This seems to be old news, but the news doesn’t always travel fast; I thought it was a catchy tune and a funny video.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rhg1Ngz7y4

Putin The Superhero Banished From Ukrainian Airwaves.*
“Vova”, commonly known as Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, is a superhero according to Ukrainian band Dress Code, who have released a song devoted to the merits of the James Bond-defying, child-saving, universally adored Russian. Banned in Ukraine, the video is causing quite a stir.
The band behind the controversial homage is certainly profiting from its prohibition. Since the song “And Vova Rules” was taken off air for “political reasons”, the illustrated music video has become a huge online hit in both Ukraine and Russia, where, incidentally, it was never shown on TV in the first place. Putin propaganda, a big joke, or a publicity stunt? Whatever it is, the video’s already been viewed over 350,000 times.
The illustrations are pretty self-explanatory, but here are a few of the lyrics:
“James Bond isn’t fit to shine his shoes. He’s a superman, he’s adored by the rich, by celebrities, by professors, by village folk and the West. He’ll always be there in your time of need. He’ll always protect you. If necessary he’ll whack bad guys, even in a toilet. Indeed, Vova rules, and, surely, he rules just the way it should be done.”

* the part about being banned is likely B.S. that’s why I am linking to the source.

*The better-looking photos in this post are taken by my kid.

I usually try to give my travel posts clever (in my opinion) or rhyming titles, but no rhyme comes to mind to name this report about my trip to Minneapolis.

Five months out of the year Minneapolis is an exciting, great-looking, interesting city 500 miles to the North of Kansas City. During the other seven months it closely resembles the Fortress of Solitude – a snow-covered and icy hellhole where people are using an elaborate tunnel-like system to move between the buildings without getting a frostbite. It also houses the first sign of Apocalypse – The Mall of America.

If you are driving to Minneapolis, the longest part of your route passes through Iowa – Khrushchev’s favorite state. Iowa is famous for its old people and various, not always pleasant, smells along the highway. Iowa’s population is so old that just by driving through we temporarily dropped the average age in the state to 68. To fight the smell problem Iowans installed gigantic fans in random places.

This recipe is really easy and results in a spread or a dip, name it as you wish. Eggplant is delicious and good for you in a variety of ways including weight loss:

Don’t include too many eggplants in your diet if you’re interested in: Weight gain.

In other words, if you stay with the eggplant diet you will finally be able to attain that figure you were dreaming about, all the while consuming tasty eggplant recipes.

This recipe contains 2 eggplants, dill, garlic and mayonnaise – if you don’t like these ingredients separately or in combination, please move along.

Remove green ends from the eggplants and place them in a pot of boiling salted water.

Sometime during the cooking process try to turn the eggplants over, they will resist and try to flip back, one of you will eventually win, hopefully not the eggplant. You may want to use the lid for that purpose. Check periodically,when a toothpick goes through the eggplant without much effort, they are done. Time depends on the size and shape of your eggplant (if you know what I mean) but definitely over 20 minutes. Just keep checking. Remove from the pot. The next step is to press the eggplant. Place a cooling rack into the sink. Cut multiple slits into the skin of the eggplant lengthwise.

You need some weight to extract as much moisture out of the eggplant as you can. One possible way to do it is to place a cutting board on top of the eggplant and weigh it down with a pot of water.

Two hours later the eggplant should look fairly flat.

I use the meat grinder to chop the eggplant, you can use the food processor, just don’t pulverize it, you are not making toothpaste, it should retain texture. Add plenty of chopped dill, a little mayonnaise and as much garlic as you deem appropriate. Some salt and pepper to taste.

The final product looks like this and can be consumed with crackers or bread, in sandwiches, or on its own.

Warning: In case of extreme weight loss please discontinue.

⋆FRATERNAL GREETING TO THE PEOPLES OF SOCIALIST NATIONS! Let develop and stregthen the peaceful system of socialism–deciding force of the anti-imperialist struggle, the bulwark of peace, democracy, and social progress!⋆

After somewhat of a run-up to this day it’s finally here:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMue1xI01Kk

**this is more of a Red Square compilation from many festivities; I am pretty sure there was no military parade on that day.

⋆Under the banner of Marxism-Leninism, under the leadership of the Communist Party–forward to new victories in the construction of communism!⋆

* disclaimer: I have no idea who Bob Shaw is, and I was too lazy to Google him.

As an outdoor advertising collector and billboard connoisseur I especially appreciate the home-made signs frequently seen along the streets and state highways. Judging by the effort and expense needed to produce these signs, someone has a real problem with that Bob Shaw guy. The least I could do was to get out of my car somewhere on the NW Barry Rd. (I think) and take some pictures.