Living In the World, Not on It

ARTICLE - Andy Rooney on Women Over Forty

2011-12-28T19:56:00.000-05:00

Andy Rooney on Women Over Forty

Andy Rooney says:

As I grow in age, I value women who are over forty most of all. Here are just a few reasons why:

A woman over forty will never wake you in the middle of the night to ask, “What are you thinking?” She doesn’t care what you think.

If a woman over forty doesn’t want to watch the game, she doesn’t sit around whining about it. She does something she wants to do. And, it’s usually something more interesting.

A woman over forty knows herself well enough to be assured in who she is, what she is, what she wants and from whom. Few women past the age of forty give a hoot what you might think about her or what she’s doing.

Women over forty are dignified. They seldom have a screaming match with you at the opera or in the middle of an expensive restaurant. Of course, if you deserve it, they won’t hesitate to shoot you, if they think they can get away with it.

Older women are generous with praise, often undeserved. They know what it’s like to be unappreciated.

A woman over forty has the self-assurance to introduce you to her women friends. A younger woman with a man will often ignore even her best friend because she doesn’t trust the guy with other women. Women over forty couldn’t care less if you’re attracted to her friends because she knows her friends won’t betray her.

Women get psychic as they age. You never have to confess your sins to a woman over forty. They always know.

A woman over forty looks good wearing bright red lipstick. This is not true of younger women. Once you get past a wrinkle or two, a woman over forty is far sexier than her younger counterpart.

Older women are forthright and honest. They’ll tell you right off if you are a jerk, if you are acting like one!

You don’t ever have to wonder where you stand with her.

Yes, we praise women over forty for a multitude of reasons. Unfortunately, it’s not reciprocal. For every stunning, smart, well-coiffed hot woman of forty-plus, there is a bald, paunchy relic in yellow pants making a fool of himself with some twenty-two-year-old waitress.

Ladies, I apologize.

For all those men who say, “Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free,” here’s an update for you. Now 80 percent of women are against marriage, why? Because women realize it’s not worth buying an entire pig, just to get a little sausage.

ARTICLE - Pubic Hair: 2012's Hottest Accessory?

2011-12-28T19:51:00.000-05:00

In the 1970s, bigger was better. In the ’80s and ’90s, its popularity waxed and waned. But in the ’00s, that once-revered patch of lovely lady locks performed a vanishing act. We’re talking about pubic hair, folks, and the fact that once upon a time, people embraced the bush, but over the last decade, it has fallen out of favor as more and more women opt for bald vajayjays.

Some people blame porn and a youth-obsessed culture that infantilizes women for the vilification of pubic hair, while others trace its demise to Sex and the City and Carrie Bradshaw’s introduction of the Brazilian wax to the mainstream. Whatever the case, the trend has caught on enough for a college-age man in Minnesota to say that he’d never hook up with a girl with pubic hair and that he’d be disgusted to undress a woman and discover a, as the Atlantic put it, “veil of genital fur.” But the tide may be changing on this “bare is better” mentality, or at least that’s what our friends at Jezebel suggest. The fact that waxed vulvas are officially mainstream, or mainstream enough to be the expressed preference in a Minnesota college classroom, might mean that it’s lost its appeal for elite tastemakers, who must now reach for something taboo to shock the masses, something unexpected, something—gasp!—au natural.

The basis for this hypothesis? The latest issue of the decidedly cool and edgy fashion magazine Industrie, which features model Saskia de Brauw in the nude with her bush blazing. And in the last year, mossy cottages have graced the pages of LOVE magazine, Vogue Paris, and Arena Homme Plus. Maybe this is the beginning of the end for the bald lady flower after all. What do you think? Are you happy to see nature’s tufted treasure make a comeback?

(Fun vagina euphemisms courtesy of TheFrisky.)

And my thoughts?

I've tried shaving it all off more than once. When a cure for the severe itching that occurs when growing back the patch is found, I may try it again. Until then, no thank you. And I find I look strange without something there - as though the clock went back but only partially. It is an odd look to have full breasts, hips and waist but a little girl's pubic area - as if something isn't quite right.

Never once have I gone for or even considered going for a Brazilian wax. Yikes. Beauty is nice, but at what price? Especially for an area seen by two men: Luis and my OB/GYN. ANd my OB/GYN, Dr. Bissinger, is hardly going to comment on my choice of housekeeping where my vagina is concerned - other than to voice a concern over possible damage. And waxing the inside or almost-inside areas of my vagina is not going to feel good under any circumstances. So it is not worth thinking about.

Not to me, anyway.

I wouldn't let it grow unfettered, either. Maybe that sounds funny coming from someone who doesn't bother shaving or waxing her legs in the winter (with the secure knowledge that no one will see my legs in winter), but I don't want a ton of hair cascading down my legs from my private parts. The leg hair is nonexistent on my upper legs and light on my lower but pubic hair is thick, black and not meant to be hanging all over. (OK, it is meant to do that, but it is unattractive to let it do that.) So a certain amount of trimming is to be expected.

And that is all that is to be expected.

Sunday Seven - Episode #320

2011-12-19T20:41:00.000-05:00

There’s a lot of advice about how to blog out there. Much like parenting, there are a lot of “experts” out there, whether they’re actually experts or just amateurs who can put on a convincing show.

I found a list of the Top 100 Blog Tips of All Time. I’m sure there are a lot more than 100 tips out there, but it doesn’t surprise me that someone was able to compile that many.

Some of them are common sense. A few stand out as pretty good ideas. Others are the kind that you read and you just want to smack whoever wrote those particular tips. This latter variety is the kind we’re focusing on.

When you have 100 options, finding seven that you think are the most annoying shouldn’t be too difficult. That’s your challenge for this week.

Be sure to check back this week and click on the links of bloggers who play along in the comments below! It’s a great way to find blogs you may not have visited and to keep the conversation going!

Here is this week’s “Sunday Seven” question. Either answer in a comment here, or put the answers in an entry on your blog (with a link here), and then comment here with a link back to your blog so that everyone else can visit! Permission is not granted to copy the questions to message boards for the purpose of having members answer and play along there. Enjoy!

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION:

Name seven of the Top 100 Blogging Tips of All Time that you find most annoying.

1. Blogs should be about one topic. I didn't look at the list yet, I recall that from one of your posts. How annoying is that?! Why should I be so limited as that? I'm not selling something, I'm not on a tear about one thing and I'm not a politician. So why should I just write about one thing?

2. Don't blog with the only aim of making money... and yet, the list appears to be geared toward ONLY making money, whereas I have no interest in pimping myself or my thoughts out to do so.

3. Whoever wrote this did not spell check or reread it to correct the myriad mistakes made. Yikes...!

4. Why do I need to read e-books when I can read the real thing? Give me pages and books anytime!

5. I must advertise? Why? Who are you to tell I must do anything? (I hate that. It's my blog, not yours to make rules.)

6. I am appalled - ask for donations?! What the hell for? Doesn't anyone do anything for fun any more?

7. The more I read this, the more ticked off I became. For someone who put in points like not making this all about making money and correcting mistakes, it seems that making them and money was ALL it was about. Humph. Bad advice galore.

Either answer the question in a comment or answer it in your journal and include the link in a comment.

Have an idea for a future question? Click “Contact” in the top nav-bar and email it to me!

Saturday Six - Episode #401

2011-12-19T20:20:00.000-05:00

Here are a few more follow-up questions to previous questions I’ve asked in some of the earliest editions of the Saturday Six.

I hope you enjoy these, and I invite you to take go back and play any old set you haven’t already played: it’s never too late to play!

Be sure to check back this week and click on the links of bloggers who play along in the comments below! It’s a great way to find blogs you may not have visited and keep the conversation going!

Here are this week’s “Saturday Six” questions. Either answer the questions in a comment here, or put the answers in an entry on your blog… But don’t forget to leave a link to your blog so that everyone else can visit! Permission is not granted to copy the questions to message boards for the purpose of having members answer and play along there. Enjoy!

1. Follow-up to a question from Episode 37: What is your least favorite Christmas dessert? Um... I don't know... I don't usually eat dessert. I'm not into pie, vanilla ice cream, most sweets. If it was pistachio, that would be one thing.

2. Follow-up to a question from Episode 39: Which cartoon that was popular when you were a child could you just not get into? Practically all of them. I loved Warner Brothers, but stayed away from just about everything else. The funny papers were different. I was always a Peanuts fan, and read most of the other funnies.

3. Follow-up to a question from Episode 40: What’s the most embarrassing cell phone ringtone that you’ve heard someone else’s phone play? Someone I ride with had something about being fat, stupid and drunk. I'd never have that. In fact, my cell sounds like a phone. Then again, I've got a stupid phone.

4. Follow-up to a question from Episode 44: When you’re having a bad day or you’re in a bad mood, which song best keeps you in that bad mood or makes it that much worse? Almost any sad song will do it. That says a lot, but I'm strongly affected by music!

5. Follow-up to a question from Episode 48: What was the first time that you remember truly feeling like an adult? Well, this will sound kind of stupid, but the first time I realised I could think stuff instead of saying everything. Kids do that - they just say anything that pops into their heads. The difference between adults and kids are that we can just think about things instead of saying them (well, some of us... I still have to actually monitor what I'm going to say or out it comes!).

6. Follow-up to a question from Episode 52: When someone first walks into a room, what is the first thing you tend to notice about that person? The person's facial expression and (if it is noticeable) his or her body language. Is this person happy to be there or uncomfortable, or whatever. There is a lot to tell about someone right there. After that, I look at the person's eyes, as that really says a lot.

If you have a Reader’s Choice question you’d like to see asked (and answered), send me an email! I’d love to include it in a future edition of the Saturday Six.

Today's Ember Prediction - February 2012

2011-12-16T08:53:00.000-05:00

On 14 December I posted the Old Farmer's Almanac information and other fun tidbits for this month. If you read it, you may recall that I described the Ember Days that come up four times a year, predicated on specific Roman Catholic holy days. Today is the second Ember Day in December, and by folklore, determines the overall weather in February.

Here is a reminder of the Ember Days and how they work:

Ember Days: The four periods formerly observed by the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches for prayer, fasting, and the ordination of clergy are called Ember Days. Specifically, these are the Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays the follow in succession following (1) the First Sunday in Lent; (2) Whitsunday - Pentecost; (3) the Feast of the Holy Cross, September 14; and (4) the Feast of St. Lucia, December 13. The word ember is perhaps a corruption of the Latin quatuor tempora, "four times."

Folklore has it that the weather on each of the three days foretells the weather for the nest three months; that is, September's Ember Days, Wednesday forecast is for October, Friday for November, and Saturday for December.

So, for February 2012, here is the weather we had on Friday:

It dawned sunny and was unusually warm - around 64°F - and around early afternoon it got cloudy. So maybe February will not be too bad (fat chance, but who knows...).

The next Ember Day is tomorrow, Saturday, 17 December, the final Ember Day for 2011 until March, when that set will determine April, May and June.

Weather is fun!

Today's Ember Day Prediction - January 2012

2011-12-14T18:47:00.001-05:00

On 1 December I posted the Old Farmer's Almanac information and other fun tidbits for this month. If you read it, you may recall that I described the Ember Days that come up four times a year, predicated on specific Roman Catholic holy days. Today is the first Ember Day in December, and by folklore, determines the overall weather in January.

Here is a reminder of the Ember Days and how they work:

So, for January 2012, here is the weather we had today:

It was warmer in the morning and clear to the east and slightly cloudy to the west at dawn. The mean temperature was 38°F/3.33°C (or 276.33°K if you really want to get technical; but Kelvin is best for astronomy as it is the only system of temperature to reach high enough to give stars a temperature) in the morning, then leveled off at 62°F/16.66°C (in Kelvin this would be 289.66). The day was mostly sunny, then a little more overcast toward the sunset (maybe 30% cloud cover). So January is looking rather good. Take heed, all you crazy golfers! This is not bad golfing weather for the first month of the new year and what is usually one of the colder winter months!

The next Ember Day is Friday, 16 December and then the final one is Saturday, 17 December. Friday's weather determines what we will experience in February and Saturday determines the general weather in March. After we cycle through this month's Ember Days, we will then look at January's weather to see how close today's Ember Day was to truth. I love doing things like this.

Weather is fun!

Sunday Stealing - The Blue Memory Meme Part II

2011-12-11T18:57:00.001-05:00

The Blue Memory Meme, Part Two

Welcome back to Sunday Stealing which originated on WTIT: The Blog authored by Bud Weiser. Here we will steal all types of memes from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent memes. You may have heard of the expression, “honor amongst thieves”. In that age-old tradition, we also have our rules. First, we always credit the blog that we stole it from and we will “fess up” to the blog owner where we stole the meme. We also provide a link to the victim's post. (It's our way of saying "Thanks!") We do sometimes edit the original meme, usually to make it more relevant to our global players, to challenge our players, sometimes to select that meme's best questions, or simply to make it less repetitive from either this new meme or recently asked questions from a prior featured meme. Let's go!!!

Today we ripped off a blogger and blog called BlueLifeMemories. It's long so we will do it in two parts. She states she stole it from a friend, but did not say which friend. But, it was probably stolen there as well. So, of course, that will be as far as we go. Tracing back our theft's thieves might take some time. Take the time to comment on other player's posts. It's a great way to make new friends! Link back to us at Sunday Stealing!

Sunday Stealing: The Blue Memory Meme, Part Two

Cheers to all of us thieves!

26) Are you happy with the person you've become? For the most part, I am happy with the person I've become. It has taken me a long time to get to this point and of course, there is always room for growth and learning and improvement. But that is the beauty of living.

27) What's a sound you hate; sound you love? I really, really hated those weird instruments played during the 2010 World Cup. It's up there with babies crying - just like nails on a chalkboard. It was awful. Every time I walked through the break room, I could hear this horrible undercurrent noise and couldn't identify it. Someone told me what it was after the damn sporting event was over.

A sound I love... the cat purring. That is the happiest sound alive.

28) What's your biggest "what if"? My biggest "what if" is what if I end up being unable to walk. I hate thinking about it, but there it is.

29) Do you believe in ghosts? Absolutely.

30) How about aliens? Absolutely. They are just avoiding us because we are totally uncivilised and warlike.

31) What is the single best decision you have made in your life so far? Moving in with Luis.

32) What's the worst place you have ever been to? Hmmm. Newark? I don't know. Every place has its ups and downs. I love most of the places I've been to. Oh, and I like Newark, too. Irvington, now that place is seriously fu-- screwed up.

33) Can insanity bring on more creativity? Sure. Look at Vincent van Gogh. Poor guy went nuts and produced 400 last works in the two months before he took his life!

34) Most attractive actor of your opposite gender? My opposite gender? Is there one specific to me...? OK. Did I get asked this several times already? It sounds quite familiar. Let's see... Um... (I need to think of a new one...) the guy who is in those viral Old Spice video ads. What's his name? Isaiah Mustafa. Yum!

35) To you, what is the meaning of life? Right. Like I have that kind of insight!

36) Define “Art”. It is in the eye of the beholder.

37) Do you believe in luck? Yes, I do.

38) In your opinion, what makes a great relationship? That is specific to every couple. In our relationship, keeping our money separate is the key!

39) What's a song that always makes you happy when you hear it? Goodness, like there is one? Off the top, I would say Every Little Thing She Does is Magic by Sting.

40) Where were you yesterday? I was at the Parsippany Reservoir with Parsippany's Heavy Rescue dive team (freezing my ass off, I might add) checking vitals before and after the divers went in the water, then I came home and went right over to Tom and Alayna's, then we all went out to get our Christmas trees and then we went back to Tom and Alayna's house, set up their tree, went to our house, set up our tree, then picked up pizza in Booton and ate at Tom's and then hung out in front of their fireplace and finally came home around 21:40. At 22:00 I began stringing lights on the massive tree we got and I'll do more tonight. It was a lovely day, really.

41) What's the worst injury you've ever had? I was thrown about twelve feet and hurt my C5 disc, which created a lot of pain. After three years of intense chiropractic work, it was fine, but the first year and a half was HARD.

42) Do you have any obsessions right now? Yes, we are buying a new ambulance and I am spear-heading this massive effort. It's my baby.

43) What's up? Mmmm, the Moon? Should be rising right about now...

44) Ever had a rumor spread about you? Seriously? Have you thought I'd made it to age 43 without SOMEone saying something about me? Anything? It happens all the time! It STILL happens on the squad house. It's really stupid and crazy but I laugh at it now. I'm so far beyond that.

45) Do you believe in real magic? Yes, I do. I look up at the night sky, the trees, the Sun, the Moon, the weather, Montana, California, Vermont, Ireland, Scotland, everywhere I have been and see the magic there all the time. I see it in every sunrise and sunset.

46) Do you ever hold grudges against people who have done you wrong? It's rare but it happens. Once in a very blue Moon. And the last blue Moon was three years ago.

47) What's your favorite (non-pet) animal? Oh, that is a tough one. So many cool animals out there. I really like the platypus, although the males have terribly strong poison in their hind legs. Yup. Things I know that qualify as useless knowledge.

48) What is your secret weapon to get people to like you? Well, I don't know if it is a secret. And I can't say it is any one things. Some people like my dry sense of humour, some my honesty, some my smile (the gods only know why...), or something else. And some can't stand me at all. Who knows?

49) Where is your best friend? Right now I am sure he is at Essex Fells Country Club.

50) What do you think is Satan's last name? Smythe. Definitely. That's how he just fits in and lives on High Street in London. Flat A-10 - S. Smythe. But it is pronounced Janovski... (old George Carlin joke...).

Thank you for playing this week on Sunday Stealing! Please leave a comment or link when you have posted. Stop back and visit other player’s posts. That is really what this is all about, making new friends! Have a great week. See you next Sunday!

Sunday Stealing - The Blue Memory Meme Part 1 (4 December)

2011-12-11T15:22:00.001-05:00

The Blue Memory Meme, Part One

Sunday Stealing: The Blue Memory Meme, Part One

Cheers to all of us thieves!

1) If the whole world were listening to you right now, what would you say? Go find someone more interesting to listen to; I'm tired and a little crabby! Sheesh... (If you ask again tomorrow, who knows what answer you will get, eh?

2) If you could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be? The big qualifier is living or dead, really. But since it is ON this earth, we will stick to the living. I vacillate between Colin Firth, who is such a joy on the silver screen and seems to down-to-earth in interviews; um, well, I can't meet Andy Rooney or Harry Morgan or Steve Jobs, any longer... oh, but I could meet John DeLancie (played Q) and Leonard Nimoy (Spock), Tom Hanks, hmmm. If we were able to include the deceased, the historical and political movers and shakers would be there, scientists, heretics, etc. Alas, who would I meet now? Surely NOT Sarah Palin who came away from a politically paid trip for her AND her family to Boston with 'Of Paul Revere, Palin said, “He who warned the British that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms by ringing those bells and making sure as he’s riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be secure and we were going to be free.“ Revere, of course, warned the colonists of Charlestown that the Hessians were approaching on the night of April 18, 1775 using lanterns (“one if by land, two if by sea”) – not bells. And Paul would've sounded like an idiot saying, "The British are coming," as back in 1775, we all still considered ourselves British. Hence the Hessians were coming.

This is my laptop desktop image. Ques. #13

3) You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go? Well, the Moon, but no one is going there any longer. Wow. So many choices. I'm going to Hawaii! I have always wanted to see the volcanoes and this is it - my perfect chance! If it were early August, I would go to Iceland to see their volcanoes! The other place to drop everything and go to is South Africa, where I have so many friends to see!

4) What do you think about most? Being healthy, normal, wishing I could work, run, do all the things I used to do. Not terribly exciting, I suppose.

5) You have the opportunity to spend a romantic night with the music celebrity of your choice. Who would it be? Oh, ohhh, my... how romantic? Just candlelit dinner and a serenade or the Full Monty, baby? I'd have to say Adam Ant - delicious!

6) You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be? No, I can't do that. I need all of my experiences, good, bad, indifferent - those are what make me, ME. Complete, whole, me. I need them, as much as I might wish I hadn't.

7) What's your strangest talent? I guess on a creative level, drawing. On a not-thinking-about-it level, being empathic to others.

8) What would be a question you'd be afraid to tell the truth on? Oh, soooooo many options...

9) Ever had a poem or song written about you? Yes, but it was MANY years ago and long since forgotten. Not anything famous, mind you!

10) When is the last time you played the air guitar? I guess when I was 16? If ever?

11) Do you have any strange phobias? Do I have any strange phobias. I don't have too many phobias... just one... and it is common as dirt. I'm arachnophobic. Very, very arachnophobic... Horrifyingly so. But that isn't strange.

12) What's your religion? I'm not religious, I'm spiritual, if that makes sense. I like to take bits and pieces from different religions and I ignore one: Roman Catholicism... its history speaks for itself.

13) What is your current desktop picture? It is the image shown above.

14) When you are outside, what are you most likely doing? Different things. Not any one thing comes to mind.

15) What's the last song you listened to? Um... The theme to Apollo 13.

16) Simple but extremely complex. Favorite band? U2, Coldplay, Apocalyptica, Rammstein, Adam & The Ants, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Pink Martini, Beethoven, Mozart, music from around the world... there can be no one favourite.

17) What was the last lie you told? I never lie, ha ha.

18) Do you believe in karma? Yes, I do.

19) What is a saying you say a lot? Bite me. I have to be careful with this, however... Bob (my lieutenant) will actrually grab my arm and bite me! What a nutter!

20) What is your greatest weakness; your greatest strength? A good question and one I used to ask candidates. But there is a trick to answering those questions and this is not a job interview. My greatest weakness is a total lack of patience. I want things and I want them NOW. Hardly a positive. My greatest strength, well, I thought I answered that above... sometimes the greatest strength is the same as the greatest talent...

21) Who is your celebrity crush? Hmmm. Again, so many choices. It is hard to pick one. Let me think. Pierce Brosnan.

22) Give me the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word: heart. Surgery.

23) How do you vent your anger? I'm not one to get truly awfully angry. I discuss my feelings openly as a matter of course, so little has an opportunity to fester and reach a blowing point. However, if you do reach that blowing point, run!

