I Never Thought of Myself as Eerie…

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Countess-Palatine Mo! the Eerie of Dicken St Charles Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

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Darned Good Thing She Got Over Being Surprised!

From Quotes of the Day, today:

When I was born I was so surprised I didn’t talk for a year and a half.

- Gracie Allen

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More Beautiful Music

Turns out “Klever Kaff” was perhaps more well known for folk songs. This one, her signature song, is really beautiful.



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Beautiful Music

I was poking around with Google, making sure I remembered that the Messiah “version” we sang at St Bede was, indeed, the Novello Edition (it was), and ran across this. Wow!!



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Maybe That’s the Point??

Today’s Daily Thought from Real Simple:



The only thing wrong with doing nothing is you never know when you’re finished.
— Anonymous

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Gotta Smile Again

:::sigh:::

Darn the luck!! Turns out this isn’t the genuine thing after all, according to Snopes… It’s still a smiler, though.


http://view.break.com/524970 - Watch more free videos

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“I DARE You Not to Smile Watching This”

(Thanks for the link, Siluoan!)


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.L

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True Peace

Today’s Daily Reflection from the Society of the Little Flower:

Seek true peace, not upon earth, but in heaven; not in men, nor in other things created, but in God alone.

-St. Therese of Lisieux

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Irish Pop Psychology?

From Quotes of the Day, today:

There’s a whiff of the lynch mob or the lemming migration about any overlarge concentration of like-thinking individuals, no matter how virtuous their cause.

- PJ O’Rourke

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Achieving Happiness

From Quotes of the Day, today:

Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.

- Aldous Huxley

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Happiness Is What You Make It Of

From Quotes of the Day, today:

Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.

- Robertson Davies

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Life, or Not-Life, Can Be *So* Complicated, Somtimes…

On Reuters Tuesday:

French near-death case stirs debate on organ donors

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Get This Unicorn

On abc News yesterday:

Single-Horned ‘Unicorn’ Deer Found in Italy

Never did see one when I was in Italy…

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Dark Day in May

From NASA’s EO (Earth Observatory) Web site recently:

EO News: Mystery of Infamous ‘New England Dark Day” Solved by Tree Rings - June 6, 2008

“At noon, it was black as night. It was May 19, 1780 and some people in New England thought judgment day was at hand. Accounts of that day, which became known as ‘New England’s Dark Day,’ include mentions of midday meals by candlelight, night birds coming out to sing, flowers folding their petals, and strange behavior from animals. The mystery of this day has been solved by researchers at the University of Missouri who say evidence from tree rings reveals massive wildfires as the likely cause, one of several theories proposed after the event, but dismissed as ‘simple and absurd.’…”

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Oy Oy Oy Oy Oy Vey!!

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The Search for Truth

Today’s Daily Thought from Real Simple:



If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?
— Dogen

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But It’s *Still* Math

From Quotes of the Day, today:

There is still a difference between something and nothing, but it is purely geometrical and there is nothing behind the geometry.

- Martin Gardner

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Run Away! Run Away!!

From Quotes of the Day, today:

Some have been thought brave because they were afraid to run away.

- Thomas Fuller

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Hillary Clinton: Not Perfect

From abcNEWS last night:

ABC News: What Went Wrong? How Hillary Clinton Lost

“Back when Sen. Hillary Clinton was just starting her campaign, top aides and advisers had a ready answer when asked if she could win the presidency.

“‘She's already winning,’ came the response, as repeated by chief strategist Mark Penn, campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe and other top aides and advisers, in memos, press releases and interviews as the campaign began more than a year ago.…”

The author continues on with “…five mistakes that Democratic strategists and Clinton campaign insiders say contributed to Clinton's downfall — and left Obama as the last candidate standing in the most remarkable primary season in memory:…”

Her first mistake? Inevitability as Strategy. I’m not the first to believe that it was actually Entitlement as Strategy.

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Perspective on Expectations

Today’s Daily Thought from Real Simple:



Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God’s business.

— Michael J. Fox

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The Salvation and Downfall of Ireland

How to Celebrate the International Year of the Potato

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

"As wheat and rice prices surge, the humble potato is being rediscovered as a nutritious crop that could cheaply feed an increasingly hungry world."[1]The United Nations declared that 2008 is the International Year of the Potato. The celebration of the International Year of the Potato (IYP) is intended to raise awareness of the importance of the potato, as well as agriculture in general, in addressing issues of global concern, including hunger, poverty and threats to the environment. This article provides some ways for you to join in the celebration of the humble spud.

