Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 24, 2019 8:21:48 GMT -8
So what you’re saying, Artler, is that I can just ignore the French when they are being snooty about their wine. I don’t drink, but Washington State has become a major wine producer. There’s excellent climate for it in many areas of the state. Touring wineries is the new yuppie equivalent of walking the Stations of the Cross.
I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. But it’s interesting how central wine has become to the yuppie lifestyle.
Long live GMO, I say. Thanks for the info, Artler.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 24, 2019 8:32:28 GMT -8
Well done Texas in regards to saving the wine industry in France. There’s obviously a lot to be said for those organizations which wish to protect the ancient root stocks for various plants. I was watching an episode of Gardener’s World on BritBox the other day. They visited a gardener who was a very large participant in a program to collect, grow, and accumulate seeds for various ancient varieties of plants. You can well see there is a need for it.
As loopy as the Northwest is getting, save a place for me. I may get there as soon as I can.
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Post by timothylane on Aug 24, 2019 9:08:30 GMT -8
I think some of the elite stores in Moscow used dollars (i.e., hard currency) as well. These were the ones that only the elite of the classless society (and presumably tourists) could visit.
Naturally, the dining area for tourists was more expensive. Isn't that true everywhere? Communist or capitalist, either way the tourist pays. Robert Heinlein even mentioned this in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, set several decades hence, so don't expect it to change anytime soon.
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Post by timothylane on Aug 24, 2019 9:12:07 GMT -8
As I recall, there's a great seed repository in Iceland or Spitzbergen that is intended to be able to save any plant species going extinct. It's especially intended as preparation for a natural (or unnatural) global disaster. Presumably they include multiple cultivars for each species (indeed, that would probably be necessary for genetic diversity).
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Post by timothylane on Aug 24, 2019 9:18:55 GMT -8
I think the first time I encountered the phrase "that's real white of you" was on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. It was skit with Tommy unintentionally using all sorts of racial references with a black friend, and at the end, after he promises or does something nice, the friend says, "That's real white of you."
I think the next time I encountered it was in the Dirty Harry movie The Enforcer, in which Harry is seeking information with a black leader of doubtful honesty. It's an interesting scene, including Tyne Daly as Harry's partner having to deal with the leader's henchmen while Harry negotiates with him. When the black (who was played by a chap who later turned up as a friend of Harry's in a later movie) finally agrees, Harry says "That's real white of you." But then, he would.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 24, 2019 10:26:17 GMT -8
It’s also a famous line that Archie Bunker delivers to (I think) George Jefferson. As a Texan, I’m pretty sure Mr. Kung has never encountered that expression. I was wondering if I needed to translate that for him.  |
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kungfuzu
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Post by kungfuzu on Aug 24, 2019 13:22:21 GMT -8
As you know, such things were never said in Texas or the rest of the South of my youth.
One heard it in the U.K. in a rather more sophisticated tone; to wit, "That's awfully white of you, old chap." One should not sound the "u" to get the correct effect. Think of Lord Peter Wimsey saying "That's awflly white of you, old chap" and you will have a good idea of how it was said.
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kungfuzu
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Post by kungfuzu on Aug 24, 2019 13:31:30 GMT -8
I was shocked, I say shocked to hear that the Christian Brothers might have exaggerated their part in the saving of the French wine industry. With this in mind, and wanting to give pictorial veracity to my story, I went through my wife's jewelry box and found the amber necklace which I bought on the Aeroflot flight almost 35 years ago. Perhaps I was a fool, but I believe I paid something like US$50- for it at that time.
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Post by timothylane on Aug 24, 2019 13:48:21 GMT -8
Nice looking necklace, though I certainly wouldn't want to estimate the proper price for it. Amber comes most notably from the old Prussian coast in the southern Baltic, which since World War II would primarily mean Poland. Even in 1985 that was under Soviet domination.
As might be guessed from mainly having heard it on TV shows and movies, "real white of you" isn't a phrase I'm familiar with from personal use, either by me or people I know. Given the wide spread of people I met in my Army brat days, this raises the question of where people used to say it. I don't recall it from Kentucky, Galveston, or Alexandria, or from Monterey, or Greece (or at Purdue).
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kungfuzu
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Post by kungfuzu on Aug 24, 2019 13:49:55 GMT -8
Not exactly. A tourist in the USA and elsewhere can always avoid the expensive hotel cafe's and restaurants. Furthermore, they don't seat Americans in one restaurant and foreigners in another in any establishment I have visited.
It is true that tourists and businessmen get screwed over with hotel taxes across the USA. It seems every large city has a "hotel tax" which is two or three times the local sales tax just so those out-of-towners can help pay for the city's budget deficit.
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kungfuzu
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Post by kungfuzu on Aug 24, 2019 13:53:56 GMT -8
Maybe it was my badly repaired shoe or crumpled clothes which I had to wear on the plane from London and in Moscow for two days.
I met some Russian millionaires in the metal trade who made there first big money by importing container-loads of shoes from China and selling them on the street in Russia. I knew of others who made fortunes importing cheap PCs and selling them in Russia. Some of the riches men in Russia today, started in this way.
We left Moscow and before it got dark I remember seeing forests upon forests. Then I saw black with a little bright light every now and then. We were still over Siberia when daylight came and there were still trees. Once we hit the ocean, it was only an hour or two till Tokyo.
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kungfuzu
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Post by kungfuzu on Aug 24, 2019 14:08:26 GMT -8
I don't know what amber is worth, but I figured US$50- had to be a pretty good price if the amber was real, especially given the length of the necklace. (That's a piece of standard-sized letterhead below the necklace so that gives an idea as to the necklace's length.)
It has lots of little critters and things in it so I guess it is genuine. In any case, it was worth the cost simply as a gift for my wife. Getting an amber necklace from the USSR, real or not, was something special in those days.
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Post by timothylane on Aug 24, 2019 14:14:49 GMT -8
I wonder if you were awake when they passed (more less) over the site of the Tunguska event of 1908. I doubt there would be anything to recognize it by, but I did read a book about it (including speculations about what it might have been -- nothing fits perfectly).
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 24, 2019 15:37:07 GMT -8
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Post by timothylane on Aug 24, 2019 16:03:43 GMT -8
So is that the Tunguska site today? Given how large an area was rendered treeless, it would take a long time to fully reseed the area. How big is the bare site in that photo, and when was it taken?
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 24, 2019 16:13:47 GMT -8
I have no idea. That might be a part of it. Here's another photo I found:  |
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