Eid Mubarak/Happy Ramadan from Nasreddin Hoca

Greetings to our blog readers in Dubai, France and New Zealand.

We also want to send a special Ramadan greeting to our friends in Turkey, Cyprus and Azerbaijan.

Now, that Ramadan is complete, we can all go out for halal hot dogs and an Efes Pilsen Beer*......:)

The image above is of the famed Nasreddin Hoca, a comical Persian philosopher who reportedly rode his donkey backwards; Nasreddin lived in what is now central Turkey in the provinces of Konya and Nevsehir.

*-Efes Pilsen is a Turkish beer made from the pilsener formula developed in the town of Pilsen in the Czech Republic.

Casualties of Modern Technology- Stamps (11 of 12)

Today, we turn our attention to yet another casualty of modern technology, though it's still around and used widely around the globe, postage stamps usage has decreased everywhere from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Montevideo, Uruguay.

The postage stamp that was first used, according to Wikipedia, was the Penny Black Stamp in the United Kingdon, which sold for one penny, in 1840. A century later, Airmail stamps were widely used in America and shortly thereafter everywhere else. Other stamps include military stamps and official stamps.

Stamp collecting, known as pjphilately, is a popular hobby. Highly sought after stamps include the Hawaiian missionary stamps, first issued in 1851, which are worth circa $5000,000 today. Stamp collectors also tend to like stamps from Carribean nations, such as The Bahamas and Jamaica, since they occasionally feature  unusual design and topics.

Here in America, popular stamps, include the Statue of Liberty forever stamp, the Eid stamp used for the Muslim holiday, and Black History Month stamps, which this year, included "Ebony" magazine founder John H. Johnson.

http://www.beyondtheperf.com/


http://www.stampshows.com/

http://www.famousstamps.com/

http://www.ebony.com/

Things We Learned on Twitter Today- Turkey Fryer House Fire in Kansas

A few years ago around Thanksgiving, my friend and blogger Chris Knight of Reidsville, NC, jokingly said he was going to deep fry puppies in a turkey frier. Of course, those of us who know Chris, who once ran for a local school board office with an over-the-top Star Wars-themed campaign ad, knew he was kidding.

That was the first time I had heard about turkey fryers, but apparently they are a major source for potential house fires as a family in Olathe, Kansas, found out last night.

According to a tweet from KCTV-5, a Kansas City tv station, a turkey fryer caused a blaze that did $1,000 in damage. The fire started in the house garage. A caller to 911 reported flames and a short time later local firefighters discovered smoke coming from the garage. No one was hurt by the fire.

The Olathe Fire Department is urging folks to take precaution when using turkey fryers over Thanksgiving.

We must profess that when we usually use the term Turkey, we are referring to my late father's country. But, this leads us to one of today's leading trending topics on Twitter today, which is Eid Mubarak in honor of a Muslim holiday. So, we will say Eid Mubarak to our friends in Istanbul, Karachi, Tashkent, Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo and Boones Mill, Va.----I think those folks in rural Franklin County are really gonna hate our guts now!

Since Nancy Pelosi retained her leadership position among House Democrats over Cong. Heath Schuler of North Carolina (a conservative Democrat), she is also trending well in Washington, DC, according to Twitter.

And, of course, the same can be said for the new royal couple of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Is it just me, or are they becoming even more annoying than the Palin family?!