I dub thee Sir Loin...

Legend has it that King Charles II loved a certain cut of steak so much that he dubbed it "Sir Loin", and that's how sirloin steaks got the name. Actually, sirloin comes from the Middle French word for the steak, surlong. Eventually surlong evolved into surloin, and in the eighteenth century emerged as sirloin.

Happy Black Friday

Today is the day after Thanksgiving, and that means it's the official first day of the Christmas shopping season. Black Friday is notorious as the biggest shopping day of the year, although the Saturday before Christmas is usually actually busier.

Perhaps Black Friday seems like the busiest day because people line up outside of stores or elbow their way through shops to snatch and grab at the best deals. PS3s are supposed to be the hottest item this year. The term "Black Friday" surfaced in the 1970s because retail and transportation workers hate to deal with all of the stressed-out shoppers the day brings out.

As for me, the deals certainly are not good enough to fight the crowds. Good luck if you go shopping this weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving!

In 1789, President George Washington declared November 26th to be Thanksgiving Day and issued a national Thanksgiving Proclamation for the country's having "been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed...." However, the holiday didn't really catch on at first. Over the next 30 years, only 6 Thanksgiving Proclamations were issued.

In a few years, though, a woman named Sarah Josepha Hale began lobbying for a national holiday of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday in November. She wrote editorials in the popular Godey's Lady's Book until President Abraham Lincoln made her wish come true. Since the establishment of the holiday in 1863, the Presidency has issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation every year.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Sunday Bloody Sunday is more than a U2 song. Bloody Sunday was an actual event that happened on November 21, 1920, in Dublin, Ireland. On that morning, 14 British agents in the Irish War for Independence were killed by the Irish Republican Army. That afternoon, British soldiers opened fire at a Gaelic football game, killing 15 civilians. There were other random shootings that day as well.

The British and Irish are pretty peaceful today, even in Northern Ireland where there has been conflict up until recent years. Bloody Sunday is being commemorated this year by Dublin and Tipperary in Clonmel with a Gaelic football rematch.

Somewhere Over the....

Perhaps the most famous legend about rainbows is that Leprechauns hide their gold at the end of the rainbow. This is impossible, of course, as rainbows are only an optical illusion and move with the viewer.

The Greeks believed that rainbows were streaks made by the messenger Iris as she traveled between heaven and earth. In fact, the Spanish word for rainbow is arcoiris.

Chinese mythology states that rainbows happen when the goddess Nüwa seals up a rip in the sky using five different colored stones. For Hindus, lightning is the thunder god's bow. In Christian lore, the rainbow was God's promise to Noah that he wouldn't need the ark anymore.

Wake Up!

Here's the caffeine content per serving of various drinks:

coffee 115 to 175 mg caffeine (per 7 oz.)
decaf coffee 5 mg (6 oz.)
espresso 100 mg (1.5-2 oz.)
black tea 70 mg (6 oz.)
green tea 35 mg (6 oz.)
Coca-Cola Classic 34 mg (12 oz.)
Diet Coke 45 mg (12 oz.)
Mountain Dew 55 mg (12 oz.)
Dr Pepper 41 mg (12 oz.)
Pepsi 38 mg (12 oz.)
Red Bull 80 mg (8.3 oz.)
Powershot 100 mg (1 oz.)

Something with a little bite...

I love spicy food. The chemical that causes your mouth to burn so is called capsaicin, and it is only found in chili peppers. Originally used to help preserve meat, capsaicin has other uses besides livening up your tacos. Capsaicin is the active ingredient in pepper spray, some arthritis medicines, and some garden pest sprays. Research suggests that capsaicin may also fight cancer.