My Apologies to Cranberries

In my house growing up, Thanksgiving always featured the gelatinous cranberry sauce above. It wiggled on the plate as we passed it around—carefully avoiding my plate, thank you very much! I turned up my nose and passed it along. Thankfully when I wed, my husband had a similar revulsion to the stuff. However, upon researching cranberries for this open and seeing more appetizing versions, I realized I probably misjudged this berry. So I hereby apologize sincerely and if anyone reading this has a good recipe for homemade cranberry sauce, I would be more than willing to try it out. Read on for some interesting facts about cranberries from the justfunfacts.com website.

The name cranberry is used to describe tart red berries produced by several plant species.

In Britain, cranberry may refer to the native species Vaccinium oxycoccos, while in North America, cranberry may refer to Vaccinium macrocarpon.

Vaccinium oxycoccos is cultivated in central and northern Europe, while Vaccinium macrocarpon is cultivated throughout the northern United States, Canada and Chile.

Vaccinium oxycoccos is known by the common names small cranberry, bog cranberry, swamp cranberry while Vaccinium macrocarpon is known by the common names large cranberry, American cranberry and bearberry.

Native Americans used the cranberries as a staple as early as 1550.

By 1620 Pilgrims learned how to use cranberries from the Native Americans.

The development of cultivated varieties cranberries occurred only during the past 100 years, making it one of the most recently domesticated fruit crops.

Cranberries are a major commercial crop in the U.S. states of Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Quebec.

Cranberries are low, creeping shrubs or vines that can grow up to 7 feet long and 2 to 8 inches in height.

They have slender, wiry stems that are not thickly woody and have small evergreen leaves.

The flowers are pink, with very distinct reflexed petals, leaving the style and stamens fully exposed and pointing forward. Small flowers appear in June and are pollinated by bees.

The fruit is a berry that is larger than the leaves of the plant; it is initially light green, turning red when ripe. It is edible, but with an acidic taste that usually overwhelms its sweetness.

Berry picking begins in early September and continues until late October. More than 121,255 US tons are produced in the United States annually. Most cranberry products are consumed in the United States and Canada.

Cranberries are a very good source of vitamin C, dietary fiber, and manganese, as well as a good source of vitamin E, vitamin K, copper and pantothenic acid.

The health benefits of cranberries include relief from urinary tract infection (UTI), respiratory disorders, kidney stones, cancer and heart diseases. Cranberries are especially beneficial to the eyes (they significantly improve symptoms of cataracts, macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy).

As fresh cranberries are hard, sour, and bitter, about 95% of cranberries are processed and used to make cranberry juice, sauce, compote or jelly.

They are also sold dried and sweetened.

Cranberry juice is usually sweetened or blended with other fruit juices to reduce its natural tartness.

Cranberry sauce is a traditional accompaniment to turkey at Christmas dinner in the United Kingdom, and at Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners in the United States and Canada.

Cranberries are also used in baking (muffins, scones, cakes and breads).

At one teaspoon of sugar per ounce, cranberry juice cocktail is more highly sweetened than even soda drinks that have been linked to obesity.

There are several alcoholic cocktails, including the Cosmopolitan, that include cranberry juice.

The Lenni-lenape Indians of New Jersey called the cranberry “Pakim” meaning ‘bitter berry.’ They used this wild red berry as a part of their food and as a symbol of peace and friendship. The Chippawas called the cranberry “a’ni-bimin,” the Alogonquin called it “atoqua,” and the Naragansetts called it “sasemineash.” Native Americans would eat it raw, mixed in with maple sugar, or with deer meat (as a dried “Pemmican”).

Cranberries were offered to the pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving.

Source: https://justfunfacts.com/

The Nastiest, Strangest Presidential Elections in US History

(If, like me, you are discouraged by the current political rhetoric, you might be surprised to learn the last few elections have not been the weirdest or nastiest in our history. I stumbled upon this article by Stephanie Pappas that details what were 5 of the nastiest elections in our history in her opinion. Keep in mind when you read this, it’s dated 2012, so her list may have changed.)

Reading the political news, you’d think this election is the nastiest, most contentious and most important our nation has ever faced. No doubt the outcome matters, but in the annals of American elections, this one barely registers for sheer strangeness.

