Tommy Contest Page 5
of the River Region
July 31, 2018 Published by PTK Corp.
The Neatest Little Paper Ever Read® To place an Ad, call: (334) 202-7285 TIDBITS® EATS
PIZZA by Janet Spencer From coast to coast, Americans eat approximately 350 slices of pizza per second, which works out to over 100 acres worth of pizza every day. Three billion pizzas are ordered every year in the U.S., plus an additional one billion frozen pizzas. Come along with Tidbits as we eat a slice! A POPULAR SNACK • In the 1800s, most Italians thought of pizza as a peasant’s meal. Bread was cheap and readily available for even the poorest citizens. Tomatoes were still thought of as poisonous because they belong to the nightshade family, so they were also cheap. Pizza was considered a low-brow meal. • That changed when a baker and tavern owner named Raffaele Esposito created a pizza for visiting royalty in 1889. Queen Margherita and King Umberto I were visiting Naples, Italy, and Esposito was asked to prepare them a meal. Esposito created a pizza meant to imitate the colors of the Italian flag: white mozzarella cheese, red tomato sauce, and green basil. It’s thought to have been the first time mozzarella was used on a pizza. The King and Queen had never eaten pizza before, and were so impressed by the delicious meal that they raved about it. Esposito used their praise to advertise his business, and pizza became an overnight sensation. • In 1905, Gennaro Lombardi opened the first licensed American pizzeria, Lombardi’s Pizzeria Napoletana, on Spring Street in New York City. At the time, a pizza cost a nickel. • During the first few decades of the 20th century, pizza was mostly eaten by working class Italian immigrants. The first American cities where pizza was routinely sold were New York City, Boston, New Haven, Connecticut, and Trenton, New Jersey. All of these cities had an influx of Italian immigrants around the turn of the century. • During World War II, American soldiers were introduced to pizza while stationed in Italy, and brought pizza passion home to the U.S. Today pizza is a $30 billion industry in the United States. • At first, pizzas were sold exclusively by the pie. But in (Continued next page)
Vol 7 Issue 31 paul@riverregiontidbits.com
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Tidbits® of the River Region (Front page continued)
1. Is the book of Haggai in the Old or New Testament or neither? 2. What is the middle chapter of the New Testament (KJV)? Romans 13, Galatians 2, Ephesians 5, Titus 1ÊÊÊ 3. At Joppa there was a certain disciple named Tabitha, whose name was translated as ...? Ruth, Dorcas, Sarah, Esther 4. What young man went to sleep and fell out of a window while listening to Paul speak? Eutychus, Goliath, Peter, Stephen 5. From John 12, which disciple stole from the treasury? Thomas, Judas, James, John 6. Who took the place of Judas as one of the apostles? Malachi, Matthias, Joel, Paul Comments? More Trivia? Visit www.TriviaGuy.com (c) 2018 King Features Synd., Inc.
By Chris Richcreek 1. Baltimore’s Trey Mancini tied a record in 2016-17 by hitting eight home runs in his first 17 major-league games. Who else did it? 2. Pitchers Octavio Dotel and Edwin Jackson hold the majorleague mark for playing for the most teams. How many? 3. The Pittsburgh Steelers selected four future Pro Football Hall of Fame players in the 1974 NFL Draft. Name three of them. 4. In 2017, Duke tied the record for most times being ranked No. 1 in The Associated Press men’s basketball preseason poll. Who else has held the ranking nine times? 5. The Nashville Predators set a franchise record in the 201718 season for most victories for a season (53). In what season was the previous record? 6. Who was the last American woman before Shalane Flanagan in 2017 to win the New York City Marathon? 7. The 2018 Masters featured the fourth consecutive golfer to win his first major at that event. Name three of the four. (c) 2018 King Features Syndicate, Inc.
