26 Unusual Choices, Photography: Only White Theme

From Denny: This is a collection pulled together from the wonderful Creative Commons photographers over at flickr. It's fun to explore the world to discover what so many dissimilar animals, flowers, insects, clothing, food, buildings, people and places all have in common: the color white.

You are free to use these photos on your blog or site as long as you give the name of the photographer, the site and a link back to their page like I've done here.

Hope you enjoy the choices! :)







Only White







White snowy owl by Tambako the Jaguar @ flickr







White peacock by be_khe @ flickr








White fungus and shrimp wanton by FotoosVanRobin @ flickr







White cat on white couch by pizazz @flickr






White birch tree in snow by Vitorio Benedetti @ flickr







White coffee cup by Vitorio Benedetti @ flickr






White sea foam by Vitorio Benedetti @ flickr







White rose by lilli2de @flickr






White spotted jellyfish by coda @ flickr






American White House entrance for 2008 open house holiday by KRSPO @ flickr







Albino peacock by The Real Darren Stone @ flickr







White Curly Scarf by zehhhra @ flickr







White torte by zoyachubby @ flickr







White bengal tiger underwater by Gore Fiendus (Jerry Frausto) @ flickr







White turban by jasleen_kaur @ flickr







White on white by James Jordan @ flickr







Wing waving white ermine by e3000 @ flickr







White Pelican by mikebaird @ flickr







White orchid by forteller.ipernity.com @ flickr






White Polar fox resting in hollow log in Switzerland zoo by Tambako the Jaguar @ flickr







White horse by Tambako the Jaguar @ flickr






White winter beach at dawn by James Jordan @ flickr







White arctic wolf by Tambako the Jaguar @ flickr






White day white gulls by eschipul @ flickr







White flowers by OliBac @ flickr







White moth white flower by Anvica @ flickr




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Funny Sarcastic Sayings 4 Any Day

From Denny: This is an excerpt from this week's Cheeky Quote Day over at The Social Poets, enjoy! :)



When I think of the scrappy high-spirited Irish every Saint Paddy's Day I often think of how clever they have been over the centuries with the spoken word - like cheeky Oscar Wilde. They certainly knew hardship and irony and yet could always scrounge up a clever retort or biting sarcasm when the occasion warranted it. So, here's to you, my Irish friends around the world, a dedication of a few sarcastic one liners and other word fun to give you a grin. Lift a glass of green beer and toast the fun of word banter!





















Quotes



* If you are grouchy, irritable, annoying, or just plain mean, there will be a $10 charge given to those who have to put up with you. - Anonymous



* One out of four people in this country is mentally unbalanced. Think of your three closes friends; if they seem OK, then you're the one. - Ann Landers



* I started out with nothing and still have most of it left. - Anonymous



* I pretend to work. They pretend to pay me. - Anonymous



* Does your train of thought have a caboose? - Anonymous



* Suburbia: where they tear out the trees and then name streets after them. - Anonymous



* Chaos, panic, & disorder - my work here is done.







*** ALSO: St. Patricks Day Funnies and History - Cheeky Quote Day 10 Mar 2010



Funny Sarcastic Sayings for St. Patricks Day - Cheeky Quote Day 17 Mar 2010



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Funny News: Italys World Slow Day

Woman in Genoa, Italy, receives citation from cheeky Slow Warden for walking too fast on World Slow Day

From Denny: The Italians want us to slow down and stop to smell the roses - at least for one day. Yesterday they celebrated World Slow Day where everyone slows down the pace of their day and quit rushing around. The special day went by so fast I think they need to extend the celebration to a full week.

In Rome the city offered all kinds of goodies to entice the people, from free public transportation to slamming poetry contests. They even offered free exercise in the form of free yoga and Tai Chi lessons. Being true to the "holiday," the local police handed out mock fines for pedestrians walking too fast.

Who started this fun holiday? World Slow Day began in 2007 as the brain child of Bruno Contigiani, age 62, who is President of the Art of Living Slowly Association. The whole point of this special day is to get people to live at a normal natural speed. He promotes the Association's "14 Commandments" like getting up five minutes earlier to start your day with a leisurely breakfast. He also suggests to make traffic jams a celebration by striking up conversations with fellow stranded motorists.

Other cities in Italy who participated in the event:

Caltanissetta: They offered free transportation on Monday and commuters were gifted with free copies of the "14 Commandments."

Milan and Genoa: These guys were far more cheeky and direct in promoting the holiday celebration. They decided to deputize "Slow Wardens" to chastise pedestrians who were walking too fast and issue them a mock citation. Pedestrians were also cited for taking too direct a route to their destination as well. Makes you wonder if the Slow Wardens went about their day following people to their destinations, clipboard in hand, and determined if the pedestrian was in need of a reprimand for living life too fast or too efficiently. After all, the whole point of World Slow Day is to slow down and savor the journey.

