ABC Wednesday - Round 10 - A

OK, Here it is, ABC Wednesday time again. This is the day to join in the ABC Wednesday Challenge, and share a little bit of our world with friends all over the world, and learn about them as well, one letter at a time. You can participate too, in either the sharing, or the learning, or both, by visiting ABC Wednesday,Where this week, the letter is


I have been ABSENT for this blog for a really long time, as I ALLOWED other things in life to take priority.

I'm going to see if I can give my blog some ATTENTION, now that the market season and the holidays are over.

In keeping with the herbal theme, which seems to be the primary focus of my life, today's A word is ASTRAGALUS.



I have been hearing a lot about this herb just recently. It seems like it is the new Buzzword for new age coffees and teas that are being sold at craft shows.

I have my own theories about this which I will cover in a moment, but for the record, here is a basic summary of ASTRAGALUS (Astragalus mollissimus).

A perennial plant, about 16 - 36 inches tall, that is native to the northern and eastern parts of China as well as Mongolia and Korea Astragalus mollissimus is characterized by hairy flower stems; numerous, hairy, small, light green leaflets, usually arching; and long and narrow pink-purple flowers that have a pronounced backward flare at the upper tip of the rather small banner. It blooms profusely in the early spring and where you find one plant you will usually find many. The root is the medicinal part, and is usually harvested from 4-year-old plants.


Astragalus has been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years. It was often combined with other herbs to strengthen the body against disease. Astragalus is called an adaptogen, meaning it is thought to help protect the body against various stresses, including physical, mental, or emotional stress. It is believed to specifically promote immunity in the lungs.

Commonly known as: Goatsthorn, locoweed, bei qi, huang qi, ogi, hwanggi, or milk vetch, among other names.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of culinary use for this herb, it appears to be primarily a medicinal herb and is used both internally and externally. It is high in antioxidants.

Now, as to the fancy high dollar coffees?

I have seen these coffees selling for $1-$3 for a packet of instant coffee, which has some herb in it. The packet comes with a free cup of hot water so you can mix it up and drink it. By selling it that way, the vendor does not have to have a food license, and avoids a lot of paperwork.

They generally contain Astragalus and Ganoderma, a type of mushroom purported to have amazing health benefits.

Why use herbs and botanicals that few of us are familiar with and fewer of us can spell, or even pronounce?

Well, would you buy a cup of coffee that claimed it had garlic in it? Garlic has some incredible health benefits, but we have preconceived notions about it's taste and smell. Whether justified or not, these notions affect our decision to try a new product.

But by using unfamiliar products, the manufacturer avoids any preconceived notions about the herbs and supplements added.

If I tell you I have a glass of sugary lemonade, it sounds mundane. But if I tell you I have some water, infused with the essence of citrus fruit, and gently sweetened with crystals made from the sap of an all natural sustainable cane product grown in Florida, it sounds like I have some exotic new drink that you simply must have!

Well, it works the same way with most products, and especially well with things that sound exotic.

So, next time you hear about a cup of coffee, enriched with powdered mushrooms, and ground roots that are the secrets of ancient Chinese medicine, by all means go ahead and try it. But just remember that the value of any herb does not automatically increase in direct proportion to our inability to pronounce the name.

Herbs are good, they have a lot of health benefits and are part of an effective health regime, when combined with a good diet, active lifestyle and healthy habits.

But there is no "wonder herb" that will magically cure your ills, reverse aging, and make you more attractive all in one capsule.

They just don't work that way.

However, Astragalus certainly seems to be an interesting herb that those serious about herbalism may want to explore more fully.

Tuesday Trivia Tie-in #23 - Computer Circuit Board Tie

Welcome to Tuesday Trivia Tie-in, where I invite and encourage everyone to join, with a post about something they find interesting.

This week I will also be joining

Linda at Coastal Charm for Nifty Thrifty Tuesday
And

Diane at A Picture is Worth 1000 Words for 2nd time around Tuesday

So please check out those two parties to see lots of Nifty Thrifty and Secondhand treasures.

