Fruit Brute it ain't.

Just a quick one tonight, long, long day. My head is fudge and I spent the day repeating myself.

So Mr.Moonbird is a mascot of sorts for Sugar Jets Cereal. A late 50's General Mills cereal that hung around till the mid 60's. It was one of those puffed rice types dipped in sugar. I was just at the grocery store and bought some Lucky Charms in an attempt to buy the sugary-ist stuff I could find. I wonder how the ingredients compare? Me thinks Sugar Jets were heavy on the syrup.

So, other mascots for this delightful food were Johnny Jet (yeah) and Googol the Alien. Of course the responsible sobering adult figure is some guy named Major Jet the Space Pilot.

Let me think here, was marketing (again) on a word budget? Couldn't the major have a lousy name even? Ted would have worked, only 3 letters.

Doesn't sound very good in the bowl . . .

The 60's saw the release by General Mills of Clackers, a breakfast cereal that was a spoon size gear shape with a hole in the middle. Supposedly it was graham cracker flavoured also, but not surprisingly, it was on the sweet side. For the first 2 reasons alone I could get into this cereal. Graham flavoured car parts, sounds delicious.

Now any poking around on the Internet I did mainly turned up the above brief description and then alot of moaning about their goofy TV ad's. Seems the script for every ad was pretty much a cliche scene with the obvious being replaced by a box of Clackers. Don't see what's so irritating about that. Sounds like any reality show really.

They had nifty toys in each box though. Like Wacky Racers (a la Penelope Pitstop and Compact Pussycat), or the Clacker Quacker, a particularly annoying plastic flute thing.

Tomorrow we will lift the lid on the Sugar Jets and Mr. Moonbird. Seriously.

3 Muskateers

I was gently reminded by a reader to cough up the names of the Cinnamon Toast Crunch bakers. Wendell, Bob and Quello.

Really big shoe, really big . . .

Seems like January 27th was a big day in history, so big in fact, I gotta write about it. So, let's get going.

Lessee, first we have on this day in 1948, Wire Recording Corporation of America came up with the first magnetic wire recorder called the Wireway.

1926 saw that wiley Scotsman, John Logie Baird, demonstrate the first television. First golf, now this. Shudder.

In 1964 DuPont invented Corfam. Don't remember? Neither does ANYONE else. It was fake leather. Good business move in a world awash with the real item. And the name, Corfam, c'mon.

That scallywag, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, was born this day in 1832. Better known as Lewis Carroll. Mathematician, and yes, writer.

And who can forget that in on January 27 1918, the Finnish civil war started?

And that really cool plane above, that's a Lockheed P-38 Lightning, first flown on this day in 1939.

Curse you Red Baron

So here's where you get the idea that the marketing department live in a camper in the parking lot out by the back gate. Anyways, today's cereal of note is something called Baron Von Redberry, a General Mills offering from 1972.

The idea was to make taste like fruit punch and quite possibly look like it too. Sorry, I was never lucky enough to have generous enough parents to actually pony up for a box of this stuff.

It was an oat-ish cereal with flavoured dried marshmallow fruit things (my favourite cereal add 0n by the way). people who have tried these cereals claim they had a strong fake fruit smell to them in the bowl. But hey, the weird marshmallows dyed the milk red!

If you are curious, the Baron had enemies. His name was Sir Grapefellow and he touted essentially the same damn cereal except it was grape flavoured. Now that sounds harsh. But again, you get nifty purple milk.

No doubt they were aimed at Post's Frankenberry and Count Chockula. What a war!

Hey, do you know the names of the three bakers from Cinnamon Toast Crunch? Come by tomorrow and I'll tell you.

"Pim! Pum! Pam!"

This post begins a series on that morning favourite, cereal. I was originally going to go with a general run up to modern times like I usually do, but became totally locked on the history of Rice Krispies. That gave me the idea to pick a few good looking cereals and go find out what's up with them.

In digging into the background of this food there sure are some damn weird varieties out there. And some pretty messed up ideas (the part I like) of what some crazy ass marketing department thought we'd like to eat.

So, Rice Krispies. Brought by Kellogg's in 1928, they have remained virtually unchanged for over 80 years. Breakfast cereals came from a more scientific background (more on that in a later post), but Krispies were conceived to be just plain fun and yummy, and they're called Rice Bubbles in Australia, hilarious.