In fact, electoral politics have always been a down-and-dirty business, starting at least as early as 1800, when our founding fathers proved themselves adept at bitter battles. Other elections have featured nasty accusations, bizarre happenstance and even the death of one of the candidates.

Read on for five of the strangest presidential elections in U.S. history.

1. The very first one, 1788-1789

The first presidential election in our nation’s history was one-of-a-kind in that it was literally no contest. Organized political parties had yet to form, and George Washington ran unopposed. His victory is the only one in the nation’s history to feature 100 percent of the Electoral College vote.

The real question in 1788 was who would become vice president. At the time, this office was awarded to the runner-up in the electoral vote (each elector cast two votes to ensure there would be a runner-up.) Eleven candidates made a play for the vice-presidency, but John Adams came out on top.

2. It’s a tie, 1800

Electoral politics got serious in 1800. Forget the hand-holding peace of George Washington’s first run — political parties were in full swing by this time, and they battled over high-stakes issues (taxes, states’ rights and foreign policy alignments). Thomas Jefferson ran as the Democratic-Republican candidate and John Adams as the Federalist.

At the time, states got to pick their own election days, so voting ran from April to October (and you thought waiting for the West Coast polls to close was frustrating). Because of the complicated “pick two” voting structure in the Electoral College, the election ended up a tie between Jefferson and his vice-presidential pick, Aaron Burr. One South Carolina delegate was supposed to give one of his votes to another candidate, so as to arrange for Jefferson to win and Burr to come in second. The plan somehow went wrong, and both men ended up with 73 electoral votes.

That sent the tie-breaking vote to the House of Representatives, not all of whom were on board with a Jefferson presidency and Burr vice-presidency. Seven tense days of voting followed, but Jefferson finally pulled ahead of Burr. The drama triggered the passage of the 12th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which stipulates that the Electoral College pick the president and vice-president separately, doing away with the runner-up complications.

3. Things get nasty, 1828

Anything involving dueling war veteran Andrew Jackson was liable to get dirty, but the 1828 electoral battle between Jackson and John Quincy Adams took the cake for mudslinging. Jackson had lost out to Adams in 1824 after Speaker of the House Henry Clay cast a tie-breaking vote. When Adams chose Clay as his Secretary of State, Jackson was furious and accused the two of a “corrupt bargain.”

And that was before the 1828 election even got started, when Adams was accused of pimping out an American girl to a Russian Czar. Jackson’s wife, Rachel, was called a “convicted adulteress,” because she had, years earlier, married Jackson before finalizing her divorce to her previous husband. Rachel died after Jackson won the election, but before his inauguration; at her funeral, Jackson blamed his opponents’ bigamy accusations. “May God Almighty forgiver her murderers, as I know she forgave them,” Jackson said. “I never can.”

To round out a rough election, Jackson’s inauguration party (open to the public) turned into a mob scene, with thousands of well-wishers crowding into the White House.

“Ladies fainted, men were seen with bloody noses, and such a scene of confusion took place as is impossible to describe,” wrote Margaret Smith, a Washington socialite who attended the party.

4. Running against a corpse, 1872

In 1872, incumbent Ulysses S. Grant had an easy run for a second term — because his opponent died before the final votes were cast.

Grant had the election in the bag even before his opponent, Horace Greeley, died, however. The incumbent won 286 electoral votes compared with Greeley’s 66 after election day. But on Nov. 29, 1872, before the Electoral College votes were in, Greeley died and his electoral votes were split among other candidates. Greeley remains the only presidential candidate to die before the election was finalized.

5. The hanging chads, 2000

Democrat Al Gore beat Republican George W. Bush in the popular vote in the 2000 election, but the electoral vote was a close, and controversial, call. As election night drew to a close, New Mexico, Oregon and Florida remained too close to call.

It would be Florida that determined the winner, but not until the Supreme Court weighed in. For a month, the outcome of the election remained in recount limbo, as Gore’s campaign contested the vote count in several close counties and the Florida and U.S. Supreme Courts engaged in a tug-of-war over whether to halt the recounts or extend their deadlines. Among the challenges faced by the hand counts: determining whether semi-attached scraps of paper, or “hanging chads,” on punch-card ballots should count as votes.

