Dedicated
to

Esperanza
Aquino
Aug 9, 1921
Sept 24,1983

                                                        CREATED BY ESTHER AQUINO & JOSEPH GARCIA          

This Day In History

Battle of Puebla commemorated as Cinco de Mayo

1862: On this day, the Mexican army of the government of Benito Juárez, led by General Ignacio Zaragoza, repelled the invading French forces of Napoleon III at the Battle of Puebla. Napoleon was attempting to establish a French satellite in Mexico. In honour of its defender, the city of Puebla was officially renamed Puebla de Zaragoza. The event came to be celebrated as Cinco de Mayo (5th of May), a national holiday in Mexico.

                                              Benito Juarez and Sgt. Garcia

                                           Happy Cinco de Mayo

We're gonna have a new contest next week with a brand new prize. You're really gonna love this one. Tune in Monday for all the details.

All of us here at the Tribune want to wish all you mothers a very Happy Mother's Day this Sunday. Where would we be without you?

                                 "The heart of a mother is a deep abyss
                                  at the bottom of which you will always
                                  find forgiveness."
                                  ~By Honore' de Balzac (1799-1850)~

Born on May 5th

Blonde Interview

The executive was interviewing a young blonde for a position in his company. He wanted to find out something about her personality so he asked, "If you could have a conversation with someone, living or dead, who would it be?"

The blonde quickly responded, "The living one."

Today's useless fact - How is white chocolate made?

We visted the links in the Lukol Chocolate category to answer your question. White chocolate is made the same way as milk chocolate and dark chocolate -- the difference is the ingredients. In fact, because of the ingredients, many people (including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration) don't consider "white chocolate" to be chocolate at all.

The chocolate-making process begins with the cacao tree, which grows in equatorial areas of South America, Africa, and Asia. The seeds of the tree's fruits are the cocoa beans, which are harvested, fermented for six or seven days, and then dried. The highest quality chocolate comes from cocoa beans that are dried naturally in the sun for a week -- shorter, artificial drying yields inferior chocolate. Next, the beans are roasted, and the shells are removed. Then the cocoa is ground, resulting in a thick liquid called chocolate liquor (it's not alcoholic). This liquor is used to make unsweetened chocolate.

For other chocolaty purposes, the liquor is pressed to extract the fat, which is called cocoa butter. With the fat removed, the liquor becomes a powder that is blended with the cocoa butter and other ingredients to make different kinds of chocolate. Plain chocolate is made of cocoa powder, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, and sugar. Milk chocolate, of course, has milk added. White chocolate is made of cocoa butter, milk, and sugar.

After the ingredients are mixed, the product is further refined to create chocolate suitable for solid bars and pieces. It's mixed, heated, and cooled very precisely in methods called "conching" and "tempering." These processes can take up to a week for the finest chocolates.

Because white chocolate has no cocoa solids from the chocolate liquor, the FDA doesn't classify it as chocolate. However, the organization is working with chocolate manufacturers to establish a standard definition for white chocolate. Until a standard is published, check labels and beware of "white chocolate" that contains vegetable fat instead of cocoa butter. The quality and taste are inferior.

The Buzzword For May 4th

white elephant  \WYTE-EL-uh-funt\  noun

What does it mean?
  : something requiring much care and expense and
giving little profit or enjoyment

How do you use it?
  The town's biggest white elephant is the old opera house,
which brings in very little money, but costs a lot to repair
and maintain.

Are you a word wiz?
  In what part of the world do you think you can find the real
white elephants that gave rise to the figurative term "white
elephant"?

  A. an island near Australia
  B. the west coast of Africa
  C. Japan
  D. India and southeast Asia

Answer:
  The real "white elephant" (the kind with a trunk) has long
been considered sacred in India and some countries in
southeast Asia, including Thailand and Sri Lanka. Because of
this, it is cared for and fed without having to work, as
other elephants do. Since it doesn't bring in any money for
its owner, it very often becomes a financial burden. One
story has it that the kings of Siam (the old name for
Thailand) gave white elephants to those they wished to ruin,
hoping that the cost of satisfying the huge appetite of the
sacred animal would drive its new owner to the poorhouse.

