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Obamas enjoy multi-course tasting menu By Jonathan Easley - 12/29/11 07:35 AM ET President Obama enjoyed a five-to-seven course tasting menu Wednesday night at a dinner in Honolulu with first lady Michelle Obama and 10 friends. The dinner at Alan Wong's restaurant in Honolulu comes as the president enjoys his annual holiday break in Hawaii, a vacation nearly cut short by the fight over taxes with Republicans in Washington. The Obama's are regulars at Wong's restaurant—both gave head chef Wong a hug upon entering before being taken to their “traditional table,” which Wong describes as the “feng shui” seat in...

Complete title: Military Should ‘Expressly Prohibit’ Heterosexuals from Using Separate Showers from Homosexuals After Repeal of DADT, Says DOD Working Group A special Defense Department working group appointed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates has recommended that the military should “expressly prohibit” heterosexuals from using separate showers, bathrooms and bunking facilities from homosexuals when the repeal of the law banning homosexuals from the military goes into effect.The working group has also recommended that commanding officers be left with the authority to exempt individuals from using the same showers, bathrooms and living facilities as homosexuals, but only on a “case-by-case” basis.The House...

Transnationalist billionaire George Soros is spreading his left-wing wealth across the globe. The NYTimes reports a record Soros donation to Human Rights Watch: George Soros, the billionaire investor and philanthropist, plans to announce on Tuesday that he is giving $100 million to Human Rights Watch to expand the organization’s work globally. It is the largest gift he has made, the largest gift by far that Human Rights Watch has ever received, and only the second gift of $100 million or more made by an individual this year, according to the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. …Human Rights Watch will...

NEW YORK – During her first four days living in an airport, Dominica Zschiesche cleaned her body with hand wipes and used a public bathroom sink to shave her legs and wash her hair. But by Day 5 at Camp Kennedy, she seemed almost at home, standing near the concourse barefoot and with her hair wrapped in a blue towel after she finally got to shower. "It was wonderful. It was the best shower I ever had," said the 29-year-old art student from Frankfurt. Hundreds of passengers are stranded at John F. Kennedy International Airport while they wait for the...

If the exit polls are accurate, it looks like the Republican Jewish realignment will have to wait for yet another election. For months, Barack Obama struggled with Jewish undecideds, and McCain supporters predicted their candidate might win close to 40 percent of Jewish voters. Instead, polls show Obama winning about 78 percent of the Jewish vote against 22 percent for McCain. To understand why, it’s worth consulting no less a political analyst than Rush Limbaugh. The conservative talkster recently chatted with a McCain supporter from Michigan who identified herself as Jewish. She asked Rush why her Democratic coreligionists weren’t as...

According to exit polling Barack Obama won 77% or 78% of the Jewish vote in yesterday's election. John Kerry won 74% of the Jewish vote in 2004.

Before we address the gradual decline of the hotel-room bathtub, an important ethical disclosure: I’m biased. I’m a shower guy and couldn’t care less if I never see a bathtub in my hotel room again. I can remember only two times in the past 20 years when I used a hotel tub: Four years ago, in a suite at the Ritz-Carlton Singapore, I hoisted myself into a tub strategically nestled under a window with a smashing view of the skyline. And then there was that time at the Halekulani resort in Waikiki when my then-wife-to-be and I, uh, well, uh.......

I hesitate to start a thread like this... My husband called me a little while ago to say that the sports guy on AM 1100 in Cleveland was breaking into Rush briefly to say that there are a ridiculous number of contrails over NE OH. My husband, who was driving at the time, said sure enough, dozens of them. Looking outside right now I can probably count at least 20 criss-crossing the sky. So anyway, the sports guy (Mike Trivisonno), who is doing his own show now, is spouting off about how "SOMETHING" must be going on, even though "officials"...

Rats are given 'shower cubicles' A rat dispels the age-old image of a dirty rodent A colony of Cumbrian rats is challenging the age-old image of the dirty rodent by enjoying showers at a Lake District wildlife attraction. They are part of a new feature at the Aquarium of the Lakes, near Windermere, which showcases UK wildlife. The idea for the showers came after keepers noticed the rodents' behaviour whenever the plants in their display were watered. Now a special "shower area" is being created for the animals. Aquarium of the Lakes spokesman Scott Davidson said: "Whenever we watered the...

FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas (Army News Service, July 20, 2005) -- Hurricane Emily came ashore July 20 but wasn’t packing the wallop residents and tourists of the South Texas shore area originally expected. While the South Padre Islands still took a beating with high winds and heavy rain, it was not enough of a blow for any of the 126 supply-laden trucks poised at a staging area at Fort Sam Houston to pull out and head south. The trucks, loaded with everything from water and food to cots and generators, packed the field on Wilson Street Sunday night as part...

A former Jewish grand rabbi Mordechai Eliahu has laid down the law on amateur operatics in the shower: you can hum but you can't sing. "You will not sing in the shower," the former leader of Israel's Sephardic Jews instructed a listener inquiring about Talmudic laws on an ultra-Orthodox religious radio programme. Rabbi Eliahu explained that the Hebrew language, holy to the Jewish religion, was not to be sullied by use in a bathroom, Wednesday's edition of Yediot Ahronot newspaper reported. But the rabbi, considered a religious authority in world Judaism, went on to soften his stand. "To hum without...

State troopers, alerted by contractors there might be a burglar in a Schuylkill County home they were working in Thursday, cornered a man in the upstairs bathroom and accidentally shot him while trying to arrest him. The man turned out to be the homeowner. David L. Freed Jr., 51, of Wayne Township was hit in the shoulder by a bullet from Trooper Kirk Kirkland's .40-caliber handgun, Trooper Ray Albert said. (Click link for rest.)

INDIANAPOLIS, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- Three Indianapolis children were forced to drink vinegar, eat peppers and take cold showers as a form of discipline, sheriff's deputies said. Marion County sheriff's deputies found the malnourished children ages 10, 8 and 6 with rashes Sunday after a neighbor reported "banging and howling" from the apartment. Deputies said one boy told them that he had been kept in the bathtub all day. Police said the mother and two other women gave the children acid-reducing gum to offset the effects of the vinegar and peppers. Mary Corrigan, 33, and her friends, Edee Mowrer, 36,...

Every August, just when many people go vacationing in the country where skies are dark, the best-known meteor shower makes its appearance. As with many celestial phenomena, there's some curious lore surrounding the shooting stars of the annual Perseid meteor shower. Laurentius, a Christian deacon, is said to have been martyred by the Romans in 258 AD on an iron outdoor stove. It was in the midst of this torture that Laurentius supposedly cried out: "I am already roasted on one side and, if thou wouldst have me well cooked, it is time to turn me on the other." It...

At Army Base, Movies, E-Mail, More Showers on the Way Mean It's 'getting Better All the Time' By Charles J. Hanley The Associated Press Published: Mar 22, 2002 KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - "Things are getting better all the time," said Londi Farrow, the morale sergeant. "Nobody's complaining." He must not have talked to any grimy female soldiers lately. "Yeah, we got showers finally - if you can get to them," complained Sgt. 1st Class Loretta Feliciana. "They set aside only two hours a day for females. If you're out refueling planes" - her dirty job - "you're out of luck."...