Ultimately, on Dec. 12, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that a statewide recount was unconstitutional, alongside a further decision that the smaller recounts could not go forward. The decision meant the original vote counts stood, giving the election to Bush.

Source: Stephanie Pappas

published November 02, 2012

Have You Ever Wondered…

why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin?

why don’t you see the headline “Psychic Wins Lottery”?

why abbreviated is such a long word?

why doctors call what they do they “practice”?

why you have to click on start to close Windows?

why lemon juice is made with artificial flavor but dishwashing liquid is made with real lemons?

why the man who invests all your money is called a broker?

why the time of day with the slowest traffic is called “rush hour”?

why isn’t there mouse-flavored cat food?

when dog food is labeled “new and improved”, who tasted it?

why Noah didn’t just swat those 2 mosquitos?

why they sterilize the needle for lethal injection?

why the whole plane isn’t made of the black box material?

why don’t sheep shrink in the rain?

why are they called apartments, when they’re all stuck together?

if con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?

if flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

Butterballs!

Thankfully, I am NOT referring to the butterball above! I’m talking turkey!!

Female turkeys don’t gobble, but they do purr.

Turkeys are known for the gobbling sound they make, but it turns out that only the male birds make that iconic call. Female turkeys—or hens—on the other hand, will instead cluck like a chicken, yelp if they’re excited or agitated, or purr like a cat (although, according to the National Wild Turkey Federation, it’s more of a “rolling, almost staccato call” than a purr, but it conveys the same feeling of contentment).

Turkeys were once primarily bred for their feathers, not their meat.

These days, farmers breed turkeys in order to sell them for their meat. But, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, up until 1935, the birds were bred for their “beautifully colored plumage,” which features stunning striped patterns.

An adult turkey has around 5,000 to 6,000 feathers.

Not only do turkeys have gorgeous feathers, but they also have a lot of them. According to the U.S. Fish and Wild Life Service, an adult turkey has anywhere from 5,000 to 6,000 individual feathers on their body.

Male turkeys are called toms or gobblers.

Female turkeys are called hens, just like female chickens; but male turkeys aren’t roosters. Instead, they’re called toms, or, since male turkeys are the ones who make the notorious gobbling sound, they can also be called gobblers.

Toms have more warts than hens.

While some of the differences between male and female turkeys could be considered endearing—such as the noises they make and the names they’ve been given—there’s at least one difference between the two genders that isn’t quite so cute. Tom turkeys have more warts on their heads than their lady friends, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. Hens also weigh about half as much as their male counterparts.

Male and female turkey droppings are shaped differently.

Although you might expect there to be a few differences between the way male and female turkeys look, you might be surprised to find out that there’s also a difference when it comes to their bathroom habits. According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, male droppings are “j-shaped,” while those of females take on a more “spiral or curlicue” shape.

Turkeys hear certain sounds better than humans.

When you think about animals with amazing hearing, dogs, elephants, bats, or owls likely come to mind, but probably not turkeys. It turns out, however, turkeys can actually hear far-off and low-frequency sounds better than humans, according to the National Wild Turkey Federation. “Hearing allows the bird to detect a threat if its eyes are occupied on finding food,” retired regional biologist Bob Eriksen for the NWTF explains. “Wild turkeys have an uncanny ability to locate the source of a sound.”

Turkeys lived around 10 million years ago.

The woolly mammoth had its hey-day on Earth until about 10,500 years ago before eventually becoming extinct 4,000 years ago. While it’s hard to imagine a turkey flying above a gigantic woolly mammoth, the birds have actually been around for a lot longer. In fact, turkeys have been on the scene for almost 10 million years, according to the University of Illinois.

Turkeys almost went extinct—twice.

While turkeys aren’t currently an endangered species, there were two points in the past when we almost lost them completely. According to the Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine, the California turkey went extinct about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, likely due to climate change or overhunting, or a combination of the two. And when European settlers arrived in America, turkeys again found themselves as targets of prolific hunting. The birds were totally gone from Connecticut by 1813, disappeared from Vermont around 1842, and by the 1930s, turkeys were again growing dangerously close to extinction before efforts were taken to make sure they weren’t wiped out.

