Archive for the 'Food' Category

Jan

Thursday, 1/19

Good luck on your Math Midterm today. There will probably not be a blog entry tomorrow so good luck on tomorrow’s Science Midterm as well. If you studied/prepared/attended extra help/paid attention in class since September you should be fine. If not…

Did you hear about the tissue boxes that had traces of radioactivity that were found in local Bed, Bath and Beyond stores? This cartoon pretty much says it all.

It always worries me when such things happen. I suppose I have too much trust in the government to regulate the safety of items that we are going to purchase.

Earlier this week, the Reds signed outfielder Ryan Ludwick to a one year deal. He’s going to split time with Chris Heisey in left field. I don’t hate the deal, but I don’t love it either. I would have liked to see Heisey get the bulk of the playing time in left to see what he is capable of during a full season. Also, I don’t think we’re getting the Ryan Ludwick from 2008 when he hit over 30 HRs and drove in over 100 runs. If he can be anywhere near those numbers this year I will be thrilled.
Bottom line, with the Reds adding Mat Latos, Sean Marshall, Ryan Ludwick and Ryan Madson, the team should be improved and ready to compete this year. I can’t wait for the season to begin.

Lots of random thoughts today. Here’s another one: I like kettle corn. Sweet and salty together as one. Can life get any better?

Speaking of food, what is your favorite food to eat when you go to a sporting event? I usually just get a soda and maybe some peanuts but last time I was at CitiField I had a burger from Shake Shack. It was delicious.

posted by Mr. Dowling in Current Events,Food,School,The Reds,Uncategorized,baseball and have Comments (5)

Dec

Cat With 26 Toes

December 26 seems like a fitting day to share with you an article I came across. It seems that a cat was rescued at an animal shelter with 26 toes. What is amazing is that 26 toes on a cat isn’t even the world record. According to the article, 28 toes is the Guinness world record.
It is actually a pretty nice story. In short, the rescue center used the cat’s toes to solicit donations to build a new home for the animals. They ended up raising over $100,000, mostly in $26 dollar donations.

My favorite part of the story is that the cat’s name is Daniel. What a purrrfect name!!!

Top Blog Stories of 2011

Man Eats 25,000th Big Mac
Here’s the article and what I had to say about it earlier this year:

Check out this article: Man Plans To Eat 25,000th Big Mac

Questions I have:
How is this man still alive?
Who counts how many hamburgers they have eaten?
Why does this man suspiciously look like the Hamburglar?

How is it that this guy doesn’t have the record?

In honor of the cat with 26 toes donation story and the 25,000 Big Macs story, I’m requesting that all of you donate $25,000 (one for each Big Mac) to socialstudieswithasmile.com!!! You can send the money directly to me! It’s not to early to start fund-raising for our Superbowl Commercial.
My goal this year is to catch the guy in the article. I’ve probably had 2 Big Macs in my life so I have a long way to go. If I eat 68 Big Macs per day I should meet my goal!

I also want to add a question to the questions I asked a few months ago: Who the heck keeps track of how many Big Macs they eat???
If you could meet Don Gorske, what questions would you have for him?

posted by Mr. Dowling in Current Events,Food,Uncategorized and have Comment (1)

Dec

Krispy Kreme Hamburger

As promised, here is a re-posting of the Krispy Kreme Hamburger. I’d love to get my hands on one of these…and eventually I will. If you click the link, you’ll find the video of the burger. MMMM MMMM GOOD! Now I just hope your essays will be as good as this hamburger.

Krispy Kreme Hamburger Article

Here is the proof that I didn’t make up the story about the Krispy Kreme hamburger. The article states that the burger is over 1000 calories. I have to admit, I would try it.

mmmmm….burger

posted by Mr. Dowling in Food,School,Uncategorized and have Comments (7)

Nov

The Weekend of 11/19

As we go through our vocabulary in Core Extension, we certainly have had some interesting discussions. It seems that every year students are fascinated with filibusters.
As stated in class, Strom Thurmond does have the record for the longest filibuster. I was just a bit off in how long he was actually able to speak on the Senate floor.
Check out the article here.
Here are some interesting excerpts:

The senator, armed with throat lozenges and malted milk tablets, recited the voting rights laws of every state to show adequate protection existed. He also recited the Declaration of Independence and launched into a history of Anglo-Saxon juries to counter the bill’s proposal to allow judges to punish cases of civil contempt without a jury trial.

Thurmond also had visited the Senate steam room to get liquids out of his body so that if he drank during the filibuster, he would not have to go to the bathroom.

