Bayou Renaissance Man

 

I couldn't help laughing at this headline.

Mechanic builds record-breaking 50mph wheelbarrow

Dylan Phillips ... has just set a Guinness World Record for the fastest wheelbarrow after clocking speeds of 52mph (84km/h) during Straightliners Speed Week 2024 at Elvington Airfield in Yorkshire. 

He built the motorised contraption in his shed in Crymych, Pembrokeshire, and, when push came to shovel, smashed the previous record of 46mph (74km/h).

The 38-year-old said it felt "fun and surreal".

There's more at the link.

Having observed several building sites where records might have been set for the world's slowest wheelbarrow (or wheelbarrow operator), this one definitely made me chortle.  I wonder what builders' trades unions might have to say about that?  And I wonder how tightly it can corner?

Peter

 

Friend, fellow blogger, illustrator and author Cedar Sanderson has been nominated for a Dragon Award.  For those who don't know the awards, they're conferred by DragonCon every year.

 In a world of the ordinary, the Dragon is most astonishing. Its heart burns with determination and desire as it soars from page to canvas to screen. The Dragon’s inner fire elevates it above the mundane, and once released, inspires respect and awe from all who witness its greatness.

Like the Dragon, our recipients are extraordinary and unique. Fueled by the passion for their art, they have spread their wings and soared above us all. Their inner fire, the burning in their hearts and souls, cannot be restrained. Once set free, their work, their fire, has influenced and inspired countless others, burned into our hearts and minds forever.

In the spirit of the Dragon and with infinite admiration, we created The Dragon Award as a token of their individuality and greatness. We are pleased to present all of our award winners with the essence of the Dragon, its fire, suspended perpetually as a permanent reminder of their contributions.

Cedar's nomination is in the category "Best Illustrative Cover" for her work on the book "But Not Broken".  She also edited the collection.

The blurb for the book reads:

Fourteen stories of surviving and healing from PTSD. Fiction has the power to give us an escape from where we are, and an ability to envision where we could be. None of these are easy stories, but all offer hope, and healing, for those who need to see a path through the fog of pain.

I think Cedar did a wonderful job of capturing in her art the heartbreak and heartache of those who suffer from this disorder.  The book is seriously good, too, as is its predecessor volume, "Can't Go Home Again" (which she also edited and covered).  I highly recommend both to your attention, particularly if you've "been there and done that" and still feel the effects of a high-stress environment.  You're far from alone.

If you have a personal favorite in the "Best Illustrative Cover" category for this year's Dragon Awards, by all means vote for it.  If you don't, remember, voting is open to everybody.  I'd love Cedar to get the recognition her art deserves, so please vote for her.  She's designed the covers for several of my books, and I have more lined up for forthcoming volumes.  Here, for example, is a draft of Cedar's cover for the first book of a US Civil War naval trilogy that I'm currently writing.  (Here's an excerpt.)

Look for it soon, God willing!

Congratulations, Cedar.  We're holding thumbs for you.

Peter

 

This was Finland's entry in the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest.  It's by an artist (?) named Käärijä, and is titled simply "Cha Cha Cha".

Y'know, back in the day I learned the traditional cha-cha as part of ballroom dancing instruction in preparation for my Matric dance, our school-leaving celebration.  The video above has about as much to do with the classical cha-cha as I have to do with Mata Hari!  And what's with the ribbons "controlling" the dancers as if they were reins on horses?

Wars and insurrections notwithstanding, I've clearly lived an overly sheltered existence . . .

Peter

 

We have two winners in our recent raffle for two Glock pistols.

• The Glock 45 and Swampfox Optics Kingslayer sight were won by A. J., who hails from a city in or near the Atlanta, Georgia metroplex.  They're on their way to his local firearms dealer as you read these words.
• The Glock 19 and ammunition were won by a lady who doesn't even want her initials used, and says she lives "within 50 miles" of Allentown, Pennsylvania.  She's apparently going through a divorce at present, and doesn't want anyone to know that she will shortly have the means to defend herself;  so she's asked me to send the firearm to a dealer in a town some distance from her home.  She'll collect it there and go through the necessary background check, in the hope that others won't find out about it unless and until she needs it.  Of course, I was happy to oblige.

