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180abroad · 7 years ago

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Day 45: Provence (Wine, Hill Towns, and Roman Ruins)

Today we went on our “All Provence in a Day” day tour, which we had managed to reschedule yesterday. Provence is filled with historic sights and quaint towns spread all over, so the only way to see it is by either renting a car yourself or booking a spot on a day tour. Given our recent luck with trying to rent, I’m glad we'd decided on the tour.

It was definitely a whistle-stop tour, but it was really cool getting to at least see so many famous sites in a single day. And in this case, I think we all preferred getting to see a bit of everything than spending longer in just a few. The next time we come to Avignon, hopefully we’ll have time to linger a bit longer at our favorites.

Our first stop was the ancient city of Orange. Originally a Celtic settlement, the city was taken by Romans in 35 BC and transformed into a regional capital. Provence was a popular home for Roman military veterans, and some of the best-preserved Roman constructs outside of Rome are found here. The two main Roman sights in Orange are the Arc de Triomphe and amphitheater.

The arch was built to span the grand Roman highway at the north entrance of town. (At the time, straight paved roads were as unmistakeably Roman as arches.) The faces of the arch are covered in carvings showing various Roman military victories in the area. Everyone who entered the city would be inescapably reminded of the Empire’s military and technological dominance.

You can also see traces from when the arch was merged with the city’s medieval walls. After some debate, Victorian-era archeologists decided to sacrifice the walls in favor of restoring the arch to its original design.

After the arch, we visited the amphitheater.

While the theater’s original roof and outbuildings have been lost over the millennia, the essential structure is remarkably well-preserved. According to the audioguide, the rear wall of the stage in its heyday would have been decorated with dozens of columns and statues, all of which would have been brightly painted.

In the center of the wall is a niche with a statue of a Roman emperor. Instead of replacing the entire statue every time there was a new emperor, the statue’s head would be popped off and replaced with one of the new emperor.

Leaving Orange, we next headed to one of the most famous winemaking regions in the world: Chateauneuf-du-Pape. During the 14th century, a series of popes ruled the Catholic church from Avignon instead of Rome, which they considered too dangerous at the time. A country retreat was built for the popes in a nearby village that became known as Chateauneuf-du-Pape (”the pope’s new castle”). The popes didn’t use the castle much, but they certainly made use of the vineyards. Since then, the region has been known for its highly desireable-and highly priced-wines.

We visited the Ogier winery, where an employee showed us around the cellar (where her spike heels almost fell through a drain grate), then gave us a tasting alongside a demonstration of the region’s distinctive soil types.

The tasting was light on guidance or discussion of the wines themselves, but they tasted good enough. We chalked it up as just a bonus--we had a full wine-tasting tour scheduled for tomorrow, and today’s visit hadn’t even been part of the original itinerary. But I think we were all secretly hoping for a better experience on our actual wine-tasting tour. (Spoiler alert: we totally did.)

After the wine tasting, we headed back to Avignon for a quick lunch break and change of touring companions. We had been sharing the tour with one couple that had booked a morning tour, and we would be spending the afternoon with a different couple that had booked the other half-day tour.

As we pulled into town, we passed by the broken bridge of Avignon, a local landmark and subject of a famous French nursery rhyme. When I first saw it, I wasn’t sure why it was so famous. But our guide explained: when it was built, the bridge didn’t just cross the short river visible from the road. The land on the other side is actually one of several large islands breaking up the Rhone river near Avignon. When it was built the Avignon bridge spanned over half a mile across the entire width of the Rhone, connecting the city to a nearby castle. The bridge was destroyed and rebuilt multiple times--sometimes by war, sometimes by flooding--and eventually the powers that be gave up on repairing it.

Once we were back in Avignon, a nice, relaxing lunch proved to be a casualty of our speedy tour schedule. We were given twenty minutes to hop out of the van and grab some takeout sandwiches before being picked up again.

Our afternoon started with a visit to another famous Roman sight: the Pont du Gard--a magnificent aqueduct spanning the Gardon river and the tallest aqueduct the Romans ever built.

A footbridge made to match the Pont’s appearance runs along the top of the first tier of arches. Walking on the bridge, we could really appreciate the immense scale and extraordinary quality of the Pont’s construction.

On the way back to our tour van, Jessica and Donna picked up some very mediocre coffee from the on-site cafe. Not recommended.

Our next sight was Les Baux, a striking hill town surrounded by stony ridges that could have come straight from the Sierra Nevadas.

We didn’t get nearly enough time in the town--we didn’t even get to really see the ruined castle on top--but we were able to stroll through a lot of the lower town and pop into several shops. We all bought some very nice scented Provencal soaps from one shop.

After leaving Les Baux, we drove briefly through the town of St. Remy, where Van Gogh spent a year in a psychiatric ward and painted Starry Night.

Our next whistle-stop was on a ridge overlooking the picturesque hill town of Gordes. It is a stunningly beautiful town, but we don’t have much to say about it. According to our guide, the town suffered severe population loss during the Industrial Revolution--when the bulk of jobs moved from the fields into the cities. But after World War II, it was rediscovered by French society, becoming an artist enclave and then a tourist destination.

We only got to see Gordes, not explore it. But we did get to explore our last destination--Roussillon.

Called the Grand Canyon of France, Roussillon stands on a mountain of bright red and orange ochre. It is the largest such ochre deposit in all of Europe. I had mainly associated ochre with painting, but textiles were actually the biggest consumer of ochre pigments by far. Roussillon was a major mining town from the late 1700s (when the Industrial Revolution began to consolidate and boost the textile industry) to the early 1900s (when conservationism and the use of artificial pigments were both on the rise.)

Ochre clay is also used in building--including virtually all of the homes in Roussillon itself. Apparently, it provides excellent insulation and weather resistance.

While wandering the town for an hour or so, I was able to pick up some small bottles of local red ochre pigment for some artist friends of mine.

Finally, after a very long day of riding around the countryside, we headed back home to Avignon, where we walked by the Palace of the Popes and picked up some food for dinner at the Carrefour supermarket on the way to our flat.

Next Post: Rhone Valley Wineries

Last Post: Welcome to France (If You Can Make It)

#180abroad #avignon #provence #france #history #roman ruins #hill towns #travel #long day

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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Historical War Epics of the 2000s Ranked

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“There was once a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it, anything more than a whisper and it would vanish.” These were the words spoken by Richard Harris at his most regal in Gladiator, adding some blockbuster poeticism to the democratic ideals of the Roman republic—a dream lost long before Gladiator begins. But he could just as easily be speaking about the beauty and grandeur of the historical epics which inspired Gladiator .

Decades before Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott reawakened that whisper to a mighty roar, historical war epics, from swords and sandals beefcake cinema to Napoleonic and Revolutionary melodramas, were the order of the day in Hollywood. Kirk Douglas’ Spartacus and Charlton Heston’s Ben-Hur were the superheroes of the early ‘60s, before the genre’s popularity receded to camp TV miniseries ignominy. Then came Gladiator (and to a lesser extent Braveheart five years earlier), and the bloated Hollywood historical epic was back. Throughout the 2000s and early 2010s, muscular movie stars crossed swords, medieval chainmail was adorned, and Greco sandals were fitted. For a brief time in this century, bronze breastplates instead of capes were the costume of choice for Hollywood’s biggest leading men.

