On Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer, on Vixen,
OK, I'm up and I'm going Blitzen!
It has many names, no matter what you want to call it, or your company wants to call it. Blitz, DAT, Day After Sale, Door Buster or Black Friday...What it means to retailers is pure MONEY, what it means to retail workers is PURE HELL.
But WHY does it have so many names? Blitz is a pretty simple one for football fans. Defenses Blitz....just like the hoards of shoppers when they enter a freshly opened door! Thus the special name Wal-Mart gives to their sale. DAT=Day after Thanksgiving...DUH! The others are again pretty simple....but Black Friday? Huh?
Jumping into the research I have found MANY explanations and a few of them from way out in the outers realms of believable. The City Desk website claims that it all started with a Salesman named Mr. Black that was so awesome at his job that his boss nicknamed the day after him when he died one year on the day after Thanksgiving when he got off work...I'm calling BS there.
Another commonly accepted explanation is that the day after Thanksgiving is the first day that retailers begin to show profits. Since accountants used to notate deficits or losses in the books in red ink and then profits were recorded in Black ink that led the holiday shopping season, which is very profitable, to be the beginning of the season for retailers to make profits. Makes sense to an extent, but with the Big Box retailers such as Wal-Mart becoming so successful they generally show profits all year long.
Historically Black Friday refers to the Gold Plummet of 1869. When the Federal Government sold a significant amount of gold on September 24th and caused the market to fall. But that's hardly relevant for our purposes.
Supposedly, Philadelphia was the origins of the Black Friday moniker, where it applied to the vehicle and pedestrian traffic on the day after Thanksgiving. Not sure why or what that is supposed to mean, but the day is right anyway?
I'm saying that it refers to the cold, black hearted way in which we treat each other on this day while out trying to get the best deals on things all over town....but that's just me.
Now in honor of Thanksgiving, I have another video for you to enjoy. I dedicate this one to my Turkey Trey and I'll add.....Nope!
Friday, November 26, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Answering to comments
Cara,
Yeah, Cara, I had to include that recipe when I saw how it was written. It was quoted out of an article and I just copy/pasted it. At first I thought there was some weird typos, then when I looked closer I saw it was written "historically". It was too neat not to include.
chuck, Spam??? maybe?
BTW: How do you all like the new background? Thanks to my kids, Kenny and Cheyenne for doing the work on that. My conception, their execution. It will be available on T-shirts through Zazzle. LOL And Thanks to Blaster for sending me a turkey youtube LINK. I found the videos through that.
Yeah, Cara, I had to include that recipe when I saw how it was written. It was quoted out of an article and I just copy/pasted it. At first I thought there was some weird typos, then when I looked closer I saw it was written "historically". It was too neat not to include.
chuck, Spam??? maybe?
BTW: How do you all like the new background? Thanks to my kids, Kenny and Cheyenne for doing the work on that. My conception, their execution. It will be available on T-shirts through Zazzle. LOL And Thanks to Blaster for sending me a turkey youtube LINK. I found the videos through that.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Do you stuff or dress a turkey?
Do you stuff or dress a turkey? I ask this with Personal interest at stake. When I grew up we STUFFED the turkey and we made an extra pan of stuffing on the side. We LOVED the stuff. My dad had his own recipe and it was GREAT….Ok, turns out he was using the recipe off the bag and switching celery for celery salt…but it was awesome. Nothing like having that stuffing on a turkey sandwich the day after….MMMM. hot or cold it was GOOD stuff.
So that got me wondering, why do some people call it dressing. Some call it a regional thing, like SODA and POP?? If you are from the North, you have SOOOOOdas. Said in my best Fargo accent. If you are from the south you drink Pop. Midwesterners, we ask for Coke no matter where we are and it’s second nature to hear the reply….”is Pepsi OK?” Yeah, whatever. And where the hell did Slice suddenly come from? Do you ever see a place that has RC Cola on tap? I haven’t….But I digress.
Doing my usual research I find that technically it’s STUFFING, if and only if, it is cooked inside the bird, otherwise it is DRESSING. Too simple. Too Obvious….Too….(yeah folks, that means also and to the extreme. ) Now, health departments and restaurants really prefer dressing over stuffing, apparently there is some concern about the items in the stuffing thoroughly cooking and passing through the temperature danger zones(40-140) quick enough. Plus I am sure the juices from the bird add to the concern. The whole poultry concerns, ya know. They recommend putting a second thermometer in the stuffing as well as the bird. Please don’t use the mercury kind! That’s a whole other batch of dangers.
So, If you are going to stuff your bird, do it safely, always use protection. If you are dressing your bird, do it to the 9’s. Here’s a few Thanksgiving links to bring you some smiles.
