moon phases

Started this before change to "New Blogger", as backup in case of trouble with digiphoto blog "In a Small Dark Room", or rants & links blog "Hello Cruel World" . Useful - at one stage Dark Room was there, but like the astrophysical Dark Matter, we could't see it ... better now, but kept Just In Case.

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There is nothing. There is no God and no universe, there is only empty space, and in it a lost and homeless and wandering and companionless and indestructible Thought. And I am that thought. And God, and the Universe, and Time, and Life, and Death, and Joy and Sorrow and Pain only a grotesque and brutal dream, evolved from the frantic imagination of that same Thought.
Mark Twain (letter to Joseph Twichell after his wife's death)
[me, on a bad day]

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(and my Wish List)

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www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/03/09/mcdonalds.salad.reut/
McDonald's salad fattier than burger
Tuesday, March 9, 2004 Posted: 6:47 AM EST (1147 GMT)
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Global hamburger giant McDonald's latest line in healthy looking salads may contain more fat than its hamburgers, according to the company's Web site.

www.fact-index.com/i/in/incitatus.html
Incitatus
Incitatus was the name of Caligula's favored horse. Some have indicated that the horse was attended to by eighteen servants, and was fed oats mixed with gold flake; according to Suetonius, Incitatus had a stable of marble, with an ivory manger, purple blankets and a collar of precious stones. Suetoniusz wrote also that Caligula supposedly wanted to make his horse a Consul.

The horse would also "invite" dignitaries to dine with him, and had a house with full complement of servants to entertain such guests.

One popular anecdote indicates that Caligula once brought Incitatus into the Roman senate and appointed the animal senator.

www.chez.com/encrier/Sidefiles/caligulas_incitatus.htm
Incitatus was the horse of Caligula Gaius Caesar. Caligula lived from AD 12 to 41, as the Roman emperor, son of Germanicus and successor to Tiberius (in AD 37). Through his unrational and cruel behaviour he became known as being mentally unstable.

The Roman historian Suetonius, reported just a generation or two after Caligula's death that "besides a stall of marble, a manger of ivory, purple blankets and a collar of precious stones, he even gave this horse a house. . . . It is also said that he intended to make him Consul." By the time of the less cautious historian Dio Cassius, the rumour had become "fact": "He even promised to appoint [his horse] consul, a promise that he would certainly have carried out if he had lived longer." 1

An old drink quite popular among the young when I was young (probably out of fashion now) was Stone's Original Green Ginger Wine www.ciao.co.uk/Stones_Original_Green_Ginger_Wine__Review_5359230 which gets a glowing review, especially for medicinal purposes at that link. A sample:

"Here I sit, wrapped up in a blanket, big mug of steaming honey and lemon in hand, box of tissues at my side and feeling completely miserable. Ah yes, it's cold season again. Forgive me if I splutter and sneeze on you.

If, like me, you can't or won't let a cold stop you working, or have a house and kids to organise, then take my advice and buy yourself a bottle of Stone's ginger wine.

Ginger wine. Yes, wine made with ginger. Actually, the wine is made with raisins imported from Cyprus, Greece and Turkey, which ground ginger is then steeped in for several weeks, before being left to mellow and mature. The whole process takes about a year..."

There's pictures of the bottle & some info at:
www.winestate.com.au/magazine/review.asp?issueno=37&review=Fortified%20Wines
australian-food.com/drinks/stones.html
Or, for the German-speaking, at www.whisky-shopping.de/de/dept_265.html
"Stone’s Original Green Ginger Wine has been made in Australia since the early 1960’s to the same recipe as it has been produced in England since 1740. Stone’s is believed to be one of the oldest registered wine or spirit brands in continuous production since its initial launch."

Though if you're interested in checking it out, you'd have to track it down in your area. It does seem to be around in the USA, possibly from UK sources.
[permalink] posted by Mez at 10:36 pm