So with Gladiator turning 20 this summer, we felt it only fitting to rank the movies of that era from their worst to best. Note we are keeping this just to the movies released in the 2000s, but rest assured that if we included the final dregs of the early 2010s, Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood would be near the very bottom.

13. The Last Legion (2007)

The King Arthur myth remains a tantalizing conundrum for filmmakers in the 21st century. On the one hand, it is a set of legends so ancient they are all in the public domain many centuries over; on the other, no filmmaker or studio seems to know how to wrap their arms around them for a modern audience. Take for instance this dead-on-arrival action romp, The Last Legion. Three years after Disney’s more earnest attempt to remake Arthur in the blockbuster stylings of its day (more on that in a moment), Dino De Laurentiis produced this cheap, half-hearted failure that tried to find a middle way.

Centered on the dubious idea that Arthur is actually a Roman noble who’s come to save the Britons from themselves, and here is the son of the last Roman Emperor to boot, The Last Legion attempts to be a historical epic on a budget, but really plays like an expensive episode of Xena: Warrior Princess with Colin Firth standing in for Lucy Lawless. Granted this makes a certain type of sense given director Doug Lefler worked on that very show, but then that tells you everything you need to know about this less-than-magical experience.

12. King Arthur (2004)

One of the most obvious attempts to recapture Gladiator’s lightning in a bottle turned out to be among the worst in this misbegotten other “true story” telling of the King Arthur legend. Pivoting on this dubious marketing claim, Disney produced a movie which saw David Franzoni, the original screenwriter of Gladiator, take center stage without John Logan cleaning up his narrative lines and dialogue, and Clive Owen strike an unconvincing pose as a blockbuster leading man.

Loosely based on the final days of the Roman Empire’s rule in Britannia, the movie introduces Owen’s Arthur as a half-Roman officer who must reluctantly take his “Knights of the Round Table” (a dirty half-dozen) on One Last Mission™. It’s a development which bears a striking similarity to Tears of the Sun (2003), a movie Antoine Fuqua just happened to direct the year before helming this wannabe epic. Even with shots of Michael Bay-styled hazy spectacle centered around Hadrian’s Wall, and the unconvincing sight of Keira Knightley in blue war paint and leather straps as a pagan Celtic warrior—she’s Guinevere, by the by—there’s not a whole lot about this dull affair we would deem legendary.

11. Gods and Generals (2003)

This is a trickier one to include. While certainly a would-be historical war epic released in the 2000s, Gods and Generals is in earnest a prequel to producer Ted Turner and director Ronald F. Maxwell’s Gettysburg (1993). That earlier, superior film was a TNT miniseries, but it’s so enjoyable to history buffs that it eventually got a theatrical release… then came this.

If Gettysburg flirted with Southern Lost Cause revisionism, then Gods and Generals married the insidious mythology, settled down with it, and produced a cinematic ne’er-do-well as its legacy. Like the title suggests, this movie deifies Confederate generals Robert E. Lee (Robert Duvall) and Stonewall Jackson (Stephen Lang) while completely sidestepping the reasons they were rebelling against the Union. It even incredulously features a scene where Jackson assures a Black man the Confederacy will one day emancipate its slaves.

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Worse than any historical revisionism though, this movie is just a tepid slog across 220 minutes, with neither the budget nor cast of extras needed to infuse its battle scenes with a sense of authentic terror or excitement. Instead “both sides” are played by dignified, middle-aged reenactors who display no fears or self-awareness about sacrificing their lives for a cause the movie is too scared to accept.

10. Apocalypto (2006)

Ah, the first Mel Gibson entry on this list is also the picture he made after achieving brief godlike status among evangelicals and Tinseltown accountants via The Passion of the Christ (2004). With that level of box office clout, Gibson could do anything he wanted. So, tired of giving the British a bad look with his epics, he decided it was the ancient Mayans’ turn.

To be clear, there are elements to admire about Apocalypto. For starters, Gibson committed to having the actors speak in the Yucatec Maya language, an audacious choice for a Hollywood film. It really does create an irresistibly immersive quality. Dean Semler’s cinematography also goes a long way in forging a sense of reality to what is essentially a chase movie wherein ancient villagers of a remote tribe in Central America are conquered and then pursued by Mayans who desire to use their blood for human sacrifice.

Yet the sparseness of the story also makes it easy to get lost in visuals that seek to not only ‘Other’ the ancient past, but to also condescend to it in a movie that lazily equates Mayans and Aztecs as interchangeable; it was the latter who celebrated large scale human sacrifice of captured enemies. More troubling though is this seems intentionally mangled for the shock twist ending where we see the ships of Hernán Cortés arriving a full 600 years early, giving this movie the queasy realization that the whole thing is a cinematic justification for the conquest and violence of the Catholic Conquistadors.

9. Alexander (2004)

Behold, here lies Oliver Stone’s Waterloo. A testament to the filmmaker’s love for antiquity, Alexander is a big beautiful mess that cannot be saved no matter how many times Stone drastically recuts it. Indeed, there are three radically different versions of this well-intentioned ruin, but despite what the director says, none of them offer redemption. Still, it’s probably better than you remember.

With painstakingly accurate costumes designed by Jenny Beaven, gorgeous production design by Jan Roelfs, and extraordinary music by the always noteworthy Vangelis, there is a lot to aesthetically admire. But it comes to naught in this overwrought and underwritten melodrama with an Irish brogue. Yes, as mercilessly mocked in the press in 2004, star Colin Farrell speaks with an Irish lilt as the Macedonian conqueror. But hey no one is speaking ancient Greek either, so who cares? I’d argue the bigger problem is whatever Angelina Jolie is going for as Olympias, Alexander’s mother by way of Count Dracula.

More unfortunate is how Stone’s screenplay and direction reduces Alexander to a whiny, petulant, slob who bursts into tears at the drop of a toga. Despite the admirable choice by Stone to depict Alexander’s undefined queerness and love for another man (Jared Leto), one cannot help but sense the filmmaker is also relying on reductive stereotypes of the LGBTQ community to write Alexander while turning the life of a man who captured one-third of the known world into a bad soap where all he really wants to do is crawl into bed with mommy. But hey, the accurate depiction of battle tactics at Gaugamela is nifty.

8. The Patriot (2000)

One of the rare films on this list not influenced by the glut of battlefield glory spawned from Gladiator, The Patriot opened the same summer as an attempt to slyly remake Mel Gibson’s Oscar winning Braveheart in American Revolution garb. Keep in mind that both Gibson vehicles are gussied up revenge thrillers, ahistorical melodramas, and arguable propaganda intended to vilify a British Empire already quite susceptible to critique. In fact, the only significant difference may be Braveheart was directed by Gibson who, for whatever his other faults, is a hell of a storyteller, and The Patriot is helmed by the guy who gave us the Matthew Broderick Godzilla.

