Kentucky Ghost Story

This happened about a month ago just outside of Owensboro , Kentucky , a small town on the banks of the Ohio River , and while it sounds like an Alfred Hitchcock tale, it's indeed real.

An out of state traveler was walking along the side of the road hitchhiking on a dark night in the middle of a thunderstorm.  Time passed slowly and no cars went by.

It was raining so hard he could barely see his hand in front of his face.

Suddenly he saw a car approaching, moving slowly and appearing ghostlike in the rain.  It slowly and silently crept toward him and stopped.

Wanting a ride very badly, the guy jumped into the car and closed the door; only then did he realize that there was nobody behind the wheel, and no sound of the engine to be heard over the rain.

Again the car crept slowly forward and guy was terrified, too scared to think of jumping out and running.  The guy saw that the car was approaching a sharp curve and, still too scared to jump out, he started to pray and beg for his life.  He was certain the ghost car would go off the road and into the river,and he would surely drown!  But just before the curve, a shadowy figure appeared at the driver's window and a hand reached in and turned the steering wheel, guiding the car safely around the bend.  Then, just as silently, the hand disappeared through the window and the hitchhiker was alone again.

Paralyzed with fear, the guy watched the hand reappear every time they reached a curve.  Finally the guy, frightened nearly to death, had all he could take and jumped out of the car and ran through the storm to the nearby town.

Wet and in shock, he went into a lighted tavern and with voice quavering, ordered two shots of whiskey,and then, shaken, he told everybody about his supernatural experience.

A silence came over those listening and everybody got goose bumps.
They realized the guy was sober and was telling the truth.
And the sounds of the storm continued outside.



About half an hour later, two guys walked into the bar and one says to the other, 'Look Billy Bob, there's that idiot that rode in our car while we was pushin' it.'

Wearing White

This will be the first Labour Day in many years that I won't be spending it with my family in the US. As a matter of fact, I only skipped one September in order to go home at Christmas. My mother's birthday is on New Year's Eve and nobody who was still living at home (a younger brother and two sisters) wished her a happy birthday until my brother James came to take her out to dinner. At first we were wondering why we hadn't been invited until we were reminded it was her birthday. How thoughtless of us and how horrible we felt!

'Wearing White' is my choice for the title of this week's blog, because I'm always wondering about something and this is something I've always been wondering about. Why shouldn't we wear white after Labour Day? Does anyone know? Wikipedia? lol. Sounds a bit ridiculous to me. I remember distinctly at the end of September last year when I was leaving to go to the airport to return to Spain, it was 90-some degrees, and don't they say you should wear light colours to deflect the heat? I can't think of a logical reason why wearing white after Labour Day is a no-no. I mean I wouldn't buy a white coat for the winter simply because it would get dirty immediately in Madrid, but I sometimes wear white hats (something easy to wash).

As for Post Secret (my secret reason for a Sunday blog), the visitor counter is definitely broken, and I didn't see any secret that especially grabbed my attention. Anyway, if anyone knows the origin of not wearing white after Labour Day, let me know and hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend. I'll let you know how many people I see next week still wearing white. Have a good week all.

Voting Closes Soon

This is just a reminder for those of you who haven't voted yet to do so if you think Multiply is deserving of this award. Although Multiply still holds the number two spot, there's not a big margin of difference between Multiply and Wordpress, which comes in at number three. I, for one, think it would be fabulous if Multiply came in first, don't you?

Loosing It

Everywhere I go on the Internet I come across the term 'loosing' as illustrated in this postcard I've borrowed from this week's Post Secret.  I've even gone as far as to look up 'loosing' in several online dictionaries, including the mighty Encyclopaedia Britannica.  As of this moment, I've yet to find in any of these dictionaries an example such as I found on a Canadian website talking about a baby beluga.  It read: 'She's filling out her fetal (my spell checker says it foetal) folds and loosing her wrinkled look'.  Please note that I haven't said that 'loose' cannot be a verb, because any half decent dictionary should give numerous examples of 'to loose'.  But as an ESL teacher, I'd put a big 'WW' for wrong word, both on the postcard and the sentence from the website.  Is this evolution of the English language we're seeing here or am I loosing my mind?
And for you is it 'a lot' or 'alot'?  This is one that the spell checker tells me which is correct.

