BBQ in Memphis
I love the Memphis airport. We sometimes arrive from Kuwait via Amsterdam at o-dark-thirty and the BBQ places are already open. Even if we are running for our next flight, there is usually one on the way where we can buy a quick BBQ sandwich to eat on the plane.
The Memphis airport is sometimes a scramble, our flight out leaving from the farthest gate from our flight in; we always get enough exercise to work off that sandwich in a heartbeat. And, for some reason, we often get upgrades out of Memphis, upgrades we haven’t even asked for. The flights are overbooked, and they just bump us up. No wonder I love Memphis! They treat us like old friends!
I just had to share the photo above with you – it’s taken at 7:30 in the morning, they already have customers lined up for BBQ and there are guys in the bar drinking beer. Memphis.
Guilt Free Littering
Friends, this is from The Onion. It is SATIRE; don’t go getting all worked up!
New Eco-Friendly Packaging Triggers Boom In Guilt-Free Littering
July 21, 2007 | Issue 43•29
ROCKFORD, IL—Nick Sundin used to be neurotic about littering. The 37-year-old pediatrician admits he kept trash bags in his car, and would even pick up and throw away garbage he found on the street. Since boyhood, Sundin said, he was keenly attuned to the environmental degradation littering caused, an attitude triggered by the famous Keep America Beautiful “Crying Indian” public service announcement he saw on television as a young man.
Not anymore.
“These ‘eco’ products are amazing—they’ve totally changed my life,” Sundin said. “Now, I just toss my used Seventh Generation–brand paper plates out the car window, knowing they’ll soon be absorbed into the earth.”
The growing “green” trend in product packaging, which emphasizes the use of recycled, biodegradable post-consumer paper-based materials and relies less on petroleum-derived polymers like styrofoam, has unleashed a spontaneous trashing of sidewalks, roadsides, and pristine wilderness by gratified consumers. Though some environmentalists and scientists were caught off guard by the movement, experts say it is here to stay.
“The stigma attached to littering is at long last being put to rest,” industry analyst Tom Schneider said. “As long as manufacturers are packaging their goods in unbleached paper and biodegradable, cornstarch-based plastics, more and more consumers will discard their refuse wherever they please, knowing it will safely decompose within 10 to 20 years. Call it the ‘New Compost.'”
From The Onion; click here to read the entire article.
My comment: What is so sad, is that this looks like places in Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, where people have just dumped stuff without any regard to the environment.
Missing You, Adventure Man
I’m eating here, all alone, in a booth for one, surrounded by a million other customers. Son and his wife are at work, and Sonny’s isn’t their favorite place. It’s low brow, it’s folksy, and oh, how I miss southern barbecue when I am back in Kuwait.
The waitress, Tammy, is country and sweet and cares about all her customers, I have the fried catfish with Sonny’s baked beans and a side of cole claw . . .I have my non-sweet iced tea, I have my Sudoku . . . missing you too much, Adventure Man:
Ridin’ Dirty
My sis made this comment in my blog today:
BTW – it makes me giggle to think of you as my “Gangsta Sista” with her throwdown…and bling, too, as I read backwards in your blog! LOL, LOL, LOL!
It gets worse, sis. My rental is this long sleek black thing. I’m not used to being so close to the ground, and the thing drives like a boat – it’s heavy and luggy, and it wasn’t my choice, it’s just what I ended up with.
And I was really uncomfortable driving it, I felt just WRONG. Finally, I figured out that the seat was tilted back, and that’s what was making me have to drive with my arms straight out. I’m slow, but I’m slow . . . it only took me a few days. Now the car is still lunky, but at least I am sitting up straight.
And the takeoff, by Weird Al Yankovitch -White N Nerdy:
No bling for me, dear sis. But hey – don’ t YOU have a birthday coming up soon? 🙂
Glitz, Bling, Flamboyance and Glam
Today when Adventure Man called at lunch, I was telling him I bought some bling for fun gifts. He said he didn’t think my family did “bling” and I said we didn’t, but this was just a little glitz, just for fun.
