WWMRD Calls....Bulgaria Answers!

So, who had Bulgaria in the 100th country pool?  If you did, congrats...but good luck collecting your winnings, because I hear your friends are deadbeats.

The Maloof's Bulgarian casino holdings are far less glamourous than the Palms.  Rumour has it Ron Artest checks coats here, just for the employee discount on Tolumbichki at the cafe next door.

Speaking of crazy people....

Online divorcee kills virtual husband

Here's why Japan is facking insane...but also kind of awesome.

1.  People have virtual "lives".  OK - fair enough.  I virtually create myself in Madden every year and have racked up a number of NFL MVP awards.

2.  People get virtually "married" in Maple Story.  'Nuff said...weddings are big business anywhere and everywhere.  Right now, there's an executive spending the fortune he made in virtual "save the date" cards on square watermelons and foreign whores.

3.  The "dead" guy contacted the police.  How does one go about reporting their own murder?  Perhaps this was touched on in the Lindsay Lohan vehicle, "I Know Who Killed Me".  There's no way to confirm though, as I am pretty sure this movie was never actually released.

4.  The police actually proceeded with the complaint.  This is the complete opposite of what I would have expected to happen, which would have been a lot of laughing, following by the officer charging the complainant with misuse of police resources.  (Japanese cops are robots, right?)

5.  The "killer" has been jailed and not yet formally charged.  OK, now I am confused.  Is this a real jail or a virtual jail?  Are you allowed to be jailed without charges?  I know that flies in Gitmo, but I didn't realize the Japanese were so ruthless.  Knowing this, I'm actually quite surprised my old roommate Toshio didn't have me poisoned for all the times I tried to convince him that Hideki Irabu liked dudes.

I make the points above not to mock the Japanese, but to show how wonderful they are.  With the exception of Hirohito and possibly those guys behind the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, has anyone ever met a Japanese person they didn't like???  Right....didn't think so.

And as an FYI, I had Sushi Marche for dinner tonight and it was delightful.  

Oyasuminasai!

I'm awesome at giving advice....

Here's some advice....Burning Man is for losers.

A year ago today, I wrote about a wonderful restaurant called Mirazur that the wife and I visited on the honeymoon.  To celebrate the one year anniversary of that post, I bring you some not so surprising news:

Argentinian-born Italian crowned top chef in France

Yeah, that's right.  Mauro Colegreco has been named the top chef if France.   And not just by me, some guy named "GaultMillau" totally agrees.  He knows his stuff.....and there's a chance that GaultMillau is actually former NFL speedster Willie Gault's "classy" pen name, but I'm not totally sure....  (FYI - I do realize GaultMillau is not actually a person.)

So - who took my advice and made the trip?  None?  Well screw you guys.

At the time, I referred to the Menu Dégustation as "the best bargain since Matt Stairs".  A year later, Matt Stairs is playing in the World Series (with the Phillies, natch) and Mirazur is raking in the accolades.  Holy effing Nostradamus.

A recent check of the Mirazur website shows that the Menu Dégustation has skyrocketed in price, from 75€ to 80€ - so, don't say I didn't warn you.  If you extrapolate the same 6.67% annual increase, you'll be paying as follows:

Oct 23, 2010 - 91.02€

Oct 23, 2020 - 173.55€

Oct 23, 2050 - 1,203.09€

Oct 23, 2100 - 30,320.23€

Oct 23, 3000 - 510,015,997,207,026,000,000,000,000,000.00€

My god.  Why wait till the year 3000 when you can go now at a fraction of the price?  You're a friggin idiot if you think half a nonillion dollars is a good deal for dinner.  Go now because 80€ is a steal.

And while we are the topic of anniversaries, this is the 15th anniversary of the HR.  The photo below says it all.  

Whooaaaaaa....we're halfway there....

Yeah, that's right.  The "a hit from every country" project of late 2007, while on life support, did not die.  The main reason for this is because I finally realized I could export stats from Google Analytics to Excel....I really should have figured that out sooner. 

Anyway, with my newly exported list of countries and a quick vlookup, it has been determined that WWMRD is now sitting at a total of 99 (of my wish list of 197) countries.  The lucky land to get us over 50% - Croatia.

While research this piece, it was learned that both Bill Belichick and Nick Saban are of Croatian heritage.  Above is a photo of Belichick and Saban together.

You're probably wondering who are the countries added to the WWMRD hall of fame since last updated.  In no particular order, other than alphabetical, they are:

Algeria

Bahamas

China

Costa Rica

China

Dominican Republic

El Salvador

Iceland

Jamaica

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Macedonia

Malta

Pakistan

Russia

Serbia

Slovenia

Sri Lanka

Trinidad and Tobago

Tunisia

No real surprises there....except for China.  WTF?  20% of the world's population and it takes you a year to get on board?  For shame....though, perhaps we were banned there?

OK, I forgive.  Glad to have you.

So - goals for the coming months.  A few more countries from Africa and Polynesian penetration that would make Paul Gauguin proud. 

Feel free to help WWMRD - forward the URL to anyone you may know in:

Afghanistan

Albania

Andorra

Angola

Antigua and Barbuda

Armenia

Azerbaijan

Bahrain

Bangladesh

Belarus

Belize

Benin

Bhutan

Botswana

Brunei Darussalam

Bulgaria

Burma

Burundi

Cambodia

Cameroon

Cape Verde

Chad

Comoros

Cuba

Cyprus

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Djibouti

Dominica

East Timor

Ecuador

Equatorial Guinea

Eritrea

Ethiopia

Fiji

Gabon

Gambia

Georgia

Greenland

Grenada

Guinea

Guinea-Bissau

Guyana

Haiti

Honduras

Jordan

Kazakhstan

Kiribati

Kyrgyzstan

Laos

Lebanon

Lesotho

Liberia

Libya

Madagascar

Malawi

Maldives

Mali

Marshall Islands

Mauritania

Micronesia

Moldova

Mongolia

Montenegro

Mozambique

Namibia

Nauru

Nepal

Nicaragua

Niger

Nigeria

North Korea

Oman

Palau

Panama

Papua New Guinea

Paraguay

Republic of the Congo

Rwanda

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint Lucia

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Samoa

San Marino

São Tome and Príncipe

Seychelles

Sierra Leone

Somalia

Sudan

Suriname

Swaziland

Syria

Tajikistan

Tanzania

Togo

Tonga

Turkmenistan

Tuvalu

Uganda

Uruguay

Uzbekistan

Vanuatu

Yemen

Zambia

Zimbabwe

Especially East Timor....my god, are they even allowed to have the internets there?