Sunday, June 19, 2011

GF Cake pops

I am sure you have seen this new fad going around , a cake on a stick.
I have seen them at Starbucks and thought Oh I want one , but I need a gf alternative. So i looked up some recipes and made my own. I am not sure where these came from , I have seen many different people say they were the first, Whatever or whoever they came from , I am glad. It's is a new cute food fad and something to do.

This is how I made organic gf cake pops.

Supplies:
Box of GF cake mix ( I used Betty Crocker )
Water, butter, 3 eggs

Pamela's vanilla frosting mix- any gf frosting mix will do as long as it is light and fluffy
vegetable shortening, water

A food processor is nice, but you can do it by hand

stand mixer or hand/bowl mixer

cookie sheet

wax paper

lollipop sticks (found at craft stores or walmart , Wilton's etc or even online-- some have substituted Popsicle)

nice rubber spatula

oven

decorations , like sprinkles or jimmies, hundreds and thousands, whatever you want to put on it.

chocolate or vanilla melt mix , you can use color or regular

double boiler (microwave in a pinch)

a cardboard box small or Styrofoam block

freezer

What to do:

Bake the cake according to the directions on the box or make your own scratch cake. I tried to make mine a little on the dry side , you don't want a really moist cake. After cake is done let it cool off and set it aside. Make your frosting and set it aside. Take the cooled cake and blend the cake in the food processor until the pieces are a little bigger than sand. Blend the cake crumbs and the frosting very slowly until the cake is a play dough consistency. Use an ice cream scoop or your hands to make balls or cake shape and set on the wax paper that is one the cookie sheet. Put in the freezer for a few hours to stiffen them up. When they are ready take them out and melt a little bit of the chocolate in the microwave or stove- a very small amount. Stick the stick in the chocolate and stick it securely in the cake ball. Do each one in the chocolate then the stick , if you put the all sticks in the chocolate it will cool off too fast. You do this so this stick will be secure when you turn them upside down and cake balls don't roll off. Place these back into the freezer. When they are cooled off and secure then melt the rest of the chocolate and dip the cake balls into the chocolate, drip over the bowl until the chocolate is not running. When it cools off a bit place sprinkles or decor on the ball and set it like a lollipop in the Styrofoam or if using a cardboard box a few holes need to be made in it to hold the cake pops. Let these cool and dry. After dried you can add lollipop wrappers or ribbons to the sticks , whatever you want too add at the end. Additionally, you can mold the cake balls into shapes like skulls for Halloween or mini cupcakes for a cute idea.  These take a while to make over all because you go back and forth , but they are great for parties.

Ideas:

This person used reese to make a a cupcake bottom.




Cupcake cake pops



Shamrocks and clover are my all time favorite plant and flower




You don't have to stop at cake pops , you can do this with brownies, cheesecake or cookiedough , or even pies on sticks.


Links:
/wiki/Sprinkles
wedding bee - reese bottom pops
hello kitty pops
Cutest Food .com - the best place to look at cute foods
cake pop image
bakerella
youtube how to make cake pops
Youtube video - no oven/stove cake pops
Cheesecake pops
pie on a stick
sasugar808 erin-go-bragh
Random bookmark: Time to say goodbye - lyrics

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Eggrolls

How to make your own egg rolls


What is an egg roll?

An egg roll is made by wrapping a combination of chopped vegetables (often mostly cabbage), meat, and sometimes noodles, in a sheet of dough, dipping the dough in egg or an egg wash, then deep frying it. It can be closed or open ended.
When compared with its cousin, the spring roll, the egg roll is generally larger, has a thicker, puffier skin, is crunchier, and has more filling. However, the terms "spring roll" and "egg roll" are often used somewhat interchangeably. The egg roll dough is wheat-based while the spring roll is sometimes rice-based.
Some varieties are made with sesame seeds or other flavorings/toppings, such as chocolate, cream, or strawberry. The term may also be used to refer to another modern Asian breakfast cuisine that mixes the western omelet with thin egg roll wrappers.


