The Fish SchoolThe first public school in...

The Fish School

The first public school in the New World, in Plymouth, Mass., was partly financed from sales of striped bass.

Iceberg 100

This year marks the 100th anniversary of iceberg lettuce, which got its name because it could be shipped long distances in refrigerated railway cars. Even with refrigeration, traditional looseleaf lettuce varieties would have wilted long before they made it to the city.

Do You Have Crunchy-Style Fibi?

A new trend is soft drinks fortified with vitamins and other nutritional supplements. Mostly they’re made by small-fry companies, but Coca-Cola is said to be “monitoring” the field. (And maybe a little more than that; it has already introduced a dozen “nutraceutical” drinks in Japan, including Samson V, beta carotine-fortified Vegita Bega and Fibi, a fiber drink.)

Dukie’s Cookies

In addition to being the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles is also the Duke of Cornwall; in fact, the 130,000-acre property known as the Duchy of Cornwall (most of the land not actually located in Cornwall) is his sole source of income until he becomes King. The Duchy is currently engaged in negotiations to put the molasses and oat cookies (“biscuits”) made from grain grown organically at one of his properties in Gloucestershire on the shelves of upscale American shops. Any profits from the cookies, handsomely imprinted with the Duke’s seal, will go to charity. (Don’t worry about Chuck--he gets by on the $6 million a year the Duchy brings him.)

Wake Up and Smell the Eggs

If you really, truly can’t do anything in the morning, Breakfast Express may be your solution. It’s a machine manufactured by Welbilt, the bread machine company, that you can set to have your coffee ready for you at wakeup time--plus toast and two eggs sunnyside up (there’s a dial for firmness). It’ll set you back about $499, though. Available now from Hammacher-Schlemmer in New York; in department stores by October.

Foreign Widgets

A lot of people don’t know what a widget is, but there is such a thing, invented by the Guinness Brewing Co. in 1988; it’s a plastic device in the bottom of a beer can that releases gas when the can is opened, giving the thick, smooth head British Isles beer-drinkers associate with a traditional hand-pumped pint. If you think there’s no point in making widgets, consider this: In England (there’s no widgeted beer in this country), people pay as much as 70% extra.