Obviously what Thurmond was trying to block was Civil Rights legislation. That doesn’t exactly make him a hero.
Interestingly, while conducting a little internet “research”, I came across a list of the longest filibusters in Senate history. The second longest filibuster came from former NY Senator Al D’Amato. He clocked in at just a little under 24 hours in 1986.

For those who are wondering, here are the words that we have already had a vocabulary words in Core Extension:

precocious
incumbent
filibuster
redundant
bellicose

As promised, here is the link (once again) to former student Chris Hart’s cartoons: hartcartoons.com. I don’t usually use last names on the website but I figured it would be okay because it is in the web address.
I’m also going to add the link to the section on socialstudieswithasmile.com for “Fun Sites”.

Don’t forget to work on your 13 Colonies project. The more you prepare and rehearse the better your presentation will be. We might allow some groups to have a dress rehearsal on Monday. We did it in SJU with Allie, Crew and Krissy and it was very helpful to them. By the way, they did a great job considering they had 3 minutes notice that they would be getting up in front of the entire class.

A common discussion on the blog has been food. We’re always talking about food. It seems that lately we haven’t and I’m not sure why. I recently had kettle corn for the first time. I don’t typically eat popcorn but kettlecorn was great. I can’t believe I’ve been missing out on this for so long. Sweet and salty work well together. Kind of like me and Mr. Joseph!!!…only better.
Have a great weekend! I’ll be keeping an eye on the Dolphins this week. Can they beat the Bills? I hope so.

posted by Mr. Dowling in Food,School,Uncategorized,history and have Comments (6)

Nov

Wednesday, 11/2

Congratulations to Brandon Phillips and Joey Votto for winning the Gold Glove award. I believe this is Phillips’ 3rd award. It is Votto’s first. I don’t think Votto is gold glove caliber. However, Adrian Gonzalez is no longer in the league and there aren’t any other star defenders in the league that would be perennial gold glovers. Votto’s bat helps also. For some reason, it seems that your ability to put up offensive numbers help win a defensive award.
I’m not surprised that Jay Bruce didn’t win. He had a few too many mental lapses in right to warrant the award.

If You Sell It, They Will Buy It
Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as “If You Build It, They Will Come” does it? The field that was the centerpiece of the movie Field of Dreams has been sold. Apparently the field, which has been owned by the Lansing family since 1906 was just sold. The original asking price was $5.4 million. The land includes 193 acres, a two bedroom house and 6 other buildings.
Click here to read more.
Article from the New York Times
By the way, Field of Dreams is on our list of movies to watch during Laughs and Lunch. We usually start it around March or April to celebrate the beginning of a new baseball season. It is a great movie and gets better with every viewing in my opinion.
Speaking of Laughs and Lunch. Our next session has been moved to Thursday. We will also meet Thursday next week because we don’t have school on Friday.

Homework Club Canceled
Homework Club is canceled for Thursday. We will return again on Thursday, 11/10/11.

Former Jelly Belly Man Looking To Make A Comeback
I wouldn’t count on it. According to the article (which you can read by clicking here), David Klein, the man who first brought us Jelly Belly jelly beans in 1976 is working on a new candy he would like to launch called “Farts”. I think he’s just full of hot air if ya know what I mean!!! Something tells me they aren’t going to sell well.
This article is also noteworthy because it refers to Ronald Reagan’s enjoyment of jelly beans.

The result was the Jelly Belly, a flavorful little gob of sugar, syrup and cornstarch that quickly became the favored treat of millions, including President Ronald Reagan.

While Jelly Bellys were being passed around the table at Reagan administration Cabinet meetings and carried into outer space by astronauts in the 1980s, Klein was trying in vain to come up with another big thing.

I’m a bigger fan of Starburst Jelly Beans but I recently had some Jelly Belly jelly beans and the normal flavors were actually quite good.

posted by Mr. Dowling in Current Events,Food,School,Uncategorized,baseball and have Comments (12)

Sep

The Weekend of 9/24

The baseball season is sputtering to a stop very soon. Perhaps not soon enough for a team with high expectations that did not pan out. The Reds have 5 games remaining and need to win all 5 in order to finish above .500. Given that they have found it impossible to beat the Pirates and Mets this year, I don’t see it happening.

Perhaps as a consolation prize, the Dolphins will beat the Browns this week.
But the big question is can the Giants beat the Eagles? Your thoughts?

Remember that your 8 note cards and poster are due on Tuesday. We will review in class and then I will collect your work. The Native American Cultural Diversity assignment is worth a test grade.

The oldest living Reds player died recently. Danny Litwhiler died at the age of 95. The “new oldest” player is now 93 year old Lonnie Goldstein. If you haven’t heard of either of these players you are not alone…I’ve never heard of them either.

