Hey, Bruno Mars, would you catch a GRANATUM for her? No PUNica intended. A pomegranate ( /ˈpɒm.ɪ.ɡræn.ət/) (Punica granatum) is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub or small tree growing between five and eight meters tall. I show you a maxicard with it, from USA

"After opening the pomegranate by scoring it with a knife and breaking it open, the arils (seed casings) are separated from the peel and internal white pulp membranes. Separating the red arils is easier in a bowl of water, because the arils sink and the inedible pulp floats. Freezing the entire fruit also makes it easier to separate. Another very effective way of quickly harvesting the arils is to cut the pomegranate in half, score each half of the exterior rind four to six times, hold the pomegranate half over a bowl and smack the rind with a large spoon. The arils should eject from the pomegranate directly into the bowl, leaving only a dozen or more deeply embedded arils to remove.

The entire seed is consumed raw, though the watery, tasty aril is the desired part. The taste differs depending on the subspecies of pomegranate and its ripeness. The pomegranate juice can be very sweet or sour, but most fruits are moderate in taste, with sour notes from the acidic tanninscontained in the aril juice. Pomegranate juice has long been a popular drink in Persian and Indian cuisine, and began to be widely distributed in the United States and Canada in 2002.^[18]"

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomegranate}

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_mars

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The sweet taste of victory, upon returning from battle...Mwah!!!...A famous kiss WWII photo...Maximum card from USA, with Memorial Day pictorial postmark

Happy and grateful Memorial Day!

"U.S. Navy photo journalist Victor Jorgensen captured another view of the same scene, which was published in the New York Times the following day.^[3] Jorgensen titled his photograph Kissing the War Goodbye."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kissing_the_War_Goodbye.jpg

Now, the most famous version (also featured on the stamp above) is this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Legendary_kiss_V%E2%80%93J_day_in_Times_Square_Alfred_Eisenstaedt.jpg

"V-J Day in Times Square is a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt that portrays an American sailor kissing a young nurse in a white dress on V-J Day in Times Square on August 14, 1945."

(Not to be confused with Vajayjay )

"Since the identity of the nurse had been claimed, in its August 1980 issue, the editors of Life asked that the kissing sailor come forward. In the October 1980 issue, the editors reported that eleven men and three women had come forward claiming to be the subjects of the photograph. Listed in the October 1980 issue as claiming to be the nurse were Greta Friedman and Barbara Sokol as well as Edith Shain."

"Glenn McDuffie laid claim in 2007 and was supported by Houston Police Department forensic artist Lois Gibson.^[10] Gibson's forensic analysis compared the Eisenstaedt photos with current-day photos of McDuffie, analyzing key facial features identical on both sets.

She measured his ears, facial bones, hairline, wrist, knuckles and hand, and compared those to enlargements of Eisenstaedt's picture.

"I could tell just in general that yes, it's him," said Gibson, a 25-year department veteran. "But I wanted to be able to tell other people so I replicated the pose."^[11]

In the August 14, 2007 issue of AM New York McDuffie said he passed five polygraph tests confirming his claim to be the man.^[12] He says that on that day he was on the subway to Brooklyn to visit his girlfriend, Ardith Bloomfield.^[12] He came out of the subway at Times Square, where people were celebrating in the streets. Excited that his brother, who was being held by the Japanese as a prisoner of war, would be released, McDuffie began hollering and jumping up and down. A nurse saw him, and opened her arms to him. In apparent conflict with Eisenstadt's recollections of the event, McDuffie said he ran over to her and kissed her for a long time so that Eisenstadt could take the photo:

I went over there and kissed her and saw a man running at us...I thought it was a jealous husband or boyfriend coming to poke me in the eyes. I looked up and saw he was taking the picture and I kissed her as long as took for him to take it.^[13]"

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-J_Day_in_Times_Square}

"Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May.^[1]Formerly known as Decoration Day, which was first recorded to have been observed by Freedmen (freed enslaved southern blacks) in Charleston, South Carolina in 1865, at the Washington Race Course, to remember the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War. Today, what is now known as Memorial Day, commemorates all U.S. Service Members who died while inmilitary service.^[2] The recognition of the fallen victims was then enacted under the name Memorial Day by an organization of Union veterans — the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)^[3]— to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War. Over time, it was extended after World War I to honor all Americans who have died in all wars.

