Please accept my humble apologies for once again repeating a prior Saturday Surprise post. I tried and tried, wracked my poor small brain, to come up with something new and unique, but my mood simply wouldn’t cooperate and nothing met my criteria. But, I think you’ll enjoy this one … it dates back to just before Christmas 2017, so most of you haven’t seen it before and those who have almost certainly won’t remember it. I hope you enjoy our trip to Brazil!
Good Saturday morning, my friends, and welcome to Filosofa’s Saturday Surprise! This is the last day your have to complete your Christmas tasks, so I understand if you couldn’t drop by today, or if you can only stay for a minute, but I’m glad if you found a few minutes to come spend with me. I know you guys come from all over the world, and most of you from the northern hemisphere, though a few are from Down Under and other points south of the equator where it is now summer. I am jealous, for it is cold here and about to get colder. So today, I thought it would be fun to go to a warmer climate for a bit and visit … Brazil! Have I ever mentioned that I am not a fan of high places? I cannot even look up at the top of a building without experiencing pain in my arms, so I avoid heights, and this first place we are going to visit set my teeth on edge, but it is definitely a cool place.
Brazil’s largest water park is called ‘Beach Park’, and the crown jewel of Beach Park is the world’s tallest freestanding water slide, aptly named “Insano”, which is Portuguese for ‘insane’.
Built in 1989, the 135-foot-high ride held the Guinness record for the world’s tallest water slide up until 1999, when it was beat out by the 193-foot Kilimanjaro in Rio de Janeiro. Still, Insano does justice to its name by being the tallest freestanding body slide and is certainly one of the most radical rides of the planet.
Beach Park is the largest aquatic park in South America and one of the largest in the world. It has all you need to enjoy Brazil’s hot sunny days: rides, pools, saunas, ecological walks, artificial rapids or the beloved Insano, the water slide as tall as a 14-story building.
Travelling down the coast to Natal, we can visit the world’s largest cashew tree. Now, I hear what you are thinking … you’ve been to California, seen the giant redwoods and sequoias, so what’s the big deal about a cashew tree. Well, take a look …
Strolling inside the sprawling canopy, you may think you are walking in an entire lush, green forest of cashew trees, but you are actually walking within one single tree. The tree covers about two acres, which approximates to the size of five football fields, or about 70 normal-size cashew trees.
The age of the giant tree is still murky. Some think it was first planted in 1888, but others claim it’s thousands of years old. In any case it still produces a large amount of fruit and nuts. (In Brazil, the cashew tree is prized more for its delicious, but alas un-transportable fruit even more than its nuts.)
The tree’s record size is believed to be the result of two different genetic mutations. One, the branches grow sideways instead of upwards, eventually being weighted down and touching the ground. Then, instead of just growing along the earth as expected, when a branch touches the soil it sets down roots. Thus the tree spreads like a forest with multiple trunks growing over the two acres.
I don’t typically give much thought to rocks and rock formations, but while we are in Brazil, I am told we must visit the National Park of Seven Cities – Parque Nacional de Sete.
Enormous and strange rock formations taking the forms of animals and men populate the Parque Nacional de Sete Cidades, or “National Park of Seven Cities”. The park is named for a mytholigical Seven Lost Cities, of which these stones are the only remains. In truth the ancient formations took millenia to form, with the only man-made parts being the 3,000-5,000 year old rock paintings that can be seen.
And for our final destination of the day, what say we visit the largest street art mural in the world? Brazil sure does seem to have a lot of “largest in the world” things, doesn’t it?
Rio de Janeiro is not only about paradise beaches and samba goddesses. It is also a city where street art is celebrated, and by walking 560 feet along Rio’s waterfront, you can appreciate the largest mural of graffiti in world, a Guinness World Record accomplishment and a legacy of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
The work depicts a Tajapo boy from Brazil, a Mursi woman from Ethiopia, a Kayin woman from Thailand, a Supi man from Northern Europe, and a Huli man from Papua New Guinea. They represent humanity’s common ancestors, the indigenous people from America, Asia, Europe, Africa and Australia.
As he carries the core values of the Olympic Games, the artist’s intention was to show that everyone is connected, We Are One. Kobra’s work makes us feel his characters’ intense and powerful gaze, so we can feel our common wisdom.
The Rio Olympics broke not only sports records, but also one unexpected one, creating the largest street mural spray-painted by one single artist. This work was commissioned by the International Olympic Committee and it is nearly twice the size of the mural that held the previous record in Mazatlan, Mexico, as artist Ernesto Rocha’s mural was just 18,066 square feet.
Kobra worked for 12 hours a day, for two months, so he could complete Etnias just before the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. About 100 gallons of white paint, 400 gallons of colored paint, and 2,800 cans of spray paint were used by Kobra and his team. But, after all his work, the artist didn’t get to stay and enjoy the Rio Olympics, as he had to fly to Ohio to complete a mural graffiti of Neil Armstrong.
All of these places are great, but I think the street mural is my favourite. What was yours? And before we go, what would such a trip be without a bit of local flavour?
Rollinia deliciosa, as the name suggests, is incredibly tasty. Its flavor is often likened to lemon meringue pie, a description that’s accurate, but does not do this fruit justice. It is very sweet and creamy, and does have a refreshing, lemon-like flavor, but it also contains more nuanced tropical notes like banana, pineapple, and coconut.