My posts are usually about one of the ties in my collection, but yours can be about anything! I only ask that you include some little known information that relates to your topic.

My tie this week is a Ralph Marlin Design, Created in 1994, titled Computer Circuit Board. It shows the internal parts of a computer, including circuit boards, wiring, IC Chips, and the inside of a power supply.

This is one of the ties I got in my Great Tie Purchase where I bought a whole bunch of ties, at the indoor flea market, for what worked out to about 28 cents each.

Like many of the Ralph Marlin Ties from the 90's this tie is 100% polyester. That is because the primary method for printing on fabrics in the 90's was sublimation, (or dye-sublimation) a process that worked best on synthetic fibers.


So now, how about some information about how dye sublimation works.

Sublimation is the name for the process that allows you to take a picture with a digital camera, print it out on your home printer, and iron it onto a t-shirt.

Sublimation is a chemical process where a solid is transformed directly to a gas, without ever becoming a liquid. Imagine going from an ice cube to steam, without ever being water.

Sublimation dye goes from a solid powdered toner, to a gas, when heat and pressure are applied, then, as it cools down, it quickly changes back to a solid. The dyes used in image transferring are designed to bond with polymers as they cool, so they bond with polyester, but not cotton. The higher a content of polyester in your target fabric, the brighter and cleaner your color transfer will be.

Many dye sublimation printers are available today, so people can replicate this process at home, but in the mid 90's this was a commercial process that required a lot of specialized equipment.

Today, you can scan a photo, print it with a sublimation printer and iron it onto almost anything. You can do a photo quality transfer within minutes.


In 1990-1992 I worked in the custom order department at a commercial uniform supply company. We had big machines that would make sublimation transfers one color at a time, If we wanted a two color image, we had to cut parts of one transfer and paste them to parts of another to get both colors. It was a long time consuming process, with lots of room for errors.

Then we had huge presses that would apply great pressure and heat at the same time to transfer the image to a shirt or a hat, or a patch that would be sewn onto a uniform.

Intricate or detailed projects could be jobbed out, but that was expensive. Photo quality images were not even possible for us at that time, although there was talk of machines that would be able to do this in the future.


My tie of the week, would have been printed in 1994, using what was cutting edge breakthrough technology at that time.


Now, anyone with a home computer can buy sublimation toner cartridges and print their own tie just like this at home.

Why anyone would want a tie just like this is a mystery to me. This is not a tie I see myself wearing very often. but as they say, there is no accounting for taste.




OK, now it's your turn.
Be sure and join me each Tuesday for Tuesday Trivia Tie-in, where readers are invited to share trivia and show off their treasures. Read all about it here

Tuesday Trivia Tie-in #8 -- Looney Tunes - What's Up Doc?

Welcome to Tuesday Trivia Tie-in. Each Tuesday readers are invited to share a blog post about one of their collection and a bit of related trivia.

This feature was inspired by a great deal I got on an entire rack of ties at an indoor flea market. Added to the ties I already had, I realized I had quite a collection of neat ties. So I started this blog party to show off my collection.

I'd like to invite you all to join. Just a reminder, you don't have to show a tie. Everyone is invited to link up and show off one of your treasures: your pictures, your flowers, your pets, your kids, your parole officer,or anything else that you want to show off, and tell us some interesting information related to it.

My posts will always be about one of my ties, but your posts can be about anything. The point is to share something you have that you want to show off, and add a little background information.

This week I will also be joining some other fun parties:



Color Carnival,
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm,
and 2nd Time Around at A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words.
Please check out those fun parties for lots of colorful, thrifty and repurposed posts!

Last week, I gave a sneak preview of some of my Looney Tune Ties. I have a bunch of them, probably because someone who lives with me thinks I'm such a loon. I have more Looney Tune ties than any other single theme or genre.

