Great News!

Via DCist.

Smoking ban in Virginia soon. It'll make the entire Metro area smoke free. Perhaps the geeks should move out to Virginia one week....

Buffalo Bills, Howard University, and Eritrean Food

Notice anything interesting about this mural, my loyal readers? It's a DC Ward 1 (the Official Homeward of the Wiki Karmel (is that two words, USOWK?)) mural. Let's go through the features:

• DC skyline. Check.
• Cluck U Chicken reference. Check.
• Elephants and Donkeys. Check.
• Buffalo Bills logo. What?

The image on the left is the Buffalo Bills logo, the Official NFL football team of the Wiki Karmel. It's also the team logo of the Howard University Bison.

Howard University is where I discovered Five Guys*. I guess it's becoming something of a national sensation these days. But back in the day** a gaggle of geeks I rolls with used to go to the Five Guys near the Howard University Hospital. That is until they closed it. Leaving us very hungry one night. And forcing us to scour the area for a meal that five people would all agree to. In the end, we chose Eritrean. Very tasty. Good choice.

*I think it's horrible now. The first time I went, I told them to "go nuts"*** with barbecue sauce and jalapenos. And they did. But every time I go there now, they never "go nuts". It saddens me.**** Also, I get indigestion every time I eat it.

**I actually hate the expression "back in the day".*****

***Recently I was at the new Shawarma place in Adams Morgan and I told the woman behind the counter to "go nuts" with the hot sauce. She did. I cried. But it was still tasty.

****Speaking of being saddened by early toppings overload, the Great Wiki Karmel used to live on the Upper East Side (for a month) with FGS (Fort Worth, TX) and Mers-Nads. We went one time to a Coldstone Creamery. Twas my first time. And the dude behind the counter obviously didn't care about his job because he gave me something like 8 Reese's Cups. It was toppings overload (and awesome). Everytime I went back, I got a "normal" employee who gave me one or 2 Cups. So sad. Now I don't eat Coldstone. But perhaps that's because I'm lactarded ...

*****Back in the day, I used to say "back in the day" all the time. Now I don't.

Fact. Bears eat beets.

Question: What is the only state capital named after a Vice President.

Answer: False. Black bears.

But seriously. The BOTU posed this question to me earlier today (it was a Jeopardy final question).

My first thought was Jackson(1), MS (which coincidentally was the BOTU's first thought as well).

Then I thought Montgomery(2), AL.

Consulting Wikipedia, I came across a third option: Madison(3), WI. Was he a Veep too?

Turns out both of us were wrong (the answer later).

Jackson gave us the great Fred Smoot, of dubious fame(NSFW). The first successful (?) lung transplant occurred at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. And the USA International Ballet Competition is located at the Thalia Mara Hall. Weird.

Montgomery is home to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival (too easy...(4)) and the Montgomery Biscuits. Really? The Biscuits (5)? Also, Zelda(6) (no, not that Zelda(7)) Fitzgerald(8) is from there.

Madison is home of The University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Great Wiki Karmel has never been, but apparently the Halloween Party is out of this world. The band Garbage is from Madison. I'm a fan(9). It's also a sister city to Vilnius, Lithuania, which is currently the European Capital of Culture.

So....All of those are wrong. The answer is..... (djembe roll......)

Jefferson City, MO. Raise your hand if you got that.

Of course, out of my loyal readers, only FGS (Fort Worth, TX) has his hand in the air.

(1) 7th President
(2) Continental Army General during American Revolution
(3) 4th President
(4) Haha. People from Alabama can't read! (10)
(5) Actually, the name Biscuits came from a fan contest. The owner (who must be related to Andrew Elliott, Esquire) is quite the fan of puns. "Hey, Butter, Butter, Butter" or the team's souvenir store, the "Biscuit Basket". They actually shoot biscuits at fans during games instead of t shirts.
(6) The creator of Zelda actually did name his damsel in distress after Z Fitz.
(7) A damn fine game, however. It gets two thumbs up from the Great Wiki Karmel.
(8) Thoughts on Gatsby, my loyal readers? I'm very meh.
(9) Though only of the self titled album. I didn't like 2.0.
(10)It is the official policy of the Wiki Karmel (the blog, not the person), to not mock any loyal readers. If I have offended anyone, I apologize.

Shark Attack!

