On the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month

Commemorating the End of World War I

Tomorrow is November eleventh – the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year. That’s a lot of ones! Aside from reminding you to brush up on your arithmetic, what’s so special about this numerically homogenous date?

A lot of cool things have happened on the eleventh of November. In terms of math, in 1675 Gottfried Liebniz first demonstrated integral calculus, using it to find the area under the graph of the function y=f(x). In 1864, November 11th marked the beginning of General William Tecumseh Sherman’s infamous March to the Sea, with the burning of Atlanta in preparation for taking a scorched-earth policy. And, in a perhaps slightly better known military event, November 11th, 1918 was the end date of World War I.

Officially, the war was over at 11:00am – the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month. The armistice agreement was signed between the Allies and Germany in a repurposed railway car near Compiegne, France. The first world war was more than just the first significant global conflict; it also marked the first instance of trench warfare, widespread use of chemical weaponry (especially poisonous gas), and high-powered artillery, including mortars. Other technologies previously not available in military contexts, such as telephones, walkie-talkies, armored cars, tanks, aircraft, and, near the very end of the war, gigantic ships called aircraft carriers, contributed to the suddenly changing landscape of warfare in the modern era. These increased communication capabilities, combined with more advanced weaponry (projectile as well as chemical and aerial), made World War I a bloodbath. In the end, more than 20,000,000 civilian and military deaths were recorded.

On November 11th, 1918 the world knew peace for the first time in years. In Europe alone more than 60,000,000 soldiers had been mobilized; the armistice finally allowed them to return home. And so ended the great battle of a generation, though many would argue that the treaties signed and policies enacted at the end of World War I set the stage for many modern conflicts to come, as well as changing forever the political and social map of Europe – making the so-called Great War a relevant study for anyone interested in modern politics, geography, or economics.

Creative Commons | Flags of the World

So this month, in addition to commemorating the Gunpowder Treason (November 5th – Guy Fawkes’ Day in England, date of a foiled conspiracy to blow up Parliament and an important plot element of the film “V for Vendetta”), don’t forget to remember Armistice Day, honor those who died in World War I, and reflect on the significance of the first true global conflict.

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Goblins and Ghosties and Ghouls

Traditions of Halloween and Where They Started

So what is noteworthy about fall? For one thing, the weather is getting colder, inspiring people to pull on warm socks and other cozy knit garments. For another, the light, refreshing foods of summer are being replaced with heartier autumn fare, like stews, chili, and dishes made of seasonal goodies like apple, pumpkin, cranberry and potatoes. The world is exploding into picture-perfect fall color, and in cooler climes, many folks are embarking on some last-minute home improvement projects to batten down the hatches for the coming winter. But what else is cool about fall, besides the weather?

Creative Commons | Halloween Moon

Boo! Gotcha! At the end of October, Halloween is celebrated by people across the United States, and in many other nations including Mexico, Britain, Japan and New Zealand, to name just a few. This international holiday manifests slightly differently from country to country, but there are a few constants. One is the holiday’s focus on the dead; in the US, that emphasis now emerges as cartoon images of mummies, zombies, vampires and cartoon skeletons…In Mexico, it is recognized with altars to dead relatives, all-night vigils in cemeteries and the eating of skull-shaped sweets.

Well, everyone loves a good party, and Halloween costumes are a riot at soirees. Carved pumpkins lit up at night look swanky, and spiderwebs, creepy decorations and “smoking” dry ice punch are all fun too! But where did all these traditions COME from? What was Halloween like for Americans in the past, and what is it like today?

Let’s start with a little information about how the whole tradition got started in the first place. Irish immigrants brought the tradition with them in the 19th century. Before that, Puritan ideals had pretty much prohibited most holidays (though the Spanish had introduced Halloween traditions to Mexico and Latin America some time before). After the Irish potato famine, though, a wave of millions of Irish immigrants to the United States began pushing aside lingering Puritan traditions. Halloween, called Samhain by early Celts, had become a state holiday in Ireland in 837 CE. Ireland, which is now predominantly Catholic, embraced what was then known as “All Saint’s Day”, or “All Hallow’s Day”. One common theory claims that Pope Gregory IV standardized All Saint’s Day so as to overlap with a popular pagan autumn harvest festival, overlaying indigenous Celtic tradition with a palatable patina of Christianity.

