Here is a chuckle for you:
Men Are Just Happier People--
What do you expect from such simple creatures?
Your last name stays put.
The garage is all yours.
Wedding plans take care of themselves.
Chocolate is just another snack.
You can be President.
You can never be pregnant.
You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park.
You can wear NO shirt to a water park.
Car mechanics tell you the truth.
The world is your urinal.
You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky.
You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt.
Same work, more pay.
Wrinkles add character.
Wedding dress $5000. Tux rental-$100.
People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them.
The occasional well-rendered belch is practically expected.
New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet.
One mood all the time.
Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.
You know stuff about tanks.
A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase.
You can open all your own jars.
You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.
If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.
Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack.
Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.
You almost never have strap problems in public.
You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes.
Everything on your face stays its original color.
The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades.
You only have to shave your face and neck.
You can play with toys all your life.
Your belly usually hides your big hips.
One wallet, one pair of shoes and one belt; one color for all seasons.
You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look.
You can "do" your nails with a pocket knife. You have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache.
You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 23 minutes.
No wonder men are happier.
>
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Happy Fourth of July
I will be away for a few days over the holiday so here's wishing all my blog friends a safe Happy Holiday.
Perhaps revisiting the "Bill Of Rights" over the Fourth of July would be appropriate since so many of our rights as citizens are being challenged daily:
--------------------------------------------------
"In 1789 statesman Thomas Jefferson wrote James Madison that a bill of rights “puts into the hands of the judiciary” a “legal check” against tyranny by the legislature or the executive"
---------------------------------------------------
Constitutional Amendments 1-10: The Bill of Rights
"Bill of Rights, first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States. The Bill of Rights establishes basic American civil liberties that the government cannot violate. The states ratified the Bill of Rights in 1791, three years after the Constitution was ratified. Originally the Bill of Rights applied only to the federal government, but in a series of 20th-century cases, the Supreme Court decided that most of its provisions apply to the states. Many countries have used the Bill of Rights as a model for defining civil liberties in their constitutions."
--------------------------------------------------------
The Bill of Rights
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Amendment II
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Amendment III
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
Amendment VII
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
------------------------------------------------------------
"The first ten amendments to the Constitution have been crucial to the political and legal development of the United States. They accomplished three important purposes. First, they declare an important ideal—that the people have rights with which no government may interfere. Placing ideals into the Constitution makes it harder for tyrants to restrict human rights. Second, they provide the basis for actually securing the rights. In 1789 statesman Thomas Jefferson wrote James Madison that a bill of rights “puts into the hands of the judiciary” a “legal check” against tyranny by the legislature or the executive. Third, the Bill of Rights, especially the First Amendment, helps protect democratic government by barring criminal prosecutions against those who criticize the government and those who hold unpopular beliefs, and by providing a safe haven for minorities who are oppressed in many other countries."
----------------------------------------------
Now go on out and watch those fireworks,dance in the street, eat that fried chicken, barbeque, watermelon and potato salad but remember to be thankful for our great nation; not perfect but better than most.
Perhaps revisiting the "Bill Of Rights" over the Fourth of July would be appropriate since so many of our rights as citizens are being challenged daily:
--------------------------------------------------
"In 1789 statesman Thomas Jefferson wrote James Madison that a bill of rights “puts into the hands of the judiciary” a “legal check” against tyranny by the legislature or the executive"
---------------------------------------------------
Constitutional Amendments 1-10: The Bill of Rights
"Bill of Rights, first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States. The Bill of Rights establishes basic American civil liberties that the government cannot violate. The states ratified the Bill of Rights in 1791, three years after the Constitution was ratified. Originally the Bill of Rights applied only to the federal government, but in a series of 20th-century cases, the Supreme Court decided that most of its provisions apply to the states. Many countries have used the Bill of Rights as a model for defining civil liberties in their constitutions."
--------------------------------------------------------
The Bill of Rights
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Amendment II
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Amendment III
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
Amendment VII
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
------------------------------------------------------------
"The first ten amendments to the Constitution have been crucial to the political and legal development of the United States. They accomplished three important purposes. First, they declare an important ideal—that the people have rights with which no government may interfere. Placing ideals into the Constitution makes it harder for tyrants to restrict human rights. Second, they provide the basis for actually securing the rights. In 1789 statesman Thomas Jefferson wrote James Madison that a bill of rights “puts into the hands of the judiciary” a “legal check” against tyranny by the legislature or the executive. Third, the Bill of Rights, especially the First Amendment, helps protect democratic government by barring criminal prosecutions against those who criticize the government and those who hold unpopular beliefs, and by providing a safe haven for minorities who are oppressed in many other countries."
----------------------------------------------
Now go on out and watch those fireworks,dance in the street, eat that fried chicken, barbeque, watermelon and potato salad but remember to be thankful for our great nation; not perfect but better than most.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Blogs and Me
Thinking back over the last 2 years or so, I was recently reminiscing about how I first became acquainted with blogs and how I decided to start one of my own.
Since this is a retrospective, here is my first blog post:
JUNE 22,2005
"It seems every "great name I thought up and tried to get on "Blogger" was already taken so I just picked up a copy of the magazine"Southern Living" and turned a few pages and came up with "DriftWood Inspiration" so there is no particular significance to the name.
"Mainly this blog will be about my thoughts on living to age 75 and still staying active, alert and interested in many things. I came to the computer and the internet at age 68 and have taken to this "new" medium like a duck takes to water. I even relearned to type after a 50 year hiatus. It seems typing is stored in the brain and you never forget. At first it was hunt and peck but then I forced myself to try to remember where my fingers went on the keyboard and then started to type without looking at the keys. The many hours I spent in chat helped my typing tremendously but after a few years I tired of chat and moved on to games, Black Jack, Texas Hold'em Poker, Scrabble, and then Blogs."
----------------------------------------------------
The first time I heard the word blog of course I had no clue that it really meant web log, shortened to blog. I first read about blogs in the "New York Times" and I really cannot recall which was the first blog I visited but I do know that Ronni Bennett's "Time Goes By" was one of the first blogs that I visited regularly. I usually start my day with Ronni and I always get food for thought from her excellent posts.
Many days I mosey on over to "Daily Kos" a progressive political blog with much user participation. I do not always agree with DK but it makes me think and provides a good way to become informed about liberal politics and is useful and easy to comment on the many diaries posted there. If one is so inclined, after registering, you may post your own thoughts there in diary form. The format on DK is good and it is an interesting, easy to use site
I also try to stop by many of the blog links that Ronni has listed on her site, including "Golden Lucy's Spiral Notebook", "Octogenarian", "Build This House"
"Pure Land Mountain" and many others which are too numerous to list them all. Many times I just hit the highlights of the blogs on my favorites list and sometimes stop to comment.
Blogging underscores the fact that it's "A Big Wide Wonderful World" out there with Robert Brady in Japan, Claude in Paris, Savtadotty in Tel Aviv, Israel, Colleen in Canada and blog friends all across the US.
When I sit down at the computer to write or read blogs I feel as If I have entered a sacred space of silence that is uniquely mine. Concerns and worries melt away as I write on my blog or savor the thoughts of other bloggers or read interesting site throughout the Internet.
Ronni Bennett wrote this in her blog post on "Third Age.com"
"One of the fears everyone has about getting older is that our mental sharpness will decline. The "Eide Neurolearning Blog" reports that blogging has proved to be an excellent antidote:
Blogs can promote critical and analytical thinking
Blogging can be a powerful promoter of creative, intuitive, and associational thinking
Blogging is a powerful medium for increasing access and exposure to quality information."
Ronni summed it up this way:
"Blogging combines the best of solitary reflection and social interaction
Since this is a retrospective, here is my first blog post:
JUNE 22,2005
"It seems every "great name I thought up and tried to get on "Blogger" was already taken so I just picked up a copy of the magazine"Southern Living" and turned a few pages and came up with "DriftWood Inspiration" so there is no particular significance to the name.
