Saturday, October 18, 2008

Titanic Survivor, Politics and Election Costs

Last night I caught a segment on the news about Millvina Dean, 95, who is the last surviving passenger from the Titanic. She is living in a nursing home in the UK which she can't afford, so she is selling off her mementos of the Titanic. Apparently she sailed with her mother, father and brother. Her father didn't survive and she was put in a sack because, being a baby, she was too small to go in a life belt. This has caught the attention of the world news so I imagine even if her artefacts don't raise money, someone will help her. There is a video here on CBC news if you would like to watch it. In fact, there are loads of articles on the net about it. The family seems to have been emigrating to either Canada or the States according to what I have read? They were travelling steerage (same as Leonardo di Caprio) so were extremely lucky to have survived, from what I understand there were more people in steerage who didn't survive than anywhere else in the ship. Money talked. Apparently Stéphane Dion, the leader of Canada's Liberal Party, is announcing on Monday that he will step down. Good. He may be a very able politician and all kinds of other things, I don't know but as a leader portrayed on the media, he did NOT come across very well at all. In fact to me he looked a total wimp. He has led the party to two defeats and it is time he stepped down. Charisma counts unfortunately, not ability. Something which has been discussed on Glenda Larke's blog, Tropic Temper. They were also talking about the cost of the recent election, something over $300 million dollars. This is the second election in a short space of time and the results were still no more positive. If it is costing us that much, what on earth does it cost in the States? Ours is all over in 5 weeks, the US has been politicking and campaigning for a year. I know the $300 mil is the cost of running the offices and polling stations, etc. nothing to do with the actual politicians of course. Isn't it great, less than 3 weeks to the US elections, peace for a couple of years. This is a recipe we haven't made in a while but is always a success. It came from Cooking Light - May 1995 Cool Chicken Salad Shells 12 uncooked jumbo macaroni shells 5 artichoke hearts from can 3 Tbs reduced fat mayonnaise 2 Tbs non fat Italian dressing 1/4 tsp onion powder 1 cup cooked chopped chicken breast, about 6 oz skinned and boned 1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper 2 Tbs chopped ripe olives 6 fresh basil leaves. 1 Cook macaroni in boiling water for about 10 mins until tender. Drain and rinse under cold water, set aside. 2 Line each shell with basil leaf. Mix remaining ingredients and spoon evenly into shells. Servings: 4 Have a great weekend.

5 comments:

  1. Jo --

    The Titanic like Jack the Ripper is to remain with us always.

    Marilyn

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  2. Maybe. I didn't know there were any survivors left I must say.

    Have you figured out who Jack the Ripper was?

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  3. Yes, it's news to me, too. She looks like a lively old lady, too.

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  4. Three hundred million dollars? Ouch! With Canada's population, I imagine that works out at just under ten dollars per person. It would be interesting to see a 'value for money' survey on that ...

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  5. Bearing in mind we got little or no change in our minority government. I would think the value for money was non-existent.

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