My Science School

Today it’s the most popular cookie in America, but the original Toll House Cookie, the first chocolate chip cookie, was invented right here in New England by Ruth Wakefield at the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, during the 1930s. Made with flour, brown sugar, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and walnuts (the nuts are optional, of course — it may be that only the great “hot or cold” lobster roll debate is more passionately argued than “nuts or no nuts”), Toll House cookies are a simple drop cookie that children, adults, and even Santa Claus can agree on.

They were invented, it turns out, as a happy accident. Ruth and her husband had purchased the 1709 toll house in 1930 with plans to turn it into an inn (appropriately named the Toll House Inn) since the location was perfectly situated between Boston and New Bedford. A former dietician and food lecturer with a passion for quality cookery, Ruth was experimenting in the kitchen one day when she decided to take a bar of Nestle semi-sweet chocolate and break it up into bits, which she added to a butter drop cookie batter. When she took them out of the oven, she was surprised to see that the chocolate hadn’t melted, and the firm bits gave the cookies a unique (and addictive) crunch.

She liked the texture so much she called them Chocolate Crunch Cookies, and added the recipe to her collection.

The recipe made its way to a Boston newspaper, and as its popularity grew, so did the sale of Nestle chocolate bars. With Ruth’s permission, Nestle began printing the recipe on the bar’s wrapper, and in 1939, they started selling the chocolate bits on their own in bags, calling them “morsels.” The recipe, nearly identical to the original Toll House Cookie recipe, is still printed on each bag today.

Credit : New England

Picture Credit : Google

If a poster could describe Homer Simpson, it’d be him with all things junk. From burgers to pizzas, Homer loves it all. But if there’s one thing he can’t live without, it’s doughnuts.

Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character and one of the main characters of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Homer was created and designed by cartoonist Matt Groening while he was waiting in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office. Groening had been called to pitch a series of shorts based on his comic strip Life in Hell but instead decided to create a new set of characters. He named the character after his father, Homer Groening. After appearing for three seasons on The Tracey Ullman Show, the Simpson family got their own series on Fox, which debuted December 17, 1989. The show was later acquired by Disney in 2019.

Homer is one of the most influential characters in the history of television, and is widely considered to be an American cultural icon. The British newspaper The Sunday Times described him as "The greatest comic creation of [modern] time". He was named the greatest character "of the last 20 years" in 2010 by Entertainment Weekly, was ranked the second-greatest cartoon character by TV Guide, behind Bugs Bunny, and was voted the greatest television character of all time by Channel 4 viewers. For voicing Homer, Castellaneta has won four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance and a special-achievement Annie Award. In 2000, Homer and his family were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Picture Credit : Google

Baked Alaska, also known as Bombe Alaska, omelette norvégienne, omelette surprise, or omelette sibérienne depending on the country, is a dessert consisting of ice cream and cake topped with browned meringue. The dish is made of ice cream placed in a pie dish, lined with slices of sponge cake or Christmas pudding, and topped with meringue. The entire dessert is then placed in an extremely hot oven for a brief time, long enough to firm and caramelize the meringue but not long enough to begin melting the ice cream.

The meringue insulates the ice cream while the dessert is browning and you end up with a delicious mixture of flavors and textures, the most surprising of which is the ice cream center that doesn’t melt while it is in the oven! Many chefs are credited with the invention of the dessert, and there were many hot-and-cold dessert pairings served as ice cream became widely available, but the name “Baked Alaska” was coined at Delmonico’s Restaurant in New York City in 1876 to honor the recently acquired American territory of Alaska.

Baked Alaska is not a difficult dessert to make at home, since it has only three components: cake, ice cream and meringue. You can easily put your own spin on the original recipe by using brownies or pound cake, instead of a plain sponge cake, and you can even use store-bought cake instead of homemade. The ice cream flavors can be mixed and matched to suit your tastes, too. The only element of this dessert that you can’t change is the meringue. You need to make a classic meringue with eggs and sugar to finish the dessert off properly, since the air pockets created by whipping the egg whites are what insulate the ice cream while the dessert is browning. It’s a fantastic dessert to impress a crowd with, and since the base can be prepared well in advance and frozen, it is a great make-ahead dessert when you want to serve something special without being pressed for time.

