Ode To A Turkey

Ode To A Turkey
By Anonymous

It was the night before Thanksgiving and all through our house
No turkey is baking; I feel like a louse ,
For I am all nestled , so snug in my bed ,
I'm not getting up , I'm not baling no bread !

No pies in my oven, no cranberry sauce
Cuz I give the orders and I am the Boss .
When out in the kitchen there arose such a clatter,
I almost got up to see what's the matter .

As I drew in my head and was tossing around
To bed came my husband , he grimaced , he frowned.
And laying his finger aside of his nose ,
He scared me to death , and I thought , "Here he goes" .

He spoke not a word as he threw back my quilt
And the look he gave was intended to wilt .
So up to the ceiling my pillows he threw
I knew I had had it , he face turned blue .

"You prancer , you dodger ,your lazy , you vixen
Out yonder in the kitchen , Thanksgiving your fixing ."
But he heard me explain , with my face in a pout ;
" I'm just plain too tired . We're eating out " !


And this is what has happened this year in our house ! A very Happy Thanksgiving to all that are celebrating !

On The Edge

Libya Has New American Ambassador

The New American Ambassador To Libya

Yippeeeeeeee !! At long last Libya will have a American ambassador, 36 years in fact since the last one was here in Tripoli. Gene Cretz was confirmed as US ambassador to Libya on Thursday Nov. 21 , 2008 by the US Senate . Can wait to see if Americans like my friends and I , married to Libyans , will be treated better when he comes , by the new embassy , as apposed to the way many of us are just ignored now by the existing American consulate .Read more on this story as reported by the V.O.A.(Voice Of America ) .

Why We Eat What We Eat On Thanksgiving

I found this post on the Mental Floss blog . Thought I would pass it on to you to read too .Thanks Ethan ! Thanksgiving is this Thursday , Nov. 27th., this year in America .

Why We Eat What We Eat On Thanksgiving
by Ethan Trex - November 25, 2008 - 9:41 AM

Buzz up!on Yahoo!

When Americans sit down with their families for Thanksgiving dinner, most of us will probably gorge ourselves on the same traditional Thanksgiving menu, with turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and pumpkin pie taking up the most real estate on our plates. How did these dishes become the national “what you eat on Thanksgiving” options, though? Are they holdovers from the First Thanksgiving, or did they gradually sneak in?

The Pilgrims may not have had turkey

Turkey may not have been on the menu at the 1621 celebration by the Pilgrims of Plymouth that is widely considered the First Thanksgiving (though fans of Virginia’s Berkeley Plantation might quibble with the “First” part). There were definitely wild turkeys in the Plymouth area, as colonist William Bradford noted in his journal. However, the best existing account of the Pilgrims’ harvest feast comes from colonist Edward Winslow, author of Mourt’s Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Winslow’s first-hand account of the First Thanksgiving included no explicit mention of turkey. He does, however, mention the Pilgrims gathering “wild fowl” for the meal, although that could just as likely have meant ducks or geese.

So why do we chow down on turkey, then?

It helps to know a bit about the history of Thanksgiving. While the idea of giving thanks and celebrating the harvest was popular in certain parts of the country, it was by no means an annual national holiday. Presidents would occasionally declare a Thanksgiving Day celebration, but the holiday hadn’t completely caught on nationwide. Many of these early celebrations included turkey; Alexander Hamilton once remarked that, “No citizen of the U.S. shall refrain from turkey on Thanksgiving Day.”

When Bradford’s journals were reprinted in 1856 after being lost for a century, they found a receptive audience with advocates who wanted Thanksgiving turned into a national holiday. Since Bradford wrote of how the colonists had hunted wild turkeys during the autumn of 1621 and since turkey is a uniquely American (and scrumptious) bird, it gained traction as the Thanksgiving meal of choice for Americans after Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863.

Moreover, there were pragmatic reasons for eating turkey rather than, say, chicken at a feast like Thanksgiving. The birds are large enough that they can feed a table full of hungry family members, and unlike chickens or cows, they didn’t serve much utilitarian purpose like laying eggs or making milk. Unlike pork, turkey wasn’t so common that it didn’t seem like a suitable choice for a special occasion, either. An interesting 2007 piece in Slate discussed these reasons for turkey’s prominence, but also made another intriguing point. The publication of A Christmas Carol in 1843 may have helped force along the turkey’s cause as a holiday delicacy when Scrooge magnanimously sends the Cratchit family a Christmas turkey.

