The ABC Life Blog

LEARNING CENTER

Barbara: This month I learned something about the bra. The bra has forever been the bane of my existence. As a young girl who developed kind of late, I was always wary of going to a party where the adolescent boys in those days thought it was hysterical to snap the bra back of all the girls and if you were caught without one you would never live it down. The ‘70s were great when it was finally acceptable and even cool to go without a bra (although now when I look at the pictures of me walking around Europe without one I blush as red as the tight little tank top I was wearing). Once I finally (thank goodness) needed a bra – and to this day – I was constantly conscious of the restricting straps, bands, wires, etc. on them. Who came up with this tortuous device?! Now I know. “Lisa Lindahl, Hinda Miller and Polly Smith were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for creating the modern sports bra. Their prototype was made by sewing two jockstraps together.” Two jockstraps? Of course – they must be the sisters of those little boys who were still torturing me! I guess you can’t win for losing.

Given that this was “B” month, how could we not look into the world of BEES!

First up was watching The Beekeeper, starring Jason Statham as a retired military operative who is now a one-man wrecking crew, unleashing  revenge on scammers who delight in and succeed in robbing people online. The Beekeeper now lives out in the country raising bees and selling their honey. If you are game to go along on the ride and accept exaggeration, humor and predictable outcomes, you will enjoy this film. Unfortunately, if you have been subject to scamming recently, you may find yourself getting angry and a bit too involved in cheering on the revenge. But the movie does remind us to be extra aware of phishing scams these days.

Second, was a look into the evolution of the phrase “the bee’s knees.” There’s a lot of speculation as to how this phrase evolved, but it’s widely believed it was first used in the 18th century to refer to something very small, although its present meaning is “something marvelous.”  This seems to be a reference to a dancer from the 1920s – Bee Jackson – and her active knees when she popularized the Charleston, or to the goodness of the pollen load carried on a bee’s back legs. We prefer the dance origin as the thought of someone’s “active knees” gives us a chuckle.

Third, we wondered: do bees actually have knees? Yes they do. Bees have six legs and each leg has a joint between the femur and tibia, known as a knee. The two front legs are used to clean the antennae. The middle two legs are used for walking and packing the pollen basket, which is situated on the two hind legs. The bee’s knees work together with the other parts of the legs to move the pollen along.

And finally, we couldn’t let this post end without trying a new cocktail: THE BEE’S KNEES. This cocktail was made from gin, a mixture of hot water and honey to make a syrup, lemon juice, and ice. It was very easy, quick and quite delicious. The Bee’s Knees cocktail was also developed during the Prohibition Era. Honey and lemon juice helped to sweeten the drink and hide the taste of poorly made alcohol. It was not too strong although it did creep up on us after a while. We both really enjoyed it. In fact, it was the bee’s knees!