I was at orchestra practice last night, and apparently Mom called, and talked to John a bit, but when she talked to Hanna, John acted up a bit, apparently jealous of the attention. Hmm, I wonder how long it takes for kids to adjust to that kind of change. He seems to be doing a little better, and doesn't really seem to be antagonistic towards Hanna herself, he just seems to be jealous when we pay attention to her and not to him.

history nugget of the day:

The recipe for Boston baked beans came from the meeting of two contradictory forces: Puritanism and the slave trade. During the Puritan days in Colonial Boston, the city was rich in molasses because of a practice called a trading triangle. Boston merchants bought molasses and other sugar cane products from the West Indies. They distilled some of the molasses to make rum, which they sent to West Africa to trade for slaves. They then sent some of those slaves to the West Indies and traded them for more molasses. And so the cycle continued, creating an Africa/Boston/West Indies triangle that left Boston with an abundance of molasses and a legacy of slave trading.

At some point, one good churchgoer developed a recipe that called for beans, molasses, mustard, and onions. The beans could be prepared before the Sabbath began, slowly cooked in a large crock while the family was attending services, and used for meals throughout the weekend.

The practice caught on, eventually becoming a weekly communal event in neighborhoods throughout the city. Local bakers would call at a home on Friday to pick up the family's bean pot. They would cook the beans in their ovens overnight, and deliver them hot the next day, where they would become the traditional "Saturday night supper." It was from this practice that the city of Boston got its nickname: Beantown.