Today's Jigsaw Puzzle

Click here Seagull

 

              That's all for this week. Have a great Mother's Day.

              The following is what appeared in Wednesday's edition

In Today's Edition

 As you know President Bush has been traveling around the country trying to sell his new Social Security plan. He wants to take our retirement money and invest it in the stock market. He says nothing can go wrong. I'll mention that to Martha Stewart the next time I see her. ~ Jay Leno

Born on May 4th

IF MY BODY WERE A CAR (Courtesy of Barbara)

If my body were a car, this is the time I would be thinking about trading it in for a newer model.

I've got bumps and dents and scratches in my finish and my paint job is getting a little dull, but that's not the worst of it.

My fenders are too wide to be considered stylish. They were once as sleek as a little MG; now they look more like my mother's old Buick.

My seat cushions have split open at the seams. My seats are sagging. Seat belts? I gave up all belts when Ben & Jerry's opened a shop in my neighborhood.!

Air bags? Forget it. The only bags I have these days are under my eyes. Not counting the saddlebags, of course.

I have soooooo many miles on my odometer. Sure, I've been many places and seen many things, but when' s the last time an appraiser factored life experiences against depreciation?

My headlights are out of focus and it's especially hard to see things up close.

My traction is not as graceful as it once was. I slip and slide and skid and bump into things even in the best of weather.

My whitewalls are stained with varicose veins. It takes me hours to reach my maximum speed. My fuel rate burns inefficiently.

But here's the worst of it - almost every time I sneeze, cough or sputter - I leak oil.

Today's useless fact - Why do men and women's shirts button on different sides?

While we didn't manage to isolate a definitive answer for this question, we learned plenty about the tricky relationship between exigency and style. Their links in the Fashion History category suggest that in the 19th century, well-heeled Victorian women generally didn't dress themselves, so their buttons were designed to be handled by right-handed servants. Although wealthy men may have had servants to lay out their clothes, they generally dressed themselves, and so the buttons on the right side of men's garments made more sense.

The first button jackets for men were modeled after the latching designs of armor, which were designed to stop a right-handed opponent from jamming a pike through the seam. The left-side buttons on women's clothes may have been intended to facilitate nursing an infant on the side closest to the woman's heart.

Jeff Elder of the Charlotte Observer suggests that men's coats were designed to make it easier for them to unbutton their coats with their left hand while drawing their swords with their right.

In general, we gleaned that European men tended to take their plumage cues from the military, while women's clothing arose out of domestic concerns.

The Buzzword For May 4th

leech  \LEECH\  noun

What does it mean?
  1 : any of numerous flesh-eating or bloodsucking usually
flattened
worms that are made up of segments and have a sucker at each
end
  2 : a person who clings like a leech to another person for
advantage or gain : parasite

How do you use it?
  As soon as he won an Oscar, the director found that every
leech in show business wanted to be his friend.

Are you a word wiz?
  After what professional do you think the "leech" is named?

  A. gardener
  B. biologist
  C. physician
  D. chef

Answer:
  The answer to cling to is C. In early medicine, a physician,
known in Old English as a "laece," (and in Middle English,
"leche") often drew blood from patients. It was believed that
good health depended on a balance of four body fluids, called
"humors." One of the humors was blood, and it was thought
that a person became ill if there was too much blood and too
little of the other humors in the body. Thus, doctors used
controlled bleeding, or "bloodletting," to balance the
humors. An easy way was to do this was to attach
blood-sucking worms to the body. Those worms became known as
"leeches," after the doctors who used them.

Today's Jigsaw Puzzle

Click here Butterfly

 

              That's all for today. Tune in tomorrow for more stuff.

