Where Did The "French Fries" Name Come From ??

It's the way they are cut.

"French" refers to the way the potatoes are cut--just like "French-cut" green beans.  So, the fries that are cut into wedges or circles are not "French" fries--they are "home fries", "steak fries", "waffle fries", etc.

 

French fried potatoes, commonly known as French fries or fries (North America) or chips (United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and Commonwealth) are pieces of potato that have been chopped into batons and deep fried.

Where "chips" is the common term, "French fries" usually refers to the thin variant (U.S. "shoe string potatoes"). In North America "chips" usually means potato chips (called "crisps" in the UK), which are deep-fried thin slices of potato. In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, "chips" can mean either potato chips or French fries; French fries are also called "hot chips" or (in South Africa) "slap chips" (IPA [slup]; 'slup' is Afrikaans for "soft").

Many possible claims as to the origin of "French fries" exist.

[edit] Culinary origin of the term

The straightforward explanation of the term "French fried potatoes" is that it means "potatoes fried in the French manner": the verb fry can mean either sautéing or deep-fat frying, while French 'frire' unambiguously means deep frying. Thomas Jefferson, famous for serving French dishes, referred to fried potatoes in this way.[1]

It is sometimes suggested that the verb "to french" originally meant to julienne-cut.[2] But this term refers specifically to trimming the meat off the shanks of chops[3] and is not attested until after "French fried potatoes" had appeared.

[edit] Belgium

The Belgians are noted for claiming that French fries are Belgian in origin, but have presented no definitive evidence. Whether they were invented in Belgium or elsewhere, they quickly became Belgium's national dish, making Belgians at least their "symbolic" creators in Europe as well as their heaviest consumers,[citation needed] spending an average of €6.01 annually (2002, consumption in fast food restaurants not counted separately).[4]

Jo Gerard, a Belgian historian, recounts that potatoes were already fried in 1680, in the area of "the Meuse valley between Dinant and Liège, Belgium. The poor inhabitants of this region allegedly had the custom of accompanying their meals with small fried fish, but when the river was frozen and they were unable to fish, they cut potatoes lengthwise and fried them in oil to accompany their meals."[5]

The name 'frite' lends itself to puns with the name 'Fritz'. In 1857, the newspaper "Courrier de Verviers" devotes an article to Fritz, a Belgian entrepreneur selling French fries at fairs, calling him "le roi des pommes de terre frites". In 1862 a fries shack (Frietkot, see below) called "Max en Fritz" was established near Het Steen in Antwerp.[6]

Another Belgian legend claims that the term "French" was introduced when English soldiers arrived in Belgium during World War I, and consequently tasted Belgian fries. The supposedly called them "French" because the official language of the Belgian army at that time was French.[7][8] This story is of course impossible since the term "French fried potatoes" was in common use long before the War.

[edit] France

Many attribute the dish to France—though in France they are often thought of as Belgian—and offer as evidence a notation by U.S. President Thomas Jefferson. "Potatoes deep-fried while raw, in small slices" are noted in a manuscript in Thomas Jefferson's hand (circa 1801) and the recipe almost certainly comes from his French chef, Honoré Julien. In addition, from 1813[9] on recipes for what can be described as "French fries" occur in popular American cookbooks. Recipes for fried potatoes in French cookbooks date back at least to Menon's Les soupers de la cour (1755). Eliza Warren's cookbook The economical cookery book for housewives, cooks, and maids-of-all-work, with hints to the mistress and servant used the term "French fried potatoes" in around 1856.[10]

It is true that eating potatoes was promoted in France by Parmentier, but he did not mention fried potatoes in particular. And the name of the dish in languages other than English does not refer to France; indeed, in French, they are simply called "pommes de terres frites" or, more commonly, simply "pomme frites" or "frites".

During the controversy over Freedom Fries, French people from around the world repeated the story that the food was actually Belgian, or at least, a Belgian speciality.

[edit] Spain

Some claim that the dish was invented in Spain, the first European country in which the potato appeared via the New World colonies, and then spread to the area that is now Belgium, which was then under Spanish rule.

The Spanish claim for originating French fries claims the first appearance of the recipe to have been in Galicia, where it was used as an accompaniment for fish dishes, and from which it spread to the rest of the country and then to Belgium.[citation needed]

Prof. Paul Ilegems, curator of the Friet-museum in Antwerp, believes that Saint Teresa of Ávila fried the first chips, referring also to the tradition of frying in Mediterranean cuisine.[11]

[edit] United Kingdom

The British also claim the "Chip" was invented in Yorkshire in the 1700s where it is believed that the potato was cut to the distinctive shape so that they may be lined up between two pieces of bread to make a Chip Butty.[dubious — see talk page]

[edit] United States' world-wide influence

French fries have been widely popularized world-wide by fast-food chains like McDonald's and Burger King. This came about through the introduction of the frozen French fry invented by the J.R. Simplot Company in the early 1950's. Before the handshake deal between Ray Kroc of McDonald's and Jack Simplot of the J.R. Simplot Company, potatoes were hand-cut and peeled in the restaurants, but the frozen product reduced preparation time and aided the expansion of the McDonald's franchise. One of the few fast-food chains which still prepares fresh potatoes on the premises is In-N-Out Burger.

