Tuesday 7/4/23
Celebrate:
American Redneck Day
Disobedience Day
National Chocolate Wafer Day
National Compliment Your Mirror Day
National Eat Beans Day
National Fried Clam Day
National Independent Beer Run Day
Plastic Bag Free Day - It's every day here in NY.
Stay Out of the Sun Day
–
Google put out its annual Fourth of July grilling report, including the top "how to grill" food search in all 50 states. Here are the highlights . . .
1. Chicken, six states: Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Ohio, Maine, and the top search in Georgia is wings.
2. Other meats, 19 states: That includes burgers in Nevada, Arizona, and South Dakota. Other top searches include steak, ribs, pork chops, and brats.
3. Seafood, nine states: Things like shrimp, salmon, and swordfish are the top search in a bunch of states in New England. Grilled clams are #1 in New York.
4. Veggies, 16 states: The two big ones this year are corn and grilled asparagus with 14 of those. People in Maryland are grilling up eggplant. And folks in Virginia want grilled portabella mushrooms this year.
The most-searched sides in the past week are pasta salad, baked beans, and coleslaw. And finally, the top-trending "red, white, and blue" recipe this year is . . . "red, white, and blue JELLO SHOTS."
--
1. The American Farm Bureau says the average Fourth of July cookout for 10 people will cost $67.73. So, $6.77 a person. That's down 3% from last year, when it hit an all-time high. It's still up 14% from 2021.
2. A recent poll asked about some classic foods we eat on the Fourth. And not all of them are as universally popular as you'd think: 33% of us hate potato salad . . . 17% think pasta salad is gross . . . 28% wouldn't touch a deviled egg . . . 34% say no to coleslaw . . . and 9% think any red-white-and-blue dish seems gross.
Some foods are more popular: Only 12% wouldn't eat ribs . . . 9% don't like smoked brisket . . . and just 7% wouldn't eat grilled corn-on-the-cob.
3. StudyFinds.com ranked the best types of fireworks, and gave the top spot to the big rocket-style ones you see at displays. (Because, they're obviously the best.) Roman Candles are second . . . and somehow, sparklers are third.
4. To avoid forest fires, the U.S. Forest Service asked people to skip the fireworks this year . . . and use Silly String instead. Environmentalists aren't wild about the idea though.
5. Thanks to hot-and-dry conditions, some U.S. cities ARE ditching their displays this year, and going with drone shows instead. They're becoming more and more common. Also, Canada canceled some fireworks planned for Canada Day on the 1st. They didn't want to add to the big wildfire issue they've already got up there.
6. A new Gallup poll found we're less patriotic than we used to be. Only 39% of us say we're "extremely proud" to be an American. That's up slightly from 38% last year, but way down from the all-time high of 70% in 2003.
7. A separate survey looked at how we view the average American compared to when the same poll was done 75 years ago. We're more likely to say people today are "selfish," "spoiled," "intolerant," and "immoral." And we're much less likely to describe people as "generous."
8. And finally, good news if you're traveling! Gas prices are a LOT lower than they were last Fourth of July. The national average was $4.87 a gallon a year ago, and yesterday's average was $3.54. So, $1.33 cheaper . . . a 27% drop.
In the three decades they've been tracking this, it's the second-biggest drop ever. The only one to beat it was during the Great Recession. Between 2008 and 2009, prices went from $4.15 a gallon to just $2.70.
--
Some influencer posted a video by a pool, where she pours beer on her legs and rubs it in like lotion. It's supposed to give you a deeper, darker tan. And there actually is some half-baked science behind it.
The hops in beer can supposedly promote the production of melanin, the stuff that gives our skin its pigment. In general, the more you have, the darker your skin is.
It's not a totally new idea either. We found a blog post from five years ago where someone claimed it works. But skincare experts are warning people NOT to do it. They say you'll probably just end up with a wicked burn.
Even if you apply sunblock first, the beer could wash it away. Burns can happen in 10 minutes, and 95% of melanomas are caused by too much U.V. exposure.
The fact that beer is sticky is another downside. You'll be a magnet for bugs, including bees and mosquitoes. One expert who heard about the hack put it like this. Quote, "I can barely believe this insanity exists."
--
Today's Useless Fact of the Day - The strike note of Philadelphia's Liberty Bell is E-flat.
--
Comments