The Art of Campfire Cooking

Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong played jazz, sang jazz and wrote jazz. He recorded hit songs for fifty years and his music is still heard today on television, radio and in movies.

Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, in the state of Louisiana on August 4th, 1901. His father was a factory worker and left the family soon after Louis's birth. Young Louis was desperately poor. He lived with his sister, mother and grandmother in the poorest area of New Orleans known as ‘the Battlefield’ because of the fighting and shooting that often happened there.

When Louis was eleven years old, he was arrested for firing a gun into the air on New Year's Eve. He was sent to a reform school, where he learned to play the trumpet in the school's band. Eighteen months later Louis was back home and already dreaming of the life of a musician. He sold newspapers, unloaded boats and sold coal. However, in the evenings Louis played the trumpet with local groups or went to clubs to listen to jazz bands. He soon became friends with one of the greatest musicians of the time, Joe Oliver, who became young Louis's teacher. As Louis's skills developed, he began to perform professionally.

He was soon able to stop working on manual labour jobs and began concentrating full-time on music, playing at parties, dances, and at local cafés. He joined Joe Oliver's band and moved to Chicago. Later, Louis organised his own band and began to record one of the greatest series of songs in the history of jazz. Louis developed a unique style of singing: he could make his voice sound like a musical instrument and he could make an instrument sound like a singer's voice. Louis enjoyed singing improvised melodies and rhythms. Armstrong was an easy-going and communicative person. His fellow musicians called him ‘Satchelmouth’ because of his wide smile. Later, it was shortened to ‘Satchmo’.

Armstrong's biggest hits came later in his life. In 1964, his version of the song ‘Hello Dolly’ was a top hit around the world. It even replaced a top-selling hit by the hugely popular British group, the Beatles. Three years later, he appeared in the film version of ‘Hello Dolly’ with the singer Barbra Streisand. The song ‘What a Wonderful World’, recorded in 1968, was his final big hit.

Louis Armstrong never finished the fifth grade in school, yet he wrote two books about his life and many stories for magazines. He appeared in more than thirty movies. He composed many jazz pieces. He won several gold records and many other awards. Armstrong performed about three hundred concerts each year, travelling all over the world. He became known as the legend and symbol of jazz.

  2. Halloween

Halloween dates back to an ancient Celtic festival. The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area of Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day showed that the summer was over and winter had come. Because of the cold and darkness, winter was associated with human death.

Celts believed that on Halloween night the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. With their help, the Druids or Celtic priests, could predict the future. It was important because people depended on the natural world which was dangerous and changeable. They wanted to know what their life would be like in the next year.

For this event the Druids built big bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals. It was a gift to the Celtic gods. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes made of animal heads and skins. They sang, danced and listened to the stories the Druids told them. When the celebration was over, they went home and brought burning pieces of wood with them. They lit their fires and hoped it would ensure good fortune and protect the family during the winter.

The first celebrations of Halloween in America were public events. Neighbours got together to celebrate the harvest and tell each other stories of the dead. They also sang and danced. By the middle of the nineteenth century, these autumn festivals were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, lots of immigrants started coming to America. They helped to make the celebration of Halloween a popular national event. Americans began to dress up in frightening costumes and go from house to house asking for food or money. The most popular characters were witches, ghosts, and vampires. Everyone tried to look as ugly and scary as possible.

Halloween is closely associated with the Jack-o’-lantern, a pumpkin with a candle inside that shines through the holes to make a horrible face. Most people think that the Jack-o’-lantern is an American tradition. However, the original Jack-o’-lantern was not a pumpkin but a man who, according to the old Irish legend played a trick on the devil himself. He was punished for that and was accepted neither to heaven nor to hell. The Irish people shared the legend with the Americans and showed them how to make Jack-o’-lantern out of the pumpkin.

By the 1930s, Halloween had been celebrated with parades, town-wide parties and lots of other entertainment. Later a new tendency appeared. By the 1950s, Halloween had changed into a holiday directed mainly at children. On that evening children in costumes travel from house to house in order to ask for treats (such as some sweets, a small present or a few coins) with the question “Trick or treat?” The trick is a threat (usually not working) to perform mischief on the owner of the house if no treat is given. “Trick or treat?” has become a traditional practice on Halloween in many countries.

 

Jeans

Jeans – a clothing item that is common in every wardrobe today. One of the most comfortable and most stylish pieces of clothing, it is liked by one and all, regardless of age, size, sex, economic background, and so on.

