Professor Walter's History Lessons

The story of one WWII ship

2010-03-10T19:14:14-05:00

During WWII the United States was producing many ships. Each ship took an average of one week to complete and there were many shipyards working in unison on the war time project. But, what happened to these ships after the war? The Navy did not need that many ships, so quite a few were sold to the private industry. This is the story of one of those ships.

In 1944 the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp. built a US Navy standard ship type C3 named the USS Queens. Then in 1948 she was purchased by American Export Lines for use as a Mediterranean cruise ship with the new name SS Excambion (II). In 1958 she was returned to the Maritime Administration under a trade-in program. She went to the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Hudson River Group. There she sat until 1965 when she was loaned to the Texas Maritime Academy for use as a merchant marine officer training ship under the new name of USTS Texas Clipper. She remained in that service until she was intentionally sunk on November 17th 2007 to be an artificial reef.

-Professor Walter

Balls to the wall!

2010-03-09T22:55:23-05:00

In today's language the phrase "Balls to the wall" means to push the limit, to go full speed. Many believe the phase has a "dirty" connotation, but that is not the case. The phrase is actually a reference to the throttle on planes. When you wanted to accelerate, the throttle would be pushed toward the firewall. When you wanted to go as fast as possible you would push the throttle with it's ball all the way to the wall. Hence, the phrase balls to the wall was born. The first time it was used is believed to be during the Korean war, it is likely related to the phrase "balls-out" from WWII, which has the same meaning.

-Professor Walter

Worst Award Ceremony - Ever!

2010-03-08T14:07:05-05:00

In July of 1991, the Clio Awards were set to be presented in Manhattan. The Clio is the advertising industries version of the "Oscar" with awards going to the best and brightest in bronze, silver and gold. The best and brightest in advertising were there on that Balmy Thursday, in 86 degree heat to see if they had won. Many of the guests were from other countries, and all were dressed as one would expect for such an event. There was one problem, no one from the Clio awards was there.

As they would later find out, Bill Evans the owner of the Clio, was in serious financial difficulty and his staff had left after missing one too many paychecks in the month of May. Evans was not there either. After an hour of waiting outside the doors were opened and everyone finally found their seat only to see an unfamiliar face at the podium, that of the head caterer. While he did quite a good job, considering the circumstances, he never had a script and when clips were played, often out of focus or upside down, he had to ask people in the audience who made each clip. Not to mention that no one had the winners list so no Clios were handed out. Eventually he was booed off the stage. Then things got worse.

A PR representative decided to take to the stage and continue the presentation, after one too many trips to the bar. His lackluster performance turned the event into more of a circus, especially when he unexpectedly broke out in song when the band played a familiar Irish tune. Then, as suddenly as it started, it stopped. The PR man mumbled something about being out of script and wondered off the stage. The helpless band played Hello Dolly, for the fourth time that night.

The audience sat in stunned silence, the stage empty except for the microphone and the Clio awards. Soon the audience, disgusted with the display, began to make their way toward the door when one man in a tuxedo broke away from the crowd and walked on stage and grabbed a Clio waving it in the air. Some in the crowd gasped, others cheered, and more still ran up to get one for themselves. In less than a minute the Clios were gone.

The Clio was purchased by an investment firm and sold to a Dutch firm now called the Nielsen Company which still puts on the ceremony every year. But none so far have been as memorable as the one in 1991.

-Professor Walter

Jimmy Carter and the Swamp Rabbit Incident

2010-03-05T09:01:24-05:00

On April 20, 1979 President Jimmy Carter had gone on a solo fishing trip in Plains, Georgia. While fishing he was approached by a rabbit swimming toward him. Press Secretary Jody Powell wrote this account of the creature in her book.

The animal was clearly in distress, or perhaps berserk. The President confessed to having had limited experience with enraged rabbits. He was unable to reach a definite conclusion about its state of mind. What was obvious, however, was that this large, wet animal, making strange hissing noises and gnashing its teeth, was intent upon climbing into the Presidential boat.

