Learn about Ornaments, Gifts, Antiques, Candy, Flowers, Gift Jewelry and More!

Candy → Candy, specifically sugar candy, is a confection made from a concentrated solution of sugar in water, to which flavorings and colorants are added. Candies come in numerous colors and varieties and have a long history in popular culture.

Antiques → An antique (Latin: antiquus; old) is an old collectable item. It is collected or desirable because of its age (see definition), beauty, rarity, condition, utility, personal emotional connection, and/or other unique features. It is an object that represents a previous era or time period in human society. It is common practice to define "antique", as applying to objects at least 100 years old. Collectibles are, generally speaking, the possible antiques of the future and generally less than 100 years old.

Music → In music, ornaments or embellishments are musical flourishes that are not necessary to carry the overall line of the melody (or harmony), but serve instead to decorate or "ornament" that line. Many ornaments are performed as "fast notes" around a central note. The amount of ornamentation in a piece of music can vary from quite extensive (it was often so in the Baroque period) to relatively little or even none. The word agrément is used specifically to indicate the French Baroque style of ornamentation. A very important function of the ornamentation in early and baroque keyboard music was as a way of creating a longer sustain of the note on a harpsichord, clavichord, or virginal, such instruments being unable to sustain a long note in the same manner as a pipe organ.

Gifts → A gift or a present is the transfer of something without the expectation of payment. Although gift-giving might involve an expectation of reciprocity, a gift is meant to be free. In many human societies, the act of mutually exchanging money, goods, etc. may contribute to social cohesion. Economists have elaborated the economics of gift-giving into the notion of a gift economy. By extension the term gift can refer to anything that makes the other happier or less sad, especially as a favor, including forgiveness and kindness.


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Candy, specifically sugar candy, is a confection made from a concentrated solution of sugar in water, to which flavorings and colorants are added. Candies come in numerous colors and varieties and have a long history in popular culture.

The Middle English word "candy" began to be used in the late 13th century, coming into English from the Old French çucre candi, derived in turn from Persian Qand (=قند) and Qandi (=قندی), "cane sugar", probably derived from Sanskrit word khanda (खण्ड) "piece (of sugar)," perhaps from Dravidian (cf. Tamil kantu for candy, or kattu "to harden, condense"). In North America, candy is a broad category that includes candy bars, chocolates, licorice, sour candies, salty candies, tart candies, hard candies, taffies, gumdrops, marshmallows, and more. Vegetables, fruit, or nuts which have been glazed and coated with sugar are said to be candied.

Outside North America, the generic English-language name for candy is sweets or confectionery (United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa and other commonwealth countries). In Australia, small pieces of sweet substance are known as "lollies".

In North America, Australia, NZ and the UK, the word "lollipop" refers specifically to sugar candy with flavoring on a stick. While not used in the generic sense of North America, the term candy is used in the UK for specific types of foods such as candy ... Read the rest of this article

Featured Articles on Antiques...

Antique ... Antiques are usually objects which show some degree of craftsmanship, or a certain attention to design such as a desk or an early automobile... Some valuable antiques can be bought from antique dealers and auction services or purchased online through websites and online auctions...


Featured Articles on Candy...

Candy ... In North America, candy is a broad category that includes candy bars, chocolates, licorice, sour candies, salty candies, tart candies, hard candies, taffies, gumdrops, marshmallows, and more... Outside North America, the generic English-language name for candy is sweets or confectionery (United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa and other commonwealth countries)...


Featured Articles on Flowers...

Bee ... Bees are adapted for feeding on nectar and pollen, the former primarily as an energy source and the latter primarily for protein and other nutrients. Most pollen is used as food for larvae...

Pollinator ... Nectar provides the energy for bee nutrition; pollen provides the protein. When bees are rearing large quantities of brood (beekeepers say hives are "building"), bees deliberately gather pollen to meet the nutritional needs of the brood...

Pollination Syndrome ... Wind pollination (anemophily) Flowers may be small and inconspicuous, as well as green and not showy... Insects may visit them to collect pollen; in some cases, these are ineffective pollinators and exert little natural selection on the flowers, but there are also examples of ambophilous flowers which are both wind and insect pollinated... Their flowers tend to be small and inconspicuous with lots of pollen grains and large, feathery stigmas to catch the pollen...

Ornithophily ... Flowers with generalist pollinators tend to have dilute nectar but those that have specialist pollinators such as hummingbirds or sunbirds tend to have more concentrated nectar... The nectar of ornithophilous flowers vary in the sugar composition, with hexoses being high in passerine pollinated species while those that are insect pollinated tend to be sucrose rich... Many plants of the family Loranthaceae have explosive flowers that shower pollen on a bird that forages near it...