My grateful thanks to everybody who participated in the raffle.  You've helped pay off medical bills and keep our financial heads above water.

Peter

 

I mentioned last week that a winner had been drawn for our AR-15 pistol raffle, but that I was waiting for him to indicate whether or not he wanted his name, location, etc. to be mentioned before publishing them.  I can tell you that 82 tickets were sold (out of a possible maximum of 100 tickets, as previously announced).

Sadly, it turns out that the winner, an elderly man, had died (of natural causes) in the interval between sending in his entry, and the close of the raffle.  That's why he hadn't replied to my e-mails or telephone messages.  His widow eventually got back to me, and explained the situation.  I told her I'd either send the pistol to her as part of the winner's estate, or give her its monetary value and re-raffle it here - her choice.

She doesn't want the pistol herself, but indicated that her eldest daughter, who lives in Oklahoma, would like to have it for her son, the original winner's grandson.  She was OK with this, and it seems fair enough to me;  therefore, I'm going to be sending it to that state for processing through the daughter's FFL.  The daughter would prefer not to be identified, and her mother feels the same way, because this is (obviously) a difficult time for the whole family.

There will be another raffle, this time for a Glock pistol with a slide-mounted reflex sight.  Look for details here later this week.  Drawing will be in mid-July.

On a different matter, yesterday morning I woke up to find two blog posts from 2009 (!) had been flagged by Google's automated "community standards" bot as not measuring up to requirements.  The precise reason wasn't specified, and both posts were innocuous in content, so I submitted them for an appeal.  In both cases, the appeal was upheld, and the posts were re-published;  but they appeared on this blog with yesterday's date, rather than their original dates of posting.  Those of you who were puzzled by their appearance, then disappearance (when I reset the date to the correct one) . . . well, now you know what happened.

I woke up this morning to find that exactly the same posts had been zapped again by the bot.  This is ridiculous, and I don't have time to waste on the matter;  so I simply deleted them.  I'll be writing to Google to ask what the heck is going on.  I've no idea why those posts tripped the bot, because there was nothing rude or salacious in them at all.  If it happens with more posts, I'll begin to suspect that an SJW employee at Google is playing silly tricks again, as has happened to more than one conservative blogger in the past.

Oh, well.  I have multiple full backups of this blog, and I've made preliminary arrangements to move it to a safer server if that should become necessary.  If ever you can't find it here, try bayou renaissance man (all one word) DOT com (although there's nothing there at present except a placeholder).

Peter

 

As promised, the winner of our AR-15 pistol raffle was drawn yesterday;  but so far, he hasn't replied to my e-mail or telephone messages, to let me know whether he's willing to have his name and location published on this blog.  I have to wait for him to get back to me about that.  As soon as I know, I'll announce whatever he allows, so keep your eyes peeled for the details.

A couple of late entries arrived this morning.  I'll contact those who sent them, and ask whether they want a refund, or would like to have their entries transferred to the Glock pistol raffle that will kick off next week.  I'll do the same for any more late entries that come in.

Thanks for your patience.

Peter

 

Back on April 5th, I offered an AR-15 pistol in a raffle for my readers.  Your response was enthusiastic;  a total of 77 tickets were sold (out of a planned maximum of no more than 100 tickets).  I'm very grateful to everyone who participated.  Your entries have helped to pay down medical and other bills.

As promised, I drew a winning entry on May 1st.  The winner wishes to remain anonymous, so I'll just say (with her permission) that her initials are L.D. and she hails from Missouri.  The AR-15 pistol will be shipped to her dealer from my local gunshop later this week.  L.D., thank you very much for taking part, and I hope you enjoy your new firearm.  It was built with care, and I hope it serves you well for many years to come.

As I said, I'd hoped to sell up to 100 tickets, and that didn't quite happen:  so I'm considering raffling another AR-15 (carbine or pistol) this month as well.  Before I make that call, I'd like to ask you, dear readers, to let me know what you think.  Would you like me to offer another one in the same way as the first?  The same rules would apply:  a maximum of 100 tickets to be sold, and the winner to be drawn at the beginning of next month.  Please let me know your views in Comments, including whether you'd be more interested in a carbine or a pistol.  If there's enough interest, I'll go ahead with that.

