Kuwait Traditional Boat
You can have your sexy sleek powerboat, your modern cabin cruiser, your fabulous yacht. Give me a sunset cruise and evening barbecue on this old boat, with a few old friends, and I’m a happy camper. Every time I see this boat go by, it gives me a grin.
It reminds me of the old Kuwait pearling boats. Can anyone tell me the specific name of this kind of boat?
Today in History
First, congratulations to all our Kuwaiti friends on their Independance Day. 46 years. I hope you have a great celebration.
There is a wonderful website Today in History where you choose any date and you can see all the births, deaths and major events in history. Pretty cool!
Isn’t it amazing what is out there? People have taken so much time and energy to offer information and services to the world community.
Check Your Labels
On May 24, BBC reported on fake toothpastes found in Panama and the Dominican Republic. Today’s news has them found in four states in the United States. The boxes LOOK like Colgate, but have spelling mistakes that give them away. They claim to be made in South Africa, but they include diethylene glycol, the same compound found in the fakes earlier, and it is believed to be coming out of China. This is one time you REALLY REALLY want to be sure you are not buying a knock-off.
Colgate finds fake toothpaste in 4 states
Company says counterfeit products may contain poisonous chemical; fake products can be identified by misspellings on label.
June 14 2007: 6:19 AM EDT
LONDON (CNNMoney.com) — Fake “Colgate” toothpaste that may contain a poisonous chemical has been found in four states, Colgate-Palmolive said Thursday.
Colgate said the fake toothpaste may contain diethylene glycol, which the company never uses in its toothpaste. The company said it is working with the FDA to locate the source of the counterfeiting.
The fake toothpaste has been found in discount stores in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland, the company said.
The fake products aren’t manufactured or distributed by Colgate-Palmolive (Charts, Fortune 500) and can be identified because they say they are manufactured in South Africa or have misspellings on the label.
Comment: If this is happening in the US, where the Food and Drug Administration is careful about what is allowed to be sold, then we had better be doubly careful in Kuwait, where so much is imported from China. China appears to be cutting corners on quality across the board, and their short cuts could kill us.
Kuwait Beauty
“If you but have the eyes to see . . .”
There is great beauty in Kuwait. Here is the spire of a mosque I found in Hawalli when I got lost. (Yes, people look at me like I am out of my mind when I stop and take photos of these things they see everyday.)
Here is detail from the spire:
Here is an old-fashioned meshrabiyya window at the home standing over the Tarek Rajab Museum. Who can believe that such a museum treasure is open to the public for free, thanks to the graciousness of a private family, who sees the beauty in the Gulf Heritage, collects and preserves it.
Here is the globe near the entrance to Kuwait University, reminding us always that we are all connected in this world:
Dusk is my favorite time in Kuwait – the glare of the sun softens, and the colors glow:
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:
Halal?
From Kuwait Times, 9 June 2007
Bull Goes on Rampage
A number of citizens and expatriates were frightened after a raging bull escaped from a slaughterhouse and rushed to the streets of Jleeb al-Shayoukh. Meanwhile, passersby reported the matter to the Farwaniya police and the police moved to the spot and shot the bull. The bull was then transferred to the slaughterhouse.
My comment / question: To be halal, doesn’t an animal have to be slaughtered in a certain way, having it’s throat slit while hearing verses of the Qu’ran, without fear?
Isn’t a bull that has been shot on the street like carrion?
How could they transfer this bull to the slaughterhouse? How can this bull be made into meat?
Kuwait Couple and Police
This is a very strange report from the Daily Star. There was a similar report in the Thursday Kuwait Times, which claims there were two couples. Is there a police blotter where newspapers get their information, or do they use inside sources? The stories in each newspaper have different details, and sometimes the details vary significantly.
Culprits Freed, Cop Detained
In a very strange incident, the head investigator at Mubarak Al-Kabeer Police Station has ordered the detention of a first sergeant and released two persons who humiliated the policeman, reports Al-Anba daily.
A police source said the first sergeant arrested a 22 year old man and a 41 year old woman who were inside a car parked in the Abul Hasaniya at 2:00 in the morning, and asked them to hand over their identification documents but they refused to heed the policeman’s request.
The threatened to harm the first sergeant and dismiss him from service, but later handed over their IDs to another policeman who rushed to the area after receiving a call from the first sergeant.
The two persons were released and the policeman was detained but Director of the Security Directorate in Mubarak Al-Kabeer Brigadier Mostafa Khan and his assistant Brigadier Ibrahim Al-Tarrah ordered the immediate release of the first sergeant and referred the case to another investigator.
My comment: I cannot begin to figure out what happened in this story. It could be a hundred different things. The woman could be in the car with her son, escaping from an abusive husband. Or they could be unrelated and naked. There are endless possibilities in between those extremes. We don’t know.
The sergeant could be doing his duty and unjustly punished by superiors using wasta, or he could have exceeded his authority and been let to skate. We don’t know.
Stories like this in the papers mystify me. It all depends on the “police source” and his particular bias.
Spoiler
We were having a big film fest in Pensacola, and five minutes into The Prestige my son asked me if I knew how it was going to end.
This started a long time ago. They think I am amazing. Most of the time, I get it right. Sometimes, with Law and Order, or CSI, there is a twist I hadn’t thought of. I read a lot of mysteries and . . . there is a secret.
Don’t go any further if you like NOT knowing how a show is going to end.
Here is the secret. A movie or a TV show only has a limited amount of time to tell the story. You can figure that most of the information they give you is significant. Like in Law and Order, a lot of times it’s one of the people they originally interview, even if they came off well in the interview. (Those guys have gotten more and more tricky, though, and it gets harder to figure out all the time.) Listen for something that could be a lie.
The Prestige suffered a little from it’s own arrogance. They TELL us right at the beginning what the story will be, what the twist is, and how it will be accomplished, if you are watching closely and thinking “why might this be important?”
My son had already seen it. I told him “this, this and this” and he didn’t say anything, just said I had to see if I was right. Hee Hee heee . . . I was. And he was so poker faced I didn’t know how blown away he was that I had figured it out.
You can, too.
And if you haven’t seen The Prestige, it is a very good movie. It appears to be coming to Super Movies sometime soon.
Creepy Leading Men
Eeeeeeewwwwww! I just half watched an Academy Award special on BBC. What caught my attention was interviews with Peter O’Toole and Clint Eastwood. Can’t remember a word they said – and both these guys did some amazing and memorable movies – but I watched in horrified fascination because they look so awful. Their faces have been lifted a time or two too often, and their faces don’t move when they talk. Clint Eastwood, in his 70’s, has no lines at all around his eyes, just this smooth white skin that makes him look like he has a mask on.
I remember seeing a movie with Michael Douglas a couple years ago, with some hot flash-in-the-pan, and he was wearing MAKE-UP. It was so bad you could SEE the make up.
It’s like Aerosmith performing in Dubai – isn’t he like 60 or 70 years old? Great that he has the energy, but isn’t it time to move on? Keith Richards looks like the portrait of Dorian Gray . . .
and then there is Robert Redford, who just let age happen, and looks natural and graceful.
Is it just me? I like the natural look on men. I think grey hair is handsome. I love those little crinkles around the eyes (on men, not on ME!! Yep, totally hypocritical.) Men with facelifts, men with bronzer, blusher, mascara and eyeliner give me the creeps.
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