In between disaster flicks, Roland Emmerich took this brief stab at period piece respectability while indulging every hammy and histrionic Hollywood cliché. We have the reluctant hero in one Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson); the wayward son who’s coming of age by proving he is exactly like the old man (Heath Ledger); and a generic British villain played by Jason Isaacs, whose nastiness errs closer to the Nazis in Occupied France than any specific Red Coat. Most incredulous though is that Gibson plays a South Carolina plantation owner who doesn’t own slaves. Yeah, that’s about as convincing as the rest of this laugh riot.

7. 300 (2007)

For many this is likely a movie where the memory is better than the film. Yes, 300 is loaded with ridiculously fetishized images of spears, corpses, and weird CGI deformities breaking like impotent waves across Gerard Butler’s chiseled abs. And sure, it spits out more quotable lines than Groucho Marx at a yacht club. But once you realize the best lines were taken from the actual historic record (at least according to Plutarch), and most of those shots already bopped in the much more digestible trailers, what we’re left with is a shallow, surface level video game cutscene that’s extended across two long hours.

In bite-sized clips, 300 can be an oblivious homoerotic gas, ready made for frat houses everywhere. Yet after a hundred minutes of Zack Snyder’s slow-motion ramping, and Butler screaming ferociously as he impales another inferior androgynous man with his flexing spear, it all wears a bit thin. It’s tendency to also indulge in fascist iconography of a godlike white civilization (that practices eugenics) shattering the faceless hordes of monstrous, dehumanized others hasn’t aged like fine wine either.

6. Troy (2004)

When 300 came out, many including myself found its CGI landscapes refreshing when compared to the hulking excesses of Wolfgang Petersen’s old-fashioned Troy. And 15 years later, the latter is still cheesier than Kraft blue box macaroni; Troy could even be mistaken for ‘50s kitsch if not for its own use of CG and copious amounts of gore and nudity. But now that Hollywood’s moved so far away from on-location shooting and grand scale moviemaking, all those alleged faults suddenly play like endearing virtues in this big goofy reduction of Homer’s The Iliad to an evening of WWE Monday Night Raw.

With a silly screenplay by David Benioff that does away with Homer’s gods, Troy lives or dies on its spectacle and charisma, and it’s got a thousand ships’ worth of both. Brad Pitt is at his hunkiest as Achilles, but the movie really belongs to Eric Bana as poor doomed Trojan Prince Hector. Essentially Benioff’s first attempt at writing Ned Stark before Game of Thrones, Hector is portrayed as a noble, ass-kicking lamb to the slaughter. Kudos also to Orlando Bloom for agreeing at the height of his popularity to play such an off-putting coward.

Still, it’s the superb action scenes that make Troy stand out. Unlike most contemporaries, Petersen shoots the action in steady, clean wide shots, revealing intricate and often dazzling fight choreography, as well as brutal smash ups between the Trojans and Greeks. With Peter O’Toole also on hand to give the movie just a passing sense of majesty as old King Priam, you can come for the thrilling Hector versus Achilles fight but stay for the aftermath where O’Toole kisses the hands of his son’s murderer. For a few minutes, Troy grazes its much desired greatness.

5. The Alamo (2004)

A film mercilessly mocked for not being remembered like its namesake, John Lee Hancock’s The Alamo deserves better. Easily more interesting than John Wayne’s 1960 snoozefest of the same name, The Alamo ’04 took the novel approach of dramatizing the actual historical record of the doomed effort to defend a Spanish mission-cum-fort from Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana’s army.

Hancock’s movie likewise uses a warts and all lens on its three heroes of William Travis (Patrick Wilson), James Bowie (Jason Patric), and David Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton), intentionally demythologizing all men, particularly the last one, while still giving Thornton several scenes of mythic quality. The actual siege of the Alamo is appropriately brutal and swift, if in a PG-13 sort of way, but it’s how Thornton plays Crockett serenading both the Mexican and Texan armies at dusk with a fiddle on a parapet that makes this movie poignant. Its qualities even overcome how tacked on the ending is where Sam Houston (Dennis Quaid) defeats the Mexican army at the later battle of San Jacinto.

4. The Last Samurai (2003)

Tom Cruise got in on the newest blockbuster fad of the current era, as is his wont, and did so with extreme conviction in The Last Samurai. The result was a satisfying and, at times, thrilling adventure picture that meshed Akira Kurosawa influences with the white savior storyline of Dances with Wolves. Problematic plotting aside, what makes The Last Samurai shine is the introduction of Ken Watanabe to American audiences as the true last Samurai.

Playing Katsumoto, a Samurai loosely based on the real-life Saigō Takamori, Watanabe dominates the movie all the way to an Oscar nomination as the lone warrior who will not get with the program. He rejects the rapid westernization of feudal Japan, much to the displeasure of his emperor and American and European patrons, thereby putting Katsumoto on a collision course with disillusioned U.S. Cavalry officer Nathan Algren (Cruise).

Nathan, by contrast, comes to Japan as a simple mercenary after years of bitter American Indian warfare, but he stays as a convert, adopting the Samurai’s code and fighting alongside Katsumoto in a doomed battle against the emperor’s army. It’s a familiar and ludicrous tale told with sincere grace and effective direction by Edward Zwick. Plus, the Samurai versus ninja sequence is just all kinds of badass.

3. Kingdom of Heaven (2005) – Director’s Cut

Most folks have never seen the Ridley Scott director’s cut of Kingdom of Heaven, which means most have never seen Kingdom of Heaven. Not really. There is of course a theatrical version, which in 144 minutes retains the narrative skeleton and action beats of the same story, but what’s missing is the film’s heart and much of its soul. When restored to its proper 190-minute length, Kingdom of Heaven is a visibly personal film to Scott, and an intoxicating one that gets swept away in a storm of medieval pageantry and pensive spiritual anxiety.

Loosely basing his film on the Fall of Jerusalem from Christian rule 1187—placing this between the Second and Third Crusade—Scott doesn’t care so much about historical fidelity as he does with creating a brooding snapshot of Western apprehension during the height of the War on Terror. He also makes a dense epic, captured in painterly cinematography and costumes, and stuffed with amazing performances. While Orlando Bloom is only serviceable as Balian de Ibelin, he’s surrounded by fantastic performers like David Thewlis, Brendan Gleeson, Michael Sheen, Liam Neeson, Jeremy Irons, and Alexander Siddig. Of special note are Edward Norton as King Baldwin IV, the Leper King whom Scott and screenwriter William Monahan mythologize as a philosopher shrouded by a silver mask, and Ghassan Massoud as Saladin. Between the empathy of these two highly fictionalized crowns, a true Kingdom of God could’ve existed.

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The other standout that deserves special attention is Eva Green as Sibylla, the Christian princess who becomes queen. In the theatrical version, studio edits reduced her to a simple love interest; in the director’s cut she is touched with the tragedy of Medea and the madness of Lady Macbeth when her son (wholly excised from the theatrical cut) becomes king… only to discover he’s also contracted leprosy.

2. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)

In almost any other year, Peter Weir’s meticulously crafted Master and Commander would’ve been the toast of awards season. Sadly, it was overshadowed by the splashier third chapter of Lord of the Rings. Nevertheless, you’d be hard-pressed, even 17 years later, to find a more intelligent and well-anchored epic than this naval adventure. Set during the midst of the Napoleonic Wars, and loosely based on several Patrick O’Brian novels, Master and Commander immerses viewers into the daily rigmarole of life in the British Royal Navy.

While Russell Crowe is appropriately dashing as the long-haired British captain in search of a French prize in the Pacific, it is the effect of a perfectly cast ensemble that gives Weir’s movie a lived-in authenticity. Paul Bettany stands out as the smart-to-bordering on insubordinate Irish doctor, but there’s also Max Pirkis as the young midshipman with a touch of destiny, or Lee Ingleby as the much older mid-level officer with the scent of weakness and specter of doom trailing in his wake. Hell, the entire collection of hard-weathered character actors comprising the crew buoy this movie to greatness.

With an interest in naturalism that outclasses almost any other movie of its kind, Master and Commander breathes its sea air in full, and rises and falls like the cresting waves of its ship’s victories and defeats. Bettany’s poor Dr. Maturin may never get to spend enough time researching the animals of the Galapagos Islands in the film, but his story among men-at-arms makes for its own fascinating study.

1. Gladiator (2000)

There is little that hasn’t been said about the glory and greatness of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, but here is space to revel again in how this movie’s deeds echo through eternity. When the movie came out, debuting as an unlikely leggy box office hit and an even unlikelier Best Picture Oscar winner down the road, it had its share of critics who dismissed it as an action trifle. Yet Gladiator’s legacy has outlived those naysayers. To be sure the movie paints in archetypes, but it distills them to their most visceral and operatic extremes in a passion play about three people: the unwanted son (Joaquin Phoenix), the loved surrogate child (Russell Crowe), and the much smarter daughter who must survive them all (Connie Nielsen).

With these people setting their drama on a stage no less grand than the literal Roman arena, Gladiator elevates the revenger’s story into something poetic and lyrical, thanks in large part to its highly literate screenplay. Though getting there took some time, the end result allows Scott’s visceral instincts to bask in the Roman sun and sand, and gives much meat for all of the principles to play with, making stars of Crowe and Phoenix, as well as a gnarly ensemble of acting statesman like Richard Harris, Derek Jacobi, Djimon Hounsou, and Oliver Reed in his final, deliciously crusty performance.

Each of these elements build a sum greater than its already fine parts, leading to moments as satisfying as Crowe’s Maximus threatening Phoenix’s feckless Roman Emperor before an entire Colosseum, or as rapturous as Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard’s transcendent musical score ushering Maximus into the fields of Elysium. It pities and romanticizes them all, even Phoenix’s unloved tyrant, but it also bakes them in a cinematic confection so rich that the tigers and gladiatorial mayhem is just a blood-red icing on top. There’s a reason it spawned a decade of imitators and aspirants.

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tipsycad147 · 5 years ago

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YOU CALL IT HALLOWE’EN… WE CALL IT SAMHAIN

by Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Hallowe’en has its origins in the British Isles. While the modern tradition of trick or treat developed in the U. S., it too is based on folk customs brought to this country with Irish immigrants after 1840. Since ancient times in Ireland, Scotland, and England, October 31st has been celebrated as a feast for the dead, and also the day that marks the new year. Mexico observes a Day of the Dead on this day, as do other world cultures. In Scotland, the Gaelic word “Samhain” (pronounced “SAW-win” or “SAW-vane”) means literally “summer’s end.”

This holiday is also known as All Hallows Eve (“hallow” means “sanctify”) ; Hallowtide; Hallowmass; Hallows; The Day of the Dead; All Soul’s Night; All Saints’ Day (both on November 1st) .

For early Europeans, this time of the year marked the beginning of the cold, lean months to come; the flocks were brought in from the fields to live in sheds until spring. Some animals were slaughtered, and the meat preserved to provide food for winter. The last gathering of crops was known as “Harvest Home, ” celebrated with fairs and festivals.

In addition to its agriculture significance, the ancient Celts also saw Samhain as a very spiritual time. Because October 31 lies exactly between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice, it is theorised that ancient peoples, with their reliance on astrology, thought it was a very potent time for magic and communion with spirits. The “veil between the worlds” of the living and the dead was said to be at its thinnest on this day; so the dead were invited to return to feast with their loved ones; welcomed in from the cold, much as the animals were brought inside. Ancient customs range from placing food out for dead ancestors, to performing rituals for communicating with those who had passed over.

Communion with the dead was thought to be the work of witches and sorcerers, although the common folk thought nothing of it. Because the rise of the Church led to growing suspicion of the pagan ways of country dwellers, Samhain also became associated with witches, black cats (“familiars” or animal friends) , bats (night creatures) , ghosts and other “spooky” things…the stereotype of the old hag riding the broomstick is simply a caricature; fairy tales have exploited this image for centuries.

Divination of the future was also commonly practised at this magically-potent time; since it was also the Celtic New Year, people focused on their desires for the coming year. Certain traditions, such as bobbing for apples, roasting nuts in the fire, and baking cakes which contained tokens of luck, are actually ancient methods of telling fortunes.

So What About Those Jack-O-Lanterns?

Other old traditions have survived to this day; lanterns carved out of pumpkins and turnips were used to provide light on a night when huge bonfires were lit, and all households let their fires go out so they could be rekindled from this new fire; this was believed to be good luck for all households. The name “Jack-O-Lantern” means “Jack of the Lantern, ” and comes from an old Irish tale. Jack was a man who could enter neither heaven nor hell and was condemned to wander through the night with only a candle in a turnip for light. Or so goes the legend…

But such folk names were commonly given to nature spirits, like the “Jack in the Green, ” or to plants believed to possess magical properties, like “John O’ Dreams, ” or “Jack in the Pulpit.” Irish fairy lore is full of such references. Since candles placed in hollowed-out pumpkins or turnips (commonly grown for food and abundant at this time of year) would produce flickering flames, especially on cold nights in October, this phenomenon may have led to the association of spirits with the lanterns; and this, in turn, may have led to the tradition of carving scary faces on them. It is an old legend that candle flames which flicker on Samhain night are being touched by the spirits of dead ancestors, or “ghosts.”

Okay, What about the Candy?

“Trick or treat” as it is practised in the U. S. is a complex custom believed to derive from several Samhain traditions, as well as being unique to this country. Since Irish immigrants were predominantly Catholic, they were more likely to observe All Soul’s Day. But Ireland’s folk traditions die hard, and the old ways of Samhain were remembered. The old tradition of going door to door asking for donations of money or food for the New Year’s feast was carried over to the U. S. from the British Isles. Hogmanay was celebrated January 1st in rural Scotland, and there are records of a “trick or treat” type of custom; curses would be invoked on those who did not give generously; while those who did give from their hearts were blessed and praised. Hence, the notion of “trick or treat” was born (although this greeting was not commonly used until the 1930’s in the U. S.) . The wearing of costumes is an ancient practice; villagers would dress as ghosts, to escort the spirits of the dead to the outskirts of the town, at the end of the night’s celebration.

