Cornucopia

There are multiple stories concern the cornucopia’s origins. The first begins with Zeus, the greatest of all the Greek gods. Cronus, his father, wanted to kill Zeus, so his mother Rhea hid him in Crete to protect him. The king of Crete had several daughters who raised him, and their goat provided milk for the child. When Zeus grew older he broke off one of the goat’s horns and gave them the magic power to fill up with whatever the owner of the horn desired. Zeus gave the horns to the king’s daughters to thank them for caring for him. According to legend, whoever owned the horn would never go hungry.

An alternate story involves the goat giving Zeus one of her horns in reverence. Zeus repays her by placing her image in the sky. We know the image as the constellation Capricorn.

Another story in Greek mythology concerns Hercules’s role in creating the cornucopia. A feud erupted between Hercules and the river-god Achelous. The two competed for the love of Dejanira, a young woman of breath-taking beauty. The two fought in a colossal wrestling match and Hercules began to get the better of Achelous. Achelous, a shape-shifter, changed into a serpent and then into a bull in an effort to gain leverage against Hercules. Hercules broke off one of Achelous’s horns, and when he did the river changed course. The water-nymphs came upon the horn in the river and treated the horn as a sacred object. They filled the horn with flowers and took care of it. Later Copia, the Goddess of Plenty, adopted the horn. Hercules married Dejanira and they had a family.

Mythological beings and deities illustrate a theme in classical paintings, and the cornucopia became a popular design element. Artists often painted the curved goat’s horn filled with fruit and grain, and thus it came to symbolize wealth and plenty. Tyche, the goddess of riches and abundance, also became associated with the cornucopia. It also became the emblem for several other deities.

Modern design for cornucopias usually involves the use of it as a fall decoration. A favorite of florists, they often act as a vessel for containing bright, decorative flowers, fruits, gourds and many other decorative items that make a pretty table ensemble.

The cornucopia symbolizes riches and plenty in some folklore, art and mythology, so the decoration rightfully belongs on the table at which you plan to have a meal while enjoying the company of family and friends.

The cornucopia has a close association with Thanksgiving, but people considered it symbolic before the holiday existed. The word originated in 1508 and comes from the Latin cornu, meaning horn, and copia, meaning plenty. Thus some also call it the horn of plenty.

Use by/Sell by Dates

Holiday feasts are usually followed by leftovers and the trick is to consume the leftovers before they go bad. Below are some tips to help. The only food federal law that says must have a use-by date is infant formula.

Some states also have their own rules about dates for bottled water or foods, such as milk. Other dates are voluntary by manufacturers to tell consumers when the food tastes best, not when it’s going to make a person sick. The ‘use by,’ ‘sell by’, ‘code dates’, and ‘best by’ dates are all used for quality reasons not for safety reasons.

One group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, a New York City-based, non-profit environmental advocacy group, report calls for putting sell-by dates meant for businesses, into code so they are invisible to consumers, although I do not understand how that will help.

A few guidelines follow. Bagged produce, such as spinach and lettuce should be tossed by the dates on the package. Bacteria does not grow in condiments such as mustard and catsup. It is OK to cut the mold off hard cheese, cured meats, and hard vegetables such as bell peppers and carrots.

Additional foods and their shelf lives, according to the USDA. Every food product listed should be stored at a refrigerator temperature of 40 F and below for the following shelf life to pertain.
Eggs 21 to 35 days
Lunch meat 14 days [unopened]; 3 to 5 days [opened]
Bacon 14 days [unopened]; 7 days [opened]
Cured Ham 5 to 7 days
Beef, Veal, Pork and Lamb 3 to 5 days
Apples 90 to 240 days
Grapefruit 28 to 42 days
Strawberries 5 to 7 days
Raspberries 1 to 2 days
Grapes 56 to 180 days
Carrots 28 to 128 days
Cherries 10 to 21 days
Asparagus 10 to 20 days
Bunched Broccoli 10 to 14 days
Celery 3 to 5 days
Lettuce 14 to 21 days

Interesting Use for Black Pepper

Next time you nick yourself in the kitchen, reach for the black pepper. Run cold water over the wound to clean it, using soap if you were handling meat. Then sprinkle on pepper and apply pressure. In no time, the bleeding will stop. Black pepper has analgesic, antibacterial, and antiseptic properties. In addition, pepper doesn't sting.

Most Expensive Beers

For those still celebrating, here are a few beers to pick up or discuss and impress the relatives.
1. Sapporo's Space Barley, Price: $110/six-pack - The barley was actually grown about the International Space Station.

2. Crown Ambassador Reserve, Price: $90/750ml - It is aged in French oak barrels for 12 months and packaged in a champagne bottle.

3. Tutankhamun Ale, Price: $75/500ml - Developed from residue found in Queen Nefertiti's Royal Brewery. No longer available.

