Phils Phun: March 2016

692

Western Australia

Ord River Dam spillway Kununurra

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Sweden has an Easter tradition with roots in pre-Christian Europe:

On Maundy Thursday (Skärtorsdag), children go trick-or-treating.

The Thursday before Easter was once said to be the day all witches

flew on their broomsticks to a mountain to cavort with the devil.

They flew back to their homes on Saturday,

and tried to blend in with the rest of the churchgoers on Easter Sunday.

In memory of this belief, children in Sweden and parts of Finland

dress as witches (and sometimes other pop culture characters)

and go from house to house seeking candy.

Australians aren't big fans of rabbits.

The furry creatures are an invasive species that has destroyed

much of the native flora and supplanted the native fauna.

So Australians have never been too keen on the idea

of the Easter bunny bringing treats.

In 1968, 9-year-old Rose-Marie Dusting of Queensland

wrote a story called "Billy The Aussie Easter Bilby,"

which she later published.

(A bilby is a native marsupial with long ears that made

quite a good substitute for the Easter bunny.)

In 1991, an official campaign was launched to promote the Easter bilby,

and chocolatiers followed by fashioning candy bilbies

for Easter baskets.

The gift of a chocolate bilby is not only a holiday tradition now,

but also a statement of Aussie pride

Fanesca is a traditional Easter soup in Ecuador.

It’s said to be made only once a year because

the preparation is so time-consuming,

and because each recipe makes such a large batch.

The ingredients include a variety of fresh grains and beans,

squash, salted cod, cheese, and milk.

The twelve grains and beans are said to represent the twelve apostles,

and the cod represents Jesus.

A site called Laylita’s Recipes has the complete recipe

and instructions for fanesca and other Ecuadorian Easter recipes.

The native people of eastern Canada

have long hunted seals in the spring.

When Europeans arrived, they found that all parts

of the seal could be sold, except for the flippers,

which were relatively tough.

Those were kept for home consumption,

and improved by coating in flour, frying with onions and other vegetables,

and then being baked into a pie.

Since it was made during the spring hunting season,

Seal Flipper Pie became traditional for Lent and Easter

in the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Today, it is served in restaurants

and sold in groceries for the Easter season.

An Easter tradition in Hungary involves throwing buckets of water

on young women of marriageable age.

On the day after Easter, known as Easter Monday,

the women dress up in traditional clothing,

and young men douse them with water in a custom called

“Water Sowing Monday,” or Vízbevető.

This is supposed to be a pre-Christian cleansing ritual to promote fertility,

which has evolved into a tradition that is sometimes

an excuse for flirting with the opposite sex,

and sometimes just a nuisance.

The custom isn’t limited to Hungary.

In Poland, it’s known as Śmigus-Dyngus.

There are variations in other Eastern European countries as well.

In some places, you don’t need to dress up to get wet;

in others, a little spritz of perfume replaces the drenching.

Sometimes the dowsing is accompanied by poetry reading

or symbolic “whipping” with pussy willows.

Traditionally, the girls are supposed to return the favor on Tuesday,

but in reality, all the shenanigans happen on the same day.

In Italy, the tradition of celebrating Easter with eggs and candy

has evolved into the custom of giving gifts

tucked inside chocolate eggs.

There are mass-produced chocolate eggs with treats inside for children,

somewhat akin to Kinder Surprise eggs,

except the Italian version for the holiday is much larger.

There are also beautiful artisanal eggs made by chocolatiers,

either wrapped in fancy paper and ribbons or decorated

with intricate edible art right on the chocolate.

The gifts inside are often customized—

it’s not unusual to present an engagement ring

or a set of car keys in this manner.

More typical would be gold jewelry for one’s spouse,

or a toy that one’s child has been craving.

An internet search for “Italian chocolate Easter eggs”

yields several chocolatiers who will ship the eggs to you.

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PEOPLE ARE AWESOME (Kids Edition)

Kids

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Little Big Shots

Four-Year-Old Piano Prodigy

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Little Big Shots - Baby Bruce Lee!

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Miscellaneous Cartoons

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Magicians

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Around the World

Germany

Canada

England

Mexico

Australia

Why is this lake bright pink?

No one knows

Japan

France

Saudi Arabia

Russia

USA

Other

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THIS IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE !!

WOW !!!

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Those funny animals

Cool haircut

Artic Bunnies

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The bird whisperer

Sreedharan Subramaniam appropriately titled this video

The Bird Whisperer.

Apparently, this man has been feeding the ducks by the water

everyday over the winter.

But today he was running a little late.

So what happened?

The over enthusiastic ducks took over the street

in an attempt to meet him half way.

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Phun Phacts

Over 60 percent of Chinese consumers also say that they

are willing to pay more for products labeled “Made in USA”

than for those labeled “Made in China”

Bill Murray considers Groundhog Day the movie he was born

to make and probably the best work that he has done.

Before that movie he was seen largely as a clown.

After it, he was a complex actor with range

In 2014, South Korean Christians put up a Christmas tree

visible from the North Korean Border.

North Korea responded by calling it a

“tool for psychological warfare”

and threatened to bomb it

A Russian mathematician solved a 100 year old math problem.

He declined the Fields medal, $1 million in awards,

and later retired from math because he hated the recognition

the math community gives to people who prove things

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WORLD'S BEST MAGIC TRICK

Pink Floyd fans will understand

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Cursing Without Cursing

Film List (in order of appearance):

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
Johnny Dangerously (1984)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999)
Almost Famous (2000)
A Christmas Story (1983)
The Surfs (2011)
Spy Kids (2001)
Serenity (2005)
Star Trek (2009)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Hook (1991)
Three Amigos (1986)
You Can’t Cheat An Honest Man (1939)
Dumb And Dumber (1994)
Elf (2003)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (2005)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
A Bug’s Life (1998)
Misery (1990)
Never Give A Sucker An Even Break (1941)
Splash (1984)
Anchorman (2004)
Cats And Dogs (2001)
Short Circuit (1986)
Monty Python And The Holy Grail (1975)
The Wizard Of Oz (1939)
True Romance (1993)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The Princess Bride (1987)
The Sandlot (1993)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004)

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Odds and Ends