Gatorade

 

J. Robert Cade was a physician and the lead inventor of Gatorade. When he was working in the renal (kidney) division of the University of Florida College of Medicine in 1965 when the Gators coach came to him with a question.

He wanted to know why his football players didn't need to urinate after a game. The answer was dehydration, a subject that had really been studied in relation to sports before.

The philosophy at the time was that athletes should not drink water during strenuous activities. The idea was that it make them sick to their stomachs. 

Cade and his team began doing research and were surprised to find that players could lose as much as eighteen pounds of water weight during a three-hour game played in Florida heat. 

The researchers then turned to experiment with a drink that could replace not only fluids but electrolytes. An electrolyte is a substance that produces an electrically-conducting solution when dissolved in a polar solvent, such as water.

The first version tasted terrible and further experiments were concerned with taste. Eventually, they hit on some effective strong flavors. 

The University researchers initially considered naming their product "Gator-Aid" as something that could aid the Gator athletes. But using the "aid" suffix might require proving that the product had a clear medicinal use which would require clinical testing. Using "ade" (as in lemonade) would allow it could be classified as a soft drink.

Though Gatorade is best known as a sports drink, it is also used for postoperative patients, colonoscopy prep, and children suffering from diarrhea. 

Gatorade's commercial success came with Stokely-Van Camp’s buying the rights to produce and market the drink. The Gatorade brand was purchased by the Quaker Oats Company in 1983, which, in turn, was bought by PepsiCo in 2000. The University of Florida gets 20 percent of the royalties and in 2015 reported that its total take from its royalties in Gatorade had risen to $281 million.

Gatorade is PepsiCo's fourth-largest brand based on worldwide annual retail sales and its biggest competition is Coca-Cola's Powerade and Vitaminwater (and Lucozade in the UK). In the United States, Gatorade accounts for approximately 75% of the market share in the sports drink category.

The Turtles, Flo and Eddie and The Crossfires

 

Once upon a time, there was a high school band called "The Nightriders" with Mark Volman, Don Murray and Dale Walton. Like most high school, garage bands, they went through changes in members. In 1963, they changed the band name to The Crossfires and began performing guitar-driven surf instrumentals.  The band now included other Los Angeles high school students - Howard Kaplan (changed in 1965 to Kaylan), Al Nichol, and Chuck Portz. The Crossfires as a surf-rock group was active from 1963 to 1965.

When the rock and folk-rock sound became the most popular genres, they rebranded themselves as a folk-rock group under the name The Tyrtles. The stylized misspelling follows that of The Byrds and The Beatles but soon opted to correct the spelling.

Kaylan and Volman dropped the saxophones and became the band's vocalists with Kaylan as lead singer, and one of the keyboardists. Meanwhile, Volman began to harmonize with Kaylan's lead and became the third guitarist and percussionist in what was now a sextet.

They were now The Turtles on White Whale records. Their breakthrough hit was a cover of Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe" which reached the Billboard Top Ten in the late summer of 1965.

Their biggest hit is "Happy Together" which knocked the Beatles' "Penny Lane" out of number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1967. It was The Turtles' only #1 single and it remained there for three weeks.

In 1968, they released a concept album called The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands. They recorded 11 songs in 11 different styles and pretended to be 11 different bands with names like "Nature's Children" and "The Fabulous Dawgs." They got two hits from the album:  "Elenore" and "You Showed Me" which h both made it into the top 10.

Their 1969 single "You Showed Me" (written by Gene Clark and Roger McGuinn of The Byrds) was their last top 10 single.

The Turtles released a second compilation album, More Golden Hits, and a B-sides and rarities album, Wooden Head in 1970 and disbanded.

Kaylan and Volman made an unlikely move and joined the Mothers of Invention. They used the name The Phlorescent Leech & Eddie. Their contract with White Whale Records prohibited them from using the name The Turtles or even their own names in billings! Eventually, the name was shortened to Flo & Eddie. They recorded with the Mothers, appeared in Zappa's film 200 Motels in 1971, and later released records on their own.

