WEDNESDAY READER | APRIL 26
Greetings!
Can you believe it’s the last Wednesday of April?
This month sure zipped by quickly.
Ready for May? Ready or not – here it comes.
Presenting Wednesday Reader.
Leslie Elman’s Trivia Bits is always greatness and material to be the most interesting person in the room when an opportunity arises to share the trivia + fascinating stuff with others.
Stephanie Hayes’ Letter to the guy on the treadmill next to her had me rolling with laughter!
I actually could read the mind blowing message. Had a couple friends read it – and they could, too. Little bit of fun – for sure.
Thai style Chicken Breasts are the bomb-a-reno. So, so good! Give the recipe a try. I’d be shocked if it wasn’t love at first bite.
As always, so grateful that you’re here – reading – sharing – commenting.
See ya Friday!
POP QUIZ
- IN RICHARD NIXON’S FAMOUS “CHECKERS SPEECH,” WHOM DID HE CREDIT WITH NAMING THE NIXON’S FAMILY DOG?
a) Dwight D. Eisenhower
b) Nixon’s wife, Pat
c) Nixon’s daughter, Tricia
d) Earl Warren - WHO VOICES THE CHARACTER OF BART SIMPSON?
a) Nancy Cartwright
b) Dan Castellanta
c) Yeardley Smith
d) Tracey Ullman - JUDE LAW STARRED IN A 2004 REMAKE OF “ALFIE.” WHO STARRED IN THE 1966 ORIGINAL?
a) Richard Burton
b) Michael Caine
c) Albert Finney
d) Peter O’Toole - WHERE IN YOUR BODY WOULD YOU FIND THE ALMOND-SHAPED AMYGDALA?
a) Brain
b) Eye
c) Pancreas
d) Small Intestine - WHAT COUNTRY’S CAPITAL CITY IS NAMED FOR U.S. PRESIDENT JAMES MONROE?
a) Jamaica
b) Liberia
c) St. Kitts and Nevis
d) Togo - WHAT IS DEPICTED ON THE NATIONAL FLAG OF WALES?
a) Blue dolphin
b) Golden lion
c) Red dragon
d) White dove
QUICK QUESTION
WHO IS THE FUNNIEST PERSON YOU KNOW?
POP QUIZ ANSWERS
- Six-year-old Tricia Nixon named the Nixon family dog Checkers.
- Nancy Cartwright provides the voice of Bart Simpson.
- Michael Caine played the title character in the 1966 film “Alfie.”
- The almond-shaped amygdala is part a part of the brain that governs emotion.
- Monrovia, capital of Liberia, is named for U.S. president James Monroe.
- A red dragon is depicted on the national flag of Wales.
~ triviabitsleslie@gmail.com.
COPYRIGHT 2023 LESLIE ELMAN
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM
MIND BLOWING
If you can read the following, you have a super, strong mind. Not everybody can … Ready?
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THE GOOD OLD DAYS ARE NOW
(( Starve the Landfills. Recycle. ))
RIDDLE ME THIS
WHAT CAN YOU HOLD IN YOUR RIGHT HAND, BUT NEVER YOUR LEFT HAND?
THAI STYLE HERB GRILLED CHICKEN BREASTS
These chicken breasts are moist and packed with flavor. Delicious this time of year through the summer for dinner with a cold noodle salad, sliced or diced on top of a Caesar salad or served with brown + wild rice and a green veggie of choice. ~ Serves 6
- 1/2 cup fresh basil, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh mint, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped
- 5 TBSP fresh ginger, peeled and minced
- 3 TBSP garlic, peeled and minced
- 3 TBSP soy sauce
- 3 TBSP fish sauce (Nam Pla – found in the Asian section of grocery stores)
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 3 TBSP brown sugar
- 2 Serrano chiles, minced
- 3 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
Combine ingredients (except chicken) in a blender or small food processor and mix until smooth. You might need to add a little bit of water —
Place chicken breasts in a plastic zipper bag and add the wonderful “marinade” mixture. Chill, shaking up the bag from time to time, for at least 2 hours – best – overnight.
Grill chicken on a prepared barbecue grill until done — about — 5-6 minutes per side.
~ Hippie Cowboy recipe box
RIDDLE ANSWER
YOUR LEFT HAND
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE GUY ON THE TREADMILL NEXT TO ME
Dear sir,
Salutations, and pardon the interruption. Can you just … hello? Can you hear … you still have an earbud in. There, that one. This will be quick, I promise, OK, hello, hi!
I spotted you this week at the gym. You sprang along on the treadmill beside me, clocking a pace between 8 and 10 miles per hour. I was the sullen, elfin one jogging at 4 miles per hour with a face the color of Santa’s nose while he’s sleighing across the equator at 2 a.m. on Christmas. Hm? Oh, yes, yes, I may have quietly prayed “for the sweet release of death,” but I didn’t mean for you to hear that.
