Dragon

I wonder if repealing "Don't ask, don't tell" was to try to usher in a more forward thinking policy of tolerance? Hopefully not for the opposite reason.

Baldur

It was removing a policy that was unfair and simply did not work.

Baldur

Joseph Smith Jr., is born (1805)
'A Visit From St. Nicholas' is published (1823)
Engelbert Humperdinck's opera 'Hansel und Gretel' premieres (1893)
The Sex Disqualification Act becomes law in the UK (1919)
Happy Birthday Emperor Akihito
A coelacanth, thought to be long extinct, was caught off of South Africa (1938)
Susan Lucci is born (1946)
An earthquake hits Managua, Nicaragua, killing more than 10,0000 (1972)
In the Andes, 16 survivors of a plane crash are rescued after 73 days, having survived by cannibalism (1972)
Charles Atlas dies (1973)
Billy Barty dies (2000)

Happy Night of the Radishes

marius

Okay, Baldur, I'm entirely enchanted by Night of the Radishes! Had to look it up and glad I did because it reminds me of how wonderful and charming human beings can be! First link is short explanation of Night of the Radishes. Second link is about nine minutes long but oh my ... those radishes, those creations!

Thanks for the smile, Baldur!


http://www.aboutoaxaca.com/oaxaca/night-radishes.asp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id_FKUfUG6o

Dragon

This has nothing to do with Christmas (or Radishes) but is just too cute not to share.
http://alpha.video.msn.com/hub/Video.aspx?vid=441dc583-1536-442b-b581-7d5b6b1089a2&mkt=en- CA&f=95#

Baldur

If you all heard loud cursing in the air today I must apologize.
Baldur has had an epic recipe failure.
The last issue of AARP magazine had a recipe for Millionaire Shortbread, which looked fantastic. Having just made a batch myself I encountered several problems. Remember that Baldur is not a novice baker.. I believe that the instructions were followed to the letter. I also now believe that the recipe given cannot produce the results shown in the photograph.
Nonetheless they are delicious..if messy and the wrong color.

Does anyone know where one can purchase a laser pastry slicer?
It should be capable of first going through a brittle chocolate top layer, then a sticky caramel core and finally a crumbly shortbread base without
A) shattering the chocolate
B) dragging chocolate crumbs through the sticky caramel
C) compressing the caramel so it oozes past the edges of the ideal neat square shape
D) dragging caramel down across the edge of the shortbread
and
E) Crumbling the edges of the shortbread

Perhaps if the photograph had not shown precisely cut and square picture perfect confections my degree of anxiety would be less.
To style that image for the magazine the shortbread and caramel must have been frozen at absolute zero and cut with an industrial laser.
The chocolate layer must have been formed separately and placed on top of the caramel seconds before the photoshoot.Also necessary to get the right amount of seductive gloss on the top chocolate surface a blowtorch must have been passed overhead for a nanosecond just before the camera snapped the image.

Also the shortbread shown is a very pale yellow in color.
The sugar used in the recipe is light brown.
My shortbread was much darker even before it was ever placed in the oven.
I sense something just is not right.

Normal

Normal hopes that Baldur gets a grip, and damn the lasers. Why compare your delicious creations with anybody else's photo shoot, for Pete's sake?

Of possible interest to TDers - Norad now has a tradition of tracking Santa, which might be fun to watch tomorrow night. online you can try
http://www.noradsanta.org
Also httphttp://www.youtube.com/NORADTracksSanta

Jolly Christmas to all!

Robindcr8l

Ah, just dropping in to wish everyone happy holidays, but quite entertained by the recent banter. First of all, thanks for the Night of the Radishes education Baldur and Marius! I really enjoyed those links, and was struck by how LARGE radishes apparently can become. Who knew??

Kitten facing down the rottweiler was quite entertaining, too, Dragon. Gotta love a kitten with that much nerve!

Now, Baldur, I am just giggling away at your shortbread woes. You know I can relate. You've seen the pics of my Santa bread! LOL I plan to keep trying til I get it right, if it kills me! But of course, I think they either airbrush those pics in the recipes or maybe they use painted styrofoam or something. I mean seriously. Nothing looks that perfect. But keep working at it...it makes for great posts on channel baldur!

And Normal, I will be tracking Santa even more closely than I tracked the space shuttle through NASA! Thanks for the link! There's also a link for parents of small children where Santa will send a personalized video message to your child.

http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/home?gclid=CPL-gei-ma0CFQh9hwodNR_pnQ

It's pretty simple and my friends with young children who have received these have been duly impressed!

Happy Christmas, Merry Hanukkah, and Prospero Ano!

Baldur

I enjoyed the radish exposes' and the fearless kitten.
It's funny how when the kitten advances that the Rottweiler backs up when he could swallow the kitten in a single gulp.