The history of jeans goes as far back as the 16th century when sailors in Genoa (Italy) wore a material that eventually became the material used in jeans. The word ‘jean’ derives from the name of the Italian port city Genoa, as it was a custom to name a material after its place of origin. By the late 16th century, jean material was already produced in Lancashire, England.

It was the California Gold Rush of 1849 that started the evolution of American trousers that would one day become blue jeans. The gold miners wanted clothes that were strong and did not tear easily. The person who suggested an appropriate type of clothing was a German businessman Levi Strauss, who had moved to America. Levi Strauss sold many different things, but his main product was a tough canvas material used for tents and wagon covers. Understanding the urgent need of the gold miners Levi Strauss decided to make trousers out of the tough canvas he was selling. The miners liked the new ‘working’ trousers, though they were uncomfortable to wear as the material was too rough.

To improve the trousers for miners, Levi Strauss began looking for a different material and soon he found a suitable one in France. The material was called ‘serge de Nimes’. American just called it ‘de Nimes’, and this name soon became its short form ‘denim’. Denim was a bit lighter and softer than the material Levi Strauss used for his working trousers. It was very strong and did not wear out quickly, even after many washes. The trousers made of denim became quite popular among the miners.

The only problem was that original denim was almost white and the trousers got dirty as soon as the miners started working! For that reason Levi Strauss decided to use coloured denim, and he chose dark blue. In 1873 he began to make dark blue denim trousers with metal fasteners to make them stronger. This was a radical new idea and ‘Blue jeans’ had arrived!

Levi's jeans were so popular, that his company got bigger and bigger. Other firms were making blue jeans too. Miners liked them, but so did cowboys and other working men.

Levi’s jeans were work trousers. Male workers wore them all the time but a gentleman would not even think of wearing jeans. Things changed when western movies became popular. All the cowboys wore jeans and people thought they looked heroic, attractive and cool. Also jeans were greatly popularized in Europe by American off-duty soldiers who wore them during World War II. They made jeans seem like casual American trousers, a symbol of the American lifestyle.

In the 2000's, the sale of classic blue jeans stopped growing. Young people were not particularly interested in traditional jeans styles, mainly because of their parents, who adored jeans. Since no teenager would wear the clothes their parents were wearing, the latest generation of youth turned to other fabrics and styles. They still wear denim, but it had to be in new cuts, shapes and styles.

The Owl

Joan Harrison was walking along the street. She was shy and always felt lonely and upset. Joan worked as a secretary in an office in the city centre. It was lunch time and she went out to get some air. She was looking absently at the shop-windows when she saw a brown wooden owl in one of them. Suddenly Joan stopped. Joan was totally indifferent to birds and she had never understood people who collected useless statues. But for some reason she could not take her eyes off the owl. The wooden owl drew Joan to itself.

Joan decided to buy the owl. She earned a little, just to pay for her room and food. She couldn’t afford new clothes. Even a ticket to the cinema was a heavy expense for her. But this time Joan was sure that she had to buy the wooden owl.

Joan opened the door of the shop. She asked the shop assistant about the price of the wooden owl. It was fifty pounds. Joan understood that it was sheer madness to buy such an expensive wooden bird. But she did it without any hesitation.

Joan left ten pounds in advance and promised to bring the rest of the money in the evening. After work she ran home, took all her savings and rushed back to the shop in excitement. Joan brought the wooden owl home and put it onto the table. Joan smiled and touched the owl’s head. Suddenly, she felt happy and self-confident.

The next morning she left her house in a very good mood. Now, having the owl at home, Joan made it a habit to say good-bye and touch the owl’s head before leaving. Amazingly, after this simple gesture she was cheerful and energetic the whole day. One morning, when patting the owl on the head, Joan remembered her wish to join the evening pottery class at college. She had often thought about it but always changed her mind at the last moment. Now she decided to fulfill her wish.

At the pottery class Joan achieved considerable results. Her teacher said she had a unique style. Nobody knew that she worked hard at home. Under the owl’s observation Joan experimented with forms and colours. Once she took part in the students’ show at the college, and the Art Museum asked her to sell her works for two thousand pounds. The sum covered all her debts and she could afford to buy a new dress and shoes and even more.

The next step was the annual National Art Festival, at which a secretary, Joan Harrison, presented her personal exhibition. Her fame and income were growing. Joan left her office and became a potter. A year later she and the art director of the museum were happily married. They moved to a large country house and now Joan had her own pottery.

Joan took the lucky owl with her. It took its honorary place in the large living room. In her last years she often remembered the shop where she had bought the owl, her evening classes and her first steps in pottery. Joan was so proud of the owl that each piece of her pottery had a picture of the owl on it. Lots of famous artists and important people visited Joan and her husband but Joan never gave her owl to anybody until her dying day.

