Wednesday Medley

Terr's questions this week:

NATIONAL PAPERCLIP DAY

National Paperclip Day is observed each year on May 29.  Yes, even the paperclip has its own day of honor. It is about that well-known piece of curved wire that keeps our papers together and helps keep us organized.

While there are much earlier claims to the invention of the paperclip, according to the Early Office Museum, the first patent for a “bent wire paper clip” was presented to Samuel B. Fay in the United States in 1867.   The original intention of Fay’s clip was to attach tickets to fabric. However, U.S. patent 64,088 recognized that it could also be used to attach papers together.

There were as many as 50 others that received patents for similar designs prior to 1899. One other notable name receiving a patent for his paperclip design in the United States was Erlman J. Wright in 1877.  At that time, his clip was advertised for use in fastening newspapers.

The Gem paperclip, which was most likely in production in Britain in the early 1870s by The Gem Manufacturing Company, was never patented.  It is the most common type of wire paper clip and is still in use today.  It was introduced to the United States around 1892 and in 1904, Cushman & Denison registered a trademark for the “Gem” name in connection with paper clips.  Paperclips are still sometimes called “Gem clips.”

Today, paperclips come in various sizes, shapes, and colors and can make your paperwork look more fun and lively.

Paperclips are not just for holding papers together. There are many other things that you can do with them!

• Replace a zipper tab
• Unclog a spray bottle
• Unclog a single serve coffee maker
• Hem holder
• Emergency hooks for broken necklaces

The Paper Clip Project
During World War II this small, universal office supply provided a visual method of protest at a time when any outward signs of objection could be dangerous, even in familiar company.

Early in the war, Norwegians were particularly persistent in their development of symbols. The paper clip represented “sticking together” for a time until the Nazis caught on and banned the wearing of paper clips.

According to a March 5, 1941, Provo, Utah newspaper article (The Daily Herald), the Norwegians switched to new symbols as quickly as the bans could be issued.
In 1998, a group of middle school students led by language arts teacher Sandra Roberts and associate principal David Smith began a project through a Holocaust education class. The voluntary after-school class, Whitwell Middle School principal Linda Hooper’s idea, would be the foundation for developing tolerance and diversity.

Inspired by the story of the protesting Norwegians and their paper clips, the students began to collect six million paper clips – one paper clip representing one Jew who perished during the Holocaust. Adults today still wrestle with how the Holocaust could occur. Imagine middle school students trying to understand the magnitude of such an event on humanity.

The Paper Clip Project gained international attention and by 2001 the students collected more than 30 million paper clips. The school dedicated a Children’s Holocaust Memorial which displays an authentic German railcar filled with a portion of the paper clips.

For more information on this inspiring story, the book and film that followed visit www.oneclipatatime.org

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Everything above this line is from the National Day Calendar website.

1.  Wow!  Had you ever heard of the Holocaust project involving paperclips?  It is a great teaching project, for sure!

It's a very interesting project, for sure.  the lessons of the Holocaust seem to be getting lost, and need to be reinforced.  "Never again" means never again for anyone, not just the Jewish people.  The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum makes a point of applying the lessons of the Holocaust to more recent genocides  -- Darfur, Rwanda, Bosnia

2.  Have you ever created a paperclip chain?  How long did it get?

I work in an office, what do you think?  Of course I've made a chain once or twice.

3.  I use paperclips as hooks at Christmas time to put ornaments on the tree.  Works like a charm!! What is something you used a paperclip for, other than holding papers together?

When bent properly, paper clips can be used to hang up a  calendar in a cubicle.

4.  I am amazed at the shapes and colors of paperclips available.  I found my favorite... share your favorite with us here!


Sorry, I'm not one for pretty paper clips.  

5.  Say goodbye to May on this last Wednesday of May.  Be poetic if you will, or simply bid it adieu.





6.  Tell us something about your week so far, please!

I was sad to hear that Bill Buckner died.  

He had an incredible baseball career that spanned two decades. 

But he is best remembered for being the goat of Game Six of the 1986 World Series.  Red Sox fans were not kind to him, but ultimately they forgave.

And now he's gone, and I'm filled with nostalgia for those days...



For us long-suffering Mets fans, it was baseball magic.  The kind of magic that just doesn't happen in other sports.

The Red Sox led the series 3-2, and were poised to win their first World Series title in 68 years.  They scored twice in the top of the 10th inning, and the champagne was cooling in the visiting team locker room.  The mood at Shea was grim.

In the bottom of the 10th, the wee hours of October 26 actually...

Wally Backman flied out.  Keith Hernandez flied out.  It seemed the game was over.

And then....

Gary Carter singled to left.  Kevin Mitchell singled.  Ray Knight singled, Carter scored, Mitchell to third.  

Mookie Wilson came to bat.  

Mitchell scored on a wild pitch, Knight to second.  

And then, with a 3-2 count, Wilson hit a blooper up the first base line.

The ball went through Bill Buckner's legs.

Knight scored, and the Mets won!

Game seven, played two days later (thanks to a rain storm)...well, the Mets won handily.  

Drew and I and his buddy Marc watched Game Six in the basement of Drew's parents' house.  After the Red Sox scored in the top of the 10th, we were sure the Red Sox were headed to victory.  By the time Knight came to bat, we were on our feet, cheering and screaming as if we were at Shea.  

The epic call:



"So the winning run is at second base, with two outs, three and two to Mookie Wilson. [A] little roller up along first... behind the bag! It gets through Buckner! Here comes Knight, and the Mets win it!" -- Vin Scully, October 25, 1986.