How to make one,

The pastry:

4 cups all-purpose flour; sifted
2 teaspoons salt
2 eggs
1 cup ice water
cornstarch



Place salt and four in a bowl. Make a well in the center and add the eggs and the water. Stir the well until all the flour is mixed into a dough. Plop out on a table and knead with your hands. Use extra flour so the dough does not stick to the surface. Allow dough to rest for half an hour.
Divide the dough into quarters. Dust your pastry board with cornstarch and roll out until each dough is a 11 by 14 triangle.  Wrap and freeze remaining dough if you want to save it.
This recipe is a variation by Angela Naymor, link will be below.

For a Gluten Free alternative use Rice paper wrappers. Can be purchased at most Asian health foods , or health food stores. Ingredients of the food rice paper include white rice flour, tapioca flour, salt, and water.






This is a good time to get your deep fryer going, you can bake egg rolls. Preheat oven to 425.


Now that you have made your wraps you are ready for some ingredients.

Note: You can buy egg roll wraps in most grocery stores , usually in the produce section , next to tofu and that kind of stuff. Wonton wraps are usually smaller and you do not get enough ingredients in them.


Egg Roll Filling:

Cabbage and meat are pretty much the staples , other than that you can add what you like.
I use chicken in mine.

You can follow other recipes for vegetables to use . I use a bag of Cole slaw, the salad kind. It has your cabbage and carrots already thinly sliced and ready to go.

I thinly slice the chicken and cook it until it is ready and white.  I fry this slaw bag with my meat after the meat is done and this is when I add my spices. I like a very Asian flavored roll so I use the following spices and herbs. About a teaspoon garlic, teaspoon ginger powder or minced, Couple shots of soy sauce (some soy sauce contains wheat check your labels),  a shot of Rice wine vinegar, small drizzle of molasses, 2 tablespoons of sesame seeds. You do not need a lot of spices, I am just a fan of using them. If you cut spices back I suggest keeping the soy and ginger and garlic, this is the typical flavor of egg rolls.

Once the cabbge is a little wilted looking that is when I pull it from the heat and set it aside. You want to have your pastries made into squares. I place about 1/3 cup of my cabbage chicken mix on it and wrap it up. Some people seal with flour paste , but I use a drop of water or egg to seal the outside.

I know most people do not know how to wrap an eggroll so here is a great video for doing it.

Expert village Egg roll wrapping

It looks hard at first, but once you get it it's like riding a bike, unless you never learned.

Some people brush egg on the outside of the roll, I don't see a difference in flavor it seals it better and makes it that golden crispy color. Mostly a preference.

If you are going to bake , then you need to bake them about 10 to 15 minutes on a cookie sheet. Deep fry until little bubbles come up on the outside or its a nice golden brown. For rice paper it is a little different , it will have a brownish grey look about them. Do not overcrowd them in the deep fryer it gets done less quick and you have extra greass sloshing around , yuck. Also if you are baking you might want to spray a little Gf cooking spray on your cookie sheet, they tend to stick.






The great thing about making you own egg rolls is you can be creative with them. Use shrimp or use terriyaki, whatever you want to put in your egg rolls. I have used only banana and brown sugar before, topped with vanilla icecream.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Wine without the cheese

From the book: The Wine Companion and Record Book




Terms:

Tannin-
Any of various compounds, including tannic acid, that occur naturally in the bark and fruit of various plants, especially the nutgalls, certain oaks, and sumac. Tannins are polyphenols, and form yellowish to light brown amorphous masses that can be powdery, flaky, or spongy. They are used in photography, dyeing, in tanning leather, in clarifying wine and beer, and as an astringent in medicine. Tannins are also an important ingredient in tea.
Dry-Not sweet as a result of the decomposition of sugar during fermentation. Used of wines.
vat-A large vessel, such as a tub, cistern, or barrel, used to hold or store liquids.
fermentation- The anaerobic conversion of sugar to carbon dioxide and alcohol by yeast.

