Squirrel on the line: The squirrel (just a regular stupid squirrel) was scampering down the line. When he got to the pole, he crossed the boxes with circuit things and formed a connection between two circuits that should not be connected. The power went out, and the squirrel got fried. He also started a small fire there. This happens a lot. When the power goes out in the middle of the day when there's no storm going on, we all know it's a squirrel, although one time, just to be different, it was a snake. This is just another reason (besides the pecan trees they keep planting in my yard) that I hate squirrels.

When jennblevins mentioned grilled tomatoes, it did occur to me that my mother likes to eat fried green tomatoes, but I've never tried them myself. Of course, she's originally from East Texas.

The french fries with honey mustard sauce and smoked cheddar cheese sounds pretty good, although ranch dressing would be better. We have a place that serves pretty good cheese fries with ranch dressing on the side. You can also get chili on the fries, but I like it better with just the cheese and ranch dressing. Apparently, you can also get bacon, sweet peppered bacon or chicken on your cheese fries. We don't go there much, though. It's OK food, but it's overpriced. Mostly we go there when someone's visiting or when the college kids have left town. The cheese fries are good though. And now I want some.

Thank you, auntlada. Oh, thank you so much! The image of the stupid squirrel getting zapped on the lines made me laugh so hard I cried. (I'm still wiping my eyes.) Really, I'm an animal lover, but that just struck me as hilariously funny. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZapppppppp!! You really brightened my day.

See the whole chicken and waffles thing had my husband and I dumsquizzled as we drove throught the States on our honeymoon to Florida. Fried Chicken - Good,
Waffles - Good, together, I just can't picture it or can't understand the pairing. Do you use the maple syrup and whip cream on the waffles? See, this is how we over thought it then, too. Of course, we tried something called hush puppies that my husband ADORED. Anyone got a recipe for that? Now I want chicken, Mmm, St. Hubert chicken, now that's good eatin' waaay better than Swiss Chalet, which I think the both are Canadian so my bad.

Buttermilk Hushpuppies:
1 1/2 cups yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 tablespoons hot red pepper sauce
1/4 cup minced onions
1/4 cup minced red bell peppers
1 tablespoon minced jalapenos
1/8 teaspoon cayenne, or more, to taste
2 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup water
6 cups vegetable oil, for frying
2 tablespoons Creole seasoning

Combine the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt, hot sauce, onions, bell peppers, jalapenos, and cayenne in a large mixing bowl and mix well to break up any lumps. Stir in the eggs, buttermilk, and water, and blend well.
Heat the oil in a large heavy saucepan over medium-high heat to 360 degrees F.
In batches, drop the batter by tablespoons into the hot oil and fry until golden brown on all sides, turning with a long-handled spoon, about 2 minutes. Remove and drain on paper towels. Repeat with the remaining batter. Sprinkle with the Creole seasoning and serve hot.
Yield: 18 hushpuppies

I've been TWoPless for a week, thanks to jury duty and the holiday weekend. It's nice to be back.
That makes me very sad. They're delicious, I love the jam and the ice cream is my favorite flavor. Turkey Hill sells black raspberry ice cream in containers and (best of all) in chocolate covered pops. Friendly's also has black raspberry ice cream. Although I don't live near one anymore, I would always get black raspberry ice cream with hot fudge growing up. To this day, I like the dark brown/lilac color combination, probably because of that.

Anyone in the NYC-area who is interested in seeing me do stand-up Tuesday, June 15 at 8:30pm, please email me. I will send you the details & would appreciate TWoP support for this ladies of laughter contest.

Thanks Piperdown, I can't wait to surprise the hubby.

I never understood the appeal of chicken and waffles, either. And being from the south, whenever I tell someone this, I get looked at funny. Of course, you should see the looks when I tell people I don't like fried chicken, period. And don't get me started on grits. I always felt like I should have been born a northerner.

When I make hushpuppies it's just yellow cornmeal, an egg, a dash of flour, a dash of salt, chopped onions, fresh corn if we have it, and milk added to the right consistency. Then you fry it in the oil left from making the french fries or chicken or whatever, until they look right.

Yeah, there's an inherited Southern recipe for you. I couldn't tell you actual proportions to save my life, and if I get hushpuppies somewhere else that have all that other stuff in them, I complain about how they fancied 'em up.

