First, this paragraph is not the strange part. Just some news: Taking the ferry back home from Praca XV today and saw something very strange. The Brazilian navy has an aircraft carrier docked at the their base on the Rio side of Guanabara Bay. Except for a trip to the dry dock last year, I thought it was permanently moored. Well today, the good ship Sao Paulo was pumping out tons of smoke.  She was trying to keep up with her bigger sibling.  The Carl Vinson of the US Navy is in town.  Lots and lots of sailors will be looking for fun on Marechal Floriano and Visconde de Inhauma.  Anyone in Centro should take a late-night swing past Mansao da Eva, I suppose.  Will there be any dress-whites in attendance at The Week? Kind of doubt it, unless Obama's new rules passed.  

The strange part: I started remembering the attack on the USS Cole in Aden. Terrorism and threats of terrorism.  The Carl Vinson is nuclear-powered and we can assume that it carries some nuclear weapons as well. Well, travelling into Guanabara Bay was a fairly-large, fully-loaded LNG tanker, it passed within a 1/4 mile of the Vinson.  It got me to thinking about military intelligence, terrorism and what might have happened today on the bay. An American nuclear carrier with no other support ships even visible in its task force, a highly-flammable LNG ship, two large cruise ships docked at Praca Maua. Might I add that the Vinson was almost  underneath the Rio-Niteroi bridge? 10:45AM on a Friday morning with everyone back at work after Carnaval in downtown Rio, just a couple of miles away.  The consequences boggle the mind. For those members who really do not have a clue as to the numbers of people who actually work in Centro, go to Central at about 8:45AM-9:00AM on a weekday/dia uteis.  You will be surprised at the number of Cariocas who indeed commute by the "trem" and not only those riding the buses.

It got me thinking about the stage that the "bad guys" with some knowledge might have been able to put together. Really, really quite scary.  It would have definitely put the attacks in New York on the WTC, the trains in Madrid and the Cole in Aden into the background. Many thanks that the TSA weren't around to screw things up. By the way, I brought a couple of very, very expensive chef's knives down on this trip. The TSA removed them from my checked luggage. What kind of safety hazzard might they have caused on the plane? They left one of those nice little printed sheets as a parting gift from the US of A, I suppose.         

Conjunctions as you so scarily set out above seem to be over the head of our North American intelligence.  They could not even be bothered comparing variations in the translation of Arabic names, hence the cueca bomber.  As often mentioned, if you are looking for weapons at plane boarding time, it´s too late.  But about the chef knives, I truly feel for you.  Would acquiring Ming Chai´s Kyocera ceramic knives have helped?

I actually have a ceramic and always have this feeling that I am going to chip the edge. So I do not like to use it for everyday cooking. And when the right knife fits well in your hand, it can be a dream to do veggie, fruit, etc.  Last night I was making couvee and while doing a chifonade on the greens, I sliced off past of my nail with a replacement knife.  Just working way too quickly for a sharpe blade whose handle did not fit my hand very well. I hope someone at TSA appreciates them.  For some reason, I think someone snagged em and they were not destroyed. For $80.00 and $160.00, I kind of doubt it.  Interestingly, when flying down, I saw people checking in firearms in there checked luggage. They just checked to see that the barrels were unloaded. Nothing else. Couple of knives, take them away.

As far as I know, it isn't against TSA rules to carry knives in your checked luggage. I've done it and never had a problem, and my bags were definitely checked because they had the TSA notice inside them when I arrived in Brazil. I'd consider filing a complaint about light-fingered security checkers! Meanwhile, I wouldn't worry too much about the lower level of security on Guanabara Bay. Brazil has fortunately managed to stay friendly with just about the entire world and just isn't a target for international terrorism. Of course, the Vinson would be a U.S. target, but blowing it up in Guanabara Bay would also target Brazil and I just don't see that happening. While there are plenty of short-comings in the Lula government, diplomacy isn't one of them. Brazil has done a good job of maintaining good relations just about everywhere. So enjoy life on Paquetá and don't worry! You're probably about as safe there as you would be anywhere on the planet! By the way, the food processor does a great job on couve in just a few seconds and you can get very fine shreds of greens if you use one of the thinner blades! Just roll up cigars of leaves, stuff 'em in the feeder tube, and let 'er rip! Great for making caldo verde!

I wasn't worried about a terrorist act on Guanabara Bay as much as saw this missed opportunity. And then I tried to imagine how many other similar occurences might be happening around the world on a weekly basis.  Is there any for the TSA, etc. when things like this might occur. There are always lots of small  boats under the bridge as the pylons seem to attract lots and lots of fish.  Not one other US Navy ship in sight. Just three Brazilian tugs.

