Category:
Food
The
German Transport Information Service warns about the possibility of pistachios self-combusting:
Fat decomposition in pistachio nuts leads to the risk of self-heating and, ultimately, to a cargo fire.
Fat decomposition may proceed as follows:
by hydrolytic/enzymatic fat cleavage or
by oxidative fat cleavage
Hydrolytic/enzymatic fat cleavage:
If the critical water content of the pistachio nuts is exceeded, this promotes hydrolytic/enzymatic fat cleavage. Fat-cleaving enzymes are activated by the elevated water content. The additional action of light and heat may accelerate this process. Free fatty acids sometimes have an unpleasant odor and taste. In the event of extended storage or improper cargo care, these cause the cargo to become rancid.
The free fatty acids formed are consumed by respiration processes in the pistachio nuts to form carbon dioxide and water, a process which is associated with considerable evolution of heat.
Self-heating of pistachio nuts is an extremely vigorous process, as the consumption of fatty acids by respiration processes is associated with a considerably greater evolution of heat than is the case with the respiration equation for carbohydrates. Here too, as with cereals, the spoilage process proceeds in a type of chain reaction, because heat and water are formed by the fatty acids consumed by respiration, which in turn contribute to an intensification of the process.
This shouldn't be a problem for any pistachios you've got at home, unless you're storing A LOT of them.
via
Dave Barry
What would futuristic canned foods look like? And at what point in the future will we get this stuff?
Putting those questions aside, what I find really odd about the clipping below is that it gives the Social Security Number of Miss Futuristic Canned Foods.
At first I thought the number must be a joke (though I didn't understand the joke), but according to the Social Security Death Index that number belonged to a woman named Janet Lee, who was born in 1935 and died in 2008. The dates are about right. Jan would be short for Janet. And Lee would be her married name. So that must really have been the SSN of Miss Futuristic Canned Foods.
The numbers indicate that the card was issued to her in Indiana sometime between 1936 and 1950.
![](https://www.weirduniverse.net/images/2023/1958canned01.jpg)
Charlotte News - Mar 5, 1957
In 1969, everything had to relate to drugs.
Source.
Back in the 1930s, sociologist Gladys Sellew decided to find out if it was possible to survive spending only 15 cents a day on food. I think, in today's money, that would be about $3/day.
She used herself as a test subject and, five years later, reported that not only was it possible, but she actually only spent an average of 13 cents a day on food.
She said she was going to remain on her frugal diet for the rest of her life.
![](https://www.weirduniverse.net/images/2023/13cents01.jpg)
Austin American Statesman - June 3, 1942
The headline below claimed that she gained weight on her diet, but in the picture above it sure doesn't look like she had any extra weight on her.
![](https://www.weirduniverse.net/images/2023/13cents02.jpg)
Hartford Courant - Feb 24, 1941
A typical day's meal plan:
![](https://www.weirduniverse.net/images/2023/13cents03.jpg)
Austin American Statesman - June 3, 1942
By way of comparison, here's a more recent version of an experiment in frugality:
"Spending $5 a day on food. Is it possible?"
Requesting "all the ginger-bread she could eat" in exchange for her body after death initially struck me as a bizarre detail. But the more I think about it, the more reasonable it seems given that
condemned prisoners often request cookies, candy, junk food, etc. as their last meal.
![](https://www.weirduniverse.net/images/2023/1890ginger.jpg)
Whiting Weekly News - Jan 25, 1890
Sep 1958: The National Live Stock and Meat Board's response to the launch of Sputnik was the creation of "Meat-Nik," aka "intercontinental bologna missile."
![](https://www.weirduniverse.net/images/2023/1958meatnik01.jpg)
The National Provisioner - Sep 6, 1958
![](https://www.weirduniverse.net/images/2023/1958meatnik02.jpg)
The National Provisioner - Sep 20, 1958
As far as I can tell, the frozen food industry started choosing a "Miss Frozen Foods" in 1956. Sometimes the winner was called Miss Frozen Food Month (or Week). The last Miss Frozen Foods that I can find was named in 1961.
![](https://www.weirduniverse.net/images/2023/missfrozen02.jpg)
Dillon Daily Tribune - Feb 7, 1956
![](https://www.weirduniverse.net/images/2023/missfrozen01.jpg)
Miss Frozen Foods of 1958 (Nancy Moss). image source: USC Libraries
![](https://www.weirduniverse.net/images/2023/missfrozen03.jpg)
Los Angeles Evening Citizen News - Mar 19, 1959
![](https://www.weirduniverse.net/images/2023/missfrozen04.jpg)
Tampa Tribune - Nov 5, 1961
"These youngsters have the stamina it takes. They're 'propelled' by
Meat power from Swift!"
![](https://www.weirduniverse.net/images/2023/1962meat01.jpg)
Life - July 13, 1962