Also, they're good with ketchup.

ETA: swimmerboy, I don't like grits either, despite being the child of born-and-bred Southerners and having lived in South Carolina for several years. My dad could never hook me on fried okra, either, even though he tried.

I swear, in the South, they'll fry anything.

My mother used to serve grits occasionally. My father, trying to be funny, once pondered, "Is it 'grits are good' or grits is good'?" I told him the answer was easy: "Grits ain't good." I have now gotten to where I can eat them sometimes, but only if I can mash up butter, salt, pepper, fried egg and bacon in them. A little Tabasco doesn't hurt either. The basic problem with grits is just that they're tasteless.

Fried okra is a taste I developed as an adult. My mother made it all the time, but I really didn't like it. Since she was a kind mother, she didn't make me eat it. She just made it for herself and dad (kind of like the liver -- we didn't have to eat that either). Now, I kind of like it, though, along with fried squash. It shouldn't be battered, though, just lightly coated with cornmeal (or whatever -- I don't actually cook it, but then I actually cook so little) and fried so that it is crisp and you can still see the okra. If it is entirely coated with a thick batter, like the kind usually served in restaurants, it's no good. Of course, outside the south, it's probably not served in restaurants at all. Sort of like sweet tea and macaroni and cheese. (That's how you can tell you're in the south: macaroni and cheese is listed as a vegetable, and when you order tea, your waitress asks, "Sweet or unsweet"?)

A friend from Georgia used to make them this way, and your right, they are good without all the extra's. I've made them using the oil from fried chicken, and those definitely turned out tastier then one's from fresh oil.

Damn this combined with my reminesing about Papaya King hot dogs from the last TARcon has got me starving...good thing it's lunch time.

The only weird food my family eats is pear halves with cheddar cheese grated on them. It's excellent when served with hot dogs filled with cheese (not the kind you buy in the store though) and wrapped in bacon. My dad also likes queso and chocolate but I never bought into that one. His invention of caramel syrup on stuffing is delicious though.

I've never heard of black raspberries but I did have a jam when I was down in New Orleans that was excellent. For the life of me I can't remember what it was called other than it was made from a swamp berry. It tasted a lot like strawberry but it wasn't. We dipped pretzels in it because that was all we had in the car on our roadtrip where we bought the stuff.

Hey! I finally thought of some weird food I ate as a kid: my mom liked to put chocolate chips in grilled chese sandwiches, and orange marmalade on the non-grilled kind.

I also realized we have a box of black raspberry tea that neither Mr. Blevins nor I like. I always figured it was 'black tea plus raspberry', but now I'll have to check if it's actually 'black raspberry'. That would explain why it doesn't taste correct to me, perhaps.

My husband thinks I'm weird for putting mustard on my hot dog, but I'm pretty sure he's the weird one. He also thinks relish is gross. I think it's gross if it's sweet relish, but that's just because I don't like sweet pickles much. What he really thinks is disgusting is when I tell him that when I was growing up, our Dairy Queen (which was one of those really old ones that you just walk up to and order from a window without ever going inside -- there was no inside places for customers; it wasn't a drive-through, though, you couldn't drive up to a window) would serve frito chili pie with onions, cheese, mustard and relish all mixed in if you wanted it. It was wonderful.

He does like pickles, just not on his hot dogs. He particularly likes my grandmother's hot dill pickles and sweet hot pickles and her squash pickles, which also have jalapenos in them. (She puts jalapenos in pretty much everything she cans, I think.)

ETA: You can tell I can't do any work this morning, can't you?

My southern grandma makes the best fried food. I looooovveee me some fried chicken and fried okra. She also does fried squash and it is heavenly. There's a barbeque place near me in NYC that you can order okra and hushpuppies as sides, and one time I had that for dinner. Nice and healthy living!

My aunt makes these garlic dilly green tomato pickles that are amazing. I made them with her once, but the whole canning thing makes me nervous for all the bacteria that might be slipping into things.
Now I am very, very hungry.

In other news, I thought of you all this weekend when my radio station played a great song, and then informed me it was by Great Big Sea. I was all excited that I'd heard of them thanks to you guys!

iMissEthan, welcome back! I was wondering where you were. Did you get an exciting case during Jury Duty?