By the 1920’s, “trick or treat” became a way of letting off steam for those urban poor living in crowded conditions. Innocent acts of vandalism (soaping windows, etc.) gave way to violent, cruel acts. Organisations like the Boy Scouts tried to organise ways for this holiday to become safe and fun; they started the practice of encouraging “good” children to visit shops and homes asking for treats, so as to prevent criminal acts. These “beggar’s nights” became very popular and have evolved to what we know as Hallowe’en today.

What Do Modern Witches Do at Hallowe’en?

It is an important holiday for us. Witches are diverse and practice a variety of traditions. Many of us use this time to practice forms of divination (such as tarot or runes) . Many Witches also perform rituals to honour the dead; and may invite their deceased loved ones to visit for a time, if they choose. This is not a “seance” in the usual sense of the word; Witches extend an invitation, rather than summoning the dead, and we believe the world of the dead is very close to this one. So, on Samhain, and again on Beltane (May 1st) , when the veil between the worlds is thin, we attempt to travel between those worlds. This is done through meditation, visualisation, and astral projection. Because Witches acknowledge human existence as part of a cycle of life, death, and rebirth, Samhain is a time to reflect on our mortality and to confront our fears of dying.

Some Witches look on Samhain as a time to prepare for the long, dark months of winter, a time of introspection and drawing inward. They may bid goodbye to the summer with one last celebratory rite. They may have harvest feasts, with vegetables and fruits they have grown, or home-brewed cider or mead. They may give thanks for what they have, projecting for abundance through the winter. Still, others may celebrate with costume parties, enjoy treats and good times with friends. There are as many ways of observing Samhain as there are Witches in the world!

https://goodwitcheshomestead.com/2016/10/04/you-call-it-halloween-we-call-it-samhain/

0 notes

samanthasroberts · 7 years ago

Text

9 of the greatest rivalries — from breakfast to best Australian city

(CNN)There are great rivalries and there are Great Rivalries — and we all know the difference between the two.

Athens vs. Sparta. Ali vs. Frazier. Adolescence vs. Orthodontistry. All great rivalries.

Coke vs. Pepsi. Star Wars vs. Star Trek. Beatles vs. Stones.

These ones deserve capital letters.

Great Rivalries can be huge enough to impassion countries and cities. They’re powerful enough to launch fiery debates out of seemingly mundane subjects (e.g. rice).

They can be small and strange enough to consume just a few people for years — and the rest of us for at least the time it takes to flip through this list of Great Rivalries. And you can quote us on that.

23 best cities for street food across the world

Crosstown sports rivalry

Rangers vs. Celtic

Nothing tears asunder nice cities like Milan, Istanbul, Buenos Aires or any other football-fervid dot on the globe like an intense derby match between two teams that share the same home town — but not the same fans.

Of course, all of these places proudly lay claim to the most heated crosstown rivalry on the planet.

But Glasgow’s notorious Old Firm derby between the Scottish Professional Football League’s two most famous clubs, Celtic and Rangers, gets our nod.

And only partially for their 399 hostile matches dating to 1888, fueled by generations of enough sectarian animosity and occasional bloodshed to recently usher in desperate “Pride over Prejudice” and “Bhoys against Bigotry” campaigns promoting some semblance of basic decency.

What’s the kicker?

Last year’s bankruptcy-related ouster of Rangers from Scotland’s top tier division means that these two teams currently aren’t even playing each other. And yet there’s still no team either one hates more.

Can such age-old loathing survive the unthinkable suspension of a 400th Old Firm match?

“As long as the Pope remains a Catholic,” one local fan tells us.

Now that’s a rivalry.

101 of the best sports bars in the U.S.

Meal rivalry

English breakfast vs. Continental breakfast

What goes better with tea?

Two fried eggs, ham, bacon, sausage, baked beans, fried mushrooms, toast drenched with butter and marmalade?

Or seasonal fruit, muffins and assorted yogurts?

Europeans, and by extension the rest of the world, have been waking up to this dietary fork in the road every morning since the Victorian era, when cured pork entered its first industrial phase.

Last year’s launch of The English Breakfast Society, whose rousing mission “to restore the traditional English breakfast to its former glory and encourage the spread of establishments serving a high quality traditional English breakfast throughout the land,” portends an imminent battle.

Let the (yet-unformed) Continental Breakfast Society or at least every budget hotel lobby armed with a toaster and aging fruit basket be warned.

World’s 50 best foods

Mountain rivalry

Everest vs. K2

The number of climbers who’ve reached the top of the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, has now surpassed the 3,000 mark — including a 13-year-old boy and a 73-year-old woman.

K2, the world’s second-highest mountain, has allowed barely a tenth of that number to the top of its far less climber-friendly peak — killing one mountaineer for every four summiters, according to 8000ers.com.

In other words, if mountains could talk, these two would definitely have it out about who’s higher and mightier.

But they can’t, so we leave that to all the high-fiving Everest masses versus a handful of elite K2 alpinists who’ll gladly point out that bagging the highest peak on any given continent is usually nowhere near as tough as climbing the second-highest.

World’s best unknown hike: Japan’s Kumano Kodo

Staple food rivalry

White rice vs. brown rice

It’s half the world’s primary food source, responsible for more than a fifth of our species’ caloric intake, and which shade of it you eat apparently says something about you.

The health-conscious tout whole grain brown rice for its fiber and nutrients — most of which are lost during milling and polishing processes that leave only the white grain (sans bran and germ).

Who-cares types choose white because life’s too short to eat chewy rice that tastes like stale nuts.

Contrarians argue that white may actually be healthier (or less “unhealthy”) for its higher folate and thiamine content, whereas brown rice contains phytic acid, which can interfere with mineral absorption, as well as higher levels of arsenic.

Arsenic? This is rice we’re still talking about, right?

A quick white vs. brown nutritional info comparison at U.S. chain Chipotle (which offers a choice of the two) on fastfoodnutrition.org finds almost no nutritional difference between them, leading yet others to suggest that the choice may often be more psychological than dietary.

The rest of us to wonder how such simple carbohydrates got so complex.

Extreme shots by daredevil adventure photographer

Weather pattern rivalry

El Nino vs. La Nina

If Mother Nature had a rival son and daughter it’d be these two opposing ocean-temperature-derived weather system shakers marked by abnormally warm Pacific surfaces (El Nio) or cool ones (La Nia).

Whichever sibling has the upper hand in any given year can lead to consequential climate dysfunction — battering the Americas with vicious droughts, superstorms and floods, while wreaking havoc with Asian monsoons and making various weather extremes felt as far off as Australia.

The only thing potentially worse than El Nino or La Nina fighting for the upper hand, note NASA scientists, is a “La Nada” year like this one, when neither is dominant — this can lead to even more extreme weather conditions that are harder to forecast.

