A taxi cuts you off in Rome. A Mumbai merchant spurns your best offer. A maitre d’ snubs you in Beirut. At times like these, words can fail even the most seasoned polyglot. But now salvation is literally at hand, thanks to Rude Hand Gestures of the World, by Romana Lefevre, with photographs by Daniel Castro. If I’d had a copy of this in my days as a boy diplomat, my Foreign Service career would have come to an even more abrupt halt! Herewith a sampling, courtesy of the ever-brilliant Chronicle Books, of how to throw down with the locals, wherever you are:

I know a few hundred !

Cornhole, a simple yet addictive pastime with Midwestern origins, is sweeping the Northeast. This summer — from the Jersey Shore to Brooklyn, and from the Hamptons to the Catskills —the satisfying thump of weighted sacks hitting plywood reverberated across New York area beaches, lawns, rooftops and city sidewalks. Its mainstay is fall and the football season, when cornhole is also known as “tailgate toss” (a name that might sound better to folks who prefer to avoid the rude double entendre).

I like cornhole !

This is Mr. Obama’s 18th foreign trip and his 9th to Europe. By the end of this six-day trip that also includes stops in France and Poland, he will have been to 30 nations as president, some of them a few times. His pace of foreign travel is exceeding his immediate predecessor, George W. Bush, who at this same point in his presidency had made only 13 international forays to 23 nations. By the end of his eight years in office, President Bush had made 49 foreign trips to 75 countries. Many more than once.

The big secret about presidential travel is the cost. It’s enormous and not something any White House has been willing to discuss in detail.

In 1999, the General Accounting Office tried to calculate the costs of a couple of foreign trips taken by President Clinton.

It calculated that 3 presidential trips he took to Africa, Chile and China cost taxpayers, $42.8 million, $10.5 million, and $18.8 million, respectively.

Video: Awkward moment in Obama’s toast to the Queen
Video: President, British PM play ping pong
Video: Obama: “No one more Irish than me”

The biggest cost is the 747 that serves as Air Force One and its twin that flies along as a backup aircraft. They bill out at over $100,000 per operating hour.

This trip, President Obama spends about 20 hours on Air Force One. Add to that the cost of the cargo planes that fly the president’s limousines, support vehicles and helicopters to each and every stop. It adds up quickly.

Costs aside, foreign travel is as much a part of the American presidency as political fundraising – an endeavor that also costs taxpayers an unknown amount of money.

‘This is OUR COUNTRY, OUR LAND, and OUR LIFESTYLE, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this.  But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about Our Flag, Our Pledge, Our Christian beliefs, or Our Way of Life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great Australian freedom, ‘THE  RIGHT TO LEAVE‘.’

“Amen Sister”, We need more people over here with the backbone to stand up for whats fair and right.

Documents seized in the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound have yielded a bonanza of new intelligence, from names and locations of terrorist suspects to chilling details of al-Qaeda plots to attack targets in the United States and beyond, U.S. officials said Thursday.

Among the files recovered from captured computers and flash drives were documents detailing a previously unknown plan to attack the U.S. commuter rail network, intelligence officials confirmed. The plan, which described a sabotage attack to occur on this year’s 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was being actively considered as recently as February 2010, Obama administration officials said.

May 2, 2011  |  

 

 

 

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“The word ‘public’ has been removed from the name of the Fort Worth Library. Why? Simply put, to keep up with the times.” –From the Media release on the rebranding of the Fort Worth Library

Fort Worth, you leave me speechless. You’re certainly correct about one thing. The public library is indeed an institution that has not kept up with the times. But given what has happened to our times, why do you see that as unhealthy? In an age of greed and selfishness, the public library stands as an enduring monument to the values of cooperation and sharing. In an age where global corporations stride the earth, the public library remains firmly rooted in the local community. In an age of widespread cynicism and distrust of government, the 100 percent tax supported public library has virtually unanimous and enthusiastic support.

This is not the time to take the word “public” out of the public library. It is time to put it in capitals.s “public” now a dirty word? Fort Worth has stripped the word from its local library.

