Category Archives: Fun Facts

history, science, anything I find interesting and learned something new about

Lemonade Pie recipe

Posted on by

Lemonade Pie

Ingredients
1 (6 ounce) can frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed

1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust

Directions
In a large bowl, mix together concentrate and sweetened condensed milk. Fold in whipped topping. Pour filling into crust, and chill before serving.

From Karen M, who sent it this morning, directly after bunko! Bless her.

Zombies in Church

Posted on by

“He died, and they buried him. The third day he rose again. It’s not like a zombie, no, because he is alive for sure.” from “Alelouya” (Haitian Easter song), sung at Easter Sunrise Service of Worship in Durham, NC

For all the April birthdays….

Posted on by

‎,,,,,,,,,,,,,,HHHHHH,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,HHHHHHHHHHH,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,HHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,,,,,
,,,,HHH,,,HHHHHHHHHHHH,,,,
,,,HH,,,,HHHHHHHHHHHHHH,,
,HH,,,,HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
,HH,,,,HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHH,,,HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHH,,,HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHH,,,HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
,HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
,,HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
,,,HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,,,
,,,,,HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,,,,
,,,,,,,HHHHHHHHHHHHH,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,HHHHHHHHH,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,H,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,A,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,P,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,P,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Y,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,B,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,R,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,T,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,H,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,D,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,A,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Y,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,!!HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!,,,,,

If Crimes Were Elevation

Posted on by

Doug McCune has mapped San Francisco’s crime and turned it into an elevation map. Very interesting.

See all the pictures here, as he has arranged them by crime.

Upon closer inspection the prostitution arrests are peaking on Shotwell St. at the intersections of 19th and 17th. I’m sure the number of colorful euphemisms you can come up with that include the words “shot” and “well” are endless.

I love the way the mountain range casts a shadow over much of the city. There’s also a second peak in the Tenderloin (which I’m dubbing Mt. Loin).

Indian Pudding

Posted on by

Someone recommended Indian pudding, specifically this recipe. I’ve never had it before, but it might be fun to try it.

The intro begins:

My first encounter with Indian Pudding was over 20 years ago at Durgin Park, a landmark restaurant in Faneuil Hall, Boston, famous for its home-style Yankee cooking and, at the time, its cranky, octogenarian waitresses. Few desserts look so completely unappetizing yet taste so incredibly good. One bite of this lumpy, brown mush, with a dab of vanilla ice cream, and I was sold. Scraped every last bit from the bowl. Why indian pudding isn’t more widely known I have no idea…

Reener’s Grama’s Stuffing Recipe

Posted on by

I need that smell too–then it is Thanksgiving, says Reener.

I melt a stick of butter (yes, entire stick) in a cup of milk until butter is melted.
I mix the pepperidge farm stuffing mix with some bread I’ve let sit out and get dry overnight.
Then I grind a few sticks of celery and an apple in a blender until they are watery mush and oh yeah, an onion in the blender too, reduced to runny mush.
Mix with copious amounts of sage, salt, pepper, and whatever other seasonings you like.
Mix and mix and mix–this is where the smell comes in.
All together, it makes it a moist stuffing, which is what Thanksgiving is to me.
I stuff the bird with as much as I can, ignoring health safety warnings, then cook the rest in a casserole dish.
The latter gets dryer than the former; I then remix them together.

Just in case I decide to make stuffing next year. R likes it; I don’t.

This recipe is off the CHE forums.

Albuquerque Turkey: A Song for Kids

Posted on by

Albuquerque Turkey

(sung to the tune of “Clementine”)

Albuquerque is a turkey
And he’s feathered and he’s fine
And he wobbles and he gobbles
and he’s absolutely mine.
He’s the best pet that you can get..
Better than a dog or cat.
He’s my Albuquerque turkey
And I’m awfully proud of that.
He once told me , very frankly
he preferred to be my pet,
not the main course at my dinner,
and I told him not to fret.
And my Albuquerque turkey
is so happy in his bed,
‘Cause for our Thanksgiving dinner…
We had egg foo yong instead.