24) Do you have a collection of anything? Yes, I have several collections that I really enjoy. I'm not a hoarder, I promise. But by the tenets of the book Stuff, I am a collector. However, I never let my house get cluttered or my collections take over the house. But that is not what you asked. I collect things that I can use, that are practical. Well, all except one thing. I collect candles, Sensa pens (although Willat sold to Sanford and Sanford didn't make any Sensa pens), writing paper, books, CDs/music, DVDs (to a point; it's a rather small collection), tea, bank notes and coins (United States and foreign) and finally, crystals/gemstones. The crystals/gemstones are pure and simple beauty - they don't have any practical value other than I love to look at them.

25) What is your favorite word? One favourite word? Loquacious. (You're fortunate - usually there is no one favourite word, but you got me at the right time.

Thank you for playing this week on Sunday Stealing! Please leave a comment or link when you have posted. Stop back and visit other player’s posts. That is really what this is all about, making new friends! Have a great week. See you next Sunday!

Sunday Seven - Episode #319

2011-12-11T14:26:00.001-05:00

Here’s a list of Time magazine’s All-Time 100 greatest and most influential gadgets since 1923.

With items that range from cell phones to ballpoint pens, there are surely at least a few items on that list that you have either owned or used. Can you name seven of them?

That’s your challenge for this week.

Be sure to check back this week and click on the links of bloggers who play along in the comments below! It’s a great way to find blogs you may not have visited and to keep the conversation going!

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION:

Name seven of Time’s 100 All-Time Gadgets that you’ve either owned or used.

1. Bose Noise Cancelling headphones: the best things in life are made by Apple AND Bose! I have a pair of these babies - not only can you listen to the music player of your choice, but you can completely block out the noise and deafening sounds of the airplane's engines as well! Life demands the best - and these are the best!

2. Pager: This is not a pager in the simple sense of what you mean. On the squad we carry Motorola pagers (which we still call plektrons, although that is an old term and not accurate). This is a pager by which we hear police headquarters send us a call for us to go to. So we hear "Standby, Car 66..." then we hear our tones blown out by the police, then, "Car 66, your services are requested at 123 Ball Court for an 80-year-old, fallen with hip injury. Time out: 21:38." Pretty cool stuff, huh?

3. Kodak EasyShare One camera: I've had this camera four or five years now and I love it. Excellent images, great to work with, easy to download... what's not to love?

4. Black & Decker Cordless Drill: Anyone can use this. Get a spare battery or two and you are good to go!

5. Smoke detector: Anything that saves lives is worth having and it has already saved ours! I'd always talk to the fire department about what to get, but we have six smoke and heat detectors, all hard-wired to one another so the whole house will be alerted if something is amiss.

6. Clock radio: What would life be without the clock radio? No more just trying to go to sleep without one's favourite radio station to lull you into the arms of Morpheus? Later generations brought us the iClock (or whatever it is called), although I have a CD/clock radio. If I am going to awaken to music, at least let it be the music of my choice!

7. Fisher AG7 Space pen: I admit it: I'm a pen snob. The first pen I did purchase was the Sensa Pen but the second or third one was the Fisher Space Pen. I still have them all and well, there is no better pen on earth! The Fisher pen is great, but the Sensa pens, designed after the Fisher Space pen, is really designed not just to work in zero-G, underwater, in a vacuum, and under any weird circumstance you can think of, it is designed to do it in comfort! This is what makes writing magical!

Either answer the question in a comment or answer it in your journal and include the link in a comment.

Have an idea for a future question? Click “Contact” in the top nav-bar and email it to me!

Saturday Six - Episode 400 (Hooray!)

2011-12-11T12:30:00.001-05:00

No one is more surprised than I am that the Saturday Six has now reached its 400th edition! By my calculations, that represents about 7.6 years, with an asterisk: these 400 editions have only spanned 399 consecutive weeks, because there was one weekend in which I gave readers two different editions on the same day.

I’m glad you’re reading this, and I hope you’ll enjoy this week’s set of questions!

Be sure to check back this week and click on the links of bloggers who play along in the comments below! It’s a great way to find blogs you may not have visited and keep the conversation going!

Here are this week’s “Saturday Six” questions. Either answer the questions in a comment here, or put the answers in an entry on your blog… But don’t forget to leave a link to your blog so that everyone else can visit! Permission is not granted to copy the questions to message boards for the purpose of having members answer and play along there. Enjoy!

1. While going through old boxes, you find an old library book of which you are very fond, but you realize that it was a library book. You assume that the library has long-since written the book off as a loss because it has been boxes away for 20 years or more, and the book carries a great deal of sentimental value for you. Would you return the book or keep it?

You will think less of me for this, but the above is not any old scenario... this is me, and I have quite a few young adult books, such as the Madeleine L'Engle books and a few others. This was back in the day when I worked for the Wayne Valley library as a 13-year-old. All of those books sat there unused and in terrible condition so they came home with me. Half were missing covers, the other half spines. No one missed them. No one missed the few astronomy books I took as well. And by now, they have either replaced those books or updated the astronomy books. By now, some 30 years later, I had to replace the Madeleine L'Engle books as I read them all apart. And I did hate to get rid of the old books - I grew up on them!

2. You visit one of your closest friends who is battling a terminal illness. It’s clear he or she will not survive, but is in a lot of pain. Your friend begs you to briefly disconnect life support long enough for death to come. If there is no way your intervention could be discovered and no way you could face any kind of prosecution, would you grant your friend’s request?

Yes, I would. I would not think twice. My friend has - should have - the right to end his or her life when ready. Do you know, one of the worst calls I ever went on was a seven-year-old child dying of cancer and the child wanted to die; was ready to die. The patient knew better than anyone what she was going through. But the family would not let the child go. They would do anything to draw out this pain-ridden, miserable life. It was awful. The family will go through the pain eventually - give the child some dignity - children have some dignity - let them say their goodbyes, and allow the poor suffering person to find that peace. So yes.

3. You have the chance to be in a parade and ride on a float supporting a cause you believe in, but you can’t appear in any kind of disguise or costume: which cause’s float would you most likely be comfortable selecting?

Hmmm. No disguise or costume? Well, I can't imagine that would change my mind. Keep EMTs for the volunteers. I would proudly ride that float anywhere.

4. Your company’s top executive team arrives for a surprise visit, and selects you and a handful of other employees to meet with one-on-one in an attempt to get the pulse of their employees and to uncover any problems within the organization. How honest are you likely to be about your answers when they ask about specific problems you know exist, even if it means that friends you work with could lose their jobs over what you say?

Ah, remember who this is answering your questions. I have had to go to those things and the end result was that some major changes were at least considered, some people were put on notice, etc. But the survival of the company depended on it. So I have done it and I still feel good about it. I will say that I make very, very few friends in companies I have worked for... that is not that simple...

5. You find yourself slated to be a guest on a talk show: which host, living or dead, would you most like to be interviewed by, and why would you choose that host?

Uh... why would I be invited to a talk show? I think maybe I would not go to one. No matter how much they really wanted me to come and speak, I would not want to take the focus from whatever I did to receive the invite. I just don't think I would want to go to a talk show.

6. Your church decides to take part in a political protest, and it seems that nearly everyone feels the same way about the issue. You, however, do not share their view. At the risk of being ostracized, would you deny to participate, or would you search for a way to quietly assist, without being out in front?

If my church could not handle my difference of opinion and ostracised my for it, then I shall find another group to become a part of - if we are all brothers under the same God and basic tenets, then they should love me as I am. Is it that simple? You betcha. And yes, I would not participate. I won't abrogate my feelings by pitching in to an ideal or political protest that I do not agree with!

So does this mean that next week, we will he-- read your answers to these self-same questions?

If you have a Reader’s Choice question you’d like to see asked (and answered), send me an email! I’d love to include it in a future edition of the Saturday Six.

Saturday Six - Episode #399

2011-12-08T11:44:00.000-05:00

This week, I’m going back to early editions of the Saturday Six and asking follow-up questions to some of the original questions I asked so long ago. The questions are random as always, but there is that hint of nostalgia since I’m building on those previous editions. Since the Saturday Six never closes, you could always pick a random edition and play along if there’s ever a day in which you want to post something but can’t because of writer’s block. In the meantime, enjoy these!

Be sure to check back this week and click on the links of bloggers who play along in the comments below! It’s a great way to find blogs you may not have visited and keep the conversation going!

1. Follow-up to a question from Episode 1: If you could spend one day as a member of the opposite sex and a different race, would you stay closer to the places you currently frequent, or would you try to spend your time in a place where more people like your current form would go? I would stay in my current location: as is stands, I am familiar with the language, current events, local vernacular, body language, social mores and customs, religious atmosphere, etc. If I change location, this assimilation will be a lot more difficult than it will be just changing gender and racial background. Can I change age, too...?

I'd be male, obviously, and I would change my racial background to Pan-Africa, a mixture of Caucasian-African (first generation). If I am going to experience what it truly means to be one of mixed races, this is it... I can't become anymore of the least accepted cultural and racial type than this: mulatto, I believe, is the term, and not an overly flattering one. Remember, this is by societal norms. I do not agree with society - ANY society that practices hatred of its fellow man for something as ridiculous as skin pigmentation, religious differences or anything else. I also would go with a Jewish mother (which is accurate) and a Roman Catholic father to really muddy the waters. (As it is, my biological father, Harry, was raised to be a Methodist but is very relaxed about it and Ray was raised (are you sitting down for this?) to be a Christian Scientist. That's right: the nutty people who never go to doctors or hospitals. Yup.)

2. Follow-up to a question from Episode 4: Of the following three types of presidential candidates, which type would you be most likely to vote for in 2012:

A) Someone who supported all of your concerns and got every bill you supported passed …but was unscrupulous and often lied to get where he is.

B) Someone whose political views were nearly the opposite of yours, who was only able to pass a handful of bills you didn’t want passed…but who was completely honest and ethical all the time.

C) Someone who was middle of the road, passed bills that tended to favor compromise more than any one side of the issue, and was usually (but not always) ethical and honest.

Someday I must go through your archives and answer these on my own... I am going with answer B) Someone whose political views were nearly the opposite of yours, who was only able to pass a handful of bills you didn’t want passed…but who was completely honest and ethical all the time. I hate the idea of being opposed to every single idea but the honesty would be so good, so refreshing, that I could really learn to live with all the changes as bad or good as they may be. However, he would very likely end up dead less than a year into his term. None of the senators and other crazies could live up to that and they'd assassinate him for it.

A would just be bad news and C too wussy.

3. Follow-up to a question from Episode 12: You learn that your best friend’s spouse is carrying on an affair, and that person realizes that you know the secret. He or she begs for time, promising that he (or she) will reveal all to your best friend. How long are you willing to give the cheater to confess before you will step in and let your friend know yourself? Uh... wow. What happened to these stumpers? Holy cow... Normally I would keep a non-practique (sp?) policy and not say anything... which is extremely out-of-character for me and would leave many, many holes in my bottom lip. But it would be a necessity. People have the right to make decisions concerning their own lives, good, bad or indifferent. I would not step in and I would not make any demands and I am sure as HELL not going to threaten or say a word of this to my friend's lover! What kind of friend would this make me? No. There are somethings one does not do. It would be okay to butt in more if said best friend was depressed or an alcoholic or using drugs, because there interference may not help, but it is better than standing by doing nothing. In this situation, no one will end up dead from a busted relationship (well statistically speaking...)

4. Follow-up to a question from Episode 15: If you had to give up one of your five senses, which one would you be most unwilling to live without? I'm sure I have answered this interesting poser before, although often the question only allows for choosing between vision and hearing. This is making it simpler. The one sense I am unwilling to give up is hearing; music means far, far too much to me to give that up. Since there are a full five senses here to play with, I would not give up vision or feel - touch - because the sensory experience is still very important. And not just to be able to feel the pleasurable things (I'd certainly hate that) but more vital, the unpleasant sensations. I need to know something is hot - or I'll end up burning too much of my hands! This leaves us with sense of smell and taste, which are tough ones, made more so by their strong connection. Without smell, taste is dulled considerably; maybe as much as 85 - 90%. But in the grand scheme of things, I'll just have to chance it!

5. Follow-up to a question from Episode 27: What would you say is your biggest character strength? Wow. My main character strength... that is not so easy. Usually this is one of those double-edged swords. My best character strength is my general honesty. I am not one to sugar-coat anything, and I won't pull my punches. I don't speak like a politician. I am not one to be hurtful and will preface any potentially hurtful commentary by saying that you asked my honest opinion. However, that same strength is also a problem sometimes in that people, no matter how much they think they want the unvarnished truth, often don't really want it... they want to hear it one way...

And I don't mean little lies; society is to a certain degree built on polite non-hurtful comments to the questions such as "How do you like my dress?" or "Isn't this the best salad you have ever tasted?" There is no benefit to telling an acquaintance that her dress is hideous and would be better placed on a low-class hooker or mentioning that the salad is bland. The corollary to this, of course, is asking a close friend, in which case the appropriate answers might be, "I think your other dress (pick one) would look much more stunning on you for this event" or "The salad is good, but I would consider adding this or that to give it that "wow" factor." And of course, never ask your spouse, "Do I look fat in this?" if you are not looking for honesty. I ask Luis this all the time and never have I gotten angry or upset for his being honest! I really do want to know. I usually want to kill him when he gives me the stunned look and responds, "My god, you are HUGE! Enormous!"

6. Follow-up to a question from Episode 33: Which seasonal or holiday movie do you least look forward to this time of year? Always Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve. I always hated the Thanksgiving menu and the inevitable family torture of "ou don't know what you're missing", "how can you only eat ham", "try some, you'll love it" - push, push, push. Number 1, I have tried it, I still hate it all. Number 2: the more you try to get me to eat something I don't want, the less likely I am to eat it. Them's the rules.

New Year's Eve I don't care for because it is a nostalgic holiday and I am not one to mire myself in nostalgia about anything. I would much rather look forward to the new year getting better than to look back and see how poorly 2011 treated me. (And sadly, 2011 kicked my ass all over the place, so definitely NOT feeling good about it.)

I started answering this treat of a meme on Saturday night and then events conspired to keep me away from the computer and normal life the last few days. So this is going up late. I hope to tackle the Sunday Seven today but after this stomach bug I'm only good for a limited time...

If you have a Reader’s Choice question you’d like to see asked (and answered), send me an email! I’d love to include it in a future edition of the Saturday Six.

December's Farmer's Calendar, Sky Watch, etc...

2011-12-01T04:30:00.000-05:00

Farmer's Calendar - December

December 22. First day of winter. Feels like the hundredth. Snow came early, and now the roads are covered with semi-frozen slush, the Sun is hardly to be seen, and a keen little north wind cuts down out of the sky the color of a prison wall.

Despite the chill, I decide to take the dogs down the road. They need the outing. So do I. The difference is, they don't believe it. They're dachshunds, which is to say, independent thinkers. They're also old. Time was, they couldn't wait for their walk. They surged ahead, quartering avidly back and forth across the road. Today, however, they plod gloomily along, dragging their feet, pulling up lame, feeling sorry for themselves. You can't blame them, they're 15. By one formula, this makes them 90 in human years; by another, 105.

Now, the fact is, I'm no longer young in human years, myself, and so, short of our normal halfway point, I stop and prepare to turn back. And here, a miraculous rejuvenation is seen to bless the dogs. Human years, dog years, years in general seem to fall away. They perk right up. Their lameness vanishes. They commence trotting briskly on the return leg of our walk. I follow. Perhaps, I, too, feel a certain lightening. For all of us, however we count our years, when they begin to accumulate, the shortest way is the way home.

Sky Watch

The Earth's two nearest neighbors finally show dramatic improvement. In fading evening twilight, Venus stands 10 degrees on the first, but twice that height by the 31st. It's at the left of the Moon on the 26th. This is the start of a glorious apparition that will peak in late winter and spring. Mars finally rises before midnight and gains half a magnitude from 0.7 to conspicuous 0.2 in Leo. Jupiter fades a bit but still dominates the night sky on the Aries-Pisces border. December 10 brings a total lunar eclipse just before dawn, visible from everywhere except eastern North America. A nearly full Moon washes out the usually reliable Geminid meteor shower on the 13th-14th. Winter begins with the solstice on the 22nd, at 12:30 A.M.

Weather

1. It's
2. sopping
3. for
4. shopping.
5. Snow
6. spits
7. give
8. us
9. fits,
10. then
11. mix
12. with
13. rain---
14. what a
15. pain.
16. Snowmageddon!
17. Skies
18. are
19. leaden,
20. each
21. road's
22. a rink!
23. Santa's
24. team
25. needs
26. skates,
27. we think!
28. We're
29. overdue
30. for
31. one-oh-one-two!

Fun Tidbits

6 December; Wind toppled National Christmas tree, White House, D.C., 1970

8 December; Musician John Lennon died, 1980

14 December; Ember Day; Prince Albert, Prince Consort of Queen Victoria, died, 1861

16 December; Ember Day; 8.1 earthquake, northeast Ark., 1811

17 December; Ember Day; Moon on equator; conjunction of Mars and Moon

18 December; beware the Pogonip.26 December; St. Stephen; Boxing Day (Canada); First day of Kwanzaa; Jupiter stationary

Writer's Note: I tracked the Ember days in September for the October, November and December. October's weather was mostly wet, and that was true to form: Wednesday, 21 September was raw, wet and windy. November has not been nearly as overcast as Friday, 23 September; it will be interesting to see December's outcome, as it was cold, wet and windy on Saturday, 24 September.

Beware the Pogonip: The word pogonip is a meteorological term used to describe an uncommon occurrence -- frozen fog. The word was coined by Native Americans to describe the frozen fogs of fine ice needles that occur in the mountain valleys of the western United States and Canada. According to their tradition, breathing the fog is injurious to the lungs.

WTF Wedneday - 16 Nov: Pregnant Hitchhiker Denies Your Friends Request

2011-11-29T20:40:00.001-05:00

1) Marc over at Marc and Angel Hack Life recently shared the 30 books that he's glad he read before he turned 30. What is one book you're really glad you read? Wow. I have read thousands of books, and I'm grateful for reading most of them. This is extremely hard to answer with all the reading I do. And the answer is probably different at any given time, since the book I'm thinking of maybe different tomorrow (or five minutes from now). At this moment, I would say I am very happy that I have read The Planets by Dava Sobel; it took astronomy and turned it into art, poetry and scientific knowledge - the best of all worlds!

Here is an excerpt from Genesis (The Sun):

"At totality, when the Moon is a pool of soot hiding the bright solar sphere, and the sky deepens to a crepuscular blue, the Sun's magnificent corona, normally invisible, flashes into view. Pearl and platinum-colored streamers of coronal gas surround the vanished Sun like a jagged halo. Long red ribbons of electrified hydrogen leap from behind the black Moon and dance in the shimmering corona. All these rare, incredible sights offer themselves to the naked eye, as totality provides the only safe time to gaze at the omnipotent Sun without fear of requital in blindness."

2) What's the weirdest pregnancy craving you've heard of? They are all weird - it is the nature of the beast.

3) What's the most ridiculous reason you've ever heard for someone getting a divorce? Kim Kardashian... or is it her reasons for getting married? So hard to know...

4) One of Tuesday's trending topics on Twitter was "What You Find In Ladies' Handbags." What are a couple things you never leave home without? My binder - I should say my Franklin-Covey organiser - and my iPod. I don't really carry a purse... such a stupid and impractical thing.

5) What's the oldest piece of clothing you have in your closet? Do you still wear it? Oh, sure I do. To both questions - I have a lot of older clothing. I ditched all of my business clothing with great pleasure once I stopped working, which was the best decision (I kept one or two things just in case I need to dress up for something) and recently bought jeans and some flannel shirts (mens) from Eddie Bauer, one of my absolute favourite places. But I still have L.L. Bean and Eddie Bauer clothing from 20 years ago that are in excellent shape. I don't toss out clothing I love to wear and I don't toss it anyway, I give it to Good Will or the Salvation Army.

6) If you had your own radio show, how would you sign off or end the show? What would you say? Wow. I have no idea. Maybe, "This is Apollo 13, we are at Stable 1, signing off." It's my favourite movie to quote.

7) Have you ever picked up (or would you ever pick up) a hitchhiker? No, to both questions. Not a chance. I have lived my whole life in New Jersey, and this is not recommended. Not ever.

8) If you sent a "friend request" on Facebook to someone you knew very well, and they denied the request, what do you do? Nothing - although occasionally I accidentally send another message, not realising I sent one months ago without response. Life goes on just because someone doesn't wanna be my friend on Facebook. And it is incredibly rare that I de-friend anyone. You would really, really have to work hard to offend me.

I know that this is it for you with the meme, but I just wanted to say that I will really miss your memes. I may not always have gotten to them right away, but at some point I did and I always thoroughly enjoyed them. I hope that at some point, you might give it another go. If not, good luck and fortune and enjoy whatever you are doing! Thanks for all the fun and thought-worthy questions!

Hot Men at My Age

2011-11-29T19:19:00.001-05:00

Prepare to be amused... at least, I was.

Two weeks ago, I received my usual issue of People Magazine - the one dated 28 November 2011 (which is magazine land time as today is the 29th), aptly entitled THE SEXIEST MAN ALIVE! And 123 Super Hot Men We Love... (what do you expect? It's People Magazine, and to some degree it is appealing to a wide age-range.

I went through it as I usually do and yes, Bradley Cooper is pretty good looking. Quite frankly, I haven't the faintest idea who he is, but that is typical for me. And I leafed through the other hot men; some I agreed were truly wowwers and some not so much. I mean, who is going to say no to Patrick Dempsey, Patrick Wilson (with those incredibly blue eyes!), Taye Diggs, Hugh Jackman (growl!), Ewan McGregor and Alex O'Loughlin (except for the tattoos around each nipple - yuck). And Brían O'Byrne (with the same diacritical mark as in my name - truly a good Irishman!) is growing on me. But then I got to the SEXY AT EVERY AGE spread, and suddenly I realised that if you want to see me date myself, here is the place to do it!

They start with a stud who is all of 20 years old and end with a better looking man at age 59. I looked at each man representing his age group, but I knew one of the 20-somethings, four of the 30-somethings, six of the 40-somethings and (drum roll, please) eight of the 50-somethings!

The only 20-something I knew was Robert Pattinson, age 25, from the vampire movies. I couldn't tell you which ones, since vampires today are the "it crowd" and I was into vampires back when Anne Rice was giving us the real deal in Interview with the Vampire and many other intellectually stimulating books. I'm a purist - once something becomes too popular, the movie world goes crazy and overdoes it. This is no exception. Suddenly there are 50,000 bad vampire shows clogging up the works in movie-, telly- and any other land they can get into!

