The morning after a party is always awkward. You feel cheap and dirty because there are always remnants of “party” left everywhere. Why don’t people eat the crust of pizza? Why do empty beer bottles collect in front of someone like a trophy case of smelly glass? The worst part about the morning after a party is the wasted food that never got eaten or put away overnight. And now there is no good food left in the house and there is another snow storm raging out the window. What should a hungry guy do?

Break out the Mason jars filled with great stuff from last summer’s garden. In fact people from 156 years ago have been looking for food from the efforts of family members hidden in a Mason jar. A Mason jar was the only way to preserve food safely and to some extent, it still is for certain kinds of foods like jam or jellies.  With just jars, it was difficult to save food from spoilage. This invention patented by John Landis Mason had glass jars made with a threaded neck at the top and a screw on cap that provided an air tight seal. Soon it was used to preserve all sorts of foods from autumn harvests that were plentiful in autumn.

Competitors moved in on his invention once the patent expired in 1879 and in 1902 John Mason died a very poor man after copy cats took all the profits of his invention away from him yet we all refer to the things still as Mason jars. Could you imagine having a thing named after you and not being able to get the rewards of your invention? Sad. Well Bill Gates and the Apple products founders remembered to protect their patents and remain filthy rich. In the mid-20^th Century refrigerators were in most kitchens and folks dropped the jars and froze everything.

Now the original Mason jars are valued as collectors’ items and many Americans who go camping or who are at the beach all day away from refrigerators rely on Mason type jars for their special food combinations being preserved freshly.  So here I am surrounded by smelly beer bottles and pizza crusts opening a jar of raspberry jelly from the raspberry bushes in the yard happily dipping crusts in it for lunch. SSSh ! Don’t tell anyone. It is a snow day. Anything goes. And those thieving Patriots stole the super Bowl prize again last night. Katy Perry was surrounded by so many lights and fireworks you couldn’t see all her costume changes. At one point I was sure she was just orbiting the place up in the air during the half time show or was that the effects from too much beer. UGH! I think I have to barf in my Mason jar, the poor bastard who died with no money.