Every morning I get up at 5 am and jog. I am perhaps the slowest jogger on the face of the earth. Indeed, but I do enjoy my morning routine.
It’s quiet.
I often see some local cats that hang out in the early morning.
The garbage grannies go trash-can to trash-can as they sort though the cardboard, the glass and bottles, and other rubbish. They quietly sort through the debris.
The street lights are on, and the decorative tree lighting illuminates the shrubbery in spots here and there.
On the sidewalks are the painted and paved jogging surfaces with broad yellow lanes clearly presented. In 50 meter increments are mileage markers. With a “Start” and a “550 meter” markers clearly presented in loud yellow. I generally make two laps on the track, which is a nice 1 km run.
There are two other joggers at that time.
One is a young man in his early 30s. He really jogs fast; even a run. Or a gallop. He doesn’t run on my track. Instead he does so in a much smaller circular path.
The other is an older man. Maybe in his 80s. He jogs even slower than I do. More like a shuffle in a slow motion jog.
Believe it or not, my jogging speed is somewhere between these two.
Scooters are parked everywhere. All of the scooter charging stations are occupied. With the led lit controls all blinking or flashing in reds, oranges, greens or the cool blue displays mounted on the rails in the station.
It is a view that I see every morning.
After my jog I go into my building. Ride the elevator and take my morning shower.
Then change, and drink two cups of warm water before I go make a cup of coffee. (Hydrate first, then enjoy the coffee.)
That’s what I do and how I spend my morning.
I think that all of us have our little routines. This is mine. I do it mindlessly. And thus effortlessly.
Ah. Don’t misunderstand.
As there are times to be “mindful”, there are also times that it pays to be “mindless”. Go on auto-pilot and enough your weight loss in the process.
Today…
My morning jog and what it is like in China at 5 am.
UFO getting Shot Down leak footage
What is the most dangerous thing you’ve ever held in your hands?
A 10-kilo block of military explosives that I almost activated by accident.
It was night, we were on a small forest path in Kosovo and our idea was to put a boobytrap on a path near an enemy position.
We used a tripwire for this and when we had found a good spot, I attached one of its ends to the (hand grenade) detonator of the explosive.
Unfortunately, however, when my buddy tried to attach the other end of the wire to a tree, he pulled a little bit too hard on the wire and I just felt how the pin of the grenade detonator started moving.
With a friend of mine at our guerrilla base preparing explosives. (screenshot from an AP video)
I told him to stop and quickly put both of my hands above the detonator so it couldn’t activate the bomb. My buddy immediately realized what was going on and cut the wire.
We were in a bad situation: I couldn’t just throw the whole thing away as the power of the explosive was far too strong and would have killed us.
The second problem was that the enemy was nearby and we couldn’t afford to make any noise.
The detonator was solidly attached to the explosive with plenty of duct tape and the only way to remove it was to use a knife. We needed to have some light to be able to work on it and therefore, my buddy placed his hands under the explosive and we carefully carried it towards a small hamlet.
We went into a small basement, my friend lit a candle, and then we started neutralizing the device. When my buddy had cut out the detonator, we saw that the pin had been almost completely removed, Maybe one or two millimeters more, and the whole thing would have blown our heads away.
We put the pin back into the detonator and smoked a cigarette. Our job, however, wasn’t finished yet!
We re-attached the detonator to the explosive and went back to the enemy’s position to set up our trap. This time, however, we acted more carefully.
They Said AI Couldn’t Replace Hollywood… Then Kling AI Did THIS
Damn! this is simply amazing.
Preppy Tonk and Jon
Submitted into Contest #24 in response to: Write a story set in the dark recesses of space where the two main characters are often at odds with each other in humorous and comedic ways.… view prompt
Charlie Murphy
”If this was Earth Chess, I’d kick your butt!” Jon exclaimed, wiggling his fat, dripping eyestalks.
“Yeah, but the author doesn’t know how to play chess and that would require research and he’s too lazy.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right, but you’re still a silly.” Jon stuck his slimy purple tongue out.
“Am not!”
“Are too!”
“Am not!”
“Are too!”
