Jun 6, 2014

Happy Friday

Smiles are like kisses. You must share to enjoy.

I always share smiles while enjoying a Happy Friday.

Happy National Doughnut Day

Every first Friday in June, doughnut (donut) lovers all rise to celebrate a wonderful circle of sweet, doughy goodness that has a day set aside for holey honor. The day was created by the Salvation Army in 1938 to honor the men and women who served doughnuts to soldiers during World War I. A military doctor, Morgan Pett was sent to a military base and, on his way he stopped at a bakery and picked up 8 dozen doughnuts to give to the wounded soldiers. During  the Second World War, Red Cross Volunteers also distributed doughnuts.

Three more less well known doughnut holidays are International Jelly-Filled Doughnut Day, June 8; National Cream-Filled Doughnut Day, September 14; and Buy A Doughnut Day, October 30.

Stop by your favorite donut shop today as many American doughnut stores offer free doughnuts on National Doughnut Day.

More Types of Eggs

There are many more types than the typical eggs we are used to for breakfast. I found a few to be interesting.

Shark eggs are strangely shaped eggs sometimes called a mermaid’s purse. These consist of an egg case in a thin capsule made of collagen. They often are square or rectangular with stringy or pointy corner horns, but can come in a variety of odd shapes. Shark eggs can wash up on the beach and are often hand-sized, although the largest recorded was over six feet (2m) long. Female sharks lay fertilized eggs onto the sea floor where they stay until they hatch, not needing any more attention from their mother. Some shark eggs contain several baby sharks which cannibalize each other before hatching to ensure that only the strongest baby survives.

Octopus eggs are soft, translucent and often stuck on overhangs of rock or coral. The females lay hundreds of thousands of eggs at a time and will stay to guard them against hungry predators until they hatch. This often takes so long that she begins to starve and some octopuses will eat their own arms to survive. Once hatched, they feed on microscopic organisms like plankton until they grow large enough to live on the sea floor as adults.

Fish eggs are released as unfertilized eggs until and the male injects them with sperm. In some species, the male and female might never meet each other. Most have nothing more to do with the eggs and leave them to develop on their own. Millions of soft eggs are laid at once, so hungry predators will usually not destroy all of them before they hatch. Some eggs are laid on secure surfaces like rocks whereas others drift freely in the water, sometimes for up to hundreds of kilometers.

We are familiar with bird and reptile eggs, which are internally fertilized eggs and most are protected until they hatch. Bird egg shells are made from calcium carbonate, which is also the major component of sea shells and pearls. For camouflage, some egg shells are colored or patterned with various other chemicals.

Dinosaur eggs sometimes contain fossilized baby dinosaurs inside. Dinosaur eggs have many shapes, such as elongated spheres, teardrops, and spherical. Some dinosaurs laid many eggs in a nest and protected them while others laid eggs indiscriminately before abandoning them. There are many types of dinosaur eggs, with the largest being over 23 inches (60cm) long and 7.8 inches (20cm) wide.

Sponge, jelly, and coral eggs are similar way to most fish. They do not have males and females. Instead, simple male and female organs both occur on a single creature, which release eggs and sperm into the water. Some reproduce asexually without male and female organs, by simply releasing some of their cells to grow directly into new individuals without needing to be fertilized.

Insect eggs are formed from stored sperm from a single mating, which is also used for subsequent fertilization. Insects will lay many eggs at once, and sometimes construct extravagant nests or nurseries for them. Some eggs are laid in water and the newborn insects spend the first portion of their life aquatically before emerging into the air. Many insects will care for their eggs after they are laid, with some ants and termites even controlling the humidity and pH for them.

Amphibian eggs are often laid in water, surrounded by a gel to keep them all together. When they hatch, the offspring are called ‘tadpoles’ and have gills, but no legs. They swim around like fish, although initially they also lack a mouth and live directly off the yolk left over from their egg by absorbing it through their skin. Eventually, tadpoles grow mouths, legs, lungs, lose their tail, and become fully adult. Some frogs carry their eggs to protect them or if there is not enough water available.

Platypus eggs are an anomaly as platypuses are mammals. They are warm-blooded, have hair, and produce milk. While the egg is still inside a mother, she supplies it with nutrition from her own body, similar to other mammals. Monotreme eggs are small, white, and spherical. They are laid in small numbers and are fastidiously cared for by their mother in her burrow until 4 to 6 months after hatching. Platypuses do not have nipples to produce milk. They sweat milk which their newly-hatched young drink.