1933, Patsy Lancieri of Patsy’s Pizzeria in New York City started selling pizza by the slice, and the trend was quickly adopted by other pizzerias. • The word “pizza” may come from the Latin word “pissa” meaning “flatbread” but many languages around the Mediterranean have similar sounding words such as “pita.” The Latin word “pinsere” means to pound or stamp, as in making bread. Another Latin word “picea” means the blackening of a bread crust by fire. An old Italian word “bizzo” or “pizzo” meaning “mouthful” gave us the English words “bit” and “bite” and perhaps “pizza” as well. At any rate, the word “pizza” dates back over a thousand years. It was first mentioned in a Latin text written in southern Italy in the year 997 AD. • The average American eats 46 slices of pizza every year, which works out to about 23 pounds of pizza annually. 40% of us eat pizza at least once a week, and 93% eat it at least once a month. It’s likely you’ll eat around 6,000 slices of pizza over the course of your lifetime. • Kids ages 3 to 11 prefer pizza over all other food groups for lunch and dinner. • Regular thin pizza crust is the most popular crust, preferred by 61% of people. Thick crust and deep dish tie for second, at 14%. Only 11% of the population prefers extra thin. • Pepperoni is the most popular pizza topping. About 36% of all pizzas contain pepperoni. Pepperoni is a fermented and dried meat that is not actually cooked. America’s top pepperoni manufacturer produces enough pepperoni slices annually to cover approximately 23,000 acres. • 62% of Americans prefer meat toppings while 38% prefer vegetables. Women are twice as likely as men to order vegetables on pizza. • Mozzarella is found on 60% of pizzas. That’s because among all cheese, mozzarella has the highest moisture content, the lowest quantity of free oil, the best elasticity, and a unique stretchability. • A single mozzarella cheese manufacturing conglomerate in Denver, Colorado buys about 7% of the total available milk in the U.S. in order to supply mozzarella for most of America’s pizzas. The entire milk production of about one out of every 20 cows is devoted to mozzarella for pizza. • Mozzarella is an Italian cheese originally made in Naples area. The word “mozzarella” started out as the Latin word “mutius” meaning “blunt” or “cut off” presumably because the cheese was formed into rolls that were bluntly whacked off into portions. The word “mutius” also gave us the words “mute” and “mutilate.” When the word passed into Italian, it became “mozza” and the diminutive form of the word was “mozzarella.” • The most popular pizza size in the U.S. today is 14 inches in diameter. Keep in mind, however, that one 18-inch pizza gives you more pizza than two 12-inch pizzas. • There are about 75,000 pizzerias in the U.S. which represents 17% of all restaurants. • The average pizzeria uses roughly 55 pizza boxes per day. • The record for the world’s largest round pizza was set in December of 2017 when a team of five Italian chefs baked a 131-foot (40 m) dimeter pizza. The pizza consisted of 19,800 pounds of flour, 10,000 pounds of tomato sauce, and 8,800 pounds of mozzarella cheese, along with other ingredients. Altogether it weighed in at 51,257 pounds (23,250 kg). The five chefs spent more than two days baking the dough in over 5,000 small batches. • The world’s longest rectangular pizza measured just over 6,333 feet long (1,930 m), and was built in Fontana, California, on June 10, 2017. Over 100 people worked together to create it over the course of 54 hours, including 40 hours of prep time and 14 hours of multiple rounds of baking. All leftover pizza was donated to several local area charities. • The biggest pizza commercially available can be ordered at Big Mama’s & Papa’s, found in California at 20 different locations. Their Giant Sicilian pizza is a rectangle that measures 54 inches on each side (1.37m). That’s just over 20 square feet of pizza. It will feed between 50 and 100 people and costs around $200. • According to Guinness World Records, the most expensive commercially available pizza costs $2,700 and is sold at Industry Kitchen in New York, New York. It features black squid ink dough, and is topped with white Stilton cheese from the UK, foie gras and truffles from France, Ossetra caviar from the Caspian Sea, Almas caviar, and 24K gold leaf. • Lady Gaga once bought $1,000 worth of pizza for fans who were waiting in line for her autograph.
