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On Dec. 1, 1761, Madame Tussaud, perhaps the world’s best-known creator of lifelike wax sculptures, was born Anna Maria Grosholtz in Strasbourg, France. Strasbourg is close to the German border, which may account for Tussaud’s not-entirely-French-sounding birth name.

Tussaud’s father died shortly before she was born, so her mother moved to Bern, Switzerland, with their infant daughter, taking a position as a housekeeper for Dr. Philippe Curtius. Curtius was a physician and an accomplished wax modeler, a skill he utilized to demonstrate anatomical concepts and later, for portraiture.

Curtius taught the art of wax modeling to Tussaud. She demonstrated a great deal of talent and soon began to work for him. She created her first wax figure, French philosopher Voltaire, in 1777.

Curtius moved to Paris in 1765 in order to exhibit his wax figures, and Tussaud and her mother joined him in 1767. Tussaud’s skill earned her favor with the French royal family (she gave art lessons to the sister of Louis XVI), which made for a pleasant lifestyle until the French Revolution in 1789.

Tussaud’s royal connections almost got her the guillotine, but she was spared by the intervention of Jean-Marie Collot d’Herbois. She was, however, required to show her support for the revolution by making death masks of the aristocrats and members of the royal family who had not been so fortunate.

The revolution had quieted down by 1794, which was also the year Curtius passed away, leaving Tussaud his waxworks collection. Tussaud married Francois Tussaud the following year.

Tussaud and one of her two sons brought the collection to London in 1802 for exhibition and found themselves unable to return to France (and the rest of their family) because of the Napoleonic Wars. After touring through Great Britain and Ireland with her waxworks, Tussaud settled the exhibit into a permanent home on London’s Baker Street.

Tussaud died in her sleep of natural causes on April 15, 1850, but both her museum and her wax figures have stood the test of time. In spite of a move to Marylebone Road in 1884, substantial fire damage in 1925, and bombing by the Germans in 1940, several sculptures made by Tussaud herself, including a self-portrait from 1842, still exist. A considerable number of wax figures have been added, encompassing everyone from historical figures and pop singers to famous athletes and notorious murderers.

Now known as “Madame Tussauds” (no apostrophe), the London museum continues to pique the curiosity of locals and tourists alike. Additional museums have been opened in Amsterdam, Berlin, Las Vegas, New York City, Hollywood, Washington, D.C., Shanghai and Hong Kong, and enjoy popularity similar to that of their London counterpart.

– Teresa Santoski

www.teresasantoski.com

Originally published Dec. 1, 2010.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – food holidays are among our favorites to celebrate because we get to eat something tasty. National Cookie Day (Dec. 4) is no exception. It also happens to fall during Cookie Cutter Week (observed Dec. 1-7), which is a double cause for celebration for those who enjoy baking.

The word “cookie” comes from the Dutch word “koekje,” which translates to “little cake,” and was introduced into the English language through Dutch settlers in North America.

The origins of the cookie are shrouded in the floury mists of culinary history. Hard, cookie-like wafers are on record as a dietary staple of ancient travelers, but they lacked the sweetness of the modern cookie.

The modern cookie is thought to have originated in Persia during the 7th century, around the time that sugar came into more common use. When Muslims departed Persia for Spain during the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in the 8th century, they brought their cookie recipes with them. By the 14th century, cookies had permeated European society and were enjoyed by peasants and nobles alike.

In the early days of America, gingerbread, macaroons and jumbles were the cookies of choice. Jumbles typically consist of nuts, eggs, flour and sugar and are flavored with anise, vanilla or caraway seed.

It is thought that the Pilgrims and the Jamestown settlers packed jumbles to sustain themselves (and keep the little ones quiet) on the long voyage to the New World, as these tough cookies could last for up to a year if stored properly. Martha Washington, the wife of our first president, was reported to have an impressive Jumble recipe.

Follow in the footsteps of our first First Lady today and celebrate by baking the cookie recipe you’re most famous for. Once they’re cooling, give us a call and we’ll be more than happy to help you with the rest of the celebration. We’ll even bring the milk.

– Teresa Santoski

www.teresasantoski.com

Originally published Dec. 4, 2009.

Nothing makes us feel quite so silly as attempting to explain the concept of a Fluffernutter to someone who has not had the pleasure. We are therefore most pleased to raise awareness of this tasty sandwich by celebrating National Fluffernutter Day.

A Fluffernutter is a sandwich consisting of peanut butter and marshmallow fluff spread on white bread. Substituting wheat bread for white in effort to make the sandwich more nutritious is generally frowned upon.

