Tabasco and Nutria

On the label of every bottle of Tabasco Brand hot sauce, you will see that it is produced by the McIlhenny Company of Avery Island, Louisiana. There are scores of legends and stories about the founder of the company, the family, and the origin of the Tabasco recipe.

Some of the stories are just legends -- like the idea that founder E. A. McIlhenny was the first to release the South American nutria rat into Louisiana. He did not begin farming the varmints, as a separate operation from his hot sauce company, until after another farmer had already released several.

Then some stories, like the one mentioned below in Today in History, are accurate. He did successfully hunt that record alligator.

The nutria cause a great deal of damage in the bayous and to the levees, but now the alligators are starting to figure out that nutria taste good. Both, of course, taste good spiced up with some Tabasco. Somehow, that strikes me as a form of poetic justice.


Today is:

Advent of Isis -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar

Advent of Inanna -- Ancient Sumerian Calendar

Ancestry Day, Haiti

Berchtoldstag (Nut Festival), Switzerland

Earth at Perihelion

Festival of Four Winds and All Sky

Good Luck Day, Macedonia

Granada Day, Spain

Happy Mew Year for Cats Day

Kakizone -- Japan ("first writing", the first calligraphy written at the

beginning of the New Year)

Miniature Golf Day

National Cream Puff Day

National Science Fiction Day

Ninth Day of Christmas

Revolution Day, Cuba

Run Up the Flagpole and See if Anyone Salutes It Day

Shigoto Hajime (Beginning of Work Day), Japan

St. Adelard's Day (Patron of gardeners.)

St. Basil's Day, Russia (Patron of hospital administrators)

St. Blidulf of Bobbio

St. Gregory of Nazianzus' Day

St. Macarius' Day (Patron of of cooks, confectioners and pastry chefs.)

St. Seraphim of Sarov's Day


Anniversaries Today:

Georgia becomes the 4th US State, 1788


Birthdays Today:

Christy Turlington, 1969
Cuba Gooding, Jr. 1968
Tia Carrere, 1967
Gabrielle Carteris, 1961
Alan Beckwith, 1952
Dennis Hastert, 1942
Jim Bakker, 1939
Roger Miller, 1936
Isaac Asimov, 1920
Sally Rand, 1904
Barry Goldwater, 1902


Today in History:

The Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine River in large numbers, invading the Roman Empire, 366
Emperor Joseph II orders Jews of Galicia Austria to adopt family names, 1235
Spain recaptures Granada from the Moors (Granada Day), 1492
The first American revolutionary flag is displayed, 1776
The British Institution of Civil Engineers is founded, 1881
"The Liberator", and abolitionist newspaper, begins publishing in Boston, 1831
The British reestablish rule in the Falklands, 1833
The first US wire suspension bridge for general traffic opens in Pennsylvania, 1842
Because of anti-monopoly laws, Standard Oil is organized as a trust, 1882
Alice Sanger becomes the first female White House staffer, 1890
A record 19'2" alligator is shot in Louisiana by E. A. McIlhenny, 1890
Pres. T Roosevelt shuts down post office in Indianola Miss, for refusing to accept its appointed postmistress because she was black, 1903
The American anarcho-syndicalist union known as the Industrial Workers of the World forms, 1905
The Canadian branch of the Royal Mint opens in Ottawa, 1908
Lithuania gains independence, 1919
The US & Canada agree to preserve Niagara Falls, 1929