Turkeys were named after the “Turkish” area despite being from North America.

You might have wondered why turkeys have the name that they do despite the fact that they originated in North America. Encyclopedia Britannica explains that when the bird became popular in England, the name turkey-cock, formerly used for the guinea fowl found in Islamic (or “Turkish”) lands, was used to refer to the bird we know as a turkey today.

All but 12 U.S. states have turkeys.

While people in all 50 states enjoy turkey as a part of their Thanksgiving dinners, the birds, specifically Eastern wild turkeys, can be found roaming wild in 38 states in the U.S., according to the National Wild Turkey Federation. They can also be spotted in various provinces up in Canada.

Turkey beards grow three to five inches per year.

Yes, turkeys have beards, but they aren’t made of hair. Instead, turkey beards consist of modified feathers that form bristles or filaments, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Some turkeys even have multiple beards that can each grow up to three to five inches each year.

Turkeys can—and will—attack humans.

Turkeys may not have the fierce reputation that some fang-gnashing, claw-showing predators have earned, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have an aggressive side. In fact, turkeys are fully willing and able to attack humans. That’s why the Massachusetts government provides tips on how to prevent conflicts with turkeys while both CBS Boston and Good Day Sacramento offer insights into what to do should you find yourself as a victim of a turkey attack.

Store-bought turkeys can’t fly.

The turkey that you buy at the grocery store has been bred and raised to provide you with as much meat as possible. Because of this, they end up with unnaturally large breasts which hinder their ability to fly, according to The Patriot News.

Wild turkeys, however, can soar for over a mile.

Wild turkeys, on the other hand, are perfectly capable of taking flight. In fact, according to The Patriot News, they can reach speeds of up to 55 miles per hour while in the air. And the Pennsylvania Game Commission reports they can soar for a mile or more by alternating between strong wingbeats and gliding.

Turkeys can run 12 miles per hour.

Some turkeys may not be able to fly, but their inability to get airborne doesn’t completely slow them down. Even while on the ground, they can still move at a pretty good clip, running upwards of 12 miles an hour, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

Turkeys have more than doubled in size in the last 40 years.

If you’re able to feed your entire family with one turkey at Thanksgiving, that’s due to the fact that the birds have gotten much bigger over the years. As recently as 1980, the typical U.S. domesticated turkey weighed less than 19 pounds at slaughter—not much bigger than a wild turkey, according to the Pew Research Center. But nowadays, the average bird we carve up on Thanksgiving weighs 29.8 pounds, more than twice the average weight nearly 40 years ago.

We eat nearly 50 million turkeys each Thanksgiving.

Around 88 percent of Americans choose the traditional bird for their Thanksgiving meal, which means that around 46 million turkeys are eaten in the U.S. on that one day each year, according to the University of Illinois. It’s also a popular pick for other holidays as well, with 22 million and 19 million eaten each year on Christmas and Easter, respectively.

The average American eats 104.9 pounds of turkey every year.

Along with eating turkeys on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter, Americans also enjoy the bird’s meat throughout the rest of the year in sandwiches, soups, and a range of other dishes. And according to 2015 data from U.S. News and World Report, the average U.S. citizen eats nearly 105 pounds of turkey annually.

Nearly 229 million turkeys were produced in the U.S. last year.

There are more than 330 million people in the United States. And in 2019 alone, 229 million turkeys were produced across the country, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Soon they might overtake us!

The world record for the fastest turkey carving is 3 minutes and 19.47 seconds.

On June 3, 2009, the U.K.’s Paul Kelly set the Guinness World Record for the fastest time to carve a turkey. He was able to successfully butcher the bird in just 3 minutes and 19.47 seconds!

Thanksgiving Do-it-Yourself

We all know the turkey is the STAR of Thanksgiving, and even though that “puppet” above is do-it-yourself, lol, I was thinking of something a little more grownup. The first offering is painted mason jars. (Seems you can use mason jars for every holiday there is!)

They make a wonderful grouping, require little skill (being able to paint and glue) and they look awesome! If you’d like step by step instructions, please visit TheSoccerMomBlog.com

The second offering is also pumpkins, but these require certain skills.

