Santa Barbara Vino Train

Did You Know? - A lounge car (sometimes referred to as a buffet lounge, buffet car or club car) is a type of passenger car on a train, where riders can purchase food and drinks. The car may feature large windows and comfortable seating to create a relaxing diversion from standard coach or dining options. In earlier times (and especially on the "name" trains), a lounge car was more likely to have a small kitchen, or grill and a limited menu.

Food was prepared to order and often cooked, though items such as club sandwiches would have usually been part of the offerings. The cars were often operated by the Pullman Company, and in other cases by the railroad directly as part of the dining car department (on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway the Fred Harvey Company manned the food concession).

Did You Know? - Lounge cars operated by Pullman were exclusively for the use of sleeping car passengers, while those operated by the railroad were available to coach as well as first-class travelers. Buffet lounge cars were often found in trains which did not offer full dining car service.

On other trains they supplemented the diner and offered sandwiches, burgers and short orders at times when the diner was not serving; e.g. mid-afternoon and late night. To qualify as a buffet lounge the car had to offer both food and drink service. Buffet lounges should not be confused with snack or grill cars which did not offer a full range of libations.

Did You Know? - After the original formation of the National Broadcasting corporation in 1926, NBC network executives realized that they needed a precise way to communicate the end of their programs to their audience and affiliate stations to end confusion about when to cut away for local announcements. It was decided by a three-person committee (consisting of Oscar Hanson, a former engineer of AT&T, Earnest la Prada, an NBC orchestra leader, and the NBC announcer Philip Carlin) that the simplest way to do this would be to create a musical cue which would sound to signal the end of programs. This method had already proved successful with other stations.

The company tested this method of signaling during 1927 and 1928 when it experimented with several possible combinations of notes. The first sequence consisted of the seven notes G-C-F-E-G-F-E. However, since the original NBC chime machine was an actual set of chimes which the announcer would play 30 seconds before the end of every half-hour to signal the end of a program, it was left to the announcers to play this trademark sequence without error, which was unavoidable with such a lengthy cue. The chime sequence was shortened to G-C-F-E and then, on November 29, 1929, the cue was shortened for the final time, and the three well-known notes G-E-C were heard on NBC radio for the first time.

Did You Know? - An open mike or open mic is a live show where audience members may perform at the microphone. Usually, the performers sign up in advance for a time slot with the host or master of ceremonies.

Did You Know? - A libation (Σπονδή spondee in Greek) is a ritual pouring of a drink as an offering to a god. It was common in the religions of antiquity, including Judaism.

Did You Know? - Jícama or Mexican Turnip, is the name of a native Mexican vine, although the name most commonly refers to the plant's edible tuberous root. Jícama is one species in the genus Pachyrhizus. Plants in this genus are commonly referred to as yam bean, although the term "yam bean" can be another name for jícama. The other major species of yam beans are also indigenous within the Americas.

Jícama is high in carbohydrates in the form of dietary fiber. It is composed of 86-90% water; it contains only trace amounts of protein and lipids. Its sweet flavour comes from the oligofructose inulin (also called fructo-oligosaccharide) which is a prebiotic.

Did You Know? - The word "salad" comes from the French salade of the same meaning, from the Latin salata (salty), from sal (salt). (Other salt-related words include sauce, salsa, sausage, and salary). In English, the word first appears as "salad" or "sallet" in the 14th century.

Did You Know? - Red onions, sometimes called purple onions, are cultivars of the onion with purplish red skin and white flesh tinged with red. They can be stored 3 to 4 months at room temperature.