Comic Strip Appreciation Day
October 18
Storytelling using a sequence of pictures has existed through history. One medieval European example in textile form is the Bayeux Tapestry. Printed examples emerged in 19th-century Germany and in 18th-century England, where some of the first satirical or humorous sequential narrative drawings were produced. The first newspaper comic strips appeared in North America in the late 19th century. Swiss author and caricature artist Rodolphe Töpffer is considered the father of the modern comic strips. His illustrated stories such as Histoire de M. Vieux Bois was first published in the USA in 1842. Every day in American newspapers, for most of the 20th century, there were at least 200 different comic strips and cartoon panels, which makes 73,000 per year.
National Meatloaf Day
October 18
The first recorded recipe for the modern American meatloaf is from the late 1870s, according to the food historian Andrew Smith, who told us that it instructed the cook to finely chop “whatever cold meat you have.” That meat, he said, would likely be beef, because New Englanders killed their cows before winter, when feeding them would prove more difficult, and tried to take full advantage of every last bit of the meat, looking for uses for the cheap cuts. Meatloaf was such a use. To the chopped beef they added pepper, salt, onion, slices of milk-soaked bread and egg. You will find these very ingredients and steps in many a meatloaf recipe today. Meatloaf became a staple of many Americans’ diets during the Depression, because it helped home cooks extend precious protein farther than it might otherwise go, so that more people could be fed with less meat. By then meat grinders were common and meat grinding less difficult, two developments that helped to popularize meatloaf.
Today’s Birthdays of Note….
Chuck Berry – Rock & Roll Singer – born in St. Louis, Missouri
Jean-Claude Van Damme – Action Movie Actor – born in Brussels, Belgium
