Weekly Stuff for May Day 2010

Today I want to cover a bunch of stuff that I find interesting. I'll keep the long stuff for the end so that readers can quit early if they want to.

01. ET?

Dr. Hawkings says that we should not be so anxious to look for alien life. Remember what happened to the Indian population of the New World when Europeans discovered them.

Someone on Wait, Wait said that if aliens happen to land their space crafts in Arizona, they will be immediately arrested as being undocumented and we won't have to worry about them any more.

02. I Feel the Earth Move...

That Iranian cleric who said that women wearing sexy clothing was causing earthquakes was right. As a group of women were protesting his statements, an earthquake of 6.5 magnitude hit Taiwan.

03. Phoney Fido?

Does anyone remember when leashes were sold for invisible dogs? When was that? In the 1970? Now that there are a couple of generations who did not have the experience of paying lots of money to walk an invisible dog may be willing to kick in a few bucks to do so. Hey, somebody could become a millionaire with this ploy. I wonder where all those left-over leashes are being held. In a storage room with pet rocks?

04. WC?

At the local Ag Center, the rest room for ladies is labeled: Ladie's and the rest room for men is labeled: Men. What happens in Scotland? Women: Ladies' and men: Laddies.

Is Men's a valid usage? Is Ladie's a valid usage? Is Lady's a valid usage? Men Room? Women Room? Rest room? Who cares?

05. A Statement?

I have a blue Toyota Rav-4. I think that it must be a drawing card for nasty birds, because almost every morning I find that birds have left calling cards all over it. Now, I can kind of understand that the birds around my home like to poop on my car and I can live with that.. but why is it that when I park in a large parking lot at a super market or department store, when I come out of the store, I find that my car has been visited by those nasty birds... but none of the other cars in the vicinity have been soiled?

Is this getting even for me chasing cat birds away from my blue berries every year at my last home?

06. They have found me again.

Once again this week, Republican organizations have sent me letters stating how much they think of me and appointing me to some kind of local committee, as soon as they receive a contribution between $15 and $1,000. Last week, it was the Democrats. They must both have the same fund raising companies working for them.

With these letters, I get "have you stopped beating your wife?" type questions from both parties, although the Republicans are the most virolent. As an Independent, I was hoping not to get these stupid requests for money. As a former member of one of the parties, I got only one letter of these types, from that party.. now, I get them from both sides.

I hear that the Republican party in California is paying an $8 bounty for every new member that is signed up. (Shades of what they said about Acorn?)

07. The greatest invention!

This is the 30th anniversary of the Post-it note. What a wonderful tool. What did we do before? It's hard to remember. Paper clips? Staples? Corner folds? I buy the little yellow ones, about 1 1/2" by 2". I love them. I buy them by the gross. The story of its invention is interesting. American ingenuity.

08. Well done!

I hear that fuel is being developed from meat. (Maybe those aliens mentioned above will come to earth to refuel with some of the billions of people being cultivated on this planet. Remember the SCI FI story, where the aliens drop off breeding couples on each earth-like planet as a long range food supply.)

09. Wisdom.

On Wait, Wait, someone stated a translation of a German phrase that should be considered by us in the U. S.

"When the rooster crows on the dung heap, the weather changes... or doesn't."

10. Incarceration figure.

The Drug Policy Alliance cites the fact that there are over 2 million Americans behind bars in the U.S., or 1 in every 99.1 adults. This is the highest incarceration rate in the world.

11. A Collection of Nouns

Carroll County Times writer, Sue Yingling, writes about collective nouns.

A peep of chickens.
A paddling of ducks.
A hover of hummingbirds.
An exultation of larks.
A wisdom of owls.
A pounce of cats.
A slither of snakes.
A giggle of girls.
A stumble of drunks.
A wad of paper.

I don't know if she made some of these up or not. Some years ago, I worked with a guy at the Social Security Administration named Bob Hale. When he wasn't doing the Government's bidding, he collected collective nouns like this. He had a very large collection.

Bob was an interesting guy. His great, great, great grandmother was Sarah Hale (see #12 below.) Bob ran a club for writers called "Wordsmiths" and I was priviledged to make a presentation to the group about one of the world's "bad boy" writers, the infamous Frank Harris. I've always wondered what became of Bob. (He's not on Facebook or Twitter and his name is too common to connect with on other search engines.)

12. Sarah Hale (1788 - 1879)

Bob Hale's famous relative had a number of interesting happenings connected with her name. She was instrumental in getting President Lincoln to declare a day of Thanksgiving in the U.S. in 1863. She was also editor of Ladies' Magazine and Godey's Lady's Book.

But her most famous accomplishment was as the author of the poem: Mary had a Little Lamb.

Most of us learn the first part of that poem, but there are two more parts. You can check them out on Google.

And to leave you with a smile (perhaps), you may remember the "take-off" verse:

Mary had a little lamb,
And the doctor darn near fainted.

