Posted on 04/15/2006 7:08:03 AM PDT by Salo
SEATTLE (Reuters) - The first lavish dinner of China President Hu Jintao's historic visit to the United States next week will be in a big, secure house in Washington where the host is one of the world's most powerful men.
The White House? No.
It won't be in Washington D.C., but Seattle, Washington, and the April 18 dinner will be held at the $100 million lakeside mansion of Microsoft Corp. founder and the world's richest man, Bill Gates.
The approximately 100-person guest list is a who's who of the U.S. Pacific Northwest power elite, including Starbucks Corp. Chairman Howard Schultz and Washington state Gov. Christine Gregoire, said event organizers.
The guests will undergo strict security checks before entering Gates' lodge-style, 66,000 square-foot (6,130 sq meter) home overlooking Lake Washington with a reported seven bedrooms, six kitchens, 24 bathrooms, a domed library, a reception hall and an artificial estuary stocked with salmon and trout.
Gates and Gregoire are expected to introduce and welcome Hu, who will then offer a toast in front of the gathering.
The guests will be served a three-course dinner, starting with a smoked guinea fowl salad, a choice of either beef filet with Walla Walla onions or Alaskan halibut and spot prawns before a dessert of rhubarb brown butter almond cake, the event organizers said.
Like any good dinner guest, President Hu will not come empty handed. The Chinese government issued a decree two weeks ago that all PCs will need to have a licensed operating system software installed before leaving the factory gates in an effort to crack down on piracy.
As a result, three Chinese PC manufacturers announced plans to buy a total of over $400 million worth of Microsoft Windows operating system software over the next three years and Lenovo Group Ltd., China's largest PC maker, is expected to announce a similar deal on Monday, organizers said.
I was being sarcastic....
OK, you forgot the sarcasm / tag!!
Unfortunately, I'm not a resident of Washington state.
As for Gates and Hu ... I must admit to admiring a man who thinks 'outside the governmental box'.
Amazing isn't it? Software made in 2004 that still uses a kludge for dates around century marks. Its one of those things that goes to show they aren't interested in having quality software. I guess it's not a big deal until you need to be able to chart more than 2 centuries worth of data.
"MS Flying Buttmonkeys"? Are you really so threatened by what MS advocates have to say that you have to resort to such cheap insults? I've read a lot of your posts and most of them are pretty intelligent and reasonable. It surprises me that you're acting like this.
"MS Flying Buttmonkeys" was not coined by me, I just find it amusing. In most cases, it's only in jest. For instance, I would image B2K is livid over this - he has always been consistent in his hatred of the ChiComs. Others, not so much: they only get worked up when IBM deals with the ChiComs or linux is mentioned.
MS has never been interested in quality - just sales. Get software out there, find a way to make it the "standard" and then bludgeon folks to death....
And even though it was "made" in 2004, it has received regular updates in the time since....so current software that can't handle dates worth a flip.
In 56 years, they have had only 4 leaders. Hu Jin Tao was the youngest of the 4 when he took power. You do the math.
In 56 years, they have had only 4 leaders. Hu Jin Tao was the youngest of the 4 when he took power. You do the math.
Selling out America meeting.
B2K? Sounds like a serial killer. LOL! Thanks for the explanation, dude. I getcha.
When I was five to when I was ten, we lived way back in the country on a steep hill that poorly supported a garden; at the bottom of the hill where a previous owner had shoveled out a parking spot was a gooseberry plant that stood alone like a quiet sentinel awaiting the comings and goings of the household and the seasons.
Once every year the berries would set on and I would go down the path and count them and measure them in my mind's eye and back up the hill I would run to announce to my grandmother who was 75 at the time that the gooseberries were ready.
Day after day, she would trudge down and back with my little hand in her blue-veined one only to decide that it was too early for picking gooseberries.
As the green turned just a little more pink each day, we would repeat this ritual, me screaming my impatient demands to have just another look until one fine day when we came upon the bush with all its berries in green-striped purple glory, my grandmother would pluck them carefully and store each one lovingly in the hem of her folded up apron that was so much a part of her wardrobe that I was surprised she wasn't laid to rest with it on her tiny bosom.
To this day, I've never had cobbler so sweet, so delectable and memorable as those treasured gooseberries made by my grandmother's hand.
When we moved closer to town when I was 11 I discovered a rhubarb plant growing alongside the porch steps and implored my grandmother to make me a dessert from it after she explained to me what I had found.
Unlike the glorious blossoming and pearly growth of the magnificent gooseberry, the rhubarb was a pathetic thing to watch as the dog would disrespectfully contribute his efforts in hydration management and then kick dirt all over it as he rushed off to chase the ever-present crows that tormented him mercilessly.
One day, my grandmother went out to the porch, and without any fanfare at all, dug all around the base of the scrawny reddish-green celery-shaped stalk, pulled it from the ground and threw it in a pot of water.
Later, after she had scraped it, chopped it, boiled it, wiped its nose, wrapped it in some biscuit dough and baked it until it bled all over its ill-fitting coat she served it up.
It took a whole pitcher of cream and a cup of sugar to get it down.
The following year, a horseradish plant came up in the rhubarb's former place, but that's another story.
Bush2000 - been here a long time. Bad rep, but basically a good guy. No one has ever questioned *his* conservative credentials.
More proof that Bill Gates is the Anti-Christ.
ROFL!!
Thanks for the story!
I'm sorry, dear sir. Is there something you object to in my pointing out the FACT that Hu is a COMMUNIST ? Or do you generally harbor warm feelings towards unelected dictators and oppressive societies in general ?
Gentlemen, this newbie troll "Chinaclark" privately emailed me for speaking ill of the Chinese dictator, the contents of which are in the previous post. You may wish to review this poster's "contributions" during his brief period of stay with us. Thank you for your attention.
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