~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
November 17, 2013

★~  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” ~ Lewis Carroll

★~ Homemade Bread Day:

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.

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.

Homemade bread recipe

★~ Take a Hike Day:

If the weather is inviting enjoy a hike around your neighborhood or local park. If it’s not inviting (Hi Chicago) consider a hike around the mall or discount club store.

★~ 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).

★~ Good to Know: 

The concept of sliced bread first came about thanks to Otto Rohwedder, an American inventor from Iowa. Rohwedder constructed the first loaf-at-a-time bread-slicing machine for commercial use. Initially he had trouble selling it, or even the idea of it; many bakers expressed concerns about the bread becoming stale too quickly or simply falling apart if sliced.

The first company to give the inventor a chance was the Chillicothe Baking Company, in Chillicothe, Missouri,  They installed the machine and began to sell “Kleen Maid Sliced Bread” on July 7, 1928. Sliced bread was introduced in the local newspaper,  the Constitution-Tribune, with a front page article and a full page ad to inform the public and promote the product. At the top of the page, the ad proudly announced that sliced bread was “the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped.” It is likely that the phrase, “the greatest thing since sliced bread,” was coined from this advertisement.

The convenience of sliced bread was a hit with housewife’s and the sliced loaves soon became a part of every day life So much so, that in 1943 when sliced bread disappeared off grocery store shelves, due to the war effort, housewives were incensed. One woman expressed her ira in a letter to the New York Times:

“I should like to let you know how important sliced bread is to the morale and saneness of a household. My husband and four children are all in a rush during and after breakfast. Without ready-sliced bread I must do the slicing for toast—two pieces for each one—that’s ten. For their lunches I must cut by hand at least twenty slices, for two sandwiches apiece. Afterward I make my own toast. Twenty-two slices of bread to be cut in a hurry!”

The powers to be, soon determined that sacrificing sliced bread was not a necessary part of the war effort and production began again. Perhaps, a few generals received similar letters from their wives.

Sliced bread turns 85 this year.

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Good Stormy Morn from Chicago. I am heading downtown. A Starbucks is in my very near future! Have a wonderful Day!

Odd Loves Company!