It's National Chocolate Candy Day! Celebrate by Leaving Sticky Hand Prints Everywhere! By Connie Vines

 NATIONAL CHOCOLATE CANDY DAY is today. 

 For Chocolate Devotes, this is a Jackpot day, second only to Valentine's Day!

December 28th!

National Chocolate Candy Day offers an opportunity for us to polish off the last of the specialty candies we received as gifts. Celebrated on December 28th, the day points us to the truffles and chocolate oranges tucked into stockings. 

Remember to check those boxes of candy that may or may not have guides to help us choose cream-filled or ganache.  

The word “chocolate” comes from the word “xocoatl” or “chocolatl.” Mayan “school” means hot or bitter, and the Aztec “atl” means water. Chocolate comes from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia and grows in Mexico, Central America, and Northern South America. The earliest known documentation of using cacao seeds is from around 1100 BC.

But before it was ever made into a sweet candy, it was ground into a beverage. In ruling class society, the beverage was used for medical purposes. 

In 1828, Dutch inventor and chemist, Coenraad Van Houten, developed a way to produce chocolate in solid form. His hydraulic press made it possible to remove the cocoa butter from the cacao. His invention leads to producing a powder opening the way for the first chocolate confections. It’s thanks to Van Houten we can enjoy the variety of chocolates we do today. 

Chocolate Facts

Whitman’s produced their first box of chocolate in 1842.

In 1847, British chocolate company J.S. Fry & Sons combined cocoa butter, cocoa powder, and sugar producing the first edible chocolate bar.

The invention of the conching machine by Rodolphe Lindt in 1879 ushered in mass production of the creamy treat.

The first chocolate Easter egg was made sometime in the early 19th century. In 1875 John Cadbury introduced his first chocolate egg.

When Allied troops stormed the beach of Normandy on D-Day, part of emergency rations and in soldiers’ packs included the D ration bar designed by Hershey Chocolate company for the U.S. Army.

Americans consume 12 pounds of chocolate each year (5.4kg per person). 

Australians consume 32kg of chocolate person person per year.

The British consume an average of 11kg per person per year (3 bars a week).

Canadians eat an average of 6.4 kilos of chocolate a year, which, based on an average bar size, is at least 160 chocolate bars per year, per person.

The Swiss were the top consumers per capita, with each person eating an average of almost 12 kilos a year. That is 26 pounds! Wow!! 

When someone says 'chocolate' this is what my mind locks onto:

Who doesn't remember, and still love, this classic "I Love Lucy" episode filmed at See's Candy? 

If you love chocolate, you may wish to join in on the celebration.

HOW TO OBSERVE #ChocolateCandyDay

There are so many different kinds of chocolate candy. 

What’s your favorite? 

Do you enjoy a piece or two or three? 

Do you have leftovers? 

How do you plant on celebrating National Chocolate Candy Day this year?

Are you hosting a family/ Social Distancing chocolate candy party? This is the perfect way to taste and sample all the varieties. A way to discover new favorites. 

Or how about a Zoom tasting event--that's one way to gauge the effects of a 'sugar rush' on your family, friends, and co-workers.

Here's a little known candy fact.  

Did you know the center of a Butterfinger Candy Bar contains melted Candy Corn, peanut butter, and finely chopped salted peanuts?  Yep.  I always ignore the Candy Corn during Autumn , 'cos I don't like/or eat candy corn (or so I thought) Butterfinger Candy Bars happen to be one of my faves!

I'm not a fan of marshmallows but this recipe is delicious. I pour it into a large Thermos and it will stay hot all day!  Perfect for an chilly outdoor adventure or sitting in front of a blazing fireplace.

I love to share jokes with my grands.

I've listed my favorites: 

1. What kind of candy is never on time?

ChocoLATE

2. What do you call Chewbacca when he has chocolate stuck in his hair?

Chocolate Chip Wookiee.

