Hardtack (or hard tack) is a type of dense cracker made from flour, water, and sometimes salt.  Hardtack is very inexpensive and long-lasting, allowing it to be used for sustenance in the absence of perishable foods. It is commonly used during long sea voyages, land migrations, and military campaigns.  Along with salt pork and corned beef, hardtack was a standard ration for many militaries and navies from the 17th to the early 20th centuries.  The name is derived from "tack", the British sailor slang for food.  The earliest use of the term recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1830.   It is known by other names including brewis (possibly a cognate with "brose"), cabin bread, pilot bread, sea biscuit, soda crackers, sea bread (as rations for sailors), ship's biscuit, and pejoratively as dog biscuits, molar breakers, sheet iron, tooth dullers, Panzerplatten ("armor plates"; Germany) and worm castles.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardtack    

A rusk is a hard, dry biscuit or a twice-baked bread.   It is sometimes used as a teether for babies.   In some cultures, rusk is made of cake rather than bread:  this is sometimes referred to as cake rusk.  In the UK, the name also refers to a wheat-based food additive.   In Argentina, rusk is called tostadas de mesa (literally 'table toasts'), slices of twice-baked bread generally available in supermarkets in plain and sweetened variants.  Cake rusk is called bay biscuit; its ingredients are egg, sugar, oil, self-rising flour, and vanilla.  See other variations at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusk    

Possessing nearly unparalleled technical facility, a brilliant ear for tonal color, and innovative programming style, Peter Richard Conte is one the most admired “orchestral” organists of this era.  Appointed in 1989 as the fourth Wanamaker Grand Court Organist and presiding over the world’s largest fully functioning musical instrument (29,000 pipes) at the Wanamaker Building in downtown Philadelphia, Mr. Conte is a masterful and enthralling performer, arranger of jaw-dropping organ transcriptions, and creatively astute silent film accompanist who is equally at home with a work by Franck or accompanying a Charlie Chaplin film.  https://concertartists.com/artists/peter-richard-conte/    

A babka, or an Ugat Shmarim is a sweet braided cake or viennoiserie that originated in the Jewish communities of Poland and Western Ukraine.  It is popular in Israel where it is known as a yeast cake.  It is also popular in the Jewish diaspora.  It is prepared with a yeast-leavened dough that is rolled out and spread with a filling such as chocolate, cinnamon, fruit, or cheese, then rolled up and braided before baking.  Babka developed in Poland and next in the Jewish communities of Central and Eastern Europe in the early 19th century.  Extra challah dough was rolled up with fruit jam or cinnamon and baked as a loaf alongside the challah.  Chocolate was not originally used, as it was not generally available; the chocolate babka was likely a mid-20th century American development.  Its name (though not necessarily the dish itself) may be related to a type of Easter cake popular in Poland and Ukraine known as baba or the diminutive babka, which means "grandmother", related to the Yiddish bubbe.  Although the Polish and Ukrainian babka are mutually synonymous with their Jewish counterparts, the appearance and preparation of each babka is drastically different.  The Eastern European babka is known for its tall, stout, fluted sides formed in a traditional pan, and reminiscent of a grandma's skirt.  In comparison, the variant introduced by émigrés to New York consists of strands of rich yeasted dough interwoven and baked in a loaf tin.  Thank you, reader.   

The official Oxford Word of the Year 2025 is rage bait.  Rage bait is defined as “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media content”.  With 2025’s news cycle dominated by social unrest, debates about the regulation of online content, and concerns over digital wellbeing, our experts noticed that the use of rage bait this year has evolved to signal a deeper shift in how we talk about attention—both how it is given and how it is sought after—engagement, and ethics online.  The word has tripled in usage in the last 12 months.  Rage bait was first used online in a posting on Usenet in 2002 as a way to designate a particular type of driver reaction to being flashed at by another driver requesting to pass them, introducing the idea of deliberate agitation.  The word then evolved into internet slang used to describe viral tweets, often to critique entire networks of content that determine what is posted online, like platforms, creators, and trends.    

December 3, 2025

The pinto bean is a variety of common bean.  In Spanish they are called frijoles pintos.  It is the most popular bean by crop production in Northern Mexico and the Southwestern United States, and is most often eaten whole (sometimes in broth), or mashed and then fried.  Prepared either way, it is a common filling for burritos, tostadas, or tacos in Mexican cuisine, also as a side or as part of an entrée served with a side tortilla or sopapilla in New Mexican cuisine.  In South America, it is known as the poroto frutilla, literally "strawberry bean".   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinto_bean#   

