Paul Krugman: After the Flimflam (New York Times)
It has been a big week for budget documents. In fact, members of Congress have presented not one but two full-fledged, serious proposals for spending and taxes over the next decade. Before I get to that, however, let me talk briefly about the third proposal presented this week - the one that isn't serious, that's essentially a cruel joke.
Andrew Tobias: BALANCED BUDGET: ARE YOU NUTS?
The way the government does its accounting, investments are counted as "spending." By this logic, no family could balance its budget if it bought a house, unless it had enough cash to do so without taking a mortgage; no business take a loan to finance inventory or build a factory. Every serious business in America - including every one owned or run by Republicans - uses "Generally Accepting Accounting Principles." But not the US government.
Froma Harrop: The Silliness of Demographic Panic (Creators Syndicate)
If you drove to work today, did you worry about too few cars on the road? Do you wish more people were waiting in line at the public tennis courts? Are you eager to see new housing developments replace your favorite truck farm?
Tom Danehy: Tom is planning on living for a while, unless he's swallowed by a molasses spill (Tucson Weekly)
I don't want to waste a lot of time worrying about this, so I've made a decision. I want to die on my 100th birthday while performing a heroic act in which I save the life of a young Zefram Cochrane, who will go on to invent warp drive in 2063. OK, now that I've got that out of the way, I can go back to living the final four or five decades of my life.
Richard Branson, "Paying it forward" (Richard's Blog)
… I wanted to share this wonderful story from Pankaj Shah, a generous guy I've had the pleasure of meeting.??He is fortunate enough to be able to treat people anonymously in restaurants. Whenever he is out to dinner, he asks the staff to find the couple who look most in love, and takes care of their bill.
Blue corn (also known as Hopi maize) is a variety of Flint maize grown in northern Mexico and the Southwestern United States, particularly in the states of Arizona and New Mexico.
It was originally developed by the Hopi, and remains an essential part of Hopi dishes like piki bread. Blue corn meal is a corn meal that is ground from whole blue corn and has a sweet flavor. It is also a staple of New Mexican cuisine.
Different varieties of blue corn range in color from powdery gray to nearly black. There are three varieties of the blue corn: "standard" blue (sakwaqa'o), hard blue (huruskwapu), and gray-blue (maasiqa'o). Because of its hard kernels, huruskwapu is most resistant to storage pests and traditionally was the preferred variety for storing. When the grinding was all done by hand, women preferred using maasiqa'o because it is soft and easier to grind but the color was not as vibrant as that of the sakwaqa'o or huruskwapu.
Source
Alan J was first, and correct, with:
Three
Charlie wrote:
Three.
Adam answered:
Per Wikipedia: There are three varieties of the blue corn: "standard" blue (sakwaqa'o), hard blue (huruskwapu), and gray-blue (maasiqa'o).
Jim from CA, retired to ID, took the day off.
Marian replied:
3
Sally said:
There are three varieties of the blue corn: "standard" blue (sakwaqa'o), hard blue (huruskwapu), and gray-blue (maasiqa'o).
Here is a link to everything you might want to know about 'Blue corn.'
We had lots of Mexican restaurants, which used blue corn, back in Colorado. I sure miss the food there... Mexican food is my fav...
PS: @Joe, I missed Pie Day - and I missed my lemon meringue too... :(
Dale of Diamond Springs responded:
There are three kinds of the blue corn: "standard" blue, hard blue, and gray-blue. It is a floury corn, and has about 30 percent more protein and is lower in carbs than the average hybrid corn. I occasionally make tamales using blue corn masa.
MAM wrote:
There are three varieties of the blue corn: "standard" blue (sakwaqa'o), hard blue (huruskwapu), and gray-blue (maasiqa'o).
BttbBob replied:
Hmmm... I've been aware of the existence of 'blue corn' for some time now and even, vaguely, remember seeing examples of the stuff... As to how many varieties of said stuff there are, well, I am not at all certain. But, no matter... Through the miracle of modern technology I can almost instantly ascertain the answer... One moment, please... Ah, yes... there it is... Three. Three varieties.
I can even conjure up a photo, too, of said stuff in a trice, if not faster...
Presto!
Blue corn stuff! Ain't it grand? The stuff AND the technology, I'm sayin'...
Of course it is, as I'm sure you'll agree... What an age we live in now, eh?
(Well, there are still issues, of course, but...)