Firstly, white bread is far more palatable in combination with the sandwich’s fillings. And secondly, if you’re concerned about nutrition, you probably shouldn’t be eating a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich.

The Fluffernutter phenomenon is mostly confined to the Northeastern United States, which makes sense as fluff itself originated in Massachusetts. The recipe for fluff was developed by Archibald Query of Somerville, Mass., who then sold the recipe to confectioners H. Allen Durkee and Fred Mower of Lynn, Mass.

Durkee and Mower’s Marshmallow Fluff was the first brand on the market, appearing on grocery store shelves in the early 20th century after being successfully sold door-to-door. As far as we’re concerned, theirs is the genuine article and there’s no need for any others.

Other fluff consumers must feel the same way, as there are only two other brands of this sticky sweet spread produced in North America – Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme and Solo Marshmallow Creme.

Join in the Fluffernutter fun by picking up a tub of your favorite flavor of fluff (it comes in marshmallow, strawberry and raspberry) and slathering yourself up a sandwich. If you’d like to get more creative, visit the recipe section on Durkee-Mower’s official Web site. They even have a recipe for a Fluffernutter shake to go with your Fluffernutter sandwich.

– Teresa Santoski

www.teresasantoski.com

Originally published Oct. 8, 2010.

The word “thylacine” conjures up images of a sleekly-named antibiotic, but it’s actually a now-extinct carnivorous marsupial. “Benjamin,” the last of the thylacines (commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger) died in captivity at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania on Sept. 7, 1936.

The thylacine looked like a large dog with a stiff, thin tail that sloped down and away from its body in a similar fashion to the tail of a kangaroo. Its coat was short and yellow-brown in color with several dark stripes running across its back, rear, and the base of its tail. These stripes faded as the thylacine aged.

The thylacine had a long snout and extremely flexible jaws. Photographs show that it could open its mouth as wide as 120 degrees, a definite advantage when you’re a carnivore.

Both male and female thylacines had pouches. The female’s pouch was on her belly, where it protected four teats. With most marsupials, the pouch opens toward the front of the animal’s body. In the case of the thylacine, it opened toward the rear.

The male’s pouch, known as a scrotal pouch, was located a little further back on his body than was the female’s pouch, and served to protect his scrotal sac. Now that the thylacine is extinct, the South American water opossum is the only member of the marsupial family where the male also has a pouch.

It is partially because of this scrotal pouch that we use quotes around the name given to the last thylacine in captivity. None of the photographs of this particular creature show a scrotal sac, so it’s possible that “Benjamin” may have been a female. Because the scrotal sac could just have been concealed within the pouch, however, scientists may never be completely certain.

The other reason for the quotes around “Benjamin” is that this wasn’t really the thylacine’s name. The name first appears in a newspaper article in 1968, in which a former zoo employee named Frank Darby claimed the thylacine was affectionately referred to as Benjamin.

Unfortunately, when the reporter followed up with the zoo, it turned out that they had never had an employee by the name of Frank Darby, nor had the thylacine ever been referred to as Benjamin. For better or for worse, however, the name has stuck.

Adding to “Benjamin’s” mystery are the sad circumstances under which she/he died. The animal had somehow been locked out of its sleeping shelter during an extreme bout of Tasmanian weather. It simply couldn’t handle the combination of blasting heat during the day and freezing temperatures at night. Had it been able to get into its sleeping shelter, “Benjamin” may have lived a few years more.

Both the thylacine and the Hobart Zoo are now long gone, but you can still see this amazing creature in action. Visit www.naturalworlds.org to see all of the existing motion picture footage of the thylacine.

– Teresa Santoski

www.teresasantoski.com

Originally published Sept. 7, 2010.

On Nov. 12, 1933, Hugh Gray spied an “object of considerable dimensions – making a big splash with spray on the surface” of Loch Ness in the Highlands of Scotland while he was walking home from church. He just happened to have his camera on hand and snapped the first known photographs of the Loch Ness Monster.

Although legends of lake monsters have circulated since ancient times, the first recorded sighting of the Loch Ness Monster (affectionately known as “Nessie”) occurred July 22, 1933, when George Spicer and his wife witnessed a very strange creature crossing a road near the loch.

The creature passed right in front of their car. They described it as being about 25 feet long with a ten- to 12-foot-long neck. The neck was a little bit thicker than an elephant’s trunk and similarly flexible. It was hard to tell whether or not the creature had legs, due to a dip in the road.

Several other people claimed to see the Loch Ness Monster in the months following the Spicers’ sighting, but Gray was the first to provide photographic evidence. His photo, however, is now thought by many to be a blurred shot of a dog swimming through the water with a stick in its mouth.