“Well, let’s have a trace then.”
“Trace?”
“No, a race! Goddamn u, author. Fix your typos!”
“Yeah, you ready, Enourghipool… er, Preppy Tonk?”
“You know it, Jon!” she said and stretched her furry brown legs.
“Your silver eyes look like pools of mercury.”
“Thanks? I guess?” Crouching down in racing position, Preppy Tonk lifted her leg.
“Did you, make a stinky?”
“Yes, … I… did!”
‘”It smells like rotten eggs.”
Preppy Tonk’s face turned red.
“You made a stinky, you made a stinky!”
“Whatever.”
“Ready…” Jon announced as a star shot through space.
Preppy Tonk’s muscles tensed up.
“Set…”
“I know what comes next!” Preppy Oblanka Tonk smiled.
“Go!” Jon whispered.
“Run!”
“Jump!”
“Kick!”
“Touch the stars!”
“Look into the sun!”
“How? I’m blind.”
“Really?”
“No.”
“Why did you claim you were blind then?”
“Cuz I’m goofy!”
“But you’re not a hobo dog.”
“Goofy isn’t a hobo.”
“Oh , what is he?”
“A goofy dog, duh!”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I know these things,” Preppy Tonk whipped her huge head back with confidence.
“Oh, so you’re a professional now?”
“Yeppers.”
“Good grief!”
“Oxymoron, oxymoron, oxymoron!”
“Hey, that’s not nice!”
“No, an oxymoron is contradictory terms.”
“Oh, why is it called that then?”
“I don’t know. Do I look like an English professor?”
“I’m not sure how to take that…”
The two rivals panted as they ran throughout space. They passed an orange planet, then a blue one made of hot dogs, and finally, Earth.
“Stop describing everything!”
“Who are you talking to, sis?” Jon asked as a drifting robotic Golden retriever passed in between them.
“Our creator again. He keeps describing the scene,” Preppy Tonk replied.
“Isn’t he supposed to do that?”
“Yeah, but it’s getting annoying!”
“So? We’re competing against each other. That’s more important, right?”
“I guess so,” Preppy Tonk said, biting her blue puffy lip.
“Atta girl,” Jon replied and patted her on the back.
“Hey, how can you pat me on my back? I thought you were ahead of me.”
“Uh… I forgot that explanation.”
“Did you?… or did the author forget?”
“I have no cosmic idea, Preppy Tonk.”
“I thought you knew everything.” She raised an eyebrow.
Preppy Tonk glared at her opponent.
“You know, for an alien slug, you sure are fast!”
“Hmm, alien slug…. Where have I heard that before?”
“Maybe in a book about kids who can turn into animals?” shrugged Preppy Tonk.
“Almost at the finish line!” Jon said with glee.
“How can you tell?” Preppy Tonk asked, putting her hairy claws together.
“Checkered line coming up!” Jon pointed straight ahead with his slimy antennae.
“Oh, just cuz there’s a checkered line means the end of the race?” Preppy Tonk said, putting her paws on her brown meaty hips.
“Yes that’s the rule,” Jon said, adjusting his squared glasses.
“Well… OK,” Preppy Tonk said as she scratched her ear.
“Have an itch?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I have an itch, too.”
“Nuh-uh!”
“Yeah-uh!” Jon said, passing a large pink asteroid.
“Well, then, where’s your itch, huh?”
“I don’t want to say.”
“Ew.”
“OK, OK, it’was my arm,” Jon smiled.
“Oh, that’s not bad.”
“It itches more than yours,” Jon said, scratching his arm.
“Nuh-uh, mine itches more.”
“Let’s finish the race!” Preppy Tonk exclaimed.
Jon ran through a hoop, jumped over the fence, and hauled through lava.
“I win! I win!” Preppy Tonk did the macarena.
“You cheated.” Jon pouted.
“No, I didn’t!
“Yes, you did!”
“No, I didn’t.”
“OK, I believe you,” Jon said.
“Knock knock,” Preppy Tonk whispered.
“Who’s there?” Jon asked.
“Dwayne.”
“Dwayne who?”
“Dwayne the bathtub, I’m dwowning!”
