10/25/2014 archive

New cafe in Harajuku serves up Pom Pom Purin-shaped cuisine, attracts fans and pop idols alike

    Hayashi ‘Fang’ Hougi

Despite being nowhere near as famous as his feline counterpart abroad, Sanrio’s Pom Pom Purin has a very loyal fan base in his homeland, so much so that the pastel-yellow “pudding” dog managed to clinch fourth place in this year’s Sanrio Character Ranking, at one point leading the pack.

But while Hello Kitty, My Melody and Kiki & Lala have all been given their own themed cafes, poor old’ Pom Pom has had to wait on the sidelines like the patient pup he is. But by the looks of it, the first ever Pom Pom Purin Cafe was well worth the wait, with the Harajuku location boasting a super-kawaii menu with meals, desserts and drinks featuring everyone’s favorite Sanrio canine as well as adorable merchandise available only at the cafe.

Welcome to the Stars Hollow Gazette‘s Health and Fitness News weekly diary. It will publish on Saturday afternoon and be open for discussion about health related issues including diet, exercise, health and health care issues, as well as, tips on what you can do when there is a medical emergency. Also an opportunity to share and exchange your favorite healthy recipes.

Questions are encouraged and I will answer to the best of my ability. If I can’t, I will try to steer you in the right direction. Naturally, I cannot give individual medical advice for personal health issues. I can give you information about medical conditions and the current treatments available.

You can now find past Health and Fitness News diaries here and on the right hand side of the Front Page.

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Trahana is a wheat product that is eaten throughout Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean. It is usually added to soups and stews, and is also eaten as a porridge. Traditionally it was a way to preserve milk for the winter, when production was always lower, by mixing it with wheat and drying it.

There are many versions of trahana, some made with only milk (this type is called sweet trahana and usually uses goat’s or sheep’s milk) and some with milk and yogurt (called sour trahana). In Greece there is even a lenten version made with vegetable pulp. The liquid is combined with wheat – bulgur or cracked wheat, flour, semolina flour or a mix of semolina and flour – and either kneaded into a dry dough (if flour is used) or simmered until it is a thick porridge. Then it is spread out on netting and dried in the sun. The Greeks usually make it during the hot, dry month of August. Once thoroughly dry it is broken up into granules that can range in size from bulgurlike morsels to small pellets You can find imported trahana in Greek markets and in some Mediterranean markets.

~Martha Rose Shulman~

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

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Richard (RJ) ESkow: 7 facts that show the American dream is dead

A living wage, retirement security and a life free of debt are now only accessible to the country’s wealthiest

A recent poll showed that more than half of all people in this country don’t believe that the American dream is real. Fifty-nine percent of those polled in June agreed that “the American dream has become impossible for most people to achieve.” More and more Americans believe there is “not much opportunity” to get ahead.

The public has reached this conclusion for a very simple reason: It’s true. The key elements of the American dream-a living wage, retirement security, the opportunity for one’s children to get ahead in life-are now unreachable for all but the wealthiest among us. And it’s getting worse. As inequality increases, the fundamental elements of the American dream are becoming increasingly unaffordable for the majority.

Here are seven ways the American dream is dying.

Joan Walsh: America’s modern political nightmare: Two electorates, separate and unequal

The glee with which the GOP relies on Obama-hate to turn out its base shows the disturbing racial reality of 2014

When I first heard President Obama’s remarks on the 2014 midterms to Rev. Al Sharpton on Politics Nation Monday – insisting he’s fine with the red state Democrats who are distancing themselves from him because they “are all folks who vote with me” – I had two contradictory thoughts. Either Obama was being awfully gracious, or else he was mad as hell, and happy to bear-hug cowardly red state Democrats so hard it might hurt them [..]

But the reaction to Obama’s remarks, as well as to his earlier comment that “my policies are on the ballot” in November, underscored the extent to which we now have two electorates, separate and very unequal. The Republican Party is relying on Obama-hate to turn out its 96-percent-white, middle-class-to-wealthy base, while the Democrats, still trying to be a multi-racial party in a multi-racial country, are trying to court voters of every race and class. It can be a tough sell.

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover  we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

This Day in History

Cuban missile crisis fuels Cold War clash at UN; China’s UN seat changes hands; ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’ battle takes place; Author Geoffrey Chaucer dies; Golfer Payne Stewart killed in plane crash.

Breakfast Tunes

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

October 25 is the 298th day of the year (299th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 67 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1774, the First Continental Congress sends a respectful petition to King George III to inform his majesty that if it had not been for the acts of oppression forced upon the colonies by the British Parliament, the American people would be standing behind British rule.

Despite the anger that the American public felt towards the United Kingdom after the British Parliament established the Coercive Acts, called the Intolerable Acts by the colonists, Congress was still willing to assert its loyalty to the king. In return for this loyalty, Congress asked the king to address and resolve the specific grievances of the colonies. The petition, written by Continental Congressman John Dickinson, laid out what Congress felt was undo oppression of the colonies by the British Parliament. Their grievances mainly had to do with the Coercive Acts, a series of four acts that were established to punish colonists and to restore order in Massachusetts following the Boston Tea Party..

Passage of the Acts

In Boston, Massachusetts, the Sons of Liberty protested against Parliament’s passage of the Tea Act in 1773 by throwing tons of taxed tea into Boston Harbor, an act that came to be known as the Boston Tea Party. News of the event reached England in January 1774. Parliament responded with a series of acts that were intended to punish Boston for this illegal destruction of private property, restore British authority in Massachusetts, and otherwise reform colonial government in America.

