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From George Washington and his cherry tree to Sir Walter Raleigh’s chivalry towards Queen Elizabeth, we have all heard our share of historical myths that do more to illustrate the person in question’s personality than to shine a light on their actual life story. Here are a few historical myths created by inventive writers that still made their way in to history books and elementary schools everywhere.
We’ve all heard the story about how Christopher Columbus was the first person to realize the Earth was round. But despite the fact that many of us were told this story in elementary school, this is about as far from historical truth as you can get.
The Columbus story was actually started by Washington Irving, who, despite calling himself a historian, was much more of a historical fiction writer. As a matter of fact, you may recall his name from his most famous work, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”
While Irving’s Columbus novel did feature a lot of historical fact and the author spent hours researching the navigator’s life, he also added a lot of his own fictional plot twists to make the story more interesting. Even so, certain fictional aspects from his story did work their way into the public consciousness and eventually, into the history books.
In actuality, the idea of a round Earth dates all the way back to Grecian times in 600 B.C. By the time Columbus was born, it had been proven mathematically and someone who argued the world was flat would be considered just as crazy then as someone who believed the same thing today.
As a matter of fact, Columbus was the one who was completely wrong in his calculations, not the general public. That’s because navigators of the time completely (and correctly) disagreed with how big Columbus thought the world was and thus, how long it would take to get to India.
Columbus was so stubborn that even after he located a new continent, he refused to admit that his calculations were wrong and that he was anywhere except India -hence his insistence on calling the natives “Indios,” Spanish for “Indians.” In fact, because Columbus refused to admit he didn’t sail to the Indies, it wasn’t until a year after he died that America was identified as a new continent by Amerigo Vespucci (the continent was eventually named in his honor).
This is the old story that says that even as a youngster, George Washington was so honest that he could not tell a lie to his father no matter how angry good ol’ dad was that someone would cut down his favorite cherry tree.
For some reason, this seems to be a story that teachers like to tell young children as though it was fact, only to tell children that it isn’t true once they grow older. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like teaching kids history might be a little easier if we don’t treat the first president of the USA like Santa Claus.
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What could be cuter than a squirrel eating penne? A hamster eating ramen? A guinea pig eating mostaccioli? A hamster eating macaroni and cheese? A chipmunk eating noodles? The adorable hamster enjoying spaghetti here is named Lupin. See the rest of the collection at Environmental Graffiti. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user LuLu Witch)
Talk about a twist- Steve Kass made noodles that are Möbius strips! You can see them cooked and ready for dinner at Flicker. Link -via Evil Mad Linkblog
(Image credit: Flickr user Steve Kass)
Industrial designers Elan Leor and Eran Lederman made this noodle that can be used as a whistle:
This innovative pasta functions as a whistle, capable of generating two different tones from one piece – a tone from each respective end. The design is based on the extrusion technology such as the well-known Penne type, with the introduction of two supplementry operations of squashing and a cut for channeling the airflow.
Link via The Presurfer
How many of these pasta shapes can you name? How many can you use in a recipe? This is a small sampling of the pastas listed at The Geometry of Pasta. Click on a shape and find out what to call it and how to use it in Italian meals. There are recipes as well. Link -via the Presurfer
Seriously, my arteries would need a Rooter Router if I let myself eat ever one of these that I thought were yummy (cough. ALL.). I’ve actually had the Mac ‘n’ Chese Sampler from S’MAC. Sooooo good. Next on list, the baked apple mac and cheese.
Got the blue-box blues? We thought so. That’s why we dug up the most tempting and creative recipe twists on everybody’s favorite comfort food: macaroni and cheese. Whether you like yours meaty, gourmet or even in bite-size servings, you’re sure to find something here that inspires you to think, well, outside of the box.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by ahammel.