Starting in 2010, the Turtles Featuring Flo & Eddie toured throughout the United States as part of the "Happy Together" tour that has continued and has included other acts from the 60s and 70s such as Gary Puckett, Mitch Ryder, Mark Lindsay, Mark Farner, Gary Lewis, Micky Dolenz, the Buckinghams, the Cowsills, the Grass Roots, and the Association.

Two box sets, The Complete Original Album Collection and All the Singles. 

 

Mystery

 

The mystery of the locked room
Photo: PxHere

Today, I think the first association people have with "mystery" is as a fiction genre in books and movies. In its earlier usages, it was more "mystical."

In Middle English, it had more of a sense of a mystic presence and was associated with hidden religious symbolism - "the "mysteries of the faith." The even earlier Old French form, mistere, or Latin mysterium came from the Greek mustērion.

That earlier religious meaning survives both in the sense of a mystery being something that is difficult or impossible to understand or explain. In its earliest usage, the secret rites of Greek and Roman pagan religions, or of any ancient or tribal religion, were mysteries known only to accepted initiates. This survives in "secret" societies such as the Masons.

Sometimes the practices or the skills of an activity that seem to be unknowable to most people are regarded as mysteries. Neuroscience and lots of technologies are mysteries to most people. Do you actually know how a movie "magically" appears on your TV screen or how your smartphone works?

When I was a youngster and getting some Catholic education, there were the mysteries of the faith that could only be understood through divine revelations. Otherwise, they were regarded as beyond human understanding.

The word is now used for many hidden or unsolved things, from the mysteries of the universe to a puzzle, riddle, or unsolved problem. These things are not unknowable, just unknown to some or unknown at this time. When you read that someone's financial records are "shrouded in mystery," at least that someone knows the answer to the mystery.

Ad-lib and Improvise

I'm sure you've heard the expression "ad-lib." To ad-lib (verb) means "to improvise" or "to deliver spontaneously and the noun form is what is produced in that way. 

It is most commonly used with acting. That makes sense because ad-lib is a shortening of the Latin ad libitum, which means "in accordance with one's wishes." In its earliest usage, ad libitum referred to acting and any activity where the performer was free to do whatever they liked for as long as desired. 

The term was extended beyond performance to drawing, public speaking, singing or playing an instrument, playing a sport, doing an experiment, making a repair and many other situations. 

In performance, "improvisation" is a similar term and used more often than ad-lib. To improvise is to create and perform (particularly music or drama) spontaneously, without preparation or script or sheet music.

Improv or ad-lib?

The two terms are not exactly the same. I think of a performer such as Robin Williams. He was known for his improvisation. Was he sometimes ad-libbing? I learned that he often used bits that he had done before but it seemed like an ad-lib to audiences because it might be in a new context. Improvisation suggests something new, but you could ad-lib lyrics to a song if you forgot the actual lyrics or wanted to extend it.

Indian Summer, gossamer and Goose Summer

Image by Peter Rufi  Public Domain, Link

Recently, I saw this warm period of summerish weather in late October that I'm experiencing referred to as a "Goose Summer." It's a term I never heard before. "Indian Summer" is the more common expression in my experience. So, I went looking online.

The trail leads back to the word "gossamer" which means extremely light, delicate, or sometimes tenuous. You might refer to clouds as being gossamer if they are thin and light. The wings of angels or dragonflies might be seen as gossamer. 

The Goose Summer goes back to Middle English. A period of mild weather in late autumn or early winter was sometimes called a gossomer, which literally means "goose summer." My first thought was that it was because this was when geese were flying to warmer climates, but perhaps that's more of an American occurrence. The explanation I found was that October and November were the months when people felt that geese were at their best for eating. 

The word gossomer was also used in Middle English for filmy cobwebs floating through the air in calm, clear weather. The thought is that they resembled the down of a goose. 

