Anticipation: Mind’s Hype Machine

• Ancient Rome had special wells to store ice and snow. The ruins of Pompeii left traces to make us think that some shops specialised in selling crushed ice sweetened with honey.
• In China and Japan, ice was gathered to preserve food. During the Tang Dynasty, a drink was recorded, consisting of milk cooked with flour and camphor, ten placed in iron containers, and buried in snow.
• Before the Incas conquered the Caranquis, large blocks of ice were brought down from the top of the volcano. A large cauldron was filled with ice, snow, and fruit juice (and sometimes milk), and mixed until the juices and ice froze together.

• One legend claims that the Medici family organised a competition for the most original culinary recipes. It was won by a chicken seller (a Ruggeri) who submitted a composition of water, sugar, and fruit. It is thought that Catherine de' Medici brought Ruggeri and his ice cream arts across the Alps.
• Another half legend is about the architect Bernardo Buontalenti, who invented an iced dessert for Charles V of Spain in 1559, at a famous inaugural fest for the Belvedere Fort of Cosimo I de' Medici. His recipe is recorded as cold cream made of milk, honey, egg yolk, a sprinkle of wine, aromatised with bergamot, lemon, and orange.

We adopt an adventurous mindset that stands in contrast to the more cautious mindset that rears when people make their own choices.

We see the best solution with clarity and a decisiveness that is often absent when we face our own dilemmas.

We should work to distance ourselves from our own problems by adopting a fly-on-the-wall perspective and act as our own advisors.

Another distancing technique is to pretend that our decision is someone else's and visualize it from his or her perspective. By imagining how someone else would tackle your problem, people may unwittingly help themselves.

Food scientist Sam J. Porcello invented the newer version of the Oreo. He was one of the world's foremost experts on cocoa and helped develop the extra indulgent chocolate and white chocolate-covered Oreo.

The original recipe for Oreo cookies contained lard (pork fat). With the changing climate of the low-fat 1990s, the lard was replaced, and the cookie became kosher and unexpectedly also vegan.

• In 1984, The Oreo Big Stuf was launched. Individually wrapped, the snack was a massive 316 calories (a single Oreo contains about 53 calories) and took around 20 minutes to eat.
• Oreo cookies are also used in pie crusts, churros, and ice cream cones.
• In January 2017, Virginia-based The Veil Brewing Company released a version of their chocolate milk stout infused with real Oreo cookies. It was sold out within a week.
• Game of Thrones Oreo: One winter, a special edition Oreos came out embossed with the crests of the four remaining (at the time) houses. The cookie company went to the production company that made the main titles for GoT Elastic. The Oreo-meets-GoT universe took about 2,750 computer-generated Oreos with 20 million crumbs scattered throughout the Oreo-scape.