Oldie but fascinating article on a team of SCUBA divers and their finds on the bottom of the Bosphorus.  Sure, you expect to find random restaurant items and Akbils, but a police cart?! Pure awesome. 

A Fancy Fast Food ripoff! http://www.fancyfastfood.com

On a related note, I’ll be hosting the FFF creator in Istanbul, what Turkish fast food could he try? Kokorec sandwich? Islak burger? A simple doner kebab with soggy french fries?

thedailywhat:

Fancy Fast Food of the Day: Four top Toronto-area chefs were invited by local alt-weekly The Grid (formerly EYE) to design five-star meals using only the ingredients found in McDonald’s Big Mac combo.

We asked four chefs to turn a Big Mac combo (burger, fries and a Coke, plus lots of condiments) into a five-star dish. To our surprise, they agreed. The only rule: other than oil and water, no extra ingredients allowed. The result is four meals that won’t be seen on a specials board anytime soon.

Above: Aravind’s Open-Faced Samosas — fried-burger-bun samosas filled with diced meat and onions bound in BBQ sauce, served alongside fries bundled up with fry box strips and repurposed-cheese sauce.

[nag.]

Yet another reason Singapore is awesome, even if you just go to the airport.

flight001:

Flight 001 Singapore has arrived!!!

We’re excited to announce that our first airport store just opened in Changi International Airport, Singapore. Visit us at Terminal 2!

FLIGHT 001 > NEW YORK / BROOKLYN / LOS ANGELES / SAN FRANCISCO / BERKELEY / CHICAGO / SYDNEY / CHANGI AIRPORT, SINGAPORE 

Probably my all-time favorite movie, I know every line still. No one could hold a candle to Gene Wilder’s performance, but I still think they should have gotten Christopher Walken for the remake.

thedailywhat:

So Shines A Good Reunion of the Day: The Today Show recently reunited the surviving cast members of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory to mark the 40th anniversary of Mel Stuart’s cult classic. (Starts @ 1:55.)

For record, Gene Wilder is very much alive, but sadly couldn’t be in attendance.

[buzzfeed.]

See Also: Pure Imagination: The Making of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

By far my favorite Royal Wedding read. The haters can leave me to my Pimm’s and funny hats.

richardrushfield:

ROYAL WEDDING WRAP UP: FINAL THOUGHTS

• To start, I would like to address the naysayers.  While the world may have gone Middleton mad, my corner of it is about 20 percent Royal Wedding fans/80 percent angry grumps who wear t-shirts proclaiming how not interested they are in such socially questionable frivolity.  And while I appreciate their point, I would like to ask them, what the hell is wrong with you? 

Fine, you don’t want to watch a bunch of British monarchs getting dressed up and marrying off their balding young prince.  So don’t watch it.  Do I get on a high horse and ask anyone to give me medals for not watching March Madness (I do only a little) which does a lot more harm to the world if you look at its effect on the education system and the television schedule than watching a wedding ever did?  Do I consider myself a hero for not going to Coachella? (Not very much). 

Well, maybe you’re making a big stand against the British monarchy.  Congratulations, aren’t you brave?  We had a little posse out here about 230 years ago that sorta settled that issue for we Americans, but welcome aboard.  Always glad to have more converts to the cause.  

But as a result of that little dust-up they fought, we can watch George III’s descendents get gussied up as pure spectators without any fear that they are going to come and make us put up their Hessian mercenaries in our homes, so don’t worry about it. It’s just a TV show.

Or maybe you have more important things to do than bother yourself with such frivolity? And that’s just terrific.  We’re all very grateful you’re going to stay up all night studying public housing statistics while we bubbleheads are debating Kate’s dress.  I’m sure the report you produce will turn the whole nation’s debate right on its head, so thanks for that.

Moving. On.

• Because in the end, the thing is a celebration (we hope) of young couple being in love and anyone who has ever been to a wedding knows, whatever your hostility to the ceremonial aspects, whether you are pro-British/pro-monarchy/pro-rich people in hats, that’s always a moving thing.  That’s why it’s the plot of pretty much every movie ever made, except 2 or 3, every book ever written.  

• It is interesting and very jealous making to see a world where people can wear crazy hats and sashes with medals on them and swords and vests and not have it be a precious affectation.  I often wish - I usually wish we lived in a world where people still put on a suit to ride in aeroplanes.  And some vulnerable moments, I’ve tried to pretend we do and started wearing suits every day on my own.  But the result is of course, a precious affectation, because wish it though I may, its not the society I live in. But for these Royals there is an unbroken chain of getting dressed up for functions going back to the birth of England itself when there no doubt was some important reason for people to keep their heads covered.  Down since the 3rd Century, they’ve never had a wedding where everyone thought it was cool if they just showed up in t-shirts. No doubt they too will soon.  But in the meantime, they get to wear swords and sashes and hats and without feeling like they’re just being ponces. And I don’t.

• It’s nice that the Queen doesn’t join in when they sing God Save the Queen. Very humble of her.

• On the other hand, it’s weird that they don’t all turn and look at her when they all sing it.  I mean, they’re saying God Save the Queen, and she’s standing right there.  Do they think she’ll think they’re talking about another queen?

• Whatever your position is on hereditary rules (on balance, considering what we’ve got here, I’d take it) it’s kinda an amazing thing to see this old couple (Queen and Phillip) whose whole job besides pretending to rule the nation is being dignified, and to always be dignified no matter what.  Even if we don’t have unelected sovereigns, can’t we have that.  Just pick a couple and say, your job for the rest of your lives is just to be dignified.  No matter how crazy, pathetic, ridiculous, unclothed society may get, you will always frown and stare straight ahead, greeting the world with a barely percepitable nod.  The rest of the nation will be dressed in tank tops with piercings through every corner of their body, but you will always wear and suit and/or frock.   Wouldn’t it help in this age to have just one of them?

