It comes from the French: myz.le. It derives its name from the
French museler, to muzzle and is a wire cage that fits over the
cork of a bottle just below the annulus, of champagne, sparkling
wine, or beer to prevent the cork from emerging under the
pressure of the carbonated contents. The muselet often has a
metal cap (plaque) incorporated in the design which may show the
drink maker's emblem.
muselet
and plaque
Muselets are also known
as wirehoods or Champagne wires. Another term sometimes used is
agrafe. In Champagne, this was a large metal clip used to secure
the cork before capsules were invented, typically during the
second fermentation and aging in bottle. A bottle secured with
this clip is said to be agrafé. Some French refer to muselet as
an agrafe (French for staple), a cork, and a disk. Corks have
been used as stoppers since about 1718.
agrafe
When opening a bottle
of champagne you need to remove the muselet that sits on top of
the cork. It is loosened by removing the foil and turning the
wire counter-clockwise. It takes exactly six turns, or three 360
degree turns to remove the muselet.
It is unclear on who
invented the muselet, but is is clear that Dom Perignon and
Adolphe Jacqueson made important contributions. Dom Perignon is
believed to have made important improvements to the production
process of champagne. Including a wire caging on the cork. At
that time many bottles were lost during production because the
cork or the bottle was unable to withstand the pressure of the
Champagne. Dom Perignon’s invention made it better. During 1844
Adolphe Jacqueson made the muselet in the shape and form we know
today.
Incidentally, collecting the caps of Champagne and other sparkling wine is
called Placomusophilia. The small,
dome-shaped, often colorfully decorated metal cap that
protects the outer end of the cork are called
'plaque' or 'plaque de muselet'.
Ceuta and Melilla are fragments of Europe on north Africa's
Mediterranean coast. They came under Spanish control about 500
years ago. Madrid says they are integral parts of Spain. On three
sides they are surrounded by Morocco. For both, the currency used
is the Euro.
Ceuta is an
18.5-square-kilometre (7.1 sq mi) Spanish autonomous city
located on the north coast of Africa, separated by 14 kilometers
from Cadiz province on the Spanish mainland by the Strait of
Gibraltar and sharing a 6.4 kilometer land border in the Kingdom
of Morocco. It lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean
Sea and the Atlantic Ocean and is one of nine populated Spanish
territories in Africa and, along with Melilla, one of two
populated territories on mainland Africa. It was part of Cádiz
province until 14 March 1995 when the city's Statute of Autonomy
was passed.
Melilla is a Spanish autonomous city
located on the north coast of Africa, sharing a border with
Morocco with an area of 12.3 square kilometres (4.7 sq mi).
Melilla is one of two permanently inhabited Spanish cities in
mainland Africa. It was part of Málaga province until 14 March
1995 when the city's Statute of Autonomy was passed.
Melilla, like Ceuta,
was a free port before Spain joined the European Union. As of
2011, it had a population of 78,476 made up of ethnic Spaniards,
ethnic Riffian Berbers, and a small number of Sephardic Jews and
Sindhi Hindus. Both Spanish and Riffian-Berber are the two most
widely spoken languages, with Spanish as the only official
language.
This year, migrants
were attempting to reach Ceuta to get to the rest of Europe.
Only two were successful, but both were injured scaling the
six-metre (20 ft) surrounding fence and needed hospital
treatment. The attempt comes after more than 400 migrants
succeeded in breaching Ceuta's fence in December. Hundreds of
sub-Saharan African migrants living illegally in Morocco try to
enter Ceuta and Melilla each year in hope of getting to Europe.
If you have a gift card with a balance of less than ten dollars,
most states have laws that stores and restaurants are legally
required to give you the balance in cash if you ask for it. Some
states have a $5 or other lower limit.
Most gift cards cannot
contain an expiration date or a service fee. Tip - fold your
receipt around the card to remember the balance.
I have always lacked my fair share of
political correctness, mainly because it defies logic and common
sense. Here are a few passages I have come across that describe
it rather well.
The 2007 winning entry
from an annual contest at Texas A&M University calling for
the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term
'Political Correctness'. The winner wrote: "Political
Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical
minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream
media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely
possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."
“No one should ever
underestimate the stupidity induced in bureaucrats by the
procedures they are enjoined to follow.”
"The perverse incentives that bureaucrats are often given
nowadays are also worth a mention. On the false grounds that it
is better to measure something than to measure nothing, the work
of a bureaucracy (and therefore bureaucrats) is judged by some
target or other plucked from the ether of political vacuity by
their bosses."
A PricewaterhouseCoopers study for the American Hospital
Association chronicled more than 40 layers of paperwork
associated with caring for a typical Medicare patient who
arrives at an emergency room with a broken hip and receives
treatment until recuperation. Some of the findings:
- Roughly 60 minutes
of paperwork were performed for every hour of emergency
department care, 36 minutes of paperwork for every hour of
surgery and acute inpatient care, 30 minutes of paperwork for
every hour of skilled nursing care, and 48 minutes of
paperwork for every hour of home healthcare.
