For those of you whose thirst wasn’t quenched with the last Dietribes, here’s another round of water facts for you to paddle, wade, swim or float through:

• Worried about drinking your 8 glasses of water a day? Turns out it may be a myth …

• However, there is definitely the possibility of drinking too much, which results in water intoxication. In some cases it can lead to death. In fact, Andy Warhol’s estate charged that water intoxication caused by the hospital led to his fatal heart attack.

• There are some creatures who don’t need water very often at all – camels, for instance. But is it because they store water in their humps? No! The humps store fat, not water. “Camels get all the water they need from the plants they eat and thus may go six or seven months without drinking. During the summer, [...] camels drink only every five days. ”

• There are of course alternatives to the tap (Quite a few of you mentioned last week about the good or bad taste and quality of your local water; and yes, Florida water tastes the worst in my opinion … sulfur!) – check out these stats on the growing use of bottled water. Of course, states are ready to cash in on this as quickly as they can.

• The varieties of bottled water are endless – you can buy bottled Holy water, bottled water for dogs or even “plain” tonic water … which glows in the dark under a black light thanks to quinine!

• In the 1940s scientists noticed a link between tooth decay and the amount of naturally occurring fluoride in water supplies. So, In 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan, adjusted the fluoride content of its water supply to 1.0 ppm and thus became the first city to implement community water fluoridation.

• Water can also be carbonated (as discovered by Joseph Priestly, whose other credits include discovering oxygen and inventing the rubber eraser). But there are other, stranger ways to add bubbles. In the town of San Pellegrino Terme, Italy, there is a spigot that runs all the time, providing San Pellegrino water free to the local citizens–except that free Pellegrino has no bubbles. The bubbles in San Pellegrino are extracted from volcanic springs in Tuscany, then trucked north and injected into the water from the source.

• Finally, if you want to sleep on the water but can’t afford a boat, consider a water bed (originally called a “pleasure pit” and was more of a water blob placed on the floor). In 1987, water beds accounted for 22% of all mattress sales. (Do any of your Flossers have water beds? Did your parents?)

• For anyone who’s interested in issues of US water supply and water rights, Cadillac Desert is one of the best books I’ve read on the subject. West Coast dwellers might find it especially interesting!

Hungry for more? Venture into the Dietribes archive.

‘Dietribes’ appears every other Wednesday. Food photos taken by Johanna Beyenbach You might remember that name from our post about her colorful diet.

• First thing’s first: What is a bagel? “A bagel is a round bread, with a hole in the middle, made of simple ingredients: high-gluten flour, salt, water, yeast and malt. Its dough is boiled, then baked, and the result should be a rich caramel color; it should not be pale and blond. A bagel should weigh four ounces or less and should make a slight cracking sound when you bite into it. A bagel should be eaten warm and, ideally, should be no more than four or five hours old when consumed. All else is not a bagel.”

• If you’ve heard that old yarn about bagels being created in 17th-century Poland as a tribute to King Jan Sobieski after he saved Austria from Turkish invaders at the battle of Vienna in 1683, well … it’s a load of old toss. The origins came prior to this supposed event, and most experts agree that the origin of the word “bagel” probably came from the Yiddish beigen, to bend.

• But why bend it in the first place? The bagel may be a cousin of the pretzel, although its singular shape may also have helped those selling bagels to carry bunches of them on sticks.

• Bagels come in about every variety one can dream up. From the well-known Everything Bagel to the “buzzed” bagel for when you need some caffeine with your caffeine in the morning. And let us not forget this likely first casualty of the recession: the $1,000 bagel (no, it doesn’t have gold chips but it darn well should!)

• Hmmm, the greatest thing since sliced bread might be … a sliced bagel! Lender’s popularized the sliced bagel, and eventually came out with a frozen variety as well. Today some bagels are so hardy they can even survive space.

• Do you love bagels? I mean really, really love bagels? Seriously now … LOVE BAGELS? Apparently you can turn your face into one.

• But what’s a bagel without cream cheese? Cream cheese was discovered accidentally in 1872 by a New York dairyman trying make Neufchatel. It was originally packaged in foil just as it can be found today.

