But first, a quick primer: All of the people holding the titles of duke/duchess, marquess/marchioness, earl/countess, viscount/viscountess, and baron/baroness are part of the “peerage” of the United Kingdom, and those titles get bestowed directly from the monarch or inherited from an ancestor. Early members of the peerage were vassals of the monarch, or “servants” who swore an oath of loyalty and received land and/or money in exchange. Over time, they became a class of powerful nobles that served as the beginning of the House of Lords.

The highest of the five rankings is that of the duke/duchess. The term comes from the Latin term “dux,” which means leader—and until 1337, when King Edward III made his son the Duke of Cornwall, the title actually referred to the sovereign. Now, when a prince gets married, he’s usually named a duke; Prince William, for example, was made the Duke of Cambridge when he married Kate Middleton in 2011, and Prince Harry was made Duke of Sussex when he married Meghan Markle last year. The other current royal dukes are the Queen’s first cousins, the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent, and there are also 24 non-royal dukes, with the oldest blood line going back to 1397.

The next ranking under duke is that of the marquess/marchioness. The title was created by King Richard in 1385, and the fact that this new title was above the rank of earls pissed a lot of people off. Even now, it’s not a particularly popular title in England (honestly, I had never even heard of it before writing this). There are currently 34 marquesses, the most senior of which is the Marquess of Winchester, which was created in 1551.

After marquesses come the earls, a title equivalent to that of a count in other parts of Europe (and the female version of an earl is called a countess). Before King Canute, who ruled from 994-1035 (yes, a very long time ago), earls, or “ealdormen” as they were once called, managed provinces or shires on behalf of the king. From the reign of King Richard II onward (yes, the same guy who created the marquess rank), the title became either a life creation (only lasting for the appointee’s lifetime) or only pass-down-able through direct male heirs. However, some Scottish earldoms can be inherited by a woman and/or passed through a female line, which is why we now have 191 male earls and four countesses. The most recent earldom to be created is the Earl of Stockton, which was appointed in 1985—a pretty recent addition, considering how far this stuff goes back.

Under earls are viscounts/viscountesses, who historically were their deputies/lieutenants back when they were running their provinces and shires. The title was created in 1440 during the Hundred Years’ War, when King Henry VI, then the King of England and France, wanted to consolidate the titles of the two countries. Right now there are 115 viscounts, the oldest of which goes back to 1478.

The lowest rank in the peerage is that of the baron/baroness, which originally referred to a land-holding nobleman. Starting in the thirteenth century, barons were called upon by the monarch to attend the Counsel or Parliament—and over time, the king began to summon the descendants of those barons to do the same thing. In Scotland, in fact, a baron is the same thing as a Lord of the Parliament. There are currently 426 hereditary barons/lords of Parliament and nine hereditary baronesses/ladies of Parliament. The oldest line in England goes back to 1264, and the oldest line in Ireland goes back to 1223.

And how about the terms “lady” and “lord”? Informally, any member of the peerage up to the duke can be referred to in that manner—though dukes and duchesses should always be called by their full titles. A good thing to keep in mind the next time you find yourself amongst nobility—a peer of the peerage, if you will.

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A terrace is a raised, flat, open space that can be either attached to a building or free-standing. It’s usually larger than a balcony and is accessible through multiple entry points.

A balcony, on the other hand, is a smaller, elevated platform that’s attached to a specific room of a house or building, only accessible through the room that it’s attached to. They usually project out from the wall of the buildings they’re on, and they’re supported by columns or brackets. And unlike terraces, which can be ground-level (but still raised), balconies are always on the second story or above.

Other options for brooding include patios, decks, porches, verandas, and lanais, all of which you can find out the differences for here.

