5.0 megapixels of salty goodness

This post is a mish-mash of unrelated stuff.

Excuse me? Excuse me, señor? May I speak to you please? I asked for a mai tai, and they brought me a piña colada. And I said no salt, NO salt on the margarita, but it had salt on it, big grains of salt, floating in the glass…

…And yes, I won't be leaving a tip, 'cause I could… I could shut this place down. Sir? I'll take my traveler's checks to a competing resort. I could write a letter to your nation's board of tourism and I could have this place condemned. I could put… I could put… strychnine in the guacamole. There was salt on the glass, BIG GRAINS of salt.

(Cookie for the reference.)

These, on the other hand, REQUIRE salt, and are the best part of autumn fairs here in New England.

If they were available year round, I'd probably try to eat myself to death on them. Nom nom nom.

I found this quiz, via Justin via Maria.

I haven't read the Bible in… ten years? But I can still quote large passages.

The ones that gave me trouble were:

1. Which saying of Jesus was not made from the cross?
2. Which was created on the fourth day?
3. Who were Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar?

#2 is the sun, moon, and stars, which is counterintuitive because the opening passage of the Torah contains "Let there be light." which most educated folks would think means the heavenly bodies. Evening and morning fell, and was the first day. In a heliocentric frame of reference, this means the sun, otherwise there is no "day". Unless you take this passage to be metaphorical, of course.

For #3, my first thought was the names of the three wise men. Then I remembered that they were Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar — except that they're not named in the traditional Christian Bible, contrary to popular belief. The Gospel According to Matthew doesn't dwell on them much, and Luke doesn't mention them at all. Their names were decided in the 8th Century, are handed down to us through Excerpta Latina Barbari which is itself a translation of an older Greek manuscript. They are not part of traditional Biblical Canon. (Incidentally, if any magi ever did visit Jesus, he'd probably have been walking and probably talking by the time they arrived — not lying in a manger.)

So therefore they must have been associates of Job, and probably descendants of Esau. (One of Esau's sons was named Eliphaz, and the self-referencing timeline in the Torah is probably about right for these two people to be one and the same.)

Regardless of your religious leanings, Judeo-Christian faith and its history is utterly fascinating, in part due to its huge influence on on western culture over the centuries. Personally, I am agnostic, but was raised as a hardcore fundamentalist Christian. (Yes, one of those.) This link is pretty much spot on regarding my religious feelings, or lack thereof, though my feelings on beauty and harmony do not align with Russell's precisely.

[tags]French fries[/tags]