Your recent answer about peach cobbler ice cream reminded me of a Holiday Bisque Tortoni flavor advertised on a St. Louis TV station around Christmastime in the late 1950s. Who made it and what were the ingredients?-- Paul Fontana, of Steeleville
If you were a really good boy, maybe Santa hitched up Elsie the cow instead of Rudolph so he could put a quart of Lady Borden Holiday Bisque Tortoni in your stocking.
It was, according to a 1955 advertisement I found on eBay, "the gayest ice cream of the season."
"Bright idea for a holiday get-together," it read. "Lady Borden Holiday Bisque Tortoni, confetti-ed with luscious red and green pineapple."
But Borden boxed up its tinsel and ornaments a long time ago. The company ran into financial trouble in the '90s and either sold or discontinued all of its food products by 2001, so the best I can do is email you a couple of tortoni ice cream recipes.
I read your recent answer about the aircraft carrier Bon Homme Richard's name being changed to Yorktown. But I served on the destroyer USS Uhlmann in Korea with the Bon Homme Richard and Valley Forge in 1951 and 1952. Did they build another? -- Roy Rothweiler, of Belleville
Indeed, they did. As I wrote, after the original Yorktown (CV-5) was lost during the Battle of Midway in June 1942, they renamed the Bon Homme Richard (CV-10), whose construction started five days before Pearl Harbor, in its honor on Sept. 26, 1942.
As a result, when they began building CV-31 on Feb. 1, 1943, they named her the Bon Homme Richard (Poor Richard) in honor of Benjamin Franklin. She was christened in 1944 by Catherine McCain, wife of Vice Admiral John McCain Sr., who was the grandfather of the 2008 Republican presidential candidate. Nicknamed "Bonnie Dick," the ship took part in the final raids on Japan and served in Korea and Vietnam before being decommissioned in 1971 and scrapped in 1992.
Thanks for your service.
Wells worth reading: My recent column about World War II POWs imprisoned in the U.S. brought a fascinating book tip from my friend Mag Wells.
"Playing With the Enemy" by Gary W. Moore tells the story of his father, Gene, a pro baseball prospect from tiny Sesser, Ill. Signed by the Dodgers at age 15 in 1940, Moore wound up on a traveling U.S. Navy team that entertained the troops in Europe.
Eventually, however, the team wound up in Louisiana, guarding sailors who had been captured when their submarine, the U-505 that is now at the Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, experienced a breakdown. Because the capture helped break German code, the prisoners' existence was kept hush-hush.
I won't reveal any more, but you can find it at amazon.com and area libraries.
"Grape" recipe: Terry Campo, of Belleville, swears by a no-muss, no-fuss grape-pie recipe that uses red seedless grapes. If anyone would like to try it, send me a stamped envelope for the recipe.
Shipshape answer: Julius Granda, of Addieville, suggested I may have made a mistake when I wrote that the destroyer USS Laffey was nicknamed "The Ship That Would Not Die." He thought that title was reserved for the carrier USS Franklin, from which his cousin was blown into the water during a ferocious kamikaze attack.
It's my bet that many ships may have picked up that nickname, either officially or unofficially. In any case, the information at www.patriotspoint.org clearly says that the Laffey was one of them.
Spoon-fed: Thanks to J.D., of Belleville, for feeding me the scoop that she found iced tea spoons at Big Lots at a bargain $3 per bundle. They're in kitchen gadgets. And Donna called to say she ran across them at various Belleville thrift stores, including St. Matthew, Nice Twice and the Salvation Army.
Seaworthy friend: Finally, a shout out to my old friend George Schneider, who, after high school, served nearly three years aboard the carrier USS Lexington, which is now a floating museum in Corpus Christi, Texas.
I still remember the days when he relied on my wristwatch to count down the final 10 seconds in Miss TeWinkle's history class. If I ever need a new car, I'll have to set sail for Sunset Ford in Waterloo.
Today's trivia
What was unusual about Dora Ratjen's fourth-place finish in the women's high jump at the 1936 Olympics?
Answer to Thursday's trivia: Great Britain is the only country that has won a gold medal at every Summer Olympics once such medals were awarded in 1904. (Don't forget the U.S. boycotted the 1980 games.) In 1908, Great Britain won 56 golds to the United States' 23. Only four other teams have sent teams to every Olympics: Australia, France, Greece and Switzerland.
Send your questions to Roger Schlueter, Belleville News-Democrat, 120 S. Illinois St., P.O. Box 427, Belleville, IL 62222-0427 or rschlueter@bnd.com
