Malibu Here We Come

Quotations To Remember:

• The art of living well and the art of dying well are one. - Epicurus

• The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it. - Epicurus

• At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet. - Plato

• One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. - Plato

• Only the dead have seen the end of the war. - Plato

• Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber. - Plato
• At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet. - Plato

Did You Know? - The origins of wine-making in Greece go back 6,500 years and evidence suggesting wine production confirm that Greece is home to the second oldest known grape wine remnants discovered in the world and the world's earliest evidence of crushed grapes.

The spread of Greek civilization and their worship of Dionysus, the god of wine, spread Dionysian cults throughout the Mediterranean areas during the period of 1600 BC to the year 1.

Hippocrates used wine for medicinal purposes and readily prescribed it.

Greek wines and their varieties were well known and traded throughout the Mediterranean.

The Ancient Greeks introduced vines such as Vitis vinifera and made wine in their numerous colonies in Italy, Sicily, southern France, and Spain.

The Vitis vinifera grape which thrives in temperate climates near coastal areas with mild winters and dry summers adapted well and flourished in the Northern Mediterranean areas.

The most reputable wines of ancient Greece were Chian, Coan, Corcyraean, Cretan, Euboean, Lesbian, Leucadian, Mendaean, Peparethan wine, Rhodian and Thasian.Wine was also important for ancient Macedonia. Two other names may or may not be regional: Bibline wine and Pramnian wine are named in the earliest Greek poetry, but without any reliable geographical details.

Did You Know? - The cheese used in cheese saganaki is usually graviera, kefalograviera, halloumi, kasseri, kefalotyri, or sheep's milk feta cheese. Regional variations include the use of formaella cheese in Arachova and halloumi cheese in Cyprus. The cheese is melted in a small frying pan until it is bubbling and generally served with lemon juice and pepper. It is eaten with bread.

Other dishes cooked in a saganaki pan include shrimp saganaki (Greek: γαρίδες σαγανάκι, garídes saganáki), and mussels saganaki (Greek: μύδια σαγανάκι, mýdia saganáki), which are typically feta-based and include a spicy tomato sauce.

In many United States and Canadian restaurants, after being fried, the saganaki cheese is flambéed at the table (sometimes with a shout of "opa!"), and the flames then extinguished with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. This is called "flaming saganaki" and apparently originated in 1968 at The Parthenon restaurant in Chicago's Greektown, based on the suggestion of a customer to owner Chris Liakouras.

Quotations To Remember:

I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better. - Plutarch

Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks. - Plutarch

He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature. - Socrates

My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you'll be happy; if not, you'll become a philosopher. - Socrates

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued. - Socrates

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing. - Socrates

Wisdom begins in wonder. - Socrates

Love is all we have, the only way that each can help the other. - Euripides

Ten soldiers wisely led will beat a hundred without a head. - Euripides

Youth is the best time to be rich, and the best time to be poor. - Euripides

Wisdom outweighs any wealth. - Sophocles

Success is dependent on effort. - Sophocles

Did You Know? - "In the 19th century most spirits were harsh and burned the palate… Spyros Metaxas had a vision of creating a spirit that would be generous on the senses, intensely aromatic and, above all, smooth on the palate…"

The House of Metaxa was founded by a Greek merchant and entrepreneur: Spyros Metaxas, born in the island of Euboea. He created the first Greek brandy and was involved in the foundation of the first distillation facility in 1888, a little over 50 years after the Greek War of Independence. The business was soon expanded with new factories in Istanbul and Odessa. In 1900 the first exports to the United States took place and the drink became known as "the flying brandy".

Following Spyros Metaxas's death, his sons carried on his work. METAXA is the only Greek industry that survived both World Wars. In 1968 a new factory was built in Kifissia, Athens.

The label shows a Salamina Warrior (Salamina fighter), a figure on an Ancient Greek trireme that was carved on a coin of that period, found during the excavation of the first factory in Piraeus in 1888.

Sound: Zorbas (What Else??)

"Zorbas" (or more commonly, "Zorba's Dance") is a song by Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis. It is based on two traditional Cretan songs, "Armenohorianos Syrtos" and "Kritiko syrtaki", composed by Giorgis Koutsourelis.

The song featured in the 1964 film Zorba the Greek, for which Theodorakis wrote the soundtrack, and became popular around the world. It is now commonly played and danced to in Greek tavernas. The track has been recorded by many different musicians from around the world. Some of the more notable are listed below.

Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass recorded a version of the song (as "Zorba the Greek") for their 1965 album Going Places. Issued as the B-side of the group's "Tijuana Taxi" single, the song reached number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.