Be Good...

...till I get back. I'm away until July 1st. I'm cooking up two series of posts -- one on food and the other on sports, so if you see anything interesting, let me know. Send me a link to the article. You can use either kmccabe@mtlakes.org or ktlmccabe@optonline.net.

I hope you're having fun!! See you soon!!

--Mrs. McCabe

Summertime!!

Summer- time, and the livin' is easy.

I hope you all enjoyed your last day of school!!

Esperanza, pictured here, is still paying us back, but her besitos are almost exactly like the kisses cookies I made for you this year. Here's the recipe:

4 egg whites
Beat to stiff peaks
Gradually add 1 1/4 Cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 12-ounce bag of chocolate chips

Drop by teaspoonful on brown paper bags that cover cookie sheet.

Bake at 325 for 15-18 minutes. Watch carefully!!

Those are the exact directions from my family recipe. My mom says the recipe came from a neighbor back in the late 60s. I'm sure you could update the directions somehow, but these work for me.

Oh, one other thing... I included on the CD a song from Orchestra Baobob. They are a band from Senegal, and they'll be playing next Wednesday night at Rockefeller Park in lower Manhattan. The details are at River to River Festival. I've seen some of their live stuff, and it's incredible. The studio CD doesn't quite capture the real sound. If you go, have a great time! Maybe I'll see you there!

Happy Birthday, Nelson Mandela!!

Since I'm on the mailing list for Vusi Mahlasela, I got this email today announcing a concert for Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday. It should be something to watch. Tons of people are scheduled to perform, and I'm sure more will sign on by June 27th. I'll have to see if it's televised around here. If not, it's probably going to be online.

Census Maps

On the Brian Lehrer show on NPR today, one of the segments was about the census maps of New York City. Scroll down his website to get to the spot where you can click on the slideshow and find several different maps with information about the city. The map on the right shows the dominant ancestry identified by the people in different regions of the city. Pretty cool, huh?

Plus, there's a program this summer in the city where the government is going to shut down major streets and only allow pedestrian and bike traffic. On August 9th, 16th, and 23rd, from 7am to 1pm, the government will close a route from the Brooklyn Bridge to 72nd and 5th Avenue. How cool is that?? How much fun would it be to ride your bike down the middle of Park Avenue??

Also, there's a bunch of free stuff to do in the city. Check out the website for the River to River festival. Highlights include Terence Blanchard playing Castle Clinton on August 7th. Wow!!

Germans in Namibia

Today's New York Times has an article about the German influence in Namibia. The article is in the travel section, and the author has basically recreated the major steps in Namibian colonial history. One quote from the article states that "millions of carats" of diamonds were mined during the German colonization of Namibia. I wonder if the Namibians were paid a fair price for those gems.

It turns out that the Germans didn't have Namibia for very long -- they lost the colony to the British rulers of South Africa, but the Germans who went to Namibia have been pretty determined to keep their heritage alive. That makes for some touchy moments, though, as the Germans killed 80,000 Herero men, women, and children in Hamakari in 1904 by surrounding them and firing on them with machine guns.

((The Germans, apparently, consider their actions to be no worse than the British actions in other parts of the world. However, critics point to the Hamakari massacre as a precursor to the Holocaust. That might make for an interesting lesson next year -- which European power was the worst colonial ruler in Africa? My money is on King Leopold. What do you think?))

Olympics Mascots

The BBC Magazine has a piece about Olympic mascots which includes an opportunity for you to create your own suggestion for the 2012 Olympics in England. There's also a review of the worst Olympic mascots in recent memory as well as an explanation of why the Olympics even has a mascot (here's a hint: $$$).

The mascots for the Beijing Olympics, pictured above, are Beibei the fish, Jingjing the panda, Huanhuan the Olympic flame, Yingying the antelope, and Nini the swallow. You knew that, right?

World's Religions

My dad sent me this flash movie about the world's religions. I'm curious to see what you think of it. It basically shows a video timeline of the spread of the world's religions, along with some of the key battles between them. My father's comment what that it doesn't show fighting either within Christianity or within Islam. My comment is that it's overly simplistic, leaving out any number of religious traditions. But, I guess it is just a map of the "organized religions." So... what do you think?

I also went to the website mapsofwar.com. There are some other flash movies there, about the spread of democracy and imperialism in the Middle East, for example, and which American political party was in charge during which American engagements overseas. I learned a few things that were surprising. There was a 19th century expedition to Korea? Wha??

Enjoy!