Halloween: Once again, I am seriously disappointed. Candy for many, but few came … 10 … however I gave out PEZ dispensers and I was told I was the best house of the night … next year they will come again … bribery … 😦
Reformation Day (October 31, 1517), history: So something else occurred on this day.
Also on This Day: 1517 Martin Luther Posts Theses
The Protestant Reformation began when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church in Germany. The papers outlined Luther’s ideas on how the Roman Catholic Church had been corrupted and what changes should take place.
zombies, costumes, Zombie Walk Paris 2011, Occupy Wall Street: Zombies are definitely in …
Ask me About my Zombie Disguise t shirt by Crazy Dog Tshirts.
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Zombie Walk Paris 2011 – YouTube.
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This weekend, thousands of Americans will cobble together Wall Street-themed costumes in preparation for Halloween. (Pre-emptive note: dressing in a suit and tie and labeling yourself “The One Percent” is not as clever as you think.)
DealBook is here to help. Here with: our seven best finance-themed costume ideas, with tips on how to pull them off at your parties this weekend.
Zombie MF Global: Dress in tattered rags, tape “FOR SALE” signs to all your appendages, and wear a necklace that says “Credit Lines.” Tap it repeatedly. Have two friends dressed as ratings agencies follow you around, telling everyone at the party how ugly you are.
Halloween, history:
Halloween dates back to the Celtic farming festival Samhain. As the crops died at the end of the harvest season, farmers believed there was a day when spirits could rise from their graves. During Samhain, people would dress in disguise to fool and ward off the spirits, and hope that their land would survive through the winter.
In the eighth century, Christians sought to transform the pagan holiday. Pope Gregory III declared Nov. 1 to be the feast of All Saints’ Day. The night before became known as All Hollow’s Eve.
Modern Halloween traditions and folklore first came to America in the 19th century with the influx of Irish immigrants. Carving turnips and turning them into lanterns was one of the Irish customs that honored the souls stuck in purgatory. Since pumpkins were easier to carve than turnips, this ritual adapted into jack-o-lanterns as All Hollow’s Eve celebrations took shape in America.
Halloween, culture: New Christmas??? I think not.
The holiday that once meant just quaint trick-or-treating, a costume contest or two and maybe a bob for an apple is now second only to Christmas when it comes to celebrating, according to a survey from the National Retail Federation.
Nearly 69 percent of Americans say they intend to celebrate the holiday this Monday, Oct. 31, the highest amount in the survey’s nine-year history.
Nearly half of those celebrating will decorate their homes and-or yard, and each will spend an average $72.31 on decorations, costumes and candy, a figure second only to the amount spent by individuals on Christmas décor.
Need more proof that Santa Claus and Rudolph have ghosts and goblins close on their heels?
via Is Halloween the New Christmas? | ABC News Blogs – Yahoo!.
South Africa, travel: We loved Kruger and came very near the mountains … next time.
Every country in the world displays some diversity, but South Africa takes some beating.
If you’ve seen the popular cities – Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban – and want to head away from the well-worn track then Lonely Planet Magazine has three suggestions:
Drakensberg mountains
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Elephant Coast
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Kruger National Park
via South Africa: away from Cape Town – travel tips and articles – Lonely Planet.
October Snow, Lucy Van Pelt, quotes: 🙂
If you grew up watching “A Charlie Brown Christmas” you will easily recognize the title of this post is based on Lucy Van Pelt’s quote about eating December snowflakes. Lucy preferred January snowflakes.
I (Kevin Ambrose) bet Lucy never tasted an October snowflake. The October snowflakes that flew fast-and-furious across the Washington area late Saturday afternoon were plump, juicy, and partially melted by the time they reached the tongue. I found they were much better tasting than any crunchy, hard-frozen January snowflake.
Calvados, France, food/drink – spirits: I did not love Calvados but I am intrigued by it. i may have to try it again sometime.
