.  When I mentioned that there was one historic theater where I had been unable to locate a single photo.....a white haired chap with a big envelope came forward and showed me this:

Darn it all, this ties in neatly with small scraps of info I'd run across earlier.  And leads off into a whole bunch of other material.  Another cute, mangy dog follows me home.  I'll be doing an extensive update on this establishment and its interesting neighborhood in the future.

Tree Shaped Tombstone - Sands through the Hourglass in Savannah Georgia.

A tip of the cap to Mardy for this Tree Shaped Tombstone from Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah Georgia.

Side view is fairly standard although what a wealth of Southern foliage and great monuments for a back drop.  Nice obelisk in particular.

But it is the fine details that make these fun.

Lilies, ferns, drapes, the name in cursive and....an hour glass!  While certainly a classic image of the impermanence of life I've never seen one on a Tree before.

The Robots Stand Down

It's been an excellent FIRST robotics season.  Oh, it had moments of stress, that's always going to be the case.  But the team worked hard, built a good robot and laid down a solid foundation for next season.  Here's a few lighter moments from the season and a recent wrap up/tidy up session.

For most teams CAD means Computer Assisted Design.  This year we did a lot with just plain wooden prototyping.  Cedar Assisted Design.

This was the Year of the Goat.  Other critters also showed up so our pit area became a menagerie.

One team that we ran across at tournament time had a Dinosaur theme going.  This was one of their scouting team so I'm still sticking with my No More Mascots promise.

Because our build sessions were right after school there was a real temptation to eat snacks in the work areas.  Eventually we had to ban goodies because cleaning up after work was hard enough without crumbs.  I guess it must be a problem for the school in general because after our season ended this sign turned up.  It should be persuasive.  I sure would not want to receive a 6th grader to take home.

The robots have bumpers which are made from foam "pool noodles" covered with fabric.  Pool noodles of course are very tempting items.  Kids just want to bop each other with them.  At our last tidy up session I said what the heck, go for it.

Although we have build space in the middle school our team is mostly high school students.  We usually do bring up a few 8th graders to the "big club".  So every year after the competition season is over we have these kids bring the robot to middle school lunch hour.  It is a chance for them to show off for their friends.  Some of their friends are Silly People.

One Hundred Candles

Well we actually only went with ten, but it was my father in law's 100th birthday.

Even with multiple tries he was only able to blow out nine of them.

I guess for this birthday you get what you want.  I was not able to arrange for him to roar around town on a Harley, but a meal from the local German restaurant including pig's knuckles and a beer was no problem.

A couple of his grandsons who made a considerable journey to be there.

He looks pretty good in the above picture.  All three of them do actually.  But here's the look before a much needed haircut.  The hand grenade he's holding is inert, and has been sitting on his desk for decades.

One hundred years old.  Not something most of us will see.

Squawking

When we were on the road recently we found ourselves in Gaylord Michigan.  Like many small towns in this part of the world it has some really nice brewpubs.  We were relaxing from our travels, enjoying pizza and a pint, when we heard the most puzzling screech/squawk noises coming from outside.

Soon after a party of four sat down with three brilliantly colored parrots.

After a bit I wandered over and told them that while tropical birds were on our list of possible sources of the noise they were not in the top three.  They asked if I wanted to hold one of them.  The birds that is, not one of the humans.

At first I declined.  I got mildly trampled by a camel once and regard exotic species with suspicion.  But I changed my mind.  When you get a chance to have your picture taken in ridiculous circumstances, always go for it.

Staring into beady eyes and while worrying about a gigantic beak is a bit disconcerting.

I think that's why the bird looked away.

Gamboling

I find it whimsical that words on occasion sound like their meaning.  Plod for instance.  A slow, tedious word.  Perhaps that one is cheating because it is thought to be an "imitative" word, one inspired by the sound of slow, tired, heavy footsteps.

And then there is gambol.  It sounds peppier even if - and this is too common in the young of this age - it is not a word you use or even know.

I was thinking of it recently when watching deer leap about happily as the deep drifts melted up north.  

Gambol connects to two other words...gammon and the rather gangster talk sounding "gams".

Gammon is the oldest of these words.  It is French, known to be in use in the 13th century.  It means ham, or the haunch of a swine.  As these things do it wanders in from Late Latin when everyone got sloppy with words including gamba meaning leg.  The word has kept its original sense, at least in northern England, where "gammon steak" is a common menu item and gets you a nice slab of ham.

Once you establish that all this originates as a word for leg it makes sense.

Gambol, from the 1590's, means to leap about on your legs.  And "Gams" while sounding like a modern invention dates back to the late 1700's.  It was low slang even then, so its more specific meaning as the shapely legs of a dame while modern is certainly in character.