4. Brewdog's Sink the Bismarck, Price: $80/375ml - Also one of the worlds strongest at 41% abv and extremely bitter.

5. Samuel Adams' Utopias, Price: $150/700ml - America's most expensive by the second largest brewer in the US. It is actually banned in 13 states due to its high alcohol content at 27%.

6. Schorschbräu's Schorschbock 57, Price: $275/330ml - Only 36 bottles made and claims to be the world's strongest with 57.5% abv.

7. Carlsberg's Jacobsen Vintage, Price: $400/375ml - Limited to 600 bottles per year from 2008 to 2010.

8. Brewdog's The End of History, Price: $765/330ml - Only 12 bottles (or less) still exist and is 55% abv.

9. Pabst Blue Ribbon 1844, Price: $44.00/720ml - Sorry, not sold outside of China.

10. Nail Brewing's Antarctic Nail Ale, Price: $800-$1815/500ml - Made with water from an Antarctic iceberg.
I do not usually drink beer, but if I did a few of these would be on my list.

Hypnagogic Jerk

After that post-Thanksgiving leftover indulging as many sneak to the couch for a bit of a nap, you might have a hypnagogic jerk. Most of us have had them but few know the proper name. It is an involuntary muscle spasm that occurs as a person is drifting off to sleep. The phenomenon is so named in reference to the hypnagogic state, or the transitional period between wakefulness and sleep. Hypnagogic jerks are also commonly known as hypnic jerks or sleep starts.

The muscle spasms may occur spontaneously or may be induced by sound, light or other external stimuli. Some people report hypnagogic jerks accompanied by hallucinations, dreams, the sensation of falling, or bright lights or loud noises coming from inside the head.

Sleep starts are quite common, with some research suggesting 60 to 70 percent of people experience them. Many individuals may be visited by nightly hypnic jerks without even knowing it, as the twitches often go unremembered, particularly if they don't cause a person to wake up.

Some scientists believe certain factors, such as stress, anxiety, fatigue, caffeine and sleep deprivation, may increase the frequency or severity of hypnagogic jerk. Researchers are also unsure exactly why hypnic jerks occur. One hypothesis is that hypnagogic jerks are a natural part of the body's transition from alertness to sleep, and occur when nerves "misfire" during the process.

Church Tax

Did you know a church tax is imposed on members of many religious congregations in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Sweden, some parts of Switzerland and several other countries? The Roman Catholic Church, Church of Denmark, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and the Finnish Orthodox Church, Protestant, Church of Iceland, Jewish Communities, Baptist, Buddhist, Hindu, etc. are all included in the tax collection from their respective members.

The tax was introduced by Hitler in Austria. Oxymoronically, after World War II, the tax was retained in order to keep the Church independent of political powers. Typically the tax is usually between .5% and 2.5%. Some countries even pay the salaries and retirement benefits of clergy, as well as upkeep for the buildings and grounds.

Recently many members have been going to their city halls to opt out of religious groups, which has significant ramifications for declining taxes.

Happy Friday

Gratitude is the least of the virtues, but ingratitude is the worst of vices.

No ingratitude next week as we get to celebrate a holiday of gratitude followed by another . . . Happy Friday!

Black Friday

* * * OOH, Black Friday is fast approaching. You can beat the rush by clicking on this AMAZON link to my books and shop from home and pick up some sweet smiles for family and friends.

Thanksgiving Terms

There was not always a choice of dark meat or white meat after carving the turkey. These terms have nothing to do with the color of the meat as they were euphemisms for the leg and breast of turkey and other fowl. In the Victorian times, the words “leg” and “breast” were considered fowl, so they awkwardly decided to call the leg “white meat” and the breast “black meat.”

Did you know Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the US. or that Abraham Lincoln issued a 'Thanksgiving Proclamation' on third October 1863 and officially set aside the last Thursday of November as the national day for Thanksgiving? He was persuaded by Sarah Josepha Hale, an American magazine editor to declare Thanksgiving a national holiday. She is also the author of the popular nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb".

Wordology, Turkey

In the 16th century, when North American turkeys were first introduced to Europe, there was another bird that was popularly imported throughout Europe, called a guinea fowl. This guinea fowl was imported from Madagascar via the Ottoman Empire. The merchant importers were known as “turkey merchants”. The guinea fowl themselves eventually were popularly referred to as “turkey fowl”, similar to how other product imported through the Ottoman Empire acquired their names, such as “turkey corn”, “turkey wheat”, etc.

The North American turkey was first introduced to Spain in the very early 16th century and later introduced to all of Europe. The North American turkey was thought by many to be a species of the type of guinea fowl that was imported from the Ottoman Empire and also were called a “turkey fowl” in English and later shortened to just turkey.

Turkey Pickings

A group of turkeys is technically called a “rafter”, though they are often incorrectly referred to as a “gobble” or a “flock”.

Due to the reputation of turkeys being thought of as stupid, the term turkey began being used as a slang, derogatory term meaning dumb or idiot in the early 20th century. Of course, domestic turkeys are stupid, but wild turkeys are not.

