7 Random Facts - Episode 3

1- If you were wondering what new things to cook this weekend, you can always try grasshoppers. People in Mexico do it and they are a delicacy,  but apparently grasshoppers are not that safe and organic. It seems that you tend to get lead poisoning when you ate them, so do it in moderation.

Here's an easy recipe on how to cook them, if you dare. 

2 - There’s nothing like a beer on a hot day! If you want to try something new, you can always try the spit beer. Yeah, it involvesspitting. It comes from Latin America and it’s made from corn. The process is a little bit weird: people take corn, chew it and spit it out. I think I will avoid drinking beer in Latin America if I ever get the chance to go there. 

3- Witch hunting was almost like a sport in the Middle Ages and it seems there have been 40,000 to 100,000 witches executed, which makes me think that they really enjoyed this. The last witch execution was in 1782 in Switzerland, however it seems that there were still witchcraft trials in Poland at the end of the 18^th century.

4- We all heard in school about Einstein and the fact that he failed math. Unfortunately for those of us who were hoping that we can still be genius scientists even if we fail math, Einstein didn't fail math. This is a common misconception. It seems that Einstein actually had very goodgrades in math which is pretty logical since he was super smart.

5- If you were searching for the longest word, search no more. Here it is: Nordöstersjökustartilleriflygspaningssimulatoranläggningsmaterielunderhållsuppföljningssystemdiskussionsinläggsförberedelsearbeten – it had 130 letters and it’s a Swedish word meaning Northern Baltic Sea Coast Artillery Reconnaissance Flight Simulator Facility Equipment Maintenance Follow-Up System Discussion Post Preparation Work(s). I really hope they don’t have spelling contests in Sweden. Oh here’s another one, this time from the island Anglesey in Wales: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. I know it looks like somebody sat on my keyboard but it’s actually a village. One of the longest village names. 

6- Feodor Vassilyev was just a peasant in Russia. What you didn’t know was the fact that his wife had 69 children. I guess they really wanted to be parents and birth control was probably not an option in Russian village from the 18^th century.

7- Pond’s is probably one of the most famous cosmetic brands but what you probably didn’t know about it is the fact that it has been around since 1846. Scientist Theron T. Pond extracted a tea from witch hazel which healed cuts. This became really popular and when he died it took the name of Pond’s Extract. Pond’s advertisement campaigns became really popular because they had a lot of celebrities. One of these celebrities was Queen Marie of Romania who was so impressed by the products, she accepted to do an ad campaign in the late 1920s.

Here's the ad:

Source

Elizabeth I - Obsession With Beauty

Queen Elizabeth I was without doubt a powerful woman. However, she seemed to be a little too obsessed about how she looked like, especially how people perceived her. She wore a lot of makeup and because lead was often used in makeup in those times her face was not in its best shape. It is known that all of her portraits contained symbolic items and she is often portrayed with elements that show purity and goodness, such as pearls or moons. 

Apparently she was looking for a painter to portray her with timeless beauty so that others can copy it for future paintings. 

Source

This is the main reason why almost all her last paintings look pretty much the same. She had a lot of reasons to hide the way she looked as it was very important to be seen beautiful, powerful and young. Unfortunately she suffered from smallpox in 1562 which only made her face more scarred. She was covering that with lead makeup which only made things worse. She also had black teeth thanks to the big amount of sugar eaten in those days. It seems that even her speech was difficult to understand because of her missing teeth. Her hair was also beginning to thin so she had to wear a big red wig. Her nose was hooked and this can also be seen in her portraits so it was probably worse in reality. 

Although her beauty when she was young cannot be disputed, this is how she looked during her last years of her life, contrary to all the portraits done in that period. It is thought that this portrait was painted in 1580 by Joost de Hondt.