National Pistachio Day

What a wonderful day.  A day to celebrate pistacia vera l.  Probably my favorite nut.  Even with my love for the pistachio, I had to learn about this celebratory day from a restaurant place mat.  Once a couple of years ago I entered a drawing to win free pistachios for a year from pistachios.org, but when I look at the site today it seems much different.  Pistachios.com is a site from Arizona, so I know it was .org because they were definitely California pistachios.

I took pistachios to work today and people told me I was a nut.  Good one.  I've put some links below because I know how badly you want to learn about my favorite nut, but my favorite fact is that bulk container shipments of pistachio nuts are prone to self heating and spontaneous combustion because of their high fat and low water content.  Nuts on fire.  Awesome.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pistachio

National Pistachio Day

National Pancake Day

Today is National Pancake Day, so sayeth IHOP.  While many people are assuredly taking advantage of free pancakes, I would like to take this opportunity to cheer for waffles.  While a quick Google search informs me that National Waffle Day is August 24, I simply cannot trust that I will remember to make my point on that day.  

While there are many kinds of pancakes, my beef is with the American pancake, the hotcake, the griddlecake, the flapjack.  While I love baked German pancakes, thin Swedish pancakes and even potato pancakes, I do not share this love with our American version.  For some reason, our misguided sense of pancake perfection is usually associated with fluffiness.  This fluffiness quickly turns to sponginess with the addition of the usual syrup.  While I understand that flapjacks are sometimes thinner and crispier than a regular pancake, the lack of texture quickly bores me.  The Swedish pancake is thinner, more resembling a crepe, and you'd be hard pressed to recognize a the German variety as a pancake at all, but both of these are superior.

Waffles, on the other hand, are pure breakfast perfection.  The crispy exterior is well suited to stand up to the popular toppings.  Waffles can hold up to ingredients from ice cream to fried chicken.  Try that with pancakes.  Years ago I once had friends over for a birthday breakfast so we could feast on waffles instead of birthday cake.  Strangely, while we are often forced to settle for pancake feeds, and other places that may have pancakes but no waffles, hotels are one of the few places where there is a waffle option without pancakes.  I like to think the hotels are sticking it to the pancake industry, even if I know better.  Stranger still, these are usually Belgian waffles, which were created for the 1964 World's Fair in New York, but aren't actually made by Belgians.  Believe it.  Look it up if you want to.

Pancakes usually get first mention when it comes to breakfast food, but it's waffles that should receive all the glory.  Waffle cones are the premium ice cream cones.  Nike's first original design was based on liquid urethane and a waffle iron.  Have extra waffles?  No problem.  Try putting a frozen pancake in the toaster and tell me how that works out.  

Last but not least, I must mention that I don't for a second believe that all waffles are created equal.  Eggo waffles are not special.  You've got to make your own.  That's where the magic happens.

Bag vs. Box

I guess it's less about the package than it is the contents, but let's compare cereal and chips.  When you get to the bottom of a bag of chips, it's kind of a nuisance how the bag is filled with chip crumbs.  The mess factor really jumps up a few notches, and forget about adding any dip or salsa at that point.  Once you've gone that far you put the chips on the dip instead of the other way around.  I've never had a bag of chips that didn't end up like this.  Wait, I hear the Pringles complaining.  It's true that Procter & Gamble have a bit of a novel package, but it's the exception, not the rule.  

Cereal.  Still in a bag, but that bag is usually placed in a box.  I don't care.  I like my cereal crumbly.  There's almost magic in the bottom of the box.  Maybe it's just a little extra frosting off the Mini Wheats, but I almost get excited as the box empties, and I see the crumbs rushing towards the bowl.  It's exhilarating.  Surely you've experienced this, as well.  What's great is that it's almost always a little surprise.  It's not 100%.  Grape Nuts and granola are a little sneaky.  That's good.  It keeps you from taking the crumbs for granted.

Straight Dope

As both of you who have read my blog may realize, I'm a big fan of Wikipedia.  It has become my go-to site when I need to learn something in a hurry.  But there are other times when the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit leaves me disappointed.  Fortunately www.straightdope.com has been there to pick up the slack, not only to inform me, but to entertain me.  

My first example of how I love straightdope.com comes from last August.  Los Angeles traffic being unpredictable as it is, I arrived quite early to a wedding where I only knew the bride.  There were a couple of familiar faces, but certainly no friends, so I tried to pass time on the fringes, watching pigeons in the shade.  I hate pigeons, but found myself watching their ridiculous head bobbing as they walked.  Being fascinated by movement, I wondered why the head bob seemed so excessive.  Surely this couldn't just be a balancing function.  Loving my Blackberry as much as I hate pigeons, I asked Google why pigeons bob their heads so much when they walk.  Second amongst the results was a link to a straight dope answer.  Following this link I found explanations ranging from balance, which I didn't buy, to assisting with depth perception due to their monocular vision.  Birds with forward facing eyes share our binocular vision, but probably not the neurosis that accompanies it.  The entertainment was great, as even the pigeons got to weigh in on why they did it (it feels good).

This last holiday season I was at a cooking demonstration at the Culinary Institute of America, and found myself wondering what was going on with the chef's outfits.  Once again Wikipedia left me sorely disappointed, and straightdope.com was there to pick up the slack.  No longer did I have to believe that a chef's hat was only to keep hair out of food.  I still think chef's hats are absurd, but they've got some history over the hairnet.  

I especially like that on the straight dope website, there is an option to search a random article from the archives.  I couldn't believe all the things I never knew I was interested in!  It's worth bookmarking the site for those inevitable waiting times.  If there is a downside to the straight dope, I will have to admit that I've spent an entire church service reading straight dope articles, and never heard a single word of the sermon.  It's that good--and bad.  I would tell you more about it, but I expect both of you to rush right over to www.straightdope.com and check it out for yourselves.

You're welcome.

Showtime

I hate to be late to the movies.  Really hate it.  I understand I'm kind of anal in that regard, but I've got my reasons.  To sum it up, I hate rushing, love previews, and am pretty fond of a good seat.  Some of my friends have a fairly relaxed attitude towards arrival times, and this drives me crazy.  I try not to be a killjoy and talk about it in the moment, but it seems so absurd to think you're going to roll over to the theater on a Saturday night and magically roll up, purchase as ticket and grab four seats together just as the movie is starting.  How many countless times have I been sitting there thinking, "I told you so!" while sitting way up front, split apart from the larger group?  Okay, I could probably count the times, but it doesn't weaken my point.  I just went to the movies last night and was all alone in the theater ten minutes before the previews started.  Of course this time I drove myself and relaxed while my friends scurried in later.  

While we're talking about it, why do we need to go to movies with people?  Why do people give me an incredulous look when they learn I went to a movie by myself?  Don't we get mad when people are talking in the theater?  As I see it, the solo movie goers are the most responsible and considerate of all.  Going to a restaurant by yourself isn't cool.  Going to the movies by yourself is awesome.