Thank you again to everyone who participated.  I'm very grateful to you all.

Peter

 

Medical bills and other needs call for drastic measures . . . so I'm going to take a leave out of Kim du Toit's book.  I'm offering to my readers a chance to win an AR-15 pistol, in either 5.56x45mm or 7.62x39mm (winner's choice).  I'll accept just 100 entries at $25 apiece, so the chances of success are rather better than winning the Powerball!  (Any entries above that figure will be returned to sender.)  You can send more than one entry, if you so wish - that's up to you.

The weapon is an AR-15 pistol I've owned for some time.  It'll be completely rebuilt for this purpose.  The only used component will be the lower receiver.  I'll put in a new lower parts kit, and everything else will also be brand-new and unfired - the upper receiver, barrel, gas block and tube, hand guard, you name it;  they'll all be new components.  Those of you who've read my articles about personal defense rifles will know the standards to which I work.  I think the winner will be happy with the prize.  I'll publish a photo of the firearm here as soon as I finish the build, probably next week.  It'll initially be completed in 5.56mm;  if the winner prefers 7.62x39mm, I'll change the necessary components before delivery.

For those who haven't considered an AR-15 pistol before, think of it as a short-barreled rifle (SBR) without it legally being a rifle.  Here's a video clip explaining the difference.

The AR-15 pistol is lighter and handier than a full-length carbine, just as accurate over typical fighting distances (from halitosis range out to 150 yards or thereabouts), and easier to maneuver in confined spaces such as a typical home or even a vehicle.  That's why my primary defensive weapon for everyday use is an AR-15 pistol.  Sure, I have a full-size carbine if and when needed:  but if I've got to stumble around my living-room at zero-dark-thirty to investigate a noise, or drive into a difficult area where I might need more than moral support, I want something that's short, handy, and unlikely to bang into things (as opposed to at things).

Needless to say, all laws, rules and regulations will be followed.  If you live in Texas and are within easy driving distance of the Wichita Falls area (my nearest big city), we can do a face-to-face transfer;  otherwise, the firearm will be shipped to your Federal Firearms License dealer and transferred there, complete with background check.  Please don't ask me to break the law, because I won't.  I've been a prison chaplain, so I already know how unpleasant life behind bars can be - and you don't want to find out.

I can't use PayPal for this raffle, because the company has a rule against using their services for firearms-related transactions.  Therefore, please send cash or a US Post Office money order (no private checks, please - they take too long to clear) to:

Make sure you include your own name, address, phone number and e-mail, please.

Entries must be received by or on April 30th, 2021.  Even if all 100 entries haven't been taken up, the winner will be drawn on May 1st, 2021 (or an earlier date, if all tickets are sold sooner than that).  I'll notify the winner at once by e-mail and telephone.  I won't publish his/her name here unless they'll allow that, due to privacy concerns.

Thanks in advance for your interest.

Peter

The BBC points out that the so-called "gambler's fallacy" has never worked, and never will.  It's a mathematical calculation that many don't understand.

... a reasoning flaw called the “gambler’s fallacy” [is] a worryingly common error that can derail many of our professional decisions, from a goalkeeper’s responses to penalty shootouts in football to stock market investments and even judicial rulings on new asylum cases.

To find out if you fall for the gambler’s fallacy, imagine you are tossing a (fair) coin and you get the following sequence: Heads, Heads, Tails, Tails, Tails, Tails, Tails, Tails, Tails, Tails, Tails, Tails. What’s the chance you will now get a heads?

Many people believe the odds change so that the sequence must somehow even out, increasing the chance of a heads on the subsequent goes. Somehow, it just feels inevitable that a heads will come next. But basic probability theory tells us that the events are statistically independent, meaning the odds are exactly the same on each flip. The chance of a heads is still 50% even if you’ve had 500 or 5,000 tails all in a row.

For the same reason, HTHTTH is just as likely as HHHHHH. Once again, however, many disagree and think that the mixed sequence is somehow more probable than the streak.

