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Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today. Diabetes drug targets three hormones, causes major weight loss; here’s how to make the white wine martini; Darth Vader’s lightsaber could be yours; and the origins of the love heart ❤️ 

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The classic martini is simple: equal parts gin and dry vermouth, with a dash of orange bitters, and a twist.

Now imagine that same beverage, but instead of dry vermouth, you add white wine. That’s what Jeremy Buck, the owner of Charleston, South Carolina cocktail bar Coterie did, and it paid off in spades.

He got the idea from Massican winemaker Dan Petroski.

“I actually found that using wine instead of vermouth was very intuitive because you’re basically adding all the aromas and flavors that you would with vermouth—just without the sugar or the added alcohol,” said Petroski.

The swap also generates a beverage that’s not quite as dry, nor quite as high in ABV. It becomes somewhat of an aperitif, though Buck admits the ultimate product depends largely on the type of white wine you use.

A diabetes drug by the name of retatrutide successfully cleared Phase I and II trials, producing weight loss in participants similar to other commonly used medications like Wegovy and Zepbound, but more effectively.

Phase III (entitled TRIUMPH-2) will be its final test before manufacturer Eli Lilly seeks regulatory approval, according to a study it published the other day in The Lancet.

The drug is similar to GLP-1s, though it doesn’t itself contain the active ingredient typically found in the other medications listed above. In fact, Eli Lilly says it mimics those drugs, but in an all-encompassing way, targeting three distinct hormones that generate feelings of satiety while lowering blood sugar and improving the body’s insulin response.

The two effects taken together resulted in major weight loss for the 1,152 trial participants, with those taking the largest doses shedding 18.8% of their entire body weight over the course of 80 weeks (or an average of 45.5 pounds). Those taking a placebo shed 5.1% of their body weight.

The human heart and the universally-recognized symbol of the heart look almost unrecognizably different, begging the long-held question of how the symbol ended up representing an expression of the organ.

The answer lies somewhere thousands of years ago, when visual understanding of the anatomy was very limited, but philosophers were emerging as society’s most important purveyors of wisdom.

Ancient Egyptians believed the heart contained a person’s essence, whereas Ancient Greek philosophers like Aristotle believed the heart was the source of all sensation, passion, and emotion, balanced only by the tempering effects of reason emanating from the brain.

Once there was an established association between the heart and passion, desire, sexuality or love, things also exuding these qualities were naturally associated with the heart, likely including the now-extinct fennel plant, silphium.

Found in Cyrene (modern Libya), the plant fueled the regions economy, acting as a seasoning, but also an aphrodisiac and even a contraceptive. Its seed pods looked exactly like the symmetrical symbol we see as the love heart today, and one theory is this very seed represents the symbol’s true origins.

Other naturally-occurring phenomena like ivy leaves, lily leaves, and pine cones all take similar form, and have been associated with passion, love, and fertility during various points throughout history.

According to Heritage Auctions, the lightsaber that sold in July for $3.75 million was the most ever paid for a Star Wars prop.

That’s unsurprising, given that particular saber also came with the severed hand that held it and used to be attached to Luke Skywalker, before his father Darth Vader chopped it off during the infamous scene from Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back.

On Nov. 12, Heritage will facilitate the sale of the lightsaber that actually took the young Jedi’s hand. While of course used by Darth Vader in that scene, he also was wielded it in Return of the Jedi, and experts believe it will also fetch north of $1 million.

Given the ultimate price paid for Skywalker’s, we’re gonna guess it may go for a bit more than a million 😉 

Perhaps the somewhat-conservative estimate has to do with what else will be on hand at the Heritage show. Dozens of lightsabers used throughout each of the nine canon Star Wars films, along with various spin-offs and TV shows will hit the block.

That will include both sabers wielded by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker during the climax of Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, each of which are somehow only expected to fetch around $10,000.

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