Creative Commons | All Souls’ Night

In most of the world today, Halloween has lost much of its religious significance. In 20th century America, Halloween emerged as a children’s holiday (or, for slightly older children, a night of mischief and vandalism). Costumes popular in modern Halloween celebrations, however, are throwbacks to the original holy implications of the festival; outfits like black cats reference old superstitions, costumes such as nuns, monks, angels, and brides or grooms refer to the hallowed nature of the day, while spookier garb like skeletons, vampires, ghosts, mummies, zombies, etc refer to the restless souls of the undead said to rise and walk the earth on the night before the holy day on which all saints were honored. (Remember “Night on Bald Mountain” from Fantasia?)

Other traditions, such as the iconic jack-o-lantern, derived from older traditions of carving faces into potatoes, turnips or other starchy root vegetables, and placing them in the windows of a home to ward off wandering spirits in the dangerous night before the return of goodness at daybreak.

Creative Commons | Halloween Pumpkin

In 21st century America, Halloween has continued to evolve, becoming less of a children’s holiday and a more popular event with adults. While trick-or-treating in costume is still an extremely prevalent practice for young children, many adults and older children continue to dress up on Halloween, attending parties, parades or visiting bars, clubs and other community gatherings in lieu of knocking on doors for candy. Many modern costumes have departed from the more traditional wear, including such outfits as celebrities, political figures, animals, famous artworks, video game or cartoon characters and many other funny, clever, unique or bizarre ideas (some sweet, some cute, some sexy, some weird and some scary or gross). In fact, many Americans even put costumes on their pets for Halloween! No wonder some people’s dogs seem to have rage issues…

Creative Commons | Boston Terrier Halloween

Any way you slice it, Halloween is a holiday with a ton of cool history – ranging from religious history, to immigration history, cultural encounters and exchange, and traditions about autumn harvest and the coming of winter. And more importantly, it’s fun! Really, it’s only once a year you’re really allowed to go to work dressed as Scooby-Doo, or walk around the supermarket wearing fairy wings and waving a sparkly wand at small children. In most circumstances, that would probably result in the cops being called. On Halloween, though, everyone has an excuse to break away from the every day!

So, what are YOU doing this weekend?

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Creating the Amazons

Archery, Fitness and the Women of Legend

So what do archery, women in the military, DC Comics, Greek mythology, and women’s fitness have in common? More than you might think.

An ancient Greek myth about a ferocious tribe of women warriors, resurrected in modern times as a part of the DC Comics universe, has come to permeate many facets of popular culture today. The Amazon tribe has come to symbolize a great many things, ranging from female independence, to active-duty women in the military, to sacrifice and devotion (referring, of course, to the elective masectomies allegedly employed by these legendary women to enable them to be better archers).

Picture: Creative Commons | Girl’s Archery

Today, the term “Amazon” is usually used to indicate a woman of notable strength, fitness, indepence, or exceptional ability in some dimension of her life (usually physical, though I have heard the term applied to women who excelled in the boardroom as well as on athletic scoreboards). The Amazon tribe, which may have actually had some factual basis – historical evidence suggests that the mythical tribe may have been based on a real-life nation, lead by women and bordering on Scythia – is most famous for its depiction in Greek myth as being a society of beautiful, fierce women who were so dedicated to the pursuit of their martial skills that they actually had one breast removed in order to better draw their bows.

Well, to be a woman warrior today, no surgical alteration is needed! Today, people of both sexes enjoy the ancient art of archery (alliteration is absolutely addicting, apparently…) as a hobby, shooting on ranges at targets as well as taking their skills further afield during hunting season. Modern bows run the gamut from fiberglass to laminated wood or horn in composition, and come in a variety of shapes and styles, including longbows, recurve bows, and compound bows (though some purists consider the compound bow a form of cheating).

Archery is tricky, requiring patience, arm strength, hand-eye coordination, breath control, and more patience to top it off. If you’re like me, you might want to combine your exploration of archery with an anger management course…If you can get past the frustration, though, and remain calm and patient, you’ll see why this ancient military practice has endured into the modern world, and has in fact become less an art of war, and more of a practice for recreation and pleasure.

Picture: Creative Commons | Archery and Fencing

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The Dow Is Falling!

Ten Ways TeachStreet Can Help

So let’s start with this; as far as the stock market is concerned, HOLY COW! Schnikes, I haven’t seen so much red streaking a screen since I went to that horror-film marathon last Halloween. OK, OK, so I know; it pretty much sucks. TeachStreet can’t turn the market around (believe us, we’d love to…), but we can help you out. You’re saying, cmon. Give it a rest. TeachStreet is awesome, but how can you possibly ease my pain in the greatest financial crisis of the past half-century? See below for the answer.