The 30-somethings I knew were: Jake Gyllenhall, age 30, who has been in a multitude of movies - he's okay; Sam Worthington, age 35, who we all know from Avatar and more recently, Clash of the Titans and I find him rather likeable. Maybe even hot, but mostly just a likeable, down-to-earth guy; Leonardo diCaprio, age 37, who - at least in this picture - is looking rather tired, old and overweight... I don't know how marketable he will remain, looking far older than most of his compatriots in the 30s and 40s...; and Enrique Inglesias, age 36, whom I only know because his father is enormously famous.

The 40-somethings were far better looking to me and far more familiar:

1. David Arquette, more known for his marital issues at the moment

2. Will Arnett, an actor

3. DB Woodside, whose face I know, although I think he is an athlete, I'm not completely sure

4. Peter Krause, from Six Feet Under

5. John Stamos, who was very well known when I was a kid and has continued to be strong in acting

6. Jon Bon Jovi - I'm in New Jersey, too. This doesn't make me a fan, but I certainly know who he is!

That was easy. I was happy I recognised more than half, and a little surprised I didn't know the others: Daniel Day Kim, 43; Jason Statham, 44; Oliver Martinez, 45; and Clive Owen, 47.

The 50-somethings, starting at 7 years older than me, were very easy:

1. Ralph Macchio, age 50 - how funny is that?

2. Colin Firth, age 51 - always one of my very top choices for anything - movies, hotness, intelligence, etc.

3. Tim Robbins, age 53 - he has snow on the roof now, but still looks just as guileless and innocent as he did in I.Q.!

4. Daniel Day-Lewis, age 54 - always a good actor and a hell of a broad range of parts

5. Denzel Washington, age 56 - he sure doesn't look it! He is a wonderful actor

6. Chris Noth, age 57 - he'll always be Big to me

7. Pierce Brosnan, age 58 - Yum! I mean, really, yum! If you don't believe me, see The Thomas Crown Affair - oh, my gods, yum! (And it was a fun, interesting movie.)

8. The incomparable Liam Neeson, age 59, whose voice could stop a room full of chatter dead!

Yup, I'm dating myself, but I'm okay with that. Many of these and other men, like fine wine, age so much better and can still knock us ladies dead at the middle ages and up! I don't mind dating myself and passing up the "stud-like" 20-somethings who look good if clueless for the older, hopefully wiser men of my time and earlier!

The Queen's Meme #104 - The Birthday Meme

2011-11-29T18:07:00.001-05:00

Welcome to The Queens's Meme

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

Someone in the castle is having a birthday today. Homer says it's not him. Who, oh who, could it be?!

Whether or not it's your birthday, you should be able to answer these age-related questions. Sounds like fun, eh? Or not. I'm going to talk to the birthday girl. She needs a good talking to.

1. If you could turn back the hands of time, where would you go? Have you and the Saturday 9 writer been in cahoots this week? I just answered a very similar question to this... I would relive 28 June 2009 - my day in Yellowstone National Park with David trying to fit in so many things to see - I took over 900 images in that one day! It was the most incredible magical day ever!

2. What was your favorite age and why? Interesting question! I have to say that despite the poor health and issues, every year I experience now and for the last six years were my favourite. I was an unhappy child, a very tortured teenager and an unsure 20-year-old. Searching for the perfect job and never finding it made a lot of my 20s and 30s difficult. And then, suddenly, when I was 37, everything suddenly hit just right - I found the greatest job, I was an experienced EMT, I had a lovely house and husband and two great and happy (albeit old) cats, and life was perfect. Since then, good things, bad things, things as a whole are easier to deal with and I did for five years have Nirvana; but while I have to adjust to not working at all, I still feel very happy about my life and my full 43 years.

3. Travel into the future 10 years. How do you picture your life? It is hard to say - I hope by then that a miracle would happen for a cure to muscular dystrophy, however unlikely it is. But that is hope, and a different question would apply. I envision myself looking close to the same, being a little more impaired, but traveling and doing everything that is possible. I still see myself reading, blogging, writing, organising the house, still doing my art, still visiting my father and having close friends. I still see myself doing things on the First Aid squad. By then we will have bought two more ambulances besides the one we are working on now, and I will be a pro at this!

4. Did you ever take part in a birthday surprise? Tell us about it. I have helped arrange a surprise party and that was okay, but I am at best an unenthusiastic party planner and I enjoyed more the role of taking the person out and keeping them busy until it is time to surprise them - that was fun and very easy for me (usually that seems to be the hardest part of the whole thing). Other than that, I haven't had much experience with this.

5. Pretend it is your ultimate birthday party. What five people, living or dead, would you invite? Oh, how cool is that?! I love questions like this! I would invite Andy Rooney, Ben Franklin, Madeleine L'Engle, Leonard Nimoy and Bono to my party, but then I would want to invite others, too, so I would need to get a pass to do this every year! Next year it would be Charles M. Schultz, Monsignour Georges Méliès, Anne McCaffrey, Judy Blume, Chris Martin and - oh, that is five already. You see what I mean. Even if I live to be 99, I'd still find five people to invite every year, all different ones. I'd invite Attila the Hun, too, but the lingual issues might make it impossible, since the man lived in 434 to 453 and spoke a form of Turkish distantly related to Danube Bulgarian. That might complicate matters a lot!

6. Let's have cake! Forget about candles and flavors and balloons. Who jumps out? Um, can we get the really good-looking cop from the Rockaway Police who was at the mall today? What a lovely butt he had! If not, let me think... who is a hottie now? Um... (so many choices!) how about Pierce Brosnan? Maybe Colin Firth? Yes! That's it - Colin Firth! He can be a guest, too, as he is a wonderful actor and very likeable as himself, but that would not be at the same party that he pops out of the cake. I also would not ask him to be so undignified as to do it in something terrible like a thong - he can jump out in whatever he'd like! I'd be happy no matter what!

7. And finally, make a wish but not just any ole' wish. Make it count. Well, yes. But needn't I keep it to myself for it to come true?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, QUEEN MIMI!

Saturday 9 - Turn Back the Hands of Time

2011-11-29T17:32:00.001-05:00

Welcome to Saturday: 9. What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme!

Saturday 9: Turn Back the Hands of Time

1. There's a Time Genie. She can put you back in time to relive a day that you loved. If you could turn back the hands of time, what day would you relive if given this opportunity? Hmmm. Wow, any day at all that I wanted to relive... goodness, that's hard. But on reflective thought, I would happily relive my day in Yellowstone National Park, because WOW, what a day that was!

2. What did you do yesterday? Let's see... Luis and I slept in a bit, made love, went to the mall, then saw Puss In Boots and then came home and had a lovely evening together. Now, yesterday was Monday because I've gotten to this late, but it was still a nice day. Luis is off from work all this week. I will say seeing the movie was not the high point. Today we saw Hugo and this was far, far better!

3. You've been given 3 parachutes, but there are 4 people who need them. Who will you not give one to: Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen, Kim Kardashian, or Simon Cowell? Why? Goodness, me oh, my. Can I keep all of them? Oh, no, I guess that sounds too mean, ha ha. Well, what a choice. I would have to say Charlie Sheen gets to go splat. It is not the two girlfriends, I'd never hold living the American male dream against him; it's the rest of his behaviour. He tells it like it is a release but he really sounds like a total nutter, eh?

That was a tough one! You managed to pick all very reviled people. I'd have to admit that Kim Kardashian came in a very close second with the refusal to return the $2 million engagement ring for "sentimental reasons" - what an idiot!

4. Where are you going and where have you been? Uh, is this a movie line? I've been many places and it is my intention to go to many more!

5. They say that books read as a child make more of an impact on a person than books read at any other time in life. Are there any books that you particularly loved, that shaped the way you think when you were little? Oh, yes, but I haven't the time to list them all. The biggest impact came from Madeleine L'Engle's books, which were wonderful and easy to bond with the characters. I don't remember a lot of books from school - they always seemed to purposely pick the worst possible reading choices for me - but my parents taught me to read very young and my grandparents definitely encouraged it. I have two little tidbits that stand out in my memory:

1. When I entered the school system in the first grade (I never went to kindergarten), I was far beyond the reading curriculum of 1974. I remember they were reading Dick & Jane books, which I read in three seconds and was beyond bored. I read much higher than that. (Now, at math, however, I was totally stunted and to this day, I still am! So I am not any kind of wonder, outside of reading huge books in a short time!)

2. My grandmother was not much of a reader - she thought the tepid romance novels from Harlequin were a big deal - but when I was around 8 or 9 she bought me a set of four Judy Bloom books: Are You There, God, It's Me, Margaret; Blubber; Iggy's House and Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself. All I can say is she had NO IDEA what she bought me, just that she had heard these were great books for kids my age. She must have missed the articles about how controversial these books were! In Are You There, God, It's Me, Margaret the underlying story is about girls wondering who will be first in their circle of friends to kiss a boy or get her first menstrual cycle. I know if she had known the subject matter in ANY of these books, she'd've flipped her lid!

6. What do you look forward to most in the next six weeks? If you are asking if I'm looking forward to Christmas, the answer is not so much; this is the first holiday out on permanent disability and since the government has not seen fit to bestow upon me my benefits that I've worked my ass off to get, so it will be a holiday paid for entirely by Luis (it sounds nice, but it really just underscores my financial dependence and makes me feel like shit). However, the one bright spot is that we are going to Maryland and Virginia to visit first Anna and Kirk, my sister and brother in law, whom we love to pieces and then to my cousin Renee's house with Alex to visit them, my aunts, uncle and other cousin Justine and I should think Alex's parents as well. I love seeing my family on Christmas Eve and we will have fun.

7. What was the last text message you received? I haven't - I have it disabled on my phone. I hate the texting craze and as an EMT, I go to far too many accidents from fender-benders to fatalities thanks to texting.

8. Do you prefer to call or text? I prefer to call. I prefer e-mail, really, but I have my wonderful stupid phone and am very happy with it.

9. What were you doing at 9PM last night? Well, let me think. I was giving my husband soft rubs as he calls it and we were watching Once Upon a Time on the telly (through the TiVO) while laying on the couch. It was very nice.

Thanks so much for joining us again at Saturday: 9. As always, feel free to come back, see who has participated and comment on their posts. In fact sometimes, if you want to read & comment on everyone's responses, you might want to check back again tomorrow. But it is not a rule. We haven’t any rules here. Join us on next Saturday for another version of Saturday: 9, "Just A Silly Meme on a Saturday!" Enjoy your weekend!

Sunday Stealing - The Bud is Back Meme

2011-11-28T19:51:00.000-05:00

The Bud is Back Meme

Welcome back to Sunday Stealing which originated on WTIT: The Blog authored by Bud Weiser. Here we will steal all types of memes from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent memes. You may have heard of the expression, “honor amongst thieves”. In that age-old tradition, we also have our rules. First, we always credit the blog that we stole it from and we will “fess up” to the blog owner where we stole the meme. We also provide a link to the victim's post. (It's our way of saying "Thanks!") We do sometimes edit the original meme, usually to make it more relevant to our global players, to challenge our players, sometimes to select that meme's best questions, or simply to make it less repetitive from either this new meme or recently asked questions from a prior featured meme. Let's go!!!

Today we ripped off a blogger named Firecat from the blog Party in My Head. He doesn't state where he got it. But, it was probably stolen there as well. So, of course, that will be as far as we go. Tracing back our theft's thieves might take some time. Take the time to comment on other player's posts. It's a great way to make new friends! Link back to us at Sunday Stealing!

Sunday Stealing: The Bud is Back Meme

Cheers to all of us thieves!

1. Why did you sign up for writing your blog? Well, in August 2005 there was an article in People Magazine about 40-year-old virgins and I had some comments. I'd been thinking about a blog, but then when I read some people's comments about the pros of holding onto their virginity for so long, I HAD to say my piece. So I did. It was a slow start, but then I really built up speed. While I worked, it was hit or miss, but now, with all this free retired time, why not blog? And a lot!

2. Why did you choose your blog's name? What does it mean? It has gone through a few reiterations and will undoubtedly again. It started as Traislinge's Tea Kettle, because I always love to talk over tea. The second name... what was it? Something about the Moon, the Sun, etc. Currently it is called Living in the World, Not on It, because so many people do just live on the world. They don't see the beauty in the small things, in sunrises and sunsets and the Moon and the night sky... etc. I feel badly for people like that... and there are far too many.

3. Do you ever had another blog? Very briefly, on another site, but I never really did anything with it. One is enough.

4. What do you do online when you're not on your blog? Go through and answer e-mail, conduct business, research, a little Facebook... stuff like that.

5. How about when you're not on the computer? I do a lot; reading, writing letters, organising, working on jigsaw puzzles, watching movies or shows, going out for a short walk, working on the new rig, etc.

6. What do you wish people who read your blog knew about you? Well, it is all there except for my sex life, which no one needs to know about. So, no, not really.

7. What is your favorite community in the blogosphere? Uh, I guess that means other blogs. My top, top favourite is www.patrickhillips.com, called Patrick's Place: Regular Doses of Common Sense. It is the best of the best. I highly recommend it.

8. What is your philosophy on your blog layout? Space, the final frontier...

9. Tell me about your picture you use to represent you on your blog. I took that image. It is the Sun rising over the Heavy Rescue squad house. It was a gorgeous morning and the Sun looked just amazing. So I took a series of images and picked this one. It represents my love of astronomy and nature and living in the world.

10. Pick 3 random blogs from your blogroll and tell us about them. Interesting. Well, there is of course Patrick's Place, which is great. Then there is The Wonderful World of Nothing, by Michael Christelman, who writes very funny and sarcastic bits. He's kind of a miracle guy, really. He wrote non-stop and then suddenly stopped for five months. It turns out he'd had a stroke! He's young for a stroke, younger than I am. But he's writing again! He's one of my heroes. And the third... Cogitatione aliquid percipere. He doesn't write any longer and has not for a long time, but what a delightful writer! I wish he would write.

11. What features do you think your blog should have that it doesn't currently? Oh, easy one. People who are on Word Press can sign up for LiveFyre, and it is a wonderful service. I highly recommend it. I use Blogger and have for so many years, that I am not willing to switch or attempt to upload or transfer well over 2100 posts to this, so no LiveFyre for me... a pity.

12. What do you consider the 10 most "telling" interests that we would infer from what you blog persona? Well, I answer a lot of memes, so there is a lot to read. I suppose it is easy to see that I am not dealing well with retirement (it is actually permanent disability, so not so glamourous, really); I love astronomy; people can drive me crazy (the ones I refer to as the "lowest common denominator"); I love being an EMT, even though I cannot actively ride; I miss my old life; I am an artist; I get a lot out of books and music; I get a lot of material from People Magazine; I enjoy life in general, despite my specific issues; two more things, right...? Um... I don't know. I'm sure there are two more things, but I cover a huge range of items.

13. Do you have any unique interests that you have never shared before? What are they? I'm pretty sure they are all on the blog somewhere.

14. The best thing about blogging is all of the friends that you make, Beside from those folks, do you think your blog has fans? It has about 24... unless something changed. Hold on... I'm wrong. I have 31! That is really quite wonderful. I love the idea that I have regular readers. Especially with some of the of the torturous long posts I write or the staggering amount of memes I fill out. I really do love that - thanks, guys!

15. What's your current obsession? What about it captures your imagination? Well, as above, buying the new ambulance. I have learned more about rigs than I ever thought I could. Bob has been instrumental in this and so has working with both PL Custom and Horton (we went with PL Custom). They are located in Manasquan, about an hour or so from here and I will be there a lot once we go forward with production. I can't wait! It's all very exciting. (Thank you to Frank Beshears, the man you want to see for a new rig!)

16. What are you glad you did but haven't really had a chance to post about? It's all sexual and it's all mine. That is how it remains.

17. How many people that first became a blog friend, have you met face to face? Face to face? None, as yet. But I will meet two that I know well some day. Mary and Patrick. They are wonderful people.

18. What don't you talk about here, either because it's too personal or because you don't have the energy? Well, we covered that. I also keep one or two other bits out, because it is current or the people it would cover might misinterpret or misunderstand it is just me venting.

19. What's a question that you'd love to answer? Try me. There are very few I don't answer!

20. Have you ever lost a blogging friendship and regretted it? Um... probably. I'm not sure. Facebook, yes, but not so much with blogging.

21. Have you ever lost a blogging friendship and thought, “Was that overdue!” Sure, hasn't everyone?

Thank you for playing this week on Sunday Stealing! Please leave a comment or link when you have posted. Stop back and visit other player’s posts. That is really what this is all about, making new friends! Have a great week. See you next Sunday!

Sunday Seven - Episode #317

2011-11-27T13:13:00.001-05:00

Is everyone over his or her “turkey coma?” If you’re like me, you ate plenty more than you should have over the Thanksgiving weekend. You may still be enjoying leftovers!

Your menu over the past few days is the topic of this week’s question.

Be sure to check back this week and click on the links of bloggers who play along in the comments below! It’s a great way to find blogs you may not have visited and to keep the conversation going!

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION:

Name seven Thanksgiving treats you’ve enjoyed over the past few days.

1. Small spiral cut ham: I intensely dislike turkey and its tryptophan, so we eat ham. I'm grateful to pigs for giving up their meat to make my Thanksgiving meal just wonderful - and better than turkey!

2. Applesauce: what is ham without applesauce? It isn't... at least, it is not the same.

3. Rye bread: Well, all that meat and sauce needs to be offset with something else. So I added bread.

4. Cherry pie: If you have not clued in to the fact that I am a fussbudget, this should be the final hint - most people have pumpkin pie or maybe pecan pie, but I don't like those. I really don't like any pie but I'm willing to try cherry pie.

5. Walnuts: I love this time of year; finally there are whole walnuts in the shells, for me to eat!

That's really all I have. I dislike vegetables, potatoes and yams, so none of those make the list. I also don't drink anything alcoholic, so nothing to list there, either.

Either answer the question in a comment or answer it in your journal and include the link in a comment.

Have an idea for a future question? Click “Contact” in the top nav-bar and email it to me!

Saturday Six - Episdoe #398

2011-11-26T13:51:00.001-05:00

Here’s the third and final set of questions that came from answers to a recent edition of the Sunday Seven. Those who played that week had to come up with questions they’d ask me over dinner.

There were some great questions thrown my way, so I couldn’t pass up the chance to toss them right back!

Thanks for dropping by and I hope you enjoy this week’s set of questions!

Be sure to check back this week and click on the links of bloggers who play along in the comments below! It’s a great way to find blogs you may not have visited and keep the conversation going!

1. From Aislínge: Where have you lived? I was born in Manhattan, lived in Demarest, New Jersey until I was 2.5 years old, then we moved to Wallington, New Jersey; I grew up there and in Trucksville, Pennsylvania until age 13, then moved to Wayne, New Jersey. When Luis and I moved in together in 1990, we moved to Fairfield, New Jersey and then in 1994 bought our first house in Parsippany. We moved to a bigger house in Parsippany in 2002 and live right across the street from Lake Hiawatha, a section of Parsippany. We won't move again until it is time to retire.

2. From Strange: What famous person — living or dead — would you like to meet if you could? So many choices... Ben Franklin, Madeleine L'Engle, Leonard Nimoy, Bono, Galileo, Andy Rooney, who else? There are too many options!

3. From Strange: If you could have any superpower, what would you choose? Shape-shifting. What wouldn't be great about an ability like that? The things I could do if I could take any shape I wanted!

4. From Cat.: Has there ever been a time you’ve had creepy stalker-types hassling you in real live over your blog? I don't have a large following, so I really haven't come across that on here. On Facebook, however, the weirdos all come out. Yikes...

5. From Cat.: What have you been reading? I just finished the next to last book in the Earth's Children series by Jean M. Auel, called The Shelters of Stone and am ready to begin reading The Land of Painted Caves. This is the final book in the series and like the last two, is in the 800-page category. I'm looking forward to starting it. Then I will need to start a new series. The best book, of course, was The Clan of the Cave Bear, the first in the series.

6. From Cat.: What’s for dessert? [This is, clearly, THE most important question!] Um, fresh berries in cream! Yum!

If you have a Reader’s Choice question you’d like to see asked (and answered), send me an email! I’d love to include it in a future edition of the Saturday Six.

Skullcrusher Mountain

2011-11-24T10:20:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my secret lair on skullcrusher mountain

I hope that you've enjoyed your stay so far

I see you've met my assistant Scarface

His appearance is quite disturbing

But I assure you he's harmless enough

He's a sweetheart, calls me master

And he has a way of finding pretty things and bringing them to me

I'm so into you

But I'm way too smart for you

Even my henchmen think i'm crazy

I'm not surprised that you agree

If you could find some way to be

A little bit less afraid of me

You'd see the voices that control me from inside my head

Say I shouldn't kill you yet

I made this half-pony half-monkey monster to please you

But I get the feeling that you don't like it

What's with all the screaming?

You like monkeys you like ponies

Maybe you don't like monsters so much

Maybe I used too many monkeys

Isn't it enough to know that I ruined a pony making a gift for you?

I'm so into you

But I'm way too smart for you

Even my henchmen think i'm crazy

I'm not surprised that you agree

If you could find some way to be

A little bit less afraid of me

You'd see the voices that control me from inside my head

Say I shouldn't kill you yet

Picture the two of us alone inside my golden submarine

While up above the waves my doomsday squad ignites the atmosphere

And all the fools who lead their foolish lives may find it quite explosive

Well it won't mean half as much to me if I don't have you here

You know it isn't easy living here on Skullcrusher Mountain

So maybe you could cut me just a little slack

Would it kill you to be civil?

I've been patient, I've been gracious

And this mountain is covered with wolves

Hear them howling, my hungry children

Maybe you should stay and have another drink and think about me and you

I'm so into you

But I'm way too smart for you

Even my henchmen think I'm crazy

I'm not surprised that you agree

If you could find some way to be

A little bit less afraid of me

You'd see the voices that control me from inside my head

Say I shouldn't kill you yet

I shouldn't kill you yet

Truly Appalling - People Magazine Article: Gone Too Far?

