Trivia Dominoes II — Play Off the Last Bit of Trivia — continued! (Part 1)

As of 2019, the top five countries that export coffee are:

  1. Brazil
  2. Vietnam
  3. Colombia
  4. Indonesia
  5. Ethiopia

Some legendary accounts claim that coffee was first brewed and consumed in Ethiopia as early as the 9th century, but the earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking appears in the 15th-century writings of Ahmed al-Ghaffar in Yemen. Coffee first appeared in Italy around 1600, and quickly spread to the rest of Europe and then to the Americas.

There are two primary species of plant which are cultivated to produce coffee: Coffea arabica (commonly known as “arabica”) and Coffea canephora (commonly known as “robusta”). Coffee made from robusta beans tends to be more bitter, less acidic, and higher in caffeine than arabica-based coffee, and has an earthier/woodier flavor.

Unlike most Royal Navy officers of their time, Capt. John “Lucky Jack” Aubrey and his particular friend and ship’s surgeon Dr. Stephen Maturin preferred coffee to tea, in the Napoleonic naval warfare novels of British author Patrick O’Brian, beginning with the 1969 book Master and Commander.

According to Pew Research, South Korea and the Philippines — both with close ties to the U.S. — are among the few Asian nations to prefer coffee over tea.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur served in both South Korea and Philippines over the course of his long military career. When he and President Harry S. Truman differed sharply over U.S. military policy during the Korean War, Truman fired him, causing a major political controversy. Most historians now believe that Truman acted appropriately, given MacArthur’s insubordination and failure to follow orders.

Douglas MacArthur received a Medal of Honor although not for valor as required by law but rather for his leadership during the Philippine defense in WWII.

A previous discussion of that: Gen. Douglas MacArthur As Recipient of the Medal of Honor: Worthy or Not?

In play:

Most of the action in the Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle 1974 first-contact sf novel The Mote in God’s Eye takes place aboard His Imperial Majesty’s Battlecruiser MacArthur, commanded by Capt. Roderick Lord Blaine.

"Ma, Ma, where’s my pa?
Gone to the white house, ha, ha, ha.:

This was a Republican chant in the 1884 presidential, referring to the fact that Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland admitted to fathering an out-of-wedlock child. The Democrats countered with

“Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine
The continental liar from the state of Maine
Burn this letter!”

referring to a scandal where Blaine wrote that on an incriminating letter.

The state of Maine was originally a province of Massachusetts. Maine was admitted to the Union in 1820 as the 23rd state. This admission was agreed to by Southern senators in exchange for the entrance of Missouri as a slave state. Missouri was admitted to the Union in 1821 as the 24th state.

Maine is the most sparsely populated state east of the Mississippi River.

Sen. Edmund Muskie, Democrat of Maine, was Hubert Humphrey’s running mate in 1968 and ran for President himself in 1972, but withdrew from the race after what turned out to be Nixon White House dirty tricks. He later served briefly as President Jimmy Carter’s Secretary of State.

The muskellunge, often referred to as a “muskie,” is a species of large predatory freshwater fish, native to North America. It is a popular target of game fisherman in the northern U.S. and Canada, as it is considered to be a challenging fish to successfully catch.

The muskellunge fish rarely attacks humans, but attacks have happened. Muskies are known as “the Barracuda of freshwater” because of how vicious they can get when they’re killing their prey. They have been known to attack or bite humans, however, these attacks are very rare and they’re not done for the purpose of feeding on humans. Muskies will only attack if they feel threatened or if they mistook the human body for something to eat.

And this, copied from wiki —

Muskellunge are found in lakes and large rivers from northern Michigan, northern Wisconsin, and northern Minnesota through the Great Lakes region, Chautauqua Lake in western New York, north into Canada, throughout most of the St Lawrence River drainage, and northward throughout the upper Mississippi valley, although the species also extends as far south as Chattanooga in the Tennessee River valley. Several North Georgia reservoirs also have healthy stocked populations of muskie.

Many people are carrying over the idea from trichinosis days that pork must be well done; but now it is considered acceptable, or even preferred, to cook pork to only 145 degrees F making it medium-rare.

Pork is the most-consumed meat in the world, making up 36% of human-consume meat from animals. The domestication of pigs for food dates back to perhaps 7000 BCE in the Middle East. In 2020, China was the largest producer of pork followed by the European Union and the United States. All together, these countries accounted for roughly 76% of the world’s pork production.

The phrase “long pork” is thought to have been a euphemism for human flesh in the South Pacific. Cannibalism is known to have been practiced in the area, at least occasionally, in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Melanesia, New Zealand and Fiji.

Following pork as the most consumed meat in the world, chicken follows at #2, then

#3 beef
#4 lamb
#5 goat
#6 turkey
#7 duck
#8 buffalo
#9 goose,

and
#10 rabbit

ETA — ninja’d! But fortunately this still works.

Welsh rarebit is a culinary dish, consisting of a hot, cheese-based sauce, served on toasted bread.

The original name of the dish (dating to the 18th century) was “Welsh rabbit,” though it contains no rabbit meat (and never has); the original name appears to have been meant as a joke, and possibly a pejorative swipe at the Welsh (as the term “Welsh” was used to describe something that was substandard).

The British government has had a Secretary of State for Wales (commonly referred to as “the Welsh secretary”) since 1951. The current secretary is David T.C. Davies, MP, who was born in London but was educated in Wales, and represents the Welsh constituency of Monmouth. He was appointed to the post just eight days ago by the new Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak.

January 1951 was known as the Winter of Terror in Central Europe. Avalanches killed 240 and buried 45,000 people for some time, in Switzerland, Austria and Italy.