Much scarier on a day-to-day basis is the LNG dock they are building on one of the smaller islands in Guanabara Bay.  Less than 2 miles from Paqueta and Sao Goncalo.  Not much farther to the 250,000 on Ilha do Governador across open water. And the possibilty of another screw-up by Petrobras offloading this hazardous cargo. I remember reading a study concerning Baltimore and the danger an LNG explosion posed for Crab City. Hello!!!

On a lighter note, I much prefer Tom Yum Gai to Caldo Verde, its just a bit of a trek to my asian market in Flamengo to stock up on the mushrooms, wood ear(my addition) and fresh lemon grass,  And have always considered a processor to be one more, little-used thing taking up loads of counter space. Between the coffee machine, toaster oven, mixed, blender, knife blocks, drainer, microwave, etc. where does it all end? Yes I know, with the new, hot Brasilian boyfriends pau duro nestled in my hiney.  Somethings are more important, I suppose.

By the way, he said my couvee is better than Mama's. The Calabresa cracklings and thinly-sliced onions were the deciding factor.

FYI - The Carl Vinson is in Brazil (along with a number of Boeing bigwigs) in an attempt to sell Lula's airforce F18s as opposed to the Euro competitors offerings. They have a pretty big hurdle to overcome as the U.S. blocked the brazilians' sale of their own aero products to other countries a while back. What goes around....

I think the Brazilians are going to end up buying the French planes -- Lula's already indicated that's where he's leaning. The Air Force would like the Saabs, because the Swedes promised to share technology and even build planes in Brazil, but I guess Lula thinks he can get more from France. I doubt the U.S. has much of a chance. They seem like a late entrant into the contest.

As for soups, I like both! But caldo verde is a good winter soup. I couldn't live without a food processor -- of all the kitchen gadgets I've bought over the years it's the one I use the most, by far. But I'm not terribly skilled with knives and hand chopping. The processor is a much better option for me. It's going to get a workout tonight. I've got friends coming over for dinner and I'm making moqueca mixta with fish and shrimp. Using the processor makes preparing the sauce a snap! Happy cooking!

How wonderful! I take it that you have succeeded in your search for dende, malaguetas and guarana zero ou comum?  And how about the big-dicked baiano to stir the confection with his pau duro? Sim ou Nao?

Yes, I found the dendê, pimenta malagueta and guaraná (not to mention Yoki pão de queijo mix) at a Brazilian market not five minutes from here! It opened in a strip mall about five months ago, but it's a bit obscured from the street, so I hadn't seen it even though I pass it all the time! I finally went to the supermarket in the same mall a week or two ago and found it by accident! 

But they've got everything I needed, so I stocked up! Not cheap, but nothing like a trip to Brazil to bring back ingredients! In case anyone else is looking for Brazilian stuff in the Kansas City area, the market is at College and Quivira, in the shopping center with a Hen House supermarket. The Brazilian market is in the strip of shops facing Quivira, near the 110th St. exit from the mall. There's an Indian grocery in the same strip of shops, so there are plenty of exotic choices all in one place!

I don't think any terrorist would pull something like that in Brazil .....the Government  would not allow it, number one and number two it would ruin the 6 billion dollar trade agreement we have with Brazil. I would like to have seen the sailors though lol.

And I 'm sure many people with their heads buried in the sand never dreamed that the US Government would have permitted one of their destroyers to be blown up in a harbor while on a port-of-call visit to Aden, or a couple of their embassies to be blown up on the same day or to have four airplanes at the same time and on the same day  to be hijacked and sent as exploding missiles into buildings representing various forms of American strength, the WTC, Pentagon and either Capitol or White House.  Hello!  As has been ably demonstrated, it only takes a few crazies.

A lengthy, very explanatory post that took quite a bit of time to compose, and about something that could easily have happened has been hijacked and transformed into a thread a month later about the government of Brasil not permitting such a thing.  The government of Spain never predicted that a bunch of commuter trains might be blown up in their nation's capital one day either. Hello London. Hello Tokyo. And did anybody predict that Bin Laden would not have been caught 9 years later and how many billions or have we gone over the trillion mark yet on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to capture him and bring down Al Qaeda? 

If anyone thinks that Brasil protect itself from the threat of terrorism, take a look at what a great job they are doing with the new Music City in Barra, or the speed with which they opened the Praca General Osorio Metro Station. Or on matters of national security, when they have ever flown a fighter jet off of the stable decks of the pride of the Brasilian Navy, the Sao Paulo.  I wrote stable decks as I have never seen the ship missing from the docks at marina.  That should say more than enough about the level of protection the military here  in Brasil can provide. One terrorist boat to blow up an LNG tanker in  the middle of Guanabara Bay.  If you had only seen the situation you might be able to understand.