Blogs

Imagine what the ancient Romans ate day to day--the pies, the bread, the spices. Fortunately for us, a lot of these recipes have survived, even one for the isicia omentata, the Roman Burger! Of course there are also a number of dishes which may be too exotic for your palate. But it'd be a culinary adventure to let your tastebuds experience history with ancient roman recipes.

Sometimes, staring out a plane window, you see clouds so soft you're convinced they must be. Then you imagine yourself bouncing on those bundles of cotton. Boing, boing. Well, some people picture this then go skydiving. Why not? This prompted me to seek out my high school pal Curry, who jumps into the sky on his days off. When asked why he'd willingly scare himself witless, he said, "To skydive is to no longer envy a bird in flight.”He then provided some very useful information.

After the December 26, 2004 tsunami, this Kenyan baby hippo lost its mother, washing upriver, traumatized. Instead of retracing its steps home, it found a surrogate mother in this old male turtle. The two now swim and eat together happily with the hippo tagging along its “mother”. Go to Animal Planet for the full story. The Sea Turtle

Living in Taipei I find myself unfriendly in public, so I try to stay indoors. I’m just not too keen on doing the tango with scooters and motorcycles every time I get on the sidewalks. This is particularly so on rainy days, when the spurting sidewalk clams come out. Let me explain. Taipei may have pedestrian rights—the politicians tell us we do, sidewalks indicate this, as do the zebra crossings and red flashing lights. But why do I feel like a traffic cone in danger of being knocked down every time I walk down the sidewalk? By now you must be picturing buses and cars running amok in a city. That’s pretty accurate. Now add to your picture 960,000 registered scooters, then motorcycles, bicycles and my grandmother’s walker. Put them all on the sidewalks. That’s right. Motorists zoom up on the sidewalks (the ramps are meant for the physically handicapped), then slow down to a clumsy dance, each with their own daring and unpredictable steps, as they shake by pedestrians. And the sidewalk clams I speak of are not something you missed in “Alice in Wonderland”. They are broken pieces of 1-foot-square tiles that add up to most sidewalks here. When scooters and motorcycles drive on the sidewalks, the tiles eventually break into smaller pieces. When it rains, water collects underneath these loose "shells". When you step on one, these shells open up and send fresh brown liquid spurting up your pants, or someone else's.

New York Times' reporter Joe Drape looks at the 2005 Run for the Roses which begins with the Kentucky Derby tomorrow. Whether you'll be headed south for the races or raising a mint julep in your living room with a couple of friends, you'll enjoy this multimedia audio slide show.