I think this is particularly funny because Stefania Guzman used to live in Albuquerque and her nephew called it “Alba-turkey on the map” because they would show him where it was on the map every time the weather channel came on.

The song/words are from Can Teach. I heard about it at an educational forum talking about things to do on Turkey Day. Their suggestion was print the words and make everyone march around the table singing it. Yeah, can’t you see my family doing that?

Anakin’s Grama’s Gravy Recipe

Posted on by

You can do homemade gravy! My grandmother taught me.

Do it right in the roasting pan on the stove.

First skim off the juices and fat, if any – leave the crispy bits in the pan.
Add 1 tablespoon fat back into the pan for each cup of gravy.

Heat on the stove, then add 1 T. flour for each T of fat and make a roux.

Cook and stir that for a minute or two, until it’s bubbly and a little darker but NOT dark brown – you’re going for “camel-colored” here.

Add (total cups of gravy – 1) cups of warm stock into the roux and whisk until it starts bubbling.

Remove from the heat and whisk in a cup of cream or whole milk, then put back on low heat and stir to thicken. Then adjust salt, pepper, stock or milk depending on your gravy thickness preference.

Songs of Christmas: Disguised

Posted on by

I want to put these up on Facebook next year, so I am writing it today (December 20, 2009 and posting it next November.

Identify the following Christmas tunes:

1. The apartment of two psychiatrists.
2. the lad is a dimunitive percussionist.
3. Decorate the entry-ways
4. Sir Lancelot with laryngitis
5. ABCDEFGHIJKMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
6. Present me naught but dual incisors for this festive Yuletide
7. The smog-less bewitching hour arrived.
8. Exuberation to this orb
9. 288 Yuletide Hours
10. Do you perceive the same longitudinal pressure which stimulates my auditory sense organs?
11. Woman’s Name, Questioning about her cognizance
12. The red-suited dude is due in this burg.
13. Stepping on the pad cover.
14. German guy has been drinking too much and thinks he is Dark Cloud’s boyfriend.
15. Far back in a hay bin.
16. Leave and do an elevated broadcast.
17. That exiguous hamlet south of the holy city.
18. Listen, the winged heavenly messengers are proclaiming tunefully
19. A joyful song relative to hollow metallic vessels which bring forth a ringing sound
20. As the guardians of little woolly animals protected their charges in the shadows of the earth
21. Frozen precipitation commence
22. O member of the round table with missing people
23. Tinkling metal spheres’ boulder
24. Vehicular homicide was committed on Dad’s mother by a precipitous caribou
25. We are Kong, Lear, and Nat Cole
26. Cup-shaped instruments fashioned of a whitish metallic element
27. Our fervent hope is that you thoroughly enjoy your yuletide season
28. Parent was observed osculating a red-coated unshaven teamster
29. Xanthic hay
30. May the Deity bestow an absence of fatigue to male aristocrats
31. Natal celebration devoid of color as a hallucinatory phenomenon for me
32. Obese personification fabricated of compressed mounds of minute crystals
33. Behold I envisioned a trio of nautical vessels
34. Singular first person listening to the noisemaking metal on the day before St. Stephen’s day.
35. Nice Polish king
36. Tranquility upon the terrestrial sphere
37. Have hitherward the entire assembly of those who are loyal in their belief
38. God’s messengers first person plural listening to in a lofty place
39. Only thing wanted for holiday: Second person singular
40. Old rhymes-with-pang sign
41. Castanea cooking in an unenclosed conflagration
42. Romance language happy holiday
43. The fact is that it commences appearing as if it were yuletide
44. Happy ancient holy guy
45. Question about the kid
46. Imperative that the person is another name for Kris Kringle
47. Late year season uncertain/question/amazed by country
48. The thing you cut down (in German)
49. Berry plant, happy holiday
50. Infantile jolly old man in red suit

