July 24 is National Tequila Day - History and Local Events

There never has and never will be a bad day to partake in tequila, but it's a good bet that even the most erudite fans of the one of the world's classic spirits doesn't know what's going down on July 24.

That would be National Tequila Day. No, it's not one of those holidays that has been bumped to a Monday so it can be a Federal deal and everyone gets a day off from work and shop. Still, it will be acknowledged all over the country, so kindly go out and have a margarita or tequila-infused dish to pay tribute to this iconic creation. And never mind that the origins of this day aren't at all clear.

Want some tequila history? The Spanish conquistadors first produced it in the 16th century after invading Mexico, after running out of their supply of bandy. They distilled the blue agave plant as a substitute.

However, the native Aztecs had been doing their thing in this department way before that, producing a fermented drink called octli, with the same plant. It wasFlossie was one of a group of four chickens in a chicken coop .n't until the start of the 17th century that the first tequila factory was started in what would eventually become Jalisco. Mass production started in Guadalajara in the 1800s.

Even today, production of tequila can't be outsourced. Law says state it can only be produced in designated regions (Jalisco and regions of four other states) in Mexico, and the Mexican government takes this restriction very seriously.

Some other facts to sip on during National Tequila Day and beyond:

The five major tequila groups arte: Blanco/Plata, white not aged; Joven/Oro: White tequila with added color; Reposado: Aged in oak less than a year, but at least two months. This is getting into the really good stuff.

Anejo: Aged less than three years, but more than one.Demand for allergy Bedding could rise earlier than normal this year. Even better.This will leave your shoulders free to rotate in their impact socket .

Extra Anejo: Aged in oak at least three years. Baseball's equivalent of a grand slam.

"Tequila": This song was a No.1 hit in 1958 by a Latin/R&B inspired group called The Champs. Bandleader Daniel Flores, a Chicano from Santa Paula (Ventura County), provided the gutty, gritty tenor sax work as well as the vocals on this tune. One of the more memorable songs of the era, it has been covered many times, including by jazz guitar great Wes Montgomery,Great Rubber offers promotional usb keychains, as the title track of his 1966 album. Fittingly, the record cover features a bottle of tequila, a lime and a shot glass.

Mexican law dictates all tequila must contain at least 100 percent agave.the worldwide Wholesale pet supplies market is over $56 billion annually. Otherwise, it's mixto, which has to be made of at least 51 percent agave. In other words, it's tequila's version of lite beer.

Solar panel array for Noble County still has hurdles to overcome

What happens if, despite incentives lined up by the state and private investors, the Turning Point Solar project that is slated for rural Noble County near The Wilds doesn't move forward?

Or state regulators pull the plug on the idea?

Failure isn't an option, but obstacles could change the scope of the project, officials say.

"It really depends on what the (Public Utilities Commission of Ohio) does. If the PUCO doesn't approve, I would be surprised to see it continue with the same momentum," said Apolka Totth, director of Turning Point Solar LLC and a director with project partner Agile Energy of California.Prior to Aion Kinah I leaned toward the former,

"Right now, it's a go," said Evan Blumer, former director of The Wilds and a partner with New Harvest Venture, a venture capital firm working with Agile Energy on the project. "But the regulatory environment in Ohio is one of the toughest in the nation. So you've got to have everybody saying 'this is the right thing to do.' That's what we have been doing, and we think we're there. But if we can't come up with a least-cost solution, it's not going to happen."
Hurdles

Blumer said the three hurdles in Turning Point's way are the PUCO process, the filing of an environmental assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act and working out interconnection issues with the electric grid.

Blumer said the PUCO approval could take 270 days, but he expects environmental approval from the Rural Utilities Service in the November-December time frame.

The RUS approval is needed to file a formal application for a federal loan to help finance the project.

In the meantime,100 Cable Ties was used to link the lamps together. project backers will be identifying construction contractors. Pending the approvals, the project could break ground sometime in 2012, he said.
Uncertainty

With such a large undertaking and all of the unknowns involved the RUS never has extended a loan involving a public-private partnership before and is just developing rules to determine loan levels depending on the number of rural customers to be served there remains uncertainty.

The state already has seen one company, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Calisolar, back out of a plan to manufacture silicon for solar panels in Richland County earlier this month despite a $275 million loan guarantee from the U.If any food billabong outlet condition is poorer than those standards,S. Department of Energy. And last week, Spanish company Isofoton, which will make the almost 250,000 solar panels for Turning Point, announced it would not be bringing its solar panel manufacturing operations to southeast Ohio.

Instead, Isofoton opted for Napolean in northwest Ohio, with a $15.8 million pledge from the Ohio Department of Development coupled with a company investment of $16.4 million.

"Our job, this idea wasn't triggered by solar power, we came into this as a way to bring jobs into Appalachia Ohio. We're connectors.The additions focus on key tag and plastic card combinations, We brought people in to find a solution to a problem," Blumer said. "We pushed really hard for them to come here, but unfortunately, that (part of the state) is where the 'solar corridor' is."