On April 22, 1774, Prime Minister Lord North defended the program in the House of Commons, saying:

The Americans have tarred and feathered your subjects, plundered your merchants, burnt your ships, denied all obedience to your laws and authority; yet so clement and so long forbearing has our conduct been that it is incumbent on us now to take a different course. Whatever may be the consequences, we must risk something; if we do not, all is over.

The Boston Port Act, the first of the acts passed in response to the Boston Tea Party, closed the port of Boston until the East India Company had been repaid for the destroyed tea and until the king was satisfied that order had been restored. Colonists objected that the Port Act punished all of Boston rather than just the individuals who had destroyed the tea, and that they were being punished without having been given an opportunity to testify in their own defense.

The Massachusetts Government Act provoked even more outrage than the Port Act because it unilaterally altered the government of Massachusetts to bring it under control of the British government. Under the terms of the Government Act, almost all positions in the colonial government were to be appointed by the governor or the king. The act also severely limited the activities of town meetings in Massachusetts. Colonists outside Massachusetts feared that their governments could now also be changed by the legislative fiat of Parliament.

The Administration of Justice Act allowed the governor to move trials of accused royal officials to another colony or even to Great Britain if he believed the official could not get a fair trial in Massachusetts. Although the act stipulated that witnesses would be paid for their travel expenses, in practice few colonists could afford to leave their work and cross the ocean to testify in a trial. George Washington called this the “Murder Act” because he believed that it allowed British officials to harass Americans and then escape justice. Some colonists believed the act was unnecessary because British soldiers had been given a fair trial following the Boston Massacre in 1770, with future Founding Father John Adams representing the Defense.

The Quartering Act applied to all of the colonies, and sought to create a more effective method of housing British troops in America. In a previous act, the colonies had been required to provide housing for soldiers, but colonial legislatures had been uncooperative in doing so. The new Quartering Act allowed a governor to house soldiers in other buildings if suitable quarters were not provided. While many sources claim that the Quartering Act allowed troops to be billeted in occupied private homes, historian David Ammerman’s 1974 study claimed that this is a myth, and that the act only permitted troops to be quartered in unoccupied buildings. Although many colonists found the Quartering Act objectionable, it generated the least protest of the Coercive Acts.

The Quebec Act was a piece of legislation unrelated to the events in Boston, but the timing of its passage led colonists to believe that it was part of the program to punish them. The act enlarged the boundaries of what was then the colony of “Canada” (roughly consisting of today’s Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario as well as the Great Lakes’ American watershed), removed references to the Protestant faith in the oath of allegiance, and guaranteed free practice of the Roman Catholic faith. The Quebec Act offended a variety of interest groups in the British colonies. Land speculators and settlers objected to the transfer of western lands previously claimed by the colonies to a non-representative government. Many feared the establishment of Catholicism in Quebec, and that the French Canadians were being courted to help oppress British Americans.

It’s 80s night here at the SHG, Party People! Anything from the 80s that you like, go for it. Just the tunes, not the clothes~

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

So, what happened Wednesday?  The Royals won a game that they pretty much had to for a split at their home field the advantage of which they have lost.  How so?  The Series is even and the majority of the remaining games will be played at the Giants’ are home field where the inherent superiority of the Senior League rules will be on display.

Have a big bat who can’t move at all any more because they’re old and fat?  Sorry, accept the defensive penalty of putting them in the field where they haven’t been for so long they can hardly recognize a Baseball let alone catch one, or park ’em on the bench where they can show the rookies how to wear a rally cap or simply be too cool to indulge in such silly team building exercises.

Oh, and your aging armed pitcher who hasn’t seen one all year?  Too bad there isn’t a mercy rule where you just accept the out and shorten up the game.

Bitter about the DH?  Moi?  Non, non, non.

In the top of the 1st Leadoff Solo Shot.  Giants 1 – 0.

In the bottom of the 1st Leadoff Single, Pop Out, Caught Stealing, Double, Walk, RBI Single.  Tied at 1.

In the bottom of the 2nd Double, RBI Double.  Royals 2 – 1.

In the top of the 4th Leadoff Double, RBI Double, Out Advancing.  Tied at 2.

In the bottom of the 6th Leadoff Single, Walk, RBI Single, Wild Pitch, Runners at 2nd and 3rd, 2 RBI Double, 2 RBI Home Run, Pitching Change, Single, Double Play.  Royals 7 – 2.

Game Over Dude.

Starting tonight for the Giants is Tim Hudson (R, 9 – 13, ERA 3.57).  He’s made 2 appearances but no decisions Post Season and an ERA of 3.29 based on 13.2 Innings Pitched with 14 Hits, 1 Home Run, and 5 Runs Scored.

He will be matched for the Royals by Jeremy Guthrie (R, 13 – 11, ERA 4.13).  Post Season he has made 1 appearance with an ERA of 1.80 based on 5 Innings Pitched with 3 hits, and 1 Run Scored.

So on paper Guthrie has the edge though he’s not been really tested.  The thing is, even if the Giants lose tonight (unless they do so embarrassingly which was not the case Wednesday), they still have home field advantage until the Royals take 2 because they’ll only have to win 1 game of 2 away.

Funny how a leadoff victory shakes things up.

8 pm Fox.