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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1961-09-21, Page 6Trading Stamps And Other Gimmnicks. A savings bank has just made me an interesting offer if ,i will start a new deposit in the amount of $50, they will give me some green or yellow stamps. So, I think if I had $50, instead, of depositing it in a bank, I. would try to buy some stock in a green or yellow stamp com- pany, Defended as "just a sav- ings scheme," the trading stamp thus emerges victorious and has been embraced by its competi- tion, the savings bank, In the face of dire national peril the American people may not care to ponder on this to the full, but I would be derelict not to give them an opportunity, I think the trading stamp people have goofed on their greatest chance. Stamps should be redeemable for taxes, in these times, and not a single move has been made in that direction. It opens up a whole new field of Incentive and should have the support of the government. Here lies the greatest area of service by all. The tourist, coming to a toll gate, could just hand in the right number of stamps. and when the highway commission gets books enough it could turn them in on new construction, If local taxes could be paid, not in the annual sadness rf cold cash, but with 325 bocks of stamps, there would be i new zest in the quest for political stability, and the public would have so much fun pasting up the commitment that taxpaying would be like baseball or motor - boating. Children could be in- culated with love for the fif- teenth of April. Notes from the Internal Revenue Service would no longer threaten you with a $10,000 fine and jail, but would say, "Because of error in com- putation in item 3, lisle 13, article 9, schedule C, you are two and a half books short. , , ." Somebody with more time for research than I have should do a treatise on the general theme of getting something back when you spend money. The trading stamp is far from new, although it never before hit its present popu- larity, and the idea of a "free premium" is older than that, In my uncle's old country store the gimmick was a gift with a pound of tea. Uncle had a little wooden box near the cash register, filled with slips of paper, and as he held up the box a tea customer would pick out a slip. Uncle world read off the number on A, 'Number 28, a wash basini" Number 25 could be anything else, too, depending on how well he had "bought" lately, and what he had out back that was moving slowly. The value of it also de- pended on the current mark-up on tea. As a lad, hanging around the store, I used to marvel at the joy with which shoppers would pay 15 cents extra for a pound of tea and then go home delighted with a six cent wash basin. A phase of this study would be the magazine and newspaper "premium." In our living room we cherish a lithograph called "Little Sweethearts." It shows a young boy and girl in the rhap- sody of first love sharing a bas- ket of wild strawberries, and it was a "free premium" from the Family Herald and Weekly Star back in the 1890's. This maga- zine, still publishing in Montreal, is aimed at the English-speaking rural Canadian, although it is wider read than that, and is one ISSUE 37 — 1961 of the great publications of North America: It built its circulation by offering "family art" to the prompt subscriber, The present staff of the Fam- ily Herald and Weekly Star knew little about Little Sweet- hearts, except that accumulated dignity surrounded a copy of it hanging over the editor's chair in the inner canctum, But with a will they dug through old files, and what we found out is amaz- ing. The painting was done by an English artist named Millais, who at one time was president of the Royal Society, and who is hung in the Tate Gallery in London. However, because this is so apart from his other work -the museum seemed reluctant to admit he ever painted it, and the conclu- sion left is that he did it as a bread-and-butter job for the Can- adian magazine and regarded it as unimportant. It is, to say the least, "sweetly sentimental," and hardly an English landscape. Thus denied, the Millais paint- ing was "milked" hard by the Family Herald. For almost a year they built up the expectations by telling how the artist was com- missioned, how he was coming along, and how the lithographers in London were at work, When the print -job was done, the de- parture of the ship bringing the pictures to Canada was announc- ed, and its arrival was followed by ecstatic delight from those privileged to see the picture. All this was aimed at a late -fall sub- scription drive, and those who renewed could send 25 cents ex- tra to "cover cost of mailing" and receive a copy of this well -pro- moted painting. Inasmuch as the millions of copies printed cost the magazine but a few cents each to put in the hands of sub- scribers, the matter becomes "trading stamp" material. Over a great many years the Family Herald (which, incident- ally, had at one time a Boston publication office and a Boston editor) distributed many such art premiums which still hang in many homes. Little Sweethearts was the most popular, and prob- ably was the most