Alas, I was not able to link gambol with either Sam Gamgee or Gamera.  You can't win 'em all.

Tree Shaped Tombstones - Chain and Spikes

I'm getting ready for England, so no better time to publish a couple of  UK "Tree Shaped Tombstone" images sent to me by roving correspondent "Chris J."  Thanks, Chris!

I'm not sure exactly where these were taken but the style "Rustic Cross" is what you generally find in Old World monuments of this class.  The "Rock of Ages" base is also typical.

Naturally I can't look at any photo without wondering about things.  This next one for instance.  Having posts around the perimeter of a grave is common, although often they mark out a larger family plot with several graves within.  But what was the purpose of the chain and spikes?  

I suppose it is metaphorical, just a symbolic way to separate the lands of the quick and the dead.  It seems a bit excessive for instance if it was a practical measure to keep a Grieving Maiden from sobbing on the slab in an embarrassing fashion.  And if you wanted to keep your Disgruntled Business Partners from dancing on your grave well, they'd stand at the foot of it, ponder a moment or two and come up with an even worse option......

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Addendum: Highgate Cemetery, London.

A Geocache Mystery

The spring thaw.  Time to get out and check up on all the geocaches I have placed.  Most of them are fine.  A few got a bit soggy.  And one of them, well its a mystery.

I won't say which cache it was or where it is hidden.  But suffice it to say that it is a pretty popular cache and a very devious hide.  I've had experienced seekers stare directly at it and not figure it out for a while.

But recently there was an odd development.  Somebody "found" it but said it was down on the ground.  And their description of it was nothing like the container I had so carefully built and hidden.  Helpfully they put it where they thought it belonged and I was able to retrieve it.  And here it is:

That's not my geocache.  It is an older one that used to be at the same location but was "archived".  This basically means the person who placed it can't maintain it any more, often due to moving out of the area or some such.  My geocache was gone....but this one which apparently was active between 2010 and 2014 was lying on the ground nearby.  Notice how old and beat up the log is.  It might actually go back farther than 2010.

I don't know what happened here.  The general area where my cache was does get Christmas lights draped over it in the winter so just maybe it got knocked loose then.  But how is there a 9 years out of date cache just sitting there apparently undetected until now by quite a few people who have stared intently at this spot?

It's a mystery.

Will the Real Jacob Leinenkugel please Raise his Glass......

OK, nobody every convinces anybody of anything on the Internet.  But I've been in a couple of "discussions" in the last six months that have to do with this photo:

Not much to get excited about really, its just two guys in sort of matching caps, work shirts and boots enjoying a beer.  This has been put forward as being a picture of Jacob Leinenkugel and his business partner John Miller.

I am highly skeptical of this identification but as this has appeared in various publications and seemingly is even accepted by the Leinenkugel family it has become "true".  So lets dig in and do a bit of historical detective work.

Without question the brewery was established in Chippewa Falls in 1867.  Leinenkugel bought out Miller in 1884, and while it is in theory possible that they could still be drinking buddies after that date it seems unlikely.

Jacob Leinenkugel was, to put it plainly, a stout fellow.  Here is an unquestioned photo of the man with his family.  Based on the known birthdate of his oldest son this would appear to have been taken in the late 1870's and so contemporary with his partnership with Miller.

I am by no means convinced that the sturdy guy in the first picture is the same fellow shown in the very stern second one.  He looks many years younger and many pounds lighter.  One other photo purporting to be of the Leinenkugel's brewery at an uncertain "late 19th century" date looks like this:

It is not that helpful.  There are several portly men shown.  Usually the owner/brewmaster would be featured in the front row and examining a glass of the goods, so perhaps we have old Jacob sitting on the front step.  He has a mustache in this photo and I'd say looks very little like our guy in the first image.  He's a lot heavier for one thing.

So, could the first picture show Leinenkugel and Miller early in their association?  Say in the late 1860's?  There is a huge problem with that theory.  The beer bottle.

It is made of clear glass.  With the clarity of the shirt showing through this well I can't even claim it was aqua.  And prior to 1900 beer bottles were never made of clear glass.  In fact, in the 1867-1884 time frame we are considering, the majority of beer was sold in kegs and bottles were uncommon.  Most beer bottled in the 1860's and 1870's was put up in squat pottery bottles.  With improved mold making and better transportation methods glass bottles started to be used in large numbers in the 1880's, but most were amber or aqua.  The manufacture of glass involves melting down sand.  This always contains impurities that make a clear color impossible unless you add certain chemicals to it.  This expensive trick has been known since ancient times but would be used for specialty items like perfume bottles and drinking glasses.  Besides, colored bottles kept light away from your beer and helped it remain stable longer.  This got better when Pasteurization and modern refrigeration came along, also in the 1880's time frame except perhaps for a few very large breweries that adopted new technologies earlier.