1. Nutcracker Suite
2. The Little Drummer Boy
3. Deck the Halls
4. Silent Night
5. Noel
6. All I want for Christmas (is My Two Front Teeth)
7. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
8. Joy to the World
9. The Twelve Days of Christmas
10. Do You Hear What I Hear?
11. Mary, Did You Know?
12. Santa Claus is Coming to Town
13. Up on the House Top
14. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
15. Away in a Manger
16. Go Tell it On the Mountain
17. O Little Town of Bethlehem
18. Hark, the Herald Angels Sing
19. Carol of the Bells
20. While the Shepherds Watch Their Flocks at Night
21. Let It Snow
22. O Holy Night
23. Jingle Bell Rock
24. Grama Got Run Over by a Reindeer
25. We Three Kings
26. Silver Bells
27. We Wish You a Merry Christmas
28. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
29. Yellow Straw
30. God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
31. I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas
32. Frosty the Snow Man
33. I Saw Three Ships
34. I Heard the Bells on Christmas day
35. Good King Wencelas
36. Peace on Earth
37. O Come All Ye Faithful
38. Angels We Have Heard on High
39. All I Want For Christmas is You
40. Auld Lang Syne
41. Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire
42. Feliz Navidad
43. It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
44. Jolly Old Saint Nicholas
45. What Child is This?
46. Must Be Santa
47. Winter Wonderland
48. O Christmas Tree, O Tannenbaum
49. Holly Jolly Christmas
50. Santa Baby

Recycling: A 1600-year Tradition

Posted on by

According to Discovery.com, the ancient Romans recycled glass.

The 21st century’s three Rs — Reduce, Reuse, Recycle — were all the rage in Britain during the last century of Roman rule, a compositional analysis of ancient Roman glass tableware has revealed.

According to the study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, large quantities of glass were recycled in Britain during the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D.

The reason wasn’t exactly a desire to go green, but a shortage of raw glass in the northern regions of the Roman Empire during the last centuries of Roman rule.

Interesting.

Dielli

Grandfather’s Story Leads to Mass Grave

Posted on by

CNN has the story which caught my attention.

“This is a murder mystery from 178 years ago, and it’s finally coming to the light of day,” Frank Watson said.

The brothers first heard about Duffy’s Cut from their grandfather, a railroad worker, who told the ghost story to his family every Thanksgiving. According to local legend, memorialized in a file kept by the Pennsylvania Railroad, a man walking home from a tavern reported seeing blue and green ghosts dancing in the mist on a warm September night in 1909.

“I saw with my own eyes, the ghosts of the Irishmen who died with the cholera a month ago, a-dancing around the big trench where they were buried; it’s true, mister, it was awful,” the documents quote the unnamed man as saying. “Why, they looked as if they were a kind of green and blue fire and they were a-hopping and bobbing on their graves… I had heard the Irishmen were haunting the place because they were buried without the benefit of clergy.”

When Frank inherited the file of his grandfather’s old railroad papers, the brothers began to believe the ghost stories were real. They suspected that the files contained clues to the location of a mass grave.

It seems like they are taking it a bit too far. One skeleton looks like it might have been shot? What about the other 56?

But it sounds interesting, nevertheless.

Benign Delusions

Posted on by

My wife and I often have very different recollections of events. And not just the little details. Sometimes our shared memories don’t even feature the same mammals, themes, or points. The scary part is that we don’t realize these differences until we have some reason to compare memories, which doesn’t come up that often. Every now and then there will some independent way to verify whose memory is accurate, and it is sobering to discover how many of the problems are on my end. A lot of my so-called life is apparently a patchwork of delusions.

The best you can hope for in this life is that your delusions are benign and your compulsions have utility.

From Scott Adam’s blog at Dilbert.