The term "Indian Summer" is an American expression to describe a spell of warm, hazy autumn weather that feels more like summer than fall. The origin isn't known. One thought is that that kind of weather allowed Native American Indians to continue hunting before winter. 

A more specific definition is that it is a warm, tranquil spell of weather after a frost or period of abnormally cold weather - a kind of reprieve from early winter. The term originated in the United States and came into use in about 1778.

If "Indian Summer" seems inappropriate or politically incorrect, an earlier term in America for such weather was "second summer" and I found online other possibilities including badger summer and quince summer. 

A Ballcock Is Not an Obscenity

As I wrote in a short poem, this mechanism that is often found as part of toilet sounds obscene. It's not. At least it wasn't meant to be when it was invented by a priest.

A ballcock (also known as a balltap or float valve) is a mechanism or machine for filling water tanks, such as those found in flush toilets, while avoiding overflow. 

The modern ballcock was invented by José Antonio de Alzate y Ramírez, a Mexican priest and scientist, who described the device in 1790 in the Gaceta de Literatura Méxicana. The ballcock device was patented in 1797 for use in steam engines by Edmund Cartwright.

It consists of a valve (11) connected to a hollow sealed float (1) by means of a lever (3) mounted near the top of the tank. The float is often ball-shaped, hence the name ballcock. The valve is connected to the incoming water supply, and is opened and closed by the lever which has the float mounted on the end. When the water level rises, the float rises with it; once it rises to a pre-set level, the mechanism forces the lever to close the valve and shut off the water flow.

Cock valves (also known as plug valves, stop cocks, or quarter-turn valves) are devices that allow the user to restrict or permit flow through a pipe from an external point. Their use can be dated all the way into antiquity, and they are one of the simplest means of controlling fluid flow.

The word cock has many meanings beyond being a slang term for a penis. Going back to the 1500s, we find the term used as a noun and verb referring to a part of a gun and the action of putting into position the hammer by pulling back to the catch before firing.

A later usage is the term "to go off half-cocked" which figuratively means to speak or act too hastily. That usage alludes to the literal situation when firearms fire unexpectedly when supposedly secure. A weapon that is half-cocked has the cock lifted to the first catch, at which position the trigger does not act.

In 1770, "half-cocked" was noted as a synonym for "drunk." 

British pub sign - Public Domain

The male of the domestic fowl is called a cock (and more politely and euphemistically as a "rooster') and they have been associated since ancient times with male vigor. Cock is short for cockerel and a cockerel might be introduced to a group of hens (roost) to encourage egg laying. It is then called a rooster. Rooster is more common in American English and cockerel (cock) is British English. The connection to a human male penis is unclear. Ironically, the fowl known as the cock has no penis.

The  (the Latin word is penis). There are examples of efforts to avoid the older usages of "cock." As with "rooster," haystack replaced haycock, and weathervane replaced weather-cock. Author Louisa May Alcott's father was born Alcox, but changed his name.

The word is still used in other expletives such as cock-teaser and cock-sucker which appeared in print as far back as 1891. 

A cocker spaniel was a dog breed trained to start woodcocks in the hunt. 

"Cock of the walk" is a phrase used to describe an overbearing fellow, probably alluding to the "proud" walk of the rooster.  

"Cock-and-bull" is used to label a fictitious story or exaggerated lie. It was first recorded in the 1620s and might be an allusion to the talking animals of Aesop's fables. French has parallel expression coq-à-l'âne.

A "cock-lobster is a male lobster and goes back to 1757.

Ice Nine and Ice Nine Kills

 
  

I came across a reference to a band called Ice Nine Kills (abbreviated to INK, and formerly known as Ice Nine) that is an American heavy metal band from Boston known for its horror-inspired lyrics. Formed in 2000 by high school friends Spencer Charnas and Jeremy Schwartz, they started as ska-punk but later became a form of heavy metal.

I don't know much about their music but I do know where they got their name. Their band name is derived from the fictional substance ice-nine from the science fiction novel Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut.