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by Samantha Weaver * You probably won’t be surprised to learn that it was Albert Einstein who made the following sage observation: “A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.” * Ever wonder why blue jeans are blue? When they were first designed by Levi Strauss, the people most likely to wear them were those who did a great deal of manual labor. Strauss rightly assumed the work was likely to be dirty, so he dyed his new trousers indigo to help hide stains. * Statistics on sporting events show that 17 of the 20 sporting events with the most attendees every year are NASCAR races. * Before horror author Stephen King became famous for novels such as “Carrie,” “The Stand” and “The Shining,” he wrote four novels and 60 short stories that failed to be accepted for publication. * Historians report that Napoleon Bonaparte, when he wasn’t busy conquering, enjoyed ice skating. * Do animals grieve their own? Perhaps so -- at least, some animals. When an elephant dies, other elephants in the herd will cover the body with leaves and branches and often will stay with it for days. * You may be surprised to learn that a Boeing 747 jet is longer from wingtip to wingtip than the distance of the Wright Brothers’ first airplane flight. * If you’re enjoying summer picnics, you might want to keep in mind the fact that there are 1,500 known species of fleas and 9,500 known species of ants. Then again, that might be a factoid you’d rather forget. *** Thought for the Day: “Strike an average between what a woman thinks of her husband a month before she marries him and what she thinks of him a year afterward, and you will have the truth about him.” -- H.L. Mencken (c) 2018 King Features Synd., Inc.
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Tidbits® of the River Region
* On Aug. 1, 1498, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sets foot on the South American mainland for the first time, at the Paria Peninsula in present-day Venezuela. Thinking it an island, he christened it Isla Santa and claimed it for Spain. Columbus, a deeply religious man, believed that Venezuela was the edge of the Garden of Eden.
House, Robyn Elizabeth White/Female 5’4” 135 lbs 32 yrs old Hair: Brown Eyes: Hazel
Outstanding Warrants: Burglary 3rd Theft Of Property 3rd
* On Aug. 4, 1927, the Father of Country Music, Jimmie Rodgers, is recorded for the first time during the legendary Bristol Sessions. A talent scout had set up a makeshift recording studio in an empty warehouse in Bristol, Tennessee, and recorded numerous then-unknown acts during the 12-day marathon. * On Aug. 2, 1943, future President John F. Kennedy is serving as commander of a torpedo boat in the Solomon Islands when his ship is rammed at night by a Japanese destroyer, cutting it in two. Kennedy’s heroics led to the rescue of the survivors from an island six days later. * On July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signs Medicare, a health insurance program for elderly Americans, into law. Former President Harry Truman was enrolled as the first beneficiary and received the first Medicare card. * On Aug. 5, 1957, “American Bandstand” goes national on television, hosted by 26-year-old Dick Clark. He pushed hard for a 3:30 p.m. time slot, when teenagers were out of school and most likely to watch. * On Aug. 3, 1988, Soviet authorities free Mathias Rust, the daring young West German pilot who landed a rented Cessna on MoscowÕs Red Square in 1987, from a labor camp as a goodwill gesture to the West. * On July 31, 1990, Nolan Ryan wins the 300th game of his career. A believer that pitching power, as well as consistency and endurance, comes from the legs, not the arms, Ryan ran every day. (c) 2018 Hearst Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Outstanding Warrants:
Stroud, Elizabeth DOB: 09/12/1979 White/Female 5’4” 180 lbs Hair: Brown Eyes: Green
Wanted for: Probation Revocation Possession of Controlled Substance
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“Be known before you’re needed” Advertise with Tidbits (334) 202-7285 ELEVATORS
1. Who had a hit with “Run to Him,” and when? 2. Which artist released the original of the R&B hit “Born Under a Bad Sign”? 3. Name the group that released “I Woke Up in Love This Morning.” 4. Who had an album titled “Abraxas” in 1970? 5. Name the song that contains this lyric: “And you read your Emily Dickinson, And I my Robert Frost, And we note our place with bookmarkers That measure what we’ve lost.” Answers 1. Bobby Vee, in 1961, on his “Take Good Care of My Baby” album. In 1964, Little Eva did a female version, “Run to Her.” 2. Albert King, in 1967. His version landed on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of 500 influential songs. 3. The Partridge Family, in 1971. The song actually went to No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. 4. Santana. The Library of Congress put it on their National Recording Registry. 5. “The Dangling Conversation” by Simon and Garfunkel, in 1966. This beautiful song describes a relationship in which conversation has failed between two very different people. Amazingly enough, the song did not chart well, only reaching No. 25. (c) 2018 King Features Synd., Inc.
