Popcorn Time!

Fall is the season for popcorn-centered activities and festivals

If popcorn tops your list of favorite snacks, then you're in luck because September and October have lots of popcorn festivals to enjoy.

Valparaiso, Indiana
Today the Valparaiso Popcorn Festival celebrates its 35th year by kicking off the festivities with their Popcorn Panic five-mile run. Games, handicraft booths and more provide lots of family fun.

The highlight of this festival is its Popcorn Parade, featuring floats decorated with painted kernels and popped corn.

Marion, Ohio
Marion, Ohio's Popcorn Festival, which occurs the first weekend after Labor Day, is the largest popcorn festival in the world and typically draws over 250,000 people.

Festival-goers can watch the annual parade with over 300 floats and performers, enjoy free entertainment on four different stages or choose from over 250 food and game exhibits.

Clay County, Indiana
The Popcorn Festival of Clay County honors its native son Orville Redenbacher with an annual popcorn festival held in October.

Redenbacher became famous for developing a corn hybrid considered superior to other varieties of its time.

Festival events include the Orville Redenbacher Look-Alike Contest, judged by Redenbacher's family members, tours of the Redenbacher Family Memory Lane Museum and popcorn-eating contests. If October ends and you still haven't gotten your fill of popcorn activities, you'll be happy to know that National Popcorn Day explodes on the scene January 19.


Info Cloud
Teaching Topic: Spicing up Your Writing with Metaphors 
隱喻─文章的調味料

Hi, friends! Did you catch the metaphor in the last sentence of our lesson today? National popcorn day explodes on the scene January 19th.

OK. What's a metaphors, you ask? It's a literary device in which an implied comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something important in common.

So, what are we comparing? National popcorn day and popcorn. The comparison is established with the verb "explode".

Normally, we might say someone comes or arrives on the scene. But in the lesson, our writer picks the word "explode", thus setting up a nice little metaphor.

Right! We know that explode is what popcorn does when you heat up the corn kernels. But, Ken, there are other options besides explode, like pop.

Pop, right! That's what you do when you want some popcorn. You pop it in the microwave.

And, the popcorn explodes. So, either way, a metaphors is established to give the writing a bit of flavor.

Just like popcorn after you add some salt to it.

Grammar Gym
"If October ends and you still haven't gotten your fill of popcorn activities...."
to get one's fill of [something] 
to get enough of what someone needs
- After being in the art museum all day, Molly has gotten her fill of paintings and wants to go home.
- Before her 12-hour flight was even over, Amy felt she has gotten her fill of movies.


Language Lab
handicraft n.
an activity that involves making something in a skillful way by using your hands;
an object made by skillful use of your hands — usually plural
- The people in this town are excellent at preserving their traditional handicraft techniques.
- These aboriginal handicrafts are both creative and delicate.

kernel n.
 /ˈkɚnl̟/
the small, somewhat soft part inside a seed or nut;
a whole seed ; especially : one of the yellow seeds that cover an ear of corn
- Tina loves to use kernels of nuts in her salads.
the origin or basis of something
- The kernel of the conflict between the couple is a lack of communication.

native son n. 土身土長的人(通常指男性)
a person born in a particular place
- As a native son of Seattle, the famous quarterback always praises his hometown during interviews.

hybrid n.
an animal or plant that is produced from two animals or plants of different kinds;
something that is formed by combining two or more things
- This particular tomato is a juicy hybrid.
— hybrid adjective always used before a noun 混合的
a hybrid vehicle 使用混合然料的汽車
- The hybrid vehicle uses both petrol and electricity.


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