Credit : Baking Bites 

Picture Credit : Google

A s'more is a traditional camping snack that has been popular with kids—and their parents!— for years and years. Although many different varieties of s'mores have developed over time, the s'more is basically a sandwich of roasted marshmallows and chocolate between graham crackers.

S'mores are usually made by the campfire. Marshmallows are roasted over the fire until they're gooey. Then graham crackers with pieces of a chocolate candy bar are used to sandwich the gooey roasted marshmallow. Many kids mash the combination together so that the heat from the marshmallow will melt the chocolate.

This sweet, warm, gooey, delicious treat always leaves kids wanting more. In fact, that's probably how they got their name. S'more is thought to be a contraction of the phrase, “some more," as in “I want some more of those s'mores!"

No one knows for sure who invented the s'more. However, the first published recipe for “some mores" was in a 1927 publication called Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts. Loretta Scott Crew, who made them for Girl Scouts by the campfire, is given credit for the recipe.

So even though we don't know for sure whether the Girl Scouts were the first to make “some mores," no one else has claimed to have invented them. We also don't know when the name got shortened to “s'more" as recipes for “some mores" appeared in Girl Scout publications until at least 1971.

Credit :  Wonderopolis 

Picture Credit : Google

The history of the waffle cone dates back over a century beginning with Abe Doumar. Doumar, a traveling salesman who spent his days selling paperweights to visitors at the World’s Fair in St. Louis, had an epiphany one day while strolling the fairgrounds. One evening, Abe saw the owner of an ice cream stand packing up his things to close because they’d run out of the paper bowls used to serve ice cream. At another stand nearby, a man was making waffles on a single-iron waffle maker. Abe bought a waffle, rolled it into a cone and topped it with ice cream, resulting them in the world’s first waffle ice cream cone! In the following days, the ice cream vendor and waffle salesman continued operating under one stand, selling ice cream cones.

After the fair ended, Abe – an immigrant from Damascus, Syria – began a business with the help of family. He built a four-iron waffle machine from scratch (that is still used today.) What made this particular machine different is that the four-iron machine allowed Abe to roll a waffle while three others cooked. In 1905, Abe opened the first of what would become a chain of Doumar’s ice cream stands stretching from Coney Island to Jacksonville, Florida. Two years later, in 1907, Abe and his brother George opened a stand in Norfolk at the Ocean View Amusement Park. The park, now gone, was once the most popular oceanfront destination and the stand was launched during the 1907 Jamestown Exhibition and became the most successful of all of the Doumar family’s stands. Because of this, Abe relocated to Norfolk permanently.

Credit : Culture Trip

Picture Credit : Google

These days, Thanksgiving is all about the food—from the classic turkey to delicious pumpkin pie, Americans look forward to overindulging on favorite foods that we associate with the harvest bounty of 17th-century Massachusetts. But did they have these beloved Thanksgiving foods at the first Thanksgiving in 1621? A deeper look reveals that our "traditional" Thanksgiving feast may not be as traditional as we think.

The Pilgrims’ autumn harvest of 1621 was plentiful. Of course, they owed a lot of that success to their Wampanoag neighbors, who had helped them grow crops and taught them how to survive in the brutal climate of coastal Massachusetts. The harvest festival took three days, during which the Pilgrims and Indians feasted and celebrated. Approximately half of the original settlers died during the first year, and only four women remained alive by the fall of 1621, so the meal was likely prepared largely by men. 

There would not have been cranberry sauce, though they might have had raw cranberries. There were no mashed potatoes, since the potato didn't make its way to North America until the 18th century. There was no pumpkin pie—they didn’t have a baking oven in Plimoth Plantation—but there might have been pumpkin served other ways, since both the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag ate pumpkin and other indigenous squashes.

