Updated

Breakfast: A large slice of poppyseed Bundt cake

Note: I am not too keen on posting original news here anymore, because I've noticed that a *certain* site is copying my items without linking to me. Funny- they don't do this to any other sites, and the editor from this site gets a paycheck.

Note 2: Later Tuesday someone sent me this:

GREECE

Greek Tragedy or Farce? Athens is Still a City of Ruins, but Now Some of the
Ruins are New

The Times (UK)
Tuesday, April 13, 2004

Copycat or coincidence?

The Age has a funny take on the looming Olympics:

The Olympic Games returns to Athens in just 122 days - the gods are gathering, and the omens are not good for a trouble-free event. Russ Baker reports.

Worriers cite terrorists, construction delays, traffic chaos and other credible megaproblems as potential obstacles for the summer Olympics. But if the gargantuan Athens Games go down the tubes, it might just be on account of the little things.

Let's address the prosaic matter of plumbing. Greece is unlike northern Europe, North America and Australia in many, often charming ways. That's why it remains one of the world's top tourist destinations. But not all of those ways are quite so endearing. For example, while most of the developed world flushes toilet tissue away, in Greece it is typically placed in a waste receptacle next to the toilet. That unintentionally ecological approach, however, will be a surprise to many visitors, if a recent unscientific inspection is any indication. Although warnings are not unknown — one restaurant has posted a sign depicting a grimacing toilet and the admonition "Do not place Papper in the Toilette" — most establishments seem not to have considered this potential disaster, with just four months and counting before the opening ceremonies.

That means millions and millions of ill-advised flushes and untold consequences to Athens' ancient pipes, which, if not as old as the Acropolis itself, are still badly in need of modernisation. How this will play out, especially given the frequency with which Americans and other prodigal consumers already clog more modern equipment, is one big unknown.

Another is the ability of the electricity grid to handle huge numbers of gadget-happy visitors, along with the air-conditioning pressures of an August which, thanks to global warming, is becoming even hotter and wetter...more

North America is cocaine. Greece is pot.