Hey, Fans of Pooh Bear!

Deep in the hundred-acre woods where Christopher Robin Milne played is where the inspiration came for everybody’s favorite honey-loving bear—Winnie the Pooh! Okay, so maybe it wasn’t in the Hundred-Acre Woods. It was more like the Ashdown Forest which currently covers ten square miles or roughly 6000 acres (a bit bigger than its fictionalized likeness).

Lucky for today’s birthday boy—A. A. Milne, the author who brought us Winnie-the-Pooh—he lived on the northern edge of Ashdown Forest where he would take frequent walks with his young son, Christopher Robin.

But his son and the Ashdown Forest weren’t the only means of inspiration for Mr. Milne, however. The character of Pooh Bear himself was actually his son’s favorite stuffed teddy along with a plush piglet, a tiger, a couple kangaroos, and a donkey who had seen better days (all of whom can still be seen at the New York Public Library except for Roo who was lost in the 30’s as well as Owl and Rabbit who were imagined solely for the books).

A. A. Milne was born 136 years ago in 1882. In his younger years, he was taught by the great British author H.G. Wells—writer of many timeless classics such as ‘The Time Machine’ and ‘War of the Worlds’. Milne also played on an amateur ‘Cricket’ team alongside the celebrated author who created Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle. By the time his education had ended, time soon came for Milne to join the British Army and fight in the first World War.

When he returned home from the war, Milne was married to his wife, Dorothy and they had their son, Christopher. But as history would have it, he was called away yet again when World War II began in 1939. After the war, his life saw a number of unfortunate changes. A stroke, for one instance, left him in a wheelchair until the day he died at the age of 74.

But this celebrated author once commented that “A writer wants something more than money for his work: he wants permanence.” Mr. A. A. Milne certainly has been granted the permanence of which he spoke through the lasting love people have for “Winnie the Pooh” and the adventures he penned in the Hundred-Acre Woods. Happy Birthday, A. A.

If you’re ever lucky enough to see Ashdown Forest near London, think of Pooh and the gang and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Northerners!

North of the equator, that is…today is the Winter Solstice—a magical day of the year. This day is a reminder from Mother Nature of just how harsh and unforgiving she can be. That’s especially so this time of year the further north you go. We’re located in Northern Wisconsin here at Everything Summer Camp, where Winter Solstices are always cold, dark, and typically covered in ice and snow. But we only scratch the surface of winter brutality!

Some theorize that Stonehenge was built to establish when exactly the Solstices would occur.

This year, we’ll see just under nine hours of daylight in Boyd, Wisconsin (roughly the same amount as New York City). If you travel to Helsinki, Finland, you’ll be getting something shy of six hours of daylight! That’s less than a typical school or workday. And, even worse than that, if you go to Barrow, Alaska, you won’t even see a sunrise!

As you can imagine this cycle made our ancient ancestors pretty nervous with the concern that the sun would continue to grow more and more distant until one day it simply blipped out of sight completely. Without a better scientific understanding of the natural cycles of earth, this seemed like a perfectly reasonable concern.

In the heliocentric model, while the North Pole hadn’t seen a sunrise since October, the South Pole is being showered in nightly sunrays until March. Which is when things here in Northern Wisconsin will start to warm up; it’s time for the planet’s second winter solstice.

It’s easy to be“hemisphere-o-centric”—after all, the vast majority of people on the planet live in the northern hemisphere—but the other side of the planet certainly gets a winter solstice as well. Since Earth’s orbit is tilted on its axis the hemispheres trade off over the course of a year on which one sees direct sun. So,while we’re celebrating our Winter Solstice on December 21, folks south of the equator are seeing their Summer Solstice. They’ll get their Winter Solstice around June 21—when we get our Summer Solstice.

It can be hard to visualize just from reading about it, so I’ve included the most helpful visual I could find.Enjoy as many hours of daylight as you can today and stay nice and warm during the dark! As always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Football Fans!

To kick off the arrival of the football season, I began September on the Blog by going around the office to see what teams we here at Everything Summer Camp predict to see playing in Suberbowl LI. With our prized teams in mind, everyone here has their fingers crossed that our predictions come true. With the seventh week of the regular season just having passed, next week marks the season’s halfway point, so I thought we’d review our employee’s predictions and see how our teams are looking so far.

As you’ll have it with a bunch of Wisconsinites, lots of us are rooting for the Packers to take the Superbowl and predicting that we’ll play against the New England Patriots. People who made this prediction include our company president, Ed; our Operations Manager, Brian; our Graphics Department Manager, Nate; our Assistant Shipping Manager, Mike; and our Printing Technician, EJ. So far the Packers are sitting at 4 wins and 3 losses while the Patriots have 5 wins and 2 losses.