10. Obviously, personal finance classes are a great way to start coping with today’s chaotic economic situation. They’re all about money and money management. Couldn’t hurt, right?

9. Got kids? Try in investing in some standardized test prep classes - for exams like the ACT and SAT prep – to help them nail that big scholarship and get some of the burden of tuition off of your back!

8. Perhaps you might want to prepare for a career shift as the economy continues to spiral…well, there’s always a demand for street musicians! How about an acoustic guitar lesson to get yourself a headstart on busking for a buck?

7. In preparation for potential food supply shortages, get ahead of the game! Bring out your green thumb and take some gardening classes.

6. Savings, mortgages, bills, layoffs, unemployment, stock prices, gas prices…This whole thing can be a bit much to handle. For those times when the stress gets to be just too much to take, sign up for an anger management course to help you keep your cool.

5. Don’t get stuck in the dark! A candle-making class should help protect you in the event of a gas or electrial cutoff.

4. But what does it all mean, anyway? What’s the point? Maybe your thinking needs a little bit of a kickstart. Try studying up on philosophy. Even if it doesn’t answer your questions, just trying to understand what’s being said should take your mind off your stock portfolio for a while!

3. Relax! It’s going to be okay. Life’s not just about material things. Take a yoga class and put some balance back in your world!

2. Cut costs on things you can do yourself! Don’t go out to eat; take a cooking class and make a gourmet menu at home…Or, save yourself a trip to the bike repair shop, and learn to tune up that finicky gear shift in your own garage.

And the number one way TeachStreet can help you out in this situation:

1. We have a wide selection of beer brewing, beer drinking, wine making, wine appreciation, and bartending classes. Let’s face it; sometimes the only thing you can do is drown your sorrows. TeachStreet is here to help. In fact…we might be right there with you.

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Recess4GrownUps

Let your brain out to play.

Hips Don’t Lie

Why We Love Slinky Dance Moves

Whether it’s a shimmy, a swivel, a sway or a sashay, movement from the hips gets attention. Bilingual beauty Shakira really said it all; hips don’t lie. Everybody knows there’s something sensual about a swiveling pelvis – just ask all the Elvis fans! – but recent science has emerged that explains the why of it.

So just what is it that makes swaying hips so sexy? Well, a research team at the University of West Scotland did some homework, and what they discovered is perhaps more intimate than most of us would have predicted. In women, at least, the results of the study suggested that a lot about a woman’s sexuality (specifically, how easy it is for her to reach climax) can be determined just by observing the way she walks. The more swivel a subject had in her hips when walking, the more likely she was to…well, you know.

Picture: Creative Commons |Woman

Greater stride length and vertebral rotation (fancy ways of saying, the more visible motion in the pelvis – motions that are generally considered “sexy”) were observed in women who reported the greatest physical pleasure from intimate activities, according to the researchers. Observers in the study were 80% accurate (based on the women’s self-reported sexual histories and preferences) at gauging what a woman liked in the bedroom just from watching how she walked. Granted, the observers were trained sexologists, but the results are surprising nonetheless. Like I said, everyone knows there’s something sexual about pelvic motion, whether the swivel is on Elvis, Shakira or in a cheerleading routine. But apparently there’s more to the motion than just eye candy – really, the motions of belly dancing, tango or samba say a lot about the muscle tone and flexibility in your core abdomen and pelvis!

Researchers also suggested that increased stride length and vertebral rotation were correlated with overall core strength, balance and confidence. So activities that increase strength and flexibility in the core not only contribute to better posture, firmer abs and general sex appeal…but they might have other benefits, too, if you know what I mean.

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Recess4GrownUps

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Waltzing to Your Own Tune

The History of a Famous Dance

How positively obscene! There ought to be a law. It’s a threat to common decency! Can you imagine, doing a thing like that with a man in public?

…OK, get your mind out of the gutter. I’m talking about one of the most famous, and popular, ballroom dance styles in the world today; the waltz. Today, the waltz is considered a refined and romantic activity; doing the waltz is unlikely to provoke chaperone intervention at a high school dance. In fact, the waltz is, in the modern world, more likely to be associated with high society or the older generation, than with hormonally charged youngsters “getting jiggy with it”. But this has not always been the case.

“Waltz” comes from the German word walzen, meaning to glide, roll or turn. The dance is performed in 3/4 time, in two-person pairs of (traditionally) one man and one woman.

