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Saturday, July 25, 2015

Comfort Foods

So, I just came back from my vacation last week, and I have to admit that there are some parts of me that was good to come back, and there are other parts of me that is sorry that I came back in the first place.  The less said about that the better though, as I want to try and keep this blog happy.

And, I have to admit that nothing makes me happier than comfort food.

So, I thought that I would use this blog entry to talk about some of my favourite comfort foods.

I have to admit that this idea stemmed from an activity that I did on my vacation on one of the days in which I A) wasn't inspecting and enjoying the new house I just bought, and B) was raining as if every cloud in the world exploded all at once.



Have you ever seen the television show MasterChef?  It's a show that airs in several different countries, and all have one thing in common.  It's a show that turns average cooks into culinary artists, and with the help and guidance of three experts, one person will earn the title of MasterChef, and win a quarter of a million dollar cash prize and the chance to publish their own cookbook.  It's a great show, and every single time I watch an episode, I always feel the need to eat something.

(Note to self...do NOT watch MasterChef on an empty stomach.)

Anyway, I was watching the second season of MasterChef Canada, and on one of the episodes of the show, there was a team challenge where the home cooks had to serve three different kinds of poutine to hungry university students. 

And let me tell you...the challenge definitely made my mouth water, as poutine is one of my all-time favourite comfort foods.



For those of you who may not know what a poutine is, allow me to explain.  You take a plate of french fries, either deep fried or baked to a golden brown.  Then you sprinkle cheese curd all over the french fries (or if you don't have cheese curd, you can also use shredded mozzarella cheese), and to top it all off, a savoury gravy that will melt the cheese upon contact.  What you are left with is a delicious, yet sinful comfort food.

(Mind you, a poutine probably contains enough calories to keep you going for two and a half days, but still...the dish is so worth it.)

And there are certainly ways that you can make poutine even more versatile.  You could sprinkle a little bit of bacon on top of it.  You could use three or four different kind of cheese on top of it.  Instead of french fries, you could substitute "tater tots" or mini hash browns.  No matter how you like your poutine, it is definitely one of my favourite comfort foods.

Another comfort food that I enjoy is pizza.  And, when it comes to pizza, I have to say that I'm a little bit selective.  I'm not typically a fan of fast food style pizza (Domino's, Pizza Pizza, Papa John's, etc.), and when it comes to really good pizza, my deciding factor is the sauce.  If you don't have a really great pizza sauce on the pizza that is flavoured with just the right herbs and spices, then the pizza isn't worth eating.

(I absolutely refuse to go to one pizzeria in town because their sauce is just one step above tomato juice.)

Of course, once you get the cheese/sauce ratio figured out, you have endless possibilities to top your pizza with from anchovies to zucchini!  And, one of my favourite ways to top a pizza is to do it the old-fashioned Canadian way!



This means a generous portion of cheese, a lot of mushrooms, and bacon bits sprinkled all over the top.  Every time I have a slice of Canadian pizza, it makes me proud of my roots, and it's always a delicious reminder of the place I come from.

Of course, not all comfort foods have to be savoury.  A lot of my favourite comfort foods are sweet as well.  I have a notoriously bad sweet tooth, and I probably consume more candy than I really should.  I can't help it.  It all tastes so delicious!

Of course, my favourite sweet comfort food has to be anything to do with peanut butter and chocolate. 



Naturally, this means the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and its various forms.



But have you ever had a peanut butter chocolate cupcake?  It's a chocolate cupcake with a mini Reese peanut butter cup baked in the center of it.  Use peanut butter flavoured icing to top, and you have a delicious taste treat that any kid from 3-103 will enjoy!

So, poutine, Canadian style pizza, and peanut butter cupcakes.  I didn't plan for all three of my favourite comfort foods to begin with the letter P, but I'll go with it!

So, tell me...what are some of your comfort foods?

Friday, July 24, 2015

New Archies Reviewed - Episode 1B: Ballot Box Blues

So every Friday (or at least for now until I go on hiatus to move all of my stuff from the apartment to the house), I will be reviewing one half episode of "The New Archies", as voted by all of you over the last month.  In some reviews, I will have some screenshots, but in others, I won't (because some episodes are not posted online at all).  I haven't decided how I will work this out yet, but I have seen all of the episodes multiple times, so I believe that I can at least describe all of them.