Jon laughed like a hyena. “Mine’s better!”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah, a duck walked into a bar and ordered some quackers. When the waiter asks her how she will pay, the duck says ‘put it on my bill.’”
“Not funny at all, my rival.”
“Humor is subjective, so I win!” Jon blew a raspberry at her.
“How old are you?” asked Poppy Tonk.
“I am an adult.”
“Cool, I’m a kid.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes, really!”
“Prove it.”
“How?”
“Sing baa baa black sheep.” Preppy Tonk started singing.
“You have a beautiful voice!”
“And?”
“And what?”
“AREN’T YOU GONNA SING?”
“No, why would I do that?”
“I thought we were competing,” Preppy Tonk said and sneezed.
“Oh, yeah, goofy me. I forgot. By the way. Bless you or gazoontite, or whatever.”
“Thanks, wait… Goofy?”
“The author‘s getting tired of ‘silly’.”
“But, he used it.”
Preppy Tonk shrugged. “It’s his story.”
“Oh, OK.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I like that word very much!”
“I do too, but let’s move on.”
“Alright, wanna have a tickle fight?”
“You know I do!”
She tickled his foot. “Geetsa-geetsa… Hey, look, a tree; it’s floating in space,” Preppy Tonk said and floated to it and she giggled. “Stop.” Grabbed an apple. “This will knock your socks off!” She started juggling.
“Oh yeah?” Jon said as he cocked an eyebrow. “Watch this!” He grabbed the tree and shook it until every apple detached and floated into space.
“Impressive?”
“Thank you. I’m the King.”
“King of what?”
“King of Apple!”
“Yeah, right.”
“No, really.”
“Well, I‘m the Queen of Blueberry Squash Pie.”
“Nuh-uh.”
“Wanna keep going?”
“Nope.”
“Why not?”
“We made it to the thousandth word!”
Western Enchilada Lasagna
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 1 (16 ounce) can enchilada sauce
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 pound Cheddar cheese, grated
- 1 pound Monterey Jack cheese, grated (optional)
- 1 cup oil
- 2 packages corn tortillas
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
Instructions
- Brown ground beef with onion and spices, drain and set aside.
- Warm enchilada sauce, adding 1 cup of cheeses for flavor.
- Heat oil in small saucepan. Dip tortilla into hot oil long enough to soften. Layer six across on bottom of pan.
- Layer bottom of pan with tortillas, cover with meat, cheese, enchilada sauce and repeat three times.
- Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 30 to 40 minutes.
The Things China🇨🇳 Does Better Than Denmark | My Thoughts After 1 Year in China
After little over a year in China, here are the things I simply think China does better than Denmark. From healthcare and policing to politicians being held accountable.
The daily Shorpy
After Smearing China, the U.S. UN Ambassador Fled Away
Anyone been embarrassed by a friends mom at a sleepover?
When I was young, my mom was “the cool mom”. Every kid in the neighborhood was over our house every day after school. We tore up the back yard doing every imaginable kid disaster you can think of. And when we were worn out, she called us in for tea and cookies and every kid crowded around the table while she served us tea and hermits or oatmeal cookies.
When I was an adolescent, we would climb Blue Hills at 4:30am to watch the sun rise on Easter and sing the glory of God and scream out, at the top our lungs, “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad!” (Ps 118;22) My mother had done it all her life, and now I do it too. But every fucking kid in the neighborhood would sleep in our house, everywhere, the night before, in their Snoopy sleeping bags, on the couch, on the floor – everywhere. And then we would cram into my aunt’s ancient Chevy Nova with no rear windshield and blue smoke pouring out the exhaust and Pepsi, the German Shepherd with his head out the window and off to Blue Hills in the pitch dark we went, still groggy with sleep. And when we got back, there was pounds of bacon sizzling, mountains of scrambled eggs and pancakes and a shitload of toast. We were pretty poor, but no kid ever went hungry at 6:30am on Easter Morning. No parent ever worried about their children when they were with “Mrs Bazzinotti”. She was the gold standard in safety and propriety.