Decanter- stoppered bottle, usually of glass, into which a drink, such as wine, is poured for serving

What is wine?
Wine is made by fermenting either grape juice or crushed freshly picked grapes. After the grapes have been gathered from the vines, they are crushed to produce the 'must' or grape juice, which runes off into huge vats. It is these that the fermentation begins, a process that takes between one and three weeks. The natural sugar in the grape juice is converted to alcohol by the yeast that occurs naturally on grape skins. The alcohol produced is up to a maxium concentration of 16%. The percentage of alcohol is printed on the label of each bottle.

Types of wine





Red wines come from black or purple grapes that are fermented with their skins and stalks. It draws its color from its skin. The skin also provides tannin, which is a taste enhancer and preservative and natural pesticide. Most red wines are fermented until most of all the sugar is gone leaving them with a dry taste.









Rose wine are made from fermenting black grapes. The stalks are not used and the juice is separated when disired pinkness is achieved.  Alternatives is red and white grapes together.















White wines are made form white grapes, green or black. All grape juice is intially colorless. When black grapes are used the juice is removed form the skins. When white grapes are used, the skins are left in the juice for a while. Sweet wines are resulted from the fermentation being stopped before all the sugar is converted.




Sparkling wines are sparkiling because they are bottled before final fermentation is finished. Some fo the carbon dioxide produced is trapped in the bottle and remains dissolved in the wine until the bottle is opened.













Vintage wines refers tot he year that the grapes were harvested and bear a date on the bottle.  Most wine guides indicate which is vintage and when it will be ready to be consumed.








Flavors and Characters:

Red:
Cabernet Sauvignon- blackcurrant - fruity flavor
Gamay- does not keep well, light
Grenache- light and fruity, keeps well
Merlot- plum, damson, fruity
Nebbiolo- soft mellow prune
Syrah/Shiraz- heavy, raspberry, keeps well

White:
Chardonay- dry , keeps well, melon, pineapple
Chenin Blanc- medium to dry sweet, apple, keeps well
Gewurtz-Traminer- spicy, dry to slight sweet, does not keep well, tropical fruit like lychee
Muller-Thurgau- new varieties, flowery soft
Muscat- Dry from Alsace, sweet elsewhere, high in alcohol
Riesling- medium to dry, desert wine, keeps well, peach and apricot
Sauvignon Blanc- Dry , aromatic, gooseberry


Food selection:
There are many foods listed , but you will have to read the book for the full foods list. I am only lsiting a few.
Soups- Marsala, sherry, or Madeira
Pasta creamy- dry crisp wine
pasta meat- medium red
pizza- light to medium red, chianti
quiche- white alsace
fish- white fish , grilled or poached- light dry white, chardonnay
salmon- white burgandy
Red meat- medium- bodied red, californian zinfandel
lamb- light or medium bodied red, cabernet sauvignon
chicken- medium bodied dry white, rose or light red
turkey- spicy white, dry rose or light red

Storing your wine:

Ideally wine should be stored in a cellar with a northerly aspect free from vibrations, draughts, odours, and dampness. The temperature should be 55 f or 12.5 c. Wines should be stored on their sides so that the cork remains intact. This keeps it expanded and prevernts air form entering the wine. White and rose wines need to be stored in the coolest position, nearest the ground. Whatever you do, make sure your wines are out of the sunlight and away form heat sources , heat will rapidly damage the wine.

Serving your wine:

Glasses: Wine galsses should be stemmed. The bowl should havea narrow top and a wide braod base, to concentrate aromas. Glasses should be washed in plain hot water and dried with a clean cloth. A fresh glass should be used with each wine served.

Temperature allows the wine a chance to be is greatest.

Type- degrees in F- Hours of Refridgeration

Light sweet wines- 41-43 f- 4 hours +
sparkling-41-43f- 4+
light dry wines-48-50-2
sparkling red-50-54-1.5
medium-bodied whites-50-54-1.5
full sweet whites-46-50-2
light reds-50-54-1.5
full dry whites-54-57-1
medium reds-57-61-0
full-bodied red wines-59-64-0

Add salt and ice to a bucket to speed the chill of wines. Champange and sparling white  and rose wines need to be in a wine bucket containg ice and water to the bottles neck. Red wine is fine but if it is too chilled use a decanter that has been warmed by water.

