JSG PRODUCT REVIEWS
by JSG Editor-in-Chief Ron Stern

Samsung BLACKJACK
Advertised as slim, smart and simple, this new multi-media device can handle quite the workload. The phone features Windows Mobile® 5.0 for Smartphones, a QWERTY keypad for easy dialing and typing, Bluetooth 2.0, a 1.3 MP integrated camera, Windows Media Player® 10, a voice recorder and more. You can also surf the Internet, check personal and corporate email, send and receive instant messages and download songs and videos, all at 3G speeds. Navigating the small size screen takes some getting used to when using the Internet, but overall this little baby will deliver most of the functions included in a laptop and cell phone. Available from Cingular Wireless (www.cingular.com). Cost: Varies depending on plan contract and rebates.

The BlackBerry® Pearl™ 8100™
The newest innovation from Blackberry®, is one of the world's smallest smartphones. It comes packed with all the bells and whistles you would expect including a 1.3 megapixel digital camera, web browsing, speakerphone, text messaging, and organizational functions. Unlike the BLACKJACK (and a function I liked slightly better), the Pearl will forward emails to your phone so you don't have to retrieve them each time. The "Pearl" refers to the trackball, which acts like a scroll wheel, easily allowing you to switch between various tasks. The Pearl also comes with SureType™ keyboard technology in a QWERTY layout, making it easier to compose words when sending messages. Overall, I really liked the functionality of the Pearl and found myself becoming dependent upon the quick email access. Perhaps I should check myself into a rehab somewhere? Available from Cingular Wireless or T-Mobile retailers (www.cingular.com). Cost: Varies depending upon plan contract and rebates.

Is there something you'd like reviewed? Let us know before buying a new travel item. We'll let you know if it meets JSG's standards.

PHANTASTIC PHOTOS



"Lake Almanor"
by Howard Hian

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From the Traveler’s Bookshelf by Denise Dubé, JSG TraveLetter Editor

Silly Putty is really an offshoot of World War II. The French croissant is really not so French after all. And America and England almost went to war again-over a dead pig. Yes, it's all true. Rick Beyer searched the world's history and found war stories that aren't usually found in today's books. He painstakingly researched and fact-checked world-wide accounts that are, in turn, funny, unusual and worth learning. That research became, The Greatest War Stories Never Told: 100 Tales from Military History to Astonish Bewilder and Stupefy.

Almost every American knows, for instance, that the colonials fought the British in the Revolutionary War, one that began in Lexington and Concord and ended back in the streets of Boston. Most, however, are not aware that the biggest battle of the revolution occurred in New York City. There George Washington, who had never led a large army into battle, took 25,000 inexperienced colonial men and confronted a British fleet of 400 ships-ships that contained 35,000 soldiers and sailors. Beyer tells us that the two armies fought from August until November of 1776, "clashing in a series of engagements that ranged across Brooklyn, up and down the streets of Manhattan, into Harlem and Westchester and finally across to New Jersey." The siege went unnoticed because, Beyer explains, the colonials lost more than three-quarters of the army and it certainly wasn't a battle anyone wanted to remember.

Remember Lawrence of Arabia riding a camel through the Middle Eastern dessert? Does anyone know about Gertrude Bell, the female version of the legendary hero. This Victorian woman went against society's norms and, like Lawrence, made her way to the Middle East before World War I to satiate her passion for the Middle East. She managed to make her way around the Syrian and Arabian deserts and developed an incredible "encyclopedic" knowledge of the area. In 1926 the New York Herald wrote, "Every Arab in the peninsula knows her. When you speak of 'Gertrude,' every Englishman from Cairo to Teheran knows whom you mean." She was so well-versed that, when war broke out, she was recruited by British intelligence. It was said she was indispensable. Even Lawrence relied on her knowledge of the region. "It was remarked that she was the brains behind Lawrence's brawn," Beyer said in his book. Ironically, after the war Winston Churchill asked Bell to create Iraq's borders. Bell tried to unite Shites, Sunnis and Kurds within one country, even though each group was outwardly hostile toward the other "thereby setting the scene for much of the turmoil that has since plagued that troubled country," Beyer writes.

The croissant, that light and buttery arc-shaped sweet treat associated with France, was first baked in Austria in 1683. Viennese bakers, working through the night, heard more than 100,000 Ottoman Turks trying to tunnel under the walls to attack. They called for help and Poland's King John III drove the Turks away. The bakers commemorated that victory by creating an edible roll shaped like the crescent moon on the Turk's flag. It was first called Kipfel, a German word meaning "crescent."

When, during World War II, the United States tried to find a substitute for much-needed rubber, scientists began playing with various substances. In 1943 General Electric engineer James Wright poured a few different combinations into a test tube and created a soft putty. You couldn't make tires from it, because it bounced. No one could find a use for the bouncing putting, so it was shelved until 1950 when one smart fellow decided children would love the stuff. It became what we know as Silly Putty.

Beyer, an award-winning documentary producer for the History Channel and other outlets, found his stories "everywhere," he said in his book and in a telephone interview. He also wrote, The Greatest Stories Never Told: 100 Tales from History to Astonish, Bewilder, and Stupefy.

Readers will have to buy the book to find out about the dead pig that almost caused a war, the mobster who helped the government during World War II or the other 90 incredible stories.

Beyer's book is available at www.amazon.com.

For more information or to order, visit www.luxecityguides.com.

Is there something you'd like to share with us, write to Talk Travel at denise@justsaygo.com.

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