Final Installment: Summer Survival Guide🔥
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Episode 122 Description
🌻 Summer is almost over! Before the warm days are over, get our last tips for making the most out of your summer. 🏕️ Recognize National S'mores day with our Five Fascinating Facts about s'mores. 📚 Author Claribel Ortega stops by to share her favorite warm-weather tips. 🌪️ And speaking of weather, Correspondent Kenny Curtis breaks down all the powerful summer storms. 🔥 And test your s'mores knowledge in today’s Trivia on the Ten! 🧐
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TRANSCRIPT:
Various Voices 0:00
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Bethany Van Delft 0:06
I'm Bethany Van Delft. It's August 14th. And this is no ordinary episode of The Ten News. This is The Ten News gets extra.
Bethany Van Delft 0:22
Some of you may already be back in school, and some of you may be going back any day now. But we here at The Ten News aren't quite ready to say goodbye to summer. So today, we are sharing our final installment of our Summer Survival Guide. Let's dive in. All summer long, we've been talking about fun ways to make the most of your summer from braving icecream headaches to finding a good beach read, we've had you covered. Since August 10th was National S'mores Day. We're wrapping up our summer survival guide with five fascinating facts about everyone's favorite marshmallow and chocolate treat. Number one, where did the name s'more come from. Most historians give credit to the Girl Scouts of America for coming up with a dessert and naming it s'mores. In their 1927 guide, Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts. No one is really sure when the name got shortened to s'mores but that's how we referenced the melting treat today. Number two, it's a mix of art and science to get a marshmallow toasted to perfection, then at just the right moment stacking it together with chocolate and graham crackers. Yumm. While wooden sticks might be most accessible around your campfire, thanks to how they conduct heat, metal skewers are the best to help evenly toasted marshmallow. We did a lot of testing. Number three, according to Guinness Book of World Records, the largest more ever made was at a community event in Middlesex, Vermont, and weighed 155.58 kilograms. Nice. Industrial blowtorches were used to toast the marshmallow and over 60 pounds of milk chocolate was sandwiched between 4x9 6-foot sized graham crackers. You know that must have taken a village. Number four, marshmallows get nice and toasty in the summer. 90 million marshmallows are bought by Americans each year, and each summer more than 50% of the marshmallows sold are toasted over a fire. I wonder what people are doing with the other 50%, it's too early for sweet potato casseroles. Number five. Of course you have to end on chocolate. Milk Chocolate is the best choice for a good melty smore rather than dark chocolate. And that's because it's higher cocoa butter content melts more easily than his darker version. What's your favorite way to make a s'more? Let us know by leaving a voicemail on our phone line, 877-Ten-news, that's 877 t e n n e w s or send us an email at hello@thetennews.com. Do you remember author Claribel Ortega from when she stopped by The Ten to talk about her book Ghost Squad. Well, she called us up recently to share a couple of her favorite summer tips.
Claribel Ortega 3:38
Okay, so I have a couple of tips from when I was a kid. The first thing I would say is always have some money in your pocket enough for your very favorite ice cream from Mr. Softee or whatever ice cream truck comes around your block because the running to get money from my parents and then trying to catch the ice cream truck before it went, it was like an Olympic sport. It was very intense. So always when you're outside playing, make sure you have a little bit of loose change in your pocket a couple of dollar bills, so you can grab your favorite ice cream. The second thing I would say is if you ride a bike, make sure your seat is cooled down before you sit on it. It can be really painful if you're sitting on a really hot bike seat. So, just wait a couple of seconds, maybe pour some water on that thing and just let it cool down before you sit. Those are my two summer tips. Hope you keep cool and I hope that helps!
Bethany Van Delft 4:30
Thanks for those tips, Claribel, no one likes a hot seat. Yikes. Hey, Ten'ers, did you know that Claribel's new book the Witchlings is coming out soon? It's an adventure tale about three witches trying to gain their full powers and not be left behind by the other witch covens it's available for pre-order at witchlingsworld.com I'm getting mine right now.
Bethany Van Delft 5:04
Is it humid where you live? August days can be so very hot and humid in many parts of the US and can lead to some very impressive weather. Our correspondent Kenny Curtis shares with us what wacky weather might be brewing outside your windows.