Today we'll be looking at the second half of episode number one - "Ballot Box Blues".  Gee, I wonder if this episode will feature an election of some sort?

Well, it turns out that we'll have to wait for that, as Archie is late for school.  Again.  And he'll have to make it on his skateboard because as this show likes to remind us, Archie and the gang are twelve years old in this show, and none of the people have a driver's license.

Oh, on the way, he picks up Jughead.  I mean, he literally runs over Jughead and carries him in his arms to school while Jughead is listening to rock music on his Walkman.

Walkmans.  I remember those.

Inside the school, Miss Grundy is collecting homework assignments from the rest of the class who bothered to show up.  Betty and Veronica eagerly hand Miss Grundy their papers, but when Miss Grundy approaches Reggie's desk, Reggie is trying to come up with an excuse as to why he decided to forego doing his homework to play "Out Run" at Pop's Chocklit Shop Video Cafe, and is praying for something to interrupt the class like a fire drill or a surprise assembly...



...or Jughead and Archie smashing through the classroom door on the skateboard spinning Miss Grundy on the floor before crashing into the coat closet. 



For some reason, this screenshot makes me think of Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)".  Hey, maybe that's what Jughead was listening to on his Walkman!

Anyway, Miss Grundy - who apparently has been working out to her Jane Fonda workout tapes - throws Archie, Jughead, and Archie's dog Red (who hitched a ride with Archie) into their desks...and then throws Red out of the classroom, as dogs can't go to Riverdale Junior High.  At the same time, Reggie tries to pass off Moose Mason's homework as his own - which if you've read the comics you know is a stupid idea, as Moose isn't exactly the class brain.  He'd be better off trying to use fake-Dilton Eugene's paper.



Oh, and nobody rocks a pair of salmon coloured pants quite like Moose.  He's such a fashion forward kind of guy, you know.

Once everyone is settled into their seats, Miss Grundy announces that it is time to elect the class president, and asks for nominees.  And I'll be honest, at first, I wondered why no 8th graders wanted the job.  Assuming that Archie and the gang are 12, that would make them 7th graders.  But since it's class president, maybe they're electing the president of Miss Grundy's class...heck, it's not like Grundy has any control over her classroom anyway.

Reggie is immediately taken out of contention, as he seems to be only interested in the money (of which, student body presidents actually DON'T get paid).  And Jughead's too busy listening to Billy Idol to even care.  Seriously, throughout this whole episode, Jughead does not say ONE WORD.  It's kind of creepy.



She then approaches the table where best friends forever Betty and Veronica are sitting, but neither one want to run for president because they would never want to destroy their friendship, and they really want to have their friendship last as long as it takes to go to Target to go bra shopping.

FUN FACT:  Veronica's significant Valley Girl accent is performed by voice actress Alyson Court, who was only fourteen when she was cast.  You may also recognize her voice in "My Pet Monster", "Beetlejuice", and the "Resident Evil" series.  She also played Loonette on "The Big Comfy Couch"!




Anyway, after they tell Grundy that politics will ruin their friendship, Betty dreams about what holding the presidency would be like...



...and Veronica does the same, comparing Riverdale Junior High to a monarchy.



And then both decide - screw the mall, I wanna be president after all!  They give each other one final handshake, and wish the other one luck...but in this screenshot, you can clearly see that they want to decapitate the other one.  And to think, this was set at a time before online social media.  Whatever will they do?



Well, at recess (I'm jealous, since I never got recess during my seventh grade year), Veronica decides to throw the "men can't resist my charms" card into play, and insists that Archie be her campaign manager.  To which Betty arrives and plays the "we've been fighting over this fruit loop for seven decades, so what's another 45 seconds" card, and claims that Archie is her campaign manager.



Alas, just before we witness Love Triangle Fight #32,362, Archie unzips his jacket to reveal whose side he is on.  And after Veronica contemplates hiring Smithers to kick him in the no-no spot, Reggie comes over and decides to team up with Veronica, partly to stick it to Archie, but partly to see what special perks Veronica will give him.

