~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
February 27, 2013

★~ Today’s Quote: “Every heart has its secret sorrows which the world knows not, and often times we call a man cold, when he is only sad.”  ― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

★~ Polar Bear Day:

Polar Bear Day celebrates one of nature’s most impressive hunters, and the world’s largest carnivore.. Polar Bears International asks everyone to turn down their thermostats by 2 degrees and “bundle up for polar bears to lower carbon emissions. Reducing our carbon footprint can slow and even reverse climate change, which causes sea ice to melt,” says Kathryn Foat, of PBI. Or you could join the polar bear club by committing to come to Chicago on March 3rd and plunge into Lake Michigan. The good news is you do not have to be bare and the money raised is donated to the Special Olympics.  Chicago Polar Plunge?

★~  No Brainer Day: 

By definition, a “No brainer” is dong something that is simple, easy, obvious, and/or totally logical. Be productive today by focusing on the easy tasks that require the least amount of brain power.

★~ National Kahlua Day:

Kahlua is a rich, creamy alcoholic liqueur from Mexico. People enjoy it straight up, on the rocks, and mixed in coffee or cocktails (like the White Russian). Kahlua is also used to flavor desserts such as ice cream, cakes, and cheesecakes.

The word “kahlua” means “house of the Acolhua people” in the Nahuatl language. A company named Domecq has produced the drink since 1936 and named it for the native people of Veracruz. Kahlua is made with rum, Mexican coffee, sugarcane, and vanilla.

For a touch of international mystery and intrigue, celebrate Kahlúa day with a Black Russian, a drink that has been described as “a flavor more complex than calculus.”

Black Russian:
Legend has it the Black Russian was created in 1949 by a Belgian bartender to honor a feisty socialite who was the U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg. The cocktail is so named because it mixes the dark liqueur of Kahlúa with vodka, the beloved Russian spirit.

INGREDIENTS:
1 part Kahlúa
1 part Vodka
Ice

MIX IT:
Fill a rocks glass with ice, add Kahlúa and Vodka  and stir. Add crème and you have a White Russian (Cheers El Morno friend, Irene!)

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1879 – Constanin Fahlberg announces he discovered saccharin.  Constanin Fahlberg was working on the furthest thing from an artificial sweetener: coal tar. He was working late one night and completely forgot about his dinner. Without pausing to wash his hands, he sat down to eat, noticing a sweet taste to his bread. He thought little of it until after the dinner when he noticed even his napkin tasted sweet. At that point, he was intrigued. A little detective work later, and he traced it back to something he must have had in his lab. He recalled in an interview later that “There, in my excitement, I tasted the contents of every beaker and evaporating dish on the table. Luckily for me, none contained any corrosive or poisonous liquid.” On, February 27, in 1879 Fahlberg announced a discovery that “outsugared sugar”, as he put it. Saccharin is so sweet that two or three teaspoonfuls converts a barrel of water into a syrup. A small wafer of it converts the bitterest quinine solution or acid drink into a regular molasses. One of its most valuable uses has been disguising and destroying all the bitter and sour tastes in medicine without changing the character or action of the drugs. On the other hand it comes from coal tar—just sayin’.

♥~ 1939 – United States labor law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that sit-down strikes violate property owners’ rights and are therefore illegal.

♥~ 1963 – Mickey Mantle of the New York Yankees signed a baseball contract worth 0,000. Back in 1949, Mantle had signed his first Yankee contract for $1,100.

♥~ 1974 – A new magazine was issued by Time-Life (now Time-Warner). The magazine was People. It had an initial run of one million copies and became the most successful celebrity weekly ’zine ever published.

♥~ 1987 – A team of 90 elementary school students in Kumamoto, Japan, skipped a rope together 160 times without missing, for a Guinness world record.

♥~ 1993 – Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You became the longest-running number-one pop single.

♥~ 1992 –  Tiger Woods, at the age of 16  becomes the youngest PGA golfer in over 30 years.

♥~ 1996 – Kurt Wait became the first man ever to win the Pillsbury Bake-Off with his Macadamia Fudge Torte. First prize awarded in Dallas: $1-million! One slice: 460 calories.

★~Born Today:

♥~ 1807 – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Poet The Village Blacksmith’ and ‘Paul Revere’s Ride’. Published his first poem, called the ‘The Battle of Lovell’s Pond,’ in Portland’s Gazette at the age of 13. In addition to writing his own poems, he was the first American to translate Dante’s Divine Comedy. Both of his marriages ended in death, wife Mary Potter died in 1835 and wife Frances Appleton died in 1861

♥~ 1902 – John (Ernst) Steinbeck: Nobel Prize author of ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ (1939) and ‘Of Mice and Men.’ Returned to California after failed attempts at writing jobs in New York, and worked as a tour guide and caretaker at the fish hatchery in Tahoe City. Married Carol Henning in the midst of the Great Depression.

♥~ 1932 – Elizabeth Taylor: Glamorous movie actress, and humanitarian, Motion picture debut at the age of nine in Universal’s ‘There’s One Born Every Minute’. Owns some of the biggest and most famous bling in the world, including the 33-carat ‘Krupp Diamond’ Married and divorced eight times, two of the eight were to fifth husband Richard Burton between 1964 and 1976

♥~ 1934 – Ralph Nader: Consumer advocate published ‘Unsafe at Any Speed. Before fame is was a lecturer at the American University Washington College of Law. Ran for president five times. His sister, Laura Nader, is an anthropologist.

♥~ 1980 – Chelsea Clinton first daughter: daughter of 42nd U.S. President William Clinton and 1st Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. Currently working as a Special Correspondent for NBC News. Attended public elementary school and skipped third grade. Married Marc Mezvinsky in 2010

★~ Did You Know: Polar Bears! 

An Arctic Polar Bear Being Especially Lazy

[youtube]http://youtu.be/WLen7tve6kg[/youtube]

♥~ Polar bear cubs learn to freeze and remain still while their mother hunts. If they move, the mother disciplines them, with a whack to the head.

♥~ Polar bears fur is oily and water repellent allowing them to shake dry after swimming.

♥~ Polar bears succeed in catching their prey in only 2 percent of  their attempts, according to the the National Zoo.

♥~ Females reproduce between the ages of four and eight and have slow reproductive rates, typically only producing about five litters in their lifetime.

♥~ The Sami (or Lapp) refuse to say the polar bear’s name for fear of offending it.

♥~ A polar bear can sniff out a seal’s breathing hole more than half a mile away, and can smell a seal on the ice 20 miles (32 kilometers) away.

♥~ Humans are polar bears only predator.

♥~  The largest polar bear ever recorded was a male that weighed 2,209 pounds (1,000 kg), according to Polar Bear International.

♥~  Though it has white fur, the skin of a polar bear is black

♥~ Polar bears swim using their large front paws to propel themselves through the water and their back legs to steer.

♥~ Polar bears can swim an average of 6 miles per hour and can swim up to 100 miles in one stretch.

♥~ Polar bears do not hibernate.

♥~ Adult male Polar Bears can grow to be 10 feet tall and weigh over 1400 pounds.

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It snowed most of Tuesday. Heavy, wet, snow….

I have no idea if a snow day will be called tomorrow but it seems doubtful. The streets are pretty clear. After all, I live in Chicago we are suppose to know how to handle the snow, and sleet. Sigh.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Wednesday!

♥~