Saturday, August 30, 2008

For the 'L' of it

Putting an 'L' back in the weekend...

Nothing to do until TLW's S6 spoilers arrive?
Find 'L' tidbits in these blogs to keep busy.


*no guarantees... but they are unique.


Complic

Closer

CanadianB

Tibette

Sunshine


- - -


'Requiem for a Dream' - has ironically enough, been deleted by CBS/Showtime
{8 min}
* credit to Virgina

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Omni 100

photo credit to ICANHASCHEEZBURGER.COM
*And he likes #42. But he quit reading the list at #66.

They're just trying to keep us busy during TC's hiatus;
after doing the Vege list, up pops an 'Omnivore' one!
So here goes, but after this I think I'm listed-out. ;-)


-1. _X__Venison - imo, off the bone is better
-2. ____Nettle tea
-3. _X__Huevos rancheros - 'si' - ole'!
-4. _X__Steak tartare - like it but never order it out
-5. _X__Crocodile - we've had gator jerky
-6. _X__Black pudding - in England
-7. _X__Cheese fondue - oh yum!
-8. ____Carp - oh yuck, I've seen'm, unlikely!
-9. _X__Borscht
10. _X__Baba ghanoush
11. _X__Calamari - and octopus
12. ____Pho - maybe? - have eaten at V' restaurants
13. _X__PB&J sandwich - did all Americans say 'yes'?
14. ____Aloo gobi - maybe? local Indian buffet is huge
15. _X__Hot dog from a street cart - only if -hot-
16. ____Epoisses - can't get unpastur. cheese in U.S...
17. _X__Black truffle - as tiny pieces in other food
18. _X__Fruit wine made w/o grapes - sure!
19. _X__Steamed pork buns - love'm
20. _X__Pistachio ice cream - yum, but hate it colored
21. _X__Heirloom tomatoes - our CSA grows'm
22. _X__Fresh wild berries - pick'm fresh, yum!
23. _X__Foie gras - my favorite is homemade
24. _X__Rice and beans
25. _X__Brawn, or head cheese - once I think
26. ____Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper - not that brave
27. _X__Dulce de leche - lovely, lovely stuff
28. _X__Oysters
29. _X__Baklava
30. ____Bagna cauda - nope, hate anchovies
31. _X__Wasabi peas - in rice cracker mix
32. _X__Clam chowder in sourdough bowl
33. ____Salted lassi - salty yogurt drink?
34. _X__Sauerkraut
35. _X__Rootbeer float - still miss The Green Store
36. _X__Cognac with a fat cigar - not simultaneously
37. _X__Clotted cream tea - hard to find good CC here
38. _X__Vodka jello - not recently...
39. _X__Gumbo - had it, and hated it
40. _X__Oxtail - in oxtail soup
41. _X__Curried goat - in a Jamaican take-away
42. ____Whole insects - not ~knowingly~
43. ____Phaal - can't take it that hot...
44. _X__Goat’s milk
45. _X__Malt whisky priced (not -worth-) $120+
46. ____Fugu - not til someone eats it first ;-)
47. _X__Chicken tikka masala - niece's favorite
48. _X__Eel - not my favorite
49. _X__Krispy Kreme doughnut - yum 'glazed'
50. _X__Sea urchin - as roe
51. _X__Prickly pear
52. _X__Umeboshi - nummy Japanese plum
53. ____Abalone
54. _X__Paneer - Matar Paneer = my fav Indian
55. _X__McD’s Big Mac Meal - embarrassed...
56. _X__Spaetzle - local deli owner is German!
57. _X__Dirty gin martini - some are horrible
58. _X__Beer above 8% ABV - in Belgium
59. ____Poutine - gravy & cheese fries? woo
60. _X__Carob chips
61. _X__S’mores - 11 seconds in microwave...
62. _X__Sweetbreads - I wanna try the TC ones
63. ____Kaolin - you mean the mineral?
64. ____Currywurst - Jaipor meets Munich?
65. ____Durian - not likely, either
66. _X__Frogs’ legs
67. _X__Beignet, churro, e-ear, funnel cake (all)
68. ____Haggis
69. _X__Fried plantain
70. ____Chitterlings, andouillette - no chitlins
71. _X__Gazpacho
72. _X__Caviar and blini - but not together
73. ____Louche absinthe
74. _X__Gjetost, brunost - love Swedish brown cheese
75. ____Roadkill (Deer, etc. accidentally run over)
76. ____Baijiu - no Chinese vodka for me
77. _X__Hostess Fruit Pie - 'yes' I confess
78. _X__Snail - sounds better en francais ;-)
79. ____Lapsang souchong - smoky tea? hmm
80. ____Bellini - peachy champagne sounds good
81. ____Tom yum - 'ew' to cilantro, head-on prawn
82. _X__Eggs Benedict
83. _X__Pocky - love Japanese snacks
84. ____Tasting menu at a 3* Michelin restaurant.
85. _X__Kobe beef - in a mini 'hotdog', no less!
86. _X__Hare
87. _X__Goulash - see 'Gumbo' above...
88. _X__Flowers - violet, nasturtium, squash
89. ____Horse - not that I know of
90. _X__Criollo chocolate - in eco cocoa
91. _X__Spam - now there are new flavors?...
92. _X__Soft shell crab -none are truly soft!
93. ____Rose harissa
94. _X__Catfish - farmed - pretty bland
95. _X__Mole poblano
96. _X__Bagel and lox - not combined, actually
97. _X__Lobster Thermidor
98. _X__Polenta - see 'Gumbo' again ;-)
99. ____Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
00. ____Snake