popular maga- zine premium ever, but another similarly sentimental one was "It Fell From The Nest," This show- ed a child, bird in hand, gazing up into a tree. Another was "The Battle of Balaklava," with the "Charge of the Light Briga :" Queen Victoria on her ;slid rid, jubilee was the subject:dr-4p: As the "free premidm" drew results the magazine pros- pered, although editorial ,qual- ity sometimes fell off as the staff spent its time rolling up pictures by the hundreds of thousands. Yet there was something to say for the 25 cents coming in to pay for a free gift that cost about a dime. —By John Gold in the Christian Science Monitor. Some Useful Hints About Frozen Foods The last thing into your shop- ping cart at the grocer's should be your frozen food packages, and the first thing into your cold storage at home should be these same packs, say the people at Seabrook Farms, a leading froz- en food firm. Ice creams should be stored not over 1 month—the children will see to that. Peaches a n d strawberries, steaks, whole chickens, are good for a year. Don't hold vegetables longer than 8 to 10 months. Fish and shellfish (cooked or ROYAL HOBOES — The royal court of the nation's hoboes — king, queen and princess. — take the salute of their subjects in convention at Britt, Iowa. Proper designation for the hoboes' group is Tourist Union No. 63. King David I (Harry Beetison, Ashland, Neb.) is flanked by princess, "Brown -eyed Susan," left, and 'Queen "Boxcar Betty" Link. ` TABLE TALKS clone Alu sciaS The U. S. Food and Drug Ad- ministration has recently an- nounced the seizure of several packaged foods which it charges are short. of weight, or otherwise improperly labeled, The average consumer who sometimes won- ders about the empty space in some packages will be glad to know that someone is checking. a e a "Here is a different -to -make - and -taste lemon pie made from ingredients that are available everywhere in any season," writes. Rose Alberta Bairpaugh in the Christian Science Monitor. "My friends always ask for the recipe when I serve it as a party dessert—and my family compli- ments me when it appears as the conclusion to an everyday meal." LEMON PIE UNUSUAL Pastry for an 8 -inch pie with lattice top 11% cups sugar a/4 cup flour TA cup very thin slices peeled lemon 1 teaspoon grated, lemon rind 1 cup cold water 1 tablespoon butter • Line an 8 -inch pie pan with rolled dough., •Bland sugar and flour thoroughly. Spread Ph cups of this mixture on the dough. Arrange lemon slices over this sugar -flour mixture and cover with remaining mix- ture. -Add grated lemon rind. Sprinkle cup of cold water, over mixture. Dot with butter. Ar- range pastry strips over top in lattice fashion and seal edges. Bake at 425°F. for 10 minutes, Reduce heat to 325°F. and con- tinue baking for 40-50 minutes. Serve while still slightly warm, • P A "Here is a buttermilk pie recipe that has been in our fam- ily file all of my lifetime. It is very good," writes Pauline E. McConnell. BUTTERMILK PIE 1 baked pie shell 1 tablespoon butter 1 tablespoon flour 2 tablespoons cornstarch 3 eggs, separated 2 cups fresh buttermilk 134 cups sugar fresh), cooked meat, hamburger, bread, may be a little "tired" if stored over three months, IN THE BEST BRITISH TRADITION — As far as these Britons on the East-West Berlin border are concerned, that East German officer on armored car in background doesn't even exist. Completely ignoring him — and his armored car — General Sir Rohan Delcicombe, left, British commandant of Berlin, chats with some of his officers at a tense border point. Neither general nor danger separate officer in centre from his pipe. 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla Nutmeg Blend together thoroughly the butter, flour, cornstarch, and egg yolks. Add to that mixture the buttermilk, sugar, salt, and va- nilla. Cook in top of double boiler over hot . water until thickened. Pour into a baked pie shell. Sprinkle lightly with ground nutmeg. Cover with me- ringue made by folding 2/z cup sugar into beaten egg whites. Brown lightly in oven. Cool be- fore serving. Note: This same recipe may also be baked in an unbaked pie shell, using 3 whole eggs in the filling and omitting the me- ringue, a Lemon chiffon pie is a favor- ite with most people, and the following recipe makes a hand- some one. Mix 1 envelope gela- tin (1 tablespoon) with ifz cup sugar and Ys teaspoon salt in the top of 'a double boiler, Beat the yolks of 4 eggs and add to them 1 cup lemon juice, and 3/4 cup water. Add this egg mixture to the gelatin. Cook over boiling water, stirring constantly, until the gelatin is dissolved—about 5 • minutes, Removefrom heat and stir in 2 teaspoons grated lemon rind. Chill this mixture, stirring occasionally, until it mounds slightly when dropped from a spoon. Then beat 4 egg 'whites until stiff and beat in ah cup sugar. Fold the gelatin mixture into the egg whites and turn the whole mixture into a baked pie shell. Chill until firm and top with whipped cream. * a * Another hot weather special is a frozen cottage cheese and pineapple salad. It's easy, too. Drain the excess moisture' from 11/2 cups cottage cheese and beat with a fork or electric mixer until