We actually started a tradition. It became so popular with the high school kids that the number of kids grew so large, the local Catholic church usurped our tradition and bussed the congregation to the top and held a Mass service with candles and communion. They literally ruined our Easter tradition, first by eliminating the need to climb – and we always climbed – and by formalizing the rising of the sun (Son). But we traditionalists still hiked the “mountain” at 4:30 in the frigid cold on Easter and sang the Hallelujah Chorus as the sun broke over the horizon. Sixty years or more I have been doing this.
And I was proud of my mom every single time. She was a magician. She climbed up and down and then made breakfast.
There were LOTS of things that embarrassed me about my mom as a teen – but that wasn’t one of them. When my mother died in 2012, the Park Service let us put a stone bench on the top, right where she stood, with her name and that passage from Psalms engraved on it. On Easter morning, we greet our mom, stand on the bench and watch the sun come up.
KJ Noh | South Korean President Planned Disappearing Opponents After Martial Law Decree
Tortilla Lasagna
Ingredients
- 2 pounds lean ground beef
- 1 large sweet onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
- 12 corn tortillas
- 1 (16 ounce) container cottage or ricotta cheese
- 1 cup Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
- 2 cups lettuce shredded
- 2 fresh tomatoes, diced
- 1 cup black olives, sliced
- 1 cup Cheddar cheese, shredded
Instructions
- Brown ground beef in a large skillet with onion and garlic.
- Add cumin, red pepper, cayenne pepper and diced tomatoes and cook over low-medium heat for several minutes. Remove from heat.
- Place 6 of the corn tortillas and the bottom of a lightly greased 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking dish and spread meat mixture evenly over tortillas. Top with remaining tortillas.
- Combine ricotta and Monterey Jack cheeses and mix well.
- Spread cheeses over tortillas and bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.
- Remove from oven and top with lettuce, tomatoes, black olives and Cheddar cheese.
- Slice and serve.
Bioluminescence in the Interstellar
Submitted into Contest #24 in response to: Write a story set in the dark recesses of space where the two main characters are often at odds with each other in humorous and comedic ways.… view prompt
Brittany Gillen
“Charlie!”
Seriously, Jerrie thought. There are only four compartments in this capsule. She knew that Charlie could hear her, and she knew it only took about two seconds to cross them all and join her. Jerrie drummed her fingers on her keyboard and closing her eyes slowly counted to ten.
Finally, Charlie’s hair floated around the corner. Charlie’s long hair preceded her everywhere she went. To keep it somewhat contained, Charlie kept it pulled back in about a dozen long braids, but in zero gravity, the braids wriggled all over like a clutch of very excited snakes. It totally creeped Jerrie out and created a horrible distraction.
“I thought we agreed you were going to pin back all your braids from now on,” Jerrie said grimacing.
Charlie just shrugged and chugged the last of the soda in her hand, tossing the empty container back towards the supply room. Jerrie cringed again. Charlie drank soda like it was her lifeblood. She went through at least a dozen packets a day of the syrupy drink.
“Charlie, the container,” Jerrie said.
“What?” Charlie said with a shrug. “I’ll get it later. What do you want?”
“You can’t just toss things all over the capsule,” Jerrie complained. “This isn’t your childhood bedroom.”
“Or my college dorm room, or a bachelor pad, or a trash yard. I know,” Charlie replied rolling her eyes. “Just tell me what you want already. I’m not in the mood for another lecture on cleanliness being next to godliness.”
Jerrie took a deep breath and centered herself. “My readings are unusual today,” she said calmly, pulling them up on the screen.
“Uh, huh,” Charlie said looking at the monitor while scratching her tummy vigorously. “In what way?”
“In what way?” Jerrie wanted to scream even louder than the readings. “Charlie, you just don’t understand my work at all.”
“Then what did you call me in here for?” Charlie complained. “My job is not to interpret your results. I’m your pilot. Now, if you want me to move the capsule, I would LOVE to do it for you. Can I, can I, please?”
“No,” Jerrie groaned, rubbing her eyes.
“Just a few feet?” Charlie tried sweetly, rubbing the back of Jerrie’s shoulders. “Maybe I’ll just do a few donuts and bring us right back to the exact same spot. Churn up the space matter a little. Maybe that will fix your readings.”