Memorial Day often marks the start of the summer vacation season, and Labor Day its end.^{[citation needed]"}

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_day}

There's some BLUE in the stamp, right? :)

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Happy Blue Monday! (meme)

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Burebista, King of the Getae and the Dacians (in present-day Romania, and way beyond). Maxicard from Romania

Maxicard from Romania about Burebista, King of the Getae and the Dacians (in present-day Romania, and way beyond).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Burebista_statue_in_Orastie.JPG

Nation-building, regardless of the activity in the neighboring tribal areas?

What if those tribes, with one or several religions, are choke-full of die-hard soldiers, other kinds of enemy combatants, agents, operatives, traitors, sleepers and anxious martyr-wannabes?

What if YOU are always seen as an INFIDEL, to each of their Gods?

What if THEY want to build THEIR NATION by subjugating YOU and your "tribe"?

History shows that the best way to avoid being subjugated by the neighbouring tribes is to pre-emptively subjugate them, as politically incorrect as it may sound.

In most places in the world, centuries of peaceful coexistence are nothing but wishful thinking, proven terribly wrong by the harsh reality of mankind.

Give me an example of two neighboring countries that NEVER went to war, or ANY armed conflict, with each other.

That NEVER tried to subjugate, or effectively dominate (at least economically) the other.

"Burebista (Ancient Greek: Βυρεβιστα, Βυρεβιστας, Βοιρεβίστας) was a king of the Getae and Dacians, who unified for the first time their tribes and ruled them between 82 BC and 44 BC. He led plunder and conquest raids across Central and Southeastern Europe, subjugating most of the neighbouring tribes. After his assassination in an inside plot, the empire was divided into several smaller states."

Red, red wine makes you a swine?

What did Burebista do when he saw that binge-drinking of wine is making some of his people "incapacitated"?

"Strabo wrote that Burebista was able to obtain the complete obedience of his tribe with the help of Decaeneus, a wizard and a diviner who learnt his craft in Egypt. The people's obedience to Burebista was so complete, that they were even persuaded to cut their vines and give up drinking wine.^[4] "

Never underestimate the power of religion..."opium for the masses"...:)

Cleaning the 'hood of past, present or future enemies?

"Burebista led a policy of conquest of new territories: in 60/59 BC, he attacked and vanquished the Celtic tribes of Boii and Taurisci, who dwelt along the Middle Danube and in what is now Slovakia. After 55 BC and probably before 48 BC, Burebista conquers the Black Sea shore, subjugating the Greek fortresses from Olbia to Apollonia, as well as the Danubian Plain all the way to the Balkans.^[2] Strabo also mentions the expeditions against a group of Celts who lived among the Thracians and Illyrians (probably the Scordisci).^[6]

The only Greek polis with which Burebista had good relations was Dionysopolis.^[2] According to an inscription found in this city, Akornion, a citizen of the city was a chief adviser (πρῶτοσφίλος, literally "first friend") of Burebista.^[7]

At its peak of power, the empire of Burebista streched from modern Slovakian Carpathians to the Balkans and from the Middle Danube to the Black Sea. Strabo claims that the Getae could raise up to 200,000 soldiers in wartime,^[2] a rather improbable number,^[8] but which could represent the total number of able males, not the number of any army.^[2] Burebista was a worthy adversary for the Romans, as his army would cross the Danube and plunder the Roman towns as far as in Thrace, Macedonia and Illyria.^[4]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stamp_burebista.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burebista

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Happy Sunday Stamps meme!

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