Since they inspired me to do mine, I give you StickyGooey's list, and Andrew's original Omni 100.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

OPEN-ing shot

Will skipping the Os lead to #1 for Andy? The U.S. Open started this week, the day after the Olympics ended. And I found out that's why Andy Roddick (former #1) skipped being on our Olympic team... he wanted to be rested for the Open. I suppose the wish for a medal was outweighed by prize money, since even the worst Open player gets $3000 for qualifying. But check this:
U.S. Open Prize Money (2007)

Singles (Men's or Women's brackets)
Winner gets $1,400,000, 2nd place gets $700,000

Doubles (Men's, or Women's brackets)
Winners each get $200,000 , 2nd place $100,000 each.

Mixed Doubles (Teams of 1 male/1 female)
Winners each get $75,000, 2nd place, $35,000 each
Wow, so you & a partner can play your hearts out and win the Mixed Doubles title, (ta-da!) and still each make le$$ than someone who came in 15th in Singles play? (U.S. Open stats)

Now we know why there are so few 'mixed' partnerships!
But how did those prizes get so uneven, anyway? Do viewers (or advertisers?) really not want to watch 'mixed' teams?

Monday, August 25, 2008

Olympic Oops

A portrait of Myra Hindley, the Moors Murderess convicted of killing children, was included in the British images in the 'London 2012' Olympics montage shown to Beijing athletes. 'Oops'

It was actually a photo of an artwork 'Myra' made out of children’s hand prints, done by artist Marcus Harvey several years ago as part of a Shock Art showing. So, is showing a picture of this the same thing as showing an actual photo of the woman herself? Since she is recognisable, I can understand why relatives of her victims would object even though it was presented as part of a piece of art. Original article from the Telegraph. (incl. 2 min video)

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Real Cut-ups

pic thanks to courier-journal.com
Should I have captioned this 'My Life on the D-ward'?... since here's Kathy G. visiting the amputation ward at Walter Reed Military Hospital.
That was a good finale for the season, but a hard episode for me to watch. But for going where few celebrities go, to bring cheer to the military personnel that came back with injuries that will never go away, KG got a very good review:
''She's worried, though, so she tours some of the wards where soldiers are undergoing rehab. She finds it more intense than a combat zone, but Griffin carries on with laughs and big smiles. She's good one on one. "You handsome guys are all the same," she says to one of them...

See Kathy crying in the hall, where the men can't see her. She's more confused than ever - still trying to gauge what kind of stuff to do on stage...

See Kathy bomb. Big time, which is something we've never seen before, especially on shows that can be edited... Instead of laughs, she gets stares blanker than a barn wall. She's dying out there. So she decides to toss out her act and go totally ad-lib. Presto, change-o, she connects with them and the laughter starts rolling in... Later several people tell her that they're glad she came -- that she boosted the boys' morale. Mission accomplished.'' (the full review is here)
Nine minute clip from the show: [video]

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Truly Uneven

Liukin flies in her final uneven parallel bar routine.
The Associated Press tries to explain why Liukin, who tied with He, nevertheless ended up with the silver medal:


He and Liukin both finished with 16.725. They had identical 7.7 start values (the measure of a routine's difficulty) and they each had a 9.025 for execution after the highest and lowest of the six judges' marks were tossed out. The execution mark is based on the perfect 10 scale, and the first tie-break takes the average of the four deductions that counted*. He and Liukin were still tied after that.

