My United flight from BHM to Chicago was delayed an hour due to bad weather conditions in Chi-town. Fortunately, my flight from Chicago to MSP was also delayed an hour so it worked out in the end.
It might get down below freezing this weekend. Maybe even some snow! It’s supposed to be a soggy 38 tomorrow afternoon (Fri).
Northwest Airlines has operated continuously under one name longer than any other U.S. Airline.
Nearly 60 years ago, Northwest pioneered the “Great Circle Route” across the Pacific Ocean to Asia when other airlines said it couldn’t be done.
In addition to operating one of the largest domestic route networks in the U.S., Northwest carries more passengers across the Pacific Ocean (5.1 million in 2004) than any other U.S. carrier, and carries more domestic air cargo than any other American passenger airline.
Beginnings
Northwest Airlines was founded in 1 September 1926 by Col. Lewis Brittin, under the name Northwest Airways. Like other early airlines, Northwest’s focus was not in hauling passengers, but in flying mail for the U.S. Post Office Department. The fledgling airline established a mail route between Minneapolis and Chicago, using open cockpit biplanes such as the Curtiss Oriole.
Northwest began flying passengers in 1927. In 1928, the airline started its first international route with service to Winnipeg, Canada. The airline’s operations were expanded to smaller cities in the region by the end of the decade. In 1931 Northwest sponsored Charles and Anne Lindbergh on a pioneering flight to Japan, scouting what would become known as the Northwest Airlines Great Circle route, and proving that flying through Alaska could save as much as 2,000 miles (3,000 km) on a New York-Tokyo route. In 1933, Northwest was designated to fly the Northern Transcontinental Route from New York City to Seattle, Washington; it adopted the name Northwest Airlines the following year as a result of the Air Mail Scandal. Northwest stock began to be publicly traded in 1941.
Learn more about the history of the Minneapolis based airline:
What does an inclined surface connecting two levels have to do with pizza you ask? For those of you not already in the know, ramps are an Appalachian delicacy, a leafy root vegetable popular in West Virginia and Quebec. Ramps are actually wild leeks, a member of the onion family and taste like a combination of onions and strong garlic. (“The taste is tart and delicious. The odor is pungent and lasting. A never to be forgotten experience — as a contest participant or an observer”)
In central Appalachia, ramps are most commonly fried with potatoes in bacon grease or scrambled with eggs and served with bacon, pinto beans, and cornbread. Ramps, however, are quite adaptable to almost any food style and can also be used in soups, puddings, ketchup, guacamole and other foods, in place of onions and garlic. Some people like them raw, but others say the aroma of raw wild leeks stays with one for days.
The community of Richwood, West Virginia holds the annual “Feast of the Ramson” in April. Sponsored by the National Ramp Association, the ‘ramp feed’ (as it is locally known) brings thousands of ramp aficionados from considerable distances to sample foods featuring the plant. During the ramp season (late winter through early spring), restaurants in the town serve a wide variety of foods containing wild leeks.
In Canada, wild leeks are considered rare delicacies. Since the growth of leeks is not as widespread as in West Virginia and because of destructive human practices, wild leeks are an endangered species in Quebec.
Trivia:
The name of the U.S. city Chicago is said to originate from “Checagou” (Chick-Ah-Goo-Ah) or “Checaguar,” which in the Potawatomi language means “wild onions” or “skunk.” The area may have been so named because of the smell of rotting marshland wild leeks (ramps) that used to cover it.
Ramp Eating Contest eating technique:
Here’s a WCHS TV news report on the Richwood Ramp Festival with video.
Enough with the lesson on ramps, back to the title of the post. The other day my uncle was driving through WV and spotted a sign advertising Ramp Pizza, mmm…. delicious!
Although I was born in West Virginia, I have never been to a ramp festival.
Read on…
According to this AP story, two sisters from Virginia finally made some money using their skills of identifying food items shaped like states.
Copycat items have popped up on eBay, including corn flakes shaped like Hawaii and Virginia. There’s also been a potato chip shaped like Florida, and Illinois corn flake paraphernalia, including T-shirts and buttons.
Speaking of exhibits in Chicago, you should stop by Millenium Park (just behind the bean) and check out the Museum of Modern Ice, featuring a fascinating display of cut ice titled Paintings Below Zero by Gordon Halloran. Check out some of the work:
More pictures at the event blog.
I’d love to go see the Festival of Maps exhibits in Chicago. Events are scheduled through January 2009!
Excerpt from this Chicago Tribute article about the festival:
If you want to know how to get from Canal and Washington Streets to 5th and Jefferson Streets in Huron, Ill., the only map around to consult was drawn in 1836 by a young surveyor named Abraham Lincoln.
His plat map of a town that was never built will be available for reference starting Nov. 2 at the Field Museum as part of the city’s “Festival of Maps,” billed as the biggest show of rare and important maps ever assembled. Thousands of maps—among the rarest, most important and beautiful ever created—are to be featured in coming months at 30 institutions.
The unusual collaboration of so many cultural organizations around a single topic was the brainchild of the Field Museum, the Newberry Library and private collectors who for years had dreamed of launching an exhibition of history’s “100 most important maps,” said Chicago industrialist Barry MacLean, a map collector.
More on the festival in another Tribute article here.
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