Well, I never knew that! Share your interesting info...

[oz diva]

Canola oil comes from canola seeds - duh. But what are canola seeds?

As it turns out, the canola seed is not anything that would have ever existed without the intervention of man-made science and tinkering. What happened was that some agricultural scientists were trying to develop a new cooking oil. They started out using mustard seeds, but found them to be too acidic. So, through selective breeding and various modifications to the mustard seeds, those scientists "invented" the canola seed.

In fact, "canola" isn't even a proper word - it stands for Canada Oil Low Acidity: CAN(ada) O(il) L(ow) A(cidity).

(I just learned this a couple of weeks ago)

Another name for canola is rape.

[lady_disdain]

Buxtehude was considered the greatest organist of his age and musicians flocked to Lubeck to hear him play and, hopefully, get the chance to study with him, including Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach. Buxtehude also had the privilege of naming the successor to his lucrative church position. Even though he offered the post to several musicians, they all turned him down. Why? Because Buxtehude stipulated that, in order to get the post, they would have to marry his daughter first.

It says quite a lot about the lady that they all turned down the opportunity to study with the great master and have a good income for the rest of their lives to avoid her. As one scholar put it, "she was not a nice woman." In fact, Handel and his friend both received the offer and both jumped back into their coaches and ran back to their homes the very next day. Bach stayed longer in Lubeck, but he had just walked 400 miles to get there, so perhaps running wasn't quite as easy for him.

[scotcat60]

H.Gordon Selfridge, founder of the Regent Street store in London, wanted new uniforms for the lift girls who worked there. A young designer submitted some sketches, and was told "Go away young man and learn to draw"
 
In later years, the young man, Norman Hartnell, became a very famous fashion designe, dressed the Queen,  and was knghted. However in spite of his rejection, he became a good friend of Mr Selfridge.

[dawnfire]

Canola oil comes from canola seeds - duh. But what are canola seeds?

As it turns out, the canola seed is not anything that would have ever existed without the intervention of man-made science and tinkering. What happened was that some agricultural scientists were trying to develop a new cooking oil. They started out using mustard seeds, but found them to be too acidic. So, through selective breeding and various modifications to the mustard seeds, those scientists "invented" the canola seed.

In fact, "canola" isn't even a proper word - it stands for Canada Oil Low Acidity: CAN(ada) O(il) L(ow) A(cidity).

(I just learned this a couple of weeks ago)

Another name for canola is rape.

It's also one of the prettiest  crops when it is in full bloom. We have a few people who grow it around here and a field of golden flowers is a sight to see. It is not uncommon to see a car parked by the side of the road with people taking photos.

[Outdoor Girl]

It's grown in my area.  I saw these fields of yellow in June and had no idea what they were.  So I asked some of my coworkers who are more agriculturally inclined and found out what it was.  I agree; the fields are very striking.

[AuntieA]

Yes indeedy, the humble rapeseed plant became canola.

[RingTailedLemur]

Canola oil comes from canola seeds - duh. But what are canola seeds?

As it turns out, the canola seed is not anything that would have ever existed without the intervention of man-made science and tinkering. What happened was that some agricultural scientists were trying to develop a new cooking oil. They started out using mustard seeds, but found them to be too acidic. So, through selective breeding and various modifications to the mustard seeds, those scientists "invented" the canola seed.

In fact, "canola" isn't even a proper word - it stands for Canada Oil Low Acidity: CAN(ada) O(il) L(ow) A(cidity).

(I just learned this a couple of weeks ago)

Another name for canola is rape.

It's also one of the prettiest  crops when it is in full bloom. We have a few people who grow it around here and a field of golden flowers is a sight to see. It is not uncommon to see a car parked by the side of the road with people taking photos.

It makes me sneeze a lot

[oz diva]

It's grown in my area.  I saw these fields of yellow in June and had no idea what they were.  So I asked some of my coworkers who are more agriculturally inclined and found out what it was.  I agree; the fields are very striking.