• Why is everyone talking about the dress and not the Aston Martin?   When a car like that is brought into the picture, there can be no debate. 

This is of limited interest if you aren’t following the Istanbul canal plans or understand Turkish, but it’s basically a parody that makes all of Turkey into islands. Here’s the map key in Turkish:

1-Kanal Trabzon: Trabzon’dan başlayarak İskenderun körfezine uzanacak. Akdeniz’de hamsi avlanacak. Hunt the Mediterranean anchovy

2- Kanal Güdül: Karadeniz ile Akdeniz’in birleşmesinde Ege dışlanmayacak.Gâvur İzmir ıslah olacak. Merges the Med with the Aegean.

3-Ankara adası: Ankara’ya deniz getirilmek suretiyle, Sakarya Caddesi sahilinde bira içilip, üst geçitten olta sallandırmak mümkün olacak. Makes Ankara into an island for fishing and drinking beer on the water.

4-İki Karadeniz: Bu kanallardan çıkan topraklarla Karadeniz doldurulup Rusya’yla birleşecek, iki ülke arasındaki ziyaretler kolaylaşacak. Bilâhare, burada ” Kanal Moskova” açılması ile ilgili araştırmalar başlayacak. Visit Russia!

5-Eskişehir’in Akdeniz’le buluşması: Eskişehir’e suni denizler yapmaktansa; Eskişehir, Akdeniz’e nakledilecek.

6-Karadeniz’in Yeşil Adası Kıbrıs: Ada’yı, Akdeniz’den Karadeniz’e sevk etmek suretiyle, Kıbrıs sorununa kesin çözüm bulunacak

7-Yozgat Gölü: Van Gölü boşaltılarak, Yozgat’ta yeniden oluşturulacak. Her projeye gerekçe şart değil! Van Gölü milyonlarca yıldır aynı yerde, hareket olsun…

Lüzumu halinde “Konya Ovası ile Ağrı Dağı’nın yerlerini değiştirme” projesi de geliştirilebilir.”

Husband asked me for an itinerary for 2 days in Istanbul for a co-worker, so I thought I’d post for others. This is fairly hectic but gives you the essentials.

Saturday - Start at Takism Square. Walk (or take nostalgic tram) down Istiklal to Tunel, funicular/walk down to Galata Bridge and walk across bridge (fishermen on top, fish restaurants on the bottom). Keep walking or hop on the tram for a few stops to Sultanahmet to see Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, and cistern (about 2 hours to see them all, depending on call to prayer). Tram to Grand Bazaar (closed Sunday) and then taxi/walk to Spice Market, end up back at Galata Bridge and possibly see Istiklal at night. If there’s time on either end, go up to the top of Galata Tower near end of Istiklal/Tunel for views of Golden Horn and a good overview of the city.

Sunday - See Topkapi Palace in Sultanahmet and/or Chora Church (Topkapi takes a few hours with the harem, and it’s almost always crowded. Chora Church takes about an hour but it’s not as central.). Ferry over to Asian side - either take a taxi to Beylerbeyi Palace from Uskudar or walk around Kadikoy and Moda neighborhood. If there’s time and the weather is good (or you don’t want to go all the way over to Asia), spend the afternoon at a waterfront neighborhood like Ortakoy (and visit the mosque there).

More on the tourist sites here. With another day or two, I’d recommend seeing what Sabanci and/or Pera Museums have (Sabanci is way out of the tourist sites but in a beautiful area and the museum is great, Pera is right off Istiklal), have a wander around Besiktas, explore all the areas around Istiklal, and maybe even venture up to Santral.

Watched this Russian movie this weekend after a friend recommended, with warnings about how disturbing it is. It does have some truly unsettling scenes (all supposedly true), but it’s no more gory than an average action movie. But I doubt that any American slasher movie would include scenes and themes discussing the existence of God and the soul. Ah, Russia. There’s also a sweet Soviet disco.

The view from the ivory tower

With a baby on the way, husband and I are hoping to move to a bigger apartment in Istanbul before summer comes. A brand-new building is about to open up not far from us, with all kinds of sweet amenities like a pool (would be awesome if this summer is anything like last), gym, Carrefour supermarket, etc. We went to walk by it this weekend and discovered that even though it’s only 10-15 minutes walk from where we are now on the edge of posh Nisantasi and close to Taksim Square, the immediate neighborhood is depressing to say the least. At the end of the block is a highway, the other end is a construction site for more fancy high-rise apartments, and across the street are gecekondus. If you aren’t familiar with the term, it means house put up over night and basically means squatter houses or slums. Istanbul is full of them, and there are plenty of nice neighborhoods with mansions on one side of the street and gecekondus on the other. They aren’t necessarily dangerous, just poor and sad. So this is literally across the street and possibly the only way to walk from the apartment building to the metro and other bits of civilization. The building is literally an ivory tower. In theory, there are enough things at the apartment complex that you’d never have to leave the grounds but we do like to get out. 

So the question is: is a pool and a sweet apartment worth the sketchy neighborhood? Will I want to walk to the doctor and eventually with a baby, past the slums?

I’ve seen a lot of quality dogs-on-wheels videos and figured I should round them up for safekeeping (yes, there will be a time when I am in desperate need of one of these videos). So what’s cutest: dogs in a conga line? Scooter-riding dog? Or an old-fashioned dog on a bicycle? I think this escalator-confused dog would also be good at pedaling.