abstractconcept

Quote:

"Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you."

"... I'm much closer to the people at the bottom than the people at the top, and the latter won't forgive me for it."

~ Princess Diana


Facts: Mead

1.) It is Likely the Oldest Alcoholic Beverage on Earth.Evidence of mead fermentation dates back to 7000 B.C.E. in ancient Chinese pottery, predating both wine and beer. The first mead may have been a happy accident when early foragers drank rainwater mixed with fermented honey. Mead’s appeal spread globally, becoming popular with Vikings, Mayans, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. (Yes, I have had mead. Not at a Renaissance Festival, but at an Irish Festival in Missouri. It was good and no, the Honey Wine did not give me a headache or make me toss my cookies.)


2.) The Origin of the Honeymoon is because of this drink. Forget oysters—mead was the original aphrodisiac. The term “honeymoon” comes from the medieval tradition of drinking honey wine for a month after marriage, believed to ensure fertility. This practice was taken so seriously that a bride’s father often included a month’s worth of mead in her dowry. (Of course it's considered an aphrodisiac, you spend an entire month drinking and boning.)

Quote:

"I no longer listen to what people say, I just watch what they do. Behavior never lies."

"The gin and tonic has saved more Englishmen's lives, and minds, than all the doctors in the Empire."

~ Winston Churchill


Facts: Gin

1.) Gin hales from England. Genever, a malted spirit that is essentially light whisky with juniper, is the juniper distillate of the Netherlands. Gin was developed in London and is a unique and much purer spirit. (I honestly don't care where it's from. I don't enjoy the taste.)

2.) In 1929, Gin and tomato juice it was touted as a hangover cure in New York. This is well before the introduction of the Bloody Mary. (Yeah, no. Tomato juice cannot hide the sin that is gin.)

Quote:

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

"Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler taught, but a quest for meaning. The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her own life."

~ Viktor E. Frankl


Facts: Potable Water

1.) Safe Drinking Water Act creates comprehensive federal regulation didn't occur until 1974. It was safer for children to drink soda than water. (Yes, it was still drank from the hose. Not like there wasn't a lot of dangerous stuff done before 1974.)


2.) Water intoxication is a thing. You don't want to drink too much because it dilutes the sodium levels in your blood and can cause symptoms like nausea, confusion, and in severe cases, seizures or death. (I always laughed at my mother when she said water made her drunk. Of course, she claimed it after 8 ounces of water.)

Quote:

"The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision."

"The place between your comfort zone and your dream is where life takes place."

~ Helen Keller


Facts: Wine

1.) Wine, it’s good for your heart. Although the effects of wine on the heart are still being researched, studies show that the antioxidants in wine can help prevent coronary artery disease and increase high density lipoproteins (the ‘good’ kind of cholesterol). It also may lower your risk of having a stroke. Of course, wine in moderation is the best way to reap the benefits, though, so stick to one glass a day. (Personally, I will be sticking to none. Wine gives me a migraine. Not enjoyable.)

2.) Wine can be made from more than just grapes; other fruits like apples, plums, and cherries can also be used. (Okay, so I always considered those as cordials. My mother once accidentally made one when trying to make Mulberry Jelly. Imagine kids drunk off of peanut butter and mulberry jelly sandwiches! My mother tried, but she wasn't a good cook.)

Quote:

"If you want to meet someone who can fix any situation you don't like, who can bring you happiness in spite of what other people say or believe, look in a mirror, then say this magic word: 'Hello.'"

"Life does not require us to be consistent, cruel, patient, helpful, angry, rational, thoughtless, loving, rash, open-minded, neurotic, careful, rigid, tolerant, wasteful, rich, downtrodden, gentle, sick, considerate, funny, stupid, healthy, greedy, beautiful, lazy, responsive, foolish, sharing, pressured, intimate, hedonistic, industrious, manipulative, insightful, capricious, wise, selfish, kind or sacrificed. Life does, however, require us to live with the consequences of our choices."

~ Richard Bach


Facts: WWII (U.S. Military)

1.) Seeking to keep its personnel satiated and provide a taste of homer, the U.S. Navy began installing ice cream makers on its ships, even rigging some vessels with full-blown soda fountains reminiscent of those found at corner drugstore. But the Army took this idea one step further in the late stages of World War II, by deploying three ice cream barges with the purpose of delivering this delicious morale-booster throughout the Pacific Theater.

Known as a “BRL,” for “barge, refrigerated, large,” each concrete vessel measured 265 feet long by 48 feet wide and about 17.5 feet deep, and provided a refrigerated space of approximately 130,000 cubic feet. One of the three main compartments housed the ice cream-making room, which was capable of producing up to 500 gallons of ice cream on a daily basis. (A D on naming, but an A for execution.)

2.) I didn't know that WWII that the torpedoes were fueled by 180-proof ethanol (Everclear). As World War II veteran and former torpedo operator Jim Nerison told the Anchorage Daily News, “The torpedo wasn’t going to use it all anyway, so we kind of tapped off a little bit of it.”

This lead to the creation of the cocktail named Torpedo Juice. There wasn’t an exact recipe, but the mix ratio has been reported as somewhere between 1 part torpedo fuel to 3 parts fruit juice, and 2 parts torpedo fuel to 3 parts fruit juice. They usually used Citrus or Pineapple juice in this drink.

Quote:

"One writes not to be read but to breathe...one writes to think, to pray, to analyze. One writes to clear one's mind, to dissipate one's fears, to face one's doubts, to look at one's mistakes--in order to retrieve them. One writes to capture and crystallize one's joy, but also to disperse one's gloom. Like prayer--you go to it in sorrow more than joy, for help, a road back to 'grace'."

"The artist knows he must be alone to create; the writer, to work out his thoughts; the musician, to compose; the saint, to pray. But women need solitude in order to find again the true essence of themselves."

~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh


Facts: Random

1.) Experiments in universities have actually been carried out to figure out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop, both with machine and human lickers (because this is important scientific knowledge!). The results ranged from 252 to 411. (The results basically boils down to a shoulder shrug and 'IDK')

2.) Wombats are the only animal whose poop is cube-shaped. This is due to how its intestines form the feces. The animals then stack the cubes to mark their territory. (Why isn't this animal in Minecraft? Seems like a natural fit.)

Quote:

"Nobody knows what you want except you, and no one will be as sorry as you if you don't get it."

"You are what you are. It is my opinion that trouble in the world comes from people who do not know what they are, and pretend to be something they're not."

~ Lillian Hellman



Facts: Random

1.) There is a boss in Metal Gear Solid 3 named 'The End' that can be defeated by not playing the game for a week or by changing the date. Of course, you can kill him normally as well. (Confirmed by my gaming husband.)


2.) German Chocolate Cake is named after an American baker by the name of Samuel German. It has no affiliation with the country of Germany. (This was my dad's favorite cake. The combination of milk chocolate, coconut and pecans is delicious.)