As its name suggests, the gambler’s fallacy has been of most interest to researchers studying games of chance. Indeed, it is sometimes known as Monte Carlo Fallacy, after a notorious event at one of Monaco’s roulette tables in 1913, with 26 blacks in a row. Observational studies – using casino security footage – have confirmed that it continues to influence bets today.

Surprisingly, education and intelligence do not protect us against the bias. Indeed, one study by Chinese and American researchers found that people with higher IQs are actually more susceptible to the gambler’s fallacy than people who score less well on standardised tests. It could be that the more intelligent people overthink the patterns and believe that they are smart enough to predict what comes next.

Whatever the reason for these false intuitions, subsequent research has revealed that gambler’s fallacy can have serious consequences far beyond the casino. The bias appears to be present in stock market trading, for instance. Many short-term changes in stock price are essentially random fluctuations, and Matthias Pelster at Paderborn University in Germany has shown that investors will base their decisions on the belief that the prices will soon “even out”. So, like Italy’s lottery players, they trade against a streak. “Investors should, on average, trade equally ‘in line’ with the streak and against it,” he says. “Yet that is not what we can see in the data.”

The gambler’s fallacy is a particular problem in the very professions that specifically require an even, unbiased judgement.

There's more at the link.

It's interesting how often one encounters this in everyday life.  A good example are the big interstate lotteries, the Powerball and Mega Millions.  I've heard any number of people say something like "Sooner or later my luck's got to change!", or "I've bought so many tickets, the odds have to be shortening in my favor!".  Sadly, neither is true.  They've both been fooled by the Gambler's Fallacy.

It's not a bad idea to examine our own conduct, and see whether this affects us in any way.  If others are being promoted around us at work, and we're convinced that the odds of us being next are better and better . . . no, they're not.  If others are being fired or laid off around us, yet we're convinced that our odds of not being fired are better . . . ditto.

Peter

Today sees the annual Hotter 'n Hell 100 bicycle race in and around Wichita Falls, Texas.  It's so named because the temperatures usually hover at or above 100 degrees Fahrenheit at this time of year, and the full-length race covers 100 miles (with shorter distances for less ambitious competitors).

As I write these words, the competitors are pouring out of the city and onto regional roads, heading out on the opening leg of the race.  It's relatively cool this year, thanks to some unseasonal rain showers, which are very welcome to those of us who live here, but resented by many riders ("Hey, what happened to the hundred degrees we were promised?").  A mammoth support effort is being mounted by volunteers, and local police and fire departments along the route.  The county Sheriff's Department is fully committed to traffic control, and other organizations are helping in any way they can.

I must admit, I'm amazed by the level of enthusiasm shown by riders who stream into the area from all over the country.  It's too soon for this year's start to have been uploaded to YouTube, but here's last year's start, to give you some idea of the numbers.




For the rest of us, this is a morning to avoid downtown at all costs, and sit back and relax in the comfort of our own homes.  That'll be more than hot enough for us!

Peter

Amid all the leftist hoopla about how nasty and scary and deadly guns are, and how we should restrict the living daylights out of them, it's nice to be reminded that in very large parts of this country, they're regarded with nonchalance as a routine part of everyday life.  They're seldom used to harm anyone - they're much more likely to be used to put food on the table.

(Of course, if the need should arise to protect others from harm, they'll do that job, too.  As an illustration, a carload of gang-bangers from a big city some hours away decided to rob a small town's independent pharmacy of all the "good stuff" they could find.  As they pushed their way in, waving handguns, one of the staff slid out the back and called, not the local police department, but her father.  He grabbed his trusty old Winchester .30-30 and headed for the pharmacy, while both she and he called others.  Within minutes, 20 to 30 fine, upstanding local citizens had surrounded the place, all carrying deer rifles or shotguns, itching to get at the thieves.  The entire local PD, and a couple of sheriff's deputies, were stretched to the limit persuading the locals to please, pretty please, let them handle this one?  Once the bad guys saw what was waiting for them, they couldn't give up fast enough - a very wise decision, IMHO.  Small town America looks after its own.  Yes, I know that particular small town, and I know some of those involved in this incident.  They still bitch and moan about the PD and the Sheriff's Department "keepin' all the fun to themselves!")

