‘Leaplings’ get to enjoy their true birthday this year

Sing a round of “Happy Birthday” on Feb. 29 as a tribute to people born on a “Leap Day.” They are known as “leaplings.”

 

Since Feb. 29 appears on the calendar just once every four years, folks born on this date are quite special. Statisticians say the odds of someone being born on Feb. 29 are 1 in 1,461.

 

Since 1988, the twin cities of Anthony (on each side of the New Mexico-Texas state line) with a combined population of about 12,315, have been known as the “Leap Year Capital of the World.” 

The communities host a three-day Leap Year Festival on the Texas side of the border. This year’s event is Feb. 29-March 2. Festival organizers are promoting “live music, craft vendors, carnival-style games for children, local eats and professional wrestling.”

 

Credit two local leaplings – neighbors Mary Ann Brown and Birdie Lewis – for pitching the idea for a festival in 1988 to Anthony’s chamber of commerce leaders. 

“I always thought that ‘Leap Year Day’ should have more recognition,” Brown said. “It just came to me that it would be a good theme – and we’d only have to work hard at it once every four years.” 

“It’s not just any old day,” Brown told American Profile magazine. “Leap Year Day is important, because it keeps the calendar in sync with the rotation of the Earth. It’s a very special day with a very special purpose.” 

Since the calendar year doesn’t quite match up with the Earth’s rotation around the sun, which requires roughly 365 and 1/4 days each go-round, it’s become a necessary adjustment to insert an extra day into the calendar between Feb. 28 and March 1 every fourth year. 

Journalist Chris Morgan has compiled a list of celebrities who are leaplings. From the music and entertainment arena, he begins with Jimmy Dorsey (1904), a jazz musician and big band leader who was “one of the most successful musicians of his era.”

 

He played clarinet on “Singin’ the Blues” in 1927 and the original 1930 recording of “Georgia on My Mind,” which were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. 

Dinah Shore (1916) once auditioned for Jimmy Dorsey as a vocalist. She was a multi-talented performer and hosted a highly popular 1950s television variety show, sponsored by Chevrolet. Shore popularized the jingle: “See the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet.”

 

Johnny “Pepper” Martin (1904) played Major League Baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals and was known for his daring, aggressive baserunning abilities. He led the National League in stolen bases three times.

 

Al Rosen (1924), who played in the big leagues for the Cleveland Indians, led the American League in home runs and RBI twice and was named MVP in 1953.

 

From the National Hockey League, Morgan found Henri “Pocket Rocket” Richard (1936) of the Montreal Canadiens. During his Hall of Fame career, Richard won the Stanley Cup 11 times as a player, the most in NHL history.

 

Another NHL leapling is Cam Ward (1984), goalkeeper with the Carolina Hurricanes. He won the Stanley Cup in 2006 and earned the Conn Smythe Trophy that year as the playoffs’ MVP.

 

From the world of fiction, DC Comics revealed in 1976 that the birthday of Clark Kent (“Superman”) was Feb. 29.

 

Of course, there’s an official “Leap Day Cocktail.” This colorful version of a martini debuted at the Savoy Hotel in London, England, in 1928. Ingredients are gin, sweet vermouth, orange liqueur and lemon juice.

 

Savoy’s management says the drink “has been responsible for more marriage proposals than any other cocktail ever mixed.”

On a slow day, the National Science Foundation’s Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology posed the question: Why has the green American bullfrog assumed the role as the “mascot” for Leap Day? Sure, frogs can leap, but so do rabbits, kangaroos, grasshoppers, sturgeon and some spiders.

 

The “Mr. Amphibian” website reports that American bullfrogs jump for more than 7 feet in a single leap. One species, the South African Sharp-Nosed Frog, holds the Guinness World Record of 17.6 feet; 95 times the length of its body.

 “If the average human had the jumping power of the record-holding South African Sharp-Nosed Frog, he or she could jump around 517 feet; almost 1 and 1/2 football fields,” Mr. Amphibian stated.

Bigelow family combines tea production with tourism

R.C. Bigelow is one of those great tea companies that sounds so very British. However, nothing could be farther from the truth. Bigelow is all-American, through and through.

The company was formed in 1945 by Ruth Campbell Bigelow in the kitchen of her brownstone apartment in New York City. 

