Weekend Trivia - Sunday

12 years ago

{{gwi:617833}}

Well, no one will ever accuse me of being early. Someone else is cooking the turkey today, and I am taking full advantage! Merry Christmas to All. Good Morning.

OK, IÃ¢ÂÂll try not to make you too sleepy, but:

There is a belief that heavy consumption of turkey meat (as for example in a Christmas feast) results in drowsiness, which has been attributed to high levels of tryptophan contained in turkey. However, while turkey does contain high levels of tryptophan, the amount is comparable to that contained in most other meats. Once in the CSF(that would be the cerebrospinal fluid, to most of us), tryptophan is converted into serotonin in the raphe nuclei by the normal enzymatic pathway. The resultant serotonin is further metabolised into melatonin by the pineal gland. Hence, this data suggest that "feast-induced drowsiness" - "and, in particular, the common post-Christmas dinner drowsiness" - "may be the result of a heavy meal rich in carbohydrates, which, via an indirect mechanism, increases the production of sleep-promoting melatonin in the brain.

Whew - " still with me?? OK, so itÃ¢ÂÂs not just the turkey. This all got researchers thinking about tryptophan, though. Yes, it makes you sleepy, naturally. Yes, they are working on a supplement that will be a natural sleep tonic. However, they are working with another Holiday-related food that contains about 1/3 more of the stuff, and is easily and cheaply produced.

ItÃ¢ÂÂs easy as pie, really. You will all get it!! Plus, IÃ¢ÂÂll be back with clues. Enjoy the day.

Nancy.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (11)

aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada
12 years ago
Merry Christmas everyone, I'll be waiting for clues on this one.

Annette
midnightsmum (Z4, ON)
Original Author
12 years ago
I did put a rather seedy one in there already. Maybe it's not enough??

Well, I've got a double batch of Mincemeat Squares in the oven (cheaters way to do mince tarts) and a batch of dinner rolls going in the bread maker. I'm going to do 2 batches, hopefully, but miscounted my eggs. I'm hoping my neighbour has one to spare, or only one Eggs Benny for me.