Jerrie just sighed, tired of arguing.
A timer started quietly beeping. “I’ll get the lights,” Charlie said, pushing off Jerrie’s shoulders towards the opposite wall.
“Give me two seconds, to prep the sensors and save the previous measurements.” Jerrie’s hands flew across the computer.
“Is it hot in here?” she heard Charlie ask. Jerrie just ignored her until Charlie’s shirt floated in front of her face.
“Charlie, what are you…” She turned around to find Charlie almost completely undressed. Her black bra, “Wednesday” day-of-the-week underpants and Velcro shoes her only attire. “Seriously! Can you put your clothes back on? It makes me uncomfortable.”
“Yeah, well, being hot makes me more uncomfortable,” Charlie said, continuing to scratch her bare chest. “Besides, I’m in the best shape of my life, someone should enjoy the view.”
Jerrie groaned.
“I think I may be running a fever,” Charlie complained. “My eyes feel hot.”
“Don’t you dare take off any more clothes,” Jerrie warned keeping her eyes permanently fixed on her monitor. “Alright, I’m ready. Shut off the lights in three, two, one.”
The capsule went dark and Jerrie hit the button to begin the image and measurement captures. Then Jerrie noticed a reflection on her monitor.
“Darn it, Charlie, turn off that flashlight.” Jerrie turned around ready to jettison Charlie out the nearest porthole, but then jerked herself back towards the console in fright. “What did you do?”
Charlie, her eyes bulging, floated in front of Jerrie, running her fingers all over her brightly lit torso. Vibrant green veins crisscrossed Charlie’s entire body. They glowed with a bioluminescence that Jerrie had never seen on a human before. It reminded her of the small deep-water fish she had visited at the aquarium in her childhood.
Recovering from her initial shock, Jerrie floated closer and traced one of the lines with her finger. “How are you glowing like that?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” Charlie responded, flicking Jerrie’s cold hand of her belly and shivering.
“Well, you did something,” Jerrie told her.
“Why, do you always assume everything is my fault?” Charlie complained, reaching for her pants and pouting her lip.
“Because, I don’t look like that!” Jerrie said pointing.
“How do you know?” Charlie said wriggling her pants up over her bottom. “Prove it.”
Unable to resist proving Charlie wrong, Jerry quickly pulled up her own shirt. Then she smugly smiled at Charlie. “See.”
“That still doesn’t prove it’s my fault,” Charlie said reaching for her shirt.
“Just let me think for a minute,” Jerrie said, rubbing her temples and staring at the green glow emanating from Charlie’s chest. She reached forward to touch it again, but Charlie twitched away. “I’ll be gentle,” Jerrie told her and leaned in even closer. Jerrie could have sworn the veins moved across Charlie like worms in a mud puddle.
Pulling back, Jerrie took a deep breath and pulled at her lip as Charlie put her shirt back on. Then something caught her eye in the eerie glow. Charlie’s soda floated nearby. Jerrie wanted to mention again why it was important to not throw trash helter-skelter in the capsule when she noticed a drop float out of the neck of the container. It also glowed a luminescent green. Jerrie looked at Charlie and noticed that she had seen the droplet as well.
“You don’t think…” Charlie began.
“This was caused by your soda,” Jerrie finished. “The evidence points that way.”
“But you drink the soda too.”
“No, actually, I don’t,” Jerrie said turning back to her monitor and cancelling the contaminated readings.
“What do I do?” Charlie asked beginning to panic.
“Stop drinking the soda,” Jerrie said, deleting the files and making notes in her journal.
“Jerrie, focus here for just a second, please,” Charlie pleaded. “I look like a glow bug!”
“You’ll be fine,” Jerrie threw over her shoulder, bending her head down and trying not to laugh.
“I’m not fine,” Charlie complained. “I itch. I feel like my skin is going to burn off me, and I’m lit like a neon sign.”
Jerrie shook of her giggles and turned around attempting to be solemn. Charlie was scratching all over now and writhing like she had ants in her pants. It was more than Jerrie could take. She burst out laughing.
