FEAST OR FAMINE

Beurre D’Isigny, Isigny Butter, is the best butter in the world—in my opinion! Isigny butter is made from cow’s milk that is “turned” between 24-48 hours after the cows have been milked. Turning, or churning, is the act of beating the milk’s cream until it turns into butter. Butter is made from cream that has been separated from whole milk and then cooled. The butter comes from Isigny Sainte-Mere located between the sea water of the English Channel and the fresh water of the Bessin and Cotentin marshes of five rivers that flow into the Bay of les Veys in northern France. It is the Lower Normandy Region of France, comprising Orne, Calvados, and Manche. The region, known for its dairy production since the 16 th century, has a damp and mild climate, as well as soil rich in clay and silt. The milk from the cows in the marsh pastures is rich in trace elements and has high butterfat levels, which gives the Isigny Sainte-Mere butter its distinctive flavour. The butter has hi...

What is the appeal of rocking horses? Why, even now, do I look at a rocking horse, any rocking horse—old or new (but preferably old)—with complete and utter awe? A rocking horse is usually made of wood, with a figure of a horse attached to curved pieces of wood that enable the horse to rock back and forth, controlled by the child on the horse, who holds its neck or reins to “ride” it. The curved rocker (like a rocking chair) is one form of rocking horse base (where the contraption has contact with the ground), but another was devised for safety. It is the framed rocking horse in which the horse hangs in a rigid frame via straps or steel rods. The frame does not move – only the horse within the frame moves. Part of the appeal is the beauty of the carpentry and artisanship required to make the rocking horse, but for others it is in the likeness of a real horse, with its mane, tail, and facial features. Some even have leather saddles and metal stirrups. However, psychologists...

Beatle Meets Destiny (2009) is young adult fiction. It is about eighteen-year-old John Lennon—not THE John Lennon of the band, The Beatles—but an Australian teenager with a girlfriend, Cilla. But one day he meets seventeen-year-old Destiny. Destiny McCartney. He meets her in February, on Friday 13 th —is that good luck or bad luck? It would seem to be destiny that Lennon and McCartney end up together—but life is not that simple. Cilla is a nice person—a perfect girlfriend, and Lennon, nicknamed Beatle, cannot just dump her to date Destiny. Even though Lennon believes in signs, horoscopes, astrology charts, coincidences, and serendipity. Besides, Beatle’s twin sister, Winsome, is dating Destiny’s brother Frank. And Lennon doesn’t want Winsome or Frank to mention to Destiny that he is dating Cilla. His mother, an astrology freak, has just presented Cilla with her horoscope chart for the next year—what does it predict? Neither his mother, nor Cilla, is saying anything, ex...

Shouting “Ow!” or “Ouch!” can ease the feeling of pain. Researchers from the National University of Singapore, experimenting with pain and pain thresholds, maintain that shouting “Ow!” when in pain can substantially reduce the intensity of the soreness. Hence the act of vocalizing pain is therapeutic (Journal of Pain, January 2015). Researchers conducted experiments by observing participants plunge their hands into extremely cold water. Some participants were allowed to vocalize what they felt, while others were not (they had to remain silent). Participants were requested to hold their hands in the freezing water for as long as possible. The results showed that the group of participants that were allowed to vocalize their feelings were able to keep their hands in the cold water for up to three minutes longer than the participants who were silent. Researchers hypothesized that the muscle movements when vocalizing pain somehow divert or confuse the pain signals from ent...

The Australian native bird, the tawny frogmouth, has been called many things such as an owl, a boobook, and a mopoke. But it is none of those. The tawny frogmouth ( Podargus strigoides ), although related to owls ( strigoides means owl form), it is in the order Caprimulgiformes and more closely related to nightjars. Tawny frogmouths are large, big-headed, neckless, short-legged, grey-feathered, rounded-winged nocturnal birds. Their eyes are large and yellow (similar to owl eyes), and their grey bills have tufts of hair, rather like whiskers. That sounds rather ugly, but they are, in fact, quite fascinating. That’s because they have a large mouth that resembles a frog’s mouth. And it looks like it is perpetually smiling. They are extremely hard to find because they camouflage themselves into their surroundings. They measure up to 34-53 centimetres (13-21 inches) and weigh up to 680 grams (1.5 pounds), so they are large enough to be seen, but with their grey feathers they b...