‘It is not known for certain who invented the first ice cube tray, a refrigerator accessory that can make and remake small uniform ice cubes.
‘In 1844, American physician, John Gorrie, built a refrigerator to make ice to cool the air for his yellow fever patients. Some historians think that Doctor Gorrie may have also invented the first ice cube tray since it was documented that his patients were also receiving iced drinks.
‘In 1914, Fred Wolf invented a refrigerating machine called the DOMELRE or DOMestic ELectric REfrigerator. The DOMELRE was not successful in the marketplace, however, it did have a simple ice cube tray and inspired later refrigerator manufacturers to include ice cube trays in their appliances as well.
‘During the 1920s and ’30s, it became common for electric refrigerators to come with a freezer section that included an ice cube compartment with trays.
‘The first flexible stainless steel, all-metal ice tray was invented by Guy L. Tinkham in 1933. The tray flexed sidewise to eject the ice cubes.
“Flexing the tray cracks the ice into cubes corresponding to the division points in the tray, and then forces the cubes up and out. Pressure forcing the ice out is due to the 5-degree draft on both sides of the tray.”
‘The inventor was the then vice president of the General Utilities Mfg. Co., a company that produced household appliances. The McCord ice tray as it was called cost $0.50 in 1933.
‘Later, various designs based on the McCord were released, aluminum ice-cube trays with a removable cube separator and release handles. They were eventually replaced molded plastic ice cube trays.
‘Today, refrigerators come with a variety of ice cube making options that go beyond trays. There are internal automatic icemakers and icemakers and dispensers built into refrigerator doors.’ — collaged
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Media
The Proof Parade
Ice cube trays
Personal Ice Cube Tray (Patent-Pending)
Stalagmite in Ice Cube Tray
Ice Cube painting
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Further
Ice cube @ Wikipedia
The History of Ice Cubes
Ice cube trays @ eBay
‘How to Remove Ice Cubes From a Tray’
‘8 Ways a Simple Ice Cube Tray Can Help You Drop Pounds’
‘Ice Cube Tray as Sunburn Soother’
‘Make Nigiri Sushi Quickly in an Ice Cube Tray’
‘Reinventing the ice cube tray’
‘The clear facts about ice cubes’
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Show
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p.s. Hey. ** JM, Hi, man. I’m glad you’re hanging in there as best you can. Yes, I wrote you back re: your email, but we’re all set to go, and thank you so, so, so much. ** Bill, Hi, B. I’m sure Julie appreciated the props. And I, of course, do. I’ll do a search for the Puppet Arts Center, and I’ll pass what I find along to the undoubtedly interested Gisele too. Keep having a blast. ** David Ehrenstein, Weird is DC’s middle name, I think? ** Jeff J, Hi, Jeff. I demanded that the TV script work be put aside until our film script is finished, and the powers-that-be reluctantly gave us until Saturday to do that, and I’m pretty confident we’ll hit the mark. So, yes, we’re in a last heavy work spurt on the film script, then we’ll do an immediate, dreaded nosedive back into the TV thing. I hope the Asheville event goes really well, and I’m obviously happy that your novel is eating your brain’s forefront. Oh, Blake Butler is in Paris ‘cos ‘300,000,000’ was just published in France, and he did a great reading/talk last night, and I think Paris and I have almost convinced him to move here. ** Nick, Hey, Nick. Great that the screening was a big success! And that the MB epic is essentially finis! I think there must be interesting venues to whom a 25+ hour movie would be the golden egg the goose laid, but I’m so optimistic. Anyway, onwards, and I’m sure that’ll get sussed. ** Steve Erickson, Hi. Oh, yeah, I know about the faux-Richard Prince thing. I saw video evidence of it at some point, and I have to say it looked pretty heavy handed and dumb. But hey! I did look at Are Sounds Elektrik at one point but not thoroughly. It seemed like a good place to dig in. I’ll put it on my wish list. Thanks! ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi. Legowelt has a podcast/radio thing? Cool, I did not know that. Ha ha, yeah, I heard that Roy Garrett thing way back when. It didn’t strike me as so powerful or anything, but time is a funny thing. I’ll see how Legowelt contextualised it. Thanks, bud. ** Nik, Hey! Yeah, gotcha. On the break’s ups/downs. Like I wrote, I’ll let you know once we know or have a sense at least of the summer. FSG is kicking ass these days. It’d be really cool to be there, I think. Especially if it’s somehow in the sphere of Jeremy Davies who does the FSG Originals series. I think ‘DIY’ is still in usage? Well, there are a ton of interesting DIY presses. What more precisely are you seeking? Obviously, the DIY places tend to be pretty tinily staffed, so … Yeah, what do hope for? Sounds like your writing is in a great place, yes, and cool that a conducive context exists for it. I’m good, just, as I keep saying, overworked and a bit fried, but I should be so lucky, I guess. I am slowly working on what will be the 4th chapter of a new gif novel. A little too slow-going for the obvious reasons, but I like what’s happening. Thanks, man. All the work right now is pretty much either solo or only involves Zac and me writing. But thank you! ** Robert Siek, Hi, Robert. Well, if it makes you feel any better, none of my poetry books have ever been nominated for a gay (or any other) award. Your book will be just fine without that ‘accolade’, as you already know. And great about the reading and the upcoming inclusion in the mysterious online journal. Alert us/me when it’s up if you remember and don’t mind. Congrats on the eight years of love. Not bad, my friend, not bad at all. ** KeatonBearsDeadMk, Nice, good one. Good name. Thanks about my weekend. I’ll be writing and writing too, but catching a couple of concerts at least. New blog stuff! Everyone, hit up Keaton’s blog, yeah? New stuff for your delectation there. Go. Nice Jerry Cantrell pic. ** Corey Heiferman, Hi, Corey. Thanks for the good words to Julie. I’ve heard that word Purim before. I had no idea what it was. I think I thought it was a fruit or something. That video! So that’s Purim in action? Not bad. NASA videos, now that’s a good obsession. Maybe not as good as ice cube trays, but what could be, ha ha? I have an at least semi-good ear for Metal, so I’ll go hear what this Caleb fella has cooked up. Fingers crossed. ** Right. Someday when someone ranks all the posts ever posted on DC’s in terms of quality and lasting impact, I reckon that today’s will be #1, what do you think? See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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More Ice For Our Drinks, cause It’s Spike Lee’s Birthday !
