Rising from the foothills of western North Carolina and Virginia, the Pee Dee River courses some 430 miles before entering the Winyah Bay and Atlantic Ocean near Georgetown, South Carolina. In its upper reaches where it is known as the Yadkin River, this system supplies drinking water to Winston-Salem, High Point and other Piedmont communities. Six large hydroelectric dams punctuate 60 miles of the river in central North Carolina. The river’s name changes to the Pee Dee at its confluence with the Uwharrie River just above the Duke Energy Tillery Hydroelectric Project. More than 100,000 acres of federally-protected land lie adjacent to the river comprising the Uwharrie National Forest, Pee Dee National Wildlife Refuge and Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge. Migratory fish, including shad, striped bass, eel and sturgeon, ascend the river from the ocean to complete their lifecycles. The robust redhorse, a rare fish that is the largest sucker species native to East Coast rivers, was first discovered here in the 1860s. Many species of both endangered and common freshwater mussels can be found feeding on organic matter flowing across the river’s bottom. https://www.americanrivers.org/endangered-rivers/2016-pee-dee/
Frog eye salad is a sweet contradiction. Definitely not made of frog eyes, and not your average lettuce-based salad, this sweet, creamy side dish is a beloved treat in the United States’ Rocky Mountain region. A particular favorite among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, frog eye salad is a staple of Mormon potlucks, cookouts, funerals, and holidays. It’s especially beloved on Thanksgiving, claiming the top spot in online Thanksgiving recipe searches in Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, and Utah in 2014. So if it’s made of neither frogs nor lettuce, what exactly is this salad? The crucial ingredients are a small pasta, normally acini de pepe, an egg custard, whipped cream or Cool Whip, and canned fruits. Cooks beat the egg and heat it with pineapple juice, sugar, salt, and flour until it begins to thicken. The resulting custard is combined with the cooked pasta, refrigerated until thick, and mixed with whipped cream and canned fruit. The pudding then gets topped with marshmallows and shredded coconut. While the exact origin of the dish’s unorthodox name is unknown, the most popular theory is that the tiny spheres of the acini de pepe pasta resembled frogs’ eyes to a creative early proponent of the dish. While it’s tempting to characterize this dish as a dessert akin to rice pudding, its true categorization in any meal depends—like its sister sweet, snickers salad—on its placement on the buffet table. While frog eye salad may be the most originally named of the bunch, it’s one of many sweet side salads to grace the American potluck table, including cookie salad, pretzel salad, and glorified rice. https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/frog-eye-salad
deacon-seat noun A long settee used by lumbermen in camp. The bench in front of the sleeping-bunks in a logging-camp. https://definition.org/define/deacon-seat/
The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum officially opened to the public on February 1st, 2019. Link to history, collection, news and much more at https://www.bobbleheadhall.com/visit-us/ Located in Milwaukee, the museum is closed due to coronavirus as of this writing.
Only a handful of suffrage cookbooks survive. Published by various organizations within or supportive of the suffrage movement, there are eight if you count two pamphlets, six if you do not. Any others are lost to us. The first known suffrage cookbook was published in 1886, almost 40 years after the Seneca Falls Convention, and the last two came out in 1916, four years before the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. Some of the cookbooks have a listed editor, while others do not. They range from a small pamphlet with only 15 baking recipes (if indeed you count that as a cookbook) to a tome with hundreds of pages and recipes that cover every course making up an elaborate meal, and every meal and snack from dawn to dusk. The books come from both coasts and the Midwest. Viewed together, they form a roadmap through America’s changing tastes and times over the 30-year span between the first and last suffrage cookbooks. Suffragists saw an opportunity and they took it. Building on two concurrent developments in American cookbooks: the popularity of the breakout volume now known as the Fannie Farmer cookbook and the growth of community cookbooks, they created their own cookbooks to gain entry into the home. Laura Kumin Find pictures and a poem at https://lithub.com/on-turn-of-the-century-suffrage-cookbooks-trojan-horse-for-womens-equality/
A balaclava,
also known as a balaclava helmet or Bally (UK slang)
or ski mask (US slang), is a form of cloth headgear designed to
expose only part of the face, usually the eyes and mouth. Depending on style and how it is worn, only
the eyes, mouth and nose, or just the front of the face are unprotected. Versions with a full face opening may be
rolled into a hat to cover the crown of the head or folded down as a collar around the neck. This
type of headgear was known in the 19th century as an Uhlan cap or a Templar cap.
The name comes from their use at
the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War of 1854, referring to the town near Sevastopol in
the Crimea, where
British troops there wore knitted headgear to keep warm. Handmade
balaclavas were sent over to the British troops to help protect them from the bitter cold weather. British troops required this aid, as their
own supplies (warm clothing, weatherproof quarters, and food) never arrived in
time. According to Richard Rutt in his History of Handknitting, the
name "balaclava helmet" was not used during the war but appears much
later, in 1881. See pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balaclava_(clothing)
The introduction of cheese to the Korean diet is traced back to 1958, when a Belgian priest came to Imsil in the Jeollabuk-do region as a missionary, where he raised goats and started to make his own cheese. The governor of Imsil asked him to teach the skill to the whole community. And so Imsil became the mecca of cheese in Korea. The Imsil Cheese Theme Park, opened in 2004, is a cheese heaven where you can learn about, make, and eat the delightful dairy, ride down the slide past the goats to the Cheese Playland, and stroll the walkways checking out the cheese-wheel buildings and various cartoon statues that dot the park. The park has a few “cheese experience” centers where you can make cheese, a milk processing factory, a local specialty shop, two restaurants, and a science lab that researches different methods for making the best cheese. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/imsil-cheese-theme-park
WORD OF THE DAY FOR DECEMBER 18 diasporal adj Pertaining to a diaspora. diasporal n (chemistry, medicine) A diluted colloidal solution of some compound. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/diasporal#English
December 18 is International Migrants Day, which is recognized by the United Nations to emphasize the importance of treating migrants with respect, and the need to strengthen mechanisms to protect them.
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