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Blog buddy John Pangia has just been interviewed by the Star Ledger, the largest newspaper printed in the state of New Jersey.
I’ve been hooked on Sid in the City ever since I came across one of John’s fab graphics while I was looking for a good image for my ‘poison popcorn!’ post.
Do read the Star Ledger interview and then stop over and check out what Sid has been up to . . . it’s quite fun and funny stuff. 
Seriously CUTE. . .
~ found at Max’s via Irregular Bones who I found via nursemyra … phew! ~
Nothing like being sick in bed to justify wandering around the blogosphere all morning.
The question “where is this Canada place?” reminded me of this video that Mudhooks sent to me on Facebook the other day . . .
‘Shut up’ Chavez is ringtone hit
The king of Spain’s recent undiplomatic outburst at the Venezuelan president has become a ringtone hit across Spain.
What’s the weirdest ringtone you’ve ever heard?
How the EU saves, and kills, the lynx
So maybe Europe is giving money for preserving the lynx - it’s given 26m euros (£18m) - but the agricultural funds give money that helps destroy the lynx’s habitat.
The same institution is protecting and destroying habitat at the same time.
Fuck golf courses and fuck fake-tasting strawberries … there isn’t enough water here. And how awful it would be to see such a gorgeous creature become extinct. Yes, the dunes are spreading, but the water that exists at the moment could be put to better use.
Doñana Park is about an hour’s drive from where I live. I know a couple of people who work there - biologists mostly working with rabbits, birds and bats. But the lynx is the symbol of Doñana and I guess, being a cat person myself, their plight moves me. But not just me. A few years ago a student of mine (mid-twenties, well-educated) came up for his class and could barely speak when he came into the room. His face was all red, he was actually sputtering! I asked him what was wrong and after he sat down and had a drink of water he told me … “You know your neighbour on the first floor? Her door was open when I walked past just now and I saw she had a lynx pelt nailed to the entrance wall!”
It was actually a traumatic experience for him. I’ve since seen it myself. But these neighbours are disgusting people on so many levels that nailing the skin of an endangered species to their wall is actually not terribly surprising to me.
I’m certainly no big-time environmental activist, but fuck man - golf courses in Andalucía??? One golf course uses more water in a day than a village of 10,000 people. And tasteless strawberries that are sold for export … huh? Nice to see the world has its priorities straight, as usual.
The mind reels . . .
The latest television series addiction at casa az. 
But before we go any further … no spoilers please! Nog and I are about half-way through season two at the moment.
What I was mainly curious about was what US citizens think of it - though all opinions are welcome, of course. I know it won tons of Emmys, mostly for the writing (which I think is fabulous), but how did people feel about seeing the president and government presented in that way? I mean, having an intelligent, caring and principled president and a support staff that seemed to know their elbows from their arseholes. Too pie in the sky, as in … it ain’t never gonna happen? Or what?
Whadda bunch of spoil sports!
I can’t tell you how many times a perfectly normal evening out for a couple of tapas has turned into a total knee-slapping giggle fest when some well-meaning waiter provides us with a menu in English. I half suspect they do these wonky translations on purpose, but it’s great fun and always adds to our enjoyment. But apparently the Chinese think differently …
China dishes up menu translations
China is taking action on the English translations of its restaurant menus in its campaign to brush up the country’s image for next year’s Olympics.
The Beijing Tourism Bureau has released a list of 2,753 dishes and drinks it thinks could do with a wording rethink.
Translations such as “virgin chicken” for a young chicken dish and “burnt lion’s head” for pork meatballs are confusing for foreigners, it says.
This is so totally wrong!!! In fact, people would end up ordering all those weirdly named things just so they could tell people ‘back home’ that they’d tried them. And anyhow, there is something rather charming about not being overly slick and being seen as having taken a stab at writing an English menu but not giving it too much importance. Because the important thing should be the food and the ‘ambientation’ (one of my favourite Spanglish words, found on a humourously mistranslated sign).
I feel quite sorry for all those visitors who are going to miss out on this simple pleasure by receiving only government approved menus.
You can click on the Belching 
menu to get a better look at it.
An Iraqi girl walks past glass shattered during overnight clashes
between US forces and militants in Baghdad.
Sadly, a new photo for bombs away…
From today’s BBC News
. . . a few of my favourite posts
Just click on the thumbnails to check them out
They can also been found on the sidebar 
Welcome to casa az, which is somewhere in that postcard view of Sevilla below.
click on the sun to read a random post
