Smart people at work

Describing our troubled times (well before our troubled times):



Hat Tip Coyote

Too Late....

Unfortunately, I did not get my Sarah Palin Bingo card until the debate was well under way. I was able to check off six items, but they were unfortunately not in a row.

Why couldn't McArdle have warned me earlier?

East Frisia is no joke

Although many jokes are told about it. It is to Germany what Poland is to an American, except that most of the people in Poland have probably never heard an American Polish joke. In East Frisia, they have a sense of humor and almose seem proud of their "reputation". (It probably helps that most other Germans don't seriously believe there is anything wrong with the area, either. When they joke:
"Why do East Frisian women wear scarves?"
"So you can tell them apart from the cows!"
it is only because they have incredibly beautiful cows in East Frisia. My youngest sister was born there, so you had better agree!

Anyway, we have an exchange student here from that area for two weeks. Erich was over there in July (see blog). He arrived yesterday, bearing fabulous gifts: chocolate, a calendar with pictures of this lovely area, and tea.

Most Germans are coffee drinkers, but in East Frisia there is a tea culture. This is how East Frisians traditionally enjoy their tea:

Small cup....you usually don't drink just one.
In the bottom: Kuntjes (basically rock candy) as sweetener. This is expected to last you for several cups.
Then the black tea.
Top that off with heavy cream.
Don't stir. The idea is that the sensation changes from a "mostly cream" to a "normal tea" to "very sweet" as you go from top to bottom.

Hurting Horses

While I'm on the topic of quotes, this one made "Quotable Quotes" on Marginal Revolution:

It is really, really difficult to harm a horse with massage, especially if all you're using is your hands.

The lady mentioned is trained to massage both humans and horses, charges the same for either, but was ordered to desist because.....
Well, the article linked said

I asked James Vallone of the Maryland Board of Chiropractic Examiners what the deal was. "The state law says that neither chiropractors nor massage therapists working under the scope of their licenses may work on anybody or anything but the human anatomy," he said. "You can't work on animals, period."

Apparently, you are still allowed to massage your own horse, so I suppose this could be done legally with a transfer of ownership. Or, since Maryland does not offer any license for horse massage, it could be argued that you can massage the horse, it is just not to be considered massage therapy.

Quotation of the week

"Electricity is actually made up of extremely tiny particles called electrons, that you cannot see with the naked eye unless you have been drinking."
-- Dave Barry