In Cape Town, South Africa, the defining weather feature is the cloud deck that develops atop of Table Mountain, which overlooks the city.  This cloud deck is known as the "table cloth" and forms whenever there is a moist wind from the south off the surrounding water.  This wind, sometimes called the Cape Doctor because it sweeps away the city's smog, forces the air up the mountain where it cools, condenses and forms the table cloth cloud deck.  See pictures at http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2009/08/cape_towns_table_cloth.html 

In Seattle, the "mountains are out" if they are not visible from the city due to weather.

Why I Live in this Rainy Place by Libby Wagner (extract)

Because today the Cascades spread out to the East, and the Olympics, the West,
snow-capped and promising, perfectly outlined in the morning sky.

Because this is the only place I know where people say, “the mountains are out today!” as if they dissolve behind the fog and mist, making a round-trip journey to another locale.

Because if it’s true, that we have more than 300 days of gray, then those 65 are perfect
in their possibility, their expansive hope and optimism.  http://libbywagner.com/rainyplace/ 

What is barley by Jolinda Hackett  Whole grain barley is a healthy high-fiber, high-protein whole grain boasting numerous health benefits.  When cooked, barley has a chewy texture and nutty flavor, similar to brown rice.  Although soup is the most popular way to eat barley, you can use it like any other grain such as couscous or rice.  Serve a curry or stir-fry over barley instead of rice or make a barley pilaf.  Find cooking instructions and links to recipes at http://vegetarian.about.com/od/glossary/g/barley.htm 

Grendel is a 1971 parallel novel by American author John Gardner.  It is a retelling of the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf from the perspective of the antagonist, Grendel.  The novel deals with finding meaning in the world, the power of literature and myth, and the nature of good and evil.  Grendel has become one of Gardner's best known and reviewed works.  Ten years after publication, the novel was adapted into the 1981 animated movie Grendel Grendel Grendel.   The basic plot derives from Beowulf, a heroic poem of unknown authorship written in Old English and preserved in a manuscript dating from around AD 1000.  The poem deals with the heroic exploits of the Geat warrior Beowulf, who battles three antagonists:  Grendel, Grendel's mother, and, later in life, an unnamed dragon.  Gardner's retelling, however, presents the story from the existentialist view of Grendel, exploring the history of the characters before Beowulf arrives.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grendel_(novel) 

Augustus De Morgan (1806–1871) was a British mathematician and logician. He formulated De Morgan's laws and introduced the term mathematical induction .  De Morgan was born in Madurai, Madras Presidency, India.  His father was Colonel Augustus De Morgan, who held various appointments in the service of the East India Company.  His mother descended from James Dodson, who computed a table of anti-logarithms, that is, the numbers corresponding to exact logarithms.  The family moved to England when Augustus was seven months old.  As his father and grandfather had both been born in India, De Morgan used to say that he was neither English, nor Scottish, nor Irish, but a Briton "unattached", using the technical term applied to an undergraduate of Oxford or Cambridge who is not a member of any one of the Colleges.  Beyond his great mathematical legacy, the headquarters of the London Mathematical Society is called De Morgan House and the student society of the Mathematics Department of University College London is called the August De Morgan Society.  The crater De Morgan on the Moon is named after him.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus_De_Morgan  See also http://www.demorgan.com/demorgan.htm and http://www.tutorialspoint.com/computer_logical_organization/demorgan_theroems.htm

Clement Raphael Freud (1924-2009) was an English broadcaster, writer, politician and chef.   He was born Clemens Raphael Freud in Berlin, the son of Ernst L. Freud (an architect) and Lucie née Brasch.  He was the grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and the brother of artist Lucian Freud.  His family fled to Britain from Nazi Germany, and his first name was anglicised to Clement.   During the Second World War Freud joined the Royal Ulster Rifles and served in the ranks.  He worked at the Nuremberg Trials and in 1947 was commissioned as an officer.  He married June Flewett (the inspiration for Lucy Pevensie in C. S. Lewis's children's series The Chronicles of Narnia)  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_Freud 

The Texan said "Put my foot down on the gas pedal, and by lunchtime I still won't have reached the edge of my property.  The Scot just nods and says, Aye, well, I used to have a car like that myself.  Paraphrase from The Monarch of the Glen by Neil Gaiman 

The Monarch of the Glen is an oil-on-canvas painting from 1851 by the English painter Sir Edwin Landseer, which was commissioned as part of a series of three panels to hang in the Palace of Westminster in London, England.  It was one of the most popular paintings throughout the 19th century, and reproductions in steel engraving sold very widely, and the painting itself was finally bought by companies to use in advertising.  The painting was purchased in 1916 by Pears soap company and featured in their advertising.  It was sold on to John Dewar & Sons distillery and became their trademark before similarly being used by Glenfiddich.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monarch_of_the_Glen_(painting) 

Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, RA (1802–1873) was an English painter, well known for his paintings of animals—particularly horses, dogs and stags.  The best known of Landseer's works, however, are sculptures.  In 1858 the government commissioned Landseer to make four bronze lions for the base of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, following the rejection of a set in stone by Thomas Milnes.  The sculptures were installed in 1867.  Landseer's death on 1 October 1873 was widely marked in England:  shops and houses lowered their blinds, flags flew at half mast, his bronze lions at the base of Nelson's column were hung with wreaths, and large crowds lined the streets to watch his funeral cortege pass.  At his death, Landseer left behind three unfinished paintings:  Finding the Otter, Nell Gwynne and The Dead Buck, all on easels in his studio . It was his dying wish that his friend John Everett Millais should complete the paintings, and this he did.  Landseer was rumoured to be able to paint with both hands at the same time, for example, paint a horse's head with the right and its tail with the left, simultaneously.  He was also known to be able to paint extremely quickly—when the mood struck him.  He could also procrastinate, sometimes for years, over certain commissions.  The architect Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens was named after him—Lutyens' father was a friend of Landseer.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edwin_Landseer 

From a muse reader  Was listening to the audio version of "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond in which the author mentioned the Phaistos Disc . . . 

The Phaistos Disc (also spelled Phaistos Disk, Phaestos Disc) is a disk of fired clay from the Minoan palace of Phaistos on the Greek island of Crete, possibly dating to the middle or late Minoan Bronze Age (2nd millennium BC).  It is about 15 cm (5.9 in) in diameter and covered on both sides with a spiral of stamped symbols.  Its purpose and meaning, and even its original geographical place of manufacture, remain disputed, making it one of the most famous mysteries of archaeology.  This unique object is now on display at the archaeological museum of Heraklion.  The disc was discovered in 1908 by the Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier in the Minoan palace-site of Phaistos, and features 241 tokens, comprising 45 unique signs, which were apparently made by pressing hieroglyphic "seals" into a disc of soft clay, in a clockwise sequence spiraling toward the disc's center.  The Phaistos Disc captured the imagination of amateur and professional archeologists, and many attempts have been made to decipher the code behind the disc's signs.  While it is not clear that it is a script, most attempted decipherments assume that it is; most additionally assume a syllabary, others an alphabet or logography.   Although the Phaistos Disc is generally accepted as authentic by archaeologists, a few scholars believe that the disc is a forgery or a hoax.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaistos_Disc