3. Why did the donut visit the dentist?

He needed a chocolate filling

4. I heard a joke about chocolate bars and it wasn’t that funny. So I just snickered…

5. What do you call stolen cocoa?

Hot chocolate

6. What is an astronaut’s favorite chocolate?

A Mars bar

 I hope your New Year is filled with blessings, joy, and a Reader chocked full of BWL novels!

Happy Reading and Happy National Chocolate  Day,

Connie

MY BWL Author Page

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Watch for my new 2021 releases:

AMAZING WHAT OUR BRAINS CAN DO – by Vijaya Schartz

Vijaya's latest Sci-fi release 

Fantastic stories of superheroes with great powers are the product of our imagination. But what if we could extend our natural abilities, by opening and using more areas of our brains? 

The consensus among scientific circles is that we only use 10% of our brains. Our brain can control our cells, tell them how and when to reproduce and regenerate. When we heal from a wound, we grow new skin and tissues to repair the damage. 

By using more of our brains, we might be able to regrow entire limbs, like lizards grow back tails. Or we could change our appearance, like chameleons change color and some sea creatures shapeshift and morph to mimic a specific background. 

Dolphins are very intelligent and friendly to Humans. They use 20% of their brain, and they developed a natural sonar system more sophisticated than what the US military can produce. 

We can program our brains to think positively, creatively. Prayer is known to speed healing. Focused meditation can also accelerate the process. Many cancer patients recovered faster than others when they use prayer or focused meditation. 

In the movie LUCY, an unwilling drug mule is contaminated with a mind enhancing substance that opens her brain. As she uses more and more of her brain capacity, she can manipulate her body, shapeshift, read others’ minds, manipulate matter, link with electronic devices, control time, etc. Farfetched? Not so much. 

Great minds of recent times, like Stephen Hawking, publicly acknowledged taking brain enhancing drugs to achieve greater understanding of the laws of the universe. Shamans claim to access other planes of consciousness and possibly contact with faraway entities, through focused meditation and the use of substances that open unexplored parts of their brain. 

Some abilities, considered as supernatural powers, could be achieved by conditioning our brains through meditation or other methods. By opening and using the regions of our brain we do not presently use, we could learn to manipulate the forces around us. Some people study and practice to master abilities like telekinesis, mind-reading, mind-to-mind communication at a distance, and levitation… abilities Tibetan monks already achieve through meditation. 

Some Tibetan Lamas also practice what they call the Rainbow ritual at the end of their lives. They meditate for a week straight without food, sleep, or water. During that time, their bodies shrink considerably and emit light, until they dissolve into visible rainbow light that ascends, which is the possible origin for the term enlightenment. They leave behind only a desiccated shell the size of a tiny child. 

In stories and movies, like Star Wars, enlightened beings, like the most realized Jedi, also dissolve into light as they die, with no body left behind. This is not as farfetched as you might think. It could be imprinted in our DNA. In nature, nothing is lost, it only transforms and recycles or transforms into pure energy… like fire produces heat and light. 

Science also might speed the process and make cyborgs of us, implanting electronic markers and communication devices directly into our bodies and our brains. Making connections directly from our brains to computers is not impossible. Some people already have imbedded electronics in their body. Amputated patients can control an artificial arm or leg with their mind.

Will all Humans have supernatural abilities in the future? Shall we attain quasi-immortality? It’s a distinct possibility. Science fiction authors already explore this landscape. In my stories, a few characters have natural or cybernetic abilities we cannot yet achieve. 

Here are a few suggestions for entertaining reads set in such a future.

Available from your favorite retailer HERE

Winner Arizona Literary Awards, Fiction, 2019

Something’s rotten on the angel planet. When Avenging Angels turn up dead, Urielle, their Legion Commander, suspects the handsome intruder brought unspeakable evil to Azura.

Maksou never met a woman he couldn’t seduce. He came to the forbidden planet to rescue his friends and get rich in the process, but the jungle crawls with lethal life forms… including a gorgeous warrior angel, who saves his life but keeps him prisoner and challenges his irresistible charm.

Urielle, sworn to protect Azura at all costs, has no use for a maverick who ignores the rules and endangers the planet… no matter how attractive. Especially when the Galactic Trade Alliance (GTA) wages a secret war to get their greedy hands on the priceless crystal at Azura’s core.

