Happy Labor Day! Very hot and sunny. Pleasant.
Chris and Kathleen treated us and Kathleen's mother to a wonderful supper at the Texas Roadhouse. I don't know about the others, but my sirloin steak was just right at medium rare. Delicious! I wonder how they know just how long to cook meat. (The only problem with the meal was my big mouth.. I talk all the time.. how do I learn to shut up and let others speak?)
"As children, we have imaginary friends. We grow up and we replace them with imaginary enemies." Patrick Hardin (Funny Paper) (But, Patrick, when we make friends with our imaginary enemies, they become our imaginary friends again, and we are no longer paranoid.)
01. Hobby Genesis
New Yorker: Paul Rudnick writes: "... when the serpent first offered Eve the apple she replied: 'I bet if I shellacked that apple and studded it with fragrant cloves, and then hot-glued the whole thing with an overlay of jumbo red sequins, it would make a darling year-round ornament for our Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.'" And thus was born the business named Hobby Lobby.
02. Es gibt nur eine..
Vereinsnachrichten: The German Society of Maryland set aside 4 awards of $800 each to college students majoring in German, but were only able to find one who was recommended for an award. German language studies are declining rapidly throughout the U.S. Even John Hopkins, once the foremost university in America in the field of German language, last year dissolved its German Department and merged it into its Modern Language Department.
03. Es gibt nur eine.. nochmals
Vereinsnachrichten: The German Society of Maryland announced that it was giving $6 to each youth aged 2 through 20 who was brought to its "culture stand." One hundred gift certificates were printed in anticipation. However, once again, there was only one taker.
04. Governor Scott Walker's Wisconsin Platform
The Progressive: Ruth Conniff writes that Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin and his legislative allies have "rammed" through one American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) bill after another, from Voter ID to Concealed Carry.
She writes about his platform: "... his aggressive agenda came straight from the national rightwing playbook:
Undercut and decertify the unions;
Disempower women, minorities, and Democratic voters;
Cut funding for public services;
Privatize public schools;
Deregulate industry; and
Hand out taxpayer dollars to corporations."
05. Dixie.. or.. New York, New York
The Week: In a survey of residents by the National Bureau of Economic Research, Richmond, Virginia was named the happiest Metropolitan area in the U.S. and New York City was named the unhappiest.
06. The Horn Blows at ...
Victor Book of Musical Fun: One night "Stokowski was conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra in Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 3, and the off-stage trumpet call twice failed to sound on cue. Directly the last note of the overture had been played, the apoplectic Stokowski rushed into the wings with murder in his heart. He found the trumpeter struggling in the clutches of a burly watchman. 'I tell you you can't blow that damn thing here, " the watchman kept insisting. 'There's a concert going on inside.'"
07. *Tatoos again
The Week: A 24 year-old male modeling candidate had dozens of words tattooed on his face. Lin Los had his cheeks, forehead and neck covered with words, which he hopes will make him stand out from other models. I wonder if one of those words is "IDIOT!"
08. Smart musical Italian guy
BBC Music: Guido of Arezzo (991 -1033), a Benedictine Monk dreamed up the musical stave, which could record exact pitches and rhythms, which then could be disseminated around the world. It's still being used today.. or so I'm told by my musical friends.
09. Mensa Joke
Mensa Bulletin: Two men walk into a bar;
The first man says, "I'll have a glass of H2O."
The second man says: "I'll have a glass of H2O too."
The second man died.
(from Esther Rose Pedersen)
10. *IRS .. Keywords
In 2013, the IRS acknowledged that it had improperly flagged certain groups for scrutiny if they contained common Tea Party keywords.. The Maryland Senior Citizen Hall of Fame has an acronym we believe caused the IRS to give our group a hard time by removing our tax-exempt status and causing us large expense to convince them that we deserved to have it back.
The acronym: MSCHF.
11. Open to a scam?
AARP: If you do any of the following online, you may open yourself for duping by a fraudster who is after your Senior Citizen money:
1. Click on a pop-up ad.
2. Open an email from someone you don't know.
3. Sign up for a free offer.
4. Sell merchandise in an auction.
5. Send funds through an internet money transfer service.
7. Post your home address, phone number, vacation plans, names of children or grandkids on social media.
12. Georgia Justice?
New Yorker: a man who stole a $2 can of beer from a convenience store, was ordered by a judge to spend a year wearing an ankle bracelet operated by a company called Sentinel Offender Services. They charged him a fee for the bracelet and he ended up owing more than a thousand dollars to the company in fees and late-payment penalties, and started selling his blood to keep up. It wasn't enough and another judge jailed him for the unpaid fees, which actually are not even authorized by any legal statute.
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1 comment:
We love hearing your stories, pop. I wish you'd write up your memoirs - I'd buy a copy!
(#2 & 3) I'm sorry to hear about the German Society's problems. I took two years of German in college, but I've forgotten most of what I learned through disuse. Germany is the economic powerhouse of Europe, so I don't think there's too much risk of the language dying out.
(#10) That's a great acronym, pop. I think it suits you :)
(#12) You just couldn't make this stuff up!
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