Sarah Palin in a Corn Maze

by Jamie Rhein on

Sarah Palin is in a corn maze. This does not mean that Sarah Palin is actually in a corn maze, but that there is a corn maze made to look like Sarah Palin. You have to be looking down on the maze and not in it in order to see the likeness. And it does look like her–and also Tina Fey.

I heard about this maze on News Update on Saturday Night Live and promptly checked out the story’s validitity. Yep, the maze is in Whitehouse, Ohio not too far from Toledo. Although the maze of Palin is new this year, The Corn Maze at the Butterfly House where it is located is not new.

Each year the Whitehouse Farm turns acres of corn fields into pictures. There is also an amazing intricate butterfly for wandering among the corn stalks. Corn mazes are one way farmers have upped their revenue in an unsure market. Elaborate pictures are not as common. Palin’s took eight hours to make after an artist made a sketch and figured out how to mow it using a GPS system.

Check out the farm’s Web site for a video of Palin’s maze. You can walk through Palin’s head (sort of a borrowed line from Saturday Night Live) Palin’s addition certainly adds something new to the fall line up of Ohio’s corn mazes.

Here is a YouTube video of a news clip of the Palin corn maze. The owner of the Butterfly House, Duke Wheeler explains how the maze was made and what other fun things his farm has planned.

10 tips for smarter flying


Learn a new language, and the Silbo Gomero

by Abha Malpani on

I recently had the opportunity of meeting the co-founder of a new language-learning website called “Busuu”. Busuu is a language on the verge of extinction; apparently today it’s spoken by only 8 people in Cameroon. Other than that cool snippet of information, I didn’t pay much attention to the website until I got an email saying that it will teach you how to do the whistle “Gomero”, i.e. the Silbo Gomero.

The Silbo Gomero is a whistle that is (was?) used to communicate in Gomero, in the Canary Islands. People who know this language can communicate full sentences through this whistle, and since it can be heard up to a distance of 8 kilometers, it used to be an extremely useful way of communicating across the deep alleys and mountains of the island.(Voice can only travel 200 meters). It used to be a recognised language, but now since there are few people who can whistle this way and it’s not an easy whistle to learn, this “language” faces the threat of extinction.

Busuu aims to help preserve such languages that are under threat of disappearing, and their proactiveness towards trying to help users understand and learn this whistle is commendable. The fact that you are far from learning the whistle after looking at their material is a different point, but if they are planning to expand on such efforts, this is a great start. Here you can check out a great video they did that explores the hows and whats of this Silbo Gomero.



This whole learning the Silbo Gomero tactic could well be a publicity stunt for Busuu, but worth it if it drives traffic to this new and cool language-exchange/learning-community. The website is easy to navigate and presents a community-driven language learning system. Become a member and you can add study modules and attempt to familiarize yourself with a new language, with the option of being helped by native speakers of the language you want to learn. It all works on a system of mutual help, so it’s pretty cool to see it function well. Right now they offer opportunities to study English, French, Spanish, and German. Although you may not learn the language in any concrete or complete way, it’s a good place to start and to meet some multi-lingual people.

Die and be reborn in a temple in Thailand: It only takes a minute and a half– and a coffin

by Jamie Rhein on

One of my favorite things to do in Thailand is to have a hand and foot massage. I feel rejuvenated afterward and it only takes 30 minutes. Plus, the massage is cheap and accessible. Hand and feet massage establishments are plentiful.

Here’s another way to rejuvenate in Thailand. At Wat Prommanee in Nakhon Nayok, about 60 miles north of Bangkok, you can climb into a big pink padded coffin for a few moments, and then climb out as a new person.

With high demand in the wanting-to-become-like-new-again department, visitors to the temple, hundreds of them, wait in line for their re-birthing experience. There are nine coffins, so it’s a stream-lined process. Monks, who also chant a dirge, tell people when to get in and get out.

The New York Times article, where I found out about this new opportunity to slough off the old and attract the new, provides these examples of what it is that gets people to climb into a coffin.