“Stop it,” Charlie complained. “it’s not funny.”
Eventually, Jerrie calmed down enough to help Charlie rub olive oil lotion on her itchy skin and got her some cold compresses to help with the heat. With Charlie’s permission, she took pictures of the “rash” as they started calling it, though Charlie wanted to call it the infestation.
“Nothing is living inside you,” Jerrie reassured her.
“Then I’ve been poisoned. You’ve poisoned me!” Charlie cried, thrusting out an accusatory finger.
“You poisoned yourself,” Jerrie said with a snicker. “I told you not to drink so much of that candy-water.”
“Hey, it keeps me awake,” Charlie said petulantly. “Otherwise, I’d spend all day sleeping.”
“Would that be so bad?” Jerrie whispered to herself.
“I heard that,” Charlie said glowering. “I wish I could go into cryo sleep while you did your work, but someone has to keep you company.” Charlie made air quotes with her fingers on the word company.
Jerrie sighed. She knew she wasn’t very good company for Charlie. Her entire focus was on her research. She had one shot to gather meaningful data before they traveled back to the main station. She wanted to make her time in the interstellar medium count for something.
“I’m sorry,” Jerrie said. “I tried to teach you about my work.”
“It is as interesting as watching paint dry,” Charlie grumbled.
Jerrie felt hurt, but she knew to most people Charlie was right on target. “You could read a book, watch a movie, exercise,” she offered.
“This is my sixteenth mission,” Charlie told her. “I exhausted my interest in all those things long ago.”
Jerrie had never really thought about Charlie’s past experience before. “Sixteen, really?”
“Lucky number sixteen,” Charlie said, rummaging through the snack box. “And no one ever lets me move the ship,” she grumbled while shoving a granola bar in her mouth.
“Never?” Jerrie asked feeling guilty.
“Never,” Charlie replied emphatically.
The two floated in the galley in silence. Charlie chewed on her granola bar and read the wrapper and Jerrie twisted her ring while biting her lip. She felt horrible. To be honest, there wasn’t any solid reason why they couldn’t move the ship. Sure, it would be more consistent to take all the readings from the same spot to minimize any undesired variables. However, she already had two months of solid data without one single deviation in readings. Not one deviation until this morning.
“Maybe a change in location wouldn’t hurt,” Jerrie offered.
Charlie’s eyes lit up a bright as her bioluminescent belly. “You mean it?”
“Yeah,” Jerrie said with a shrug. “We could move the ship every day for the last thirty days and see if the readings from multiple locations are consistent with those we have already obtained. If they are, then it would mean…”
“You are the best!” Charlie squealed while bear hugging Jerrie until she couldn’t breathe.
Jerrie just patted her on the back. “I know.”
Charlie threw her granola bar wrapper over her shoulder and swam for the control center.
Jerrie grabbed the wrapper and shoved it into a trash receptacle. “But only on one condition,” she called out, following Charlie and settling into the passenger seat.
“Anything,” Charlie said.
“No more of that wickedly green soda,” Jerrie told her.
“Deal,” Charlie said quickly. “I guess they don’t call it Aberration for nothing!” she said with a wink.
“Do they really call it that?” Jerrie asked wide eyed.
Charlie just winked at her.
For the next week, Charlie moved the ship every morning, and Jerrie waited patiently while Charlie added a few flips and donuts to the maneuvers. Charlie’s fluorescent color had faded overnight with the administration of several large glasses of water. Jerrie’s readings returned to the predictable, and she cheerfully noted that the change in location was having zero effect on her results.
Until day five.
“Charlie!” Jerrie called from her lab.
Charlie’s snake-like hair proceeded her around the corner again, but this time Jerrie kept her commentary to herself. When the rest of Charlie appeared, she had a puzzle cube in hand, something Jerrie had dug out of her personal luggage.
“I’ve almost got it,” Charlie said focused on the cube with one eye closed and biting her lip.
“You’ve started drinking that Aberration stuff again, haven’t you,” Jerrie accused her.
“No, I haven’t,” Charlie said looking wounded.
