May 29

Death from laughter

Death may result from several pathologies that deviate from benign laughter.

Infarction of the pons and medulla oblongata in the brain may cause pathological laughter.

Laughter can cause atonia and collapse (“gelastic syncope”), which in turn can cause trauma. See also laughter-induced syncope and Bezold-Jarisch reflex.

Gelastic seizures can be due to focal lesions to the hypothalamus. Depending upon the size of the lesion, the emotional lability may be a sign of an acute condition, and not itself the cause of the fatality. Gelastic syncope has also been associated with the cerebellum.

from  Wikipedia

Category: Humor, Presque vu | LEAVE A COMMENT
May 29

Love Sonnet XI

I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.
Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day
I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.

I hunger for your sleek laugh,
your hands the color of a savage harvest,
hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails,
I want to eat your skin like a whole almond.

I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your lovely body,
the sovereign nose of your arrogant face,
I want to eat the fleeting shade of your lashes,

and I pace around hungry, sniffing the twilight,
hunting for you, for your hot heart,
like a puma in the barrens of Quitratue.

Pablo Neruda

Category: Lovesick, Poetry | LEAVE A COMMENT
April 19

Print
Shakshuka
Author: 
Type: Breakfast lunch or dinner
Prep time: 
Cooking time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4
 
A Middle Eastern Dish
Ingredients
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 2 red or green peppers, chopped
  • 8 fresh plum tomatoes, roughly chopped
  • 2 cans Italian plum tomatoes, San Marzano
  • ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 2 teaspoons paprika
  • 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
  • ½ cup vegetable bouillon
  • 4 large eggs
  • zatar spice mix, for serving
  • 4 pita breads, warmed
Instructions
  1. Place large saute pan over medium heat, add and heat oil.
  2. Add onion and saute until lightly browned.
  3. Add garlic and peppers, and saute 2 minutes more.
  4. Add fresh and canned tomatoes, reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.
  5. Add paprika, salt, pepper etc. Stir for 1 minute.
  6. Add vegetable broth and bring to a full boil.
  7. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, until mixture is very thick and has little liquid left; stir occasionally to make sure vegetables do not stick to bottom of pan, and add more tomato juice or vegetable broth as needed.
  8. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
  9. Gently crack eggs into pan, taking care not to break yolks.
  10. Simmer until whites solidify but yolks remain runny, about 5 minutes.
  11. Put equal portions of vegetables and eggs into 4 serving bowls.
  12. Sprinkle with zatar to taste, and serve with warm pita bread.

 

Category: Uncategorized | LEAVE A COMMENT
February 14

XVII (I do not love you…)

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

Pablo Neruda

Category: Lovesick, Poetry | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 1

Mad Girl’s Love Song

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell’s fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan’s men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you’d return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

Sylvia Plath

Category: Poetry | LEAVE A COMMENT
December 24

Tequila Christmas Cake

Print
Tequila Christmas Cake
Author: 
Type: Christmas
Prep time: 
Cooking time: 
Total time: 
 
Once again this year, I've had requests for my Tequila Christmas Cake recipe so here goes: Please print this and keep in your files as I am beginning to get tired of typing this up every year!
Ingredients
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • lemon juice
  • 4 large eggs
  • nuts
  • 1 bottle tequila
  • 2 cups dried fruit
Instructions
  1. Sample the tequila to check quality.
  2. Take a large bowl; check the tequila again to be sure it is of the highest quality.
  3. Repeat.
  4. Turn on the electric mixer.
  5. Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.
  6. Add 1 teaspoon of sugar.
  7. Beat again.
  8. At this point, it is best to make sure the tequila is still OK.
  9. Try another cup just in case.
  10. Turn off the mixerer thingy.
  11. Break 2 eegs and add to the bowl and chuck iin the cup of dried fruit.
  12. Pick the fruit up off the floor.
  13. Mix on the turner.
  14. If the fried druit getas stuck in the beaterers, just pry it loose with a drewscriver.
  15. Sample the tequila to test for tonsisticity.
  16. Next, sift 2 cups of salt, or something.
  17. Check the tequila.
  18. Now shift the lemon ice strain your nuts.
  19. Add one table.
  20. Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink.
  21. Whatever you can find.
  22. Greash the oven.
  23. Turn the cake tin 360 s and try not to fall over.
  24. Don't forget to beat off the turner.
  25. Finally, throw the bowl through the window.
  26. Finish the tequila and wipe the counter with the cat.
  27. Cherry Mristmas!

 

Category: Humor, Recipes | LEAVE A COMMENT
December 3

Dawn Soup

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Cream of Tomato Soup
Author: 
Type: Soup
Prep time: 
Cooking time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 8
 
This soup is also known as ?afak Çorbas?, which translates to Dawn Soup.
Ingredients
  • 1 dl flour
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 1 liter water or broth
  • 3 medium size tomatoes or 1 can diced tomatoes
  • 2 teaspoons sea salt
  • 1 egg
  • ½ liter milk
  • teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
  1. Brown flour lightly over low heat in melted butter.
  2. Add hot water or broth, stirring thoroughly. Bring to a boil.
  3. Add peeled and sliced tomatoes.
  4. Sprinkle with salt.
  5. Simmer for 30-35 minutes, or until tomatoes are very tender.
  6. Place into a food processor or using a stick blender, process until well blended and creamy.
  7. Bring soup back to a boil and simmer for 1 minute.
  8. In a small bowl, combine well beaten egg and milk, blending well.
  9. Stir egg/milk mixture into soup, adding gradually in a stream and mixing thoroughly.
  10. Boil gently for 1 minute.
  11. Sprinkle with black pepper.

 

Category: Recipes | LEAVE A COMMENT
November 27

Faster, stronger, better

Just Say “No” to Old Age: Leading Expert Says Aging can be Slowed

Just Say NO To Old Age: Professor X isn’t the only one with incredible mental powers: recent research says that you might be even better at brain-boosting, helping heal yourself with the power of a positive attitude – while he can’t even summon up the mental energy to stand.

… in one experiment Langer shut several septuagenarians in a hotel that had been redecorated in mid-eighties style, eliminating all evidence of the last two decades.  Subjects were instructed to act as if they’d really gone all Doctor Who, and after only seven days they were faster, stronger, better than before.  Stronger for seventy-year olds, anyway, and certainly stronger than a control group who didn’t get this amateur time-travel and were basically left to think about how damn old they were.

Dr Langer’s theory is that all the external reminders that “you are old and broken” can convince the brain and body that it must be so.  It’s quite possible – anyone who talks about brain and body as if they were separate items isn’t using either properly, so all kinds of unconscious instructions could affect your health.  There’s no “be healthy!” switch, and this can’t prevent aging (that’s a job for the gene-workers) – but it can slow the clock down.

Category: Exactly! | LEAVE A COMMENT
March 4

Portfolio at last…

Well I have been working on it for a long time, it’s not easy to pick out the right photos from all the thousands I have taken. So it’s some old and some new, and some odd ones just to balance things out.  I had to start somewhere.  Take a look, and enjoy the visit.

Ceiling Lamp

Category: Photography, Uncategorized | LEAVE A COMMENT