Friday, July 18, 2014

Brother Joe; YUM; Karnak; Master Race; Immigrant Children; Holocaust; Four-winged Fossil Raptor; Teeth; IRS; Pot in DC; North Sudan; HA!

Beautiful Summer day.. low humidity, not too hot.  Went to the Drawing Room Meeting where I live and learned that we are getting closer to obtaining wi-fi in the homes.  Also, put together 10 boxes and now I can get off my dead butt and fill them with stuff and get my "den" in order.


01.  *Joe .. Book Titles


I've mentioned my brother, Joe, before in many places in these blog entries.  Joe is an expert in the English language and is a puzzle expert (sometimes called Ishmael) and he has revised some famous book titles and I will list a few of them every few days:


Harper Lee book about a drunken bird:  Tequila Mockingbird


Victor Hugo book about a runaway thief who gets a pardon:  Less Miserable


Dickens book about a guy who fondles women on the subway: David Cop A Feel


Dumas book about a member of royalty who gets rich inventing a lard substitute:
The Count of Monte Crisco


02.  *Stocks ..  YUM


the Dow Jones average fell, due to the plane crash in the Ukraine;  Stocks were sold off and money was poured into "safe haven" investments like gold and Government bonds.


My YUM stock isn't so "Yummy" because of poor Pizza Hut and  Taco Bell results lately.


Karnak:


Answer: Taco Bell
Question:  Name the Mexican phone company.


03.  County Improvements .. Study Cost


I'm afraid that I have to agree with Richard Rothschild on this one.   A company that will want to sell "improvements" to Carroll County, wants to do a study to find out what "improvements" are needed, and will charge the County $125,000 to do the study.  I find this ridiculous.


04.  The Master Race


In 1934, a Hitler organization magazine featured the picture of a 6-month old child on its cover.  They claimed that this was a picture of a "typical beautiful Aryan child" and Nazis all agreed.  However, this week, Hessy Taft (age 80) donated a copy of the magazine to an Israeli museum because she was the child shown.  The Hitler folks did not know that she was Jewish and the child was kept hidden by her parents and smuggled out of Germany so that she could not be murdered like other Jewish children.  (A fascinating story that shows how stupid the Nazis were.)


05.  *Immigrant Children .. True Colors


Judy Smith of Union Bridge, Maryland, says: "Two of our Commissioners who pray to Jesus at the beginning of Board of Commissioners meetings showed their true colors (in the Immigrant Children situation).  Rothschild and Frazier are, in my opinion, just plain hypocrites, revealing their bigotry once more." 


06.  *The Holocaust .. War Crimes


The U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC now has a full copy of the U.N. War Crimes Commission archive that was locked for 70 years at the U.N.  The archive, in digital form, is now available for research at the museum.


Individual Criminal examples are  listed in the file, such as:


Helmut Steinmetz murdered a crippled man on the street and also killed a porter with a stick for refusing to carry his luggage.


Elmar Luder Precht, chief dentist for some concentration camps, selected Auchwitz inmates for execution if they had valuable gold or platinum teeth.


I remember reading about some guards killing inmates with nice tattoos, because the skin could be made into beautiful lamp shades.  I assume that is mentioned in the archive.


If I were religious, I would say: "May the Nazis and their sympathizers burn forever in the fires of Hell!"


07.  *Creationism ..  4-wings!


A scientific report says that a newly discovered set of fossil remains indicate that they were from a 4-winged raptor... however, that article did not give an age of the remains.. but I'm sure that they were under 5,000 years old.


08.  Brush and Floss


The English are notorious for having bad teeth, even the Royals, and the actors who play them on television.  And now a report says that a study reveals 26,000 British kids aged 5 through 9, each year, have to be treated for rotten teeth. 


09.  *IRS Scandal .. Or is it?


Are the Republicans hunting for a White House conspiracy?


Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings said it:  "This is not the basis of a White House scandal.  This is the latest example of Republicans desperately searching for one, and then using any excuse they have to manipulate the facts until they no longer have any resemblance to the truth."


10.  *Pot Laws .. District of Columbia


In spite of Republican Representative Andy Harris' underhanded attempt to overrule DC  "home rule type" actions, Reduced Pot Penalties are now in effect in the Nation's Capitol.


11.  New Country in Africa


How are things going in that new African country, The Kingdom of North Sudan?  This was originally an unclaimed piece of empty land in the African desert between Egypt and Sudan.  "King" Jeremiah Heaton claimed the land for his six year old daughter, "Princess" Emily.


12.  Book to  Read ..  HA!


Fellow Boston University graduate, Scott Weems, has written a wonderful book about laughter. I've only read a little of the book so far, but I've learned a lot.


Aristotle said that babies don't have souls until their first giggle  and every baby first laughs at the fortieth day of life.


Scott mentions the laughter infection that started in a girls' school and lasted for months, even infecting villages.


He also mentions that dirtiest of all dirty jokes, The Aristocrats.  If you haven't been exposed to it, avoid it if possible.  If you are overly curious.. just think of every smutty, scatological, dirty word or phrase or situation that an eleven year old snotty-nosed naughty boy has ever dreamed of.. its worse than that.   All of the famous comedians have told their versions of this joke and have hoped that none of their fans have heard them tell it.  It should never be heard outside of the Friars Club.


Scott doesn't actually tell the joke, just talks about it, as a good scientist should do. And there is a lot more to the book than what I have mentioned, and I will be keeping you informed on my progress through this wonderful tome.
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