• Currently there are about 900,000 elevators in use throughout the U.S. They carry an estimated 18 billion passengers around 1.36 billion miles over the course of a single year. • There are about 27 deaths due to elevators annually. Most people who die in elevators are elevator technicians. Most elevator accidents happen when the door is closing. • Taking the elevator is 10 times safer than taking the stairs and 20 times safer than escalators. There are 20 times more elevators than escalators, but only one-third as many accidents. Elevators are also safer than cars. Having 27 people die in elevators each year may seem like a lot, but there are 26 automobile deaths every five hours. • More than 325 million people ride on elevators each day compared with 245 million riders on escalators. • The modern elevator is a direct descendant of a design first shown by Elisha G. Otis at the New York World’s Fair in 1853. A feature of the Otis elevator was a safety device that immediately engaged and held the elevator, bringing it to a safe stop in the event the cables broke. The world’s first passenger elevator was installed in a New York City hotel in 1857. Today the Otis Elevator Company carries the equivalent of the world’s population in their elevators every five days. • Advances in elevator technology kept pace with advances in building technology. In the 1870s, Equitable Life Assurance Society CEO Henry Boyle built the tallest building in the city at that time– a full seven stories, served by two elevators. In the 1890s, the world’s tallest building was the 20-story Masonic Temple in Chicago. By 1913, it was the 55-story Woolworth Building in New York City. Today the tallest building is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, reaching 2,722 feet (829.8 m), serviced by 57 Otis elevators. • Early elevators were furnished extravagantly with chandeliers, benches, and carpets, so passengers could sit down and get comfortable before the elevator operator engaged the contrivance. The top floors of tall buildings, which had previously been relegated to the maids, janitors, and poverty-stricken immigrants who were willing to climb numerous flights of stairs, now became desirable real estate not only for the view but also for the distance away from the noisy streets. • Control systems on early elevators required human operators to regulate the speed of the lift and descent, to stop the elevator at each floor, and to manually open and close the doors. In the 1950s elevators became automated. • The only known occurrence of an elevator car free falling due to a snapped cable (aside from fire or structural collapse) happened in 1945 when a B25 Bomber crashed into the Empire State Building, severing the cables of two elevators. The elevator car on the 75th floor had a woman in it, but she survived due to the 1,000 feet (304 m) of fallen cable below, which absorbed the impact. • Elevator music first appeared in 1920s to calm fearful passengers. • Mirrors are commonly found in elevators not only because it gives people something to look at during the ride (i.e. themselves) but also because it makes the elevator car look larger, cutting down on claustrophobic responses. • The maximum altitude that one cable-hoisted elevator can achieve is 1,700 feet (518m). Any taller than that and the cables used to hoist the elevator became too heavy, and snap. • Most elevators move at the rate of 500 feet per minute (153m) while some modern high-speed elevators move at up to 2,000 feet per minute (610m per minute).
Lauren Gambill Please call 334-202-7285 within 7 days of this issue to claim your prize!
Tommy Count ______ This week’s winner receives
2 Dozen Glazed Doughnuts from
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts 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 1. Baptist Health, p.4
Tommy was hiding:
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TidbitsÂŽ of the River Region
“Be known before you’re needed” Advertise with Tidbits (334) 202-7285 Fabulous Food
FAVORITE CANDIES
BIBLE TRIVIA ANSWERS:
1) Old; 2) Romans 13; 3) Dorcas; 4) Eutychus; 5) Judas; 6) Matthias
1. Toronto’s Carlos Delgado (1993-94) and Colorado’s Trevor Story (2016). 2. Each has pitched for 13 teams. 3. Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert, John Stallworth and Mike Webster. 4. North Carolina. 5. The Predators won 51 games in the 2006-07 season. 6. Miki Gorman, in 1977. 7. Jordan Spieth, Danny Willett, Sergio Garcia and Patrick Reed.
