"The History of..."

"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much." This is the first line to one of the best book series ever, well at least in my opinion. Writing a book is a huge task, and there is a lot that goes into making it. Every character, every place, every scene comes from somewhere. Sometimes there are even specific things that the author used as inspiration. So here is "The (Short) History of Harry Potter". When Joanne was 25 she went to Manchester for a weekend with her boyfriend to help him look for a flat. At the end of the weekend she took a train back to London. It was on that very train ride that the idea for Harry Potter came to her. By the end of the ride she had found several characters and decided it was going to be a seven book series. The names came from various places. The driver and the conductor of the Knight Bus, Ernie and Stanley, are named after her grandfathers. She got Herm...

Many people today have pierced ears, including guys. Some people wear plain earrings, some wear fancy earrings, and some, like me, wear fun earrings. But have you ever wanted to know more? How long have they been around for? Have they always been popular? In this post, I will answer these questions and other in: The History of Earrings. Ear piercing has been around for a LONG time. How long? There is evidence of ear piercing as long ago as 4000-3000 BC. King Tut had pierced ears, and there were even earrings in his tomb. The Bible also has some evidence of early earring wearing. We don't know a lot about early earring wearing, but we do know more starting in the 1500's. They became fashionable among men in the 1590's and for sailors a pierced ear meant they had gone around the world or crossed the equator. They then faded away for quite a while. It wasn't until the 50's and 60's that earrings made a return. Teenage girls would have piercing parties, where the...

Bubble wrap. It is not just for keeping things safe. Everyone's favorite use is to take it and pop all the tiny little bubbles. But have you ever stopped and wondered, who made this? Who decided it would be a good idea to make plastic full of bubbles? Why? If you have, your in luck because that is exactly what I'm looking at in this post. So get ready for: The History of Bubble Wrap! In 1957, Alfred W. Fielding and Marc Chavannes wanted to make a new kind of wallpaper by trapping little bubbles in between sheets of plastic (yes that's right, they don't blow it up, they trap the air). They soon found out that no one wanted it for wallpaper. So then they started advertising it as greenhouse plastic. Soon after in 1961, they discovered that it works really well for packing things safely. Now, the official makers of Bubble Wrap, Sealed Air, has been around for over half a century and they have over 14,000 employees in 117 countries!  It's amazing how fast the two ma...

One of my favorite classes in school has always been band. I have played the cornet (a smaller trumpet) since the sixth grade, so while considering what to research next, I thought this would be the perfect idea! So here is the (brief) history of the trumpet! Trumpets have been around for a really long time. How long you may wonder? The first known metal trumpets date as far back as 1500 BC! There are even trumpets found in King Tut's tomb. And even before then, there were trumpets made out of animal horns. Before there were trumpets with valves, they had to change their embouchure to change notes. They were used for religious and military purposes, such as relaying messages over long distances. Then, during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, trumpets got better due to new metal techniques. As early as 1793 we began seeing trumpets with valves, similar to what is played on today. Trumpets are now used for more musical purposes, and have continued to evolve since the addition o...

Every year at the beginning of September the pumpkin spice craze returns. It is a sign of fall returning, a time to break out the Uggs and sweaters. But have you ever wondered how this craze began? When did they start using pumpkin spice? When did they start making it into things like pumpkin spice lattes and pumpkin spice doughnuts? The answers to these questions, and more, will surprise you. When the colonists came to America, they saw pumpkins as useless. They used terms like "pumpkin eater" and "pumpkin roller" as terms for poor, ignorant farmers. And although they saw pumpkins as poor person food, the colonists always kept pumpkins to eat in the case of an emergency. It is believed that the pumpkin spice flavor began in 1995 when a Mexican candle shop began making pumpkin spice scented candles. Soon after that coffee shops became interested in the spice and began experimenting with the flavour. In 2003, Starbucks introduced the pumpkin spice latte, and it has...