DID YOUR FAMILY EVER DECORATE THE CHRISTMAS TREE WITH BUBBLE LGHTS?
INTRODUCED IN USA IN 1946
Bubble lights were very popular as Christmas lights from the 1940s through the 1970s, before miniature "fairy" lights became popular.
A bubble light is a decorative device consisting of a liquid-filled vial that is heated and illuminated by an incandescent light bulb. Because of the liquid's low boiling point, 39.6°C (103.3°F), the modest heat generated by the lamp causes the liquid to boil and bubble up from the vial's base thus creating a decorative effect. The liquid is almost always methylene chloride, a solvent that is toxic and possibly carcinogenic. It is generally sealed in a glass vial or capsule to prevent its release; if it is broken, the area should be evacuated until the fumes have dissipated. Some early bubble lights instead used a lightweight oil or camphor (a white substance used in some moth balls) to create the low boiling point. In these older lamps, one can often see a white piece floating at the top of the vial, until the heat of the lamp dissolves it and it starts to bubble.
The light from the lamp illuminates the bubbles from underneath, causing them to shine. Bubble lights of all kinds operate best when the top of the tube is significantly cooler than the bottom, thus increasing the temperature gradient. The tubes must be kept upright, and occasionally may need to be tapped or even shaken to begin bubbling after warming up.
Designs
Bubble lights have been made in two different lamp base sizes — E10 (C6) 15 volt, and E12 (C7). The original design used a miniature screw base (E10), such as those used on C6 cone-shaped Christmas lamps. For 120 V power, these early designs were nominally designed to operate with eight on one string, in series, at 15 volts each. However, they were often packaged with a nine-socket string to extend the life of the bulbs. Bubble lights could also be purchased individually for use in existing light strings. Modern incarnations either use candelabra base (E12) 120-volt bulbs, or push-in wedge base "midget" size miniature bulbs (most commonly ten 12-volt bulbs wired in series).
The clear light bulb is enclosed in a plastic base made up of a "bowl" and a "cap", usually of different colors. Bubble lights are manufactured in just about any color, including the liquid in the tube. The plastics used are most commonly semi-opaque red, yellow, blue, and green. Liquids are generally amber, red, blue, green, and rarely, purple or pink. Uncolored liquid is also available, being lit with colored bulbs instead.
In recent years, bubble lights have become more elaborate in appearance. Glitter is sometimes added to the vials for extra sparkle, most commonly on specialty types such as those used in decorative nightlights. Bases are now often made to look like figures such as Santa Clauses or snowmen, or decorative objects and symbols, rather than the plain ribbed plastic. Like many other Christmas decorations, they have been converted for Halloween use, usually with orange-colored liquid and a base that looks like a jack-o'-lantern, or the head of a black cat or witch, among other Halloween symbols.
Less-toxic modern imitations of bubble lights are made from acrylic or other clear plastic rods, with permanent bubbles deliberately manufactured into them, lit with fixed-color or color-changing LEDs. Other bubbling lights are much larger and sit on a table or floor, occasionally with fake fish which "swim" up and down as they change buoyancy. These tubes are usually filled with distilled water, and have one or more airstones at the bottom, and normally a light, along with an air pump.
History
Bubble lights for Christmas decoration were first patented in the United States by Carl W. Otis in 1944 and introduced there in 1946 by NOMA, one of the largest American manufacturers of Christmas lights. While NOMA was the largest company to make these lights, other manufacturers included Raylite (Paramount/Sterling), Royal Electric Company, and Good Lite/Peerless.
"Apologies used to be such an awesome thing to do. Right?" "Yes." "It used to be an act of bravery that took self-reflection and was excruciatingly painful. I don't know when it turned into such a cowardly thing that's forced upon you. You never really see those brave, touching apologies anymore. It makes me quite sad."
-My Liberation Notes
“start living your own life”
“As a child I felt myself to be alone, and I am still, because I know things and must hint at things which others apparently know nothing of, and for the most part do not want to know. Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible.”
― Carl Jung
[ Art • “Tea Party” by Eri Nakagawa ]
“Do not ask your children to strive for extraordinary lives. Such striving may seem admirable, but it is the way of foolishness. Help them instead to find the wonder and the marvel of an ordinary life. Show them the joy of tasting tomatoes, apples and pears. Show them how to cry when pets and people die. Show them the infinite pleasure in the touch of a hand. And make the ordinary come alive for them.” The extraordinary will take care of itself. ~William Martin (Art: N. C. Wyeth - Nightfall, 1945
“In my next life,” said the tree “I think I’ll be a dragon, Or maybe be a mountain troll Who owns a giant tavern
Perhaps I’ll be a little girl With secret, hidden powers Or maybe be a tiny ant That lives amongst the flowers
Perhaps I’ll surf a waterfall Or burrow underground, Perhaps I’ll find a heart-shaped balloon And float up to the clouds
Perhaps I’ll find a rocket And I’ll fire it into space Or maybe meet a pirate With a scar upon his face”
“What do you mean?” I asked the tree And that is when he said “You know we’ll all die one day But our souls will not be dead
So when the world assumes That I have reached eternal sleep I’ll worry not because I’ll have So much life left in me
See, they will take my ever-reaching Branches in their glory And I’ll become the pages Of a many-treasured story
And that is why you’ll often Find them leafing through the pages Or turning over new leaves Of a tale they’ve known for ages
I will not look as I do now – My life will be rewritten But they will hear my echo On the pages if they listen
So if you feel inclined to, Take a walk into the woods And take a bag upon your back Packed with your favourite books
Then find a shady canopy, A leafy spot to rest And read the trees the stories Of the lives they might live next”
Becky Hemsley 2022 Gorgeous artwork by Nanda Corrêa
They saw her in the library Discarded on a chair And her glossy, shiny cover Made them notice she was there
They picked her up and held her For a minute, maybe three And they said she was exquisite The most beautiful they’d seen
They thought not of her pages Simply stared at her in awe Then they put her on the bookshelf As they headed out the door
So they never knew the words she chose To mark her journey’s start And they didn’t read the reams and reams Of kindness at her heart
They didn’t read the things she hid In pages left untouched Or the hellos and goodbyes she’d said To people that she loved
They didn’t read the chapters Where she set herself apart And they never read the lines she wrote Of how they’d played their part
They didn’t turn the pages On her struggles and her strengths And they missed the ripped-up paper Where she’d torn herself to shreds
They never read the parts About the places she had been Or the people she had helped Or all the wonders she had seen
So when anybody asked them What it was that she was like They realised they had no idea What she was like inside
See, they’d told her she was beautiful Because of how she looked But they’d just admired her cover And they’d never read her book
Incredible artwork once again by Elisabeth on Earth aptly titled ‘Once Upon a Time’
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@MissAdventurous what was that love story? lol. Is it in a movie?