Amazing desert photographs taken by paraglider

Top city rivalry

Sydney vs. Melbourne

Every city worth its art museum or revived waterfront has a rival city.

Usually they’re within easy driving distance and share the same highways, currency, soap operas, chain restaurants, hated domestic politicians, even more-despised international rivals and a hundred other things that confirm these two places actually have way more in common than they’d ever care to admit.

Every Barcelona has its Madrid. Every Dallas its Houston. Moscow its St. Petersburg. Sao Paolo its Rio.

But Australia’s two biggest cities have been relentlessly butting heads since Melbourne was founded in 1835 by exactly the sort of industrious Tasmanian pastoralists that Sydney’s founding felons couldn’t stand.

What continues to brutally divide these two cities, other than fewer than 500 miles, some beer brands, the usual sports grudges and less than two points on the latest annual “World’s Most Liveable Cities” list (Melbourne 97.5, Sydney 96.1)?

Self-proclaimed cultural capital of the known and unknown universes, Melbourne thinks Sydney is flashy and showy with little to no cultural taste. (But — not that Melbourne would ever admit it — with a pretty harbor, great beaches and warmer water.)

Sydney’s persistent inferiority complex is chalked up to a poisonous self-awareness that it’s a superficial tart, blessed with good looks, who dropped out of school early.

Melbourne is the sophisticated, wealthier sister with a MA from Oxford and innately more interesting.

Or so it claims.

As for Sydneysiders, they just think Melbourne is a constant weather anomaly with an unsophisticated mob of latte-sipping sports heads, so caught up in their own “we’re better than Sydney” pretension that it creates a reverse snobbery not worth even acknowledging.

“Deep down, you wish you were me,” feels Sydney. “Let me get back to my champagne and don’t stick your reflection in my sunglasses ever again.”

To prevent a family tragedy between these bitter sisters, the capital of Canberra was pretty much built from scratch somewhere in between. Charged with keeping things in order, the Spanx-wearing ugly sister is pretty much ignored by its cantankerous siblings.

Photos: 7 ways to enjoy Sydney Harbor

College rivalry

University of Alabama vs. Auburn University

Classic college rivalries spring from all sorts of heady stuff — like which school has bred more world leaders, Nobel laureates or ivy leaves on its tony limestone walls over the last however many centuries.

Some of these lingering spats even have to do with academics.

But for those who think the most fist-shaking battles waged between institutions of higher learning have to do with economics, photon theory or just plain snob appeal, we present the Iron Bowl, the Thanksgiving weekend football game between neighboring universities in the U.S. South

The annual, in-state grudge match between Auburn University’s Tigers and the University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide dates to 1893 and “basically forces people in this state to take sides the second they’re born,” notes one local fan who can recite every score back to that 33-22 Auburn nail-biter 120 years ago like it was yesterday.

Last year, top-seeded Alabama destroyed Auburn 49-0.

This year, Alabama is still ranked number one in the country (at time of publication), but a resurgent Auburn team could pose a formidable challenge at home, so you can bet there’s going to be a score to settle on November 30 at Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium amid 90,000 fans screaming “War Eagle,” “Roll Tide” and some less printable things.

Palaces, castles, chateaus: 12 regal stays

Geopolitical-athletic rivalry

India vs. Pakistan

More than a fifth of the world’s population (1.5 billion viewers) tuned in for the 2011 World Cup Semifinal cricket match between India and Pakistan.

According to TV ratings firm, Initiative, a regular match (no such thing) between these two not-exactly-friendly neighbors attracts about 300 million viewers.

India and Pakistan’s national cricket rivalry has been dubbed by The New York Times as the Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox plus Barcelona vs. Real Madrid plus England vs. Australia (in any sport) “distilled and deepened with an extra dose of hostile geopolitics and the passions of 1.4 billion people.”

Since their first test match in 1952, only three wars, a political assassination and a major terrorist attack in Mumbai could keep these two teams away from their drawn-out pursuit for cricket supremacy — which remains as unresolved as Kashmir.

Is this the world’s happiest city?

Cigar-rolling rivalry

Cairo vs. Pena vs. Reyes

Some world records hog all the spotlight: Fastest man. Longest jump. Most hot dogs consumed in 10 minutes.

Everyone expects high-profile drama and the stuff of great rivalries from these achievements.

Most wouldn’t expect the same to be true for cigar rolling. Most would be wrong.

For more than a decade, the Guinness World Record title for the longest hand-rolled cigar has bounced numerous times between a trio of fiery competitors.

Current record-holder, Jose Castelar Cairo, from Havana, Cuba, held the first title by hand-rolling an 11-meter cigar in 2001 — before breaking his own record a couple years later with a 14-meter-plus effort.

Enter Puerto Rico’s Patricio Pea, who would stunningly shatter Cairo’s record in 2005, before Cairo grabbed it back, before Ybor City, Florida, couple Wallace and Margarita Reyes climbed into the ring — rolling an even longer one in 2006.

Then Pea bettered theirs in 2007 before Cairo rolled back into first in 2008 before the Reyes duo topped Cairo’s in 2009 with a cigar just short of 60 meters that took them a week to roll.

On April 25, 2011, Cairo quietly sat down with his cigar leaves and tree resin glue. Nine days later, there it was. An 81.8-meter cigar. The longest one ever.

For now.

20 greatest franchises for travelers

Cakes of the world: Tiramisu, cheesecake, baklava and 14 more national treats

Source: http://allofbeer.com/2017/09/20/9-of-the-greatest-rivalries-from-breakfast-to-best-australian-city/

from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2017/09/20/9-of-the-greatest-rivalries-from-breakfast-to-best-australian-city/

0 notes

adambstingus · 7 years ago

Text

9 of the greatest rivalries — from breakfast to best Australian city

(CNN)There are great rivalries and there are Great Rivalries — and we all know the difference between the two.

Athens vs. Sparta. Ali vs. Frazier. Adolescence vs. Orthodontistry. All great rivalries.

Coke vs. Pepsi. Star Wars vs. Star Trek. Beatles vs. Stones.

These ones deserve capital letters.

Great Rivalries can be huge enough to impassion countries and cities. They’re powerful enough to launch fiery debates out of seemingly mundane subjects (e.g. rice).

23 best cities for street food across the world

Crosstown sports rivalry

Rangers vs. Celtic

Of course, all of these places proudly lay claim to the most heated crosstown rivalry on the planet.

But Glasgow’s notorious Old Firm derby between the Scottish Professional Football League’s two most famous clubs, Celtic and Rangers, gets our nod.

What’s the kicker?

Can such age-old loathing survive the unthinkable suspension of a 400th Old Firm match?

“As long as the Pope remains a Catholic,” one local fan tells us.

Now that’s a rivalry.

101 of the best sports bars in the U.S.

Meal rivalry

English breakfast vs. Continental breakfast

What goes better with tea?

Two fried eggs, ham, bacon, sausage, baked beans, fried mushrooms, toast drenched with butter and marmalade?

Or seasonal fruit, muffins and assorted yogurts?

Europeans, and by extension the rest of the world, have been waking up to this dietary fork in the road every morning since the Victorian era, when cured pork entered its first industrial phase.