Since then, many have pursued the Loch Ness Monster, enlisting everything from sonar to video cameras to Google Earth to prove its existence, but verifiable proof has yet to surface. Skeptics have postulated that those Nessie sightings that have not been outright hoaxes could be anything from eels (which do live in Loch Ness) to the wakes of boats that have been mistaken for signs of the creature.

Until it can be proven that Loch Ness is home to a surviving plesiosaur or tullimonstrum (the creatures Nessie is most commonly thought to be), the Loch Ness Monster remains a member of the cryptid family, sharing the realm of the unexplained-yet-not-impossible with the likes of Bigfoot, the chupacabra and the Abominable Snowman.

– Teresa Santoski

www.teresasantoski.com

Originally published Nov. 12, 2009.

April Fools’ Day just wouldn’t be April Fools’ Day without a prank or two. The BBC pulled off one of the most memorable hoaxes in holiday history April 1, 1957 when they featured a segment on the Swiss spaghetti harvest on the current affairs program “Panorama.”

The three-minute segment showed a family in southern Switzerland harvesting spaghetti noodles from their “spaghetti trees.” Renowned broadcaster Richard Dimbleby provided the narration, describing how the combination of a mild winter and limited interference from the dreaded spaghetti weevil had resulted in a bumper crop for the region.

The clip also included footage of a traditional spaghetti harvest festival and an explanation of how the spaghetti trees had been crossbred in order to produce noodles of just the right length.

At the time, spaghetti was not widely consumed in the United Kingdom, with most British considering it a foreign delicacy. So little was known about the true origins of spaghetti that the next day, telephones at the BBC were ringing off the hook with questions from curious viewers.

Some expressed doubt about the veracity of the program while others were eager for more detailed information. Some even asked how they could grow their own spaghetti trees. The BBC’s response? “Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.”

You can watch the infamous spaghetti tree hoax here. To this day, it is considered one of the most successful April Fools’ pranks ever pulled by a reputable news organization.

– Teresa Santoski

www.teresasantoski.com

Originally published April 1, 2011.

Here at Daily TWiP, we know for a fact that something interesting has occurred on almost every day in history – the key word here being “almost.” April 11, 1954, for example, has been scientifically determined to have been the most boring day of the 20th century.

This determination was made by True Knowledge, an answer engine founded by computer scientist William Tunstall-Pedoe. It formulates its responses based on a database of facts, some of which are submitted by users (and checked for accuracy by other users and the system itself) and some of which are gathered from credible reference sites.

When you type in the question “What was the most boring day ever,” True Knowledge brings up the answer “April 11, 1954.” The reason for this is that True Knowledge equates “boring” with “uneventful” and it has fewer events in its database for that particular date than for any other.

Its database is fairly substantial, too – as of April 8, 2011, it contained 473,994,597 facts about 15,259,256 different topics. The database information only goes back as far Jan. 1, 1900, however, making April 11, 1954 the most boring day of the 20th century rather than in the whole of history.

If you ask True Knowledge what did happen on April 11, 1954, it brings up the following results. American dance bandleader Paul Specht died, the Football Association of Indonesia of Probolinggo was founded and Teo Peter (a Romanian rock musician), Francis Lickerish (a British composer), Abdullah Atalar (a Turkish academic) and Geoff Mann (a member of the group Casino) were all born.

Other sources indicate Geoff Mann may have been born April 11, 1956, which means even less may have happened on April 11, 1954.

Since then, April 11th has done its best to reassure the world that 1954 was just a fluke. Adolf Eichmann, who organized the deportation of Jews during the Holocaust, was tried for his crimes April 11, 1961, and Apollo 13 was launched April 11, 1970.

– Teresa Santoski

www.teresasantoski.com

Originally published April 11, 2011.

The first spam email was sent not by a money-hungry opportunist posing as exiled Nigerian royalty, but by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing employee looking to spread the word about his company’s products. It hit the inboxes of a number of West Coast ARPANET users May 3, 1978, spawning a major debate over unsolicited email.

Use of ARPANET, considered to be the precursor to the Internet, was restricted to certain individuals, most of whom were government employees, military officials and computer scientists. As a computer manufacturer, Digital Equipment Corporation apparently also had ARPANET access and marketer Gary Thuerk decided to use that to the company’s advantage.

He sent an email to numerous users informing them of the new DEC-20 machine, which came with ARPANET protocol already installed, as well as several open houses that were scheduled to demonstrate the machine. Since Digital Equipment Corporation was based on the East Coast, Thuerk targeted the email to West Coast users who might not be aware of the company’s offerings.

