Yesterday I heard the story of toasting origins. It sounded interesting, but somewhat unrealistic. It turned out to be true:
The practice of toasting originated in Ancient Greece, at a time when fear of poisoning was a significant concern. To put guests at ease, the host would pour the guests’ wine from a common decanter, take the first drink to demonstrate its safety, then raise his cup to the guests and invite them to drink in good health.
Internet Movie DataBase, wider known simply as IMDB, celebrates it’s 15th birthday! In this age of computers and information technologies, 15 years is a truly remarkable time span. In fact, they started from the pre-Web era, using Usenet groups and mailing lists as the distribution medium.
IMDb presents a special 15th Anniversary feature. There is an IMDB history, as well as an excellent timeline that shows how IMDB was growing and provides the means to relate to what was happening on the movie arena.
I would like to join all those thousands of people who congratulate IMDb on its success and its useful service that they provide free of charge. I would like to wish them another eternity of years to come and more people to contribute to the project. Thank a bunch you guys. Keep it up!
Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989) was a Soviet physicist who became, in the words of the Nobel Peace Committee, a spokesman for the conscience of mankind. He was fascinated by fundamental physics and cosmology, but he had to spent two decades designing nuclear weapons. The acknowledged father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, he contributed perhaps more than anyone else to the military might of the USSR. But it was his top secret experience as a leading nuclear expert that was instrumental in making Sakharov one of the most courageous critics of the Soviet regime, a human rights activist and the first Russian to win the Nobel Peace Prize. He helped bring down one of history’s most powerful dictatorships.
The quote is from this site. If you are not familiar with this person, I suggest you browse through the link.
The bright one among you have probably guessed by now that my name is Leonid. Well, in Greek and Cypriot culture there is no such name. There is a variation though. It is Leonidas.
As with many other names there was once a hero named Leonidas. In Greece, he was called Big Leonidas. I suspected it, but never got to learn the story until recently.
One of the aging Cypriots asked me if I know the story of Big Leonidas after he learned my name. I had to answer negative. The guy looks at me, relaxes in the armchair preparing to tell a long and noble story and tells me this (word in word):
Once there was a warrior. His name was Big Leonidas. Five hundred… no… one thousand Persians attacked him. And they all died.
He than gave me one of those looks that demanded appreciation. He spent the whole twenty freaking seconds educating me. Wow. It took me another twenty seconds to realize that the story was over. I thanked him afterwards…
If you had a chance to have dinner with any historical person, then who would it be? Who would you choose and why? Two prohibited answers are Albert Einstein and Jesus Christ.
I would choose Sir Winston Churchill. There is something about this guy that tells me he was an excellent company for dinner – educated, intelligent, communicative, funny.