June 05, 2008 08:39 am
—
There is a segment on one
of the morning cable talk
shows which is called “News
You Can’t Use.” We always
think it is an odd moment as
the viewer is always shown
the news you can’t use which
seems to us to be a waste of
air time, not to mention the
viewer’s time. However, as
we have thought about it, we
have come to the conclusion
that the news segment is not
terribly far removed from all
the seemingly worthless information
which we have
spent years storing in our
somewhat feeble brain. We
suspect we will never have a
use for about 99 percent of it.
And yet, we always seem to
encounter some discussion in
which we can whip out this
seemingly useless information
to a gathering of people
who appear to be convinced
that we have absolutely no
idea what we are talking
about.
In fact, at one gathering a
while ago now we were able
to enlist not one, but two
pieces of useless information.
The first of these concerned
the product Tang, the orange
flavored drink mix of which
the wee-we was quite fond
during his formative years.
When we were asked why we
would have allowed him to
drink the stuff, we pointed
out that if it was good enough
for the astronauts, it was
good enough for the wee-we.
We further explained that it
was used by the astronauts
as it successfully masked the
taste of the recycled water
which was used on the spacecraft.
In fact, we noted that
the water probably needed
all the help it could get as
urine was filtered and purified
in order to produce the
water. To say that there were
doubting Thomases at the
gathering would be an understatement.
They also were quite dubious
regarding our explanation
as to why there is really
no reason to purchase sourdough
starter from a bakery
in San Francisco, an area
known for its sourdough
bread. The first few times
the sourdough starter is used
it will produce bread not unlike
the San Francisco bakery.
However, since sourdough
starter will pick up
yeasts from the air in which
it is found, the starter will
eventually change and reflect
its new community in
its flavor. In fact, we notice a
difference between the Clinton
Township, Ohio sourdough
bread and the Cooperstown,
N.Y. sourdough bread.
We tend to think the Cooperstown
variety is better, no
doubt reflecting our better
yeast, but we certainly do
not want the wee-we to learn
our thinking on this matter.
We must say that the reactions
to our somewhat useless
information rather made
us wonder if we really did
not know what we were talking
about. Consequently,
when we returned home, we
dashed to the computer to
check out the Wikipedia’s, an
on-line encyclopedia, thinking
on these two subjects. We
discovered that “Sourdough
... refers to the process of
leavening bread by capturing
wild yeasts in a dough or
batter, as opposed to using a
domestic, purpose-cultured
yeast ...” It finished the discussion
with “... each bakery’s
sourdough has a distinct
taste. The combination
of starter, yeast culture and
air temperature, humidity,
and elevation also makes
each batch of sourdough different.”
We also learned that
there is one bakery in San
Francisco which still “... uses
the same ‘starter’ yeast culture
it developed during the
California Gold Rush.” It was
no doubt good that we didn’t
have that little piece of information
at our fingertips during
the sourdough starter
discussion.
We also checked Wikipedia
for information on Tang
where we learned “Tang is a
sugared, fruit-flavored, noncarbonated
soft drink from
the USA. The original orange
flavored Tang was formulated
by General Foods Corporation
in 1957 and first marketed
(in powdered form) in
1959. It was initially intended
as a breakfast drink, but
sales were poor until NASA
began using it on Gemini
flights in 1965, and that use
was heavily advertised. Since
that time, it has been associated
with the U.S. manned
spaceflight program.”
Under the “History of
Tang,” Wikipedia notes that
“Tang was used by the NASA
Gemini space program. A
NASA engineer working with
the Gemini Space Program
on a life-support module explains
the story of how and
why it was used. Paraphrased:
“... There was a particular
component of the
Gemini life support-system
module which produced H2O
(water) among other things.
This was a byproduct of a reoccurring
chemical reaction
of one of the mechanical devices
on the life-support module.
The astronauts would
use this water to drink during
their space flight. The
problem was, the astronauts
did not like the taste of the
water because of some of the
byproducts produced, which
were not harmful of course.
So, they added Tang to make
the water taste better ...”“.
Enough said.
In closing, we do not normally,
given our dislike of
the kitchen, write columns
dedicated to strictly food related
topics. Yet, surprisingly
enough, we have recently
read up on two more undoubtedly
useless food topics,
namely the Oreo invasion
of Britain and the Asparagus
Capital of the World located
in Schwetzingen, Germany.
But take heart, we shall
probably not use this information
until we once again
find that we have to be out of
town for a family wedding.
We remain,
In these Otsego hills,
The Ellsworths
The Ellsworths may be
reached by mail at 105 Pioneer
St., Cooperstown, N.Y.
13326, by telephone at 547-
8124 or by e-mail at
cellsworth1@stny.rr.com.
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