Prior to the Great Depression, Ruth Bigelow was an interior designer and decorator, and she and her husband, David Bigelow Sr., made it through tough economic times by selling Chinese spices. 

As an extension of that business, she thought she could produce a better blend of tea in 1945 by mixing black tea from China with orange rind and sweet spices.

 

Ruth Bigelow shared her tea with friends and received many comments – in fact, “constant comments.” Her new brew took the name “Constant Comments,” and the Bigelow tea company was born.

 

She and David moved the business to a small factory in Norwalk, Ct., in 1950. Their son, David Bigelow Jr. and his wife, Eunice, joined the family business after their marriage in 1959. The company outgrew the Norwalk facility, and headquarters was moved to its current site in Fairfield, Ct., in 1993. 

The second generation of Bigelow leadership passed the torch to their younger daughter, Cindi Bigelow, who became president and CEO of Bigelow in 2005. Cindi is a graduate of Boston College and earned her MBA from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

Cindi Bigelow was the architect of a $2 million plant upgrade in 2022. The Fairfield location has the capacity to produce more than 750 million tea bags a year.

 

Industry analysts say Bigelow brands combine to rank among the top-selling tea products in the U.S. market. Bigelow’s estimated annual sales are $257.8 million.

 

The Bigelow family is also in the agri-tourism business, as owner of Charleston (S.C.) Tea Garden, a 127-acre property on Wadmalaw Island, below Charleston. The Bigelow family bought the operation in 2003.

 

More than 80,000 people visit each year to learn more about the growing of tea and the manufacturing process. Admission is free, but there is a small fee to take the trolley tour to view the entire operation.

 

The former owner, William Barclay Hall, a third-generation tea taster who was trained in London, agreed to stay on to work the land, coaxing the South Carolina tea bushes into yielding “a bright, light flavorful blend perfect for iced tea,” wrote journalist Donovan Webster. 

Bigelow selected “American Classic” as the label for the first tea ever to be made with 100% tea grown in America. Many new teas have been added under the Charleston Tea Garden brand. The gift shop contains a tea bar for tasting an assortment of teas.

 

Hall told Webster that the tea bushes are part of a crop planted in Summerville, S.C., in 1888 by Dr. Charles U. Shepard Jr., who was a chemistry professor at the Medical College of South Carolina in Charleston.

Dr. Shepard’s tea bushes were later transplanted to the tea garden on Wadmalaw Island, “meaning each cup of tea is a taste of history,” Hall said.

“Tea is the greatest crop in the world,” Hall said. “You don’t have to till it, so you’re not creating erosion. The plants live forever, and you can put 5,200 of them on just one acre. People all over the world start and end their day with a cup of tea. They take comfort from a cup of tea.”

 

“If every crop on Earth were as good as tea, the world would be a far better place,” Hall opined.

Earl Grey and Lady Grey are teas we need to get to know

Earl Grey, the famous blend of English tea, is named after Charles Grey (2nd Earl Grey), who was born in 1764. He served as England’s Prime Minister from 1830-34.

 

His family inhabited the coastal village of Howick in Northumberland, England, located in the extreme northeast section of the country, bordering Scotland and the North Sea. 

The tea “covered the taste of well water, which was described as very alkaline, or hard. (Black tea and bergamot oil are both acidic and dramatically improved the taste by neutralizing the water.) 

The tea recipe was gifted to Charles Grey, and its origin remains a mystery. The addition of bergamot oil is the key. 

Bergamot oil is extracted from the rinds of a citrus fruit that grows on bergamot orange trees. About the size of a common orange, the fruit has a yellow or green color similar to a lime, depending on ripeness. Trees blossom during the winter.

 

One source described bergamot juice “as tasting less sour than lemon, but more bitter than grapefruit.”

 

The bergamot orange is native to southern Italy. Production is mostly limited to the province of Reggio di Calabria, located at the toe of Italy’s boot between the Ionian and the Tyrrhenian seas and separated from Sicily by the Strait of Messina. 

The earliest reference to bergamot-flavored tea dates back to 1824. Charles Grey and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Ponsonby Grey, served black tea with bergamot oil when hosting diplomatic events. It was quite popular with their guests and soon all of England wanted the tea.

