Day: March 24, 2024

That Amazing Chewing Gum Or Spit That Out Young Man.

Do you partake in the exercise of chewing that sweet treat?

As per my formula for Sunday I try to find something that is helpful or informative for my readers and if it involves some history all that much better.

Recently I read the the producer of ‘Fruit Stripe’ gum would end its market (this would be a good time to consider something for your EBay store)

Chewing gum….we use it for appetite control….or to try and control the urge for a smoke…..or to freshen our breath for the long awaited first date…..and above all that have you ever wondered where this magic oral joy originated?

Guess what….I can help with that….

Many people today consider chewing gum a normal part of life. It’s elevated to pop-culture status in many ways, with a constant presence in baseball culture across America, from fields to dugouts and bubblegum trading cards. The professional Wrigley Field in Chicago is even named after a popular chewing gum, spawning the official Big League Chew brand of shredded gum. Pop stars like Madonna extol the virtues of big pink bubbles, and there’s even a thing called chewing gum art.

But as trendy as it seems today, our modern, lip-smacking, bubble-blowing society didn’t invent the concept or the reality of chewing gum. Though earlier versions came from different sources and had more varied applications, gum in one form or another has been chewed for thousands of years. An archaeological site in Denmark discovered a rudimentary Stone-Ages type of chewing gum made from the oozing pitch, or tar, of birch bark, which could have been used for chewing enjoyment, and to relieve toothache pain and other ailments.

However, birch pitch was so potent that it also served as a super strong adhesive — not exactly something we’d embrace putting in mouths today. It was instead our ancestors in the Americas that set the stage for modern chewing gum, starting long before the United States was a gleam in anyone’s eye.

We have the ancient Mayan and Aztec societies of the early Americas to thank for the core ingredient precipitating Western-style chewing gum. That would be chicle, an oozing substance from sapodilla trees. Both civilizations chewed it for everything from thwarting hunger to freshening breath or cleaning teeth. Like today, there even appears to have been societal etiquette involving chewing the gum in public. But it would take generations before chicle launched a flurry of commercial activity in the United States.

Read More: https://www.tastingtable.com/1531138/ancient-origin-chewing-gum-explained/

Now you know where the tasty treat in your mouth came from and how it morphed into that sweet treat.

Enjoy!

Have a wonderful Sunday and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”

National Vietnam War Veterans Day

Today is a day of remembrance, 29 March, of those that fought and died in the hell hole call Southeast Asia.

I bring this up because I was one of those people that spent my youth ass deep in mud and blood…..so my way of celebrating, for lack of a better word, is to share a few things with my readers.

When there is a conversation about this war there is always those that say the US could have won that war if we had wanted to or the ever popular if the president had listened to his generals.

Is this true?

This article tries to disspell some of the manure around such comments….

Historian Mark Moyar revisits the Vietnam War, challenging the consensus that the U.S. couldn’t have won. He contends South Vietnam was a viable state by 1972, capable of repelling North Vietnamese offensives with U.S. aid, and that the war wasn’t as unpopular in the U.S. as believed. However, Moyar overlooks South Vietnam’s reliance on U.S. support, North Vietnam’s advantages, and the U.S.’s inability to fully disrupt the North’s support for the Viet Cong. He underestimates domestic opposition to the war and the improbability of sustaining long-term U.S. involvement. Ultimately, the U.S. withdrawal reflected a strategic decision that the war’s costs outweighed its benefits, with no lasting impact on the global balance of power. The current cooperative relationship between Vietnam and the U.S. suggests the strategic loss was minimal.

Mark Moyar, a scholar of U.S. foreign and military policy, years back had the opportunity to update an older argument on the viability of the Vietnam War. Moyar argues that the historical consensus on the war is wrong on several points, and that in fact the United States could have won the war and preserved the Saigon government at acceptable cost. While Moyar’s argument is worth consideration, he still fails to make his case against the long-standing consensus on the war.

Please read on….

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/vietnam-war-was-there-anyway-us-military-could-have-won-209574

A nice gesture but I remember how we were treated when we returned to our homeland….

We Viet vets are getting older and starting to die off….soon we will be like those Korean War vets….we will be forgotten and no one will care.

So in the vane of that thought I offer up a comparison on the two forgotten wars….

The Vietnam War and the Korean War stand as two pivotal events, each leaving indelible marks on the world stage. Yet, the curious reality persists: the Vietnam War is remembered vividly, while the Korean War often fades into collective memory. This piece explores the disparities between these conflicts and uncovers the factors influencing the Korean War’s comparative lack of visibility.

https://sofrep.com/news/forgotten-battles-a-comparative-analysis-of-the-vietnam-and-korean-wars/

I disagree that Vietnam is remembered vividly….by those that were there then yes but those that were not or too young it is nothing but a show on the history channel.

If you have a moment in your busy lives please take the time to remember those that did not return.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”