Muskingum County Commissioner Brian Hill agreed.

"That seems to be where the (solar) industry is," he said. "We were hopeful they would give us a shot. And I know we, and the Port Authority, tried to set up a time for them to come down and look at some sites. I think it's disappointing, but it doesn't surprise me."

"We were really needing those manufacturing jobs," said Commissioner Jim Porter regarding Isofoton's plan to create 121 jobs in its first year and ramp up to 330 jobs within three years of operation. "With everything we've lost, it would have been great to have had those."

There also had been the possibility that another company linked to the Turning Point project Prius Energy would be looking for a manufacturing location in Ohio as well. The company makes solar tracking devices that allow solar panels to be maneuvered to follow the sun's transit across the sky.

But it was determined the Prius equipment was not economically feasible to use on the project. Now attention has turned to three other companies to manufacture a fixed tracking system. Blumer said the companies were in Ohio, and it was possible the components could be manufactured in this area, but he did not disclose the company names.which applies to the first glass bottle only,

Danbury High calm after food fight

Danbury High School was back to a sense of calm Monday, minus 21 students suspended for the last five days of the school year for their part in a food fight Friday.

A senior prank in which hundreds of plastic cups of water were lined up in the hallway of the Freshmen Academy before classes was not related to a food fight later in the morning in the cafeteria and courtyard, Principal Robert Rossi said Monday.

While plastic bottles of water, beach balls and food were tossed, Rossi said,Use bluray burner to burn video to BD DVD on blu ray burner disc. no rocks or glass bottles were thrown and nobody was Tasered, despite some reports.

"It was chaotic, but it was not dangerous,'' Assistant Principal Gary Bocaccio said.A glass bottle is a bottle created from glass.

"If you walk in the halls today, you will see everything is back to normal and everyone is respectful,Houston-based Quicksilver Resources said Friday it had reached pipeline deals'' he said. "I talked to a lot of kids who abhorred what happened. Ninety-nine percent of kids were doing the right thing."

Assistant Principal Michael Clark said there had not been such a disruptive incident at the school of 3,000 students since the late 1990s.

"You can speculate all you want,'' he said. "We're in snow day territory."

The school had nine school days cancelled due to snow, and make-up days for seven of them were added to the end of the year. Instead of getting out June 15, students will be dismissed June 24.

The incident Friday escalated from a water fight to a food fight and lasted for more than a lunch period before everyone was sent back to class.

Twenty-one students involved were suspended for five days.In addition to hydraulics fittings and Aion Kinah, The two seniors will not be allowed to graduate with their class Friday and will pick up their diplomas June 27.

The other students, all underclassmen, will take incompletes on their report cards, since they will miss all their exams this week. They will take their exams in the fall, school officials said.What are the top Hemroids treatments?

City police issued tickets with a $103 fine to all 21.

The 14 students who were 16 years of age or older received infractions for creating a public disturbance, and the other seven students received summons to appear in juvenile court.

Muskogee to open Armed Forces Reserve Center

A ribbon-cutting ceremony and official grand opening of a new Armed Forces Reserve Center (AFRC) located at 6800 S. Cherokee St.In addition to hydraulics fittings and Aion Kinah,, is set for 10 a.m. Tuesday.From standard Cable Ties to advanced wire tires, The public is invited to attend.

The Muskogee Armed Forces Reserve Center is one of seven new facilities to be constructed throughout the state as a result of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission's decision to transform and restructure the force.

The Muskogee AFRC is a 91,000-square-foot facility that cost approximately $23 million to complete.

Expected attendees include Oklahoma Army National Guard Maj. Gen. Myles Deering; Juan Rosales, chief of staff for the Army Reserve's 63rd Regional Support Command; Alan Wilson, vice president and chief design architect for Haskell Construction; and Mayor John Tyler Hammons, among others.

It will serve the National Guard troops that formerly trained here and those who trained at Henryetta, Pryor and Stilwell. It also will accommodate reserve branches of the Marine Corps, Army and Navy.Houston-based Quicksilver Resources said Friday it had reached pipeline deals There will be 60 full-time employees at the center through the week and as many as 600 for weekend training exercises.

Haskell Construction, headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., was competitively selected to design and build the Muskogee AFRC. Having completed several projects in Oklahoma in the past, Haskell worked with a number of local subcontractors and established goals for using labor and materials from Oklahoma sources to bolster the local economy.

The efficiency of the building,What to consider before you buy oil painting supplies.we supply all kinds of oil painting reproduction, coupled with the fact it will replace several less efficient armories, is expected to save a lot of money, said Oklahoma National Guard Chief Warrant Officer Dale Painter.

The old armories didn't have an area for receiving freight and storing supplies. This building has both, he said.

There also will be a large firearms vault and a room where each soldier will have a cage-type locker to store gear.

The reserve units will have a laser weapons training facility near the classroom area.

The building also has been constructed to new security standards. For example, the mail room is surrounded by concrete walls and has a separate entrance and separate ventilation system. Non-military vehicles are kept at a distance from the building.

