Refrigerator Tip

Finding food in the back of the fridge is tough, because we are already bent down at an awkward angle, just to peer in. Pick up one or more half cooking sheet pans or large clear plastic bins and use them to line the bottoms of shelves. One quick pull and you can see everything on the shelf. No reason every shelf can't be as convenient as the veggie bin. Also great for spills, pull out, wipe down, done. Measure the shelf before you go shopping so you get maximum coverage.

Flu and Cold

The flu, also called influenza, is a viral respiratory illness. A virus is a microscopic infectious agent that invades the cells of your body and makes you sick. The flu is often confused with another virus, the common cold, because of the similarity in symptoms, which can include a cough, sore throat, and stuffy nose. However, flu symptoms also include fever, cold sweats, aches throughout the body, headache, exhaustion, and even some gastro-intestinal symptoms, such as vomiting and diarrhea.

Part of flu potency is from the virus changing so quickly that the body is rarely prepared for the next season’s strain. “The antibodies we have built up no longer recognize the virus, so we lose our immunity.

During the last five years researchers have come up with a way to stem the tide of infection and it revolves around the ways that sneezes linger in the air. Cold air can carry less water vapor before it reaches the dew point and falls as rain. While the weather outside may seem wetter, the air itself is drier as it loses the moisture. A stream of new research has shown that these dry conditions seem to offer the perfect environment for the flu virus to flourish.

Lab experiments have looked at the way flu spreads among groups of guinea pigs. In moister air, the epidemic struggles to build momentum, whereas in drier conditions it spreads quickly. Comparing 30 years’ worth of climate records with health records, Jeffrey Shaman at Columbia University and colleagues found that flu epidemics almost always followed a drop in air humidity.

When we sneeze we expel a mist of particles from our nose and mouths. In moist air, these particles may remain relatively large, and drop to the floor, but in dry air, they break up into smaller pieces, eventually becoming so small that they can stay aloft for many hours. The result is that in winter, you are breathing a cocktail of dead cells, mucus, and viruses from almost anyone who has sneezed in the area.

Two National Anthems

New Zealand is one of only three countries that have two official (and of equal standing) national Anthems. The first is God Save the Queen (the English National Anthem) and the other is God Defend New Zealand. The other two countries with two anthems are Denmark and Canada which both have a Royal Anthem and a State anthem.

Space Odyssey

People reference Apollo 11's mission to the moon as a pinnacle of scientific achievement. In 1969, NASA scientists successfully sent explorers through space to walk on the moon, and brought them back safely. It would take another year before a man named Bernard Sadow applied for a patent for a suitcase with wheels on it and sold it at Macy's.

Incidentally, after returning from the moon, astronauts from Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins had to go through customs. According to documentation, they declared things like moon rocks, moon dust, and other lunar samples.

Internet Service Box

Have you ever heard a beep from the internet box where your connection comes into the house, probably located in the basement or garage. It usually shows a red light and says 'replace battery' or 'battery low'. Turns out the battery is just for the in-house phone line and provides a few hours backup to make landline calls in case of power failure.

The battery also provides a few minutes of backup for internet service. That is not enough to even finish watching an ad. If you call, your service provider will tell you to replace the battery (at your expense, and preferably from them). There is a button for 'silence alarm'. Press and hold it for a few seconds and the alarm will temporarily stop. If you do not have a landline phone, you can disconnect the battery.

A recent study confirmed about only 6.5 percent of US homes have just a landline. About 30+ percent have a landline and mobile phone service. Mobile phones are not affected by home power failure.


If you want to replace the cable box battery, they can be purchased at Walmart, Amazon, Lowes, etc. and cost between 18 and 50 dollars. For the vast majority, the fix is to unhook the battery and eliminate the beep. It is cheaper, simple to do, and you can find instructions online. You are welcome.

