Ahoy -- random thoughts ahead! (you’ve been warned) *smile*

So if you can't find Baking Soda, how do you bake? It's easy to find baking powder, but that's not what my recipes call for. Even in the Western-style supermarket, I can't find baking soda...

Thoughts? Ways to improvise? A no-prize will be given for all correct/useful answers received.

Speaking of prizes...

I came to a realization today. Quiz programs aren’t very effective or entertaining when there aren’t any prizes involved and every caller gets the answer right on the first guess. *smirk*

How did I come to this realization? Well, after my Arabic lesson today, I stopped by the office to relax and I turned on the TV. On NileTV (the sometimes English-language Egyptian network), they were showing a program called “Cinema Quiz”. They would show 10 minutes of an Egyptian b&w movie from the 40s or 50s and then go to a young, attractive Egyptian woman in the studio who would read a question and ask people to call in with the answer. Then, they’d go back to the movie for 10 minutes, and return to her and have a caller guess.

Note the word “guess”. Of the 4 questions/answers I heard, the caller was blindly guessing each time and freely admitted that they didn’t know anything about the movies and the director they were discussing. Add in several “hello, are you there” moments with the hostess talking to a disconnected phoneline and you get to a weird program. Well, at least to Western eyes. When the correct guess was given, it was followed by a "great, please call us again" by the hostes. Couldn't they at least send them a box of tea or something??? *grin*

On the plus side, the movie was quite funny and had English subtitles so I could check to see what I was understanding. The plot involved a rich man with a wife, but also a mistress. Of course, both women end up in the same place and the same time, so he has to convince his trusted (if incompetent) friend to pretend that he is married to the mistress.

Silliness ensues…

Yes, that plot appears to go across cultures. I was reminded of Jerry Lewis for some reason.

-----Odd News story for the week:

Story about a NY Times writer who included inaccuracies and lies in recent stories to intentionally get fired:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast/05/21/blair.ap/index.html

That’s enough for now.

Tomorrow’s topic: music – stay tuned!