Kenny Curtis 5:25
Hi there, everybody, Kenny Curtis here with another reminder that wherever you are, there's weather. Right? And sometimes it's stormy weather, especially in the summer months when storms can pop up suddenly, without warning. Here's what kind of weather to be on the lookout for this summer. First of all, thunderstorms are the big ones. There's flashing lightning and thundering thunder. And there are about 16 million thunderstorms that happen every year. In fact, all over the world, there are more than 1,800 of them happening right now. But what makes a thunderstorm and why do they happen more in the summertime? Well, thunderstorms need high levels of humidity and lots of rising warm air in order to form. So that's why they're more common in the spring and summertime. But everyone knows that the best part of any storm is the lightning. But it can also be the most dangerous. Lightning is a spark of electricity. It's created inside storm clouds when the warmer air rising from the ground combines with the very cold air in the upper atmosphere. These two groups of air have different kinds of molecules that can get out of balance and generate electricity. To be honest, there's a much longer and more complicated explanation, but I'm gonna skip over that part right now so we can get to the thunder and the lightning. Now the spark of lightning in a storm is so powerful that it actually makes the loud noise we call thunder. It's true. The energy from a lightning bolt heats the air so quickly and so strongly that the air explodes out, creating the sound of thunder. That's how it normally works anyway, but lightning and thunder around the world can get really extreme. Have you ever heard the old saying lightning never strikes in the same place twice? Well, there's one spot on earth that proves that old wives’ tale very wrong. It's called catatumbo lightning, which happens only in Venezuela, where the Catatumbo River meets a lake and it's a lightning storm that happens more than 260 days a year and can go on for up to 10 hours at a time. This spot is known as one of the most electric places on earth. During the most active part of the season, you can see lightning flashes up to 28 times every minute. Whaaat? And if you think that's wild, imagine catching a glimpse of ball lightning, or as some people call it Great Balls of Fire. Ball lightning is just what it sounds like, free-floating orbs of electricity. Supposedly they also hiss. The phenomenon is very rare and there is no consensus as to what causes it but people have been spotting ball lightning for centuries. Some people have reported it breaking windows, entering buildings, and even exploding. Some even say it leaves behind a stinky rotten egg smell of sulfur when it leaves. Gross! Some storms bring more than just rain and lightning. You might also experience a hailstorm this summer. Now during a hailstorm, small chunks of ice rain down from the sky. These are called hailstones and like lightning, they're formed when the hot and cold air, hot summer air rises from the ground and pushes drops of rain in a storm cloud up into the really cold part of the upper atmosphere. It's so cold up there that these raindrops freeze into ice balls even in the summertime. And then because basically, they're now just heavy round ice cubes, they fall straight through the warmer part of the cloud and onto the ground below. Depending upon the severity, hailstorms can injure people and cause damage to buildings and aircrafts. Some hailstones can get as big as six inches around. That's a lot of ice! In America, the largest hailstone ever recorded was found in Vivian, South Dakota. It was 8 inches across and 18 and a half inches round. That's basically the size of a volleyball. That's incredible. Tornadoes are another serious weather phenomenon. They can happen any time of year but they peak in certain places during the summer months. Scientists don't know exactly how tornadoes are created, but they form inside severe thunderstorms called Supercell Storms. Tornadoes are extremely dangerous. Some can have wind speeds of up to 300 miles an hour. They can send Cars and debris flying everywhere. And like lightning, there are many types of tornadoes including the dangerous fire tornado.
Kenny Curtis 10:11
Are you kidding me? Yeah, this is a thing. Fire tornadoes are made up of flames and can reach up to 1,000 degrees inside. Now keep in mind that while these strange weather phenomena can be fun to learn about, they can still be very, very dangerous. Summer storms can be destructive. That's why it's always important to seek shelter from the storm and follow any safety precautions carefully. But it's also good to remember that most storms don't last too long, especially in the summertime. And now when a storm does blow through, you might have a better idea of what's going on out there. Because whether you know it or not, the weather is always there. See what I did there? Whether and then weather. Okay.
Bethany Van Delft 11:00
Thanks, Kenny. I love a good summer storm. From the safety of my couch, of course. Up next, It's time for...
Various Voices 11:14
What, what, what's the big idea?
Bethany Van Delft 11:17
Trivia on The Ten. Lots of families put their own spin on s'mores and other campfire treats. New Zealand adventurer Bradley Ambrose took s'mores making to a whole new level. Where did he make his culinary masterpiece? Was it a) in the middle of a hot desert? b) on top of a volcano or c) by an ocean heat vent? Did you guess it? The answer is B!
Bethany Van Delft 11:56
After a 4,000 foot descent into an active volcano in New Zealand, Ambrose made his way to a lava lake inside the volcanoes rim. From there, he put together his version of a s'more, do not try this at home. Not that you have the volcano at home. But you know what I mean? While he is an experienced climber, he is a novice and making s'mores. And he put the untoasted marshmallow together with the chocolate and the graham crackers into a foil to roast all of them together. Commenters across the internet were not happy with this method and he says he has learned a lot for the next time. Given the risk and the danger from toxins, we hope is next time is not in a volcano. Also, lighten up internet, he was in a volcano!
Bethany Van Delft 12:55
Time is up! But, before we go here's a quick note for the grownups. Thanks for listening to The Ten News. Look out for new episodes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and extras on Saturdays. The Ten News is a co-production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts and is distributed by iHeartRadio. The Ten News creative team is toasting marshmallows right now and includes Tracey Crooks, Nathalie Alonso, Pete Musto, and Andrew Hall. Kenny Curtis contributed to this episode. Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle and executive producers are Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan. I'm Bethany Van Delft and thanks for listening to The Ten News. The Ten News is an inclusive organization and appreciates wherever you make your s'mores as long as you're being safe. More s'mores, please!
