Quid Pro Quo With The Gods

News to me also! Wonder, why such scant literature on their existence.

Manasa: This incident gave birth to her as Shiva’s daughter but not Parvati’s. She was the one who saved Lord Shiva when he drank poison during the “Samandar Manthan”or “Amrit Manthan”.It is said that she was ill treated by Parvati since she thought her to be Shiva’s secret wife. Myth also says that she was bad tempered due to rejection by her father, husband and step-mother.​

The family feud reminds me of Zeus and Hera!

Though Manasa featured in the myth of “Samandar Manthan”, I never heard of the crucial role she played in rescuing Shiva till I read about it in your linked blog.

 

Last night I read the wit and wisdom of Lemony Snicket in the book "Read Something Else" . The unassuming title appealed to me. I highlighted,

That seems like irreplaceable optimism to me!

One more witticism,

Carrying "Anna Karenina" isn't futile. One might use the hefty paperpile for ballast or muscle training in its intimidating glory. Not every book is recruited to a deserted island for reading, some are versatile contraptions that no other good-natured book could be entrusted with the improvisation.

 

Recently, I heard of a microbe making it to the Guinness Book of World Records for a remarkable feat:

The DNA is shattered yet the microbe stitches it back together with gusto. What an upbeat organism? But the following finding intrigued me:

...you see that ..why did the organism develop the exceeding resilience even when nature had never provoked. This is like ..asking the housefly to jump and it vaulted to the moon.

This overexerting D. radiodurans is funny!

 

I found out about Margaret Knight today in my wanderings. I thought she might interest you. Why?
She was the first woman to patent her idea in US. What did she patent?



A flat-bottomed paper bag.

Until then, the paper bags for any haul were like the no-bottom envelopes. Groceries were stuffed in such bags and awkwardly hefted home. Margaret, working in a cotton mill and innovative in her human-friendly design for machinery, claimed her first patent of a safety device in a mechanical loom at the tender age of twelve which was never granted. Later, she successfully patented the flat-bottomed bag.

Back in the nineteenth century, women with inventive minds surrendered their ideas to men who monetized these stolen or cadged ideas.

Miss Knight (she never married) bravely defied the discrimination instituting an era of woman patenting their original ideas. She went on to hold 87 further patents in US. Who would have contemplated that an everyday flat-bottom bag empowered women in thought and innovation.

 

Louis XIV and Louis XVI earned great historical presence whereas the intervening Louis XV is a footnote obscurity.

I rarely encounter any worthwhile nugget on this king. Until today ...

I happened to read that Louis XV perhaps owned the first stapler. I was pleased! This earned him an eligibility in our QPQ triviality. Don't know what kind of stapler it was, but this king allegedly owned and popularized the stapler.

 

In the same manner of the stapler-loving French monarch, the indomitable French were as keen to improvise during wars as they were to assault. Their brutal wars and rationing gifted the world many items, including the widespread margarine. When a contest was announced by Napolean III to discover a substitute for butter to feed the embattled army, the French chemist Hippolyte Mege-Mouries mixed up animal fat and milk and water, mirabile dictu, margerine. Prior to experimenting with butter substitute, our man Hippolyte was into "panification", enhancing the bread production.

The name Hippolyte amused me. I looked up the etymology -- 'one who frees the horses'.

The chemist Hippolyte had not freed any horses but definitely freed the pricey butter as an excuse for waging another war on the neighboring empire .

 

While at butter and cheese, I am fascinated by Chesebrough, that Robert Chesebrough who invented vaseline.



Thinkers and craftsmen are always extending the delight in research, if this exists, what could exist beyond. One such protracted observation yielded in petroleum jelly as the waxy byproduct while drilling for petroleum.

Invention roadshow is replete with brilliant minds discovering so many household uplifts but I am always interested in these men since the invention. What happened after the invention?

Chesebrough in his eureka gusto didn't peddle the invention as some shallow potion but proclaimed it to be the sticky elixir. No one could conclusively demonstrate the medicinal benefits of vaseline but Chesebrough would often volunter as human-guinea in his marketing campaigns to slather the jelly on motivated cuts and burns amidst live audience to glorify this panacea. One-all remedy! He would singe his arm with a flame and profusely apply vaseline to the injury. He would even claim to have eaten a spoonful of vaseline everyday for longevity. He passed away aged 96.

Vaseline today is not sold as medicinal balm but only moisturizing gel. We have to give it to this man for his hyped excitement on having discovered a slithery lotion that he even gulped with much joy as a tonic.

If not for such opinionated men, their outlandish claims, our hunt for these amusing tales, you and I would not have sustained QPQ. Long live such buttery Chesebroughs!