Glasses should be filled at 2/3 of the way, and replenish when 2/3 empty. When pouring the wine rest the neck of the bottle over the glass and twist the bottle as it is taken away to prevent drips.
Decanting the wine is used to give the wine's sediment a rest at the bottom. It improves appearence and allows the wine to breathe. This should take about 2 days for the sediment to decanter. To see if the sediment is coming out of the bottle use a lit candle in behind the wine bottle's neck.


My favorite is a dry Champagne, but thats me.

In moderation, a glass or two of wine can help your heart, prevent cancer and more.

Resveratrol is the component in wine that works as a powerful antioxidant, and the one that scientists and medical professionals are currently studying. Unfortunately, you would need to get a very high dose of wine – practically gallons – to get a high enough dose of resveratrol. Sadly, drinking that much alcohol is harmful to your health, however, there are recent studies that say moderate wine consumption for women may be healthy for the heart. Women Wine Drinkers Have Fewer Kidney Stones. Moderate wine consumption cuts stroke risk. Moderate Alcohol Consumption Protects Against Atherosclerosis. Cohort Studies From Around the World Link Moderation to Longevity. As early as 1980, the Honolulu Heart Study reported that moderate alcohol consumption was associated with a 50% reduction in the rate of coronary heart disease.   
     



Benefits of wine to you
Wine-Companion-and-Record-Book  - do not buy this book used
thefreedictionary
The Wine Companion and Record Book-Four seasons publishing
thedinnertoast.com
ventanamonthly.com
scentedsalamander
anotherwineblog
ehow.com/sparkling-wine
shamimahossainathina.com
skinnychef.com


Random bookmark: zamzar

Monday, June 13, 2011

What's in a name?

What is a name?

A name is a word or term used for identification. Names can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. A personal name identifies a specific unique and identifiable individual person, and may or may not include a middle name. The name of a specific entity is sometimes called a proper name (although that term has a philosophical meaning also) and is a proper noun. Other nouns are sometimes, more loosely, called names; an older term for them, now obsolete, is "general names".

The word "name" comes from Old English nama; akin to Old High German (OHG) and Sanskrit namo, Latin nomen, and Greek ὄνομα (onoma), possibly from the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE): *nomn

Given name or First name

A given name is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name (surname). A given name is purposefully given, usually by a child's parents at or near birth, in contrast to an inherited one such as a family name. Given names are often used in a familiar and friendly manner in informal situations. In more formal situations the surname is used instead, unless it is necessary to distinguish between people with the same surname.

Surname or Last name

A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name; the family-name meaning of "surname" first appeared in the west in 1375.Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name". In most Western countries, it is commonly called "last name", with the notable exception of Hungary, where, just like in Japan, Sri Lanka and in many other East Asian countries, the family name is placed before a person's given name






Names for names

Person-Anthroponym
Place-Toponym
Body of water- Hydronym
Ethnic group-Ethnonym
Item named after a person-Eponym
False name- pseudonym

There are many types of names , but I would like to talk about Human names for themselves.

So who was the first to have a name?



Well most people would answer Adam, it depends on who you ask now days. That would make Eve the first female name.Some say it is Gilgamesh from the epic of Gilgamesh, a giant from Mesopotamia. It is uncertain what the first name was most likely due to the fact that it was in oral traditions and not written. I believe it is Adam, so that's what I am going with today.


Why have a name?

People use names to call out someone specific. We have names to hold records of our deeds good and bad. Some people use it to show commitment to a person as in marriage. Religion plays a part in names quite a bit. To show ethnicity is another reason we have names, we like to show our heritage and places we are from and still live today.  We name our children to show our likeness through the child by giving them a name they can be proud of, but sometimes this is not the case. Many people change change their name they are given. It is also used to show gender from a distance, example people will assume Jennifer is a female on a resume. 

Is it illegal to have no name at all?

In the United States, going without a name is not inherently illegal. Police won't arrest you for not having a name. But you can't legally identify yourself without one, which would make things difficult for you. For instance, you need a legal name on a birth certificate or social security card to obtain a driver's license or passport, open a bank account and get a job.