In other offices, our Vice President, Mark says it’s going to be a close Packer win against the Tennessee Titans who also have 4 wins and 3 losses. And our Graphic Artist, Amy, thinks the Texans who are currently 3 and 3 will be taking the backseat in a Superbowl against the Pack. Our Sales Director Matt thinks the Packers are going to match up with the Pittsburgh Steelers and that the Steelers are going to win! The Steelers are currently 5 wins and 2 losses.

Tim’s prediction being the only one that didn’t include the Packers, he says we’ll see the Dallas Cowboys who are 3 and 3 match up with the Oakland Raiders at 3 wins and 4 losses. He believes the Cowboys are going to take the Superbowl.

The season still has a whole half to go, but this is where our Employee NFL Picks stand for now. The odds look likelier for some teams more than others, but you can’t quite tell at this point in the season just who will be moving into the playoffs and who doesn’t stand a chance. Join us at Everything Summer Camp and enjoy the rest of the NFL season. And, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Mystics!

I have some bad news for all of you. Today is Friday the 13th—a decidedly UNlucky day. It’s a day that twists the arms of many to avoid typical daily events like running errands or hanging out with friends. Some folks opt to avoid going outside entirely and, even further, a select few of those folks won’t even venture out of bed, save kitchen and bathroom trips. Under most circumstances, I’d say this reaction is ridiculous…

Today, however, I’m singing a different tune.

Friday the 13th is bad enough, but to make matters worse, today’s unlucky matchup of day and date falls in the spookiest of months: October. The month of harvest celebrations, All Hallow’s Eve, and candy corn (*gross*), October sets a beautiful, but somber tone as we enter the thick of the autumnal season and advance toward the end of the year.

Belief in the superstition of bad luck and other supernatural ideas lends the notion that today truly is a perfect storm of unlucky signs: an unlucky day of the week falling on an unlucky date of the month in the unluckiest month of the year. It’s so bad that you may just want to take such ridiculous precautions like not leaving your home. I say, if it means avoiding something…unlucky…sign me up.

I’m not typically one to believe in such superstitious hullabaloo, but when it gets to this point, I’d feel stupid if I didn’t take precautions. I’ve bolted my doors, turned off all phones, I even have my black cat locked up in the other room. He’ll forgive me tomorrow. Until then, I’ll be right here with my head underneath the pillows, avoiding the day as best I can. I wish the same to all of you. And, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Bubbly Blog Buddies!

Today we celebrate something that we all know and love. It’s important to anyone who ever sent a package by mail, received a package by mail, or sought a therapeutic solution to boredom. Today is National Bubble Wrap Day. Let’s take a closer look at this packing material, turned cultural obsession and learn a little about it today.

HISTORY
Believe it or not, bubble wrap was originally invented to be used as wallpaper—not packing material. In 1957, an engineer named Fielding and an inventor, Chavannes, put their minds together to create a textured wallpaper by sealing two shower curtains together, capturing air bubbles in-between.

Their ‘wallpaper’ flopped, but in the next three years, a member from Fielding and Chavannes’ marketing team, named Bowers, suggested using it for secure shipping of breakable items. By 1960, Fielding and Chavannes founded the Sealed Air Corporation to sell what they called ‘Bubble Wrap’.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?
A lot, actually! The same way that the popularized Kleenex brand name started being used to refer to facial tissues, Bubble Wrap is not a generic term for packing material, but actually the product name specific to Sealed Air’s invention. We just call it all ‘bubble wrap’ because of how catchy the name is. Other manufacturers of air bubble rolls, however, are OmniStar Creative, Alliance Rubber, RDH Packing Solutions, and many more.

lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllBUBBLE FUN
Of course we love Bubble Wrap for delivering all our breakables to us in one piece, but our love for it doesn’t stop there. Its practical use may be over, but, now that its job is done, who can resist releasing all those trapped little pockets of air? Denver Boy Scouts know how fun popping bubble wrap can be! Just two years ago, they set a world record for Most People Popping Bubble Wrap at once—2681 Scouts. Way to go, fellas!

SUSTAINABILITY
Everyone is worried about sustainability nowadays—and rightly so. One thing we don’t have to worry about, however, is bubble wrap. It was a revolutionizing product in the first place, reducing package size, package weight, and using less protective material—not to mention reduced damage to shipments as well. And as for the product itself, most bubble wrap manufacturers (like Sealed Air and the others listed above) now make bubble wrap from 100% biodegradable material.

A favorite for many, popping bubble wrap is considered exciting (like when you jump on a sheet and burst a bunch all at once) as well as therapeutic (like methodically popping a whole sheet of bubble wrap one at a time). Bubble wrap popping has even inspired some creativity as you can see in the video below. Have fun popping your bubble wrap today and, as always, thanks for reading.

- John