Pinto bean recipe   https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016030-a-big-pot-of-simmered-pintos    

bespoke  Deborah Tannen, a Georgetown University linguistics professor, told The New York Times that "Americans associate it with the British upper class", adding that the word for Americans tapped into "our individualism.  We want everything made specially for us.  Even when it comes to salad bars."  As of 2012, there were 39 applications using the term bespoke at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, with half of those having been filed only in the previous 18 months.  The Wall Street Journal said that the term had started to proliferate in corporations and among investors a few years before that.  A writer in The Independent said that consumers no longer wanted to "keep up with the Joneses", but wanted to set themselves apart, saying that the bespoke drive was anti-tradition, and about a desire to be different rather than identify collectively with others.   Newsweek described the word as "monstrously distorted, abused and otherwise mangled into near meaninglessness", saying that anything can now be labeled "bespoke".  The same Newsweek writer used the word as a verb to describe ordering a custom-made pair of glasses ("bespeaking a pair of spectacles").  One French bespoke shirtmaker was said to offer 400 shades of white, to satisfy vendor-customer relationships and desire for custom-made items.  The New York Times devoted an article to bespoke cocktails, which they described as "something devised on the spot to a customer's precise and sometimes peculiar specifications".  In another article, The New York Times described bespoke perfumes' taking the "world of personalization to an entirely new level".  A 2016 article in The New York Times describes a satirical video about bespoke water and observed:   "The B word has become an increasingly common branding lure employed by interior design companies, publishers, surgeons and pornographers.  There are bespoke wines, bespoke software, bespoke vacations, bespoke barber shops, bespoke insurance plans, bespoke yoga, bespoke tattoos, even bespoke medical implants."   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bespoke   Thank you, reader.    

In Ancient Greek Theatre, there is an interesting similarity among the plays written during that time: there is always a chorus included.  Nowadays most people would associate a chorus with musicals, but playwrights like Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles included a chorus in their regular plays.  The chorus consisted of a group of 12 to 50 players who spoke or sang their lines in unison, wore masks, and functioned as one actor rather than a large group of many performers.  The purpose of the Greek chorus was to provide background and summary information to the audience to help them understand what was going on in the performance.  They commented on themes, expressed what the main characters couldn’t say (like secrets, thoughts, and fears) and provided other characters with information and insights.  Because Greek theatres were so large, the members of the chorus had to work hard to look and sound like one person.  Their diction and lines had to be presented crisply and clearly so the entire audience could easily hear them.  Their gestures were overly exaggerated.  Frequently a chorus leader, called a coryphaeus, would aid with comprehension.  https://www.theatrefolk.com/blog/exploring-greek-chorus   

A beef on weck is a sandwich found primarily in Western New York State, particularly in the city of Buffalo.  It is made with roast beef on a kummelweck roll, a roll that is topped with kosher salt and caraway seeds.  The meat on the sandwich is traditionally served rare, thin cut, with the top bun getting a dip in jus and spread with horseradish.  The sandwich, along with Buffalo wings and sponge candy, is one of the three best-known food specialties of Buffalo.   The origin and history of the beef on weck sandwich is not well established but is thought to predate the 1960s development of Buffalo wings by approximately a century.   It is believed that a German baker named William Wahr, who is thought to have immigrated from the Black Forest region of Germany, created the kummelweck roll while living in Buffalo, New York.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef_on_weck    

November 26, 2025

Honeycomb toffee, honeycomb candy, sponge toffee, cinder toffee, seafoam, or hokey pokey is a sugary toffee with a light, rigid, sponge-like texture.  Its main ingredients are typically brown sugar (or corn syrup, molasses or golden syrup) and baking soda, sometimes with an acid such as vinegar.  The baking soda and acid react to form carbon dioxide which is trapped in the highly viscous mixture. When acid is not used, thermal decomposition of the baking soda releases carbon dioxide.  The sponge-like structure is formed while the sugar is liquid, then the toffee sets hard.  Owing to its relatively simple recipe and quick preparation time, in some regions it is often made at home, and is a popular recipe for children.  It is also made commercially and sold in small blocks, or covered in chocolate, a popular example being the Crunchie bar of Britain and Canada, or the Violet Crumble of Australia.  Find a list of honeycomb toffee known by  a variety of names at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeycomb_toffee   

Funeral March of a Marionette is a short piece by Charles Gounod.  It was originally written for solo piano in 1872 and orchestrated in 1879.  It is perhaps best known as the theme music for the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents.  While residing in London, England, between 1871 and 1872, Gounod started to write a suite for piano called Suite burlesque.  After completing this piece, Gounod abandoned the rest of the suite.  The piece was dedicated to Madame Viguier, a pianist and the wife of Alfred Viguier, the first violin in the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire.  In 1879, he orchestrated the piece with piccolo, flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in A, 2 bassoons, 2 horns in D, 2 trumpets in A, 3 trombones, ophicleide, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, and strings. The work is in the key of D minor with a central section in D major; the time signature is 6/8.   Find the storyline of the "Funeral March of a Marionette" at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funeral_March_of_a_Marionette    

Benjamin Franklin is generally credited with the invention of bifocals.  He decided to saw his lenses in half so he could read the lips of speakers of French at court, the only way he could understand them.  Historians have produced some evidence to suggest that others may have come before him in the invention; however, a correspondence between George Whatley and John Fenno, editor of the Gazette of the United States, suggested that Franklin had indeed invented bifocals, and perhaps 50 years earlier than had been originally thought.  John Isaac Hawkins, the inventor of trifocal lenses, coined the term bifocals in 1824 and credited Benjamin Franklin.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bifocals   

ROUNDS RESOUNDING:  You may sing the songs Three Blind Mice with Are You Sleeping and Row, Row, Row Your Boat with three people or three groups of people at the same time.    