Find Akira's Choice HERE

When bounty hunter Akira Karyudo accepted her assignment, something didn't add up. Why would the Galactic Trade Alliance want a young kidnapped orphan dead or alive?

She will get to the truth once she finds the boy, and the no-good SOB who snatched him from a psychiatric hospital. With her cheetah, Freckles, a genetically enhanced feline retriever, Akira sets out to flush them out of the bowels of the Byzantium space station. But when she finds her fugitives, the kidnapper is not what she expects.

Kazmo, a decorated Resistance fighter, stole his nephew from the authorities, who performed painful experiments on the boy. Stuck on Byzantium, he protects the child, but how can he shield him from the horribly dangerous conditions in the lawless sublevels of the space station?

Akira faces the worst moral dilemma of her career. Law or justice, duty or love. She can't have it both ways.

"Wow! If readers want to see and feel and believe they are in deep space, then ‘Akira's Choice’ is the perfect choice! With a touch of romance, the vivid descriptions and beautifully developed characters masterfully presented by Schartz create a virtual world that invite the reader not merely to observe, but to walk amongst them and participate... This is a delicate art, and Schartz wields her weapons with precision and skill. Banzai!" 5 stars - exceptional - recommended read - Ind'tale Magazine

Vijaya Schartz, author
Strong Heroines, Brave Heroes, cats
http://www.vijayaschartz.com
amazon - B&N - Smashwords - Kobo - FB 

They do not make ‘em like they used to—Tricia McGill

https://bookswelove.net/mcgill-tricia/

I know movie makers have advanced in leaps and bounds in the past decade or so, and I would be the first to admit that there are some great movies out there-with all the trimmings of modern technology, but in my personal opinion and that of most of my contemporaries, we do like an old-fashioned classic. And one thing that annoys me like crazy is the ear-blasting music that suddenly backs up a scene these days that could well do without the interruption. And just why do we have to see so much of the actors’ flesh? I am far from being a prude and have nothing against nudism in the appropriate place but I do get sick of seeing it openly displayed in some movies these days.

What brought about this peeve was that I settled back to watch a movie the other evening that promised to be a romance, but within ten minutes quickly changed to soft porn. The female in question not only showed her fulsome breasts but within a few minutes of meeting the young man was boldly pushing his face into them—and in close-up. And not only her breasts, but her barely covered backside. 

I have taken to looking for the classics—and there are thousands of them to
choose from. I guess I am showing my age, but who can forget such classics as Gone with the Wind, The Sound of Music or Cleopatra. I’ve always loved musicals and have been trying to list my all-time favourites such as An American in Paris, Grease and Oklahoma. I could go on and on. During my teens, my sister and I went to the flicks twice a week at times and musicals were always at the top of my list of sure bets. I never questioned how or why the stars suddenly broke out into song or why they danced their way down busy streets.

Of course, at this time of the year we always have those Christmas classics that are shown annually. I have watched Love Actually almost every year about this time since it was first released. A new one that I think was released just last year is Last Christmas, a beautiful love story that has a surprising twist at the end that will bring you to tears.

All this proves that I am not too enamoured by some of the modern films, but one stands out for me from all the high-tech, gadget-ridden releases and that is Guardians of the Galaxy. So far, I have only seen 1 and 2 but look forward to the others that are in the wings. Chris Pratt is perfectly cast as Peter Quill Star-Lord, part alien/part human. He and his gang of idiots had me laughing out loud. I particularly like the tree and the raccoon who appears to be the most sensible—and most lethal one of this crowd of space travellers. And the sound track of 60s pop music played throughout via Chris Pratt’s headphones and his precious little gadget add a touch of the ridiculous when they are out there somewhere in the galaxy fighting off all kinds of evil extra-terrestrials.

As we near the end of this terrible year, the same wish is on everyone’s lips—next year has to be better.  I wish you all a wonderful 2021 and certainly a healthy one. And let us hope that next year brings some perfect movies to watch—no matter our preference.

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