Baldur

The Hagia Sofia is rededicated after its destruction by earthquakes (563)
King John is born (1166)
Vasco da Gama dies (1524)
Kit Carson is born (1809)
A fire burns 35,000 books at the Library of Congess (1851)
Howard Hughes is born (1905)
Ava Gardner is born (1922)
Red Green is born (1945)!!!!!!!!!!!
NORAD tracks Santa Clause for the first time (1955)
North Korea releases the crew of the USS Pueblo after detaining them for 11 months on suspicion of spying (1968)
The citizens of the District of Columbia get the right to elect their own government (1973)
Ryan Seacrest is born (1974)
Unexplained lights are reported over RAF Woodbridge, Suffolk, causing the area to be called 'Britain's Roswell' (1980)
Betty Noyes dies (1987)
Peyo dies (1992)

Happy Feast of the Seven Fishes

Dragon

Love how excited Baldur is about Red Green's birthday. Always remember what he says, "If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy"
Here's a Christmas moment from Possum Lodge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZtlsPO9PKk

AuntieB

Feliz Navidad everyone.
Auntie B is spending The holidays in Mexico City with Ramon'.
He gave me the sweetest gift right after midnight mass (you should see the size of the emeralds!)

Baldur

Jesus of Nazareth is born (traditional date)
Charlemagne is crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (800)
William the Conqueror is crowned King of England (1066)
Sir Isaac Newton is born (1642)
Christmas Island is found and named (1643)
Clara Barton is born (1821)
Evelyn Nesbit is born (1884)
Robert Ripley is born (1890)
Humphrey Bogart is born (1899)
Cab Calloway is born (1907)
Quentin Crisp is borm (1908)
The Christmas truce between German and British forces temporarily halts fighting on the Western Front (1914)
Anwar Sadat is born (1915)
Rod Serling is born (1924)
Emperor Taisho dies (1926)
Ismail Merchant is born (1936)
Jimmy Buffett is born (1946)
W.C. Fields dies (1946)
Barbara Mandrell is born (1948)
Sissy Spacek is born (1949)
The Stone of Scone is stolen from Westminster Abbey (1950)
Annie Lennox is born (1954)
Menachem Begin meets with Anwar Sadat in Egypt (1977)
Charlie Chaplin dies (1977)
A first successful trial run of what would become World Wide Web (1990)
Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as President of the Soviet Union (1991)
Dean Martin dies (1995)
James Brown dies (2006)
Eartha Kitt dies (2008)

Merry Christmas

Baldur

borm - m + n = born

Baldur

From my email box:

Here are 10 laws that Isaac Newton failed to share with the world…


1. LAW OF QUEUE: If you change queues, the one you have left will start to move
faster than the one you are in now.

**********


2. LAW OF TELEPHONE: When you dial a wrong number, you never get an engaged one.

**********


3. LAW OF MECHANICAL REPAIR: After your hands become coated with grease, your
nose will begin to itch.

**********


4. LAW OF THE WORKSHOP: Any tool, when dropped, will roll to the least
accessible corner.

**********


5. LAW OF THE ALIBI: If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had
a flat tire, the next morning you will have a flat tire.

**********


6. BATH THEOREM: When the body is immersed in water, the telephone rings.

**********


7. LAW OF ENCOUNTERS: The probability of meeting someone you know increases when
you are with someone you don't want to be seen with.

**********


8. LAW OF THE RESULT: When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't
work, it will!

**********


9. LAW OF BIOMECHANICS: The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to
the reach.

**********


10. LAW OF COFFEE: As soon as you sit down for a cup of hot coffee, your boss
will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.

Baldur

Tonight's Musical Moment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBVDGYuCe_I&feature=related

Baldur

My son had decided to educate me concerning the group 'She & Him'.
How had I missed them?
Zooey Deschanel remind me of Linda Ronstadt from earlier days.... pure bliss

Baldur

The Curies anounce that they have isolated radium (1898)
The Red Sox sell Babe Ruth to the Yankees (1919)
FM radio is patented (1933)
Carroll Spinney (Big Bird) is born (1933)
The first Kwanzaa is celebrated (1966)
Jack Benny dies (1974)
Dian Fossey dies (1985)
The Soiviet Union is dissolved (1991)
JonBenet Ramsey is found dead in her parent's basement (1996)
A magnitude 6.6 earthquake rocks SouthEast Iran killing tens of thousands(2003)
A magnitude 9.3 earthquake and ensuing tsunami hits Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Maldives, over 230,000 are killied (2004)
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake strikes Taiwan killing 2 (2006)
Today the Junkanoo street parades begin in the Bahamas
Happy Boxing Day
Happy Mummer's Day
Bountiful Kwanzaa
Happy St. Stephen's Day
Happy Wren Day

Baldur

Here's another great one for tonight's musical moment....
James Taylor with J.D. Souther:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEXWECGhVoA

Baldur

Johannes Kepler is born (1571)
Louis Pasteur is born (1822)
Darwin sets sail on the eagle (1831)
Marlene Dietrich is born (1901)
Gustave Eiffel dies (1923)
Show Boat premieres (1927)
Radio City Music Hall opens (1932)
An earthquake in Erzincan, Turkey kills 30,000 (1939)
The World Bank is founded (1945)
Gerard Depardieu is born (1948)
The Cave of Swallows is discovered (1966)
Bill Goldberg is born (1966)
The Soviet Union invades the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (1979)
Hoagy Carmichael dies (1981)
Benazir Bhutto is assasinated (2007)