BTW, it seems the visitor counter on Post Secret is broken so I can't record my visitor number this week.  I did get an invitation from someone who already has 1253 contacts.  What do you do with so many contacts?  Just imagine the number of posts there would be on your main page!
Recently I deleted a contact because he flooded the Inbox with news articles that anyone could have found on Yahoo, and sometimes he would post the same article twice.  Sorry but I don't want to be contact number 1254.  Some of us have already earned a gold 'P'.  However, I'm going to put a link to the page of one of my contacts.  She writes lovely poetry and takes professional photographs, so if you like what you see, you can invite her into your circle of friends as she's just getting started on here.  Have a nice week all. Here's that link:

http://mimi29827.multiply.com/

Finally Got a Little Rain

Yesterday evening at about 7, I went to meet one of my friends, who as I'd said earlier hadn't abandoned the city. It was cloudy, but the weatherman said it would clear up so that we'd be able to see the partial eclipse (I saw it, did you?) and, according to him, the only places that would get any rain were Asturias and the area around the Pyrenees. I thought since it hadn't rained at all this summer that it probably wouldn't even though the clouds said rain. We've been having fantastic weather so I decided to walk. It's about a 20-minute walk there, and, if you go use public transport in August, you can easly wait that long. Just as I was getting close to where she lives I could see and feel drops of rain. I'd been in her house for 10 or 15 minutes when it started raining hard. Unfortunately it was just a short shower. We went out a bit later to sit out on the terraces near the park and everything was dry,dry. That's probably our rain for the summer.

I was visitor 160,303,651 over on Post Secret today and I've 'borrowed' one of the secrets to put here. I know my sisters and brothers would agree that our mother was our best friend. Later on this month marks the 5th anniversary of her death. We still miss her.

Hope it's a good week for everybody and that your weather is nice.

  

Chocolate Mint Brownies, original from Joy of Baking website

Description:
In my circle of friends and acquaintances I'm well-known for my brownies. Sometimes when I meet someone for the first time, they say, "Ah, you're the brownie lady." I haven't tried this recipe, but will do. I like the fact that this recipe includes measurements in grams too.

Ingredients:
Brownie Layer:

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
4 ounces (114 grams) dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 1/4 cups (250 grams) granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 cup (70 grams) all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Mint Layer:

2 tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup (115 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon nonfat Greek yogurt (this was heavy cream in the original recipe)
1/2 teaspoon pure peppermint extract or 1-2 tablespoons crème de menthe
green food coloring (optional)

Chocolate Glaze:

3 ounces (90 grams) semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoon (14 grams) unsalted butter

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C) and place the rack in the center of the oven. Have ready a 9 x 9 inch (23 x 23 cm) square baking pan that has been lined with parchment paper across the bottom and up two opposite sides of the pan, like a sling. (You can also use buttered aluminum foil for this) Set aside.

Brownies: In a stainless steel (heatproof) bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the butter and chocolate. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar and vanilla extract. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well (with a wooden spoon) after each addition. Stir in the flour and salt and beat, with a wooden spoon, until the batter is smooth and glossy and comes away from the sides of the pan (about one minute). Pour the brownie batter evenly into the prepared pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes or until the brownies start to pull away from the sides of the pan and the edges of the brownies are just beginning to brown. A toothpick inserted in the center of the brownies will come out almost clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to completely cool.

Mint Layer: In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat all the ingredients until smooth. Add a few drops of green food coloring if you want the frosting green. If the frosting is too thick, add a little extra cream. (The frosting should be just thin enough to spread.) Spread the frosting evenly over the cooled brownie layer. Place in the refrigerator for about 5-10 minutes or until firm.

Chocolate Glaze: In a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter. Spread over the mint filling and refrigerate for about 30 minutes or until the chocolate glaze starts to dull.

To Serve: Remove the brownies from the pan by lifting with the ends of the foil and transfer to a cutting board. With a sharp knife, cut into 1" squares (this makes 81 squares in the 9"x9" pan... in the original recipe she says 30, but unless they are bigger squares, it's 81). I rinsed off my knife with hot water after each cut, which made the cutting much easier and the glaze less prone to cracking during the cut. These brownies can be stored in the refrigerator for several days or else frozen.