              The following is what appeared in Tuesday's edition

In Today's Edition

Scientific research shows that the first five minutes of life can be the most risky. Somehow I think that the last five minutes aren't so hot either.

Born on May 3rd

I Want a Divorce

A farmer walked into an attorney's office wanting to file for a divorce.

The attorney asked, "May I help you??"

The farmer said, "Yeah, I want to get one of them dayvorces."

The attorney said, "Well do you have any grounds?"

The farmer said, "Yeah, I got about 140 acres."

The attorney said, "No, you don't understand, do you have a case?"

The farmer said, "No, I don't have a Case, but I have a John Deere."

The attorney said, "No, you don't understand, I mean do you have a grudge?"

The farmer said, "Yeah, I got a grudge, that's where I park my John Deere."

The attorney said, "No sir, I mean do you have a suit?"

The farmer said, "Yes, sir, I got a suit, I wear it to church on Sundays."

The exasperated attorney said, "Well, sir, does your wife beat you up or anything?"

The farmer said, "No sir, we both get up about 4:30."

Finally, the attorney said, "Okay, let me put it this way: why do you want a divorce?"

The farmer replied, "Well, I can never have a meaningful conversation with her."

Today's useless fact - My son would like to know why people's eyes are red in photographs.

We visited the links in the Lukol Photography Tips category and Vision category to answer this question. You can tell your son that the spooky red-eye effect common in many photographs taken with a flash is simply light being reflected off the retina. The retina is the light-sensitive membrane that lines the inner eye and sends messages to the brain via the optic nerve. Why do the eyes appear red? Because this is the color of the blood vessels that line your retina.

Many animals have a reflective layer in their retina called a "tapetum lucidum". This layer bounces light back into the eye, allowing it to pick up more information in lower levels of light. This helps night predators spot prey, and prey react in turn. This reflective layer causes those strange glowing eyes in the snapshots of your favorite furry friend.

Notice that the glowing-eye-Fido and red-eye-Johnny effects only happen in flash photography. This is because in both cases, usually shot in low ambient light, the pupils are dilated, allowing for a maximum amount of reflective retina area. There are several ways you can reduce red eye, such as moving the flash off the camera or increasing the light around your subject. Red- eye reduction features in cameras usually flash twice -- once to reduce the pupil in the subject's eye, then again to take the photograph.

The Buzzword For May 3rd

shambolic  \sham-BAH-lik\  adjective

What does it mean?
  : obviously disorganized or confused

How do you use it?
  "Your room," Serena's father said, "is a complete shambolic
mess!"

Are you a word wiz?
  Beatrice's father is most likely a speaker of British English,
rather than U.S. English, because "shambolic" is one of many
words that is found in British English but not in English in
the U.S. Three out of the four words below is utter nonsense,
but one is a real word used in British English. Which one do
you think it is?

  A. swelp
  B. tiffin
  C. bluft
  D. labble

Answer:
  B is for British, and B's the answer today! "Tiffin" is
another word for lunch. Also from British English is "twee,"
which means "affectedly or excessively dainty, delicate,
cute, or quaint." And there are many more British words:
"wodge," meaning "a bulky mass or chunk" or "lump," is one,
as is "moggy," another word for a cat. A "kerfuffle" is a
British word for a disturbance or fuss, and "zed" takes us to
the end of the alphabet; it's another way to refer to the
letter "z."

Today's Jigsaw Puzzle

Click here Drops On Daisy

 

              That's all for today. Tune in tomorrow for more stuff.

              The following is what appeared in Monday's edition

In Today's Edition

       I thought I'd go retro this week and use Joey's original layout for the website. It brings back memories of the days I first started struggling with this editing schtick. He did a great job of designing it but sometimes it still doesn't do what I want it to.

      I've included the links that he put in on the left and also added a couple more for games and search engines. If you can think of any other links you want added on to these please let me know and I'll try to accommodate you if it's possible. Thanks.

