TRIVIA TODAY - Monday, December 15, 2014

Greetings Infomaniacs,

Have you ever wondered about the history of the pretzel, or why it has that twisted shape? Did you know that the pretzel came about by accident? Learn all about this tasty snack in today's trivia issue!

Enjoy!
Melissa

Questions? Comments? Email Melissa


P.S. Have you done your last minute Christmas shopping yet? Monday morning (10 a.m.) is your last chance to order and still use Standard US Postal shipping to get your order before Christmas. After that we need to use FedEx in order to guarantee it. We have a ton of great products to help you finish off your shopping list. Go to www.PulseTV.com to check out some of our best sellers!


WHO SAID IT?
QUOTE: "I don't think necessity is the mother of invention - invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble."

HINT: (1890-1976), was an English crime novelist, short story writer, and playwright.


RANDOM TIDBITS
In A.D. 610, while baking bread, an Italian monk decided to create a treat to motivate his distracted catechism students. He rolled out ropes of dough, twisted them to resemble hands crossed on the chest in prayer, and baked them. The monk named his snacks pretiola, Latin for "little reward." Parents who tried them referred to them as brachiola, or "little arms." When pretiola arrived in Germany, they were called bretzels.

The phrase "tying the knot" came from the Swiss, who still incorporate the lucky pretzel in wedding ceremonies. Newlyweds traditionally make a wish and break the pretzel, in the same way people in other cultures break a wishbone or a glass.

Hard pretzels were "invented" in the late 1600s, when a napping apprentice in a Pennsylvania bakery accidentally overbaked his pretzels. His job was spared when the master baker took a bite out of one and loved it.

Until the 1930s, pretzels were handmade, and the average worker could twist 40 a minute. In 1935, the Reading Pretzel Machinery Company introduced the first automated pretzel machine, which enabled large bakeries to make 245 pretzels per minute, or five tons in a day.

Julius Sturgis opened the first commercial pretzel bakery in Lititz, Pennsylvania, in 1861. He received his original pretzel recipe as a thank you from a down-on-his-luck job seeker after Sturgis gave the man dinner.

Pretzel bakers may have been the first to advertise "We deliver!" Medieval street vendors carried pretzels on a stick and sold them to the locals.


*** Weekly Mind-Scrambler ***
My residence is above a star and yet I don't burn
I have eleven friends who do not turn
Never once and never repeatedly,
The only way to visit is in a sequence possibly
If my initials I tell you are PQRS
Can you identify me in this whole mess?

Submit your answer by clicking: HERE

Answer will be posted in Friday's Trivia Today. Good Luck!

If your name appears in Friday's newsletter, EMAIL MICHELE your complete name and address to be shipped your prize. Be sure to put "Winner" in the subject line.


WHO SAID IT?
QUOTE: "I don't think necessity is the mother of invention - invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble.

ANSWER: Agatha Christie.

***
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