This is from: woodyouliketocraft.blogspot.com. A slice is cut from a log (the skilled part). Then apply paint to nearly the edges. The “stem” is a 2 1/2 inch piece of thin wood glued to the back of the wood slice. Spray stiffener (starch) or mod podge can be applied to burlap, and then when dry, leaves can be cut from that. Spray the stiffener on thick jute to create the curlicue. (Wrap the jute around a thick dowel, apply the stiffener and allow to dry before sliding it off the dowel.) Glue in place.

The last offering is a “reclaimed” project that I adore!

When I saw the pilgrim pair, I remembered I had 2 wooden candle holders in a box in my basement. But they could be found at flea markets and yard sales. The heads are 2 inch wooden doll heads (Hobby Lobby $1.99 each). The hat is a reclaimed wooden napkin ring and a wooden disk (Hobby Lobby $.29 each). The collars and the lady’s hat brim are white foam remnants.

There are 2 ways to approach this project: glue the wooden pieces together before painting OR paint the pieces first and glue second.

The directions say to first remove the metal insert in the candle holders or bend them inward. Mine did not have them at all. He then glued his pieces together.

He painted the pilgrims next, allowed them to dry, and cut out the foam pieces. Then he glued the foam pieces on and viola, they’re done! Easy peasy!

Cinnamon

My favorite use for cinnamon is, of course, warm cinnamon buns! But there are many interesting facts you might not know about cinnamon.

Cinnamon is the aromatic, inner bark of certain bushy, tropical, evergreen trees of the Cinnamomum genus.

It is native to Sri Lanka, the neighboring Malabar Coast of India, and Myanmar (Burma).

Cinnamon has been in use by humans for thousands of years—as early as 2,000 B.C. Egyptians employed it, as well as the related spice cassia, as a perfuming agent during the embalming process.

Evidence suggests it was used throughout the ancient world, and that Arab traders brought it to Europe, where it proved equally popular.

Legend holds that the Roman emperor Nero burned as much as he could find of the precious spice on the funeral pyre of his second wife Poppaea Sabina in A.D. 65 to atone for his role in her death.

In the first century A.D., Pliny the Elder wrote off 350 grams of cinnamon as being equal in value to over five kilograms of silver, about fifteen times the value of silver per weight.

Through the Middle Ages, the source of cinnamon remained a mystery to the Western world.

Cinnamon is a small evergreen tree 33-49 feet tall.

The leaves are ovate-oblong in shape, 3-7 inches long.

The flowers, which are arranged in panicles, have a greenish color, and have a rather disagreeable odor.

The fruit is a purple one-centimeter berry containing a single seed.

When harvesting the spice, the bark and leaves are the primary parts of the plant used.

It is principally employed in cookingas a condiment and flavoring material.

Cinnamon is often used in savory dishes of chicken and lamb.

In the United States, cinnamon and sugar are often used to flavor cereals, bread-based dishes, such as toast, and fruits, especially apples; a cinnamon-sugar mixture is sold separately for such purposes.

Ground cinnamon is composed of around 11% water, 81% carbohydrates, 4% protein, and1%fat.

Cinnamon has a long history of use in traditional medicine.

The health benefits of cinnamon include its ability to help manage diabetes, protect against fungal and bacterial infections, increase brain function, prevent certain cognitive disorders, improve digestion, boost the strength of the immune system.

Cinnamon is a rich source of vitamin K, calcium, and iron, while providing moderate amounts of vitamin B6, vitamin E, magnesium, and zinc.

Cinnamon constituents include some 80 aromatic compounds, including eugenol found in the oil from leaves or bark of cinnamon trees.

Cinnamon is a popular flavoring in numerous alcoholic beverages and cocktails.

Indonesia and China are world largest producers of cinnamon with 75% of the world’s supply.

The term “cinnamon” also is used to describe its mid-brown color.

In Exodus 30:23-4, Moses is ordered to use both sweet cinnamon (Kinnamon) and cassia (qəṣî`â) together with myrrh, sweet calamus (qənê-bosem, literally cane of fragrance), and olive oil to produce a holy oil to anoint the Ark of the Covenant.

