Tag: tea

building the biggest empire in the world

Some historians say the British Empire was once the largest empire of all time, even larger than the Roman Empire. One of my friends said this was because they drank a lot of tea.

I don’t know if this hypothesis can pass mustard*… [Ed. note: What does mustard have to do with tea?!? Nvm, see the explanation below.] But let’s consider the possibility. (After all, sweet tea is awesome, arguably the best drink out there.)

So if tea gave them so much world-conquering power, what happened? Obviously their empire is not so large now. Well, once their influence spread around the world, everyone knew about the wonders of tea and so there was more balance. I suppose that could explain that part. That’s good enough for me. (Further debate is beyond the scope of this article, but feel free to comment if you have more insight.)

Disclaimer: if you are a student in school, your history teacher may not know about this theory. So ask them about it before putting it as an answer on your homework or tests. If they tell you otherwise, go with their answer. As Bart Simpson once had to write many times on the chalkboard, “I will not expose the ignorance of the faculty.” 🙂

* This is an eggcorn**. The saying is supposed to be “pass muster”, which originally referred to a military inspection. I misquoted it on purpose to be funny, but if you don’t know the original, it’s probably not funny. (But it is still random, regardless, so there’s that.)

** I just learned the word eggcorn. How have I not heard of this before? I enjoy occasionally misusing words and phrases (for humorous purposes), so I’ve been using them for years without knowing what they were called. Why didn’t I learn about this in school?*** Anyway, an eggcorn is a misunderstanding or mishearing of a word or phrase. Some common examples are “mute point” for “moot point”, “ice tea” instead of “iced tea”, “I could care less” which means you do care, “intensive purposes” for “intents and purposes”, “escape goat” for “scapegoat”, etc. But sometimes phrases are improved by eggcorns, like “chomping at the bit” instead of “champing at the bit”, and “free reign” instead of “free rein”. (Here’s a link for more about eggcorns.)

*** So I looked up the origins of the word eggcorn, and it was invented in 2003 when someone asked a linguist why some people say “egg corn” instead of “acorn”. He suggested calling that type of word/phrase an eggcorn, and the usage has become proper, with eggcorn being added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2010. So that’s why I hadn’t heard of it — it hasn’t been around that long. Also, it’s similar to a mondegreen, which usually applies to misheard song lyrics.

So now you know… and knowing is half the battle.

brewing tea reduces heavy metals from water

glass of sweet, iced tea, plate of fried chicken and sides

You really don’t need any extra reasons to drink tea other than it tasting good. Having a glass of sweet tea is a great experience and makes your day better. But fortunately, tea is good for you in numerous ways, like providing antioxidants. This is already known.

New research has shown that brewing tea reduces heavy metals like lead and cadmium from the water, making it safer for you. That’s convenient! A quote from the article:

“Across a population, if people drink an extra cup of tea per day, maybe over time we’d see declines in illnesses that are closely correlated with exposure to heavy metals. Or it could help explain why populations that drink more tea may have lower incidence rates of heart disease and stroke than populations that have lower tea consumption.”

If it makes me healthier to drink an extra cup of tea per day, I can do that!

It’s nice to hear good news once in a while…

Slacking can make you more productive

We need to have a certain amount of focus in our day to be effective and efficient with our daily tasks. But new studies show that a certain amount of unfocus actually helps us in many ways. When we can completely relax our mind, it helps us organize our thoughts and regulate our emotions, among other things. I highly recommend you read this short article about it: your brain can only take so much focus.

But do you realize what this means in layman’s terms? Slacking can make you more productive! I know some people will want to argue with that because it sounds so wrong, and our culture prioritizes busyness (even if it’s not all that productive). I’ve actually heard this concept before, that our brain needs time to organize our thoughts (like what happens while dreaming, but without the crazy randomness).

Is this productive? It can be! Don’t be quick to judge…

You’ve probably experienced this before. Have you ever been taking a long shower or bath, not really thinking about a particular situation, then suddenly you realize a solution? It’s happened to me. That is the kind of experience the article is talking about. There are various other ways to reach that state, since you can only take so many showers and naps in a day. Going for a walk is a good method. Talk with a friend where the conversation is allowed to roam freely with no pressure to keep up appearances.

I’m glad science is realizing this. The all-too-common state of constant busyness is not healthy. The time of relaxing can also help you unwind, to release some of your stress buildup.

If you’re wondering why a serious post got published at this blog of randomness, it’s because of this one statement: Slacking can make you more productive. That sounds like something we’d write to be random and funny, yet it is actually true! And I could’ve taken it to a more humorous extreme, but I wanted it to be taken seriously, because it can help you.