~~~~~
Memo to SallyP: Well, remember telling me about the 'Garden Club' party that you ladies had when you all invited in a passing gang of longshoremen? Kinda like that. Although, I dare say not quite so... Hmmm... how should I put it?... Rambunctious... Yes, that would be a polite, genteel word to use.
~~~~~
Why did the chicken cross the road?
... Cuz she's got warrants!... That's why... Run, chicken, Run!
~~~~~
Happy Birthday today to:
Ray Benson (61) Frontman and founding member of... Asleep At The Wheel on Austin City Limits - YouTube
(I love Austin. Don't care what anybody says 'bout Texas, but Austin is a great place with great people and is one of my favorite cities.)
Patty Griffin (48) Grammy award winning singer [Patty Griffin You Are Not Alone Live - YouTube]
(... at The Fez, NYC... A Y/T commenter said this song was used recently during the last few minutes of an 'NCIS' episode (Shiva) to great affect. I didn't see it, but I can see how it could have been.)
Complete list: March 16 Birthdays - Celebrities Born March 16 | Famous Birthdays
And, Joe S replied:
Three. I just love me some corn soup. Corn and wild rice soup is even better. Sometime when I have more time I'll send along my recipe, you're gonna love it. Here's a little corn entertainment in the meantime.
This is the first of 2 of my March Astrology columns.
If you're new, this is the only Astro/Humor/Political/Catlover column in the Blue Ridge area...or maybe the whole world.
For the new folks, this work started out as the Astrological tool for the Presidential campaign of Sneak Pie Brown, Rita Mae Brown's crime solving cat. It has mushroomed since then into some sort of fungus....lol.
This particular column is not all that political...but most of the following will be.
Check it out... we can use as many hits as possible!
CBS begins the night with a RERUN'CSI: The Original One', followed by a RERUN'Criminal Minds', then '48 Hours'.
NBC opens the night with a FRESH'American Ninja Warrior', followed by a RERUN'Chicago Fire', then an hourlong RERUN of last Saturday's 'SNL' (hosted by Justin Timberlake).
'SNL' is a RERUN, with Jennifer Lawrence hosting, music by The Lumineers.
ABC starts the night with a RERUN'Celebrity Wife Swap', followed by '20/20'.
The CW offers an old '2½ Men', followed by another old '2½ Men', then an old 'Family Guy', followed by another old 'Family Guy'.
Faux has 'Cops', 'Cops', and a RERUN'The Following'.
MY has an old 'Burn Notice', followed by another old 'Burn Notice'.
A&E has 'Flipping Vegas', another 'Flipping Vegas', still another 'Flipping Vegas', followed by a FRESH'Flipping Boston'.
AMC offers the movie 'Hulk', followed by the movie 'Godzilla'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES UK - Season 4 - Ep 2 - Piccolo Teatro
[7:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES UK - Season 2 - Ep 1 - Lanterna
[8:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES REVISITED US - Season 4 - Ep 1 - Down City, Classic American, Davide
[9:00AM] TOP GEAR - Season 5 - Episode 8
[10:00AM] TOP GEAR - Season 5 - Episode 9
[11:00AM] TOP GEAR - Season 6 - Episode 1
[12:00PM] TOP GEAR - Season 6 - Episode 2
[1:00PM] SIX NATIONS RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP 2013-Wales v England NEW
[3:00PM] TOP GEAR - Season 19 - Episode 5
[4:00PM] TOP GEAR AFRICA SPECIAL-Season 19 - Part 1
[5:20PM] BANG GOES THE THEORY - Season 4 - Episode 2
[6:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 4 - Ep 18 - Identity Crisis
[7:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 4 - Ep 19 - The Nth Degree
[8:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 4 - Ep 20 - Qpid
[9:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 4 - Ep 21 - The Drumhead
[10:00PM] THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW - Season 12 - Ep 19 - Season 12 Compilation NEW
[11:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 4 - Ep 18 - Identity Crisis
[12:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 4 - Ep 19 - The Nth Degree
[1:00AM] THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW - Season 12 - Ep 19 - Season 12 Compilation
[2:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 4 - Ep 20 - Qpid
[3:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 4 - Ep 21 - The Drumhead
[4:00AM] THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW - Season 12 - Ep 19 - Season 12 Compilation
[5:00AM] THE SCIENCE OF DOCTOR WHO (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills', another 'Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills', followed by the movie 'Juno'.
Comedy Central has the movie 'Dinner For Schmucks', followed by the movie 'I Love, Man'.