"Mainly this blog will be about my thoughts on living to age 75 and still staying active, alert and interested in many things. I came to the computer and the internet at age 68 and have taken to this "new" medium like a duck takes to water. I even relearned to type after a 50 year hiatus. It seems typing is stored in the brain and you never forget. At first it was hunt and peck but then I forced myself to try to remember where my fingers went on the keyboard and then started to type without looking at the keys. The many hours I spent in chat helped my typing tremendously but after a few years I tired of chat and moved on to games, Black Jack, Texas Hold'em Poker, Scrabble, and then Blogs."
----------------------------------------------------
The first time I heard the word blog of course I had no clue that it really meant web log, shortened to blog. I first read about blogs in the "New York Times" and I really cannot recall which was the first blog I visited but I do know that Ronni Bennett's "Time Goes By" was one of the first blogs that I visited regularly. I usually start my day with Ronni and I always get food for thought from her excellent posts.
Many days I mosey on over to "Daily Kos" a progressive political blog with much user participation. I do not always agree with DK but it makes me think and provides a good way to become informed about liberal politics and is useful and easy to comment on the many diaries posted there. If one is so inclined, after registering, you may post your own thoughts there in diary form. The format on DK is good and it is an interesting, easy to use site
I also try to stop by many of the blog links that Ronni has listed on her site, including "Golden Lucy's Spiral Notebook", "Octogenarian", "Build This House"
"Pure Land Mountain" and many others which are too numerous to list them all. Many times I just hit the highlights of the blogs on my favorites list and sometimes stop to comment.
Blogging underscores the fact that it's "A Big Wide Wonderful World" out there with Robert Brady in Japan, Claude in Paris, Savtadotty in Tel Aviv, Israel, Colleen in Canada and blog friends all across the US.
When I sit down at the computer to write or read blogs I feel as If I have entered a sacred space of silence that is uniquely mine. Concerns and worries melt away as I write on my blog or savor the thoughts of other bloggers or read interesting site throughout the Internet.
Ronni Bennett wrote this in her blog post on "Third Age.com"
"One of the fears everyone has about getting older is that our mental sharpness will decline. The "Eide Neurolearning Blog" reports that blogging has proved to be an excellent antidote:
Blogs can promote critical and analytical thinking
Blogging can be a powerful promoter of creative, intuitive, and associational thinking
Blogging is a powerful medium for increasing access and exposure to quality information."
Ronni summed it up this way:
"Blogging combines the best of solitary reflection and social interaction
Sunday, June 25, 2006
A Short Story
(by Chancy)
OCTOREL ERASMUS
"After his baby sister, Tryphena, passed and after the funeral service at the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, Octorel Erasmus sat very still in the faded old rocking chair on his rickety front porch. As the hot July sun faded into dusk he remained quiet and listened as the sounds of the country evening began. The crickets and the hooty owls. Then his two skinny ole hound dogs, Ben and Shad, stopped their scratching and licking, sighed and crept under the porch and slept.
The cool of the night darkness began to surround him and Octorel strained to remember the words of the old hymn they sang yesterday, July 26,1999 at his baby sisters service at the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church. Ah yes It went like this:
" When the roll is called up yonder, when the roll is called up yonder, when the roll is called up yonder I'll be there."
But no one up yonder was calling his name. Maybe he was not on the roll anymore. Or maybe the printing of his name had faded or worn off the Lord's Book of Heaven. Something had happened for sure as Octorel had not planned to live so long. Octorel Erasmus had outlived all his kinfolk and friends. Sometimes he thought he had outlived God, or maybe the good Lord hisself had done forgot about him
.
Octorel softly stroked the silky arms of the old wooden rocker .Over the years the chair arms had been worn marble smooth by all the scraggy,rough hands that had enjoyed it's comforting touch while rocking on the old porch. The raspy sound of back and forth-creak-back and forth-squeak soothed him as he reached back in memory to a sweltering July day almost 89 years ago.
He remembered his Pa running out to the fields where he and his seven brothers were hoeing weeds in the peanut patch. Pa took off his straw hat, wiped his damp face on his sleeve and said quietly.
"Boys. Y'all got yo'selves a baby sister. Ma's all right. Now let's praise the Lord and git back to work."
Octorel remembered closing his eyes and thinking,
" A girl. Well, I'm mighty proud for her. She won't have to break her back working the fields with us. She can help Ma cook and clean and wash and put up vegetables and sew and quilt and make jam. She'll grow into a pretty little thing and Ma can braid her hair and us boys can save up for some bright colored barrettes for her. She'll have her hair in shiny black plaits with pretty blue and red bows on the ends. Yes sir. She is a lucky Gal Baby with eight big brothers to look out for her."
Pa passed around the smooth yellow gourd dipper chugged full with cool well water from the tin bucket and they all refreshed themselves. Octorel could taste the salt as the sweat poured down his face, stinging his eyes and brushing his lips so the sweet well water was a welcome treat. Then they all knelt on the rich warm ground for a moment of thanksgiving.
Octorel wondered what Ma and Pa would name her. They had named him Octorel because Ma had heard somewhere that the name meant eight and he was the eighth son. Pa said how lucky can one man be to have eight sons to help him work the farm.
They named her Tryphena after the twins in the Bible, Tryphena and Tryphona, but the boys always called her "Try" The years passed and Try grew into a sweet little girl and not a baby anymore About this time, one by one, the brothers began to think of leaving the farm.
Joseph, the oldest, took off first. Pa, and especially Ma begged him to stay and help them with the crops but one day he just up and took off and caught the bus for Detroit where he began to work in an automobile factory. The same one where cousin James worked.
Joseph wired money home every week for awhile but then stopped after he met a woman who made him feel like a real man. "Doll" he called her, but her Christian name was Crystal. Pa said he thought crystal was the outside glass on a watch.
Joseph and Crystal came home once after they got hitched. It was Christmas and Ma had baked her delicious white fruitcake. She cooked a fat hen with dumplings, made cornbread dressing and cleaned up the old house, aired the quilts and swept the dirt front yard with her homemade straw broom. She and Try even washed the old windows til they sparkled Everything smelled mighty sweet and fresh. That is, until Joseph and Doll arrived.
The first crack out of the box, Doll sat down, crossed her skinny legs, fishnet stockings and all, and started twiddling her pointy toed high heeled black patent shoes. Then she started smoking one Lucky Strike after another. Pheweey. She sure did stink up the place. At supper she had the gall to put out her cigarette in her half finished plate of Ma's good home cooking. Our eyes bugged out at that. I sure wanted to give Crystal down in the country for doing that but I kept quiet and Ma didn't say a word either.
"Doll" sure wasn't missed by any of us after she and Joseph up and left plenty early after just one night. Ma said that Crystal was just too high faluting and sure did not fit in and that Joseph had his work cut out for him trying to please a gal who smelled like cigarettes, strong perfume, and liquor. And holy moses did you see how she smacked that chewing gum. She even left a wad stuck under the seat of Ma's kitchen chair. We felt bad for Joseph but Pa said he made his own bed so he could just lay in it. And Ma, who never bad- mouthed anyone, said that a whistling woman, and a crowing hen never comes to a very good end.
A few years passed and brother Amos got a hankering to leave the farm. Then Abner and James went off together and joined the United States Marine Corps. The rest of the brothers all got married within a few months of each other and got their own places up the road a piece..
Try never married or left home. After Ma died and Pa was sickly she nursed him like a blessed angel until he passed. She cooked and cleaned and sewed and canned. almost as if she took over for Ma or thought she was supposed to.
Years went by and Rufus and Jesse got kilt in a car wreck. They both had been drinking moonshine. Mose passed with consumption and Luke with a a stroke, Soon they were all gone to their reward except me and Tryphena. So that left only the two of us around these stomping grounds.
I just never got around to marrying . I had plenty of chances.Once I was fixing to get hitched, but something or other come up and it just didn't happen. I got a job in town at the Piggly Wiggly tending to the produce counter, and Tryphina worked at the day nursery. She was always good with little ones. We gave up trying to have a farm crop except for vegetables and chickens.