Let the (yet-unformed) Continental Breakfast Society or at least every budget hotel lobby armed with a toaster and aging fruit basket be warned.

World’s 50 best foods

Mountain rivalry

Everest vs. K2

The number of climbers who’ve reached the top of the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, has now surpassed the 3,000 mark — including a 13-year-old boy and a 73-year-old woman.

In other words, if mountains could talk, these two would definitely have it out about who’s higher and mightier.

World’s best unknown hike: Japan’s Kumano Kodo

Staple food rivalry

White rice vs. brown rice

It’s half the world’s primary food source, responsible for more than a fifth of our species’ caloric intake, and which shade of it you eat apparently says something about you.

The health-conscious tout whole grain brown rice for its fiber and nutrients — most of which are lost during milling and polishing processes that leave only the white grain (sans bran and germ).

Who-cares types choose white because life’s too short to eat chewy rice that tastes like stale nuts.

Arsenic? This is rice we’re still talking about, right?

The rest of us to wonder how such simple carbohydrates got so complex.

Extreme shots by daredevil adventure photographer

Weather pattern rivalry

El Nino vs. La Nina

If Mother Nature had a rival son and daughter it’d be these two opposing ocean-temperature-derived weather system shakers marked by abnormally warm Pacific surfaces (El Nio) or cool ones (La Nia).

Amazing desert photographs taken by paraglider

Top city rivalry

Sydney vs. Melbourne

Every city worth its art museum or revived waterfront has a rival city.

Every Barcelona has its Madrid. Every Dallas its Houston. Moscow its St. Petersburg. Sao Paolo its Rio.

Sydney’s persistent inferiority complex is chalked up to a poisonous self-awareness that it’s a superficial tart, blessed with good looks, who dropped out of school early.

Melbourne is the sophisticated, wealthier sister with a MA from Oxford and innately more interesting.

Or so it claims.

“Deep down, you wish you were me,” feels Sydney. “Let me get back to my champagne and don’t stick your reflection in my sunglasses ever again.”

Photos: 7 ways to enjoy Sydney Harbor

College rivalry

University of Alabama vs. Auburn University

Some of these lingering spats even have to do with academics.

Last year, top-seeded Alabama destroyed Auburn 49-0.

Palaces, castles, chateaus: 12 regal stays

Geopolitical-athletic rivalry

India vs. Pakistan

More than a fifth of the world’s population (1.5 billion viewers) tuned in for the 2011 World Cup Semifinal cricket match between India and Pakistan.

According to TV ratings firm, Initiative, a regular match (no such thing) between these two not-exactly-friendly neighbors attracts about 300 million viewers.

Is this the world’s happiest city?

Cigar-rolling rivalry

Cairo vs. Pena vs. Reyes

Some world records hog all the spotlight: Fastest man. Longest jump. Most hot dogs consumed in 10 minutes.

Everyone expects high-profile drama and the stuff of great rivalries from these achievements.

Most wouldn’t expect the same to be true for cigar rolling. Most would be wrong.

For more than a decade, the Guinness World Record title for the longest hand-rolled cigar has bounced numerous times between a trio of fiery competitors.

Then Pea bettered theirs in 2007 before Cairo rolled back into first in 2008 before the Reyes duo topped Cairo’s in 2009 with a cigar just short of 60 meters that took them a week to roll.

On April 25, 2011, Cairo quietly sat down with his cigar leaves and tree resin glue. Nine days later, there it was. An 81.8-meter cigar. The longest one ever.

For now.

20 greatest franchises for travelers

Cakes of the world: Tiramisu, cheesecake, baklava and 14 more national treats

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/2017/09/20/9-of-the-greatest-rivalries-from-breakfast-to-best-australian-city/ from All of Beer https://allofbeercom.tumblr.com/post/165533478952

0 notes

allofbeercom · 7 years ago

Text

9 of the greatest rivalries — from breakfast to best Australian city

(CNN)There are great rivalries and there are Great Rivalries — and we all know the difference between the two.

Athens vs. Sparta. Ali vs. Frazier. Adolescence vs. Orthodontistry. All great rivalries.

Coke vs. Pepsi. Star Wars vs. Star Trek. Beatles vs. Stones.

These ones deserve capital letters.

Great Rivalries can be huge enough to impassion countries and cities. They’re powerful enough to launch fiery debates out of seemingly mundane subjects (e.g. rice).

23 best cities for street food across the world

Crosstown sports rivalry

Rangers vs. Celtic

Of course, all of these places proudly lay claim to the most heated crosstown rivalry on the planet.

But Glasgow’s notorious Old Firm derby between the Scottish Professional Football League’s two most famous clubs, Celtic and Rangers, gets our nod.

What’s the kicker?

Can such age-old loathing survive the unthinkable suspension of a 400th Old Firm match?

“As long as the Pope remains a Catholic,” one local fan tells us.

Now that’s a rivalry.

101 of the best sports bars in the U.S.

Meal rivalry

English breakfast vs. Continental breakfast

What goes better with tea?

Two fried eggs, ham, bacon, sausage, baked beans, fried mushrooms, toast drenched with butter and marmalade?

Or seasonal fruit, muffins and assorted yogurts?

Europeans, and by extension the rest of the world, have been waking up to this dietary fork in the road every morning since the Victorian era, when cured pork entered its first industrial phase.

Let the (yet-unformed) Continental Breakfast Society or at least every budget hotel lobby armed with a toaster and aging fruit basket be warned.

World’s 50 best foods

Mountain rivalry

Everest vs. K2

The number of climbers who’ve reached the top of the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, has now surpassed the 3,000 mark — including a 13-year-old boy and a 73-year-old woman.

In other words, if mountains could talk, these two would definitely have it out about who’s higher and mightier.

World’s best unknown hike: Japan’s Kumano Kodo

Staple food rivalry

White rice vs. brown rice

It’s half the world’s primary food source, responsible for more than a fifth of our species’ caloric intake, and which shade of it you eat apparently says something about you.

The health-conscious tout whole grain brown rice for its fiber and nutrients — most of which are lost during milling and polishing processes that leave only the white grain (sans bran and germ).

Who-cares types choose white because life’s too short to eat chewy rice that tastes like stale nuts.

Arsenic? This is rice we’re still talking about, right?

The rest of us to wonder how such simple carbohydrates got so complex.

Extreme shots by daredevil adventure photographer

Weather pattern rivalry

El Nino vs. La Nina

If Mother Nature had a rival son and daughter it’d be these two opposing ocean-temperature-derived weather system shakers marked by abnormally warm Pacific surfaces (El Nio) or cool ones (La Nia).

Amazing desert photographs taken by paraglider

Top city rivalry

Sydney vs. Melbourne

Every city worth its art museum or revived waterfront has a rival city.

Every Barcelona has its Madrid. Every Dallas its Houston. Moscow its St. Petersburg. Sao Paolo its Rio.

Sydney’s persistent inferiority complex is chalked up to a poisonous self-awareness that it’s a superficial tart, blessed with good looks, who dropped out of school early.

