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Sunday

Apple pie ain’t as American as you might think. A recipe appears in a British cookbook from 1390, and later was brought to the US by colonists from Europe. The apple tree isn’t even native to North America, but Asia.

Monday

Pi is the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet, but might be better known as the abbreviation for 3.14… This number, expressed as a fraction as 22/7, is the ratio of circumference to diameter in a perfect circle.

Tuesday

The term “pie in the sky” which came to mean an idealistic but unrealistic goal, was coined by labor activist Joe Hill in “The Preacher and The Slave,” a parody of the hymn “Sweet Bye and Bye.” The lyrics “work and pray, live on hay/You’ll get pie in the sky when you die” were intended to criticize religious leaders who sang of an afterlife full of rewards but did little to improve workers’ lives in this one.

Wednesday

A pie to the face has been a slapstick staple for over a century, and it started in silent movies. Comedian Ben Turpin got the first known on-screen face pie in 1909’s “Mister Flip.”

Thursday

To “eat humble pie” indicates that you must admit your error. However, the origin of this term seems to come indirectly from “umble pie,” which was a pie filled with animal organs and entrails, especially those of deer.

Friday

Pies are old. There is evidence that ancient Egyptians made the first pies about 6,000 years ago. These original pies were made with barley, oats, rye, or wheat and filled with honey.

Saturday

The term “easy as pie” began in Australia in the 1920s, and the term seems to be influenced by “pai,” the Maori word for “good.”

Sunday

Brothers Adolph and Rudolph Dassler ran a successful shoe factory in Germany for 24 years before feuding and going their separate ways. Adidas became the brand named for ADolph DASsler, and Rudolph first named his shoes “Ruda” (RUdolph DAssler) but soon changed the name to “Puma.” The brothers are long dead, but their companies compete to this day.

Monday

Speaking of brothers in the shoe business, Vans shoes are named for company co-founders Paul and Jim Van Doren.

Tuesday

The shoe Reebok is named after an African antelope, though spelled rhebok in the animal name.

Wednesday

Nike is the Greek winged goddess of victory. Notably, neither this name nor the iconic “swoosh” logo initially appealed to company founder Phil Knight.

Thursday

Converse shoes were named after founder Marquis Mills Converse. The company has been a Nike subsidiary since 2003.

Friday

ASICS is an acronym from Latin, “Anima Sana In Corpore Sano” or “A Sound Mind in a Sound Body.”

Saturday

Chickens inspired the name “New Balance,” which founder William J. Riley watched in his yard and believed exhibited perfect balance as a result of their three-clawed foot. The three support points on the early shoe’s insole derived from this chicken foot revelation.

Sunday

A “breadbasket” region is one with particularly fertile soil and growing conditions for staple grains.

Monday

The term “bread and butter” has been used for centuries to describe a dependable income and livelihood, but before that, the term described the necessities of life.

Tuesday

Bread is old. There is evidence of breadmaking going back to the neolithic period, about 10,000 years ago.

Wednesday

Bread is also popular. It is estimated that 60% of the world’s population eats bread every day, and at least two countries (Bulgaria and Turkey) eat an average of over 200 lbs./person annually.

Thursday

The fairytale of Hansel and Gretel first mentioned a trail of breadcrumbs used to find your way back where you came, though this is now a modern internet term.

Friday

To “break bread” with people typically means enjoying fellowship through a shared meal. Notably, in biblical times when this phrase started, the much-harder bread would have been divided by breaking, instead of being torn like modern softer bread.

Saturday

As old as bread is, the first mention of any baker selling it pre-sliced is not until 1928. By the 1930s however, automatic bread slicing machines became common in industry. Since then, “the greatest thing since sliced bread” has been somewhat of a “spoof marketing slogan,” as one author put it.

Sunday

“Crackpot” derives from the term “cracked” for faulty and “pot” as short for brain, head, or skull. Curriously, a town in England is called “Crackpot,” but it was named from Norse words and so is unrelated to the current meaning.

Monday

Crack cocaine, which is powder cocaine processed into a smokeable crystal form, has that name from the crackling sound heard during the heating and smoking of the stuff.

Tuesday

A disappointing thing is “not all its cracked up to be” because in an older meaning, the word “crack” means banter, news, or gossip. In other words, it’s not all it’s talked up to be.

Wednesday

One of history’s most famous fractures, on the Liberty Bell, is partially deliberate. When a small crack appeared in the bell, metalworkers employed “stop drilling” in 1846 and intentionally widened it to prevent further cracking and preserve the bell’s original tone. When yet another crack appeared, the bell was permanently retired from ringing.

Thursday

The term “cracker” was first applied in 1801 to a batch of long-lasting biscuits popular amongst seamen that was accidentally burnt, causing baker Josiah Bent to hear their characteristic cracking noises and apply the name.

