Soda Shoppe September 1 , 2025

patricia19 · Reply #60 - Re: Soda Shoppe September 1 , 2025

Question, who came up with the first knock, knock joke?

You might be surprised to discover it was Shakespeare.

"William Shakespeare's impact in your life is much bigger than just some required reading in your high school English class. It's believed that almost 2,000 words appeared for the first time in his plays and poetry — including many that are regulars in our everyday modern vocabulary, such as "downstairs," "eyeball," and "bedroom." He also built on existing language by changing words that were previously used as nouns into verbs, and by adding prefixes and suffixes to create new variations."

Here's a few of the better known ones,

Lie low

Green-eyed monster

Heart of gold

Fair play

Break the ice

Wild goose chase

It's all Greek to me

Forever and a day

As good luck would have it

And Love is blind, first coined by Chaucer in 1405, but Shakespeare popularized this phase in the Merchant of Venice
in 1605.

And, that joke, Knock-knock? "Congrats, Shakespeare! You are the father of the knock-knock joke. While used to cheesy effect today, this line, when uttered multiple times by the Porter in Macbeth, demonstrates a deft sense of cleverness.

"https://shakespeare.mit.edu/macbeth/macbeth.2.3.html#:~:text=Knock%2C%0Aknock%2C%20knock!%20Who%27s%20there%2C%20i%27%20the%20name%20of

patricia19 · Reply #61 - Re: Soda Shoppe September 1 , 2025

This is going to hurt...A taste for the hedonist.

It's always the way on a gorgeous summer's day, isn't it? You get out the garden furniture, pour a nice cold beverage, put up your feet—and then you hear the unwanted whine of a mosquito ready to bite you into itchy misery...

When it comes to being a mosquito meal, however, some people seem more susceptible than others. Now, researchers from the Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands have discovered one surprising culprit: drinking beer.

The team—led by biophysicist Felix Hol—came to this conclusion after bringing thousands of female Anopheles mosquitoes to the Lowlands music festival in 2023.

Fortunately, the researchers didn't let the biting bugs loose on the attendees—but instead invited the participants to take part in a special trial conducted in a unique pop-up lab built from connected shipping containers.

Approximately 500 festival-goers volunteered for the experiment. First, they filled out a questionnaire about their diet, hygiene and behavior at the event.

Next, to test their attractiveness to the mosquitoes, each volunteer placed their arm inside a specially designed cage containing the insects.

Tiny holes allowed the mosquitoes to smell the person's arm—but prevented them from actually biting.

A video camera recorded how many mosquitoes landed on the arm compared to a sugar feeder.

The team found that subjects who drank beer were 1.35 times more attractive to mosquitoes than those who abstained.

The study also found that the insects were more likely to target people who had been intimate with a partner the previous night.

In contrast, recent showering and using sunscreen were found to make people less attractive to mosquitoes.

https://www.newsweek.com/mosquitos-attraction-beer-drink-bites-2127475

Amy · Reply #62 - Re: Soda Shoppe September 1 , 2025

Patricia, you may have those mosquitoes! We also have blackflies here , you only know the blackfly has bit you is when the blood trickles down your face....nasty litte buggers!

patricia19 · Reply #63 - Re: Soda Shoppe September 1 , 2025

Amy, Alaska, not so jokingly calls mosquitoes, its state bird. And you can buy tiny leg hold mosquito traps in most of the gift shops. Unfortunately, with so many forests, ponds, lakes and rivers, they've set up shop and moved in permanently.

There is a small bird, don't know its proper name; that is black on top, white tail and white underside. It's said to eat its body weight in mosquitoes twice over each day. The bird sanctuary staff put up and maintain, as do many parks and recreational spots, bird houses for them. A worse menace, to my way of thinking, are tiny black biting noseeums.

We don't have the large biting flies, but I've run into them in my travels through the west, horrible creatures!

I found the article interesting because of what attracted the mosquitoes to people.

As I did, seeing Shakespeare still relevant.

Amy · Reply #64 - Re: Soda Shoppe September 1 , 2025

Good morning.

Warmer this morning temp is 51° not sure if we shall see rain or not today.
Company coming this morning, will be nice to see them as it has been a while.
Making this a quickie..
Enjoy your day and stay safe.

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Soda Shoppe September 1 , 2025

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