Every time I think I’ve seen just about everything out there on the net, I run into stuff like this.
Category: Trivia
100% Pittsburgh
Although you may be long gone from there, I guess you never really forget those things that are peculiar to the place you grew up in. Here’s my score on the “100% Pittsburgh” Quiz.
You are 100% Pittsburgh.
Great job! There’s nooooo doubt about it. You’re from Da Burgh. You deserve a reward, so go have an Ahrn City or two. And GO STILLERS!
The State Bat?
Virgina, like other states in the U.S., has an official State Bird, State Flower, State Tree, etc. I wonder how many other states also have an official “State Bat?”
The Virginia big-eared bat is a medium-sized bat, about 3.5 – 4 inches long. It’s characteristic features are the large ears (more than one inch long) and the presence of two large lumps (glands) on the muzzle. Their color ranges from pale to dark brown on the back and light brown underneath and found exclusively in limestone caves of Highland, Bland and Tazewell counties. With a lifespan of about 16 years, the Virginia big-eared bats are designated as state and federally endangered mainly due to their small population and limited habitat and distribution.
Local Girl Makes Good..and Gives Back to Community
My, brother, who lives near Charleroi, PA, sent me the following via email. So I thought I’d pass it on. Make sure you link to and read the articles in the order they are shown below:
Heres’ a little background on this. Charleroi is located along the Monongahela river in southwestern Pennsylvania in an area known as the “Mon Valley.” The Mon Valley used to be a center of heavy industry such as steel and glass making, and coal mining. Since the demise of these industries in the 1960’s and 1970’s, the Mon Valley has become a depressed area in many respects. The small towns along the river that used to be quite vibrant and commercially successful have fallen on hard times.
I live in the Washington, DC area and, to the best of my knowledge, this has not gotten any coverage in our local newspapers or on TV.
Milk Chocolate
Did you know that Hershey’s was once the sole supplier of milk chocolate to just about all the other candy companys in the United States? The company’s founder, Milton Hershey, was the first to figure out how to make milk chocolate in the U.S. Although milk chocolate had been manufactured for years in Europe, the formula was a closely guarded secret. Hershey experimented for years and finally came up with his own formula for milk chocolate. He of course, kept his formula a secret for years. So if one wanted to produce candy with milk chocolate content, they had to buy from either Hershey or European manufacturers. And, since Hershey’s milk chocolate was produced in the U.S., it was much less expensive than importing milk chocolate from Europe.
As a result, to this day, most milk chocolate produced in the U.S. has a slightly different taste than its European counterpart. It seems that Hershey’s process for producing milk chocolate caused the milk to sour slightly, giving it a unique taste.
I became aware of this interesting piece of trivia while watching the History Channel . They have a series called “America Eats” that explores the history of popular food products in the U.S.