Friday

“The Nutcracker” is a holiday staple ballet that many dance companies draw reliable income from, but it was originally unsuccessful in 1892. Tchaikovsky’s music from the ballet had better success on its own, however, and even he found the ballet’s first performance dull.

Saturday

Before the name was attached to the popcorn and peanut snack, the term “cracker jack” referred to things of high quality.

Sunday

“Ad nauseum” means “to the point of nausea” and is usually applied to something over-repeated.

Monday

“Terra firma” means “solid ground,” often referring to something certain.

Tuesday

“Pro forma” means “for form,” or for appearance’s sake, but is also a modern accounting term.

Wednesday

“Ad hominem” is short for “argumentum ad hominem” and indicates a personal attack on an individual, instead of debating the merits of their idea or argument.

Thursday

“Alter ego,” unsurprisingly, means “the other I.”

Friday

“Anno domini,” often abbreviated as “A.D.” and written after dates since the year 0 on the modern Christian calendar, means “the year of the lord.”

Saturday

“Cirriculum vitae,” often shortened to “C.V.” means “the course of one’s life,” though it usually describes a resume or professional qualifications.

Sunday

Sugar comes from sugar cane or sugar beet juice, and from there is processed into its many varieties.

Monday

Brown sugar is brown from molasses, either left in or added to white sugar in varying amounts. White sugar is separated from molasses in processing.

Tuesday

Fifth century Indians learned to crystalize sugarcane juice and called that sugar “khanda,” the Sanskrit word from which we get “candy.”

Wednesday

Over one-third of the added sugar in the American diet comes from soda, energy, and sports drinks, while only 5-7% comes from candy.

Thursday

Chemically speaking, sugars end in “-ose,” like sucrose, fructose, glucose, etc., or -saccharide, such as monosaccharide or disaccharide.

Friday

Americans now consume a mind-boggling 11 million metric tons of sugar annually, more than any other nation by far.

Saturday

Historically, sugar was not so sweet for the workers who produced it. Unfortunately, slavery and forced labor played a big role in early sugar production, and African slaves and sugar were part of the infamous “triangle trade” between Africa, the Caribbean, and New England.

Sunday

“The straw that broke the camel’s back” is a metaphor for the final annoyance, slight, or burden that someone is willing to calmly tolerate. Camels often carry loads, and this term derives from an old fable about a shortsighted camel owner who had so overburdened his animal that he found out even one more straw was too much. “The last straw” and “the final straw” derive from this also.

Monday

Just as a scarecrow is an insubstantial being fabricated from straw, a “straw man” argument is created to be easily attacked, and a “straw man” in a transaction is a token or stand-in person or entity put in place for other’s purposes.

Tuesday

The practice of “drawing straws” is when straws are chosen from the hand of someone who conceals their lengths in his or her fist. The person who chooses the shortest straw typically must do an unpleasant task.

Wednesday

A “straw poll” is an informal poll to quickly gauge positions on a topic. The origin of this seems to come from looking at straw in a field to see which way the wind is blowing.

Thursday

The term “grasping at straws” for a hopeless final effort comes from an old proverb that a “drowning man will catch at straws,” or the thin reeds growing at the side of a river, in a futile attempt to save himself.

Friday

Drinking straws are a very old idea. Several meter-long metal tubes in a Russian museum are now believed to be beer drinking straws about 5,000 years old.

Saturday

Since clay and straw are traditional ingredients of bricks, the term “to make bricks without straw” refers to doing the impossible or without the necessary resources. There is also a biblical story where Pharoah makes the Israelites gather their own straw for his brickmaking, rather that supply it to them, and without reducing their daily quota.

Sunday

Since lead is a very heavy metal, the term “get the lead out,” originally ended with “…of your shoes” or “…of your pants” and means that you should speed up whatever you’re doing. And of course, “Get the Led Out” is a favorite title of classic rock radio stations for the time they play some Led Zeppelin songs.

Monday

In some cases, however, getting the lead out is a public health issue. Until the 1970s, both gasoline and residential paint sold in the US contained lead, and both products were known to cause serious health problems to those exposed to them, including children.

Tuesday

Lead has long been a standard material in bullets, since it is heavy and can deliver a lot of damage to targets. However, lead bullets can also give off a powdery residue when fired and fragment easily upon impact, leading to some health concerns among indoor firing range shooters, wildlife advocates, and game meat consumers.

Wednesday

A habitually speedy driver is called a “leadfoot” because their foot is so heavy on the accelerator.

Thursday

While you wouldn’t want lead in your body, you’d want it around your body when radiation is nearby. From lead aprons near X-ray machines to lead walls in fallout shelters, this heavy metal is well known to block radiation.

Friday

The band Led Zeppelin was referencing the dense metal, but removed the “a” so nobody would confuse it with “lead” as in leader. (For the rest of the band name story, see the week of 4/4/2021.)

Saturday

Lead’s chemical symbol is “Pb” instead of “Ld” or the like because its Latin name is plumbum.