But as we all know, hiring Archie and Reggie as your campaign managers would be like trusting Pig Pen from Peanuts to clean your car.  Reggie gets frustrated when all Veronica wants to do is go shopping, while Betty's promise of adding more spinach to the cafeteria menu elicits this humourous reaction from the crowd.



Yeah, Betty...you need help.  Because while Betty is promising greenery of the edible kind, Veronica is promoting another kind of greenery of the spendable kind.  That's right, Veronica is attempting to buy votes - which is pretty much accurate in standard politics. 

So, Archie decides to fight fire with fire, and encourages Betty to make promises too.  Betty doesn't have a lot of money, but she does have a really nifty looking headband that her spiky ponytail is wrapped around.  Seriously, was she channeling Spike from "Degrassi Junior High" with that style?



Now, I get that it's a cartoon, and cartoons aren't supposed to make sense, but not more than 10 seconds after Betty gives one girl her headband, Archie tosses dozens more into the crowd, all of them with Betty's name stitched on them.  How in the hell did Archie get all those in such a short time?  Did he have Kelly, Slater, and Jessie sell them the Buddy Bands they didn't sell?  Is Archie a speed knitter?



Not to be outdone though, Reggie recruits Moose to help him get rid of Betty's soapbox, only for Reggie to get spun into a swimming pool where a distracted Jughead is listening to "Splish Splash" on his Walkman.  And this prompts Veronica to offer designer jeans and baseball jackets to all of the students.  Geez, I don't remember getting free clothes during our elections.  We were lucky if we got a button or a stick of gum!



We then cut to Moose (who, I should mention looks 31 instead of 12 in this cartoon) holding a kite that has Archie telling everybody to vote for the pork belly instead of the liver for lunch at the cafeteria today.



Oh, wait.  Archie wasn't finished yet.  Yeah, vote Betty.

This makes Veronica very angry.  She feels that by not hiring Archie, she would never see her name in the clouds.  Considering that it probably cost Archie six weeks of allowance to rent the cloud writer, Archie's probably happy that Betty's name only had five letters.



Don't worry though.  Reggie's nailing a huge banner at the top of the school roof and Veronica is yelling at him until he gets the banner higher than Betty's sky sign.  Who cares if Reggie falls off the ladder and goes kersplat on the front staircase.  Veronica's reputation is at stake!

Speaking of reputations, fake Dilton Eugene is showing Betty his new invention.  A paint sprayer that will paint all of Betty's election signs in seconds.  You know what else would work?  A paintbrush!  And, hey look!  Betty suggests the same thing!  But Eugene stands by his invention...



...well, until Betty turns it on, sprays Eugene with a stream of bright red paint, and is sent zooming away across the yard.  Seriously, how much horsepower did Eugene use in that thing?



At least we get treated to a funny sight gag as Betty sprays Jughead with the paint sprayer, and Jughead is completely oblivious to the fact.  Maybe he was listening to Simply Red while all this was going on.

Back to Archie and Moose, Moose's problem isn't a blonde with a deadly paint sprayer.  Apparently the flies get really bad at Riverdale Junior High, and Moose is so busy trying to kill the fly that he lets go of Archie!



But you know where Betty is?  She just gave Veronica a fashion makeover.  After all, red is the new black!  And while Veronica admires her brand new look, a panicked Moose knocks Reggie off the ladder, Reggie goes kersplut, and the episode ends with the class grieving at Reggie's funeral.

Just kidding.



Actually, Reggie uses the banner as a parachute, and for kicks and giggles, takes the crimson faced Veronica along for a ride. 



Archie - completely helpless up in the sky - manages to call for help, and he is surprisingly fluent in backwards cloud writing.  He is a man of many talents!  But with Betty approaching from the east, and Reggie and Veronica soaring towards him from the west, Archie who is dead center realizes that there is going to be a big kaboom in his future.



This is Archie's "Oh, Crap" face.

I guess it's a good thing the sandbox broke their fall.  But what the hell kind of a junior high school has a sandbox in the first place?  Did they bring the sandbox from the grade school along with Mr. Weatherbee and Miss Grundy?