 

Try one of the Earl Grey shortbread recipes.

In 1831, Charles Grey approached Twinings (founded in London in 1706 by Thomas Twining) to produce the tea and sell it for others to enjoy. The blend became known as Earl Grey, named after the Prime Minister. 

Other teamakers have claimed the honor of inventing Earl Grey, but in 2013, Philip Kent Grey, 7th Earl Grey, officially endorsed Twinings as the original blend. He said: 

“Twinings has been blending my family tea for years. My ancestor, the 2nd Earl Grey, liked it so much he asked Richard Twining II (great grandson of Thomas) to recreate it. Generations of my family have enjoyed Earl Grey tea and today, I am proud to continue the tradition with the tea celebrated throughout the world known as Twinings Earl Grey.” 

In 1994, Twinings rolled out a “more delicate, milder alternative to regular Earl Grey, containing less bergamot with hints of lemon and orange.” The company named the new product “Lady Grey,” a tribute to Mary Elizabeth Grey, who actually was a Countess.

Mary Elizabeth Ponsonby Grey 

There is another Lady Grey in British history. She was Lady Jane Grey, who inherited the Crown in 1553 and is remembered as “the nine-day queen.” It didn’t end well for her. 

From the Twinings’ archives, we learn that after Twinings’ founder Thomas Twining died in 1741, he was succeeded by his son, Daniel Twining. He began exporting Twinings’ teas to the colonies in America in 1749. 

“History was made when Mary Twining, Daniel’s widow, took over the business in 1762. It was very unusual at the time for a woman to be CEO. However, her tenacious character and business expertise enabled her to run Twinings for the next 21 years.” 

“In 1773, the Governor of Massachusetts (Thomas Hutchinson) was a loyal Twinings customer. When the Boston Tea Party dumped English tea in the Boston Harbor to protest “taxation without representation,” a British journalist reported: Hear ye…‘it was not Twinings tea the Boston rebels tossed into the sea.’”

Seashell enthusiasts gather at Sanibel, Fla.

Conchologists, the people who study seashells as a science, will be gathering March 8-9 for the annual Sanibel (Fla.) Shell Show, sponsored by the Sanibel-Captiva Shell Club.

The islands of Sanibel and Captiva, located on Florida’s Gulf coast near Fort Myers, enjoy the reputation as being one of the best shell-collecting spots in the world.

 

And the Sanibel Show is “the most important in the country, if not the world,” for those who create and collect seashell artwork, said Pamela Boynton, a local Sanibel artist with a national following. 

A major attraction at the shell show is the exhibit of Sailor’s Valentines created by contemporary artists who honor the tradition of producing hand-made symmetrical works of art in an eight-sided frame by gluing down individual seashells on a cotton backing. A glass top protects the mosaic artwork. 

Dorrie Hipschman, former executive director of the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum in Sanibel, described Sailor’s Valentines as: “Love letters to the world.”

 

Years ago, the items were purchased at Barbados in the West Indies as keepsakes by sailors, whalers and other mariners who were passing through. They would carry them home to present as gifts to their loved ones. The peak of the craze occurred in the late 1800s. 

Stacey Henson of The News-Press, published in Fort Myers, wrote that the first time Pamela Boynton saw a Sailor’s Valentine, she couldn’t decide how she felt. “I told my husband, I can’t tell whether it’s really tacky or really beautiful,” she said. 

Now, nearly 30 years later, Boynton is “one of the most well-known artists in the genre, who painstakingly repairs antique pieces,” Henson wrote. The process of restoring 19th century Sailor’s Valentines “has led me to a deeper understanding of and appreciation for this awe-inspiring art form,” Boynton said. 

Boynton has become an authority on the subject of Sailor’s Valentines. She has written extensively on the intricacies of the art form that was perfected by female Barbadian artisans. 

The originals ranged from 12 to 18 inches across, but modern Sailor’s Valentines can be much larger…or smaller, down to the size of a pocket watch.

 

Henson visited Boynton at her home and observed: “Her light-filled studio is filled with glass bottles displaying shells, separated by kind and color. From minuscule pieces half the size of a grain of rice to inch-long pieces she uses for flowers, they come in yellows, oranges, pinks, greens. She often incorporates her favorite color, blue, in her pieces.” 