@stormydaycuddle lol titanic 😅🤤😂
@MissAdventurous that’s right! Zomg!
Jennifer Connelly, on "The Ball Room Dance" scene, her favorite scene from "Labyrinth" (1986): "I wore a beautiful silver ball gown, which was a refreshing change from the blue jeans I wore in almost every other scene. It was really a gorgeous set, with masses of huge chandeliers and thousands of flickering candles, hundreds of silken cushions and curtains, and masses of people in strange masks and ornate dresses. There was the thrill of dancing with David Bowie to one of the songs he composed especially for the film. There wasn't enough room, for technical reasons, to really dance around properly, but we just drifted slowly and gracefully (I hope!) to David's music, and he looked fabulous! It's all a sort of magical fantasy sequence inside a huge bubble."
Auditions for the lead role of Sarah in the film began in England in April 1984. Helena Bonham Carter auditioned for the role, but was passed over in favor of an American actress. Monthly auditions were held in the U.S. until January 1985, and Jane Krakowski, Yasmine Bleeth, Sarah Jessica Parker, Marisa Tomei, Laura Dern, Ally Sheedy, Maddie Corman, and Mia Sara all auditioned for the role. Of these, Krakowski, Sheedy and Corman were considered to be the top candidates. 14-year-Connelly "won Jim [Henson] over" and he cast her within a week. According to Henson, Connelly was chosen as she "could act that kind of dawn-twilight time between childhood and womanhood." Connelly moved to England in February 1985 in advance of the film's rehearsals, which began in March. Discussing her understanding of her role with Elle, Connelly said that the film is about "a young girl growing out of her childhood, who is just now becoming aware of the responsibilities that come with growing up." (IMDb/Wikipedia)
Happy Birthday, Jennifer Connelly!
VICTORIAN HALLUCINOGENIC CHRISTMAS CARDS.
Although little known today, an ergot mold-derived proto-LSD known clandestinely as "sauce" had been devised during the reign of Queen Victoria of Britain, and its usage can be noted not only in the hallucinogenic descriptions found in works such as Alice in Wonderland and the multivolume Oz series, but also in humbler artistic offerings, such as the broad category of Christmas cards as shown here; its remarkable effects were always described as causing its users to feel "warm and happy," a specific code phrase.
In some Victorian households in Massachusetts and Southern England in particular it was traditional for the entire family, including the servants, to drop "sauce" every day for the month of December, leading to a massive dry-out on New Year’s Eve, with the purpose of awakening renewed and sane on January 1.
In this context, what seem to us now as truly bizarre winter holiday cards make perfect sense. It was not until the reign of Edward VII (a notorious square) that this tradition ended—and in a pessimistic reversal, it became the tradition to have a completely debauched New Years Eve, and to start the New Year deplorably hung over and addled.
A barely known fact is that many of these cards were, in fact, acid blotters, meant to be cut up and consumed. In this phantasmagoric example, blobs of hallucinogenic "sauce" (now long-dried) had been concentrated on the chicken-heads and feet.
Credit to Institute operative M. Bantjes for archival research on this long-lost phenomenon.
Burl Ives, who many of us will remember as the silver-and-golden-voiced snowman in the 1964 TV Special “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” spent his own golden years in a waterfront home in Anacortes, where he passed away in 1995 at the age of 85.
Ives was a late casting decision for the special by the producers, who originally intended the actor who voiced Yukon Cornelius to sing the songs. Lucky for us, a last-minute switch was made to bring in Burl, which is why Sam the Snowman is never seen interacting with the other characters because his parts were created after the rest of the scenes were mostly finished.
The show was broadcast for the first time in 1964, but it suffered from a glaring plot hole. The protagonists never made good on their promise to return to the Island of Misfit toys.
This travesty did not go unnoticed as thousands of concerned citizens deluged the network with letters demanding a resolution.
So, Rankin Bass created a new ending (spoiler alert!) that shows Santa flying to the island and rescuing the Misfit Toys for distribution to loving children around the world.
The revised show aired the next year and every year since. In order to fit the new scene in, something had to be cut, so they nixed a segment in which explained that the object of Yukon Cornelius’ desire was actually a Peppermint Mine – which vindicates his bizarre ice-axe-licking fetish. He was tasting for peppermint and not silver and gold.