Sweating it out!

M walked in with a bowl of mulligatawny soup from the neighbor.

"It is derived from a Tamil word," I began.  No flu will shut this professor up!

"Milagu rasam is the origin.  Milagu is black pepper." 

I was now on a high temperature rant, and no medicine could stop me at that point.

"In fact, this flu condition is a good time for me to have milagu rasam." 

Was I now delirious about milagu rasam?

"There is no dal, no vegetables, no nothing.  It is just watery.  milagu thanni, which literally means pepper water."

By now, I wasn't even looking to see if the friend was paying attention.  Heck, I didn't even know if M was even around!

"Some British guy heard that milagu thanni and his tongue pronounced that as mulligatawny."  I pronounced "mulligatawny" with a gruff, baritone, British impression and promptly broke into a coughing fit.

M re-appeared.

"Hot milagu rasam promotes sweating, which the old culture thought was a way to control the fever and cool down the high temperature."

Thankfully, those flu days are behind me. I hope.

I now read that there is a word that is applicable to both black pepper and me: Diaphoretic.  Google gives two meanings:

(chiefly of a drug) inducing perspiration
(of a person) sweating heavily.

As in, say:

Diaphoretics like pepper and ginger warm the person from inside and make them perspire.
No wonder sriram is diaphoretic!

Can somebody please prescribe me an anti-diaphoretic!

Proudly Made in the USA. Ha!

I bought a kitchen gadget, a pepper mill, as a gift item.  Amazon delivered it on schedule and the package was waiting for me on the front porch.

Yes, I live in a neighborhood where homes have front porches. Like in the old days. When neighbors stood around or sat on their porches and actually talked with neighbors.

So, where was I?  Oh, yeah, on the porch.

I brought the package in, and made sure that it looked the same in the real world as it did on the computer monitor.  Which is when I noticed the American flag sticker on the package.

I was pleasantly surprised that the gadget was made here in the US, when I thought such small things (as is the case with most big things too) are typically made in China.

Curiosity being my middle name (no, that is not my legal middle name; I don't have a middle name) I looked at it again.

Do you see what I saw?

Not made in the USA, but "PROUDLY FILLED IN THE USA".

That is correct; we are immensely proud to have developed the capability to know how to fill in the peppercorn.  Can't you hear Springsteen singing, "Filled in the USA!"

What a cheap gimmick to try to fool the consumer who might be a fan of "buy American."  Pathetic.

So, where was it manufactured?

Of course, right?

But, did you notice how the label makes it clear that pepper is not from China?

I wonder which executive came up with this brilliant idea!  Yet another instance when we need to be reminded about the market economy--caveat emptor!

BTW, I wonder where the pepper came from.  Could not have been proudly grown in the USA.  Come to think of it, shouldn't they have made clear where the pepper is from?  "Proudly imported from Kochi, India" maybe!

Source

Image, and story, of the day

Got to this image thanks to this article in The Guardian on why humans eat chilies. (ht)

I don't want to be anywhere near this bottle, which has such a potent hot sauce that the liquid is portioned out as drops with the eye-drop-lid!

So, why do humans eat such red hot chili peppers anyway?

Perhaps we seek out the painful experience of snacking on chillies while consciously maintaining awareness that there is no real danger to ourselves. After all, people seem to enjoy – and actively seek out – many other sensations that are otherwise undesirable but are ostensibly safe: the sensation of falling provided by rollercoasters or skydiving, the feelings of fear and anxiety while watching horror movies, the physical pain experienced upon jumping into icy water, or even the feelings of sadness that come while watching a tear-jerker.