The phrase “Turkey Shoot” comes from the mid-20th century practice of tying turkeys behind logs, with only their heads exposed, and then holding a marksmanship competition, trying to shoot the turkey’s head off.

Due to the white meat being the most popular part of a turkey, turkeys have been bred to have huge breasts. Because of this, modern domesticated turkeys are no longer typically able to mate, due to the breasts getting in the way of a male mounting the female. Most hatcheries use artificial insemination to fertilize the eggs of the domestic turkey.

Pilgrims and Thanksgiving

Pilgrims did not celebrate the first Thanksgiving in America. In fact, the particular Pilgrim event that is often cited as the first Thanksgiving was not even the Pilgrim’s first Thanksgiving. They had several before at various times and none were celebrated annually. The days were merely a particular time when people had something significant to thank God for, so would set aside a day to do so.

Around the time the Pilgrims came to America in 1620, it was common in England and many parts of Europe to frequently set aside days for giving thanks to God. In the New World, where life was harsh in the beginning, there were numerous opportunities to hold such days of thanks, such as any time a particularly good crop would come in, when drought would end, when a particularly harsh winter was survived, when a group repelled an attack by Native Americans, when a supply ship arrived safely from Europe, etc. Seems like they had many reasons to party.

These celebrations remained fairly common up until the time when Thanksgiving became a national holiday. Most of these celebrations bore little resemblance to what we think of as Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims celebrations bore little resemblance to what is depicted now.

No one knows for sure who actually celebrated the first actual Thanksgiving in America. The most popular examples often referenced as the actual “firsts” include:

• The day of thanksgiving celebrated in September 1565 by a group of Spaniards lead by Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilé, in Saint Augustine, Florida. Pedro invited the Timucua tribe to dine with them on that Thanksgiving.
  
  
• The group led by Spanish explorer Juan de Onate in 1598 in San Elizario, Texas held a Thanksgiving festival after successfully crossing 350 miles of Mexican desert.
  
  
• The thirty-eight settlers who landed on James River by Jamestown in December 1619. Their charter required that the day of landing be set aside as a day of thanksgiving both on that first date and every year after.
  
  
• The Pilgrim’s Thanksgiving that took place sometime between September and October of 1621.

Thanksgiving Traditions Origin

The Pilgrim Thanksgiving that happened in the fall of 1621 is the most popular reference to the first Thanksgiving in the US. This is largely because of Sarah Josepha Hale, author of the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and one of the most influential women in American history.

She was particularly enamored with the Pilgrim event she had read about in a passage by William Bradford in 'Of Plymouth Plantation' as well as the particular Thanksgiving tradition which was somewhat common in New England at the time. She tirelessly campaigned for over 20 years to have Thanksgiving become a national holiday with a set date.

Through her highly circulated editorials, she was largely responsible for much of why we view the Pilgrim’s 1621 Thanksgiving how we do and was also largely responsible for many of the traditions we now tend to attribute to that Thanksgiving, even though there are actually only two brief passages that record what happened during the Thanksgiving celebration in 1621.

Things like the tradition of eating turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving were all popularized by her while it is unlikely that the Pilgrims ate any of those things.

Seventeen Beer Facts

Much beer is guzzled during the holidays so here are a few beer facts that can be used  to impress the relatives.

After he won the Nobel Prize, Niels Bohr was given a perpetual supply of beer piped into his house. (He lived next to a brewery).

The Code of Hammurabi decreed that bartenders who watered down beer would be executed.

At the Annual Wife Carrying World Championships (in Finland), the first prize is the wife's weight in beer.

The builders of the Great Pyramid of Giza were paid with a daily ration of beer.

The top five states for beer consumption per capita: 1. North Dakota, 2. New Hampshire, 3. Montana, 4. South Dakota, 5. Wisconsin.

Germany is home to a beer pipeline. Taps in Veltsin-Arena are connected by a 5km (3 mile) tube of beer.

Thomas Jefferson wrote parts of the Declaration of Independence in a Philadelphia tavern.

George Washington insisted his continental army be permitted a quart of beer as part of their daily rations.

At spas in Europe, you can literally bathe in beer as a physical and mental therapeutic treatment.

In the 1990s, the Beer Lovers Party ran candidates in Belarus and Russia.

J.K. Rowling, of Harry Potter fame invented Quidditch in a pub.

Beer helped Joseph Priestly discover oxygen. He noticed gases rising from the big vats of beer at a brewery and asked to do some experiments.

A Buddhist temple in the Thai countryside was built with over a million recycled beer bottles.

The moon has a crater named Beer.

Beer soup was a common breakfast in medieval Europe.

At the start of Bavarian Beer Week in Germany, an open-air beer fountain dispenses free beer to the public.

In the 1980s, a beer-drinking goat was elected mayor of Lajitas, TX.