I am slowly coming to realize that blogging is not all about rushing to blog about anything and everything. Even though, as I have come to realize, that seems to be my M.O. Now somethings it may be fine to rush it out but on others, like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, I need to take my time and do research in order to bring some kind of sense to the post.  I hope to do a better job of my blog in the future.

                                                                                        Misha

       When storms blow through
      Flowers tend to lose their bloom.

"MYSTIFY" by INXS '92

Triangle Factory Fire Part 2

Now a bit more information. The company's offices were on the 10th floor with the machines and factory workers occupying the 8th and 9th floors.Blanck and Harris had a million dollar a year business mass producing the item most women wanted: the shirtwaist. The men were known as The Shirtwaist Kings, even though they had been successful, according to them they were always under attack. That's because after 20 yrs. the shirtwaist was falling out of favor among modern women. the women waned colorful dresses and no matter what Triangle did such as embroidry they were losing profits. Plus the cost of material and shipping were rising.  So when  the strikes of 1909, with the beatings and the arrest of the women, took place it made matters worse.

With the exception of the Triangle workers, all he others were fine with the outcome of the strike. So time marches on until that fateful day. It was as the work day was ending on March 25,1911 that all hell broke loose on the 8th floor at about 4:45 pm. Although smoking was banned in the building, cutters were know to sneak cigarettes. A cigarette butt or a match in a bin is or by a sewing machine engine is thought to have caused the fire. A bookkeeper on the 8th was able to phone and warn the employees on the 10th floor by telephone, but with no audible alarms or any way to get in contact with the workers on the 9th floor. According to a survivor the warning arrived the same time the fire did. Some of the workers were able to get out via the elevator, the stairs and the fire escape while Blanck and Harris went to the roof. machine operators looked for a way out because the everyday exit onto Greene Street was blocked by smoke and fire. Some women fled onto a fire escape to the back alley. While others ran to two tiny passenger elevators that led to Washington Place.  In three minutes time the fire escape became unstable and pulled away from the masonry. The victims fell nearly 100 feet to their deaths. The elevator operators made 3 trips up to the 9th floor but one  had to quit when the rails on it buckled under the heat. Because of that workers pried open the doors and flung themselves down the elevator shaft on to the top of the elevators. With the bodies on the last elevator it could no longer make any more runs to the 9 th floor. There was one last chance for the victims, opening the locked door to Washington Place. But there was no key.They waited until the smoke and flames overtook them.
  In 5 minutes since the alarm was raised thousand or more people gathered around the building while the firemen raised their ladders to its full extension but they fell 30 feet short. The fire was put out in 30 minutes. three hours later the firemen were lowering the bodies down by block and tackle. Of the 500 employees 146 were dead.

I hope you can get something from these posts. God bless the workers and their families. May it never happen again.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/transcript/triangle-transcript/ 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire

http://history1900s.about.com/od/1910s/p/trianglefire.htm

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Part 1

 I am going to attempt to give a bit of a back story of the Triangle fire.

 With all the union problems going on in today's world, we need to stop and remember the brave and selfless workers of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. It was on this day, March 25,1911  a 100 years ago that a fire started in a rag bin causes the deadliest industrial accident in New York history. And the 4th highest loss of  life from an industrial accident in American history.

  In the fall of 1909 in New York city a general strike was called for among factory workers. Of those 20,000  plus workers that went on strike, 4/5 were women. The strike was at one time limited to one company that went onto become the first large scale strike of women workers most being immigrants, in American history. Even though a settlement of a slight wage increase was made, the union's call for increased fire safety was not. With tragic results as it's consequence. 
 http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/pwwmh/ny30.htm

The Triangle Shirtwaist factory was at the Asch Building at 29 Washington Place in Lower Manhattan and its owners  were Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, immigrants themselves from Russia. They met in the United States and opened up the first shop,  the Triangle Waist Company on Woodster Street in 1900. The business grew quickly and they relocated to the corner of Washington Place and Greene Street. Expanding to the 8th floor, 9th  and then the 10th floor. Even though it was a sweatshop, the Triangle was a highly desired place to work because it was a modern facility by comparison to other factories. With its big windows and high ceilings it was a dream compared to the coal heated stove and dusty, crowded sweatshops.But even if working there was a comparable dream job, sewing machine operators worked 14 hour days for $2 a day. Then the bosses deducted pay for the use of electricity, needles and thread. Also the big machines would not work right and the needle would skip and the worker would get blamed. All it was was "Shirtwaists, Shirtwaist, and more shirtwaists". 