Boynton continues to gain inspiration from her creations. “To this day, when I complete a Valentine and look at it head-on, the first thing I think is: There are thousands of shells in dozens of colors in this case, and every one of them is completely natural in color...a testament to the true brilliance of nature.”

 

Karine Almir, a shell artist from Glendale, Calif., advised: “Everything must be thought out and planned out before you start working. From the moment you glue down the first shell, there is no turning back. Every angle and line must be correctly drawn for the design to work. If off by even a single millimeter, or the shade of color slightly different, the whole work might be thrown off course.”

 

Mary Burton, one of the Sanibel Shell Show organizers, is fond of quoting the late William W. Jordan of Fort Myers, who was one of the masters in shell artistry. He once commented: 

“People say I just pick up shells; rather, I take a life once lived and put it in a place of honor.”

Ahoy: Sailors found their treasures in Barbados curio shop

Back in the day when sailors, whalers and other mariners ventured off to distant ports on sailing ships, it was customary for them to shower their loved ones with special gifts upon their return home.

 

A unique token of endearment that appears to have originated in Barbados became known as a “Sailor’s Valentine.” 

The Caribbean island of Barbados in the West Indies archipelago is strategically located as the most windward. Hence, Barbados became a bustling port of call for sailing ships engaged in trade among the islands, especially during the 1700s and 1800s.

 

“Barbados was visited by merchant seamen, whalemen and yachtsmen alike who arrived for a variety of reasons, including trading, reprovisioning and touring the island,” commented a spokesperson at The Jane Austen Centre in Bath, England.

 

Souvenirs were plentiful, but the Sailor’s Valentine stood out as an impressive memento, reflecting nature’s palette as found in seashells.  

Each love-themed Sailor’s Valentine was made meticulously by hand by local Barbadian female artisans. Within an eight-sided wooden case, a symmetrical display of assorted colorful seashells expressed a flowery, heart-felt sentiment. Some also contained touching messages as part of the design.

 

Pretty shells were carefully arranged and individually glued to a cotton backing. A laborious endeavor, each Sailor’s Valentine required 100 or more hours of handwork. A glass top served as a protective covering. A pair of octagonal-shaped cases could be hinged together to form a top and a bottom. When opened and laid flat, this style offered twice the love and adoration. 

Sizes varied from 8 to 18 inches across. The eight-sided boxes were similar to those that encased the old sailing ships’ compasses. 

The clever entrepreneurs who profited from the Sailor’s Valentine form of folk art were brothers Benjamin Hinds Belgrave and George Gordon Belgrave. They emigrated to Barbados from England. Between 1878-1925, the Belgraves owned and operated the New Curiosity Shop in Bridgetown, the capital city of Barbados.

 

Curators at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, Calif., said whaling expeditions leaving from the Massachusetts ports of New Bedford and Nantucket “could last as long as four years.” It was originally assumed that the sailors themselves gathered the shells from around the world and put them together during idle hours at sea. 

This theory fell apart, however, when researchers determined that all the shells used in Sailor’s Valentines (about 35 different species) are endemic to Barbados. The mahogany and pine wood used in the frames also come from trees that grow on the island. 

“More insurmountable evidence for centralized production on Barbados was revealed when conservation work on Sailor’s Valentines found Barbados newspapers used as backing for the arrangements. The uniformity of most Sailor’s Valentines is also an important consideration,” the curators remarked. 

Many share common design features such as identical clusters of shells shaped into hearts, diamonds and flowers as well as geometrical similarity, according to the museum staff.

 

Kirsti Scott of Beachcombing magazine, based in Capitola, Calif., on the northern shores of Monterey Bay, reported that the Sailor’s Valentines, “became highly sought-after shell mosaic collectibles across England, the United States and the Netherlands, due to both their stunning beauty and fascinating history.” 

This was all connected to the “Victorian shell collection craze – conchylomania – that swept through in the mid-late 1800s,” Scott said. 

The value of seashells soared during this period, and some collections became more treasured than fine paintings and gems, she added. 

Fortunately, there are contemporary artists who have taken interest in advancing the Sailor’s Valentines art form to new levels in the 21st century.