 

May 2, 2011  |  

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“The word ‘public’ has been removed from the name of the Fort Worth Library. Why? Simply put, to keep up with the times.” –From the Media release on the rebranding of the Fort Worth Library

Fort Worth, you leave me speechless. You’re certainly correct about one thing. The public library is indeed an institution that has not kept up with the times. But given what has happened to our times, why do you see that as unhealthy? In an age of greed and selfishness, the public library stands as an enduring monument to the values of cooperation and sharing. In an age where global corporations stride the earth, the public library remains firmly rooted in the local community. In an age of widespread cynicism and distrust of government, the 100 percent tax supported public library has virtually unanimous and enthusiastic support.

This is not the time to take the word “public” out of the public library. It is time to put it in capitals.s “public” now a dirty word? Fort Worth has stripped the word from its local library.

The public library is a singularly American invention. Europeans had subscription libraries for 100 years before the United States was born. But on a chilly day in April 1833 the good citizens of Peterborough, New Hampshire created a radical new concept—a truly PUBLIC library. All town residents, regardless of income, had the right to freely share the community’s stored knowledge. Their only obligation was to return the information on time and in good condition, allowing others to exercise that same right.

By the 1870s 11 states boasted 188 public libraries. By 1910 all states had them. Today 9,000 central buildings plus about 7500 branches have made public libraries one of the most ubiquitous of all American institutions, exceeding Starbucks and McDonalds.

Almost two thirds of us carry library cards. At least once a year, about half of us visit a public library, many more than once. Library use varies by class and race and by age and educational level. But the majority of blacks and Latinos as well as whites, old as well as young, poor as well as rich, high school dropouts as well as university graduates, use the public library.

What Makes The Public Library Special?

When we think of libraries, we think of books and rightly so, for public libraries are by far our largest bookstores and a majority of the 2.5 billion items checked out are still books. Indeed, for every two books sold in America, one book is borrowed from the public library.

But libraries are much more than bookstores. About 30 percent of the people who visit libraries do not borrow books or DVDs. For a greater number of people than we might care to believe, the library serves as a warm and dry sanctuary, a place they can sit without fear of being bothered. For others, it is a refuge from loneliness, a place full of hustle and bustle, where they can attend a concert, or hear a lecture or read a magazine free of charge.

Since its inception the American public library’s prime directive has been to protect the public’s access to information. In 1894, the right to know led Denver’s public library to pioneer the concept of open stacks. For the first time patrons had the freedom to browse. In the 1930s, the right to know led Kentucky’s librarians to ride pack horses and mules with saddle-bags filled with books into remote sections of the state.

In 1872, the right to know led the Worcester Massachusetts Public Library to open its doors on Sunday. Many viewed that as sacrilege. Head librarian Samuel Green calmly responded that a library intended to serve the public could do so only if it were accessible when the public could use it. Six day, 60-hour workweeks meant that if libraries were to serve the majority of the community they must be open on Sundays. Referring to those who might not spend their Sundays at worship Green impishly added, “If they are not going to save their souls in the church they should improve their minds in the library.”

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RUB Restaurant’s Mobile Barbecue Pit

When Andrew Fishel, the owner of New York restaurant RUB, wanted “the sickest, baddest thing in the world,” he commissioned Orange County Chopper (of the American Chopper TV show fame) to create a mobile BBQ pit. We have to agree: that mother is bad! Link – via Make

This would be great for tailgating

In the fall of 2010, University of Texas football fans witnessed a horrific 5-7 season and one of the most extraordinary collapses of the second-winningest college program in history, triggering an intensive review by head coach Mack Brown and a nearly total makeover of his staff.

One season before, the Longhorns were four points away late in the fourth quarter from beating Alabama and winning the national championship for the second time in five years. Last September, they suited up for the fall season ranked fifth in the nation. Expectations among the players, coaches and fans were for a great year. Brown acknowledged at his state-of-the-Longhorns press conference on Jan. 31 that the sting of the Alabama loss impacted him more than he could have imagined. “I felt like I had a hangover after the national championship game, and I don’t know if I’ve ever taken a loss as hard,” Brown said. “I don’t think I did a good job of coming back out of it and getting a spark and getting the energy back to where I needed it to be, and I didn’t realize it. I just pouted for a while, and when you’re pouting at 13-1 that’s pretty stupid.”