Now they is all gone; except me. And here I sit. Saying goodbye to Try at the service yesterday was the hardest thing I ever done..I was all tore up. Tears run down my face like rain as I sat in the ole church while the preacher said words over her casket.
My mind wandered as I remembered how much we depended on each other. We used to sit out here on this old porch together to catch the late afternoon and evening breezes. We never talked much and when we did it was about old times passed and who had gone on before us.
Now, as I sit here on this broke down front porch, I wonder is I dreaming or is I already passed and don't know it. All of a sudden my head begins to ache . I see a bright light over yonder at the edge of the field and it sure hurts my eyes here in this darkness. The light is turning and turning like a wheel. Round and round. Full of bright rays of yellow and whirls of red. I remember the words in the song about
" Ezekiel saw a wheel, way up in the middle of the air; the big wheel ran by faith and the little wheel ran by the grace of God, a wheel in a wheel, away in the middle of the air."
The wind begins to blow stronger and a dark shadow seem to start across the field .The shadow looks like it's coming closer and closer ..Or is it just leaves and trash tumbling across the yard. Leaves and sticks; dry and crumbling and crackling to bits in the wind .A storm must be coming up. My eyes are failing me like everything else. You sure can't trust a body when it gets to be 101 years old. .
.One by one the fragments float up and settle on the porch at Octorel's feet. He trys to bend over and pick up a leaf and a scrap of old, faded paper but he feels too trembly and dizzy. Octorel decides that what he needs to feel better is some of Tryphena's homemade vegetable soup that she canned for him not long before she took sick . Octorel thought
" I need to eat it all up before my time is up. Don't want it to go to waste"
Octorel slowly gets up and stumbles inside. He enjoys the last taste of the hot soup, shuffles to his bed, pulls up the tattered old quilt that Ma had made and lays hisself down to rest.
On the porch,the old rocker keeps on rocking. The crumpled scrap of paper carried by the wind settles on the seat of the rocker. The rest of the dry leaves land silently on the porch floor.
If you had been there and leaned over you could have seen the scrap of paper which read:
'"My old hound dog lies a sleepin', he don't know I'm gonna leave.Else he'd wake up by the fireplace and he'd sit there & howl & grieve.But my huntin' days are over, ain't gonna hunt the coon no more.Gabriel done brought in my chariot when the wind blew down the door."**
OCTOREL ERASMUS
BORN MAY 16 1898
DIED JULY 27, 1999
A GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT IN THE FIELDS OF THE LORD."
**
("This Old House"Words & Music by: Stuart Hamblen)
>
OCTOREL ERASMUS
"After his baby sister, Tryphena, passed and after the funeral service at the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, Octorel Erasmus sat very still in the faded old rocking chair on his rickety front porch. As the hot July sun faded into dusk he remained quiet and listened as the sounds of the country evening began. The crickets and the hooty owls. Then his two skinny ole hound dogs, Ben and Shad, stopped their scratching and licking, sighed and crept under the porch and slept.
The cool of the night darkness began to surround him and Octorel strained to remember the words of the old hymn they sang yesterday, July 26,1999 at his baby sisters service at the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church. Ah yes It went like this:
" When the roll is called up yonder, when the roll is called up yonder, when the roll is called up yonder I'll be there."
But no one up yonder was calling his name. Maybe he was not on the roll anymore. Or maybe the printing of his name had faded or worn off the Lord's Book of Heaven. Something had happened for sure as Octorel had not planned to live so long. Octorel Erasmus had outlived all his kinfolk and friends. Sometimes he thought he had outlived God, or maybe the good Lord hisself had done forgot about him
.
Octorel softly stroked the silky arms of the old wooden rocker .Over the years the chair arms had been worn marble smooth by all the scraggy,rough hands that had enjoyed it's comforting touch while rocking on the old porch. The raspy sound of back and forth-creak-back and forth-squeak soothed him as he reached back in memory to a sweltering July day almost 89 years ago.
He remembered his Pa running out to the fields where he and his seven brothers were hoeing weeds in the peanut patch. Pa took off his straw hat, wiped his damp face on his sleeve and said quietly.
"Boys. Y'all got yo'selves a baby sister. Ma's all right. Now let's praise the Lord and git back to work."
Octorel remembered closing his eyes and thinking,
" A girl. Well, I'm mighty proud for her. She won't have to break her back working the fields with us. She can help Ma cook and clean and wash and put up vegetables and sew and quilt and make jam. She'll grow into a pretty little thing and Ma can braid her hair and us boys can save up for some bright colored barrettes for her. She'll have her hair in shiny black plaits with pretty blue and red bows on the ends. Yes sir. She is a lucky Gal Baby with eight big brothers to look out for her."
Pa passed around the smooth yellow gourd dipper chugged full with cool well water from the tin bucket and they all refreshed themselves. Octorel could taste the salt as the sweat poured down his face, stinging his eyes and brushing his lips so the sweet well water was a welcome treat. Then they all knelt on the rich warm ground for a moment of thanksgiving.
Octorel wondered what Ma and Pa would name her. They had named him Octorel because Ma had heard somewhere that the name meant eight and he was the eighth son. Pa said how lucky can one man be to have eight sons to help him work the farm.
They named her Tryphena after the twins in the Bible, Tryphena and Tryphona, but the boys always called her "Try" The years passed and Try grew into a sweet little girl and not a baby anymore About this time, one by one, the brothers began to think of leaving the farm.
Joseph, the oldest, took off first. Pa, and especially Ma begged him to stay and help them with the crops but one day he just up and took off and caught the bus for Detroit where he began to work in an automobile factory. The same one where cousin James worked.
Joseph wired money home every week for awhile but then stopped after he met a woman who made him feel like a real man. "Doll" he called her, but her Christian name was Crystal. Pa said he thought crystal was the outside glass on a watch.
Joseph and Crystal came home once after they got hitched. It was Christmas and Ma had baked her delicious white fruitcake. She cooked a fat hen with dumplings, made cornbread dressing and cleaned up the old house, aired the quilts and swept the dirt front yard with her homemade straw broom. She and Try even washed the old windows til they sparkled Everything smelled mighty sweet and fresh. That is, until Joseph and Doll arrived.
The first crack out of the box, Doll sat down, crossed her skinny legs, fishnet stockings and all, and started twiddling her pointy toed high heeled black patent shoes. Then she started smoking one Lucky Strike after another. Pheweey. She sure did stink up the place. At supper she had the gall to put out her cigarette in her half finished plate of Ma's good home cooking. Our eyes bugged out at that. I sure wanted to give Crystal down in the country for doing that but I kept quiet and Ma didn't say a word either.
"Doll" sure wasn't missed by any of us after she and Joseph up and left plenty early after just one night. Ma said that Crystal was just too high faluting and sure did not fit in and that Joseph had his work cut out for him trying to please a gal who smelled like cigarettes, strong perfume, and liquor. And holy moses did you see how she smacked that chewing gum. She even left a wad stuck under the seat of Ma's kitchen chair. We felt bad for Joseph but Pa said he made his own bed so he could just lay in it. And Ma, who never bad- mouthed anyone, said that a whistling woman, and a crowing hen never comes to a very good end.
A few years passed and brother Amos got a hankering to leave the farm. Then Abner and James went off together and joined the United States Marine Corps. The rest of the brothers all got married within a few months of each other and got their own places up the road a piece..
Try never married or left home. After Ma died and Pa was sickly she nursed him like a blessed angel until he passed. She cooked and cleaned and sewed and canned. almost as if she took over for Ma or thought she was supposed to.
Years went by and Rufus and Jesse got kilt in a car wreck. They both had been drinking moonshine. Mose passed with consumption and Luke with a a stroke, Soon they were all gone to their reward except me and Tryphena. So that left only the two of us around these stomping grounds.
I just never got around to marrying . I had plenty of chances.Once I was fixing to get hitched, but something or other come up and it just didn't happen. I got a job in town at the Piggly Wiggly tending to the produce counter, and Tryphina worked at the day nursery. She was always good with little ones. We gave up trying to have a farm crop except for vegetables and chickens.
