True Story: Amadeus is Not Mozart's Middle Name

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It's one of the most famous three-named names in world history. Only one problem: That wasn't Mozart's name. Oh, the Wolfgang and the Mozart are right. But "Amadeus" was not Mozart's middle name.

It might seem silly at first to ask the question, "What was Mozart's middle name?" Given his worldwide fame, centuries after his death, given that Mozart's music is everlasting and as popular as ever today. But especially given that the Oscar-winning movie about him made in 1984 was named Amadeus.

Surely the movie didn't get his middle name wrong? But it did! There's a reason for that, though, as we shall see. Mozart's middle name wasn't the only thing that movie drilled into public consciousness that turned out to be wrong: There was also the lie that Salieri murdered Mozart (he didn't).

So if Amadeus was not Mozart's middle name, what was? And why does nearly everyone today think that Amadeus was Mozart's middle name?

Fact: Mozart was baptized on January 28, 1756, and his baptism record shows his name to be "Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart."

Fact: Mozart's father, in a letter shortly after his son's birth, stated that his son's name was "Wolfgang Gottlieb Mozart."

"Theophilus" and "Gottlieb" are actually the same name: One is the Greek version (on his baptismal record), and Gottlieb is the German version. That is Mozart's real middle name: Gottlieb, not Amadeus.

So where does Amadeus come from? It comes from the Italian version of his real middle name, which was Amadè. Mozart had a habit of referring to himself in the language of his location, or in the language of the person with whom he was corresponding. He was a polyglot. When writing or speaking to a German, he would use Gottlieb, for example.

Beginning in 1770, however, young Wolfgang appears to have developed a fondness for the Italian Amadè, and from that point mostly used that version of his middle name.

That still doesn't get us to "Amadeus." This does: One thing the movie gets right about him is that Mozart had a sense of humor. He occasionally, for fun or giggles, used a pig-Latin by adding "us" to words, or to his name. So Wolfgang Amadè Mozart became, on just a few occasions in writing, "Wolfgangus Amadeus Mozartus." It was a joke.

And yet, even in his own time, the "Amadeus" version of Amadè seemed to catch on among others who were writing about him. His own joke about the Latin version of the Italian version of the German version of his Greek-derived middle name caught on with the public!

From the 1800s forward, even scholars began primarily using Amadeus. So even though "Amadeus" is not really Mozart's middle name, "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart" is the name that goes down in history.

Who is Walgreens Named For? Do Any Walgreen Family Members Still Work for the Company?

The Walgreens chain of drugstores was founded in Chicago in 1901. The first store was located in Barrett's Hotel, which was at Cottage Grove and Bowen Avenues on the South Side of Chicago. But who put the "Walgreen" in "Walgreen's"?

The namesake of the Walgreens pharmacy giant was Charles Rudolph Walgreen Sr., who was born in 1873 and died in 1939. Charles Walgreen Sr. was the son of Swedish immigrants. He graduated from Dixon Business College before apprenticing to a druggist. He became a registered pharmacist after moving to Chicago in the 1890s.

After that first store launched in 1901, Charles Walgreen Sr. expanded to four stores by 1913, and there were more than 20 "Walgreen Drugs" stores by the 1920s. Two things helped the franchise expand even quicker: Walgreens filled prescriptions for whiskey during Prohibition; and Walgreens stores introduced the malted milkshake to America at its lunch counters in 1922.

Before long, Walgreen expanded his chain of drugstores to the states bordering Illinois. By the time of Charles Walgreen Sr.'s death in 1939, there were more than 600 Walgreens retail locations.

When the founder died, his son, Charles Walgreen Jr., took over the company. He served into the 1950s, and then his son, Charles Walgreen III, ascended to the top of the company heirarchy.

Charles Walgreen III retired as CEO of Walgreens in 1998. He was the last of the Walgreen family to run the company. But not the last family member in senior management. One of his children, Kevin Walgreen, began working as a shelf-stocker in Walgreens stores in 1979, worked his way up to assistant store manager, and became a store operations vice president in 1995.

In 2006, Kevin Walgreen was named a Senior Vice President of Store Operations of the Southern Region. But in 2009, he stopped down from that position, resigning from the company his great-grandfather founded in 1901.

Today, there are no more Walgreen family members involved in running the massive drugstore and retail company that bears the family name.

How Long Does Rice Last?

How long will rice last in storage? How long will it keep before it goes bad? Many people have the impression that white rice will keep almost forever. Not quite! But white rice does have a long shelf life. Brown rice, on the other hand, lasts a far shorter amount of time.

Whenever I'm having rice, I think of the old joke by comedian Mitch Hedberg. "I like rice," Hedberg would deadpan. "Rice is great when you're hungry and you want 2,000 of something."

The Shelf Life of White Rice

You can keep white rice in your pantry, in the packaging in which you bought it, for around five years before it starts to lose flavor and nutrients. But there are ways you can get a lot more shelf life out of that white rice.

If you take it out of its packaging and transfer the white rice to an airtight storage container, especially one that allows you to pump oxygen out of the container, your white rice will last around 10 to 15 years.

Want an even longer shelf life? Make sure your storage container allows you to remove all the air, and will seal airtight, then store your rice at 40-degrees Fahrenheit (around 4.5 degrees Celsius) or lower. Now, that white rice will last for around 30 years.

So, no, the shelf life of white rice is not "forever." But it will keep for years or, with the right storage method, for decades.

How Long Does Brown Rice Keep?

Brown rice is a whole different ballgame compared to white rice. Brown rice grains contain oils, and oils go bad. So you should always think of the shelf life of brown rice as around six months.

How Long Can You Keep Cooked Rice in the Fridge?

Have leftovers? Want to store that left-over rice in the fridge? Treat it as you would any other leftovers: Eat it within three days, four days tops.