Old School Thursday: Culture-Rich Edition

Happy December, everybody! Not only is today National Pie Day (wasn’t that last week?) and “Eat a Red Apple Day” (keeps the doctor away), it’s also St. Eligius Day and he is a patron of agricultural workers and knife makers. Certainly a good friend for any foodie to have.


In other, totally random, food news today, on December 1, 1885, Dr. Pepper was sold for the very first time. Of course, the company’s real triumph came in 1962, when it introduced its first diet product. Diet Dr. Pepper…it really does taste just like the regular!

Today in 1936, the first patent was issued for a commercial scale hydroponic system for plant culture, making inventors Ernest Walfrid Brundin and Frank F. Lyon heroes to dry land farmers and weed smokers everywhere.

And, finally, today is Eric Bloom’s birthday (1944) – he’s best known as the lead singer for Blue Oyster Cult, which of course has nothing to do with regular oysters, but at least it’s an “R” month.

So to all of that, we say more pie, more Peppers, more hydroponics and, of course, “More Cowbell.”