- “Each time a
physician orders a test or a procedure, the physician
documents the order in the patient’s record, and the
government requires additional documentation to prove the
necessity for the test or procedure.”
- “Many forms … must
be completed daily by clinical staff to submit to the
government to justify the care provided to skilled nursing
facility patients.”
- Medicare and
Medicaid “rules and instructions” are more than 130,000 pages
(three times larger than the IRS code and its associated
regulations), and “medical records must be reviewed by at
least four people to ensure compliance” with Medicare program
requirements.
- “A Medicare patient
arriving at the emergency department is required to review and
sign eight different forms, just for Medicare.”
- “Each time a patient
is discharged, even if only from the acute unit of the
hospital to an on-site skilled nursing unit, multiple care
providers must write a discharge plan for the patient. This
documentation, as long as 30 pages, applies to all patients,
regardless of the complexity of care received within the
hospital or required post-hospital setting.”
- In addition to
regulation by state agencies, local agencies, private
accrediting organizations, and insurers, hospitals are
regulated by more 30 federal agencies.
Like many drink recipes, Martini origins are
fuzzy. The precise origins of the martini remain obscure, with a
number of people and locations vying for the honor of being home
to the cocktail. The town of Martinez, California put up a
plaque to proclaim itself the birthplace of the Martini.
According to the plaque, situated at 911 Alhambra Avenue, the
very first Martini was mixed on that spot.
The plaque records the story: “On this site in 1874, Julio
Richelieu, bartender, served up the first Martini when a miner
came into his saloon with a fistful of nuggets and asked for
something special. He was served a 'Martinez Special'. After
three or four drinks, however, the ‘Z’ would get in the way. The
drink consisted of 2/3 gin, 1/3 vermouth, a dash of orange
bitters, poured over crushed ice and served with an olive.”
Another theory suggests it evolved from a cocktail called the
Martinez served sometime in the early 1860s at the Occidental
Hotel in San Francisco, which people frequented before taking an
evening ferry to the nearby town of Martinez.
Others assert that the drink was named after “Martini &
Rossi” vermouth, which was first created in the mid-1800s.
Apparently in the interest of brevity, the drink became known as
the 'Martini'.
Another of my quotes someone made into a poster.
“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers
knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” ~Isaac Asimov
There is wisdom in celebrating every Happy Friday!
The outer edge of pizza is called the cornicione, pronounced -
"cor-nee-cho-nay", which means cornice or molding. The crust is
the name for the base that the toppings are added to.
Medicaid and Medicare are similar
programs that are publicly run. They cover 62 million and 43
million Americans, respectively. They each use their large
membership to negotiate lower prices with hospitals and doctors.
Medicaid tends to have the lowest payment rates. On average,
Medicaid pays 66 percent of what Medicare pays doctors.
Incidentally, US Census Bureau as of 2015 shows population of
about 318 million Americans, including 23 million non-citizens.
The website ScottishGolfHistory.org
cites a golf glossary published in 1857 that included the word
fore. Historians at the British Golf Museum have surmised that
the term 'fore', as a warning in golf, evolved from forecaddie.
A forecaddie is a person who accompanies a grouping of golfers
around the golf course, going forward on each hole to be in a
position to pinpoint the locations of the group members' shots.
Mary Queen of Scots was likely the first woman to play golf. It
was during her reign that the famous golf course at St. Andrews
was built, in 1552. Mary coined the term caddie by calling her
assistants cadets. Of course, le cadet is French for youngster
of the family. Some argue French military 'cadets' carried clubs
for golfing royalty and this practice came to Scotland when
Queen Mary Stuart returned in 1561.
One of the most common misconceptions is that the word GOLF is
an acronym for Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden. The first
documented mention of the word 'golf' is in Edinburgh on 6th
March 1457, when King James II banned 'ye golf', in an attempt
to encourage archery practice, which was being neglected. During
1460, Sir Gilbert Hay translated an old French poem into the
Scottish language. It uses the word 'golf' twice. "Therefore I
am sending you a ball to play with and a 'golf staff' to hit it
with, as children do round the streets."
Also, according to Grammarist the most correct spelling is
caddie (an attendant who carries the golf clubs for a player),
not caddy (a can for storing tea). Although the word caddy is
currently loosely accepted for caddie
Here is a fun quickie of someone who adds
insult to injury while taking a shot and losing a wedge. LINK
These words must seem weird to
those who follow the metric system, so a bit of history might
help explain. The Latin word Libra is abbreviated to 'lb'. Libra
is widely known as the astrological sign for balance, but it was
also part of the Roman unit of weight, libra pond, which
translates to “pound weight." Britain derived pound from that
expression as its unit of measurement and also as a term for its
currency because centuries ago, a pound in money was considered
equal to the value of a pound of silver.
Ounces - The Spanish ounce (Onza) was 1⁄16 of a pound. It is a
unit of mass used in most British systems of measurement. It is
most pervasive in the retail sale of groceries in the United
States, but is also used in many other matters of domestic and
international trade between imperial or customary measurement
driven countries.