On the table would have been local root vegetables like carrots and onions, dried fruits and nuts, venison (provided by the Wampanoag), fish such as bass, and shellfish like mussels and lobster. They might have had corn, though it would have been more of a cornmeal mush, known as "samp." There is also an account that mentions a "great store of Wild turkies," so it is likely that turkey was on the menu at the first Thanksgiving, in addition to other wild fowl such as duck and goose.

Credit : Gilder Lehrman 

Picture Credit : Google

For more than 80 years, Girl Scouts have sold cookies to raise funds to support their scouting activities. Today, the sale of Girl Scout Cookies raises more than $700 million each year, making the Girl Scout Cookie Program the largest girl-led business in the country!

Girl Scout Cookies got their start in the kitchens of Girl Scouts and their mothers. Girl Scouts began to sell cookies as a way to finance their scouting activities as early as 1917, just five years after Juliette “Daisy" Gordon Low started the first Girl Scout group in Savannah, Georgia.

In July 1922, Girl Scout national headquarters published an edition of The American Girl magazine for all Girl Scouts. The issue contained a recipe for a sugar cookie that could be baked and sold to raise funds for local councils. Thus, the simple sugar cookie was arguably the first true Girl Scout Cookie.

In 1934, Greater Philadelphia became the first Girl Scout council to sell commercially baked cookies. In 1935, the Girl Scout Federation of Greater New York used the words "Girl Scout Cookies" on their boxes of commercially baked cookies for the first time.

Girl Scout leaders believe selling cookies helps Girl Scouts realize their full potential and become strong, confident and resourceful citizens. In fact, Girl Scout leaders have identified five essential skills that Girl Scouts develop by selling Girl Scout Cookies: goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills and business ethics.

Girl Scouts set sales goals to support their chosen activities for the year, which might include funding community service projects, attending summer camp, traveling on field trips and providing events for girls in their community. Many successful businesswomen today say they got their start selling Girl Scout Cookies.

Credit : Wonderopolis 

Picture Credit : Google

The World's Largest Cupcake record now belongs to Georgetown Cupcake at Georgetown Cupcake's national headquarters in Sterling, Virginia, though the picture here is from the previous world record holder.. On November 2, 2011, the bakery created a cupcake weighing 2,594 lbs, according to Guinness World Records.

Everything is certainly bigger in Texas. The World's Largest Gingerbread House was created in 2013 in Bryan, Texas. It covered 2,520 square feet, and was 21 ft in height. This 35.8 million-calorie treat has been named the biggest gingerbread house ever by the Guinness World Records.

The Food Network's Duff Goldman lives up to his Ace of Cakes title by baking the largest cupcake in history — now entered in the Guinness Book of World Records. The 61.4-pound creation is more than a foot tall and entirely edible. Reportedly 150 times the size of a regular cupcake, this record-breaker called for 16 pounds of butter, 10 pounds of sugar, and three ounces of food coloring. The mammoth confection supported the Great American Bake Sale, which raised $10,000 and awareness for Share Our Strength, a charity working to fight hunger across America.

Picture Credit : Google

Cacao has carried deep cultural meaning since it was first domesticated. For the Olmec, an early Mexican Gulf Coast culture (1500 to 400 BC), this plant had geological, nutritional, spiritual, and economic significance. As the first society known to have domesticated the cacao tree, the Olmec found the crop to be spiritually and culturally significant in addition to being a healthful and delicious foodstuff. Theobromine (a chemical compound present in cacao) found in excavated Olmec pottery and at ancient burial sites revealed that cacao beverages were a staple in a variety of spiritual ceremonies (Powis 2011).

