Another Worry

As if we don't have enough to worry about, now there's olive oil.

Apparently Extra Virgin Olive Oil, thanks to celebrity chefs, is a $720 million per year industry in the US alone. Thus it is now the target of organized crime in Italy.

You guessed it, knock off olive oil.

They will add chemicals or flavoring to make cheaper, pure oil look more like the higher quality Extra Virgin stuff. Or they will mix it with cheaper oils, again adding chemicals or flavorings.

Then they pass it off as the real deal.

The worst offenders are the companies that use generic labels, as they aren't as careful about their sourcing.

Great. That's the kind i use.

So, now i get to wonder if my olive oil is the real thing.

Like i needed something else to worry about.


Today is:

Day of the Fallen against the Colonial Repression -- Angola

Day To Mourn Racism -- Native Americans (on the anniversary of the day ethnic discrimination was outlawed worldwide in 1969)

Dimpled Chad Day -- if you have to ask, you wouldn't understand

Earth at Perihelion -- 7pm Central Time

Eleventh Day of Christmas

Feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1st US-born Saint)

Festival of Fufluns -- Etruscan god of wine (date approximate)

Get Out Your Boxer Shorts Day -- internet generated, and why, i do not know

Independence Day -- Myanmar

Martyrs' Day -- Democratic Republic of the Congo

National Spaghetti Day

Ogoni Day -- Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People of the Niger River

Pop Music Chart Day -- Billboard magazine published the first one today in 1936

St. Pharaildis' Day (Patron against childhood illness; of Bruay, France, difficult marriages, Ghent, Belgium, victims of abuse, and widows)

Trivia Day

World Braille Day

World Hypnotism Day


Anniversaries Today:

Utah becomes the 45th US state, 1896


Birthdays Today:

Michael Stipe, 1960
Matt Frewer, 1958
Grace Bumbry, 1937
Dyan Cannon, 1937
Floyd Patterson, 1935
Jesse White, 1917
Jane Wyman, 1914
Sterling Holloway, 1905
Charles "Tom Thumb" Stratton, 1838
Louis Braille, 1809
Jakob Grimm, 1785


Today in History:

Titus Labienus is defeated by Julius Caesar in the Battle of Ruspina, BC 46
Columbus leaves the "New World" on return from his first voyage, 1493
Spanish viceroy Alva banishes Zutphen City's only physician, Joost Sweiter, "because he is a Jew", 1570
Most of the Palace of Whitehall in London, the main residence of the English monarchs, is destroyed by fire, 1698
Andre Méchain discovers M80, the globular cluster in Scorpio, 1781
Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government, 1847
4 wheeled roller skates patented by James Plimpton of NY, 1863
The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad near Wall Street in New York City, 1865
Sofia is emancipated from Ottoman rule, 1878
The last known sighting of an eastern cougar, in Ontario, 1884
Dr W W Grant of Iowa, performs the first appendectomy (on Mary Gartside, 22), 1885
Thomas Stevens is the first man to bicycle around the world (SF-SF); his itinerary accounts "DISTANCE ACTUALLY WHEELED, ABOUT 13,500 MILES", 1887
The Scout Association is incorporated throughout the British Commonwealth by Royal Charter, 1912
The first elected Jewish governor, Moses Alexander, takes office in Idaho, 1915
Sputnik 1 reenters the atmosphere and burns up, 1958
Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon, 1959
Rose Heilbron becomes the first female judge to sit at the Old Bailey in London, 1972
Elizabeth Ann Seton becomes the first American-born saint, 1975
Spirit, a NASA Mars Rover, lands successfully on Mars at 04:35 UTC, 2004
The 110th United States Congress convenes, electing Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history, 2007
The Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building is officially opened, 2010