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

[jpcher]

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!

Okay, how many people just tried to lick their elbows?

[Kimblee]

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!

Okay, how many people just tried to lick their elbows?

Me! And I failed.

I knew someone who said she could lick her elbow when she was younger. She had some condition that made her arms and legs shorter compared to the rest of her body. Before they did surgery on her arms to legthen them, she claims she could lick her elbow. I have no proof this is true, but none that its false, so there.

[SamiHami]

Cheddar cheese did not start out orange, and the orange color is added.

Beginning in the 12th century, the cheese made in the village of Cheddar was very popular and had a pale yellow color when mature due to the diet of the cows. Only the cheese made in the Cheddar region could be called by that name. Other cheesemakers noticed the success of the cheese, and began to dye their cheeses to compete with Cheddar cheese.

But cheddar cheese isn't orange 

That's what I was going to say.  Ladyknight, is it possible you are thinking of Red Leicester cheese?

In the US, what is marketed as Cheddar cheese is orange, or at least a dark yellow. The white cheddar sold is the same product, without color additives.

And this is my 1000th post!

Most cheeses are made with the same basic ingredients: milk, rennet, citric acid and salt. There are a few variations, of course, but the differences in flavors/textures come about by the way the cheese is made.

All that being said, there is no such thing as orange cheese. If you see orange cheese in a store, it is definitely dyed. I become annoyed when I see the orange stuff labeled "cheddar," but the undyed cheese labeled "white cheddar."

[Thipu1]

Yes, orange cheese is dyed but the dye used is usually anneto.  That's a seed used in several ethnic cuisines and it's perfectly natural so orange cheese doesn't bother me---unless it's American putty.

[Moonie]

One of the common signs of depression is anhedonia - the inability to feel pleasure in normally pleasurable activities.

This doesn't surprise me at all. It was one of the first things I noticed while in an abusive relationship.

[sunnygirl]

Yes, orange cheese is dyed but the dye used is usually anneto.  That's a seed used in several ethnic cuisines and it's perfectly natural so orange cheese doesn't bother me---unless it's American putty.

I just learned that Red Leicester (which does use anneto as colouring) has only been coloured since the 18th century! It used to be white, and you can still get White Leicester.

[camlan]

Well, spinning off the colored cheese--during the Depression era, margarine was not colored yellow to look like butter, it was white. It came with a little packet of a coloring substance that you had to mix in yourself. For some reason, this was a big deal for my mother and her sister and they would fight to be the one allowed to color the margarine.

[guihong]

And this reminds me of the LH books, when Laura and Mary crushed carrots to color the cheese 

[athersgeo]

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!

Okay, how many people just tried to lick their elbows?

Me! And I failed.

I knew someone who said she could lick her elbow when she was younger. She had some condition that made her arms and legs shorter compared to the rest of her body. Before they did surgery on her arms to legthen them, she claims she could lick her elbow. I have no proof this is true, but none that its false, so there.

Just tried - and succeeded. Assuming we're talking the inside of your elbow. If you're talking the knobbly outside bit, I refuse to try THAT on the grounds that I don't bend that way!

[heartmug]

Well, spinning off the colored cheese--during the Depression era, margarine was not colored yellow to look like butter, it was white. It came with a little packet of a coloring substance that you had to mix in yourself. For some reason, this was a big deal for my mother and her sister and they would fight to be the one allowed to color the margarine.

My dad and his sister too.  They love to tell that story.

[Thipu1]

Well, spinning off the colored cheese--during the Depression era, margarine was not colored yellow to look like butter, it was white. It came with a little packet of a coloring substance that you had to mix in yourself. For some reason, this was a big deal for my mother and her sister and they would fight to be the one allowed to color the margarine.

I believe this is apocryphal but there was said that a motion was introduced in Congress by the dairy lobbies.  According to which version you read, the motion was intended to make all margarine colored either brown or blue.

[mandycorn]

... SNIP...

Okay, how many people just tried to lick their elbows?

Me! And I failed.

I knew someone who said she could lick her elbow when she was younger. She had some condition that made her arms and legs shorter compared to the rest of her body. Before they did surgery on her arms to legthen them, she claims she could lick her elbow. I have no proof this is true, but none that its false, so there.

Just tried - and succeeded. Assuming we're talking the inside of your elbow. If you're talking the knobbly outside bit, I refuse to try THAT on the grounds that I don't bend that way!

My little sister can lick her elbow (the pointy, wrinkly outside part), on both arms.

It's her best party trick and I really enjoy bringing out the video on my phone when people claim it can't be done.

She does it by pointing her elbow out straight in front of her with her hand by her ear, the she sort of shifts her shoulder back while sticking her neck and head forward and sticks her tongue all the way out and to the side and licks it. It's quite a thing to see.

[AuntieA]

camlan - this continued in Canada way after the Depression. Until the middle 60s here in Alberta it was a law that margarine could not look like butter, and we, too, had the bags of white margarine with the orange button in the middle. My older sister and I once were tossing the bag back and forth in the living room. The bag fell, burst open, and the contents oozed all over the woven grass rug on the floor. Big mess!

[Outdoor Girl]

Well in the 70's, it was law in Ontario that margarine could be white or very yellow but not butter coloured.  However, in Quebec, it could be butter coloured.  We had family who lived in the Ottawa valley, where the margarine was smuggled across the boarder.     We always had massive quantities of butter coloured margarine in our freezer.

[Slartibartfast]

Well in the 70's, it was law in Ontario that margarine could be white or very yellow but not butter coloured.  However, in Quebec, it could be butter coloured.  We had family who lived in the Ottawa valley, where the margarine was smuggled across the boarder.     We always had massive quantities of butter coloured margarine in our freezer.

My granfather lived in Wisconsin and his father got caught for yellow-margarine smuggling over the (Illinois/Wisconsin) border