Anybody who knows me knows that I’m seriously random at times, and I know all sorts of random facts and things. I’ve been asked several times if I’ve applied for the game show Jeopardy and to be honest, I don’t know why I haven’t yet. For instance, on my lunch break today, I went on a Wikipedia binge that started with Hot Fries, and ended with Frankenstien and Martin Luther King Jr. No, seriously.
Here’s how it went:
I treated myself to a small bag of Hot Fries, which are spicy fried corn and potato snacks. I always read ingredients, and I noticed this bag has 100 calories, and contains MSG.
I look up MSG and find it’s Monosodium Glutemate, the artificial salt version of glutamic acid(which is a naturally occurring checmical in things like seaweed, soy sauce, etc). It was invented by a Japanese scientist in 1907. I’m curious about what exactly makes up a “salt” and so I click the link.
I learn about different kinds of salt, and how they’re extracted. I also notice the article “salt” mentions the famous Mohandas Ghandi, as one of his peaceful acts of civil disobedience was making salt when the British government forbid it so that people would pay their salt tax.
I do some reading on Ghandi, and find that he was heavily influenced by a paper written byHenry David Thoreau, who was a non-violent activist from America. I also find that he was known for reciting the Percy Shelly poem, “The Masque of Anarchy” which was in response to thePeterloo Massacre.
I do some reading on Shelly, and find out that his second wife was Mary Shelly, who wrote the novel Frankenstein. I also find out that the Thoreau paper (“Civil Disobedience”) was one of the major influences on a young Martin Luther King Jr, who then became an advocate of non-violent protest as well.
So there you have it, in the span of less than 30 minutes, I went from Hot Fries to Martin Luther King Jr. I could have gone farther and looked into MLK day and various black history dates, which would have led me who knows where.
Just goes to show, ADD is good for something!