I knew I recognised that face from somewhere

Remember the ball-busting surfer girl in Point Break?

Or the young, pig-tailed chickie starring alongside Geena Davis in A League of their Own?

I spotted the same face (Lori Petty) in Season 2 of Orange is the New Black but this time it bore lines and wrinkles, and a grey buzz cut. Only the distinct high-pitched, somewhat squeaky voice remained the same. You can see the reaction from her costar.

Page turners

About 5-6 years ago I came across a series of books written by Alexander McCall Smith: The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. It was pretty popular at the time and the books were easy to read. There were half a dozen or so books published and I avidly read through all of them, one after the other, until I'd finished the series.

Today I discovered that in those 5-6 years since I read them, he wrote another six novels in the series. Boo-ya! Discovering more volumes in a series of novels you enjoy is right up there with finding a scrunched up $20 in the pocket of your jacket.

It's set in Botswana and the central character is an obese woman who enjoys sticking her nose into everyone's business, usually over a fat piece of cake, to solve little mysteries.

I've also just discovered the BBC has developed a TV series based on the novels but I doubt I'd watch it... it's like my own mental image of Agatha Christie's Poirot is much better than the actor's portrayal.

Although having said that, in my mind Miss Marple is  Angela Lansbury. I guess that's what happens when you see the television version before reading the books

The greatest thing since sliced bread

Sliced bread was first introduced to America by Wonder Bread, after the whiz-band bread slicing machine was developed by a guy named Otto Rohwedder.

Apparently, an article printed about the newfangled machine at the time claimed the typical housewife could expect “a thrill of pleasure when she first sees a loaf of this bread with each slice the exact counterpart of its fellows. So neat and precise are the slices, and so definitely better than anyone could possibly slice by hand with a bread knife that one realizes instantly that here is a refinement that will receive a hearty and permanent welcome.”

The phrase "the greatest/best thing since sliced bread" is attributed to Wonder Bread promotion: "the greatest step... since bread was wrapped.

These days of course, we have sandwich and toast sliced thicknesses - I doubt Otto's machine was sophisticated enough to be adapted to different slicing widths but I could be wrong!

When I was at high school, I worked in a local bakery and sliced many a loaf of bread (both sandwich and toast) using the slicers. I got it down to a fine art but never really stopped to wonder who invented the thing.

A quick Google search shows me secondhand commercial slicers can be purchased on ebay for around $800-900.

A latte is better value for money

The difference between a latte, cappuccino and a flat white? I always knew it came down to the quantities of milk, coffee and froth/foam but I've never been clear on the details. So now I know...

While all three start with a single shot of espresso, only lattes and cappuccinos have milk froth on the top. A flat white (as the name suggests) is filled with steamed milk and no froth. They're mostly enjoyed in Australia and New Zealand.

Order a flat white in a café anywhere in Europe, and the barista will most likely cock their head to one side and shoot you a quizzical "huh?" look that transcends language.

Some of the Brits are catching on simply because of the number of Aussies and Kiwis floating about over there.

But if you want the foam top, you then have the choice between a cappuccino and a latte. The difference between them is the cappuccino has more froth - about twice the volume of milk in the mug. A latte has a much smaller head of froth.

So if you're one of those people who likes to taste milk in their first sip (rather than a mouthful of foam) you'd best steer clear of cappuccinos and order a latte.

Now that's a cool flag

The flag of Estonia looks like this:

Chocolate eclairs are both easy and not-so-easy to make

It turns out the recipe for choux pastry is pretty straightforward (only four ingredients) but baking them (at two different temperatures), piping in the whipped cream and melting the chocolate is pretty fiddly. Oh and even five minutes longer in the oven can totally destroy them.

I no longer fear smashing the microwave plate

Or need worry about cleaning hardened cheese that has melted onto it as a result of a re-heating explosion. Why? Because our kitchen now proudly displays a flatbed (or plate-less) microwave.

According to the guy in the store, they are the next big thing in microwave technology. 

Soon the machines with the turntable plate will be to the flatbeds as the discman is to the MP3 player.

The muscular tongue

The tongue is made up of eight muscles (I won't bother listing here what each of them are called because they're long, complicated words that won't stick in my memory so therefore can't be counted as something I've learnt).

But something else I found out is that the average length of a person's tongue is 10cm when measured from oropharynx - the place in the back of the throat where the tongue begins - to the tip.

That seems pretty darn long to me but I reckon Gene Simmons' tongue is even longer!

The current world record holder for the longest tongue is a guy in California, whose tongue measures 10.1cm from its tip to the middle of his top lip (so, not including all the tongue inside his mouth back to the oropharynx. Crazy.

That's him on the right.

Better than the shoe-phone

If I was a secret agent (a la Maxwell Smart) and had electronic documents I didn't want anyone to find, I'd hide them on this handy USB.

Seriously? Who the hell thought up USB that looks like a tampon? And thought people would want to pay money for it? I can only imagine the reception this entrepreneur would have received on The Shark Tank.

It's not a funny shaped, bald bee after all

I've been watching The Hive on ABC Kids with my young son. It's kind of cute, in a everybody-does-the-right-thing-all-the-time way.

But I'd noticed one of the little bees looked different to the others. He didn't look fuzzy and rather than being nicely spherical he looked kid of pushed out of shape. That's him, second from the right.

His name's Jasper.

I figured it must be the producers attempt at showing physical variety. You know, we all look different, not everyone is the same, and all that.

But today I learned he looks different because he isn't meant to be a bee. He's a wasp!

What are those glasses in my kitchen?

I've got a bunch of random wine glasses in my cupboard. Some look really small and some look really large. I don't seem to have any "normal"sized wine glasses. To tell the truth, I'm not even sure what type of glasses I've got; for all I know, I've been serving white wine in a red wine glass.

So I decided to educate myself. I'm not much a drinker but there's no need to advertise it through this ignorance at dinner parties. Judging from the table below, I reckon I've got some Large Bordeaux and some Standard Sweet glasses. Hmmm...not too impressive.

What's IT called?

The fear of clowns is called coulrophobia. Apparently people find clowns scary because they wear masks and don't show any real emotion (smiles painted on and whatnot).

 

 

Superheroes wear masks and don't tend to show emotion (take Batman's monotone voice as testament) but people don't seem to be afraid of them.

 

Of course not! I hear you say. Superheroes help people. Aren't clowns supposed to entertain people, make them laugh? How is it one good intention can be accepted while another cannot?

Another Google search reveals maskophobia is the fear of masks while metamfiezomaiophobia is the name given to the broader fear of mimes, clowns and people in disguise. I supposed that would include superheroes?
 



James and the Giant Perve?

I was reading the Roald Dahl classic aloud to my little one today when I heard myself describing the scene where James meets the mysterious little man who gives him what turns out to be the seed that grows the giant peach.

As I was reading it, it dawned on me how creepy the scenario sounded: James, a sad little 10 year old boy is sitting in alone in some bushes when a weird looking old man appears from nowhere.

In the bushes, remember.

As if that wasn't enough, he then invites James to "Come closer to me, little boy... come right up close to me and I will show you something wonderful."

Is it just me or is every parent in the world screaming inside their head at James to run! Run away!

Don't go anywhere near this disgusting weirdo in the bushes who's wanting you to get close to him so he can show you something you've never seen before?

That my first thought when reading this was the man was a weirdo pervert rather than a good natured old fellow with harmless magical fruit may be a disturbing indictment of society but I wonder, if submitted for publication today, would editors re-write this part of the story? I mean, doesn't it teach kids that yes, it's ok to approach a strange weirdo and accept whatever surprises they have hiding in their coat?