• For those who don’t relish (or are too lazy to) schmear, there is now the option of the cream cheese-filled bagel.

• Finally, in case you were wondering: could eating poppyseed bagels make you fail a drug test? Yes!

• You know what comes next: how do you Flossers most enjoy your bagels? Nothing is better to me than a whole wheat bagel generously schmeared with cream cheese and lox, lox and more lox!

Hungry for more? Venture into the Dietribes archive.

‘Dietribes’ appears every other Wednesday. Food photos taken by Johanna Beyenbach You might remember that name from our post about her colorful diet.

• Edible candy on a stick has been around for centuries in many forms, though the “lolly pop” as we now know it was fashioned in the 1920s. Even as far back as the Middle Ages, royalty would sometimes eat boiled sugar with sticks.

• A question that has been around perhaps as long as the candy itself … how many licks does it take to finish a lollipop off? Of course, this postulation was made popular in the 1970s with Tootsie’s unforgettable campaign that continues to amuse and baffle kids (and adults) to this day. There are, however, some scientific studies that have sought to find the answer to this Great Mystery.

• Stick a sock in it! Or … a lollipop? Some British pub owners are helping to control noise pollution after closing by handing out lollipops to costumers to consume on their way home.

• Lollipops are so popular they can even sell for $4.5 Million … well, a painting of them can. Picasso also took a stab at immortalizing the lollipop with a (very strange) 1938 painting, while Salvador Dali did his part by designing the logo for Chupa Chupas, as he was a family friend of the founder, Enric Bernat.

• Lollipops are a popular subject matter for singers and rapper alike – Lil Wayne, The Chordettes (yes this is the song you’re thinking of that will get stuck in your head) and of course … Shirley Temple all have their classic versions regarding the pop Lolly.

• Love Lollipops? Become a Lollipop man or woman. Not as fanciful as it may, the terms actually refer to crossing guards in the UK, a position that has seen a rise in applications lately due to the recession.

• More successful Lollipop lads may be those from the Wizard of Oz’s Lollipop Guild. Guild actor Billy Bletcher voiced the Big Bad Wolf in Three Little Pigs and Spike the Bulldog in Tom & Jerry, while his Guild co-star Pinto Colvig was the voice of Goofy and Pluto.

• Lollipops can also do good. One similarly-named device has been found to help the blind better acquaint themselves with their surroundings. Actual lollipops can also replace the oral fixation of smoking – Kojak sucked on lollipops because the actor who played him, Telly Savalas, was trying to quit cigarettes.

• … They can also do bad. On the flip side, there were once candy-flavored nicotine-packed lollipops that the FDA eventually put a stop to. Lollipops can also occasionally be responsible for nearly putting out your eye (if you’re David Bowie, anyway).

• Finally, to answer another Lollipop conundrum: The “mystery flavor” Dum-Dum Pop is truly random. The mystery pop is a mixture of two flavors (the end of one batch of candy meets the beginning of the next batch). Candy lines are continuous, so when they switch over from one flavor to another, the result is some pops contain both flavors.

• What are some of your favor flavors, Flossers? What are your feelings about the Buttered Popcorn flavor that Dum-Dums got rid of in 2001? Possibly related, what’s the worst flavor you’ve ever tasted?

Hungry for more? Venture into the Dietribes archive.

‘Dietribes’ appears every other Wednesday. Food photos taken by Johanna Beyenbach You might remember that name from our post about her colorful diet.

• In reference to its base of red wine, the word sangria means “bloody.” Despite its eerily evocative etymology, Sangria is considered a friendly and socially-inclined drink (perhaps too friendly, to those who have had too much of it!)

• Today its popularity expands beyond the drink itself and gives its name to nail polish, laptop colors, soaps, even chewing gum.

• But before I get carried away let’s start out with the obvious – what’s in Sangria? The drink was originally conceived to help make a lacking base wine more tasty, and at it’s most general, it offers “a mix of wine, cut-up fruit, brandy or other spirits, a sweetening agent such as sugar or honey, and carbonated soda,” (although the specifics have a wide variance depending on region and preference).

