A n d r e w s G u m W o r l d

Cafe Linda check, originally uploaded by Sean O’Sullivan.

Poster Credit: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

As reported earlier this week on the site firstscience.com, the latest “Molecularium” movie will hit Imax theatres this fall, and its producer is Richard W. Siegel, a research scientist and professor from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The film, “Molecules to the MAX,” has taken three years from conception to completion, and uses molecular modeling and simulations to examine various objects, including on that you might guess. Here’s how the article from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute describes AndrewsGumWorld’s favorite part of the yet-to-be-seen movie:

And so far, the reception of Siegel’s grandkids and the children of colleagues to the latest exploits of Oxy, Hydro, Hydra, and other Molecularium characters as they get an up-close-and-personal view of the molecular landscapes of snowflakes, chewing gum, a penny, among other environs, has been outstanding.

 Australia’s Herald Sun publishes an editorial in tomorrow’s paper (it’s that whole International Date Line thing; hang on tight) titled “She’s, like, not cool,” which is about McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin, who is, according to writer Alan Howe, “colourful, opinionated, forthright, forceful and, if the polls are right, headed for the role of deputy to the leader of the free world.”

It’s not the most positive editorial in the world, with unfavourable comparisons made to the executive experience of the premier of Tasmania while also referencing Palin’s views on guns and her home church (and also mentions the grizzly bear that graces her office…a bear shot by her father).

But what really gets the writer is how Palin talks and that, of course, is what caught AndrewsGumWorld’s attention:

Notwithstanding her serious education, Palin favours the language of the inarticulate gum-chewing teenagers who populate disposable American sitcoms — she calls her husband the “first dude”.

And this was her response when speaking to members of her church in June about some tattoos her son had recently acquired: “Before he enlisted (in the US Army) he had to get his first tattoo, and I’m like, ‘man, I don’t think that’s real cool’,” she managed.

“Until he showed me what it was and I thought ‘oh, he did something right’ coz on his calf was this big old Jesus fish.”

Mind you, on his shoulder was “this big old map of Alaska”.

The Toronto International Film Festival is now underway, and this morning’s Irish Times did an article rounding up some of the highlights of the 33rd year of this festival.

In the article on the festival, “Where the winner is the audience,” it references Brad Pitt’s performance in an upcoming film called “Burn After Reading,” which involves the memoirs of an ousted CIA employee, and also stars George Clooney and Frances McDormand. While a lot of things happen in the film (it’s by the Coen Brothers), the one thing that matters most to AndrewsGumWorld is this:

And in a delightfully goofy performance (in the film), Brad Pitt plays her dim-witted, gum-chewing colleague, who finds the lost disc.

One of the classic Italian restaurants in Charleston, West Virginia, is Fazio’s, and today’s Charleston Gazette featured an interview with its legendary owner, Joe Fazio (pictured above at a Jaycees fundraiser).

The restaurant grew out of what was once a barber shop operated by his father Dominic, an Italian immigrant.  In today’s “innerview” in the Gazette, Joe reminisces about his dad:

“His name was Dominic. He dressed in a black suit with a big hat and horseshoe pin. When he went downtown, he stood out. He would carry four or five packs of chewing gum in his pocket, and when he would go to City National to pay a bill, he would give them a stick of gum. Pop always had a smile for everybody.”

school, renovated by Russian government, Tskhinvali, originally uploaded by joshua_kucera.

Today’s Itar-Tass News Agency reported on preparations for the new school year in Russia, with 700 out of 56,000 secondary schools not prepared to open on what is considered a national Day of Knowledge.

The report also covered South Ossetia in Tskhinval, part of war-torn Georgia, where 4,000 students attended school as the year began. As evidence of the recent conflicts there, dogs trained to detect explosives cleared each of the schools (some are schools renovated by the Russian government, as this 2007 photo from Flickr by Joshua Kucera shows) before the children entered.

New food rules were also put into place for the new school year, as well, as the article noted:

New rules of feeding at schools have been introduced in the new academic year. Gennady Onishchenko who is also Russia’s chief sanitary doctor, earlier approved these rules. The official ‘black list’ includes such foodstuffs as smoked sausages, mushrooms, kvass, coffee, soda water, ice cream, chewing gum and peanuts. The school canteens are banned to offer cold soups, pancakes with meat and curd, jellied meat and fish and fried eggs, because these food products in poor quality may cause various intestinal infections.

You, faithful reader of AndrewsGumWorld, may not only chew gum, but also own a lawn that, well, is occasionally struck by an onslaught of moles that you may not with to be in (or underneath, actually), your lawn.