When I was an active small-town pastor, I used to raffle off a hunting rifle or shotgun every year, near the beginning of hunting season, to help raise money for the church's needs.  There was never even a murmur of dissent from the congregation, who enthusiastically sold tickets all over town;  and I never heard that the annual winner ever used his new gun for anything except its designed purpose.  With that background, I was therefore happy to come across this fund-raising raffle from a small town in northern Texas.  Click the image for a larger view.




It's an annual event, and I understand it's well supported.  They sell only 300 tickets, at $100 each, and you have 30 chances to win a gun with each ticket - pretty decent odds, when you think about it.  (If you're interested, contact the IPVFD at the Facebook page listed on the flyer.)

This sort of raffle is common in much of small town America, and I think that's precisely as it should be.  Volunteer fire departments - the only kind there are in much of rural America;  more than two-thirds of US firefighters are VFD members - have to raise their own funds to a large extent, so they use whatever methods have a proven track record of success.  Winners have to pass all the usual legal requirements to collect their gun(s), including a background check, so it's not as if criminals will be able to pick up the tools of their trade through such competitions.

I think such events help to de-mystify guns, taking away the "Eeeewwww!  Nasty!" or "Ooooh!  Scary!" connotations so many people seem to associate with them.  To my mind, that's a good thing.  They're just another tool in the toolbox, like a hammer or a drill;  or they're a sporting implement, like a baseball bat or a fishing rod.  Raffles like this put things in proper perspective.

Peter

Finland has just hosted the world's first Heavy Metal Knitting World Championship.  Why it was hosted at all remains an open question!




Fox News reports:

The task was simple: Showcase your knitting skills while jamming out to heavy metal music.

“It's ridiculous but it's so much fun,” said Heather McLaren, an engineering Ph.D. student who traveled to Joensuu, Finland, from Scotland for the competition. “When I saw there was a combination of heavy metal and knitting, I thought ‘that's my niche.’”

The competition drew about 200 people, including heavy metal fans in a country where the musical genre is very popular.

“In Finland, it's very dark in the wintertime, so maybe it's in our roots. We're a bit melancholic, like the rhythm,” Mark Pyykkonen, one of the judges of the competition, said.

Participants in the competition came from nine countries, including the U.S., Japan, and Russia.

It was the five-person Japanese group named Giga Body Metal who won the title. The team put on a show featuring sumo wrestlers and a man dressed in a kimono.

There's more at the link.

Verily, the mind doth boggle . . .




Peter

I hadn't either, until I came across this article about competitive rabbit hopping in Australia.

A cute companion, a pest and a free lawnmower — that is usually how a domestic rabbit is described. Now 'athlete' can be added to that list, because rabbit owners are training up their furry friends to hop competitively, like a miniature version of the equine sport, show-jumping.

. . .

President of the Rabbit Hopping Society of Australia (RHSA), which was formed in 2013, Neil Worley, said hopping rabbits in Australia were yet to achieve elite status but were on the right track.

Elite rabbits can typically jump as high as 50 centimetres.

"It's like any normal athlete, you want to improve," he said.

"The rabbits want to do that too, because I think they really enjoy doing it."

. . .

First formed in 2013, the RHSA was set up with the help of officials from Denmark, the world leaders in rabbit hopping.

Mr Worley said two Danish officials came to help organise and train members of the RHSA to ensure their competitions met world standards.

Some years later, he said rabbit hopping was in good form in Australia, with hopes of hopping to the top of the podium in international competition.

"We all work together, because it's a small community," Mr Worley said.

There's more at the link.

Here's a video about the sport.




I somehow can't see crowds going wild with excitement watching that.  On the other hand, there is this advantage:  if your rabbit turns out not to be a jumper, he can always wind up on the menu, to encourage the others!  (Would you serve it at IHOP?)




Peter

I was amazed to come across this video, during our recent travels, of the world record Texas longhorn bull.




I've seen some cars and pickups here in Texas with longhorns mounted over the front of the vehicle, presumably to make a statement of some kind (cattle cars, perhaps?).  However, I reckon those horns would be far too wide for some of the traffic lanes on farm roads around here!




Peter

I think I know where I'm taking Miss D. (and perhaps some friends) in January next year.