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Both grits and polenta fall under the heading of cornmeal, which is essentially a coarse flour, or “meal,” made from dried corn. Cornmeal can be yellow or white, fine, medium, or coarsely ground, each with its own distinct purposes; fine cornmeal, for example, is best used for baking, as its texture won’t interfere with the rest of the dish. Conventional cornmeal—most of the stuff you’ll find on the grocery-store shelf—is “degerminated,” which means the hull and the germ have been removed from the kernels; this creates a shelf-stable product with a somewhat uniform texture. Stone-ground cornmeal, on the other hand, is whole grain; it still has the hull and the oil-rich germ attached, making it more perishable (and artisanal) than the standard stuff.

Grits are made from coarse-ground or coarser-than-coarse-ground cornmeal, and the term can refer to both the ingredient and the finished dish, most popular in the South. Like most of the cornmeal you’ll find in the United States, grits are typically made from dent corn: a variety with a low sugar content, a soft, starchy center, and a particularly pronounced “corn” flavor. Grits can be white or yellow, both of which are traditional; historically, white grits were popular in the urban ports of the South, while yellow were more popular in the rural, inland areas.

The word “polenta,” like “grits,” can refer to both an ingredient and a finished dish—though polenta, in Italy, can be made with any type of ground grains or starches, not just corn. The corn the Italians do use, however, is historically different than the corn used for most cornmeal and grits in the United States; instead of dent corn, true polenta is made from a varietal called flint corn, or otto file. This type of heirloom corn holds its texture a bit better than dent corn, giving it a slightly different texture than grits. Purists and nerds: this one’s for you.

Although we delight in these nitpicky, hair-splitting differences, let’s be honest: you can use coarse-ground cornmeal for any of these dishes, and they will taste just great. Just stay away from anything labeled “instant” or “quick-cooking,” whether it’s grits, polenta, or anything else in the category; that stuff is dried, par-cooked, and then dried out again, and it tastes like sawdust. Stick with the real stuff—whatever it is—and you’ll be good as gold.

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But what is actually burning? What, exactly, is a rainforest? And what’s the difference between a rainforest and a jungle? 

A jungle is an area that’s densely overgrown with trees and tangled vegetation, usually in a warm place with a high rainfall. Their floors are thick with vines, shrubbery, and tons and tons of insects, making it super difficult to make your way through one. The term “jungle,” however, is a descriptive term, not a scientific one—it doesn’t actually refer to a specific ecosystem.

But “rainforest” does. A rainforest, like a jungle, is filled with thick vegetation—but unlike a jungle, it has a layer of tall trees, called a canopy, that blocks out most of the sunlight. This canopy prevents light from reaching the ground, inhibiting the growth of plants on the forest floor. So while jungles have a ton of stuff happening below your feet, rainforests don’t—most of the action is happening in the trees above.

Rainforests are Earth’s longest-surviving ecosystems, with some areas lasting in their present form for 70 million years. Tropical and/or temperate rainforests can be found on every continent besides Antarctica. Tropical rainforests sit between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, and they are hot and super humid; the temperatures fall between 70°F and 80°F year-round, with an average humidity of 77% to 88% and 80 to 400 inches of rain per year. Temperate rainforests, on the other hand, are found in mostly coastal, mountainous areas; they get their rain when the moist, hot air that comes off of the coast gets trapped by the nearby mountains. The temperatures in temperate rainforests are usually between 50 and 70°F, and they receive more like 60 to 200 inches of rain per year. You’ll find these in places like the Pacific Northwest, Chile, the United Kingdom, Japan, New Zealand, and southern Australia.

