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Did You Know? FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | OCTOBER 2018 11 By Micki Rosen DID YOU KNOW THAT OCT. 16 IS DICTIONARY DAY? Dictionary Day is held in honor of Noah Webster, the man who is considered to have fathered the American dictionary in 1758. Webster's mother was the first to ingrain in him a love of learning, but he found the quality of education at the local school to be lacking. So it was that he dedicated himself to improving the education of generations to come, in no small part by working to codify and improve the method by which information is transferred from generation to generation: language. DID YOU KNOW THAT OCT. 5 IS BALLOONS AROUND THE WORLD DAY? The first airborne flight in a hydrogen balloon took place in 1783 by Jacques Charles, who determined that it would be possible based on his study of Boyle's Law. The balloon was an amazing innovation of technologies, utilizing silk varnished in a mixture of turpentine and rubber to seal in the hydrogen. The first flight went 21 kilometers north. The balloon was subsequently destroyed by peasants with pitchforks, who thought it was a terrifying unnatural phenomenon. From there balloon technology exploded (pardon the expression). In 1824 Michael Faraday created the rubber balloon, and the rest is history. DID YOU KNOW THAT OCT. 12 IS WORLD EGG DAY? Arguably one of the oldest foods known to man, eggs have played an important role in our lives and health since time out of mind. They are packed full of protein and also serve as the base for some of the most wonderful culinary creations, including that most perfect of condiments for sandwiches, mayonnaise. The history of the egg expands far beyond a merely culinary concern; the egg has had great importance in multiple cultures for reasons both decorative and religious. Consider the Easter Egg, and those fabulous Faberge Eggs, which were prized even by Czars. DID YOU KNOW THAT OCT. 14 IS DESSERT DAY? The origin of the word dessert comes from the French "desservir," a word which here means "to clear the table." This referenced the dish that came after the clearing of the main dishes of the meal. The earliest references to the term "dessert" date back to the 1600s and arrived at the same time as the concept of serving a meal in courses, letting each part of the meal be its own experience. The idea of serving something sweet following the main meal wasn't something that was always done. Those masters of decadence, the French, were known to serve a sweet wine as an aperitif, and it didn't take long before the concept of a sweet following the main dish became commonplace. The birth of the sugar and honey trade helped to bolster the dessert idea. DID YOU KNOW THAT OCT. 18 IS CHOCOLATE CUPCAKE DAY? The origin of the cupcake seems to go back as far as 1796, where cakes cooked in small cups were first mentioned, and the actual term "cupcake" was first seen in Eliza Leslie's cookbook. Nowadays, a microwave will let you mix and cook a cupcake in less than five minutes! Have you heard of the periodic table of cupcakes? These are cupcakes frosted in colors to match the periodic table of elements and then marked with each of the elements in black frosting.

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