There is a bit of controversy as to when the ice cream soda first appeared, apparently in the 1870s, and who gets credit for it.  However, there’s no dispute that the bevy of lovely ladies enjoying drinks at a soda fountain by artist Clarence F. Underwood appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post on July 27, 1912.  Under the cuter-than-the-law-should allow category, a small boy and girl at the soda fountain on the June 6, 1936, cover face a predicament:  He can’t find his money.  Look at his face, and tell us you don’t want to pinch his cheek.  Rockwell’s teenage soda jerk seems much more interested in the female customers than in serving up ice cream, but definitely more interested in the ice cream than the girl is the black and white dog intently watching the melting ice cream illustrated by Ellen Pyle on the August 12, 1922 cover.  Cover artists were apparently fond of melting ice cream, as we see in two covers:  Rockwell’s boy of July 13, 1940, and Stevan Dohanos’ girl with two hands full of cones on the July 29, 1944 cover.  See pictures of ten Saturday Evening Post covers at:  http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2009/07/04/art-entertainment/art-and-artists/ice-cream-soda-fountain-covers.html

Ice cream, one of the most spectacularly successful of all the foods based on dairy products, has a comparatively short history.  The first ice creams, in the sense of an iced and flavoured confection made from full milk or cream, are thought to have been made in Italy and then in France in the 17th century, and to have been diffused from the French court to other European countries.  However, although the French did make some ice creams from an early date, they were more interested in water ices.  The first recorded English use of the term ice cream (also given as iced cream) was by Ashmole (1672), recording among dishes served at the Feast of St George at Windsor in May 167I ‘One Plate of Ice Cream’.  The first published English recipe was by Mrs Mary Eales (1718).  Read much more at:  http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/07/i-scream-you-scream/

We all know the words. “I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!”  Well, we know that much, at least.  The song was actually recorded in 1929 by a group called “Waring’s Pennsylvanians.”  As the name implies, the band was from Pennsylvania (the founder and leader attended Penn State) and included as many as 12 members.  In the video below (this is a real treat for ice cream fans), you can hear the ode to ice cream in its entirety.  The “frog-voiced drummer,” so called in this article on the band, became popular after this song was released and was known to play melodies on his teeth!  For those who want to sing along, the complete lyrics can be found here.  http://icecreamjournal.turkeyhill.com/index.php/2010/12/13/the-history-of-the-i-scream-you-scream-song/

Majorca or Mallorca  It is claimed locally that Christopher Columbus was born in Felanitx, Mallorca and named the first island he discovered San Salvador after the hill in his native land.  Other claims to fame in the area are wine and "green pearls"--capers.

Time Out Mallorca & Menorca: And Menorca By Time Out, p. 193

Minorca or Menorca from Latin: Insula Minor, later Minorica "minor island") is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain.  Its name derives from its size, contrasting it with nearby Majorca.  The island is known for its collection of megalithic stone monuments:  navetes, taules and talaiots, which speak of a very early prehistoric human activity.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minorca

Sept. 13, 2010  Earthquake lightning by Philip Duncan

I have to admit, I've never heard of this before - but Earthquake Lights, or "Lightning", is a well documented phenomena.  When I was in the big Christchurch quake two Saturday's ago I noticed three or four brilliant blue flashes that lit up the sky (but didn't light up the city itself, as normal lightning would do).  My first instinct was that it was power transformers exploding.  However on reflection I realised the lights were simply too bright and lit up too much of the night sky.  I had a few comments posted here and at WeatherWatch about the lights being caused by the quake itself.  So I decided to find out - I called GNS (Geological and Nuclear Sciences) in Wellington.  Dr Martin Reyners was the Seismologist I spoke to and he indeed confirmed that what I saw was most likely a direct result of the earth shifting.  Oddly, they hadn't had any other eyewitness reports.  However I'm now starting to hear via my Twitter account that others saw it too.  I suppose most people didn't have a 7th floor view of Christchurch at the time the quake struck so I was in a prime viewing position.  Dr Reyners says with shallow quakes this has been widely documented.  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10673092

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

polylemma  (pol-ee-LEM-uh) noun
A choice involving multiple undesirable options.
From Greek poly- (many) + dilemma, from lemma (proposition).  Earliest documented use:  1856.  
palimpsest  (PAL-imp-sest) noun
1.  A writing surface such as a parchment that has been reused after partially or completely erasing the original text.
2. Something reused but still showing traces of its earlier form.
From Greek palimpsestos, from palin (again) + psestos + (scraped). Earliest documented use:  1661
nineteenth hole  (NYN-TEENTH hol)  noun
The clubhouse or another place, such as a bar or a restaurant, where golfers gather after playing a round.  A standard round of golf has eighteen holes, so the next stop after the game, a bar or a restaurant, is called the nineteenth hole.  A similar term is the fifth quarter in (American) football. Earliest documented use:  1901.
bromide  (BRO-myd)  noun

1.  A tired or meaningless remark.  2.  A tiresome or boring person.

From bromine, from Greek bromos (stench).  Earliest documented use:  1836.   In earlier times, potassium bromide used to be taken as a sedative.  So any statement that was intended to be soothing ("Don't worry, everything will be OK.") acquired the name bromide.  Eventually any commonplace or tired remark and anyone uttering such remarks came to be known as a bromide.
The term was popularized in the title of Gelett Burgess's 1906 book "Are You a Bromide?"  It was to promote this book that Burgess coined the term "blurb".

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nineteenth hole  Ah, but modern golf course design is not only slowing down the game, and scaring off new players, it is also damaging this fine old expression.  More and more really top end clubs include a 19th hole, to settle bets, when contestants finish the normal round tied.  I have personally seen one, and have heard of another half-dozen -- including one 14-hole which is a very odd, one family, golf course, where a "round" is the original 13 holes, and the 14/19th was added for the purpose described above.  Plus, a few courses have added an extra hole, which allows one hole to be taken entirely out of rotation for serious refurbishment.  All that said, I expect 19th hole will keep the meaning described, except at the very few venues described above.   

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Have a taste of Toledo delivered to your door, learn the Polish word of the week--and link to recipes at:  http://www.stanleysmarket.com/ 

The Library of Congress presents the National Jukebox, which makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge.  The Jukebox includes recordings from the extraordinary collections of the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation and other contributing libraries and archives.  See links at upper left for more information at:  http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/