How Campbell's canned cream of mushroom soup became a Thanksgiving staple by Ashlie D. Stevens Its creation was a natural extension of French béchamel, a velvety sauce made by whisking milk into a roux until the mixture thickens and becomes smooth. However, they were the company that canned and commercialized the product in such a way that it has become a holiday staple, with 50% of their annual sales of cream of mushroom soup taking place between November and January of each year. Founded in 1869 by Joseph A. Campbell and Abraham Anderson in Camden, New Jersey, Campbell's Soup Company began as a small canning business, producing a range of preserved goods such as tomatoes, vegetables, jellies, condiments and soups. A pivotal moment came for the company, and future Thanksgivings across the continent, in 1897 when chemist John T. Dorrance, who was the nephew of a company executive, invented a method to condense soup by removing water, leading to the introduction of condensed soups. https://www.salon.com/2023/11/12/americas-bchamel-how-campbells-canned-cream-of-mushroom-soup-became-a-thanksgiving-staple/
Tania Branigan’s Red Memory: The Afterlives of China’s Cultural Revolution has won the 2023 Cundill History Prize, given annually to a “book that embodies historical scholarship, originality, literary quality, and broad appeal.” The book, published in May by Norton, explores the lingering effects of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution on the lives of Chinese citizens. In a starred review, a Kirkus critic called the book—a finalist for the Kirkus Prize and the Baillie Gifford Prize—“a heartbreaking, revelatory evocation of ‘the decade that cleaved modern China in two.’” Philippa Levine, the chair of the Cundill Prize jury, said, “Haunting and memorable, Tania Branigan’s sensitive study of the impact of the Cultural Revolution on the lives and psyches of an entire generation in China affected every juror, as it will every reader. All of us found ourselves unable to stop thinking about this extraordinary book. All of us were deeply moved by the trauma she so vividly describes and by the skills on which she drew in doing so. This is a must-read.” The Cundill History Prize, presented by McGill University in Montreal, was established in 2008, and comes with a cash prize of $75,000. Previous winners include Anne Applebaum for Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956 and Tiya Miles for All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake. Michael Schaub https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/winner-of-the-cundill-history-prize-is-revealed/
Shohei Ohtani spent 2023 as the most dominant player in the American League, and now he has the award to prove it to top off his magical season. MLB announced that Ohtani was voted the 2023 AL MVP, giving the superstar his second MVP award in the past three seasons. After a solid first three seasons in MLB, Ohtani took off in 2021, when he won his first MVP award, then finished second to Aaron Judge in last year’s voting. Ohtani put up incredible numbers in 2023, leading the league with 44 home runs and a 1.066 OPS, with the latter leading all of baseball. He also started 23 games as a pitcher, accumulating 3.14 ERA and 167 strikeouts in 132 innings pitched. https://www.si.com/mlb/2023/11/16/shohei-ohtani-los-angeles-angels-2023-al-mvp-award
November 17, 2023 The Leonids are usually bright meteors and the shooting stars can even be colourful, according to NASA. They are also some of the fastest meteors, travelling at blistering speeds of around 44 miles per second, the space agency said. The Leonid meteor shower occurs every year in November, as Earth passes through trails of debris from Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. The comet was discovered twice independently—once in 1865 by Ernst Tempel and again in 1866 by Horace Tuttle, hence the name. This year, the Leonid meteor shower started on Nov 3 and is expected to last till Dec 2. But the Leonids will reach their peak this Saturday. If conditions are clear, one can also catch a nice display before dawn Friday or late at night that same day. Between 1:00 am and 4:00 am (local time) Saturday morning, much of the Midwest and parts of the South-eastern United States will have clearer skies, but residents of the West and East coasts will have less visibility of the sky due to rain and cloud cover, according to early forecasts by the National Weather Service. https://www.wionews.com/science/look-up-leonid-meteor-shower-will-peak-this-weekend-heres-when-and-where-to-watch-659608
Sally Darr, Formidable Chef of ’80s-Era French Bistro, Dies at 100 A skilled and self-taught cook of homey French fare, she drew fans (including Julia Child) to her Greenwich Village restaurant for more than a decade. Nestled on the ground floor of a modest brick townhouse on West 13th Street, La Tulipe was a jewel-box of a place, with aubergine walls, a zinc topped bar, rustic French country furniture and barely room for some 15 tables. Ms. Darr served what is known as cooking “à la bonne femme”—classic but simple French dishes like roast chicken with 40 cloves of garlic, as well as her own innovations, like soft shell crab meunière and an extravagant terrine of what seemed like hundreds of layers of smoked tongue and foie gras mousse. From the moment it opened in May 1979, it was a success, earning three stars from Mimi Sheraton of The New York Times, who praised its “small but enticing menu,” the “sheer perfection” of Ms. Darr’s zucchini fritters and her “immaculate” lemon tart. Desserts were Ms. Darr’s forte: She was a skilled pastry chef, and her apricot souffle, shaped like a minaret and served table-side with a dollop of whipped cream flavored with kirsch, was a best seller. Penelope Green https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/16/dining/sally-darr-dead.html
Through others, we become ourselves. - Lev Vygotsky, psychologist (17 Nov 1896-1934)
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