So, after half of Miss Grundy's class is painted red, and four of the students almost end up getting killed during what was the most vicious presidential campaign in Riverdale history, Betty and Veronica decide that super powered paint sprayers, skywriters, designer jeans, and Buddy Bands aren't enough to make them stop being friends, and they decide to drop out of the race.



Which prompts Reggie and Archie to make up as well, even though they never really interacted with each other in the episode at all, and they were surprisingly civil towards each other.  Then again, every 80s show usually ended with a high five, so maybe that's what this is.

So, after all that, who won the election?



Well, apparently Jughead was so apathetic about the democratic process that he decided to write himself in as a candidate.  And since everyone else in the class was blinded by promises of headbands and baseball jackets, they never bothered to vote!  Typical politics.  The more people abstain from voting, the more that the worst possible candidate wins.



But hey, the class is happy.  That's all that counts.



And as the camera pans on Jughead one last time, I imagine him snoozing while Arcadia's "Election Day" plays on his Walkman.  He's had that thing on so long, it's a wonder he has never had to change the batteries on it.

Before I wrap up this review, there's one final note.  Although it doesn't really have anything to do with "The New Archies", I want to pay tribute to one of Archie's artists, Tom Moore, who passed away at the age of 86.



Thank you for the memories.  And your work will forever live on.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Adventure Island

There's a certain routine that comes from going into a supermarket to do everyday grocery shopping.  And in a lot of cases, it's painfully boring.

Whenever I go to the supermarket, I tend to hit the produce section first (which makes sense as it's in the front of the store in 99% of the grocery stores I've ever shopped at), then I peruse the bread and baked goods section.  I take a glance at the meat and seafood area, go down the dry grocery section aisle by aisle, and my last spot of the trip is dairy and frozen foods (after all, you do not want melted ice cream). 

But the idea of grocery shopping bores me to tears.  On one hand, you have to do it because if you don't buy groceries, your body will eventually shut down and you will die.  On the other hand, I think grocery shopping should be a lot more fun.

Like, what if grocery stores followed the route of bowling alleys, and had laser shopping where the store is illuminated in black light and the aisles glowed in bright neon colours!  That would be so surreal!

Or, how about they have a store that is designed just like the game show "Supermarket Sweep", where you are given a time limit to get all of your shopping done!  It would be a riot (provided that you had proper protective equipment, that is).

Or how about if you go to a deserted island, scatter all sorts of yummy produce, cartons of milk, and chicken legs all over the island at random spots, and you have to grab it while maneuvering a Wipeout like course where octopi shoot ink at you, poisonous frogs try to jump on your face, and where you throw hammers at the wildlife creatures while riding on a skateboard through a course?

(Wow, was that a run-on sentence or what?  That's just bad writing style.  Sorry about that.)

But seriously.  Can you imagine it?  It would be like "Survivor" on steroids!  Trying to stay nourished while being attacked on all sides by a variety of nasty creatures.  Not to mention the rough terrain with having to find food on beaches, underwater, in caves, and even in volcanoes!  It would certainly make grocery shopping very challenging.  Could such a thing possibly happen?

Actually, yes.  It can.  Well, in a pixel filled world, that is.

Yes, today, I've decided to write about one of my favourite series of video games in which the aim of the game is to try and rescue your kidnapped girlfriend from the clutches of some nasty baddies.  The catch is that you have to do it while you keep fueled up by eating delicious apples, bananas, grapes, and bottles of milk.  Because in this game...if you stay on your diet too long, it will be GAME OVER.



The game that I am talking about, of course, is "Adventure Island".

I find it hard to believe that this game is almost thirty years old.  It was one of the first video games I remember playing when I got my Nintendo.  That makes me feel painfully old.  Good thing I have the game downloaded onto my 3DS, so I can play it whenever I want!



Released in 1986 in Japan by Hudson Soft (1987 in North America), you play as Master Higgins, a man who apparently thinks that matching grass skirts with baseball caps is a very good look.  He is madly in love with Princess Leilani (why are all the damsels in distress in Nintendo games always princesses?), and he wants nothing more than to spend the rest of his life with her in their little grass hut.  But an evil witch doctor has decided that Princess Leilani is too good for our foliage wearing hero, and he comes to take her away. 