These descriptions, though, don’t quite illustrate how important these areas are to the Earth’s well-being. So here are some facts to take with you, and some context for today’s current events:

• Rainforests only cover 6% of the Earth’s surface, yet account for more than half of the world’s plant and animal species. A 4-square-mile patch can contain as many as 1,500 flowering plants, 750 species of trees, 400 species of birds, and 150 species of butterflies. The Amazon rainforest itself is home to around 40,000 plant species, nearly 1,300 bird species, 3,000 types of fish, 427 species of mammals, and 2.5 million different insects.
• A new plant or animal species is found in the rainforest approximately every two days.
• Since it’s so damp and hot on a rainforest floor, things decompose super quickly down there; a leaf that might take a year to decompose in another environment will break down in only 6 weeks.
• Rainforests produce 20% of the earth’s oxygen, and they store a huge amount of carbon dioxide. They also absorb lots of solar radiation, helping to stabilize temperatures around the world.
• Since 1947, the amount of the earth’s rainforests have been reduced by half. Approximately 100 acres are cleared per MINUTE for agricultural or industrial development.
• Rainforests are so densely packed with vegetation that a drop of rain falling from the forest’s top layer can take 10 minutes to reach the forest floor.
• Lions are called the “king of the jungle,” but they’re not actually found in jungles—they live in savannas and grasslands!

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There are two major categories of tomatoes: heirlooms, which we’ll cover below, and hybrids. The tomatoes you’ll find year-round in the grocery store are hybrids, which means that humans have cultivated and bred them for specific characteristics. Not all hybrids are bad, but the grocery-store ones are; they’re bred for resistance to diseases, firm flesh, thick skin, and storage potential, rather than, say, juiciness or flavor. They’re also yanked from the vine while they’re still green—and therefore hard as rocks—so that they don’t get crushed while they circumvent to globe to their final destination. Once there, they are sprayed with ethylene gas that induces reddening and softening—but off the vine, they can’t develop the sugars and acids and other flavor/aroma chemicals that make tomatoes actually taste good. So you get watery, cottony pucks, instead of the mind-bending globes of wonder that you’ll find at the greenmarket in the summer.

Heirloom tomatoes live on the other side of the spectrum: they’re “open-pollinated,” which means their varietal came about through natural pollination (birds, insects, wind, etc.). These types of tomatoes “breed true,” which means that if you plant one of its seeds, it will grow into a plant that bears tomatoes that look just like the parent. (Hybrids, on the other hand, will give birth to plants that exhibit different characteristics from each of the parents; it takes around seven generations for cultivars to stabilize.) Heirlooms have been grown without cross-breeding for at least fifty or so years. They come in all different colors, shapes, and sizes: perfectly oval ones; craggy, bulbous ones; heart-shaped ones; yellow, green, black, pink, striped, tie-dye ones. Their names are just as diverse-sounding: Black Krim, Mr. Stripey, Green Zebra, Brandywine, Purple Cherokees. These are the guys you’ll find at the greenmarket at the peak of the season, the ones that just beg to be sliced and salted and eaten pretty much as-is.

Beefsteak tomatoes are notable for their size—they can weigh in at over a pound each, with a diameter of 6 or more inches—and their texture: they have smaller seed cavities than other types of tomatoes, giving them a greater ratio of flesh to juice and seeds. There are around 350 types of beefsteaks out there, and they can be either heirloom or hybrid. And although you’ll mainly see the red ones labeled as “beefsteaks” at the greenmarket, they can come in all colors: pink, yellow, green, white, technicolor. The Brandywine, Purple Cherokee, and Black Krim heirlooms, for example, are all beefsteak tomatoes, too.

Plum tomatoes, also known as Roma or paste tomatoes, are oval-shaped and smaller than beefsteaks. They also have a lower water content compared to other types of tomatoes, with an almost chewy flesh—which makes them particularly suited to sauces. These are the tomatoes you’ll see everywhere in Italy, the most famous type being the San Marzano. (Pro tip: According to food scientist Harold McGee, when you’re shopping for canned tomatoes, check the ingredients; many brands include calcium, which prevents the cell walls from breaking down during cooking and will mess with the texture of a sauce.)

Let’s now move onto the world of baby tomatoes: the cherries, grapes, and cocktails. Cherry tomatoes are the small, round guys with thin skins that squirt juice everywhere when you bite into them. They’re super sweet and have a high water content, and they come in many colors; my personal favorites are the Sungolds, an heirloom type that ripens to a golden orange.

