Lisa Says Look...

Organic Tomatoes Offer Twice the Health Benefits
People who choose organic fruits and vegetables to avoid pesticides and other chemicals may have another reason to buy organic, reports The New York Times. A new study finds that organically grown tomatoes have higher levels of flavonoids, which may protect against cardiovascular disease. Writing in The Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, researchers said the level of one flavonoid in the organic tomatoes was almost twice as high as that in conventionally grown tomatoes. Because of evidence that flavonoids may fight age-related diseases, the study said, researchers have been trying to develop crops with higher levels of them. The researchers, from the University of California, Davis, looked at tomatoes grown over a 10-year period in organic fields and regular ones. Not only did the organic tomatoes score better, they said, but over time, their flavonoid levels kept increasing. The study offered several possible explanations, most having to do with the fertility of the soil.

www.gourmetretailer.com

“A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman
strode through the streets of Scarborough;
after falling into a slough,
he coughed and hiccoughed.”

Sentence containing nine ways the combination “ough” can be pronounced…from http://www.ojohaven.com/fun/trivia.html.

Publisher Comments:

From one of Turkey’s most acclaimed and outspoken writers, a novel about the tangled histories of two families. In her second novel written in English, Elif Shafak confronts her country’s violent past in a vivid and colorful tale set in both Turkey and the United States. At its center is the “bastard” of the title, Asya, a nineteen-year-old woman who loves Johnny Cash and the French Existentialists, and the four sisters of the Kazanci family who all live together in an extended household in Istanbul: Zehila, the zestful, headstrong youngest sister who runs a tattoo parlor and is Asya’s mother; Banu, who has newly discovered herself as a clairvoyant; Cevriye, a widowed high school teacher; and Feride, a hypochondriac obsessed with impending disaster. Their one estranged brother lives in Arizona with his wife and her Armenian daughter, Armanoush. When Armanoush secretly flies to Istanbul in search of her identity, she finds the Kazanci sisters and becomes fast friends with Asya. A secret is uncovered that links the two families and ties them to the 1915 Armenian deportations and massacres. Full of vigorous, unforgettable female characters, The Bastard of Istanbul is a bold, powerful tale that will confirm Shafak as a rising star of international fiction.

from Daily Kos by BarbinMD - Mon Jul 02, 2007 

Today marks the fourth anniversary of a phrase that will go down in infamy.  On July 2, 2003, George W. Bush was asked about the rising casualty rates in Iraq.  His response?

…anybody who wants to harm American troops will be found and brought to justice. There are some who feel like that if they attack us that we may decide to leave prematurely. They don’t understand what they’re talking about, if that’s the case.

Let me finish. There are some who feel like — that the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is, bring them on.

And since that swaggering schoolboy taunt, 3,372 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq. Mission accomplished, Mr. President.