Don’t be!
‘CAUSE HERE’S A GOOD BLOSSARY!
What’s a blossary?
A blogger glossary, of course!
Same thing as a blictionary!
Unfortunately, you won’t find those terms in the one I linked.
‘Cause I just made ’em up.
<wistful sigh>But maybe it’ll be there someday.</wistful sigh>
Okay, New Years is a-comin’, and that means it’s black-eyed pea time.
Y’see, growing up, every year my family would eat black-eyed peas on New Years’ Day for good luck.
Old tradition. I try to keep it up even though I’m out on my own now. (Though I can’t eat much as the peas aren’t low-carb enough, so you can’t go hog wild.)
Apparently, some folk also eat collard greens on New Years.
Don’t know about that.
We ate a lot of collard greens (as well as mustard greens and turnip greens), just don’t remember us eating them on New Years.
Might have to try that this year, though, as greens probably are low-carb.
HERE’S AN ARTICLE ON THE SUBJECT, ALONG WITH COOKING SUGGESTIONS.
(Cowboy hat tip: Southern Appeal.)
Maybe I’ll pull out a bottle of pickled okra out of my cupboard and start a new New Years tradition. As Crow T. Robot says, "There’s no tradition like a new tradition!"
The possible answer may surprise you!
Perhaps Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko should try an "Olestra diet" to rid his body of dioxin.
It wouldn’t be the first time that
the "fake fat" product was used as an emergency agent to flush out
dioxin, one of a group of chlorinated hydrocarbons that are toxic,
lipophilic (attracted to fat) – and persistent in the environment and
animal tissues. About five years ago, two Austrian women suffering from
dioxin poisoning were given olestra snacks, which resulted in removal
of dioxin at 10 times the normal rate, according to some reports.In
an as-yet-unpublished study, researchers at the University of
Cincinnati School of Medicine, along with Trevor Redgrave at the
University of Western Australia, treated a patient with PCB toxicity
over a two-year period with olestra in the form of fat-free Pringles.
The patient’s chloracne disappeared and the PCB level in fat tissue
dropped dramatically.
(Cowboy hat tip: Southern Appeal.
Back in the old days (meaning, before Ronald Reagan), the South was populated with many, many yellow dog Democrats–so named because they would vote for a yellow dog before they would vote for a Republican. For decades, they kept the South realibly (if not infallibly) voting for the Democratic Party.
(Backup link in case that one goes bad.)
If the Dems do hope to ever rebuild themselves as a national party, their hopes in the South may lie in a new breed: the blue dog Democrats.
How about Amazon.Com?
How about Amazon.Com?
The Pertinacious Papist and patriarch of the Magnificent Blossers, Dr. Phil Blosser, has noted the kind of headlines that the pope is getting these days. He gives some examples:
While all press is good press, are these really the kinds of headlines that we should be having about the pope, he wonders?
Why not headlines like these?
Y’know the Christmas episode of WKRP where Dr. Johnny Fever asks Jennifer (Loni Anderson) what she’s doing for Christmas and, embarrassed, she reveals that one of her businessmen boyfriends is flying the two of them to Bethlehem?
Johnny’s impressed response is: "Now that’s a down home Christmas."
Ever wonder what a down home Ramadan is like?–a Ramadan celebrated in Saudi Arabia? An American living over there tells us:
Watching [Night of the Living Dead], I remembered
something Mohammed had said on the advent of Ramadan, when we were
discussing the effects of the holy month of fasting on the Magic
Kingdom’s inhabitants.
"In four weeks," Mohammed said, with a wave of his arm, "You will see dead people. Everywhere you look, dead people."
He had a point. By the end of Ramadan most Saudis did seem more like reanimated corpses than living humans.
Saudis have their own peculiar way of observing Ramadan. During
Ramadan the Saudis flip their lifestyles from day to night. True, they
do abstain from food, water, and sexual intercourse, during the day.
What they deny themselves in the sunlight they more than make up for in
the dark. Most Saudis gain weight during Ramadan. Like camels storing
nourishment and water in the form of fat in their humps for long treks
across the desert, the Saudis gorge on food and drink during the night
for the perilous journey from dawn to dusk the following day.
Nightlife
in the heart of the Magic Kingdom during Ramadan is frenzied. Shops and
restaurants stay open until late in the morning. Some don’t bother
closing until just before sunrise. Stores are congested. Restaurants
are full. Traffic is bumper to bumper. There are Ramadan Special Offers
and Ramadan Sells and Ramadan Drawings and Ramadan Discounts everywhere
as stores vie for customers.
Aside from an occasional catnap before iftar (the first evening meal at sundown, when you break fast) and after suhoor
(the pre-dawn meal) no one bothers to sleep. Sleep can be postponed
until the weekend, when you can snooze all day long to your heart’s
content, which is exactly what the Saudis do. On Thursdays and Fridays
(weekend in this part of the world) during Ramadan the heart of the
Magic Kingdom becomes one massive necropolis. Streets are completely
empty. Shops are closed. Aside from police at checkpoints on the
lookout for terrorists it’s as though the entire city has been
abandoned.
One discernible impact of the lack of sleep during Ramadan is a
tremendous rise in traffic accidents. Driving in Arabia is dangerous
anytime of the year, but during Ramadan it is like playing Russian
roulette, only with cars instead of bullets.
Some of these accidents are caused by sleepy Saudis racing home to eat iftar.
This week the Arab News reported that road accidents were up
20 percent during Ramadan. Brigadier Saad Al-Ghamdi of the Jeddah
Traffic Department told the Arab News the accidents peak just before iftar.
He said, "I have no idea why people are behaving so differently in
Ramadan even though they are supposed to respect the spirit of the holy
month by being patient and tolerant. This happens every Ramadan despite
our continued warning. Motorists tend to speed more than usual and lose
their concentration while driving."
The article when on to
say that, "the increased number of accidents has led the Traffic
Department in cooperation with charity organizations to provide a very
light iftar meal to motorists by traffic lights to calm them down."
You’ll be seeing dead people.