Wo! Tough question. Trying to decode the Latin without success

Sunny here too, with temps all the way up in the forties. Melt, snow, melt.

TM

Me thinks I know this one :).

Annette

AAhh, Annette - no surprise you would know - smarty pants indeed!! Dulcificum - Dulce is sweet or soft, I think. Need to think a little more about this!!

It is +4C here which is about 40F - yea!! Sunny and the ice and snow are going fast. The little front garden that I filled with bulbs last fall is almost shed of the snow pile, and green shoots are popping up. Soooooo happy. Lily my ginger cat is sitting in the sunny window like a solar-collector, surveying the street below. I should go for a walk before I start, just thinking how much I can do as I am still a bit short of breath, and my voice is not 100%. I don't want to miss any hours this week, that's for sure.

Sorry for the ear-worm Cynthia. I have one of the 70's songs from the movie going through my mind - it has been there for a while!! I'll to be back to play!

Nancy.

TM, we are supposed to hit 60, but it sure doesn't feel like it now. Maybe the sun will change the cold to warmth. Fingers crossed.

Apparently, people use this in a game at times. They start by eating the miracle fruit. Try looking at the second word for a hint.

Sorry, I never posted this message! We received some very sad news just as I had the message on preview-one of John's closest friends died while surfing. Only 36. He had seizures and was told to quit surfing, but he loved it so much. John is in Colorado for my "second son's" bachelor party (they grew up like brothers) and looks like he will be heading to San Diego unexpectedly. Don't you just wish you could cocoon your kids all their lives? I hate seeing him so heartbroken.

Anyway, there is a clue in my first post, too. Too bad the Miracle Fruit can't alter life a little.

Cynthia

Cynthia, sad to hear about your son's friend's death. A reminder that in the midst of joy life can bring such tragedy. And too far away to give him a hug but at least you can give him a listening ear.

Reinforces the fact that trivia is after all trivial.

This post was edited by mnwsgal on Sun, Apr 6, 14 at 17:00

Yes, Bobbie, but sharing time and conversation with all of you is something I look forward to every week!

No matter my mood, all of you can "turn that frown upside down!" We do tend to use one thing in our experience to alter another experience. Yes, that is sort of a hint.

Cynthia

So sorry you've had such sad news, when this happens to one so young it's even harder to bear.

Annette

I also look forward to our conversations and the wit and subtle clues of our trivia. Today's question and subtle clues have me pondering. No answers, yet.

Perhaps the fruit has a core or pit which is bantered about. Or seeds. And it is sour. And soft. Last clue has me thinking of another saying, "turn ----- into ��"-------.

Have you ever noticed how kids love to give people really sour candies? They always get so tickled by it. Makes me laugh just thinking of how they giggle. It would be nice to avoid tasting such things.

My mother used to put vinegar on her green beans. It really is yummy, but then she was not a big fruit eater. Had she eaten a miracle fruit first, who knows...

Cynthia

Wait, is whistling a clue? Not this it gives me one, but....

Nancy.

I saw this when I was perusing Logee's plant list, I used to order from them but that was years ago, this is where I bought my first Brugmansias, alas they no longer send to Canada but I still like to see what they have and then see if I can find a source in Canada.

Cyn I like vinegar on my poached eggs, put on at the table not in the cooking water. Miracle Fruit would absolutely ruin this for me. Come to think of it I like vinegar on lots of things, cheese and onion sandwiches, fried egg sandwiches, even roast beef and onion sandwiches and especially chips, french fries to you guys. I loves my vinegar LOL. Now, if I was going to suck on a lemon well that's a different matter.

Annette

So many uses for flavoring with vinegar that I have never tried. I only think about vinegar in making salad dressings and rarely do that even. So, do you have some kind of vinegar dispenser that is readily at hand, like a cream pitcher, to pour on your food?

I am a chips purist preferring my ff with only a light salting and only use catsup if they are very dry, in which case I usually don't eat them. For me it is rare to find good french fries anymore so I rarely order them.

Hmm, isn't lemon citrus something?

My mother kept the vinegar in an antique crackled glass cruet that she put on the table when needed.. Now, I have it and I do love using it. It is so pretty.

Annette, how right you are. Nancy, puckering (as one does to whistle) was a clue, intended to start you thinking about sour foods.

Now, can you pick up on my other clues? Annette gave a couple great ones, too!

Cynthia.

Okay, it is time for bed. You have until early evening tomorrow to play with this. I will try to get back with a clue around lunchtime, but that is not guaranteed. Life at school is never predictable.

Annette, feel free to chime in, you sweet person, you. You make even a sourpuss smile, I bet. ;)

Cynthia

Is there a kind of fruit that when eaten gives you some protection against later sourness?

TM

TM, you're almost there :).

Annette

So is it something that makes sour things sweet? As odd as that sounds, I seem to recall something about such a thing, somewhere on the edge of my memory.

Nancy.

Why is it called Miracle Fruit?
From the clues I gather that its fruit is so sour that other sour foods afterwards no longer taste sour. They taste sweet instead.
I wonder how long this effect lasts?

This post was edited by mnwsgal on Mon, Apr 7, 14 at 15:19

Nancy now you're starting to groove :).

Annette

You guys are good!

I would say that TM and Nancy both have it, Annette, so four stars for all three of you. Bobbie, you were getting there, but the fruit itself is not terribly sour. Here is the low-down-first part from linked article and second paragraph from Wikipedia.

Synsepalum dulcificum (Miracle Fruit)

The so-called âÂÂmiracle fruitâ may look normal, but it has one very unusual property: it has the ability to make sour foods taste sweet. If you chew one miracle berry before a meal, youâÂÂll notice that vinegar begins to taste as sweet as apple cider, and lemons become candy-like. This seemingly drug-like effect has given rise to âÂÂflavor-tripping parties,â in which groups of people chew miracle fruit and then marvel at the sweet flavors of âÂÂsourâ foods.

The berry itself has a low sugar content and a mildly sweet tang. It contains a glycoprotein molecule, with some trailing carbohydrate chains, called miraculin. When the fleshy part of the fruit is eaten, this molecule binds to the tongue's taste buds, causing sour foods to taste sweet. At neutral pH, miraculin binds and blocks the receptors, but at low pH (resulting from ingestion of sour foods) miraculin binds protons and becomes able to activate the sweet receptors, resulting in the perception of sweet taste. This effect lasts until the protein is washed away by saliva (up to about 60 minutes).

Thanks for playing and as always, for being patient and waiting so long for your stars.

Here is a link that might be useful: Strange fruit

Oh, and feel free to use the tattoo if you have been considering body art. Ha-didn't pay attention to the source when I copied it. ;)

Cynthia

Well huh! Isn't that interesting. I never heard of this before but I'm going to check it out. It sounds like there is some cool chemistry going on that I need to know everything about. Bonus for me. Thanks, Cynthia.

TM

Hmmmm, I must not have hit the submit button so let's do it right this time. Here's a little video on this.

Here is a link that might be useful: Miracle Berry

Very cool!! Stuff gets stuck in my brain and while it is there, it is no earthly use to me if I can't remember why it's there - lol.
Thanks for the fun, Cynthia!!

Very interesting. Sounds like a miracle of chemistry to me.
Thanks for puzzler.

Now, it is TM's challenge to explain it to us all! :)

Have a happy week all.

Cynthia

I think your answer described it as well as can be done, Cynthia. I did look up more about it, but what I found was either similar or details that were too fine to matter.

DW and I will be traveling tomorrow (Saturday the 12th) so I may not be able to join you all for trivia. Hope it's a really hard one. >:)

TM