Unfortunately, his oo-ee-oo-ah-ahs, and his ting-ting-walla-walla-bing-bangs do nothing to keep Master Higgins away.  He wants his girlfriend back, and he is determined to find her, even if he has to go through land, sea, snow caps, mountains, caverns, volcanoes, jungles, clouds, coves, and deserts to do it.

(Seriously, the Adventure Island game series has more terrain in it than a Final Fantasy world.)



The original "Adventure Island" game (there were four released for the Nintendo, and two more for the Super Nintendo between 1986 and 1994) had Higgins making his way through eight different worlds, each with four stages a piece, and each world had a different theme.  For instance, world one was jungle themed, while world four is ice themed.  In later games, the worlds would be larger, and Higgins may have to play as many as seven different stages before he got to each world's final boss. 



And, as mentioned before, the enemies in the worlds can be deadly.  Some are fairly easy to take care of like the immobile snails that just sit there to take up space.  But there are also birds that can suddenly swoop down towards you, frogs that can jump without warning, and pointy sea urchins that can cause underwater levels to be difficult. 



In some levels, there are even quick coyotes that appear out of nowhere from behind waiting to ambush you unless you know the right moment to jump.

(I still hate those coyotes some 25 years later.)

But the enemies are the least of your concern.  You also have to make it through each level before time runs out.  And as mentioned before, the amount of time you have to complete a level depends on the food you eat.



See those little bars on top of the screenshot?  That's your health meter/time gauge.  In order to keep playing, you have to have bars showing at all time.  If you lose all your bars, not only will you have no connection with your cell phone, but you will also lose a life, and have to redo the whole level over again.

Fortunately, 99% of the foods that show up on screen will help you out.  Fruits like apples, bananas, grapes, oranges, and pineapples will restore between one and three bars on your food meter, and will give you the energy to keep going.  If you're lucky enough to find a bottle of milk or a chicken drumstick, it will fill your food meter to the maximum amount.  Mind you, the milk and meat only appear in a level once, and they're usually hidden in eggs, or are in hard to reach areas.



Oh, and do stay away from eggplant.  While eggplant isn't everyone's favourite food item, for Master Higgins, it's deadly.  He'll actually LOSE bars from the food meter if he eats any.  So if you see a purple piece of fruit - DON'T EAT IT!



Of course, Master Higgins isn't completely left to his own devices.  I mentioned earlier that there are eggs scattered throughout each level.  Eggs are excellent things.  Not only are they packed with protein, but they also contain tools needed for Higgins to make his journey easier.

Sometimes they contain weapons like a throwing axe or a boomerang, which can make slaying pesky enemies very easy.  Sometimes they contain skateboards, which can help Higgins speed through levels much easier (unless you hit a monster or wall, that is).  Sometimes they contain a little sprite that can grant you temporary invincibility for fifteen seconds or so.  Believe me, this is a great asset in the later levels.



And beginning with "Adventure Island II" (which was released in 1991), eggs contained keys (which allowed you to go to a bonus stage that let Higgins skip most of the level), and playing cards (which summoned one of four different dinosaur buddies that would make the game easier to get through).

All in all, the "Adventure Island" series of games were fun to play, and were extremely challenging.  I managed to beat the first game, but the second and third games of the series were extremely difficult.  I think I made it to world five in both before I gave up on them. 

So, if you're looking for a challenging retro game to play, and have either a Nintendo Wii or 3DS (or even the original NES), definitely try this game out.  You won't regret it.

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Keyboard Courage

July 22, 2015



Have any of you heard of a term known as "keyboard courage"?

Keyboard Courage is when a person uses the internet, social media, or discussion forum to talk about a variety of subjects that they might not have the courage to talk about in the real world.

And as I've come to discover, there are good forms of keyboard courage and bad forms of it.

First, let's start off with the bad type of keyboard courage. 

I'm sure most of us have been involved in social media groups and pages over the last few years.  It could be a forum for discussion on growing up in a small town, or being a fan of "Big Brother", or chatting about the million and one things one can do with cheese.  For the most part, these discussion groups can be a great way to meet new people, and can be a real icebreaker for those who may feel a little intimidated interacting with people in a social forum.