  • need for relaxation
  • prosperity
  • get rid of bad luck (the guy who said this had had a car accident and a break in.)
  • to win a soccer game (An entire soccer team showed up)

If traveling with your family, bring them along.

By the way, getting reborn isn’t free. It costs about $5. You can also pick up an amulet to take home.

If you do go, according to the article, don’t stand too close to the coffins while waiting your turn. You don’t want the bad karma being released from the people in the coffins to go right into you.

I’m wondering what happens if a person refuses to get out because a minute and a half just isn’t enough. Could you keep paying more money to stay in longer? Or do you have to get out, go to the end of the line and do it again?

Paul Newman, a tribute and movie locations

by Jamie Rhein on

Paul Newman died yesterday. Besides feeling sad that someone I’ve admired from my teenage years up until now is no longer going to grace us with his physical presence, I’ve thought about several of the scenes from his movies that can be visited and other places that I know that have a Paul Newman connection.

The last Paul Newman connection I made was two weeks ago when I went to the Wyandot Popcorn Museum in Marion, Ohio. Paul Newman’s Dunbar wagon is there, along with a picture of Newman looking quite dapper. Newman’s microwave popcorn is made in Marion.

There are several other Ohio connections since Newman was born in Cleveland, grew up in Shaker Heights before he went to college for a year at Ohio University in Athens, and graduated from Kenyon College in Gambier.

Another unusual connection is found in Albuquerque, New Mexico. On one of the walls at Tree New Mexico, a non-profit organization with its office in Albuquerque, is a plaque from Paul Newman. Tree New Mexico won several thousand dollars as part of a cooking contest cook-off that Newman’s charity used to run. You had to use Newman’s Own products in the recipe. My friend who runs the organization was ga ga over Newman when he handed her the check.

To find Newman’s movie locations, there is a Web site World Wide Guide to Movie Locations that lists several filming sites of Newman’s movies. If you click on the highlighted titles, you can specific spots for that particular movie. For example, Absence of Malice was filmed in Dade County and Miami, Florida. Certain scenes are listed such as Matheson Hammock Park where Michael Gallagher, Newman’s character, secretly meets with a politician

At the Judge Roy Bean Visitor Center in Langtry, Texas, you can take in the history of the real Judge Roy Bean who Newman portrayed in the movie, The Life and Time of Judge Roy Bean. The center is in the historic building that used to be an opera house, saloon and courthouse combo.

The Sting, one of my favorite Newman movies, was mostly shot at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, but one item to take in that is connected to the movie is the carousel at the Santa Monica Pier. It’s the same one Newman’s character operated.

Another Web site, Seeing Stars in Hollywood, lists several Paul Newman inspired locations around Los Angeles. Some of them include the houses where he lived, where he was spotted eating and places that have paid him tribute.

Here’s a Paul Newman quote that sort of fits travel… kind of. “It’s useless to put on your brakes when you are upside down.”

Milk candy, China’s favorite treat might be tainted

by Jamie Rhein on

White Rabbit candy, a taffy made from milk has been a favorite sweet to most Chinese people ever since it first debuted in 1949 in time for the 10th anniversary of the forming of the People’s Republic of China.

In 1972, a bag was given to President Richard Nixon when he made his history making visit.

Yesterday on NPR there was a story about how White Rabbit candy, because it has milk in it, has been pulled from store shelves and the company that makes is has stopped churning it out until after the melamine-tainted milk issue is fixed.

According to the NPR story, the candy, made in Shanghai, is not being sold as a cautionary measure. It is also recommended that if you have some, and you might because it’s exported to 50 different countries, don’t eat it.

Traces of melamine have been found, although, from what I read in this Wikipedia article, “a 60kg adult […] would have to eat more than 47 White Rabbit sweets […] every day over a lifetime to exceed the tolerable threshold for melamine.”

I think melamine would be the least of your troubles if you ate 47 taffy candies every day. A child who weighs half that would only need to eat 23.5 candies.

I’ve eaten White Rabbit candy several times and agree that it is quite good. I can see why it’s been a favorite for so long. Hopefully, all will be right again in candy land and people will feel safe eating it once more.

For an overview of China’s milk problem, here’s Josh’s post as a refresher.