Cat's Cradle is a satirical novel that I had taught to high school students and that I really enjoy. It was Vonnegut's fourth novel, published in 1963. It is a satire of science, technology, religion, and the nuclear arms race. It is black humor and if funny and scary.

In the novel, the co-creator of the atomic bomb and Nobel laureate physicist who creates for the military ice-nine. It is an alternative structure of water that is solid at room temperature and acts as a seed crystal upon contact with ordinary liquid water, causing that liquid water to instantly transform into more ice-nine. If put into a swimming pool, all the water instantly transforms. If you touched it to your tongue, you become ice-nine.

Things don't end well for the Earth with ice-nine. Read (or listen to) the book.

Besides ice-nine being a fictional solid form of water from Vonnegut, I found via Wikipedia that it shows up in other places besides the novel and the band. 

The most interesting of those is Ice IX which is an actual form of solid water. On the technical side, it turns out there is also ice II, and ice III. In fact, ordinary water ice is known as ice Ih in the Bridgman nomenclature and there are different types of ice, from ice II to ice XVIII that have been created in the laboratory at different temperatures and pressures. Who knew? I hope none of them work like Vonnegut's version!

Ice-nine can also refer to:

• Ice Nine (game), a first-person shooter video game for Game Boy Advance
• Kerach 9 (Hebrew: Ice 9 ( קרח 9 )), an Israeli rock band
• ICE-9 (album), an instrumental album by Susumu Hirasawa
• "Ice 9", a song by Joe Satriani from Surfing with the Alien
• Лёд-9 (Liod-9) or Ice-9, an album by Smyslovye Gallyutsinatsii
• Ice Nine Publishing Company, Inc., licensor of musical compositions by the Grateful Dead
• "Ice-Nine," a Grammy-nominated musical composition by Steve Wiest, recorded by the One O'Clock Lab Band on Lab 2009
• Ice-9 is a fictional computer virus in the Person of Interest (TV series)

God Bless That Sneeze

Image by Mojpe from Pixabay

In the year 600, Pope Gregory the Great declared “God bless you” to be the correct response to a sneeze. It was once thought that sneezing was an omen of death, since many dying people fell into sneezing fits. 

However, in the Hebrew Talmud sneezing was called “pleasure sent from God."

The Greeks and Romans believed that sneezing was a good omen since you were expelling bad air. They responded to sneezes with “Long may you live!” or “May you enjoy good health.” 

Pope Gregory introduced the response of “God bless you” when the plague was at its height in Europe, hoping that the quick prayer would protect the sneezer from sickness and death. As the plague spread across Europe, the new response spread with it and has survived to this day.

"Gesundheit" is another common response to a sneeze. It comes from German, where it literally means "health." It combines gesund ("healthy") and -heit ("-hood"). Wishing a person good health when they sneezed was traditionally believed to forestall the illness that a sneeze often portends.

williwaw

There are a good number of words and names that we just don’t know an origin. One example is the odd word "williwaw."

Williwaw is used to describe a sudden violent gust of cold land air, most common along mountainous coasts of high latitudes. It is also used more generally to mean a sudden violent wind, and figuratively for a violent commotion.

We know that the word was first used by 19th-century British writers who may have picked it up from British sailors and seal hunters. But I also found an origin being Native American origin or invented or adopted by European sailors and fishermen who encountered the fierce winds off North America’s northwest coast and in the Strait of Magellan at the southern tip of South America.

The word is still used today when unsuspecting sailors or pilots encounter these winds that seem to come out of nowhere. 

Beachcombing

Nuva Hiva French Polynesia Marquesas Islands

I wrote a poem called "Beachcombing" after I had read, much to my surprise, that the first appearance of the word “beachcombers” in print was in Herman Melville’s memoir Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas in 1847. 

Melville used the term to describe a population of Europeans who lived in South Pacific islands, “combing” the beach and nearby waters for flotsam, jetsam, or anything else they could use or trade. We use the term in the same way today - though for less serious beachcombing for things like seashells.

