Yes, it is almost Springtime and we have traversed another cold Winter. Here are some bits and pieces for your enjoyment.
• Bits: December 15, 1836 a horrified crowd gathered outside Blodget’s Hotel where the U.S. Patent Office shared space with the U.S. Post Office. The entirety of the Nation’s intellectual property records turned to ash in the blaze. This meant that 10,000 patents, every invention registered with the government since 1790, were victim to the fire. Inventors were asked to send in their original documents to be duplicated. That effort formally ended in 1847 when only 2,845 of the lost patents had been fully replicated in the agency’s records.
• Pieces: The Tyrian purple associated with royalty originated in Phoenicia as early as 1200 B.C. It was made by extracting mucus from snails found along the Mediterranean Sea through an expensive, labor-intensive, process. Ancient writing suggest “this dye was desirable not only for its brilliant hue, but for its ability to stay colorfast over time.” Similar sea snails are found across the world including Mexico and uses them for dyes today.
• Bits: The Florentines supported by the Popes over the centuries built monasteries and convents. They supplied the tunics for the novices as well as bread, salt, medicine, fish, eggs, and wine, for the friars. Beautiful gardens were laid out. Libraries were built to house important manuscripts. Dominican nuns earned money by working as scribes and illuminators.
• Pieces: Savonarola, a Dominican from Ferrara, in 1491 became prior of San Marco. He sent his followers into the streets and they aggressively enforced his brand of morality. His patrols confiscated baskets of cakes and pastries and went door to door collecting vanities including playing cards, masks, mirrors, chess sets, wigs, cosmetics and musical instruments. He burned a collection of these in 1497 and again in 1498.
• Bits: More than 40 buildings in New York City including General Motors and the Empire State buildings have their own Zip code.
• Pieces: The average person spends 38.5 days brushing teeth during his or her lifetime.
• Bits: Emma Lazarus wrote, “Still ours the dance, the feast, the glorious psalm, the mystic light of emblem, and the word.”