For the second tie-break, the three lowest deductions that counted are averaged. When that was done, He had .933 in deductions and Liukin had .966.
Got that?

Weirdly, this rule is only in the current Olympics.
Yes, its true. Had this taken place in years past, or in the Nationals, or during the World Championships then two golds would have been awarded.


Seems like the 'uneven' part of this event was in the new rules.
------------------------------

eta:
*No info given re: who decided which deductions count either.

plus:
A valid rant about how this seems 'funky' to viewers. (4 min) [video]

For the 'L' of it

Putting an 'L' back in the weekend...

Nothing to do until TLW's S6 spoilers arrive?
Find 'L' tidbits in these blogs to keep busy.


*no guarantees... but they are unique.


GenderS

SnowyLover (music 'off', lower left)

JenW

RingB

Chakra


- - -


WNIF 06 - movie rec of D.Snarker

{9 min}

Friday, August 22, 2008

100 Vegies

This book has nothing to do with the list, but its nice! Vegies by the numbers...

These two bloggers threw down the Vegetable Gauntlet:
DogHill Kitchen -and- Feeding Maybelle.
And since I don't have Top Chef to recap, here goes...

'See how many of these 100 you have tried.'

1. _X__ Edamame
2. _X__ Cha Soba (prefer regular soba)
3. _X__ Arame (love a good seaweed salad!)
4. ____ Earth Balance Buttercream (?)
5. _X__ "Homemade" sprouts (homegrown)
6. ____ Green Bamboo Rice
7. ____ Absinthe
8. ____ Eat at raw restaurant (do at home, no e.coli)
9. _X__ Fresh (real) wasabi
10. ____ Deep fried pickle
11. _X__ Fiddleheads (baby fern heads)
12. _X__ Garlic stuffed olives
13. ____ Smen (maybe in a restaurant)
14. ____ Goji Berries
15. ____ Shiso or Perilla
16. _X__ Amaranth
17. ____ Pomegranate molasses (had'm but not together)
18. ____ Water convulvulus (Water Spinach)
19. _X__ Eggplants: Japan, Indian, Sicilian, EasterEgg(!)
20. _X__ A Zen Buddhist Vegan Meal
21. ____ Kohya Dofu
22. _X__ Wild Asparagus (as kid, picked it near home)
23. _X__ Elderberry
24. ____ Candlenuts (kemiri)
25. _X__ Salsify
26. _X__ Nutritional Yeast
27. ____ Pandan (maybe when out to eat?...)
28. _X__ Roman cauliflower
29. _X__ Anything with acorn flour
30. ____ Poi
31. ____ Chaya (tree spinach)
32. ____ Pitahaya (dragon fruit)
33. ____ Asafoetida
34. _X__ Fried plantains
35. ____ Basil seeds (grow basil, but never ate seeds)
36. ____ Cardoon
37. ____ Durian (eww, seen it but never opened one)
38. ____ Ground Cherry or cape gooseberry
39. ____ Fresh water-chestnut
40. _X__ Cashewnut cheese
41. _X__ Nettles
42. _X__ Tofurky, or any vege product resembling meat
43. _X__ Kimchi (at Kang Suh~sp?~ in NYC)
44. _X__ Masala Dosa (at a local Indian restaurant)
45. ____ Lotus Seed
46. _X__ Matcha (powdered green tea, in foil packets!)
47. ____ Loubie Bzeit
48. _X__ Quince (used to have a quince by the garage)
49. _X__ Blue Potatoes
50. ____ Injera - ew, sour fermented pancakes?
51. _X__ Nasturtium
52. _X__ Turkish Delight or Lokum
53. _X__ Spruce tips (even made boiled 'spruce tea')
54. ____ Breadfruit
55. ____ Mangosteen
56. _X__ Swede or Rutabaga
57. _X__ Garlic Scapes (taught niece to cook w/garlic buds)
58. _X__ Lavash (had 'lavash pizza' in June w/my cousins)
59. ____ Candied Angelica (maybe on a cake?... dunno)
60. _X__ Rambutan (I've had lychee nuts)
61. ____ Sambal (if a restaurant put it on, I didn't know it)
62. ____ Bhutanese Red Rice
63. _X__ Candy-cane /Chioggia beets (our CSA grows'm)
64. _X__ Mango
65. _X__ Ras el Hanout (to make a Top Chef recipe ;-)
66. ____ Vegan marshmallow (are T.Joe's vegan?)
67. _X__ Umeboshi (had it for breakfast in Japan)
68. _X__ Red Currants (and black currants, love'm)
69. ____ Puy or French lentils
70. _X__ Millet
71. _X__ Fresh Bamboo shoot (prob., in Japan)
72. _X__ Jerusalem artichoke
73. _X__ Wild strawberry
74. ____ Jambool
75. ____ Po cha or Yak butter Tea
76. _X__ Adzuki beans
77. _X__ Shirataki (have my zero carb ones in my frig!)
78. _X__ Manioc, yucca, cassava
79. _X__ Quinoa
80. ____ Ramps (I have leeks in my frig, but no ramp)
81. ____ Chufa (sedge is edible?...)
82. _X__ Purslane (have some growing wild right now)
83. ____ Curry Leaves (Kadipatta)
84. _X__ Sorrel
85. _X__ Sumac (had sumac 'lemonade')
86. ____ Vegan cupcake (maybe? but doubt it)
87. ____ Montreal bagel (I had cafe au lait in Montreal)
88. ____ Peri-peri
89. ____ Syllabub
90. _X__ Chartreuse (we cooked w/it long ago - yuck)
91. ____ Kamut berries
92. _X__ Kalamansi Lime (had 'bitter orange', looked same)
93. ____ Aloe
94. _X__ Morels
95. _X__ Raw “bread” (I've had bread dough, that count?)
96. ____ Dandelion wine
97. _X__ Rosti (fried shredded potato with cheese, yum!)
98. ____ Loomi
99. ____ Stinky tofu (sounds awful...)
00. _X__ Something grown by you (lots n lots)

