Before we start this week's column, we need of a bit of sustenance. Perhaps this tuna sandwich we just found in our desk drawer. Seems a little dried out, though. Anybody got an axe?
THE QUESTION
Why, asks Judith MacKay of Victoria, does bread turn hard and yet crackers go soft when left out in the open?
THE ANSWER
It's because of the water content in the air versus the water content in crackers or the bread.
"Water tends to migrate from a high concentration to a low concentration," writes Bob Norwood, a retired professor of microbiology living in Kingston. "Crackers have a lower water content than air," he writes, "so water will diffuse into the unpackaged food and turn it soft; bread has more water content than air so it will tend to dry out if left exposed."
All foods contain water, he explains. "Some of it is bound to food molecules and some of the water is unbound and hence available to support the growth of bacteria and fungi (moulds and yeasts)." The term "water activity" refers to this unbound water and is measured on a scale from 0 to 1 (pure water). "Bread has a high water activity of 0.95, while crackers have a low water activity of 0.3," he says. "Since humid air may have a water activity of 0.7 (70 per cent relative humidity), the bread will tend to desiccate while the crackers will accept water and soften."
THE QUESTION
When hockey, football or baseball teams play a competitive group of games, it is called a tournament, writes Don Large of Kingston. However, when curlers play a similar group of games, it is called a bonspiel. Why the difference?
THE ANSWER
First off, not all curling competitions are called bonspiels, says Warren Hansen, director of event operations for the Canadian Curling Association, in Orleans, Ont. "Many people mistakenly call some of our major championships, like the Tim Hortons Brier and the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, bonspiels, which they aren't." These events are championships or tournaments made up of teams representing Canada's provinces and territories "and should never be referred to as bonspiels." A bonspiel, he explains, is a competition between curling clubs featuring a number of different events often played over a weekend. In Scotland and increasingly in Canada, he says, the word is shortened by curlers to "spiel."
He adds that curling is thought to have developed in Scotland, although there is evidence it existed in the Netherlands in the 1500s.
As for the origins of the word "bonspiel," Collected Wisdom blew the dust of its copy of the Oxford English Dictionary, which tells us the word is "of uncertain origin and history." It suggests that bonspiel might have derived from a combination of the Dutch words verbond, meaning an alliance or covenant, and spel, meaning play.
The first reference the dictionary quotes comes from the 1500s in The Historie and Chronicles of Scotland, 1436-1565 by Robert Lindsay. In this riveting page-turner, Lindsay writes about an archery competition between English and Scottish bowmen. "The kingis mother … tuik ane waigeour of archerie vpoun the Inglishmanis handis, contrair the king hir sone. … The king, heiring of this bonspeill of his mother, was weill content."
HELP WANTED
- Jackie Phillips of Toronto wonders when and where wallpaper was first used.
- Why are some old clocks said to have “two jewels,” and what kind of jewels are they? A. Rahim of Mississauga asks.
- Bill Sauvé of Lethbridge, Alta., wonders why fashion models in fashion ads are seldom pictured smiling.
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