The shape of the bottle is also a tell.  My best match from a published source would be along the lines of this page from a 1906 catalog:

They offered these in green, amber or "flint" which meant clear.  Note the fairly straight shoulders on the specimen in lower right.  The top was offered in either the delicate "blob" shown, which nested a porcelain stopper, or a crown top which is the kind you've all taken off with a bottle opener.  The photo could be of either.  When you ordered these you could spend a bit extra and have your name embossed on the merch but this was optional.  Here is one of the earlier Leinenkugel bottles to have the company name embossed.  Definitely post 1900.  This one is amber but it also comes in aqua.  Not clear glass even by this circa 1910 date.

So having gone on at considerable length I will wrap up by saying the photo purporting to be Leinenkugel and Miller does not strike me as plausible.  The partnership was in an era when a bottle like that was 20 years in the future.  And comparing it to both the known photo of Jacob Leinenkugel and the probable one.....I can't make the first one work.  Furthermore, brewers were generally businesspeople of some prominence in their communities.  Both the guys in photo number one are wearing caps and plaid shirts typical of working men.  The boots they both have on suggest lumberjack to me but I have no particular way to explain this theory.

So who were they?  The quality of this photo is much better than most of what you see pre 1900, and frankly looks like a posed studio view.  In the era before widespread adoption of "Kodaks" you could not snap a photo just anywhere.  A couple of lumberjacks circa 1905 down from the woods for a good time might have stopped in at a studio.  And how did the picture get labeled as being a couple of local beer magnates from say, 1870?  Not a clue, but once a thing like that gets accepted as True it is very hard to undo this.

My opinions on what beer bottles looked like in that era is informed by a hobby of my younger days.  My brother and I used to dig for old bottles.  Between broken and intact ones I've seen thousands dating from 1850 to last week!  Trust me on this, the bottle shown in photo number one does not fit the dates of the Leinenkugel Miller partnership.  In fact with old Jacob dying in 1899 it probably was not a type he ever saw in this life.  We can however hope that beer is to be had in abundance in the next one.

Post script.  Although the catalog bottle I show above is a fair fit (super nerd level fact it may show a Baltimore loop stopper circa 1900) if you want a better one here's a 1908 bottle from the Fred Miller Brewing company of Milwaukee.  Miller is a very common German name so I don't think there is any extra help here, but 1908 for this style bottle is about right.  And even this one is aqua not clear, but just maybe you could see through it that well when it was new....

FIRST Robotics - In the Pits

As I am no longer really necessary for the strategy, tactics or logistics of the team at tournaments I mostly wander around looking for things of interest.  They are abundant.

This is Illumiboti a team with a Dark Cult motif.  They are actually very nice people from over on the other side of the state.

Yes I know, my obsession with mascots is weird.  Side note, a FIRST robotics tournament is one of the few places you can wear a vintage tux with tails and nobody, I mean nobody, even notices.

There was a team there called the Flaming Squirrels.  They have been around for a long time so I don't fault the students I asked for not knowing where the name originated.  But I also asked a grey haired coach and he just mumbled something about it being "before my time......".

Bring me the head of Chilly Willy the Penguin.  OK, I promise, no more mascots.

Cartoon art for the end of the day is a long standing team tradition.  Here we close up the pit for the night.  The goat is a new addition for 2023.

I mentioned last time that we were invited to step up to join the number 4 Alliance.  Well the invite came from the Alliance captain, those black robed (but as I said very nice) cultists.  They loaned our driver a robe for the occasion.  At my age I admit to getting a bit creeped out by this image.  I've known this student for 6 years now.  And that smile conveys the sort of cheerful menace that I'm quite sure I'll see when the genuine Grim Reaper comes for me...........

FIRST Robotics Follow Up - the 2023 Campaign ends.

We had a very good tournament down in Lacrosse over the weekend.  Our highest ranking finish ever (8th out of 54 teams) and with the usual sequence of final round picks ended up as the number 6 alliance captain, also our highest finish ever.  Then we were offered a spot on the number four alliance.  A considerable honor, we accepted at once.

We played well, I'd say more than holding up our end of things but in the end a double elimination format is pretty tough when you are essentially the fourth best alliance competing in the final rounds.  Here we are pulling out a nail biter of a win before being eliminated a few matches later.  We are team 5826 and are in red for this match.

Everyone came home tired and happy with what we've accomplished this year.  Really it is quite remarkable to go from being a team near extinction to one that can compete at the highest level.  So far not win consistently at that level but we will have a strong team coming back next season and expect to use what we've learned to get even better.