Yesterday was the anniversary of Prohibition in the US (1920) and today we celebrate Benjamin Franklin’s Birthday (1706). Purportedly, Franklin said, “Beer is proof that God loves us.”

In south Louisiana, the crawfish season is gearing up and I’ve seen signs along the highway and at area seafood shops hawking boiled crawfish. I can hardly wait for my first taste.
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In and around the prairie towns of Mamou, Eunice and Church Point, northwest of Lafayette, the local folks participate in the courir du Mardi Gras, the running of Mardi Gras.
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Did you know that the first celebration of Mardi Gras in Louisiana dates back to 1699, when a group of French explorers made camp in a small and swampy bayou near the mouth of the Mississippi River? Despite their fatigue and loneliness for their homeland, they noted the date, March 3, and toasting France’s King, named the site Point du Mardi Gras.
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Galatoire’s Restaurant is 100 years old this year. Commander’s Palace opened in 1880. Emeril’s Delmonico, which Emeril Lagasse re-opened in 1997, had been in business since 1895. Antoine’s opened in 1844 and Arnaud’s in 1918.

It is said that the blender was invented in early January (the 3rd or the 4th), 1922 by Stephen Poplawski. He was the first to put a spinning blade at the bottom of a container and used his appliance to make soda fountain drinks. In 1935, Fred Osius (one of the founders of Hamilton Beach Company) improved on Poplawski’s idea and came up with the famous Waring Blender.

Today is National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day. In honor of the cherry, I give you the following cherry fun facts:

Cherries are stone fruits (also called drupes) related to peaches and plums;

Cherry pits have been found in several Stone Age caves in Europe;

The Romans carried cherries throughout Europe and England along the routes of conquest.

Famed foodie Lucullus is said to have committed suicide when he realized he was running out of cherries;

Broadway in New York shifts west at East 10th Street because a cherry tree once stood there;

At one time it was against the law to serve ice cream on cherry pie in Kansas.

The Pit Spit Champion for 2004 was Brian Krause of Dimondale, Michigan, with a pit spit of 88 feet 2 inches.

The drinking straw was patented on January 2, 1888.

In 1853, Native American Chef George Crum invented potato chips at Moon’s Lake House in Saratoga Springs, New York. Legend has it that one particularly fussy customer kept sending his French fries back to the kitchen, complaining they were too thick. Chef Crum tried slicing the potatoes paper-thin, fried them up and to his surprise, the customer loved them. The successful “Saratoga Chips,” later called potato chips, were born.

Yesterday was the birthday of Jean Etienne Bore, founder of the sugar industry in Louisiana.