But sometimes you have that one person who feels the need to do everything possible to ruin that experience for everybody else.

And how, may you ask, do they do this?



Well, they launch personal attacks against someone else for not agreeing with them.  They post hateful messages attacking a specific group of people.  They post vague comments designed to get two people arguing with each other causing a free-for-all online, and they launch complete and total anarchy when it comes to following community rules.

Believe me, I've moderated a couple of these groups.  I've seen all the bad behaviour, and wore the T-shirt.

Now here's where the "keyboard courage" comes into play.  You see, people who do these sorts of things online would NEVER do them in their real life.  It's almost as if they have a Dr.Jekyll/Mr. Hyde personality, in that they act all sweet and kind to people on the streets, and then turn into a vile and disgusting pig the moment their keys hit the "QWERTY" row. 

Of course, some people who are fueled by keyboard courage to be a jerk online may only be using keyboard courage lite...after all, some of the worst offenders often sign up to these forums under ambiguous screennames or fake Facebook and Twitter profiles.

As far as I'm concerned, I don't understand people who go online just to be mean and hateful.  It's counter productive, and completely unnecessary.  And, I'll be honest with you...if a person is that mean online, I would not want to know them in the real world.  Their online persona could be a true extension of who they are in the real world.  Or, much worse, they could be absolutely sweet as pie in the real world, and they appear two-faced as a result.

Of course, sometimes, the keyboard courage that people suddenly develop behind a computer screen can come back to haunt them.  Case in point, the recent firing of a St. Lawrence College professor who used his Twitter profile as a way to make inappopriate and disgusting comments and was terminated as a result of his comments. 

In many ways, keyboard courage is a lot like alcohol.  With both, the more you have, the more bold you become.  But in the end, if you consume too much, you leave behind a trail of destruction and hurt feelings.  And sometimes you don't even remember what it is that you said or did until someone else points it out, and once that happens, they either get defensive, saying that it never happened, or they retreat in shame.

But there are some ways in which keyboard courage can be a good thing.

After all...this blog is four years of pent up keyboard courage!

You see, when I was growing up, I always felt as though I didn't have a voice.  Being the youngest person in my family, it was often hard to speak out when nobody took you seriously because of your age.  And not having a really strong support system at school and in the first few months of my job, it made it hard to communicate with people.

That's why I say that keyboard courage can be a good thing if used correctly.  I never use my blog to attack anybody personally (except for maybe Donald Trump - and a lot of the times, he asks for it anyway).  Instead, I use it to talk about things that I probably could never talk about face to face with someone.  It has always been much easier for me to communicate with people through written words instead of spoken words.  I don't know why that is the case, but I've always been that way.

I choose to use the power of keyboard courage to be a better communicator, and to meet all sorts of interesting people as a result of it.  I don't like using it to hurt people.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

July 21, 1902

I am very excited to bring you today's edition of the TUESDAY TIMELINE.  For once, I have a subject that is quite timely, given the season that we're in.  Let's just leave it at that right at the moment.

And, since we're smack dab in the middle of summer, I thought that I would use this post to try and cool you off a bit - or at the very least give you simulated cooling anyway.

Have I got you questioning what today's subject is? 

Before we go ahead with the main body of the timeline, let's see what else took place on July 21 throughout history.

356 BC - Fire caused by arson destroys the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus - one of the Seven Wonders of the World

365 - Alexandria, Egypt is completely destroyed by a tsunami

1861 - The Confederate Army emerges victorious in the First Battle of Bull Run during the American Revolution

1865 - Wild Bill Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in Springfield, Missouri's Market Square

1873 - Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American Old West

1877 - Rail workers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania stage a sympathy strike in support of nine workers who were killed at the hands of Maryland militia

1919 - The Wingfoot Air Express - a dirigible - crashes into the Illinois and Trust building in Chicago, killing 12 people

1922 - British actress Mollie Sugden (d. 2009) is born in Keighley

1924 - Actor Don Knotts (d. 2006) is born in Morgantown, West Virginia

1925 - John Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in his science classes and is fined $100

1944 - Claus von Stauffenberg and his fellow conspirators are executed in Berlin in relation to a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler

1951 - Actor/comedian Robin Williams (d. 2014) is born in Chicago, Illinois

1959 - Elijah Jerry "Pumpsie" Green becomes the first African-American player to join the Boston Red Sox - the last team to become integrated

1972 - The Provisional IRA detonate a total of 22 bombs over an eighty minute time span in central Belfast, Northern Ireland, killing nine and injuring 130

1976 - The British Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland - Christopher Ewart-Biggs - is assassinated by the Provisional IRA

1983 - The world's lowest temperature is recorded in Antarctica - a bone chilling -128.6 degrees Fahrenheit!

