Brain Water

Hello And Welcome

Hello and welcome. I just wanted to inform everyone that visits Brain Water that its pages will now be updated once a week. The day it will be updated is every Saturday at 11pm EST. So be sure to visit on that day to see what is new, and also visit through the rest of the week so you can view with great detail the surplus of information Brain Water has.

Today In History

July 7

1846: U.S. annexation of California was proclaimed at Monterey after the surrender of a Mexican garrison.

1865: Four people were hanged in Washington, D.C., after being convicted of conspiring with John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln.

1898: The United States annexed Hawaii.

1930: Construction began on Boulder Dam on the Colorado River.

1954: Elvis Presley made his radio debut when Memphis, Tenn., station WHBQ played his first recording for Sun Records, "That's All Right."

1958: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Alaska statehood bill.

1990: Martina Navratilova won a record ninth women's singles title at Wimbledon.

2005: Terrorist bombings in three Underground stations and a double-decker bus killed 52 victims and four suicide bombers in the worst attack on London since World War II.

2007: Live Earth, a global series of concerts designed to raise environmental awareness, was held.

Recipe of the Week

Red, White, and Blue Berry Crisp

Ingredients

1 Package White Cake Mix
½ Cup Softened Butter or Margarine
½ Cup Chopped Nuts (If Desired)
One Can of (21 Ounce) Cherry or Strawberry Pie Filling
One Can of (21 Ounce) Blueberry Pie Filling
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
Ice Cream (If Desired)

Directions

Heat oven to 350-degrees. Blend cake mix, butter, and nuts in large bowl until crumbly and set aside. Spoon pie fillings randomly in ungreased rectangular pan, 13x9x2 inches, without mixing them together. Sprinkle lemon juice over fillings. Sprinkle cake mix mixture evenly over fruit. Bake about 45 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped topping.

Recipe makes 12 servings

Facts of the Week

Harry Potter Facts

As of 2008, Harry Potter books have sold over 400 million copies and have been translated into 67 languages.

A picture of Gandalf the Grey (from The Lord of the Rings) can be seen in the collection of great wizards in Professor Dumbledore’s study in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Author J. K. Rowling recently revealed that Dumbledore is gay and he had a crush on the wizard Grindelwald, whom he later defeated in a wizard duel.

As every Potter fan knows, Dementors are deadly, magical, wraith-like creatures. Rowling revealed that they represent depression and that they were based on her own experience with the disease. The remedy to lighten the effects of a Dementor is chocolate.

Rowling is the first person to become a billionaire (U.S. dollars) by writing books.

In 2007, Rowling was runner up for Time magazine’s Person of the Year.

The death of Rowling’s mother from multiple sclerosis significantly influenced her writing, and death is a major theme throughout the Potter series.

The actress who played Moaning Myrtle is actually 37 years old and is the oldest actress to portray a Hogwarts student.

Rowling discovered “witchy” sounding names such as toadflax, goutwort, grommel, and others in Culpeper’s Complete Herbal, a famous book of herbal lore from the 1600s.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released on July 21, 2007, and sold 11 million copies on the first day of its release, breaking Rowling's earlier records for the fastest selling book of all time.

Quotes of the Week

"All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise not from the defects of the Constitution, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation."
John Adams, on the importance of a financial education

"But I know nothing more important to inculcate into the minds of young people than the wisdom, the honor, and the blessed comfort of living within their income, to calculate in good time how much less pain will cost them the plainest stile of living which keeps them out of debt, than after a few years of splendor above their income, to have their property taken away for debt when they have a family growing up to maintain and provide for."
Thomas Jefferson, on living within your means

"Remember that Money is of a prolific generating Nature. Money can beget Money and its Offspring can beget more, and so on. Five Shillings turn'd, is Six: Turn'd again, 'tis Seven and Three Pence; and so on 'til it becomes an Hundred Pound. The more there is of it, the more it produces every Turning, so that the Profits rise quicker and quicker."

Benjamin Franklin, on the magic of compounding

"Industry is increased; commodities are multiplied; agriculture and manufacturers flourish; and herein consists the true wealth and prosperity of a state."

Alexander Hamilton, on what constitutes a sound economy

"Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder."
George Washington, on getting rich quick