My brains becoming a bit fuddled so I think I'll stop for now.I'm sorry if this is not going as fast as one would hope (mainly myself) but please try and stay with me.     Misha

DAME ELIZABETH TAYLOR

Dame Elizabeth Rosemond  Taylor 1932-2011. We lost a precious jewel today in Dame Elizabeth. Starting with "There's One Born Every Minute" in 1942 to when she was 12 years old with "National Velvet" being her  breakout performance to her last piece of work the television movie "These Old Broads" with Debbie Reynolds in  2001.

 Through 8 husband and 7 marriages and many illnesses, never has a star shone so bright and never will  a star be so missed as DAME ELIZABETH TAYLOR. Her work for AIDS charities and countless other charities will live on forever because of Dame Elizabeth. 

As she said once "There's nothing like a dame" and there will never be another Dame Elizabeth.

Sainte Therese de Lisieux

  Let us not be justices of the peace, but angels of peace.

 What matters in life is not great deeds, but great love.                                                   

                                        SAINT THERESE of LISIEUX

Enjoy Spring

Finally my dear friends, Happy Official First day of Spring!       

                                                                                              MISHA                                                     

Double Take

While I was out today I went past a Burger King & on the marquee I swore it said Dr. Strangelove. But in doing a double take  it said : BK Double Stacker. My second double take was when I was on the interstate that is under construction and thought that the concrete barricades had the word "whiskey" printed on them. But it was "Waskey" or "Whaskey". Something along those lines that is more than likely the company name.

How can someone say that they are a person of he cloth and yet be arrogant and hateful?Today I had such an encounter. While waiting for someone in an office,a woman came in and started talking on the phone in a foreign language. Two women, who were already in a tizzy because the receptionist referred to them as "MRS." They were complaining loudly that everywhere else they go they are called either "Doctor" or "Archbishop". Anyway, one of them practically shouted that it's rude of a person to speak a foreign language, which is the person's native tongue,  and not English. This poor woman was so humiliated. Finally, the person I was with spoke up because of all of the complaining these two women were doing.and called them arrogant to their faces! They went on about the whole scene. Women saying that it took one of them 10 years and the other one11 years to go through divinty school instead of 4 and that they deserved more respect than most. Plus they're bragful ! My gosh! They went on to say that they don't have this "problem' when they go to the Mayor's office &the Governor's office. EXCUSE ME?! Also the women, the Archbishop mainly because the other one finally got that calling someone MRS. or MR. is just how things are done in this office, went on to say that an African-American calling someone Mr or Mrs.  is a holdover from Jim Crow Law. If I had thought about it at the time, I would have said no it's not that is just how BOTH whites and blacks are raised. But things eventually settled down a bit when the person I was waiting for came out. Of course everyone in the back heard the women and were also getting complaints about them from other clients. Plus they said they because Jesus did not get paid they wouldn't take a salary. BIG WHOOP.

  To me this is no way for anyone let alone a minister to act. They think not taking a salary is going to get them to Heaven? There are other things like kindness, tolerance and a gentle voice.

I imagine that the name of my blog and the background may have you wondering a bit. My blogs name is from the color of one of my cats a Russian Blue. I do not have any good pictures of him but this is what he looks like.

HELLO

HELLO & WELCOME to  MISHA'S BLUE! I am new at this and hope those that follow ,if I could be so lucky. This blog will for now not be about any one thing in specific. as you might be able to tell by the description. I will eventually put enjoys flowers to the description as soon as I can muddle my way through to it. So I hope you will bear with me and enjoy the blog.

                                                                            Thank You

                                                                 Misha