2011-11-23T22:20:00.000-05:00

I kept forgetting to get my butt online and in my blog to post about this most heinous of things: toddlers and tiaras. People Magazine did an article about it in their special double issue for 26 September entitled Gone Too Far? Skimpy costumes, temper tantrums, pushy moms: A hit TV show ignites a furor over the shocking world of child beauty pageants. Now, I have a good friend Eric who told me about this travesty of a show months prior, if not longer, but I could never bring myself to watch it. Now I know why!

This article... oh, my gods, it pushed me right over the edge! Just ask my husband. He listened to me gripe and yell and go crazy over this and when I showed him the pictures, he could not argue that this was just sick! One three-year-old was dressed like Julia Roberts as a hooker - yes, a hooker - from the movie Pretty Woman! Ye gods! How is this legal, let alone okay?! The mother, after the reaction she got on the telly, admitted that the 3-year-old Paisley's outfit "crossed the line" - you think?! Jeez, what gave you that idea? Did you not see how criminal this would be when you put it on her??

Another one was dressed as Madonna with the killer pointed bra cups! This kid was TWO years old!

Every mother has some justification for this. I can't see it. And worse, the money they are spending to turn their small fry into hookers or worse is much, much more than they make... which takes out the greed factor as the motivation for psychologically damaging your child for life. Of course, the money they spend now is nothing compared to the years of therapy they'll need to pay coming up.

And what do the mothers say? One said that her daughter really wants to do this, and what girl doesn't love to play dress up with her mommy? OK. I played dress up, too. I wore my mother's go-go dancing costumes and platform shoes when I was a little girl (quite possibly the only "girlie" thing I did, because I was always a tomboy) and I wore those because they were sequined and shiny and fun - her normal clothes were boring! Say what you want, but I never wore them outside and at five years of age, I couldn't make the connection of what go-go dancing clothes meant. To me, they were bright, shiny things. Had my mother put me in a pageant dressed like that, she would probably have been arrested, but I was a kid in the early 1970s - very different.

Now I am old enough to recall perfectly the Jon-Benét Ramsey case from 1996, which really brought the whole child pageant thing to the fore. While it did do that, it clearly did not change or improve anything. It may seem perfectly okay to put your kid in one of these because she wants to do it, but what two- or three-year-old has any judgment capabilities to make that decision? Isn't this the part where you as the parent step in and say, "No."? Is that not what it means to be a parent? Or do you let your 4-year-old go out on a play date without parental control? Walk to school by herself? Go to the movies with friends? Ummm - I'm betting no.

But this is acceptable.

One mother thought the fuss over some outfits were cultural: Her daughter's costume was 'padded to give it a little bit of an edge. "I think it's cultural, the reactions," says Jackson, whose own mother helps foot the five-figure annual bill for Maddy's many pageants. "When she wore that [Dolly Pardon costume] to a pageant in Kentucky, people loved it; in Connecticut, they didn't get it," she says. (Pageants in the south outnumber those in the rest of the country.) "Everyone acts like I am trying to sexualize my daughter, but it's ridiculous. It I put Maddy in a Jason costume for Halloween, would people think I was trying to turn her into a serial killer?"'

[Writer's note: There is no such word as "sexualize"; I just took it straight from the article.]

Well, maybe I would not think she was trying to turn her daughter into a serial killer, but I would not say okay to my toddler wanting to dress up like Jason from the Halloween movies! I would say no to dressing her like a hooker for Halloween. I certainly can see why to the outsider it looks as though mothers are pushing their little girls to not just appear like adults: tanned skin, make-up, sequin dresses, high heels, etc. But they do take it well beyond the adult trappings - they encourage an openly promiscuous look from these kids. And I don't mean, ha, ha, look at this cute little kid dressed up as beach girl doing a dance, but she doing a dance that some adults would be embarrassed to do because it was SO suggestive! Is this what you want your toddler doing?!

Here is a checklist of items and their affiliated costs, just you can see how wasteful this pageant stuff is:

1. Pageant registration: $1,000 (this is usually more that the prize money... so take out greed as the big factor)

2. Tanning: $25 (spray on tan. Only the best for your little tantrum throwing angel!)

3. White lace anklets: $8 Every little detail counts. If you want your little prize to look a 1940s poster gal, make sure you get her hose with the lines down the back of the leg and get her patent leather super-high heels. She's only 3, you say? Hey, it is never to early to start on dressing them in age-inappropriate sexually inciting clothing, which, while it might make us regular people cringe, ought to really make these kids "pop" to any pedophiles in the area!

4. Photo Session & Prints for Competitions: $350 Yowza. Can't you take them with your own backdrop in a natural setting - oh, what am I saying? There is nothing natural about this anyway!

5. Wiglet: $100. I laugh at this, because it sounds like "piglet". Little things amuse me. I guess I should be grateful they don't shave her hair clean off and put a full wig on her.

6. Earrings: $10. So what. Most of my earrings range from $7 to $50.

7. Hair & Make-up: $250 This for me is the part where the Twilight Zone music needs to be queued up - it is too bloody weird what they do. You start out with a normal 2- or 3-year-old, and after hours of sitting still (I could not sit still that long!) to have their hair pulled and puffed and added to and then sprayed to do the unthinkable; let's not even get into the fresh skin of a young child suddenly turning into the travesty that was Tammy Fay Bakker. I will stop short of saying the kids look far too adult.

You know, we are not a healthy nation. If this is what television viewing has brought us (and so many people watch it), what does this say about us? Certainly nothing good!

How Funny Are These?!

2011-11-23T21:16:00.001-05:00

My friend, my beloved friend Greg, sent me a list of links to watch.

I very rarely look at YouTube, other than to see Simon's Cat (thank you, Cuz!) and look up the occasional video, but Greg knows me all too well. He found stuff that he knew, without question, I'd love. The first one was Spongebob Squarepants singing Rammstein's "Zerstören". And you cannot believe how good this looked! I wouldn't miss this, if I were you! This link is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKeFgRrsw7E&feature=related

The next one was Winnie the Pooh and friends sing "Ich Will" by Rammstein! Oh, these are great! Cartoons that I would not give the time of day to have suddenly become worth my time! This is so much fun! The way they match the characters speaking to the music is wonderful. Now, we have a connection to this as we saw Rammstein back on Cinco de Mayo when they performed at the Izod Arena. We had such a wonderful time seeing them perform and we love their music, so we are tied into this more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqc9_KIk8D4&feature=related

Oh, my gods, just when you think it can't get worse (or better!), here are the Teletubbies performing "Sonne"!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0csshsxj0MA&feature=related

Oh, the Ice Age is my personal favourite! I love the Ice Age movies and seeing Diego sing perfectly in sync with the song Das Teir is so funny! This is by far the best of the bunch - hands down! Greg, you are just the best!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maX-XiIh65A&feature=player_embedded

Enjoy!

We Found Love

2011-11-23T21:07:00.001-05:00

Yellow diamonds in the light
Now we’re standing side by side
As your shadow crosses mine
What it takes to feel alive

It’s the way I’m feeling I just can’t describe
It’s the way I’m feeling now

Shine a light through an open door
Love and life I will divide
Turn away cause I need you more
Feel you heartbeat next to mine

It’s the way I’m feeling I just can’t describe
It’s the way I’m feeling now

We found love in a hopeless place
We found love in a hopeless place
We found love in a hopeless place
We found love in a hopeless place

We found love in a hopeless place
We found love in a hopeless place
We found love in a hopeless place
We found love in a hopeless place

We found love in a hopeless place
We found love in a hopeless place
We found love in a hopeless place
We found love in a hopeless place

Coldplay

Donde Estas, Yolanda

2011-11-22T23:02:00.000-05:00

Donde estas, donde estas, Yolanda
Que paso, que paso, Yolanda
Te busque, te busque, Yolanda
Y no estas, y no estas Yolanda

Donde estas, donde estas, Yolanda
Que paso, que paso, Yolanda
Te busque, te busque, Yolanda
Y no estas, y no estas Yolanda

Tus ojos me miraron
Tus labios me besaron
Con ese fuego ardiente
Ardiente de mujer

La luz de tu mirada
El fuego de tus labios
Flecharon a mi pecho y de ti me enamore

Donde estas, donde estas, Yolanda
Que paso, que paso, Yolanda
Te busque, te busque, Yolanda
Y no estas, y no estas Yolanda

Donde estas, donde estas, Yolanda
Que paso, que paso, Yolanda
Te busque, te busque, Yolanda
Y no estas, y no estas Yolanda
Dikedikeda!!

Donde estas, donde estas, Yolanda
Que paso, que paso, Yolanda
Te busque, te busque, Yolanda
Y no estas, y no estas Yolanda

Donde estas, donde estas, Yolanda
Que paso, que paso, Yolanda
Te busque, te busque, Yolanda
Y no estas, y no estas Yolanda

Me dicen que paseabas
En un carro Yolanda
Muy guapa y arrogante
Y todos te silbaban.

Si un dia te encontrara
No se que puedo hacer
No se me vuelvo loco
Si ya no te vuelvo a ver

Donde estas, donde estas, Yolanda
Que paso, que paso, Yolanda
Te busque, te busque, Yolanda
Y no estas, y no estas Yolanda

Donde estas, donde estas, Yolanda
Que paso, que paso, Yolanda
Te busque, te busque, Yolanda
Y no estas, y no estas Yolanda

Pink Martini, Sympathique, 1997

The Space

2011-11-21T23:00:00.001-05:00

On top of the world like a flag on a mountain
Feeling so high you can feel so alone
Unable to breathe at the height that you flew
Staring on clouds with no view of below

On top of a girl like a dream in a hotel
Falling towards something out of control
Unable to miss like the man in the tram
Crashing your car in Amsterdam

He did it without knowing, didn't feel a thing
He just wrecked it and kept going
The space around the stars
Is something that you know

A billion miles of darkness
Left your feeling low
The space around the stars
Is something that you know

Everything about you
So perfectly restrained
But everything inside you
Bites you

Everybody in the whole of the world
Feels the same inside
Everybody in the whole of the world
Everyone is only everyone else

Everybody's got to know
Everybody lives and loves and laughs and cries
And eats and sleeps and grows and dies
Everybody in the whole of the world

Is the same this time
Is the same inside
In the whole of the world

Marillion, Season's End, 1989

Sunday Stealing - The Madness Meme Part II

2011-11-21T08:43:00.001-05:00

Today we ripped off a blogger named Tense Teacher from the blog Tense for a Reason. It's long so we'll do it in two parts. She stole it from The Coffee Table. But, it was probably stolen there as well. So, of course, that will be as far as we go. Tracing back our theft's thieves might take some time. Take the time to comment on other player's posts. It's a great way to make new friends! Link back to us at Sunday Stealing!

Sunday Stealing: The Madness Meme, Part 2

Cheers to all of us thieves!

23. Do you ever walk around the house naked? All the time. Is that not the main (if unspoken) reason we want our own homes? Absolutely - we are all comfortable in our skin - at least, we should be.

24. If you were an animal what would you be? Why? It would have to be a house cat. Any one of my cats. PeTA may not believe in keeping animals as companions, although I strongly suspect many do, but my cats have a perfectly charmed life and they know it!

25. Hair color you like on someone you’re dating? Well, Luis (my husband) has a fringe of thick black silky hair that never goes grey, unlike my think full head of hair that sees only hair colour. But I will take my full head over my husband's fringe.

26. If suffering an injury, would you rather be left blind or deaf? I always answer blind, because deafness would mean no more music. I could live unhappily without my sight but my hearing is a must.

27. Do you have any special talents? Yes, I can organise the stuffing out of just about anything! On a more serious level, I'm usually very good at reading people.

28. What do you do as soon as you walk in the house? Put my glasses on the counter.

29. Do you like horror or comedy? No horror, some comedy - I'm a snob and a fussbudget about my movie viewing.

30. Are you missing anyone? My grandfather, and Talon.

31. Where do you want to live when you are old? Palm Springs, California, baby!

32. Who is the person you can count on the most?Luis and Ray.

33. If you could date any celebrity past or present, who would it be? Hugh Jackman (looking like Wolverine) and Patrick Dempsey.

34. What did you dream last night? I don't recall, but that's good. Usually if I easily recollect a dream, it is because I had a nightmare...

35. What is your favorite sport to watch? None. We don't watch sports in this house. I married the perfect man - he never is into televised sports!

36. Are you named after anyone? No.

37. What is your favorite alcoholic drink? I guess a Fuzzy Navel, but I only want it with orange juice and peach schnaps - the vodka is way too much.

38. Non alcoholic drink? Cranberry juice for cold; Lady Grey tea for hot.

39. Have you ever been in love? At my ripe old age, I certainly hope so! Yes, I have.

40. Do you sing in the shower? Not without music - if only to drown out my voice. I do a ton of thinking in the shower, though.

41. Have you ever been arrested? No, but I would not consider this something I need for a full life...!

42. What is your favorite Holiday? Samhain.

43. Would you ever get plastic surgery? No.

44. Have you ever caught a fish? Yes!

Thank you for playing this week on Sunday Stealing! Please leave a comment or link when you have posted. Stop back and visit other player’s posts. That is really what this is all about, making new friends! Have a great week. See you next Sunday!

Season's End

2011-11-20T22:58:00.000-05:00

Getting close to seasons end
I heard somebody say
That it might never snow again
In England

Snow flakes in a new-born fist
Sledging on a hill
Are these things we'll never see
In England

We'll tell our children's children why
We grew so tall and reached so high
We left our footprints in the earth
And punched a hole right through the sky

We'll tell them how we changed the world
And how we tamed the sea
And seasons they will never know
In England

So watch the old world melt away
A loss regrets could never mend
You never miss it till it's gone
So say goodbye, say goodbye

We'll tell our children's children why
We grew so tall and reached so high
You never miss it till it's gone
So say goodbye, say goodbye
To seasons end

Marillion, Season's End, 1989

Sunday Stealing - The Madness Meme, Part I

2011-11-20T10:31:00.001-05:00

Sunday Stealing: The Madness Meme, Part 1

Cheers to all of us thieves!

1. Have you ever licked the back of a CD to try to get it to work? Eeeeiiiuuuwww, no. Why would that work? How icky!

2. What’s the largest age difference between yourself and someone you’ve dated? Not very large. I did try to seduce someone who was about 19 years older than I was... I was 19, and I wasn't looking for a relationship. I just had a bad yen for this person!

3. Ever been in a car wreck? Yes, I have. Please refer to post dated March 2006, entitled "Sometimes Life Gives You Lessons Wrapped in Ridiculous Packaging" - it tells the whole sordid little tale.

4. Were you popular in high school? The complete and exact opposite.

5. Have you ever been on a blind date? Once. A mistake I will never repeat.

6. Are looks important? In the end, no. If that were the case, no one would date me! I've discovered over time, people's looks change. If someone who at first look is really good-looking or beautiful and then after a couple more conversations, this person is a real downer (I don't want to say, "bitch", but the same thing), well, their looks are no longer aesthetically pleasing - at least, not to me. Does that make sense?

7. Do you have any friends that you’ve known for 10 years or more? Oh, sure - several! Some of the best people are people I've known a very long time!

8. By what age would you like to be married? I could care less. I've been with Luis for 22 years, that's married!

9. Does the number of people a person’s slept with affect your view of them? Yes.

10. Have you ever made a mistake? Seriously?

11. Are you a good tipper? Yes, I am a very good tipper. Luis is not as generous.

12. What’s the most you have spent for a haircut? Um... I don't know. I've been going to Lucy for years and she is up to $60 for a cut and colour. I've never paid a lot for haircut.

13. Have you ever had a crush on a teacher? Has anyone NOT had a crush on a teacher?

14. Have you ever peed in public? Absolutely not. As a woman, how would I do it?

15. What song do you want played at your funeral? Um, let's see... I would have a whole list! We'd start with the Squirrel Nut Zipper's song Hell and take it from there!

16. Would you tell your parents if you were gay? "I'm in love with another woman." My parents would be very supportive.

17. What would your last meal be before getting executed? Well, there is a question one doesn't see every day. I would have an Asian chicken salad (grilled) with mixed field greens, mandarin orange slices and extra dressing and then I would have some pistachios with shells but not dyed red and for dessert fresh berries in cream. What isn't perfect about that?

18. Beatles or Stones? I do like the Rolling Stones, but I grew up listening to the Beatles! So it will always be Beatles first and foremost.

19. If you had to pick one person on earth to die, who would it be? In the 1930s (had we seen what was coming, it would have been Adolf Hitler. Following him, Josef Stalin. In the 1950s... Senator Joseph McCarthy (few would have missed this moron). In the 1960s, I suppose Mao Zedong. In 1979 the Ayatollah Khomeini and his mommy issues would need to be given an early grave. It seems that two of the most evil men are gone, now: Saddam Hussien and Osama bin Laden, so who does that leave? I could say the leader of North Korea, but we need to do away with the Communist Leaders of the People's Republic of China, too.

20. Beer, wine or hard liquor? None, thanks. I will stick with water and the occasional fruit juice.

21. Do you have any phobias? Yes, arachnophobia. I just cannot get around that one and only phobia!

22. What are your plans for the future? I never know until the future arrives.

Thank you for playing this week on Sunday Stealing! Please leave a comment or link when you have posted. Stop back and visit other player’s posts. That is really what this is all about, making new friends! Have a great week. See you next Sunday!

The Fruitcake Horror Story

2011-11-20T10:00:00.001-05:00

When Luis and I first moved in together we made the mistake of telling his father, who promptly turned around and with only the dopey "let's hide the embarrassment of my good Roman Catholic son shacking up with someone", he told the whole family we got married.

He might have clued us in on the secret - if only so I could of squashed that idea before it hit the masses, but no. And since he never saw fit to tell us, I ended up sending out thank you cads to all for the housewarming gifts but, no, we are not married. Someday we might get married, but not for a long time. Twenty-two and a half years later, here we are. Still happy, still (much to the consternation of practically the whole Gómez clan) not married. Neither Luis and I nor Anna and Kirk have gotten formally married and none of us have any plans to have children!

GASP!

Yes, isn't that something. I believe that Luis Senior has come to terms with it, but I know his siblings rub in how many kids and grandkids they've got and his two kids are it - the end of the line. In some ways it is too bad - this is the most normal, wel-balanced branch of the family, while the overwhelmingly religious side... well, it is too late. They've gone and spread that nutsy part of the gene pool around and once it is out there, there is no getting it back... unless they all marry heretics! Maybe there is some shred of hope after all!

(For those you who Read Question #2 from Cat in Saturday Six: Episode #397, these are the people you were talking about. They, however, can quote it; but live it? Never!)

Well, I am glad I let all that out. As usual, I went off into the ether on my own, and strayed from the real topic at hand. So, without further ado, I give you something so.... HORRIBLE...

.....TERRIFYING.....

....DEATH-DEFYING.....

....DISGUSTING....

....FAMILIES SHRINK BACK IN FEAR.....

IT IS-------

THE DREADED FRUITCAKE!!

Lock up your daughter! Hide your farm animals! Send your sons to neighbours whom you know won't get any similar visitations!

How's that for a great build up on the most frightening mail bombs of all!

A friend of mine and I have a theory that there is one and only one fruitcake that travels the world seeking to arrive at the house of the unwary. When a small bit is eaten (and promptly spit out), it regrows the missing piece, and under the guise of being thrown out, it slips back out into the night... never to be seen again!

Sounds like a scary nighttime story you tell kids, doesn't it?

Having tasted one, I believe that. How gruesome to think anyone would ever want to re-create that kind of horror!

Sunday Seven - Episode #316

2011-11-20T09:16:00.001-05:00

This week, we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving. Those of us who work in television will also be happy for Thursday because it will be the first day after November sweeps!

For many families, Thanksgiving means a huge spread of food. In some cases, there are dishes that are only pulled out on Thanksgiving. This week’s question focuses on that kind of food, although I’m opening up the topic to any holiday: are there foods you generally only eat during holiday meals? If so, this week’s question should be easy to stomach.

Sorry, I couldn’t resist!

Be sure to check back this week and click on the links of bloggers who play along in the comments below! It’s a great way to find blogs you may not have visited and to keep the conversation going!

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION:

Name seven dishes you generally only eat on or around holidays.

1. Spiral-cutham is always my first choice for any feast. My parents are not up to holidaydinners and Luis' father lives with us but is such a horrendous cook, we don'teat with him. Thanksgiving is a dinner we don't go to any longer as well,because I'm always on call for it, but that is okay with me, as I really,intensely dislike turkey!

2. Challah breadis one of those things that if I ever thought of it during the course of thenormal year, I would get it. But we always either get it or in the old days, mymother would make it. That's the only thing I have ever seen her bake. (Shenever cooked or baked and I took right after her!)

3. Homemadeapplesauce: my grandfather (Ray's father) would actually make real applesaucefrom the apples he got from an enormous apple tree. It always looked strange tome because it was green, but it tasted wonderful.

4. Lemonchicken: Once I reached a certain age where I was no longer required to chokedown turkey (I really do dislike it incredibly), Ray would make very stronglemon chicken for me. I mean strong, too. I eat lemons on my own and he knewthat, so he would put in a lot of extra lemon in it, so I would really enjoyit.

5. Mixed berriesin fresh cream: this is a rarity, the type of dessert now found in reallypricey places to eat. But so worth every penny. My grandmother (Harry's mother)used to sometimes make it. I ate every piece of fruit and licked the cup afterfor every drop of the cream! Yum!

6. Red Rhubarb:I have no idea what the dish is called or if there is a formal name for it, butwhen my grandparents (Harry's parents) grew rhubarb, they'd save some of it tomake into a treat for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I couldn't tell you how itwas prepared, but it was delicious and very tart (which, as you know, is myfavourite of the four flavours) and it always tasted SOOOOO good! We were thereonly ones who had that as a holiday staple.

7. Homemade cookies: And not just any homemade cookies; my grandmother (Harry's mother) had a multitude of recipes that she made the richest most tasty butter-based cookies ever. I always helped make them. I wish I could recall half the cookies she made. I haven't tasted them in many, many years,now.

Either answer the question in a comment or answer it in your journal and include the link in a comment.

Have an idea for a future question? Click “Contact” in the top nav-bar and email it to me!