So that got me wondering, why do some people call it dressing. Some call it a regional thing, like SODA and POP?? If you are from the North, you have SOOOOOdas. Said in my best Fargo accent. If you are from the south you drink Pop. Midwesterners, we ask for Coke no matter where we are and it’s second nature to hear the reply….”is Pepsi OK?” Yeah, whatever. And where the hell did Slice suddenly come from? Do you ever see a place that has RC Cola on tap? I haven’t….But I digress.
Doing my usual research I find that technically it’s STUFFING, if and only if, it is cooked inside the bird, otherwise it is DRESSING. Too simple. Too Obvious….Too….(yeah folks, that means also and to the extreme. ) Now, health departments and restaurants really prefer dressing over stuffing, apparently there is some concern about the items in the stuffing thoroughly cooking and passing through the temperature danger zones(40-140) quick enough. Plus I am sure the juices from the bird add to the concern. The whole poultry concerns, ya know. They recommend putting a second thermometer in the stuffing as well as the bird. Please don’t use the mercury kind! That’s a whole other batch of dangers.
So, If you are going to stuff your bird, do it safely, always use protection. If you are dressing your bird, do it to the 9’s. Here’s a few Thanksgiving links to bring you some smiles.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Cookies or Bakies?
Mmmmmm, It’s coming into winter here in the Midwest and that means BAKING or making cookies…wait…cookies? You bake them right? Shouldn’t they be bakies?
This was just a random smartass post I made on Facebook. You’ll realize as time goes by that I spend a LOT of time on Facebook and many of my random thoughts make their way to my profile.
So after I made the comment I decided to go and check it out. A quick little search through a basic search engine(BTW I HATE BING) brought me to an answer page. As it turns out that the origin of the word “cookie” is actually the Dutch word “koekje”. I don’t speak Dutch….so , how in the world did that end up as cookie? Looking at the pronunciation the Dutch “oe” sounds like the “oo” in English, so Koek is pretty simply; cook. The latter part is a little more difficult, the e at the end is like the e in butter and the j is more like the consonant letter y. So the “je” is like “yuh”. When you put it together you get Cook-Yuh.
So that’s the basics, but that’s not all. There’s more. The word “koekje” actually means small cake. Cookies are NOT cakes, the texture is different, the flavors are different. They aren’t cakes. I’m fat, I know this. Small Cakes? They would put a small amount of cake batter in an oven to test the oven temperature. So these small cakes that were made to test the oven temps were called Koekjes…Cookies.
In earlier American cookbooks, cookies were given no space of their own but were listed at the end of the cake chapter. They were called by such names as Jumbles, Plunkets, and Cry Babies. The names were extremely puzzling and whimsical
1796 - . In the 1796 cookbook American Cookery: or, The Art of Dressing Viands, Fish, Poultry and Vegetables, and the Best Modes of Making Puff-pastes, Pies, Tarts, Puddings, Custards and Preserves, and all kinds of Cakes, from the Imperial Plumb to plain Cake by Amelia Simmons, she includes two recipes for cookies. One simply called "Cookies" and the other called "Chriftmas Cookey.' This was the first cookbook authored by an American and published in the United States.
Cookies - One pound fugar boiled flowly in half pint of water, fcum well and cool, add 1 tea fpoon perlafh, diffolved in milk, then two and a half pounds of four, rub in 4 ounces of butter, and two large fpoons of finely powdered coriander feed, wet with above; make rolls half an inch thick and cut to the fhape of pleafe; bake fifteen or twenty minutes in a flack oven - good three weeks.
Chriftmas Cookery - To three pound of flour, fprinkle a tea cup of fine powdered coriander feef, rub in one pound of butter, and one and half pound fugar, diffolve one tea fpoonful of pearlath in a tea cup of milk, kneed all together well, roll three quarter of an inch thick, and cut or ftamp into fhape and fize you pleafe, bake flowly fifteen or twenty minutes; tho' hard and dry at firft, if put in an earthern pot, and dry cellar, or damp room, they will be finer, fofter and better when fix months old…….Taken from Whatscookingamerica.com
So technically they are “Bakies” since cookies are koekjes.
This was just a random smartass post I made on Facebook. You’ll realize as time goes by that I spend a LOT of time on Facebook and many of my random thoughts make their way to my profile.
