Today I Learned #2: Gone for a Wiki Walk

[Valka D'Ur]

I recently learned that July 27 is Take Your Houseplant For A Walk Day.

So if you have a houseplant, take it for a walk. If you don't have one, get one. Apparently houseplants enjoy this (according to the picture accompanying the calendar where I saw this information).

 

[Berzerker]

TIL Ants do things I had not known they do. We have found little piles of dirt and gravel on our back patio in recent days. They built them on top of solid stone or concrete without direct access to any underlying dirt.

They are burying dead lizards caught and killed by our cats. You can see it's head. The ants leave a small tunnel into the mound, I guess so they can continue to collect food. The mound keeps other critters away and keeps the lizard from getting too dry to be useful.

One day I woke up from a drug induced haze from the night before and walked into the kitchen and the walls appeared to be moving. Lines of ants everywhere I looked, it was more amazing and perplexing than bothersome. I found where they were coming in from the patio and plopped some hamburger down, within an hour or two both the burger and ants were gone. I grew up with cats, lizards without tails was a common sight.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Today I learned about the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol.

 

[Samson]

TIL Texas style barbecue is the best? Obviously 'cos they did not include English style.

Spoiler English style barbecue :

Burnt on the outside, raw in the middle. Bonus points for:

• Actually been on fire
• Gives you the squits
• Having to rush inside because it starts raining

 

[The_J]

There are different types?
Also why the hell does this need a political breakdown o_O?

 

[Samson]

There are different types?

I understand there are, and discussions of which is better can generate more heat that one's about statues or guns.

 

[W|M]

they just answered texas style barbecue because they've never had a good south american barbecue

 

[Kyriakos]

TIL about the term "lolcow".

 

[Birdjaguar]

TIL Texas style barbecue is the best? Obviously 'cos they did not include English style.

Spoiler English style barbecue :

Burnt on the outside, raw in the middle. Bonus points for:

• Actually been on fire
• Gives you the squits
• Having to rush inside because it starts raining

There are different types?
Also why the hell does this need a political breakdown o_O?

There are a couple of things you need to keep in mind. In most places BBQ is a verb; it something you do to meat (usually pork or beef). When you think of BBQ as verb, you get more focused on some process rather than finished product; the finished product suffers greatly. In the Carolinas, BBQ is a noun. It is a thing, A wonderful thing that you can eat. The world's best BBQ is from the Carolinas. The best of the best is from Eastern NC: slow smoked pork with a vinegar based sauce. None of that heavy, tomato based crap they dump on any old meat and throw on a grill in Texas.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

There are a couple of things you need to keep in mind. In most places BBQ is a verb; it something you do to meat (usually pork or beef). When you think of BBQ as verb, you get more focused on some process rather than finished product; the finished product suffers greatly. In the Carolinas, BBQ is a noun. It is a thing, A wonderful thing that you can eat. The world's best BBQ is from the Carolinas. The best of the best is from Eastern NC: slow smoked pork with a vinegar based sauce. None of that heavy, tomato based crap they dump on any old meat and throw on a grill in Texas.

It's a noun in more than one way. "I'm going to a barbecue" means I'm going to an event - that could be as small as a backyard gathering of a few people to a large community event that could be for charity or sponsored by some organization.

Our local Star Trek club used to have an annual summer barbecue. The first one was hosted at my place (I had a house and back yard then), and then we moved it to another site. It was bring-your-own-meat, the hosts did the barbecuing, and the rest of the food was pot luck (I supplied the chocolate portion of the desserts, as back then I was into making cookies and chocolates).

We had an annual Star Trek Jeopardy contest at this event, and I did my "Alexius Trebekius" duties (making up the answers and questions, supplying prizes, and hosting). We had a selection of home-made "buzzers" - various forms of tupperware things people could thump on to ring in - and another person was the scorekeeper. Everyone got a prize, but the person with the most points was allowed first choice of various Star Trek/science fiction items I picked up in the dealers' room at the convention a couple of weeks previously.

This was back in the days when the only Star Trek we had was TOS, TAS, TNG, and the movies. Any disputes over the contest had to be resolved by checking the videotape of whatever movie or episode was applicable.

 

[Zkribbler]

There are a couple of things you need to keep in mind. In most places BBQ is a verb;

Because "BBQ" is a sign found on places which serve barbecued meat, by definition, BBQ is a noun.

 

[Birdjaguar]

It's a noun in more than one way. "I'm going to a barbecue" means I'm going to an event - that could be as small as a backyard gathering of a few people to a large community event that could be for charity or sponsored by some organization.

Because "BBQ" is a sign found on places which serve barbecued meat, by definition, BBQ is a noun.

Yes a BBQ can be an event (noun) and a type of eatery (adjective). But most often it is something Texans and others do to meat. They grill it and add sauce. Outside of the Carolinas they have perverted the delicious reality of what BBQ is. It is something one eats with hush puppies or with slaw on a bun. You wash it down with sweet tea. Carolina BBQ is the experience of eating pork cooked perfectly, favored sublimely and served with the appropriate fixings. Everything else just just cooked meat.

 

[Takhisis]

TIL Texas style barbecue is the best? Obviously 'cos they did not include English style.

Spoiler English style barbecue :

Burnt on the outside, raw in the middle. Bonus points for:

• Actually been on fire
• Gives you the squits
• Having to rush inside because it starts raining

Y'know, burnt meat can actually be carcinogenic.

they just answered texas style barbecue because they've never had a good south american barbecue

This. So much this.

 

[Zkribbler]

Carolina BBQ is the experience of eating pork

Zkribblers avoid pork. Moreover, I grew up in cow country.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Zkribblers avoid pork. Moreover, I grew up in cow country.

I gave it up too, but remember it well. I gave up beef too.

 

[Zkribbler]

I gave up beef too.

I tried but failed. I did cut it down to once per week (mostly)

 

[Takhisis]

Zkribblers avoid pork.

Why the smiley.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Yes a BBQ can be an event (noun) and a type of eatery (adjective). But most often it is something Texans and others do to meat. They grill it and add sauce. Outside of the Carolinas they have perverted the delicious reality of what BBQ is. It is something one eats with hush puppies or with claw on a bun. You wash it down with sweet tea. Carolina BBQ is the experience of eating pork cooked perfectly, favored sublimely and served with the appropriate fixings. Everything else just just cooked meat.

Hush puppies are shoes. I have no idea what "claw on a bun" is.

To each their regional preferences. Beef is one of the industries my province is known for, and our way is what I'm used to. But I prefer non-alcoholic beverages, so I substitute something else in place of beer (and I don't mean tea, though I'll drink it if there's no other choice besides water). My favorite fruit juice is cranberry.


All this said... right now I'm eating a ham and cheese sandwich. Beverage is diet Pepsi. I've just finished listening to the Paul Simon concert on PBS, and am partway through today's NaNoWriMo session.

Gotta go... I still have a couple of hundred words to do...

 

[Birdjaguar]

Hush puppies are shoes. I have no idea what "claw on a bun" is.

Typo; its fixed: slaw as in cole slaw.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Typo; its fixed: slaw as in cole slaw.

Good to know! I was imagining birds' feet in a hamburger bun and thinking how disgusting it sounded.