I always joke that I'm missing some part of the Black gene, because I don't like collard greens or grits. I don't like scrapple, either (it's basically a gray brick of pork byproducts. You slice off the end and fry it), which makes my dad mad because it's big in Philly (and the rest of PA, I'd wager). It's so gross, though.

My best friend is from a suburb of Atlanta. I made a comment about fried chicken and waffles once, and she looked at me like I was insane. I guess it isn't everywhere in the South.

When I was visiting my grandfather in Barbados (he moved there with his second [now ex] wife, who's from there), we had fried kingfish and waffles. SO GOOD! I love seafood more than anything, and this was just delicious. Caught fresh that morning (not by me), and there's nothing better than really fresh fish. See also: flying fish.

However. Years later, when my mom, brother and I went to visit again (this was after my grandfather and his second wife had divorced), we did the polite thing and visited the ex one afternoon. She lived in a gorgeous tiled home on a hill, very open, lots of natural light. We went there for lunch. She served, like, raw pig intestine. Not chit'lins, but this disgusting raw meaty thing that was clearly an intestine (it was all coiled on the plate) . . . it was foul. I don't eat red meat (much; occasionally I can get tempted by bacon and sausage), so she made me a veggie burger. My mom taught us to be polite about food, and she was wrapping the stuff in her purse, sneaking it in the plant, feeding it to the yappy dogs, and encouraging my brother to do the same. Gross.

When I was in Poland, I was fed this . . . soup Jello. Clear broth, chicken, and carrots, but it was solid and cold. You ate it with a knife and fork, and it jiggled. Probably the nastiest thing I've ever eaten.

Hush puppies are delicious. Thanks for the recipes!

Three and a half more days at work and counting!

That's cause Atlanta suburbs are infused with yankees. (I kid!)

Thanks for the memories auntlada & Hildy. My parents have a ginormous vegetable garden in their back yard (yes, in the middle of urban DC) and they always have an abundance of squash and tomatoes.

My mother and grandmother used to make squash pickles every summer. Both a sweet and a spicy dill kind. I have such fond memories of sitting on the back porch and eating squash pickle and sharp cheddar cheese that we'd get from the aforementioned Burtonsville Amish market. They'd also make green tomato pickles which I always enjoyed on grilled chicken or cheese sandwiches.

Since my grandmother's passing a few years ago , my mom just can't seem to get the motivation to pickle anything anymore but she does still make squash blossom fritters (yummm...fritters...) and the best fried green tomatoes EVER.

Oh my! Flashback to my past! I had completely forgotten about them, but I practically lived on these as a child. They were a "fancy side dish" for those rare days that we actually ate at the table.

We also had pineapple slices this same way, with a dollap of sour cream in the middle and grated cheddar cheese on top. On the really fancy occasions, we'd get chopped pecans sprinkled on top.

There's actually (at least) one place in NYC that serves that little cornucopia of tastes: "Cowgirl" in the West Village at 10th and Hudson. And it is SERIOUSLY yummy,

(Also, their cheesy grits and fried catfish make me want to move my bed in there and stay forever. *Drooooooool*)

I hate pineapple, but I have eaten one way that I actually sort of like. My husband made me try it. It sounds disgusting, but it was actually pretty good. Basically you take a pineapple and cut it lengthwise into halves or maybe quarters. Then you top it with sour cream and brown sugar. I swear it tastes better than it sounds. Of course, he lived from about age 8 to age 18 in West Africa.

At lunch today, he ordered a spicy chicken sandwich that comes with orange marmalade, which he then spread on top of the chicken. Apparently, you're supposed to do this.

He eats the squash pickles on plain saltines. When we go to potlucks or to dinner at someone's house, he'll let me take the hot dills, but he refuses to share the squash pickles with anyone. Granny gives them to us every year for Christmas, and we usually swap some other canned thing for my brothers' pickles also. The first year she gave them to everyone, one of my brothers told my mom, "I think Granny's getting senile. She put squash in these pickles." He's happy to give his up.

Oh, I forgot early. My husband (who loves hot things, obviously) also suggests using the jalapeno jelly with pork chops (or probably pork roasts).