This is not the same for children...

In the United States, no matter where a woman gives birth, she is legally obligated at some point to report it to the appropriate government entity, usually a department of health and human services or vital records. That entails filling out a first and last name for the child. How long the mother has to fill out that birth certificate varies by state. The law does not necessarily require them to complete that information at the time of birth. In fact, the parents of U.S. Olympic gold medalist skier Picabo Street didn't name her at all. She simply chose it herself when she was 3 years old, having been called Baby Girl until then. Although naming customs for babies differ across the world, all countries have some sort of vital records collection, whether centrally or locally controlled. In fact, Article 7 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child states that all children have a "right from birth to a name" .



Can I name my kid whatever I want?

 New Zealand government revoked Pat and Sheena Watson's name selection for their son. The offender? 4Real. Like the United States, Australia does not allow the presence of numerals in legal names. German parents must follow stricter standards enforced by the local registration office, called the Standesamt. They must select a moniker that reflects the baby's sex and will not incite ridicule for the child. In Zambia, boys and girls are expected to change their names at puberty and may go through several names during their lives. I went to school with a girl who had to have an American last name even though she was Native American, her mother had to give her a surname. Thus Native Americans having very common last names or surnames that resemble a first name or very popular surname at the time. The number one surname for Native Americans today is Smith.

So does a Crazy name affect my child later on in life?

In spite of customs and regulations, research has shown that baby's names do not dramatically affect their success as adults. Instead, according to a study published in the book "Freakonomics," name choices reflect more on the parents than on the children . For example, in the U.S., Misty and Joey correlated to parents with lower education levels while Dov and Lucienne came from more educated groups. Likewise, a socially undesirable name does not foreshadow a lackluster future for the person.
Nevertheless, for the three babies reportedly named ESPN after the sports television

In reality many people are prejudice of names. Resumes will get thrown in the trash for having heavily ethnic names. It is really sad and is not fair, but it happens all the time. People will judge the type of person and decisions that person makes by their name.  Historically, individuals possessing a Hispanic sounding surname could subject them to different treatment and more recently, after 9/11, having a middle-eastern sounding name can raise an eyebrow.  But a recent study out of the University of Florida demonstrated that black students with certain exotic sounding names are often overlooked by gifted school programs because of their names. Whether this is an issue of racial prejudice or socio-economic class bias, the actual impacts of this cultural phenomenon as stated in the research are very real.  David Figlio went on to say, "Such boys and girls suffer in terms of the quality of attention and instruction they get in the classroom because teachers expect less from children with names that sound like they were given by parents with lower education levels, and these lower expectations become a self-fulfilling prophecy." Is it right , absolutely not, but it has been going on since Biblical times. For example, The prayer of Jabez states " that I may not cause pain" his name means pain and he was associated with it. Moses' name means plucked form the river, and later on in his life he parted a sea, not exactly prejudice for Moses but some people believe in a destiny shaped by a name. People judging you before they know you in life can certainly shape your life , as in a job you miss or someone you might have otherwise fell in love with one day. In the Book of Proverbs, 22:1, it states that “a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches.” What does this mean? Many biblical names have both literal and spiritual meanings, and for many parents, a biblical baby name is believed to bestow the spiritual gifts on a baby, for their entire life.

Can my name shape my destiny?  