• Though Sangria was popularized in 1964 at the World’s Fair, it had already enjoyed a fairly robust history. Sangria is an outgrowth of the red wine punches that were popular at parties throughout Europe in the 1700 and 1800s.

• An early Sangria drink in England was known as “claret cup punch.” The drink had a base of a red claret wine, usually a French Bordeaux or Spanish Rioja, with brandy and fruit added. This punch variant was the choice drink of Jane Austen heroines as it was served at many parties of the era.

• The blood/wine connection continues with the Haro Wine Battle in Spain. Participants dress in pristine white. The idea is to stain every inch of clothing a deep purple as quickly as possible. Unsurprisingly, the festival “recreates” an ancient bloody battle. However, the current “battle” may be more against ones own Bacchanalian whims …!

• Blue Law Alert: In 2006 a Virginia bar was cited for serving sangria in violation of an old state law that prohibits mixing wine or beer and spirits. It includes punishment of jail for a year (!). Luckily, the Virginia General Assembly repealed the law in 2008.

• Finally, here are a few favored recipes for those with some time and a well-stocked cabinet.

• The history of Sangria turned out to be rather straightforward, so let’s turn to the present and future for more discussion. I need you guys to weigh in: is pre-mixed bottled Sangria from the grocery acceptable? What are some of your favorite recipes or places that serve Sangria? I can see this being a good drink for this week’s ‘True Blood’ finale, and since I’ve never made it I am at your mercy for tips and suggestions!

Hungry for more? Venture into the Dietribes archive.

‘Dietribes’ appears every other Wednesday. Food photos taken by Johanna Beyenbach You might remember that name from our post about her colorful diet.

• New Yorkers may consume more hot dogs than other Americans, but ballpark goers will eat enough at major league ballparks this year to stretch to and from Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia and Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., the two sites of the 2008 World Series.

• But what exactly is a hot dog? References to sausage go back as far as Homer, and it is likely that the frankfurter was the grandfather of the eventual “weiner” dog (possibly named after Vienna – Wein – Austria from whence it came). However, others suggest that the term might have come from “dachshund sausage,” “dog wagons,” (that delivered the fares to college students) or even from street vendors hawking them from portable hot water tanks.

• In any case, the hot dog as we know it first appeared in ballparks 1893, and they have remained popular ever since. Humphrey Bogart once said, “A hot dog at the ballpark is better than a steak at the Ritz.”

• Pre-Kobayshi, the record for hot dogs consumed in 12 minutes was 25. Kobayshi – at the time, 23 years old and weighing in at 131 pounds – consumed 50 hot dogs in the same amount of time.

• One must be careful when consuming hot dogs at any speed, however. One way to prevent choking is with the Octodog. (If that didn’t weird you out enough, here’s another picture). Also, criminals beware! A convenience store thief once choked on a heisted hot dog, and required the Heimlich (and of course … was caught).

• How do you say “hot dog” in Latin? Pastillum botello fartum. No, not a joke. The Vatican issued a dictionary of new Latin terms for words for which there was no equivalent, The Lexicon Recentis Latinitatis. Consider it Latin’s way of keeping it real with the kids (but “fartum”? really?)

• Hot dog stands are, in some parts of the country, as ubiquitous as taxi cabs or Starbucks. But real estate doesn’t come cheap to these vendors – for one hot dog stand in NYC near the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the monthly price is $53,558. The cart was (to no surprise?) eventually evicted.

• Finally, hot dogs are even good enough for a Queen: In 1939, the King and Queen of England were served hot dogs by the Roosevelts: a sampling was served on a silver tray. However, the royal guests nevertheless joined everyone else in eating off paper plates.

• Although I only enjoy the soy variety myself (Loma Lindas!), I love hot dogs. What do you guys like to dress your dogs with? My new favorite condiment: Wickles!

Hungry for more? Venture into the Dietribes archive.

‘Dietribes’ appears every other Wednesday. Food photos taken by Johanna Beyenbach You might remember that name from our post about her colorful diet.