Steps

1. Learn about the reasons why the potato is an important food crop. The humble potato is being rediscovered as a potentially very useful food crop that can be easily grown in many parts of the world as a source of nutritious food. The benefits of potatoes include:
   
   • Global nature - they have been transported all around the world and are grown almost everywhere
     
   • Ability to feed the hungry - the potato is able to produce more nutritious food per area of land and in harsher environments than any other major food crop, providing “up to 85 percent of the plant is edible human food, compared to around 50% in cereals”.[2]
     
   • Nutritious - potatoes are good for you. They are rich in carbohydrates which provide long-term energy and they have the highest protein content for the root and tuber family, “with an amino-acid pattern that is well matched to human requirements”.[3]
     
   • Increasing future demand - there is an increasing trend in eating potatoes around the world, indicating that potatoes will become more and more important as a substantial food crop.
     
   
   
2. Learn about the different varieties of potatoes. There are many varieties of potatoes and different potatoes are suitable for different uses. There are potatoes suitable for baking, roasting, boiling, mashing, steaming and frying. Ask at your local potato distributor for information on the best types of potato for your cooking needs.
   
3. Learn about the nutrition benefits of the potato. Potatoes have received a lot of bad press from those insisting that potatoes make dieters fat but this bad rap is undeserved. Potatoes are low in fat; it is what you put on a potato can make it fattening but by themselves, potatoes are not a fattening food and can easily satisfy hunger cravings quickly in small portion. Potatoes contain many micronutrients, including vitamin C, iron, B1, B3, B6 and minerals such as potassium, phosphorus and magnesium, and contains folate, pantothenic acid and riboflavin. In addition, potatoes contain valuable dietary fibre and antioxidants to help prevent age-related diseases.[4]
   
4. Note the effects of cooking styles on potato nutrition. The method that you use for cooking potatoes impacts on the nutrition level of the potato.
   
   • Boiling causes a big loss of vitamin C, especially for peeled potatoes
     
   • Frying potatoes and making French fries/chips reduces the mineral and ascorbic acid content and causes the potato to absorb a lot of fat
     
   • Baking causes a higher loss of vitamin C than boiling but retains other vitamins and minerals.[5]
     
   
   
5. Make some potato recipes at home. Get cooking! Almost everyone loves the potato in some form or other and you can put your culinary skills to use cooking potatoes at home. Look for potato recipes on wikiHow and share some of your favourite potato recipes here and with family and friends.
   
6. Grow your own potatoes. Potatoes are really easy to grow and children can also join in the fun of planting them and watching them grow. For more details on growing potatoes for yourself, see our article Plant Potatoes.
   

Tips

• The Bangladesh army is including a 125g potato per member of the army regardless of rank to supplement a decreasing rice diet.[6]
  

Warnings

• The starch in raw potatoes cannot be digested by the human digestive system, so avoid eating potatoes raw.
  
• Avoid potatoes with green skins. The green indicates the presence of glycoalkaloids, which are toxic. These areas are not destroyed by cooking, so cut away green areas prior to cooking or discard entirely green potatoes.
  

Things You'll Need

• Potatoes - different varieties
  
• Resources and information about potatoes
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Plant Potatoes
  
• How to Grow Potatoes in a Wire Cage
  
• How to Bake Potatoes
  
• How to Make Fried Potatoes
  
• How to Make Roast Potatoes
  
• How to Celebrate the International Day for Biodiversity
  
• How to Help Protect Biodiversity
  
• How to Understand the Concept of Biodiversity
  

Sources and Citations

• International Year of the Potato - Official website for IYP
  

1. ↑ IYP, Why Potato?


2. ↑ IYP, Why Potato?


3. ↑ IYP, Why Potato?


4. ↑ IYP, Potatoes, Nutrition and Diet


5. ↑ IYP, Potatoes, Nutrition and Diet


6. ↑ The NZ Herald, Weekend Herald, Let Them Eat Spuds, pB6

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Celebrate the International Year of the Potato. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

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The Glass Is Half-Empty *and* Half-Full

From Quotes of the Day, today:

The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.

- George F. Will

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