Steve Parks states:

>>>Laoise, for a red rainbow you could always try Cuba on a wet day. Oh, I suppose you can't can you?<<<

Now you ARE rubbing it in! Yes, U. S. citizans are banned from travel to Cuba for those who don't know. (although I suppose we could do something to get ourselves a trip to GITMO...hehe) It's part of that whole tired Embargo thing that doesn't seem to have much purpose anymore. Some people can get special permission, but it's hard. A Documentary crew and a some amateur baseball players went there a few years ago to try and get a renunion of Papa Heminway's famous boy's team going and they succeeded to a degree, catching it all on film. It was fabulous to watch. The older guys who had played on that team as children were so thrilled to get a chance to play a game with americans. Besides us and the Japanese, Cubans are simply mad for baseball. (Go Redsox Go! don't blow it boys..the curse is almost broken)

Thanks for the Rainbow site. It was even etter than the Giant FiberGlass Bunny who prevents Flat Tires.

RE: Ice cream cones... Americans invented that..at the Chicago World's Fair I think, using a waffle. The typical ice-cream sandwich here is between two slabs of thin chocolate cake or between two toll-house cookies. Mashti Malone's is made with those crispy cookies that are cooked using a round Iron with lace-like patterns. in NYC, where I am from, we always called them Pizelles because you could only get them from little old italian ladies who had the iron to make them and the patience to cook them. I believe there is a spiced scandanavian version of said cookie.

Precious few rainbows of any kind here, red or no... at least in LA proper but it's not hard to see them during the rainy months if you are out in Topenga or malibu canyons.

We do, however, have trees that bloom blue flowers in June that freak my relatives out when they come to visit. Whole streets lined with trees sprouting blue, frothy flowers. When I first moved here, I found it quite unsettling. I believe they are called Jacarondas. It really is so strange looking that I once wrote a horror story set during the month of June, in LA and called it "The Time of The Blue Trees" It was okay..notthing memorable. I just thought it'd be cool to exploit them the way other writers exploit the hot Santa Ana winds which aren't really named after saint Anne like everybody says but after satan. They were originally called the Santanas not Santa Anas. I can find a link for that if anyone cares. Supposedly the homicide rate goes up during the Santa Anas due to some kind of increase in ions or somesuch. The hot winds are sinister but I'm bot sure they are THAT sinister.