Locusts vs. Grasshoppers

There are many stories in the news lately about the deadly locust invasions, especially in Africa. Locusts belong to the same order as grasshoppers, katydids, and crickets - the Orthoptera (derived from the Greek words orthos meaning straight or rigid and ptera meaning wing).
Grasshoppers congregate in huge swarms that can do severe damage to crops. These swarming grasshoppers are called locusts. There are more than 20,000 species of grasshoppers known to science, but only about a dozen of these transform into locusts and produce damaging swarms.
Locusts and grasshoppers are the same in appearance, but locusts can exist in two different behavioral states (solitary and gregarious), and most grasshoppers do not. When the population density is low, locusts behave as individuals, much like grasshoppers. However, when locust population density is high, individuals undergo physiological and behavioral changes, known as phase polyphenism, and they form gregariously behaving swarms of adults.
In addition to changes in behavior, phase change may be accompanied by changes in body shape and color, and in fertility, physiology, and survival. These changes are so dramatic in some species that the swarming and non-swarming forms were once considered to be different species.  The scale of population increase and migrations also distinguish those species known as locusts from grasshoppers.

Locusts are large herbivorous insects that can be serious pests of agriculture due to their ability to form dense and highly mobile swarms. They are species of short-horned grasshoppers that periodically form large populations in dense migrating groups, where individuals differ in several characteristics from those living separately. A locust has longer and stronger wings and a smaller body than a grasshopper.

Happy Friday

But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads? ~Albert Camus

Happiness and harmony are important, especially on a Happy Friday!

Pizza Facts

If you did not get enough pizza during the big game, Feb 9 is another opportunity to celebrate. In fact, there are 10 different pizza days during the year. National Pizza Day is celebrated Feb 9. This observance began in October 1984, and was created by Gerry Durnell, the publisher of Pizza Today magazine.


Here are a few pizza facts.
    Pepperoni is the most popular pizza at 36% of all pies ordered.
    Over 3 billion pizzas are sold in the USA each year.  Add another 1 billion of frozen pizzas.
    17% of all US Restaurants are pizzerias.
     Antica Pizzeria, the first Pizzeria, opened in Naples, Italy, in 1738.
     Gennaro Lombardi, the first Pizzeria in the United States, opened in 1895 in New York City.
    Americans consume on average 23 pounds of pizza per person each year.

Dial 211

There is another service akin to 411 and 911 in the US. The Federal Communications Commission reserved the 211 dialing code for community information and referral services. It intended the code as an easy-to-remember and universally recognizable number that would enable a critical connection between individuals and families in need and the appropriate community-based organizations and government agencies. Currently, active 211 systems cover all or part of 50 states.

Calling 211 provides the following resources:
    Basic Human Needs Resources – including food and clothing, shelters, housing, utility assistance.
    Disaster Response and Recovery – works with the emergency management team during a disaster to offer support and place for dissemination of information.
    Mental Health and Health Resources – including counseling, support groups, drug and alcohol treatment, health insurance programs, Medicaid and Medicare, maternal health resources, health insurance programs for children, medical information lines, clinics, and hospitals.
    Employment Support – including job training, employment services, transportation assistance, and education programs.
    Older Adults and Persons with Disabilities – including adult day care, community meals, respite care, home health care, transportation and homemaker services.
    Children, Youth and Family Support – including child care, after school programs, educational programs for low income families, family resource centers, and recreation programs, mentoring, tutoring and protective services.
    Volunteer Opportunities and Donations – Individuals who wish to donate time, goods or money to community organizations.

Coronavirus vs. Other Outbreaks

Although there seems to be world panic according to the media, the virus appears not be as deadly as reports would have us believe. The number of confirmed cases of the virus worldwide numbered 14,637 and the total confirmed deaths stood at 305 as of midday Feb. 2, according to data collected and mapped by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.  As of Feb 5, a Wisconsin coronavirus case brings total infected in US to 12.

To put the risk in more context, the current US flu season has killed 54 infants so far, according to CDC. In the U.S. alone, the flu has already caused an estimated 19 million illnesses, 180,000 hospitalizations and 10,000 deaths this season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Common coronavirus symptoms can include:

— Fever
— Dry cough
— Shortness of breath
— Aching muscles
— Fatigue.

Less typical coronavirus symptoms:

— Phlegm buildup
— Headache
— Hemoptysis
— Diarrhea.