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Names and News

Today, I will make comments on the pronounciation of Mucha and Sotomayor, recommend a couple of books to read, and pass on some observations from Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, my favorite radio show. (BTW: look up pronunciation and pronounciation online.. then maybe you will be as confused as I am about which spelling is correct.. or which pronounciation of either is correct.. ain't English great?)

At an art gallery in Towson, Elaine and I were recently shown l0ts of works by Alfonse Mucha. The owner spoke Mucha as MOO-CU(p). I speak Mucha as MU-SHA and sometimes as MU-CHA. Since Al was a Czech, I found out that his name in Czech is pronounced: MOO-CA(r). Suggested pronounciation in English is the same as in Czech. So.. we were both wrong.

In any event, the owner has gone to the Czech Republic and brought back lots of Mucha stuff which she has reframed for sale. One of the items is a framed print of a beautiful (zaftig) young lady, a copy of which I paid $4 at a small antique store in Westminster, Maryland. She is selling it for $250! Her prices are a bit out of range for me; but perhaps not for people who live in Towson.

Once, we found a framed print of a mother with her two daughters at an antique mall in Frederick. We paid a very large price for it. Two store stalls later we found the identical item for much much less. Guess what... the first person gave us our money back and we bought the latter print. (It's still my favorite picture because it looks just like my two beautiful daughters watching my new-born son who is in his mother's arms.)

Now that I have learned how to pronounce Mucha, I turn my attention to Ms Sotomayor. Apparently, there is a Conservative commentator who feels that we should not succomb to the temptation to pronounce her name as though we were Puerto Ricans, but rather pronounce it the good old fashioned American way as: So to mayer. OMIGAWD! What next!

Yesterday, we were happy to attend granddaughter Bridget's college graduation. It was a great day and we are very proud of what a fine young woman she has become. Usually on Saturday morning, I listen to my favorite NPR show: Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! So, this morning (Sunday) I listened to the show on my PC. I kind of like this better, because it cuts out 13 minutes of unrelated news and advertising. Some of the things I learned today:

01. Panelist Charlie Pierce has published a new book that will anger a lot of people. I have read parts of it, and I highly recommend it for "thinking" people.. the title happens to be: "Idiot America." You will be hearing a lot about this book, I'm sure.

02. Panelist Roy Blunt, Jr. also has published a new book that will be great, especially for those interested in "words" and their derivations and current and past meanings. I read a couple of pages out on Amazon and found it quite enlightening. The title is: Alphabet Juice (had he already used Alphabet Soup?)

03. Somebody on the show mentioned that for 17 years, Jay Leno "has pretended to be funnier and dumber than he is." Elaine and I feel that since the Writers' Strike, Jay's monologues have not been funny at all. However, we also feel that his most unfunny moment is far and away more funny than anything we have ever seen Conan O'Brien do on his "show". Prediction: The demise of the Tonight Show.

04. Prisoners in France will be participating in a 400 mile bicycle race. It is meant as a rehabilitation aid. One prisoner stated: "It's kind of an escape for us." Time will tell.

05. Robert Earl Keen, Austin, Texas, singer and song-writer had a couple of different type jobs while he was struggling to make it in the business: Singing at Yard-Sales and digging ditches. (His father had always told him: If you stick with music, you'll end up digging ditches.) Once he caught his wife shooting at cats while dressed in her underwear. He was inspired to write a Country song about it.

06. I can not vouch for the truth of this, but it was mentioned in a discussion of the Skull and Bones Society at Yale University. They mentioned that H.W. Bush was the "most sexually experienced" member and W. Bush could not decide on an appellation, and was called "Temporary." ??

07. It was mentioned that a DC Councilman wants to ban pizza joints that serve giant slices of pizza, because these deals draw unsavory customers.

08. This I find the most amazing of anything I've heard lately. Apparently, the city of Hardin, Montana, has a new jail that is empty. They have said that they would like to house the Gitmo prisoners in their new facility. They think that this would result in more income to the city from notoriety, tourism, or whatever would be connected with the move.

How about..... gang members and/or drug sellers being sent to Montana to serve their time, at hard labor. It might keep them out of contact with their buddies and girl friends who smuggle cell phones and other contraband when they visit. Russia had the Gulag.. and just think, some of the prisoners might just find the feeling of accomplishment that Ivan Denisovitch finally felt when his building was completed in spite of the bitter cold, etc..... (read: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch... a marvelous book that you would never forget.)

09. People from Yuma, Arizona are called yumans.

10. An inventor in France has invented the Dogomatic dog washer.

11. A three year study at Oxford discovered that ducks like water.

12. The people living on Butt Hole Road in Great Britain have successfully changed the name of the street. (There is a group of people on the Internet who are lobbying them to have the name changed back to what it was before.)

13. A man was caught after slashing the tires of 50 automobiles. When asked why he did it, he said it was because his mother made him wear braces 20 years ago. He even carried a picture of himself wearing the braces. The cops agreed that he looked pretty bad then.

ENOUGH!

PS: if any of my Baltimore readers remember the Electric Park on Belvedere Avenue, please let me know.