Since ancient times, people have believed that your name can shape your destiny. But can it? And if so, can knowing the hidden power of a name help parents pick a “better” name for their baby?
Several distinct schools of thought hold strong beliefs about the significance, and power, behind your name. There is the “psychological” camp, the “religious/spiritual” camp, the “sound” camp, and the “mystical” camp. All four overlap in many ways, but there are real differences between them.
The psychological school, which has some interesting research to back up its claims, holds that your name subtly influences how people see you, and this affects how they treat you. In turn, this influences your self-image and self-esteem, starting as a small child. In its simplest form, a child with a “weird’ name, such as Elmer, may be continuously teased in school, and this will hurt Elmer’s self-image and future development. By contrast, “Alexander,” named after the great emperor, may be empowered by his name, because other people unconsciously respond to him with a certain level of respect.
 Robert Needlman, MD, has written an interesting discussion of this psychological approach. The research implies that boys with unusual first names tend to display more emotional disturbances than boys with more traditional names. But, as Dr. Needlman points out, it is important not to overstate the case. Are the boys in question more troubled because of their names, or because of the parental support structure which gave them strange names in the first place? Nonetheless, there are many instances where “desirable” names are shown to lead to greater success. A recent report from the School of Business at Arizona State University shows that the names of top CEOs in Phoenix come from a disproportionately small group of  names, implying that certain names are more likely to lead to greater success. The three most successful names in the study group were Robert, John, and Steve. The big question, of course, is why?

Is having a popular name bad?

First, the advantages of having a common name. In the Internet age, we can, for the first time, be "Googled." That is to say, that other people, including potential employers, can simply type your name into a search engine and potential he find information about us. Of course the information they find could be good, but it could be embarrassing to. For example, you really want a future employer to see the blog posts in which you discuss how much you hate working? Or what about the picture someone posts on Facebook that makes you look drunk? All of these risks are diminished if you have a common name. Just try searching online for a person named John Smith. Good luck finding the exact individual you are looking for. People with very common names are insulated from the risks of being found online. Basically, a common name makes you anonymous in today's tech world. That anonymity can be valuable. But of course it also has its downside. People with common names, while difficult to find, are also easily confused with others. It might be difficult for a potential employer to find you with a search engine. But it is possible for them to find someone else and think that it is you. That type of mistake would be okay if the person sharing your name or Nobel laureates, but not okay if he or she were a convicted felon. 

An author with a common name writes this:

A while back, when crossing an international border, I had a


bizarre experience due to my common name. I was trying to reenter the United States by car. At the border a federal agent swept my passport and then asked me to step out of my vehicle. He had me put my hands in the air, and when I turned around I saw that there were numerous security agents with guns pointed at me. After spending some time handcuffed in a cell, I learned that I had been confused with another person of the same name who robbed a bank recently. "It's a common name," they explained. Although the mistake was obviously rectified, all of this happened in front of my family, and was traumatic for us all.- Tapscott ( pen name)



 
Random Fact:

The use of personal names is not unique to humans.
Dolphins also use symbolic names, as has been shown by recent research. Individual dolphins have individual whistles, to which they will respond even when there is no other information to clarify which dolphin is being referred to at the moment.


name as destiny
common_name, tapscott
dolphin-body-language
/wiki/Name
/wiki/Given_name
http://www.techpin.com/
/wiki/Surname
/wiki/Gilgamesh
the-fall-of-man/
protect-your-identity
no-name
name prejudice
Native surnames
Book_of_Proverbs




So do you hate your name or love it?  Pro and cons?

Random bookmark:
one-loom-mitten knitting

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Calico Cats

Is there such thing as a male calico cat?
Because genetic determination of some coat colors in cats is linked to the sex chromosome, calicoes are nearly always female.


What is a calico cat?
Calico cats are domestic cats with a spotted or parti-colored coat, usually predominantly white with orange and black patches. Outside of North America the pattern is more usually called tortoiseshell-and-white. Other names include tricolor cat, mi-ke (Japanese for 'triple fur') and lapjeskat (Dutch for 'patches cat'); calicoes with diluted coloration have been called calimanco or clouded tiger. "Calico" refers only to a color pattern on the fur, not to a breed. Among the breeds whose standards allow calico coloration are the Manx, American Shorthair, British Shorthair, Persian, Japanese Bobtail and Turkish Van.

Manx                                                              









                                                                                                                                    



Japanese Bobtail

British Shorthair





American Shorthair

Persian



Turkish Van



Migration
As calico cats are not a breed, but a color pattern on the fur which occurs in a non-predictive manner, there is no true historical background concerning calico cats. However, the existence of patches in calico cats was traced to a certain degree by Neil Todd in a study determining the migration of domesticated cats along trade routes in Europe and Northern Africa. The proportion of cats having the orange mutant gene found in calicoes was traced to the port cities along the Mediterranean in France and Italy, originating from Egypt.

