For whatever reason, licorice (black licorice, my countrymen) has been on my palette a lot lately. Jack and i also hit World Market this weekend, and i had to explain how i came about my taste for it (in brief, my former PI always had some in the lab break room, which i usually enjoyed as a midnight snack). Anyway, something i learned today was that apparently licorice used a a flavoring for tobacco - M&F Worldwide produces 70% of the licorice in the world, and apparently 63% of their 2011 sales were to tobacco companies. More from the wikipedia article, " Liquorice provides tobacco products with a natural sweetness and a distinctive flavour that blends readily with the natural and imitation flavouring components employed in the tobacco industry. It represses harshness and is not detectable as liquorice by the consumer.[16] Tobacco flavourings such as liquorice also make it easier to inhale the smoke by creating bronchodilators, which open up the lungs.[17] Chewing tobacco requires substantially higher levels of liquorice extract as emphasis on the sweet flavour appears highly desirable.[16] ". i'd've never guessed. Moreover, care should be taken for folks over 40 to not eat too much licorice; " FDA experts say black licorice contains the compound glycyrrhizin, which is the sweetening compound derived from licorice root. Glycyrrhizin can cause potassium levels in the body to fall. When that happens, some people experience abnormal heart rhythms, as well as high blood pressure, edema (swelling), lethargy, and congestive heart failure. ". Hmm.
This bold raccoon literally made me LOL this morning, and few things could be more accurate about seminar snacks.
These pictures of the police of Reykjavik doing their thing are endearing (hat tip here).
In honor of the upcoming Oktoberfest, here is this pretty pallet of beer colors.
Barn quilts are a thing. As one travels through the countryside in Wisconsin (and a lot of other places), you might notice a quilt square painted on the side of a barn. These are apparently part of a public, grassroots art movement, first documented in Ohio as part of a community celebration, and since spreading across the country. i'd been curious about them for a long while (i hadn't seen any before moving to Wisconsin), and there are a lot of them on my bike rides. At Cheese Days (a cheese festival held in Monroe, WI), a driving tour had been organized, and gave me a name to associate with the observation.
On Friday,had the good fortune to see The Head and the Heart play an outdoor concert downtown with some good friends. Jack mentioned that she was excited to hear them play the song that included the lyric 'whiskey river' ('Down In The Valley', btw), and i had to smile. That particular lyric is the name of a song written by Johnny Bush, later covered by Willie Nelson. Something that i didn't know was that Mr. Nelson apparently also covered Coldplay's song The Scientist in a commercial for Chipotle. The Willie Nelson song that frequently gets stuck in my head, however, is the lovely Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain. (And i was happy to hear Head and The Heart play Rivers And Roads, which is wholly appropriate for my stage of grad school.)
Another thing i didn't know but recently learned was that, for the amazing minor Catalan cathedral Sagrada Familia designed by Antoni Gaudi, he calculated the centers of gravity and other angles for the soaring ceiling using an inverted model of the cathedral consisting of strings weighed down with birdshot. It's a little astonishing.
Kate B. mentioned that videos of cake decorator machines are just fascinating, and she's right. Also, a recent conversation that i really enjoyed:
me: Kelly AT and i were joking about this last weekend; she's going as 'sexy pineapple' and i'm considering 'sexy rutabaga'
Katherine: LOVE IT!
Sexy unsexy things is very appealing to me.
They don't really sell sexy rutabaga, right?
me: no
we were picking the least sexy thing we could think of
Katherine: I bet you Yandy has pineapple.
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