Cinnamon also is mentioned in Proverbs 7:17-18, where the lover’s bed is perfumed with myrrh, aloe, and cinnamon. Psalm 45:8 mentions the garments of Torah scholars that smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia.

Cinnamon also is alluded to by Herodotus and other classical writers. According to Herodotus, both cinnamon and cassia grow in Arabia, together with incense, myrrh, and ladanum, and are guarded by winged serpents. The phoenix builds its nest from cinnamon and cassia.

Source: https://justfunfacts.com/interesting-facts-about-cinnamon/

Hairy Legs…and a Heart of Gold

If you found a picture like the one above in a family photo album in a trunk in the attic, what would think? Would you be aghast at finding one of your favorite uncles in the group? Would your opinion of him change? Would you have questions? Would you make discrete inquiries of other family members? Try to recall details at family gatherings that you maybe dismissed as “quirky”? Would you spot the young boy in the bottom row and suspect “grooming”? Would your thoughts turn suspect and ugly?

Or would you find this picture and praise your uncle for a bold choice during a time acceptance couldn’t be guaranteed? Would you happy he had a place where he fit in? Would you consider that group “trail blazers”? Brave forerunners of today’s transvestite community? Would you be proud?

Well, my uncle IS in that picture. He was an Army Veteran, married to my aunt for over 40 years. They never had children—a horrible miscarriage early in their marriage left her unable to have children. But they loved all their nieces and nephews. They were happy and very much in love. He was one of my favorite uncles.

After his service in the Army was over, he found a good job and they settled close to my parents. He enjoyed sports cars—owned quite a few over the years—but they were all 2-seaters. My aunt and uncle’s lives centered on each other. And he adored playing softball and later basketball as well.

He was a member of a local softball league, and played as often as he could. In the late 1960’s he answered a call to join a different league—one dedicated to charity. The team was called Sally and her All-Stars. All the players on Sally’s team donated their time and talent to helping others. All the monies raised went to needy families or worthy causes. The catch? Every player donned a wig and women’s clothes. They didn’t shave (their legs or their faces…lol) or wear make-up–just the wigs and padded clothing.

(From their playbill) During the first four innings of the games, the players thrill their audiences with real serious ball playing—then, for the last three innings turn the thrills into laughter with comedy acts.

Crowds adored them! I remember laughing and cheering at numerous games when I was younger, and I do not enjoy baseball or it’s relatives. But these games were much more than that—they were hilarious. Later in the playbill, it’s stated that Sally and her All-Stars were undefeated—scoring 168 runs in 7 games while allowing opposing teams only 22 runs—so these were skilled athletes! They entertained us, had a ball doing it and they generated thousands of dollars for needy local families in the area.

So, yeah…when I see that picture… I’m PROUD of my uncle! He had hairy legs and a heart of gold.

Etymology of Words and Phrases – Part 2

GABARDINE: Few movements in history have been more thrilling than the pilgrimages of the Middle Ages. Many people traveled to shrines throughout Europe and even to the Holy Land. Pilgrims continued to visit some of the shrines at enormous sacrifice of time and money. They wore an unofficial but characteristic garb: a gray cowl bearing a red cross and a broad-brimmed, stiff hat. Pilgrims carried a staff, a sack, and a gourd. They usually traveled in company with other adventurers, singing hymns as they walked and begging food from those they met.

Since a particular type of upper garment was worn by the pilgrim, it gradually came to be identified with the journey itself. A will filed in 1520 included this bequest: “Until litill Thomas Beke my gawbardyne to make him a gowne.” From the garment the term came to refer to the coarse material from which it was customarily made. Slight modifications in spelling produced gabardine – a kind of cloth that passed from the religious pilgrim’s vocabulary into general use.

RUBBER: On his second voyage to “East India,” Columbus found natives playing with a substance they called caoutchouc. It would stretch and then snap back into shape; when made into balls it would bounce. Scientists who examined the odd substance agreed that it was unlike anything known in Europe, yet they confessed themselves unable to imagine any use for it.

Small quantities of caoutchouc were brought to Europe, but it remained a curiosity for more than two centuries. Finally, someone discovered by accident that the material could be used for removing the marks of a lead pencil. Hence, bookkeepers termed it “lead-eater.”

