I have a Facebook friend in Jakarta, Indonesia. Angie.

She occasionally reads my blog. She and her friends however religiously watch the Key West Lou Legal Hour on the internet. You might call them groupies.

Two of Angie’s children are sick in the hospital. Dengue fever. Sad. Bad.

Say a short prayer for them.

Yesterday’s radio show was terrific! Very good! Such humility! But it was. I put a lot of time into the show’s preparation. And try to spice the presentation up a bit.

One of the items I talked about yesterday was the birth of the French croissant. It was not born in France. Rather Vienna, Austria.

The City of Vienna was under seige in 1683 by the Turks. King John III of Poland brought his army over and saved them.

The Turkish flag had and still has a crescent on it. A crescent is like a quarter moon. The bakers of Vienna in celebration of being saved baked a pastry in the shape of the crescent. They called it a kipfel which is German for crescent.

Notice no French croissant yet.

About 100 years later, the 15 year old Austrian Princess Marie Antoinette went to France to marry the future King Louis XVI. The French baked kipfels in her honor. The French people came to enjoy the kipfels as a breakfast treat. The kipfel acquired a new name. The French croissant was born!

Approximately 30 years later…..”It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Remember Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities. The French Revolution! The earlier beloved Marie Antoinette was beheaded. But the French croissant lives on to this day!

The bagel had its beginnings following the Turkish seige of Vienna also.

Vienna’s bakers wanted to honor their saviour Poland’s King John III. The King was a horseman. Horsemen wear stirrups. Stirrups are round. So the bakers made a small round bread with a hole in it. They called it a bugel. Bugel is German for stirrup.

We Americans finally gave bugels the name they are known by today. The bugel became americanized to bagel.

The moral of the story is things are not as they appear. The origins of the French croissant and
bagel are not as we might have thought. Or even cared for that matter. But an interesting historical tale in any event.

I spent the rest of my day reading. First at the Coffee House. Chatted further with Rock. I made a mistake in writing about him yesterday. He is not bartender at Azur. He is a waiter there.

Then to Borders and more of The Shack.

Following which I stopped to visit with Lisa. She had some left over macaroni in the refrigerator. I heated and ate it. This was at 3:30 in the afternoon.

The pasta became my dinner. I never went out nor ate last night.

Worry not, my weight is good. Though it may not sound it, I am watching myself. I cannot deny however that my body is crying out for carbohydrates.

Enjoy your day!