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Dye to Cowl

The Man Behind Holt Avenue's Name

Thousands of cars travel up and down Holt Avenue between 17th Street and Newport Avenue every day, according to traffic surveys done by the city.

However, despite the huge number of drivers and passengers involved, probably not one person in a hundred gives a moment's thought to the origin of the street's name.

John Holt, for whom the street is named, was a native of Sweden who immigrated to the United States. Facts about his life vary depending on the source, but the following information comes from the 1911 edition of "History of Orange County, California." The book contains biographical sketches of the men and women of the county Samuel Armor identified as participating in the growth and development of the area at that time.

Holt came to the United States at the age of 13 when his father, Sven Holt, immigrated here to become a brass worker, employed first in St. Louis, then Chicago. The elder Holt returned to Sweden in 1860, but John remained in this country.

He enlisted in the United States Navy in 1866 and served on several battleships, mainly in the Asiatic waters, visiting both China and Japan. At the end of his enlistment, he transferred to the merchant marines, shipping out of Philadelphia and Portland, Maine harbors. His next employer was the U.S. government, which hired him to do harbor improvement work on the East Coast.

Holt then came to California, arriving in what would become Orange County in 1882. After deciding to locate in Tustin, he first bought an unimproved tract of 10 acres. Four years later, he purchased an additional 10 acres at the intersection of First Street and a road which would become known as Holt.

After marrying Louise Deathelms, a resident of New York, he used his carpentry skills to build a cozy cottage on his property. Before long, Holt became known for his experiments in agriculture.

After planting walnut and apricot trees on his first pieces of land, he began a long and extensive series of experiments to discover how the various fruits would adapt to the soil. His first experiment of planting a vineyard failed when the grapes died before they came into bearing.

He next planted a variety of fruits, including prunes which he soon found to be a money losing crop. Disillusioned by their low market value, he abandoned them in favor of crops that would bring in revenue in keeping with the high cost of the land.

When he found that oranges, apricots and walnuts would earn the highest profit because they were the best adapted to the climate and the soil, he concentrated on planting these species in his orchard.

In addition to experimenting with fruit, Holt enjoyed raising poultry. He was recognized for his skill in selecting birds and caring for the flock. His pureblood White Brahmas were judged to be the finest specimens of that breed in Orange County.

Although Holt was a Republican, voting for party candidates in both state and national elections, he was known for supporting the man he thought best able to promote the welfare of the county and not the party line, in local elections. He belonged to the Masonic Lodge, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Foresters of America.

Since Holt was included in the U.S. Census in 1900, 1910 and 1920, he is assumed to have died between 1920 and 1930.

How to Screen Print Video Series - Eva Stalinski

Eva Stalinski is a Dutch illustrator and screen printer who sells her shirts, bags, pins and patches online. In this delightful series of how-to videos, she shares how to screen print your own designs onto t-shirts. She includes information about the tools, inks, and materials she uses, as well as her DIY-at-home setups.

Above, she demonstrates how to prepare a screen at home. Below, she shows us how to screen print a shirt at home:

Stalinski levels up the challenge and delight with this how-to video about printing multiple layers: How to print a 4-color screen print at home.




To see more of her work, visit EvaStalinski.com. To try screenprinting at home or in the classroom, watch her entire series. 

Ring of Truth Series: Gold, Noodles, and Hydrogen

Above, watch molten gold transform into gold leaf as it is beaten into thinner and thinner pieces while cold. This clip is from PBS’ six-part miniseries The Ring of Truth: An Inquiry Into How We Know What We Know – Atoms (1987). 

“It was the craftsmen who mastered the remarkable properties that go with specific materials. They were the first to journey towards the atom. The goldsmiths slowly refined their craft to take advantage of what gold alone could do…”

MIT astrophysicist and Institute Professor Philip Morrison narrated the series, which he co-wrote with his wife, noted art and science educator Phylis Morrison. Philip Morrison also narrated and wrote the script for Charles and Ray Eames’ Powers of Ten, a must-watch video for all ages.

Chef Kin Jing Mark demonstrates how to make super-thin noodles and helps introduce the principle of halving in this clip from the PBS miniseries The Ring of Truth: An Inquiry Into How We Know What We Know – Atoms (1987). MIT astrophysicist and professor Philip Morrison narrates:

If atoms exist in patterns in space, we should somehow be able to measure their size. We approach the division of matter by the attractive process of halving, and halving, and halving it again… Twelve foldings produced 4,096 fine noodles, and if Chef Mark could have stretched the dough 30 more times, the noodles would have reached atomic thickness.