Behold New Mexico’s ultimate pork fiesta: 43 pigs, 300 gallons of chile and 22,000 tortillas

It’s 4:30 in the morning, and Anthony Guardian has a problem: His cooking oil is frozen.

He’s getting ready for the 19th edition of the World’s Largest Matanza, an annual fiesta in the small city of Belen, N.M., that celebrates the state’s historic nose-to-tail hog-slaughtering festivals. Sixteen teams from across the state will gather in Eagle Park on this chilly late January day to feed traditional New Mexican matanza dishes — carne adovada, chicharrones, carnitas, red chile and more — to an estimated 9,500 attendees who’ll pay $15 for all they can eat.

. . .

“It’s heritage, it’s community, it’s ritual, it’s economics, it’s culinary, it’s celebration,” says Tey Marianna Nunn, visual arts program director at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque. “It really is a performance art form.”

Knowing its drawing power, the Hispano Chamber of Valencia County started what evolved into the World’s Largest Matanza in 2000 as a fundraiser for high school students.

“We can have a banquet,” says current board secretary Rita Garcia, “but isn’t a matanza more fun?”

. . .

The World’s Largest Matanza unfolds without any hitches, with attendees including military veterans, motorcycle club members and DEA agents. The temperature never exceeds 50 degrees, but no one seems to mind. The bands blast through their sets, with an announcer urging attendees to “dance off those chicharrones.”

By early afternoon, only a couple hundred people remain, mostly teams and their friends and family waiting to hear the winners in 10 categories such as carnitas, bizcochitos (an anise-flavored sugar cookie) and the Iron Pig, in which teams were tasked with cooking pork alongside a surprise ingredient: polenta. (“Maybe it’s not an exotic ingredient in Southern California,” says the head of judging. “But it is around here.”)

There's more at the link, and at the festival's Facebook page.

An article in New Mexico Magazine gives more information, and provides some mouth-watering recipes, too.  Here's one to whet your appetite.

New Mexico Red Chile Sauce

Simple sauces like this are a mainstay of every matanza. Dip a freshly fried chicharrón into a bowl of it. Experience bliss.

Makes 4 cups

• 8 ounces (about 20–25) dried whole red New Mexican chile pods, mild, medium, hot, or a combination
• 4 cups water or chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1–2 teaspoons crumbled dried Mexican oregano or marjoram
• 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

1. Toast dried whole chile pods in a heavy skillet over medium heat until they are warm and release their fragrance, 1–2 minutes per side.
2. Remove chiles from the skillet immediately. When cool enough to handle, break each pod into several pieces (wearing rubber or plastic gloves if your skin is sensitive). Discard stems and seeds.
3. Warm the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Sauté several minutes, until onion is limp.
4. Place the chile pieces, onion, garlic, and oregano in a blender and pour in the water or stock. Puree until mostly smooth, with a few flecks of chile still visible.
5. Pour chile mixture into a saucepan, then add salt. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer. After about 15 minutes, taste the sauce and adjust seasonings. Continue simmering, for a total of 20–25 minutes.
6. When ready, sauce will be cooked down enough to coat a spoon thickly but still drop off it easily. Use warm or refrigerate for later use.

That sounds so delicious, I'm going to try cooking it soon.  I might try a variation using New Mexico's famous Hatch green chiles, too.  My mouth's watering already at the thought!

Peter

. . . reader B. R. sends this inspirational graphic.







Peter

Britain's world-famous Natural History Museum has just released the results of its 2018 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.  There are some spectacular images.  Here are just two, to whet your appetite.  Click each one for a much larger view.

The winner in the category "Animals in their Environment", from Spain, is Cristobal Serrano with a drone-captured overhead picture of crabeater seals on an ice floe.  (Oddly enough, despite their name, they don't eat crabs!)




Highly commended in the category "Animal Portraits", here's a lioness captured by Isak Pretorius of South Africa.




There are many more photographs at the link.  Highly recommended viewing.

Peter

Italian foodies are getting their serviettes (napkins) in a twist over tiramisu.

It may sound like a confection, but tiramisu recipes are causing controversy in Italy as beer is added to the mix.