Now they is all gone; except me. And here I sit. Saying goodbye to Try at the service yesterday was the hardest thing I ever done..I was all tore up. Tears run down my face like rain as I sat in the ole church while the preacher said words over her casket.
My mind wandered as I remembered how much we depended on each other. We used to sit out here on this old porch together to catch the late afternoon and evening breezes. We never talked much and when we did it was about old times passed and who had gone on before us.
Now, as I sit here on this broke down front porch, I wonder is I dreaming or is I already passed and don't know it. All of a sudden my head begins to ache . I see a bright light over yonder at the edge of the field and it sure hurts my eyes here in this darkness. The light is turning and turning like a wheel. Round and round. Full of bright rays of yellow and whirls of red. I remember the words in the song about
" Ezekiel saw a wheel, way up in the middle of the air; the big wheel ran by faith and the little wheel ran by the grace of God, a wheel in a wheel, away in the middle of the air."
The wind begins to blow stronger and a dark shadow seem to start across the field .The shadow looks like it's coming closer and closer ..Or is it just leaves and trash tumbling across the yard. Leaves and sticks; dry and crumbling and crackling to bits in the wind .A storm must be coming up. My eyes are failing me like everything else. You sure can't trust a body when it gets to be 101 years old. .
.One by one the fragments float up and settle on the porch at Octorel's feet. He trys to bend over and pick up a leaf and a scrap of old, faded paper but he feels too trembly and dizzy. Octorel decides that what he needs to feel better is some of Tryphena's homemade vegetable soup that she canned for him not long before she took sick . Octorel thought
" I need to eat it all up before my time is up. Don't want it to go to waste"
Octorel slowly gets up and stumbles inside. He enjoys the last taste of the hot soup, shuffles to his bed, pulls up the tattered old quilt that Ma had made and lays hisself down to rest.
On the porch,the old rocker keeps on rocking. The crumpled scrap of paper carried by the wind settles on the seat of the rocker. The rest of the dry leaves land silently on the porch floor.
If you had been there and leaned over you could have seen the scrap of paper which read:
'"My old hound dog lies a sleepin', he don't know I'm gonna leave.Else he'd wake up by the fireplace and he'd sit there & howl & grieve.But my huntin' days are over, ain't gonna hunt the coon no more.Gabriel done brought in my chariot when the wind blew down the door."**
OCTOREL ERASMUS
BORN MAY 16 1898
DIED JULY 27, 1999
A GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT IN THE FIELDS OF THE LORD."
**
("This Old House"Words & Music by: Stuart Hamblen)
>
Resignation
"RESIGNATION
I am hereby officially tendering my resignation as an adult. I have decided I would like to accept the responsibilities of an 8 year-old again.
I want to go to McDonald's and think that it's a four star restaurant.
I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud puddle and make a sidewalk with rocks.
I want to think M&Ms are better than money because you can eat them.
I want to lie under a big oak tree and run a lemonade stand with my friends on a hot summer's day.
I want to return to a time when life was simple; When all you knew were colors, multiplication tables, and nursery
rhymes, but that didn't bother you, because you didn't know what you didn't know and you didn't care.
All you knew was to be happy because you were blissfully unaware of all the things that should make you worried or upset.
I want to think the world is fair. That everyone is honest and good.
I want to believe that anything is possible. I want to be oblivious to the complexities of life and be overly excited by the little things again.
I want to live simple again. I don't want my day to consist of computer crashes, mountains of paperwork, depressing news, how to survive more days in the month than there is money in the bank, doctor bills, gossip, illness, and loss of loved ones.
I want to believe in the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word, truth, justice, peace, dreams, the imagination,
mankind, and making angels in the snow.
So . . . here's my checkbook and my car-keys, my credit card bills and my 401K statements. I am officially resigning from adulthood.
And if you want to discuss this further, you'll have to catch me first, cause........
Tag, you're it!"
I am hereby officially tendering my resignation as an adult. I have decided I would like to accept the responsibilities of an 8 year-old again.
I want to go to McDonald's and think that it's a four star restaurant.
I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud puddle and make a sidewalk with rocks.
I want to think M&Ms are better than money because you can eat them.
I want to lie under a big oak tree and run a lemonade stand with my friends on a hot summer's day.
I want to return to a time when life was simple; When all you knew were colors, multiplication tables, and nursery
rhymes, but that didn't bother you, because you didn't know what you didn't know and you didn't care.
All you knew was to be happy because you were blissfully unaware of all the things that should make you worried or upset.
I want to think the world is fair. That everyone is honest and good.
I want to believe that anything is possible. I want to be oblivious to the complexities of life and be overly excited by the little things again.
I want to live simple again. I don't want my day to consist of computer crashes, mountains of paperwork, depressing news, how to survive more days in the month than there is money in the bank, doctor bills, gossip, illness, and loss of loved ones.
I want to believe in the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word, truth, justice, peace, dreams, the imagination,
mankind, and making angels in the snow.
So . . . here's my checkbook and my car-keys, my credit card bills and my 401K statements. I am officially resigning from adulthood.
And if you want to discuss this further, you'll have to catch me first, cause........
Tag, you're it!"
Friday, June 23, 2006
Happiest Day of the Year ?
Ronni Bennett over at "Time Goes By" has a post that wonders whether we are happier now than we were in years past. I have thought about this question and I really do not have a definitive answer but I have felt especially happy today and I wondered why. Then I read this article on Yahoo news:
------------------------------------------------------------------
So how was your Friday?
------------------------------------------------------------------
Happiest day of the year is June 23, Cardiff scholar finds Fri Jun 23, 8:52 AM ET
Feeling more happy than usual this particular Friday? You should be, according to a scholar in seasonal disorders at a British university.
Cliff Arnall has analysed such factors as outdoor activities, nature, social interaction, childhood memories, temperature and holidays -- data gathered over a period of 15 years in interviews with 3,000 people around the world.
His conclusion: June 23 is the happiest day of the year.
"People across borders experience happiness when they meet with friends and family and establish close social relationships," the University of Cardiff academic told AFP. "We need some close emotional ties."
He used what he considers a "simple equation" to reach his conclusion -- O + (N x S) + Cpm/T + He.
O stands for outdoor activities, N for nature, S for social interaction, Cpm for childhood summers and positive memories, T for temperature and He for holidays and looking forward to time off.
Arnall has already figured out the saddest day of the year. It was January 23 -- a Monday. "Surprise, surprise", he quipped.
So how was your Friday?
Sunday, June 18, 2006
WHEN YOU THOUGHT I WASN"T LOOKING
I like this:
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
A message every adult should read, because children are watching you and doing as you do, not as you say.
WHEN YOU THOUGHT I WASN'T LOOKING
author unknown
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you hang my first painting on the refrigerator, and I immediately wanted to paint another one.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you feed a stray cat, and I learned that it was good to be kind to animals
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you make my favorite cake for me and I learned that the little things can be the special things in life.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I heard you say a prayer, and I knew there is a God I could always talk to and I learned to trust in God.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you make a meal and take it to a friend who was sick, and I learned that we all have to help take care of each other.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you give of your time and money to help people who had nothing and I learned that those who have something should give to those who don't.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you take care of our house and everyone in it and I learned we have to take care of what we are given.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw how you handled your responsibilities, even when you didn't feel good and I learned that I would have to be responsible when I grow up.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw tears come from your eyes and I learned that sometimes things hurt, but it's all right to cry.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw that you cared and I wanted to be everything that I could be.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I learned most of life's lessons that I need to know to be a good and productive person when I grow up.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I looked at you and wanted to say
"Thanks for all the things I saw when you thought I wasn't looking."
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
A message every adult should read, because children are watching you and doing as you do, not as you say.
