Buffet that Recently Made the New Record Buffet in the Guinness Book of World Records

Manda! Thought of you when I ran across a Reuters article that talked about a new record buffet that made the Guinness Book of World Records this week. Manda and I both share a fond appreciation for food.

To break the previous record, 500 dishes were needed to create a new record buffet. Executive Chef, George Bargisen, at the Las Vegas Hilton, spent some 24 hours overseaing preparation of 510 different dishes. 40 soups, 100 salads, and 150 desserts were available. Nadine Causey, a Guinness Book of World Records official flew from London to verify and certify that a new record buffet had been reached.

Each person was charged $7.50 for the buffet. All proceeds were donated to America's Second Harvest, a hunger relief charity. Pretty cool, huh!

Below is the article from which I gathered the information, published by Reuters, on Wednesday, March 29, 2006:

Four Beautiful Words: All You Can Eat. . .

Cravings that Have Come and Gone from Conception Until Now

Here is a list of cravings that have come and gone from conception until now (this isn't necessarily an exhaustive list):

• Hop Tung's Hot and Sour soup.
• ice cream.
• cucumber salad (with tomatoes and onions).
• pickled kohlrabi (pickled with salt and a bit of sugar).
• cheese (such as slices of pepper jack) with Claussen's baby size pickles.
• fresh, organic carrots and celery dipped in Ranch vegetable dipping sauce.
• fruit popsicles (especially strawberry popsicles with strawberry chunks).
• fresh fruit - strawberries, bananas, honeydew, blueberries, mango).
• Troy's homemade yogurt smoothies, with fruit (fresh pineapples, fresh bananas, sometimes fresh oranges, other times frozen strawberries and frozen blueberries.
• Haagen Daaz popsicles (mint & dark chocolate or chocolate with nuts).
• sushi made with crab meat and cucumber.
• pregnancy tea or herbal tea - English style (with milk and sugar).
  

Keep the pandas, Taiwan tells China

Keep the pandas, Taiwan tells China

The Alleged Urgency of Time Here in the U. S.

Although I am in a most busy season of life finishing a dissertation, teaching five classes, participating in two discussion groups, and being pregnant - I have found time to read a non-philosophy book for pleasure. I'm reading Ryszard Kapuscinski's "The Shadow of the Sun," albeit at a VERY leisurely pace. It is a Polish man's journey of forty years in Africa, recounting details of everyday life there. At this time, I am still towards the beginning of the book. But, one observation I've gleaned from the book is just how different Africans conceive time. They're not constantly running around all over the place, in a mad rush to get here or there. I've experienced the constant hussle and bustle of everyday life activities here in the U.S., in Taiwan, and in Hong Kong. A good friend from England, Richard, also seems to run a rather hectic life, constantly running from place to place, from moment to moment. Is that the good life, though? Is that the sort of life that is worth living? One of my best friends, Christine, from time to time, will point out how much activity I have jammed packed in my daily life. By making such an observation known to me, she means no ill will. But, at times, I must confess, I have overcommitted myself. What is the result of this? I am exhausted and worn to the bone, with not a moment's stillness. Here, in the Valley (Rio Grande Valley, deep in the bowels of Texas), we're very close to Mexico. One event that Hispanics near or from Mexico (what's the PC term here?) are known from is a siesta. And, since coming here, I noticed that things move at a much slower pace. When I first arrived here, I found out that only one person at the City of Edinburg handles service to where I live. I needed to get a trash receptacle when we first moved here, and on one occasion, I happened to phone when the only gal that handles service to our area was on lunch break. To say the least, I was unsuccessful in getting a trash bin delivered that day. Took a few more days to have it delivered. To return to the point for which I brought up "The Shadow of the Sun," at one time, Kapuscinski describes waiting for a bus to begin its route. The amount of time in which a person has to wait each time for this bus to begin its route varies, according to how long the bus takes to fill with people. At one time, a character in the book had to wait two hours for the bus to begin its journey. Passengers on the bus simply were undisturbed by the amount of time they had to wait. I'm getting the impression that that's simply an instance of how life is lived in Africa. Though at first glance (and at second glance) that seems counterproductive, something about taking one's time to do just about anything, without feeling like one is racing for time, seems very appealing to me.