The country’s foodies fear the mouthwatering mélange of mascarpone cheese, sponge fingers, coffee and chocolate could soon be unrecognisable as organisers of this year’s Tiramisu World Cup are inviting participants to create their own versions of the popular sweet with a twist, adding chilli, onions, wasabi, and even beer.

. . .

Mr Redi defended adding beer, saying: “I believe it is possible providing you can reduce the alcoholic content.”

He said one of last year’s semi-finalists impressed the judges with a recipe that included chili but there was only one winning category and that was for a classic recipe.

This year’s competition is expected to attract even more competitors willing to push the boundaries.

“Whatever you do you are going to be criticised,” he said. “When pizza was born it was only a margherita. Is a pizza with prosciutto and mushrooms not a pizza?”

But the competition, which is backed by local councils and corporate sponsors, is already facing a backlash.

The Confraternita del Tiramisu, or Tiramisu Guild, which represents 50 members in the Veneto region, said Wednesday it did not want to have anything to do with the cup or anyone who sought to modify the traditional recipe.

“Tiramisu was born here,” guild secretary, Annibale Toffolo, told The Telegraph. “Tiramisu means 'pick you up', it is a way of giving you strength and energy. Everything else is an invention.

“We have to protect our identity. It is like the pizza that has spread around the world. We have to defend it.”

There's more at the link.

Tiramisu with chili???  Say it ain't so!  That sounds like a Texas edition of the recipe, right there . . .  I wonder if the chili included beans?  And wasabi?  Japanese tiramisu?  Or should that be tira-miso?

Having said that, of course, a very palatable tiramisu may be found in a local ristorante.  Miss D. and I indulge ourselves there now and again, trying to push aside guilty feelings over the calories involved.  However, they don't add chili!

Peter

I received an e-mail this morning from reader Dennison S., who pointed out that the first two books in my current Cochrane's Company trilogy are eligible for nomination for this year's Dragon Awards, the biggest reader-selected award in the USA.

I was flattered, of course, although I don't know what my chances will be against luminaries such as Larry Correia, John Ringo et. al.  They're the superstars in the mil-SF field;  I'm a relative amateur by comparison!  Nevertheless, he wanted to nominate my books, so I said he should go ahead.  I asked him to nominate the middle book of the trilogy, "An Airless Storm", rather than the first one, because it's the most recently published.




Therefore, dear readers:  if, and only if, you think "An Airless Storm" is worthy of nomination for a Dragon Award, please nominate it before July 20th 2018, when nominations close.  Please nominate it in the "Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel" category, not any other, as it most closely fits that genre.  You'll find the nomination form and instructions here.  The more people who nominate it, the better its chances of making it into the voting round later this year.  In that light, please DO NOT nominate the first book in the trilogy, "The Stones of Silence".  Let's concentrate the votes on a single book, not split them between two volumes.

Whether or not you nominate my book (or any other), you'll need to register to vote in the Dragon Awards before August 31st, 2018.  The form to do that is here.  I encourage all who love reading in the science fiction and fantasy categories to register to vote, and to make your voices heard.  The huge advantage the Dragon Awards have over every other similar award is that they're genuinely the voice of the readers, not the publishers or pressure groups or any other faction.  I think they're a great new entry on the awards scene, and I hope that one day, sooner or later, I may write a book that's worthy of such recognition.  Whether or not that will happen this year . . . that's up to you!

Oh - one last note:  the third and final volume in my Cochrane's Company trilogy, "The Pride of the Damned", is scheduled for publication next Monday, July 9th, God willing.  It won't be eligible for this year's Dragon Awards, which cover only books published on or before June 30th, 2018.  However, I hope you'll enjoy it as much as the first two!




Thanks.

Peter

An e-mail from reader Greg B. drew my attention to a performance by the choir of Kearsney College, a boarding school for boys in the Kwazulu-Natal province of South Africa, during the World Choir Games in 2008.




I've driven through Botha's Hill, where the college is situated.  Alan Paton, world-famous author of "Cry, the Beloved Country", retired there, and lived there until his death.  However, I wasn't aware of Kearsney College's choir.  It seems to have come to prominence after I left South Africa.

Thanks, Greg, for bringing that video to our attention.

Peter