~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
November 17th

 

★~  Today’s Quote: “A loaf of bread,” the Walrus said, “is what we chiefly need: Pepper and vinegar besides are very good indeed.” From “The Walrus and the Carpenter” by Lewis Carroll, English writer and mathematician (1832-1898)

★~ Great American Smoke Out:

Today is the American Cancer Society’s 36th annual Great American Smoke out—Good news: The smoking rate fell 3.6 percent in young adults from ages 18 to 24.

No butts about it—it’s hard to kick the smoking habit, but there are tons of resources available to help people who want to quit smoking. One product I found intriguing was the electronic cigarette. An electronic cigarette looks like a traditional cigarette and is supposed to feel and taste like a traditional cigarette, but without the unhealthy downside. The jury is still out on the safety of electronic cigarettes.

★~ Take a Hike Day:

Enjoy a hike today around your neighborhood, at a local park, or even from your car to the grocery store door (not parking next to the handicap spot might make it a little more rewarding, but it’s your call). Yesterday morning, I saw a lady talking her vacuum cleaner for a hike. I felt sorry for her; she needed a dog. Okay, maybe she was talking the vacuum cleaner in for repair, but it was still a sad sight.

I always feel sorry for people who hike without a dog. I feel even sorrier for people who take their ferrets or cats for walks. I want to scream out my car window…or walk by and hiss…“GET A DOG!” But I don’t, because that would be rude. If you don’t have a dog to walk, call me…I can help. By the way, have you ever wondered what the difference between a walk and a hike is? Well I will tell you there isn’t much of a difference, except hiking gives the impression of a more rigorous walk usually conducted in wilderness areas or large parks while wearing bulky shoes. Now you know!

★~ Homemade Bread Day:

Homemade bread! Just the other day I walked past the early childhood classrooms at Cole’s Waldorf school on bread-baking day. The smells wafting from the classroom stopped me in my tracks and took me back to the days when bread-baking day was Cole’s favorite day of the week. One of the early childhood assistants saw me and offered me a piece of bread with butter; I was in heaven.

Believe it or not, the blogger who cannot cook (that would be me) can make a simple loaf of homemade bread. I love the smell of yeast, kneading the dough and punching it down again. I plan on making bread today, but Homemade Bread Day can also be celebrated by buying bread at your favorite bakery and bringing it home!

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1894 – The Daily Racing Form, “America’s Turf Authority…” was first printed — in Chicago, Illinois.

♥~ 1962 – The 4 Seasons, with Frankie Valli as lead singer, began a five-week run at the top with Big Girls Don’t Cry.

♥~ 1968 – The ‘Heidi Game’ happened on TV. The New York Jets/Oakland Raiders football game was cut off to begin a family show (Heidi) on NBC. The TV audience missed Oakland’s two touchdowns (in nine seconds) to win the game 43-32. NBC was flooded with calls and the concept of program delay was instituted immediately by the networks.

♥~ 1973 – U.S. President Richard M. Nixon told an Associated Press managing editors meeting in Orlando, FL that “people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.”  I wonder if he was bi-polar?

♥~ 1981 – Luke Spencer married Laura Baldwin in what was called “the wedding of the year” on the TV serial General Hospital. An audience of 14 million viewers watched as vows were exchanged on the ABC program.  Did the marriage last?

★~Born Today:

♥~ 1906 –  Honda Soichiro  was the enterprising auto racer turned businessman who founded the Honda Motor Company, a central part of Japan’s postwar emergence as an economic power.

♥~ 1925 – Rock Hudson (Roy Harold Scherer Jr.) actor: McMillan and Wife, Giant, A Gathering of Eagles, Ice Station Zebra, Magnificent Obsession, Pillow Talk, Written on the Wind; died Oct 2, 1985

♥~ 1938 – Gordon Lightfoot singer: Sundown, If You Could Read My Mind, Carefree Highway, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald; songwriter: Early Morning Rain, Ribbon of Darkness

♥~ 1943 – Lauren Hutton actress: American Gigolo, Lassiter, Paper Lion

♥~ 1944 – Danny DeVito Emmy Award-winning actor: Taxi [1980-81]; Twins, Batman Returns, Hoffa, The Jewel of the Nile, Romancing the Stone, Terms of Endearment, director: Throw Mama from the Train, The War of the Roses, Jack the Bear; married to actress Rhea Perlman

♥~ 1944 – Lorne Michaels Emmy Award-winning writer: The Paul Simon Special [1977], Saturday Night Live [1976, 1977, 1989], Lily [1974]; Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, Three Amigos; Emmy Award-winning producer: Saturday Night Live

♥~ 1983- Christopher Paolini, fantasy novelist, his  books have sold more than 20 million copies.  Eragon (2003), Eldest (2005) and Brisingr (2008).

★~ Did You Know: 

♥~  Breaking bread is a universal sign of peace.

♥~ Early Egyptian writings urged mothers to send their children to school with plenty of bread and beer for their lunch.

♥~ One bushel of wheat will produce 73 one-pound loaves of bread.

♥~  In Britain, the ceremony of First Footing is traditionally observed in the early hours of New Year’s Day. A piece of bread is left outside a door, with a piece of coal and a silver coin, and is supposed to bring you food, warmth and riches in the year ahead.

♥~ The “pocket” in pita bread is made by steam. The steam puffs up the dough and, as the bread cools and flattens, a pocket is left in the middle.

♥~ Murphy’s Law dictates that buttered bread will always land buttered-side down.

♥~ The fastest “bun” in the West goes to a team of bakers from Wheat Montana Farms and Bakery who reclaimed the Guinness World Record in 1995. They harvested and milled wheat from the field and then mixed, scaled, shaped and baked a loaf in exactly eight minutes, 13 seconds.

♥~ Bread is eaten by people of every race, culture and religion.

♥~ Napoleon gave a common bread its name when he demanded a loaf of dark rye bread for his horse during the Prussian campaign. “Pain pour Nicole,” he ordered, which meant “Bread for Nicole,” his horse. To Germanic ears, the request sounded like “pumpernickel,” which is the term we use today for this traditional loaf.

♥~ Legend has it that whoever eats the last piece of bread has to kiss the cook.

♥~ I have included links to wonderful bread recipe throughout ‘Did You Know.’ None of the links will make me any bread or cost you any bread 🙂

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If you have a recipe or a picture you would like to share on El Morno, just e-mail it to me  or share the link and I will include it in the post. Wishing you a terrific Thursday! Odd Loves Company so I hope you will leave a comment if you have an El Morno moment.