Nancy.
Related Discussions
Weekend Trivia - Sunday
Q
Comments (19)
Brilliant Bobbie - our Wordsmith!! Yes, it was Buddy Holly!! It was a pretty sad story, with which we are all aware!! The Phil Everly connection surprised me, just a little. Holly's funeral was held on February 7, 1959, at the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Lubbock. The service was officiated by Ben D. Johnson, who had presided at the Hollys' wedding just months earlier. The pallbearers were Jerry Allison, Joe B. Mauldin, Niki Sullivan, Bob Montgomery, Sonny Curtis and Phil Everly. Waylon Jennings was unable to attend due to his commitment to the still-touring Winter Dance Party. Holly's body was interred in the City of Lubbock Cemetery in the eastern part of the city. His headstone carries the correct spelling of his surname (Holley) and a carving of his Fender Stratocaster guitar. All pallbearers save Everly were or would be, Crickets. MarÃÂa Elena Holly did not attend the funeral, and has never visited the gravesite. She was pregnant at the time of the crash. She miscarried the day after learning of his death, reportedly due to Ã¢ÂÂpsychological traumaÃ¢ÂÂ. Because of this incident, authorities found it necessary, in the months following, to implement a policy against announcing victims' names until after families had first been informed. Seems like common sense, but I guess the 'need to know' superseded that! I hope you are all staying warm in the deep-freeze - we go from -2C at lunch today to -32C overnight. Yikes. Thanks for playing: everyone gets Stars!!! And a song to leave you with!! See you next week. Nancy. Rave on my friends~~ Here is a link that might be useful: Rave On
...See More
Weekend Trivia - Sunday
Q
Comments (29)
Helps that DH is a scrabble player and loves words as well as politics. Never know when he will throw a new word out at me. Then the fun begins of working them into a conversation. I laugh because those serious scrabble players are a weird bunch! They talk about words with a gleam in their eye--the same gleam I get when I talk to a serious gardener. Probably should have a few points less as I jumped on TM's wagon for some of the answers and his misses for narrowing my choices. Thanks for the fun, Nancy. Happy Thanksgiving!
...See More
Weekend Trivia - Sunday
Q
Comments (18)
Well, I sent you out on a bit of a wild goose chase. There really is no know answer. Mr. Safire put the question to America, and found no plausible answers - huh. The whole nine yards or full nine yards is a colloquial American phrase meaning "everything, the whole lot" or, when used as an adjective, "all the way," as in, "The Army came out and gave us the whole nine yards on how they use space systems." Its origin is unknown and has been described as "the most prominent etymological riddle of our time." The earliest known example of this phrase is from 1907 in southern Indiana. It is related to the expression "the whole six yards," used around the same time in Kentucky and South Carolina. Both phrases are variations on the whole ball of wax, first recorded in the 1880s. They are part of a family of expressions in which an odd-sounding item, such as enchilada, shooting match, or shebang, is substituted for "ball of wax." The choice of the number nine may be related to the expression "to the nines" (to perfection). The phrase was introduced to a national audience by Elaine Shepard in the Vietnam War novel The Doom Pussy (1967). Use of the phrase became widespread in the 1980s and 1990s. Much of the interest in the phrase's etymology can be attributed to New York Times language columnist William Safire, who wrote extensively on this question. The earliest known use of the phrase is from The Mitchell Commercial, a newspaper in the small town of Mitchell, Indiana, in their 2 May 1907 edition: "This afternoon at 2:30 will be called one of the baseball games that will be worth going a long way to see. The regular nine is going to play the business men as many innings as they can stand, but we can not promise the full nine yards." The phrase was used three more times in the Mitchell Commercial over the next seven years, in the forms "give him the whole nine yards" (i.e., tell someone a big story), "take the whole nine yards" (i.e., take everything), and "settled the whole nine yards" (i.e., resolved everything). In other uses from this time period, the phrase was given as "the whole six yards." In 1912, a local newspaper in Kentucky asked readers to, "Just wait boys until the fix gets to a fever heat and they will tell the whole six yards." The six-yard form of the phrase also appears in a 1921 headline in a local South Carolina paper. The phrase is not known to have been used in writing thereafter until a 1956 issue of Kentucky Happy Hunting Ground, where it appears in an article on fishing. After describing the contests and prizes, the author writes, "So that's the whole nine-yards." It appeared in an article on hunting the following year, this time unhyphenated. So, it's probably not a phrase we all grew up, yet it has become ubiquitous!! Amazing. It was a silly question, just to see what you might come up with - thanks for playing with me. For everyone: Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends!!! Annette, we are having leftover soup from our Thanksgiving - you? See you all next week! Nancy.
...See More
Weekend Trivia - Sunday
Q
Comments (25)
OK, Bobbie`s definitely got it - Cyn, are you on her coattails I guessing TM and Annette are not onboard Let me know if you are!! Well, the most requested song, according to ASCAP is "The Christmas Song" by Mel TormÃÂ© and Robert Wells. It was written in 1944. According to TormÃÂ©, the song was written during a blistering hot summer. In an effort to "stay cool by thinking cool", the most-performed (according to BMI) Christmas song was born. "I saw a spiral pad on his piano with four lines written in pencil", TormÃÂ© recalled. "They started, "Chestnuts roasting..., Jack Frost nipping..., Yuletide carols..., Folks dressed up like Eskimos.' Bob (Wells, co-writer) didn't think he was writing a song lyric. He said he thought if he could immerse himself in winter he could cool off. Forty minutes later that song was written. "I wrote all the music and some of the lyrics." Talented guy - the clue for him were `fog` and `velvet``, in case knowing who wrote it would help. The Nat King Cole Trio first recorded the song early in 1946. At Cole's behest , and over the objections of his label, Capitol Records, a second recording was made the same year utilizing a small string section, this version becoming a massive hit on both the pop and R&B charts. Torme did not record the song till 1952, but did several after that date. I cannot (sob) find a link to the Shari Lewis bit, which was hilarious (the memory of a child, perhaps), but Lamb Chop told the story of Professor Chestnut, who went exploring in deepest, darkest Africa. When the Shari asked the puppet what became of him, Lamb Chop burst into song - Chestnut`s roasting on an open fire!! lol. Sorry. So, for Bobbie and Cyn: I hope that the music helped to get you into the mood, if you weren`t there already. Thanks for playing, and see you next week! As to roasting them - the tree is European, and it is quite common over there to see street vendors offering them in paper sacks!! Yummm. I think they are prevalent where a European presence is common. Nancy. Here is a link that might be useful: The Christmas Song, with Strings!!
...See More
cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
12 years ago
Okay, I need to go back and read carefully, but bacon is cooking and John and Kelly just arrived, so will guess later. Wondering about "easy as pie" and if it could be pumpkin? Also thought of cranberries...