The question becomes, why cacao? According to the Popol Vuh, the Mayan creation text, the gods created humans from a combination of sweet things, maize, and cacao (Driess and Greenhill 2008, 18-22). In addition, many ancient artifacts depicted cacao offerings between gods such as the Mayan moon goddess IxChel and the rain god Chac who are seen trading cacao in an ancient Mayan depiction. This iconography rooted the tree’s capacity as a conduit of communication with the gods. Known as the “World Tree” or the “First Tree,” this crop became the tree of life and a cosmic metaphor linking the natural world to the spirit world. Thus, the offering of cacao functioned to symbolically connect diviners with the gods through ritual. The bounty of the cacao tree in Mesoamerica also created a metaphorical link to abundance, which was a request to the gods in agrarian and funerary rites. As Driess and Greenhill state, “Obsession with time and calendrical events fueled rituals during which cacao offerings helped to ensure the continuation of cosmic and agricultural cycles” (2008, 52). Cacao drinks were left in tombs and beans were used to adorn the bodies of the dead as it was believed that cacao had the power to energize the soul and aid in the transition to the supernatural world. The deep spiritual meaning of cacao catalyzed its importance in Olmec society.

Generally sought out for religious purposes by the Olmec, cacao didn’t become a food of conspicuous consumption until the Aztec and Mayan eras when cacao was served at feasts, weddings, birth ceremonies and other social occasions (Henderson 2015, 84).  As the crop gained exposure, demand was created and soon cacao was present at nearly every commensal dining event, becoming a staple in the Mesoamerican diet.  Popularly consumed as a beverage, the Olmec fermented the cacao with pulp intact.  In the early days, cacao beverages were produced solely from the pulp of the fruit.  The discovery of the more familiar chocolate drink might have been a happy accident as a by-product of the pulp brewing process (Edgar 2010).

After fermentation, cacao beans were mixed with water, vanilla, cinnamon, and sometimes a red chili.  The beverage is generally made by women who dutifully raised the foam on the drink before consumption.  The foam was thought to contain the essence of the wind god P’ee and still today, the amount of foam raised is a measure of a woman’s worth.  After the drink was prepared and the foam was raised, the cacao beverage was ready for use in ceremony or prescribed as a remedy for ailments.  Cacao was used to cure skin conditions, fever, seizures and in the most severe matters used to coax illness out of the body by appealing to the spirits with an offering of beans or a blended concoction containing the fruit (Dreiss and Greenhill 2008, 136).

Over time, chocolate has become a beverage enjoyed by cultures all over the world, but cacao was an incredibly significant crop to the Olmec during the Formative Period in Mesoamerica. The abundance, healing, and nutritional properties of the crop made it seem a true gift from the Gods, and created a foundation for its integration into the cultural identity and landscape of Mesoamerica.

Credit : Boston University 

Picture Credit : Google

The musicians of the RMS Titanic all perished when the ship sank in 1912. They played music, intending to calm the passengers, for as long as they possibly could, and all went down with the ship. All were recognized for their heroism.

The ship's eight musicians – members of a three-piece ensemble and a five-piece ensemble – were booked through C.W. & F.N. Black, in Liverpool. They boarded at Southampton and traveled as second-class passengers. They were not on the White Star Line's payroll but were contracted to White Star by the Liverpool firm of C.W. & F.N. Black, who placed musicians on almost all British liners. Until the night of the sinking, the players performed as two separate groups: a quintet led by violinist and official bandleader Wallace Hartley, that played at teatime, after-dinner concerts, and Sunday services, among other occasions; and the violin, cello, and piano trio of Georges Krins, Roger Bricoux, and Theodore Brailey, that played at the À La Carte Restaurant and the Café Parisien.

After the Titanic hit an iceberg and began to sink, Hartley and his fellow band members started playing music to help keep the passengers calm as the crew loaded the lifeboats. Many of the survivors said that Hartley and the band continued to play until the very end. 

Picture Credit : Google

First class on board Titanic was the ultimate in luxury. It included veranda cafes, a smoking room, restaurant, a dining saloon and a reading and writing room. The facilities on Titanic far surpassed those of rival ships of that time.

The first class passengers really dined in style. The dining room was the largest ever seen on a ship and a live orchestra played background music. The furniture and panelling was carved in fine detail in oak, mahogany and sycamore.

The more energetic passengers could play deck games, such as shuffleboard, and use the gym, squash courts and swimming pool on board. Games such as chess and backgammon could be played on the deck.

Titanic had 39 private suites located at the top of the ship. They had 2 large bedrooms, 2 walk-in wardrobes and a bathroom. There was also a spacious living with room for guests. Suites cost up to £870 which is the equivalent of £79,000 today!