• “Chewing gum may be a $19 billion industry, but it’s not a universally accepted practice. Chewing gum is a crime in Singapore, and, in 15th-century Meso-America, it was the mark of a prostitute.” And how!

• Early conceptions of chewing gum got a boost from a former Mexican President looking to return to power and get the funds to do so by re-inventing a rubber substitute, which explains a lot of things.

• Unfortunately, the first “gum” stuck to the face – so much so that it had to be removed by turpentine (yikes). Bubble Gum as we know it was invented in 1928, by Walter Diemer, an accountant at Fleer Chewing Gum Company. He developed a formula that didn’t stick to the face and had enough elasticity to blow bubbles. Pink was the color on hand for the first batch and so it has doth sacredly remained.

• The process of making gum is probably really difficult to comprehend, but this cool animation breaks it down in simple terms.

• So what really happens when you swallow your gum? Does it sit undigested in your gut until you die? Or does it simple pass on through?

• If you can’t swallow gum, by George, what are you to do with it? Well you can place it in the shrine of Bubble Gum Alley, or Philadelphia’s Gum Tree (actually it was cut down in 2008 … BUT …).

• Whatever you do, just don’t spit your gum out in Singapore, where chewing gum is against the law (although they do allow Nicotine gum thanks to Rep. Philip Crane from Illinois … the home of Wrigley) who applied pressure to lifting the ban as part of a free trade agreement.

• That might change one day, however, since the first biodegradable gum is set to be introduced this year (though I wouldn’t recommend spitting it freely).

• Maybe gum’s not all bad – after all, some claim that it improves concentration. It also has a place in national history.

• Gum is often associated with Baseball. Since dip and chew is often frowned upon by teams, some players chew gum instead. And some mix the two together – ew.

• Finally, for those of you who haven’t gotten a good night’s sleep since asking yourself this question: how did Bazooka Joe lose his right eye?

• I once had a teacher swear that in the future the Surgeon General would ban gum for causing jaw problems. So far so good on that front. What kind of gum is your favorite, Flossers? Do you mainly chew it for the minty tasty or get a big pink wad to blow into a bubble?

For more food and frivolity during the week, I am on Twitter.

Hungry for more? Venture into the Dietribes archive.

‘Dietribes’ appears every other Wednesday. Food photos taken by Johanna Beyenbach You might remember that name from our post about her colorful diet.

• Though botanically the tomato is a fruit, it was declared a vegetable by the Supreme Court in 1893. Despite the efforts of David Stockman, a Reagan official, ketchup never shared the same vegetable classification as its main ingredient.

• The tomato hasn’t always had an easy time. In colonial America, folklore had it that consumption of a tomato (considered poisonous) would turn your blood into acid. Instead, the colonists grew tomatoes purely for decoration until Thomas Jefferson allegedly debunked the myth.

• Other cultures have always loved the tomato, including the French name, who called it pomme d’amore, or “apple of love.” Love a tomato because tomatoes love you: they can even fight cancer, thanks to lycopene.

• A giant tomato fight like the Festival de la Tomatina might be fun, but you would not want to get hit by one of these giant tomatoes.

• Tomatoes may have cool properties like being able to house needle-less vaccines, but bathing in tomato juice will not get rid of any smell a skunk leaves on you!

• Though it doesn’t translate as well via text, the title of this Dietribe was taken from George Gershwin’s 1937 song “Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off,” which took its tomato-tomato pronunciation differences from the real life change his brother-in-law made after he bough a tomato factory (which still doesn’t exactly explain it, but still!)

• Help Mental_Floss fact finder Meg! She requests, “I tried to find out an answer as to why so many people order tomato juice on airplanes, but I didn’t find a good answer. Have you ever noticed that?”

• I must admit that though I love all tomato-related products, I am not the biggest fan of the tomato itself. What are your favorite ways to consume this rowdy red veggie (er fruit, er … veggie)?

I am on Twitter
and so is Johanna!

Hungry for more? Venture into the Dietribes archive.

‘Dietribes’ appears every other Wednesday. Food photos taken by Johanna BeyenbachYou might remember that name from our post about her colorful diet.