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Poker is a purely American game. Therefore, all poker tournament main events played all over the world should be preceded by the American National Anthem. Poker is just as American as apple pie, baseball, hamburgers, jazz and hotdogs.
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The exact origins of poker are unclear. It seems to have originated from a 16th century Persian card game known as As Nas. This game was played with 25 cards with 5 different suits. The game played in a similar fashion to modern 5 card stud and possessed similar poker hands rankings, such as three-of-a-kind. When Europeans began to play the game, they called it 'poque' or 'pochen.' 2 While poker's origins may lie in Europe and Persia, it truly developed in the United States.
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"As American as apple pie" is a common saying in the United States. However, the expression (its full form being "As American as motherhood and apple pie") is clearly metaphorical, rather than literally trying to claim origin, since both motherhood and apple pie predate the United States. It expresses the feeling that the concept "America" is not just geographical, but instead — along with motherhood and apple pie — is something wholesome.
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In the late eighteenth century, the largest ports in Europe were in German. Sailors who had visited the ports of Hamburg, Germany and New York, brought the food and term "Hamburg Steak" into popular usage. To attract German sailors, eating stands along the New York city harbor offered "steak cooked in the Hamburg style."
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The origin of hot dogs started all the way from the main ingredient – the sausage. There is some disagreement though as to whether the Austrians or the Germans invented the sausage. However, most people will credit the origin of sausages to the city of Frankfurt in Germany around the late 1400s. The frankfurter sausage was later nicknamed as “dachshund sausage” by a Frankfurt butcher who happened to own a dachshund (a dog with a pretty long body).
It is from Europe that the “dachshund” sausage was introduced to North America. Again it is not quite clear who actually was the first to introduce sausages with bread roll in the States. Whoever it was, the “dachshund” sausage roll became a very popular fast food in the early 1890s in Chicago where it spread to the rest of the country. People began to serve the “dachshund” sausage rolls in baseball parks and soon having hotdogs at the games became an American tradition.
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Most cultures have some sort of stick and ball game, cricket being the most well-known. While the exact origins of baseball are unknown, most historians agree that it is based on the English game of rounders.
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Many Jazz writers have pointed out that the non-Jazz elements from which Jazz was formed, the Blues, Ragtime, Brass Band Music, Hymns and Spirituals, Minstrel music and work songs were ubiquitous in the United States and known in dozens of cities. Why then, they reason, should New Orleans be singled out as the sole birthplace of Jazz? These writers are overlooking one important factor that existed only in New Orleans, namely, the black Creole subculture.
The Creoles were free, French and Spanish speaking Blacks, originally from the West Indies, who lived first under Spanish then French rule in the Louisiana Territory. They became Americans as a result of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and Louisiana statehood in 1812. The Creoles rose to the highest levels of New Orleans society during the 19th century. They lived in the French section of the city east of Canal Street and became prominent in the economic and cultural life of the section.
The Creole musicians, many of whom were Conservatory trained in Paris, played at the Opera House and in chamber ensembles. Some led the best society bands in New Orleans. They prided themselves on their formal knowledge of European music, precise technique and soft delicate tone and had all of the social and cultural values that characterize the upper class.
The one thing these all had in common? American culture developed them into their modern forms, but they all had their history elsewhere in the world
Phill