WHEN YOU THOUGHT I WASN'T LOOKING
author unknown
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you hang my first painting on the refrigerator, and I immediately wanted to paint another one.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you feed a stray cat, and I learned that it was good to be kind to animals
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you make my favorite cake for me and I learned that the little things can be the special things in life.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I heard you say a prayer, and I knew there is a God I could always talk to and I learned to trust in God.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you make a meal and take it to a friend who was sick, and I learned that we all have to help take care of each other.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you give of your time and money to help people who had nothing and I learned that those who have something should give to those who don't.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you take care of our house and everyone in it and I learned we have to take care of what we are given.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw how you handled your responsibilities, even when you didn't feel good and I learned that I would have to be responsible when I grow up.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw tears come from your eyes and I learned that sometimes things hurt, but it's all right to cry.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw that you cared and I wanted to be everything that I could be.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I learned most of life's lessons that I need to know to be a good and productive person when I grow up.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I looked at you and wanted to say
"Thanks for all the things I saw when you thought I wasn't looking."
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Insights on Aging
These insights on aging are worth reading...and sharing. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did...
"George Carlin's Views on Aging"
Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions.
"How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!" You're never thirty-six and a half.
You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key.
You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.
"How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16!"
You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16!
And then the greatest day of your life .... you become 21.
Even the words sound like a ceremony . . . YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!
But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound
like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?
You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40.
Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you
REACH 50 and your dreams are gone.
But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!
So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.
You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!
You get into your 80s and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime.
And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; "I Was JUST 92."
Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!"
May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!
"George Carlin's Views on Aging"
Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions.
"How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!" You're never thirty-six and a half.
You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key.
You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.
"How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16!"
You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16!
And then the greatest day of your life .... you become 21.
Even the words sound like a ceremony . . . YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!
But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound
like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?
You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40.
Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you
REACH 50 and your dreams are gone.
But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!
So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.
You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!
You get into your 80s and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime.
And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; "I Was JUST 92."
Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!"
May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
For Ronni's new home in Maine
AN IRISH BLESSING
Author Unknown
Blessing for the house
Touch the lintel and touch the wall,
Nothing but blessing here befall.
Bless the candle that stands by itself,
Bless the books on the mantelshelf,
Bless the hearth and the light it sheds,
Bless the pillow for tired heads.
Those who tarry here, let them know
A threefold blessing before they go:
Sleep for weariness, peace for sorrow,
Faith in yesterday and tomorrow.
Those who go from here, let them bear
The blessing of hope wherever they fare.
Lintel and window, sill and wall,
Nothing but good, this place befall.
Author Unknown
Blessing for the house
Touch the lintel and touch the wall,
Nothing but blessing here befall.
Bless the candle that stands by itself,
Bless the books on the mantelshelf,
Bless the hearth and the light it sheds,
Bless the pillow for tired heads.
Those who tarry here, let them know
A threefold blessing before they go:
Sleep for weariness, peace for sorrow,
Faith in yesterday and tomorrow.
Those who go from here, let them bear
The blessing of hope wherever they fare.
Lintel and window, sill and wall,
Nothing but good, this place befall.
Saturday, June 03, 2006
How to stay young
HOW TO STAY YOUNG
"Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height.
Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay them.
Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.
Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening,
whatever. Never let the brain idle. "An idle mind is the devil's workshop." And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.
Enjoy the simple things.
Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.
The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive
.
Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever.
Your home is your refuge.
Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.
Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.
AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. "
"Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height.
Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay them.
Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.
Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening,
whatever. Never let the brain idle. "An idle mind is the devil's workshop." And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.
Enjoy the simple things.
Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.
The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive
.
Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever.
Your home is your refuge.
Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.
Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.
AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. "
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Story Prompt From Maria's site and Wild Mind
I tried this story prompt with these parameters:
Main Character: female
Archetype: mother
Narrative: first person
Place: a sandy beach
Mood: reflective
Begin with: I wasn't born smart, nor was I….
Watching the tide slowly recede revealing sandy bits of broken shells and driftwood, I hear the cry of sea gulls as they circle in the bright blue sky. The sound of the surf lulls me to sleep as my thoughts drift back to childhood .
I was born smart, but I was not born lucky. The depression was in full swing when I arrived in 1929; a nine pound baby girl, who was the last of ten children born to a father who was already 55 years old and a mother, age 36, who was his third wife.
His first wife died with cancer after 17 years of marriage. The second wife, a young woman, died in childbirth about a year after she married my father.She left a baby boy whom my own mother, the third wife, raised as her own with love and tenderness.
.
My father had already produced 9 children , two of whom died as young adults before I was born.One of the nine was my whole brother who is 8 years older than I.
When I came along a family addition was a routine occurrence for my father. . Perhaps that is why I never felt I knew him and why he never paid any real attention to me.
He was old, tired and simply drained by life and too much sadness. He died when I was nine years old of a cerebral hemorrhage.. Sudden and deadly in the middle of the night it hit him full force. He went to the hospital and never returned.
Now as I sit in a lounge chair on the sandy beach, watching my grandchildren digging and making sand castles I feel at peace with my life and what I have become; as I approach my 77 th year, I realize my Father did the best he could. . .
Main Character: female
Archetype: mother
Narrative: first person
Place: a sandy beach
Mood: reflective
Begin with: I wasn't born smart, nor was I….
Watching the tide slowly recede revealing sandy bits of broken shells and driftwood, I hear the cry of sea gulls as they circle in the bright blue sky. The sound of the surf lulls me to sleep as my thoughts drift back to childhood .
I was born smart, but I was not born lucky. The depression was in full swing when I arrived in 1929; a nine pound baby girl, who was the last of ten children born to a father who was already 55 years old and a mother, age 36, who was his third wife.
His first wife died with cancer after 17 years of marriage. The second wife, a young woman, died in childbirth about a year after she married my father.She left a baby boy whom my own mother, the third wife, raised as her own with love and tenderness.
.
My father had already produced 9 children , two of whom died as young adults before I was born.One of the nine was my whole brother who is 8 years older than I.
When I came along a family addition was a routine occurrence for my father. . Perhaps that is why I never felt I knew him and why he never paid any real attention to me.
He was old, tired and simply drained by life and too much sadness. He died when I was nine years old of a cerebral hemorrhage.. Sudden and deadly in the middle of the night it hit him full force. He went to the hospital and never returned.
Now as I sit in a lounge chair on the sandy beach, watching my grandchildren digging and making sand castles I feel at peace with my life and what I have become; as I approach my 77 th year, I realize my Father did the best he could. . .
Friday, May 26, 2006
Why we forward jokes to our friends
Why we forward jokes to our friends....
"A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years.He wondered where the road was leading them.
After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like Mother of Pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold.
He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side. When he was close enough, he called out, "Excuse me, where are we?""This is Heaven, sir," the man answered."Wow! Would you happen to have some water?" the man asked."Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up."The man gestured, and the gate began to open.
"Can my friend," gesturing toward his dog, "come in, too?" the traveller asked."I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets."
The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.
After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road which led through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed.There was no fence.
As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book."Excuse me!" he called to the reader. "Do you have any water?"
"Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there." The man pointed to a place that couldn't be seen from outside the gate. "Come on in."
"How about my friend here?" the traveller gestured to the dog."There should be a bowl by the pump." They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it.The traveller filled the bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog.
When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree waiting for them."What do you call this place?" the traveller asked. "This is Heaven," was the answer."Well, that's confusing", the traveller said, "The man down the road said that was Heaven, too!"
"Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's Hell."
"Well, doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?", the traveller asked."No. I can see how you might think so, but we're just happy that they screen out the folks who'll leave their best friends behind."`
Soooo...
Sometimes, we wonder why friends keep forwarding jokes to us without writing a word, maybe this could explain: When you are very busy, but still want to keep in touch, guess what you do? You forward jokes.When you have nothing to say, but still want to keep contact, you forward jokes.
When you have something to say, but don't know what, and don't know how, you forward jokes.And to let you know that you are still remembered, you are still important, you are still loved, you are still cared for, guess what you get?A forwarded joke!
So my friend, next time if you get a joke, don't think that you've been sent just another forwarded joke, but that you've been thought of today and your friend on the other end of your computer wanted to send you a smile..."
"A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years.He wondered where the road was leading them.
After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like Mother of Pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold.
He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side. When he was close enough, he called out, "Excuse me, where are we?""This is Heaven, sir," the man answered."Wow! Would you happen to have some water?" the man asked."Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up."The man gestured, and the gate began to open.