Finally Some Coool (A shortie)

After weeks of blazing hot weather, we are being blessed with a cool wave, which is supposed to last throughout the weekend. Instead of the normal 90 something at this time of night, it's a pleasant 72º.This weekend we have a 'puente' or a long weekend as Friday is a holiday. Haven't got any special plans. Maybe I'll meet up with one of the few friends who hasn't abandoned the city, and nice weather would be a bonus.
The picture accompanying this shortie is from a friend on Stumble Upon. It's from his Photobucket album so hope it doesn't start shouting "Upgrade to Pro!" There aren't any fried eggs in the photo, but it's just as good, don't you think?
Hope everybody has a pleasant evening. 

On This Day

10 years ago tragedy struck a campsite in Biescas (Huesca), which is in the north of Spain.  In a very short time, the campsite was hit by a very strong rainstorm which brought rocks, uprooted trees, mud and deep rapid water crashing down on tents, caravans and everything and everybody in their path.  I remember stories of how people held onto trees or anything they could to keep from being swept away.  Over 80 people died this day in a catastrophe that could have been avoided.

Two things will always stay in my mind regarding this tragedy.  One, a poor man, in deep shock, walking down the road completely nude.  Two (this came out later), a study, which had been done years before, advised against any type of fragile construction such as a campsite in this area.

I would imagine the news media will also remind us of this sad day.  I can only hope that they be a little sensitive and not show that poor man. Anyone who remembers will have the image etched into their minds.  I also hope that the proper steps will be taken so that nothing like what happened in Biescas ever happens again.  Whenever I see storms predicted for this part of Spain, I always remember.  

Top Conspiracy Theories According to Brits

Although I got the following conspiracy theories from Sky News, I'm sure everybody has thought about some of these or ALL of these and perhaps even believes some of them or ALL of them. I'm not sure I'd consider all of them conspiracies, but this is borrowed material - only what is in parenthesis is mine.

Hope you find the theories interesting and also the photo I've chosen to accompany them. This photo has a story which needs explaining. Back before we had digital cameras, I took my camera into a shop to have the film that I thought was inside developed. When we opened the camera, it was EMPTY. 'Where's the film?' I demanded of the shop assistant. He politely answered that he didn't know. I can only imagine what he thought. Well, I found out not too long afterwards what had happened to it. I'd given a friend what I thought was a new roll of film, because, as I said, I wasn't going to use it and she was going to Washington D.C. and Canada. I have lots of perfectly double exposed photos of my family in two places like this one of three of my nephews.

One more thing: I was visitor 157,751,069 on Post Secret on Sunday, which is really my reason for posting. Now that my secret is out, on to those wild and wonderful theories.

 Some 48% of Britons believe that Area 51 exists to investigate aliens and their spaceships.  Are you a believer?  (My almost 16 year-old nephew has come up with the theory that Steve Fossett's plane was shot down over Area 51 or, at least, the idea was planted in his head by someone.
It's a possibility, isn't it? I mean that his plane was shot down over Area 51)

A massive 38% think that 9/11 was orchestrated by the US government.

And 35% believe that the Apollo landing on the Moon was a hoax.  (My brother Timmy thinks it was a hoax too)

A suspicious 32% are convinced that Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed were murdered.

And a perhaps paranoid 25% think the Illuminati and the Masons are trying to take over the world .  (N.B. the use of the word perhaps)

And would you believe Scientologists rule Hollywood?  Well, 17% of those who took part in the survey would.

Big Brother is watching - and 7% believe that barcodes are really intended to control people.  (I've heard other theories.  For example, to be used to identify Satan's followers)

And 6% are convinced that Microsoft sends messages via Wingdings.(Careful with those smileys!  Who knows what message you're really sending! You might be saying something like Yahoo has been taken over by Microsoft. Yea! or Oh, no! depending on who the recipient is)

Another dark theory: some 5% believe the US government allowed Pearl Harbour to happen.

And 3% think the world is run by dinosaur-like reptiles! (Reminds me of one of my favourites: 'V'. Do you remember Diana?)

The poll also revealed that 61% believe in aliens.  (Who's to say for certain that intelligent life isn't out there somewhere?  When it's been proven beyond any doubt that we're alone in this vast universe then I'll believe it.  So until then…)

And 52% think ghosts exist.  (Would you relieve me if I said I know people who say they have seen them and aliens too?)