1998 - Astronaut Alan Shepard passes away, aged 74

2011 - NASA's Space Shuttle program concludes with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135

2012 - Erden Eruc completes the first solo human-powered circumnavigation of the world

And celebrating a birthday today are...Kay Starr, Norman Jewison, Helen Merrill, Jonathan Miller, Janet Reno, Wendy Cope, Art Hindle, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam, Garry Trudeau, Jeff Fatt, Taco Ockerse, Michael Connelly, Jon Lovitz, Greg Behrendt, Ross Kemp, Sharon Twomey, Arija Bareikis, Brandi Chastain, Emerson Hart, Michael Fitzpatrick, Ali Landry, Steve Byrne, Christopher Barzak, Jaime Murray, Justin Bartha, Josh Hartnett, Sprague Grayden, Paloma Faith, Vanessa Lengies, Rory Culkin, and Chelsie Hightower.

So, what date are we going to go back in time to this week?



How about a date that is close to the turn of the twentieth century?  Exact date?  July 21, 1902.

You know, I have to make a little bit of a confession to all of you here.  I am definitely NOT a summer person.  Truth be told, I'm the kind of person that would be comfortable if the temperature was fourteen degrees Celsius all year round.

(That's 60 degrees Fahrenheit to the American readers here.)

So, I guess this makes me more of an autumn person.  When October arrives, I feel like I am in the groove.  It's why I like to take one week of vacation in October because the weather is just perfect.  Not too hot, not too cold.  Just right.

Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if we could have full control of our weather?  Why, we could end the drought in California, stop the flooding in Texas, and prevent the snow from burying Boston, Massachusetts in future years.

Mind you, some people would use that power for evil and end up putting the entire continent of North America in a permanent Ice Age...and that's something that I don't think any of us really want to see.  So, maybe it's not such a good idea to have that much power.

But fortunately, we can at least have control over the temperature that we have inside our homes.  Thanks to modern heating through gas power or electric power, we can stay toasty warm in the most frigid of conditions - even in the middle of Antarctica some thirty-two years ago.

And thanks to a man who created a very nifty invention a hundred and thirteen years ago today, we can stop sweltering in the scorching summer heat - at least indoors, that is.



You may not recognize the man in this photo.  It's okay if you don't.  This man was Willis Haviland Carrier, and he was born in Angola, New York.

I saw was for a reason.  He passed away in October 1950, aged 73.

But it was right around 1902 that he came up with a really cool invention.  And believe me when I tell you that it was really cool.

An engineer by trade, graduating from Cornell University in 1901, Carrier was presented with a dilemma.  In 1902, the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing & Publishing Company were having issues with quality control, most likely attributed to the fact that the humid weather outside made conditions inside the building unbearable to work in. 

So Carrier set to work on a device that he predicted would artificially cool the inside of the building to make the workers more comfortable.  He wanted to come up with a new appliance that did four things; control temperature, control humidity, control air circulation and ventilation, and purify the air.  Such a thing seemed impossible prior to the twentieth century, but Carrier was not willing to give up.

And on July 21, 1902, Carrier presented the world with the very first working air conditioning system.

Well...at least it was a basic working model.  It would take another four years for the process to become perfected.  On May 17, 1907, Carrier filed for a patent claim on his air conditioner invention, and nearly seven years later, in February 1914, the patent was granted - #1,085,971.

So, the next time you sit back in your air conditioned homes beating the summer heat, be sure to give your thanks to Willis Carrier - the founder of the modern air conditioner.

I know that as someone who detests humidity and hot weather, I am grateful to the man.  If not for him, I'd be sweating so much that I would go through an entire six-pack of underwear in one day.