Chromosomes
The beginning of serious study of calico cats seems to have occurred around 1948 when Murray Barr and his graduate student E.G. Bertram noticed dark, drumstick-shaped masses inside the nuclei of nerve cells of female cats, but not in male cats. These dark masses became known as Barr bodies. In 1959, Japanese cell biologist Susumo Ohno determined the Barr bodies were X chromosomes. In 1960, Mary Lyon proposed the concept of X-inactivation, that one chromosome inside a female mammal shuts off. Although study has continued and deepened, these were the major contributors in the discovery of X inactivation in the early days.

So is there a male calico?
Calico cats are almost always female because the X chromosome determines the color of the cat and a female cat has two X chromosomes. A common male cat has one X and one Y chromosome. Since the Y chromosome does not have any color genes, there is no chance he could have both orange and non-orange together. One main exception to this is when, in rare cases, a male has XXY chromosomes, in which case the male could have tortoiseshell or calico markings. Most male calico or tortoiseshell cats are sterile due to the abnormality of carrying two X chromosomes.
In the case of a calico cat, the feline’s parents passed on different versions of X chromosomes genes related to coat color. The color of calico or tortoiseshell cats is determined by the X chromosome(s).
Tortoiseshell and calico cats are almost always female because of X chromosome inactivation.

As Sue Hubble stated in her book Shrinking the Cat: Genetic Engineering before We Knew about Genes, "The mutation that gives male cats a ginger-colored coat and females ginger, tortoiseshell, or calico coats produced a particularly telling map. The orange mutant gene is found only on the X, or female, chromosome. As with humans, female cats have paired sex chromosomes, XX, and male cats have XY sex chromosomes. The female cat, therefore, can have the orange mutant gene on one X chromosome and the genes for a black or white coat on the other, and those can affect or modify the orange mutant gene. If that is the case, those several genes will be expressed in a blotchy coat of the tortoiseshell or calico kind. But the male, with his single X chromosome, has only one of that particular coat-color gene: he can be not-ginger or he can be ginger (although some modifier genes can add a bit of white here and there), but unless he has a chromosomal abnormality he cannot be a calico cat."

 The process is further complicated because the female carries 2 X chromosomes while the male has only 1. So in mammals, one of the two X chromosomes in females gets inactivated. This is why calico cats are virtually always female - one X chromosome carries the gold color and the other X chromosome carries the black color. If the gold chromosome is shut off, the fur is black. If the black is shut off, the fur is gold. A male could carry either the black or the gold chromosome, but not both since he's XY. So in males, there is no second X chromosome to shut off.

About one in 3000 tricolored cats are male.


       Male Calico Cat


















Male calico kitten







So how do people pay for these rare cats?
In truth a lot find their way to homeless shelters. Some people claim they can sell them for a 1000 dollars, but this depends on the buyer you find. Most people will not pay over the normal price for a male domestic cat. It just happens to be a rare event in the chimeric genes of a cat. The male calico is always sterile, if someone claims to have a kitten by a male calico it will most likely be mosaic and not calico. The cat is pricless to the owner as always.




What people are doing

Cloning, it has been observed that it is impossible to produce the same patterns in calico cats by cloning. As Ann Peneople Tsernoglou discovered from a prominent cloning company in 2004, "Calico cats cannot be cloned identically when it comes to their coat coloring. This is due to an effect called x-linked inactivation which involves the random inactivation of one of the X chromosomes. Since all female mammals have two X chromosomes, one might wonder if this phenomenon could have a more widespread impact on cloning in the future."


Feminine studies, calico cats may have already provided some fundamental and significant findings relating to the differences physiologically between male and female mammals. This insight may be one day broadened to the fields of psychology, psychiatry, sociology, biology and medicine as more information becomes available regarding the complete effect of random X-inactivation in female mammal.