Heh, you beat me to it, swimmerboy! Atlanta's not really Southern at all anymore. It's just another big city. Well, except for the Coke museum and Five Points.

All this talk of waffles is seriously making me miss Waffle House. Mmmmm.

Swimmerboy has it right IMHO. Metro Atlanta is infused with Yankees, but it is still a southern city. I had to leave this past winter after 20 years, but my experience was that a majority of the folks who had moved to Atlanta had come from other southern states, but that there were a large proportion of Yankees in the new resident mix. As for the foods, it depends where you go around the city. One can find virtually any cuisine you can think of somewhere in the metro area. One other wrinkle is that many descendants of southerners who migrated to the north earlier in the 20th century have moved to Atlanta themselves -- I can't figure out to this day whether to consider them Yankees or southerners.

My favorite dessert for a while, at a now-defunct restaurant, was so weird I almost didn't try it. I don't remember its name, but you take a ring of pineapple packed in syrup, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream, pour maple syrup over it, and sprinkle it with black pepper. I know how wonderful it is, and it still sounds strange. People who ordered it a lot (like me) would add extra black pepper. Mmmm.

mmmm such good food talk! Black raspberry ice cream/ Rita's Ice = so good.

I hate hate hate creamed chip beef. Why? Because at the diner I worked at in grad school it took more than 5 minutes to defrost the creamchip (microwave). With ten million orders to make and set up and serve, I really could use less orders of ccb.

My friend makes the same with croûtons instead of bread. She calls it Cat-Scratch Casserole. It's really good, but I hate the name.

My boyfriend's mom serves tons of Italian style meals to me when I come over, but the fried zucchini flowers was probably the biggest surprise in taste to me.

I am still a simple girl though, and to this day enjoy a plain bowl of cereal or a bagel more than anything else

Local food for Colombia is arequipe, which is sort of a caramel spread. It's either eaten alone with a spoon (kids often have it in their lunches) or spread on a wafer cookie. When it's on a wafer it's called an oblea. A typical dinner is ajiaco, which is a chicken and potato soup with an entire corn on the cob in the bowl and capers and cream on the side. It's very hearty. Sometimes they have plato montanero, which is red beans, rice, ground beef, a fried plantain, and a fried egg. Empanadas are popular snacks. Food here is very simple and mild – Colombians have very delicate palates and will experience tongue explosions after eating mild salsa. In fact, cheddar cheese is virtually impossible to find because it's too spicy. And Colombians put mayo on everything. It's gross.

Went to San Andres for the long weekend. Everything was great except for the flight - our travel agent put us on Aero Republica, which was Ghetto Air. Never fly an airline that is not allowed to fly into the U.S. Traveling here is always awful, because it's a very individualistic culture. It's a cultural byproduct of the war - they've had to put themselves first to survive, so Colombians are very, very rude by American standards. People cut in line, sneak extra carryon baggage, and claim their clearly 12-year-old child is 5 so they can board early. They'll also wait until they get up to the window to fill out their customs form, while several hundred people are backed up behind them.

It was even worse than normal because of GhettoAir. The airline changed our flight times without telling us, so we didn't get back until 2 in the morning. They didn't put the baggage out to be claimed until 45 minutes after we landed. The seats were crunched together and made of a fabric that makes polyester seem luxurious, and it was obvious none of the passengers had been on a plane before. (People, on a redeye you close your window and stay quiet so others can sleep. You do NOT engage your seatmates in long discussions about your religion. Also, do not use the seat in front of you as leverage when you get up and go to the bathroom, especially when the person in front of you has long hair. OUCH! I swear I've got a bald patch on the back of my head now.)

The next time you're in Williamsburg and Jamestown, I recommend taking the James River Ferry to Surry and eating at the Surrey House Restaurant.Try the special: Three ham rolls, peanut soup, apple fritter and peanut pie.

That sounds like my Delta flight last night. 45 minute wait for my bag at LaGuardia (after over 2 hours of delays).

