Campbell's Soup Cans

In honour of National Soup Month, here are ten facts about soup.

1.  Soup is of Sanskrit origin.  "Su" and "po" mean "good nutrition".

2.  Arceologists found remnants of pots used by the Japanese for fish soup some 15,000 years ago.

3.  Opera Composer Verdi ate a bowl of noodle soup for inspiration.

4.  An old law stated that Newfoundland seal hunters had to eat soup on Saturdays.

5.  Andy Warhol's "Campbell's Soup Cans" exhibit opened at the Los Angeles Gallery on July 9, 1962.  The main exhibit featured 32 paintings of every kind of Campbell's Soup.

6.  There is an old German proverb which states:  "He who has once burnt his mouth always blows his soup."

7.  In 2011, people in the U.K. spent 617 million pounds on soup.

8.  Women are two or three times more likely than men to order soup in a restaurant.

9.  Soup is a great way to sneak veggies into your child's diet.

10.  Creamy soups can be very fatty.  One cup of light whipping cream contains 700 calories and 74 grams of fat.

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A Snowball's Chance in San Francisco

Believe it or not, it has snowed in San Francisco more than once in the city's history.  It received a dusting on this day in 1962.  Here are some other occasions where San Franciscans made snowballs.

San Francisco circa 1962 courtesy cdn.abclocal.go.com.

One or two inches fell in 1976 courtesy wordpress.com.

San Francisco circa 1951 courtesy www.staplenews.com.

San Francisco streetcar circa 1932 courtesy cdn.bayareadesi.com.

San Francisco street circa 1887 courtesy www.staplenews.com.

Snow filled street circa 1882 courtesy imgs.sfgate.com.

Schindler's List

"Whoever saves one life saves the entire world." 
(inscription inside ring given to Oskar Schindler)

Schindler's List courtesy www.thejc.com.

One man -- one list -- 1200 names.  "Schindler's List", made into a movie in 1993, is the story of Oskar Schindler who employed many Jews in his factories and whose lives he saved by bribing, cajoling and sweet-talking Nazi officials.  Here is his story.

Oskar Schindler was born into a wealthy business owning family in Zwittau, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (now the Czech Republic).  In the 1930's, he became a member of the Nazi Party.  He bought a factory in Krakow, Poland where enamelware was manufactured.  He employed many Jews as they were cheaper labour than Poles.  However, as the rights of Jews were taken away, he started to hide wealthy Jewish investors.

Krakow Factory courtesy upload.wikimedia.org.

In 1942, Schindler witnessed a round up of Jews in the Krakow ghetto in an effort to ship them to a concentration camp in Plaszow.  He was appalled by the murder of many Jews who attempted to hide from the Nazis during the round up.  In the movie, director Steven Spielberg shows Schindler sitting atop a horse on a hill above the ghetto watching the horrific black and white scene, punctuated only by the red coat of a little girl.  

Schindler vowed to save as many Jews as he could, intending on transferring them to safety in his two factories.  Using the black market, he bribed Nazi officials.  In October 1944, a train carrying 700 Schindler Jewish men to Gross Rosen Concentration Camp was re-routed to Brunnlitz, the site of Schindler's factory, only after he sweet-talked officials.  Similarly a trainload of 300 Schindler Jewish women was sent to Auschwitz. After several weeks, Schindler managed to get them transported to Brunnlitz, thanks to his black market food and diamond bribes.

Oskar Schindler (centre) schmoozing Nazi officials courtesy www.ushmm.org.

In May of 1945, Schindler stood with his workers on the factory floor and listened to Churchill's speech announcing victory for the Allies.  The workers gave him a ring, made from the dental work of one of their own, inscribed with the verse:  "Whoever saves one life saves the entire world."  Then Schindler and his wife wife, considered spies by the enemy, escaped by car.  Their vehicle was confiscated by the Russians but they continued their flight by train and by foot to Switzerland.