Most of the second class accommodation on Titanic consisted of cabins with bunk-beds. Each cabin had either two beds or four and in total there was room for around 550 passengers. These cabins didn’t have private bathrooms, but inside there were sinks and mirrors and the bed linen was changed every day.

Passengers in second class had facilities such as a spacious outdoor promenade, a smoking room, a library and dining room. Afternoon tea and coffee was served in the library.

The dining room could seat almost 2,400 people at one time and a pianist would entertain the diners. All of the furniture was mahogany with crimson red upholstery and pivoted lights to add to the atmosphere.

Third class was much more basic with very few facilities, but passengers still enjoyed a high level of luxury compared to other liners of the day.

The general room was where most passengers gathered, talked and socialised. There was a piano for passengers to make their own music in the evenings. There was also a male-only smoke room which was panelled and furnished in oak with teak furniture.

Third class passengers ate in their own dining room which could seat around 470 passengers in 3 sittings. The food was very simple but plentiful consisting of rice soup, biscuits, roast beef and fruit. On most other ships, third class passengers were expected to bring their own food which was supposed to last for the entire journey.

With over 1000 third class passengers on board, accommodation was basic. Cabins slept up to 10 people and were located at the noisy bottom part of the ship close to the engines. Single men and women were split up at the front and back with families in the middle. There were only two baths for everyone in third class!

Credit :  BBC

Picture Credit : Google

Titanic’s final destination was to be Pier 59 in New York City, owned by the White Star Line and located in what is now the city’s Chelsea neighborhood. Instead, Titanic’s survivors arrived in New York aboard Carpathia, a passenger steamship owned by White Star’s biggest rival, the Cunard Line. After a brief stop at Pier 59 to drop off Titanic’s lifeboats, Carpathia traveled just a few blocks south to the Cunard mooring at Pier 54 in Greenwich Village, where an anxious crowd numbering in the thousands awaited news of loved ones. Just three years later, Pier 54 played a pivotal role in another maritime disaster as the departure site of the Cunard ship Lusitania, which was torpedoed by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland on May 7, 1915. Lusitania sank in less than 20 minutes, killing nearly 2,000 passengers and crew, and contributed to America’s eventual entry into World War I.

Pier 54 continued operations for much of the 20th century, serving as a dock for luxury liners, World War II transport ships and freight lines. Cunard’s lavish passenger depot, designed by the same firm that built New York’s Grand Central Station, later fell into disrepair and was demolished in the 1990s. However, the original pier and entry archway used by Titanic’s survivors in April 1912 are still standing and are now part of Hudson River Park, a popular recreational area.

Credit : History 

Picture Credit : Google

Marine One, any aircraft of the U.S. Marine Corps transporting the president of the United States. Strictly speaking, Marine One is the call sign adopted by a Marine aircraft while the president is aboard. However, in common usage, it has come to mean any of the state-of-the-art helicopters reserved for the president.

Although the U.S. military had adopted helicopters in the 1940s, safety concerns led the Secret Service to prohibit the president from flying in them. However, that policy changed the following decade as the escalating Cold War increased the potential for an emergency evacuation in the event of a nuclear attack. Officials ultimately settled on the Bell H-13J, which was relatively slow and small—accommodating just one pilot and two passengers—but noted for its safety record. In a test run known as “Operation Alert,” Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first president to fly in a helicopter, on July 12, 1957, when he was transported from the White House to Camp David. The Bell was flown by a U.S. Air Force pilot; also aboard was a Secret Service agent..

Helicopters soon became indispensable in presidential travel—both within the United States and abroad—though the uncomfortable Bell was quickly replaced by larger models. Since the Air Force only operated smaller-sized helicopters, the U.S. Army and Marine Corps assumed responsibility. When flown by the former, the aircraft was designated Army One, while the latter was identified as Marine One.