This is true. Any airline that flies into the US has to meet our high safety standards for maintenance and pilot certification, and they have to provide documentation and allow us to inspect their aircraft and pilots. We even have the right to inspect their maintenance operations in other countries. Is it an overbearing policy? Possibly, but it ensures that aircraft in our airspace are safe and safely flown to the extent the US government can control that. Canada and the US worked for many years to align their flight safety standards, and there is an open skies policy between the two countries, but I don't know for sure that Canada holds the same stringent requirements for non-US foreign aircraft and pilots. I think they do, but I'm not positive. Australia, Japan, and some other countries (mostly in Europe) have high standards, but again I don't know if they have the same strict "if you enter our airspace, we hold you to our standards" requirements for inspection and certification.[/aviation geek] I do know that airlines that don't fly into the US have hideous safety records compared to those that do fly here.

Nope. I was up for a 2nd degree murder case, but wasn't picked for the jury. I did see Jerry Springer for the first time in eight years, which was the last time I was on jury duty. There is a TV room off the main room where you have to wait to be called as a potential juror. Damn, that is the saddest show I've ever seen.

Jerry Springer is still on? New episodes, not just in syndication? Man, that is sad.

DariaG asked

It was near the end, thankfully. We did a 65km (?45 miles or so) hike over our long weekend, and it was 4km from the end that I managed to slip on/fall down a rock shelf. I was able to weight-bear and managed to walk out, although it took a while since the terrain was challenging.

I was only taking Tylenol for pain (stopped the Ibuprofen once I learned it was broken, as there's evidence that anti-inflammatories delay bone healing, in case anyone cares), but that may change, as I had even more good news today. I went for my assessment at the Fracture Clinic, and the Ortho surgeon suggested that it would be best to have screws put in, otherwise the joint could be unstable, so guess who gets to go for surgery tomorrow. yay. The upside (trying to find the silver lining, here) is that I'll probably take a couple weeks off work, so I'll have lots of time to hang around TWoP and analyze the new teams.

Thanks everyone for your good wishes, and for reminding me that it's not the end of the world (dogs and hopping down from the 21st floor would certainly be worse!)

On a more pleasant note, all the talk about waffles yesterday made me hungry, so I made waffles for supper (with real maple syrup though, not meat)- mmm, waffles!

This reminds me of a Monte Cristo sandwich. I've never eaten one myself, because it's made with ham, which I don't eat, but I can't personally imagine that even ham-eaters could enjoy it. It's a ham and cheese sandwich made on thick bread that's battered and fried like French Toast, sprinkled with powdered sugar, and then served with JAM on the side. I mean, is it a meal? Is it a dessert? No need to decide!

At a local Afghan restaurant a couple of months ago, my friend and I were tempted to try one of the desserts -- rose ice cream. It was...bizarre. It looked like vanilla, but it tasted like a bouquet of flowers. I suddenly felt like I was on Iron Chef or something.

Okay, I have to ask -- why just Tylenol? Was it all you needed? Were you trying to tough it out? Or was it the best you could do once you'd eliminated ibuprofen as an option?

I believe in taking painkillers at a level just barely sufficient to kill the pain, but I won't suffer. I had shingles in early 2001, and the first thing I said to my doc (through the tears) was that I didn't care what else she did, I wanted her to stop the pain. She was a good doc, she gave me Percocet (and an anti-viral since I came in within 72 hours of the first symptoms, which is evidently the most important thing one can do when afflicted with shingles). I hated being fuzzed up, and I got off the Percs as quickly as possible, but I did not let myself feel the pain, either. The shingles were totally stress-induced, btw. I was working 70-hour weeks, I'd had the flu, my car was totalled while parked, my neighbor damaged my garden and we were in a huge dispute, and something else went wrong, all in a very short time.

Anyway, Kanuck!, I'm glad you got most of your hike in. And good luck with the surgery!

You're right about that, Daria. I would have much rather flown Avianca, which is a Delta partner airline. GhettoAir was just awful. I didn't even mention the flight up, where we found our assigned seats occupied by other people. GhettoAir had put three children under the age of 10 in the exit row, so the parents shifted all the seats around, probably way more than was necessary. On the plus side, this got us moved to the front of the plane - a necessity here. Disembarking is always bedlam - no one knows how to operate the overhead compartments, and instead of luggage they'll bring cardboard boxes held together with plastic. Since obviously boxes don't have handles, they just pull and yank until the box falls out, generally smacking everyone nearby on the head. Then everyone pushes and shoves and tries to walk out two abreast. Yeah, people are pretty small here, but not THAT small. Then, when people get off the plane, they immediately stop right in the middle of the jetway to wait for their friends, never mind that their friends aren't going to come, because of the moron blocking the jetway. I could really go on all day about this. HATE.

