I was all set to tell you that I finally learned how to temper chocolate properly, but that failed (after my white chocolate seized I made it into pudding with blackberry curd on top… a SK recipe, naturally). Maybe next Christmas! Here’s what I did learn in December.
1. Shuttlecocks use only feathers from either the left or right wing of a goose or duck (so the shape is consistent).
2. Arowana fish are the most expensive aquarium fish. Some owners even get plastic surgery for their fish!
3. The symbols for abbreviating feet and inches are called prime (‘) and double prime (”).
4. Studying rocks with my kids so… Rocks are made up of minerals and rocks can be transformed from sedimentary or igneous to metamorphic. For example, calcite makes limestone, which can become marble.
5. Amethyst is simply purple quartz. Rubies and sapphires are the same mineral (corundum), just different colours.
6. “Deck the Halls” began as a Welsh drinking game.
7. Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by an activist who wanted an African-American alternative to Christmas, since he considered Christianity a “White” religion.
8. One folk medicine cure for the common cold in Ancient Rome was wolf liver in mulled wine. (Read more here!)
9. “Weaponized incompetence” is feigning inability to do something to shift responsibility to someone else.
Excellent list of facts so useful to know! Heehee. I love them. I learned that goldfinches lose their bright yellow feathers in the fall and are rather drab like a sparrow over winter. I didn’t even recognize them at the birdfeeder at first.