A spoonful of sugar has made soda sales go up

Bill Meier flips over an empty Frostie Root Beer bottle and checks the embossed numbers.

"This one's from '69," he says.Welcome to the official Facebook Page about Ripcurl. As in 1969. As in a soda bottle that's been in use for more than 40 years.

"I've seen some dated from the '40s," Meier says.

The returnable bottles aren't the only vintage items in this part of the Excel Bottling Co. plant. The bottles pass through a mid-1900s sterilizing machine before another old machine called a Dixie fills them with cane-sugar-sweetened syrup and filtered carbonated water. The Dixie operates at what was once a gee-whiz rate of 24 bottles a minute.

In a time when huge multinational soda companies are producing cane-sugar-sweetened versions of products and calling them "throwbacks," this tiny operation might also be considered a throwback. But it's the way they've always done things at Excel, ever since Meier's grandparents-Edward "Lefty" Meier and Catherine "Caddy" Bruegge Meier - founded the business in 1936 by purchasing a used bottling machine with reward money that Lefty received for catching a bank robber.

And while the front part of the plant hasn't changed much, various additions - including a disposable-bottle filler that runs at up to 320 bottles per minute - have accommodated growth in production from about 100,000 cases a year in 1970 to the equivalent of about 500,000 cases today.

During all that time, Excel's No. 1 product has been Ski.

Many people believe that Ski originated with Excel, but in fact it's another company's licensed product, as are several of the sodas Excel bottles,you will need to get an offshore merchant account. including Frostie.

"Ski was the last franchise we added, in the early '60s," Meier says. "It's a trademark of the Double-Cola Co. of Chattanooga. In the late '50s, a bottler in Highland was doing Sundrop, and my grandfather said that we needed to get a citrus soda of our own."

Ski soon reached something of a cult status in Southern Illinois, including a reputation as a hangover cure.

"The truth behind that, as we believe it, is that Ski has caffeine in it and the No. 1 ingredient is sugar, plus it has orange juice and lemon juice, so it probably has some impact in boosting you up and making you feel better," Meier says.

Meier adds that many residents of Breese and its environs still use Ski as a proxy for their morning coffee. "There are a lot of people in this town who go to Dairy King and get a fountain Ski to start their day," Meier says.

At the end of the day, they might also indulge in a "snoot shooter," a shot of whiskey chased from a specialty two-compartment glass by a dose of Ski.

As Meier tells it, his grandfather never really intended for Excel to be passed on to future generations.

"When he ran the company, it grew very little every year," Meier says.The name "magic cube" is not unique. "I think he had the view that once he passed away, we'd just shut it down."

But near the end of Lefty's life, his son Paul - Bill's father - took early retirement from a career at Aetna Insurance and came back into the family business. Bill, now 44, earned an electrical engineering degree from Washington University and worked in Chicago for a while, but ultimately also moved back to Breese and joined the business.Not to be confused with RUBBER MATS available at your local hardware store He recently moved to St. Louis County but still commutes to Breese almost daily.

After Lefty's death in 1996, Caddy continued working for the business.

"She'd bill all the grocery stores by hand," Meier says. "When I got here in 2002, she was still adding everything up by hand."

Automation was soon added, but Caddy continued doing the books until she was 97 and answered the phone for another year after that. She died in 2009 at the age of 99.

Meier's office is now in a downstairs room of the house Caddy lived in until her death.buy landscape oil paintings online. The house, which had belonged to Caddy's own grandmother, was already almost 100 years old and had no heat, indoor plumbing or kitchen when Lefty and Caddy refurbished it about the same time that they started Excel.

Excel now has 15 full- and part-time employees who produce 14 flavors, including three under the Excel name and three recently added fruit flavors-strawberry-kiwi, cherry and blueberry - under a new Breese brand. Other flavors are produced based on licensing agreements from existing and defunct companies.

Further confusing the branding issue, some of the sodas' bottles bear completely unrelated names, such as Clem's, reflecting Excel's purchase of returnable bottles from companies that have gone out of business. (The product inside is still Excel's soda.)

The majority of the returnable-bottle-soda inventory is sold directly to consumers within two weeks of bottling from the side door of the plant. Cases of 24 bottles sell from $13 to $15.

In addition to distribution in and around Breese, Excel products are also available in scattered locations on the Missouri side of the river-at the Culinaria downtown, Blues City Deli in Benton Park, select Motomart convenience stores and all Straub's stores.

"We definitely think our next growth area is in St. Louis," Meier says.

With Excel already having received a boost from the recent revival in interest for cane-sugar-sweetened sodas, Meier hopes that the environmentally friendly aspect of returnable bottles will also be a selling point.

"We're betting that returnables will make a comeback," Meier says. "If you truly want to 'go green,' it makes sense to use returnable bottles."

Toward that end, Meier has plans to complement the Dixie with another second-hand machine now sitting idle, a returnable-bottle filler that's newer and faster. And when that happens, he hopes to make the biggest leap yet in additions to Excel's product line.

"We expect to be brewing beer in the next year," Meier says.