Grape tomatoes are the oblong, grape-shaped ones that you’ll often find in the grocery store; they have a lower water content and thicker skins than cherry tomatoes, making them easier to store and transport. (They also last longer.)

And cocktail tomatoes are larger than grape and cherry tomatoes, but still of the small, sweet ilk. They’re grown hydroponically, and can be found in many grocery stores, too—and as tomato expert Barry Estabrook told Food52, are probably the best ones to buy in the winter.

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Both sea lions and seals, along with walruses, are pinnipeds, which means “fin-footed” in Latin. All pinnipeds divide their time between the beach and the ocean. Sea lions are a part of the Otariidae family, which probably descended from a bear-like ancestor; seals are a part of the Phocidae family, whose descendants were more of the weasel type. Here’s what this actually means, in terms of the differences between them:

FEET: Seals have small and stubby flipper-feet that are covered with a thin layer of webbing. Each of their small toes has a little claw on it. Sea lions have much longer, more elegant-looking flippers, and they’re mostly covered with skin.

EARS: Sea lions have small flaps for ears; seals have no external ears at all, just little holes on each side of their head.

NOISINESS: Sea lions are noisy! They love to bark and bellow and growl and roar. Seals are much quieter, usually vocalizing in softer moans and grunts.

MOBILITY: Sea lions can “walk” on land by rotating their hind flippers forwards and underneath their bodies, allowing them to support themselves on all four feet. Seals do not have this special flipper joint, so they’re limited to belly flopping/caterpillaring around, like this:

In the water, seals swim by moving their back flippers side to side, like a fish tail. Sea lions swim using their front flippers as oars, moving them in a more up-and-down motion.

SOCIABILITY: Sea lions love to hang with their friends on the beach; they congregate in squads of up to 1,500, lolling and lazing about in piles on the sand. (Walruses do this too—check out this crazy live walrus cam!) Seals are more solitary, spending most of their time alone in the water and only coming to land once a year to mate.

Here are some more fun pinniped facts, because why not:

• Walruses are the largest pinnipeds, with some males weighing up to 3,000 pounds. They have mouths that act as a vacuum and suck up shellfish from the ocean floor. They also have air sacs in their necks that can inflate and allow them to float, like built-in life vests.
• Sea lions can swim at speeds of up to 25-30 miles per hour. Seals can swim up to 23 miles per hour.
• You can tell a sea lion’s age by counting the layers in his or her teeth, like a tree trunk. The average lifespan is 20 years, though some can live into their 30s.
• Both sea lions and seals have a polygynous mating system, which means there are multiple females per male. A dominant male seal will usually have three to eight females in his clan; the average male sea lion will have ten.
• Seals can sleep underwater! They also can slow their heartbeat and hold their breath for long periods of time in order to conserve oxygen.

So…which pinniped are you? (I’m definitely a walrus.)

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But before we start stocking our pantries, we need to talk about salt and acid. Salt and acid are the two major mediums in which food can be preserved; they’re the things that keep it from spoiling, and in many cases, the things that transform the food into something wholly new. When we talk about preserving (and/or flavoring) with salt, we’re talking about brining; when we talk about preserving (and/or flavoring) with acid, we’re talking about marinating.

A classic brine is a mixture made of salt and water, and it can be used to preserve and/or flavor pretty much anything: vegetables, fruits, meats, fish. (You may also see foods “dry-brined,” which means they’re covered in salt, not immersed in salt water.) Brining meat for a few hours or days before cooking it makes for a juicier and more tender final product; the salt disrupts the structure of the muscle filaments, allowing the meat to absorb more liquid (and therefore lose less moisture while cooking) and keeping the proteins from coagulating as densely as they would naturally (and therefore preventing the meat from getting too tough). Brining fish for a short period of time has a similar effect, but you’ll also see fish brined for much longer; stuff like lox, anchovies, and salt cod are brined for weeks or months. In those cases, the salt transforms the fish into entirely new ingredients; the salt inhibits the bad bacteria from proliferating and aids in the proliferation of new savory compounds, creating more complex flavors and aromatics where there were none before.

