Episode 201: Dollop: Roger Babson’s Fight
The difference between Roger and a guy who lives in a shack up in the mountains and yells at gravity is that Roger had piles and piles of money.
–Dave
Before I tangent all over you, I want to celebrate that Babson College’s mascot, the Beaver, is named Biz E. Beaver.
Moment of silence for that moment of industrious splendiferousness.
Allrighty then, and away I spin into the random.
Dry goods again. Dry goods were a staple of early American commerce, and, if you know who Mr. Oleson is, you know what a dry goods mercantile is.
(Okay, I’ll play nice. Fabric and thread, flour, eggs, and other basic staples of cooking, etc. The eggs, generally the only “wet” thing in the store, usually came in trade or sale from people in the local area. Generally, the dry goods mercantile was a store that carried stuff to make other stuff, excepting wood, which was handled by the lumber mill, and metal, which was handled by the blacksmith.)
Dibs on Yardage Fancy and Plain as either my grrl riot group name, or the title of my autobiography.
Chocolate covered fish: hoo, boy. All I could find on this being a thing is this sexy, sexy image:
Click on it to explore further; it leads to something related to Ray Stevens? Have at it. I go down enough rabbit holes, thanks.
Let’s have something more pleasant: a recipe (source: food.com) for something more edible–chocolate fishies–with sprinkles!
1 (12 ounce) bag milk chocolate chips
2 1⁄2 cups pretzel goldfish crackers
1 (4 ounce) container multicolored sugar nonpareils (optional) sprinkles!
Put chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl.
Microwave for one minute, stirring every 25 seconds. Do not let the mixture burn.
Dip fish in chocolate mixture and coat well. Remove excess chocolate from fish.
Put on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper and sprinkle with nonpareils if desired because sprinkles!
Or, you could buy a box from Cadbury (warning: no sprinkles). Psst: someone should tell the nice Cadbury folks that the fish on the wrapper look like flipflop shoes.
Also, according to this Wikipedia page, “Give that kid/man a chocolate fish” is their version of “give this guy a medal”, and I am going to start saying the former just for the looks on people’s faces.
Now, isn’t that better than Mr. Jeebus-Quit-Looking-At-Me up there? Thought so. Onward with history and stuff and things.
Tag: tuberculosis
Yep, this site, and American history alike, are both teeming with TB. Teeming.
My pediatric doctor told me the test was a TV test. He would draw a ballpoint TV set around the test site, and then warn me that this was a special television that we never wanted to see any programs on, so if my skin TV started showing activity, I should tell Mom to tell him.
(It’s really funny how brain fog works. I can’t remember my zip code or my cell phone number to put on a medical intake form, but I can remember “TV tests” from when I was five. Yeah, fuck you, too, Ehlers-Danlos.)
And we have another lover of bird taxidermy. Guess who else loved that? That’s right, Carl Akeley. (and Norman Bates, I’m just sayin’) Strike three, yer out!
Babson College, Wellesley, Massachusetts
231 Forest Street, Babson Park, Wellesley, MA 02457
Acceptance rate: 26.30% (2016)
Tuition: $46,784 USD (2016)
Founded: 1919
official site, Facebook page, Wikipedia
Babson also founded Webber College, now Webber International University, in Babson Park, Florida, in 1927, as one of the first business schools for women…and Utopia College in Eureka, Kansas, which is, so sadly, defunct. Why sadly? Imagine the hoodie sweatshirt possibilities:
UTOPIA
EUREKA
I want.
Babson’s campaign for president as the Prohibition Party candidate 1940 at ourcampaigns.com
Wrote 47 books
1948 essay “Gravity: Our Enemy Number One”: Babson explains that gravity became his sworn nemesis when his sister died. See, she didn’t drown.
She was unable to fight gravity, which came up and seized her like a dragon and brought her to the bottom.
Oh! Why didn’t you say so? Babson, hon, that’s not gravity. You beat your head against the wrong monument stone all this time. That wasn’t gravity. That was the Blair Witch. Witness the woodcut evidence:
Gravity Research Foundation: founded in 1948 by Babson
and a sampling of his 47 books:
Fundamentals of Prosperity: What They Are and Whence They Come
The Future of the Railroads: Historic and Economic Facts for Railroad Men, Shippers, and Investors
Instincts and Emotions: Should They Be Suppressed or Harnessed?
Work “what they are and whence they come” into conversation this month. For me.
anti-gravity monuments at OTIS (Odd Things I’ve Seen)
Dear Mr. Babson,
I don’t know where you are today, sir, but I thought you would be pleased to know that there is both a musical and ladies’ cosmetics dedicated to defying gravity. Rest easy, sir. We continue to fight the good fight.
Yrs,
C. Hufstedler
And here, I leave you with my favorite version of that most appropriate song, performed by Chris Colfer:
It’s time to trust my instincts
Close my eyes
And leapIt’s time to try defying gravity
Band names from this episode:
Gloucester Lobster
Codfish Aristocracy
TB Farm
Old Man Gravity
Dishwings
Domesticated Gravity
Cultural references from this episode: