Thursday, February 07, 2008
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Fun Junkies
Happy Super Tuesday to all you political junkies and happy Fat Tuesday to all of you fun junkies. Politics affects all of our lives and I watch what's happening with the same interest as any other concerned citizen. Still, when it comes to being a junkie I fall into the latter category more than the former.
Many other cities celebrate the pre-Lenten season with both festivities and frivolities. Most prominent, other than the Big Easy is Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Much of the year's income for many of Rio’s inhabitants is the direct result of Carnival Season. Fat Tuesday is always the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Because this date, like Easter, is governed by the moon's cycles, it occurs on a different date every year. This year, it is on February 5th, the earliest it has been in twenty years.
An official in Rio wants the date for Carnival to be on the same day every year. This is because the earlier the event occurs, the less revenue it generates. My close friend and fellow author r. r. Bryan, himself a devout Catholic, assures me that this will never happen. r. r. wrote All the Angels and Saints, a novel about a Catholic missionary in Guatemala.
While a devout Catholic, r. r. is also a fun junkie who lived in and around New Orleans for many years. His son Matt (whose birthday is today, incidentally - he as waited for this day all his life!) didn't believe it when we told him that crowds were often packed so tightly on Bourbon Street during times past that you could literally raise your feet off the pavement and remain suspended in the air.
I find it hard to believe that today is the third Fat Tuesday celebration in New Orleans since the devastation brought by the monster hurricane season of 2005. While far from full recovery, NO is moving in the right direction. It was 84 degrees in the French Quarter today and I sit in front of the TV watching the early voting returns, I am wishing I was there instead of here.
http://www.ericwilder.com
Many other cities celebrate the pre-Lenten season with both festivities and frivolities. Most prominent, other than the Big Easy is Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Much of the year's income for many of Rio’s inhabitants is the direct result of Carnival Season. Fat Tuesday is always the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Because this date, like Easter, is governed by the moon's cycles, it occurs on a different date every year. This year, it is on February 5th, the earliest it has been in twenty years.
An official in Rio wants the date for Carnival to be on the same day every year. This is because the earlier the event occurs, the less revenue it generates. My close friend and fellow author r. r. Bryan, himself a devout Catholic, assures me that this will never happen. r. r. wrote All the Angels and Saints, a novel about a Catholic missionary in Guatemala.
While a devout Catholic, r. r. is also a fun junkie who lived in and around New Orleans for many years. His son Matt (whose birthday is today, incidentally - he as waited for this day all his life!) didn't believe it when we told him that crowds were often packed so tightly on Bourbon Street during times past that you could literally raise your feet off the pavement and remain suspended in the air.
I find it hard to believe that today is the third Fat Tuesday celebration in New Orleans since the devastation brought by the monster hurricane season of 2005. While far from full recovery, NO is moving in the right direction. It was 84 degrees in the French Quarter today and I sit in front of the TV watching the early voting returns, I am wishing I was there instead of here.
http://www.ericwilder.com
Monday, February 04, 2008
Night Stalker
I took this picture two days ago with a wildlife camera mounted on the flagpole in my front yard. I had a strange feeling when I downloaded my pics that I was going to have captured the image of a werewolf, or a bigfoot. Instead, I had this pic of a gorgeous fox. My wildlife camera also managed to snap pics of a couple of possums, a raccoon and, of course my cats. I'll keep you posted if I manage to discover a bigfoot, werewolf, or some really weird person. Meanwhile, I'm contacting Stephen King with an idea for an absolutely frightening story.
http://www.ericwilder.com
Hey, my connection is slow and I can't get the picture to upload. I'll try again later. Until then, imagine a beautiful red fox, in the snow, checking out the food in my cat's food bowls. - Eric
http://www.ericwilder.com
Hey, my connection is slow and I can't get the picture to upload. I'll try again later. Until then, imagine a beautiful red fox, in the snow, checking out the food in my cat's food bowls. - Eric
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Peppers, Football and Sex
Last night on Nightline there was a segment on the world's hottest pepper. The pepper comes from a remote part of India and one restaurant in Chicago uses it to make what they advertise as the world's hottest chicken wings. A Nightline reporter interviewed the chef who informed him they made their customers sign a waiver before serving them their specialty hot wings. This is because the Indian pepper is 2000 times hotter than a jalapeno on the SHU scale, a scale for measuring the caipusun content (the chemical that makes it hot) in a pepper.
The Nightline reporter mentioned that humans are the only creatures that will eat a pepper. Supposedly, not even a rat can be trained to eat one. Why then are hot, spicy foods so ingrained in the diets of many cultures, Americans as well?
A psychologist interviewed by Nightline said that hot wings prepared with the super-hot pepper was probably consumed mostly by young men, often as a challenge and often during a televised sporting event such as Sunday's Super Bowl. Hot spicy foods do have at least one benefit. They cause the release of endorphins and provide the effect of something similar to a runner's high. When couples consume the spicy fare together, they are often more sexually attracted to each other. This, I guess, should make hot wings and other hot, spicy foods the date food of choice.
The report got me to thinking what else that humans do that other creatures don't. For one, only humans run marathons and play team sports, such as football. There is an important connection here that I haven't yet grasped but one thing is sure - Americans, Nightline reports, will consume 90 million pounds of hot wings during the Super Bowl. That's right, 90 million pounds!
That brings me to the Super Bowl tomorrow. The most watched television event of the year has little to do with whether the Patriots or the Giants are the best football team. It's really all about peppers, team sports and sex, and you can bet there won't be a single rat watching the event.http://www.ericwilder.com/
The Nightline reporter mentioned that humans are the only creatures that will eat a pepper. Supposedly, not even a rat can be trained to eat one. Why then are hot, spicy foods so ingrained in the diets of many cultures, Americans as well?
A psychologist interviewed by Nightline said that hot wings prepared with the super-hot pepper was probably consumed mostly by young men, often as a challenge and often during a televised sporting event such as Sunday's Super Bowl. Hot spicy foods do have at least one benefit. They cause the release of endorphins and provide the effect of something similar to a runner's high. When couples consume the spicy fare together, they are often more sexually attracted to each other. This, I guess, should make hot wings and other hot, spicy foods the date food of choice.
The report got me to thinking what else that humans do that other creatures don't. For one, only humans run marathons and play team sports, such as football. There is an important connection here that I haven't yet grasped but one thing is sure - Americans, Nightline reports, will consume 90 million pounds of hot wings during the Super Bowl. That's right, 90 million pounds!
That brings me to the Super Bowl tomorrow. The most watched television event of the year has little to do with whether the Patriots or the Giants are the best football team. It's really all about peppers, team sports and sex, and you can bet there won't be a single rat watching the event.http://www.ericwilder.com/
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