Hooray!

This doesn't mean anything to most of you out there, but for the last TWO years I've been trying to get animated GIFs to work in this blog. �Now, thanks to �Peter @ Enviroman and an app called Photobucket, they work!�

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Bread... Revisited

Just about a year ago we wrote this article on the demise of real bread.  Since that time we began to realize that not only was real bread disappearing from grocery shelves, but that most fast-food joints served up disgusting substitutions as well.
McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's -- ANY hamburger chain has totally unacceptable mushy buns that disintegrate within minutes of its marriage to a beef patty, and ditto goes for the franchised sandwich stores like Subway or Quiznos.
Please -- we're begging here -- support local bakeries, not just for cakes, but for their staff of life bread products, too.
Here's a clue to a great bakery -- they usually won't have a website. Why? Because baking a good loaf of bread is a FULL TIME JOB! As a community service, we recommend a bakery that is worth the drive -- just click on this article's headline for directions.

A Classy Way to Die

From the NY Times, by Phil Patton

Albert Camus, the existentialist philosopher and novelist, died in a car crash 50 years ago last January. His quirky death -- and the car in which he died, a Facel Vega, both quickly became notorious.

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Camus was 46 when he died while returning to Paris from Provence after the holidays on Jan. 4, 1960, in a car driven by his friend and publisher Michel Gallimard.

In the small town of Villeblevin, Gallimard lost control of the car, and Camus was killed. Gallimard was injured and died a few days later. Camus had with him a ticket for the train he had originally planned to ride and the manuscript of his last book.

Camus, known for his ideas of the absurd, is supposed to have said that the most absurd way to die would be in a car crash.

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Googling Chile

Time was, when miners were trapped and ultimately rescued, it was a big story. But with the internet, 'big' takes on a whole new meaning.  Big isn't just big... it's HUGE, almost unfathomably so. And you can watch it LIVE
Here's what you get if you google Chile mine rescue. Videos, background stories,  -- you can even find out how Al Jazeera is handling the news.
Let's suppose the mining rescue has triggered some curiosity about Chile itself. Now you're getting into Google's wheelhouse. Chile?  How's THIS?
Oh, they had a dictator? What was his name, Pinochet?
And on and on. Before the mine, the most famous attribute of Chile -- at least in restaurants around the country -- was Chilean Sea Bass.
So, thanks to Google, Chile's 15 minutes of fame now includes a history lesson, a fish story, and even more: The location of the mine,  the northern Atacama Desert, is also the site of neighbor Bolivia's long-standing claim of Pacific Ocean access.

OK, I need another cup of coffee.

In search of the giant pumpkin

Giant Pumpkins

BY ERIC SLATKIN AND BLAKE SMITH

�Pumpkin� Pete Glasier, Jose Ceja, and Leonardo Urena are Napa growers competing against each other for the Peanuts-esque title of Biggest Giant Pumpkin, as awarded by the International Pumpkin Association. To find out how large these pumpkins actually get, and who won the 2008 competition, click the headline of this article. But before you do, take a guess:  How big will the biggest pumpkin be? 

Editor's note -- Will someone please comment on why this article has become so popular?  Yesterday it became Jaxonia's top hit getter.  PLEASE?  Comment anonymously if you want.

OK, here we go again

Facebook is just getting too scary and complicated. I'm getting selfish in my old age -- I can't solve all the world's crises. East Timor, Somalia, Palestine, Pakistan... plus there seems to be at least a couple of dozen 'friends' on Facebook who seem to have all the answers and don't mind telling me... at great length, too!

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