Welcome to this week's selection of Picks, where we think you should call your new baby Oralie if it's a girl, or Amble if it's a boy. No? How about Fawnia for a girl, or Sterne for a boy. What about Wallis and Clevie? If you're still not happy with our suggestions, decide for yourselves at Jellinek's Baby Name Chooser. Jake Jellinek's random name generator certainly offers the more interesting possibilities, as well as the chance of adding a name or announcing a recent birth. In the meantime, we think its a good idea to go with Mayer and Kalinda.
The next time you think you have a good idea and people tell you otherwise, don't listen. That's what Momofuku Ando did (or didn't, as the case may be) back in 1958 when he introduced "Chicken Ramen", the first instant ramen, to the world. At the time, the Japanese food industry told him that "add boiling water, cover and wait three minutes" wasn't such a hot idea. You might even say that they told him he wasn't using his noodle. That he was getting into hot water, so to speak. However, as the Nissin Ramen Page points out, hot water and a cup 'o noodles ain't so bad. In fact, the folks at Nissin are pretty pleased with their packaged pasta product. You can read more than you ever thought possible about the matter at this site.
A discussion of hot water leads inevitably to the second most popular beverage in the world: tea. (Second only to water, we're told.) Apparently, "it is estimated that somewhere between 18 and 20 billion 6 oz. cups of tea are drunk daily on our planet." We learned this from the all-knowing Tea Man who clearly loves his subject. You could even say it's his little Darjeeling, which sounds so much like Darling, doesn't it? The site is steeped in a brew of knowledge, trivia and legend that covers tea in its totality. You can find it all here: from tasting to testing, buying to boiling, growing to grading and a whole smattering of other categories that all start with the same letter and have something in-between.
There is of course a cheesy joke to be made about hot water and the Titanic, but we won't make it because, as the folks at Titanic Live Online make clear, the shipwreck actually happens to be in rather cold water. Part of the ever cool Discovery Channel Online, Titanic Live chronicles a current expedition to the site in the North Atlantic where the ship lies 12,600 feet down, on the ocean floor. Follow the courageous crew, whose mission is to "scrutinize the wreck with scientific care, as no one has done before," with daily reports, updates and images; learn more about the ill-fated liner and its discovery in 1985; or follow a handful of worthwhile links at a site that truly scratches below the tip of the iceberg. (It had to be said.)
Here's an ever important question: do you know the political leanings of your favorite cartoon characters? For instance, are you aware that Bugs Bunny is a "long-time Democratic supporter", that Mickey Mouse is an "extreme right Republican"? Is it news to you that Donald Duck is "too paranoid to vote" and that Elmer Fudd is an "orthodox NRA member"? Surely it's no suprise to find that Fred Flintstone was a "Rockefeller Republican... a big Nixon supporter." If you weren't in the loop on this, now you have no excuse: Political Tendencies of Selected Cartoon Characters sets the record straight.
As it happens, we've made our own predictions about two of everyone's favorite 'Toons. Here they are: Donald Duck is clearly the kind of, well, kind of duck who'd prefer to use The Anonymizer as he surfs the web. Invoking the battle-cry "Because on today's Internet, people do know you're a dog" (sounds like duck, doesn't it?), the folks at Anonymizer point out that every time you visit a site "you leave a calling card that reveals where you're coming from, what kind of computer you have, and other details." (If you don't know what they're talking about, stop by their snoop page for an example.) The "anonymizer service allows you to surf the web without revealing any personal information." In other words, the vital stats of your visit won't be everything they're quacked up to be.
Furthermore, Bugs Bunny in our esteemed opinion (and considering just how photogenic he is) will more than likely try to charm his way into being a contestant in this year's 1996 Miss Teen USA Pageant. By the way, the pageant takes place August 21 in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Whether or not Bugs makes his way into the lineup, you can submit a question for the telecast or cast your ballot for "Miss Photogenic" at this scintillating site. It's either that or read the latest news from Appalachia at Hillsweb Electronic Magazine. It's up to you: take your pick(s).