Eventually Carter was able to get the rabbit to swim away, but the press found the story too interesting to let go. Soon Carter was being questioned about the incident at press conferences and town hall meetings. There was even discussion of a suit being filed under the Freedom of Information Act to release a photo of the incident. After Reagan took office a copy of the picture was released to the press.

-Professor Walter

Photo Courtesy of the Jimmy Carter Library

The only U.S. President who was not officially mourned upon his death

2010-03-04T09:55:43-05:00

John Tyler, Jr. was the tenth president of the United States from March 29, 1790 to January 18, 1862. While Tyler holds the distinction of being the first president to take office after the death of a president, he is also the only president to not be nationally mourned at the time of his death. This is because of a stance he took during the American Civil War.

Tyler was a slave owner throughout his life and worked to prevent the war with the Virginia Peace Convention in February of 1861. When war began he served as a Virginia delegate to the Confederate Provisional Congress, and was elected to the Confederate States House of Representatives, but died on before Congress had assembled. Due to his loyalty to the Confederacy, based in his belief in states rights, Tyler was denied the traditional day of mourning in Washington D.C. He was buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA.

-Professor Walter

An aspirin by any other name...

2010-03-03T12:35:15-05:00

In 1897 Chemist, Felix Hoffmann at Bayer in Germany, synthesized a stable chemical that relieved his father's rheumatism. That chemical would become the active ingredient in aspirin named - "a" from acetyl, "spir" from the spirea plant (which yields salicin) and "in," a common suffix for medications. In it's original powder form Aspirin would quickly become the best selling drug in the world, and a boom for Bayer. In 1915 Aspirin was available in tablet form without a prescription from Bayer. However the success of Bayer Aspirin would not be seen until after WWI saw its use for the Spanish Flu, and the end of its trademark in the United States.

The trademark for Aspirin was lost in the Treaty of Versailles, after Germany's surrender. As part of the war reparations specified, Aspirin along with Heroin lost all status as registered trademarks in France, Russia, the UK, and the United States. From that moment on the drug could be sold as aspirin. Today the trademark for Aspirin is still honored on over 80 countries across the globe, but aspirin is generally the generic name used, even in those countries. No word on Bayer's ownership of the trademark on Heroin.

-Professor Walter

The flat world myth

2010-03-02T16:28:22-05:00

One of the most frequently repeated myths is the belief that the people of the middle ages believed that the world was flat. In fact this myth is so prevalent that it is often repeated in textbooks in schools throughout the nation. The truth is that the Greek discovery that the world was round was firmly held as fact. The modern origins of the myth like in Washington Irving's "History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (1828)" where the statement was made that Columbus was fearful of being accused of heterodoxy which would raise the ire of the church where flat-earth theory persisted, when the more learned people knew the earth was globular. This error was largely ignored until Darwin published "The Origin of the Species (1859)". The book was never placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum ("List of Prohibited Books"), however many bishops and other religious figureheads condemned it.

Books such as John Drapers "The History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science (1874)" sought to reinforce the belief that the Christian Church was led by ignorance, reiterating Irving's error that the people of the dark ages saw the earth as flat. By attributing this belief to the church it appeared that ignorance was the only reason to fail to accept evolution. Throughout the next hundred years the misstatement about the flat earth was repeated over and over again. Today the truth has been spreading, but the myth persists.

-Professor Walter

How do you name a soda?

2010-02-26T13:54:53-05:00

In 1958 RC Cola released Diet Rite, their first Diet Soda to strong success. Soon other companies followed suit.

In 1963 the Coca-Cola corporation had developed their first diet soda. The marketing research department decided to utilize the IBM 1401 computer to accomplish the task. The revolutionary IBM 1401 was a mainframe computer released by IBM in 1959 and stayed on the market until 1971 which had the capability to utilize punch cards or magnetic tape. The marketing research department used the computer to create a list of over a quarter million four-letter works with one vowel and added names suggested by the company's staff. All "inappropriate" words were removed and from a final list of about twenty names Tabb was chose. During development it was shortened to Tab.

