Mason jars must be an amazing brand. Invented by John Landis Mason in 1858, they’ve stayed with us a very long time. I went looking for some at my thrift store so that I can vacuum seal the coffee beans for storage. The first time I went there was only one small mason jar. I need a few more for a pound of coffee. The next time I went there were many large jars - they seemed quite old, likely before the 1950s. The glass is thick and the seal at the top takes a glass lid and a heavy metal screw top, so is a bit complicated. I think they also required a rubber jar ring. Today mason jars have a thin metal lid with a metal ring screw top. Surprise that my vacuum sealer doesn’t work on that indented top - so I’ll have to go looking for another one.
Mason jars now fit into the “accessory” category. There must be at least 20 ways to use mason jars - cute and creative decorations, packaging bath salts, serving decorator drinks. There are the chocolate cookies in a jar gifts - where all the ingredients are in a mason jar in layers. Well, I hope not the eggs or the butter. And then if chocolate chip cookies don’t have eggs and butter, can they really be cookies?
Yesterday I wrote recursive instead of cursive when referring to writing by hand. Steven Pinker, Harvard Professor and author of The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century, was asked how he approaches the revision of his own writing. His answer? “recursively and frequently.” So I would sympathize with young people today because they have both issues - not knowing cursive writing and then not knowing how to revise text with a recursive approach.
Gone are mason jars today from the grocery and the market shelves. The single piece screw tops in the picture below are more efficient and cheaper for industrial and retail production.