The Art of Campfire Cooking

 

Pat Mac and Mike Faverman first met when they were comedians going on tour and organising shows around the country. Later, their love of food became a new hobby they had in common and a new project.

Before they met in 2005, Mac had grown up cooking in his father’s restaurant in Idaho, and Faverman had worked as a chef in restaurants across the US. They decided to combine their two hobbies – making people laugh and cooking good food – into a travelling road show called Ultimate Outdoor Cooking. The idea of the show was to prove that cooking by campfire out in the woods is exciting but not always simple.

Mac had had a lot of camping experience before he met Faverman and it had taught him that food was extremely important for people on vacation. Interestingly, better food brought more people to the campground. When it was their turn to cook, the new campers started to give up eating hot dogs and hamburgers and started to create new recipes.

Mac and Faverman have tried different types of camping together, each time experimenting with the most suitable recipes. Their favourite dish for car camping, for example, is steak in lemon juice mixed with salt and pepper. To keep the meat fresh, they keep it cool in a car while travelling. Afterwards, when they get to the campsite, the steak is barbecued with red potatoes.

For travelling on foot with a rucksack they suggest either red potatoes with grilled and salted fish or sausages with different vegetables like zucchini, cabbage, carrots and onions. The only secret to keeping the vegetables nice and fresh while walking is to pack them properly and leave them until ready to cook in a pan over the fire at the campsite.

As they do a lot of cooking, the most useful instruments for Mac and Faverman are plastic bags, knives, a wooden rack to cut the food on and also matches and a lighter. Besides the latter, they use electric things, which can be a little risky at times. For example, a couple of years ago Mac was using an oven to slow-cook meat on a little grill. Suddenly one of the legs of the oven broke; the grill itself and the pot fell to the ground and the meat fell straight onto the dirt. Luckily, Mac used the “five-second rule”: just wash the meat off and put it back on the grill. He said later that it tasted a bit sandy, but the campers didn’t notice.

Unlike Mac, at the beginning of the project Faverman was usually unsuccessful at making a fire and putting up a tent because he didn’t have enough experience. Later, he became quite a skillful camper who could give a useful tip or two to beginners. The best piece of advice from the pair for cooking in the woods is to design the menu ahead of time and to know exactly what you are going to cook on the first and second days. A good camper should try to make the first meal easy because setting up camp takes a lot of time and effort.

Fast Food

When people all over the world are looking for a quick, easy meal, fast food is the most common choice. With good service, low prices and a relaxed atmosphere, fast food looks like the ideal choice. In fact, over 25 percent of Europeans eat fast food every day. Fries and hamburgers are sold everywhere: in big cities, small towns, shopping malls, airports, bus stations, schools, and even hospitals! There are 31,000 McDonald's worldwide.

However, fast food companies make clients eat more. They offer over-sized burgers, extra-large French fries, and big portions of Coke. What's more, these "large versions" are usually cheaper. The products have lots of calories, sugar and fat. A typical hamburger at a fast food restaurant weighs 170 grams. In 1957, it was just 50 grams. According to scientists, your fast food meal is like three ordinary meals.

Fast food doesn't spoil. This is because it has lots of “special” ingredients. There's a video on YouTube that illustrates this. It is based on a true story. In 1991, an engineer from the USA, Tom Scarvell, met with friends for New Year's Eve. They stopped at McDonald's on the way home. He bought some cheeseburgers, ate one and put the other in his coat pocket. Then he forgot about it. A year later, he took the coat out of the wardrobe, put it on and discovered the cheeseburger in his pocket from New Year's Eve. It looked exactly the same. He was absolutely shocked. He told his friends and family but nobody believed him. So he decided to start a "burger museum" to show everyone that these cheeseburgers and hamburgers don’t decompose.

He started collecting burgers, one every year. He kept them on bookshelves in his living room in the open air. These burgers looked exactly the same, the bun, the meat, the cheese, the special sauce, the cucumber, even the lettuce. They all kept their shape and colour for over five years!

It is surprising that although most people don't think that fast food is the best choice they can't stop going to fast food restaurants, like McDonald’s. The chain has healthy dishes on the menu, such as fruit and vegetables. Why not order them? But you don’t go to McDonald’s for a green salad or a yoghurt! The unhealthy hamburgers, French fries and milkshakes are more common and attractive and to many people they are tastier than low calorie dishes.

