I Suffer From Sphenopalatine Ganglioneuralgia

Sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia is a condition that billions of people worldwide suffer from. Sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia, also known as icebergers syndrome, brain freeze or ice-cream headache, is a painful condition. But fear not. It is not fatal and is only temporary. I am sure that you have at some point in your life gotten brain freeze, and I am sure that you already know that it comes from eating or drinking something cold too quickly. But what exactly is taking place when this horrible condition strikes? Well today we clear up that mystery.

The pain is caused by the rapid cooling of the roof of the mouth, which is close to the sphenopalatine nerve, a section of an extensive bundle of nerves running from the face up into the brain.When this nerve gets cold, it fires off a danger signal that the entire head is about to become chilled and warns the vascular system to start pumping more blood to the brain to keep it warm. Vessels open up and the sudden in-rush of warm blood causes a painful sensation, which lasts anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. By that time the body has rewarmed the sphenopalantine nerve and the blood flow to the brain reduces to normal levels, stopping the pain.The source of the pain has been described as being similar to that resulting from sticking hands chilled in winter into a bucket of warm water. The sudden increase in blood flow and associated expansion causes pain. Brain freezes are called “referred pain” because the pain occurs in a location (the brain) that’s different than the location of the stimulus (the roof of the mouth.)

One third of all people are statistically susceptible to brain freezes. They are more often caused by eating ice cream than drinking an iced beverage because ice cream is colder than ice. Also, they are much more common when the weather is warm than when it’s cold, suggesting that it’s the rate or amount of temperature change that’s important.

The quickest way to relieve a brain freeze it to take a drink of warm water and hold it against the roof of your mouth. Since they are over so quickly anyway and it’s unlikely that you’re going to be holding a cup of hot water in one hand at the same time that you are holding an ice cream cone in the other, the next best thing to do is press your tongue against the roof of your mouth to rewarm the nerve.

Prevention is simple: Give up ice-cream . . . OR eat and drink very cold foods slowly.

Reference:

Wikipedia – Brain Freeze

AnswerBag.com – What Causes Brain Freeze?

10 Things you probably didn’t know about Thanksgiving.

Okay, so you probably already know that today is Thanksgiving day. You are probably also about to or have already stuffed yourself with turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce and all the other fixings that go along with it. You may have even watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade or have the TV tuned to your favorite football game. We can probably all agree that these are all things that are associated with Thanksgiving. You probably didn’t know these ten things that are all about Thanksgiving.

1. The 1st Thanksgiving was not a feast – The first Thanksgiving was a time when Native Americans helped Pilgrims by bringing them food and helping them build off the land. The truth of the matter is that it was only dubbed Thanksgiving because the Pilgrims that survived the long journey to America were thankful to be alive. The entire event lasted three days.
2. Thanksgiving wasn’t a National Holiday until 1863 – Sarah Josepha Hale (no relation to this author), a magazine editor, started a campaign to make Thanksgiving a National Holiday in 1827. It took her 36 years, but in 1863 Thanksgiving was recognized as a day for national Thanksgiving and prayer by Abraham Lincoln.
3. George H.W. Bush was the first President to “officially” pardon the White House Turkey – Each year since 1947, the National Turkey Federation and the Poultry and Egg National Board have given a turkey to the President of the United States at a White House ceremony. Since then, presidents have been more likely to eat the turkey rather than give it a reprieve. A notable exception occurred in 1963, when President Kennedy, referring to the turkey given to him, said, “Let’s just keep him.” It wasn’t until the first Thanksgiving of President George H.W. Bush, in 1989, that a turkey was officially pardoned for the first time.
4. 65% of the 280 million U.S. Thanksgiving turkeys come from only 6 states – 44.5 million is the number of turkeys Minnesota raised in 2005. The Gopher State is tops in turkey production. It is followed by North Carolina (36.0 million), Arkansas (29.0 million), Virginia (21.0 million), Missouri (20.5 million) and California (15.1 million). These states account for 65% of the United States Thanksgiving turkeys.
5. Jingle Bells was originally written as a Thanksgiving song – The author and composer of Jingle Bells was a minister called James Pierpoint who composed the song in 1857 for children celebrating his Boston Sunday School Thanksgiving. The song was so popular that it was repeated at Christmas, and indeed Jingle Bells has been reprised ever since. The essence of a traditional Christmas is captured in the lyrics of Jingle Bells and the sound effects using the bells have become synonymous with the arrival of Father Christmas or Santa Claus to the delight of children of all ages.
6. More than 40 million green bean casseroles are served on Thanksgiving – Believe it or not, according to research by the Food Network green bean casserole is the number one side dish on thanksgiving after dressing and cranberry sauce.
7. Canada also celebrates Thanksgiving – Although, Thanksgiving is widely considered an American holiday, it is also celebrated on the second Monday in October in Canada.Canadians often refer to the American Thanksgiving holiday as “Yanksgiving” so as not to confuse it with the Canadian holiday.
8. In 1939 Thanksgiving was moved to November 23rd to help the economy and extend the Christmas shopping season – In 1939, President Roosevelt proclaimed that Thanksgiving would take place on November 23rd, not November 30th, as a way to spur economic growth that year and extend the Christmas shopping season. This proclamation only applied officially to the District of Columbia, but was  observed by the rest of the country as well amid much debate.
9. The tradition of pro football being played on Thanksgiving started in 1920 – It was recommended in 1920 by President Woodrow Wilson that professional football be played on Thanksgiving day to give people something to do after they ate a big meal. The games that year were:
   AKRON PROS 7, Canton Bulldogs 0
   Decatur Staleys 6, CHICAGO TIGERS 0
   ELYRIA (OH) ATHLETICS 0, Columbus Panhandles 0
   DAYTON TRIANGLES 28, Detroit Heralds 0
   CHICAGO BOOSTERS 27, Hammond Pros 0
   All-Tonawanda (NY) 14, ROCHESTER JEFFERSONS 3
10. Macy’s was not the first department store to hold a Thanksgiving parade – The parade is billed as the oldest Thanksgiving Day parade in the country, having started in 1920. Like other parades of its type, it features balloons, floats, high school marching bands, and celebrities. When the parade first started out it was called the Gimbels Thanksgiving Day Parade. It was called this because Ellis Gimbel, one of the founders of Gimbels Department Stores, wanted his toyland to be the destination of holiday shoppers everywhere. He dressed up over 50 store employees and sent them out on their first Thanksgiving day parade. Another big part of the parade was seeing Santa Claus arrive. Gimbels created the Thanksgiving Day Parade here in America and there example has caused others to continue in there tradition. This tradition still occurs today. It is now called the 6abc IKEA Thanksgiving Day Parade.

