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A mostrar mensagens de julho, 2005

julho 29, 2005

No Laughing Matter Educated as an engineer, Klava was working as a manicurist to pay the bills while she waited for permission to leave Brezhnev's Soviet Union. She was tending to her customers' fingernails one day when a longtime client sauntered in and tried to move to the head of the line. Klava explained that she would have to wait like everyone else, and while she waited, Klava and her customers swapped political wisecracks subverting popular Party slogans: "When we say Lenin, we mean Party," they said. "When we say Party, we mean Lenin. And this is how we deal with everything. We say one thing, we mean something else." After Klava had finished with her other customers, the unscheduled client told a joke of her own: "There was a competition for the best joke about Lenin. And the first prize is 10 years to where Lenin used to go," meaning jail or exile. The client, it turned out, was a KGB agent. "If I did not value you as my ma...

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julho 26, 2005

1. The drought in Spain is predicted to reduce the olive harvest there by as much as 30%, prompting dealers of extra virgin oil to raise their prices. Spain is one of the world's largest producers of olive oil, supplying a third of the world's supply to more than 100 countries. 2. The olive tree has a revered place in Ancient Greek mythology - the goddess Athena was believed to have created the first tree during her battle with Poseidon , god of the sea, for the city of Attica. Up on the Acropolis , it was decided that the one who gave the city the finest gift should become its patron. Poseidon struck the ground with his trident to create a spring, and Athena planted an olive tree . While the water in Poseidon's spring was salty, and therefore of little value, Athena's olive tree provided the people with food, oil and wood. The city was renamed Athens. 3. Olive oils are graded and judged according to their level of acidity. Extra virgin olive oil is the produ...