The Uninvited Guest

2011-11-19T22:56:00.000-05:00

You may not recall the moment that you asked me
But your invitation was clear
You'll pretend you've never met me but it's far to late
Now I'm here

Cause I'm the one who knows what scares you
I'm the one who loves you best
I'm the thirteenth at the table
I'm the uninvited guest

I'm the Banquo at your banquet
I'm the cuckoo in your nest
I'm your fifteen-stone first-footer
I'm the uninvited guest

I was there when you said insincere "I love you's"
To a woman who wasn't your wife
And I fronted you the money
That you ran away and blew

On the biggest regret of your life
Cause I'm the one who knows what scares you
I'm the who loves you best
I'm the thirteenth at the table

I'm the uninvited guest
I'm the Banquo at your banquet
I'm the cuckoo in your nest
I'm your New Year's resolution
I'm the uninvited guest

I'm the face you hoped you'd never see
But always knew you would
I'm the one thing you knew you shouldn't do
But did because you could

I'm the evil in your bloodstream
I'm the rash upon your skin
And you made a big mistake all right
The day you let me in

And you can fly to the other side of the world
You know you'll only find
I've reserved the seat behind you
We can talk about old times

Cause I'm the one who knows what scares you
I'm the who loves you best
I'm the thirteenth at the table
I'm the uninvited guest

I'm the Banquo at your banquet
I'm the cuckoo in your nest
I'm your fifteen-stone first-footer
I'm the uninvited guest
Let me in!

I'm your New Year's resolution
I'm the uninvited guest

Marillion, Season's End, 1989

The Queen's Meme - #102 The Cow Jump Meme

2011-11-19T22:09:00.001-05:00

Welcome to The Queen's Meme

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

The Queen's Meme #102

1. What do men really want in a woman? How does one answer that? All men are different. If I had to say that about Luis, I would say someone to have stimulating conversations with - he of course would give an inappropriate answer just to see me wig out and give him an appalled look! He knows how to get a rise out of me.

2. Should marijuana be legalized? Yes, and all the rest of the drugs as well. Tax them and make them all legal so that crime goes down and drug dealers won't have any market left!

3. Why did the cow jump over the moon? There was a horny bull on the other side - why else?

4. What do women really want in a man? I suspect answer No. 1 applies. I suppose most would say someone who listens to what they have to say. Hopefully - I hate to think what most women want is someone to control.

5. When you are having a really good day, what usually makes it good? I think everything does. It all contributes!

6. What can make your good day turn into a bad day? Usually one idiot is all it takes. Sad, but true. Look at tonight's movie at the way-cool theatre with dinner and comfortable seating. The two young girls next to me were texting and chatting through the movie and I told them to be quiet and they got pissed off. Go to a restaurant or a diner if you want to chat. Not the movies! I even complained to an attendant but that person never came in to talk to them! GGGGRRRRRRR!

7. If you could "start from scratch" and turn back the clock for a re-do, what would you re-do? Nothing - everything I do, good, bad or indifferent, makes me... me. I need all of those experiences to keep what is "me" intact.

The Queen's Meme: #101 The Miscellaneous the Queen Needs Sleep Meme

2011-11-19T21:53:00.001-05:00

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

It' been a lonnnnng week. Queen is tired. Before Ihttp://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6116578306260727144postID=2973342785363906574 snuggle under the covers tonight, let me set before you a totally random set of questions. They just popped off the top of my pencil head five minutes ago. Freshly baked for you! I can barely keep my eyes open. Got any toothpicks? I know you will come up with entertaining and maybe even earth-shattering answers. The world could use a little shaking up. Just don't wake ME up. Goodnight!

The Queen's Meme #101 ~

The Miscellaneous-Queen-Needs-Sleep Meme

1. All your dominoes just fell down. Who pushed them? It has to be the cat - the first cat, Siobhan. She would do it just to piss me off to tell me to feed her. That is the kind of cat she is, evil creature!

2. Have you ever danced in a car? Well, not full-body dancing - how would I stand up? But bouncing up and down in the seat... all the time! I love music. I always, always, always have my iPod hooked up or a CD playing.

3. What is your horoscope reading today? I don't believe in astrology at all. I'm an astronomy person. I have no idea what the astrology thing says and I never look it up. I don't buy into the one-size-fits-all stuff that is in the local paper or online.

4. The iPhone just gave birth to the next generation of phones. What would you call them? The iStupid Device! I agree with my husband. The smart phones have given the stupid people a voice. Look on Facebook. How many people are so addicted to it that they go on just to write really insipid things like "good morning" or "I have to use the loo" or "I ate bacon and eggs" - really? Is this the most stimulating thing you can say? Yikes! And the spelling and grammatical errors just push me over the edge. If you cannot write in your one and only language, you should not be on social networking sites! (Is that just me or am I right? Maybe I am too fussy... but I don't think so!)

5. Do you believe Justin Bieber should take a paternity test? For what? Did this little kid impregnate someone? Eeeeiiuuuwww! What a hideous thought. (I don't read the news...)

6. Occupy Wall Street. Occupy this. Occupy that. What would you most like to occupy? Right now, my old job! I miss working. I did the Occupy Wall Street protest in October, in Liberty Park on Wall Street. I was a part of it. Now it is kind of old and done. I guess it is tough to let go and move on to something new for some.

7. What is the last groovy thing you did? Tonight, my husband and I saw Tower Heist at a dinner theatre that was like flying first class with a full meal and a seat that was huge, padded, with a foot rest and it was a great movie, too! What's not cool about that?!

Shhhhh!!! The first person to make a noise is going to the dungeon.

See you next week. I promise to be awake for the meme.

Older Meme - Saturday 9: Mr. Roboto

2011-11-19T21:38:00.001-05:00

Saturday 9: Mr. Roboto

1. Do you enjoy holidays like Halloween or is your approach more robotic? I love Hallowe'en! I dress up as much as possible. I revel in it. It's also Samhain, the New Year, so I enjoy it as a holiday, too.

2. Have you ever been to a haunted house? Not in many, many years, although I've been in plenty of houses that are haunted and not advertised as such. I suppose most houses over a certain age are haunted, though.

3. What are you doing for Halloween this year? Well, Greg and I were supposed to go to the Chiller Theatre in Parsippany on Sunday, 30 October, but the snow storm on 29 October screwed it up for both of us - him more than me, but still... so we will go in May 2012.

4. What was your lamest Halloween costume ever? I don't think I have ever had a lame costume. When I was a kid, Ray made them and did a hell of a job. As an adult I always took it as far as I could, as well. No regrets!

5. Is handing out candy fun for you, or more of a nightmare? Oh, no, that I don't do. One year, someone's kid saw the cat and ran into the house to pet it! The same day, some teenagers bigger than me and not at all dressed up came to the door and I decided to close shop permanently. Since then, however, we get very few trick-or-treaters, but I don't do it anyway.

6. Do you buy trick-or-treat candy and end up eating it yourself? I don't. My husband does. Ate everything after buying six bags, which is crazy, since we don't get six trick-or-treaters.

7. Did you carve any pumpkins this year? Yes, I carved one of the two pumpkins I got this year. I love carving pumpkins!

8. What was your favorite costume as a child? I dressed up as Adam Ant in high school and really loved it. I was the only one. It was a wonderful costume. In middle school one year, Ray made me a really cool piece of headgear so I could be an alien. It was a great costume. I wore a white leotard and leggings and boots and had this cardboard covered in tin foil headpiece that was totally original. He always did such a good job on that!

9. What is your biggest pet peeve about trick-or-treaters? I just don't like kids. And after the above-mentioned nightmares, I had less than no desire to do that.

Saturday Six: Episode #397

2011-11-19T20:07:00.001-05:00

Last week, I turned the tables on some of you who answered a recent edition of the Sunday Seven. Those who played that week had to come up with questions they’d ask me over dinner. The questions I got were so good, I couldn’t resist using them for the Saturday Six. I’ll answer the questions myself this week, but today, it’s all about you!

Thanks for dropping by and I hope you enjoy this week’s set of questions!

Be sure to check back this week and click on the links of bloggers who play along in the comments below! It’s a great way to find blogs you may not have visited and keep the conversation going!

1. From Cat.: What’s the best part about where you live? The history is the greatest thing about northern New Jersey - within easy distance of my house, there are the 300 stone steps, the 3,000 year old petroglyphic rocks tucked away on a teeny side street of Parsippany, Tripod rock in Kinnelon, hundreds of sites where the Revolutionary War went on and/or George Washington stayed; and Manhattan, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. are all in driving distance. What more can one ask? Oh, yes - I can ask for the ocean - the Atlantic Ocean is just an hour away!

2. From Cat.: What can we do about so-called Christians who really aren’t? At least, they don’t look like they’ve ever read the Gospels. At least, not the Gospels you and I seem to have read. Wow, I have no idea how to answer this. I'm not a Christian and would never claim to be a religious person if I was not - which is fairly close. I will say that since I have become an EMT I very much believe in a soul as a definite part of all living things (I don't believe that only humans have souls, however, and I am unsure if that is doctrine or personal beliefs depending on whom one speaks with); having walked many a person to the grave, I am convinced we all have souls that go on when the body dies.

However, I am spiritual, not religious. I find too many people fit into the category you, Cat, described. I don't understand it, though, and as humans, well, too many people make the choice to not be devout but proclaim they are. What can you do? I don't know that you can. As I understand it, that would be St. Peter's job to know and what to do with those people, right? I guess the only thing to do is leave it in his hands. As it stands, after a time I would have to think those people become identifiable as any relationship grows. One can't hide that kind of "double-sided-ness" too long.

(I feel like I should try to answer the question, even if this is an educated guess. I welcome your thoughts, as you might give me more insight to this question.)

3. From Strange: Where did you grow up? I grew up first in Demarest, New Jersey until the age of two and a half, so I have no recollection of that. All I have from it are a couple of scars from the time I was two and fell into a bunch of cacti that were kept in the window under where I would sit and look out. The scars are under my eyebrows but when I get them threaded, I can see them.

Then my parents got divorced so I grew up in both Wallington, N.J. and Truckville, PA. From age 13 I grew up in Wayne, N.J. Since then, I've moved steadily westward and now we are in Parsippany, until we retire and then I want to live in Palm Springs, California. That's the whole story!

4. From Strange: What do you like to do in your spare time? What don't I do...? I read a monstrous amount - I always read a lot, but now that I am "retired" I read 800 page books in a week! Which is a good thing... I will still need to live to the ripe old age of 300 to read all the books I own...

I am also a fantasy artist; a blogger (I suppose that is rather obvious, now); I enjoy organising and there is no end to what can be organised; an EMT that can't ride but is heading up the committee to buy a new rig and will be the Treasurer come 1 December for the next year; I also love seeing nature and hiking, although I can't do it the way I used to; and I write letters. I don't mean e-mail and I don't mean typing, either - I mean hand-writing long letters to friends in the United Kingdom, Czech Republic and New Hampshire. What else do I do? I guess that is it. I want to take painting lessons, too. That will have to be a gift - I haven't the income for it.

I love studying astronomy, geology, plate tectonics, volcanology, meteorology, etc. Anything that ends in "ogy" sounds good!

I also collect bank notes; candles; fancy pens; crystal spheres (I don't pretend to have any psychic abilities, I just love geology and the fact that nature creates these); and writing paper. I use all of these things and don't collect anything that is not practical or displayed.

5. From Strange: If you could visit anywhere in the world where would you go? Oh, where wouldn't I go? I have a huge, endless list of places. Unfortunately, the phrase "in the world" limits me from my very top choice - the Moon. I want to be an astronaut, even though I would never pass the physical! I've always wanted to go to the Moon!

6. From Aislínge: What made you decide to start your blog? An inspiration, a need to empty your head, a complaint of something, or something entirely different? I heard about blogging from my cousin, Renee, who had (or maybe still has) a blog on LivePress. That was in early 2005. But that was not the inspiration. The thing that made me go from thinking about it to actually doing it was an article in People Magazine in August 2005 about over-40 virgins. I read the article and HAD to write about it. The posting is called "First Topic: 40-Year-Old Virgins" and it was my second post, dated 21 August 2005. (The first post was to introduce myself, on the same date. That same day I also wrote the post "A Day in My Life", about being an EMT on a drill. The beginning of it all!) I started out slowly but then gained speed and realised that all the junk floating around in my head could go in here, freeing up more space for more... junk!

Gosh, this is fun!

If you have a Reader’s Choice question you’d like to see asked (and answered), send me an email! I’d love to include it in a future edition of the Saturday Six.

November's Farmer's Calendar, Sky Watch, etc...

2011-11-19T09:47:00.001-05:00

Farmer's Calendar - November

The psychrometer is a scientific instrument for the exact measurement of relative humidity. It's a clever little rig, invented around 1890 by a German physician and meteorologist, that works because of the different rates at which wet and dry objects cool. Two thermometers are mounted in a tube, protected against outside heat and cold. The bulb of one thermometer is dry; the other, wet. Because the moisture on the wet bulb evaporates and cools the bulb more quickly than the dry bulb cools, a comparison of their readings indicates the water content of the ambient air.

Today's humidity meters rely on electronics to measure the air's moisture. Those who prefer their psychrometry low-tech, however, need not despond, at least not in this house. We measure humidity by a device so simple it has only one moving part--the old plank door leading to the cellar. Each year, on a day in November, this door, which has been stuck tight since late spring, suddenly opens easily. All summer, the damp air has been swelling the door's pine planks, causing it to expand into its frame and jam. Now, with cooler, drier air outdoors and heating indoors, the boards give up their moisture and shrink. In June, the door will jam up again, but for now it's back in business, and furnishes as a good humidity gauge as we will ever need.

Sky Watch

Venus slowly emerges from behind the Sun at its faintest of the year, moving next to and in sync with Mercury just below it, from the 1st to the 15th. By mid-month, the duo stands 6 degrees high, 35 minutes after sunset. The changing angle of the zodiac to the horizon carries Venus higher by month's end, where it meets the crescent Moon 10 degrees up on the 26th in fading twilight. The month's real standout remains Jupiter. At a brilliant magnitude -2.9, this is the brightest it ever gets. It's already up in the east by nightfall, then out all night. In most places the length of night grows by 3 minutes daily at the start of November but falls to just one minute by month's end.

Dates, Feasts, Fasts, Aspects, Tide Heights

By now, most of what is left are the little interesting tidbits: tide information, such as at the end of 15 out of thirty days: it reads "Tides - {9.2, 9.1} (the first figure, 9.2, is over the 9.1 and denotes tide heights in Boston in feet). The astronomy tidbits, such as 26 November, on which it reads (above) conjuction of Mercury and the Moon. Right after it is the conjunction symbol, the symbol for Venus and the Moon, indication the conjunction of Venus and the Moon. I believe the times for the conjunctions are different, or it would have all been one line.


Symbol for Venus

There are also fun facts thrown in, such as 24 November: Transit of Venus first observed, 1639. (I wonder how easy that was to see, since telescopes were fairly crude at that time.) Not all the facts are astronomy-based, although those are my favourites. Some are just interesting: 21 November, Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opened, N.Y.C. 1964. Or 7 November, Magic Johnson retires from basketball, 1991, or one of my favourites: 4 November, Earthquake rang bells in Notre Dame basilica, Montréal, 1877. I love all those little tidbits of useless but interesting information.

Weather

And the last fun bit: threading its way along the section with the fun facts, astronomical bits and tides, runs a piece in italics that works its way down the right side. This gives the weather for the month. (The numbers are the days that the word or words show.)

1. Remember,
2. remember,
3. Gunpowder
4. Treason!
5. It's
6. cool
7. for
8. the
9. season.
10. Snowball
11. fights
12. and
13. chilly
14. nights
15. give
16. way
17. to
18. rising
19. temperatures;
20. snow
21. whitens,
22. sun
23. brightens
24. for
25. Turkey
26. Day,
27. we're
28. sure.
29. Pelting,
30. then melting!

Isn't that neat? I really enjoy reading everything in the Old Farmer's Almanac. It's entertaining and educational, always the best mix!

September & October's Farmer's Calendars

2011-11-19T08:51:00.001-05:00

As we are half-way into November, I won't bother with the sky watching section, as that sky has come and gone. When I catch up to November, then we will worry about sky watching.

Farmer's Calendar - September

The belted kingfisher (Ceryle alcyon) is a bird of manic high spirits. It appears to enjoy its life hugely. In fishing, it leaves its waterside branch or other perch and strikes out in a rapid, swooping flight like a woodpecker's, uttering a loud, cackling chatter. Spotting a minnow in the water below, it hates the brakes and hoovers over the surface, helicopter-like, then drops headfirst into the water in a kind of corkscrew dive, splashing mightily, to emerge with its meal held fast in its bill. The bird then repairs to another perch where it dines, not without further bursts of self-satisfied laughter.

Common near rivers and ponds across the country, the kingfisher nests in tunnels it makes in vertical faces of shoreline banks. It seems to stake out certain stretches of water to patrol, using the same perches regularly to watch for small fish, tadpoles, and the like. Maybe its characteristic rattling cry is used in part to proclaim its territory.

Or, perhaps the kingfisher has its big personality to compensate for other disadvantages. It is, frankly, a rather peculiar-looking bird. Not much larger than a robin, it has an outsized head carried on a stubby body. This busy, talkative bird looks like nothing so much as a figure in an old-fashioned political cartoon.

Farmer's Calendar - October

Harvest figures, scarecrow-like effigies, appear on porches and in dooryards. They sprawl like last night's revelers who didn't quite make it home. They're a louche and disreputable lot, intended mainly to display their creators' wit. Harvest figures are improvised and more or less crude. A pumpkin head, a stuffed suit of long underwear, a cast-off Red Sox jacket will do very well. We're not talking about high art here.

Or are we? In his work The Golden Bough, British scholar J. G. Frazer surveyed the world's art, literature, myth and folkways to discover themes that replicate the cycle of the year from planting to ripening to harvest. For Frazer, the annual decline and renewal of the land's vegetation was the symbolic foundation of much of human behavior, crucially in literature, art, and religion.

In the world of The Golden Bough, the construction of the harvest figure was more than a reliable seasonal joke. It was a mystery, a solemn ritual intended to be enacted with devotion, faith and awe. the harvest figure itself was a sacrificial symbol whose demise would magically ensure the rebirth of nature by which, precariously, all men lived. The drunken yokels which populate our lawns this month may not look like much, but they come of a very old family.

King of Sunset Town

2011-11-18T22:54:00.000-05:00

A ragged man came shuffling through
A puppet king on the 4th of June
And butterflies from all around
Settled on his paper crown

A pretty sight it seemed to be
An avenue of eternal peace
But he said, "What is here can soon burn down..."
"I'm the king of sunset town"

Watch a big wheel turning round
Some go up and some go down
Some go thirsty some just drown
"That's the law round here"

Said the king of sunset town
And in the night he comes to me
And the square becomes a battlefield
Of staring eyes that can't explain

The insanity and the greater game
Watch a big wheel turning round
Some go up and some go down
Some go thirsty some just drown

"That's the law round here"
Said the king of sunset town
A ragged man came shuffling through
The corridors of this white place

And as he lay his body down
I saw the scars that lined his face
And injured souls came to his bed
To hear the stories he would tell

Of butterflies and summertimes
And everyone assembled here
Remembers how it used to be
Before the 27th came

This place will never be the same
He said "I'm the king of sunset town"
Watch a big wheel turning round
Some go up and some go down

Some go thirsty some just drown
"That's the law round here"
Said the king of sunset town

Marillion, Season's End, 1989

Easter

2011-11-17T22:52:00.000-05:00

A ghost of a mist was on the field
The grey and the green together
The noise of a distant farm machine
Out of the first light came

A tattered necklace of hedge end trees
On the southern side of the hill
Betrays where the border runs between
Where Mary Dunoon's boy fell

Easter here again, a time for the blind to see
Easter, surely now can all of your hearts be free

Out of the port of Liverpool
Bound for the North of Ireland
The wash of the spray and horsetail waves
The roll of the sea below

And Easter here again, a time for the blind to see
Easter, surely now can all of your hearts be free

What will you do?
Make a stone of your heart?
Will you set things right?
When you tear them apart?

Will you sleep at night?
With the plough and the stars alight?
What will you do?
With the wire and the gun?

That'll set things right
When it's said and done?
Will you sleep at night?
Is there so much love to hide?

Forgive, Forget
Sing "Never again."

Marillion, Season's End, 1989

Slainte Mhath

2011-11-16T22:49:00.000-05:00

A hand held over a candle in angst fuelled bravado
A carbon trail scores a moist stretched palm
Trapped in the indecision of another fine menu
And you sit there and ask me to tell you the story so far
This is the story so far

Shuffling your memories dealing your doodles in margins
You scrawl out your poems across a beer mat or two
And when you declare the point of grave creation
They turn round and you to tell them the story so far
This is the story so far

And you listen with a tear in you eye
To their hopes and betrayals and your only reply
Is Slainte Mhath

Princes in exile raising the standard Drambuie
Parading their anecdotes tired from old campaigns
Holding their own last orders commanding attention
We sit here and listen to all of the story so far
This is the story so far

Take it away, take it away, take it away
Take me away, take me away, take me away
From the dream on the barbed wire at Flanders and Bilston Glen
From a Clydeside that rusts from the tears of its broken men

From the realisation that we've been left behind
Is to stand like our fathers before us in the firing line
Waiting on the whistle to blow
We stand here waiting on the whistle to blow

They promised us miracles, and the whistle still blows
Broken promises but the whistle still blows
Waiting on the whistle to blow
We stand here waiting on the whistle to blow

Marillion, Clutching at Straws, 1987

Torch Song

2011-11-15T22:47:00.000-05:00

Read some Kerouac and it put me on the tracks to burn a little brighter now
Something about roman candles fizzing out, shine a little light on me now
Found a strange fascination with a liquid fixation, alcohol can thrill me now
It's getting late in the game to show any pride or shame
I just burn a little brighter now, burn a little brighter now

Doctor says my liver looks like leaving with my lover, need another time-out now
Like any sort of hero turning down to zero still standing out in any crowd
Pulling seventeen with experience and dreams, sweating out a happy hour
Where you're hiding 29 you know it ain't a crime
To burn a little brighter now, burn a little brighter now

Dr. Finlay: "And my advice is if you maintain this lifestyle you won't reach 30"
Torch: "Christ - it's a romantic way to go really, it's part of the heritage, it's your round i'n'it?"