Le droit d'aînesse ("The Birthright") is an opéra bouffe, a form of operetta, in three acts by Francis Chassaigne with a French libretto by Eugène Leterrier and Albert Vanloo.  The story concerns an arranged marriage intended to make a governor's heir, his nephew, an aristocrat.  Through a series of mishaps that place the governor's nephew and his niece each in danger, the niece, Falka, becomes the noble heir.  The opera premiered in Paris in 1883.  An English-language version titled Falka (after the name of the principal female character), with a libretto translated and adapted by Henry Brougham Farnie, was successfully premiered in London later that year followed by productions throughout the English-speaking world.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_droit_d%27a%C3%AEnesse    

November 24, 2025 

Las Vegas was founded as a city in 1905, when 110 acres (45 ha) of land adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks were auctioned in what would become the downtown area.  In 1911, Las Vegas was incorporated as a city.   The year 1931 was pivotal for Las Vegas.  At that time, Nevada legalized casino gambling and reduced residency requirements for divorce to six weeks.   This year also witnessed the beginning of construction of the tunnels of nearby Hoover Dam.  The influx of construction workers and their families helped Las Vegas avoid economic calamity during the Great Depression.  The construction work was completed in 1935.  Las Vegas has a subtropical hot desert climate typical of the Mojave Desert in which it lies.  This climate is typified by long, extremely hot summers; warm transitional seasons; and short winters with mild days and cool nights.  There is abundant sunshine throughout the year, with an average of 310 sunny days and bright sunshine during 86% of all daylight hours.  Rainfall is scarce, with an average of 4.2 in (110 mm) dispersed between roughly 26 total rainy days per year. Las Vegas is among the sunniest, driest, and least humid locations in North America, with exceptionally low dew points and humidity that sometimes remains below 10%.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Vegas

The main cause of “Vegas throat” is dryness although high levels of dust, pollution and pollen play contributing factors.   

The phrase lock, stock, and barrel dates back to the 1800s and refers to the three main components of a musket.  The “lock” is the firing mechanism, the “stock” is the wooden handle or butt, and the “barrel” is the part through which the bullet travels.  Owning all three parts meant possessing the entire musket.  Over time, the idiom evolved to signify having or owning something in its entirety.  Sir Walter Scott first used the phrase in this context in an 1817 letter, stating, “Like the High-landman’s gun, she wants stock, lock, and barrel, to put her into repair.”

Lock, Stock, and Barrel Synonyms

Hook, line, and sinker

Whole hog

The whole kit and caboodle

From A to Z

The whole megillah

Top to bottom

Whole enchilada

The full monty

The whole shebang

From start to finish

https://grammarist.com/idiom/lock-stock-and-barrel/    

Nov. 21, 2025  A self-portrait by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo has become the most valuable work by a female artist sold at auction after selling for $54.7 million.  “El sueño (La cama)” – “The Dream (The Bed)” – grabbed the title at Sotheby’s in New York, after it surpassed the existing record held by the late American artist Georgia O’Keeffe.  Her “Jimson Weed/White Flower No.1,” which had previously hung in the White House, sold for $44.4 million in 2014.  Kahlo’s surrealist self portrait, which was sold by a private collector, had been valued at between $40 million and $60 million.  Another of the Mexican artist’s self portraits “Diego y yo” (Diego and I) previously held the title for second most expensive artwork sold by a female artist after also being auctioned by Sotheby’s, New York, in 2021.  https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/20/style/frida-kahlo-portrait-record-woman-scli-intl   

Two long-lost organ pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach have been performed in Germany, roughly 320 years after the composer wrote them as a teenage music teacher.  Entitled Chaconne in D minor BWV 1178 and Chaconne in G minor BWV 1179, the pieces were added to the official catalogue of Bach’s works on Nov. 17, 2025 and played in public for the first time in three centuries inside Leipzig’s St Thomas Church, where Bach is buried.  Researchers discovered the two anonymous and undated works in the Royal Library of Belgium in 1992, but it wasn’t until recently that they were able to authenticate Bach as their author.   https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/nov/17/lost-js-bach-organ-compositions-performed-for-first-time-in-300-years    

November 21, 2025