Tommy Contest Page 5
of the River Region
May 22, 2018 Published by PTK Corp.
The Neatest Little Paper Ever Read® To place an Ad, call: (334) 202-7285 TIDBITS® EATS
POPCORN by Janet Spencer Popcorn is one of the most popular snack foods. Come along with Tidbits as we chow down! A POPULAR SNACK • Unpopped popcorn has a very long shelf life. In ancient tombs of Peru, archaeologists found kernels a thousand years old that still popped. An expedition found popped popcorn in a cave in Utah which was still remarkably fresh in spite of being around 2,500 years old. The oldest known popcorn kernels were found in a cave in New Mexico and are believed to be around 5,000 years old. • One dig near Mexico City uncovered pollen of the popcorn plant. It was almost identical to modern popcorn pollen, yet it was 80,000 years old, indicating that humans have been enjoying popcorn for thousands of years. Cortez found the Aztecs eating it when he invaded in the early 1500s. Columbus took it back to Spain with him. • The British and Europeans used to refer to any small kernel as “corn” such as in Jack London’s 1913 novel “John Barleycorn” named for the drinking song by the same name. Wheat, rye, oats, and barley were all called “corn” and the new corn from the New World was called “Indian corn” before being shortened to just “corn.” The words “corn” and “kernel” spring from the same root word “cyrnel” meaning “seed.” • There are six types of corn: pod, sweet, flour, dent, flint, and popcorn. Only popcorn pops. • Popcorn has a thicker hull than other kinds of corn, and the hull is not permeable. A popcorn kernel must have a moisture content of about 15% in order to pop. When cooking, the hull is so tight that the water within the kernel cannot escape until it boils into steam. The starchy interior melts into a gelatin. When the pressure gets high enough, the hull bursts and the heat cooks the soft interior. A kernel will pop when it reaches an internal pressure of 135 psi and a temperature of 356°F (180°C). If the water content falls below 15%, the popcorn won’t pop. • Popping results are sensitive to the rate at which the kernels are heated. If heated too quickly, the steam reaches (Continued next page)
Vol 7 Issue 21 paul@riverregiontidbits.com
Page 2
Tidbits® of the River Region (Front page continued)
1. Is the book of Joppa in the Old or New Testament or neither? 2. What businesswoman from Thyatira opened her home to Paul and saints after her conversion? Rachel, Keturah, Lydia, Shiprah 3. Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there will be your ... also.”? Love, Heart, Faith, Friends 4. From 2 Samuel 18, whose hair became tangled in a terebinth tree? Samson, Herod, Absalom, Joab 5. On the outskirts of what city did Jesus meet Zacchaeus? Smyrna, Tarsus, Jericho, Antioch 6. From 2 Samuel 14, what was the name of Absalom’s daughter? Ruth, Tamar, Miriam, Sarah Visit Wilson Casey’s new Trivia Fan Site at www. patreon.com/triviaguy. (c) 2018 King Features Synd., Inc.
By Chris Richcreek 1. Who were the only major-league shortstops to hit 20 homers twice through their age-21 season? 2. Name the last starting pitcher before St. Louis’ Carlos Martinez in 2017 to strike out at least 11 hitters and walk at least eight in the same game. 3. In 2016, New Orleans’ Drew Brees became one of three players with 30 touchdown passes in nine different seasons. Who else did it? 4. How many times has Xavier’s men’s basketball team reached the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament? 5. In 2018, Carolina’s Justin Faulk became the 10th defenseman in NHL history to reach a natural hat trick. Who was the ninth to do it? 6. How many Canadian teams currently play in Major League Soccer, and how many of them were original members of the league? 7. Boxer Joe Louis holds the record for most consecutive successful world heavyweight title defenses. How many? (c) 2018 King Features Syndicate, Inc.