Benevento: They held a competition for the best Haiku poem that best described the day. Guys, haiku is short. You should have asked for a Shakespeare style soliloquy in poetry form. Now that would have been a slow journey - and witty!

Treviso and Palermo: offered free Tai Chi and yoga lessons.

In public parks all around Italy there were offered free Tai Chi and yoga lessons to help people relax and enjoy the special day. "Let's take this one day to stop and think about all the things we miss out on while we're rushing through our lives," Contigiani said.

Turns out that World Slow Day is now honored in 90 cities in 11 countries, including New York, London, Paris and Tokyo. It's linked to the Slow Food Movement.


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Comics Point of View: Our Weird Politicians

From Denny: Every Monday at The Social Poets I post the latest roundup from the late night show comics. This week was brutal for Congressman Eric Massa. He was lampooned from all sides. Tiger Woods got off easy this week.

See Cartoons by Cartoon by R.J. Matson - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

Excerpt of the quips from David Letterman:

We had a lousy audience last night. You couldn't tell if they were laughing at the jokes or if they were being tickled by New York Congressman Massa.

He admits to groping, fondling, and tickling. And I'm thinking, well, why isn't this guy governor of New York?

Massa goes on the Glenn Beck show and he says that he was having a birthday party tickling his staff. And he said one guy couldn't breathe, he was tickling him so hard. And then Dick Cheney said, 'Well, we should have done that at Gitmo.'

So now this Congressman Eric Massa is claiming that he was bullied in a gym by Rahm Emanuel. The President's guy is bullying him in a gym, naked. And I know you are thinking to yourselves, 'Well gee, thanks a lot, Dave, for searing that image into our brains because that's something we'll carry for a long time right there.'

He admits to groping, fondling, and tickling. And I'm thinking, well, why isn't this guy governor of New York?






Here is a sampling from comic Jerry Seinfeld on his take on just who "Really?!" is this guy called Massa. The messy weird news from politician Massa just keeps on giving to the comics:






*** To view the entire hilarious rocking good post that includes lots of funny quips from Letterman, Leno, Kimmel, Fallon, video clips from Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart lampooning the GOP and Fox News, go here.


*** Happy Saint Patrick's Day! THANKS for visiting, come back often, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers – and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe in a reader or by email updates!

Gorgeous Whiskey Chocolate Brownies

Whiskey Chocolate Brownies Photo by FotoosVanRobin @ flickr

From Denny: While preparing a post for my photography blog I stumbled across this awesome chocolate photo. Well, guess what, a double bonus: it had a recipe! How great is that! :) If you require a measurements exchange link, there is one at the top of this blog. I went ahead and recorded the conversions for your convenience. But if you ever need the links, remember they are here on this blog.

Since Saint Patrick's Day is tomorrow, how about using some of that whiskey in the house for some delightful brownies? Enjoy!


Whiskey Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients:

For the cake:

250 g/9 oz butter, chopped
200 g/ chopped dark chocolate
375 g/13 oz caster (superfine) sugar
125 ml/1/2 cup whiskey
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
185 g/6.5 oz plain flour
60 g/2.1 self-raising flour
40 g/1.4 oz unsweetened cocoa powder
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons whiskey, extra

For the chocolate glaze:

80 ml/1/3 cup cream
90 g/3.3 oz dark chocolate

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 160ºC./320 degree F. Grease a 20 cm/8-inch square tin and line the base and sides with baking paper.

Dissolve the instant coffee powder in 125 ml/1/2 cup hot water and put with the butter, chocolate, sugar and whiskey in a saucepan that you can hang in another pan with boiling water to heat au bain marie. Just be patient for everything to melt. It will melt by itself and it will become a beautifully consistent, thick sauce.

Sieve the plain flour, self-raising flour and cocoa into a large bowl. Pour the butter mixture onto the flour mixture and whisk until just combined. Whisk in the eggs. Pour into the prepared tin.

Bake for about 1 hour 15 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the center of the cake. Pour the extra whiskey over the hot cooked cake. Leave in the tin for 20 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack placed over a baking tray to cool completely.

For the chocolate glaze, put the cream and the chocolate in the small saucepan and heat over another pan with boiling water au-bain-marie. Again, just be patient it will melt by itself. Stir until a nice, consistent chocolate sauce. Then set aside to cool and thicken a little. Spread the glaze over the cake, allowing it to drizzle over the sides. Leave to set.

Or do what I did, I sliced the cake it cubes and dipped those into the glaze.

From: "Tempted" by Murdoch books / "Zalig Zoet" by Terra Lannoo.

Photographer's notes: it really was a lot, half the recipe would have been enough. I added a little bit of lavender to the glazing which was almost undetectable but nice. Next time I'll sprinkle it with salted thyme or what is it that you sometimes find in pralines these days?


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