So, that’s that. hopefully you now know more about Thanksgiving than you did before you read this. Not that you wanted to know, but now you do.

Newspaper Headline Heads Article

Once in a while I stumble across something that simply makes me guffaw. It is amazing sometimes how negligent some newspapers can been when they write their headlines. Here are some actual headlines published in some papers across America. I have included my favorites as well as the links to many more.

• Blind Woman Gets New Kidney from Dad She Hasn’t Seen in Years
• If Strike Isn’t Settled Quickly, It May Last A While
• Half of U.S. High Schools Require Some Study for Graduation
• Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says
• Iraqi Head Seeks Arms
• Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant
• Patient At Death’s Door–Doctors Pull Him Through

If you enjoyed these, head on over to Witty Quotes Haven for more.

Witty Quotes Haven– wittyquoteshaven.com

Fool me once … we can’t get fooled again.

I think it is safe to say that you can’t be an idiot and become President of the United States. You can however play a pretty convincing idiot on TV. Our President has said some pretty stupid things over his years in the White House. These quotes are often referred to as ‘Bushisms’.

The term ‘Bushism’ was coined by Jacob Weisberg in 1992 after George H.W. Bush made the following speech: “Remember Lincoln, going to his knees in times of trial and the Civil War and all that stuff. You can’t be. And we are blessed. So don’t feel sorry for — don’t cry for me, Argentina. We’ve got problems out there and I am blessed by good health, strong health. Jeez, you get the flu, and they make it into a federal case. Anyway, that goes with the territory.” That term has been passed down to his son.

One of my favorite George W. Bushisms is one that was made during a speach about the need for the United Nations to confront Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein, Bush told an audience at a school in Nashville, Tennessee:

“We’re trying to figure out how best to make the world a peaceful place.

There’s an old saying in Tennessee – I know it’s in Texas, it’s probably in Tennessee – that says, fool me once, shame on … shame on you. It fool me. We can’t get fooled again.”

The evidence suggests Mr Bush was trying to say: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” After that he decided to keep it simple. The United Nations, he insisted, “must not be fooled”.

Want to read more? Check out these Bushisms.

Wisdom Quotes – wisdomquotes.com

Recent Bushisms– politicalhumor.about.com

 

 

Is the plural for hippopotamus hippopotami?

I’m not really sure what the true plural of hippopotamus is. Honestly, I don’t really care. I do however find it very interesting to know that a group of hippopotamuses (hippopotami?) is called a bloat. Also interesting to know is that a group of giraffes is called a tower and a group of porcupines is a prickle. Want to know more? Check out this link from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Northern Wildlife Research Center, where they list common animal congregations and their names.  So the next time you are cornered by a barrel of monkeys (yes, that’s what they’re called), you can at least know what to call them.

Animal Congregations – USGS.gov

 

Foot Gloves? Finger Bracelets? Torso Pants?

Ok, let’s think about this one. If you put pants on your torso, then they would be . . . ridiculous! That is of course unless you were really talking about a t-shirt. These are some of the funniest and most clever t-shirts that I have ever laid eyes upon. Now I love a good t-shirt like the the rest of you, but I have never seen a site with so many “gotta haves” as this one.

So I am sure that you are thinking “this guy must own the site or get a kickback or something”. Absolutely not. I just thought you might find it fun.

Torso Pants – torsopants.com