sacred bird » world

you’ve got to be *&^% kidding me

180 — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 01:05:47 +0000

here’s one from jolly old england that most likely would have celebrity chef gordon ramsay of kitchen nightmares cursing up a storm and saying ‘you’ve got to be *&^% kidding me.’ a pub chain in england is adding menu items to their repertoire–for dogs. butcher’s pet care is teaming up with brakspear to offer delectable items that are designed to increase family bonding with their dogs. according to butcher’s pet care’s brand manager caroline coombs “We’ve built our business on feeding generations of family dogs and all our recipes are naturally nutritious and contain all of the vitamins and minerals your dog needs to keep him healthy, happy and fit as a Butcher’s dog…Now dog owners can sit down to lunch happy in the knowledge their dog is enjoying their meal as much as they are is adding a menu for dogs.” when the family sits down eat, fido can enjoy a bowl of liver and garden veg chunks in gravy and chicken and beef chunks in jelly.

cue the jokes about bad british food…..now.

[telegraph, photo via bbc]

last chance for beer with a smoke

180 — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 23:07:05 +0000

this year will be the last year to grab a beer with a smoke at the world famous oktoberfest because bavaria is going smoke-free in 2011. 61% of the people of bavaria have voted to ban smoking in all bars, cafes, and restaurants starting in 2011. this is bavaria’s second go-round at the effort according to the article in time. apparently, they passed it before and no one enforced it, so, the voters exercised their rights and voted out the politicians that were partial to the tobacco industry.

of course, not everyone is happy about the change “The new Bavarian law imposes the toughest restrictions on smoking in Germany — and has left bar owners fuming. Some Bavarian pubs and restaurants that have tolerated smoking up until now complain that they’ll be hit hard by the new rules and could face bankruptcy.”

i’m thinking, if the french can do it, the germans will be fine.

[time photo via roberto_junho details about oktoberfest 2010]

tehran makes ‘the fonz’ cool

180 — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 07:24:44 +0000

the iranians are in the news again. this time, they’ve released a set of approved haircuts for men, an alternative to the soon to be illegal decadent western haircuts like the mullet. according to time magazine “You’re in the clear if you have a short, conservative haircut – and you can use hair gel, just not a lot. The government is even cool with side parts and Elvis-style poufs. But if your hair is long, spiky, or be-mulleted, beware. And don’t you dare think of plucking your unibrow.” if you get busted with one of the hair don’ts, you’ll get your hair cut the first time and fined the second time.

and like lindsay lohan, you’ll probably get sent to jail the third time.

[time]

in under the radar…out under the wire

180 — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 05:57:37 +0000

remember when we mentioned the spy ring last week? seems the f.bi. busted the ring when they figured out that one of the members of the spy ring was making a break for it–he was leaving the country. i think i know why he was checking out: next week, u.s. passport fees will increase. that’s right, if you want to get your passport or visa renewed, you should get it done before next week because 27 of those fees are changing to cover the true costs of the services which, according to u.s. law “must be recovered through collection of fees.” so if you want a new passport for that quick getaway, you’ll required to shell out a couple extra bucks (follow the link below for the full list of fees).

type of passport | old fee | new fee
Passport Book – adult | $100.00 | $135.00
Passport Book – minor | $85.00 | $ 105.00
Passport Book Renewal – Adult | $ 75.00 | $110.00
Passport Card – Adult | $45.00 | $55.00
Passport Card – Child | $35.00 | $40.00

i say, enjoy america–remember that you don’t need a passport to go to some lovely u.s. destinations.

[us bureau of consular affairs]

they have more restrictions on lindsay lohan

180 — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:15:33 +0000

by now you’ve heard of the mr. and mrs. smith like existence of the russian spy ring caught by the f.b.i. this week. the f.b.i. had been following them for years and they’d been living happy suburban lives in virginia, new jersey, new york, and massachusetts. some of them had facebook accounts, many have kids, and others were great gardners.

their alleged ring leader, christopher metsos was arrested in cyprus while trying to board a flight for hungary. the authorities there must have thought he was much less worrisome than say, lindsay lohan ’cause they let the dude go after he surrendered his passport and posted about $25K for bail. shocker, he hasn’t been seen since.

have the cops learned nothing? lindsay was forced to wear an alcohol monitoring bracelet after she missed a court hearing in los angeles (she was ’stranded’ in canes because someone had lifted her passport she says). that’s the least they coulda done with christopher metsos. am i right?

[nytimes, ny post, lohan scram bracelet photo, facebook accounts via gawker]

what is it about the french and their mothers?