Mmm, Percocet. Seriously, though, I had shingles in 1998 (mine was stress-induced as well, Daria, and it was perhaps the single most painful that I've ever suffered through (and that includes two broken arms, two broken ankles, and ankle reconstruction surgery) (not all at the same time). Shingles? Tops it all. I can't remember what my doc gave me but it was not enough, whatever it was. Unlike you and Kanuck, I'm a big freaking wimp and I'll take whatever the doctor is willing to give me. And probably still whine and complain.

Kanuck, best of luck getting screwed tomorrow. (Sorry, couldn't help myself.) Do you have someone around to wait on you and feel sorry for you? That was the best part of my ankle-surgery recuperation. The worst was the first few days when I had to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of night and I didn't have a weight-bearing cast yet. My dog and cats were a little perturbed at the sight of their mommy crawling through the bedroom howling at 3 am.

If you guys ever get shingles again (knock wood that you don't!), may I recommend something quite new that they've come out with, a prescription anesthetic patch called Lidoderm. I use it for my neuropathic pain on my foot at night -- my skin gets so hypersensitive that just the touch of the sheet makes me climb the walls and certainly not be able to sleep -- and it's truly amazing. A very low dose of lidocaine, and you can only use it 12 hours out of 24, but I don't think I ever want to be without it again!

To go back a couple of pages -- this is what I get for finding my office so short-handed today that I didn't even have time to thinkabout getting online, let alone actually do anything about it -- the very best hush puppies in the entire universe are from a restaurant called Old McDonald's Fish Camp which is right outside of North Augusta, South Carolina. Also grits -- their grits actually have flavor. I hadn't really liked grits much till then, and of course now I'm ruined since they have to be really, really good grits to live up to anything even close to Old McDonald's standards.

The only problem with living in New Orleans is that you have to drive at least 30 miles to get to a Waffle House. So every time we go anywhere, Papa Tiger indulges me in a pecan waffle fix. Hey, life isn't complete without a regular supply of Waffle House pecan waffles!!

Putting orange marmalade on chicken? Well, one of my favorite chicken dishes is cooking the chicken in orange juice, with a couple of sectioned oranges thrown in. Yumm, chicken and orange! But orange marmalade? That sounds kinda weird.

Ooh! I've had that meat jelly stuff! And I can indeed verify that it is disgusting. You take a perfectly good slab of meat and boil it to death, then skim off the "juice" (ie, fat) on top, shred the meat, add in garlic and onion and sometimes boiled egg, then spread it out in a pan. Then, add the "juice" back on top, and refrigerate until it's solid.

A Russian roommate made it once, and I made sure to pre-eat before dinner that night. Opening the fridge that day was risky, the stench would just smack you in the face. The other Americans and I had to throw away a couple of food items of ours that had been imbedded with residual stinkiness after that. *shudder*

Mama Tiger, with the anti-viral, my shingles were gone in less than 2 weeks. The pills were expensive -- $80/day, IIRC, and my doc gave me a lot of samples because she wasn't sure I'd get reimbursed. And she was right, my insurance company didn't want to pay for them (of course) but eventually did. In any case, they were worth it, in that there was absolutely no residual pain. Unfortunately, if you don't start them within 72 hours of the first symptoms, they're useless. I am therefore eternally grateful to the phone receptionist who told me to come in right away and she'd have one of the docs see me as soon as I walked in the door, appointments be damned. She was good to her word, bless her heart.

JenEx, I was just past my shingles around Mothers Day 2001, and the shingles message board I was hanging out on had several mothers. So I asked which was more painful, shingles or labor? It was unanimous -- shingles was far worse. That made me feel like less of a wimp.

