Tag Archives: Found items

It’s Amazing!

Reading, Things, ,

I’ve had this book since I was in grade school. I only just now realized that it belonged to my Aunt Ginny. I thought it was something I picked at a school book sale, or through the Weekly Reader books. No, this book was published in 1958. Aunt Ginny would have been thirteen years old. I am sure I read it cover-to-cover at least once. It’s no wonder I became an insufferable know-it-all as a kid.

The book is part of a series based on an old newspaper column called It’s Amazing (Tell Me Why). There is not much about the column on the Internet.

Knowing that this belonged to Aunt Ginny changes my thoughts about it. I’d planned on donating it, but now I am torn. I want to check it to see what has changed since 1958.

What Makes Us Hungry?

According to ChatGPT, this chapter is a mixed bag:

“Hunger has nothing to do with an empty stomach.”

Modern science: Not true.

An empty stomach absolutely contributes to hunger, although it isn’t the whole story.

As your stomach empties it:

  • stretches less
  • produces the hormone ghrelin, which signals the brain that it’s time to eat
  • generates contractions (“stomach growling” or borborygmi)

However, people can have an empty stomach and not feel hungry (during illness, stress, or after intense exercise), so the authors weren’t completely wrong—they just overstated it.

Better modern version: Hunger is influenced by both an empty stomach and signals from the brain and hormones.

⚠️ “Hunger begins when certain foods are missing in the blood.”

Partly true, but outdated.

Scientists in the 1950s thought the brain mostly detected shortages of nutrients in the blood.

Today we know hunger comes from many signals, including:

  • ghrelin from the stomach
  • leptin from body fat
  • insulin
  • blood glucose
  • amino acids
  • gut hormones (GLP-1, PYY, CCK)
  • learned eating habits
  • sight and smell of food
  • stress and sleep

So blood nutrients are only one piece of the puzzle.

⚠️ “The hunger center works like a brake on the stomach.”

Partly true.

There isn’t a single “hunger center.”

Instead, several areas of the brain—especially the hypothalamus—work together to regulate hunger.

The brain does communicate with the stomach and intestines through nerves (especially the vagus nerve), but it’s much more of a two-way conversation than the book suggests.

✅ “When the stomach becomes more active you hear rumbling.”

This is basically correct.

Stomach growling comes from muscular contractions moving air and liquid through the stomach and intestines. It often happens when you’re hungry because of the migrating motor complex, but it can also happen after you’ve eaten.

❌ “When we are hungry, our body doesn’t crave any special kind of food.”

We now know this isn’t always true.

People can develop cravings because of:

  • experience
  • emotions
  • hormones
  • availability
  • culture

Whether the body specifically craves nutrients (like salt when sodium is low) is more complicated. Most everyday cravings are not direct signs of nutrient deficiency.

⚠️ “Appetite makes us eat a variety of foods.”

There’s actually some truth here.

Modern nutrition recognizes sensory-specific satiety:

  • You get tired of one flavor.
  • A different flavor becomes appealing.
  • This helps encourage a varied diet.

Their potato/soup/meat/dessert example is an early description of this idea, although it’s simplified.

Overall

For a children’s book published in 1958, I’d give it a surprisingly good score.

StatementToday
Empty stomach doesn’t matter❌ Incorrect
Blood nutrients influence hunger⚠️ Partly true
Brain regulates hunger✅ Correct, but oversimplified
Stomach rumbling accompanies hunger✅ Mostly correct
Appetite encourages dietary variety✅ Largely correct

I’d say about 60–70% accurate by today’s standards. The biggest change since 1958 is that we’ve learned hunger isn’t controlled by a single “hunger center” responding only to nutrients in the blood. Instead, it’s regulated by a complex network of hormones, nerves, the digestive tract, body fat, metabolism, emotions, habits, and the brain.

I may or may not continue this fact-checking. Stay tuned. Or not…

Portrait of a man wearing clothes from possibly the 1700s

The Mysterious Small Portrait

Genealogy research, Photographs, Things, ,

This framed portrait of a man in old-fashioned clothes was in the china cabinet my parents inherited from my dad’s mother. I think, however, the small portrait was from my mom’s side of the family — I vaguely remember it being at my Grandma Green’s house somewhere.

Portrait of a man wearing clothes from early 1800s

It’s been sitting on an antique secretary in our guest room for years and for years I have wondered who he was. At some point I accidently scratched a small hole in the backing and numbers appeared which intrigued me even further — maybe someone had written information about the man on the back of the photo. I planned, some day, to remove the backing to see what was written there, but doing that involved pulling back dozens of sharp bits of metal so I put it off indefinitely.

The other day I decided to get to the bottom of the mystery of the man in the portrait so I disassembled the frame by prying back the metal bits holding the photo and backing in place. What I assumed was a date written on the back of the photo was instead a series of calculations on (both sides of) an oval piece of card behind the photo. There was also another piece of card before that. Only then did I get to the photo which turned out to not be a photo at all, but an intricate drawing.

Nowhere in the writing on the paper behind the photo indicated who the man was but based on what I know about my mother’s side of the family I was able to make an educated guess that the image is not of any of my grandmother’s family. My grandmother’s family were all from a poorer part of Germany (now Poland) and they became farmers and wood workers when they moved to Northern Wisconsin. My grandfather’s family, on the other hand, were mostly college educated and from Scotland and England. In addition, the man in the portrait has a nose that resembles my grandfather’s — long and narrow with a bit of a ball on the end.

The style of clothing in the portrait, according to Google AI, could be from the regency period — 1830s. The man in the portrait looks like he is maybe in his thirties or forties so based on my family trees it could be a Tyler or a McCornack.

One other clue that I had not noticed until this morning is the decoration on the frame hanger. It seems to be of a thistle, rose, and three leaf clover. Since the Tylers came from England, I’m going to make a guess that the portrait of of a Tyler (or DeWolf) but after that I have no idea. After all, it could have simply been something someone thought nice enough to hang on their wall.

Irish Girl and Little Jack Horner

Family, Things,

When my kids were young, probably in elementary school, my mother gave them each a china doll. Andrew was given Little Jack Horner, complete with pie and stool (although those are missing). Clare received an Irish girl that sported red hair and a tartan skirt. They were supposed to be kept until they didn’t want them anymore, then, because they were destined to be collectors’ items, sold for a small fortune. Sounds familiar, right?

Well, these Ashton Drake dolls are maybe worth up to $50 right now and that is probably not going to change for the better. Neither Clare nor Andrew want their dolls, not even to try to sell. I don’t have a strong attachment to Little Jack Horner, although he resembles Andrew as a boy a bit with the blond, blond hair. I do like the Irish girl doll and will probably keep her for a while.

I don’t think that hat is actually his
She may have come with a hat