Somewhat Useful Facts Thread

[JimmyB76]

Providence, Rhode Island Named America?s Top Burger City - Travel + Leisure Magazine


When it comes to burgers, Providence reigns supreme, according to Travel + Leisure.

The capital city has snagged the highest honor in the latest Travel + Leisure's America's Favorite Cities survey, naming it the #1 Burger City in America.


Classic and creative burgers

"The No. 1 burger city, Providence, may have it both ways, offering both classic and creative burgers, with an emphasis on locally sourced ingredients?within reason," according to T+L's Katrina Brown Hunt. T+L gives special love to Harry?s Bar and Burger, where "you can wash down your 100-percent-Hereford-beef sliders with spiked milkshakes, such as the Caramel Twinkie, made with ice cream, vanilla vodka, and snack cakes."

Providence moved up 2 spots from its #3 ranking last year. Meanwhile, this is not the first food honor for Providence in T+L's annual survey of thousands of its readers. "Pretty much everything tastes good in this New England city, with its reputation for creative, locavore chefs," says Hunt. "It ranked No. 2 for overall dining, as well as No. 2 for pizza and No. 5 for high-end cuisine." T+L recommends the New England Grass-Fed Burger at Local 121, the aforementioned Hereford sliders at Harry's, along with "50 beer options--proof of the city?s high rankings for microbrews."

Providence beat out #2 Philadelphia, #3 Chicago, #4 Houston, and #5 San Juan, PR, for the top slots in this year's poll. New York City ranked #9, and Portland, ME, just eked into the Top 20 at #19.

[JimmyB76]

Providence, Rhode Island Named Top Hipster City by Travel + Leisure Magazine


Providence nails another Top 10 nationwide today as Travel + Leisure names it among the Top 10 Cities for Hipsters in the United States.

The capital city, home to hipster hangouts like the Steelyard, AS220, and Olneyville Square is in fact the #6 Best City for Hipsters, according to latest ranking of America's largest cities released by the internationally renowned travel magazine. Seattle, WA crowned the list at #1, followed by Portland, OR (#2), San Francisco, CA (#3), New Orleans, LA (#4) and Portland, ME (#5). Providence was followed by Austin, TX at #7, and San Juan, PR, Philadelphia, PA, and Denver, CO at #8, #9, and #10. New York City ranked #12 and Boston #17.


What makes a city a hipster hangout?

The hip honor for Providence is the latest round of Travel + Leisure's America's Favorite City Survey, where readers ranked 35 metropolitan areas on culturally relevant features like live music, coffee bars, and independent boutiques. To zero in on the biggest hipster crowds, T+L says it factored in the results for the best microbrews and the most offbeat and tech-savvy locals.

"This academia-rich New England city has a concentrated mix of artists and nerds," writes T+L, "scoring high in the survey for its performance art and caf?s." T+L names AS220 as the "artsy nerve center" of the city, which the magazine says boasts of stimulating Rhode Island?s ?cultural mulch? through shows, a restaurant, a coffee bar, and a meeting space for the tech group Providence Geeks.


Defining today's hipster

Travel + Leisure admits this new ranking reflects its take on the debated term hipster, "which can inspire eye rolls or admiration," Katrina Brown Hunt writes. "Once used to describe counterculture types, hipster is now so prevalent it?s at a possible tipping point. Whatever your take, you generally know hipsters when you see them?most likely in funky, up-and-coming neighborhoods. A smirking attitude toward mainstream institutions means they tend to frequent cool, often idiosyncratic restaurants, shops, and bars?the same kinds of venues that appeal to travelers looking for what they can?t find at home. (Yelp.com now even has a search feature for ?hipster? ambience.)

[Killallewoks]

My hometown Worksop is the sole producer of OXO cubes! 



Terrible isn't it...

[mckinneyc]

 i  :salute3: you Worksop. Keeping me in OXO for my shepherd's pies

[captain_obvious]

Oxo makes an awesome hot drink.
I would have gone bonkers without oxo cubes to put in my ration packs while on exercise back in my army days

[FarShot]

Forgive my Americaness, but what the blazes are those?

[Killallewoks]

Forgive my Americaness, but what the blazes are those?

Is a stock cube, makes like a gravy but its more of a flavouring for stews and soups. However if you Cpt Obvious then you drink them, though I can't see what was wrong with the hot chocolate inside the Rat packs.  

Also Bovril tastes 10x better....

[captain_obvious]

But bovril/marmite is a pita.  With an oxo cube it's just crumble one up inside a mug, pour hot water on top and stir for 10 seconds or so. 
Also makes ration pack food muuuch more palatable. 
The hot chocolate in the packs is ok, but it's one heck of a pita to get right.  You can't just pour in the whole packet because you'll then end up with loads of dregs no matter how much you stir it and as you can't re seal the packet there isn't all that much you can do.  Get it right and it's lovely but get it wrong and it's a nightmare!

Oh and btw the rat packs have now changed to some crappy "multi climate" thing where the chocolate is gone gone all gone and replaced with a fruit/nut mix.
I'll never have to worry about that though HAHAHAHAH lol

Oxo cubes are quite nice eaten as they are as well

[Killallewoks]

I get ya but I like the lumps so its a win/win either way for me, I had a few run ins with the multi climate packs but we have so many old style ones in stores that we haven't had the need to replace them. Us navy people don't go out in the field all that often. I loved the Yorkies you got in them though, you don't get those in the new ones. 

[JimmyB76]

Providence is too cool for things like that lol

[King Class Scout]

and brits wonder why everybody calls their cooking crap! Drinkable Gravy?  I hope it tastes better than the salty MSG crap we get
at least now I know what AYBS was talking about (the ep where  the budget cuts are so bad they end up with trash can soup )

[JimmyB76]

........ going back ontopic ........

[mckinneyc]

Did you know that Lough Neagh, just north of where I live, is the largest lake in the UK and the island of Ireland?

[B5]

did you know that Cymru and Cymri (the welsh way of saying Wales and Welsh), are pronounced Cum-roo and Cum-ree!

[captain_obvious]

did you know that Cymru and Cymri (the welsh way of saying Wales and Welsh), are pronounced Cum-roo and Cum-ree!

Being a Welshman I would like to correct you there.
"Cymru" is both "Wales" and "Welsh" (when talking about the "Welsh people") This is pronounced "Come-ree"

"Cymraeg" is the name of the Welsh language in Welsh.  Pronounced "Come-rai-g"

As far as I know there is no such word as "cymri" in use and neither does my mother.  She ought to know being a former Welsh teacher ;)

[Trim]

"Almost" is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.

[limey BSc.]

"Almost" is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.

With the exception of Aegilops and a few other words of course.

Spoonfeed is the longest word with the letters in reverse alphabetical order.
Honorificabilitudinitatibus is the longest word with alternating consonants and vowels.
Antidisestablishmentarianism is the longest non-coined, non-technical undisputed word.
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is the longest word in a major dictionary, but is both technical, and coined, and was in fact coined specifically to be the longest word.
This, at 189,819 letters long, is the longest word, but isn't in a dictionary, it technical and never actually used.

[FarShot]

[dwight]False.  Aegilops is a Latin word, being the label of a genus in the scientific nomenclature of living creatures.[/dwight]

[limey BSc.]

[dwight]False.  Aegilops is a Latin word, being the label of a genus in the scientific nomenclature of living creatures.[/dwight]

Irrelevant. It's in the dictionary, therefore it's a word in the English language.

[JimmyB76]

youre such a killjoy, limey lol

on average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year...