As I've briefly touched on before, the Great Wiki Karmel does not like sharks. I saw Jaws* when I was five...I've been terrified ever since. I mean, seriously, these things are killing machines. Machines! Why would anyone ever mess with one. Now I know what you are thinking, my loyal readers: the chances of getting attacked are ridiculously small. You might even point out that in 1996, there were 18 shark injuries/deaths and 43,687 injuries from toilets. But I'm not taking a chance. I'm not even going in ankle deep. And no, Always Y, this isn't a "fear" of sharks. This is respect. Respect for my life!

*As much as I hate sharks (and Jaws), John Williams is the man!

My worst nightmare

And I'm never getting a boat....

Just passing this along

The Great Wiki Karmel thoroughly enjoys reading Ask Yahoo! every day. I thought this was interesting: there has been war continuously for the past 5,000 years.

Should this be a requirement? YES!

As many of my loyal readers know, the Great Wiki Karmel will be homeless August 1st, that is unless I find somewhere to live before then (FGS (Fort Worth, TX) will be going to grad school). Thus I'm scouring Craigslist looking for apartments. Now I realize that living with random people may go awry, but if I can find a roommate who wants this, I should be all set (sadly, the Great Wiki Karmel damaged the current coffee table playing video games...).

I got nothing

This is just hilarious. Apparently, people pay up to $20 to bathe* in a pool of mineral water in Saratoga Springs. That by itself is ridiculous (though this is coming from the Great Wiki Karmel who refuses to buy a bottle of water. Ever. Seriously people, its water. There are water fountains everywhere (and the tap water in NYC is actually pretty good)). But the good folks at the Saratoga Spa State Park have been diluting the water with tap water for over 20 years. Seriously, I got nothing...

*See comments

Flip Throw to the Dome

For those of my loyal readers who are not familiar with a flip throw in soccer, here is a video showing one. You can launch the ball half way across the field if you do it right.

A few months ago, I was trying to explain flip throws to FGS (Fort Worth, TX) (he had never heard of it). What I found was greater than anything I could possibly have imagined: Flip throw to the dome. Enjoy!

I want to go to Europe....

Cato, devout fan of Wikikarmel, sent along this tidbit:

...A growing legion of independent young travelers [are] turning to the CouchSurfing Project to stretch their budgets and to ensure that their travel experiences go beyond just ticking off the sights. The free Internet service, founded in 2004, connects travelers with hosts around the world offering floor space, a couch or sometimes an entire bedroom, all for the grand sum of nothing.

The average age of a CouchSurfing member is 25, with more than 44 percent of the site's 173,000-plus members falling between the ages of 18 and 24. Most CouchSurfers hail from Europe, home to more than 75,000 members, with North America's nearly 60,000 members making it the second-most-active CouchSurfing continent.

Sounds kind of sketchy. Yet fun. The Great Wikikarmel isn't much of a risk taker, so I doubt I would ever do something like this (I'm conjuring up images from the movie Hostel (which I've never seen, but I can imagine (I feel like it's probably along the lines of this, which kept me sleeping with the lights on for several days, and was incidentally the last horror movie I've seen))).

Nonetheless, of course this is right up Cato's alley, as he is quite the couch sleeper. And if you live in the New York area, he'll be sleeping on a couch at 24 Joralemon in April. Hopefully this time he doesn't throw up in anyone's slippers.

Nope, now I'm in shock!

Well this is just the greatest thing ever! (thanks brother of USOWK).

I hope some of these end up in Brooklyn Heights. Though I do agree with many of the responses in the reader comments section. Mainly:

• They will be stolen
• What a good deal for George Lucas
• Aren't there more effective ways to spend money (on the postal workers, hiring more workers, lower stamp prices (not to sound old, but I remember when they were 29 cents. what are they up to now?), etc.)

But still, as noted in a previous post, The Great Wikikarmel loves Star Wars. This is awesome!

I wish I was an engineer

For those of you who don't know, The Great Wikikarmel is planning on going to grad school in the next year or two to study engineering. The current idea is Industrial Engineering, which among other things, uses math to solve efficiency problems (at least the part that I am interested in). Anyway... engineering in general is fascinating. Just look at this. Yes, I know. How 'frat boy' of me to link this. But how many times have you, my loyal readers, had an idea for something like this but said to yourself, "I can't do things like that. I wouldn't even know where to start."

Well done, John Cornwell. Well done indeed.

(Though the beer snob in me would never drink any beer at home from a can. Blasphemy!)