Here's a great shot of it in fields

[BabylonSister]

And so from this thread (and a little Wikipedia) I've learned something I didn't know: canola is very similar to what I knew growing up in Europe as "colza".  I do remember the bright yellow colza fields all over Normandy.

[Tea Drinker]

A lot of people and businesses here (New York City) plant cabbages, especially purple ones, as ornamentals in late fall, when the mums are dying from the cold. In a normal year, the cabbages last until December or January before the winter kills them as well.

Last winter was ridiculously mild, and at least in my neighborhood, never got cold enough to kill the ornamental cabbages. Some of them had been planted in the local park, in an area that was fenced off for construction soon afterward. So, come spring, nobody pulled the cabbages out, and they bolted: the heads sprouted upward, and then produced stalks of pretty yellow flowers.

[Elfmama]

Learned this one this weekend - if you wrap plastic wrap around a banana's stem, they stay fresh longer. Awesome when I buy that GIANT bunch from Sam's.

Also, one I've gotten a lot of mileage out of lately - if you pour regular table salt and a little Dawn (it works best, but I suppose others may work as well) into a cast iron skillet, use a plastic scraper (I got mine for $1 at a kitchen store) you can get all the burnt on stuff in a cast iron pan out without hurting the seasoning of the pan. I have been cooking a lot more the last few weeks, and my cast iron is getting a workout!

I use Dawn when I hand-dye quilt fabric, at two different steps.  First in the initial washing (called 'scouring' for some reason, which always makes me think of scrubbing on a washboard) and again for washing the fabrics after dyeing.  It holds any loose dye in suspension until it can be washed away, rather than settling on fabrics where you may not want it.  There is a specialty detergent made just for that, but Dawn is cheap and available everywhere in the US. (You don't want to use laundry detergents, as almost all of them have whiteners or brighteners or softeners in them, things you DON'T want on your newly dyed fabrics!)

[Kaora]

Real life reflecting fiction?

In the 2001 video game Sonic Adventure 2, a backstory only character has a rare, incurable disease called NIDS, or "Neuro Immune Deficiency Syndrome," NIDS for short.  It's an obvious parallel off the very real AIDS, and serves as a big backstory for one of the characters.

In 2002, about a year after the game's release, there was a conditioned hypothesized also called NIDS, or "Neuro Immune Dysfunction Syndrome," also NIDS for short, that is not fatal, but people are theorizing causes autistic-like and ADD/OCD symptoms in infants.

I'm not saying it can't happen, I'm just saying its hugely coincidental.  Kind of weird, really.

[mechtilde]

If you drop the cases in a printers' shop and scatter the type everywhere, you get Printer's Pie.

While we're on the subject of printing- a newspaper in Britain published a fantastic spoof article about the fictional island of San Seriffe - full of in-jokes from the printing room. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Serriffe  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Serriffe

[AnnaJ]

Between 1932 and 1967 inmates at the Nevada State Prison were allowed to operate a casino inside the prison.  Inmates had to pay fee and get the permission of the warden, and had to had sufficient money to bankroll the game (pay off the winners); blackjack, craps, poker, gin rummy, and sports betting were all allowed. 

Often men from the local community of Carson City would stop by to play, including members of the Kiwanis Club and various state and federal officials (Carson City is the capital of Nevada).

[Kaora]

Random fact: One of the first recorded uses of the word "baseball" in print in English is by Jane Austen, in Northanger Abbey. Somewhere in the first chapter, Catherine, the tomboyish heroine, plays "base ball" instead of sitting nicely and sewing. (You can check this in the OED.)

Just not the author you tend to think of first in relation to sports.

Jane Austen was also one of the first to use "doorbell", although I can't remember which book it was in.

We all have unique tongue prints. I wonder who decided to research that, though. 

Here's one I always wanted to see done-- see if we  can figure out an estimated tongue size on our hominid ancestors and other relations, see how they compare to their luimb proportions.  Yes, I would want to do a study to see how many ancient humans could lick their elbows!