Melbourne is the sophisticated, wealthier sister with a MA from Oxford and innately more interesting.

Or so it claims.

“Deep down, you wish you were me,” feels Sydney. “Let me get back to my champagne and don’t stick your reflection in my sunglasses ever again.”

Photos: 7 ways to enjoy Sydney Harbor

College rivalry

University of Alabama vs. Auburn University

Some of these lingering spats even have to do with academics.

Last year, top-seeded Alabama destroyed Auburn 49-0.

Palaces, castles, chateaus: 12 regal stays

Geopolitical-athletic rivalry

India vs. Pakistan

More than a fifth of the world’s population (1.5 billion viewers) tuned in for the 2011 World Cup Semifinal cricket match between India and Pakistan.

According to TV ratings firm, Initiative, a regular match (no such thing) between these two not-exactly-friendly neighbors attracts about 300 million viewers.

Is this the world’s happiest city?

Cigar-rolling rivalry

Cairo vs. Pena vs. Reyes

Some world records hog all the spotlight: Fastest man. Longest jump. Most hot dogs consumed in 10 minutes.

Everyone expects high-profile drama and the stuff of great rivalries from these achievements.

Most wouldn’t expect the same to be true for cigar rolling. Most would be wrong.

For more than a decade, the Guinness World Record title for the longest hand-rolled cigar has bounced numerous times between a trio of fiery competitors.

Then Pea bettered theirs in 2007 before Cairo rolled back into first in 2008 before the Reyes duo topped Cairo’s in 2009 with a cigar just short of 60 meters that took them a week to roll.

On April 25, 2011, Cairo quietly sat down with his cigar leaves and tree resin glue. Nine days later, there it was. An 81.8-meter cigar. The longest one ever.

For now.

20 greatest franchises for travelers

Cakes of the world: Tiramisu, cheesecake, baklava and 14 more national treats

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/2017/09/20/9-of-the-greatest-rivalries-from-breakfast-to-best-australian-city/

0 notes

viralhottopics · 8 years ago

Text

9 of the greatest rivalries from breakfast to best Australian city

(CNN)There are great rivalries and there are Great Rivalries — and we all know the difference between the two.

Athens vs. Sparta. Ali vs. Frazier. Adolescence vs. Orthodontistry. All great rivalries.

Coke vs. Pepsi. Star Wars vs. Star Trek. Beatles vs. Stones.

These ones deserve capital letters.

Great Rivalries can be huge enough to impassion countries and cities. They’re powerful enough to launch fiery debates out of seemingly mundane subjects (e.g. rice).

23 best cities for street food across the world

Crosstown sports rivalry

Rangers vs. Celtic

Of course, all of these places proudly lay claim to the most heated crosstown rivalry on the planet.

But Glasgow’s notorious Old Firm derby between the Scottish Professional Football League’s two most famous clubs, Celtic and Rangers, gets our nod.

What’s the kicker?

Can such age-old loathing survive the unthinkable suspension of a 400th Old Firm match?

“As long as the Pope remains a Catholic,” one local fan tells us.

Now that’s a rivalry.

101 of the best sports bars in the U.S.

Meal rivalry

English breakfast vs. Continental breakfast

What goes better with tea?

Two fried eggs, ham, bacon, sausage, baked beans, fried mushrooms, toast drenched with butter and marmalade?

Or seasonal fruit, muffins and assorted yogurts?

Europeans, and by extension the rest of the world, have been waking up to this dietary fork in the road every morning since the Victorian era, when cured pork entered its first industrial phase.

Let the (yet-unformed) Continental Breakfast Society or at least every budget hotel lobby armed with a toaster and aging fruit basket be warned.

World’s 50 best foods

Mountain rivalry

Everest vs. K2

The number of climbers who’ve reached the top of the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, has now surpassed the 3,000 mark — including a 13-year-old boy and a 73-year-old woman.

In other words, if mountains could talk, these two would definitely have it out about who’s higher and mightier.

World’s best unknown hike: Japan’s Kumano Kodo

Staple food rivalry

White rice vs. brown rice

It’s half the world’s primary food source, responsible for more than a fifth of our species’ caloric intake, and which shade of it you eat apparently says something about you.

The health-conscious tout whole grain brown rice for its fiber and nutrients — most of which are lost during milling and polishing processes that leave only the white grain (sans bran and germ).

Who-cares types choose white because life’s too short to eat chewy rice that tastes like stale nuts.

Arsenic? This is rice we’re still talking about, right?

The rest of us to wonder how such simple carbohydrates got so complex.

Extreme shots by daredevil adventure photographer

Weather pattern rivalry

El Nino vs. La Nina

If Mother Nature had a rival son and daughter it’d be these two opposing ocean-temperature-derived weather system shakers marked by abnormally warm Pacific surfaces (El Nio) or cool ones (La Nia).

Amazing desert photographs taken by paraglider

Top city rivalry

Sydney vs. Melbourne

Every city worth its art museum or revived waterfront has a rival city.

Every Barcelona has its Madrid. Every Dallas its Houston. Moscow its St. Petersburg. Sao Paolo its Rio.

Sydney’s persistent inferiority complex is chalked up to a poisonous self-awareness that it’s a superficial tart, blessed with good looks, who dropped out of school early.

Melbourne is the sophisticated, wealthier sister with a MA from Oxford and innately more interesting.

Or so it claims.

“Deep down, you wish you were me,” feels Sydney. “Let me get back to my champagne and don’t stick your reflection in my sunglasses ever again.”

Photos: 7 ways to enjoy Sydney Harbor

College rivalry

University of Alabama vs. Auburn University

Some of these lingering spats even have to do with academics.

Last year, top-seeded Alabama destroyed Auburn 49-0.

Palaces, castles, chateaus: 12 regal stays

Geopolitical-athletic rivalry

India vs. Pakistan

More than a fifth of the world’s population (1.5 billion viewers) tuned in for the 2011 World Cup Semifinal cricket match between India and Pakistan.

According to TV ratings firm, Initiative, a regular match (no such thing) between these two not-exactly-friendly neighbors attracts about 300 million viewers.

Is this the world’s happiest city?

Cigar-rolling rivalry

Cairo vs. Pena vs. Reyes

Some world records hog all the spotlight: Fastest man. Longest jump. Most hot dogs consumed in 10 minutes.

Everyone expects high-profile drama and the stuff of great rivalries from these achievements.

Most wouldn’t expect the same to be true for cigar rolling. Most would be wrong.

For more than a decade, the Guinness World Record title for the longest hand-rolled cigar has bounced numerous times between a trio of fiery competitors.

Then Pea bettered theirs in 2007 before Cairo rolled back into first in 2008 before the Reyes duo topped Cairo’s in 2009 with a cigar just short of 60 meters that took them a week to roll.

On April 25, 2011, Cairo quietly sat down with his cigar leaves and tree resin glue. Nine days later, there it was. An 81.8-meter cigar. The longest one ever.

For now.

20 greatest franchises for travelers

Cakes of the world: Tiramisu, cheesecake, baklava and 14 more national treats