SokSa Lair: Entertainment

State Mottos

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:01:01 GMT

Alabama: Hell Yes, We Have Electricity

Alaska: 11,623 Eskimos Can't Be Wrong!

Arizona: But It's A Dry Heat

Arkansas: Literacy Ain't Everything

California: By 30, Our Women Have More Plastic Than Your Honda

Colorado: If You Don't Ski, Don't Bother

Connecticut: Like Massachusetts, Only The Kennedy's Don't Own It-Yet

Delaware: We Really Do Like The Chemicals In Our Water

Florida: Ask Us About Our Grandkids

Georgia: We Put The "Fun" In Fundamentalist Extremism

Hawaii: Haka Tiki Mou Sha'ami Leeki Toru (Death To Mainland Scum, But Leave
Your Money)

Idaho: More Than Just Potatoes...Well Okay, We're Not, But The Potatoes Sure
Are Real Good

Illinois: Please Don't Pronounce the "S"

Indiana: 2 Billion Years Tidal Wave Free

Iowa: We Do Amazing Things With Corn

Kansas: First Of The Rectangle States

Kentucky: Five Million People; Fifteen Last Names

Louisiana: We're Not ALL Drunk Cajun Wackos, But That's Our Tourism Campaign

Maine: We're Really Cold, But We Have Cheap Lobster

Maryland: If You Can Dream It, We Can Tax It

Massachusetts: Our Taxes Are Lower Than Sweden's (For Most Tax Brackets)

Michigan: First Line Of Defense From The Canadians

Minnesota: 10,000 Lakes... And 10,000,000,000,000 Mosquitoes

Mississippi: Come And Feel Better About Your Own State

Missouri: Your Federal Flood Relief Tax Dollars At Work

Montana: Land Of The Big Sky, The Unabomber, Right-Wing Crazies, And Very
Little Else

Nebraska: Ask About Our State Motto Contest

Nevada: Hookers and Poker!

New Hampshire: Go Away And Leave Us Alone

New Jersey: You Want A ##$%##! Motto? I Got Yer ##$%##! Motto Right Here!

New Mexico: Lizards Make Excellent pets

New York: You Have The Right To Remain Silent, You Have The Right To An
Attorney....

North Carolina: Tobacco Is A Vegetable

North Dakota: We Really Are One Of The 50 States!

Ohio: At Least We're Not Michigan

Oklahoma: Like The Play, Only No Singing

Oregon: Spotted Owl... It's What's For Dinner

Pennsylvania: Cook With Coal

Rhode Island: We're Not REALLY An Island

South Carolina: Remember The Civil War? We Didn't Actually Surrender

South Dakota: Closer Than North Dakota

Tennessee: The Educashun State

Texas: Si' Hablo Ing'les

Utah: Our Jesus Is Better Than Your Jesus

Vermont: Yep

Virginia: Who Says Government Stiffs And Slackjaw Yokels Don't Mix?

Washington: Help! We're Overrun By Nerds And Slackers!

Washington, D.C.: Wanna Be Mayor?

West Virginia: One Big Happy Family... Really!

Wisconsin: Come Cut The Cheese

Wyoming: Where Men Are Men... and the sheep are scared

A Guide to U.S. Newspapers

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:58:17 GMT

1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.

2. The New York Times is read by people who think they run the country.

3. The Washington Post is read by people who think they should run the country.

4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don't really understand the Washington Post. They do, however like the smog statistics shown in pie charts.

5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn't mind running the country, if they could spare the time, and if they didn't have to leave L.A. to do it.

6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country.

7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren't too sure who's running the country, and don't really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.

8. The New York Post is read by people who don't care who's running the country either, as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.

9. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren't sure there is a country, or that anyone is running it; but whoever it is, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped minority, feministic atheist dwarfs, who also happen to be illegal aliens from ANY country or galaxy as long as they are democrats.

10. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country, but need the baseball scores.

American Idol 5: Chris Daughtry

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:38:07 GMT

This guy gives me the chills. My point of view: he's already won. Even if he does not take the first place, the guy is famous, he rocks, and he is on stage every week giving free concerts! When everybodyelse is so self-conscious and afraid to take chances he goes out there takes a Johnny Cash classic "I walk the line" and morphs it, turns it into an alternative rock piece and sings it, and sings it well I might add. I've downloaded it and been listening to it over and over, he is amazing. Where has he been hiding all this time? He is such a talent! I'm telling you, for once I agree with Paula Abdul: he should be out there touring, and we should be buying tickets to see him perform!