You are in remarkable luck, as it turns out, according to Cordell Vail (“The World Famous Gardener”), from Gum Guy’s home state of Washington, that even though you can no longer order his Mole Bate Sticks (they are no longer manufactured due to the expense involved), you can deal with moles and not have to rely on traps (as one of AndrewsGumWorld’s friends has done), garden hoses, car exhaust (which seems complicated), poisons or antifreeze.

But you do need gum, as his website explains.

Juicy Fruit™, in particular, seems to work best, and there are also worms and discarded plastic milk jugs involved:

TRADE SECRET YOU WILL WANT TO KNOW:
Now here is the a little secret to help you make your home remedy mole bate mole treatment more effective. Find an empty milk carton and cut the side out of it. Then open the chewing gum and put the chewing gum sticks into the milk carton. Then catch a few earth worms or night crawlers and put into the milk carton with the chewing gum, being careful to take the gum out of the wrapper without touching it with your fingers.

Now shake it all around until all the chewing gum sticks are covered with a coating of worm substance.

This way, when you put the chewing gum in the mole holes it will cause the moles to be more anxious to eat the bate. Worms are one of their main foods. Putting this coating on the gum will be very effective in getting the moles to eat the gum. It is the gum that kills the moles. When they eat it, it clogs up their insides and they die.

Once again, you can find all five steps, more photos, and a case studies (with photos) of how the procedure works can be found on the Moles Be Gone website

The Republican National Convention, marked by its country-wide ascension of Alaska Governor (and now VP candidate) Sarah Palin into a surprised and often happy public eye (although some of that ascension was and is controversial, as noted earlier in AndrewsGumWorld) has now ended, but it appears to be — if nothing else — a convention marked by the joyful (and public) embrace of chewing gum, as this brief review of national and international media reveals…

From The New Yorker:

On the third night of the Convention, Rudy Giuliani was scheduled to speak, followed by Sarah Palin, and the delegation from New York went to hear them, and to cast its votes in the official roll call. Jay Savino, the chairman of the Bronx County Republican Party, walked into the Xcel Center unshaven, having flown to Minnesota on Monday with a few other delegates and with Giuliani… Beside Savino was Juan Carlos Polanco…who had been a batboy for the Yankees, is an attorney on the staff of the New York State Assembly minority leader, James Tedisco.

Polanco was chewing gum and talking to a Bronx alternate delegate named Anthony J. Ribustello…

From The Mercury News, in Silicon Valley:

State Sen. Abel Maldonado, who delivered an unusually fiery address at the Republican National Convention, in which he blasted Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s economic proposals, now wishes he could have removed something from that memorable speech.

Like, his chewing gum.

Perhaps the thousands of delegates and observers in St. Paul, Minn., couldn’t easily notice, but to those of us who caught the speech on television, there was obviously some major chewing going on up there. We couldn’t actually see a piece of gum swashing around in his mouth, but one fan of IA e-mailed us, asking if the GOP senator was eating peanut butter at the podium.

Maldonado, whose district runs from Santa Maria to Saratoga, sheepishly confirmed the sticky situation two days after his big speech. He explained it like this: In the minutes before his speaking role, Maldonado was pacing nervously backstage while listening to Mexican crooner Marco Antonio Solis on his iPod. Maldonado’s mouth was getting dry, and he didn’t have water, so he put a stick of gum in his mouth.

“I couldn’t take it out once I was up there,” Maldonado said. “I made a mistake,” he added, invoking a phrase rarely used by politicians.

But then, it’s not like this was the first time Maldonado chewed his way through a big event — Maldonado’s chewing habit also was on prominent display next to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at a televised news conference near the Summit fire in May.

And, finally, today’s Independent from Ireland weighs in on the complicated life story of Sarah Palin, including a future son-in-law who, yes, chewed gum on stage during the convention:

Already she has solidified the base behind her, particularly women. On the other hand, the party’s blithe acceptance of her daughter’s unwed pregnancy, with the baby’s father chewing gum and waving from the convention stage, has outraged traditional social conservatives.

You may never have heard of Andorra, the fifth-smallest nation in Europe, although it’s famous for boasting some of the longest life expectancies on earth among the just over 80,000 or so who live there. (Incidentally, the country is also fairly remote, there are only two main roads in and out of the country; one connecting with Spain and one connecting France).

Nevertheless, the country was featured in yesterday’s Mirror in England (in its sport section; although the “10 facts you never knew about Andorra” featured only one fact about sports — that its football team is ranked 184th in the world, and has won only one competitive match, against Macedonia, in 2004).

Even so, there are some facts about the country that warm the heart of AndrewsGumWorld, and most significant on that list was the perfect number 7:

7. It boasts the world’s lowest unemployment rate (practically zero) and highest consumption of chewing gum per person.