Here’s my review of Jordan Peele’s US: https://www.gaycitynews.nyc/stories/2019/7/us-film-2019-03-28-gcn.html.
As you can tell from what I wrote, I wish I didn’t have to turn in the morning after I saw the film, and I wrote the review very quickly. (It didn’t help that Universal’s first press screening in New York to which they invited critics who don’t belong to some elite group is 3 days before US opens theatrically.)
I’m due to see Us on Sunday afternoon and, having read your review, am looking forward to it a great deal.
I liked the cat one… surprise, surprise… 😉 though the skull one is pretty ace as well!
Sorry I’ve been so quiet on here, been dealing with a lingering stomach bug for like a week now that has threw me for a loop… actually had to leave work early on Sunday, something I haven’t done since early September 2016!
Oh, a story I wrote back in 2017, THE MAN WHO MURDERED HIS MUSE, is being published by Eibonvale Press as part of their chapbook line. Having read a number of their books over the years, I’m needless to say very happy about this:
https://www.eibonvalepress.co.uk/chapbooks/Chap09_Muse.htm
Two books published in the span of two months, give or take a few days… I feel like James Patterson. 😉
Don’t have any ice cube trays here in my fridge but thanks to this evidence, I can now appreciate their sculptural qualities.
I have the last of the short story classes tomorrow. For the final assignment I wrote a 500 word piece called Matriculation about registering my name and details in a fascist dystopia, obviously a sign that I’ve been thinking way too much about Brexit of late. And yet, this is turning into a golden age for satirists. For some light relief I’ve been turning to the Guardian’s political sketchwriter John Crace whose riffs on the malfunctioning Maybot have been particularly astute.
The music blog I mentioned a while back, which was in the works from a friend who sent me the Arthur Baker remix of the Cars, is now live with its first 2 links: https://noairhorns.blogspot.com. He plans an update about once a week.
Many umm cool items today, Dennis. That painting with ice cubes idea is terrific. I wonder what you can do with very detailed 3D printed ice cube trays, hmm. Maybe there’s a way to remove the ice without compromising small details.
I’m totally looking forward to the new Jordan Peele. Thanks for Steevee’s review.
There are actually two puppet-related facilities in Taipei. This is the larger one, housed in a modern building, with a nice collection of Chinese and some Asian puppets:
https://www.pact.taipei/include/N1.html
Then there’s a smaller one, mostly focused on traditional Taiwanese glove puppets (which I’m not so into), but housed in a charming old building:
http://www.taipeipuppet.com/english/about.html
Bill
Big D, I miss those funky ice cube trays that were shapes and people and characters. A good ol’ maudlin post here for me. Though frankly, I think we tried one once and it didn’t look that great, hahaha. But I do like them.
So much for my time management starting Monday, haha. Man, for some reason, Monday and Tuesday I was dog tired. Went right to bed after eating. I’m getting on track, though. I’m trying.
Here’s some potential good news. The other proofreaders and I all have desktops and have to go in every day. Every other contractor -hundreds and hundreds of them- in that building has a laptop and can work from home most of the week. Well, it seems they’re working on getting us laptops now. It’ll probably be later rather than sooner, but if it happens, I’ll be a happy camper. I’ll have 3 extra hours to do shit, emails, writing, etc. Fingers crossed this happens sooner rather than later.
It’s not even that I’m so busy; that 2 – 3 hours in the car every day is just a time killer, you know?
I think busy is better than not busy, generally. As long as you get a break here and there. Just think how fucking bored you’d be if you weren’t busy.
Ice cube trays! Dennis, this day is a perfect example of why I love the blog. Such a weird left turn of a post that somehow makes perfect sense after yesterday’s wonderful gallery show of op(ish) artists.