Schindler saved 1200 Jews.  Although movie offers were discussed in the 1950's and 1960's nothing came of them.  In the 1980's, Australian author Thomas Kenneally wrote a book about the entrepreneur's life called Schindler's Ark, later published in the United States as Schindler's List.  Steven Spielberg acquired the rights to the story and the movie premiered in 1993.  

Schindler spent millions to help the Jews.  He died penniless, but a hero.

Oskar Schindler courtesy http://www.teachwithmovies.org/guides/schindlers-list.html.

Golden Rum Cake

Ingredients

1 cup chopped nuts

1 package yellow cake mix

1 package instant vanilla pudding

4 eggs

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup dark rum

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup water

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup dark rum

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit.  Grease and flour a ten inch Bundt pan.  Sprinkle chopped nuts over the bottom of the pan.  

2.  In a large bowl combine cake mix and pudding mix.  Mix in eggs and 1/2 cup water, oil and 1/2 cup water.  Blend well and pour over chopped nuts in pan.

3.  Bake in preheated oven for 60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Let sit for 10 minutes in pan and then turn over onto serving plate.  Brush glaze over top and sides.  Allow cake to absorb glaze.  Repeat until all is used up.

4.  To make the glaze:  in a saucepan combine butter, quarter cup water and 1 cup sugar.  Bring to a boil over medium heat and continue to boil for five minutes, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and stir in 1/2 cup rum.

allrecipes.com

The Rum Runner Pub

Bar at Walpole Hotel  

Our friends Heather and Justin took my husband and I to the Rum Runner Pub in Kitchener for a murder mystery last night.  It was like stepping back into the Roaring Twenties.  Descending into the basement, we were walked past a dark wood-panelled bar, through a long twisting tunnel to a backroom.  Right away I knew there was something unique about the pub.  I asked the waitress about the pub's history and she said that during Prohibition, it was a rum running joint.  It had secret passageways, hollow walls and an old safe. Rumor has it that gangster Al Capone visited the place to buy liquor back in the Thirties.

Al Capone courtesy www.tourismsaskatchewan.com.

I wanted to find out more so I googled the pub.  It is part of the Walper Hotel at the corner of King and Queen Streets in downtown Kitchener.  Built in 1893 for the price of $75,000, it originally had only two stories.  The hotel was built in the Beaux Arts style with elegant brick work and arches.  Originally, a guest could get a room, three meals a day, a water pitcher, gas lamp lighting, a horse hitching post and a common bath for only $4.50 per week.

Wilfrid Laurier courtesy upload.wikimedia.org.

The elegant hotel attracted famous guests including Prime Ministers Wilfrid Laurier, William Lyon Mackenzie King and Pierre Trudeau.  The Queen Mum paid a visit along with former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Canadian author Pierre Berton also stayed at the hotel.  The Walper attracted first class musicians including Louis Armstrong, who played his trumpet on the hotel balcony, and Duke Ellington, who conducted his orchestra in the crowded ballroom.  At its peak, the hotel housed 10,000 guests per day.

Duke Ellington courtesy macalay.cuny.edu.

Gangsters continued to visit the hotel even after Ontario repealed prohibition in 1927 as it would be another six years before the law was repealed in the United States.  Today, people come for the good food and the murder mysteries (and the history).

tripadvisor.com

His Only Authority Was His Courage

"He climbed up on the roof of the train and began handing in protective passes through the doors which were not yet sealed.  He ignored orders from the Germans for him to get down, then the Arrow Cross men began shooting and shouting at him to go away.  He ignored them and calmly continued handing out passports to the hands that were reaching out for them." (Sandor Adai, on witnessing Raoul Wallenburg intercepting a train headed for Auschwitz.)

Raoul Wallenberg courtesy onthisdeity.com.

He persuaded, cajoled and bribed Nazi officials to obtain passports for Jews during the Second World War, regardless of the risk to himself.  He had no official authorization, only his courage.  In the end he would save almost 100,000 Jews.