smooth. Whip 2/4 cup cream until stiff and fold in the cottage cheese. Add 1h teaspoon salt, e/4 cup well drained crush- ed pineapple, Ifs cup finely sliced dates, Y4 cup mayonnaise and 3 tablepsoons lemon juice. Pour into a freezing tray and freeze. Cut into slices for serving and arrange on salad greens. Allow about 3 hours for freezing this salad. It will serve 6. a a a These two recipes which I concocted with honey I thought might be of interest to readers, writes Ada Vinton, The Honey Blondies won a prize for me at the Beekeepers Convention in 1958, in Fort Pierce, Florida, HONEY BLONDIES 34 cup butter 1 cup honey 11/ cups light brown sugar 3 eggs 2% cups all-purpose flour 2s teaspoons baking powder Vs teaspoon salt 1 cup broken pecans 1 package semi -sweet chocolate bits Melt butter in a saucepan; add honey and sugar. Beat well and cool. Then add eggs, well -beaten, flour, baking powder, salt, pecans, and chocolate bits. Pour into well -greased floured pan, size 101/2 x 151/2 xl and bake 20 to 35 minutes at 350° F, Cool, cut into squares, and dust with powdered sugar. a a ,.x HONEY HERMITS 11/ cups strained honey • 1A cup melted' shortening 2 eggs 1/a, cup milk 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup chopped raisins 1/ teaspoon cloves 31/2 cups flour 4 teaspoons baking powder Mix dry ingredients together. Use some of the flour to cover raisins. Add . melted shortening to honey, then eggs. Mix alto- gether and drop from tip of spoon onto greased cooky sheet about two inches apart. Bake in moderate oven about 375° F. Chopped nuts or chocolate bits make good aubstitutes for the raisins. Has Science Been Stopped? Can't Penetrate Mystery of Visions By WARD CANNEL Newspaper Enterprise Assn, Hanover, N.J.—Can it be that the fragile human mind has fin- ally defied invincible science? For after 15 years and thousands of astounding experiments on mentality with a remarkable drug, psychiatry appears to be stymied by what it has learned, The drug is LSD—lysergic acid diethylamide—a fungus derive- Live made in Hanover (by the Sandoz Pharmaceutical Co.). Scientifically speaking, LSD is a member of a drug family called halucinogens which produce a- cute nervous ' system symtoms, perception disturbances, cloud- ing of consciousness, a tendency to euphoria. In real life, this means you have visions when you take LSD. Now, visions have been very_ important in the history of man and his religion, art philosophy— and even science. But nowadays the fashions are different. Vis- ions today often are called psy- choses and the people who admit having them are the mentally ill. And so it is that psychiatric re- searchers armed with halucino- gens, have been everywhere con- juring up visions in cats, mon- keys, artists and other specimens —all under immaculate labora- tory conditions, of course, noting each word, movement, brain wave, corpuscle, etc. Because if mental illness can be demonstrated as a chemical change, it can probably 'be cured the same way. And the same is tiiie for the other delusions like hope, joy, fear, love and in- tuition. But it hasn't worked out at all well. The chemical and physical Changes haven't been ,isolated ad- equately. It's almost impossible to get the same response to the drug twice in the same subject. And it's the very dickens to get a precise clinical picture of the vision suitable for framing, Part of the problem lies with science which alters the vision by trying to measure it. But probably the biggest part of the problem is the vision itself, Author Aldous Huxley, who has had experience with the hal- ucinogen mescaline, sets out his understanding of these in his book, "The Doors of Perception." Remembering and thinking straight seem little reduced. Per- ception is greatly intensified, the way it was in childhood. Will and interest in space and time are greatly diminished. And the visionary moves into another world—simultaneous experience in the "inner and outer" worlds. Another subject, Jane Dunlap, calls her experiences with LSD "cosmic" in her book on experi- mental visions, "Exploring Inner Space," She progressed, she re- ports, from visions . of evolution to visions of paradise, Well, experiences like these are very trying for scientific're- searchers. Dr. Harold Himwich, one of the world's leading ex- perts on brain function says: "What does it prove? Nothing. That woman could just as easily have gone from paradise to evol- ution under LSD." And Dr. Carl Henze, vice pres- ident of the manufacturer, who decides what experiments will be HUXLEY: Space and time are less Important. given the drug to work with, shakes his head sadly. "Oh, these subjects are always -reporting cosmic experiences and inner and outer worlds. But how is it that real scientists, tak- ing these drugs in the laboratory and then measuring their react- ions carefully, don't have these cosmic results?" Little wonder, then, that in- formal clubs are springing up in the U.S. of people who have been halucinogen ,experiment subjects and now can neither explain nor forget their visions. But it is little wonder, too, that Dr. Henze like many other researchers, is unhappy. 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