180 — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 00:12:42 +0000

the french world cup team is knee deep in le merde after the group of whining babies decided to strike–that’s right, the french went on strike. seems the monsieurs of french football don’t like their coach raymond domenech. their star striker star nicolas anelka was so mad at him that he called him a “dirty son of a whore” during a locker room temper tantrum. the french federation got wind of it and canned anelka and then the team decided to strike in solidarity with their idiot ‘brother.’

this isn’t the first time a french guy took some action after the word whore was used to describe a family member. you may remember that famous star zinedine zidane was ousted from the last world cup after he head butted an italian player who called zidane’s sister a whore.

i recommend that the gentleman get their mommy issues and play soccer–if they haven’t noticed, the whole world is watching (except 90% of the 300 or so million in the u.s.a.)

[telegraph, le merde reference explained, zidane]

so the trip to mogadishu was…r&r?

180 — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 15:06:31 +0000

richard engel, our beloved desert iguana is now embedded with the 82nd airborne division in afghanistan and is once again delivering some amazing reporting (see video below). just a couple weeks before engel took a trip to mogadishu,somalia one of, if not the most dangerous place(s) on earth to see what life is like there in the place most famous for blackhawk down. he likened reporting there to ‘reporting on the moon’.

engel is one of my favorite reporters and i have this dream of meeting him and going out with him on a date someday but with all the work he’s done covering the wars in iraq and afghanistan and the general happenings in the middle east, i’m beginning to wonder if engel’s next trip should be to intensive therapy at an undisclosed location. another reporter the passionate michael ware had to quit his job at cnn a while back because the network would not give him time to deal with his ptsd. anyone who watched wares reporting on cnn could detect that something ‘wasn’t right’ with ware. the war clearly took a toll on him.

so richard, if you want our date to be perfect, please take a little time to ‘take care of you’.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

[mediabistro]

football’s coming home…

180 — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 16:04:17 +0000

the world cup, the world’s largest and most important sporting event is underway. i was thinking today how little i knew about the world cup when i had the great opportunity to live in a football loving country during the world cup in ‘98. i was in england, and all eyes were on a young hopeful and hotty player named david beckham. i still don’t know much about the event and even less about the sport as it’s really played and loved by the pros but in case you are interested, here are a few interesting facts about the world cup.

what is it?

a tournament of 32 country teams that takes place over a month. leading up to the event, there are 3 years of qualifying matches to get the tournament to 32. the tourney has been held every fours years since 1930 except for 1942 and 1946 when world war ii was happening.

where is it?

this year it takes place in south africa.

why should i care?

it’s the largest sporting event in the entire world. more than 700M people watched the final match of the 2006 world cup where italy beat france. the rest of world is asking you, ‘why don’t you care’?

who are the big players?

the world cup has been awarded 18 times. of those 18, brazil has won 5, italy 4, germany and argentina 3 each, uruguay 2, france and england 1 each.

what are the games like?

it won’t be like watching saturday afternoon game with the the 3rd graders in your town. soccer players make me question the use of the term ‘athlete’ to describe baseball players. but anyway, be prepared to hear ’striker’, ’sent off’, ‘yellow card’, ‘red card’ and a few other terms. take a look at the ’soccer for americans’ tips i found here.

where should i watch it?

you can watch the games on ABC but why not go out and find a bar where you can watch it with football fans? find out where all the expats live, saddle up to the bar, and enjoy. it’s really really awesome.

[david beckham wiki fifa world cup wiki, soccer for americans, fifa world cup schedule, fifa world cup website]

how to know if you should give up your seat

180 — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 02:43:43 +0000

i remember when my friend was pregnant with her first child, she declared that chivalry was dead as evidenced by the refusal of dudes riding the blue line from bucktown to downtown chicago to offer their seats on the subway–we of course were all appalled. turns out men are very afraid to offer up their seats because they often get berated if not cursed at for making the fat/pregnant faux pas. to help out these poor fellows a group of british women put together a list of signs to help determine whether the woman on the train is pregnant or fat. is she:

huffing and puffing (short of breath)?
rubbing her belly or back?
wearing sensible shoes (not stilletos)?
reading some sappy book like a romance novel?
sportin’ cankles?
displaying a tummy you could bounce a quarter off of (pregnant bellys are tight, fat ones are mushy)?

some of these items are still signs of fat people so my advice is, look for 50% of the signs in one person.

[bbcnews]

don’t tell the people of arizona

180 — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 01:13:42 +0000

here’s an interesting one from across the pond. a road sign in wales, where the signage is bi-lingual, had a bad translation due to an out-of-office message from the go-to translator. when the road-works people sent this message “No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only” they received an almost instantaneous response from their in-house translator. the response message, in welsh was placed below the english message. unfortunately, the message on the sign reads “I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated.” this isn’t the first time something got lost in translation there. here are a few goodies from other signs:

a road sign told bikers that they had problems with an “inflamed bladder”.
a sign for pedestrians said ‘Look Right’ in english and ‘Look Left’ in welsh.

i wonder if this foible will end up in the ‘you’re in america…speak american‘ literature. of course, they never follow their own advice.

[bbcnews]