The Lion, the Witch & the Turkish Delight

Fri, 16 Dec 2005 15:24:26 GMT

It was invented 300 years ago to soothe a sultan's troubled harem.

Today, sales are soaring. The reason? Its key role in the forthcoming film of the CS Lewis novel By Jonathan Brown

The Independant 05 December 2005

Abdul Hamid might not have been much of a military leader - his reluctant forays into battle with the Russians nearly cost the Ottomans their empire. But he did know a thing or two about women. If legend is to be believed, the 27th sultan's understanding of the needs of his closest female companions left the world an all-together more congenial legacy than his bellicose relatives; one that has seen his fame live way beyond imperial decline.

Faced with the sticky problem of how to keep happy the four wives and hundreds of mistresses maintained behind the elegant façade of the Topkapi Palace, Hamid hit on a sweet solution. The Sultan summoned to his court the greatest confectioners in the empire and ordered them to find a dessert that would quell the rumblings of discontent within his harem. And so, it is claimed, the sweet we know today as Turkish Delight was born.

Three centuries later, the confection that solved Abdul Hamid's domestic troubles, continues to tantalise the popular taste buds. Moreover, the starring role it plays in what promises to be the box office movie smash hit this Christmas has seen its popularity once again soar.

According to Britain's supermarkets, the appearance of Turkish Delight in part one of Disney's adaptation of CS Lewis's The Chronicle's of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has seen Fry's 21st century version of the historic sweet disappear like magic from the shelves. Tesco has reported a 200 per cent increase in sales while Sainsbury's is also experiencing the "Narnia-effect".

In the film, Tilda Swinton, who plays the dreadlocked, albino Snow Queen, turns war-time evacuee Edmund Pevensie against his siblings and the honest folk of Narnia through the simple inducement of a plentiful supply of the sticky stuff.

CS Lewis observes in the novel that Edmund "thought only of trying to shovel down as much Turkish Delight as he could, and the more he ate, the more he wanted."

Moving from fantasy back to legend, Ali Muhiddin Hadji Bekir, the confectioner who hit on the formula that got the women off Abdul Hamid's back, would no doubt have been delighted.

His recipe, barely related to Fry's chocolate smeared, chemical-pink confection of today, lives on. Hadji Bekir's genius it is said, was to produce a soft and chewy candy - in welcome contrast to the tooth-cracking hard offerings of the day. The confectioner is said to have perfected his creation by combining ingredients at his disposal at his home in the Anatolian mountain town of Kastamonu. These were water, sugar, cornflour, lemon cream of tartar and rosewater.

Hadji Bekir's recipe was simple. He heated the water, lemon and sugar, which he then added to a second pan containing flour, water and the tartar. Simmered for an hour, he sprinkled on the rosewater before allowing his mixture to cool. Dusted with powdered sugar and chopped into bite size chunks, the alchemy was complete. Of course - the legend continues - Hadji Bekir didn't call his creation Turkish Delight - that came centuries later, the result of a piece of rather ingenious Victorian marketing.

Locally, this speciality became known as Rahat lokhoum - a corruption of the Arabic rahat ul hulkum, which translates as "soothing to the throat". In English the word was simplified to "lokum". It became a daily staple at the sumptuous feasts held at the Ottoman court and Hadji Bekir's fortunes rose dramatically as a consequence.

He was granted the title of chief confectioner to the palace and established a small shop at Bahcekapi in 1777. It thrived under the management of his sons, being handed down generation to generation, and the family still maintains a small shop in Istanbul, close to the Yeni Cami (New Mosque). It remains a popular stop on gastronomic tours of the Turkish capital.

The recipe spread through the Near and Middle East, what is modern day Greece and the Balkans. In Constantinople, fashionable ladies swapped offerings of it in lace handkerchiefs. It became love tokens between courting couples and the accompaniment of choice to a cup of strong Turkish coffee.

But Tim Richardson, author of Sweets: A History of Candy, is sceptical about the veracity of the legend. His love affair with confection was prompted in part by his grandfather's frequent missions to the Middle East as a buyer of Turkish Delight (it was a passion not extinguished by his dentist father.) Mr Richardson believes that Hadji Bekir's story lives on, fuelled partly because of its romantic appeal and partly due to the commercial interests that continue to promote it. "I'm sure it is a much older sweet. There is evidence of gummy, syrupy sweets dating back to the 9th century," he says. The Persians developed a sweet, the "no rooz", meaning new year. It, too, was made from sugar and starch, and cut into chunks. It was displayed on necklaces and eaten during special celebrations. The recipe is repeated on manuscripts pre-dating Hadji Bekir by half-a-millennia.