While the first presidential helicopters offered few amenities, later versions became increasingly sophisticated. The current models can fly more than 150 miles (241 km) per hour and feature ballistic armor and antimissile countermeasures. In addition, the green-and-white helicopters have electromagnetic-pulse protection in the event of a nuclear explosion. As a further protective measure, a decoy helicopter flies alongside Marine One. The relatively spacious interior, which can accommodate at least 14 passengers, includes a bathroom. When the helicopter lands, a Marine is waiting outside to greet the president, regardless of the location. The vice president travels in Marine Two.

Different helicopter models have been used over the years. The Sikorsky VH-3A was introduced during the John F. Kennedy administration, and the VH-3D entered service during Jimmy Carter’s presidency. The latter were supplemented with the VH-60N in the 1980s. In 2014 work began on a fleet of VH-92 helicopters, which were based on the Sikorsky S-92. The projected cost for each aircraft was more than $237 million.

Credit : Britannica 

Picture Credit : Google

Abraham Lincoln was very distinctive looking, mostly due to his height and thin frame, but also because of what he wore.

Although Lincoln was not a particularly fashionable man, but like most politicians he knew personal appearance was a great way to make him stand out in a crowd, particularly while campaigning during an election.

As a result, Lincoln chose clothes and accessories with a distinctive silhouette or shape, although the items themselves were often plain and sometimes faded and worn. These fashion items later became Lincoln’s famous trademarks.

Lincoln had a few suits but his most famous suit was the one he was wearing the night he was shot at Ford’s Theater on April 14, 1865.

That suit consisted of a custom-made black double-breasted Brooks Brothers coat made of wool. The coat had a hand-embroided silk lining that featured an eagle carrying a banner that read “One Country, One Destiny” which is a phrase that comes from an 1837 speech given by one of Lincoln’s role models, Senator Daniel Webster.

In addition to the coat, Lincoln also wore a shawl-collared, single-breasted, four-pocket black wool vest and black wool trousers with a waistband, fly front, metal suspender buttons and front pockets with a single button closure.

After Lincoln’s assassination, Mary Todd Lincoln gave the suit to Lincoln’s favorite doorman, Alphonse Donn. The Donn family kept the coat in the family for over a century and allowed souvenir seekers to cut away swatches of the bloodstained lining. The coat was later donated to Ford’s Theater where it is now on display to the public.

Credit : Civil War Saga 

Picture Credit : Google

Construction began when the first cornerstone was laid in October of 1792. Although President Washington oversaw the construction of the house, he never lived in it. It was not until 1800, when the White House was nearly completed, that its first residents, President John Adams and his wife, Abigail, moved in. 

In 1842 the visit to the United States of the English novelist Charles Dickens brought an official invitation to the White House. After his calls at the White House door went unanswered, Dickens let himself in and walked through the mansion from room to room on the lower and upper floors. Finally coming upon a room filled with nearly two dozen people, he was shocked and appalled to see many of them spitting on the carpet. Dickens later wrote, “I take it for granted the Presidential housemaids have high wages.” Until the Civil War, however, most White House servants were enslaved people. Moreover, the wages of all White House employees—as well as the expenses for running the White House, including staging official functions—were paid for by the president. Not until 1909 did Congress provide appropriations to pay White House servants.

Dickens was not the only foreign visitor to be disappointed with the White House. On a trip to Washington just before the Civil War, Aleksandr Borisovich Lakier, a Russian nobleman, wrote that “the home of the president…is barely visible behind the trees.” The White House, he said, was “sufficient for a private family and not at all conforming to the expectations of a European.” Subsequent changes to the building in the 19th century were relatively minor. The interior was redecorated during various presidential administrations and modern conveniences were regularly added, including a refrigerator in 1845, gas lighting in 1849, and electric lighting in 1891.

The White House was the scene of mourning after the assassination of Pres. Abraham Lincoln (1861–65). While Mary Todd Lincoln lay in her room for five weeks grieving for her husband, many White House holdings were looted. Responding to charges that she had stolen government property when she left the White House, she angrily inventoried all the items she had taken with her, including gifts of quilts and waxworks from well-wishers.

Credit :  Britannica 

Picture Credit : Google