Archive for May, 2009
What’s a CSA?
Have your neighbors offered you some baskets of strawberries, sheepishly explaining, “We signed up for a CSA this summer”? Did you nod and grimace in commiseration, wondering secretly what the heck they were talking about? CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It is a way for city folk and suburbanites to help farmers stay in [...]
Odds Of Having Twins
My good friend just informed me that she and her husband are having twins. TWINS!! Yikes!! My wife’s siblings are twins. Our old neighbors have twins. A pair of twins worked in my office. My cousin just had twins a year ago. My son’s good friends are twins. Twins are one of those oxymoronic things: [...]
History of the Stanley Cup
A few nights ago, HoganHusband and I went to a local watering hole to watch the Washington Capitals lose in the playoffs to the Pittsburgh Penguins (ouch!), and I got to wondering what this particular Cup signified, and where it came from. The Stanley Cup, I learned, is the oldest professional sports trophy in North [...]
What is Waterboarding?
Waterboarding has been a hot political topic lately (is it torture or just a “gentle” nudge for information known as interrogation?), but rarely do you hear or see what actually goes into the process. It makes you feel like you are drowning, which most people already know, but how do they do it? Several websites [...]
Cat Stevens, “Peace Train,” Yusuf Islam, and Coldplay Songs
Remember that song “Peace Train” from about three decades ago? How about “Wild World”? The artist formerly known as Cat Stevens is responsible for those hippy melodies, and he is also responsible for converting to Islam 30+ years ago and changing his name to Yusuf Islam. A host of problems between Yusuf and the U.S. [...]
What is the Cannes Film Festival?
Every year, we see photos of glam actors and actresses posing in sun-soaked southern France, in the red carpet ambiance of the Cannes Film Festival. Why is this particular film festival such a big deal? The Cannes Film Festival was founded in 1946 and is one of the world’s oldest and most influential film festivals. The only [...]
Airline For Pets. Seriously.
The next time you stop by to see Auntie Grizelda and her seven cats, let her in on this little bit of knowledge. Fact or fiction? There is an airline just for pets. Answer: Fact! The recently formed PetAirways has announced that it is launching an airline catering exclusively to Fido and Fluffy. If you [...]
Sri Lanka – Geography, Civil War, Recent Bloodbath
Sri Lanka is in the news because of a recent “bloodbath” that led to an estimated 1,000 civilian deaths. Journalists are not allowed near the war zone, so details are sketchy, and even the source of the attack has not been confirmed. Rather than perpetuate rumors, let me instead direct you to the AP news [...]
