shouldn’t build swimming pools?  From Drudge.  Al Gore was heckled while receiving an honorary doctorate from Concordia University by audience members yelling ‘what about your swimming pools?’  The other shoe drops?

 ”I want to get more literate“

I’m not surprised Bourdain has such a large following.  Even I am a fan of sorts, and I can definitely see SushiAttack and TJFKAK jumping on board as well.

As for SushiAttack’s question, this is what I mean about vietnam and Cheesecake factory:
Bourdain goes to Vietnam or these other countries because of their local cuisine, right? It would be dumb of him to criticize Vietnam for having grass shacks, not a Cheesecake factory.

But, when he goes to Vegas, he criticizes the strip, New York, New York, etc., and instead goes to look for LOCAL cuisine. Vegas was a desert, it has no historical ethnic cuisine. Vegas is the strip, it is glamour and glitz, it is artificial. Bourdain has no more right to criticize the strip than he does to criticize grass shacks in vietnam.

I don’t like Bourdain’s childish attacks for the same reason. It’s like he does not understand that some people do not have the time, resources or inclination to eat sheep’s balls.

These attacks are hypocritical.  After all, Bourdain attacks vegetarians for not understanding the necessities that make eating meat unavoidable, if not a luxury, for many ethnic cultures.  But at the same time, Bourdain does not understand the necessities that make eating canned tomato sauce or dried herbs similarly necessary.  He does not seem to understand that most people work hard to support their families, and often need to cook a quick, hearty and inexpensive meal for their families.

This is what I mean by Bourdain being a spoiled prep school brat, and to me it is neither entertaining nor a virtue.  It’s like the rich kid making fun of the poor kid for bringing vienna sausage for lunch.  Bourdain of all people, who acts like he respects individualism and culturalism so highly, fails to appreciate the varying conditions of people in his own country.

The irony is, Bourdain’s act is manufactured for wanna-be world travelers, poets and ironic writers, just like Rachel Ray’s act is manufacturered for wanna-be cooks.  Bourdain’s equation is simple, hate the mainstream, speak candidly about sex and drugs, drink and smoke heavily, and voila - you have the rock-and-roll foodie.  This act is no different from Emeril’s ‘bam’ and Ray’s ‘Yummo,’ the only difference is that Bourdain is arrogant enough to think that his version of selling out is superior to that of the celebrity chef.

How to Use a Single Sheet of Toilet Paper and Save Paper

When going on a hike you can sometimes only carry a single roll of toilet paper, or when money is scarce this method really works well.

Steps

1. Tear off a single sheet of toilet paper from the roll.
2. Fold the sheet in half and then again in half so that you have it in quarters
3. Without unfolding it, tear off a half moon shape from the corner where all the sides meet, do not discard this small piece as it will come into important use later
4. Now unfold the paper and you will be left with a neat hole in the centre of the sheet
5. Push your index finger through this hole and use the finger to clean your bum
6. Using the sheet pressing inwards wipe your finger clean and discard soiled sheet
7. Now use the tiny corner you tore off earlier to clean under your nail.

Warnings

• Not for the faint hearted, and should only be used in desperate situations.

The GoogleCache has a great article on why vote rigging websites ultimately fail.  I think its interesting that people are even talking about trying to rig a vote for site likes Digg.  Imagine three years ago telling someone you devised a way to get your website’s article higher on a ranking system for popular articles.  They would ask you why.  The way news works is definitely changing.

I had to add one more common House MD theme:  The idea of having multiple diseases at once, whereas you solve one problem but realize there actually is another disease on top of the old disease!

The African kids ad next to the post dissing the ad for African kids.  Really Google, how many Stanford phds did it take to figure that one out?  Good job with the targeted ads.  Glad to see you’re keeping your clients happy.

  Earlier this week I just purchased some of Trader Joe’s Strawberry Kefir drink.  The taste is similar to yogurt and the consistency is like a melted milkshake.  The health benefits of drinking Kefir is widely known and often quoted.  I like drinking it because it tastes good and I like the idea of getting some extra protein without having to cook something.  On a side note, Kefir is supposedly easier to digest than milk for people that have lactose intolerance issues.  I personally can’t consume milk of any kind and I don’t have any problems with Trader Joe’s Kefir.  If you like yogurt I’d give it a try, I’m definitely going to buy this one again.  I have a pretty good suspicion that Japa will like this one too.

You can also make your own Kefir buy purchasing the starter culture and leaving your milk out on the counter.  I’d rather buy mine than worry about leaving the milk out too long.

Kefir making bloggers:

The fermented milk wonder drink

Also this blogger that makes Kefir for her um, dogs…pretty normal…

Kefir Rocks!