Are you one of this week’s lucky winners? Are you ready to try your luck on today’s quiz question? Click on that little “Listen” arrow above, and join in!
Hello everyone!
Welcome to the “new/old” Sound Kitchen. We’ve put the programme back together: instead of two smaller programs on two days, The Sound Kitchen is now one program on one day – Saturday, at 4:52, 6:22, and 7:52 universal time.
You’ll hear the winners' names announced and the week’s quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you have grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so tune in every Saturday!
Just look at that beautiful link to the Sound Kitchen Listener’s Cookbook! It actually happened! I’m very happy about it, and I hope you enjoy looking at it – and trying out some recipes.
Please feel free to send in any comments you have, and we would love it if you’d send in photos – both of you, and of your completed dish. Don’t hesitate to use the “zoom” tool on countries where there are a lot of forks; that will separate them so you can read the titles easier. Click on the title, and the recipe will appear.
Also, if you are interested in corresponding with other Sound Kitchen listeners, let me know. I’ll figure out a way to get you together.
Today’s question was read on 8 September and was about Mission Commander Neil Armstrong, the first human to walk on the moon. He had died just a week or so earlier, and I was thinking a lot about where I was when he took his “one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”, and I wanted to know where you were.
I asked you to write in and tell me where you were on the 21 July in 1969 at 2:56 universal time. What did it mean to you when Neil Armstrong left Apollo 11 and walked on the moon?
There were a lot of wonderful answers – but the thoughts chosen this week were from: Mr PV Ramana Rao – he’s the president of the DW Listeners Club in Hyderabad, India. He wrote: “I was 28 years old on 21 July 1969 and was working as an office clerk for the Indian Railways here in Hyderabad. Even then I was a short wave listener and DX-er. I was really looking forward to listening to the live broadcast!
"There was heavy rain in Hyderabad the night before and on the 21st there was no electricity. But I am lucky - I had a National Panasonic Transistor Radio power supply, so all my neighbours came to my house, and we listened to the Voice of America, who broadcast the whole thing live.
"We were all very happy that Armstrong landed on the moon safely. My wife served hot tea and snacks and my neighbours distributed sweets to celebrate.
"I can’t forget the occasion. I am extremely sorry for the passing of Armstrong. May God richly bless him, and send him again to earth for courageous service to humans.”
And here’s a very different reaction, from Hans Verner Lollike, in Hedehusene, Denmark.
” I know exactly where I was when Neil Amstrong walked on the moon. I spent the summer of 1969 as an international counsellor at a YMCA camp north of Chicago. The camp was for 200 underprivileged boys from the slum areas of Chicago – mostly black and Hispanic. On that day all activities were suspended, and a screen was set up in the dining hall, so we could all watch. I had a rather bad feeling – I knew about all the social problems facing ”my” 10 boys for which I had responsibility, and to see that much money spent to … to walk on the moon … I had to leave the room. One of the other counsellors did, too. I asked him: ‘How do you feel ?’ ‘ Bad!’ he said.”
I know that feeling, too, Mr Lollike.
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I learned something from your letters – many of you who write into the Sound Kitchen are quite young!
Here’s a few responses from our younger listeners – this is from Mr Ralf Urbanczyk, from Eisleben, Germany: “I was still a child on 21 July 1969. But I remember that day very well because it had such a strong impact on all the adults I knew. All my relatives and all the neighbours were fascinated; they watched the reports and the images on the television again and again. Everybody on the street was talking only about the man on the moon.
"I do not think that any other technical or scientific challenge since then has made such an impact as that first landing of a manned spaceship on the moon.”
From Mr Chitturi Ramana in Hyderabad, India:
“I was born one month after Armstong's moon landing but I was told everything about those excellent moments by my parents. They wished that I, too, could accomplish something as remarkable as Neil Armstrong.
"Of course, I could not but I am an electrical engineer, serving the nation.”
And from Mrs Marrium Imran, in Karachi, Pakistan:
“I came into the world three years after Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. I think if I was in the world then, I would have wanted to walk on the moon, too.”
Congratulations, winners!
It only seems fair that I tell you where I was.
I was seven years old, in front of the television with my parents, my brother and my two sisters. I don’t think I really understood the importance of it but I knew my parents and brother were very excited about it. I can still see the images of Neil Armstrong floating about, and my family’s happiness – my mother cried. But, to be completely honest with you, my overwhelming memory of it all is that it was the only time we were ever allowed to have dinner in front of the television. So much for a life-changing event in my child’s mind!
This week’s question is about the Nobel prizes. The season is upon us; so far this week the medicine, chemistry, physics and literature prizes have been awarded, and yesterday, the “big” one was announced: the peace prize. And that is the question … who won the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize?
Send me your answer by 12 November; the answer and the winners will be announced on the 17 November programme. As always, be sure you send your postal address in with your answer … and be sure and tell me if you are a Mr or a Mrs or a Ms or a Miss – I don’t want to get it wrong!
Send your answers to:
or
Susan Owensby
RFI – The Sound Kitchen
BP 9516
75016 Paris
France
or
By SMS … Now you can send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen cell phone !!!!
Dial your country’s international access code, or “ + ”, then 33 6 31 12 96 82. Don’t forget to include your mailing address in your text.
Remember, it’s not just the quiz which wins you a prize. If your essay goes on the air, you’ll find a package in the mail from the Sound Kitchen. Write in about your community heroes – the people in your community who are quietly working to make the world a better place, in whatever way they can. I am still looking for your “This I Believe” essays, too. Tell us about the principles that guide your life … what you have found to be true from your very own personal experience. Or write in with your most memorable moment, and/or your proudest achievement.
Send your mini book reviews, your musical requests, your secret “guilty” pleasure (mine’s chocolate!), your tricks for remembering things, your favourite quotations and proverbs, descriptions of the local festivals you participate in, your weirdest dream, or just your general all-around thoughts to:
Include a phone number, if you can. I’d like to call you and put you on-the-air … and send you a thank-you gift for participating.
I look forward to hearing from you soon!
All the best,
Susan
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