* * * * *
                                        
 How a Japanese cookie lead to 110 Powerball winners and, by the way, we learn
            who General Tso was and why we love his chicken so much
                                        
Game Day Dinner on Sunday [1] was Chinese take-out food (you know, a
tradition for the holiday season). While ordering, the topic of General Tso's
Chicken came up, because the menu for the local Chinese restaurant was
written in Engrish [2] and came out as General Tao's Chicken.

I normally wouldn't even bother mentioning this, but I just now came across
this fantastic talk on General Tso's Chicken [3] (who is also making a
documentary about General Tso's Chicken [4]) that goes into not only the
history of this classic dish, but makes the point that it is a thoroughly
American dish [5] (created by a Taiwanese chef in 1970s New York City).

Oh, about the title? That's also covered in the talk, which reminded me a bit
of Connections [6], that wonderful television series by James Burke [7].

[1] gopher://gopher.conman.org/1Phlog:2010/12/19
[2] http://engrish.com/
[3] http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jennifer_8_lee_looks_for_general_tso.html
[4] http://thesearchforgeneraltso.com/
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Tso's_chicken
[6] http://www.youtube.com/user/JamesBurkeWeb
[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Burke_(science_historian)

Email Sean Conner at sean@conman.org

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