We burn a little brighter now

Read some Kerouac and it put me on the tracks to burn a little brighter now
It was something about roman candles fizzing out, shine a little light on me now
Found a strange fascination with a liquid fixation, alcohol thrill me now
Getting late in the game to show any pride or shame
Burn a little brighter now, we burn a little brighter now
We burn a little brighter now

Marillion, Clutching at Straws, 1987

Fingers and Their Memory

2011-11-15T22:09:00.001-05:00

Ink drawing of U2 from magazine cover

You did something twenty years ago with your fingers. Maybe you drew things, like me. Maybe you sewed. Maybe you loved nothing more than crocheting, knitting, using clay, making dolls, making flower arrangements or sign language.

What your fingers knew, they still know. They never forget.

Years ago in what seems like another life entirely, I was an artist. I suppose I am always an artist, since writing is a form of art and I have no problem expressing myself. But mainly I used to draw. I am a coloured pencil kind of person, primarily - I have used acrylics, oils, watercolours and other types of paint, as well as markers, oil and dry charcoals and just about every medium that was used up until 20 years ago, but then I stopped.

I tried to survive on it and killed it. I shouldn't say I killed the ability, because it is there as much as if I'd last drawn yesterday. But the desire to do it disappeared almost entirely. Every once in a while I will doodle and it becomes apparent that I have more than the average doodler's ability to draw, but it was a once in a blue Moon freaky occurrence. And quite frankly, blue Moons happened more often than my drawing or doodling.

But time is completely on my side now and I need to fill it up with something.

So I am drawing again. In some ways I'm better than ever and in some ways I am very out of practice. But I recall many of the little tricks I've known (and even use them, now!) and the muscle memory is there - like I said, as if I'd never stopped.

Coloured pencil piece

I've always known about muscle memory, but I have never really had the opportunity to try out for myself. And it is amazing. I was truly afraid the talent might not exist any longer but it is there and honed. It never left, never diminished. Even the big bump on my right middle finger is still there, built up from years of drawing and writing (I usually write letters by hand). The human body is an amazing thing if you really think about it.

So I am back to doing my original vocation: art. And while there is still plenty of room for improvement, there is a latent ability and I'm ahead of the game!

Adopted Children: Which Parents Are on the Right Side of the Law?

2011-11-15T13:33:00.001-05:00

I watched a particularly effective episode of Harry's Law, a show that airs on Wednesday nights on NBC at 21:00. This is not your typical offering and I will also admit to being a big fan of David E. Kelley's shows. This is another law show, but not just another law show. It has its serious topics and its less serious topics but it is a lot more interesting... the scenarios posted and the responses to them.

Last Wednesday, on 9 November, the episode centered around two things. Harry goes on vacation in a Mercedes Benz truck where in the town of Langford, she is pulled over. The reason? The mayor of the town (well played by George Wendt) made an ordinance that no one shall own, operate or otherwise bring a foreign-made vehicle into their town. They wanted her to pay $1,000 fine for this ridiculousness and she wouldn't.

This is not where I am going with this.

The second case that comes to the office is the less amusing side of the story. A couple from China come in to the office and tells a sad story about how in their home nation, the second children of families who break the "no second child" rule are often stolen from their families. The harassment, brought on by the local government, not the country's government, begins with imprisonment of the parents, then destroying their homes, then other charming acts of basic terrorising the parents. The final slap in the face is to steal the child, put her in an orphanage, while telling the orphanage that the parents perished.

Telly shows and I are often at odds because they take liberties based - naturally - on the knowledge of the lowest common denominator. So, for those of you in that category, they are fooling you. When the child first meets the birth parents, she answers a direct missive in Chinese and then says, "I remember you." This is nothing short of a miracle. I'm not saying that small kids cannot recall anything; however, 98% of memories developed prior to the age of 6 or 7 are likely to be extremely traumatic ones (I'm not qualified to know what children consider "traumatic", but witnessing something violent or a killing or any number of things may imprint on a very small child's memory). Most people are a fairly blank slate up until the years when permanent memories develops; there is one exception, and I am just as susceptible to that as anyone: stories.

Oh, sure. My mother has all the good stories: how I fell into the cactus in the house in Demarest; how I got drunk when I was teething because a neighbour recommended put a tiny amount of vodka on in my bottle and she measured it with a teaspoon instead of an eyedropper. The most famous is one where I woke up early, wanted out of prison (the crib), so I stood up on chubby little legs and began pushing really hard against the bars. Now, who knows, maybe the baby cribs of circa 1968 didn't have brakes on 'em. But that sucker ended up blocking the bedroom door so that no one could get in. Heh, heh.

It sound good and it did in fact happen. But it is not from my memory this comes, but years of hearing my mother tell this. For a long time I thought I could remember it - she told it in rich detail and left nothing out, I was sure I could recall it. She's told it to everyone under the sun, on every occasion, but that is not my memory. I guarantee you it wasn't mine: I was in my room, oblivious to the stir I created and laughing my head off! Not exactly the definition of scarred.

There is an actual reason for putting you through all this, I promise.

In this show, a woman who knows one of lawyers on Harry's staff, Adam, and introduces him to two Chinese people, a husband and wife that had broken the second child law and the local government has stolen her. They've spent time and all of their money and tracked her to a family in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was taken at age two and now she is age 6. They want to get their little girl back and return home to Beijing. (Is it only me who wonders what the government will do - local or otherwise - when these parents who broke a major law there show up again?)

As it happens, China has revamped their taxation system to radically dissuade non-agriculturally dependent families to restrict their procreation to one. Families with farms can have two - kids are additional labour - without suffering monetary problems.

So the lawyers from Harry's firm first visit with the adoptive parents of Li. Li runs into the living room hot on her sister's Darlene's heels, arguing who gets to watch what on the telly. This is while the two lawyers from Harry's office are there to drop this bomb on the parents. They were good enough to want to avoid the parents just receiving a subpoena, but beyond that, this just went straight into the jurisprudence system! Meanwhile, the couple who have been raising this little girl go out and retain a lawyer.

When they meet in front of the judge, a tall, stately, African American woman with very short hair and who is extremely well-spoken, she explained how the process would work: she would hear from the biological parents, then the adoptive parents. The next day they would hear professional opinions on each side of the coin and then the following day there would be closing arguments and she would render her judgment.

Then she said something to the effect of how this would be painful; but like it or not, you are all in this together. That the little girl now has biological parents that she knows are alive; and she has the family with whom she has spent more than half of her life. Like it or not, this is it. One side cannot erase the other.

She held the lawyers back and asked if they had at least met as a group with the child present. They all shook their heads. The judge raised an eyebrow and said, "So your clients all lawyered up; this can all be faxed with a lawsuit, huh?" They all had the grace to look a little chastised, at least.

Later that day, the three lawyers and their clients had a get-together with Li. She seemed cold and distant to her biological parents, and the husband told the wife that she was only two when she last saw them. The adoptive mother apologetically told them Li doesn't remember Chinese. And then, after a another minute of the parents fretting that their child does not remember them, she said, "I remember you," in Chinese.

(Maybe that could happen, but I find that tough to believe...)

The next day in court they have experts give testimony. The defendants' side had a man who argued that it would be criminal to rip the daughter from her adoptive family. The other side's expert actually argued that multi-racial families can't work! I was grinding my teeth to the nubs when I heard that. That is preposterous!

After the experts did their thing, the judge called to the lawyers to hang back and asked if either of them had gotten their clients into counseling of some kind. Both again looked a little sheepish and shook their heads. The judge then asked the three of them if they had any kids. They all shook their heads and she sighed, shook her head and made a comment that it's a good thing their clients are in good hands.

At the end, it was time for the judge to hand down her verdict and inform the families of her fateful decision. She began by saying that these cases all come down to the judge you get [there was no jury]. She had been adopted by white parents. Was she racially conditioned to be white? She didn't know. She did say that if anyone had suggested to her that they were not her family, she would have fought it and never believed it. On the other hand, she is a mother and if anyone took her daughter, she would search the ends of the earth for her, if it took two years, four years, twenty.

She took a deep breath and said that she is going to work out a very strong and detailed set up of visitation rights. She also stated that Li would be living with the Thomas' (the adoptive family). She would get the visitation rights worked out as soon as possible and then apologised to the Chinese family. She just couldn't see taking away Li from her parents who'd raised her the last four years of her life. The Chinese woman broke down, the Thomas' were very relieved. I can understand that.

Currently, United States law always favours the side of the biological parents, a ruling I don't agree with. I don't think any case is so cut and dry one can have a predetermined ruling ideal. Each case has to be tried on an individual basis. Many times, I am on the side of the adoptive or waiting parents of an as-yet unborn child. Especially when teenage girls enter into an agreement that they will give up the baby they will have to a family that is childless and waiting for their own baby. But the 15-year-old girl giving up the child holds it for the first (and presumably last) time and suddenly decides to change her mind. AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!

And the law is on her side?! How is that fair? She signed an agreement! Received money and a ton of free health care! And she is bloody well 15! What kind of life will this be for either the child or the girl or the rest of the family? Let's be honest, we all know how this plays out. The mother of the teenager is saddled with more kids that she is raising full time. What a great system! And we support it! The law supports it.

Now we have destroyed how many lives? That of the girl, the baby, the girl's family (if they are directly involved). And what about the adoptive parents? Sure, they knew the risks. But they are desperate to have a child and they are the ones who really got screwed. These people usually have been through the ringer by the time they reach this point: failed attempts on their own to conceive; failed attempts at IVF; attempts to maybe have a surrogate mother (one who has signed up solely to incubate a child for another couple) adoption and now this - and then some irresponsible twit decides she can do this and opts to keep the child! These are the people who go through the worst times.

So what do you think? Should the legal system have a fall-back position that is favourable to one side of the issue? Or should the courts have to examine each case and make its own determination? Do you think the biological parents should always be the top winners of every case? The adoptive parents? Why or why not?

It's good food for thought. I welcome your thoughts, as always.

Incommunicado

2011-11-14T22:46:00.000-05:00

I'd be really pleased to meet you if I could remember your name
But I got problems of the memory ever since I got a winner in the fame game
I'm a citizen of Legoland travellin' incommunicado
And I don't give a damn for the Fleet Street aficionados

But I don't want to be the back-page interview
I don't want launderette anonymity
I want my hand prints in the concrete on Sunset Boulevard
A dummy in Tussaud's you'll see
Incommunicado, incommunicado

I'm a Marquee veteran, a multimedia bona fide celebrity
I've got an allergy to Perrier, daylight and responsibility
I'm a rootin'-tootin' cowboy, the Peter Pan, the street credibility
Always taking the point with the dawn patrol fraternity

Sometimes it seems like I've been here before
When I hear opportunity kicking in my door
Call it synchronicity call it deja vu
I just put my faith in destiny - it's the way that I choose

But I don't want to be a tin can tied
To the bumper of a wedding limousine
Or currently residing in the where are they now file
A toupee on the cabaret scene

I want to do adverts for American Express cards
Talk shows on prime time TV
A villa in France, my own cocktail bar
And that's where you're gonna find me

Incommunicado, incommunicado

Sometimes it seems like I've been here before
When I hear opportunity kicking in my door
Call it synchronicity call it deja vu
I just put my faith in destiny - it's the way that I choose
Incommunicado, incommunicado
It's the only way

Marillion, Clutching at Straws, 1987

Sunday Seven - Episode #315

2011-11-14T15:24:00.001-05:00

Whew! Three in one weekend, that is a lot. Here we are for the final catch up to my joyous Saturday Six and two Sunday Sevens!

Now that we’re into November, with Thanksgiving just weeks away, Christmas shopping season reaches a fever pitch as retailers pull out all the stops to entice you with the next great thing you can’t live without. But what’s on your own wish list for this Christmas? Make your own personal wish list and check it twice…that’s this week’s task! Thanks for dropping by!

Be sure to check back this week and click on the links of bloggers who play along in the comments below! It’s a great way to find blogs you may not have visited and to keep the conversation going!

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION:

Name seven things you’d love to get for Christmas this year!

This is dangerous stuff, you know; I am a terribly avaricious person. But the top seven items are coming now.

1. Ilsa by Madeleine L'Engle. This was written in the 1940s by my number one favourite author and has been out of print for many decades. But there are some sellers, one notably in Germany, whose least expensive copy is $322. It is a foregone conclusion that I will not receive it and at best, it is a wishlist kind of item that I will need to get an inheritance or some other windfall money to get it. But that is the one thing above all others I really, really want. Yes, I know... fat chance. No one else will appreciate the value but me.

2. The iPad II. I am not fussy, I'm just classy and expensive with excellent taste. However, admittedly, it is a foregone conclusion that this is unlikely to show up under the Yule tree for the obvious reasons: it is far too expensive and I made the mistake of admitting to Luis that I want it because Steve Jobs was a master and an artist and what would it be except a very expensive binder and iPod? (Which makes me an idiot, but what's new there?)

3. Coldplay in concert. I have no idea when they will be out and about touring the country but I love Mylo Xyloto and very much want to see them in concert, so I would be delighted to hear them live. Hopefully, they have improved in a live setting since my friend Nancy saw them; she said they were not good as live performers. That happens, especially when bands suddenly escalade from small arena/playhouses to huge arenas and have not been able to successfully make the transition. That is hard.

4. Clothes from LL Bean or Eddie Bauer. Normally I am not a fan of receiving clothes, but I need them and the above mentioned clothiers are both nice and long-lasting clothes that are comfortable. I still could care less about being a fashion plate.

5. Art classes. I'm very rusty with art and while the muscle memory is still there, it has been years since I've drawn and even longer since I have painted. I'd like to have some classical and formal training, especially in painting: I remember none of the tricks with that, the way I do with most drawing.

6. Jigsaw puzzles. I'm up into the 2,000 to 9,000 piece puzzle range. But I love them. No Thomas Kinkade for me, however. I like the cartoon-type ones, like the Kitchen one, which is fun madness or Dog Show, also a lot of fun.

7. A gift certificate for Amazon.com. No explanation needed!

Either answer the question in a comment or answer it in your journal and include the link in a comment.

Have an idea for a future question? Click “Contact” in the top nav-bar and email it to me!

Warm, Wet Circles

2011-11-13T22:43:00.000-05:00

On promenades where drunks propose to lonely arcade mannequins
Where ceremonies pause at the jeweler's shop display
Feigning casual silence in strained romantic interludes
Till they commit themselves to the muted journey home

And the pool player rests on another cue
Last night's hero picking up his dues
A honeymoon gambled on a ricochet
She's staring at the brochures at the holidays

Chalking up a name in your hometown
Standing all your mates to another round
Laughing at the world till the barman wipes away the warm wet circles
The warm wet circles

I saw teenage girls like gaudy moths
A classroom's shabby butterflies
Flirt in the glow of stranded telephone boxes
Planning white lace weddings from smeared hearts and token proclamations

Rolled from stolen lipsticks across the razored webs of glass
Sharing cigarettes with experience with her giggling jealous confidantes
She faithfully traces his name with quick bitten fingernails
Through the tears of condensation that'll cry through the night

As the glancing headlights of the last bus kiss adolescence goodbye
In a warm wet circle
Like a mothers kiss on your first broken heart, a warm wet circle
Like a bullet hole in Central Park, a warm wet circle
And I'll always surrender to the warm wet circles

She nervously undressed in the dancing beams of the Fidra lighthouse
Giving it all away before it's too late
She'll let a lovers tongue move in a warm wet circle
Giving it all away and showing no shame

She'll take a mother's kiss on her first broken heart a warm wet circle
She'll realise that she played her part in a warm wet circle

It was a wedding ring
Destined to be found in a cheap hotel
Lost in a kitchen sink or thrown in a wishing well

Marillion, Clutching at Straws, 1987

Saturday Six - Episode #396

2011-11-13T20:30:00.001-05:00

A few weeks ago, I asked players of the Sunday Seven to list seven questions they’d ask me if we had dinner. I don’t know if they suspected that I would ever turn the tables on them by asking their questions on the Saturday Six, but I couldn’t resist.

If you have a Reader’s Choice question you’d like to see asked (and answered), send me an email! I’d love to include it in a future edition of the Saturday Six.

After all, I’m resting up for the 400th edition coming up in a few weeks! So here are a few of the questions meant for me.

(And yes, I’ll get around to answering them myself this week!)

Thanks for dropping by and I hope you enjoy this week’s set of questions!

Be sure to check back this week and click on the links of bloggers who play along in the comments below! It’s a great way to find blogs you may not have visited and keep the conversation going!

1. From Aislínge: What is your favorite food? Well, well. I seem to have gone down in the annals of questions on your blog - thank you!

My favourite food was (and I will explain that) pineapple fried rice. I am boycotting it now because my favourite and only place to get it has taken out all of the vegetables from it which I did not eat but added flavour none-the-less in an effort to make more money. If I want vegetables in a dish that is supposed to have them anyway, I need to pay extra to get organic vegetables. I refuse. I hate the organic movement - it is a total sham and just another way to fleece consumers. I am really ticked off about this. This was a $16.00 dish - that isn't enough?

And I bet you thought this would be an innocuous question!

2. From Strange: Who were your heroes or people you looked up to when you were young? Hmmm, this an interesting one. I have to say foremost that my favourite authors are all my heroes and a large art of my love of writing: Madeleine L'Engle of course is my number one; followed by Andy Rooney, Anne McCafferey, David Eddings, Diane Duane, and so, so many others. Spock was always one of my heroes: half human, half Vulcan and the best of both worlds. U2, Adam and the Ants, many bands were my heroes: they sung about having strength and gave me the strength I needed to get through my childhood. I have a lot of heroes.

3. From Cat.: What’s the best part about your job? The best part of my Human Resources job was being there for people; helping new people to settle into new positions, helping those with issues to improve; helping those on their way to new opportunities make the transition easier. Being an EMT... well, it was helping those really going through the worst times of their lives. What else is there?

4. From Aislínge: What is the one thing for which you are most grateful to your parents? My parents were amazing when I was growing up. When I was a teenager, they said to me, "We know you are going to start trying things out. You'll want to maybe drink, become sexually active, try drugs, whatever. We want you to be in the house doing this instead of in the backseat of a car so that if anything gets out of hand, you can yell for help." Tell me those weren't the coolest parents ever. There was none of this threatening that so many of my friends heard from their unenlightened parents, such as getting thrown out of the house because you had sex - at all.

5. From Aislínge: What was/is the one thing your parents did that most made you angry? The same things that seemed to work so well on me did not work at all on them. My mother first began caving in to the muscular dystrophy some 20 or so years ago, about the same time she began her willful campaign to give her adult-onset diabetes the big buggeroff. But she never did that. She ate all kinds of shit with sugar and demanded sugar-filled foods from Ray, who was her enabler. I kept telling Ray to not buy her all kinds of sugar product, but he kept right on doing it, because it was easier to cave in and give her those bad foods. The doctors all began describing how she will have the first of many strokes and that will be the end of life as we know it. Not even a year later this happened. I'm still angry now, three years later, as she is completely paralyzed on the right and can't speak (aphasia) and she is bloody abusive to Ray and to the woman who comes three days a week for three hours day and is just a horror to the people giving her care.

6. From Strange: What is your favorite time of year and why? Always autumn, always - even though it presages winter, easily the hardest season for me, it is the most lovely season.

If you have a Reader’s Choice question you’d like to see asked (and answered), send me an email! I’d love to include it in a future edition of the Saturday Six.

Hotel Hobbies

2011-11-12T22:41:00.000-05:00

Hotel hobbies padding dawns hollow corridors
Bell boys checking out the hookers in the bar
Slug-like fingers trace the star-spangled clouds of cocaine on the mirror
The short straw took its bow

The tell tale tocking of the last cigarette
Marking time in the packet as the whisky sweat
Lies like discarded armour on an unmade bed
And a familiar craving is crawling in his head

And the only sign of life is the ticking of the pen
Introducing characters to memories like old friends
Frantic as a cardiograph scratching out the lines

A fever of confession a catalogue of crime in happy hour
Do you cry in happy hour, do you hide in happy hour
The pilgrimage to happy hour

New shadows tugging at the corner of his eye
Jostling for attention as the sunlight flares
Through a curtains tear, shuffling its beams
As if in nervous anticipation of another day...

Marillion, Clutching at Straws, 1987

White Russian

2011-11-11T22:38:00.000-05:00

Where do we go from here?
Where do we go from here, where do we go from here
Where do we go from here, where do we go from here

They boarded up the synagogues, Uzis on a street corner
You can't take a photograph of Uzis on a street corner
The DJ resigned today they wouldn't let him have his say
Surface scratched where the needles play, Uzis on a street corner
Where do we go from here

Terror in Rue de St. Denis, murder on the periphery
Someone else in someone else's pocket
Christ knows I don't know how to stop it
Poppies at the cenotaph, the cynics can't afford to laugh
I heard in on the telegraph there's Uzis on a street corner
Where do we go from here, where do we go from here

The more I see, the more I hear, the more I find fewer answers
I close my mind, I shout it out but you know it's getting harder
To calm down, to reason out, to come to terms with what it's all about
I'm uptight, can't sleep at night, I can't pretend everything's all right
My ideals, my sanity, they seem to be deserting me
But to stand up and fight I know we have six million reasons

They're burning down the synagogues, Uzis on a street corner
The heralds of the holocaust, Uzis on a street corner
The silence never louder than now, how quickly we forgot our vows
This resurrection we can't allow, Uzis on a street corner
Where do we go from here, where do we go from here

We buy fresh bagels from the corner store
Where swastikas are spat from aerosols
I sit in the bar sipping iced White Russian
Trying to score but nobody's pushing
And everyone looks at everyone's faces
Searching for signs and praying for traces of a conscience in residence

Are we sitting on a barbed wire fence
Racing the clouds home, racing the clouds home
We place our faith in human rights
In the paper wars that tie the red tape tight

I know that I would rather be out of this conspiracy
In the gulags and internment camps frozen faces in nameless ranks
I know that they would rather be standing here besides me
Racing the clouds home, racing the clouds home

You can shut your eyes, you can hide it away it's gonna come back another day
Racing the clouds home, are we racing the clouds home
Racing the clouds home

Marillion, Clutching at Straws, 1987

Lavendar

2011-11-10T22:36:00.000-05:00

I was walking in the park dreaming of a spark
When I heard the sprinklers whisper
Shimmer in the haze of summer lawns
Then I heard the children singing

They were running through the rainbows
They were singing a song for you
Well it seemed to be a song for you
The one I wanted to write for you, for you

Lavenders blue, dilly dilly, lavenders green
When I am King, dilly dilly, you will be Queen
A penny for your thoughts my dear
A penny for your thoughts my dear

I.O.U. for your love, IOU for your love
Lavenders green, dilly dilly, lavenders blue
When you love me, dilly dilly, I will love you

A penny for your thoughts my dear
A penny for your thoughts my dear
IOU for your love, IOU for your love

For your love

Marillion, Misplaced Childhood, 1981

Spellbound

2011-11-09T22:33:00.000-05:00

From the cradle bars
comes a beckoning voice
it sends you spinning
you have no choice...


