I'll Say She Is!
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Sunday, 22 December 2002
Dear Blog

Dear Blog,

Gotta give a shout out to Sid, who had us over for a fabulous Yule dinner Saturday. I brought Cold Duck and a big salad. A good time was had by all.

We had dinner with Jeff's parents Friday night. They are incredibly nice and good people; I could do worse for in-laws, I know from experience. Anyway, I was a very bad daughter-in-law; when Jeff's dad remarked (as he ALWAYS does, every SINGLE time they come to visit us) on how much he admires the illuminated street signs on major intersections, I laughed. I laughed because Jeff and I had discussed whether or not the lighted street signs would be mentioned yet again. Mr. Lee seemed not to notice, so hopefully Karma won't come looking for me for that one. For additional humorous things Mr. Lee said, please see Jeff's blog.

I got two more Cow Parade cows. Jeff was gifted with yet another daily desk calendar, this one was Fox Trot. It occurs to me, as he seems to get rather a lot of desk calendars, that Jeff IS hard to buy gifts for. I scored a coup d' etat this year in terms of gifts for him, but since he reads this I'm not telling what I got him. As a public service, here is a brief list of what to get him if you find yourself in a "What to buy Jeff?" quandry:

Interesting T-shirts. That way I can get rid of all those New Mexico shirts he has.
Gift certificates to Best Buy, or any place where DVDs are sold. This will help him with his goal to buy every single DVD out on the market.
Guitar strings, specifically classical ones. If you know where to get them (I don't) you could get him lute strings.
Vellum. I think he's out of that.
Unusual beverages, such as Moxie.
Mint M&Ms, or white chocolate. Oh, wait, that's something to buy me.
Simpsons stuff. That way I can make use of it too.

Sincerely,
Your Shopping consultant

Posted by ginevra (link)
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Comments
"Moxie".

*shudder*

My grandparents and the parents of friends, while I was growing up in New England, used to imbibe "Moxie" on a regular basis. I never figured out if it was some kind of bizarre way of punishing oneself (kind of like the equivalent of liquid self-flagellation) or whether people sincerely got addicted to the taste. It's made from carbonated prune juice.

*shudder* *twitch*

Right up there with Dr. Brown's Celery flavored soda.
Posted by Darren on 22 Dec 2002 19:31
Really? I thought Dr. Pepper was the one with the prune juice!

Celery flavored soda? Was that someone's sick idea of a joke?
Posted by Ginevra on 22 Dec 2002 19:59
Good question, the Dr. Perpper FAQ has this to say:

"1. Who invented Dr Pepper?

Dr Pepper was first created in 1885 by Charles Alderton, a pharmacist who was working at Morrison's Old Corner Drug Store in Waco, Texas, at the time.

2. Is Dr Pepper older than Coca-Cola?

Yes. Coca-Cola was not invented until 1886, making Dr Pepper the oldest of the major-brand soft drinks in the United States. (For the record: Pepsi was created in 1898 by Caleb Bradham in New Bern, North
Carolina; 7-Up a.k.a. "Lithiated Lemon" was "introduced" by Charles Grigg of St. Louis in 1929; and Sprite was created by the Coca-Cola company in 1961. For the really curious: Moxie was invented by Augustin Thompson of Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1886 as well.)

...

6. Does Dr Pepper contain prune juice?

In a word: NO!

7. Okay, so what's in Dr Pepper?

On the label in the US, the ingredients are: Carbonated Water; Imperial Pure Cane Sugar [or "High Fructose Corn Syrup and/or Sugar," if you're not so lucky]; Caramel Color; Phosphoric Acid; Artificial
and Natural Flavors; Sodium Benzoate (Preservative); Caffeine.

Chris Dunthorne (cjd@tin-god.demon.co.uk) told me on 7/3/98 that the ingredients on the label in the UK are a little different: "Carbonated Water, Sugar, Colour (Caramel E150d), Phosphoric Acid, Flavourings, Preservative (E211), Caffeine."

John Neely (drpepper@cadvision.com), a formerly anonymous Canadian, submitted "Ingredients from The Great White North" on 10/27/98: "Carbonated Water, Sugar/Glucose-Fructose, Carmel colour, Artificial
and Natural flavors, Phosphoric acid, sodium benzoate, Caffeine, monosodium phosphate, lactic acid, polyethelene glycol."

Trace McLean (scarletspider@bigpond.com) also on 10/27/98 posted the ingredients for Australian Dr Pepper "taken straight from the bottle": "Carbonated water, sugar, colour (150), flavours, food acids (338,
270), preservative (211), caffeine."

Brian McElroy (brianm@airmail.net) posted to alt.fan.dr-pepper on 1/19/98 (and emailed me a correction on 6/30/98) about his visit to the Dublin Dr Pepper plant, which I think definitively answers two questions at once:

"Just got back today from the Dublin bottling plant and museum. There has been a lot of debate on what flavor Dr Pepper really is, so I asked Mr. Kloster [Bill Kloster], the plant owner, who has worked in
that plant for almost 60 years. According to him, Dr Pepper is a mix of 23 different fruit flavors. The original creator wanted to create a drink that tasted like the smell of a soda shop. When you walked into
a soda shop in that day, you smelled all the fruit flavors of the different sodas all mixed into one. So he basically took a bunch of flavors and mixed them, and came up with Dr Pepper. He said Dr Pepper
does not and has never had prune juice in it."

8. Who started the prune juice rumor?

Wouldn't we all like to know? The prune juice rumor is both false and persistent. The Urban Legends web page (www.urbanlegends.com) didn't have any leads,
so I'm at a loss. Anyone? Bueller?"

Concerning Celery favored soda, ot's called Cel-Ray, I kid you not. It doubles as a carbonated beverage and an ipecac.
Posted by Darren on 22 Dec 2002 22:18
Carbonated beverage AND ipecac??
"I like fried chicke, I like donuts!"
Thanks for the research, Darren!
Posted by Ginevra on 23 Dec 2002 07:16
Moxie isn't prune-flavored; its primary flavoring ingredient is Gentian Root Extract. It's similar to sarsaparilla soda, only a little more bitter.

As to why anyone would drink it: here's my reason.

Posted by Jeff on 23 Dec 2002 08:55
I was actually convinced to drink Cel-ray once. What can I say, chicks can convince me to do stuff. It tasted like wet feet. As for Moxie, it is craptacular.
Posted by Lunchbox on 23 Dec 2002 11:28