high pressures too soon and ruptures the hull before the starch in the center of the kernel can gelatinize, leading to partially popped kernels with hard centers. Heating too slowly leads to entirely unpopped kernels because the tip of the kernel is not entirely moisture-proof. When heated slowly, the steam can leak out of the tip fast enough to keep the pressure from rising high enough to break the hull and cause the pop. • Unpopped kernels are known as old maids, and kernels that pop part of the way but don’t fully open are called bridesmaids. Fully popped kernels are called flakes. Quality popcorn should produce 98% flakes with less than 2% being old maids. • There is no such thing as “hull-less” popcorn. All popcorn needs a hull in order to pop. Some varieties of popcorn have been bred so the hull shatters into tiny fragments upon popping, making it appear to be hull-less. • There are about 1,600 kernels in a cup of popcorn, and a single ounce of kernels (about two tablespoons) expands to produce about a quart of popcorn. Each kernel expands to about 40 to 50 times its original size. • Popcorn comes in two basic shapes when it’s popped: snowflake and mushroom. Snowflake popcorn has lots of “wings” giving it a better mouth-feel. Mushroom popcorn has very few wings and is rounded, meaning it holds up better to shipping because there are no wings to break off. Snowflake is used in movie theaters and ballparks because it looks and pops bigger. Theaters buy popcorn by weight but sell it by volume, so the more it expands when it pops, the more money they make. Mushroom popcorn is used for candy confections because it doesn’t crumble. • It used to be that any given ear of popcorn would yield various amounts of both snowflake and mushroom shapes, but popcorn growers began a concerted effort of hybridizing. This resulted in strains that reliably produce either snowflake or mushroom popcorn, a goal achieved as recently as 1998. Growing conditions and popping environment also affect the snowflake-to-mushroom ratio. • Popcorn vendors on the streets of China and Korea have a unique method of popping corn. Unpopped kernels are poured into a cast-iron pressure cooker that is sealed tight with a heavy-duty lid and then turned over a fire like a rotisserie. When the pressure gauge reaches the right reading, the canister is removed from the fire and a large bag is put over the lid. When the lid is released, all of the popcorn pops at once and is poured into the sack. The same method is used for puffing rice. • During the Great Depression, popcorn was inexpensive at 5 cents a bag. The popcorn business thrived and became a source of income for many, including the Redenbacher family, originators of the famous popcorn brand. During World War II, sugar rations diminished candy production, and Americans compensated by eating three times as much popcorn as they had before. • Orville Redenbacher was born in Indiana in 1909 and grew up on the family farm. At 12 he began growing popcorn, and made enough money selling it that it paid for his degree in agriculture from Purdue. In 1951 he bought a seed corn factory. Orville never forgot how profitable it was to sell popcorn, so he experimented with hybrids in order to find the perfect type of popcorn. Once he found the perfect strain, Orville went to work popularizing popcorn as a treat for the home, not just for the theater. Orville Reddenbacher’s popcorn went on sale for the first time in 1970. By the mid-1970s, he had captured one-third of the market. By the time he died of a heart attack in 1995, his was the top-selling popcorn in the nation. • In the 1880s Charles Cretors owned a candy store in Illinois where his workers made confections in the front window in order to entice customers inside. Charles added a newfangled steam-powered peanut-roasting machine because the scent would also attract customers. However, the peanut roasting machine did not always work well, so Cretors tinkered with it, improving and modifying. By 1893, Cretors had created a machine that could roast 12 pounds of peanuts, 20 pounds of coffee, pop popcorn, and roast chestnuts. • He took his invention to Chicago’s Columbian Exposition in 1893 where many people got their first introduction to popcorn. Cretors understood there was more money to be made in selling the popcorn machines than in selling popcorn. • Today the Cretor’s Company is still in the Cretor’s family, run by his descendants. Cretor’s is the major supplier of movie theater popcorn machines as well as most of machines that make foot at county fairs: hot dog roasters, cotton candy machines, snow-cone ice shavers, pizza ovens, nacho dispensers, and more.
“Be known before you’re needed” Advertise with Tidbits (334) 202-7285
by Samantha Weaver * It was noted Spanish filmmaker Luis Bunuel who made the following sage observation: “Age is something that doesn’t matter, unless you are a cheese.” * You might be surprised to learn that we call coffee beans aren’t actually beans -- they’re the pits of the coffee beans. * Would you believe me if I told you that there were parachutists (better known now as skydivers) before there were airplanes? Yep, it’s true! In Paris in the year 1900, a man leaped from the Eiffel Tower and made a safe descent using a parachute. It wasn’t until December 17, 1903, that the Wright Brothers made the first controlled, sustained powered flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. * According to statisticians, about 200 people a year die while watching -- not playing -- football. * Of all the stamps that have been used by the U.S. Postal Service, more have featured George Washington than any other person; so far there have been 305 with the likeness of the nation’s first president. * If you ever make a trip to Alaska, you might want to keep in mind the fact that it is illegal there to wake a sleeping bear for the purpose of taking its picture. * We don’t often associate museums with beverages, but it seems that they’re fairly popular throughout the world. For instance, museums dedicated to coffee and/or tea can be found in London, Moscow, Paris, Sao Paolo, Zurich and Kyoto, as well as in China, South Korea, Colombia and Angola. Germany has three of them. Coffee and tea must be quite popular in the Netherlands; museums dedicated to the beverages can be found there in five different cities. *** Thought for the Day: “Testing can show the presence of errors, but not their absence.” -- Edsger Wybe Dijkstra (c) 2018 King Features Synd., Inc.
