Do It Yourself Marble Calendar 2015

[kbobam]

Oh shoot! May I go off-topic for a second? Just thought of something!

Way back when, I posted a photo of my 'sawed-off tin can' egg-frying device.

Came up with it because I wanted my eggs to have that nice round 'McMuffin' shape.

Didn't include a picture of how the eggs turn out. This is it! ( :

[ann]

I wondered about that . . .

[I'llhavethat1]

link to 'sawed-off tin can' egg-frying device?

[kbobam]

Not even going to try to find it!

The best way to accomplish this device would be to find an old-fashioned can of tuna.

Use a can opener to remove both the top and bottom lids.

You now have a nice open round ring of metal.

Rub some butter on the inside, put it on your hot frying pan, and put a square of butter in it.

Crack your egg into it, and cover with any available plate or pot lid.

With a little experimentation, you can figure the perfect time and temperature to cook your

egg just the way you like it every time! ( :

(I 'sawed-off' a larger can because it's hard to find modern cans that you can 'open' on both ends.

But it would be best to find one, so you get a good flat 'machined' edge on both sides of the ring.)

[westcoast_dave]

I'm a fan of the McMuffin as well! When i want one at home i just crack an egg in a coffee mug and microwave it for 55 seconds. Comes out perfect and round every time.

Seen this ad for sale on the bay recently and thought it was pretty cool.

[Steph]

Yes, cool!

And it solves a mystery for me.

I have a black and white version of that ad and it puzzled me. Was looking at it again yesterday.

In the b&w version some of the marble bases looked black. So I'm glad to see the color. While some of those Rainbows are interesting, at least they all look white-based. So order is restored to my world.

Still wondering what "Moonies" are ....

My current guess is game marbles. Does anybody here know?

[westcoast_dave]

I believe this Berry Pink photo is the opposite side of the ad. I'll keep my eye open for Marble king moonies in original packaging. I always enjoy a good marble mystery. I thought i might see them listed as being mixed in with some blister packs, but no luck.

[westcoast_dave]

Photo bomb!

[Steph]

[kbobam]

Thanks for all the great stuff, Dave!

Manufacturer's 'names' for marbles are sometimes hard to interpret.

Some of them make perfect sense, and some seem random and illogical.

Most seem to fall 'somewhere between'.

I'm just guessing that 'Purie' is sort of a variation on 'Clearie'.

And of course could be completely wrong.

But I don't have a clue on the 'Marine' part. Any thoughts on that?

As a 'lapsed' New Yorker, I'm thinking it might be worthwhile to put down

for the record here that '350 Fifth Avenue' is the Empire State Building!

And since we also see a West Virginia address in some of these advertisements,

it would be interesting to ask Steph and other historically-minded people what

the deal is with that.

Did these locations ever exist simultaneously? Or was there a 'move' from one to the other?

And in which order? And why?

As a person who watches way too much television, I think I'm approaching this from a 'soap-opera' attitude.

Maybe Berry Pink Industries was an established New York business, and one day someone decided that

"This is (bleep)! Why don't we establish ourselves in a 'grass-roots' marble area and reap all the financial

savings and other benefits from being there and build our business more quickly and efficiently?"

Or maybe they had a perfectly good thing going in West Virginia, but someone got a little 'big for their

britches' and decided that the fancy city address was 'absolutely necessary'!

Or maybe something else entirely! No Idea! ( :

[Steph]

Berry Pink was from New Jersey. He worked for Morris Rosenthal, who was established in New York. (Can't remember if the Rosenthal family had also settled in New Jersey originally but I did know that once. )

Rosenthal was a marble jobber and Pink was deeply involved in that part of Rosenthal's business -- to the point that he joined the Alley company in the early 1930's. He appears to have brought his New York tastes along with him on this visits to West Virginia. (I seem to recall some unkind things were said about his tastes or attitudes.)

By the mid-1930's Pink left Rosenthal and set up his own jobbering operation in New York City.

Berry Pink Industries may have been selling Peltiers from the get go. I don't know if he was also still working with Alley at that time -- there was a lawsuit between him and Alley around that time -- but he was back to being on better terms with Alley later.

In the late 1940's he bought Alley and turned it into Marble King. He hired Roger Howdyshell to be the plant manager (that's Beri Fox's father) to deal with the actual manufacturing over there in West Virginia and he stayed in New York handling sales and promotions.

Soooo ... he liked New York and hung around there a lot of the time, but West Virginia (and Illinois) were where the marbles were being made and I don't think he had them shipped from there to New York for packaging. I think that was done in the same towns where they were manufactured. I'm pretty sure the "F.O.B." abbreviation has something to do with that -- letting people know that that's where their purchases would be shipped from.

[kbobam]

Hee-hee! Thanks!

It's fun to get some emotional attitude along with the facts.

And it made me crack up that I almost referred to myself as a 'City Boy', before editing it to 'lapsed New Yorker'.

Even after decades of never setting foot in the place and not wanting to, I'm still almost obnoxious enough to

leave out the 'New York' part, since, of course, there is no other city!

[lstmmrbls]

I thought "The City" was SF

[Steph]

Bumping with these bonzer pictures of a carved UV Mandala marble by Masataka Joei. I tried to find the link at the Black Market Marbles page, but I couldn't find it. Could only find the version I shared to my friend's page, so I'll start with a screenshot of that share to give background information.

[Ric]

Slightly more crude than Masataka's, which is absolutely beautiful.

[Steph]

[kbobam]

Ric, what would the traditional 'number' size designation be for this one?

It's definitely a little bit bigger than my marble which I was recently informed was a 'No. 6'. ( :

[Ric]

I couldn't say for sure, Bob. From the looks of it, maybe a No. 288?

The Kugelmühle, by Aravind Natarajan. He has other really great photos in his travelogue of a trek through the German Alps:

http://www.aravindnatarajanphotography.com/blog/2015/1/a-9-day-photo-hike-through-the-german-alps-berchtesgaden-and-garmisch-partenkirchen

[winnie]

Audry

[Steph]

[kbobam]

OMG! What's happening with Audrey here?

It's definitely not someone 'romantically' feeding her grapes!

Thanks for the wonderful diversion link, Ric!

'Scenic' photos don't get better than this!

It also cleared up what would have been my next question for you.

So that one shot you posted is a 'Marble Mill'.

That's one heck of an interesting 'production technique'.

I was thinking it sort of looked like a catapult. ( :

Here's a quick 'link bump' for anyone interested who might have passed it by.

http://www.aravindna...h-partenkirchen

[Steph]

That's My Fair Lady.

Professor Higgens is giving Eliza speech exercises. She's supposed to try to articulate with the marbles in her mouth.

If I remember correctly.

Been a lot of years since the last 10 times I saw the movie.

[kbobam]

Ha! So Bowie's daughter's explanation of how to

do 'Valley Girl' talk may have 'ripped this off'! ( :

Wait a minute.....

Forget I said that! As an attorney, I have some work to do here!

[Steph]

Ya mean Zappa's daughter?

I have no idea what she (whoever it is) may have said .... just associating Moon Unit Zappa with Valley Girl speak.

[kbobam]

Whoops.

You're absolutely right.

I was confusing interestingly named rock star offspring. ( :

Boy, if I really was an attorney, I bet I'd be a great one!