La Tomatina

Greetings all!

If you are looking for a last-minute trip this week, how about going to the town of Buñol, near Valencia, in Spain? On August 28, 2024, this small town – population 9,000 - will host its annual “World's Biggest Food Fight” with 120 metric tons of over-ripe tomatoes thrown in the streets! 
 

Image: https://www.latomatinatours.com/

 
The festival started by accident in August in 1945 when the crowd began throwing tomatoes that they found on a nearby vegetable stand. Why? No one remembers but there was some sort of public disturbance.

Then the festival was banned in the early 1950s and came back in 1957 after many people protested in its favor.

You do have to buy tickets and only a maximum of 20,000-22,000 tickets are sold, although in 2012 reportedly 50,000 people participated in this annual tomato fiesta.

The festival starts at around 12 noon. Technically the festival begins when someone can climb to the top of a two-story high, greased-up wooden pole (the Palojabon) and reach the coveted ham at the top. Whoever can climb the pole and get the ham can keep it!

In reality, the festival starts despite no one reaching the meaty prize. The firing of water cannons marks the start and the end of the flight, which lasts 1 hour.

Then fire trucks spray down the streets – but not the participants! - with water from a Roman aqueduct. Participants wash in the Buñol River or rely on kind locals to be hosed down.

So here you go! You still have some time to decide if you are up for it! What did you think? Drop me a line!

Source: https://www.latomatinatours.com/

But We Had Music [Poem of the Week]

Image: Composite image of the Galactic Center. Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/UMass/Q.D. Wang; Radio: NRF/SARAO/MeerKAT

Right this minute
across time zones and opinions
people are
making plans
making meals
making promises and poems

while

at the center of our galaxy
a black hole with the mass of
four billion suns
screams its open-mouth kiss
     of oblivion.

Someday it will swallow
Euclid’s postulates and the Goldberg Variations,
swallow calculus and Leaves of Grass.

I know this.

And still
when the constellation of starlings
flickers across the evening sky,
it is enough

to stand here
for an irrevocable minute
     agape with wonder.

It is eternity.

~ Maria Popova
https://www.themarginalian.org/2024/04/06/but-we-had-music/

Random: Strange Olympic Games

Greetings all!

Did you watch the 2024 Summer Olympics? Occasionally, the Olympic Games programs are changed to include a new sport. In Paris 2024, the only new sport was breaking (aka breakdancing)!

Read on about some other unconventional sports in the past Olympic Games.

Tug of war

-   Last featured in the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, with gold going to the UK team of City of London Policemen!  

Image: International Olympic Committee

Live pigeon shooting

-   Part of the 1900 Olympics in Paris, where the winner shot down 21 birds, out of 300 birds killed in the event. But this was an exception to the rules, as typically inanimate objects are used for targets.

Pistol dueling

-   With protective clothing! - was part of the 1908 Olympics in London.

Solo synchronized swimming

-   Last featured in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. Now swimmers compete as duets and as teams.

Motorboat racing

-   Last featured in the 1908 Olympics in London. Sporting events that depend on mechanical propulsion have been historically prohibited, except for the two events in 1904 and 1908.

Obstacle course swimming

-   Part of the 1900 Olympics in Paris, requiring swimming 200 meters down the River Seine over and under a series of obstacles. Swimming and bathing in the Seine was prohibited since 1923, and the Swimming Plan to clean up the river for the 2024 Olympics cost $1.5 billon. 

Art

-   This one really surprised me! From 1912 to 1948, Olympic medals were awarded for literature, architecture, music, sculpture, painting, town planning, and chorus singing. But then it was determined that most of the competitors in the artistic categories were professional, which didn’t adhere to the Olympics’ amateur ethos, so the art competitions were scrapped. 

What did you think? Drop me a line!

Sources:

• https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/08/sport/tug-of-war-pistol-dueling-and-other-strange-olympic-games
• https://olympics.com/en/news/breaking-paris-2024-faq
• https://www.nbc.com/nbc-insider/how-paris-made-seine-river-swimmable-2024-olympics
• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/when-the-olympics-gave-out-medals-for-art-6878965/

Amazing Back Stretch

Greetings all!

I recently came across a fantastic back stretch that can be done using the back of the chair (back stretch!) or the kitchen counter (to counter the hours of sitting - ha!).

Image: https://www.instagram.com/p/CSPTy6AhkSj/[happyfluff comics]

1. Place your hands on a desk, a countertop, or the back of a sturdy chair. Walk backward, lowering your chest to the ground. 

Image: Chris Eckert

2. Once your hips are behind your ankles, straighten your legs. Relax the muscles in the fronts of the thighs and gently lift your tailbone. Hold your arms in place and keep pressing your armpits toward the floor. The movement is primarily in the shoulders—if you feel it in your lower back, lift the bottom of your rib cage as you press your shoulders down.

3. Flip your hands over so your thumbs point away from each other, then bring your arms toward each other. This engages more of your shoulder muscles. Hold for 5-10 breaths. Take a short break, then repeat 2-3 times.

What did you think? Drop me a line!

Source: https://www.prevention.com/fitness/fitness-tips/a24852112/how-to-stretch-upper-back/