Born on May 2nd

Two priests (Courtesy of Barbara)

Two priests decided to go to Hawaii on vacation. They were
determined to make this a real vacation by not wearing anything that would
identify them as clergy.
As soon as the plane landed, they headed for a store and bought
some really outrageous shorts, shirts, sandals, sunglasses, etc.

The next morning, they went to the beach, dressed in their
"tourist" garb. They were sitting on beach chairs, enjoying a drink, the
sunshine and the scenery when a drop-dead gorgeous, topless blonde in a
thong bikini came walking straight towards them.

They couldn't help but stare.

As the blonde passed them, she smiled and said "Good morning,
Father. Good morning, Father," nodding and addressing each of them. They
were both stunned. How in the world did she know they were priests

So the next day, they went back to the store and bought even
more outrageous outfits. These were so loud you could hear them before you
even saw them.
Once again the two priests (incognito) settled on the beach, in
their chairs to enjoy the sunshine
After a while, the same gorgeous topless blonde, wearing a
string, taking her sweet time, came walking toward them.
Again she nodded at each of them, said "Good morning, Fathers,"
and started to walk away.
One of the priests couldn't stand it any longer and said, "Just
a minute young lady."

" Yes?" she replied.

"We are priests, and proud of it, but I have to know, how in
the world did you know we are priests - dressed as we are?"

She replied, "Father, it's me .. Sister Mary Francis!"

 Ted sent me this page. It's a brain challenge to test your word/color association.

                              Just click on the link and test your brain.

                           CLICK HERE  THE COLOR TEST

Today's useless fact - Does bottled drinking water go bad?

We went to the Drink category and found an answer of sorts on the web site of Crystal Geyser. In the FAQ section, someone asked why the company's bottle water has an expiration date. The answer explains that some states require all food and beverages, including bottled water, to state an expiration date on the label. The company says, "we feel that an average storage of two years will help ensure optimal quality." They go on to recommend that you store bottled water in a cool and dry environment, away from non-food products.

We turned to the MadSci Network for more information. Answering the question of why bottled water has an expiration date, the site states that over time, the water picks up flavors from its packaging. These flavors, combined with warm storage temperatures, contribute to the "generation of musty tastes."

According to the International Bottled Water Association, the FDA has not established a shelf life for water, so you can store those bottles indefinitely. As long as the packaging is intact and unopened, you shouldn't need to worry about any type of bacteria or microorganisms growing in the water. If the bottle has been opened, however, it can grow bacteria and algae if it is not consumed within 2 weeks.

So while it doesn't appear that unopened bottles of water actually go "bad" in the sense that they would make you sick, they might not taste the greatest after several years of sitting on the shelf collecting dust.
 

The Buzzword For May 2nd

yolk  \YOAK\  noun

What does it mean?
  1 : the yellow inner mass of the egg of a bird or reptile  
  2 : the material stored in an ovum that supplies food
material to the
developing embryo

How do you use it?
  My younger sister will eat the whites of hard-boiled eggs, but
she always leaves the yolks.

Are you a word wiz?
  "Yolk" is an old word that comes from the Old English word
"geolu." What do you think "geolu" means?

  A. "yellow"
  B. "inside an egg"
  C. "gross, not tasty"
  D. "joined together"

Answer:
  "Geolu," the root word for "yolk," means "yellow." It's easy
to see why the word "yolk" arose from a word for "yellow" --
it follows the same logic that led us to call the white part
of the egg the "white." Our word "yellow" also comes from
"geolu." Other words in English come from root words meaning
"yellow," too. For example, "lurid," which means, among other
things, "gruesome" and "wan and ghastly pale in appearance,"
comes from the Latin root "luridus," meaning "pale yellow."
Another example is "jaundice," the name of a condition
causing yellowish skin. It comes from the Anglo-French word
"jaune," "yellow," from Latin "galbinus," meaning "greenish
yellow."

Today's Jigsaw Puzzle

Click here Equestrian
 

              That's all for today. Tune in tomorrow for more stuff.