There is no problem with eating fast food from time to time. If you really are dreaming about a hamburger, go and get it. But if you're having a stressful day, remember that lunch in a fast food restaurant is not a good choice. Doctors strongly recommend avoiding all fast food and takeaways these days. You can occasionally allow yourself a fast food meal. However, if you are eating it more than once a week, think of giving up.

Fast food should play a small role in your life. If you don't have a way out, have a fast food meal in one of McDonald’s restaurants but choose the healthier dishes. You should be aware of what you eat and try to develop healthy eating habits.

Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale was a celebrated English nurse and writer. According to a survey, British people consider her to be one of the most famous British persons along with outstanding scientists, writers and politicians.

She was born into a rich, upper-class family in 1820, in Italy. She got her name Florence after the city of her birth, as there was a tradition in her family to name the children in honour of the city they were born in. She got an all-round education and according to the family’s status Florence was expected to become a faithful wife and attentive mother.

However, in 1844 Florence decided to become a nurse, despite the intense anger and distress of her mother and sister. At that time nursing was seen as a job that needed neither education nor special medical skills.

In 1854 the Crimean War broke out and Florence Nightingale offered her services to the War Office and soon left for the Crimea with thirty-eight volunteer nurses. They began their work in the main British camp, in the hospital. Very soon Florence found out that hygiene was neglected, and fatal infections were common. There was no equipment to cook proper food for the patients. Florence decided to change the situation.

Nightingale managed to found a vast kitchen and a laundry. In addition to her nursing work, she tried to organize reading and recreation rooms for the wounded soldiers. She was on her feet for twenty hours a day and so were the other nurses. Florence was called ‘The Lady with the Lamp’ for her habit of making rounds round the hospital at night. She checked on her hepless patients.

Florence remained in the Crimea until 1856, then she returned to England.

In London Florence Nightingale visited Queen Victoria and persuaded the Queen of the need to create a military hospital system. Soon Florence Nightingale set up a training school for nurses, the first nursing school in the world. It is now called The Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery and is part of King's College in London. The annual International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world on Florence’s birthday, the 12th of May.

In the Crimea camp, Nightingale got ‘Crimean fever’ and never fully recovered. By the time she was 38 years old, she was seriously ill. She left her house very rarely and had to stay in bed most of the time. Nevertheless, Florence continued her work from her bed. She wrote many books, some of them became the base of the curriculum at the Nightingale School and other British nursing schools.

Florence Nightingale died in London in 1910, at the age of ninety. The government offered to bury Florence in Westminster Abbey but her relatives did not agree. However, the memorial service took place in St. Paul's Cathedral.

Florence Nightingale received a lot of honorable awards. Several books were written about the life of ‘The Lady with the Lamp’ and a few films were shot about her.

Nike

Take a look around. How many people are wearing Nike right now? There is at least one, trust me. Nike is the number one manufacturer of footwear and clothes, and it has become a world famous brand on the same level as Coca Cola, McDonald’s, and Apple.

Nike was originally known as Blue Ribbon Shoes. It was founded in 1964 by the runner Philip Knight and his coach Bill Bowerman. They established the company to import cheap Japanese running shoes for sale in the U.S. At the very beginning they had no room or shop, so Philip Knight sold the shoes out of the back of his car. Meanwhile Bill Bowerman worked on improvements to the footwear. He tore the shoes apart to see how he could make them lighter and better.

In 1967 a third person joined Blue Ribbon Shoes. It was Jeff Johnson. A runner himself, Johnson became the first full-time employee of Blue Ribbon Shoes. His contribution to the company is so great that it's hard to estimate. Johnson created the first product brochures, print adverts and marketing materials, and even took the photographs for the company’s catalogues. He established a mail-order system and opened the first company shop.

At about the same time the company became ready to take a big move forward. They no longer wanted to be distributors, but wished to start designing and manufacturing their own brand of athletic shoes. Here again Johnson made an enormous contribution to the company. One night, he dreamed of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, and suggested the name to his bosses.

Yet, another thing was missing – a memorable logo. One was created by a graphic design student Carolyn Davidson. She had become acquainted with Philip Knight who asked her for her design ideas and Carolyn agreed to do some freelance work for his company. Soon she presented a number of designs to Philip Knight and the other company managers, and they finally selected the mark which today is the Swoosh. That has been the Nike logo ever since then. Amazingly, Carolyn asked just $35 for her work.

In 1988 Nike started an advertising campaign with its world famous slogan 'Just Do It'. The slogan was born during a Nike meeting with the advertising agency. The slogan has become so closely associated with Nike that as soon as most people hear or see those three words, they remember Nike, even if the company name is not mentioned. Today, the words 'Just Do It' and the Nike "swoosh" brandmark are all that are needed to identify something as a Nike product.