You hear laughter
cracking through the walls
it sends you spinning
you have no choice


Following the footsteps
of a rag doll dance
we are entranced
Spellbound


And don't forget
when your elders forget
to say their prayers

take them by the legs
and throw them down the stairs


When you think
your toys have gone beserk
it's an illusion
you cannot shirk


you hear laughter
cracking through the walls
it sends you spinning
you have no choice


Following the footsteps
of a rag doll dance
we are entranced
Spellbound

Sioxsie and the Banshees, Spellbound, 1981

Musclebound

2011-11-08T22:28:00.000-05:00

We're building fires that will burn until morning
the smell of books and hot stone surround us
tough is the leather that's strapped to my skin
strong are the bonds that we make

we feel the steam as it rises around us
up from the soil that is cracking its back
tough us the leather that's strapped to my skin
strong are the bonds that sing

work til you're musclebound all night long
work til you're musclebound all night long
gotta work til you're musclebound all night long
gotta work til you're musclebound all night long

we're building fires that will burn until morning
the smell of books and hot stone surround us
tough is the leather that's strapped to my skin
strong are the bonds that we make

to hear a pulsing from chanter to mountain
down through the vein and into the grain
strong is the shoulder that moves to the time
here is the land it can break

work til you're musclebound all night long
work til you're musclebound all night long
gotta work til you're musclebound all night long
gotta work til you're musclebound all night long

Spandau Ballet, Journeys to Glory, 1981

Angel

2011-11-07T22:24:00.000-05:00

You are my angel
Come from way above
To bring me love

Her eyes
She's on the dark side
Neutralize
Every man in sight

To love you, love you, love you ...

You are my angel
Come from way above

To love you, love you, love you ...

Massive Attack, Mezzanine, 1998

Electrical Storm

2011-11-06T22:22:00.000-05:00

The sea it swells like a sore head and the night it is aching
Two lovers lie with no sheets on their bed
And the day it is breaking

On rainy days we'd go swimming out
On rainy days swimming in the sound
On rainy days we'd go swimming out

You're in my mind all of the time
I know that's not enough
If the sky can crack there must be someway back
For love and only love

Electrical Storm
Electrical Storm
Baby don't cry

Car alarm won't let you back to sleep
You're kept awake dreaming someone elses dream
Coffee is cold but it'll get you through
Compromise that's nothing new to you.
Let's see colours that have never been seen
Let's go places no one else has been

You're in my mind all of the time
I know that's not enough
Well if the sky can crack there must be someway back
To love and only love

Electrical storm x 3
Baby don't cry

It's hot as hell, honey in this room
Sure hope the weather will break soon
The air is heavy, heavy as a truck
We need the rain to wash away our bad luck

Well if the sky can crack there must be some way back
To love and only love

Electrical storm
Electrical storm
Electrical storm

Baby don't cry
Baby don't cry
Baby don't cry

U2, The Best of 1990 - 2000, 2000

Gravity

2011-11-05T22:17:00.000-04:00

Baby
It's been a long time coming
Such a long, long time
And I can't stop running
Such a long, long time
Can you hear my heart beating?
Can you hear that sound?
'Cause I can't help thinking
And I won't stop now

And then I looked up at the sun
And I could see
Oh, the way that gravity pulls on you and me
And then I looked up at the sky
And saw the sun
And the way that gravity pushes on everyone
On everyone

Baby
When your wheels stop turning
And you feel let down
And it seems like troubles
Have come all around
I can hear your heart beating
I can hear that sound
But I can't help thinking
And I won't look now

And then I looked up at the sun
And I could see
Oh, the way that gravity pulls on you and me
And then I looked up at the sky
And saw the sun
And the way that gravity pushes on everyone
On everyone
On everyone

On everyone
On everyone
On everyone

Coldplay, Talk (single), 2005

Over Six Years of Blogging

2011-11-05T22:00:00.002-04:00

You would think by now I'd have something new to say.

Yes and no. Some days pass by without much to break them up or making one stand out from the other. I still do a lot of what I did before, although work was the main driving force of my life for 30 years. Now, at age 43, I am no longer able to work and while people delight in telling me that I'm lucky.

I don't feel lucky.

I'm listening in to my pager and there is a major fire in Parsippany. I hear the police, fire companies and EMS on scene chattering back and forth. While they are wishing they were home, I am wishing I was there. There with my friends, my family in emergency services, my life that in the space of days, I left behind; the life I miss. It is as though I am missing something major - an arm or a leg or a piece of my heart. Certainly a large piece of my heart is gone. It's sitting in my office at Baltusrol in a corner. It is sitting in the lockboxes on 66-1, 66-2 and 66-3. But a huge part of it will be in 66-4, the new ambulance I am working on - hard at work on - to buy for us. I'm very attached to the ambulances we have currently. My heart and soul is in the one we are working on now. It is my opus, my baby; just as the Human Resources Department I gave birth to at BGC.

It was mine. My baby, my gift to the workplace. It was an office when I started; it was its own stand-alone department when I left. I left my work-opus there. And even though I wasn't perfect, I was the one who put it together. I delivered into my successor's hands a fully-grown HR department. So I do still smile to myself and look upon my five years and one week with joy. With happiness. With the knowledge that I made it what it is. And I have had to let it go, like letting your child go out into the world on his or her own.

EMS, well, what can I have brought to it? I did not give birth to anything there. But now, building the design and specs and schematics for a new ambulance, working with the rest of the committee, is definitely giving me that feeling. I have drawings up on one wall with all my marks, remarks, modifications and question marks up on it for the next stage from PL Custom. This is my baby. This will be my opus to the squad - to give them the best possible new rig for us to bust ours saving others' butts!

Who wouldn't want to have that kind of effect on something? I am twice blessed to have it and in two different places. And then there is my house.

My last and final opus.

My house is lovingly decorated by me. If it were up to Luis, we'd live in a cave with technology and little else. Not so with me. The walls are decorated with a mixture of things - posters, images I've taken and my own artwork on the walls; my collection of candles burning in each room; my bits of crystals, Smurfs (don't laugh - most of us have things from our childhood left over), autumn leaves, lovely handmade pieces from the Renaissance Faires I have worked for, two hanging chairs (one in the living room and one in the sun room) decorated with Hallowe'en lights.

And books. Hundreds and hundreds of books.

What would life be without books? My life would not be so rich, so amazing, so healthy and fun as it is without books. Books make you a fuller, richer person. Richer than all the money in the world can make anyone. Anyone can make money. I used to make money. But I married too well and money was not the main motivation to work. I liked my paycheck, I never complained and BGC paid me and made me a very happy person, but the joy - 90% of it - came in the work. It came from the others I worked with, the friends I made, the members I met who really, really made me see wealthy people for who they are: people. Their value wasn't in their monetary status. All those people gave me magic and insight and a deep, deep appreciation for them just as people. Thank you, you know who you are (at least, you should know who you are!).

Now, all of the above things are great and I have my love for them. But then, there is a lot more love to go around, so I have to give those people their due:

Luis, my wonderful best friend, lover, my man, my husband: what would I be without you, in some ways the best part of me. I know I am maddening; you think I spew information that you feel should be private; you hate my [total lack of] money management; I am missing the filter that not only lets me sensor my comments but I have a need to tell everyone else what dreck I think your taste in television is! What? It IS dreck! I'm right, so why should I keep it to myself? Where's the fun in that?

But you make me feel good even if I have no value to society anymore.

You make me feel like I have a value to you.

You make me feel soft and sexy and skinny (not skinny, but svelte) and like I am desirable.

You make me feel young.

To my parents:

To Ray who has shown me the gentler side of people. Who has shown me how much someone can adjust and adapt in crazy circumstances and not just accept the jobs you need to do now that Ma can't, but that you can grab the bull by the horns and really take control of everything. You are my hero. You will always be my hero. You are my father, my man to look up to. My biggest, best hero. My other best friend. I took on many things and the best I took was Kellogg.

To my mother, who taught me to live a guilt-free life, to be aggressive and unafraid and the strong personality. To the woman who made sure I have no filter when knocking others' taste, ha, ha! (Hey, I like being me. I know there are times when it would be better to have a filter, but that I'm pretty cool without it. No one wonders where they stand with me.) This is invaluable.

To my biological father, Harry: I'm yours. Good, bad, ugly, I am you - no one sees me in my mother, but anyone who has seen images of me with you knows I am you. I am still uniquely me, but the stamp of you is all over me. I am the reader, the lover of music, the artist and that artist's temperament, because genetics are genetics and I am all yours in so many ways.

To my family for putting up with me, black sheep that I am.

To my crew:

Bob Heinzerling, Luke Joseph Kanderapally, Kyle (Motormouth) Pierce, Kirk Feller, Chris & EIleen Brown, Kathleen & Brian Hollinghurst, Mike Kotch, Devika Patel, Danny Weber, Steve Tissot, Colin Mellars, and so, so many others. You are my family. You are my brothers and sisters in EMS. Which brings me to the others: Parsippany Police, such as Andy Sadowski, Allan Griffin, Glen Foesil, Jim Masker, Al Keiser, Rich Howell and all the rest of them, especially the ones who are first onscene to our calls - the knights in shining armour. And our sister squad: Betsy Lowry, Nan and Carl, Meredith, AJ, etc. The heavy rescue guys who have let me be their crash-test dummies; so many people to thank. But the top ones are Bob and Mike, who are not just crew mates but really close friends.

I could go on and on, but it is getting to be late. I also have a letter to write, which will be a pleasure. That is something that will be great - to return to art and letter-writing, and all the things I did before I threw everything into writing.

Sunday Seven - Episode #314

2011-11-05T21:03:00.000-04:00

At some point, like me, you may have suffered a frustration at the office large enough to make you mutter to yourself, “This place is killing me.”

For some medical experts, it’s not such a funny thought. Here’s a list of 10 Ways Your Job is Killing You. Theoretically, of course.

Which seven are most likely to have some impact on your life? That’s Job #1 for this week! Thanks for dropping by!

Be sure to check back this week and click on the links of bloggers who play along in the comments below! It’s a great way to find blogs you may not have visited and to keep the conversation going!

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION:

Name the seven ways your job is most likely killing you.

In my case, it is past tense, seven ways my job WAS killing me, but I do have them:

1. First and foremost (and unbeknownst to me at the time I was working, my job and hours were contributing to speeding up the deleterious effects of the muscular dystrophy. It turns out that working, stress and constantly pushing yourself when you have a disease that is, at its heart, immunological, speeds up the process of symtoms and extended problems. The things I loved most: being an HR Manager, the place I worked, and being an EMT, were the things hurting me the most. That is harder to live with than one thinks.

2. Having no energy; that is partially to blame on my condition but I also wore myself out working. I'd come home, eat, take my "before I go to bed" nap, then do a few things around the house and then crashed. What a charming life, huh? And then I'd be on the ambulance from 1800 to 0600, and that really didn't help.

3. One of the worst things and the item that easily created the most stress and did kill me were harassment complaints. From soup to nuts, this was a process that made me crazy. The only person who wanted to hear from me was my manager; everyone else griped and pissed and moaned about it, and it went downhill from there. I am, however, like a dog with a bone and kept at it - often coming home late and coming in super-early, because this was time consuming, paper consuming and time sensitive. It has to be now, now, now - no exceptions. That often killed me. I won't say it wasn't worth it - I almost always got my man (or woman) and that was the goal; but it was hard and annoying, too.

4. Extraneous issues: what is it that makes anyone crazy? Doing their normal job, or the sudden unseen, unknown, unforeseeable little bombs that pop out of the ether to suddenly become your problem? It's almost never your regular job duties. Those are the things you know. It is the other stuff: unionisation, problems with OSHA, etc. These things usually come to you because there is no easy answer or solution OR it takes so much time, money, energy and whatever else to deal with it that you are suddenly explaining to someone why this or that is late... we all have it, but it is definitely one of those things that kills us all at our jobs!

5. Now I am forced to troll the list, but I have to admit, few of those things apply to me. My most recent manager was a really stand-up guy who should be the GM/COO for the rest of his life (providing it makes him happy, but overall, I think he loves his job, even if he is not one to gush about it). I have had toxic bosses in the past, though, and that is one of the worst things to have. Agreed.

My commute was my wind-down time. I would plug in my iPod, sing and dance and bop in my car and never thought about being upset or frustrated going to and from work. Especially TO work: I couldn't recall getting there most of the time. It's all auto-pilot.

6. Long hours; we covered that above.

7. Layoffs: this was not something that come up at my last job, as layoffs were seasonal and welcomed by many of the seasonal staff who really were ready to see some downtime after working seven days a week for seven or eight months. But my first HR job was with PNY Technologies right in here in Parsippany and five months into it we had to lay off 39% of the staff. Unfortunately, some idiot manager leaked it and of course it just created more misery... and it was my first HR job and that was an ugly, ugly introduction to how awful that kind of thing truly is.

Either answer the question in a comment or answer it in your journal and include the link in a comment.

Have an idea for a future question? Click “Contact” in the top nav-bar and email it to me!

Saturday Six - Episode #395

2011-11-05T20:50:00.000-04:00

How many different kinds of “American English” are there?

Apparently, there are enough variations for someone to have produced one of those little internet quizzes. Therefore, I thought I’d produce this week’s silly little Saturday Six based on the topic!

Thanks for dropping by and I hope you enjoy this week’s set of questions!

Be sure to check back this week and click on the links of bloggers who play along in the comments below! It’s a great way to find blogs you may not have visited and keep the conversation going!

1. Do you think you have the same accent as most of the people who live in your neighborhood, or do you sound like you’re from somewhere else? I sound like I'm from somewhere else but no one knows where. I've had people ask me if I'm from Germany, Austria, Ukraine... I don't know why, but I don't mind at all.

2. Have you ever been mistaken by a stranger as being from somewhere other than your place of birth? If so, what’s the farthest from your hometown one has guessed you’re from? Yes, see above. As usual, I'm ahead of you! When I went to the British Isles in 1985, people thought I sounded like the locals. I tend to pick up local accents, usually without realising it. But I have not been to the above-mentioned countries, so I have no idea what that's about. It took me about six weeks to lose the Irish accent I picked up in Ireland.

3. If you had to come up with a name for the dialect you hear most often, what would it be? The "idiot dialect" that seems to be found in younger people here... and what is with putting the word "like" 15 times in three sentences? How did that happen? I hate that - it drives me crazy!

4. Take the quiz: What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

I don't speak American English. But we shall see what this says...

You Speak Yankee! Post it now!

45% Yankee
30% General American English
15% Dixie

10% Upper Midwestern
0% Midwestern

5. What regional word or expression common to your area do you find yourself using most often? Hmmm. I am not one to pick up phrases unless they are proper English. I hear my father say, "the reason being" (and others I know say it) and I jump all over him about it - it's awful to say that. There is no such phrase in English spoken properly as "the reason being".

6. Which regional word or expression common to your area do you hate the most? Well, you won't believe it, unless it has somehow made it your area. People here say "aks". Wondering what the hell that is? It's this gods-awful bastardisation of "ask". Yeah, isn't that appalling? Who does this?! And yet, three years ago when looking for an Accounting person, we had tons of interviewees say, "I want to aks a question." Thanks, goodbye!

If you have a Reader’s Choice question you’d like to see asked (and answered), send me an email! I’d love to include it in a future edition of the Saturday Six.

Andy Rooney, Wry '60 Minutes' Commentator, Dies

2011-11-05T19:11:00.001-04:00

NEW YORK (AP) — Andy Rooney so dreaded the day he had to end his signature "60 Minutes" commentaries about life's large and small absurdities that he kept going until he was 92 years old. Even then, he said he wasn't retiring. Writers never retire. But his life after the end of "A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney" was short: He died Friday night, according to CBS, only a month after delivering his 1,097th and final televised commentary.

Rooney had gone to the hospital for an undisclosed surgery, but major complications developed and he never recovered. "Andy always said he wanted to work until the day he died, and he managed to do it, save the last few weeks in the hospital," said his "60 Minutes" colleague, correspondent Steve Kroft.

Rooney talked on "60 Minutes" about what was in the news, and his opinions occasionally got him in trouble. But he was just as likely to discuss the old clothes in his closet, why air travel had become unpleasant and why banks needed to have important-sounding names. Rooney won one of his four Emmy Awards for a piece on whether there was a real Mrs. Smith who made Mrs. Smith's Pies. As it turned out, there was no Mrs. Smith.

"I obviously have a knack for getting on paper what a lot of people have thought and didn't realize they thought," Rooney once said. "And they say, 'Hey, yeah!' And they like that."

Looking for something new to punctuate its weekly broadcast, "60 Minutes" aired its first Rooney commentary on July 2, 1978. He complained about people who keep track of how many people die in car accidents on holiday weekends. In fact, he said, the Fourth of July is "one of the safest weekends of the year to be going someplace."

More than three decades later, he was railing about how unpleasant air travel had become. "Let's make a statement to the airlines just to get their attention," he said. "We'll pick a week next year and we'll all agree not to go anywhere for seven days."

In early 2009, as he was about to turn 90, Rooney looked ahead to President Barack Obama's upcoming inauguration with a look at past inaugurations. He told viewers that Calvin Coolidge's 1925 swearing-in was the first to be broadcast on radio, adding, "That may have been the most interesting thing Coolidge ever did."
"Words cannot adequately express Andy's contribution to the world of journalism and the impact he made — as a colleague and a friend — upon everybody at CBS," said Leslie Moonves, CBS Corp. president and CEO.

Jeff Fager, CBS News chairman and "60 Minutes" executive producer, said "it's hard to imagine not having Andy around. He loved his life and he lived it on his own terms. We will miss him very much." For his final essay, Rooney said that he'd live a life luckier than most. "I wish I could do this forever. I can't, though," he said.

He said he probably hadn't said anything on "60 Minutes" that most of his viewers didn't already know or hadn't thought. "That's what a writer does," he said. "A writer's job is to tell the truth." True to his occasional crotchety nature, though, he complained about being famous or bothered by fans. His last wish from fans: If you see him in a restaurant, just let him eat his dinner.

Rooney was a freelance writer in 1949 when he encountered CBS radio star Arthur Godfrey in an elevator and — with the bluntness millions of people learned about later — told him his show could use better writing. Godfrey hired him and by 1953, when he moved to TV, Rooney was his only writer.

He wrote for CBS' Garry Moore during the early 1960s before settling into a partnership with Harry Reasoner at CBS News. Given a challenge to write on any topic, he wrote "An Essay on Doors" in 1964, and continued with contemplations on bridges, chairs and women. "The best work I ever did," Rooney said. "But nobody knows I can do it or ever did it. Nobody knows that I'm a writer and producer. They think I'm this guy on television."

He became such a part of the culture that comic Joe Piscopo satirized Rooney's squeaky voice with the refrain, "Did you ever ..." Rooney never started any of his essays that way. For many years, "60 Minutes" improbably was the most popular program on television and a dose of Rooney was what people came to expect for a knowing smile on the night before they had to go back to work.

Rooney left CBS in 1970 when it refused to air his angry essay about the Vietnam War. He went on TV for the first time, reading the essay on PBS and winning a Writers Guild of America award for it.

He returned to CBS three years later as a writer and producer of specials. Notable among them was the 1975 "Mr. Rooney Goes to Washington," whose lighthearted but serious look at government won him a Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting.

His words sometimes landed Rooney in hot water. CBS suspended him for three months in 1990 for making racist remarks in an interview, which he denied. Rooney, who was arrested in Florida while in the Army in the 1940s for refusing to leave a seat among blacks on a bus, was hurt deeply by the charge of racism. Gay rights groups were mad, during the AIDS epidemic, when Rooney mentioned homosexual unions in saying "many of the ills which kill us are self-induced." Indians protested when Rooney suggested Native Americans who made money from casinos weren't doing enough to help their own people.

The Associated Press learned the danger of getting on Rooney's cranky side. In 1996, AP Television Writer Frazier Moore wrote a column suggesting it was time for Rooney to leave the broadcast. On Rooney's next "60 Minutes" appearance, he invited those who disagreed to make their opinions known. The AP switchboard was flooded by some 7,000 phone calls and countless postcards were sent to the AP mail room.

"Your piece made me mad," Rooney told Moore two years later. "One of my major shortcomings — I'm vindictive. I don't know why that is. Even in petty things in my life I tend to strike back. It's a lot more pleasurable a sensation than feeling threatened.

He was one of television's few voices to strongly oppose the war in Iraq. After the fall of Baghdad in April 2003, he said he was chastened by its quick fall but didn't regret his "60 Minutes" commentaries. "I'm in a position of feeling secure enough so that I can say what I think is right and if so many people think it's wrong that I get fired, well, I've got enough to eat," Rooney said at the time.

Andrew Aitken Rooney was born on Jan. 14, 1919, in Albany, N.Y., and worked as a copy boy on the Albany Knickerbocker News while in high school. College at Colgate University was cut short by World War II, when Rooney worked for Stars and Stripes.

With another former Stars and Stripes staffer, Oram C. Hutton, Rooney wrote four books about the war. They included the 1947 book, "Their Conqueror's Peace: A Report to the American Stockholders," documenting offenses against the Germans by occupying forces.

Rooney and his wife, Marguerite, were married for 62 years before she died of heart failure in 2004. They had four children and lived in New York, with homes in Norwalk, Conn., and upstate New York. Daughter Emily Rooney is a former executive producer of ABC's "World News Tonight." Brian was a longtime ABC News correspondent, Ellen a photographer and Martha Fishel is chief of the public service division of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Services will be private, and it's anticipated CBS News will hold a public memorial later, Brian Rooney said Saturday.

Life Goes On... Despite Winter's First Visit

2011-11-04T23:35:00.000-04:00

And what can that mean, you ask?

