Saturday, January 11, 2003

Places&Culture File from
NY Times

NY Times

With its 29,000 cows and costly technology, Al Safi, deep though it is in the Saudi desert, has been certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest "integrated" dairy farm in the world. It grows the hay that the cows eat, turns their milk into crème caramel and strawberry laban, a yogurtlike drink, and delivers it all in Safi trucks to stores across the kingdom. ... The dairy is the product of a panic after the 1973 Arab oil embargo against Western nations made the Saudi royal family realize its own vulnerability to such tactics. Food was Saudi Arabia's Achilles' heel, so the king decreed that his kingdom should become self-sufficient in its food supply.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/31/international/middleeast/31SAUD.html

SENECA FALLS, N.Y., Nov. 27 — Finding connections between the fictional Bedford Falls and the real-life Seneca Falls has become a matter of civic pride in this old Finger Lakes mill town. Frank Capra visited the area before making his 1946 classic, "It's a Wonderful Life," and many here are convinced that their hometown inspired the movie's setting. Comparisons peak each December with a celebration called "It's a Wonderful Life in Seneca Falls." This year's festivities, which begin on Dec. 6, will feature a visit by Karolyn Grimes, who played Zuzu Bailey in the movie, and "Clarence sales" at downtown stores.Yet if George Bailey has been cast as the town's chief promoter, many believe that Mr. Potter is lurking at the northwestern edge of town, where the state's largest active landfill takes in an average of 6,000 tons of garbage and industrial waste a day.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/29/nyregion/29DUMP.html


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