My tie this week shows one of the best known Looney Tune Character, Bugs Bunny.



This tie was made by Balancine Inc, with the trademark and copyrights held by Warner Brothers.



It is a flea market find, one of my 28 cent bargain ties, and features Bugs in a variety of multicolored poses and from all angles:


Looney Tunes, was Warner Brother's first animated theatrical series, and ran in many movie theaters, from 1929 until 1970. The characters also became knows as Looney Tunes, often seen as "Looney Toons" a reference to the fact that they were cartoon characters.

Originally Looney Tunes was a series of short cartoon features, set to the songs owned by Warner brothers, and was designed to showcase that music. It was, in essence nothing more than an advertisement for a song. A parody of sorts, of the Disney music based cartoons Silly Symphonies which were popular at the time.

The original Looney Tune was Bosko.



Created by Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising in 1927, Bosko was unsuccessfully marketed to both Disney and Universal before finding his home at Warner Bros in 1929.
Bosko was the first animated character to have synchronised dialogue rather than just music, and revolutionized the cartoon industry.



Leon Schlesinger had originally produced the Looney Tunes cartoons, and sold them to Warner Brothers, but he sold his studio to them in 1944.

Thus began the interesting chain of ownership of Looney Tunes.

Warner Bros. has sold Looney Tunes Multiple times since then, but somehow always managed to then buy or merge with the company that owned them, so that Looney Tunes is owned by Time Warner to this day. (Technically owned by Ted Turner's Turner Broadcasting System, which merged with WB in 1996).


Over the years, and especially in the early years, Looney Tunes cartoons were filled with racial and ethnic slurs and stereotypes. At one time or another, African-Americans, Jews, Native American, Asian, Germans and Hispanics have all been portrayed in very negative ways in the cartoons. For a while many of the cartoons were withdrawn from cirulation, but in the early 2000's A number of them were released with the following disclaimer at the beginning, read by Whoopi Goldberg.

The cartoons you are about to see are products of their time. They may depict some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that were commonplace in the U.S society. These depictions were wrong then and they are wrong today. While the following does not represent the Warner Bros. view of today's society, these cartoons are being presented as they were originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming that these prejudices never existed.

Perhaps that is why, with the exception of a few appearances in such movies as Space Jam, the Toons are largely retired, and we have to watch them on reruns.

I myself have always seen the characters as loopy, laughable, loveable and downright looney. From Elmer Fudd and Daffy Duck, to Bugs Bunny, or Foghorn Leghorn. From Sylvester and Tweety to Porky and Petunia, the Toons have always represented a lighter happier sillier side of life.


So I have to be very careful with this tie. I don't want to get any updock on it.

That's All Folks!


Ok, Now it's your turn. Enter your link below. Make sure you link to your post and not just your main blog.

Be sure and join me each Tuesday for Tuesday Trivia Tie-in, where readers are invited to share trivia and show off their treasures.

For a complete list of the rules, click here.

Tuesday Trivia Tie-in #2

Welcome to Tuesday Trivia Tie-in. Each Tuesday readers are invited to share a blog post about one of their collection and a bit of related trivia.

My posts will be about one of my ties. This feature was inspired by a great deal I got on an entire rack of ties at a flea market. You can read all about it here.

My tie this week is an Orvis Original Fish Tie that features mainly freshwater fish, including Rainbow Trout, Smallmouth Bass, Grayling, Bream and Roach, along with 2 types of Perch, 3 types of Trout and 4 of Salmon. It is 100% cotton, and made in the USA.











This is the point where one might expect me to post some trivia about fish, or fishing. But the neat thing about Tuesday Trivia Tie-in is we get to be flexible and post the unexpected, so...

Here is some interesting information about Orvis.

Orvis is a family-owned retail and mail-order business specializing in high-end fishing, hunting and sporting goods. Established in 1856, Orvis is the oldest mail-order retailer in the United States. Today they send out over 40 million catalogs per year. They have 16 stores in the USA, 4 in the UK, and over 500 affiliate dealers worldwide.