What's in a Name, JalapeƱos

While known in its native Mexico as huachinango or chile gordo, to the rest of the world JalapeƱos get their name from the town of Xalapa or Jalapa.

Wordology, Anti-Proverbs

Also called perverbs (a contraction of perverse proverbs), thses are permutations of common proverbs. a known saying that has been modified in a way that makes it surprising, confounding or otherwise humorous. There are dozens of ways of altering proverbs, common sayings and phrases. It has been suggested that the original meaning of the term perverb was to describe two proverbs that had been spliced together like a sort of whole-sentence portmanteau. Take the perverb “every dog has a silver lining,” a combination of “every dog has its day” and “every cloud has a silver lining.” As with the further examples below, you can see that the two hybridized proverbs are not random; rather, they follow a certain format that both have in common:
"Taste makes waist"
“Time flies like the wind, but fruit flies like a banana”
"Nothing succeeds like excess."
"When marriage is outlawed, only outlaws will have in-laws."
“The road to hell is the spice of life.”
"If a tree falls in the woods and there is no one to tweet about it, did it really happen."

Anti-proverbs can take other forms beyond this type of splicing, as in “a penny saved is a penny taxed” and “slaughter is the best medicine.”

Super Spices

Very interesting that many spices, which have been around for years are only recently 'discovered' to have beneficial health properties. Here are a few.

Cayenne pepper has been used as a healing spice for hundreds of years. Capsaicin, which gives the spice its kick, can boost metabolism, helping to burn extra calories, and increase enzyme production. It is thought to act as an anti-inflammatory and is so powerful that capsaicin can be found as the active ingredient in both over the counter and prescription ointments for arthritis and muscle pain. It can be used to stop nosebleeds by mixing one half teaspoon of cayenne pepper into a glass of warm water and drink it. Cayenne has the ability to ease upset stomach, ulcers, sore throats, spasmodic and irritating coughs, and diarrhea. It can ease the digestive tract by increasing gastric juices. It is also good to put out in the yard to keep away squirrels and rabbits.

Cinnamon benefits, which I have written about before, continue to be added to. According the American Diabetes Association, regular consumption of between one and six grams of cinnamon helps reduce blood glucose, triglyceride and total cholesterol levels in people with type 2 diabetes. It can also help manage short-term spikes in blood sugar. That makes it good to add to high carbohydrate foods such as oatmeal and rice pudding, which tend to spike blood sugar levels. It also contains strong antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal properties making it an excellent addition when trying to fight a cold. Try sprinkling some in your coffee or even using it in a face mask combined with a little coconut oil to help fight acne. Sprinkle some on cookies or doughnuts for an extra beneficial kick.

Clove is usually the spice we think of to kill pain and sooth toothaches. Gently bite on a whole clove to release the oils and move them around to a sore tooth. Clove tea can help reduce, or even prevent, colds while also working as a natural expectorant to get rid of excess phlegm. Cloves used to be put in cigarettes, but are now outlawed in the US. Cloves stuck in oranges have been long used to add a pleasant odor to a room and are often used for decorative aromatherapy. In Chinese medicine, cloves are considered acrid, warm, and aromatic, entering the kidney, spleen, and stomach and their ability to warm the middle, also to treat hiccoughs. Other findings concluded that cloves can also boost insulin function in the body.

Curcumin was first isolated a few hundred years ago and numerous therapeutic activities have been assigned to turmeric for a wide variety of diseases and conditions, including those of the skin, pulmonary, and gastrointestinal systems, aches, pains, wounds, sprains, and liver disorders. Extensive recent research has proven that most of these activities are due to curcumin. Curcumin has been shown to exhibit antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, and anticancer activities and has a potential against various malignant diseases, diabetes, allergies, arthritis, Alzheimer's disease, and other chronic illnesses. Turmeric is the name of the spice we use that is derived from the plant Curcuma longa, is a gold-colored spice is commonly used in India for health care, for the preservation of food, and as a yellow dye for textiles.

Ginger is best known to help soothe a queasy stomach and help reduce pain and inflammation. It is also useful for arthritis, migraines, or menstrual cramps. It might also help reduce pain. Fresh ginger is more potent than the powdered variety and can be added to herbal teas, baked goods, and added to fruit or vegetable juices.

German Beer

Food website Chefkoch.de claimed at a rate of one per day, trying every German beer would take more than 13 years. Trying Bavaria’s 4,000 types would take almost 11 years.

Free Friday Smile