The Turks' claim to have invented lokum is even less readily accepted by their neighbours, especially the Greeks. Cypriot grocers in London will sell it only as Greek delight. It is a similar story for other sweets of the region. The invention of baklava, a layered filo pastry confection stuffed with nuts or other flavourings, is contested between Greeks, Armenians and Turks. Halva, which began life in India, was adjusted to local tastes as it journeyed west towards Europe. Exactly who makes the original and the best version is a hotly contested matter to this day.

What is known is that sugar played a central part in the Arabic pharmacy - it is a legacy that lingers in European civilisation to this day. Lozenges are derived from the Arabic word for a diamond-shaped fondant, lollipops and chocolate are sold side-by-side in modern day chemists. The appropriate treatment for a sore throat is, of course, a cough sweet.

But society's relationship with sugar and spice and all things nice has become increasingly complex over the years. The powerful effect it exerts on the human psyche, particularly that of children, was not lost on CS Lewis and has been revisited throughout modern literature. "To adults, sweets are a symbol of a lost innocence," says Tim Richardson. "Lewis substitutes them for the apple in the Adam and Eve story when the Snow Queen uses Turkish Delight to tempt Edmund. The innocence of childhood is being damaged here."

Other authors have employed similar devices. From the Brothers Grimm and their gingerbread houses, to Roald Dahl in Willy Wonka and Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in which the scary child-catcher uses sweets to ensnare unsuspecting minors. "They are children's weak spot. Much is still made of child molesters using sweets to tempt their prey," says Mr Richardson.

While modern-day adults and doctors might demonise sweets, children, he says, continue to love them. "They are an incredibly emotional thing for them. They are one of the few things you can buy on your own as a child and consume. They are the way we learn about money, sharing and unfortunately stealing. How many people can hand on heart say they have never stolen a sweet? Children lust after them."

While much recent debate has centred on the Narnia film's treatment of the deeply devout CS Lewis's Christian allegory for evangelical US cinema audiences, Mr Richardson believes there may be another hidden meaning behind the use of Turkish Delight to trap Edmund. "It is just possible that Lewis looked on the sweet as something not very Christian. Did he choose it to represent something that harks back to the Crusades?"

The collision of cultures has proved an important marketing device for Fry's which first launched its Turkish bar in 1914 - nearly half a century after its chocolate cream. Under the slogan "full of Eastern Promise", Cadbury's describes the bar as a "mystical, exotic treat that lets you escape from the everyday". The company has deliberately exploited the sex appeal of the Orient - from the windswept desert tent to the galloping Arab stallion, in order to appeal to both men and women consumers. Such allure was even felt by that least sexual of writers Charles Dickens who used the sweet to introduce an air of saucy exoticism into The Mystery of Edwin Drood. In it, Rosa Bud performs an erotic glove striptease as she eats Turkish Delight - then known simply as "lumps of delight" - coquettishly licking away the white powder from her outstretched finger.

Turkish Delight first arrived in Europe half a century before Dickens was writing Edwin Drood - not in the travelling trunk of the intrepid explorer Sir Richard Burton as the modern British legend would have it - but in the sample case of an unknown commercial traveller. It became Napoleon's favourite sweet and was much admired by Sir Winston Churchill. Pablo Picasso used it as an aide to his concentration. Thanks to Disney, the Western love affair with the East's favourite sweet looks as promising as ever.

The Lion, the Witch ... and the Turkish Delight by JAMES TAPPER, Mail on Sunday 09:39am 4th December 2005

The Narnia film has boosted sales of the chocolate bar It Has more product tie-ins than most movies have actors but the new Narnia film has given a remarkable boost to an item its producers seem to have overlooked - Turkish Delight . Sales of the sticky confectionery have trebled in the past few weeks as youngsters clamour to buy and read copies of C. S. Lewis's book The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, on which the Disney film is based, and discover what a pivotal role it plays. The wicked White Witch uses it to entice young Edmund Pevensie and turn him against both the good folk of Narnia and his own family. Lewis notes how the boy 'thought only of trying to shovel down as much Turkish Delight as he could, and the more he ate the more he wanted to eat'.