A marinade, on the other hand, relies on acid to do its job. Acids—such as vinegar, wine, fruit juices, and buttermilk—are great at killing microbes, making marination another great form of preservation. Marinades, like brines, also provide flavor, and like their salty cousins, they weaken a piece of fish or meat’s muscle tissue and allow it to retain more moisture when cooked.

So where does pickling come into this? According to food scientist Harold McGee, a pickle is a food preserved through immersion in a brine (as in brining) or a strong acid (as in marinating). So: pickles can be brined, or marinated, or both! In order to be considered a pickle, however, the food must be preserved through either method, not just flavored; a steak that’s marinated just before grilling isn’t really a pickle, for example. Though you’ll see it in other contexts, the term “pickling” is most often used to refer to preserved vegetables and fruits: think bread ‘n butter pickles, olives, preserved lemons, kimchi, and sauerkraut, just to name a few.

But when it comes to pickling, salt and acid (usually vinegar) have very different uses. Pickles that are brined, such as the aforementioned sauerkraut, kimchi, and preserved lemons, are also fermented; the salt encourages certain good microbes to flourish, while preventing the growth of other microbes that cause the food to go bad. The characteristics of the pickle depend on the salt concentration, fermentation length, and temperature—as well as the actual thing being pickled, of course.

Pickles that are dunked in acid, on the other hand, are unfermented; the vinegar stops the growth of the spoilage-causing microbes and helps to flavor whatever is being pickled, without stimulating the microbe growth that causes food to ferment. Pickling in acid is a lot faster and gives you more control over the texture of the final product, but the flavor that develops is a lot less complex.

And what about curing? Curing refers to any way of preserving food and preventing spoilage: it can mean brining, pickling, or marinating (as well as smoking, which isn’t on today’s lesson plan). If you’re doing something to food in order to make it last longer—short of, like, hiding a package of Oreos in the back of your pantry so that they’re out of your line of sight—you’re curing it.

SO, to debrief:

Brining = preserving and/or flavoring with salt

Marinating = preserving and/or flavoring with acid

Pickling = preserving with salt (fermented pickles) or preserving with acid (unfermented pickles)

Curing = all of the above

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Like many things that involve heavy amounts of alcohol, the answer is fuzzy. The first games of beer pong were played up at Dartmouth in the early 1950s, when people were playing ping pong and left their cups of beer on the table; someone decided it would be a good idea to aim the ball at the cups, and a drinking game was born. The game evolved into a competition in which opponents use ping pong paddles with the handles snapped off—no handles equals more accuracy—and aim at cups arranged in varying formations, such as Shrub, Tree, Ship, or Line. Hit the side of a cup with the ball, and your opponent drinks half the cup; sink the ball successfully, and your opponent drinks the whole thing.

Beirut—a game with a similar outcome (drunkenness) but different rules—came about in the 1980s, at either Bucknell or Lehigh. (There are disputes as to where it was played first.) In Beirut, ten cups are arranged in a pyramid shape on both sides of a table; the competitors then stand at either side and take turns throwing the ping pong ball across the table, rather than paddling it. If a ball is sunk into a cup, one of the opponents has to chug it.

But what’s the deal with the name? The game was popularized during a time when Beirut, Lebanon was in the news: in 1983, suicide bombers killed 241 U.S. Marines stationed in barracks at the Beirut airport. Supposedly, people at Lehigh felt that the U.S. should’ve bombed Beirut in retribution for the attacks, and thought the ping pong balls dropping to the other side of the table resembled bombs being dropped on the Lebanese capital. They started calling the game “Beirut,” and it caught on.