I love Calvados, though I confess I don’t drink it very often. Yet when I do, I’m reminded immediately why I love it. Apple aromas and flavors burst vividly from the glass, in jagged flashes that seem to penetrate deeply into the complex essence of an apple. Clarity, purity, tart citrus, cinnamon spice, earthiness, mintiness: these are just some of the sensations I experience in a glass of good Calvados.
My problem with Calvados is not the apple element. It’s the brandy part.
The usual way of serving brandy does it no favors. It’s generally consigned to an after-dinner or late-night role, served in those horrible oversize balloon snifters that do little beyond emphasizing the biting heat of the alcohol. Perhaps the big snifter is why, for many people, evaluation of brandy stops at whether it is smooth or hot. A smaller snifter, or a good white-wine glass, is superior for enjoying any brandy.
Calvados in particular can defy our expectations of brandy. Because it’s distilled from cider rather than from wine, it’s more rustic by nature than Cognac or Armagnac. Certainly it is by reputation. Serving Calvados in a white-wine glass might signal an intent to regard brandy from a different critical stance.
via Calvados – A Taste of Apples and Fall – The Pour – NYTimes.com.
Jules Breton, “The Song of the Lark”, kith/kin: My daughter just wrote an essay on my favorite painting … which she saw for the first timein March. Art taste must be genetic.
The Song of the Lark Print by Jules Breton at AllPosters.com.
Steve Jobs, eulogy, love: Beautiful eulogy by Steve Job’s sister.
Steve was like a girl in the amount of time he spent talking about love. Love was his supreme virtue, his god of gods. He tracked and worried about the romantic lives of the people working with him.
Whenever he saw a man he thought a woman might find dashing, he called out, “Hey are you single? Do you wanna come to dinner with my sister?”
I remember when he phoned the day he met Laurene. “There’s this beautiful woman and she’s really smart and she has this dog and I’m going to marry her.”
When Reed was born, he began gushing and never stopped. He was a physical dad, with each of his children. He fretted over Lisa’s boyfriends and Erin’s travel and skirt lengths and Eve’s safety around the horses she adored.
None of us who attended Reed’s graduation party will ever forget the scene of Reed and Steve slow dancing.
His abiding love for Laurene sustained him. He believed that love happened all the time, everywhere. In that most important way, Steve was never ironic, never cynical, never pessimistic. I try to learn from that, still.
science, spending addiction: So there is a reason …
To many, this might seem like a simple case of shortsightedness, a decision based on today’s wants (an exciting city, independence) versus tomorrow’s needs (money, shelter). Indeed, the choice to spend rather than save reflects a very human—and, some would say, American—quirk: a preference for immediate gratification over future gains. In other words, we get far more joy from buying a new pair of shoes today, or a Caribbean vacation, or an iPhone 4S, than from imagining a comfortable life tomorrow. Throw in an instant-access culture—in which we can get answers on the Internet within seconds, have a coffeepot delivered to our door overnight, and watch movies on demand—and we’re not exactly training the next generation to delay gratification.
“Pleasure now is worth more to us than pleasure later,” says economist William Dickens of Northeastern University. “We much prefer current consumption to future consumption. It may even be wired into us.”
As brain scientists plumb the neurology of an afternoon at the mall, they are discovering measurable differences between the brains of people who save and those who spend with abandon, particularly in areas of the brain that predict consequences, process the sense of reward, spur motivation, and control memory.
via The New Science Behind Your Spending Addiction – The Daily Beast.
2012 Presdential Election, GOP, Herman Cain, viral Smoking Ad, Jon Huntsman, Huntsman Daughters, Parody:
Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman’s daughters spoofed Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain’s web ad showing his campaign manager smoking in a web video released Friday.
In the original Cain ad, his campaign manager, Mark Block, says: “We’ve run a campaign like nobody’s ever seen. But then America’s never seen a candidate like Herman Cain.”
The daughters of the former Utah governor appear in their spoof against a brick wall wearing fake mustaches that resemble Block’s. “We are shamelessly promoting our dad like no other candidate’s family ever has. But then again, no one’s ever seen like a trio like the Jon 2012 girls,” says one of his daughters.
via Herman Cain Smoking Ad: Jon Huntsman’s Daughters Appear In Parody.
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