Today’s real fact (courtesy of http://www.snapple.com) is about hiccups. Did you know that . . .
Yet another concept that is cropping up in society more and more lately. Here is an excellent demotivator (courtesy of www-dot-despair-dot-com) that sheds some light (and casts some aspersions) on this issue. And, while I am probably guilty of this occasionally, I certainly try to not make it a habit.
“Denial is like a cloud that obscures the sky. It blocks the truth. It reduces clarity.” — Gloria Excelsior
Source: https://despair.com/collections/demotivators/products/denial
I have always been a fan of BLTs (or anything with bacon for that matter). I have finally found a BLT cheesecake recipe (savory) that I can’t wait to try.
Savory BLT Cheesecake
Ingredients
3/4 cup of dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
3 Tablespoons of butter, melted
4 packages (8 ounces each) of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream
1-1/2 cups of cooked bacon, crumbled
1 cup of oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, patted dry and chopped
1 cup of shredded Gruyere or Swiss cheese
2 green onions, sliced
1 teaspoon of ground pepper
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
Optional toppings: shredded iceberg lettuce, chopped cherry tomatoes, additional bacon, assorted crackers.
Directions
1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Wrap your greased 9″ springform pan with aluminum foil.
2. In a small bowl, combine the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, and butter. Press mixture onto the bottom and up the sides of your prepared pan. Place the pan on a baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
3. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and heavy cream until smooth. Beat in the bacon, tomatoes, Gruyere, onions, and pepper. Add the eggs; beat on low speed until just combined. Pour this mixture over your crust. Place your springform pan into a large baking pan and 1″ of boiling water to the larger pan (water bath).
4. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until the center is just set and the top appears dull. Remove the springform pan from the water bath and remove the foil. Cool the cheesecake on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Loosen the edges of the pan with a knife and cool for 1 hour longer. Refrigerate overnight.
5. Remove the cheesecake from the pan and serve with toppings and crackers, if desired.
Ah, the start of another week . . . To get you in the mood for working (or perhaps to distract you), here are some cut one-liners early on this Monday morning for you to enjoy.
I got hit on the head by a falling book once, but I’ve only got my “shelf” to blame.
I was reading a book last night on anti-gravity; it was really hard to put down.
Did you know that Kevin McCallister is at Home Alone reading?
I’d tell you about how I lost the book War and Peace, but it’s a long story.
When I told my parents that I was going to go and “Occupy Wall Street,” they said “Why not ‘Occupy Library’ instead?”
Source: jokes4us.com
I recently found (and watched) an older TED talk by Ingrid Fetell Lee from 2018 entitled: “Where joy hides and how to find it.” This resonated with me a great deal (and explains my love of filling my life with color). Enjoy!
Here is the next aphorism (from the work of Baltasar Gracian, the 17th Century Spanish Jesuit and baroque prose writer and philosopher).
“Industry and Minerva. Without both, no distinction, and with both, this in the highest degree. Mediocrity gets further with industry, than superiority without it. Reputation is bought for the price of labor, and what has cost little is worth little. To attain even the highest posts, many have lacked only industry; rarely has their talent been insufficient. To prefer to be a second in a high position to being a first in a low has good excuse; but to be satisfied with being a second in the lowest, when able to be a first, has none. Well, talent and art are both called for, but industry sets the seal.”
Source: The Art of Worldly Wisdom: a Collection of Aphorisms from the Work of Baltasar Gracian (translated by Martin Fischer).
The category for today’s trivial imponderable is “astronomy.” Do you know . . . what is the English adjective now generally used to describe the planet Venus and its hypothetical inhabitants?
The adjective used is Cytherean from Cytheria (a small island that is now a part of Greece). It is here where Aphrodite emerged from the sea on a seashell. Also, did you know that “veneraeal disease” pays homage to Venus (the Roman goddess of love)?
Source: Sorry, Wrong Answer: Trivia Questions That Even Know-It-Alls Get Wrong, by Dr. Rod L. Evans.
Did you know that between 2010 and 2020, the U.S. population of senior citizens (aged 65+) experienced the most growth since the decade of 1880-1890? Obviously, the Baby Boomers were driving this increase which showed to be much more pronounced in some places versus others. Maine, Vermont, West Virginia, Florida, and Puerto Rico all have more than 20% of their population in the senior (65+ age) demographic. Ironically, none of these States had reached this level of concentration by 2010.
How has this changed over the years? Here is the growth of the 65+ population in the United States:
When we look on a more global scale, here are the countries with the highest percentage of persons 65+ in age:
Source: AARP Bulletin, October 2023 issue, p. 40; U.S. Census Bureau
The Gun-Carryin' Librarian 