"Can my friend," gesturing toward his dog, "come in, too?" the traveller asked."I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets."
The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.
After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road which led through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed.There was no fence.
As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book."Excuse me!" he called to the reader. "Do you have any water?"
"Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there." The man pointed to a place that couldn't be seen from outside the gate. "Come on in."
"How about my friend here?" the traveller gestured to the dog."There should be a bowl by the pump." They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it.The traveller filled the bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog.
When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree waiting for them."What do you call this place?" the traveller asked. "This is Heaven," was the answer."Well, that's confusing", the traveller said, "The man down the road said that was Heaven, too!"
"Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's Hell."
"Well, doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?", the traveller asked."No. I can see how you might think so, but we're just happy that they screen out the folks who'll leave their best friends behind."`
Soooo...
Sometimes, we wonder why friends keep forwarding jokes to us without writing a word, maybe this could explain: When you are very busy, but still want to keep in touch, guess what you do? You forward jokes.When you have nothing to say, but still want to keep contact, you forward jokes.
When you have something to say, but don't know what, and don't know how, you forward jokes.And to let you know that you are still remembered, you are still important, you are still loved, you are still cared for, guess what you get?A forwarded joke!
So my friend, next time if you get a joke, don't think that you've been sent just another forwarded joke, but that you've been thought of today and your friend on the other end of your computer wanted to send you a smile..."
Thursday, May 18, 2006
American Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire
Isn't this interesting and to think this valuable stand of chestnut trees has been discovered so far south is amazing to me. Since I am such a tree lover, this comes as fantastic news . I hate to see blight kill off an entire variety of tree like the chestnut. The dogwood tree, which is native to the south and Georgia, has been experiencing a blight problem. I hope the blight can be controlled before it kills off all the delicate dogwood trees.
"Rare American Chestnut Trees Discovered
By ELLIOTT MINOR, Associated Press Writer ALBANY, Ga.
May 18,2006
"A stand of American chestnut trees that somehow escaped a blight that killed off nearly all their kind in the early 1900s has been discovered along a hiking trail not far from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Little White House at Warm Springs.
The find has stirred excitement among those working to restore the American chestnut, and raised hopes that scientists might be able to use the pollen to breed hardier chestnut trees."
The largest of the half-dozen or so trees is about 40 feet tall and 20 to 30 years old, and is believed to be the southernmost American chestnut discovered so far that is capable of flowering and producing nuts.
"This is a terrific find," said David Keehn, president of the Georgia chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation. "A tree of this size is one in a million."
The rugged area known as Pine Mountain is at the southern end of the Appalachians near Warm Springs, where Roosevelt built a home and sought treatment after he was stricken with polio in 1921.
"FDR may have roasted some chestnuts on his fire for Christmas or enjoyed their blooms in the spring," Klaus said.
The chestnut foundation may use pollen from the tree in a breeding program aimed at restoring the population with blight-resistant trees.
"When the flowers are right, we're going to rush down and pollinate the flowers, collect the seeds a few weeks later and collect the nuts," Klaus said. "If we ever find a genetic solution to the chestnut blight, genes from that tree will find their way into those trees."
.
American chestnuts once made up about 25 percent of the forests in the eastern United States, with an estimated 4 billion trees from Maine to Mississippi and Florida.
The trees helped satisfy demand for roasted chestnuts, and their rot-resistant wood was used to make fence posts, utility poles, barns, homes, furniture and musical instruments.
Then these magnificent hardwoods, which could grow to a height of 100 feet and a diameter of 8 feet or more, were almost entirely wiped out by a fast-spreading fungus discovered in 1904.
"There are no chestnuts roasting on an open fire, and if they are, they're Chinese," Keehn said."
___
And this background information from last year's National Geographic News references the chestnut before the blight.
"Entire communities in Appalachia depended on the chestnut for everything," said Marshal Case, president of the American Chestnut Foundation of Bennington, Vermont. Chestnut trees were integral to everyday life in Appalachia, Case said, where they were called "cradle to grave" trees: Craftsmen made baby cradles and coffins from the rot-resistant hardwood. The trees were also used to build houses, telephone poles, and railroad ties. Wildlife thrived on the trees, which each year produced bumper crops of nuts."
"Rare American Chestnut Trees Discovered
By ELLIOTT MINOR, Associated Press Writer ALBANY, Ga.
May 18,2006
"A stand of American chestnut trees that somehow escaped a blight that killed off nearly all their kind in the early 1900s has been discovered along a hiking trail not far from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Little White House at Warm Springs.
The find has stirred excitement among those working to restore the American chestnut, and raised hopes that scientists might be able to use the pollen to breed hardier chestnut trees."
The largest of the half-dozen or so trees is about 40 feet tall and 20 to 30 years old, and is believed to be the southernmost American chestnut discovered so far that is capable of flowering and producing nuts.
"This is a terrific find," said David Keehn, president of the Georgia chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation. "A tree of this size is one in a million."
The rugged area known as Pine Mountain is at the southern end of the Appalachians near Warm Springs, where Roosevelt built a home and sought treatment after he was stricken with polio in 1921.
"FDR may have roasted some chestnuts on his fire for Christmas or enjoyed their blooms in the spring," Klaus said.
The chestnut foundation may use pollen from the tree in a breeding program aimed at restoring the population with blight-resistant trees.
"When the flowers are right, we're going to rush down and pollinate the flowers, collect the seeds a few weeks later and collect the nuts," Klaus said. "If we ever find a genetic solution to the chestnut blight, genes from that tree will find their way into those trees."
.
American chestnuts once made up about 25 percent of the forests in the eastern United States, with an estimated 4 billion trees from Maine to Mississippi and Florida.
The trees helped satisfy demand for roasted chestnuts, and their rot-resistant wood was used to make fence posts, utility poles, barns, homes, furniture and musical instruments.
Then these magnificent hardwoods, which could grow to a height of 100 feet and a diameter of 8 feet or more, were almost entirely wiped out by a fast-spreading fungus discovered in 1904.
"There are no chestnuts roasting on an open fire, and if they are, they're Chinese," Keehn said."
___
And this background information from last year's National Geographic News references the chestnut before the blight.
"Entire communities in Appalachia depended on the chestnut for everything," said Marshal Case, president of the American Chestnut Foundation of Bennington, Vermont. Chestnut trees were integral to everyday life in Appalachia, Case said, where they were called "cradle to grave" trees: Craftsmen made baby cradles and coffins from the rot-resistant hardwood. The trees were also used to build houses, telephone poles, and railroad ties. Wildlife thrived on the trees, which each year produced bumper crops of nuts."
How smart are you?
Quick Intelligence Test
How smart are you?
Read the following sentence:
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.
Now count aloud the F's in that sentence. Count them only once. Do not go back and count them again. Ready?
Look here for the answer*****
*****
Answer to Quick Intelligence Test
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.
Did you find 3 F's in this sentence? Wrong, there are 6 F's in the sentence. Read it again!
The brain cannot process the "F" in "OF." Incredible or what? Anyone who counts all 6 "F's" on the first go is a genius. Three is normal, four is quite rare.
I got 3 (normal) :(
How smart are you?
Read the following sentence:
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.
Now count aloud the F's in that sentence. Count them only once. Do not go back and count them again. Ready?
Look here for the answer*****
*****
Answer to Quick Intelligence Test
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.
Did you find 3 F's in this sentence? Wrong, there are 6 F's in the sentence. Read it again!
The brain cannot process the "F" in "OF." Incredible or what? Anyone who counts all 6 "F's" on the first go is a genius. Three is normal, four is quite rare.
I got 3 (normal) :(
Monday, May 15, 2006
Afternoon Naps
Like the fog that comes on little cat feet, a good nap has to quietly sneak in and catch you unaware.
Or at least that is what I think.
If I lie down on the bed with the express purpose of napping, I will remain wide awake. If I sit in a comfy chair with my feet up and read I find myself nodding off.
Winston Churchill did not go in for the "sneaky nap.