FX has the movie 'The Fighter', followed by a FRESH'UFC On FX', then the movie 'Ghost Rider'.
IFC -
[6:00AM] Out There-The Great Escape
[6:30AM] Out There-Springoween
[7:00AM] Out There-Frosty King
[7:30AM] Phantoms
[9:30AM] The Three Stooges-If a Body Meets a Body
[9:55AM] The Three Stooges-Loco Boy Makes Good
[10:20AM] The Three Stooges-Men in Black
[10:45AM] The Three Stooges-Micro-Phonies
[11:10AM] The Three Stooges-Movie Maniacs
[11:35AM] The Three Stooges-Mutts to You
[12:00PM] Out There-The Great Escape
[12:30PM] Out There-Quest for Fantasy
[1:00PM] Out There-A Chris by Any Other Name
[1:30PM] Out There-Springoween
[2:00PM] Out There-Frosty King
[2:30PM] Out There-Quest for Fantasy
[3:00PM] Whitest Kids U'Know
[3:15PM] Exorcismus
[5:30PM] Creepshow
[8:00PM] Scream
[10:30PM] Hostel Part II
[12:30AM] Saw II
[2:30AM] Hostel Part II
[4:30AM] Out There-A Chris by Any Other Name
[5:00AM] Out There-Springoween
[5:30AM] Out There-Frosty King (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00A] MY SO-CALLED LIFE - Self-Esteem (Episode 12, Season 1)
[7:00A] MY SO-CALLED LIFE - Pressure (Episode 13, Season 1)
[8:00A] MY SO-CALLED LIFE - On the Wagon (Episode 14, Season 1)
[9:00A] MY SO-CALLED LIFE - So-Called Angels (Episode 15, Season 1)
[10:00A] MY SO-CALLED LIFE - Resolutions (Episode 16, Season 1)
[11:00A] Career Girls
[12:30P] Away From Her
[2:30P] Career Girls
[4:00P] Away From Her
[6:00P] The Good Thief
[8:00P] Tiny Furniture
[9:45P] Next Floor
[10:00P] Buffalo 66
[12:00A] Sleeping Beauty
[1:45A] Appropriate Adult
[4:15A] The Joy of Singing
[5:55A] Bitch (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines', followed by the movie 'Underworld" Evolution'.
Actress Markie Post arrives at The Hub's "Transformers Prime Beast Hunters" World Premiere Screening Event on Thursday, March 14, 2013 in Universal City, Calf.
Photo by Matt Sayles
A fast-food burrito chain in Albuquerque has become an international tourist attraction as people come from all over the world to see the spot where a fictional drug trafficker runs his organization. A pastry shop sells doughnuts topped with blue candy designed to resemble crystal meth. A beauty store has a similar product - crystal blue bathing salts.
As "Breaking Bad" finishes filming its fifth and final season in Albuquerque, the popularity of the show is providing a boost to the economy and creating a dilemma for local tourism officials as they walk the fine line of profiting from a show that centers around drug trafficking, addiction and violence. "Breaking Bad" follows the fictional character Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher turned meth lord.
Albuquerque has seen an unexpected jump in tourists visiting popular sites from the show and local businesses cashing in on its popularity. Tourists are also flocking to sites that before the show were unknown and unimportant: the suburban home of White, played by Bryan Cranston; a car wash that is a front for a money-laundering operation on the series; a rundown motel used frequently for filming; and the real-life burrito joint, which is a fast food chicken restaurant on the show. The Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau has even created a website of the show's most popular places around town to help tourists navigate, and ABQ Trolley Company sold out all its "BaD" tours last year at $60 a ticket.
Other popular shows over the past decade like "Sex and the City" and "The Sopranos" have generated tours and widespread interest in the filming locations, but "Breaking Bad" has seen a unique twist with drug-themed products that have been springing up around Albuquerque.
Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime, left, actress Sumalee Montano, center, and Frank Welker, the voice of Megatron, pose for a photo at The Hub's "Transformers Prime Beast Hunters" World Premiere Screening Event on Thursday, March 14, 2013 in Universal City, Calf.
Photo by Matt Sayles
A Chinese coin about 600 years old was recently unearthed on an island just off the coast of Kenya. If it proves to be authentic, the coin could show that the Chinese explorer Zheng He - like a Christopher Columbus of the East - came to this part of east Africa.
"This finding is significant. We know Africa has always been connected to the rest of the world, but this coin opens a discussion about the relationship between China and Indian Ocean nations," archaeologist Chapurukha M. Kusimba of The Field Museum in Chicago said in a statement.
