JUNE 2013

Celebrating June

Country Cooking Month

Women’s Golf Month

National Tailors Day

June 5

Iced Tea Day June 10

Men’s Health Week

June 10–16

Peanut Butter Cookie Day June 12

Father’s Day

June 16

Universal Father's Week June 16–22

World Sauntering Day

June 19

Lightning Safety Awareness Week

June 23–29

Saint Jean Baptiste Day June 24

Race to the Top Mt. Everest, standing at 29,035 feet in the Himalayas, is widely known as the highest point on Earth. Or is it? I guess that all depends on your understanding of the word highest. For example, which mountain is farthest from the center of Earth? And which mountain is closest to the moon? Not Mt. Everest. Using these measurements, Mt. Chimborazo in Ecuador’s Andes mountains is the highest peak on Earth. Chimborazo will get the recognition it deserves on June 3, Chimborazo Day. Mt. Chimborazo is only 20,565 feet tall. So how is it closer to the moon than Everest? The

answer is that Earth is not a perfect sphere. Earth actually bulges around

the equator, as if it is carrying a spare tire around its middle. When you add the height of Mt. Chimborazo to the height of this equatorial bulge, Chimborazo is actually 1.5 miles higher than Everest. That’s 1.5 miles closer to the moon and outer space. And 1.5 miles farther from the center of Earth. Unfortunately for Mt. Chimborazo, we still measure the height of mountains not from the center of Earth but from sea level. By this measure, Everest wins out every time. Chimborazo is the world’s tallest mountain? Some Hawaiians might object. Mauna Kea, the volcano that forms Hawaii’s big island, is also taller than Everest. Mauna Kea stands only 13,803 feet above sea level, but if you measure it from the bottom of the ocean, where it starts, it actually measures 33,500 feet tall. Of course, that doesn’t make it any closer to the moon. As in so many races, whoever wins this one likely depends on where we put the starting line: the bottom of the ocean, at sea level, or atop the equatorial bulge.

On the Ball On June 10, 1943, the Biro brothers, Laszlo and George, filed their patent for a ballpoint pen. Theirs was not an original idea. Others, suffering through their writing with leaky fountain pens, had created pens that wrote with a roller-ball mechanism. However, this Biro design proved to be the best and was even adopted by the British Royal Air Force because they could write at high altitudes without leaking. The pens worked so reliably during World War II that Bic bought the patent in 1950 and has since sold over 100 billion pens. Some Bic pens still bear the name “Biro” on the side.

June 2013

Accordion Awareness The Golden Age of the Accordion lasted from 1900 through the 1960s. Pietro Frosini and the Deiro Brothers, Guido and Pietro, were world-renowned for their accomplished accordion playing. They

were some of the most highly paid musicians ever to play the vaudeville circuit. Today, though, accordions are the butt of jokes and the instruments of comedians. One man, Tom Torriglia of San Francisco, California, sought to bring dignity back to the accordion. In 1989, he declared the month of June Accordion Awareness Month. Accordions are instantly recognizable. They are bulky instruments, played with two hands, with a keyboard on one side, a panel of buttons on the other, and a bellows in between. While many accordions have keys like a piano, the instrument does not produce sound like a keyboard. It is actually a member of the reed family. The compressible bellows pushes air over strips of brass or steel. When these metal strips vibrate, they make noise. Instruments similar to the accordion date as far back as ancient China. An instrument called a cheng made sound using the same vibrating reed technology. Credit for the invention of the very first accordion goes to the German instrument maker Christian Freidrich Buschmann in 1822. Buschmann took it on tour in 1828, spreading its popularity. The first accordion to have the piano keyboard was made in Vienna, Austria, in 1863. From this moment on, accordionists became the first one-man bands and the accordion became an international instrument used to play folk music and popular music. The Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and the Beach Boys have all used the accordion. Orchestras from New York to London have featured the accordion. Composers such as Tchaikovsky and Charles Ives have written accordion music. In June, give the squeezebox a hug.

Corn on the Cob June 11 is Corn on the Cob Day, and while it is common nowadays to enjoy this food, ancient humans were actually growing corn on the cob thousands of years ago. The earliest known form of corn came from a grass called teosinte. It was first farmed in what is modern day Mexico and can still be found there today. Each “ear” of teosinte has only 5 to 12 kernels, whereas each ear of corn has 500 or more. Corn has come a long way from teosinte! Corn on the cob can be prepared several ways. The traditional way is to remove the husk and boil it. Some people add cream, milk, sugar or brown sugar, and butter to the boiling water. This ensures sweet and creamy corn every time. You can also keep it in its husk and throw it on the grill until it is charred. While butter is the most common topping, corn can be topped with anything. Try mayonnaise, cheese, chili powder, lime, barbeque sauce, or even sour cream, bacon, and onions. That’s something our ancestors never tried.

June 2013

Polar Bear Plunge June 21 may seem the ideal date for taking a swim. It is the first day of summer, after all. But residents of Nome, Alaska, looking to take a dip into the Bering Sea may have trouble finding a break in the ice to take their annual Polar Bear Swim. Nome may be the Land of the Midnight Sun, but the water is still frigid. In fact, past swims have needed to be rescheduled due to the sea being completely frozen over. Winter swimming has a long history in Arctic locales such as Alaska, Russia, and Scandinavia. There are even some health benefits associated with cold water swimming. It relieves stress through the release of hormones. Cold water relieves pain associated with some forms of arthritis. It also improves blood circulation and the metabolism of tissues. You just have to take the polar bear plunge.