And now, friends, I know you must go finish up all those last minute things. Try not to work too hard, lest you be so tired by the time Christmas happens that all you can do is sit in the easy chair and kip! I wish each and every one of you, my special friends, a wonderful Christmas. Hugs ‘n love!
This is one of my favourites, and an appropriate song for our trip to Brazil!
Donna Brazile has long been associated with the fight for liberal causes. And yet, this week Ms. Brazile joined none other than state television network, Fox ‘News’. Why? Brazile is far above the likes of Jeanine Pirro or Ann Coulter. I first saw Ms. Brazile on This Week with George Stephanopoulos many, many years ago, and she impressed me with her intelligence, knowledge, her ability to speak well on nearly any topic and the warmth she projected. So why would she align herself with a network known for its extremely right-leaning views, and outright conspiracy theories?
Thumbs up for Judge Rudolph Contreras of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia who ruled against the Trump administration and in favour of the environment. Judge Contreras concluded that the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) “did not sufficiently consider climate change” when making decisions to auction off federal land in Wyoming to oil and gas drilling. The judge temporarily blocked drilling on roughly 300,000 acres of land in the state.
Yesterday, Brazil’s new president, Jair Bolsonaro, visited Donald Trump in the White House. Bolsonaro had nothing but the highest praise for our Idiot-in-Chief:
First let’s look at some similarities …
Bolsonaro’s election is another feather in the cap of the populist movement. He won by tapping into a deep well of resentment at the status quo in Brazil — a country whiplashed by rising crime and two years of political and economic turmoil — and by presenting himself as the alternative. Unlike Donald Trump in 2016, Bolsonaro actually won the popular vote by 55%, but one thing they both said that is striking is that “I alone can fix this”. And they have in common their loudness, their crassness, their utter contempt for such things as respect, common courtesy and quiet dignity. They are both loud, ‘in your face’ sorts. Both countries have a large women’s protest movement … in the U.S. it is “Never Trump” and in Brazil it is “Ele Nao” (Not Him).
The city of Berlin was selected as the venue for the XI Olympic games in 1931, two years before the Nazi’s came to power. But, of course, as we all know, by the time the games were held, Hitler had established a stronghold in Germany and saw the Games as an opportunity to promote his government and ideals of racial supremacy. Hitler initially intended to bar Jews and black people from participating, but when faced with a boycott by other nations, he relented and allowed all ethnicities to participate. This would be the last Olympic games to be held for twelve years, until 1948, after the end of World War II. A total of 49 nations attended the Berlin Olympics, up from 37 in 1932 … compared to 206 this year! 
U.S. athlete Jesse Owens won four gold medals in the sprint and long jump events and became the most successful athlete to compete in Berlin while the host country was the most successful country overall with 89 medals total, with the United States coming in second with 56 medals.
And there were the XX Olympics held in Munich in 1972. The West German Government was eager to take the opportunity of the Munich Olympics to present a new, democratic and optimistic Germany to the world, as shown by the Games’ official motto, “Die Heiteren Spiele”, or “the cheerful Games”. Nobody could have known that by the end of the events, the Olympics would turn out to be anything but ‘cheerful’. On September 5, midway through the games, a group of eight members of the Black September Palestinian terrorist organization broke into the Olympic Village and took nine Israeli athletes, coaches and officials hostage in their apartments. Two of the hostages who resisted were killed in the first moments of the break-in; the subsequent standoff in the Olympic Village lasted for almost 18 hours. The remaining athletes were killed during a botched rescue attempt. All but three of the terrorists were also killed.
“Scottish pub swaps kilts for pants after female patrons get handsy”
The 2016 Summer Olympics are scheduled to begin on Friday, 05 August. There has been some controversy surrounding the games, which will be held in Rio de Janeiro this year, for a variety of reasons, including: Zika, declared a ‘public health emergency’ in Brazil; the slumping economy of Brazil, making it questionable how they can complete the necessary building projects in time; and the politics of the nation, where a congressional committee is considering impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. But in addition, the IOC must worry about keeping the Olympic Torch lit! Twice now since it was lit in Olympia, Greece on 21 April, someone has tried to douse it. The most recent attempt was on 16 July when a man armed with a fire extinguisher attempted to put out the Olympic flame as it passed through the city of Joinville, Brazil. On 27 June, a 27-year-old man attempted to douse the torch with a bucket of water in Maracaju, Brazil, but he missed and instead doused a another torch bearer and security guards. Where has the Olympic spirit gone? Sheesh.
Did you ever think of cooking a brisket in your bathtub? Yeah, me neither. But apparently an unidentified woman in Knoxville, Tennessee thought it seemed like a good idea at the time. She lit a wood-burning grill inside her bathtub and placed meat on a wire rack across the rim before the heat melted through the tub’s fiberglass exterior. According to Knoxville Fire Department Captain DJ Corcoran, the tub and brisket were both a total loss. Methinks the family ate peanut butter sandwiches that night! Sheesh. Even I know better than that, though I did bring the charcoal grill indoors one night when I had food cooking and a sudden rain shower hit.
BRISBANE, Australia, July 14 (UPI) — An Australian bat rescuer shared a 
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