Hi all! It's been a long time since I have posted in this Meet Market but I have a request for all you wonderful TWoP people. In two weeks my family and I will be participating in a Relay for Life sponsored by the American Cancer Society. We're going to walk (as a team) for 12 hours straight. We're going to be walking in honor of my aunt who has just found out that her cancer has relapsed. I am trying to talk to everyone I know to ask them to pledge. Every dollar counts and this really means a lot to me and my family. If you would like to help out and pledge please email me. I promise that 100% of the money pledged will go straight to the cause. This is an honest request for help, not a scam. Thank you for even taking the time to read this and I hope you'll consider pledging. I am only posting this in the Meet Markets that I visit so if you do decide to pledge (or even if you don't) it might help if you could spread the word around to other TWoP-ers. I would really appreciate it!

(In case anyone is wondering, I checked with HoPs to make sure this would be ok to ask before I posted.)

Hi everyone! I was jumping in to talk about weird food. Anyone else ever had raw fermented shark in Iceland? They bury it for a couple of months and then dig it up. My Icelandic friends were disappointed that I just said "this is interesting" and chewed up the big cube without a grimace. Then I downed a shot of "Black Death." Wheweeeee....Back on the airport shuttle bus the same day several fellow American travelers asked me what the strange smell was...Took me a full day of brushing with baking soda to get rid of the aroma..On a more interesting note, I heard confirmaton on another board that indeed TAR5 contestants will be introduced on this Friday's "Early Show." Can't wait for the action to begin! Ciao, y'all.

Hello! I am stopping by at the invitation of JenEx. I am a big TAR fan, and I am so excited about the new season. I don't have very many TAR fan friends IRL, but I have always lurked here on TWOP. I am definitely planning to be an active participant this season though. Sadly, no fermented shark in Iceland here - but I did eat shark head in Singapore. Does that count? At least, that's what I think it was.

And I ate chicken feet in Austin, Texas (at a Chinese restaurant, it's not a traditional Texan delicacy!), does that count? As well as many unidentified things in Japan -- many of which were delicious and I wish I knew what they were!

Welcome, lila! Any friend of JenEx's......

Fermented shark in Iceland? Shark's head in Singapore? I think I need to get out more. The closest I've come is shark steaks in Philadelphia.

I thought I'd share this tidbit from my dad. My brother had a job to do in Australia and my dad flew down to vacation at the end of my brother's trip (make sense?)

I got this email today:

All I could think was........AMAZING RACE WAS THERE!!!!!!!

Glad you finally got the box, piperdown. You act as if eating everything all at once is a bad thing.

I like grits.

I lurve Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles. When I go to San Diego in a couple of weeks, I'll probably drive to LA and eat there.

I hate hate hate being sick. Nothing I've taken seems to work. At least I bought a DVD player for my room on Saturday. Now I can watch movies in the comfort of my own bed.

I can't remember what else I was going to respond to...soooo I'll go back to bed now.

Good luck, timeonmyhands, and welcome to the cause! I'm on the local American Cancer Society board. We're in the process of planning our Relay For Life, which will be in August. It's a lot of fun. Basically, it's a big party all night with the ultimate purpose of raising money for cancer research and education. It also serves to raise awareness. We always have a lot of fun doing ours and even planning it. One year, we had a couple of frat boys who on the spur of the moment decided to walk the entire 12 hours (minus the time for the survivor lap to kick it off and the luminaria ceremony, when the walking stops briefly). And they did it in flip-flops. They were still standing and walking by morning, but just barely.

Fund-raising things that have worked for us are writing letters to people we know, having garage sales, selling lunches at work (get permission first, of course). One team last year reserved the city pool and had a pool party. If you live in a place where lotteries are legal (it's not here), you can also have a raffle. Before you do, though, check that raffles are legal. Here, they're legal only for certain groups, I think those that have been recognized as charities by the government for at least a couple of years.

For anyone thinking about giving, though, either to timeonmyhands or to a local Relay team, I can vouch for the ACS and Relay For Life.

Thanks for the ideas and for the support auntlada. We've been doing all kinds of things to raise money and I just thought of trying this spur of the moment. A couple of people have already expressed interest so I'm very excited!

jadeddaisymentioned

It's an acquired taste but I love this. The only time that I've ever been able to find rose ice cream was in Morocco. We do have a couple of Afghan restaurants; maybe I'll check them out.
Here in Washington there's a local ice cream company that makes lavender ice cream which is also divine.

Welcome lila!
Good luck timeonmyhands.