I'll leave you with that lovely image.

Monday, July 20, 2015

The End Of The World As We Know It?



Four years ago, I wrote the following note in my Facebook notes page.  It was about the prediction that Harold Camping made about the end of the world.  I decided that I would repost this note just for kicks, since we've survived two more apocalyptic events since then.

As the bottom of this Facebook note will verify, this note was written on Sunday, May 22, 2011...the day after the so called rapture event which would see earthquakes, volcanoes, and tidal waves completely destroy the whole world, and everybody on it.

As you may have guessed, May 21, 2011 was just another ordinary day. No rapture. No widespread deaths. Though, there was that volcanic eruption which must have freaked the poor people of Iceland out amidst all the pandemonium of the rapture.

Prior to this, we were all lead to believe that 2012 would be the real end of days, and that the only rapture that existed was the 1981 Blondie song.

The whole rapture paranoia kicked off when Harold Camping, the leader of Family Radio Worldwide was proclaiming that at six o'clock in the evening on the twenty-first of May in 2011, the apocalypse would begin. He was dead serious about it too. Billboards were put up, he used his radio show to broadcast warnings of death and destruction, and even took out advertising spaces on public transportation to get the word out.

And, it's absolutely amazing how many people were convinced that he was right this time. It didn't really matter that he had predicted that the world was SUPPOSED to have ended back in late summer of 1994. This time, people believed it. They quit their jobs. They left school. They emptied out their bank accounts, and sold their houses. One man reportedly spent almost $150,000 of his own money to promote the May 21 rapture.



Luckily, I was one who scoffed at the idea of the rapture taking place in the first place. For one, how can anyone use mathematical formulas to calculate the exact moment the world would die? Look how well it worked for Homer Simpson when HE tried to predict the rapture (which he originally predicted to be on MY birthday, but due to a miscalculation, it was really the day after...hmmm...now that I think of it, I know exactly what they were parodying with that episode...LOL).

But, anyway...let's get back on track here. The point is that while I and many, many millions of people were secretly making fun of the idea of the rapture happening at all, many others bought into it. In some ways, the whole idea of this whole farce had me feeling all sorts of emotion. I get angry when I think about some of the kids who were freaked out about the rapture, not really maybe understanding what it was, or why they had to be a part of it. I don't believe in subjecting children to any sort of illegitimate fear, and on that note, Mr. Camping should be ashamed of himself. He should also be ashamed of himself for putting fear into so many people to the point that that they really did believe that the world was ending, and how so many people basically ended up digging themselves into an even deeper hole both financially and emotionally. All because a crackpot with a lousy track record to begin with said to them that the world was going to be no more after May 21.

Shameful.

But, you know...just to look at it on both sides here...did anyone REALLY believe that we'd have no more life after May 21, 2011? Of course not. You have to wonder what would possess some people to BELIEVE an almost 90 year old radio host who unsuccessfully predicted the apocalypse at least once before. But, some of them did.

And, there's a part of me that wonders why some people seem so quick to believe the worst, no matter how farfetched or irrational the worst may be.

The so-called rapture said that the world would be destroyed by a giant earthquake. What does Mr. Camping think, that we've never survived earthquakes before? We've had two massive sized earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan this past year, and while they are nowhere near being back to being rebuilt as of this writing, they haven't let that stop them from trying to rebuild their lives. That same never give up attitude was essential to the reconstruction of San Francisco after the earthquakes of 1906 and 1989. Earthquakes are terrifying things, but nothing that we can't handle. And, sure, if we did have one on May 21, I'm sure that humans are adaptable and strong enough to handle the crisis and rebuild. Because that's the way we are. We're not the weak-minded, scared little lambs that Harold Camping seems to think we are. We're a lot stronger than that, and frankly if you believed that tripe about the rapture, you really should give yourself a slap in the face and realize that we can get through anything...even the end of the world.

Well...unless we propel into the solar core or we turn into zombies...then we're really screwed.

See you December 21, 2012...when I disprove yet another apocalyptic theory.


And, wouldn't you know it?  We survived that date too.  Guess we're just not ready to die yet.