Cats of this coloration are believed to bring good luck in the folklore of many cultures.  In the United States, these are sometimes referred to as money cats. The Japanese Maneki Neko figurine is almost always a calico cat.


Wiki Calico cat
longhaired-manx
american-shorthair
Free-pet-wallpapers
catsofaustralia.com----persian breeders
japanese-bobtail
cozycatfurniture.com
crittergeek.com
kittencare.blogspot
mosaicism toms
iwannapet.com

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Friday, June 10, 2011

Golden Girls

The Golden Girls


Watch Golden Girls Online! at www.goinggoldenagain.com

The best show that ever was made to me is the Golden Girls. Even men watch it when they think no one is watching them or if there is a woman watching it and they pretend that they don't want to watch. It's about 4 women that are in their 50s and one elderly woman. Dorothy , Rose, Blanche, and Sophia are there names. Sofia and Dorothy are Sicilian and lived in Brooklyn for a while. Rose is a Scandinavian from Minnesota. Blanche is a southern belle. They live together in a house in Miami, Florida. It is a wonderful comedy that had topics that were a little too avaunt Gard for the eighties. Most of the episodes contain a Cheesecake , a wonderful thing for a woman.

Whenever you are feeling blue or have something bothering you, it is a great show to watch. There is an episode that everyone can relate too, and there are so many little quips that is wonderful to watch.  They introduce things into the comedy and use the publicity to make you think about topics that you wouldn't normally think about until you are older.


Characters
Complete series cast summary:
Bea Arthur ...
Dorothy Petrillo Zbornak (180 episodes, 1985-1992)
Betty White ...
Rose Nylund (180 episodes, 1985-1992)
Rue McClanahan ...
Blanche Devereaux (180 episodes, 1985-1992)
Estelle Getty ...
Sophia Petrillo (180 episodes, 1985-1992)



Storyline:
The Golden Girls is based on the lives and interactions of four older women whom have all been divorced/widowed, and are now roommates. Dorothy's main goal during the series is to find a companion she can relate to while her mother Sophia adds her comical outlook and frequents "Picture This" stories. Rose's St. Olaf-ness makes her a little corny but lovable. One thing that changes nearly every episode is whom Blanche is courting. Written by John W. Hale  


FAQS

Why did the show end when it was still getting respectable ratings?

The show ended because Bea Arthur announced that she was leaving at the end of the seventh season. The ratings had slipped (from 10th place in the 1990-1991 season to 30th in the 1991-1992 season), partly because NBC moved it from 9:00 PM to 8:00 PM, but the show was still making money.


All seven seasons are available on DVD. They are distributed by Buena Vista Home Entertainment

Why are there so many inconsistencies in the girls' back stories?

There are two main reasons for the inconsistencies throughout the series. The main reason is that there were two writing teams throughout the course of the series: one for the first three seasons, and another for the final four seasons, and some of the writers had not watched the show before joining the writing team. So they simply missed something from the previous episodes. Another is that, rarely, writers would decide to ignore a piece of information for the sake of comedy. For example, if a joke that contradicted history was funny, they'd leave the joke in. In the pre-Internet days, all shows tended to have more continuity errors, but The Golden Girls was particularly prone to them, largely because of the mostly verbal nature of the humor. Many of the funny lines made reference to family members or the characters' pasts; these were often forgotten in later episodes. But with the advent of DVD and the Internet many of these mistakes are noticed and discussed at length, but it must be taken with a grain of salt due to the age of the show.

Yes and no. Bea Arthur was not the first choice to play Dorothy (although the character of Dorothy was described in the script as a "Bea Arthur type"); Lee Grant was considered for the role, but she didn't want to play someone old enough to have grandchildren. Rue McClanahan was originally intended to play Rose (a variation of the dimwitted Vivian she played on "Maude"), and Betty White was to play Blanche (a variation of the vampish Sue Ann Nivens she played on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"), but the director suggested that each one read for the other's part.


Is there a real St. Olaf, Minnesota?

No, but there is a liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota known as St. Olaf College. There is also a St. Olaf Township that's located in Otter Tail County, Minnesota



goldengirls.wikia
imdb


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