Danny Litwhiler with Jackie Robinson

We managed to discuss breakfast cereals twice yesterday, once during homebase and once at the end of an afternoon class. I stand firmly by my stance: Cereals with marshmallows are terrible. I’d rather eat chalk than eat Lucky Charms.

Question of the Day: A recent letter to the editor in Newsday questioned the “sport” of competitive eating and whether it is in bad taste (ahem…pun intended) to over eat for sport when their are so many people struggling to find a meal during these tough times. The writer made a good point. What do you think?

Obama Repeals Portions of No Child Left Behind Legislation
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I’ve always believed that legislation for schools is more geared towards places that are not succeeding and not a school district like Port Washington. Port Washington has the best of the best when it comes to teachers and students that strive for success. Are there weak students? Sure. But we do everything we can to help them achieve. We don’t need a law to tell us to do so. Just my opinion. What is yours?

Mrs. Dowling and I have added “Up All Night” to our weekly television viewing. It is about a couple with a baby and what life is like with their new addition. Obviously the humor is a bit funnier to those who are experiencing or have experienced having babies. Of course as I’m writing this I look over to see DJ with a bucket over his head pretending he’s a robot! All in a day’s parenting!
Speaking of Mrs. Dowling, she will return to school on Monday. If you see her, welcome her back.

posted by Mr. Dowling in Current Events,Food,School,Television,The Reds,Uncategorized,baseball and have Comments (16)

Sep

Tuesday, 9/20

Where did the expression “he’s not a happy camper” come from? Just wondering.

As we’ve documented a number of times here, I’m a big fan of hamburgers. For my money, Five Guys still takes the cake (what does that mean anyway?). The hamburger at Chili’s is a close second…could Wendy’s top the list? They’re going to try with their new Dave’s Hot and Juicy burger. I’ll get around to trying one in a few months.
Click here to read more.

Hmmmm...Why do I feel the urge to write an essay?

Did anyone watch Dancing With the Stars last night? I tried again and didn’t make it past Ron Artest, the first dancer.

Finally, Tom Wilson Sr., the creator of the comic Ziggy has died. Although I was never a huge fan of his comic, there is no denying that it had a following. I’m sure he made a pretty penny (what does that mean!!!) in his day.
Interesting story in his obituary…it seems that he came up with the character’s name based on his experience in school of being last alphabetically. He created Ziggy as a last in line type person. A lovable loser if you will.

I assume Ziggy will live on as his son, Tom Wilson Jr., has been drawing the strip since 1987.

posted by Mr. Dowling in Current Events,Food,Uncategorized and have Comments (5)

Sep

I’m Back!!!

After an extended break from the blog and website, I’m back.
My time away didn’t exactly go as expected. I ended up having several family members come to my house as they had to flee evacuation zones. Of course, of all the homeowners that stayed with me only my house lost power.
We ended up not having power for 5 full days. I’ll avoid being critical of LIPA because I know they had a big job but thank goodness this wasn’t a huge storm.
I wasn’t too worried about losing the power because my family and my parents were slated for a trip to Lake George for 4 days. Unfortunately, that never got off the ground. After driving for hours and hours trying to find a way around closed roads, we finally decided to give up and cancel our vacation.
And it was a good thing that we did. It turns out that the place we were staying in Lake George lost all power. It was likely we would have been miserable there anyway.
We turned our vacation into a staycation as we stayed with my parents until power was restored. We ended up taking trips to 2 parks/playgrounds for DJ to play, Adventureland (he’s still a bit too young but did like the train ride around the park) and the beach.
I wouldn’t say this was the best vacation ever but at least we made the best of a bad situation.

Speaking of bad situations, the Reds must have been experiencing deja vu as they were once again swept by the Phillies in easy fashion. The good news at least is that Chris Heisey returned from the disabled list with a 3 run pinch hit homerun. The Reds also called up rookie catcher Devin Mesoraco to see what he’s got. The Yankees aren’t the only team with a catching phenom. The Reds now have 3 games against the Cardinals. Whether the Reds are in 3rd place or last, they will always want to beat the Birds. I hope they get it done.

Another Study On Soda
If you’re a loyal reader of the blog, you know that I enjoy soda. I drink it more often than I should but my excuse is that I don’t drink coffee so that makes up for the coffee.
Check out this article on soda. It was staggering to find that according to the article, 5% of people drink 4 cans of soda a day. The most powerful part of the article was the quote from an upcoming ad campaign, “”If you wouldn’t eat 22 packs of sugar, why are you drinking it?” I never thought of it quite like that.

