DAILY DIRT: Better put the ‘Great Wall of Mustard’ on your must-see list

Daily Dirt for Saturday, April 15, 2023

If the Heinz figure that follows is correct, that means each American averages using about 34 packets of ketchup a year … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 580 of The Daily Dirt.

1. Personally, I don’t like any sort of condiment on my sandwiches. I prefer my burgers and hot dogs like the Good Lord made them — plain. 

But I realize there many out there who like ketchup and/or mustard on their sandwiches. For those who do, consider this:

• In the 18th century, the English avoided using tomatoes in their forms of ketchup. At the time, tomatoes were thought to be poisonous.
• In 1812, Philadelphia scientist James Mease created the first tomato-based ketchup. Centuries earlier, the Chinese used a salty, fermented paste made from fish entails, meat byproducts and soybeans in what they called “ge-thchup,” “koe-cheup,”: “ketslap” or “kicap.”
• Heinz produces more than 12 BILLION packets of ketchup each year to meet the demand from restaurants and the like for its condiment-crazy customers.
• There’s a museum in Middleton, Wis., which is devoted completely to mustard. “The Great Wall of Mustard” features more than 5,600 bottles and jars of mustard, collected from all 50 states and 70 foreign countries. The museum’s founder, Barry Levinson, began collecting mustard in 1986 while working for the the Wisconsin Department of Justice. There is no admission charge, including to the Mustardpiece Theatre.

2. There’s probably not a baby boomer (or many who are younger) who have not watched “The Flintstones,” the 1960s cartoon series based in the Stone Age that featured the comic adventures of Fred, Wilma, Barney, Betty, Pebbles and Bam Bam.

“The Flintstones” was the most successful animated series ever broadcast in network prime time, which most know. But what most do not know includes:

• The series was originally planned to be called “The Flagstones” or “The Gladstones.”
• Fred and Wilma were one of the first televised couples of sleep in the same bed, a concept that was once taboo on network TV. Back then, most TV couples slept in the same room, but in different beds.
• Fred and Barney were originally drawn to look like true cave dwellers, complete with long bears, scraggly, unkempt hair and hunched-over shapes.
• Jackie Gleason considered legal action against show producers Hanna-Barbera because of the similarities between “The Flintstones” and Gleason’s own TV show, “The Honeymooners.”
• The famous theme song from the show (“Meet the Flintstones”) was not used until the program’s third season.
• Because of the “The Flintstones” success, Hanna-Barbera developed “The Jetsons,” which was essentially the same format, only set in the future instead of the past.
• One of the show’s gimmicks was that the Flintstone family lived like modern humans although they were living in Prehistoric times. Although there was no running water, electricity, shoes, or engines, they still had modern conveniences such as televisions, a dishwasher, and phonographs.

All of the above information is credited to factable.com.

3. Here are some more bizarre names of towns from around the world. Today, we focus on the best/worst of Great Britain:

• Tongue of Gangsta
• Titty Ho
• Wet Wang
• Twatt
• Ugley

Steve Thought O’ The Day – The typical U.S. grocery store carries between 40,000 and 50,000 items, and one certain Quincy supermarket repeatedly changes the location of all these items way too often.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. Since he doesn’t use condiments, his grocery shopping should be easier.