Not all was a good time for the Rice Krispie. The banana flavoured version, Banana Krispie's (or Banana Bubbles) didn't fly and was let go in the 90's after a short run. Razzle Dazzle Rice Krispies was another early 90's flop. They were apparently sugar coated. That had to be hard to do, and they must have been sweet. That's OK though. There is a multi grain (!) version sold in the UK.

And, oh yeah, today's blog title is Snap, Crackle, Pop in Spanish.

Have a nice day.

runs on anything.

Sometime around January 21, 1954, Chrysler introduced an automobile powered by a gas turbine engine. The car was a standard Plymouth sedan of the day with the old engine yanked and the jet engine put in. When an engine like this is used, the burning fuel, which causes the turbine to spin, is partially recovered so as not to set fire to things. The cars drive train is connected to above mentioned spinning turbine, thus moving it about.

The idea of harnessing the spinning gas turbines power was very tempting to engineers. All they had to do was get the rotating turbine down to car size and deal with the 1700 degrees F exhaust.

Chrysler's little Plymouth came out with little fanfare. The following year saw the machine embark on a cross country trip to promote the technology and give the thing a good shakedown.

The company was serious about giving it a go. The original 1954 power plant was redesigned many times and by the early 60's they had got the kinks worked out. In 1961 they unveiled the Turboflite, a futuristic model with amazingly up to date lines (for 2009!). It had a very Japanese tuner styled spoiler and a molded roof/cabin they gave it a mean, aggressive look. They never built any though.

It took a shakeup at Chrysler and the hiring of Ford's old designer, Elwood P. Engel to move the project into near reality. With his design skill and the Ghia automobile plant in Turin Italy, they produced a new, half decent looking car that they were to take on the road for an extended real world test starting in 1963. Why the Christ they had to build the thing in Italy is beyond me. You'd think they had a spare Assembly line stateside.

The program limped along through the 60's and 70's with various body designs, including an early version of the Dodge Charger, but the company opted for a conventional power plant.

GM had it's hand in gas turbine powered cars too with 3 different Firebirds. The series were show cars developed for the Motorama Auto shows and were featured in the 1953, 56 and 59 shows. The brainchild of Harley Earl, the vehicles were definitely not dumpy sedans. In fact the first one, built in 1953, looked like a jet on a wheeled dolly. The 2 other prototypes were super slick looking too, but they at least looked more like a car.

The 1956 and 59 models had titanium bodies, disc brakes and a rudimentary guidance system that allowed the car to follow wires embedded in the street.

That's the Firebird on the left.

We'll see what 2009 brings to these 2 companies, hmmm?

Where's Waldo?

So I'm finally fed up with heading each post with "well this guy just died and he did some neat things so I think it's a good idea you know about it". I thought that while I prepare for another obsession I'd deal with some folks who are already dead and spare everyone the grief.

So . . . . . lets spend a moment getting to know Alexander Humphreys Woollcott. Writer and critic for the New Yorker magazine and general sharp tonged wit who had a knack for for getting laughs and pissing people off. He was a member of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of New York writers who met to have lunch at the Algonquin Hotel. They just hung out and traded lines and story ideas. The result was a weird think tank for high functioning, slightly snooty artsy critics.

Born in 1887, Aleck, as he liked to be called, started life in a former commune. His first home was something called the North American Phalanx, a huge rambling 80+ room house that had been the centre of the Phalanx movement. It dissolved in the 1850's and his grandparents took over the home.

His family loved books and from an early age he knew writing was going to earn his living. Not having alot of money when he was in his youth was a problem, but with the help of the family doctor he was able to attend university and start his career as a critic.

By the 1920's he was drama critic for the New York times. His reviews seemed to be either gushing or crushing. Some theatres banned him outright from reviewing their productions.

He moved into radio in 1928 with ease and found a ready audience. Listeners perhaps, who were a little tired of reading his wordy articles. He hosted shows like The Early Bookworm and the Town Crier.

He is most remembered for his quotes "Seven suburbs in search of a city" in describing Los Angeles or "There is absolutely nothing wrong with Oscar Levant that a miracle can't fix." Or his famous review of a play that was simply one word "Ouch".

Dorothy Parker had a name for his apartment on east 52nd Street. She called it the Wits End.

Danger! Will Robinson.