The waltz first emerged in a suburb of Vienna, Austria – it was immediately popular, evolving quickly from its origin in Austrian peasant dances, or wellers, into the more familiar style we know today involving a close hold between partners. By the seventeenth century, waltzes were being performed in the court of the Hapsburgs; by the eighteenth century, it had spread to high society in other nations, such as France. Though popular among recreational dancers, the waltz was met with furious opposition from religious leaders, professional dancers, traditionalists, and moralists. The close physical proximity of the dancers, the rapid turns of the dance, and the unconventional three-quarter timing of the dance angered many people of the day. England, ever the bastion of conservative social mores, was one of the last European nations to embrace (pardon the pun) the waltz. As late as 1866, articles published in Britain denounced the waltz as a “horror”, a “wicked dance”, and an activity of “violent embraces and canterings”.

Picture: Creative Commons | Waltzing

As so often in history, violent opposition did nothing to diminish the popularity of the dance, and in fact the controversy provoked even greater interest in the waltz. Despite its place today as an activity of elegance and panache, the waltz is actually the historical equivalent of modern breakdancing, freak dancing, or pole dancing; hardly a pasttime approved of by the establishment…though much enjoyed by merrymakers the world over! Scandalous.

Recess4GrownUps

Let your brain out to play.

The Urge to Herbal

Minty Magic and Mythology

You can find it in candy, in toothpastes, in gardens, in teas, in oil form, as a garnish, as part of a recipe, or even prescribed as a medicine. You could sample its sweeter side with a PCC Cooks class in Seattle to bake it into chocolate cookies; or you could explore its savory side in Mediterranean cuisine with Whole Foods’ cooking classes. You might find muddled with club soda, sugar and rum…or in the name of one of Portland, Oregon’s most famous cocktail bars. There are about 25 different species and many hundreds of varieties of it; they have distinctive square stems, and a fragrance recognizable to world over.  With a place in everything from Greek mythology to Moroccan tea, what could I possibly be talking about? Why, mint, of course. Mint is a sturdy, fast-growing perennial herb with a long history and numerous interesting properties.

Picture: Creative Commons |Chocolate Mint in Bloom

The modern English name, mint, comes from the Greek Minthe – the name of a nymph who angered Persephone (herself the goddess of the underworld, associated with pomegranates and the turning of the seasons). As her revenge, Persephone transformed Minthe into a lowly plant, intending her to be stepped on by passersby for the rest of eternity. Pluto, wife of Persephone, was unable to reverse the spell. However, out of some combination of good will and guilt (it was, after all, his love affair with Minthe that had so enraged his wife), he was able to grant Minthe a certain lovely fragrance, that would be released when her leaves were trod upon. Personally I am not sure how much that did to ease the torment of being trapped as a plant for the rest of eternity, but perhaps that’s why I’m not part of the Greek pantheon.
The herb itself is native to the Mediterranean and to parts of Western Asia. By the avenues of various trade routes and the vagaries of imperial conquests, the herb spread around the world, and its hardy nature made it well-suited to growing in a variety of climates. Mint was brought by early European settlers to the Americas, primarily for medicinal purposes. Mint was (and by some naturopathic medicine practitioners, still is) used to treat upset stomach, heart pain or palpitations, as a digestive aid, as a diuretic, a mild decongestant, to soothe sore throats, and as an antipruritic (anti-itch compound) on insect bites. Mint also has natural stimulant properties, and as an essential oil, can be a gentle alternative to consuming caffeine when you need to stay awake – and it commonly makes an appearance in aromatherapy scents. Mint can also be used as an insect repellent, for pests ranging from mosquitoes to cockroaches.

Picture: Creative Commons |Watermelon and Mint

In the modern world, the most common use for mint is, of course, in cooking, particularly in confections, desserts, and drinks. Moroccan Mint tea is a popular hot beverage; the Mint Julep is a classic Southern cocktail, made with mint, bourbon, sugar and water over ice; peppermint candies, including the classic candy cane, are eaten worldwide. The most popular varieties of mint are spearmint (used in drinks), chocolate mint (used in desserts), peppermint (for desserts and drinks), “garden” mint (for general cooking), and pineapple mint (for use in cooking and in particular, used in salads). Refreshing!

Recess4GrownUps

Let your brain out to play.

