Aug 15, 2014

What's in a Name, Spumoni

Spumoni originated in Naples and is the ancestor of Neapolitan ice cream. Spumoni ice cream, like Neapolitan ice cream is a molded Italian ice cream made with layers of different colors and flavors. The difference is that Spumoni usually also contains candied fruits and nuts. The name Spumone comes from spuma or 'foam'. The plural form is spumoni.

Typically it is of three flavors, with a fruit/nut layer between them. The ice cream layers are often mixed with whipped cream. Cherry, pistachio, and either chocolate or vanilla are the typical flavors of the ice cream layers, and the fruit/nut layer often contains cherry bits, causing the traditional red/pink, green, and brown color combination. It is popular in places with large Italian immigrant populations such as the United States and Argentina. August 21 is National Spumoni Day in the United States. November 13 is National Spumoni Day in Canada.

National Senior Citizens Day

This is celebrated on August 21 with various events and activities held across the United States, in recognition of National Senior Citizens Day. This day was created as a day to support, honor, and show appreciation to our seniors and to recognize their achievements and the contributions they make to our communities.

On August 19, 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed Proclamation 5847 declaring August 21 as National Senior Citizens Day. Someday I may be forced to grow up and celebrate this day, but for now, every day is a good day to celebrate the achievements of others.

USB Business Card

Here is a novel use of high tech and low tech. It is a folding business card that turns into a USB drive. Currently it is still in the Kickstarter stage, but is planned to be available October, 2014.

A swivelCard is a premium paper business card that includes a USB drive and analytics that can be updated even after giving it out. LINK

French Fry Facts

The origin of French fries is Belgium. According to some historians, potatoes were being fried by 1680 in the Meuse Valley of Belgium. Locals often ate small fried fish, when the river was frozen they used potatoes as a substitute. They used to cut potatoes lengthwise and fry them in oil to use them as a fish substitute.

Thomas Jefferson gets the credit for introducing French fries to America when he served them at a White House dinner in 1802 after reportedly requesting, "Potatoes, fried in the French manner.

The average American eats thirty pounds of French fries per year.

The earliest known reference to fries in English literature is in A Tale of Two Cities. Charles Dickens refers to, “Husky chips of potato, fried with some reluctant drops of oil”.

In general, potatoes cooked with the skin on are healthier, as most of the nutrients in a potato come from the skin

French fries are eaten all over the world and every culture has its own preferred condiment. Americans dunk them in ketchup, Brits eat their chips with salt and malt vinegar, mayonnaise is a popular accompaniment in Belgium and they look forward to steamed mussels and fries, in Vietnam they serve fries with soft butter and a sprinkling of sugar. "Clams and chips" is a very popular dish in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. French fries served with hot mustard is very popular in Ireland

There is a museum in Belgium entirely devoted to the classic fast-food snack frites.

French Fries in France are known as frites, patates frites, or pommes frites in French. These names are also used in many non-French areas.

About seven per cent of the potatoes grown in the US are sold by McDonald’s. It sells more than one third of all the French fries sold in restaurants in the U.S. each year.

According to the Agricultural Research Service in Navarre, potato skins are packed with 60 phyto-chemicals, many of these are flavonoids which help lower bad cholesterol and keep arteries clear.

Belgians may or may not have invented the French fry, today, they do consume the most French fries per capita of any country in Europe.

Belgians, who are the world’s connoisseurs when it comes to French fries, occasionally will serve French fries with egg as a topping. The raw egg is cracked over the French fries immediately after the fries have been pulled from the fryer. This tends to mostly cook the egg, but leaves the yoke somewhat runny for dipping the fries in.

Google Tools

Google has a handy feature that allows you to set up a countdown timer. Type in set timer x minutes or hours and it will show a countdown clock. You can continue to surf and an alarm will sound when the time has expired. Handy if you want to limit your activities to a fixed time.

Type "google.com sky" without the quotes, to look around the sky the same way you look at a map of the earth. It shows objects in the sky, such as stars, constellations, planets, the Earth's moon, and galaxies.

Cat Scan Origin

The Beatles were indirectly responsible for funding the development of the CT (CAT) scanner. Their record label, EMI, also operated a computer research facility that once employed Godfrey Hounsfield, who had been developing X-ray computerized tomography (CT) in the late '60s. Researchers and radiologists claim that EMI invested the profits they earned from the Beatles' music into Hounsfield's technology, allowing for the invention of a commercial CT scanner (then known as an EMI scanner) by the early 1970s.

Social Security Checks

A friend asked me when Social Security checks are mailed, so it sent me to the dot gov site to find out some details. If you were born on the:  1 – 10th of the month, your Social Security check is deposited on the 2nd Wednesday of each month

11 – 20th of the month, your Social Security check is deposited on the 3rd Wednesday of each month

21 – 31st of the month, your Social Security check is deposited on the 4th Wednesday of each month.

However, if you started receiving benefits before 1997, or you get SS and SSI payments, then your Social Security check is paid on the third day of the month.

If the day your Social Security check is supposed to be deposited is a holiday, it is deposited the day before. Very simple formula for very complicated system.

Youtube Tips

 If you are annoyed by the ads when you watch YouTube videos or songs, change "youtube" in the URL to "youtubeskip" (do not use the quote marks) to skip the ads.

To repeat videos or songs without hitting the replay button, type "youtuberepeat" in place of "youtube" in the URL (also without the quotes).

To control volume after you click on a video or song, use the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard. You can use the keyboard spacebar to pause or play. Also use the left and right arrows for rewind and fast forward.

If you can not seem to get enough of an artist or group, type http://www.youtube.com/disco and it serves up a page where you can search and you can string together a personal playlist. I am listening to ABBA now.

Bacon Fueled Motorcycle

Hormel created a motorcycle that is fueled by bacon grease and is sending it on a journey from Minnesota to the San Diego Bacon Fest just in time for International Bacon Day, August 30, 2014. Should be some interesting exhaust fumes coming from the bike.

Free Smile Friday


Aug 8, 2014

Happy Friday


The difference between the optimist and pessimist is that the optimist never uses the snooze button.

I do not even wait for the alarm, especially when waking up to a Happy Friday!

What's in a Name

Microsoft’s search engine, Bing was named “Kumo,” during development, but Microsoft went with Bing after focus groups said it reminded them of “the moment of discovery.”

Yelp  -
The “yel” in “Yelp” comes from “yellow,” and the “p” comes from “pages.” The business listings and ratings site is like an Internet version of the Yellow Pages.

Twitter - It is a microblogging site and users’ posts cannot exceed 140 characters. Those short messages reminded company founders of birds chirping or twittering. Individual posts are known as tweets and the logo is a bird.

Wikipedia - “Wiki” is Hawaiian for “quick,” and “pedia” comes from “encyclopedia.” It is a quick encyclopedia added to and edited by almost anyone.

The Onion - It began as a college newspaper, and founders Tim Keck and Chris Johnson had so little money they ate onion sandwiches. While planning the paper, Keck’s uncle saw them eating onion sandwiches and reportedly said, “You should call the newspaper The Onion.”

Skype - The video phone via Internet service got its name from a shortening of the phrase “sky peer-to-peer,” as users connect person-to-person via the cloud (Internet).

Etsy - Rob Kalin, founder of the marketplace where users buy and sell vintage and handmade goods, wanted a nonsense word, but as he was watching an Italian film, he noticed characters often said “etsi”, which means “oh, yes.”


Pinterest - The name is a combination of “pin” and “interest,” which reflects how the site functions. It is a social network where users share pictures of things they find interesting by “pinning” them on their pin board.