I have pretty much surrendered as a chocoholic some time back. I like chocolate in baked goods and specialty candy like bonbons, truffles, and of course various fruits and other tastes dipped in chocolate.

I suffered with severe acne as a child which would be exacerbated with every morsel of chocolate I consumed. Naturally the medical community said this did not happen when it most certainly did. Fudge brownies remain some of my most favorite treats to this day.

We celebrate World Chocolate Day, aka International Chocolate Day or simply Chocolate Day. It is a yearly celebration of all things chocolate. It goes down internationally each July 7.
 

Some historical circles mark July 7 in as the date upon which the introduction of chocolate to Europe happened in 1550.

This day should not be confused with National Chocolate Day in the United States which happens on October 28th. There are other observances in various countries as well.

Regardless, if you enjoy chocolate this is one of your days to indulge. I'm going to have a nice cup of Ghirardelli double chocolate cocoa mix in a mug of half and half. I don't do this often but the day calls for a touch of that which is normally verboden.

After all, we old bald fat dudes need to watch those carbs lest the metabolic syndrome X with it's associated adult onset diabetes gets us.
 

Fried chicken is one of those foods for which I indulge a life long enjoyment. My personal favorite fried chicken is Kentucky Fried Chicken original recipe and it is actively pursued by me on an intermittent basis with my favorite vendor being that KFC on Decker BL in Columbia SC.

The KFC location near my home on 12th Street in West Columbia simply doesn't cut it on the product or the service staff. Both are totally unsatisfactory.

I had been going to the local Zesto in Triangle City for fried chicken but theirs too has began to taste as though it were prepared in rancid oil and the wait staff began to get orders woefully wrong to the point that I never returned for terrible fried chicken and totally inept service.

We have another National Fried Chicken Day upon us.

Fried chicken is a southern concoction consisting of chicken pieces that have been coated with seasoned flour or batter and fried using the method of personal choice.

The aim of breading is a crisp coating or crust to the exterior of the chicken while retaining juices in the meat.

The scots were the first Europeans to deep fry their chicken in fat; though it was originally unseasoned. West African people had traditions of seasoned fried chicken in which they seasoned and battered chicken which was then fried in palm oil. The beginnings of what we call 'fried chicken' nowadays is the combination of Scottish frying techniques with the West African seasoning techniques. These were developed to a tee by the indigenous black cultures of the American South.

National fried chicken day is observed on July 6 and is a celebration of the evolution of fried chicken as it relates to the american palate.

Happy Fried Chicken Day to you !
 

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When I was a kid there was Jayne Mansfield. She was a playboy bunny, actress of the large and small screens, and did various appearances selling that sex appeal which was her symbology and claim to fame. I always liked her but my experience with her work was quite limited due to my age and her risque product line.

Jayne Mansfield did a lot of modeling, acting and won a Theatre World Award as well as a Golden Globe, was an accomplished singer, appeared in the pages of Playboy as a Playmate, and did nightclub entertaining. She was a major Hollywood sex symbol during the 1950s and early 1960s under contract with 20th Century Fox. She did not travel with an entourage ... rather by automobile by and large.

It was alleged that she was intimately involved with various men. The list included Robert and John F Kennedy, her attorney Samuel S. Brody, and Las Vegas entertainer Nelson Sardelli among others. Her involvement with the Kennedys has cast doubt on the nature of her passing in my mind. I failed to understand the cut throat nature of politics in general even during this earlier timeframe.

Now, it's simply a given.

While we were traveling from Charleston, South Carolina to Key West Florida pursuing my daddy's Navy career we heard on the radio that she had been killed in an automobile wreck while traveling to a venue.

At once I was saddened because this was a person that I pretty much had always known (of) and now she was gone.

That tragedy which was the concurrent losses by her children had escaped me because I knew nothing of her background. One of her children, Mariska Hargitay became a faviorite character actor of mine later in life. She had five kids altogether with two becoming actors.

Jayne Mansfield was the stage name of one Vera Jayne Palmer who was born April 19, 1933 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. She passed in an auto accident on June 29, 1967 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

She was interred in Fairview Cemetery at Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania beside her father Herbert Palmer. She has a cenotaph in Hollywood at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in California. It has an incorrect birth year.