An observant writer's take on relationships, health, living in Chicago, unusual experiences, the news, retirement, books, hobbies, volunteering, smart shopping, and anything else that's on my mind
I was surprised about feeling wiped out from a mere cold. At least that’s what I thought a runny nose, a cough, and a slight fever amounted to. Sleeping nine to ten hours a night wasn’t enough; in the afternoons I’d doze off on the couch while watching TV.
This is another indication of age-related decline, I grumbled. Our immune systems weaken. We get sicker than in our younger days.
My dad told us his maternal grandparents were German. They said so themselves when US Census takers came around.
John and Barbara Fritz were actually Luxembourger.
Identifying as German was typical of 19th-century immigrants from their homeland. I read why at the Luxembourg American Cultural Society’s Roots and Leaves Museum in Belgium, Wisconsin, about 40 minutes north of Milwaukee.
“Tempest in a teapot” . . . “In hot water” . . . “Stirred the pot” . . . “Getting salty over tea”
Headline writers had a field day with the British response to Steeped: The Chemistry of Tea, published January 24. Author Michelle Francl, a professor of chemistry at Bryn Mawr College, wrote that a pinch of salt improves the taste of tea. Francl looked into that tip from an eighth-century Chinese manuscript and found that salt blocks tongue receptors for bitterness.