Possibly the most well-known scientific formula on the planet, H2O is one of those terms that we see around all the time. We know that H2O means water, and that a water molecule is composed of two hydrogen (H) atoms & one oxygen (O) atom, but have we ever seen this formula proven?

Above, a clip from the 1987 miniseries The Ring of Truth: An Inquiry into How We Know What We Know, hosted by Philip Morrison, who wrote it with art and science educator Phylis Morrison. Watch as two units of hydrogen are combined with two units of oxygen over and over again. What happens every time?

How is Victorian Nectar Drop Candy Made?

…and why are lemon drops, cough drops, and fruit drops all called drops?

In this video by Tallahassee, Florida’s Lofty Pursuits artisanal candy makers, we get an up close look at how their restored candy equipment, circa 1848, made (and makes) Victorian era nectar candy drops. Watch the hot sugar roll through the pairs of brass drop rollers into sheets of molded candies…

And the ‘drop’ name? Wait until you see how the candies are separated.

North Dakota's Enchanted Highway

In 1989, the small town of Regent, North Dakota was getting smaller, and with no prospects in sight for bringing in visitors and jobs, former school principal Gary Greff came up with an idea: He would build an ‘enchanted highway’ full of sculptures that would lead visitors to Regent.

…but these wouldn’t just be any sculptures. These would be massive sculptures. Via the always wonderful Atlas Obscura:

With zero experience welding or creating art, he began building the world’s largest metal sculptures and placing them along the “Enchanted Highway,” or Highway 21.

By 2006, Greff had completed a total of seven mammoth sculptures for the 32-mile stretch of road. All are thematically related to the western North Dakota’s cultural and historical roots. For instance, in one sculpture Teddy Roosevelt dominates the rolling hills, while in another, grasshoppers five times the size of a car feast on golden wheat rising from scoria rock beds.

You can also see Tin Family (1991), Geese in Flight (2000), Deer Crossing (2001), Covey of Pheasants (1998), Fisherman’s Dream (2006), and more. See them in person, via google maps, or via the Great Big Story video above.

How Did Clouds Get Their Names? - Richard Hamblyn

Pacific Light - Rus Khasanov

Pacific Light, a mix of water, ink, oil, and soap, filmed and edited by Russian designer Ruslan Khasanov, who works on side projects that experiment with physics and design.

Al Jazeera Street Food World Tour

The Japanese have a word for it: kuidaore, "to eat oneself bankrupt." This has risen to some combination of tradition and aspiration in Osaka, Japan's second-largest city, a former merchant enclave once referred to as the country's "kitchen." You can see exactly what empties Osakan bank accounts on Al Jazeera English's series Street Food. Its episode on the city (part one, part two), embedded above, seeks out the stands that most efficiently cater to the citizenry's characteristic busyness, the source of the freshest sushi around, the barbecue counters of Koreatown, the poisonously-livered fugu fish, the ideally controversial dish that is whale meat, and a range of food writers and critics to lay down some culinary insight. The program finishes its journey with one visit to a culinary academy and another to the poorer side of this Japanese metropolis. Being a Japaneese metropolis with more poverty than most but also one a greater love of eating than most, Osaka has produced street food even among its street people.

There you have the basic form of a Street Food broadcast, each of which takes on a different world city, all of which operate under the theory that the best path into a culture runs through its alleys most dense with comestible commerce. In the episode just above (part one, part two), Montreal's meeting of English and French sensibilities, a slightly uneasy coexistence in the best of times, turns into an all-out ideological conflict on the subject of how to eat. One particularly important skirmish occurs over poutine, the French fry, cheese curd, and gravy dish essential to any investigation of Montreal cuisine. In the episode below (part one, part two), we see the elements of Spanish and Andean eating finally converging on the streets of Lima — aided, in a big way, by flavors brought in by the Peru's many immigrants from Asian. Admittedly, the convergence isn't complete, not will it be until Limeños not of native descent come to enjoy the city's most popular item of street food, with 65 million eaten every year: the guinea pig.

All episodes of Al Jazeera English's Street Food on YouTube:

• Beijing (part one, part two)
• Cairo (part one, part two)
• Fez (part one, part two)
• Jerusalem (part one, part two)
• Kingston (part one, part two)
• Lima (part one, part two)
• London (part one, part two)
• Montreal (part one, part two)
• Nairobi (part one, part two)
• New York (part one, part two)
• Osaka (part one, part two)
• Palermo (part one, part two)
• Zanzibar (part one, part two)