Charles Orvis Patented the first Fly Reel in 1874, revolutionizing fly fishing in the USA. He produced the most popular bamboo and lancewood fishing rod of his time, and had a reputation for customer service that included replacement, even if his product was not at fault.



In 1876, Charles hired a leading fly tyer to teach his daughter Mary and five other women how to tie flies. Mary not only headed the fly tying unit, but was largely responsible for standardizing the industry, so a "Grizzly King" or a "Ferguson" fly would look the same no matter where it was tied. By 1892 her catalog, the first ever to include standard illustrations, held 434 different flies.



Within days of the attack of Pearl Harbor, in 1941, Orvis received a special call from the Office of Procurement for the US Army, and suspended the production of bamboo fishing rods, so they could make bamboo ski poles, painted white for camouflage and used by the first ever US Ski Troops, deployed in the Aleutian Islands.



In 1989 the Orvis Fishing Rod was named the "No. 1 Best Made Product of The United States in the 1980's" by Tom Peters author of the bestselling book In Search of Excellence

So now, knowing the rich history of the Orvis Company, it puts my simple fish tie in a whole new light.



Orvis ties sell on their website for $40-$195.
Mine of course, was at a thrift store for... do I dare admit it? $2.99!
But it was blue tag day, so I paid $1.50.

When I was getting ready to take pictures, I realized that my fishing poles and tackle are all in our trailer about 200 miles away. So, I would like to thank Bill and The Crew at The Bottom Line Bait & Tackle and Archery Shop, in Brownstown, Michigan for letting me use some of their fishing gear for my pictures.


This post is linked to:


Ruby Tuesdayat Work Of The Poet


2nd Time Around Tuesdayat A Picture is Worth 1000 Words

AndNifty Thrifty Tuesdays at Coastal Charm

Ok, Now it's your turn. Lets see one of your treasures, and hear some related trivia. And like I stated above, it's OK to be flexible.

Enter your link below. Make sure you link to your post and not just your main blog.

Be sure and join me each Tuesday for Tuesday Trivia Tie-in, where readers are invited to share trivia and show off their treasures.

For a complete list of the rules, click here.

Tuesday Trivia Tie-in #1 Feb 22 2010

Welcome to Tuesday Trivia Tie-in. Each Tuesday readers are invited to share a blog post about one of their collection and a bit of related trivia.

My posts will be about one of my ties. This feature was inspired by a great deal I got on an entire rack of ties at a flea market. You can read all about it here.

My tie of the week is my Looney Toon Golf Tie.



Pictured here with my golf putter tie bar, bought at a flea market for $1.25.



This is a Looney Tunes Mania Tie Licensed and Copyrighted in 1993.



And now for a bit of golf trivia:

Golf is a sport where players use various types of clubs to hit a small ball into each of a number of holes on a course, the goal being to hit the ball the fewest number of times.



No one is sure of the exact origin of the game, but it can be traced back as far as at least the 12th century when shepherds in Scotland hit small stones into rabbit holes.


Although many different types of clubs are used, the two primary types are drivers, which are used to hit a ball through the air, and putters, which are designed to roll a ball a short distance along the ground.


Largely due to endorsement contracts, Tiger Woods, became the first professional athlete in any sport to make over 1 Billion Dollars. (That's $1,000,000,000)



The little dents on a golf ball are called dimples. Most golf balls have between 300 and 500 dimples. A common number is 336. Most golf balls have an even number of dimples. Only one model has an odd number, the model AD333 made by Srixon.



I'll be joining the Color Carnival and 2nd Time Around Tuesday this week.

~{@ @}~ ~{@ @}~ ~{@ @}~ ~{@ @}~

Ok, Now it's your turn. Enter your link below. Make sure you link to your post and not just your main blog.