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Monthly Archives: June 2012

First Fathers: The Best & Worst

15 Friday Jun 2012

Posted by Matt in Uncategorized

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Just in time for Father’s Day, historian Douglas Brinkley lists his picks for the best and worst first fathers, which you can see here (at the WashingtonPost.com).

The top 3:

  • Theodore Roosevelt Sr.
  • Prescott Bush
  • John Adams

The bottom 3:

  • Leslie Lynch King Sr. (Gerald Ford’s father)
  • Roger M. Clinton Sr.
  • Barack Obama Sr.

It’s worth reading Brinkley’s quick summaries of each pick (see here).

I’m a huge fan of TR and his dad (McCullough’s Mornings on Horseback is a wonderful history of their relationship), and we should celebrate the great fathers in this list.

But what’s most interesting for me is actually the bottom three.  No matter what you think of the sons’ politics and administrations, what they overcame early in their lives — including varied levels of paternal violence and absence — to reach the highest office in the world, is nothing short of remarkable.  Not to mention inspiring.

Happy Father’s Day everyone.

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The Genius of Red Solo Cups

14 Thursday Jun 2012

Posted by Matt in Food, Uncategorized

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A reader emailed in this week to say “I’ve been overlooking an instance of pure inspiration my whole life.  No more.” and included a link to an LA Weekly posting about red Solo cups (so apparently Toby Keith is not the only one to be moved by this great American invention).

Since we’ve had a bit of a food & drink theme on Historicalness.com over the past few weeks, and since summertime BBQ season is coming into swing, it seemed to make sense to delve a little deeper.

From the LA Weekly: “[Solo’s creation] was the hard work of a man named Leo J. Hulseman, who in 1936 started producing paper cone cups out of his home to sell to bottled-water companies [my note: during WWII, since glass was scarce, companies turned to paper cups]. The business grew into Solo, and by the 1970s the iconic red cup was born.”

And who can forget the landmark year of 2009 when history was made with the introduction of “Solo Squared®, a first-of-its-kind Squared® single-use cup”, according to the Solo Cup Company website.  What’s more, “in addition to the classic red party cup’s new innovative shape, Solo Squared® has four ergonomic grips, ensuring a more comfortable and reliable hold.”

In May of this year, a Michigan company, Dart Container, completed its acquisition of Solo Cup for approximately one billion dollars.  At today’s Solo cup-to-dollar conversion ratio (we did something similar for English muffins a few months ago), that equates to about 8 billion cups — which would stretch about 500,000 miles long if you stacked them on top of each other.  Not too shabby considering that  would get you to the moon and back, with about 25,000 miles to spare.

I guess Red solo cups really are a source of pure inspiration.

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