So after I made the comment I decided to go and check it out. A quick little search through a basic search engine(BTW I HATE BING) brought me to an answer page. As it turns out that the origin of the word “cookie” is actually the Dutch word “koekje”. I don’t speak Dutch….so , how in the world did that end up as cookie? Looking at the pronunciation the Dutch “oe” sounds like the “oo” in English, so Koek is pretty simply; cook. The latter part is a little more difficult, the e at the end is like the e in butter and the j is more like the consonant letter y. So the “je” is like “yuh”. When you put it together you get Cook-Yuh.
So that’s the basics, but that’s not all. There’s more. The word “koekje” actually means small cake. Cookies are NOT cakes, the texture is different, the flavors are different. They aren’t cakes. I’m fat, I know this. Small Cakes? They would put a small amount of cake batter in an oven to test the oven temperature. So these small cakes that were made to test the oven temps were called Koekjes…Cookies.
In earlier American cookbooks, cookies were given no space of their own but were listed at the end of the cake chapter. They were called by such names as Jumbles, Plunkets, and Cry Babies. The names were extremely puzzling and whimsical
1796 - . In the 1796 cookbook American Cookery: or, The Art of Dressing Viands, Fish, Poultry and Vegetables, and the Best Modes of Making Puff-pastes, Pies, Tarts, Puddings, Custards and Preserves, and all kinds of Cakes, from the Imperial Plumb to plain Cake by Amelia Simmons, she includes two recipes for cookies. One simply called "Cookies" and the other called "Chriftmas Cookey.' This was the first cookbook authored by an American and published in the United States.
Cookies - One pound fugar boiled flowly in half pint of water, fcum well and cool, add 1 tea fpoon perlafh, diffolved in milk, then two and a half pounds of four, rub in 4 ounces of butter, and two large fpoons of finely powdered coriander feed, wet with above; make rolls half an inch thick and cut to the fhape of pleafe; bake fifteen or twenty minutes in a flack oven - good three weeks.
Chriftmas Cookery - To three pound of flour, fprinkle a tea cup of fine powdered coriander feef, rub in one pound of butter, and one and half pound fugar, diffolve one tea fpoonful of pearlath in a tea cup of milk, kneed all together well, roll three quarter of an inch thick, and cut or ftamp into fhape and fize you pleafe, bake flowly fifteen or twenty minutes; tho' hard and dry at firft, if put in an earthern pot, and dry cellar, or damp room, they will be finer, fofter and better when fix months old…….Taken from Whatscookingamerica.com
So technically they are “Bakies” since cookies are koekjes.
The Origins of Pig Sweat
Ok, This should be interesting. This is going to be my first attempt at doing a blog type thing. I don’t really know what if any format I should use? My purpose? Well, I find myself to possess either knowledge of weird things or at least a thirst for knowledge that leads me to look up random and abstract things. I enjoy educating others on this random world I live in.
My muse for this relates to one time when one of my Facebook Friends posted that they were Sweating like a Pig. Well, I learned from my son and his FFA projects that Pigs, in fact, do NOT sweat. They don’t have sweat glands. This fact is what contributes to them having the problem of getting sunburned easily and why they take to rolling in the mud to cover their body. Nature’s sunscreen so to speak. But I digress.
Now, it would be enough for most people to simply know that Pigs don’t sweat, but I had to find out where the phrase came from. So I looked it up.
Turns out that when they smelt iron ore they pour it into a series of channels that are made into sand, the channels, or runners, off the main channel resemble a series of piglets suckling on a sow, so the result of the process was termed “pig Iron”. As the iron cools the air reaches it’s dew point and starts condensing droplets of water on the iron. This meant the iron was at a safe temperature to move. Pig Iron is basically so brittle that it is useless, it can be further processed to make wrought iron, cast iron or steel.
So there ya have it. Next time you say you are sweating like a pig, you really mean you have cooled down and are ready to move.
My muse for this relates to one time when one of my Facebook Friends posted that they were Sweating like a Pig. Well, I learned from my son and his FFA projects that Pigs, in fact, do NOT sweat. They don’t have sweat glands. This fact is what contributes to them having the problem of getting sunburned easily and why they take to rolling in the mud to cover their body. Nature’s sunscreen so to speak. But I digress.
Now, it would be enough for most people to simply know that Pigs don’t sweat, but I had to find out where the phrase came from. So I looked it up.
Turns out that when they smelt iron ore they pour it into a series of channels that are made into sand, the channels, or runners, off the main channel resemble a series of piglets suckling on a sow, so the result of the process was termed “pig Iron”. As the iron cools the air reaches it’s dew point and starts condensing droplets of water on the iron. This meant the iron was at a safe temperature to move. Pig Iron is basically so brittle that it is useless, it can be further processed to make wrought iron, cast iron or steel.
So there ya have it. Next time you say you are sweating like a pig, you really mean you have cooled down and are ready to move.
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