I DIDN'T KNOW THAT!

For years I have been keeping files of things that catch my attention.  Some are facts that I probably did not bother to attribute to their source, so I would take some of the following with "a grain of salt."

SALT

Fact Number 1

There is one cup of salt floating within every gallon of ocean water.

At one time, Mattapoisett, Massachusetts had an active business extracting and selling "sea salt" as an important cooking component and preservative.  Now, big companies like Chicago's Morton produce it, probably add iodide to it and often promote it as being healthier than table salt.

In our spice cabinet, we have:

Sea Salt (of course)

Regular iodized white table salt (590 mg per serving)

Lite salt (290 mg per serving)

Pink Salt

Very large grain white salt

Orange salt

Salt mixed with pepper

Salt mixed with garlic and pepper

Salt mixed with an unknown substance (but it tastes good)

Celery salt (I love it)

Fact Number 2

The Great Salt Lake is so salty that only algae and brine shrimp can survive. 

(Brine shrimp are less than a half-inch long, but high in protein.  Adult brine shrimp can be home-raised, mainly for fish food.)

Salt Addiction?

When I was a kid, sometimes I would eat "supper" at my Uncle Charlie's House.  Aunt Hattie was a great cook, but I think I probably insulted her by shaking lots of salt on the already properly seasoned food.

Fifty years later, I visited Uncle Charlie at my cousin's house.  I had not seen or spoken to him for all that time.

This was Charlie's first words when we met:

"Hey, Joe, still putting all that salt on your food?"

Pillar of Salt

In Sunday school I was intrigued to learn about Lot's wife.  A couple of "visiting angels" warned Lot: (to avoid God's wrath on the evil city of Sodom.)

"Flee for your life! Do not look behind you, nor stop anywhere in the Plain, ("do not pass 'Go'"), flee to the hills, lest you be swept away."  Lot listened, but his wife was curious, looked back at Sodom and was turned into a "pillar of salt."

Was the Sunday School lesson: "Mind your own business?"

There is a "pillar of salt" near the Dead Sea in Israel, and ancient Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus claimed to have seen the "pillar of salt" that was certainly the remains of Lot's nosy wife.  Some early Christian "scholars" agreed with that.

Interesting story.

Salt of the Earth

Another Sunday School lesson.  According to Matthew 5:13, when Jesus was giving his Sermon on the Mount, he told his audience of common folks that they were "The Salt of the Earth," at that time when salt was precious and sometimes even used as money.

The rest of his phrase was an admonishment that they need to continue "plugging" his messages "so that the salt doesn't lose its "(savior) salt savor." IMHO.

Salty enough, Hon?

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