He wrote:
"You must sleep sometime between lunch and dinner, and no halfway measures. Take off your clothes and get into bed. That's what I always do. Don't think you will be doing less work because you sleep during the day. That's a foolish notion held by people who have no imaginations. You will be able to accomplish more. You get two days in one -- well, at least one and a half."--Winston Churchill
As Jane Brody wrote in the New York Times, short naps are restorative and are good for you.
"As a short sleeper who is rarely in bed for more than six hours a night, I'm a strong believer in naps for recharging my batteries. Sir Winston and I are in good company. Napping enthusiasts have included Albert Einstein, Napoleon Bonaparte, Thomas Edison and at least three presidents: John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Besides, sleep researchers have shown that regardless of how long one sleeps at night, the human body is programmed to become sleepy in the early afternoon, even without a big lunch. "
Zzzzzzzz
Zzzzzz.... Mmm? Sorry, I must have nodded off. Not a bad thing, actually - in fact I shouldn't be apologizing at all. Naps are good for us.
Or at least that is what I think.
If I lie down on the bed with the express purpose of napping, I will remain wide awake. If I sit in a comfy chair with my feet up and read I find myself nodding off.
Winston Churchill did not go in for the "sneaky nap.
He wrote:
"You must sleep sometime between lunch and dinner, and no halfway measures. Take off your clothes and get into bed. That's what I always do. Don't think you will be doing less work because you sleep during the day. That's a foolish notion held by people who have no imaginations. You will be able to accomplish more. You get two days in one -- well, at least one and a half."--Winston Churchill
As Jane Brody wrote in the New York Times, short naps are restorative and are good for you.
"As a short sleeper who is rarely in bed for more than six hours a night, I'm a strong believer in naps for recharging my batteries. Sir Winston and I are in good company. Napping enthusiasts have included Albert Einstein, Napoleon Bonaparte, Thomas Edison and at least three presidents: John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Besides, sleep researchers have shown that regardless of how long one sleeps at night, the human body is programmed to become sleepy in the early afternoon, even without a big lunch. "
Zzzzzzzz
Zzzzzz.... Mmm? Sorry, I must have nodded off. Not a bad thing, actually - in fact I shouldn't be apologizing at all. Naps are good for us.
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Thoughts on Mother's Day
PAUL REVERE'S MOTHER: "I don't care where you think you have to go, young man. Midnight is past your curfew!"
MARY, MARY, QUITE CONTRARY'S MOTHER: "I don't mind you having a garden, Mary, but does it have to be growing under your bed?"
MONA LISA'S MOTHER: "After all that money your father and I spent on braces, Mona, that's the biggest smile you can give us?"
HUMPTY DUMPTY'S MOTHER: "Humpty, if I've told you once, I've told you a hundred times not to sit on that wall. But would you listen to me? Noooo!"
COLUMBUS' MOTHER: "I don't care what you've discovered, Christopher. You still could have written!"
BABE RUTH'S MOTHER: "Babe, how many times have I told you to quit playing ball in the house! That's the third broken window this week!"
MICHELANGELO'S MOTHER: "Mike, can't you paint on walls like other children? Do you have any idea how hard it is to get that stuff off the ceiling?"
NAPOLEON'S MOTHER: "All right, Napoleon. If you aren't hiding your report card inside your jacket, then take your hand out of there and prove it!"
CUSTER'S MOTHER: "Now, George, remember what I told you - don't go biting off more than you can chew!"
ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S MOTHER: "Again with the stovepipe hat, Abe? Can't youjust wear a baseball cap like the other kids?"
BARNEY'S MOTHER: "I realize strained plums are your favorite, Barney, but you're starting to look a little purple."
MARY'S MOTHER: "I'm not upset that your lamb followed you to school, Mary,but I would like to know how he got a better grade than you."
BATMAN'S MOTHER: "It's a nice car, Bruce, but do you realize how much the insurance is going to be?"
GOLDILOCKS' MOTHER: "I've got a bill here for a busted chair from the Bear family. You know anything about this, Goldie?"
LITTLE MISS MUFFET'S MOTHER: "Well, all I've got to say is if you don't get off your tuffet and start cleaning your room, there'll be a lot more spiders around here!"
ALBERT EINSTEIN'S MOTHER: "But, Albert, it's your senior picture. Can't you do something about your hair? Styling gel, mousse, something...?"
GEORGE WASHINGTON'S MOTHER: "The next time I catch you throwing money across the Potomac, you can kiss your allowance good-bye!"
JONAH'S MOTHER: "That's a nice story, but now tell me where you've really been for the last three days."
SUPERMAN'S MOTHER: "Clark, your father and I have discussed it, and we've decided you can have your own telephone line. Now will you quit spending somuch time in all those phone booths?"
THOMAS EDISON'S MOTHER: "Of course I'm proud that you invented the electric light bulb, Thomas. Now turn off that light and get to bed!"
MARY, MARY, QUITE CONTRARY'S MOTHER: "I don't mind you having a garden, Mary, but does it have to be growing under your bed?"
MONA LISA'S MOTHER: "After all that money your father and I spent on braces, Mona, that's the biggest smile you can give us?"
HUMPTY DUMPTY'S MOTHER: "Humpty, if I've told you once, I've told you a hundred times not to sit on that wall. But would you listen to me? Noooo!"
COLUMBUS' MOTHER: "I don't care what you've discovered, Christopher. You still could have written!"
BABE RUTH'S MOTHER: "Babe, how many times have I told you to quit playing ball in the house! That's the third broken window this week!"
MICHELANGELO'S MOTHER: "Mike, can't you paint on walls like other children? Do you have any idea how hard it is to get that stuff off the ceiling?"
NAPOLEON'S MOTHER: "All right, Napoleon. If you aren't hiding your report card inside your jacket, then take your hand out of there and prove it!"
CUSTER'S MOTHER: "Now, George, remember what I told you - don't go biting off more than you can chew!"
ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S MOTHER: "Again with the stovepipe hat, Abe? Can't youjust wear a baseball cap like the other kids?"
BARNEY'S MOTHER: "I realize strained plums are your favorite, Barney, but you're starting to look a little purple."
MARY'S MOTHER: "I'm not upset that your lamb followed you to school, Mary,but I would like to know how he got a better grade than you."
BATMAN'S MOTHER: "It's a nice car, Bruce, but do you realize how much the insurance is going to be?"
GOLDILOCKS' MOTHER: "I've got a bill here for a busted chair from the Bear family. You know anything about this, Goldie?"
LITTLE MISS MUFFET'S MOTHER: "Well, all I've got to say is if you don't get off your tuffet and start cleaning your room, there'll be a lot more spiders around here!"
ALBERT EINSTEIN'S MOTHER: "But, Albert, it's your senior picture. Can't you do something about your hair? Styling gel, mousse, something...?"
GEORGE WASHINGTON'S MOTHER: "The next time I catch you throwing money across the Potomac, you can kiss your allowance good-bye!"
JONAH'S MOTHER: "That's a nice story, but now tell me where you've really been for the last three days."
SUPERMAN'S MOTHER: "Clark, your father and I have discussed it, and we've decided you can have your own telephone line. Now will you quit spending somuch time in all those phone booths?"
THOMAS EDISON'S MOTHER: "Of course I'm proud that you invented the electric light bulb, Thomas. Now turn off that light and get to bed!"
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Marley And Me
What are you reading or what have you read recently that you would recommend ?
I recently finished reading "Marley and Me", the book that Maria on "Silver Fox Whispers" recommended. I really enjoyed this story (true) about a misbehaving yellow lab and his owners trials tribulations and joy they found in loving "Marley" the big dumb ox.
After reading about Marley, I felt I wanted to learn more about the author,John Grogan, so I looked him up at the "Philadelphia Enquirer" newspaper where he is a columnist.
I read his "expose" column*** in which he ,"tongue in cheek", compares his book with the James Frey book " A Million Little Pieces" Frey has been accused of plagiarism and exaggaration.