There was no cranberry sauce, either

While the cranberries the Pilgrims needed were probably easy to come by, making cranberry sauce requires sugar. Sugar was a rare luxury at the time of First Thanksgiving, so while revelers may have eaten cranberries it’s unlikely that the feast featured the tasty sauce. What’s more, it’s not even entirely clear that cranberry sauce had been invented yet. It’s not until 1663 that visitors to the area started commenting on a sweet sauce made of boiled cranberries that accompanied meat. There’s the same problem with potatoes. Neither sweet potatoes nor white potatoes were available to the colonists in 1621, so the Pilgrims definitely didn’t feast on everyone’s favorite tubers.

They did have plenty of venison, though

Winslow mentions in his writings that the governor sent out a party of four men to do some fowling for the feast, but the Pilgrims and Wampanoag also enjoyed five deer as part of their feasting. The meat supposedly arrived at the celebration as a gift from the Wampanoag king Massasoit. On top of the venison, other meats probably included lots of fish and shellfish, which were staples of the Pilgrims’ diets. So if you want to wolf down a lobster or some oysters in lieu of turkey on Thursday, nobody can fault you for being historically inaccurate.

And pumpkin pie didn’t cap things off

It may be the flagship dessert at modern Thanksgiving dinners, but pumpkin pie didn’t make an appearance at the First Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims probably lacked the butter and flour needed to make a pie crust, and it’s not clear that they even had an oven in which they could have baked a pumpkin pie. That doesn’t mean pumpkins weren’t available for the meal, though; they were probably served after being baked in the coals of a fire or stewed. Pumpkin pie became a popular dish on 17th-century American tables, though, and it might have shown up for Thanksgiving as early as the second celebration of the holiday in 1623.

Thanksgiving Cartoons

May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have never a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs!

More On Libyan Sheep And Reality Phone

A source that is very reliable has informed me that since the out break of the Blue Tongue Disease has struck the Libyan sheep population , the Libyan government has imported sheep from Turkey for the people to purchase for the Eid Adha this year . So that worry is taken care of , yeah!

The weather is still cold for here and it is lovely !Sorta windy today but that's ok .We are supposed to have some rain tomorrow but I will believe that when it happens .We haven't had enough rain so far this year . We normally have at least one steady down pour to flood things by now and we haven't yet .

Have I told you about our new phone development ? I haven't ? OMG ! Remember last year I mentioned about our phone lines being crossed with a neighbor and we were receiving their phone calls ? The trips Moe and I made to the post office to file complaints to have it fixed and that never happened ?WELL ......

Sometime in August it all stopped and life returned to normal . No phone ringing in the middle of the night . No more clicking , swishing , buzzing , or cackling either on the line . We were able to get all our incoming calls .It was heavenly to be able to talk like a normal person with out having to shout over all that noise . Yes , Virginia , life was good ...... UNTIL ....... last month .

Now it has started all over again . Only this time it is more like REALITY TELEPHONE . Instead of all the noise we had before , we have the neighboring woman talking at all hours of the day and night about her husbands and family business that we must speak over.

When she dials out on her phone it rings in our house .So we are back to rushing to answer the phone when it rings only to discover it isn't even for us .We have asked her to have her husband to go to the phone company to ask them fix the situation ,but she refuses to do that . We tried all last year to straighten this out ourselves , to no avail . The funny thing of it is , Moe and I were driving out past the phone junction box one day and saw the phone line man fiddling with the box . I told Moe jokingly , "Watch , now we will have that neighbor back on our line ." Sure enough , that night it all started again .

So , I have a new tactic this year .No more begging her to go to the phone company . We aren't going to camp out at the phone company like I threatened to do once last year either .Nope ! Not going there ! I have became a shameless eavesdropper .

She has a habit of making calls while I am on the phone talking to my friends .The problem is that when she talks to whom ever she has called , it is like she is sitting right next to me and shouting in my ear . She gets so loud that sometimes I can't hear what the person I am talking to has to say . Moe and I have asked her to please get off the line. She refuses to do so . So now when she calls out and it rings in our house I pick my phone up. Sometimes I listen in on her conversations . Sometimes , well actually most of the time , I just throw the phone receiver into a chair for a while because I know this will cause static on her line .