Yet while the film's makers have signed contracts to allow more than 80 products to be associated with the movie, no brand of Turkish Delight has been licensed - not even the best known, Fry's Turkish Delight . Its maker, Cadbury, is believed to be unwilling to spend extra money marketing what it sees as a niche brand. All the major supermarkets report substantial increases in sales of Turkish Delight . Booksellers also say sales of Lewis's children's classic have nearly quadrupled. Sainsbury's buyer Bridget Townsend said: 'There is definitely an effect from the Narnia film.' A Tesco spokeswoman added: 'Turkish Delight sales are up a massive 200 per cent as children hurry to read the book before seeing the film which opens later this week. There has been criticism of the volume of other products being promoted on the back of the film, most of which do not feature in its story anyway. Disney and the producers Walden Media - a firm created by Christian billionaire Philip Anschutz - have signed deals with, among others, Unilever, Procter and Gamble, Virgin Atlantic and McDonald's. The merchandising has been criticised by some Christian groups for being hypocritical, by using a Christian book to promote non-Christian commercialism, although Disney has defended the tie-ins, saying they are entirely appropriate.

Here is the original article.

Bir "menderek" akşamı

Mon, 05 Sep 2005 04:19:23 GMT

Sene 1989, yer Sinop. Bir sürü geyik ve muhabbeti baldan tatlı adam ile beraber tekel bayiine girilir. Elde minik bir cep radyosu :

"Maçı çekiyo mu bu ?"
"Ne maçı abi ?"
"Aksam hede hodo maçı var"
"Bilmem, simdi TRT-4 'de geceyarısı ekspresi başlıyacak, onu dinnicez biz"
"İyi, hadi bakalım, gece ekspresi, akıllı olun"
"Abi, köpek ölduren yok mu, bu çok pahalı ?"
"Siz köpek misiniz lan ? Bunu alın, adam gibi için, bi iki saat sonra ben de gelcem yanınıza, hadi bakiim"
"Eyvallah"
ile başlanır. Cepteki son para da buna gider.

Mendrek sessizdir (o zamanlar o kadar da uzun değil ayrica, o kadar çok ışık da yok; o girişte, deniz seviyesinde bir çeşme vardır, o çalışır; kenarda uc kulübe vardır, onda balıkçılar yatar); ilerlenir, en yakın ışığın üç ilerisindeki kayaların üstü düzdür, oraya cömülür.

Mehtap denize vurmaktadır. Biri :
"Ulan balığa çıksak da yakamoz seyretsek" der, diğerleri ona vururlar.

Şarap açılır, üç tane kuru leblebiden biraz fazla olan meze açılır.

Mehtap denize vurmaktadır.

Radyo çekmez, radyoya vurulur.

Meze çok bayattır, ama zaten baska türlüsü de çekilmez.

Şarap çok acıdır, ama zaten baska türlüsü de çekilmez (o yaşta bu bilinmez, büyükler söyler, sen de yutarsın)

Mehtap denize vurmaktadır.

Üç kişi daha gelir. Daha çok meze, daha çok şarap. Mendrek mendrek değildir artık.

Radyo kaybolur, kaybeden belli olmadığı için herkes birbirine vurur.

Mehtap da denize.

Tekel bayii gelir, elinde rakı.

"Abii, naaptın ? Öldürcen mi bizi ? Biz daha yemek yemedik be"
"Uzatmayın, biri çeşmeden şunu doldurup gelsin"

Ayıklardan biri çesmeye gider, giderken düşer. Su gelir.

"Hadi bakalım gençler, sağlığınıza, en kötü geceniz böyle olsun."

Polis gelir (yürüyerek, iki kişi, o zamanlar öyle araba ile dolaşan polis yok daha)

"Gençler!"
"Orhan, sen misin ulan?"
"Lan, çupra, naapıyosun lan burda?"
"Gel gel, manzaraya yattık"
"Ulan şerefsizler, insan haber verir"
"Şşşşt, sen; kafası ibibik traşlı olan, al şu anahtarı, benim büfeye git, dolaptan bi şişe daha kap gel."
"Hah, şöööle"
"Lan oolm, büfe ne tarafta ? Nereye gidiyosun ? Orda fener var, büfe yok!"

Gecenin gerisi pek hatırlanmaz. Zaten o gecelerin gerisi pek "hiç" hatırlanmaz.

Ama zaten baska türlü de "menderek" gecesi olmaz.

Mehtap denize, biz şaraba, biri getirirse rakıya, olmadı biraya (yemezler, ben bira içmem, ama birileri bana votka getirir hep zaten).

Sonra "saray" açıldı, mertlik bozuldu.

Sonra Ruslar geldiler, "menderek" de bozuldu.