How did it feel living crammed together in a small sailing ship as it tossed about in the Atlantic Ocean with gale-force winds howling around on the endless journeys bringing emigrants to the New World hundreds of years ago? To find out, I took a trip to the Kalmar Nyckel, a full-scale replica of just such a ship that brought the first immigrants from Sweden in 1638 AD.
Experts claim inflation is around 3 percent. No. It is much higher and becoming entrenched. Here’s why.
On TV and in newspapers I constantly hear and read inflation is decreasing. An Associated Press article argued in the past year, inflation fell from 9% to near 3%. Prof. Paul Krugman (whose articles I love and regularly read in New York Times) has opined How (Many) Economists have missed the great Disinflation.
Disclaimer, I am not an economist and not schooled in multivariate analysis of prices and trends. But I can read the numbers on a bill and compare them to earlier ones. I find inflation is NOT under control and in some cases increasing.
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Hot, hazy summers and sweet, juicy mangoes, they came together— that made the heat bearable. At least, that’s what I thought growing up in India, where mango is considered ‘The King of Fruit’. In the summer of 2006 on a trip to India, President George W. Bush, having just tasted an alphonso mango, had famously quipped, “That is one hell of a fruit”. No quibbles there.
Mangoes are now available almost everywhere in the US. They are grown in the south, mainly in warm, humid Florida, and also imported from Mexico and other Central American countries. The number of mangophiles is rapidly increasing with the spread of the diaspora from mango-loving tropical lands. It can be eaten alone, in a salad or a chaat.
With ice cream, it becomes a delectable, tailor-made, summer dessert. In this post I describe the mangoes, the ice creams, the liqueur and how the dish was put together. Try it this summer. You will love it.
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Brown bread, orange marmalade, blue cheese, green avocados, black coffee and a fried white egg—good for the body and soul.
What’s not to like— the flavors so mixed in it that Nature might stand up and say to all the world, “This was a breakfast”!
But, I digress. Got carried away by The Bard. Back to the food.
Continued from: My Mexico Trip, Part 8; Merida.
Today we will be visiting Chichén Itzá, the crown jewel of our trip. The organizers have wisely kept the best for last. It is a UNESCO heritage site and in 2007 was selected as one of the new, seven wonders of the world. In brief, a place worth seeing.
Chichén Itzá, located in the state of Yucatán, Mexico, was first settled by the Maya around the sixth century AD. The name means “Mouth of the well of the Itzá”. It was later abandoned, and then settled by the Toltecs who came from the central highlands. The site therefore exhibits a mix of the two cultures as depicted in the architectural styles and carvings. This fusion led to the veneration of the Toltec deity Quetzalcóatl (the plumed serpent, aka Kukulcán in Maya) and Chac-mool (the Maya rain god). Their images were everywhere. Chichén Itzá was at its height from 700 to 900 AD. It was finally abandoned in the fourteenth century. The reason is still a mystery.
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