Around 1780 Joseph Priestley experimented with a bit of caoutchouc, hoping to find some use more important than erasing errors made in ledgers. He failed and decided that it would never be of value except for rubbing out pencil marks.

Consequently, he called it “East India rubber.” Soon the nickname of the one-job substance was abbreviated to rubber. The name serves as a perpetual reminder that civilization was once at a loss as to what to do with a substance of a thousand uses.

MAP: Greek geographers of the sixth century BC developed considerable skill in making charts to guide sailors and travelers. Then the Romans extended the art by engraving scale representations of the Empire on fine marble slabs. These devices, and the more abundant clay tablets, proved to be extremely cumbersome, so someone thought of painting geographical charts upon cloth.

For this purpose, the most suitable material proved to be fine table linen, or mappa. This led to the practice of calling any flat geographical chart a map.

RECIPE: Since Latin was the universal language of medieval scholars, physicians used it in writing directions for compounding medicines. Virtually every prescription listed the ingredients in precise order and began with the Latin verb recipe, meaning “take.”

Care in measuring and blending the ingredients of a tasty dish is also essential. Therefore, when housewives began to master the art of reading and writing, they adopted the apothecary’s custom and made written lists of ingredients and steps in cookery. Inevitably, such a set of directions took the pharmaceutical name and became familiar to the household recipe.

BUDGET: Struggling with a budget is no new problem; it dates back to the days of the Roman Empire. Housewives had to be cautious in their spending and they kept money for household expenses in a little leather bulga (Latin for bag). This custom also prevailed among businessmen, who may have borrowed it from their wives or vice versa.

Centuries later, the Latin word was adopted into Middle French as bougette (“little leather bag”). When the British Chancellor of Exchequer appeared before Parliament, he carried his papers explaining the estimated revenue and expenses in a leather bag and then “opened the budget” for the coming year. Thus, budget (as it came to be pronounced) came to mean a systematic plan for expenditures, both for governments and for private individuals.

EAT ONE’S HAT: Many a man engaged in a contest of some sort has offered to eat his hat if he loses. In such a situation, a knowledge of etymology would be of great value, for the expression eat one’s hat once referred not to a Stetson or a Panama, but to a culinary product.

Napier’s famous Boke of Cookry, one of the earliest European cookbooks, gives the following directions: “Hattes are made of eggs, veal, dates, saffron, salt, and so forth.” In the hands of amateur cooks, the concoction was frequently so unpalatable that it required a strong stomach to eat it.

Even so, the early braggart who offered to eat a hatte had in mind nothing so distasteful as a felt or a straw!

FLOUR: During the Elizabethan Age, the word “flower” meant “the best,” as it does today in such expressions as “the flower of the nation’s youth.”

Millers of the period ground wheat by a crude process, then sifted the meal. Only the finest of it passed through the cloth sieve in a process called “boulting.” Reserved for tables of the nobility, this top-quality ground wheat was naturally called the “flower of wheat,” but in this context the word came to be spelled flour. The two spellings were used interchangeably until the 19th century. In Paradise Lost, Milton wrote the line, “O flours that never will in other climates grow.”

COOKING TERMS: There is at least one serious gap in European history. Her contemporaries failed to record the name of the woman who first thought of stuffing an egg. Nothing is known about her recipe, except that she was liberal with pepper. Her invention was so hot that folks who tried it were reminded of Beelzebub’s fiery furnaces. As a result, the tidbit came to be called a deviled egg.

Most other terms of cookery are prosaic by comparison. More than half were borrowed from the French – which suggest that English cooks were never very imaginative. Braise stems from French for “hot charcoal.” Toast is but slightly modified from “toaster” (“to parch with heat). Boil stems from a continental verb meaning “to make little bubbles.” Poach grew out of pocher, which meant “to pouch,” that is, to enclose an egg’s yellow in a little pouch of white.

Fry, grill, roast and baste were also adapted from French. Fricassee was taken as is from that language, but the ultimate origin is unknown.