[edit] Recent development

Big-brand fast-food restaurants are increasingly serving deep-fried lengths of extruded potato starch, instead of potato batons, as fries

The History Of Teddy Bears

The name Teddy Bear comes from former United States President Theodore Roosevelt, who was commonly known as "Teddy" (though he loathed being referred to as such).^[3] The name originated from an incident on a bear hunting trip in Mississippi in November 1902, to which Roosevelt was invited by Mississippi Governor Andrew H. Longino. There were several other hunters competing, and most of them had already killed an animal. A suite of Roosevelt's attendants, led by Holt Collier,^[4] cornered, clubbed, and tied an American Black Bearto a willow tree after a long exhausting chase with hounds. They called Roosevelt to the site and suggested that he should shoot it. He refused to shoot the bear himself, deeming this unsportsmanlike, but instructed that the bear be killed to put it out of its misery,^[5][6] and it became the topic of a political cartoon by Clifford Berryman in The Washington Post on November 16, 1902.^[7] While the initial cartoon of an adult black bear lassoed by a handler and a disgusted Roosevelt had symbolic overtones, later issues of that and other Berryman cartoons made the bear smaller and cuter.^[8]

Morris Michtom saw the drawing of Roosevelt and was inspired to create a new toy. He created a little stuffed bear cub and put it in his shop window with a sign that read "Teddy's bear," after sending a bear to Roosevelt and receiving permission to use his name. The toys were an immediate success and Michtom founded the Ideal Novelty and Toy Co.^[6]

Replica of the teddy 55PB of Steiff

At the same time in Germany, the Steiff firm, unaware of Michtom's bear, produced a stuffed bear from Richard Steiff's designs. Steiff exhibited the toy at the Leipzig Toy Fair in March 1903, where it was seen by Hermann Berg, a buyer for George Borgfeldt & Company in New York. He ordered 3000 to be sent to the United States.^[9]Although Steiff's records show that the bears were produced, they are not recorded as arriving in the U.S., and no example of the type, "55 PB", has ever been seen, leading to the story that the bears were shipwrecked. However, the story is disputed - Gunther Pfieffer notes that it was only recorded in 1953 and says it is more likely that the 55 PB was not sufficiently durable to survive until the present day.^[10]Although Steiff and Michtom were both making teddy bears at around the same time, neither would have known of the other's creation due to poor transatlantic communication.^[7]

By 1906 manufacturers other than Michtom and Steiff had joined in and the craze for "Roosevelt Bears" was such that ladies carried them everywhere, children were photographed with them, and Roosevelt used one as a mascot in his bid for re-election.^{[citation needed]}

North American educator Seymour Eaton wrote the children's book series The Roosevelt Bears,^[11] while composer John Walter Brattonwrote an instrumental "The Teddy Bears' Picnic", a "characteristic two-step", in 1907, which later had words written to it by lyricist Jimmy Kennedy in 1932.

Early teddy bears were made to look like real bears, with extended snouts and beady eyes. Modern teddy bears tend to have larger eyes and foreheads and smaller noses, babylike features that enhance the toy's cuteness. Teddy bears are also manufactured to represent different species of bear, such as polar bears and grizzly bears, as well as pandas.

While early teddy bears were covered in tawny mohair fur, modern teddy bears are manufactured in a wide variety of commercially available fabrics, most commonly synthetic fur, but also velour, denim, cotton, satin, and canvas.

Sharpie Markers !!

"Sharpie" was originally a name designating a permanent marker launched in 1964 by the Sanford Ink Company. The Sharpie also became the first pen-style permanent marker.[1][2]

In 1992 Sharpie was acquired by The Newell Companies (later Newell Rubbermaid) as part of Sanford, a leading manufacturer and marketer of writing instruments.[3]

In 2004, Sharpie released a new line of markers that had a button activated retractable tip rather than a cap. Sharpie Paint markers were also introduced. In 2005, the company's popular Accent highlighter brand was repositioned under the Sharpie brand name. A new version of Sharpie called Sharpie Mini was launched, which are markers half the size of a normal Sharpie and feature a clip to attach the Sharpie to a keychain or lanyard. As of 2002, 200 million Sharpies had been sold worldwide. Sharpie markers are manufactured in Shelbyville, Tennessee.[4]

Phones Invention

n the 1870s, two inventors Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell both independently designed devices that could transmit speech electrically (the telephone). Both men rushed their respective designs to the patent office within hours of each other, Alexander Graham Bell patented his telephone first. Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell entered into a famous legal battle over the invention of the telephone, which Bell won.The telegraph and telephone are both wire-based electrical systems, and Alexander Graham Bell's success with the telephone came as a direct result of his attempts to improve the telegraph.

