WEIRD WEDNESDAY

 

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“There’s the rub. . . “

- Hamlet

People like to rub statues, or parts of statues, whether for luck, wealth, love, whatever, as these photos from around the world show . . .

And we have local examples, for instance, the Il Porcellino statue outside Sydney Hospital:

However, that is not the only part that gets rubbed:

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Caesar Salad was invented in Mexico . . .

Caesar Salad was created in 1924, by Caesar Cardini at Caesar's in Tijuana, Mexico. He also had restaurants in the US but ran one of his restaurants in Mexico to attract American customers seeking to circumvent Prohibition. When a Fourth of July rush in 1924 depleted the kitchen's supplies. Cardini made do with what he had, including lettuce, garlic-flavoured oil, eggs, Parmesan cheese, lemons and Worchester sauce, serving it table-side tossed by the chef. Word travelled fast and the Caesar salad became a sensation.

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A rose by any other name . . .

It is appropriate that a President of the United States had the initials US – Ulysses S Grant. But the facts behind his name qualifies for inclusion in Weird Wednesday . . .

Born Hiram Ulysses Grant (1822 – 1885), he was the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. In 1865, as commanding general, Grant led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War.

Grant had enrolled in West Point in 1839, having been recommended by Ohio Congressman Thomas Hamer. Hamer mistakenly wrote "Ulysses S. Grant" in his nomination. The reason why the middle initial was added is unknown but, despite Grant's best efforts to correct the error, he became known as Ulysses S. Grant from that point forward.

In 1844 he wrote in a letter to his wife: "​​Find some name beginning with 'S' for me, you know I have an 'S' in my name and don't know what it stands for."

Grant’s signature

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Some lipsticks contain fish scales. . .

This is also known as pearl essence. It’s the silvery stuff found in fish scales that’s used in some lipsticks, nail polishes, ceramic glazes, etc., to make them shimmery. Pearl essence is obtained primarily from herring and is one of many by-products of large-scale commercial fish processing. Synthetic versions have been developed, but to what extent they’ve supplanted the natural variety is unknown.

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