The copper and silver disk has a square hole in the center, possibly to be worn on a belt. Kusimba told LiveScience it was found on the first day of excavations at Manda, an island that hugs Kenya's coast about 200 miles (320 kilometers) northeast of Mombasa. A joint expedition, led by Kusimba and Sloan R. Williams of the University of Illinois at Chicago, spent this past December through February studying the site.
The coin was issued from 1403 to 1425, and it bears the name of Emperor Yongle, leader of the Ming Dynasty who started building China's Forbidden City. At that time, Manda was nearing the end of its reign as a trading post. In 1430, the island was abandoned and never inhabited again.
The violin played by the bandmaster of the Titanic as the oceanliner sank has been unearthed, a British auction house said Friday.
Survivors of the Titanic have said they remember the band, led by Wallace Hartley, playing on deck even as passengers boarded lifeboats after the ship hit an iceberg.
Hartley's violin was believed lost in the 1912 disaster, but auctioneers Henry Aldridge & Son say an instrument unearthed in 2006 and has undergone rigorous testing and proven to be Hartley's.
The auction house spent the past seven years and thousands of pounds determining the water-stained violin's origins, consulting numerous experts including government forensic scientists and Oxford University.
In this Wednesday, March 13, 2013 photo, singer Charlotte Church poses for a photo during the SXSW Music Festival, in Austin, Texas. Church has emerged from her basement studio in Wales, a hangout for local songwriters and musicians ,with a wealth of new material she's releasing in America on CD and showcasing at live performances at Austin's South by Southwest Festival and in several other cities, including New York and Los Angeles, where she'll perform at the fabled Troubadour.
Photo by Jack Plunkett
Elton John has canceled a concert set for Friday night in Birmingham.
The British singer and piano player was supposed to perform at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex Arena. Ticketmaster announced the cancellation on its website hours before.
Officials at the arena say medical reasons are being cited for the cancellation, but they don't have details. A news release from the singer's representatives also cited medical reasons.
A photo on the arena's Facebook page shows the singer's piano already was in place and ready for the show.
British police are investigating an estimated 600 new allegations of phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch's now defunct News of the World newspaper, Britain's Guardian newspaper said on Friday.
The news comes at a sensitive time for the British media, with a divisive parliamentary vote on how to regulate Britain's famously aggressive newspapers due to be held on Monday.
Prime Minister David Cameron is pushing for a form of self-regulation, while the opposition and his Liberal Democrat coalition partners want any new regulatory framework to be backed by new legislation.
Citing unnamed sources, the Guardian said new hacking information had been obtained from the phone records of an "insider" who is now being lined up as a prosecution witness, and that more details would emerge in court on Monday.
The Guardian said the same insider behind new allegations of phone hacking at the News of the World also led to the arrests at the Sunday Mirror.
Artist Christo addresses a news conference about his latest work of art 'Big Air Package' during a preview at the Gasometer in Oberhausen March 15, 2013. The indoor installation 'Big Air Package' which was created for the former gas holder, is 90 metres high, with a diameter of 50 metres and a volume of 177,000 cubic metres. The artwork is the largest ever inflated frameless envelope and the largest indoor sculpture ever made. 'Big Air Package' was conceived in 2010 by Christo and is on view from March 16 to December 30, 2013.
Photo by Ina Fassbender
The sign may read "For Sale" outside the sprawling southeast Las Vegas estate that Wayne Newton dubbed "Casa de Shenandoah."
But Newton's wife, Kathleen McCrone Newton, said Friday that even if a bidder snatches up the property at auction May 31, the "Mr. Las Vegas" crooner and his family have no intention of moving out.
"We stay here until we choose to leave. We have that right," Kathleen Newton told The Associated Press. "Even if at some point the property gets sold, it gets sold with us here."
She said a lease with a partnership that purchased the nearly 40-acre property for $19.5 million in June 2010 will let the couple and their 10-year-old daughter stay in the gold-trimmed opulent main house.
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Bruce Markell in Las Vegas is poised during hearings March 29 and April 8 to rule on questions about who owns what.
Craftsmen on a crane put finishing touches on a giant figure ahead of the "Fallas" festival in Valencia March 15, 2013. The festival welcomes spring and honours Saint Joseph's Day with the burning of giant elaborate sculptures and effigies of wood and plastic in the early hours of March 20, 2013.