(from John Grogan's column)
***"Marley & Me: The whole truth
In light of the scandal enveloping best selling author James Frey, who now admits his purportedly nonfiction memoir "A Million Little Pieces" is riddled with fabrications and exaggerations, the online accuracy watchdog "SmokingCanine.com "has launched an investigation into another memoir currently topping best-seller lists. We now bring you this shocking expose:. PHILADELPHIA - Credible evidence has surfaced that Inquirer columnist John Grogan might have greatly exaggerated Marley's antics"
My email to John Grogan ,
Subject: Marley And Me Expose Column
Funny I should happen upon your article about the "allegations" regarding you and Marley.
After finishing "Marley And Me" I asked my daughter, who had also read the book, if she really believed that Marley could have done all those wild and crazy things or if the author embellished some of the antics.
She said yes, she did believe every word. And then she reminded me of the black Lab mix that could have been Marley's twin separated at birth as far as behavior is concerned. Daughter tried obedience training but "Georgia" just did not get it. After Georgia ate up a 5 foot long wooden planter and part of the deck, daughter could take it no longer so she gave "Georgia" to a friend who had a farm.
On the other hand our son who had the litter mate to Georgia (he named her Allie since he and his family had found the two pups on the side of the highway on their return trip from Alabama to Georgia,) would not think of giving up his Lab who coexists with the two Jack Russells who were the original dogs in their family. We all think that Allie got more of the Lab DNA than Georgia did. I did not know until then that pups from the same litter can have different Dads.
Anyway I am not quite finished with "Marley And Me" but I know how it will end as Marley is not feeling well and has lost his hearing so I am preparing to cry at the end.
Our last dog was a Springer Spaniel named "Mollie". Smartest dog that ever graced this planet. She must have had a terrific internal clock. Every night she would get up from her favorite spot in the den and put herself to bed in the kitchen at exactly 10pm. When the time changed she went to bed at 9pm until her clock reset itself. Like Marley, our Mollie also went deaf a few years before her death. Sad.
"Mollie" died in our kitchen from smoke inhalation after lightening struck our house while we were out for the evening. Sweet dog. that broke my heart. I still miss her.
Anyway, I didn't mean to ramble but you probably know how grandmothers love to talk. I just wanted to tell you I am sorry for even thinking you might have taken poetic license about Marley.
"Marley and Me" is a great book and a fine tribute to Marley.
You really loved that big guy.
Chancy Gardner
John Grogan's Reply:
Reply: "Thanks for your note, Chancy...and yes, it's ALL true. As any Lab owner knows, these dogs do the darnedest things.
best to you, John"
I recently finished reading "Marley and Me", the book that Maria on "Silver Fox Whispers" recommended. I really enjoyed this story (true) about a misbehaving yellow lab and his owners trials tribulations and joy they found in loving "Marley" the big dumb ox.
After reading about Marley, I felt I wanted to learn more about the author,John Grogan, so I looked him up at the "Philadelphia Enquirer" newspaper where he is a columnist.
I read his "expose" column*** in which he ,"tongue in cheek", compares his book with the James Frey book " A Million Little Pieces" Frey has been accused of plagiarism and exaggaration.
(from John Grogan's column)
***"Marley & Me: The whole truth
In light of the scandal enveloping best selling author James Frey, who now admits his purportedly nonfiction memoir "A Million Little Pieces" is riddled with fabrications and exaggerations, the online accuracy watchdog "SmokingCanine.com "has launched an investigation into another memoir currently topping best-seller lists. We now bring you this shocking expose:. PHILADELPHIA - Credible evidence has surfaced that Inquirer columnist John Grogan might have greatly exaggerated Marley's antics"
My email to John Grogan ,
Subject: Marley And Me Expose Column
Funny I should happen upon your article about the "allegations" regarding you and Marley.
After finishing "Marley And Me" I asked my daughter, who had also read the book, if she really believed that Marley could have done all those wild and crazy things or if the author embellished some of the antics.
She said yes, she did believe every word. And then she reminded me of the black Lab mix that could have been Marley's twin separated at birth as far as behavior is concerned. Daughter tried obedience training but "Georgia" just did not get it. After Georgia ate up a 5 foot long wooden planter and part of the deck, daughter could take it no longer so she gave "Georgia" to a friend who had a farm.
On the other hand our son who had the litter mate to Georgia (he named her Allie since he and his family had found the two pups on the side of the highway on their return trip from Alabama to Georgia,) would not think of giving up his Lab who coexists with the two Jack Russells who were the original dogs in their family. We all think that Allie got more of the Lab DNA than Georgia did. I did not know until then that pups from the same litter can have different Dads.
Anyway I am not quite finished with "Marley And Me" but I know how it will end as Marley is not feeling well and has lost his hearing so I am preparing to cry at the end.
Our last dog was a Springer Spaniel named "Mollie". Smartest dog that ever graced this planet. She must have had a terrific internal clock. Every night she would get up from her favorite spot in the den and put herself to bed in the kitchen at exactly 10pm. When the time changed she went to bed at 9pm until her clock reset itself. Like Marley, our Mollie also went deaf a few years before her death. Sad.
"Mollie" died in our kitchen from smoke inhalation after lightening struck our house while we were out for the evening. Sweet dog. that broke my heart. I still miss her.
Anyway, I didn't mean to ramble but you probably know how grandmothers love to talk. I just wanted to tell you I am sorry for even thinking you might have taken poetic license about Marley.
"Marley and Me" is a great book and a fine tribute to Marley.
You really loved that big guy.
Chancy Gardner
John Grogan's Reply:
Reply: "Thanks for your note, Chancy...and yes, it's ALL true. As any Lab owner knows, these dogs do the darnedest things.
best to you, John"
Time Began In A Garden
We had a sundail that had these words on the dial:
"TIME BEGAN IN A GARDEN"
(click on picture for larger, clearer image)
http://www.typogenerator.net/index.php?new=true
(Typogenerator takes any words you type in and makes a poster from them)
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/74/74-h/p1.htmhttp://www.gutenberg.org/files/74/74-h/p1.htm
This site is amazing. Graphically it is extremely plain but the content is awesome. Thousands of books which are no longer under copyright protection are here, ready to be read on line or downloaded. They even have audio books although I have not tried these. I still prefer a book or newspaper that I hold in my hand and read but this Project Gutenberg is a treasure trove of Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and many many others both fiction and non fiction.
For instance I have an ancient book "The White House Cook Book" published in 1898 which I bought in a little antique shop about 15 years ago. It is interesting to dip in and out of especially to read some of the old fashioned health tips. My copy is falling apart. I went to Project Gutenberg and lo and behold there in its entirety was "The White House Cookbook" http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13923/13923-h/13923-h.htm
Check out this site. You will like it.
Main link
http://www.gutenberg.org
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/74/74-h/p1.htmhttp://www.gutenberg.org/files/74/74-h/p1.htm
This site is amazing. Graphically it is extremely plain but the content is awesome. Thousands of books which are no longer under copyright protection are here, ready to be read on line or downloaded. They even have audio books although I have not tried these. I still prefer a book or newspaper that I hold in my hand and read but this Project Gutenberg is a treasure trove of Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and many many others both fiction and non fiction.
For instance I have an ancient book "The White House Cook Book" published in 1898 which I bought in a little antique shop about 15 years ago. It is interesting to dip in and out of especially to read some of the old fashioned health tips. My copy is falling apart. I went to Project Gutenberg and lo and behold there in its entirety was "The White House Cookbook" http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13923/13923-h/13923-h.htm
Check out this site. You will like it.
Main link
http://www.gutenberg.org
Friday, May 05, 2006
Something to think about
I forget where on the internet I read this. A good lesson about anger.
"A BAG OF NAILS"
"Once upon a time there was a little boy with a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he should hammer a nail in the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. But gradually, the number of daily nails dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the first day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He proudly told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out, it won't matter how many times you say 'I'm sorry', the wound is still there."
"A BAG OF NAILS"
"Once upon a time there was a little boy with a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he should hammer a nail in the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. But gradually, the number of daily nails dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the first day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He proudly told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out, it won't matter how many times you say 'I'm sorry', the wound is still there."
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