Some of us have great runways already built for us. If you have one, take off. But if you don't have one, realize it is your responsibility to grab a shovel and build one for yourself and for those who will follow after you. ~Amelia Earhart
Ninety years ago this week, that wild woman Amelia Earhart made history when she became the first woman to fly nonstop across the Atlantic solo, sustained throughout the trip by tomato juide and a few squares of chocolate. When she was flying, Amelia followed three simple "food rules:"
1. She ate just enough to “prevent fatigue, but not induce drowsiness.”
2. She ate food that was simple to access since “pilots have only two hands and dozens of things to do” and
3. She only brought the lightest weight food on a flight because “…a pilot whose land plane falls into the Atlantic is not consoled by caviar sandwiches.”
Of course, she had a thermos of steaming hot coffee stowed to keep her awake on lonely, extended flights, right? Sadly, no! According to a post by the Indianapolis Children’s Museum, “She didn’t drink coffee or tea, and would use smelling salts … to stay awake on her long flights!”
Well Amelia, if only you had added salt to your coffee! As it turns out, according to foodie Alton Brown (and a Turkish bridal tradition) adding salt to ground coffee before brewing (a quarter teaspoon of kosher salt to every six tablespoons of ground coffee) enhances the flavor and neutralizes the bitterness of coffee. A little salt as a substitute for milk and sugar might have made even Amelia Earhart a black coffee connoisseur! Could coffee have saved her from vanishing just a few years after her record-settting trans-Atlantic flight?
For more about this Wild Woman, check out the Library of Congress Amelia Earhart Resource Guide. And to read about the benefits of salt in your coffee visit The Old Coffee Pot.
Use your fear...It can take you to the place where you store your courage.