Quick Stuff

I only have a little time to squeeze in some weird blog stuff. Let's see how much I can do in a half hour.

01. If "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend," why is a dog man's best friend? Doesn't sound equal to me.

02. Did I hear this right? A small town installed a traffic camera and took in over one million dollars during just the first month. (If true, there must be some kind of riot going on in that town.)

03. I heard that a 93 year old man died and his son found that he had many many magazine subscriptions that extended all the way to the year 2024. (One of our friends could never say "no" to the young folks who came to her door selling subscriptions.. when she died, she probably had lots of these long subscriptions as well.)

04. I saw mentioned in an article in the Nation magazine: Joseph Schumpeter paraphrased Lincoln: "Even if you cannot fool all of the people all of the time, you can fool enough people long enough to do irreversible damage."

05. Mark Twain said: "Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society."

(Burning question: During a nude wedding, where does the "best man" carry the ring? Also, at a nude wedding, is he really the "best man"? Sorry.)

06. A recent British study revealed that eating chocolate makes you smarter.

07. Moe Berg, famous baseball player was a linguist, speaking several languages, including Japanese. He led a very interesting life and when I have enough time, I'll write a blog entry about him.

08. American Profile magazine says that Joanne Brunet is famous for her collection of 4,000 packs of gum that she has saved over the last 68 years. The gum is stored in 112 cases. The oldest piece of gum was from 1932, Wrigley's Doublemint.

09. The Carroll Eagle magazine reports that the Hampstead, Maryland highway bypass has now been built. Local residents have waited 40 years for this day. Before the bypass, commuters had a driving nightmare. To satisfy environmentalists, the State Highway Agency had tunnels installed underneath the highway for bog turtles to use to cross, and are using goats to trim the grass, instead of taking a chance on mower blades striking the turtles. The bog turtles are an Endangered Species.

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/Burning Questions for July 25th 2009

While listening to a few NPR Saturday morning shows, some questions popped into my head:

01. Does the newly-developed EATR robot really fuel up on human flesh?.. and wouldn't that be one way to get rid of excess body fat?

02. Will "pole-dancing" (some call "lateral dancing") become a valid Olympic sport?

03. Where would a chicken hide under the hood of a car? One recently took such a ride.

(A number of years ago, my kids and I stopped at a gas station 3 miles away from our house. As I lifted the hood to check the oil, a white cat popped out and began to purr. I guess that was to tell us that she had had a nice ride. The cat belonged to a neighbor who was pleased to get her back, even though she needed a scrubbing to get the grease out.)

04. What happened to the original video of the Apollo-11 flight?

For those that think that it never happened, I would refer you to our friend, Al Lister, who examined all the specs for the rockets and made sure that they were followed exactly. He knew these astronauts personally and was a great source of flight information. I believe that he also was presented with a moon rock.

05. What is the purpose of the little ball on top of a flagpole?

06. What ever happened to Moe Berg, the baseball player who spoke 7 languages?

07. Why do "free" burials for veterans cost $16?

08. Why did Governor "Big Arnie" Schwartzenegger open a video to Californians by examining a giant knife?

(When my son and I were deep into weightlifting and bodybuilding, Big Arnie was our hero. Nobody... before or after.. has ever had such massively well-developed muscles. The "Austrian Oak" was handled by Canadian Joe Wieder and won every major body-building award .. most of them several times. )

There is a popular story about Arnold. He had bought a new red convertible and stopped at an outside phone booth to make a call.. he left the motor running and some guy jumped in and was about to drive it away.. however, the guy apparently wasn't too knowledgable about stick-shift cars and this delayed him enough that Arnie was able to bound out of the booth, reach into the car, pick the guy up, and crush his head... I wonder if this really happened.. I know that I would not want to get Arnold mad at me, even today.

09. What does the biblical phrase "The Visitation" refer to?

Of course, I should know this. My religious friends might help me out here. There is a wonderful painting by Peter Paul Rubens named "The Visitation". He painted it in 1613.

10. Will the "bark-to-Japanese" translation device be marketed in the US?

Some dogs in Japan are now "bow-lingual".

11. What ads will be shown on the moon? (I guess they will only appear when there is a full moon.)

12. When will Nora, the piano-playing cat make an appearance at Baltimore's Lyric Theatre?

13. Why did undercover cops for two different North Carolina police units arrest each other for drug possession?

14. Why did Kelly Hildebrand marry Kelly Hildebrand? How will they name their kids?

15. Why didn't anyone bid on the Watergate complex in a recent auction?

16. Was the Taco Bell dog assassinated?

Well, now I have given you and me lots of stuff to look up with Wikipedia and Google.

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