EATERY IS OPEN - IT'S ALL GREEK TO ME

GRILLED SHRIMP

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 lb. shelled, deveined uncooked large shrimp (16 to 20 per pound)
1 (14-oz.) can artichoke hearts, drained, halved
8 cherry tomatoes
1 cup (4 oz.) crumbled feta cheese

1. In large bowl, stir together oil, garlic, dill, oregano, lemon peel, salt and pepper. Stir in shrimp to coat; cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 4 hours.

2. Heat grill. Equally divide and thread shrimp, artichoke hearts and tomatoes onto 4 (10- to 12-inch) metal skewers. Brush marinade over shrimp. Place on gas grill over medium heat or on charcoal grill 4 to 6 inches from medium coals. Cook 3 minutes; turn. Place feta on shrimp. Cook an additional 3 minutes or until shrimp turn pink and cheese is melted.

ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY JULY 10

1890

Wyoming became the 44th state in the United States.

1940

The Battle of Britain began.

1951

Armistice talks to end the Korean War began at Kaesong.

1973

The Bahamas became independent from Great Britain.

1985

The Coca-Cola Company announced that it was bringing back the original Coke and calling it Coca-Cola Classic.

1989

Mel Blanc, the “man of a thousand voices,” including such cartoon characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig, died in Los Angeles.

1991

President Bush lifted economic sanctions against South Africa.

1991

Boris Yeltsin was sworn in as Russia's first elected president.

1995

Myanmar activist Aung San Suu Kyi was released after six years of house arrest.

2003

Spain opened its first mosque (in Granada) since the Moors were expelled in 1492.

SUNDAY TRIVIA - A Tribute to the Space Shuttle

DID YOU KNOW...
 The final shuttle mission planned, the STS-135 launch of Atlantis, was July 8. After that, Atlantis and the other iconic orbiters - reusable space planes- will be headed to museums to live out their lives on public display.

While in orbit, the space shuttle travels around Earth at a speed of about 17,500 miles (28,000 kilometers) per hour. At this speed, the crew can see a sunrise or sunset every 45 minutes.

The space shuttle program is officially known as the Space Transportation System (STS), and so each shuttle mission is designated with the prefix "STS."

On May 11, 2009, astronaut Michael J. Massimino, a crewmember of the space shuttle Atlantis' STS-125 mission, became the first person to use the microblogging site Twitter in space

The combined mileage of all five orbiters is 513.7 million miles (826.7 million km), or 1.3 times the distance between Earth and Jupiter. Each orbiter, except for Challenger, traveled farther than the distance between Earth and the sun.  

The space shuttle's Thermal Protection System, or heat shield, contains more than 30,000 tiles that are constructed essentially of sand.

Columbia, the first space shuttle to fly, weighed the most because NASA was still searching for lighter materials to use, and integrated some of these into the later orbiters.

Starting in 1983's Challenger missions, animals became a prime component of space science. On the STS-7 mission, the social activities of ant colonies in zero gravity were examined, and during STS-8, six rats were flown in the Animal Enclosure module to study animal behavior in space.

Only one president has been on hand to witness a space shuttle launch. President Bill Clinton, along with his wife Hillary Clinton, watched Mercury astronaut John Glenn's return to space on the STS-95 flight on Oct. 29, 1998 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The heaviest space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, weighed 178,000 pounds (80,700 kg), roughly the weight of 13 African Elephants.

President Obama had planned to watch the shuttle Endeavour lift off on its final mission STS-134, on April 29, 2011, but that launch was delayed. 

The space shuttle isn't just a mode of transport: It's a laboratory, too. There have been 22 Spacelab missions, or missions where science, astronomy, and physics have been studied inside a special module carried on the space shuttle.

