In 1896, a Greek water carrier named Spiridon Louis competed in the Olympic men’s marathon. Partway through the race, he stopped at a tavern for a glass of wine, and then went on to win the event.
Horribly Humorous History for Kids
In most card games, the king was once the highest card in a suit. But after the French Revolution, the ace was introduced as an act of civil defiance, as the power of nobility declined.
______________
Source: Mental Floss March/April 2012
On Monday I travelled to Plainville, Connecticut to help the kids at Toffolon Elementary School kick off Children’s Book Week. I spoke first with the kindergarteners and first graders, then with second and third graders, and finally with fourth and fifth graders. The kids were really fun to meet and to talk to, full of curiosity, and brimming with enthusiasm. And they asked some great questions. It was a treat to present in their large, cheerful, school library that was chock-a-block with books, appealingly displayed.
The tiger paw--it really worked!
Toffolon kids have this amazingly effective way to quiet down the group when things get too lively–which things did from time to time, through no fault of theirs. We had some rousing conversations about the toileting challenges faced by a knight in armor, a lady in a hoop dress, and a modern-day astronaut, and we talked about what the ancient Romans used for toilet paper. When things got too boisterous, the kids all held up a “tiger paw,” which instantly brought the group back to attention.
Thanks to awesome school librarian Deb Pikiell for arranging everything!
As a promotional stunt, Wham-O, the company that made the wildly popular superballs in the late 1960s, dropped a bowling ball-sized superball from a 23-story building. It shot back up 15 stories, and then totaled a parked convertible.
The Roman emperor Vespasian began construction of the Colosseum in AD 72. It was finished in AD 80, the year after he died. The huge amphitheater included an elevator that could lift elephants to the floor of the arena.
Dactylopius coccus by H. Zell via Wikimedia Commons
The subjects of today’s blog are two animal-based “natural” food additives that have been around for hundreds of years–but people are only just realizing where they come from. I’m talking about cochineal red coloring, derived from bugs, and castoreum flavoring, derived from beavers’ butts (no I am not kidding). Both are FDA-approved.
You may be familiar with the recent controversy swirling around Starbucks and the company’s use of cochineal-based red dye to tint such products as its strawberries and “crème” frappuccino, Raspberry Swirl Cake, pink-iced doughnuts, and red velvet whoopee pies. Consumers objected when it was revealed that cochineal is derived from the scale insect Dactylopius coccus, which exudes the red color when crushed. I have blogged before about how the Spanish conquistadors “discovered” the Aztec’s cochineal-derived red, and how this rich red color enriched the Spanish crown for centuries.
The Starbucks issue strikes me as legitimate for someone who keeps a kosher diet, or who is a hard-core vegetarian. But for the rest of us–I don’t understand what all the fuss is about. I for one would much rather eat bug-derived red than the petroleum-based artificial red dye #40, which seems to be the most popular alternative. Better yet, we should all try to avoid these highly-processed food products in the first place.
Yeesh
John James Audubon, 1854, via Wikimedia Commons
But I do draw the line at ingesting castoreum. You may be familiar with this controversy as well.
Castoreum is a secretion of the anal glands of both the male and female North American beaver (Castor canadensis). Beavers secrete this highly-smelly scent as a kind of calling card, to stake out their territory. Indian trappers discovered that by making a concoction with this ingredient and spreading it around, they could hide their own smell and use it to trap beavers. They taught the secret to white trappers. It has been used extensively for making perfume, and in the past eighty years has been added to food as a flavor ingredient. You might find it in many raspberry-flavored foods that contain artificial flavoring, including candies, ice creams, Jell-o, yogurt, and sport drinks. Admittedly, nowadays it’s generally synthetically made, but I don’t think either alternative sounds particularly appetizing.
Blech.
Personally, I have always thought raspberry-flavored seltzers and teas and whatnot tasted vaguely disgusting, so I feel somewhat vindicated.
Um, no thanks
Cocos Island, in the Pacific Ocean, was once a pirate hideout. Historians have suggested that the island may still contain as much as 2 billion dollars worth of buried pirate treasure.
source:
Mental Floss History of the World
Yesterday was a long but fantastic day–a double school visit day.
I spent the school day at Webb Elementary School in Wethersfield, Connecticut, talking to kids from Pre-K all the way through sixth grade. They were excellent listeners, and they had great questions–and they laughed in all the right places!
Huge thanks to PTO enrichment coordinator Wendy Weston and reading specialist Tara Jones for coordinating the visit—here they are, in front of the corridor decorations. 
And Tara enlisted a team of sixth graders to hang up all my book covers.
After Wethersfield, I drove to Post Road Elementary School in White Plains, New York, for a fantastic multi-author book fair and signing. Look at this amazing poster the first grade class made for The Dragon’s Scales!
And here I am, looking somewhat haggard at the end of my long day, getting propped up by two of my fellow author friends, Nora Baskin and Karen Romano Young.
Thanks to all the kids and teachers I met yesterday!
The principal food source of the Aztecs was a certain species of dog.
Source: Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
Between 1985 and 2010, the price of beverages sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup dropped 24%. During that same time, the price of fresh fruits and vegetables rose 39%.
___________