Holy crap it seems that the last six weeks has some special people passing. This one is especially dear to me. You may remember last year I ran a series on robots where I followed the development from the beginning ( I think) to the present time. I only tried to focus on the classic robots and I can't believe I missed this one.

Bob May, actor and stuntman and the guy in the robot on Lost In Space has died. Born straight into show business he was acting (well kind of )as the ripe age of 2 when his grandfather brought him into his vaudeville act.

As he grew up he played the dance halls, clubs and a stint on Broadway in the cast of the hit LIFE WITH FATHER. He toured with the USO. He soon turned to film. He appeared in 9 Jerry Lewis films and had guest spots on the hit TV shows of the day like McHales Navy and the Red Skelton Show.

When he wasn't acting he was doing stunt work for westerns and action films. He got the job as the robot mainly because he was there when they needed a guy in the robot and, more importantly, he fit the damn thing.

He was 69.

50 mo

So nobody significant died in the last 24 hours, might be a good time to celebrate Motown's 50th. It was the week of January 12th, 1958 that Berry Gordy Jr. founded Tamla records on less than a thousand dollars. The sound he was to inspire became known as Motown, short for Motor Town, recognizing the influence the automobile making industry had on Detroit.

The hits that came out of Motown crossed a huge cultural divide with black and white youth dancing and romancing to the steady stream of pop, soul, r&b and ballads.

Can anyone not get down with these tunes?

- Stop! In the Name of Love - The Supremes. produced by his house gang, Holland-Dozier-Holland and backed by The Funk Brothers.

- The Tracks of My Tears - Smokey Robinson

- Reach Out I'll Be There - The Four Tops

- War -Edwin Starr version (not the Temptations one)

and finally the ultra smooth What's Going On by Marvin Gaye.

Get down. Pictured above is an early Funk Brothers lineup.

rough day

So here's a big hit for network TV classics fans. Ricardo Montalban died today at 88. Known for the role of Mr. Roarke on the series Fantasy Island, Montalban got his start in his native Mexico on stage and film.

Hollywood called in the late forties and he earned his wages in a variety of "ethnic" roles, often as Asians, Native Americans or as Khan Noonien Singh, first in the original Star Trek series in 1967 and later in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan.

His portfolio included stints as diverse as Dora the Explorer (makes sense) and Freakaziod (what?)

And, for cult TV fans its sad to say Patrick McGoohan died too. Yesterday actually, he was 80. Irish born McGoohan like many started on the stage. After turning to film he landed the starring role in Danger Man, a UK hit spy series.

he grew tired of the role and pitched the series that was to become The Prisoner. It was his baby. He wrote, produced, directed and starred as the character simply call Number 6.

Stamp collector

So with the news that Bernard Madoff mailed his family jewelery to the tune of a million smackers one gets the feeling that he's preparing for a move in the near future. The architect of a 50 Billion Ponzi scheme, bigger than the GDP of a third of the world's countries, is settling in for a battle.

So where did he get the idea anyway? From Charles Ponzi, an Italian immigrant who arrived on our shores in 1903. Not knowing what to do and having no special desire to get a crappy job he looked around for a way to make some bucks. He didn't have the people skills for customer service and got too many customers pissed off by either shorting them on goods (or cash) or by just plain old lying. He did a bit of time for forged checks and when he got out put his mind to a lazy way to riches.

He discovered there was money to be made with international reply coupons, or chits that could be turned in for postage stamps. These were commonly used in foreign mail when the sender wanted a reply. The idea was the recipient would cash in the chit for return postage and the sender was sure of a nice friendly letter back. The money to be made involved the difference in postage between some countries. Stamps could be bought and exchanged for higher value ones.

This was not going to make Ponzi his fortune but for a while he made amodest living. He decided to recruit more people into the scheme, the idea being that with hundreds, maybe thousands of stamp trading transactions he could really rake it in. But his dishonest streak looked a little beyond this. His new "recruits" bought into the "business" for a flat fee with a promise of doubling their money in six months. So many people thought it was an amazing deal that he was swamped with investors.

Trouble is, no one was selling postage stamps. He was paying out his investors with the money he raised from new subscriptions. So popular was his scheme it is estimated he did 4-5 million dollars a month.