When Bell began experimenting with electrical signals, the telegraph had been an established means of communication for some 30 years. Although a highly successful system, the telegraph, with its dot-and-dash Morse code, was basically limited to receiving and sending one message at a time. Bell's extensive knowledge of the nature of sound and his understanding of music enabled him to conjecture the possibility of transmitting multiple messages over the same wire at the same time. Although the idea of a multiple telegraph had been in existence for some time, Bell offered his own musical or harmonic approach as a possible practical solution. His "harmonic telegraph" was based on the principle that several notes could be sent simultaneously along the same wire if the notes or signals differed in pitch.By October 1874, Bell's research had progressed to the extent that he could inform his future father-in-law, Boston attorney Gardiner Greene Hubbard, about the possibility of a multiple telegraph. Hubbard, who resented the absolute control then exerted by the Western Union Telegraph Company, instantly saw the potential for breaking such a monopoly and gave Bell the financial backing he needed. Bell proceeded with his work on the multiple telegraph, but he did not tell Hubbard that he and Thomas Watson, a young electrician whose services he had enlisted, were also exploring an idea that had occurred to him that summer - that of developing a device that would transmit speech electrically.

While Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson worked on the harmonic telegraph at the insistent urging of Hubbard and other backers, Bell nonetheless met in March 1875 with Joseph Henry, the respected director of the Smithsonian Institution, who listened to Bell's ideas for a telephone and offered encouraging words. Spurred on by Henry's positive opinion, Bell and Watson continued their work. By June 1875 the goal of creating a device that would transmit speech electrically was about to be realized. They had proven that different tones would vary the strength of an electric current in a wire. To achieve success they therefore needed only to build a working transmitter with a membrane capable of varying electronic currents and a receiver that would reproduce these variations in audible .

Hattie McDaniel

After working as early as the 1910s as a band vocalist, Hattie McDaniel debuted as a maid in The Golden West (1932). Her maid-mammy characters became steadily more assertive, showing up first in Judge Priest (1934) and becoming pronounced in Alice Adams (1935). In this one, directed by George Stevens and aided and abetted by starKatharine Hepburn, she makes it clear she has little use for her employers' pretentious status seeking. By The Mad Miss Manton (1938) she actually tells off her socialite employer Barbara Stanwyck and her snooty friends. This path extends into the greatest role of her career, Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939). Here she is, in a number of ways, superior to most of the white folk surrounding her. From that point here roles unfortunately descended, with her characters becoming more and more menial. She played on the "Amos and Andy" and Eddie Cantor radio shows in the 1930s and 1940s; the title in her own radio show "Beulah" (1947-51), and the same part on TV (Beulah(1950)). Her part in Gone with the Wind (1939) won her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, the first black to win an Academy Award.

Big Show !!

Paul Randall Wight, Jr. (born February 8, 1972), better known by his ring name, Big Show, is an American professional wrestlerwho is signed to WWE. Wight is a seven-time world champion, having won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship twice, theWWF/E Championship twice, the ECW World Championship once, and the World Heavyweight Championship twice. He is the only wrestler to have held all four titles.^[7]

Wight has also won the WWE Intercontinental Championship once, the WWE United States Championship once and the WWE Hardcore Championship three times.

Wight is an 11-time world tag team champion, having won the WWE's World Tag Team Championship five times (twice with The Undertaker, and once each with Kane, Chris Jericho, and The Miz), the WWE Tag Team Championship three times (once each with Jericho, Miz, and Kane), and the WCW World Tag Team Championship three times (once each with Lex Luger, Sting, and Scott Hall).

Big Show is the 24th Triple Crown, and 12th Grand Slam winner in WWE history.^[8] Between WWE and WCW, Wight has held 23 total championships.

He was also the winner of WCW's annual World War 3 60-man Battle Royal in 1996, and has headlined many pay-per-views for WCW and the WWF/E since the mid-1990s, including the 2000 edition of WWE's premier annual event, WrestleMania.^[9]

Outside of professional wrestling, Wight has appeared in feature films and television series such as The Waterboy, Star Trek: Enterprise, and USA Network's comedy-drama Royal Pains and the action-drama Burn Notice. In 2010, he had his first major role in the comedy film Knucklehead, which was produced by WWE Studios. Wight has said he would like to continue his acting career and expand beyond roles based on his size.^[10]

Make-Up : How Did it Become

The history of cosmetics spans at least 6000 years of human history, and almost every society on earth. Some argue that cosmetic body art was the earliest form of ritual in human culture, dating over 100,000 years ago from the African Middle Stone Age. The evidence for this comes in the form of utilised red mineral pigments (red ochre) including crayons associated with the emergence of Homo sapiens in Africa.^[1][2][3][4]

Archaeological evidence of cosmetics certainly dates from ancient Egypt and Greece. According to one source,^[5] early major developments include the use of castor oil in ancient Egypt as a protective balm and skin creams[disambiguation needed] made of beeswax,olive oil, and rosewater described by the Romans. The Ancient Greeks also used cosmetics.^[6][7] Cosmetics are mentioned in the Old Testament—2 Kings 9:30 where Jezebel painted her eyelids—approximately 840 BC—and the book of Esther describes various beauty treatments as well. Cosmetics were also used in ancient Rome, although much of Roman literature suggests that it was frowned upon. It is known that some women in ancient Rome used various substances, including lead-based formulas, to whiten the skin, and kohl was used to line the eyes.^[8]