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JOIN DRL IN HELPING PONGO THE ORANGUTAN

DRL had formed a Guardianship Team to help support one of the Orangutans at the Center for Great Apes in Wachula, Florida. Pongo is a shy, gentle giant who was the first ape to be cared for at the center. He was in bad shape, had no hair on his back and what hair he did have was matted and caked with feces. Now he's one of the most handsome, contented apes in the sanctuary. Because he spent so many years in a small cage indoors, he had never seen the sunshine or felt the rain. Now, whenever it rains, Pongo loves to sit outside with his face toward the sky to feel the raindrops coming down.

Our goal is to raise $2,000 for Pongo by his birthday on August 16th. You can contribute to the DRL Guardianship Team by visiting this link: https://bos.etapestry.com/fundraiser/CenterforGreatApes/pongo/donate.do

Please help us to provide for Pongo and the other apes at the Center for Great Apes! For more information on the center you can visit their website at
http://www.centerforgreatapes.org/

ON THIS DATE IN MUSIC HISTORY JULY 9

1879 - Composer Ottorino Respighi was born 1879.
1915 - Composer David Diamond was born.
1956 - Dick Clark made his debut as host of "Bandstand" on a Philadelphia TV station. The name of the show was changed to "American Bandstand" when it went to ABC-TV.
1958 - Johnny Cash signed with Columbia Records.
1972 - Paul McCartney appeared on stage for the first time since 1966 as his group, Wings, opened at Chateauvillon in the south of France.

1974 - Crosby, Stills, and Nash started their reunion tour in Seattle.
1977 - Elvis Costello quit his day job as a computer operator at a cosmetic factory.
1981 - The Jacksons began a 36 city tour.
1984 - The album "Ice Cream Castle" was released by The Time.
1991 - U.S. President George Bush presented a National Medal of Art to Roy Acuff.
1995 - The Grateful Dead gave their last concert with Jerry Garcia at Chicago's Soldier Field. Garcia died the next month of a heart attack.
1996 - Prince released the album "Chaos and Disorder."
1998 - Scott Weiland had an bench warrant issued for him when he missed his second court date stemming from drug possession charges.
1998 - MTV Networks Europe announced in London the launch of freeform music channel M2 Europe. It was the first TV station to be launched on the internet.
1998 - Robert "Waddy" Wachtel and his wife were arrested for investigation of possessing child pornography, allegedly found on his personal computer.
1998 - Janet Jackson set a gross revenue record of $875,000 at the MCI Center in Washington, DC. The previous record was set my Yanni on January 31, 1998, with $860,300.
1999 - Mary Chapin Carpenter canceled a concert at Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts in Springfield, MO, at the last minute. She had to fly home to tend to a very sick Golden Retriever.
1999 - The state of Indiana renamed a 25-mile stretch of Interstate Route 65 as "Kenneth Babyface Edmonds Highway." The same day Babyface donated $50,000 to establish VH1's Save The Music campaign in the state.
2001 - The Backstreet Boys temporarily stopped their "Black & Blue World Tour 2001." The tour had to be put on hold because A.J. McLean entered a treatment center for depression and alcohol abuse. The tour resumed on August 24th.

MEET GRUB!

Marion Pellicano Ambrose

Grub is an adult chimpanzee at the Center for Great Apes

Born in Los Angeles at an animal trainer's compound, Grub was pulled from his chimpanzee mother and sold to a Florida tourist attraction when he was only a few months old. Now at his permanent home in the Center for Great Apes in  Wauchula, Florida, Grub is a happy and active adult chimpanzee.

Grub eagerly participates in all types of enrichment activities.  He likes to paint and gets very excited when he sees the staff with brushes and canvases.  Grub has created many beautiful paintings and concentrates very hard while he’s painting.  In 1996, he was featured on the NBC Today Show in a story about animals and art.

He also likes facemasks and learned years ago how to make a mask from pieces of paper or cardboard by tearing out two eyeholes.  When Grub particularly likes a volunteer or visitor, he’ll find a piece of cardboard in his enclosure, tear out a mask with eyeholes, and offer it to the visitor.  If no paper or cardboard is available, he’ll find a leaf to make his “mask-gift”!

