h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It certainly seems to be that the more often I hit that update button, the more likely I am to encounter the problem. But even you, Dmitri, must press the update button.

I've found one entry which I can get past the captcha by either removing the link to a Turkish government site or the letter ü.

Well, I don't know what it has against Turkey, but hey...

Do they find the expression "You Umlaut" disrespectful?

Hasn't the Turkish government banned social media, so perhaps we're now banning the Turkish Government in retaliation?

<BB<

The closest I've ever come to Turkish anything is when I went to the Turkish baths in Budapest.

I used to live in Greece. Never got to Turkey. However, we knew how to pronounce 'Istanbul'. It was 'Con-stan-ti-no-po-li'.

And that awful coffee? It's GREEK coffee, NOT Turkish coffee. Still tastes like mud with caffeine in.

Why did Constantinople get the works?
That's nobody's business but the Turks'.

I know all about Greek vs Turkish coffee. I've also seen Greek Delight on sale in Athens.

>stomachturnsoverconvulsivelyreachesforbarfbag<

>...o macht urnso vercon vul sivelrea esfor barb agst...<

Really, I prefer Jamaican Blue Mountain blend.

I like Turkish coffee. I also like Jamaica Blue Mountain. The small amount of kopi lewak I tried did not impress me.

Let me tell you how bad that used to be. The rarity of decent filter coffee was such that our preferred drink was 'frappe', which consisted of powdered coffee, tinned milk, sugar, and water mixed in a cocktail shaker.

Greek coffee should only be drunk when you absolutely need to have your fortune told.

'Greek delight'? You can't sing that...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VwzxiB4kMw

Once upon a time when I was attending my army basic training school, there was a female company training with my basic training battalion.

One day, when the entire battalion had been out training at the basic rifle marksmanship range, at the end of the day, the entire battalion was standing in close ranks in a closed bay area at the entrance of the mess hall, closed over head and on three sides, open on only one end.

I noticed that the gals attached, who'd been out all day training hard in the hot sun were giving off a strange, peppery odor, wondering for a moment what it might be, not unpleasant at all, rather like black pepper.

Then I realized I was swaying on my feet and only narrowly stayed on them as one by one, the guys started dropping in their tracks around me.




On a later occasion, I had a parking lot encounter with a female performer I'm slightly acquainted with who'd just come from filming a rock video.

I could smell that same peppery odor coming from her ultra small compact car as she stepped away from it, from forty feet away.

There is nothing on God's green Earth that could have induced me to get into that compact, with or without her in it, though as a matter of fact, I rather like her.




Much later, I was watching some vintage MGM promotional material featuring Rosalind Russell and all the other top MGM female lead performers of her generation working out at the gym.

Even though it was only flim being shown on television, it gave me an aura.

oh, where's my US/UK cultural reference deciphering book?

...my post 74 with reference to the link in DG's post 73, taken as a scene of terror...

A new researcher, having technical difficulties http://www.h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/brunel/F615?thread=8313178 I hope this one sticks. Also left them a message in their personal space. http://www.h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/brunel/F22145156?thread=8313179&show=20&skip=0#pi3 The current dysfunctionalisms of the h2g2 website are taking their toll on new membership.

SakhalinAynu's researcher number, U15001217, by the way.

"Greek coffee should only be drunk when you absolutely need to have your fortune told" [Dmitri]

Oh, no! Now you've got me started on the topic of coffee. You will soon until I stop.

There used to be a chain of Greek restaurants called "Aegean Fare" in the Boston area. Their Greek coffee took some getting used to, but after a while, I got to the point where I looked forward to having some with baklava or one of those other superb Greek pastries .

Jamaican Blue Mountain? That's one of the Coffee-Tasting Club selections that I got for a premium price from Gevalia Coffee Company a few years ago. But the only one I really liked was Paragua, which I'm either misremembering, or it has been discontinued now. Probably a coffee from Honduras or Nicaragua. But I realized, while enjoying it, that it tasted a lot like French Roast, which is much cheaper. So I just went with French Roast, grateful for this insight.

Nowadays, Gevalia [like most other coffee purveyors] has its catalogs full of variations on Italian classics, which are based on Espresso, which I regard as the Voldemort of coffee . I spent ten days in Italy, and had to grit my teeth whenever "American coffee" was not offered as one of the options. Granted, any coffee that has caffeine will do if I put enough milk in it, but it seemed like a step down, albeit a temporary one.

The French got it right, in my opinion, when they invented French Roast. The Swedes, who drink more coffee per capita than anyone else [or at least they used to; I don't know if that has changed], have many fine coffees. But bitter espresso? The Italian just plain got it wrong, in my opinion, and instead of pointing it out to them, the world has embraced their wrongheaded ways.

See? I start to rant, and I'm sure all of you are rolling your eyes at me now......

Espresso is out of this world.

Well, ISSpresso...

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-04/13/isspresso-coffee-in-space