Page 3
Page 4
Tidbits® of the River Region
Adkins, Gabriel Ian White/Male 6’0” 186 lbs Age: 20 Hair: Black Eyes: Brown * On May 26, 1897, the first copies of the classic vampire novel “Dracula,” by Irish writer Bram Stoker, appear in London bookshops. In 1890, Stoker published his first novel, “The Snake’s Pass.” He would go on to publish 17 novels in all, but it was “Dracula” that eventually earned him literary fame.
Outstanding Warrants: Harassment x 2 Menacing
* On May 21, 1927, American pilot Charles A. Lindbergh lands at Le Bourget Field in Paris, successfully completing the first solo, nonstop trans-Atlantic flight. The flight of the Spirit of St. Louis between New York and Paris took 33-1/2 hours. Six men had died attempting the same flight. * On May 23, 1934, famed fugitives Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker are killed when police ambush their car near Sailes, Louisiana. They died in a two-minute fusillade of 167 bullets. * On May 25, 1935, at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Babe Ruth hits his 714th home run, a record for career home runs that would stand for almost 40 years. * On May 22, 1958, American singer Jerry Lee Lewis arrives in England as a newly married man, with his pretty young wife in tow. Within days, it was revealed that his new wife, Myra Gail Lewis, was actually only 13 years old and was his first cousin once-removed. * On May 27, 1972, Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev and U.S. President Richard Nixon, meeting in Moscow, sign the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) agreements. At the time, these agreements were the most far-reaching attempts ever to control nuclear weapons. * On May 24, 1991, the critically acclaimed road movie “Thelma and Louise” debuts in theaters, stunning audiences with a climactic scene in which its two heroines drive off a cliff into the Grand Canyon in a vintage 1966 Ford Thunderbird convertible. (c) 2018 Hearst Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Outstanding Warrants:
Goldsmith, Kenneth DOB: 01/03/1988 Black/Male 6’2” 200 lbs Hair: Black Eyes: Brown
Wanted for: Probation Revocation Marijuana 2nd/ Failure To Appear Littering Law
Page 5
“Be known before you’re needed” Advertise with Tidbits (334) 202-7285 PLUTO
1. What was the name of Bon Jovi’s first No. 1 hit single? 2. Who wrote and released “Doctor My Eyes,” and when? 3. Which band released “Come Sail Away”? Bonus for knowing the album title. 4. Name the only Kool & the Gang song to reach No. 1 on both the Hot 100 and the R&B charts. 5. Name the song that became Motown’s first million-seller, as well as the group. 6. Name the song that contains this brief intro: “Is it rolling, Bob?” Answers 1. “You Give Love a Bad Name” in 1986. That same year he scored another No. 1 with “Livin’ on a Prayer,” both from his “Slippery When Wet” album. 2. Jackson Browne, on his 1972 debut album. 3. Styx, 1977, from their “The Grand Illusion” album. The song hit No. 8 on the charts. 4. “Celebration” in 1980. The group had many hits on the R&B charts, but only one on the Billboard Hot 100. 5. “Shop Around” by The Miracles (with Smokey Robinson) was Motown’s first million-selling single in 1961. 6. At the start of “To Be Alone With You” on the 1969 “Nashville Skyline” album, Bob Dylan famously asks producer Bob Johnston, “Is it rolling, Bob?” (c) 2018 King Features Synd., Inc.
