★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
February 4, 2013

★~ Todays Quote:  “Do you have a kinder, more adaptable friend in the food world than soup? Who soothes you when you are ill? Who refuses to leave you when you are impoverished and stretches its resources to give a hearty sustenance and cheer? Who warms you in the winter and cools you in the summer? Yet who also is capable of doing honor to your richest table and impressing your most demanding guests? Soup does its loyal best, no matter what undignified conditions are imposed upon it. You don’t catch steak hanging around when you’re poor and sick, do you?” Judith Martin (Miss Manners)

 ★~  Thank A Mailman:

In 1775, the Second Continental Congress established the Constitutional Post—the first organized mail service in America. Before this act, people relied on friends, merchants, or private messengers to carry their letters. It was an unreliable system, and colonial British postal inspectors often intercepted confidential messages.

As the nation’s first Postmaster General, Benjamin Franklin established many of the conventions we are accustomed to today, including a standardized rate chart based on weight and distance. Before the invention of the stamp in 1847, the writer could pay the postage in advance or leave it for the recipient to pay upon delivery!

Over the past two centuries, the Postal Service has grown and changed dramatically, but its mission of promoting free and open communication has remained the same. To celebrate thank your mail carrier the next time you see him or her! In case you ever wondered the official guidelines for tipping and gift-giving allow Carriers to accept a gift worth $20 or less from a customer per occasion. However, cash and cash equivalents must never be accepted in any amount

★~ Homemade Soup Day:

M’m! M’m! Good  Whether from scratch or just jazzed-up canned stuff, nothing comforts like a bowl of soup. Soup might be the perfect after Super Bowl Monday dinner. But there is another option….

★~ Stuffed Mushroom Day:

The stuffed mushroom has been around since the early 20th century, and was most likely based on a traditional Italian recipe for stuffed zucchini blooms.

Mushrooms are often filled with breadcrumbs, garlic, parsley, olive oil, and Parmesan cheese. In the 1940s and 1950s, restaurants began presenting stuffed mushrooms as a delicacy and used  ingredients such as hot sausage or crabmeat.

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1789 – The Electoral College met for the first time to choose a U.S. president. Electors unanimously chose, George Washington.

♥~ 1939 – World mile record-holder Glenn Cunningham said in the newspaper that “running a four-minute mile is beyond human effort,” and that the best mile run will always be 4:01.66. That, of course, was his own best time. The mark has been shattered several times since. The current world record of 3:43:13 was set by Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj [Golden Gala Meet, Rome, Italy, July 7, 1999].

♥~ 1957 – Smith-Corona Manufacturing Inc. of New York began selling portable electric typewriters. The first machine was a ‘portable’ of 19 pounds! Soon, other manufacturers offered similar models, made of lighter-weight plastics, with a lot less of the sophisticated workings inside.

♥~ 1973 – The comic strip Hagar the Horrible debuted 136 newspapers. Like his earlier strip, Hi and Lois, Dik Browne’s Hagar the Horrible revolves around a man who has amusingly imperfect success in dealing with both his job and his home life. In this case, the man is a Viking rather than a suburbanite, and his ‘job’ is looting and pillaging. Hagar now appears in some 2,000 papers throughout the world, and has been translated into over a dozen languages, including Swedish, as no less than 58 of Sweden’s daily papers carry the strip about their ancient countryman.

♥~ 2004 –  Today marks the ninth anniversary since the social network Facebook,  launched at Harvard University in Mark Zuckberg’s dorm. After Google, Facebook is the most visited site in the world and has over 1 billion members.

★~ Trending Now:

♥~ Beyoncé Silences Doubters With Intensity at Halftime

♥~And the Puppy Bowl IX MVP is…

♥~ OJ Brigance: Ravens Front Office Member Stricken With ALS A Source Of Inspiration

★~ Born Today:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/bwAw9ThDQmk[/youtube]

♥~ 1913 – Rosa Lee Parks civil rights leader: triggered 1955 boycott of Montgomery AL bus system by refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger; died Oct 24, 2005

♥~ 1936 – Gary Conway actor: Burke’s Law, Land of the Giants, I was a Teenage Frankenstein

♥~ 1941 – John Steel, drummer with The Animals who had the 1964 UK & US No.1 single ‘House Of The Rising Sun’.

♥~ 1962 – Clint Black singer: Killin’ Time, Like the Rain, Summer’s Comin’, A Good Run of Bad Luck, State of Mind, A Bad Goodbye, A Better Man; actor: Maverick

★~  Did You Know:

♥~ The earliest evidence of soup dates to 6000 BCE.

♥~ The Middle English word soupen meant “to drink in sips”, which is how most soups were consumed. The words ”soup,” “supper,” “sip,” and “sop” are derived from this term.

♥~ Portable soup first appeared in the 18th century, and was created by boiling soup down until it formed a thick paste that could later be rehydrated. This method was used by explorers and seamen who would need food that could keep for years while on their travels.

♥~ Condensed soup was invented in 1897 by Dr John T Dorrance while working for the Campbell Soup Company.

♥~ In Nebraska, it is illegal for bar owners to sell beer unless they are brewing a pot of soup.

♥~ Andy Warhol liked Campbell’s Tomato Soup a lot, he ate it every day for lunch for more than 20 years.

♥~ Frank Sinatra always asked for chicken and rice soup to be available to him in his dressing rooms before he went on stage.

♥~ Women are more than twice as likely to eat soup as men, 9.67% vs. 4.0%.

♥~ On average, American consumers stock six cans of Campbell’s soup in their pantries at all times.

♥~ Want to remove excess fat from your soup? Simply take a lettuce leaf and draw it across the surface of the soup. The excess fat sticks to the leaf. You can also skim the excess fat off with a large spoon.

♥~ NO SOUP FOR YOU! The Seinfeld character “Soup Nazi” was based on New York City restaurateur Al Yeganeh. Jerry Seinfeld visited Yeganeh’s Soup Kitchen International after the episode aired, only to be greeted by a profanity-laced demand for an apology. According to writer Spike Feresten, Seinfeld delivered a sarcastic apology and was promptly kicked out—but not before Yeganeh bellowed, “No soup for you!”

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Maybe later today I’ll have time to tell you how I spent an hour on the phone with AT&T India when my internet, cable and television went down three hours before the game. Let’s just say for now, that there is a gentleman in India who knows a lot more about American Culture, and food than he did before he took my call and before it was all over, we were mutually appreciating each other and my cable and internet were up and running.

Cole and I gnawed on ribs as we watched the game.  It was fun.When the lights went out, I couldn’t help, but wonder if they checked the fuse box…we blow fuses all the time when I try to make coffee and toast at the same time. And you know men, they are on their way to Home Depot in a flash and never consider the simple solution. But they solved the problem without my help and the game was back on. I hope the Mother of the two coaches doesn’t refer to her sons now…as my son the winner, and my son the loser. That wouldn’t be nice.

Did you have a favorite commercial? I liked the Budweiser commercial, the retirement home commercial, the farmer commercial and the Audi commercial. Some of them I just didn’t get, but I think it’s safe to say, they were not aiming for my demographic and lifestyle. Half-time show? Any thoughts? Not exactly family entertainment. Cole put his hands over my eyes a lot.

Hope you have a Merry Monday!

♥~