Isn't it amazing how a small symbol we call a logo can make a company into a huge success!

The White House

For more than 200 years, the White House has been known as the symbol of the President's administration, and of the United States.

The history of the White House began when President George Washington signed an Act of Congress in December of 1790 which declared that the federal government would live in a district "not exceeding ten miles square on the river Potomac." The creation of the new American capital began. Later it was named Washington after the first American President.

George Washington, together with the city planner Pierre L'Enfant, chose the place for the new president’s home. A competition was held to find an architect to design the President's House. Nine proposals were handed in, and architect James Hoban won the competition. He proposed to build an impressive three-storey house.

The construction began in October of 1792. Although President Washington watched over the construction of the house, he never lived in it. Originally the White House was grey and was called the Presidential Palace. In 1800, when it was nearly completed, its first residents, President John Adams and his wife moved in. Ever since, each President of the United States has lived in this residence.

The Presidential Palace was seriously damaged in the great fire of 1814. The British invaded Washington and burned many buildings. After the war James Hoban, the original architect, partially rebuilt the President’s home. To cover the marks of the fire, the building was painted white. At various times in history, the building has been known as the President's Palace, the President's House, and the Executive Mansion. President Theodore Roosevelt officially gave it the name of the White House in 1901.

The White House is the president's private home and each president has made his own changes and additions in it. At first the president's office was located in the living area, on the second floor of the White House. When Theodore Roosevelt brought his large family to the White House in 1901, he felt that his office and his home should be completely separated. Two wings were added to the first floor of the building: the East Wing and the West Wing. The President's Office was moved into the West Wing and was called the Oval Office.

In 1805 President Thomas Jefferson opened the house for public tours. However, since September 11, 2001 the public tours have been prohibited.

There are 132 rooms in the residence now. For recreation, the White House has a variety of facilities available to its residents, including a tennis court, a jogging track, a swimming pool, a movie theatre, and a bowling alley.

The garden around the White House was first planted by John Adams, the first resident of the White house. Later it was redesigned by many presidents and their first ladies. The part of the garden outside the Oval Office is used now as a place for official ceremonies.

The picture

Arthur started painting when he was 10. He loved painting so much that he decided to become an artist. Arthur studied painting seriously and mastered his technical skills to reach a professional standard.

At 25 he arranged his first exhibition. Art critics wrote nice reviews of the exhibition and most of his paintings were sold. Arthur was happy. He married Tina, the girl he had loved since his school days, and rented a room to build his workshop there.

Soon, to complete his education, Arthur went to Italy. He lived and painted there for almost half a year. When his money was spent, Arthur returned home. Time passed but Arthur’s other exhibitions were less successful than the first one. In fact Arthur painted much better than before his visit to Italy.

But the art critics said that his paintings were too academic and there was nothing new in them. Arthur worked hard to improve his style. Sometimes he managed to sell some of his paintings but soon the money ran out and he felt very unhappy.

One morning Arthur came to his workshop earlier than usual. He tried to finish one of his pictures but he felt that he wasn’t able to work. Arthur got angry and threw down his brush.

A bright orange spot appeared on the board which lay below to protect the floor. The board was covered with green, blue and yellow paint from previous work. It was a real mixture of bright colours.

Arthur ran out of the workshop. An hour later, Tina came to the workshop to clean it. She picked up the board and put it against the wall to clean the floor. At that moment, Mr Harrison, the owner of an art gallery, came in. Two days before Arthur had invited him to come and look at the pictures. Arthur went around the workshop looking at the pictures. There was a blank and bored expression on his face. He sighed, “Nothing interesting”. Suddenly the board against the wall attracted his attention. He went closer.

“Tina, my dear,” he said. “What an interesting picture! Is it Arthur’s new work? Why is he keeping it from us?”  

Tina kept silent, she didn’t know what to answer. Mr Harrison continued admiring the picture with an orange spot. “I’m happy that he has changed his style. This really is something special. I’ll ring Arthur this evening. Tell him that I’m ready to buy this picture myself. And any other pictures in this style.” Then he left the workshop.

When Arthur came back, Tina told him about Mr Harrison’s visit. She was very nervous and Arthur couldn’t understand her at first. Tina repeated the story and Arthur started to laugh. Then he asked, “Why didn’t you explain the whole thing about the board to Mr Harrison?”

“I don’t know,” answered Tina. “I knew that I should. But at first I thought he was playing jokes. Then I was afraid to look silly. I just said I didn’t think you would sell it.”

“I see,” said Arthur. “But what shall we do now?”