The oldest term in cookery is probably cook, still much like Latin coquus. The Norse gave us bake, from baka (“hearth”). The Saxons contributed sear, spelled just as it is today. It originally meant to “wither with heat.” Scorch – the bane of a cook’s existence – has a long history that goes all the way back to the Old English scorkle, which started life as a term for skinning meat by searing.

The De-Stress Diet

With the holidays fast approaching, I found an amazing diet designed to help you de-stress…and these days, who couldn’t use that??

Sample Menu

Breakfast

½ grapefruit

1 slice whole wheat toast-dab of butter

8 oz skim milk

Lunch

4 oz lean broiled chicken breast

1 cup steamed spinach

1 cup iced tea (no sugar)

1 Oreo cookie

Mid Afternoon Snack

The rest of the Oreos in the package

2 pints Rocky Road ice cream

Nuts, cherries, whipped cream

1 jar hot fudge sauce

Dinner

2 loaves garlic bread

4 cans lite beer or diet soda

1 large sausage, mushroom and cheese pizza

3 Snickers bars

Evening snack

Sara Lee cheesecake (eaten directly from the freezer)

Rules for this diet:

If you eat something and no one sees you eat it, it has no calories.
If you drink a diet soda with a candy bar, the calories in the candy car are canceled out by the diet soda.
When you eat with someone, calories don’t count if you don’t eat more than they do.
Food used for medicinal purposes NEVER count, such as hot chocolate, brandy, toast, and, of course, Sara Lee Cheesecake.
If you fatten everyone around you, you will look thinner.
Movie related foods do not add calories because they are part of the entertainment package. Examples: Milk Duds, Red Hots, Tootsie Rolls and Red Vines
Cookie pieces contain no calories. The breaking process causes calories to leak out.
Things licked off knives and spoons have no calories if you are in the process of cooking something.
Foods that have the same color have the same number of calories. Examples: spinach and pistachio ice cream; mushrooms and mashed potatoes.
Chocolate is a universal color and may be substituted for any other food color.
Anything consumed while standing has no calories. This is due to gravity and the density of the caloric mass.
Anything consumed from someone else’s plate has no calories since the calories rightfully belong to the other person and will cling to his plate. (We all know calories like to cling!)

REMEMBER: STRESSED spelled backwards is DESSERTS!

When Halloween Died…

I have fond memories of trick or treating as a child. Up to a certain age, my dad would walk along with us girls, while my mom stayed home and handed out candy with my little brother. We wore costumes made of synthetic-easy to catch fire- fabric and plastic masks on elastic bands sure to obstruct your vision and make you sweat buckets. We always had trick or treat on a Friday evening from 6-8 pm and each house invited you in or at least tried to guess who you were. We had no flashlights, no reflective tape, no glow sticks. If you wanted candy, you took your chances.

The house at the end of our block was always decked out to the nines in spooky decorations. Scary music blared through speakers in the windows. The older couple was always dressed as a werewolf and a witch and they loved playing their parts to scare the neighbor kids. It was a grand tradition we always looked forward to.

Our Halloween treat bags would get full quickly because every house in a 4-block square had their lights on—meaning they were giving out treats! And oh, what treats we’d get—popcorn balls, full size candy bars, caramel apples and goodie bags! Those were awesome! Little paper treat bags filled with penny candies—even candy corn! (I love candy corn!)

The whole experience was creepy and such fun! Fast forward a few years (never mind how many) and the government has sucked the fun out of trick or treating. Gone are the spooky hours—now it’s held on a Saturday between 2-4pm. Gone are those masks too. Now it’s make-up (which is presumably non-toxic). The candy bars have shrunk; the popcorn balls are gone, as are the caramel apples. And those treat bags? Not allowed. Nothing unwrapped or homemade is permitted.

But the final nail in the coffin of the holiday was the vans. After we were all grown and out of my parents’ house, they would sit on their front porch and hand out candy bars to the trick or treaters. A few years later, the vans started pulling up at the end of the block. The doors would open and larger kids (translation: teenagers) would pour out, sans costumes, and approach the houses. They wouldn’t even call out trick or treat. They just thrust their pillowcases out and expected treats. And since they weren’t wearing any masks, it was easy to tell that none of these “kids” lived in the surrounding neighborhoods. That’s when the magic of Halloween died for my parents.