Duncan Hines (1880–1959) was an American author and food critic who produced restaurant ratings for travelers. He branched out to marketing food under his name, which continues as a brand in the present. Hines was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky, the son of a former Confederate soldier. His mother died when he was four years old, and he was raised by his grandmother. Hines attended Bowling Green Business University, which later merged with what is now Western Kentucky University. He worked in the American West for Wells Fargo and other companies before settling in Chicago, Illinois. Hines worked as a traveling salesman for a Chicago printer, and he had eaten many meals on the road across the United States by 1935 when he was 55. At this time, there was no American interstate highway system and only a few chain restaurants, except in large populated areas. Therefore, travelers depended on local restaurants. Hines and his wife Florence began assembling a list for friends of several hundred good restaurants around the country. The list became popular and he began selling the paperback book Adventures in Good Eating (1935), highlighting restaurants and their featured dishes that Hines had personally enjoyed in locations across the United States. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_Hines
The Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra, wasn’t just a talented singer—he was also a celebrated home cook. He and his wife Barbara even put together a cookbook called The Sinatra Celebrity Cookbook, proceeds from which support Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center, a California-based organization that aims to prevent child abuse and support children who’ve experienced abuse or are at risk for abuse. After encouragement from their friends, the couple decided to compile their favorite recipes from their own collection, which the book describes as "strongly Italiano, fine combinations of classic presentations and modern short cuts." The book also includes recipes from their famous friends, which includes the likes of American politicians, pop stars, actors and famous chefs. It has recipes for all of the main food categories you could want in a cookbook, including appetizers, pasta, side dishes and dessert and, with its own section, Mexican-inspired favorites. Celebrities such as Kirk Douglas, Gene Kelly and Katherine Hepburn contributed, but one standout addition is the recipe for the Sinatras’ own "famous" marinara sauce. The recipe titled Sinatra Marinara Sauce has just five ingredients: fresh garlic, an onion, canned tomatoes, basil and oregano—plus olive oil, salt and pepper. https://www.eatingwell.com/frank-sinatra-famous-marinara-sauce-recipe-11975427
The phrase fit as a fiddle dates back to the 1600s in British English, but had a slightly different meaning then. The word fit had as its primary meaning ‘well-suited, apt for a particular purpose’. The violin was picked out as the exemplar because of the alliteration of fit and fiddle, and because the violin is a beautifully shaped instrument producing a very particular sound. But then fit came to mean ‘in good physical shape’ and so fit as a fiddle came to mean ‘in good condition physically’. Phrases such as this give rise to wordplay of a sort where we find new and surprising examples with which to round them out. So fit as a flea came into they escaped into the mallee. We are talking about the Victorian mallee in being. Again the alliteration. It is possible there was the humorous notion that a flea had to be very fit to show off such tremendous jumping ability. In the Australian context we produced fit as a mallee bull, and here the example was a real one in the sense that only tough beasts could survive if this instance which was mostly dry and offered very little sustenance to a roaming bull. https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/fit-as-a-fiddle/ Thank you, reader.
Mention “white horses” to most equestrians, and they’ll correct you that the vast majority of seemingly white horses are actually grey, typically born dark and growing greyer as they age. However, there is another type of white horse that has remained the same colour for millennia. Around Britain, the shape of horses have been carved into chalky hillsides, creating large white horses visible from miles around. The south-west of England has more white horses than anywhere else in the world, thanks to the chalky soil and rolling terrain that makes it so suitable for viewing this rural art. And contrary to oft-held opinion, most of Britain’s chalk horses are not prehistoric--the majority of the ones we can still see today were cut in the past 250 years. Carved into Britain’s hills, there are 16 official white horse figures--known as geolyphs, large designs formed on the ground using elements of the landscape. There are also many more that have been lost over the years, as they require regular maintenance to keep their form, as well as small replicas. There’s even a word coined to describe the art of carving white horses into chalk upland areas: “leucipotomy”. https://www.horseandhound.co.uk/features/white-chalk-horses-791313
Feedback from a reader: As for Tristram Coffin, a more recent member of his family made it into Doonesbury as the character Rev. Scot Sloan. Tristram Coffin is William Sloane Coffin's great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather (8th great-grandfather). See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sloane_Coffin
Renowned clergyman and civil rights leader William Sloane Coffin (WSC) was the first cousin of legendary record producer John Henry Hammond. John Hammond is the music industry executive who famously discovered and signed Bob Dylan to Columbia Records in 1961. WSC Sr. created the MacDougal-Sullivan Gardens housing where Bob Dylan later purchased a home. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacDougal%E2%80%93Sullivan_Gardens_Historic_District
June 7, 2026