But as the game started to spread around the United States, to areas unfamiliar with the original Dartmouth version, people started to drop the name “Beirut”—and called it “beer pong” instead. (You gotta say, the name intuitively makes sense, even without the use of paddles.) So now… wait for it… both are called beer pong. Some may still use the name Beirut—and if they do, you know which game it is—but if you hear the term “beer pong,” it could mean one of two things.

A messy history, an unsatisfying conclusion: sounds about right for a drinking game. Cheers!

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An ophthalmologist is a medical doctor, or MD, who specializes in eye care. The title comes with eight whopping years of medical training: four years of medical school, plus an intern year and three years of residency. Ophthalmologists are licensed to diagnose and treat eye diseases, perform eye surgery, and prescribe and fit glasses and contact lenses; they may also be involved in scientific research relating to the eyes. Some ophthalmologists also have sub-specialties, such as glaucoma, retina, plastic surgery, or pediatrics. These sub-specialties require an additional two years of training, also known as a fellowship.

An optometrist is not a medical doctor, but a Doctor of Optometry, or OD. Getting an OD requires four years of optometry school; after graduation, one is licensed to perform eye exams and vision tests, prescribe glasses and contacts, test for certain eye diseases, and prescribe medications for certain eye-related diseases.

Opticians are healthcare professionals who are trained to design and fit glasses, contacts, and other corrective devices. To become an optician, one must complete one to two years of schooling. They don’t do eye exams or vision tests themselves—they use prescriptions provided by MDs or DOs—and aren’t permitted to diagnose or treat eye diseases.

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Cage-free, a term regulated by the USDA, means that the eggs come from hens that, put simply, aren’t caged: they can “freely roam a building, room, or enclosed area with unlimited access to food and fresh water during their production cycle, but [do] not have access to the outdoors.” Considering the conventional cage is 8 ½ by 11 inches, or the size of a piece of paper, this seems like a better lifestyle—but there are down sides, too; according to All About Eggs by Rachel Khong, cage-free facilities have more hen-on-hen violence and lower air quality than facilities that use cages.

Free-range, another USDA term, means that the eggs come from hens that have some sort of access to the outdoors. However, it doesn’t mean the hens actually go outdoors, or that the outdoor space is more than a small, fenced-in area with a netted cover.

Pasture-raised is not a term regulated by the USDA; however, if the carton says “pasture-raised” and also includes stamps with “Certified Humane” and/or “Animal Welfare Approved,” it means that each hen was given 108 square feet of outdoor space, as well as barn space indoors. This is pretty much as close to the bucolic, E-I-E-O farm vibe you’ll get when dealing with large-scale egg producers, so if you’re looking to support those practices, keep a look out for those labels.

For eggs to be Local, they must come from a flock located less than four hundred miles from the processing facility or within the same state. And for eggs to be Organic, the only stipulation is that they must come from hens who are fed an organic diet. Amount of space per hen, access to the outdoors—neither of those are specified or required, though many organic eggs are also at least free-range.

When it comes to eggs labeled Vegetarian-Fed, it’s worth noting that chickens are actually omnivorous; they love worms and bugs and larvae and other crawly things. However, in the mass-scale production sense, they’re not necessarily doing Whole30—they’re getting fed animal byproducts, like feather meal or chicken litter. So depending on the context, vegetarian-fed can actually be the lesser of two evils.

Hormone-free means that the hen wasn’t administered hormones, which isn’t particularly commendable—considering that hormones and steroids are already banned by the FDA. No Added Antibiotics is another funny term, because very few hens are administered antibiotics—and those that do end up being “diverted from human consumption” anyways.

So, given all of this information…what should you buy? Cartons stamped with the Certified Humane or Animal Welfare Approved seal are good bets—both of which are administered by third-party groups. When it comes to brands, Vital Farms, Family Homestead, Oliver’s Organic, Happy Egg Co., and Pete and Gerry’s all have particularly good reputations, as well as Safeway’s cage-free eggs and Kirkland organic eggs at Costco.

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