As enrichment, Grub has learned many signs in American Sign Language and uses them appropriately.  Grub particularly likes dogs.  When the sanctuary's 9-year-old golden retriever was adopted, Grub was very excited to see him, ran over to the edge of the outdoor habitat near the dog, and signed "chase.”  He then ran back to get some primate chow biscuits and tossed them out to the very surprised dog.

Even though Grub is over 145 pounds and his fierce “displays” usually end with him throwing large barrels into the air, he can be extremely gentle.  He interacts daily with the handicapped juvenile chimpanzee, Knuckles.  Grub grooms and tickles Knuckles and seems to know that he’s special.  When Grub once stuck his finger in Knuckles’ mouth (in play)... and received a very hard bite from Knux, he ran screaming and holding his finger, but came right back to Knuckles and gently tickled him again.  If any of the other chimps had bitten his finger, he would very likely have retaliated!

Grub is only one of the many chimps and Orangutans at the Center for Great Apes in Wachula, FLorida. I visited the center on July 1st for a training to be able to work with these intelligent creatures. I look forward to sharing more about them and their stories with you at DRL.

CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS JULY 9

Richard Roundtree 1942 - Actor
Dean Koontz 1945 - Author
Bon Scott (AC/DC) 1946 
O.J. Simpson 1947 - Football player, actor
Chris Cooper 1951 - Actor
John Tesh 1952 - Musician, television personality
David Ball 1953
Debbie Sledge 1954 - Musician (Sister Sledge)
Tom Hanks 1956 - Actor
Kelly McGillis 1957 - Actress
Jimmy Smits 1958 - Actor
Jim Kerr 1959 - Musician (Simple Minds)
Marc Almond 1959 - Musician (Soft Cell)
Courtney Love 1964 - Musician (Hole)
Frank Bello 1965 - Musician (Anthrax)
Scott Grimes 1971 - Actor
Enrique Murciano 1973 - Actor ("Without a Trace")
Fred Savage 1976 - Actor ("The Wonder Years")

WANNA LAUGH?!?!

If a firefighters business can go up in smoke, and a plumbers business can go down the drain, can a hooker get layed off?

Any woman that thinks the way to a mans heart is through his stomach is aiming just a little too high.

When a man talks dirty to a woman, it's sexual harassment. When a woman talks dirty to a man, it's $4.95 a minute.

3... 2... 1... LIFTOFF ...THE END OF AN ERA

GOD'S SPEED ATLANTIS
Barbara Ward-Finneran

In Cape Canaveral Florida this morning, NASA launched it's last ever space shuttle mission.  Four astronauts left the earth at 11:29 am in the Atlantis Shuttle for this final and unforgettable launch.

Although weather watchers were pessimistic, with a 70% chance of a scrub due to rain and clouds, a window of opportunity opened at just the right time.  There was a brief pause at 31 seconds in the countdown and about a  two minute hold before liftoff.  Hundreds of thousand lined the space coast to watch the 135th mission begin.  With my children, I was among these crowds.  I stood on a dock over the beautiful Intracoastal with my boys and friends to watch this historic moment.  Although the view was short lived due to the cloud cover - it is one I will never forget.  I hope my boys will always remember it too!

This is the end of an era.  Atlantis is making it 33 flight.  The mission named STS-135, is the end of 30 years of flight missions. The 135 missions have seen 355 astronauts representing 16 different countries enter space and take flight from the USA.  

Atlantis is expected to return home on the morning of July 20th, the 42nd anniversary of Neil Armstrong's historic walk on the moon.

It it emotional and bittersweet for our country but even more so for those of us who life on the space coast.  1,700 pink slips are expected to follow soon after Atlantis' landing later this month.  Many have already come before this... sadly, I fear there will be numerous more cuts to follow.  My family knows many who have already been effected by the lay-offs  from Kennedy Space Center.

What comes next for Brevard County Florida's Space Coast...?  Will the area be able to handle the loss of more jobs at NASA and trickle down effects? What comes next for NASA's space programs?  It is very sad to see one era end without the birth of the next in sight...

God bless the crew!
God's Speed Atlantis!
God Bless and America!