Drinking Straw Day

We have some interesting days to share with you this year. Not all of them deal with cats (or pets) directly, but we like to share things that are integrated into our daily lives. Today is Drinking Straw Day.

Truffle checking out the straw in Mom Paula's cup

Can you imagine trying to drink a milk shake without a straw? Mom Paula likes to use a straw to drink from a glass because it helps her avoid chapped lips. Where did the drinking straw come from?



From what we have read, the first straws were made by the Sumerians and it was said they were used to drink beer because at that time beer contained a lot of solid by products from the fermentation process.  Thousands of years later, rye grass straws were popular in the 1800s because they were cheap and soft, but they tended to turn mush once put in liquid (similar to those pasta straws you can get when eating at some Italian restaurants). Marvin C. Stone, who received a patent for the modern drinking straw on January 3, 1888, is said to have hated the taste of his mint julep because the taste of rye mixed with his drink tasted like grass. 

Truffle wants Mom Paula's straw

The first straw he designed was made of simple paper wound around a pencil in order to make a thin tube. Once the paper was wound around the pencil, he slid the pencil out from one end and applied glue between the strips. Stone owned a paper cigarette holder company which may have helped him design the drinking straw. Stone would later refine his straw by building a machine (1906) that would coat the outside of the straw with wax to hold it together. The drinking straw stayed with this design for a couple of decades.

Joseph Friedman developed the designed the "bendy" straw after watching his daughter struggling to drink a milkshake. His design was patented in 1936.

Truffle and Mom Paula's drinking straw

When Truffle was a kitten and began teething, Mom Paula would give Truffle a straw. Mom Paula watched her very carefully to make sure Truffle didn't bite through the straw and cause sharp edges or small pieces for her to swallow. Plastic straws are usually thick enough that kittens don't usually bite through them and are flexible enough to provide some pressure against the gums to help with the discomfort of teething. Once again, we stress that your humans MUST closely monitor kittens and cats when they are given straws. 

In the meantime, we hope your human enjoys whatever beverage they prefer by drinking it through a drinking straw today.


P.S. We've included a lot of these fun days in our 2018 Blogging Cats Weekly Planner. You can purchase it by clicking on the picture on our sidebar.