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Cool as a Cucumber

Posted on August 13, 2009 4:08 pm by JRV Comment

What the heck is person or persons unknown going to do with $10,000 worth of cucumbers? That’s one question the Adelaide police are probably asking themselves after eleven robberies of the cylindrical gourd as reported by The Sydney Morning Herald on August 12, 2009. Then there’s the question of identifying the stolen goods. How do you tell one cucumber from another. Can you pick it out of a line-up of other cucumbers?

$10,000 of cucumbers is an awful lot of salad and facials, that’s for sure – or a cucumber cleanse. Or maybe there’s something more sinister afoot  … maybe it’s a new unusual, untraceable murder weapon.

In the 1600s, raw vegetables were seen as poisonous or fit only for feeding livestock. Cucumbers were called cowcumbers because they were feed to the cows. Samuel Pepys, famous for his diary written at that time, had an entry in September of 1663, “this day Sir W. Batten tells me that Mr. Newhouse is dead of eating cowcumbers, of which the other day I heard of another, I think.” What a pickle.



Negotiating Reality

Posted on June 24, 2009 3:27 pm by JRV Comment

catchingbaby

In his book ‘The Biology of Transcendence’, Joseph Chilton Pearce relates how reality is negotiable when one is in an unconflicted state. Easier said than done as most of us are always conflicted about something or other.

Occasionally, some lucky soul stumbles through and alters reality, often unaware of their part in the miracle. An excellent example of this was reported by CBC news on June 23, 2009, Saint John, NB, when Jim Blagden saw a toddler fall from a third story window and rushed to save him. No conflict there. Save the baby was the total focus of his intention. He raced forward and later told his experience to others.

“He came down head first and I had my arm out and he hit my forearm and after he hit my body, he kind of bounced in the air and still went down,” Blagden said.

“And the last second I grabbed his ankles. It was odd cause it’s like he fell and then all of a sudden I was holding his ankles and it was like, how did this happen?”



Where’s my Cow?

Posted on February 20, 2008 11:34 pm by JRV Comment

The title is twofold – without a cow story in the news for the last few weeks I feel uninspired AND ‘Where’s my Cow’ is the title of a children’s book in a fabulous murder mystery by Terry Pratchet called ‘Thud’. A late comer to Terry Pratchet’s work, I find his my recent books much more readable than his first which were too, um, well, vague in a way but he is definately an author worth taking to bed – if you don’t plan on getting much sleep – oh wait – I mean because you are up all night reading.

In any case, Terry Pratchet is a man who sees behind the veil of consensus reality and if you want read a real manual on magic read his children’s book – ‘The Wee Free Men.’ The BEST! All of his books contain references to ‘higher knowledge’ for those with the ‘ears to hear’ and all that esoteric stuff. The man is frickin brilliant! And now I must go look for my cow.



The Continuing Cow

Posted on February 6, 2008 5:20 pm by JRV 4 Comments

OMG!  They’re taking over the world!  This article stolen from the Boston Channel. I’d put in a link but I don’t know how.

After Accident Woman Finds Cow In Car

Cow Lands In Back Seat

POSTED: 7:50 am EST February 2, 2008

UPDATED: 2:42 pm EST February 2, 2008

REHOBOTH, Mass. — Holy Cow! A Seekonk woman suddenly found an unexpected passenger in her back seat while driving home with her daughter after running a simple errand. Tonya Coccia, 46, said the street was dark when she suddenly saw cows that had wandered out onto the road from a nearby farm. She swerved, but hit two of them. One was a massive Black Angus. “I only saw it for a split second before it came up it into my windshield,” Coccia said.

One of the cows had gone airborne.

“There was airbags and smoke and me and my daughter was losing it. I thought that was it, but I felt my car start shaking.”

The cow had flipped over the roof of the car, gone through the back window and landed in the back seat.

“I didn’t really want to see what was there, but I saw a black cow head in my back window. My daughter turned this way and said ‘Mom there’s a cow in the back seat!’ And we just took off,” Coccia said.

The car’s hood and roof were crushed and the windshield was smashed.

Coccia said she realized there were bound be jokes. The cow in the back seat was not seriously injured, but the second cow did not survive.

“It could have just as easily gone through the windshield and we’d be talking about very serious injuries or possibly death,” said Rehoboth police Sgt. Richard Shailor.

The cow was frightened and agitated. Firefighters and police had to tie it down so it wouldn’t move inside the car. They towed the car to the farm and let it out.

Both Coccia and her daughter Haley, 14, suffered minor injuries. Her car was a total loss.



The Cost of Chocolate

Posted on November 28, 2007 3:23 pm by JRV Comment

The cost of chocolate – and I don’t mean our hips either!!! I guess it just figures (no pun intended) that someone is always ready to cash in on another’s addictions.

Watchdog investigates alleged Canadian chocolate ‘cartel’

Canadian divisions of chocolate makers face price-fixing accusations

Last Updated: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 | 9:40 AM ET

The Associated Press

Regulators have launched an investigation into allegations that the Canadian divisions of Nestlé, Cadbury, Hershey, Mars and others have engaged in a price-fixing scheme in the multibillion-dollar chocolate bar business, according to a media report.

Canada’s Competition Bureau served search warrants on several major bar makers this week, requiring them to turn over reams of documents on their pricing arrangements, the Globe and Mail reported in Wednesday editions.

“We can confirm that we are investigating alleged anti-competitive practices in the chocolate confectionery industry,” said John Pecman, the bureau’s assistant deputy commissioner in the criminal matters branch.

“The volume of commerce affected here is definitely potentially in the billions of dollars per year.”

Pecman said an Ontario court recently “granted search warrants based on the evidence that there are reasonable grounds to believe that a number of the suppliers in the chocolate industry have engaged in activities contrary to the conspiracy provisions — that’s a cartel — of the Competition Act.”

Pecman would not identify the companies.
The investigation is focused on chocolate products, but could expand to other types of candy depending on what is uncovered, he said.

“There are no conclusions of wrongdoing at this time,” Pecman said. “We’re just at the investigative stage.”

All four companies said they would co-operate fully with any investigation, the Globe and Mail reported.

“We are aware of it, but all we can say is that we can’t comment on any ongoing investigation, but we are co-operating with any inquiries,” Cadbury spokesman Simon Taylor told the Associated Press on Wednesday in London.

Hershey did not immediately return calls early on Wednesday.

Canadians buy about $2.3-billion worth of chocolate and candy every year, according to the Confectionery Manufacturers Association of Canada.




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