“What’s the difference between ‘glitz’ and ‘bling?’ he asked.
I said ‘glitz’ is like a little decoration, a little frosting, but ‘bling’ is ostentatious.
“I consider myself ‘flamboyant.’ he said.
“Oh no!” I protested. “Flamboyant is over the top, it’s that color that is just a little too bright, the gesture that is a little too large, the voice or laughter just a little to high, a little too loud.”
Then it nagged at me until I had to go look it up. As it turns out, bling MIGHT be expensive, but it has the origination of new riches that the owner is afraid he might lose, so he turns it into jewelry that he can keep close to his person, as well as showy and ostentatious. So, I was wrong.
As it turns out, all the following words have a connotation of excessiveness, ostentation and a little over the top.
glitz (glts) Informal n.
Ostentatious showiness; flashiness: “a garish barrage of show-biz glitz” Peter G. Davis.
tr.v. glitz·ed, glitz·ing, glitz·es
To invest with an ostentatiously showy quality: “have started to glitz up their shows with filmed backdrops” Bill Barol.
[Back-formation from glitzy, flashy, showy, probably from German glitzern, to glitter, from Middle High German glitzen, to shine, from Old High German glzan; see ghel-2 in Indo-European roots.]
glitzi·ness n.
glitzy adj.
From The Free Dictionary.
Bling
“Bling-bling” (usually shortened to simply “bling”) is a hip hop slang term which refers to expensive jewelry and other accoutrements, and also to an entire lifestyle built around excess spending and ostentation. In its essence, the term refers to the exterior manifestation of one’s interior state of character, normally displayed through various forms of visual stimuli.
The first apparent use of the term ‘bling bling’ in mainstream culture was in reference to the L-3 badge (real gold) and also a hip hop track of the same title, by rapper B.G., along with Baby Birdman, Juvenile et al [1], celebrating their wealth (as many of their tracks do). “Bling Bling,” released in 1998, led later in the 2000’s to the term proliferating through mainstream hip hop and eventually spilling over into popular culture as a sarcastic term used to mock the perceived vacuousness of hip hop culture. Comedians such as Ali G in the UK, exploited this for humour.
Bling can also be plastic, or fake, jewelry. Many people who cannot afford, or do not wish to buy, real diamonds, gold, etc, opt for fake glass or plastic jewelry. This makes them look big, and bling-bling.
In 2005, the rapper B.G. remarked that he ‘wished he’d patented the term’ so that he would have profited from its extensive use. In interviews, he has stated that the term refers to the imaginary sound that light makes when it hits a diamond. However, the term was in use for several years prior as a reference to getting rich quickly inspired by the sound made when collecting gold coins in popular Nintendo video games such as Donkey Kong and Mario Brothers and when collecting gold rings in Sega’s Sonic Hedgehog.
The culture of ostentatious display of wealth was ingrained in street culture long before the 90’s, however: it is thought that wearing expensive jewelry was the one way in which young previously impoverished men, who had acquired riches through crime, could be sure of holding on to their wealth by keeping it about their person. This marks out the wearer of such jewelry as a person with ghetto roots, as it shows that the source of their wealth or their personal prejudices prevent them from investing in more stable assets such as cash in the bank or property. Hence ‘bling bling’, while widely regarded as a faddish slang phrase, has been seen by some as manifestation of a deeper socioeconomic problem in the US, trivialised by mainstream media and hip hop. For comparison, see chav.
Related meaning
In the Middle East, counterfeit brand-name goods (such as Rolex watches) may be known as bling bling specials.
From The Free Dictionary.
flam·boy·ant (flm-boint)
adj.
1. Highly elaborate; ornate.
2. Richly colored; resplendent.
3. Architecture Of, relating to, or having wavy lines and flamelike forms characteristic of 15th- and 16th-century French Gothic architecture.
4. Given to ostentatious or audacious display. See Synonyms at showy.
n.
See royal poinciana.
[French, from Old French, present participle of flamboyer, to blaze, from flambe, flame; see flame.]
flam·boyance, flam·boyan·cy n.
flam·boyant·ly adv.
