Did You Know?
Did You Know You Can Get Butter by Putting a Horse on a Treadmill?
Time for more Butter trivia. "Modern" History As mentioned in last week’s, Did You Know No Mummy Would Be Caught Dead Without Butter?, until the nineteenth century, butter was produced by hand-churning only. The first butter production factories were built in...
Did You Know No Mummy Would Be Caught Dead Without Butter?
How much do you know about butter? Probably not as much as you think. Butter Contrary to popular belief by the young, butter doesn’t just magically appear on store shelves. It’s a dairy product produced by churning fresh—from real animals, usually cows—milk or...
Did You Know This Coffee Empire Began When a Traveling Salesman Walked into This Hotel?
Coffee—the lifeblood of millions. One man turned his hobby of making the perfect cup of coffee into a business. The Man Once upon a time (back in 1873), Joel Cheek worked for a wholesale grocery company as a traveling salesman. One day, one of his customers...
Did You Know Technology Is Both a Blessing and a Curse?
Today Dad turns ninety-five. He’s seen a lot of change during those years. It wasn't always for the best, either. The “Old” Days Dad often talks about visiting his grandparents’ Tennessee farm as a child. He went most summers. He and his cousins played various...
Did You Know These Small White Cubes Debuted in Paris in 1908?
With the holidays fast approaching, so too are pies, cookies, and candy. And the one thing they all have in common? Sugar. History While all green plants make sugar, only sugar beets and sugarcane make enough for extraction to be practical. The knowledge and...
Did You Know I Once Eavesdropped on a Murderer?
What do you do when you overhear a murderer talking about the murder she committed? Not a question most of us have ever had to consider, but that’s exactly the situation I found myself in several years ago while vacationing in England. Setting the Scene I’d...
Did You Know This Company Began With a Shipwreck, Neighborly Concern, and a Barrel of Sugar?
National Candy Day is celebrated on November 4. Did you know… The word candy first showed up in the English language in the late 13th century. It came from the French cucre candi, which came from the Persian’s Qand and Qandi, meaning cane sugar. America saw candy made...
Did You Know Every Family Tree Contains a Few Ghosts?
With Halloween fast approaching and October being National Family History month, it’s time for a family ghost story. The Tradition My paternal grandmother’s family lived in a small Middle Tennessee town. Annual visits to see her family were well established by...
Did You Know History is More Than Just Dates?
Some people don’t like history because they see it as a bunch of dates they had to memorize in school. Others believe history, being in the past, is not relevant to the present. But the past doesn’t have to mean the distant past, and certain pieces of information are...
Did You Know Bathtubs Were Controversial?
Since October 7 was National Bathtub Day, it seemed timely to write a DYK on Bathtubs. Bathtub History It’s easy to think bathtubs are a relatively modern invention but think again. The first known bathtub dates back to 1700 BCE and the Palace of Knossos on the...