Also, a great way to relax is to enjoy a glass of freshly brewed sweet tea. The idea of “afternoon tea” might seem quaint in our modern culture of busyness, but think about it in light of this conversation. You take a break from whatever you’re doing, drink tea, enjoy nature or talk with friends or read a book. Maybe this is a tradition that should return! (Feel free to adapt it to your use, of course, but simplicity is important here.) Be sure to “slow down” enough to be in the moment, to savor the tea and just enjoy the experience.

To the Buffet o’ Blog staff, let’s take off the rest of the afternoon to be more productive. 🙂 To all my favorite readers, what are you going to do to help your brain focus by relaxing? Try to find a way to spend 15 minutes (or whatever you can fit in) where your brain can relax. Let me know if you discover any useful tips or methods.

the special days of June, pt 2

Now we’re going to continue our look at the special days / holidays / celebrations / observations of June.  These are the daily holidays.

1 Dare Day — I dare you to read this blog every day for a month and then try to truthfully tell me it’s not funny.  🙂

1 Flip a Coin Day — Uhh, why is this a holiday?

2 National Bubba Day — Why do people named Bubba get their own holiday?  I should get my own holiday.  It could be called National Beppo Day.  🙂

2 National Rocky Road Day — I’m going to assume this is talking about ice cream and not bumpy pavement.

3 Egg Day — You can make a number of good meals with eggs, like omelets, cakes, cookies, etc.  Or you can just cook them and have some bacon and/or sausage on the side, as part of a balanced breakfast.  🙂

4 Cheese Day — Ah, the power of cheese!  You may think that’s just some gimmicky promotional phrase for commercials, but think about it — cheese makes the world a better place.  And cheese can make your day better.  In fact, today I had lunch at my favorite restaurant and was treated to a free large cheese dip.  It certainly made the day better.  🙂

4 First Ford Made — This isn’t really a holiday, but more of a remembrance.  The first operational car was made in 1896.  Can you imagine life without vehicles?

4 Applesauce Cake Day — What?  I’ve never heard of an applesauce cake.  Have you ever had one?  Hopefully it’s not just a cake made with applesauce.  If so, then it doesn’t deserve its own holiday.

4 Hug Your Cat Day — If you don’t have a cat, I guess you’re just left out of this one.  Although June is adopt-a-cat month…

4 Old Maid’s Day — This is a day for the single ladies who aren’t getting any younger.  Here’s to all the fair maidens who are still waiting on Mr. Right.  Although, is a fair maiden the same as an old maid?  I don’t think I should continue this discussion…  🙂

5 World Environment Day — Today you should be thankful that we have an environment in this world, and that it’s habitable.  We take it for granted, but we have the best environment among all the other planets in our solar system.  Earth’s environment is much better than Mars.  We’ve discussed this before, and living on Mars would be worse than you expect.

6 National Doughnut Day — This is a good reason for a holiday.  Donuts are scrumptious.  I prefer the chocolate-filled variety.  Also worth mentioning is the infamous Krispy Kreme doughnuts, particularly right after the come off the assembly line.  They almost melt in your mouth when they’re still hot and fresh.  Mmm…

6 National Gardening Exercise Day — One website that listed this holiday suggested you “get out and exercise with your plants”.  WHAT?  Who came up with that?  This is just silly.

7 National Chocolate Ice Cream Day — Now we’re back to a good holiday.  I don’t have to tell you how good chocolate ice cream is.  And if all you have is vanilla ice cream, you can get some Oreos and crumble them up in there, or add Hershey’s syrup to it, or both.  My research has proven that all three together is awesome.

8 Name Your Poison Day — Some people use this phrase to ask how you’d like to die.  Personally, I plan to live forever.  (So far, so good!)  So I’m not participating in this holiday at all.

10 Iced Tea Day — It’s already National Iced Tea Month, so I don’t know why we need an individual day for it.  If you’re already drinking extra tea for the month holiday, I guess you can drink even more tea on this day.  Just don’t stray too far from a bathroom if you’re drinking 2 to 3 times your normal amount of tea.

12 Red Rose Day — Again, this is already Rose Month, which I don’t care about.  But if you want to buy some red roses this day for your wife/girlfriend, you might could get a good deal on them (as opposed to February, when the price is run up because of Valentine’s Day).

13 Blame Someone Else Day — This holiday is always the first Friday the 13th of the year, so it’s not always in June.  But this year it is, so here goes.  I don’t think this needs to be a holiday, because so many people already do this on a regular basis, and it’s destroying our country.  Folks need to learn to take personal responsibility, especially our politicians.

15 Smile Power Day — Smiling is good for you.  And it helps those around you, too.  But I should add a caveat — some people say it’s easier to smile than to frown, which may be true, but it’s not the whole story — it’s actually easier to look like you don’t care.  🙂  But really, smiling is healthy for you, along with laughing.  That’s why this blog exists.

This is getting long, so I’m going to finish this in the next post.  Click here to search for the other entries for June.