Three Hundred Sixty Five and a Quarter

Popes, Orbits, Rotations and the Origins of the Modern Calendar

December 31st marks a day most modern people are well acquainted with; the end of the old year, and the beginning of the new. In fact, we’re quite used to the year proceeding as expected; spring, summer, fall and winter all happen more or less on a predictable schedule.

There are 365 days in a year…with the one small (and frequently under-appreciated) exception that occurs every fourth year at the end of February. In its simplest description, a calendar is a system of time-tracking based on astronomy. Why do I say that? Well, because despite the numerous different calendars that have been invented and used throughout the ages, all of them have something in common; a single unit of time, based on the earth’s rotation on its axis.

That unit consists of a period of light and a period of darkness. We call it a “day”. Calendars group these individual units into larger units (weeks, months, years). These larger units are where there is a lot of variability among different calendar systems. The Jewish calendar, for example (which is the modern official calendar of Israel), bases its months and years purely on lunar cycles.

On the other hand, the “Christian” (also called the “Julian” after Julius Caesar, or “Gregorian” after Pope Gregory XII, who declared it the official calendar of Christendom in 1582) calendar, which is the most common calendar in use around the world today and is the standard for business and international affairs, bases its year on the Earth’s orbit around the sun.

Picture: Creative Commons | Earth

Although the Gregorian month is approximately as long as a typical lunar cycle, its months have no connection to the actual cycles of the moon. This difference is why holidays such as Chinese New Year or Hanukkah fall on different Gregorian dates from year to year; the Chinese and the Jewish calendar don’t line up perfectly with the Gregorian calendar, so a Chinese holiday may happen on the same day of the Chinese calendar every year, and yet appear to “migrate” on the Gregorian calendar.

The science of determining the precise length of a year is a tricky one, because the rotation of Earth on its axis doesn’t necessarily correlate perfectly with the Earth’s completing one full orbit around the sun – that is to say, the true length of time it takes the Earth to go around the sun isn’t perfectly 365 24-hour cycles.

So a 365 day year is actually slightly inaccurate – as is every other calendar ever used, in fact. This is why we have “leap years” (or for some calendars, a “leap month”) – because the true time it takes the Earth to complete one full orbit is three hundred and sixty five days…and one quarter day. To prevent that quarter day from accumulating over time and causing months and holidays to round-robin such that December is 120 degrees in Minnesota, we add in an extra day every four years to compensate. The year with the extra day is called a leap year, and the extra day is the cumulative “spare” quarter days that went unaccounted for in non-leap-years.

In what we now call 46 BC, Julius Caesar introduced a calendar reform in an attempt to better measure the year, and avoid the irregular years that came from the inaccuracies of the common-use calendar at the time. In order to put all the seasons back into their appropriate places so that summer was hot, winter was cold, and the summer solstice happened in June, Caesar was compelled to “make” a year last 445 days! This is known as the “Year of Confusion”, or annus confusionis in Latin, and it served the purpose of normalizing the calendar and syncing it with the realities of the Earth’s solar orbit.

The exact length of a complete orbit changes over time, as the sun and our planet both age (on average, the Earth’s rotation slows by about half a second per century, meaning it’s slowed a total of 10 seconds from 1 AD until today). Many different systems of measuring months and years have emerged over the centuries. However, the calendar we use today is not the first calendar to measure a year as 365.25 days.The first was the calendar of ancient Egypt – first recorded, with a 365.25 day-long year, in 4326 BC. So much for the advances of modern technology, I guess.

Recess4GrownUps

Let your brain out to play.

Inside This Fragile Shell

The Science of Scrambled, Poached and Sunny Side Up

Eggs. First maligned, then idolized, and finally more or less dismissed as last year’s fad by professional nutritionists. Avian reproductive vehicle, delicious breakfast item, or prankster’s weapon, there’s a lot of science contained in that fragile shell.

Scrambled, fried, over easy, poached, sunny side up, hard boiled, soft boiled, in an omelet, over medium, raw…There is certainly more than one way to eat an egg. But what is it about eggs that makes them so versatile?

The answer lies in the balance of fats and proteins between the yolk and the white. Heating an egg introduces energy into the “system” – in this case, the egg. Agitated by the extra energy, the egg’s protein molecules begin to bounce around, bumping into each other and the surface of the pan in the process. Protein molecules naturally “fold” onto themselves, and they hold a shape unique to the molecular composition of that specific protein.

The impact of all the bouncing around causes the proteins to begin “unfolding”. As they unfold, they begin to bond with surrounding molecules, causing the egg to solidify. This keeps happening as long as the egg is on heat, so cooking too long allows too many bonds to form, and the egg comes out rubbery.