From The Free Dictionary.
Aren’t these great words?
And last but not least:
Definition:
Glam
Glamorous; wearing fashionable clothes and make-up, particularly when done to excess.
Example:
1) She’s so glam that people think she’s a model.
2) I love David Bowie and all of those glam rockers.
Etymology:
‘Glam’ is short for ‘glamorous’. Glam and glamorous refer to the magical attraction and excitement produced by celebrities.
From English Daily – Slang
Stress Management
A friend sent this to me today – she knows I am going through a hard time. And she’s the kind of friend who would bail me out of jail and say “didn’t we have fun?!”
A lecturer when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked “How heavy is this glass of water?”
Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.
The lecturer replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t matter.
It depends on how long you try to hold it.
If I hold it for a minute, that’s not a problem.
If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my right arm.
If I hold it for a day, you’ll have to call an ambulance.
In each case, it’s the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the h eavier it becomes.”
He continued,
“And that’s the way it is with stress management.
If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later,
As the burden becomes increasingly heavy,
We won’t be able to carry on. ”
“As with the glass of water,
You have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again.
When we’re refreshed, we can carry on with the burden.”
“So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down.
Don’t carry it home.
You can pick it up tomorrow.
Whatever burdens you’re carrying now,
Let them down for a moment if you can.”
So, my friend p ut down anything that may be a burden to you right now.
Don’t pick it up again until after you’ve rested a while.
Here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:
*Accept that some days you’re the pigeon, and some days you’re the statue.
*Always keep your words soft and sweet, Just in case you have to eat them.
* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
* Drive carefully. It’s not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.
* If you can’t be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply be kind to others.
* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won’t have a leg to stand on.
* Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.
* Since it’s the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.
* The second mouse gets the cheese.
* When everything’s coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.
* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.
* We could learn a lot from crayons… Some are sharp, some are p retty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, b ut they all have to live in the same box.
*A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.
Trains and Boats and Planes
Adventure Man, this is for you . . . old Dionne Warwick, as good as ever, singing the smokey, soulful Trains and Boats and Planes
I’d forgotten how GOOD she is!
Happy Birthday, Big Diamond
You were the one with all the courage, you were the one who never understood the word “no.” With your big, sunny smile, you went ahead and did just exactly what you pleased.
“Watch me! Wheeeeeeeee!” you shouted as you jumped out of the swing, breaking your arm.
“This is how you do it!” you yelled, sliding on the ice down the long wooden walk, falling and breaking the other arm.
Nothing stopped you. You look the impossible in the eye, and you spit.
And all these years later, you still do! You are the most amazing woman, indominable, unstoppable. You set a high standard for all the rest of us, with your energy, your clarity of values, and your generousity of spirit.
And today, your birthday, will also be the christening of your first grandchild.
How amazing, how wonderful. You are in my thoughts, dear sister, and I wish I could be there to celebrate with you.
Paris Hilton in Jail Video
A friend sent me this link this morning, and I died laughing. I don’t like Paris Hilton, I don’t like the vacuous life she leads, and I wouldn’t post this at all if it weren’t very cleverly done.
And, of course, it is Thursday, and many of you will have the time to waste on a good laugh:
Just another reason to love Q8
Kuwait Times, 10 June 2007
Camel Found
A Kuwaiti man reported to Naeem police that when he got out of his house, he saw a camel lying before his car and he tried to move the camel but it did not move. Police moved to the scene and discovered that the camel belonged to another Kuwaiti man and it fled its den recently.
My comment: I used to see camels all the time in Qatar. I have NEVER seen a single camel in Kuwait. I know they are around, just not in any of the places I have been. I haven’t even been to the camel races here!
But camels are BIG, and they are nasty-tempered. You gotta love a guy who sees a camel “before his car” and tries to move the camel. I am guessing the paper meant to say that he tried to MAKE the camel move, but the vision I have is this be-thobed, be-gutra’d guy trying to shove a camel away from his car. It just gives me a huge grin. Very brave man!
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