What's in a name, Grapefruit

“The fruits are borne usually in clusters of from 3 to 15,” explains the Cyclopedia of American Horticulture, published 1901, “hence the name Grape-fruit (in clusters or bunches like grapes), by which it is known by in Jamaica.”

Even back then, however, at least one expert took issue with that answer. Here’s the editor of The American Botanist grousing back in 1902: Another horticultural magazine gravely informs its readers that the grape-fruit (Citnis decumana) receives its common name from the fact that it grows ‘in grapose clusters.’ Everybody that has seen the grape-fruit growing knows that the fruits hang singly, like their near relatives the orange and lemon. ‘Grapose clusters’ favors facts manufactured to fit the explanation.

Holiday Home Hacks

Remove permanent marker by using toothpaste on it.
A Lint roller is perfect to dust your lampshades with.
Use bread, or a damp paper towel, or play-doh to pick up broken glass or spilled glitter.
Cut a grapefruit and add salt to clean stubborn tub dirt before company arrives.
Wrap your light strings around a hangar to keep them from getting all tangled.
Make a Christmas tree from jello shots to keep the fun going. You can use orange jello for Thanksgiving.

Ten Interesting Facts About Humans

People with higher number of moles tend to live longer than people with fewer moles.

When filming summer scenes in winter, actors suck on ice cubes just before the camera rolls. It cools their mouths so their breath doesn't condense in the cold air.

Thinking about your muscles can actually make you stronger.

Grapefruit scent will make middle aged women appear six years younger to men. The perception is not reciprocal and has no effect on women’s perception.

The world’s youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.

The colder the room you sleep in, the better the chances are that you will have a bad dream.

There are more people alive today than have ever died.

Women’s hair is about half the diameter of men’s hair.

Women blink twice as many times as men do.

The average person who stops smoking requires one hour less sleep a night.

Salt

Saltiness is one of the five primary basic tastes the human tongue can detect. Those five tastes being: salt, bitter, sweet, sour, and umami (it is from glutamic acid, which is found in many foods, particularly some meats, and is the basis of the flavor enhancer monosodium glutamate, also known as MSG).

Extra salt has other effects, beside simply making things more salty it helps certain molecules in foods more easily release into the air, thus helping the aroma of the food, which is important in perception of taste.

Adding a bit of salt will also decrease the bitter taste perception in food, which is why it is often sprinkled on grapefruit.

Salt does not suppress sweet or sour flavors as with bitter flavors, but balances out the taste by making the perceived flavor of sugary candies or lemons, less one dimensional.