Recent comments in /f/todayilearned

hells_cowbells t1_jdkqm3i wrote

Reply to comment by BeachedBottlenose in TIL that Barq's Root Beer was first created by Edward Barq in Biloxi, Miss, in 1897. In 1934, Barq and a former employee, who moved to New Orleans, agreed to each distribute their own version of the root beer, with the New Orleans version having a red label and the Biloxi version having a blue one. by jdward01

Yes. Ice cold Barq's in the glass bottle and a shrimp poboy is heaven.

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hells_cowbells t1_jdkqggs wrote

Reply to comment by Deathbyhours in TIL that Barq's Root Beer was first created by Edward Barq in Biloxi, Miss, in 1897. In 1934, Barq and a former employee, who moved to New Orleans, agreed to each distribute their own version of the root beer, with the New Orleans version having a red label and the Biloxi version having a blue one. by jdward01

100% truth. I grew up around the Mississippi coast in the 80s, and that version of Barq's was amazing. My dad had one of the older Coke machines at his business, the kind that had the 12 oz glass bottles in it. The drinks were so cold, and the ice cold Barq's was so good. People think I'm just imagining it, but I swear Coke changed the formula after they bought it, and it isn't as good as it used to be.

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palaric8 t1_jdko1mc wrote

Reply to comment by britt_is_questioning in TIL that Chinese Food was introduced into America during the California Gold Rush, starting in 1848. As 30,000 immigrants had arrived from the Canton region of China, the restaurants gave the predominantly male population a connection to home and provided gathering places for the Chinese community. by jdward01

Same in peru. In lima there’s a chifa every couple of blocks or so.

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BlueAndMoreBlue t1_jdkmina wrote

Reply to comment by FatWombat99 in TIL that Barq's Root Beer was first created by Edward Barq in Biloxi, Miss, in 1897. In 1934, Barq and a former employee, who moved to New Orleans, agreed to each distribute their own version of the root beer, with the New Orleans version having a red label and the Biloxi version having a blue one. by jdward01

A&W right from the fountain in them frosty mugs is pretty dang good but you are correct — Barq’s is the king

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billdehaan2 t1_jdkm0vs wrote

Reply to comment by Cmacbudboss in TIL Daylight Saving Time (DST) was first used in 1908 in Port Arthur, Ontario (today's Thunder Bay). While Germany and Austria were the first countries to use DST in 1916, a few hundred Canadians beat the German Empire by eight years. by dremonearm

Minor correction: it was the amalgamation of two smaller towns, Port Arthur and Fort William. I was in grade school in Port Arthur when it happened, and as you can imagine, it was covered quite a bit in school (and on the radio, and TV, and the newspapers).

The short version is that there were tax benefits to being a city over being a town, but that neither town met the legal requirements under Ontario law at the time to (re)incorporate as a city. So both Port Arthur and Fort William (as well as smaller communities like Neebing, and McIntyre) decided to merge and become a single city. At least that's how it was explained to us in school.

Fun fact #1: there was a referendum about what to call the new city, and the three choices were (1) Lakehead, (2) The Lakehead, and (3) Thunder Bay. As expected, The first two choices split the vote, and the name Thunder Bay won out, even though everything that wasn't nailed down at the time was labelled "Lakehead" already.

Fun fact #2: the three members of my family that were legally able to vote at the time, all did, with one vote for each of the offered choices. I still remember the arguments over that, 50 years later.

Fun fact #3: We lived in Current River, and my grandfather was involved in local politics. Current River is to Port Arthur as Port Arthur is to Thunder Bay today. He (and many of the local Current River council) routinely described the expansion/merger with Fort William as "like watching gangrene spread". No, they were not fans of the idea.

Fun fact #4: There was more discussion of the fact that (at the time) there were more living relatives of Simo Häyhä in Port Arthur (or maybe Port Arthur and Fort William combined) than there were in Finland of the time. The time zone thing was a trivia question; a close relations to the White Death was a point of pride (especially to my Finnish speaking teachers and classmates).

Yes, before and during the First World War, Port Arthur and Fort William did at times have different time zones a few times, which led to considerable hilarity for people who lived in one town but worked in the other. Since Port Arthur had the port (by definition), and the airport in Fort William hadn't been built yet, all shipping routes and the like were published using Port Arthur time, which was another bone of contention between the two towns.

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BeachedBottlenose t1_jdkjzdt wrote

Reply to TIL that Barq's Root Beer was first created by Edward Barq in Biloxi, Miss, in 1897. In 1934, Barq and a former employee, who moved to New Orleans, agreed to each distribute their own version of the root beer, with the New Orleans version having a red label and the Biloxi version having a blue one. by jdward01

The little building where it was created in Biloxi is still standing. It’s what you drink when you get a po boy.

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little_poriferan t1_jdkj41m wrote

Reply to TIL that Chinese Food was introduced into America during the California Gold Rush, starting in 1848. As 30,000 immigrants had arrived from the Canton region of China, the restaurants gave the predominantly male population a connection to home and provided gathering places for the Chinese community. by jdward01

There’s a really great Gastropod episode about this!! It’s called the United States of Chinese Food. They reference this documentary that I saw someone else mention elsewhere in the comments called The Search for General Tso. I really want to try and watch it!

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