Some found Thuerk’s e-mail interesting and welcomed the information, finding it more relevant than smaller mass mailings they had received about, for example, a fellow employee’s new baby. Others were not so pleased, including Major Raymond Czahor, chief of the ARPANET Management Branch, who branded it a flagrant violation of ARPANET usage.

Although Thuerk didn’t believe he had done anything wrong, he did not attempt another product-oriented mass mailing. Indeed, it would be roughly another decade before any other spammer dared try again. More than 30 years later, Internet users are completely accustomed to spam, with most receiving more spam than actual email.

– Teresa Santoski

www.teresasantoski.com

Originally published May 3, 2011.

Even lexicographers make mistakes. An editor at Merriam-Webster discovered a big one Feb. 28, 1939 when he realized the word “dord,” which had been included in the second edition of Webster’s New International Dictionary, didn’t have an etymology. A bit of research soon revealed that “dord” was not, in fact, an actual word.

The error was traced back to a new abbreviation for the letter “D” submitted by Austin M. Patterson, the dictionary’s chemistry editor. The slip read “d or D, cont./density,” which meant that density should be added to list of words that can be abbreviated by a lowercase or uppercase “D.”

Headwords on slips were typed with a space between each letter, so “D or d” looked like “D o r d.” The slip was somehow filed as a word instead of an abbreviation and subsequently added to the dictionary as “dord,” with the definition of “density.”

The non-word made it past proofreaders and into print, appearing on page 771 in the second edition of Webster’s New International Dictionary, snuggled between “Dorcopsis” (“a genus of small kangaroos of Papua”) and “dore” (“golden in color”).

The second edition was published in 1934, giving “dord” a peaceful yet uneventful five years as a legitimate word (it never entered into common use) before its lack of etymology triggered warning bells for an editor. The non-word was officially struck from the pages of the 1940 edition of Webster’s New International Dictionary and “density” was added as an additional meaning for the abbreviation “D or d” as originally intended.

It was apparently hard, however, for Merriam-Webster to say goodbye to “dord,” as the non-word can be found in copies of the dictionary printed well into the 1940s. Even Philip Gove, a New Hampshirite and Merriam-Webster editor who penned a letter of explanation regarding the error to “American Speech” in 1954, seemed sad to see it go.

“It’s probably too bad,” he wrote, “for why shouldn’t ‘dord’ mean density?”

– Teresa Santoski

www.teresasantoski.com

Originally published Feb. 28, 2011.

On March 3, 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed a congressional resolution that made Maryland resident Francis Scott Key’s “The Star-Spangled Banner” the official national anthem of the United States of America.

It is relatively common knowledge that the anthem’s lyrics were taken from Key’s poem “Defence of Fort McHenry,” which Key penned after witnessing the British bombardment of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. The slightly bawdy history of the tune to which “The Star-Spangled Banner” is set, on the other hand, is not quite as well known.

Originally titled “The Anacreontic Song,” it was composed in the mid-1760s by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a gentleman’s club in London made up of amateur musicians. The Society was named after the Greek court poet Anacreon, whose favorite topics included wine, women and entertainment.

Although the purpose of the Society was to encourage an interest in the musical arts, their club song (what with its references to Bacchus, the god of wine, and Venus, the goddess of love) soon became popular as a drinking song.

According to the rather unreliable annals of tavern culture, “The Anacreontic Song” was also used as a sobriety test. Since the melody was challenging to sing and covered an octave and a half, pub patrons figured that if you could sing a stanza of the song and keep relatively in tune, you were O.K. to have another drink.

Speaking of drinking establishments, the first public performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” actually took place in a tavern. Actor Ferdinand Durang sang what would become the United States’ national anthem at Captain McCauley’s tavern in Baltimore in October of 1814, just one month after Key had written the lyrics and mere weeks after the lyrics (with mention of the tune) had been published in the Baltimore newspapers.

The popularity of “The Star-Spangled Banner” continued to grow, with various politicians requesting it be played on official occasions. It was even used to open sporting events as early as 1897.

When Robert Ripley, creator of the “Ripley’s Believe it or Not!” cartoon strip, published a cartoon saying, “Believe It or Not, America has no national anthem,” on Nov. 3, 1929, it was clear that there was only one logical choice. The congressional resolution naming “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the U.S. national anthem arrived on President Hoover’s desk less than two years later, and he happily signed it.

– Teresa Santoski

www.teresasantoski.com

Originally published March 3, 2010.