That’s so great about Blake and the new translation. Sounds like the book is getting a big splash if he’s over to read from it? Please say hello to him for me, if you get the chance.
Asheville was a bit of a bust, but did get to visit my favorite used bookstore and come away with some goodies. Have you ever read Geoffrey Hill’s “Mercian Hymns”? 30 short stanzas of strange gobs of larded language and eldtrich affect. Jeremy D. recommended it to me and finding it quite wonderful. Suspect you might dig it.
Sent you an email about a nice thing happening while I’m in town in a few weeks. Hope the final push on the screenplay goes well. Next step sending it to the producer?
Hey Dennis!
Haaaaa this day is killer. I love weapon ice cube trays and the little ice cube corpses. Also, you’ve gotta find a way to fit that very last gif into a story, there’s so much potential there.
Yeah, right? About FSG kicking ass. I’ll try and find a way to work with them somehow. Yeah, DIY is super vague, but I guess I’m just super eager to collaborate with a lot of those kinds of places right now (Tyrant, Two Dollar Radio, Song Cave, Semiotext(e), CCM, etc.) I guess there’s a pretty straightforward list I just wrote, I’m just wondering if you have any other suggestions. I’m mostly interested in editorial work, and don’t care about getting paid at this point. Let me know!
Oh, cool, that’s awesome that the 4th chapter’s coming along. What’s this novel about? Do you have an overarching “thing” yet? I know the last one was short stories, this one’s a return to more interconnected stuff then?
Also, were you ever into East River Pipe? What do you think of him? He’s one of those home recording indie guys from the 90’s. I’ve been getting into his stuff lately but I’m kinda torn. Garbageheads on Endless Stun and The Gasoline Age are super fantastic, but some of it feels a little ‘second rate Sebadoh’. That might be an adjustment thing though. Curious what you think.
I’d say those drag queens are representative of Purim in Tel Aviv, and Tel Aviv is about as representative of Israel as San Francisco is of the US.
Do you have a verdict on Caleb Gray’s band?
The full consequences of moving to suburbia became apparent to my folks when at age 11 I had a friend over who saw his very first ice cube tray at our house. Even at 29 I probably I couldn’t resist licking the ice paintbrushes and poisoning myself.
I had a kind of drab day yesterday but at least I got a peak inside one of the country’s leading literary publishers. It turns out their office is extremely close to both my apartment and my office. I ordered a magazine and saw I could dodge the shipping fee by picking it up myself. The place has a real homey feel with old art prints and dusty books and binders everywhere. It’s also in a really hard to find office building surrounded by industrial zone, like some kind of portal to another dimension. As long as you can find the place you can just wander in. I have a strong intuition that despite the language hurdle my chances of publishing there are much better than at FSG with its prime office location and Fort Knox setup at the door.
Have you seen this disturbing and maybe beautiful butchering of your poems?
https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/haiku-physics/
Hey Dennis, how’s it going?
If I can recall correctly, it is my second time posting. The first time I commented was in response to a post about the artist Jim Campbell, who I work for, and how I enjoyed your reading at McRoskey in SF. Anyways, I will be in Paris next week, for about 10 days, and I am looking for things to do as I have never been there. So far I am interested in seeing Baudelaire’s grave, visiting the Rodin museum and walking around. The Foundation Giacometti kind of piqued my interest, I don’t know… could be a bust. I will be staying near the 11th and the Pere Lachaise cemetery. Do you have any recommendations on things to do? I’m interested in poetry and literature, and French writers but am not too keen on literary tourism unless it’s “really cool. ” If you are free, I would love to go for a walk or something. I understand if not, I know it’s inappropriate to ask strangers on the internet to hang out. Hope all is well! – Tyler
Hey Dennis! Quinn here again. How are you? Is it spring yet in Paris?
Wanted to thank you again for the reassurance about my grad school applications. At times it feels weird thinking about the “agendas” these MFA programs are advancing, because it seems like a defensive gesture meant to make myself feel better. So, I’m feeling relieved to hear it from a literary figure who works outside of the MFA context.
In any event, I was waitlisted at one pretty good place. I’m hoping there’s some movement on the waitlist, because the program offers full funding. I wonder how my work fits into the school’s agenda? Probably healthier not to speculate…I also got a rejection from Iowa with a handwritten note, “Thanks for the strong application.” This felt good at least. If I end up reapplying, I’m grateful to know which programs are into my work & which ones do not like my work at all.
Some other news: there’s this French guy who once gave me a blowjob at a club in Berlin, & we kept in touch. He offered to let me stay in his flat in Paris over the summer, because he’ll be traveling in South America. Good idea, bad idea? He’s friends with some other friends of mine, so I know he’s fairly trustworthy. Do you know of any ways I could make money in Paris? I’m terrible at waiting tables but maybe I could be a barback or something. I’m also licensed to teach English as a foreign language, I’ve taught dance, I could escort, etc…What are your thoughts? How’s Paris in the summer?
Hope to hear back soon! Best wishes
Dennis this is a beautiful and random post. Something deeply satisfying about ice cube trays, and really all molds, when the positive part pops out. Now I’ll be thinking about this all day.
B