Once when she called I eavesdropped on her conversation . She was talking to her sister . The sister was crying that their uncles wife had embarrassed her in front of everyone at a wedding .She was furious . She wanted to get even with the uncles wife and could her sister , my Reality Phone Buddy ,take her to their local witch to get a hex spell to put on the wife of the uncle ?I was like OMG ! I started to shout at them ,lool .I asked them didn't they know that was haram? A sin ?Then I hung up .

The next time I was on the phone she gets on too.She tells me that she hopes my ear will explode the next time I listen in on her conversations . I told her if she would go to the phone company and get her own line then she wouldn't have any more problems with eavesdroppers .So now we have a Mexican Stand Off . I figure it is our line . We now have in addition to some reality TV , reality phone .See life in Libya is never boring , contrary to what some people may think !

Images Of Ancient Libya

Here are some more images of ancient Libyan artifacts I found surfing on the web I thought you might like to see .




Cave paintings, fossilized sea beds , latrines at Sabrata , Apollo's temple at Cyrene, and
wall paintings on tombs .

Long-Isolated Libya Plans New Archeology Drive

I read this item below on the Reuters Africa on line . It was written by Tom Pfeiffer and is about the resurgence of Libyan archeology . Pretty interesting and hopefully will yield all sorts on new discovery's for all to see and learn from concerning the rich historical significance of Libya.

Long-isolated Libya plans new archeology drive

Tue 18 Nov 2008, 10:59 GMT

[-] Text [+]

By Tom Pfeiffer

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya plans to invite the world's top archaeologists to unearth its ancient past as it tries to lure more tourists after decades in isolation, the head of the government's archeology department said.

With a central role in early human migration, the desert country on the Mediterranean is home to a multitude of ancient and prehistoric sites. Many are thought to remain undiscovered.

But years of western sanctions tarnished Libya's image and only a few hundred thousand people visit the north African country each year, compared to over 8 million for neighboring Egypt.

"We will open our arms to the best scientists from Japan to the United States. We will not exclude one major institution, be it Oxford, Cambridge, the Sorbonne or Rome," said Giuma Anag, chairman of the government's archeology department.

In a recent interview, he described discoveries to date as only the tip of the iceberg.

The archeology campaign is backed by leader Muammar Gaddafi's most prominent son, Saif al-Islam, who recently approved setting up of a society for safeguarding archeology that would coordinate the work of foreign and local researchers.

"It is a huge acceleration," Anag told Reuters. "We never had this kind of support before."

Archeology took a back seat after Gaddafi's 1969 Islamic Socialist revolution although work never entirely stopped. Some foreign archaeologists continued work -- making significant finds -- even during the low point of relations with the West.

Libya, three times the size of France, was inhabited by humans over 60,000 years ago when Homo Sapiens began moving north from east Africa before colonizing Europe.

In ancient times, coastal settlements were established by great civilizations from the to the Romans, Greeks, Carthaginians and Ottomans.

Archaeological work began in earnest in the 1930s when Italian fascist colonialists hoped to demonstrate the Roman presence and prove Italy's historical dominance of the Mediterranean. That work also led to the discovery of oil.

150,000 YEARS

With a low population and dry climate, Libya's secrets are well preserved. Historians say the vast desert was once savanna that supported small communities of which little is known.

"We are discovering more about one of the most interesting aspects of human pre-history -- when and how Homo Sapiens left Africa," said Elena Garcea of Cassino University in Italy.

With new technology for dating objects, her team has found evidence of human habitation in Libya up to 150,000 years ago and is unearthing details of little-known societies.

Key discoveries were made in recent years by French researcher Andre Laronde at the ancient Greek port of Apollonia in Cyrenaica, birthplace of the philosopher and mathematician Eratosthenes. In the south, an Italian team has studied rock art to shed light on prehistoric hunter-gatherer communities.

A Sicilian group is working on the wreck of a 17th century Venetian warship, the Tigre, scuppered by its captain after a storm drove it south and the Libyan Karamanli fleet gave chase.

The team's head, Sebastiano Tusa, says the ship is yielding useful information on the period when Venice's power waned and Turkish forces threatened its eastern Mediterranean possessions.

But Tusa's dream is to find a land settlement on the Libyan coast that proves there was a sea route via North Africa for ships traveling between the Western and Eastern Mediterranean in the second millennium B.C.