That book was a follow-up to the commercial and critical success of his first book, Typee. It continued his tales of South Sea adventure-romances. Omoo is named after the Polynesian term for a rover, or someone who roams from island to island.

Omoo is about the events aboard a South Sea whaling vessel. It is based on Melville’s personal experiences as a crew member on a ship sailing the Pacific. They did recruiting among the natives for sailors. They dealt with deserters and even mutiny.

Melville's first-person account of life as a sailor during the nineteenth century and the exotic locales in Polynesia made the books popular. The two books found much greater success and sales than the later books, including his masterpiece, Moby-Dick.

Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life was Melville's first book, published in the early part of 1846. Melville was 26 years old. It is itself a minor classic of the travel and adventure genre. From it, Melville became known as the "man who lived among the cannibals."

It is about his time on the island Nuku Hiva in the South Pacific Marquesas Islands. Melville "supplemented" the story with some "imaginative reconstruction" and research from other books, as he did in most of his non-fiction and fiction. "Typee" comes from the valley of Taipivai, once known as Taipei. It was his most popular work during his lifetime.

I am not suggesting that Melville made up his adventures. Many of the events in the book were corroborated by Melville's fellow castaway, Richard Tobias Greene ("Toby") and an affidavit from the ship's captain corroborated that both of them did desert ship on the island in the summer of 1842.

The research is described by Melville as a way to supplement his lack of knowledge beyond his first-hnd experiences about the island culture and language.

The String Cheese Incident

The String Cheese Incident is one of the more unusual band names. Right up front, I will say that I haven't found a definitive answer on the name's origin, but there are some interesting theories.

The band started in Crested Butte, Colorado in 1993. They are hard to pin down to one musical genre. They are often called a "jam band" and their music can be progressive bluegrass, country, neo-psychedelia, or some hybrid. 

In 1993, there was a band in Crested Butte, Colorado briefly called the Blue String Cheese Band, who became the String Cheese Conspiracy for a very short time. Those are supposedly earlier forms of The String Cheese Incident.

Like some other bands, this band does not say how the name came to be. Mystery. My favorite of the origin stories is that they had a run-in with the law enforcement in a traffic stop. They had some magic mushrooms but when questioned about what was in the bag, they claimed it was "string cheese." String cheese (which is mozzarella cheese) and mushrooms don't look at all similar but the story was believed. This became "the string cheese incident."

I also saw online several people who claimed the name comes from a running gag in the comic Calvin and Hobbes. But that has been refuted though the comic had a running joke about a "noodle incident."

The band's gigs became known as "incidents." One of their albums is called Rhythm Of The Road: Volume One, Incident In Atlanta -11.17.00 .

There are no confirmations or refutations on their official website at stringcheeseincident.com

The band has a cultish following that records and shares recordings of all their shows, much like the Phish and Grateful Dead fans.

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Cleveland Guardians

A fresh look from the 216. pic.twitter.com/0W8VTtZ7b0

— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) July 23, 2021

 Another team has announced that they are changing their team branding - name, logo, mascot - so that it does not offend Native American Indians.

The Cleveland Indians are playing their final season this year under that name and once the season ends they will be known as the Cleveland Guardians.

Why "Guardians?" The "Guardians of Traffic" are 43-foot statues that have stood on the Hope Memorial Bridge for almost 100 years. In a promotional video announcement (narrated by Tom Hanks) you can see the statues and beyond them is the team's Progressive Field. How do they represent Cleveland or baseball? According to the franchise, the Guardians of Traffic symbolize the spirit of progress. "We are excited to usher in the next era of the deep history of baseball in Cleveland," owner Paul Dolan said in a press release.

And why Tom Hanks? Besides him being a beloved actor and voice we trust, he has been a fan of the Cleveland baseball franchise since the late 1970's when he was a young actor interning at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival.

 

Oh, and that 216 reference? Check here.