Merry merry all!
Ginny McLean_Petite_Garden
12 years ago
My first and only guess is pumpkin since it is the most popular pie at Christmas......or could it be pumpkin seeds from those pumpkins since you are giving away seedy clues?

Ginny
thinman
12 years ago
I thought of pumpkin first too. In fact, I'm still thinking of pumpkin, and that will be my answer unless a better one occurs to me (or gets mentioned by someone else so I can jump on.)

TM
mnwsgal
12 years ago
Pumpkin is my thought as well, standard holiday pie though we are having coconut cream pie today.
aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada
12 years ago
Just to be different I'll go with pumpkin seeds :).

Annette
cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
12 years ago
Ok, I wil go with my first thought of pumpkin, too. No reason except it is the standard holiday pie I think of as well-although that coconut cream sounds yummy!

We always had plum pudding with hard sauce for dessert on Christmas day. I need to do that myself one year.

Cynthia
mnwsgal
12 years ago
From the seedy comment I will change my answer to pumpkin seeds.
midnightsmum (Z4, ON)
Original Author
12 years ago
Well, there you go - stars for everyone. Yes.

Pretty great stuff, this. Dietary deficiency of tryptophan may lead to low levels of serotonin. Low serotonin levels are associated with depression, anxiety, irritability, impatience, impulsiveness, inability to concentrate, weight gain, overeating, carbohydrate cravings, poor dream recall, and insomnia. High dietary intake of tryptophan from food sources is not known to cause any symptoms of toxicity. In addition, tryptophan has been given therapeutically, as a prescription medicine or dietary supplement, in doses exceeding five grams per day with no report of adverse effects.

What can high-tryptophan foods do for you?
Help regulate your appetite
Help you sleep better
Elevate your mood

Tryptophan occurs naturally in nearly all foods that contain protein, but in small amounts compared to the other essential amino acids. The following foods contain tryptophan: red meat, dairy products, nuts, seeds, legumes, soybeans and soy products, tuna, shellfish, and turkey. Soyabeans have the highest amounts, but nobody talks about a tofurkey coma!!

So there you go, more that you ever wanted to know about turkey coma, I'm sure.

World's Healthiest Foods ranked as quality sources of:
tryptophan
Food Serving Size Cals Amount(g) DV(%) Nutrient Rating
Shrimp 113.40g 112.3 0.33 103.1 16.5 excellent
Turkey 4 oz-wt 153.1 0.38 118.8 14.0 excellent
Chicken 4 oz-wt 187.1 0.41 128.1 12.3 excellent
Halibut 4 oz-wt 158.8 0.34 106.2 12.0 excellent
Salmon 113.40g 157.6 0.30 93.8 10.7 excellent
Calf liver 4 oz-wt 217.7 0.40 125.0 10.3 excellent
Tofu 4 oz-wt 86.2 0.14 43.8 9.1 excellent
Lamb 4 oz-wt 229.1 0.35 109.4 8.6 excellent

Hope you had the best Christmas ever. Thanks for playing!!

Nancy.
cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
12 years ago
That was a great question Nancy! I also love the way you give us such marvelous stars. Guess I had better download some to my Picasa account, so I can rise to your level!

Hope your Christmas was absolutley grand as well.

Cynthia

Weekend Trivia - Sunday

Comments (11)

aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada

midnightsmum (Z4, ON)
Original Author

Related Discussions

cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)

Ginny McLean_Petite_Garden

thinman

mnwsgal

aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada

cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)

mnwsgal

midnightsmum (Z4, ON)
Original Author

cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Weekend Trivia - Sunday

Comments (11)

midnightsmum (Z4, ON)Original Author

Related Discussions

midnightsmum (Z4, ON)Original Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

midnightsmum (Z4, ON)
Original Author

midnightsmum (Z4, ON)
Original Author