• Pluto, once considered to be the 9th planet, is now classified as a dwarf planet. • The New Horizons spacecraft, which was launched in 2006, flew by Pluto in 2015, taking pictures and gathering information before flying onward. It travelled 3 billion miles and passed within a mile of Pluto at a speed of 31,000 mph. • The mission cost $720 million. To put that into perspective, it cost $1 billion to build the new Vikings stadium in Minneapolis. • The spacecraft weighs about 1,000 lbs (453 kg) and is the size of a grand piano. • It carries with it ashes of Clyde Tombaugh, the man who discovered the planet. • Pluto’s location was predicted by astronomer Percival Lowell in 1915, who died before it was discovered. It’s fitting then that it was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, who was working at the Lowell Observatory. The observatory was named after Percival Lowell. • Pluto got its name from 11-year-old Venetia Burney, who suggested to her grandfather that the new world get its name from the god of the underworld. Her grandfather then passed the name on to Lowell Observatory. The name also honors Percival Lowell, whose initials are the first two letters of Pluto. • It takes 248 years for Pluto to orbit the Sun once, longer than any of the eight planets. (Mercury is fastest at 88 days.) For the 76 years between Pluto being discovered and the time it was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006, it completed less than a third of its orbit around the Sun. • A day on Pluto lasts about 6.5 Earth days, making it the second-slowest rotation in the solar system. Venus has the slowest rotation, taking 243 days to spin just once. Jupiter is the fastest-spinning planet, rotating on average once in just less than 10 hours. • Pluto spins in the opposite direction as Earth, so the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. Venus and Uranus also spin this way. • It’s about 40 times farther away from the Sun than Earth is. It takes sunlight about five hours to get there, versus eight minutes to reach Earth. Sunlight on Pluto has the same intensity as moonlight on Earth. • The temperature is about -400°F (-240°C). • Pluto is about 1,500 miles (2,414 km) in diameter which is about two-thirds the size of our Moon. In surface area, it’s about the same size as Russia. • Gravity on Pluto is 1/15th of Earth, and half the gravity as the Moon. A person who weighs 100 pounds (45 kg) on Earth would weigh only 7 pounds (3 kg) on Pluto. • It’s one-third water, in the form of ice. It contains three times as much water as is in all of Earth’s oceans. • In Roman mythology, Pluto was the son of Saturn who, with his three brothers, controlled the world: Jupiter controlled the sky, Neptune controlled the sea, and Pluto ruled the underworld. • Pluto has five moons, each named for a mythical creature: • Kerberos – the three-headed dog that guarded the entrance to Hades. • Hydra – the nine-headed serpent that lived in a lake called Lerna which was an entrance to the underworld. • Nix – the goddess of the night, who was the mother of Hypnos (Sleep) and Thanatos (Death), with husband Erebus (Darkness). • Styx – the goddess of the river that divides Earth from Hades. • Charon – the ferryman of Hades who carries souls of the newly deceased across the river Styx.
Glenda Warr Please call 334-202-7285 to claim your prize!
Tommy Count ______ This week’s winner receives a
$25 Dollar Gift Certificate from
The Gab Register to win by sending an email to entertommycontest@gmail.com or USPS to PTK Corp., PO Box 264, Wetumpka, AL 36092 with the following information: 1) Your name (first and last), and, 2) the number of times you find Tommy in the ads in the paper. From the correct entries a winner will be selected. You must be 18 years of age to qualify. The gift certificates will range in value from $25 to $100 each week. Entries must be received by midnight each Friday evening.
Last Week’s Ads where
Tommy was hiding:
1. Aroostook Golf Course, p.1 2. Auto and Truck Solutions, p.6
Page 6
TidbitsÂŽ of the River Region
“Be known before you’re needed” Advertise with Tidbits (334) 202-7285 Fabulous Food
SLIM JIMS
BIBLE TRIVIA ANSWERS:
1) Neither; 2) Lydia; 3) Heart; 4) Absalom; 5) Jericho; 6) Tamar
1. Houston’s Carlos Correa (2015-16) and Seattle’s Alex Rodriguez (1996-97). 2. Seattle’s Randy Johnson, in 1993. 3. Brett Favre and Peyton Manning. 4. Three times -- 2004, 2008 and 2017. 5. Chicago’s Dustin Byfuglien, in 2007. 6. Three -- Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, none of which were an original member of the MLS. 7. Twenty-five.
