Book #11–A History of the World in 6 Glasses


It took me FOREVER to read book #10 entitled, Salt—A World History. It was incredibly interesting, but it was a deep read with lots and lots of details. It brought up a memory from years ago when my friend Kym and I went on a salt mine tour when we were in Austria. We donned “miner outfits” and slid down a wooden slide into the mine. This tourist experience was mentioned in the book, and it was a lot of fun.

The new book that I’m reading is called, A History of the World in Six Glasses. The author attempts to explain the history of the world through beer, wine, spirits, tea, coffee, and cola. You should read that as—How Alcohol & Caffeine Changed the World!

My brain has just exploded—while reading the chapter about the history of beer, I found out that the history of bread is closely linked. In fact, archeologists argue over which was developed first.

“The two were just different sides of the same coin: Bread was solid beer, and beer was liquid bread.”

? ? = ?

Slumgullion Stew—

I think most of you know that I’m a logophile, which is just a fancy way of saying that I’m a lover of words. Earlier today, I was looking something up online, when I stumbled across a term that I had never heard before—slumgullion. It sounds like an awful word, right? It has three main definitions—

  1. A thin stew of meat, vegetables, & potatoes
  2. A weak, thin, or watery beverage like coffee or tea
  3. The leftover gunk from processing whale blubber—ugh, seriously?

The etymology of the word, doesn’t do it any favors because loosely translated, the meaning of slumgullion is a combination of slime & mud or cesspool. Mark Twain used the term in 1872 when referring to watery coffee. When thinking about a stew, many people think of it as a “throw everything in the refrigerator into a pot” type of dish. Historically speaking, stews have been around for centuries, but the term slumgullion appears to have been coined in the mid-1800’s.

Since it’s a “leftover” sort of dish, most sources say that there isn’t one specific recipe, but agree that it contains meat, vegetables, and potatoes. After searching around, I stumbled across a recipe for slumgullion stew that sounded good…so, guess what I did this afternoon? Yup—the word nerd got cookin’! The name doesn’t hold much appeal, but the stew was quite tasty!

Bon Appétit! —(I wish you) a hearty appetite (French)

Orange Wine?

I read the article (featured below) in the United Airlines online magazine when I was traveling recently. My friend Debbie works part-time at a winery in Virginia, so I saved the article for her. I had never heard of orange wine, and I wasn’t sure if she knew of it. It turns out that orange wine was old news for her, but hey, at least I learned something new!

Now I need to try it!