I'm at about 50 so far... if you'd like to do your own tally, see the lists on their pages (links above) to figure out your unknown ones.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Medal Mettle

I want to see those jade inserts close up!
Just giving a bit of love to the U.S.'s bronze medalists.
The United States has over thirty bronze medals in the Beijing games, but we rarely get to see these 'third tier' athletes do their thing or collect their medals. So here's a big congrats to the folks that worked so hard to collect that hardware.

Go here to see the list of our bronze medalists:

Because Bronze is golden too...


P.S. BTW, who names a girl 'Beezie', anyway? (16 sec video)
[Beezie falls, '07]

Saturday, August 16, 2008

For the 'L' of it

Putting an 'L' back in the weekend...

Nothing to do until TLW's S6 spoilers arrive?
Find 'L' tidbits in these blogs to keep busy.


*no guarantees... but they are unique.


Beautifool

Hyperv

Lilos

GirlsInt

PinkIs



- - -


When You Kiss Me - music video

{4 min}

Sunday, August 10, 2008

No Slowpokes

hard to tell the gals from the guys, isn't it?
USA women took gold, silver & bronze in sabre!

One of my old roommates was a fencer. And in her honor I pay attention every time they show women's sabre, foil, or epee matches during the Olympics. And this year I was amazed to see our USA ladies pull off a sweep, the first ever for an American team - wtg!

Interview (2 min) with our Ward (bronze) and Zagunis (gold), 2/3rds of our sweeping sabre three. *Sorry, Jacobsen (silver) wasn't there.
[video]

Saturday, August 9, 2008

For the 'L' of it

Putting an 'L' back in the weekend...

Nothing to do until TLW's S6 spoilers arrive?
Find 'L' tidbits in these blogs to keep busy.


*no guarantees... but they are unique.


Desert

Gaymo

HeartF

PulpF

ConnieL

Friday, August 8, 2008

Wiz Woz


Steve Wozniak, the Wiz of Apple, prefers to be called just 'Woz'.

And he's not dating Kathy Griffin. But he did go out with her a few times. In all other respects he seems relatively normal for a billionaire. And if you really want to know what he thinks, you can post a question for him on his website!

opens in new window: Write Wiz Woz

Saturday, August 2, 2008

For the 'L' of it

Putting an 'L' back in the weekend...

Nothing to do until TLW's S6 spoilers arrive?
Find 'L' tidbits in these blogs to keep busy.


*no guarantees... but they are unique.


GayLep

Brill

Movies

Corr

Bonsoir