“Charlie,” Jerrie said sternly. “It messes up my readings.”
“Honest, I haven’t. Look.” Charlie threw the light switch and tugged up her shirt. To her surprise, her belly glowed again with a bright red luminescence. Although startled by the color, Jerrie still gave Charlie her best I told-you-so-look.
“Oh, man,” Charlie said groaning and pulling her shirt back down. “It must be the Tongue of Fire.”
“What fire?” Jerrie asked scrambling back in fear. “Something caught fire!”
Charlie cringed guiltily. “You told me not to drink Aberration, but water is just so blah.”
“So, you drank something called Tongue of Fire!” Jerrie said astounded. “I take it that it is a red color.”
“I wonder what color I would turn if I drank Void?” Charlie wondered, tracing the bright red highways along her arms.
“Charlie!” Jerrie said shocked.
“What?”
Jerrie was silently fuming. Her research was being messed with again, and Charlie did not even care. Just stab her with a needle and put her in cryo sleep, Jerrie thought to herself. She could feel every muscle in her body tightening.
“I also brought Everest,” Charlie mused. “Would that light me up white or have no effect, do you think?”
Jerrie’s eye began to twitch, and her hands fisted as she contemplated how to handle her reluctant companion.
“Hey,” Charlie said enthusiastically. “I just found something to do. I can study the effect that different sodas have on body chemistry in the interstellar medium. I mean, seriously, there is definitely something interesting going on here. I have never turned colors before back in the Milky Way, and I’ve been guzzling soda for years.”
At the word study, all of Jerrie’s tension melted away. Charlie was right. There was a seriously interesting phenomenon happening right in front of her eyes, and she was missing it. PAH molecules might help her understand the creation of the universe, but the implications from studying dietary consumption in the interstellar medium would be much more applicable to the progress of humankind in space.
“I bet we could get a huge grant to study it,” Jerrie said warming up to the idea.
“A grant, really?” Charlie asked.
“And, while we studied, you could move the ship anywhere you wanted and explore anywhere you wanted in the interstellar medium,” Jerrie said with a huge grin.
“There are plenty of other flavors like Fireball and Formidable,” Charlie said tossing the forgotten puzzle cube over her shoulder. “I could make a list. Ooooh, don’t forget Ebony. I wonder what that would do!”
“Only one way to find out,” Jerrie told her. As Charlie scrambled back into the supply room, Jerrie turned the lights back on and pulled up a clean notebook on her screen.
She’d contact the soda company first. It was a pretty good bet they’d love the publicity and increase in revenue a glow-soda would create. Proposal, she typed. Bioluminescence in the Interstellar. Who could resist a title like that?
Math Genius Explains Why Men Don’t Want Marriage Anymore
What are some popular street foods in France?
Let’s define street food first.
- You buy it from street stands, market stalls or stores like charuteries, boucheries, patisseries, traiteurs etc.
- You eat it on the street, while standing, without a real plate and real cutlery. A paper tray or a disposable wooden fork does not count. You might sit down on a bench or you might use a bar table.
- It is inexpensive.
- I do not include plain bread, breakfast items, sweets and desserts.
Then, let’s see.
Sandwich, very popular all over France. Pronunciation is different
Pan bagnat, a specialty of Nice. Kind of sandwich, filled with salad
Pissaladière, another specialty from Nice. A kind of pizza with onions, anchovis, olives
Tielle, a savory pie from Sète, often filled with seafood
Tarte a l’oignon (onion pie), a specialty from Alsace
Quiche lorraine, another pie with eggs and bacon
Friand, pastry filled with meat or cheese
Merguez frites, a sandwich filled with Moroccan beef/lamb sausages, French fries and hot sauce. Can be messy to eat.
Crèpes with savory or sweet fillings
Oysters. Yes, they are eaten as street food, especially in the North.
I am sure if this still counts as street food, but moules frites are very popular for celebrations and gatherings
Paté en croute, not exactly street food, but can be bought at charcuteries and eaten with fingers
Then, of course, there is falafel, hamburgers, döner kebab, shawarma, pizza, sushi and other ethnic food which is available everywhere else.