Picture: Creative Commons |Eggs

By introducing heat to a cracked egg flat in a pan, you can make over easy, over medium, or sunny side up eggs; by heating an egg still in its shell, you can make a hard-boiled egg.

Beating an egg does much the same thing to those folded-up proteins. Fat molecules don’t fluff up very well, so we separate the fat-free white from the yolk to make things like souffles and meringues. The force of the whisk or fork in the egg white introduces air bubbles, and makes those proteins bump into things and unfold just as they do when heated.

When you heat a beaten egg, the air bubbles expand, at the same time as the protein molecules solidify their bonds to one another under the heat. When you’re done, the air cools and leaves space surrounded by a network of solid egg proteins – giving you a self-supporting structure, like meringue.

If you over-beat your egg and put too much air in, the egg structure will be too fragile to support itself; likewise, if you didn’t introduce enough air, you won’t get air pockets of the right size expanding during cooking. This is why making a good fluffy meringue, that doesn’t either come out too heavy or else collapse in on itself, is so hard! (And by the way, the same idea of air bubbles inflating to get a fluffy texture also applies when whisking up your favorite scramble or omelet.)

One of my favorite ways to cook an egg is poaching it. At first glance this method seems like it shouldn’t work – dropping a raw egg into hot water?! A fool’s errand. But it does work, and here’s why. When you drop your egg into the water, its proteins are all in their base, folded-up state – the egg will sort of lazily spread itself out. The heat and motion of the water, though, begin acting on those folded-up proteins, which are only loosely held together at first.

After a few minutes of abuse by those energetic water molecules, the proteins unfold…bond to their neighbors…and suddenly, that ephemeral egg white drifting in the water will snap to attention, drawing in around the yolk! The longer you leave the egg in the water, the firmer both the yolk and the white will become, as more and more of their proteins unfold themselves and become more tightly bonded to their neighboring proteins.

But as we all know, the most important question still remains to be answered…Which DID come first, the chicken or the egg?

Recess4GrownUps

Let your brain out to play.

Gin, Tonic, and Mosquitoes

Malaria’s Subtle Gift to Mixology

Gin and tonic, also called a “G&T”, is a classic highball cocktail. Comprised of gin (juniper berries provide the unique herbal flavor of this liquor) and tonic water (a carbonated beverage flavored with quinine) served with lime or lemon over ice, it’s a popular drink, especially in hot weather.

But its origins belong to one of the most deadly killers of the 18th century. Gin and tonic was originally concocted by the British East India Company…as a weapon in its fight against the devastatingly lethal mosquito-borne disease, malaria.

The name malaria comes from Medieval Italian (virtually identical to the modern Italian taught today). The name derives from the phrase mala aria, which literally translates to “bad air”. (This is due to the popular belief at the time that the disease was a result of breathing in toxic “miasmas”, or “bad air”. Germ theory would not gain credibility for many decades yet.)

Malaria is endemic to tropical and subtropical regions, and British East India Company employees involved in spice, opium, and tea trading in Southeast Asia were dying by the scores. Mortality rates topped 70% in some areas, and British officials and military personnel in the regions were equally hard-hit – Europeans had never traveled to malarial regions before, and had no resistance to the disease.

It was discovered that quinine, at the time extracted from the bark of the cinchona tree and often called “Jesuits’ bark” because Jesuit missionaries in Latin America were the first Europeans to uncover its magic, had antimalarial properties. (Today, quinine can be synthesized in labs.) If taken regularly, quinine could dramatically reduce the incidence, severity, and mortality of malaria. A solution of carbonated water and quinine, called tonic, proved an effective method of dosing.

However, quinine is one of the most bitter substances known to man – so bitter that many patients will vomit after ingesting it if it is not diluted or masked with another flavor.

The juniper berry flavor of gin proved effective at masking quinine’s natural bitterness – and so, as a prophylactic medication against malarial infection in British Imperial endeavors in Southeast Asia, the G&T was created.

It is still a popular beverage in bars and restaurants the world over, though most tonic water today is flavored primarily or wholly with an artificial imitation rather than true quinine – even quinine-containing tonics contain only a small quantity of true quinine, relying instead on artificial substitutes for the bulk of their flavor. And thanks to the advances of modern medical science, in today’s world of numerous anti-malarial medications, no doctor in his or her right mind would prescribe you a daily gin and tonic.

Picture: Creative Commons | G&T

(Like this one.)

…Pity.