Photo by Heino Kalis
In some ways "A Landscape of Lies" was a typical indie film, with a tiny budget, a B-list cast and an award from an American film festival.
What made it special is that it was created solely to cover up a huge tax fraud.
Five people in Britain face jail sentences after being convicted this week of attempting to bilk the government of 2.8 million pounds ($4.2 million) in a moviemaking scam reminiscent of Academy Award-winning hit "Argo" - without the heroic hostage rescue.
Prosecutors and tax authorities say the fraudsters claimed to be producing a made-in-Britain movie with unnamed A-list actors and a 19 million-pound budget supplied by a Jordanian firm.
In fact, officials say, the project was a sham, set up to claim almost 1.5 million pounds in goods and services tax for work that had not been done, as well as 1.3 million pounds under a government program that allows filmmakers to claim back up to 25 percent of their expenditure as tax relief.
A Jesuit priest whose kidnapping by the Argentine military junta decades ago led to strong criticism of the newly elected pope said Friday that he and the pontiff have reconciled.
The Rev. Francisco Jalics, who now lives in a monastery in southern Germany, said in a statement that he had talked with the Rev. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who was named Pope Francis on Wednesday, long after the 1976 kidnapping of himself and fellow slum priest Orlando Yorio.
Bergoglio has said he told the priests to give up their slum work for their own safety, and they refused. Yorio, who is now dead, later accused Bergoglio of effectively delivering them to the death squads by declining to publicly endorse their work.
Nobody disputes that Bergoglio, like most other Argentines, failed to openly confront Argentina's 1976-1983 military junta as it kidnapped and killed thousands of people in a so-called "dirty war" to eliminate leftist opponents. But opinions differ on how much responsibility the new pope personally deserves for the Argentine Catholic Church's dark history of supporting the murderous dictatorship.
As the military junta took over in 1976, Bergoglio withdrew his support for the two slum priests, whose activist colleagues in the liberation theology movement were disappearing. The priests were then kidnapped and tortured at the Navy Mechanics School, which the junta used as a clandestine prison.
People walk past traditional Maslenitsa spring festival decorations during a snowstorm in Moscow March 15, 2013. The Russian capital was expecting an unseasonally large snowfall on Friday which local media described as a 50 year weather event.
Photo by Maxim Shemetov
Want to live like Rocky Balboa? The Italian Stallion's house is on the market.
The home in South Philadelphia was featured in the 1979 movie "Rocky II." In the sequel to the Oscar-winning smash, the fictional boxer played by Sylvester Stallone buys the house after he loses a bout to Apollo Creed but gains fame.
The 1,036-square-foot row house has three bedrooms and 1 1/2 bathrooms. Asking price: $139,000.
Real estate agent Joe Bianco says the home is for sale because the woman who lived there since the time of filming recently died.
Jack Greene, a longtime Grand Ole Opry star who earned fame with the hit "There Goes My Everything," has died in Nashville at 83.
The song showed off his deep voice, made him a star and earned him the single of the year and male vocalist of the year awards from the Country Music Association in 1967.
Grand Ole Opry spokeswoman Jessie Schmidt said Friday that Greene died in his sleep Thursday night at home from complications of Alzheimer's disease.
Greene performed regularly on the Grand Ole Opry beginning in 1967.
His other hits, mostly in the late 1960s, included "All the Time," ''Are My Treasure," ''Until My Dreams Come True," ''What Locks the Door" and "Statue of a Fool."
His "There Goes My Everything" even spawned a competing pop version by Englebert Humperdinck.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Greene recorded duet hits with Jeannie Seely including, "Wish I Didn't Have to Miss You."
He was a native of Maryville, Tenn., where he started in radio at WGAP. He was a singer-guitarist who played bass and drums in various groups, then got his break when Country Music Hall of Famer Ernest Tubb hired him to be drummer for his band in the early 1960s.
Relyea started as an MGM crew member in 1955 and served as president of production at MGM-United Artists from 1997 to 2001. He released his autobiography, "Not So Quiet on the Set," in 2008.
He is survived by his wife, Dorothy; five children; two stepchildren and grandchildren.
Photographer Alexander James holds a living Morpho amathonte butterfly during a demonstration of his work at his studio in London March 11, 2013. James creates still life images underwater often using butterflies, both living and dead, as part of the composition. The living butterflies are anaesthetised, and then encouraged into a state of hibernation allowing them to be photographed underwater.
Photo by Luke MacGregor
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How about a favorite TV show, movie, book, play, cartoon, or legal amusement?
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