Symptoms atypical for coronavirus:

— Runny nose
— Sore throat.
A runny nose and a sore throat are typical signs of upper respiratory infection. Therefore, those who have bouts of sneezing or get the sniffles likely have the flu or a common cold. As the new coronavirus generally affects the lower respiratory tract, most of those infected exhibit a dry cough, shortness of breath or pneumonia, but not a sore throat.

Last week, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations announced a $12.5 million effort to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus, split among three firms. In the best-case scenario, immunologist Barney Graham of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease told Science magazine, a vaccine would be ready for testing in people by next summer.

Wordology, Quit Rent

Most quit rents are relics of medieval agreements. A few examples include: Some English landowners must produce a variety of quit rents: a bucket of snow on demand, three red roses, a small French flag, a salmon spear. Some rents only kick in if the king or queen visits: the renter must provide the crown with a bed of straw, in another the renter must offer a single white rose.


There is a quite recent one in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, USA. It started when the city imported a bridge from London (which had spanned the Thames river) and was auctioned off in the late 1960s. Robert McCulloch, Lake Havasu City’s founder, bought the bridge, and by the early ’70s, the bridge had been reinstalled in Arizona.

As a gift to London, during the dedication ceremony, McCulloch offered an acre of Arizona land and years later, when the city wanted to use that land for a visitor’s center, London agreed to lease it back to Lake Havasu. They settled on a token quit rent: a Kachina doll (a carved Hopi figure representing an immortal being).

Antipasto, Antipasta, Antipasti, Charcuterie

Antipasto means before the meal and is the Italian equivalent of appetizers (not a salad or fried foods served by many Italian-American restaurants). It is a platter of meats, cheeses, raw or cooked vegetables, olives and bread. The antipasto platter is pretty much the same as a charcuterie platter. Both involve dry, cured meats and garnishes. Antipasto is served at room temperature and incorporates many colors, textures and flavors to stimulate all of the senses before the main course.

Antipasta is an erroneous colloquialism for antipasto, a mistranslation of before the pasta.

Antipasti (antipasto plural) are a simple assortment of meats, cheeses, and vegetables.

Charcuterie is the French equivalent and means cooked meat. A platter of good-quality cooked and dry-cured meats, sausages and pâté with various garnishes like bread, olives, nuts, dried fruit, crackers or baguette bread, jelly or jam. Cheese was not typically included, but is now often added.

Incidentally, pepperoni is entirely American.

Pig Crisis

China is now the world's largest producer and consumer of pork at 57 metric tons a year, more than half of the pork eaten on the entire planet. Pork is perhaps the most important commodity in the country. A sudden decrease in supply, and increase in price could not only cause mass civil unrest, but also increase the inflation rate.
The Chinese government has built up strategic reserves of bacon since the 1970s, and although the exact number of emergency pigs is hidden in state secrecy, experts estimate the National Pork Reserve holds hundreds of thousands of metric tons, both in the form of frozen meat and live hogs.

Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean pork stock has been getting wiped out. There is no vaccine or treatment. US pork sales to China have doubled, while European pork prices have reached a six-year high.

Due to a 2019 outbreak of African swine fever, China is culling millions of pigs, and is at risk of wiping out a quarter of the world's pork population. To combat the shortage, the government opened its pens and its fridges, releasing several thousand pounds of frozen pork from its reserves in an attempt to help meet demand.

Men and Stockings

Stockings are another clothing material that switched genders. Men have been wearing them since the 9th century. Men of the upper class generally wore white or colored stockings while poorer men only wore black.

They are exclusively worn by women these days. Women started wearing stockings in the 18th century. For the unaware, stockings (also called hose) are those close-fitting clothes that cover the feet and part of the legs. A variant of it is the pantyhose, which is a combination of stockings with panties. Men never wore pantyhose. To avoid confusion, stockings, pantyhose, tights, and breeches all belong to a category of clothes called hosiery.

Things slowly changed between the 16th and 20th centuries when stockings switched from being a masculine item to feminine. The period is even called the “The Dark Ages of Tights” for this reason. By the 19th century, stockings had become so closely associated with women that men stopped wearing them completely.