Raoul Wallenberg was born in Sweden in 1912.  His father died of cancer when he was only 3 years old, leaving his mother to raise him on her own.  He sailed to America to studied architecture at the university of Michigan.  It was there that he learned to speak English, French and German, skills that would serve him well later in life.  Along with other male students at the university, he took a job as a rickshaw driver at Chicago's Century of Progress World's Fair.

Returning to his home country after his studies, Raoul was disappointed to discover that his American degree would not suffice in Sweden.  A relative secured a job for him in South Africa where he worked for a year.  In 1938 the Swede learned how to speak Hungarian and started working in an import/export business, travelling between Stockholm and Budapest.

By 1944, the Nazis realized they would not win the war, leading to the mass deportation of Hungary's Jews.  Between May and July of that year, 400,000 Jews were deported.  it was at that time that Wallenberg was appointed secretary to the Swedish legation in Budapest.  In his role he started to issue protective passports to Jews.  He rented 32 buildings and gave them such names as "Swedish Library" and "Swedish Research Institute", hanging large blue flags with the yellow cross over the door, only serving as a subterfuge for the rescue operation.

With each passport that he forged, Wallenberg increased his risk of being caught by the Nazis.  He started to sleep in a different house every night so as not to be caught.  Ironically it was the Soviets who arrested Wallenberg as a spy when they arrived in Budapest in 1945.  Wallenberg was detained in Lubyanka Prison where he was removed from his cell in March of that year, never to be seen again.  One report stated the he had died of a heart attack in 1947.  Another said that he had been executed the same year.

Wallenberg will always be remembered for his courage in the face of fear.

Wallenberg's briefcase which held many forged passports which saved Jews courtesy en.wikipedia.org.

Bald Villain Becomes Handsome Superhero

en.wikipedia.org

In the early 1930's, high school students Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster brainstormed about a comic book character.  They created a bald, telepathic villain name Superman.  In 1933, "The  Reign of Superman" was published in Science Fiction:  The Advance Guard of Future Civilization 3.  But the story went no further.

Writer Siegel and artists Joe Schuster went back to the drawing board.  This time their hero would fight for the forces of good.  They thought of the motion pictures they loved to watch at the local theater.  One of their heroes was Douglas Fairbanks Jr. who had played Robin Hood back in 1922.  They would pattern Superman after him.  And his alter ego, Clark Kent, would be named after screen legends Clark Gable and Kent Taylor.  

It took them six years to find a publisher for their comic.  "The Superman" was rejected by Consolidated Book Publishing.  More edits were needed.  Siegel went back to Clar Kent's childhood.  He would be found as a baby by a loving couple name Sam and Molly Kent who would adopt him.  Samson and Hercules both served as inspiration for the new superhero who fought for social justice and against tyranny.  In keeping with Robin Hood, Superman would wear a cape, with a giant S on it.  The costume would also resemble a circus strongman outfit.  Rather than mental abilities Siegle stressed Superman's physical powers.  Metropolis, where he would fight crime, would be named after the movie featuring Fritz Lang.

Speculation about Siegel's inspiration for Superman has also led to his personal life.  His father was killed in a violent Cleveland robbery the year before Superman appeared.  Such a superhero would have fit in well in the Great Depression, a time in which crime in business and corruption in politics was rampant.  The Mafia and Prohibition went hand in hand in the Thirties.  Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal would have been in place in an attempt to help the poor, another popular theme of the 1930's.  Another event of the decade was Charles Lindbergh's first solo flight across the Atlantic.  Superman has been called "a worthy successor to Lindbergh".  Superman's alter ego has also been called "Kal El" which resembles the Hebrew words for "voice of God".  Some readers have compared Superman to Moses, a Biblical figure who led his people to the Promised Land.  Just as Moses was sent away by his parents in a basket to a new land, Clark Kent was sent away by his parents in a vessel to a new planet

Today, the original Superman comic is worth a fortune.  One online headline reported a man finding a "rare comic book worth ten times the amount that the house it was found in".  He and his wife fought over the comic which ended up ripping, cutting its value in half.  Originals can fetch as much as $2.16 million.

comicbookresources.com