• Adolph Levis was only 16 when he dropped out of school and started selling spices and condiments to stores in Pennsylvania at the beginning of the Great Depression. In the 1940s he started a business in his garage, selling pickled cucumbers, cabbage, and pigs feet to delicatessens and taverns. Pickled pigs feet were a popular item at bars, but they were messy. Pepperoni was a top-selling item in taverns, but it too was messy to eat while also taking a long time to produce. One barkeep asked Adolph if he could invent a snack that was easier to eat and made less of a mess. • Adolph considered the popularity of pepperoni. Working with a local meat packer, he developed a beef jerky stick that was smaller than a sausage. Unlike pepperoni, it could be cured within days rather than weeks through a process of fermentation and smoking. The meat was spiked with spices, fermented with lactic acid for 17 hours, and cooked for 20 hours. • Because it was long and skinny, Adolph designed a logo depicting a tall thin man wearing a top hat and tails, which he hoped would impart an air of elegance to the product. The tall man was given a fictional name: “Slim Jim” which was also the name of the product. Its slogan was, “Make your next drink taste better.” • The product was sold mainly in taverns, and barkeeps loved it because it was salty and increased sales of drinks. The meat sticks were stored in jars of vinegar, but later they were packaged individually in cellophane and sold in convenience stores. • Most people think if them as a form of beef jerky, but the packaging calls them a “smoked snack stick.” They are made from a concoction of beef, chicken, and pork meats, along with 30 different spices. • In addition to the predictably high dose of salt (one sixth of your daily amount), Slim Jims contain soy, wheat and corn. The sausages, looped in 7,600-foot coils, are delivered by trolley to a set of 22 smoker ovens. Each oven is the size of a two-car garage. They are smoked for 20 hours, and then spritzed with an aerosol form of liquid smoke. The product is naturally grey in color, so sodium nitrite is added to maintain a brownish-red appearance. • In 1989 market research showed that teenage boys were a top consumer of Slim Jims, resulting in the snacks being moved into convenience stores, which now account for over half of Slim Jim sales. • From 1993 to 2000, advertising for the product included outrageous commercials that featured professional wrestler “Macho Man” Randy Savage, who served as spokesperson. Each commercial would feature Savage bursting in on some dull situation and livening it up with the power of Slim Jims. The ads would close with Savage bellowing “Need a little excitement? Snap into a Slim Jim!” • In 2005, Slim Jim advertising featured the Fairy Snapmother, described in a ConAgra press release as “a character resembling a tattooed rocker with wings - and a familiar MTV-type of humor young males enjoy.” • Adolph sold his company to General Mills for $20 million in 1967, and lived to the age of 89, dying in 2001. • Now owned by ConAgra, over 500 million Slim Jims are distributed worldwide annually. That’s enough to circle the globe twice. Annual revenues top $575 million. • Today there are 21 different flavors of sticks to enjoy including the original and mild flavors, beef and cheese, bacon, turkey, chili, honey barbecue, and more.
Page 7
Page 8
Easy Pickled Jalapeno Peppers Imagine taking a hungry bite into a warm grilledcheese sandwich. Yum -- good comfort food, right? Now imagine eating that same sandwich, but this time there are crispy pickled jalapeno pepper rounds tucked inside. Now that’s a crunchy bite, and a tasty transformation. Peter Piper, who picked a peck of pickled peppers from Mother Goose fame, knew what he was picking. My family likes to add these kicky pepper rounds to just about anything, whether they top nachos, fish or beef tacos, enchiladas and tortillas, or they’re tucked in a bun with a brat when we gather with friends for a picnic at the baseball park. Instead of spooning a jar of commercially processed, store-bought jalapeno sliced peppers into or on top of your dishes, make 2 pints of these fresh and yummy pickled jalapeno peppers in minutes in your kitchen with your preteen. Discover the big difference in texture and flavor. Toss the easy-to-prep and peppyto-eat crunch on your favorite South of the Border recipe and say, “Ole!” EASY PICKLED JALAPENO PEPPERS 1 cup white vinegar 1 cup water 4 tablespoons sugar, or more to taste (adding more sugar turns down the heat) 2 cloves garlic, sliced in half 1 tablespoon salt 7 fresh jalapeno peppers (from the produce area of your market), thinly sliced 2 fresh red or yellow mini sweet peppers, thinly sliced 2 pint-size glass jars 1. Stir together the vinegar, water, sugar, garlic and salt in a cooking pot and bring to a boil. 2. Add sliced jalapeno and sweet peppers, stir, turn off heat and let sit for 10 minutes. 3. Remove peppers with a slotted spoon to jars, then fill to the top with remaining liquid. Cool. 4. Keep refrigerated and serve with favorite dishes for up to one month. Makes about 2 pints PLEASE NOTE: The oils in fresh jalapeno peppers can irritate skin and be painful if you touch your eyes. You may wish to wear deli or rubber gloves when slicing the peppers. Wash your hands well with soap and water afterward. *** Donna Erickson’s award-winning series “Donna’s Day” is airing on public television nationwide. To find more of her creative family recipes and activities, visit www.donnasday.com and link to the NEW Donna’s Day Facebook fan page. Her latest book is “Donna Erickson’s Fabulous Funstuff for Families.” (c) 2018 Donna Erickson Distributed by King Features Synd.
Tidbits® of the River Region