Tab was a success in name and sales. Unfortunately for Tab when the FDA banned cyclamate in 1969 the formula had to change, then again when 1977 when it looked like the FDA would ban saccharin more changes came. In 1982 Diet Coke was released and Tab's sales declined. To further impact sales, the formula never matched the original flavor and was changed repeatably over the next two decades. The current Tab uses saccharin as the dominant sweetener and has a flavor that more closely matches the original.

-Professor Walter

The Forbidden Swastika

2010-02-25T17:47:36-05:00

Throughout the western world the swastika is the forbidden symbol of the Nazi Party. In some countries displaying anything related to the Nazi party for any reason other than academic will result in eight years of prison. It is reasonable to expect that the pain the symbol represented is still strong even after so many years. What must be understood though is that the Nazi Party appropriated a symbol, that was quite popular throughout the world, for their own purposes. The swastika was a good luck charm for early aviators, a symbol Native Americans, and is prominent in a collection of eastern religions. The popularity was prevalent throughout the United States prior to WWII and its image can be seen on many historic landmarks throughout the country including the Garfield Monument (President James A. Garfield's tomb), the Yale University library, and the entrance to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The rise in popularity of the swastika can be traced to the late 18th century work of Heinrich Schliemann who discovered the symbol at the site of the ancient city of Troy. He noticed startling similarities between the swastikas in Troy and ones found on ancient pots in Germany and theorized that the swastika was a significant religious symbol of remote ancestors. As a result, by the early 20th century, the symbol was used worldwide and considered a symbol of good luck and success.

Trouble arose when the work of Schliemann was used by the völkisch movements which grew out of German romantic nationalism. Soon the swastika became the symbol of the "Aryan race" which was the supposed nordic master race that originated in northern Europe. n 1920 the swastika was adopted as the symbol of the Nazi party. In 1925 Adolph Hitler created a new national flag based on it.

I myself, meanwhile, after innumerable attempts, had laid down a final form; a flag with a red background, a white disk, and a black swastika in the middle. After long trials I also found a definite proportion between the size of the flag and the size of the white disk, as well as the shape and thickness of the swastika.

At the end of WWII the swastika became associated with hate groups, and the original distinction it once held was never restored. Steven Heller, an American art director, journalist, critic, author, editor specializing in graphic design, wrote a book on the possible redemption of the swastika.

It is safe to say that while the swastika maintains the stigma it does in living memory it will never recover from the atrocities in the past that are tied to it.

-Professor Walter

Joseph Friedman - Changing the world one drink at a time.

2010-02-24T13:58:26-05:00

Born on October 9th in 1900 Joseph B. Friedman would grow into quite an inventor. At the tender age of fourteen he had his first idea, a lighted pencil. Over the course of his life he would be issued nine patents. The first was for improvements to the fountain pen which he sold to Sheaffer Pen Company in the mid 1930s. He supported his family utilizing his education in optometry and real estate while inventing. While working as a realtor in the 1930s he would create his most successful invention, one that is still in use today across the globe.

While sitting in his brother's fountain parlor in San Francisco, Friedman watched his young daughter Judith struggling to drink a milk shake out of a paper straw. Inspiration struck and Friedman took the straw and inserted a screw. Using dental floss he impressed the grooves into the straw and handed it back. The world's first bendable straw had been created.

The Flexible Drinking Straw Corporation was formed in 1939, but the impact of WWII prevented Friedman from completing his drinking straw manufacturing machine until after the war. In 1947 the first sales of the flexible drinking straw were to hospitals. Soon the straws began to sell to the general public. On June 20, 1969, the Flexible Straw Corporation sold its patents, licensing agreements, and trademarks to the Maryland Cup Corporation whose current descendant is the Sweetheart Cup Company.

-Processor Walter