Money like that will draw the feds to have a look. Actually it was Clarence Barron, the Wall Street Journal owner who smelled a rat. He used his newspaper and power to uncover the truth and shut him down. Oddly enough many of Ponzi's biggest supporters when he went to jail were his former investors, who hailed him as a financial wizard.

this ought to sell

John Stringfellow, yet another British inventor, came from the weaving and textile industry. He had a fondness for steam engines, who doesn't? and together with his partners had the distinction of forming the worlds first airline in 1848. Now they had no airplane, and if they did it would run on steam, so when they rolled out the idea to investors it kind of stunk the place out.

Sadly, his designs were good. Proven by the fact that he made several very successful flights with a ten foot wingspan model in 1848! His partners had left for other parts by this time and Stringfellow was left to tinker on his own.

He and his son kept on building steam powered airplanes and just about all of them flew. He never did get to fly in one though. The machines he designed, both the dream machines like the Aerial Steam Carriage (Christ that sounds unsafe) and the actual models that flew were uncannily like modern aircraft.

turbo powered shorty

Sir Charles Algernon Parsons, developer of the steam turbine, tried his hand at many things. Oh, he was successful with the steam turbine, refining it and modifying it until it was a practical power source in increasingly power hungry industrial Britain.

Some of his ideas included a thing called an Auxetophone, a mechanical device for amplifying music. It sucked. he also came up with a method for making artificial diamonds, though not sucking never really worked. He went it this idea for over 30 years before giving up. He was on the right track but could not produce the pressures needed.

But what interests this writer is his model aircraft: a steam powered helicopter and airplane, both of which flew in 1893. He also built a steam powered go kart. Nice.

I'm behind this technology

So far I've been doing the "I told you so" showing how a few planes actually flew before the Wright brothers. This time I`m going to talk about a steam powered airplane that flew over 25 years later than their first flight.

The year is 1933, and rumblings from Europe are starting make North American`s nervous. For the Besler brothers, George and Bill, steam was on their mind. Heirs to railroad fortunes, these Princeton graduates had a thing for steam engines. They embarked on a project build a viable steam powered airplane and succeeded.

Their craft was powered by a high efficiency steam power plant that generated 90 HP and weighed just 500 pounds. With such a good power to weight ratio to start with, they felt confident it would fly. The boiler was heated with fuel oil allowing more maneuverability than coal (good Jesus). The cool thing about this engine is that it could run in both directions at the flick of a switch. This made for very short landings as the pilot could reverse the thrust to slow the plane.

The plane flew just fine for over 15 minutes at 1000 feet and landed in one piece. Maybe they were onto something. With the price of fuel do you think someone could develop a super duper steam engine and power it with cow methane maybe.

ketchup day

Yeah, yeah. Give me hell. I've been off for nearly a month. Holidays took it's toll, got a new job description and the usual craziness took over and left me too far away from my blog to even think about it. let's get back at it then.

First, the sad stuff. Just who died over the last 3 weeks that this blog takes notice of? (yeah I'm a very huggable guy).

Lessee, Ron Asheton, lead guitar player and sometimes bass player for the Stooges, found dead on his couch at 60. That was January 6th, 2009. Like the 36 inch cannon, the Stooges were not pretty and made a lot of noise. Formed in 1967 with brother Scott on drums, bassist Dave Alexander and Iggy Pop on the pipes, the Stooges got moderate airplay with songs like I Wanna Be Your Dog. Mainly they got a lot of press from their shows, as most radio stations could not find a place for their version of rock n roll.

They keep getting nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (6 times and counting) but have yet to make it. C'mon lets get 'em in there.

On the other end of the spectrum (musical that is) Dave Dee passed away on January 9th at age 65. For those of you who are going who the hell is Dave Dee, here's a clue: Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. Nothing yet? How about their monster 1968 hit Legend of Xanadu?

His real name is David Harman and with his band mates actually had a string of British hits rivalling the Beatles throughout the 60's, starting in 1965 with You make it Move and followed by Hold Tight!, Bend It! and Save Me.

And from the stage we mourn the passing of Van Johnson who died Dec 15, 2008, a true living matinee idol. Van spent more time on a stage that in films, but returned to film and television in later life with brief roles in many shows including I Love Lucy and Batman. His portrayal of Lt. Steve Maryk in the 1954 classic The Caine Mutiny was, in my opinion, his best work.

So now that everyone is all cheered up, I better move on tho some serious shit with more exploding steam airplanes.