• In the early 1900s, the Chicago candy maker F. Hoffman & Company offered a variety of confections. In 1928, Philo J. Holloway bought the company. He wanted to expand the line of goodies, and decided to have his researchers create the best chocolate candy they could possibly manufacture. • They started with a caramel center, and covered it with milk chocolate. The goal was to make the chocolate-covered caramels perfectly round, but the problem was that they couldn’t make them hold their shape. They ended up bumpy and misshapen. • However, deformed as these candy lumps were, they were delicious. Philo J. Holloway realized they would either have to abandon the candy altogether, or else abandon the idea that the candy had to be absolutely spherical. They decided that the candy was too good to give up, so they chose a name for the new confection that reflected its imperfection. • The lopsided lumps were a hit, and people didn’t mind their geometric shortcomings. Now owned by Hershey, the chewy chocolate and caramel candy is a standard at movie theaters. They are called Milk Duds. • Leo Hirschfield opened a candy store in New York City in 1896. He specialized in chocolates, but during the summer they melted. He had a family recipe for fudge-flavored taffy, so he rolled it into logs, cut it into bite-size pieces, wrapped it in paper, and sold it for a penny apiece. When it came to naming it, he thought of his daughter Clara, and his pet nickname for her. • Hirschfield teamed up with the Sweets Company of America, and by 1905 a factory was turning out the candy. In 1931 they surrounded the taffy with a candy lollipop for a new product that was popular during the Great Depression because of its low price. • In 1935 the company began to falter. This was of great concern to Joseph Rubin & Sons of Brooklyn, who supplied the paper boxes the candy was packaged in. If the candy company failed, so would Rubin & Sons. So Rubin & Sons bought the Sweets Company of America and pushed the sweet treat to new heights of popularity, increasing sales twelve-fold. • During World War II when sugar was rationed, this candy was one of the few that was continuously produced, due to its long shelf life and resistance to melting. It was shipped to soldiers all over the world. Today the company produces about 64 million of the candies daily: Tootsie Rolls and Tootsie Pops. • In 1913 in Robinson, Illinois, a father bought a candy store to give his sons, Bayard and Everett, a business to run. They turned the shop into a successful candy shop and ice cream parlor. A traveling salesman shared a recipe for toffee with them. • Bayard and Everett experimented with the new toffee until they perfected the recipe. Later they covered the toffee with chocolate. • In 1928 their father bought a dairy nearby and he convinced his sons to quit the candy store to help him on the dairy farm. They did, but they brought their candy-making equipment with them and continued to turn out toffee. They started including “toffee bars” on the dairy’s order form, so people could order milk, cream, cottage cheese, or toffee delivered right to their door every morning. • Sales got a boost, but then the Great Depression hit. However, toffee bars sold well during the Depression, because they cost only a nickel. Another boost arrived with World War II, when the Army began to include it in soldier’s rations. Hershey bought the company in 1996, but the candy bar, named after the family that invented it, remains unchanged. It’s called the Heath Bar.
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Try Something New With Kids This Summer
Have you tried something new with your kids lately? There’s still time this summer to plan an activity or adventure. Karl Nelson, 40-year-old dad of two sons and executive of an educational nonprofit in Seattle, says introducing his boys to new experiences is vital for growth and learning about themselves and their world. He recently took his 5-year-old son, Oskar, who is always game for new adventures, sailing. “My task was to make sure he had a good enough time, so he’d want to do it again. Fortunately, his only complaint was the lack of snacks,” says Karl. Next time there will be plenty! “Exposure to new ideas and concepts through experiential learning isn’t just something that happens at school,” says Karl. “Parents modeling lifelong learning at home is essential, like the day I picked up a violin 10 years ago in a quest to learn more about music. I started lessons and continue to this day. I like that my sons see (and hear!) their father practicing and improving over time. My efforts are also a reminder that we don’t just start out being good at something; it takes discipline and hard work.” Gather your family to talk about activities that seem interesting, fun and perhaps a little out of the ordinary. Routines are important, but sometimes they become protective bubbles that need to be broken, or maybe just bent, for new perspective and growth. Here are two ideas to get you inspired. 1. Join a family exercise program, such as outdoor yoga and/or stretch class at a community center or park in your area. Some are free. If there are nonswimmers in the family, check out your local YMCA or community center for swimming lessons to learn this important life skill. 2. Partner with an experienced camping family and spend a few days together in the wild hiking, fishing, cooking and enjoying the outdoors together. It’s a practical way to learn the ropes of camping and to get to know friends better. You might even start an annual tradition. If sleeping in a tent is not your idea of fun, pack up a picnic and drive to a local park or nature preserve. Take a hike, play, build a campfire, roast some marshmallows and have all the fun of camping, then head home to your own beds at the end of the day. *** 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