"I'm sure there will be something proving a connection between Crete and the Aegean and Cyrenaica," he said.

Libya's government says that as more sites are opened up, it wants to avoid the mass tourism of Egypt and Tunisia and its emphasis on history will help draw a smaller number of discerning travelers.

"We will discourage mass tourism which would ... be a disgrace towards this fantastically rich and diverse cultural heritage," said Anag.

© Reuters 2008. All Rights Reserved.

Homesick & The News

.Went to the meat market the other day to buy some beef imported from Brazil and saw sides and sides of mutton hanging up to be sold . I stood there wondering to myself how would a person know if the sheep was healthy when it was alive . Some one pointed out in the comments section of the previous post , that there really wasn't a way to know one way or the other if the sheep slaughtered was healthy or not .The sheep are supposed to be inspected before slaughter I think but who knows ? If the market is slow , maybe some one desperate enough will fudge about the health of the sheep just so they will make a sale ? I sincerely hope not .

I went to a get together yesterday for some of my friends at the home of a new American lady . She has recently moved here with her American husband . It was so nice to see everyone again . We don't have the chance to see each other that often any more . We all are busy living our busy lives and kinda lost touch with one another . There was some great food there. Since it was a pot luck dinner, we all brought a dish to share with the group .And of course we all are great chefs !LOL ! Much laughing and many smiles to see . Memories shared and sisterhood renewed .A wonderful day .

My oldest daughter is eight and a half months pregnant now .She will be having her little girl soon . My oldest niece in America hosted a baby shower last week end for my daughter .Rosebud got lots of very lovely presents for the new baby .One woman made her the loveliest little hand knitted blankets and bonnets for the baby .My daughters mother in law is giving them a crib for the baby and has already given her a rocking chair . She will be getting a lot of use out of that chair in the future , lol , around midnight feedings !

My other daughter and her family are doing well too . This daughter is always sending us loads of pictures of our grand daughter . One video she sent us is of the baby laughing . It is so funny to see her little face all scrunched up in laughter ! Our grand son is growing like a weed and now that he walks , nothing can slow him down . He is all over the place running here and there .

The weather has cooled off some in the daytime . That is nice . It gets cold at night . We hauled out the blanket to put on the bed at night .It is so amazing how you can store away something clean and when you take it out of storage it is dusty , EVEN when it was stored on a air tight bag ! I had to air the blanket out . That gave me a allergy attack , and that in turn made me miserable for a few days ! Moe made fun of me ... until HE started to sneeze too , lol , then I got to laugh at him !

This time of the year makes me "home sick" for the States . It happens every fall when there is a hint of cool in the air as there has been recently.Something about that air that stirs longings in me .I miss funny things .


Hickory smoked BBQ beef sandwiches that drip sauce all down the front of you and fall apart as you eat them with a sliced dill pickle in your other hand. There is nothing in the entire world that can
compare to a toasted marshmallow that was toasted over a roaring camp fire . Or the color of fall leaves on the trees .A nice roaring fire in the fireplace sit close to and watch the fire dance.

We always went to the Fall Art Festivals that come once a year in the fall . The Renaissance Festival where people dress in Medieval costumes; which has strolling minstrels ,jousting knights , fair Ladies and Knights in Shinning armor , along with some of the best foot massages in the world for tired worn out festival goers .

I miss American football games, the excitement that a last two minute win can bring. A sense of camaraderie that just can't be beaten unmistakable in the crowd . I miss the squeaky sound tennis shoes /trainers make on a basketball court as the players run to make the play . The sound of a marching band in a parade marching down the street with the brass sections blaring away , the drums pounding the rhythm of the beat .

I miss the holidays that come in the fall too . Halloween with it's
fancy dress party's . The kids Trick or Treating for candy door to door . The week end that they turn the clocks back used to be THE PARTY NIGHT ! LOL ! Thanksgiving dinners with family and friends gathered around the table groaning with delicious food .
That special holiday cheer that comes with Christmas ,
much like Ramadan in the Muslim countries .

I miss all that when the wind blows cool across the Mediterranean from the north to hot dry Tripoli . This is the signal I have been waiting for , the one that says rains will be coming soon . That the dust will soon be washed away and Tripoli will shine in the clear air once again .Yep , I am homesick alright !