Bacon Elevator

Bacon is an effective mood elevator. Bacon makes us feel happy, satisfied, and blissful, which greatly reduces stress and effectively relieves the negative effects of frustration.

Grinders, Heros, Hoagies, and Subs

The Grinder arose in New England and was likely named after the dockworkers whose jobs involved much noisy grinding to repair and refurbish the ships. However, some attribute the name to the amount of chewing and grinding it takes to work through the crusty Italian bread and tough meats on the typical sandwich.

The Hero can contain an infinite number of combinations of meats, cheeses, condiments, vegetables and pickled things. Many believe the Hero Sandwich was named by food columnist, Clementine Paddleworth in the 1930s relating to the Submarine sandwich, when she noted, “You had to be a hero to eat it.” The Oxford English Dictionary credits the naming to armored car guards.

Hoagie is what the folks in Philadelphia call it. Most claim that the name came originally from Al De Palma who thought that a person “had to be a hog” to eat such a large sandwich. When he opened his own sandwich place during the Great Depression, Al called his big subs 'hoggies'. It is assumed that the strong Philadelphia accent changed the pronunciation, and eventually, the spelling.

The Submarine sandwich originated in several different Italian American communities in the Northeastern United States from the late 19th century. So, all Grinders, Heros, Hoagies, and many other regional names for these great sandwiches are Subs and all Subs are sandwiches, but not all sandwiches are Subs.

Five Fun Facts

We eat pizza from the inside out.
Denver International Airport is larger than Manhattan.
There are more life forms living on your skin than there people living on earth.
The craters named Beer on Mars and the Moon were named for German astronomer Wilhelm Beer, not the drink.
Russia considered beer as a soft drink and not alcohol until 2011.

3D Printed Prosthetic Hand

Hayley Fraser, a five-year-old girl from Scotland, recently became the first child in the United Kingdom to be outfitted with a prosthetic limb made using 3D printing technology.

She was born without fingers on her left hand. Her parents, David and Zania Fraser, went online to try and help their daughter who had been turned down by the National Health System. They came across the website of E-nable, a group of volunteers in the United States who design and build prosthetics for children. They made a cast of their daughter's hand and sent it to the group. Professor Flood used the model to print out properly-sized prosthetic components using a 3D printer.

Now, Hayley can manipulate her prosthetic hand's artificial tendons, joints, and fingers by flexing and rotating her wrist. She can hold her teddy, peel a banana, and even paint her nails. Her new bright pink bionic hand was inspired by the movie Ironman.

Sad Presidential Fact

Theodore Roosevelt’s wife and mother died in the same house on the same day, Valentine’s Day 1884. His wife had just given birth to their daughter Alice, and the pregnancy had hidden her kidney disease. He held her for two hours, had to be torn away to see his mother die of typhoid fever, then returned to his wife, who died in his arms.

Find a Hometown Paper

Many of us move quite far from home and every now and then might be curious about what is going on at the place or places we left. I find it fascinating how different places report the 'same' news, or at least their slant on the same news.
LINK

Free Frdiday Smile

Happy Friday

Smiles are catchy like yawns, but more fun.

It is infinitely more fun to throw a smile on a Happy Friday!

Time Change and Vote

Don't forget to change clocks back this Saturday night in most parts of the United States. The election is next week, November 4 and folks in the US can electorally choose to fall back or jump ahead. Get out and vote or do not complain for the next few years.

Happy Halloween

This Holiday makes me squirrelly

Twice as much chocolate is sold on Halloween as on Valentine's Day.

Here is a scary, but true thought - You are ten times more likely to get bitten by a person from New York than a shark.

Wordology, Advesperate

to grow dark, to become night. On Halloween we wait for the day to advesperate.

Idiot, Imbecile, Moron

We often hear these words during an election cycle. Each of these words has a different meaning. The medical definitions have been mostly abandoned and the words are now used more in a pejorative sense, rather than diagnostic.

In psychology, an idiot has the least intelligence on the IQ scale, equivalent to someone who is mentally challenged. Idiot derives from the ancient Greek, 'idio', meaning “person lacking professional skill” or “mentally deficient person incapable of ordinary reasoning.” Those who have an IQ between 0 and 25 are considered idiots.

From Middle French imbécile, from Latin imbēcillus meaning weak or feeble, literally “without a staff.” An imbecile is considered equivalent to moderate retardation or moderately mentally challenged. People with IQs between 26 and 50 are considered imbeciles.

The word 'moron' was coined in 1910 by psychologist Henry H. Goddard and derived from the ancient Greek word 'moros', which meant 'dull'. Those who have an IQ between 51 and 70 are considered morons. A moron is the highest level of intelligence for someone who is mildly mentally challenged.

These terms were popular in psychology as associated with intelligence on an IQ test until the 1960s. They were then replaced with the terms mild retardation, moderate retardation, severe retardation, and profound retardation. Other factors besides IQ are now used in diagnosing these levels of mental deficiency.

Retarded comes from the Latin 'retardare', which means “to make slow, delay, keep back, or hinder.”  The term retarded was used to replace the terms idiot, moron, and imbecile as these terms gradually became thought of as derogatory. Now 'retarded' is considered a derogatory term.

Many old words seem to pop up around election time as politicians seek to differentiate themselves, while preaching the same drivel. Even politician used to be a good word, which has now become thought of as derogatory.

What's in a Name, Santa Fe

"Santa" can also mean holy, and "fe" means faith, so Santa Fe = holy faith. The full name of the New Mexico state capital is "Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asis," or "Royal Village of the Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assisi."

Oatmeal, Porridge, Gruel, and Spurtles

Oats taken from the farmer’s field are sieved in a rotating drum to remove impurities like seeds, stalks, sticks, and stones. Then they are put into a rotating drum to remove the husk. Finally, the oats are heat dried to reduce the moisture content before being ground or crushed to produce fine oatmeal.

Oatmeal is a product made by processing oats. In North America, oatmeal means any crushed oats, rolled oats, or cut oats used in recipes such as oatmeal cookies. It is also a name for a breakfast cereal made by cooking the oats. All oatmeal is porridge, but not all porridge is oatmeal.

Porridge made from oatmeal is also called oatmeal or oatmeal cereal. Porridge can be made with oats, rice, barley, cornmeal, brown rice, or basically any grain that is cooked, usually in water or milk. Similar dishes made with other grains or legumes often have other names, such as groat, polenta, grits, owsianka, or kasha. Since porridge was used as prison food for inmates in the British prison system, 'doing porridge' became a slang term for a sentence in prison.

Gruel is similar to porridge, but is made without milk and has a very thin consistency.

A spurtle is a Scottish kitchen tool used for stirring porridge.

Bonus - Pease porridge made from dried peas is another traditional English and Scottish porridge. It inspired the Mother Goose rhyme "pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold, pease porridge in the pot, nine days old.