Can't Touch This! Alcohol, Cucumbers, and Carrots...

After living in the land of Super Big Gulp Beer, it feels a little odd to go shopping at a very cool supermarket and not be able to pick up a bottle of wine for dinner. Buffalo Mozzarella? Check! Freshly baked French Bread? Check! Fresh Basil? Check! Garlic Stuffed Olives? Check! Oooh...now for the Merlot....DOH! Crap!Whhhyyyyyy??????

And of course it's always interesting to understand how traditions of faith are born and so natch, the two year old inside of me starts "the campaign of why":
Why is alcohol banned for those who follow the traditions of Islam?

Of course there is the obvious reason: alcohol makes you do dumb things. But, in my humble opinion, so does religion. So there has to be a better reason right?

Why was wine embraced as the symbol of Christ's blood? Dunno...yet.
Why did European monks so readily embrace the liquid amber? Because winter's are freaking cold in Europe...that's why!

Of course I have a million other why's, but I came across this very informative article by Zaufishan, on the website Green Prophet that explains why Muslim's don't drink alcohol, so I thought I would pass it forward to those of you interested in learning new things.

Why Muslims Don't Drink Alcohol

photo from The Green Prophet

And THEN my eyes fell upon this next bit of interesting information while on the same site (different author) and well, now I think .....no, I can't say that....well, I think.....nope, can't say that either..... Umm, I guess that this MUST be via their version of The Onion! Has to be - right????

A Muslim Cleric in Europe has stated that cucumbers and carrots prompt women to have seedy sexual thoughts and that they should therefore be banned from touching them.

Wow...I have soooo much more learning to do! Cucumbers and Carrots? Check!

Rain Prayer Mandate in the UAE

There are about a million things here that I need to educate myself on regarding life in the Middle East. I am hoarding information wherever I can and trying to digest bits and pieces of it between figuring out where the food markets are and looking at potential future homes. But yesterdays headlines in an online magazine caught my attention:

President calls for rain prayers in UAE

Appoints 7 judges to Federal Court of Appeal

As I have lived in Beijing where they make it rain on command, I didn't immediately question appointing judges to deal with an appeal process of rain prayers but in reading on I realized this was just another editing snafu. Still, it's pretty impressive that a mandate goes out to include rain in the 8am Friday prayer...perhaps I should do my part here too and add this to my 8am Friday Java Rumination, after all water consumption here is off the charts....well, consumption in general is off the charts.

So here is a list of a few things that bubbled to top of mind during my Tuesday Java Rumination. Perhaps some of these might ease the numbers back down a tad? I'm certain that the President will thank me for my brilliance later with a lovely luxury automobile...oooh the new Range Rover is very nice!
-1. Remove the auto flush on toilets, is it really all that difficult to push a button when you've done your business? The good motion sensors tend to flush at least twice before you manage your escape from the stall.
- 2. Those fountains at Burj Khalifa....gorgeous but tsk, tsk, tsk.
- 3. Hey, Ski Dubai!  How much water does it take to manage 3000 cubic of meters of snow in the dessert?
- 4. Golf courses. Does anyone really play golf from May to October? So why water the "greens"? And heck, since we're brain storming, let's change up the game of golf to make it more interesting....just switch the greens and sand hazards! You play on the sand and try to avoid the greens! Introduce Saguaro cactus as your hazards. Oh, stop yer whining. If Thailand can make Elephant Polo work, Sand Golfing should be a breeze!

And to be fair, I realize that not allowing On the Border to put alcohol in their frozen margaritas was a good jump start in the attempt at water conservation.....certainly the demand for crushed ice has been drastically reduced.