Your face, though. Your face was somewhere else, somewhere far away, your eyes shut gently, a tranquil smile pulling your cheeks skyward. You were not there, sir. I mean, you were there, but not there-there. You looked like a stock photo for “SERENE RUNNING MAN MID-40’S.” It seemed, sir, that you were in the middle of what some anthropologists of questionable repute call a “runner’s high.” You were … happy. To be … running?
I have some questions.
No. 1: How dare you?
No 2: I am kidding. I like exercise, too. It makes me feel better mentally and physically, but I will fully admit to needing a push when it comes to the cardio department. I hail from a line of heart disease and I’m getting older, so I know it’s important for me to spike things up and down around the old ticker! Keep her cranking, get that oxygen-poor blood through the pulmonary valve, you dig? That’s why I’m in this class with you.
Some days, I like the running part more than others, sure. But I’ve never lost myself in the bliss of running. It’s not my particular destiny. If we were cavepeople, for instance, I would have been posted up at the Eurasian limestone enclave, scratching sarcastic recordings on the wall about the crushing ennui of living in a cave when all I want is for someone to notice my witty personal essays. You definitely would have been in the field outrunning and spearing large herbibvores, keeping the whole family alive until at least age 28.
No. 3: What’s it like? To feel so alive?
No. 4: How often do you feel alive, per se? Is it, like, daily? Or are you averaging one alive moment per quarter, which seems more reasonable?
No. 5: Did you always know you were a natural runner, or did someone scary chase you at an early age?
No. 6: Do you have any tips on form? The coaches keep telling us to pick up our knees and try to kick our butts, to which I say, are you really telling us to kick our own butts? In our free time? And this costs how much?
No. 7: Concerning your face, is it safe to run on a treadmill at 9 miles per hour with your eyes closed? No, I’m not trying to find flaws in you. I am concerned you’re going to trip and go flying off the belt while frantically grappling for something to hold onto, and that thing you grapple for might end up being me, the elfin one who looks nice and sturdy.
I guess that’s all. Thank you for your time. If you choose to answer any of these questions, you will have to open your eyes first. I will be over by the weight rack scratching witty essays into the padded gym floor.
Yours,
Sturdy lady
~ Stephanie Hayes is a columnist at the Tampa Bay times in Florida. Follow her at @stephhayes on Twitter or @ stephrhayes on Instagram
COPYRIGHT 2022 CREATORS.COM
this column was originally published for release on December 3, 2022
Fascinating Stuff
FASCINATING STUFF
- Chinese checkers is sort of like checkers, but it’s not Chinese. It’s based on a game called Halma — from the Greek word for “jump” — devised in the 1880s by Massachusetts surgeon George Howard Monks. Originally, Halma was played on a square board. The star-shaped board came from Germany, where the game is sometimes called Sternhalma (Star Halma). Naming it Chinese checkers was an American marketing concept from the 1920s to capitalize on people’s fascination with the “exotic East.”
- When I say “carrot,” you think “orange,” but it wasn’t always that way. Farmers in Asia, where carrots were planted as crops in the 10th century, were fond of purple and yellow varieties. Wild carrots can be red or white as well. It wasn’t until the 16th century in Europe that orange carrots became preferred, thanks to Dutch farmers who grew them for their flavor and promoted them as a tribute to the Dutch Prince William of Orange.
- In the 1972 film “Sleuth,” Laurence Olivier plays a crime novelist living in a stately home in England. On his mantlepiece is an Edgar Allan Poe award from the Mystery Writers of America. That statuette was no mere stage prop. It was the real Edgar awarded to playwright Anthony Shaffer in 1971 for the stage version of “Sleuth.” Presumably, it survived the film shoot unscathed. In 1973, it gained a companion when Shaffer received a second Edgar for the film version of “Sleuth.”
- Who needs nondescript “standing man” and walking man” figures on crosswalk traffic signals? In Friedberg, Germany, “dancing Elvis” crosswalk lights amuse pedestrians and commemorate the city’s connection to Elvis Presley, who did his military service in the area from 1958 – 1960. There are Viking figures on crosswalk lights in Aarhus, Denmark; skiers on lights in Innsbruck, Austria; silhouettes of Astro Bow in Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan; and a rendering of Ludwig van Beethoven on a light in Bonn, Germany, where he was born.
- Eugenie Anderson was the first woman to serve as a U.S. ambassador to a foreign country. Appointed by President Harry Truman in 1949, she was the U.S. ambassador to Denmark until 1953, when she returned to her home in Minnesota. President John F. Kennedy asked her to return to diplomatic service, naming her minister to Bulgaria in 1962. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson appointed her to represent the United States at the United Nations, where she became the first woman to sit on the U.N. Security Council.
- The recording that launched the audiobook industry was the 1952 Caedmon Records release of “A Child’s Christmas in Wales and Five Poems” read by the author Dylan Thomas. It wasn’t the first time a writer had recorded work for posterity. Most notably, Alfred Lord Tennyson recorded his epic “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by special request of Thomas Edison in 1890. Yet the Dylan Thomas recording marked a milestone in publishing history. More recordings of authors and poets reading their work followed, and a new publishing category was born.
~ triviabitsleslie@gmail.com
COPYRIGHT 2023 LESLIE ELMAN
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM
