Happy HumpDay!
Happy HumpDay! Do you love learning something new each week? Maybe your friends and family would like to learn some cool stuff too?! If you know someone who has a thirst for useless but entertaining knowledge, feel free to forward this email to them and have them subscribe!!!! As always, check out the HumpDay website at HumpDayNewsletter.com and follow the official HumpDay Instagram!
Sports
We all know the golden rule when it comes to swimming safety, “You have to wait an hour after you eat before you go swimming”. Or is it half an hour? Why do we need to wait so long after a snack before we can cool off in the pool? It turns out that you don’t need to wait to go swimming after eating. Simply eating a normal meal will not put you at any added risk of drowning or getting seriously injured in the pool.
The origin of this myth comes from the fact that digestion diverts blood from the muscles to help your stomach break down food. Hypothetically, the diversion of blood from the muscles could cause muscle cramps that would make it difficult to swim and could result in someone drowning but, in reality, our bodies have enough blood to go around and digestion would never cause any muscle failure or serious cramps.
This myth actually stems from a reputable, albeit incorrect, source. In 1908, the Boy Scouts of America included the claim that swimming after you eat could be dangerous in their Boy Scout handbook. The Boy Scout Handbook recommended that scouts wait 90-minutes after they eat before swimming. It followed that advice with a warning that swimming too soon after eating will cause you to drown and “it will be your own fault” (actual quote from the 1908 Boy Scouts).
Next time you are snacking by the pool on a hot summers day, feel free to jump in the water and cool off. If for some reason you do suffer a terrible accident, just remember “it’s your own fault”.
Entertainment
Life is hard, but the Game of Life is a fun board game that allows players to navigate through childhood, college, and adulthood while collecting money and completing various life events. The Game of Life is a staple of American board games, but the original version of the game was much different and much darker than the game we know and love today.
In 1860, an upstart printing press operator, Milton Bradley, made a living printing portraits of Presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln. Suddenly, customers that met Abraham Lincoln in person returned to Bradley’s print shop demanding a refund. In 1860, Lincoln began growing his trademark beard which made his appearance drastically different from the clean shaven portraits that Bradley had been selling.
To cover the losses caused by Lincoln’s facial hair, Milton Bradley began printing his first board game on a checker board called “The Checkered Game of Life”. The original game had major life milestones on each of the white spaces of the checker board and players would move their pieces around the board to hit “good” milestones while trying to avoid “bad” life events.
Some spaces, like school and employment were similar to the modern game, but unlike the modern game, the original Game of Life would usually end with players failing to survive or thrive in their simulated lives. The original game included spaces like “Ruin”, which included a picture of a person in extreme poverty, and “Suicide”, which featured a picture of a person hanging from a tree, that would result in a player losing the game. The ultimate goal of the original game was to avoid the terrible fates on the board and collect enough points to make it to “Happy Old Age” which meant that the player won the game. Although the game had a happy ending, today it would be seen as extremely dark and depressing.
Today, children’s board games tend not to feature death, suicide or financial hopelessness but despite how morbid it was, the original game of life was so popular that the Milton Bradley Company grew into the largest board game company in the world. Technically, we have the dark, dismal version of the Game of Life to thank for all our childhood memories playing board games with our friends and family… odd when you think of it like that.
Food & Beverage
It’s that time of year again! Girl Scout Cookie Season! Girls all around the U.S. will be setting up shop outside of coffee shops and grocery stores to peddle cookies (not to mention the parents pressuring their co-workers into buying a few boxes). No matter where you live, girl scout cookies are a staple American dessert but, depending on where you live, girl scout cookies may be drastically different.
Across the nation there are different varieties of girl scout cookies. In Boston, you may know the circular caramel, chocolate, and coconut covered cookies as Carmel deLites but if you live in Dallas you will know them as Samoas. The cookies seem similar but there are clear differences in appearance and flavor. Samoas use much more caramel and feature dark chocolate as opposed to the milk chocolate of the Carmel deLites.
The largest difference between one type of Girl scout cookies is with the S’mores cookies. In some parts of the country S’mores cookies feature marshmallow and graham cracker completely covered in a later of chocolate while other parts get sandwich-like cookie with marshmallow and chocolate between two cookies.
The geographic differences in Girl scout cookies stem from the fact that two separate bakeries supply the Girl Scouts of America with their product. ABC bakery and Little Brownie Bakers both make cookies for the girl scouts to sell and although they use similar ingredients, the two bakeries use slightly different recipes and create very different products.
Back in 1933, the Girl Scouts created a recipe for sugar cookies that were wildly popular and eventually began licensing the recipe to a commercial baker to increase production. Demand for their cookies grew so high that they needed to license their recipes to multiple bakers in order to satisfy all their customers. Over time, two main commercial bakers arose as the Girls Scouts key partners and exclusive rights to make Girl Scout cookies were given to both ABC bakery and Little Brownie Bakers. Both bakeries used slightly different recipes but rather than trying to standardize their cookies, the Girl Scouts embraced the unique approaches on the same cookie and allowed the two bakeries to produce their own versions of the classic cookies.
Although the cookies from both bakeries are drastically different, sales for each type of cookie are consistent with Thin Mints being the top seller accounting for 25% of total cookie sales, Carmel deLites/Samoas accounting for 19%, and Peanut Butter Sandwiches/Do-Si-dos accounting for 16%. No matter where you get your Girl Scout Cookies, they are a delicious treat and they help fund a great organization that not only empowers young girls but also teaches them the incredible power of capitalism. Support your local troop and buy a box (or a few dozen) today!
This Week in History
On this day in 1793, King Louis XVI (16th) of France was executed via the guillotine in Paris. King Louis XVI was the last King of France and his reign ended with the French Revolution broke out in 1789. King Louis and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were forced to flee the royal palace at Versailles when rebels stormed the palace gates. In 1782, the couple was captured, and the French monarchy came to an abrupt end. He was executed by the citizens of France for crimes against the revolution. Marie Antoinette was executed nine months later in the same spot.
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