One of the newsletters I subscribe to comes from History Facts.com and every day a new bit of trivia lands in my mailbox. The short article is always interesting and often delves into little known facts. Such as the ones I stole, er, borrowed to lead off the blog today.
First is this about the SOS signal.
After more than a century of use as a maritime distress signal, “SOS” has become shorthand for just about any emergency. You may have heard that it stands for “save our ship” or “save our souls,” but that’s actually a backronym, or an acronym made up after the fact. The letters in “SOS” didn’t initially stand for anything; they were originally chosen because they form a sequence of Morse code that can be transmitted more quickly than others. You can read more HERE
I’d never heard of the “save our souls” meaning. Had you?
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Now a word or two about chocolate:
This modern-day menagerie of chocolate treats can trace its origins back to World War I, when an increased demand for chocolate rations created a veritable candy bar boom. Chocolate bars were seen as an ideal source of sustenance for soldiers fighting abroad: They provided quick calories, were easy to transport across long distances, and catered to the sweet tooth many American GIs had developed overseas when they began to sample European sweets. In response to this sudden demand, the U.S. government began soliciting donations of 20-pound blocks of chocolate from American candy-makers, which were then cut, individually wrapped, and distributed to GIs abroad. You can read more HERE
So while we thank service members for their service we can also thank them for increasing the popularity of chocolate.
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Now, I’m going to turn the blog over to my friend Slim Randles. Since so many of us are broiling in relentless heat, this essay really resonates.
When the world is hot and my skin is fried, scratching from the constant dry, let the clouds boil up – boil up high. And then shade the earth with the darkening sky and bring the secrets and the smell of rain. The heat and the blessed rain, again.
Our land is brown but blessed, stressed in the heat, the shiny heat of day. The slender green of desert rivers slides along, striving to continue, to feed its own along the banks – the banks where the dust rises. Rises, powdery clomp by clomp as we walk – walk the shady way.
Ours is the blessing of challenge, to live, to thrive in the heat. But bring us the clouds, the black bellied clouds, the clouds that softly hold the heads of gods in their moistening grasp.
Let them come, with their silver tops and their bellies black as night and cool as forgiveness.
The summer clouds, the clouds that define our culture, our art, our summer, our hot, heavy summer. Let the magic come and stay, stay for a while, at least for a while, and wet us down, all the way down. Fill our pores, smooth our skin, wash us free of dirt and sin, with the rain, the cleansing blessed rain.
A rain, a storm, a suddenness of life and blast and sweet charity designed to keep us living here, here in the rain, here in the sun, and keep us praying, here in the rain, and looking toward the west for more, always to the west, always looking for more.
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Brought to you by Slim’s latest book, Whimsy Castle, now available at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble and your local bookstore.
Check out all of Slim’s award-winning books at his Goodreads Page and in better bookstores and bunkhouses throughout the free world.
All of the posts here are from his syndicated column, Home Country that is read in hundreds of newspapers across the country. I am always happy to have him share his wit and wisdom here.
Slim Randles is a veteran newspaperman, hunting guide, cowboy and dog musher. He was a feature writer and columnist for The Anchorage Daily News for 10 years and guided hunters in the Alaska Range and the Talkeetna Mountains. A resident of New Mexico now for more than 30 years, Randles is the prize-winning author of a dozen books, and is host of two podcasts and a television program.
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That’s all for today folks. Whatever you have planned for the week ahead, I hope it’s a good one for you. Be safe! Be happy! I’ll be working on a new short story.