St. John’s University Basketball On The Rise
I was pleased to read that the St. John’s basketball team will have 17 national broadcasts this season. That shows that the schedule makers see the Red Storm as a team on the move. I’m glad. Basketball and St. John’s used to go hand in hand. Unfortunately, that was a long, long time ago. I like to see that they are returning to their prominence. I haven’t been to a game in years. However, college level athletics is always fun. I went to a St. John’s baseball game last year and loved every minute of it.
There are plenty of local colleges that you can check out. Hofstra, CW Post and St. John’s are all within driving distance. Best of all, their games are extremely affordable and sometimes even free.

I also managed to finish reading Shoeless Joe during the vacation. Shoeless Joe was the inspiration for the hit baseball movie Field of Dreams. I enjoyed the book, but like the movie must more. The storyline in the movie flows much better than the book. The book has a few addition characters that don’t add to the storyline and often detract from it. Perhaps I feel this way because I’ve seen the movie so often.
I think the movie is better because it focused on the relationship between a father and a son. The book (in my opinion) largely skimmed past that.
I’ll have the book in my classroom library if you would like to check it out. It was still worth reading.
Question of the Day: Do you prefer reading a book first and then seeing the movie, or seeing the movie and then reading the book? If you’ve seen a movie, would you still go through the trouble of reading the book?

It is a tradition for us to watch Field of Dreams during lunch in April. I’m looking forward to doing so once again.

One last thing, I’ve been watching the Phineas and Ferb movie with my son. Is it odd that I’m actually enjoying it. Am I the only one that enjoys this show?

We’re just days away from school. Enjoy what is left of the summer!

posted by Mr. Dowling in Books,Current Events,Food,Movies,Television,The Reds,Uncategorized,baseball and have Comments (8)

Aug

Thursday, 8/4

I don’t know if I ever mentioned this, but I’m loving the frozen hot chocolate from Dunkin Donuts. If you haven’t had one, you should. They are definitely available in Port Washington. I had one from the DD on Main Street about 2 weeks ago.

Times are tough for the Reds right now but at least we’re not moaning and groaning about everything the way the Cardinals are. I guess we have a bit more dignity with defeat than they do.

When the entire division hates you and has altercations with you, it can’t be everyone else. It might be time for Tony LaRussa and the Cardinals to look in the mirror and realize that they are the problem.
There are rumors that LaRussa might be leaving the Cardinals for the job in Chicago (White Sox). Hopefully that is the case.

This Day In History
1790-Congress creates what will become known as the Coast Guard.
1914-President Woodrow Wilson declares US neutrality in World War I.

posted by Mr. Dowling in Food,The Reds,Uncategorized,baseball,history and have Comments (4)

Jul

Friday, 7/15

Did you hear about the little girl who shot a hole in one? And it wasn’t even in mini-golf…no tricky windmills or anything. Unbelievable!
Here’s the article. I believe I read somewhere that it was an 85 year shot, nearly an entire football field. That’s pretty accurate!

Television during the summer is usually a graveyard of terrible shows and repeats. Mrs. Dowling and I managed to find a few good shows worth watching. We are currently watching the 2nd season of Master Chef and Hot in Cleveland. We just added a new show on TLC called Surprise Homecoming. Usually I call TLC the Freakshow Channel because this is the channel that brought us shows about Tree People, 1000 lb. people, wolf-man, etc. but this show is actually worth watching. It is about soldiers coming back from Iraq or Afghanistan to surprise family members who haven’t seen them in a long time. It is tough not to get emotional watching the show. It airs Mondays at 10 and is hosted by Billy Ray Cyrus. Definitely worth checking out.
Here’s the link to the show’s website.

Speaking of television, this Sunday on ABC Family is a movie called Cyberbully. Check it out. Let me know if you think it is better than Odd Girl Out. There’s a bunch of information on the website about the movie and the campaign to “Delete Digital Drama”. Check it out.

I used to love these when I was a kid. They are WWE Wrestling Ice Cream bars. They had a cookie with a wrestler printed on it with vanilla ice cream and a chocolate coating. If you ever see these in a store, pick it up. It is worth it, even if you don’t like wrestling.

Big series for the Reds this weekend. Reds vs. Cardinals. It is also Superhero Weekend for the Reds. Too bad they couldn’t have Superman or The Hulk in their lineup. I guess we’ll just have to settle for Votto and Bruce.
Here’s a good cartoon in honor of Superhero Weekend.

Have a great weekend!

posted by Mr. Dowling in Food,Movies,Television,The Reds,Uncategorized,baseball and have Comment (1)

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