On Saturday, 29 October, the Snow Fairy stopped in early to give us a visit. And she didn't stop by, ring the bell and find us not home, and head out on her way. She dropped off a bombshell. It was rain in the early morning. Then around 1030 it became a mix of rain and snow. By 1100 it was huge, wet, heavy flakes that began coating the branches almost immediately. The ground was much too warm to hold the snow until later on but the trees, heavy with leaves in their array of lovely autumn colours, were building up snow too quickly.

It was not long before it was eerily quiet as fewer and fewer people were out and about. And then we could hear it: creaking, bumping noises and finally pops and reports (that last was the horrific sounds of branches breaking). When I looked out the windows around 1430, there were a lot of really big branches on the ground, littering the backyard with leaves and debris. But those leaves weigh a lot more than most people realise.

As it happens, I knew the leaves added a lot of weight, but how much I did not. On the news, my father heard that the comparison of the leaved branch to the naked branch (which also has no chlorophyll production, so it doesn't have the same amount of - for lack of a better, more accurate term - blood flow). Trees in winter withhold their... uh... you know, I should know what this is called but it has been so long since I've learned about trees and how their inner workings are set up, I've forgotten most of it. (That's sad. I should find a book or better yet, talk to someone who knows trees well.) At any rate, the normal vascular system in trees that "hibernate" or appear to die in winter, slows down and really shuts the limbs down. That's why one never trims tree branches or bushes in the cold. They cannot handle the temperature change with no limb vascular activity going on to cauterize the wound.

Well. I have to say I cannot recall anytime in my life when it snowed in October. This would be very memorable.

Major Minus

2011-11-04T22:15:00.000-04:00

They got one eye watching you
One eye, what you do?
So be careful who it is you’re talking to

They got one eye watching you
One eye, what you do?
So be careful what it is you’re tryin’ to do

And be careful when you’re walking into view
Just be careful when you’re walking into view

Ooh-ooh-oooh
Ooh-ooh-oooh-oooh

Got one eye on the road and one on you

Ooh-ooh-oooh
Ooh-ooh-oooh-oooh

Got one eye on the road and one on…

They got one eye watching you
And one eye, what you do?
So be careful 'cause nothing they say is true

Bu-but don’t believe a word
It’s just us against the world
And we just gotta turn to be heard

I hear the crocodiles ticking ’round the world
I hear those crocodiles ticking, they go ticking ’round the world

Ooh-ooh-oooh
Ooh-ooh-oooh-oooh

Got one eye on the road and one on you

Ooh-ooh-oooh
Ooh-ooh-oooh-oooh

Got one eye on the road and hey!

I can hear them climbing the stairs
I got my left side, fight you on my left
Hiding under the chairs

Ooh-ooh-oooh
Ooh-ooh-oooh-oooh

Got one eye on the road and one on you

Ooh-ooh-oooh
Ooh-ooh-oooh-oooh

Got one eye on the road and one on you

Coldplay, Mylo Xyloto, 2011

Paradise

2011-11-03T22:13:00.000-04:00

When she was just a girl
She expected the world
But it flew away from her reach
So she ran away in her sleep
Dreamed of para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Every time she closed her eyes
Whoa-oh-oh oh-oooh oh-oh-oh

When she was just a girl
She expected the world
But it flew away from her reach
And the bullets catch in her teeth

Life goes on
It gets so heavy
The wheel breaks the butterfly
Every tear, a waterfall
In the night, the stormy night
She closed her eyes
In the night, the stormy night
Away she'd fly.

And dreamed of para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Whoa-oh-oh oh-oooh oh-oh-oh

She dreamed of para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Whoa-oh-oh oh-oooh oh-oh-oh.

La la la La
La la la

So lying underneath those stormy skies.
She said oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.
I know the sun must set to rise.

This could be para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
This could be para- para- paradise
Whoa-oh-oh oh-oooh oh-oh-oh.

This could be para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Could be para- para- paradise
Whoa-oh-oh oh-oooh oh-oh-oh.

This could be para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Could be para- para- paradise
Whoa-oh-oh oh-oooh oh-oh-oh.

Oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo
Oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo

Coldplay, Mylo Xyloto, 2011

WTF Thursday - My Heart is a Sandwich & Bacon Bowl

2011-11-03T13:32:00.000-04:00

1) In Gym Class Heroes' song "Stereo Hearts," the singer says his heart is a stereo. If you were to compare your heart to an inanimate object, what object would it be? Um... an ambulance? Maybe a siren. I don't know! In the song Every Teardrop is a Waterfall, Chris Martin sings, "Every siren is a symphony." I agree. When you ride on the rig, it is true.

2) Thursday used to be a must see television night. Name some shows you think are “must see” TV. I think Thursday night is still the top night for television, so I was quite disappointed when CSI: Crime Scene Investigation was moved to Wednesday night - it was a clear demotion. And then one of the new shows, Suburgatory, has been moved from Friday night (the lowest rated night after Saturday) to Wednesday, which I will happily admit was deserved - Suburgatory is a great show! As for shows I would advocate, I'm sure you can imagine my tastes: Castle, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Suburgatory, Body of Evidence, Drop Dead Diva, Suits, Harry's Law, A Gifted Man, Bones, Grey's Anatomy, and some others. I used to enjoy to some extent Private Practice, an offshoot of Grey's, but I feel it has become miserable. Shonda Rhimes seems to only be happy if all of the characters are not. I have had that issue every so often with Grey's Anatomy, but they seem to have fixed that so that there are plenty of humourous moments as well as serious ones.

3) Today (Nov. 3) is Men Make Dinner Day, which is aimed at the men who never cook, and also is National Sandwich Day. If someone was to make you a sandwich for dinner tonight, what would you want on your sandwich? The same thing I usually do: ham with honey mustard on a rye bagel. Yum!

4) If you had an iPhone with its new Siri app, would you ask it random, stupid questions (like I'm dying to do) or would you just ask serious questions? I wouldn't do anything with it. Funny you should mention this. Siri is Iris backward, did you know that? And my husband got an iPhone two weeks ago and it is incredibly annoying. And yes, he asks it all kinds of stupid questions. Unreal.

5) The New York Times has published the eulogy given by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' sister which says that Steve's last words were "Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow." What would you want to be your last words, if you could pick? Um... hmmmm. I haven't the faintest idea. Maybe that's what I should say...!

6) KFC has introduced a new item to its menu -- a Cheesy Bacon Bowl, containing bacon, corn, chicken, cheese, gravy and mashed potatoes thrown together in a bowl. People seem to have mixed opinions on the appeal of KFC's bowls. Would you eat (or have you already eaten) one of these bowls? No, but then, I would not eat anything at KFC! I really have little use for fast food.

7) Do you parallel park your vehicle or do you drive around until you find a parking spot that isn't a parallel parking space? I usually attempt to find a normal parking space first. But I am unwilling (and nearly unable) to walk a crazy distance to get to a store. So I will give up and attempt to parallel park which means being uncharacteristically patient - I really am not good at this. However, I found something even worse - traffic circles! Yeah. I had to go through several of them on Monday and it was a nightmare. I even got pulled over (by the most adorable cop) and he did let me go - especially after I told him I was there to visit PL Custom Ambulance and he asked where I am an EMT - but he laughed at me when I said there are no traffic circles where I am. I thanked him for pulling me over - he apologised for it and I said, "No, I'm grateful you did - at least you are doing your job!" He smiled at that and let me go. What a sweetheart!

8) Have you ever been able to finish a Rubik’s Cube? Huh, not without peeling off the stickers and re-adhering them in the right position. Now I understand there is a formula on the Internet that tells one how to do this. Of course, I have one with ten on each side and I have no idea how to do that...

WTF Wednesday - Writing Sketch Comedies & Novels About Impersonators

2011-11-03T12:56:00.002-04:00

1) With National Plan Your Epitaph Day being celebrated this week, what would you like to have written on your gravestone? "He who dies with the most money is still dead." Thank you, Nancy!

2) This week, some churches and dentists across the U.S. "bought back" unwanted Halloween candy, many of them sending the candy purchased overseas to deployed soldiers. What would you do with candy you were given that you didn't want? Wow... I don't recall. I shared it with my parents or tossed it, I guess. I suppose now I'd just keep it out for others to eat. Most candy doesn't go bad, really.

3) What do you do with mail that comes to your home addressed to past residents (forward it, trash it, open it, line your bird's cage with it, etc.)? The first six months we owned this house and the first house, we gave it back to the post office to forward it to the previous owners. After that, they went into the garbage. If I get someone else's mail, I'll walk it down to their house or give it back to my mailman, who is a sweetheart and will make the fix.

4) November is National Novel Writing Month, and thousands of writers will try to start and complete an entire novel by Nov. 31. If you were to write a book this month, what would the topic be? My shady past as a Human Resources Manager and an EMT... because no one could make that shit up!

5) Last week Fox announced that an updated version of its 1990-94 sketch comedy show "In Living Color" will be created and will air this spring. What do you think of sketch comedy? I generally have a lot of trouble with television humour. I have to admit I have no idea what sketch humour is. After that, I have to say that while many find slapstick humour funny, I do not - not even a little. I loved movies like You've Got Mail and Heaven Help Us but hated Airplane, Something About Mary and Raising Arizona. I just don't find that funny. My husband tells me all the time that I have no sense of humour but that is overdoing it. I do have an excellent sense of humour, but slapstick is stupid, not humour. Verbal jousting, that is humour! I never could watch Saturday Night Live. I suspect I could not watch this, either. I'm not sure if I've ever seen In Living Color.

6) If you were on a trip to Los Angeles and took a walk down Hollywood Boulevard, would you want to have your photo taken with any of the impersonators who patrol the street? (The impersonators include people dressed up as real people like Elvis, Marilyn Monroe and Lady Gaga and as fictional characters from comic books, movies/TV shows, and cartoons.) Um... I might. I'd make it clear that the ones impersonating living persons were listed as impersonators. I'd go for Marylin Monroe and Elvis before Lady Gaga, but that is just me.

7) Do you have nicknames for any of your neighbors which you use to describe them to other people? You know, I know almost none of my neighbours, although the newer ones in the house behind us earned the nickname Tree Killers, because they cut down a whole bunch of the trees bordering our property. I have to say that we on the squad (First Aid squad) have given all of our frequent fliers nicknames, whether it is their address (for example, if I were a frequent flier, I would be 16 Crescent. But then there are - or were - others, such as Naked Porno Guy. Only ask about him if you really, really want to know...

8) Speaking of your neighbors... have any of your neighbors ever witnessed you doing something embarrassing (or vice versa)? I'd have to imagine that it has worked out both ways, but I can't think of anything specific.

Up With the Birds

2011-11-02T22:12:00.000-04:00

The birds they sang, at break of day.
"Start again", I hear them say.
It's so hard to just walk away.
The birds they sang, all a choir,
"Start again a little higher".
It's a spark in a sea of gray.

The sky is blue,
Dreamed that lie 'til it's true,
Then takin' back the punch I threw,
My arms turn wings,
Oh, those clumsy things
Send me up to that wonderful world
And then I'm up with the birds.

Might have to go where they don't know my name
Float all over the world just to see her again
And I won't show or fear any pain,
Even though all my armor might rust in the rain

A simple plot but I know one day
Good things are coming our way
A simple plot but I know one day
Good things are coming our way,
Oh, yeah...

Coldplay, Mylo Xyloto, 2011

Lullaby - Sia 1 November Lyrics

2011-11-01T23:22:00.001-04:00

Send a wish upon a star
Do the work and you'll go far
Send a wish upon a star
Make a map and there you are

Send a hope upon a wave
A dying wish before the grave
Send a hope upon a wave
For all the souls you failed to save

And you stood tall
Now you will fall
Don't break the spell
Of a life spent trying to do well
And you stood tall
Now you will fall
Don't break the spell
Of a life spent trying to do well

Send a question in the wind
It's hard to know where to begin
So send the question in the wind
And give an answer to a friend

Place your past into a book
Put in everything you ever took
Place your past into a book
Burn the pages let them cook

And you stood tall
Now you will fall
Don't break the spell
Of a life spent trying to do well
And you stood tall
Now you will fall
Don't break the spell
Of a life spent trying to do well

[Repeat chorus]

Send a wish upon a star
Send a wish upon a star

Sunday Seven - Episode #313

2011-10-30T13:40:00.000-04:00

BusinessInsider.com recently published a list of the 18 Most Hated Companies in America. I don’t know why they chose a number like 18: as negative as people are these days, there were surely at least 20 that people really don’t like.

But 18 is what they gave us, so 18 is what we’ll work with.

From that list, could you come up with seven that you dislike the most? The only way you can go “off the list” is to substitute a local version of a named company. For example, if you don’t live in the service area of “Pacific Electric & Gas,” you can substitute your own local electric utility if you feel they need to be included on your list.

That’s your challenge for this week! Thanks for dropping by!

Be sure to check back this week and click on the links of bloggers who play along in the comments below! It’s a great way to find blogs you may not have visited and to keep the conversation going!

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION:

Name your seven most hated companies from the provided list of 18.

1. Dish Network: I have my own reasons for hating them, which go back to 2001, but they are one of the most despicable companies around. We had them when we lived on the other side of town and tried to set up our dishes here, but for reasons passing understanding, the actual satellite was too close to the horizon. It is tough to imagine that a move of 3.5 miles made such a huge difference, but it did. As it happens, between rate hikes and other headaches, we would have changed services anyway. Now we have the full cable/Internet package and the TiVO, so we are happy with what we have.

2. Bank of America: Luis has this banking institution and has plans to change them. It is quite a trail: He had the original bank (whoever that was), then Westminster Bank, then whatever Bank followed them, maybe another one or two and now Bank of America - all without changing banks on his own. Amazing. He keeps plenty of money in there but they started tacking on all kinds of fees anyway, and then other problems have been cropping up as a result. This is not limited to just the bank itself - he switched stock brokers because the BoA kept making mistakes with his money. Unreal.

3. Delta Airlines: I have Continental, which at some point will be United but when I flew out to Montana in 2009, the two connecting flights were Delta, who searched my bags (which I completely get) but made it look like they used their feet to shove everything in again. Twice!

4. The White House: Look no further for the root of the issues. No one wants to regulate anything any longer.

5. Time Warner Cable: Wow. I read the blurb on them and wow. That's all I have to say!

6. Comcast: My father has them and they have screwed up more than they have fixed.

7. JP Morgan Chase Bank: I have these guys and I hate 'em. They have made the percentage on that card more like 23% than 11% and they could care less that I am a long term customer who pays them every month.

Extra: New Jersey Blue Cross Blue Shield: The least you need to know: these people are trouble all over. They deny almost all of the claims out of hand. Despicable is right. I have Aetna and as much as I have issues with them, they are small compared to NJ-BCBS. I still miss Oxford Health plans, however. In the late 90s and early 2000s they were the cat's meow. Now... who knows? But I would hate to think they are anywhere as low as NJ-BCBS.

Either answer the question in a comment or answer it in your journal and include the link in a comment.

Have an idea for a future question? Click “Contact” in the top nav-bar and email it to me!

Hooray for the Internet!

2011-10-30T13:17:00.000-04:00

That's right. Why commute in snow if you absolutely do not need to?

Yahoo!

I can't help it. I'm not proud that I'm so chicken about driving in snow, I suppose I could suck it up and go in. But the only way that would happen is if I had Luis' 4-wheel drive MDX - and he turned me down this morning. So I opted to stay safe.

Criticise all you want, but I have been an EMT too long to not appreciate the value of not being on the road when the weather is inclement. I see no reason to drive myself crazy. I don't see reasons for driving other drivers crazy (I drive the appropriate speed on coated roads, which is SSSSLLLLOOOOOOWWWW), but quite frankly I could care less if they think I drive too slowly. I have no caring for that. If you think your vehicle drives well in snow, then it doesn't.

The hooray for Internet is that I am very lucky in that I can "break into" my workstation from anywhere in the world. I am able to do everything I need to except for giving actual facetime - but at this time of year, I have always have almost no one to give facetime to. We're shutdown - most of the departments aren't staffed and everything is lovely and quiet. It's not a skeleton staff, it's a low staff.

I'll be interested to see what the courses look like with snow all over them. Now, that is a beautiful scene. I guess just the golfers that are jonesing to play are the ones who can't see the gorgeousness of the fresh snow.

I started this on 12 January 2011 and just caught it now. But I still feel that way. At least now I don't need to call in or out to get out of doing work (I did not see it that way, but I think others may have. And quite frankly, that is just what it is. I won't apologise for the way I feel about snow and other drivers. I took my lumps. I get it. But my life wins, every time. I did this when I worked for Miller Harness, too - but they understood it more. I lived in Parsippany but commuted to East Rutherford.

I guess the really scary part of this is that now it is 30 October and we had seven inches of the heaviest damn snow ever to fall! It was unreal. And while we were very lucky - no power outages here and only many, many branches came down, we would prefer not to see freaky weather like this again! And what does this bode for the rest of winter? Nothing good can come of this...

Saturday Six - Episode #394

2011-10-30T01:30:00.001-04:00

Not that I’m trying to connect this week’s set of questions to Halloween or anything, but death is the topic.

What can I say? Every week can’t be all fun and cheery, right?

Thanks for stopping by and playing along. And I hope you have a long, healthy life for your participation!

Be sure to check back this week and click on the links of bloggers who play along in the comments below! It’s a great way to find blogs you may not have visited and keep the conversation going!

1. You have the chance to learn either the date, the location or the method of your death: would you accept an envelope that would contain ONE of the answers to one of those questions? And if you couldn’t choose which question would be answered? I would not accept the envelope with that information - any of that information. I try to live each day as though it were my last - why stop now if I know I'd live to be 105? If I absolutely had to accept one of the answers... I'd pick... location, I guess. I'd have to hope it is a location I frequent, so I could not guess when it would be or try to get out it... not that I could.

2. If you could choose to learn the answer to one of those, which would you choose? Oh, I guess I'm ahead, as always. I also had a little trouble with the original question. The answer is above.

3. Which illness do you fear most? That is a dual question. For myself, I am most afraid of what I currently have: myotonic dystrophia Type II (D-PROMM), which is scary in that there are so many variables. I might get Type II Diabetes from it. I might end up in a wheelchair from it... too many issues that are all with the word "might". I try to look on the bright side but it is not always that easy. The other answer is any kind of disease that would allow me to linger in a half-living state - i.e. cancer. I don't want to die that way.

The second part of this question is not about my own method of dying but for example my father or my husband. The disease that scares me the most, hands-down, is Alzheimer's Disease. I never want to visit my father or Luis and have them look at me and say, "Who are you?" I could not bear that.

4. Which method of death other than illness do you fear most? I really can't say that I fear death too much. I guess after riding for almost nine years, the fear of the unknown is mitigated by the fact that we have all walked people to the grave. And not often does it seem so terrible as we are inclined to think. So many times I see faces that were taught with pain, fear, uncertainty suddenly smooth out to reflect complete peace, sometimes happiness at the moment of death. What do they see, hear, feel that does that? I don't know, but it seems like a beautiful thing.

5. If you could control how you would die, what method would you choose? Anything fast and painless. Dying in my sleep of course seems ideal. But I would even be okay with a piano falling out of the sky provided I did not hear or see it coming and did not feel a thing. (That might be pushing it a bit, but you get the idea!)

6. If you could specify the age at which you die, with reasonable good health assumed, how long would you like to live? Wow, tough question. When does life become too long? Especially with the parameters above. I would say I would like to reach my centennial birthday, then not long after go quietly in my sleep. Say, 100 and nine months, to make it to October 2068 to see the leaves turn one more time.

If you have a Reader’s Choice question you’d like to see asked (and answered), send me an email! I’d love to include it in a future edition of the Saturday Six.

WTF Thursday - Covering Your Cranky Co-workers in Tattoos & Foil

2011-10-30T01:10:00.001-04:00

1) Christmas is less than two months away. Have you already started shopping for Christmas gifts? No, I don't even want to think about it. I have no income at the moment, so the whole Christmas thing is just the worst thought.

2) Would you be offended if someone carved a pumpkin for Halloween in such a way so that it would resemble your face? No, although I doubt it would be kind to do that to a pumpkin, ha, ha! Just out curiosity, why? Was this something that came up at a problem?

3) How do you feel about people who get "fandom" tattoos (i.e. tattoos of musicians, TV shows, movies, etc)? Someday you will regret it - especially if the show goes down in flames. It's bad enough to see what happens to relationships after one party goes out and gets "Betty" scrawled across his or her upper arm!

4) It seems like Quick Response codes (a.k.a. QR codes), like the one to the right, are everywhere on products and ads these days. Do you ever actually scan them using your phone? I have a stupid phone, so I can't scan in one of these things. Luis tries it once in a while, but it seems like a pointless exercise to do this. Now, the program that reads product bar codes, tells you about the product and where it is on sale is a whole different item! Luis has shown me that and this is much more useful that these weird squares that take one to a video or whatever they do. That seems to have a real value.

5) Connecticut lawmaker Rep. Tim Larson has proposed a national law saying that all Halloween trick-or-treating should be done on the last Saturday of October, regardless of what day Halloween falls on. What do you think of his idea? Should trick-or-treating be done on a specific day of the week each year or on the true holiday? We all made it to adulthood getting our trick-or-treat exercise on the real day of Hallowe'en; we also went from house to house, none of this mall or shopping center stuff. We all got change that never went to UNICEF but instead got one more candy. We also made it to adulthood doing a million other things that have been outlawed or gotten around or whatever. Enough with all these "protective things". Too many kids are growing up in plastic bubbles. We know people who have a six-year-old that has not seen most Pixar movies might scare him. What happens when they show a movie with a hair of violence in school? He'll be scarred for life/

6) The head pastor of my church recently went out of town and forgot to lock his office, and when he returned, everything in his office had been covered in aluminum foil by his coworkers as a prank (that's really his office to the right). Have you ever been the butt of a prank, or pulled a prank on someone else? This feels familiar, as though I have answered this sometime recently... Hold on... Well, I can't find it, so maybe I'd seen this last week...? No, that is not right. I answered a question just like this. Hold on again (it's going to bug me now if I don't find it!)

Apparently it will be a long night for me. There is one possibility I have not explored but I need to be on my laptop for that. I'll try it then.

However, I will tell you that I have no use for people who do practical jokes and I always, always hated April Fools Day. It is often cruel. Also, I fired people for doing harmful practical jokes to other employees and always felt really, really good about it. There is nothing funny about cruelty to others.

7) Speaking of coworkers, today (Oct. 27) is "Cranky Co-workers Day." How would you deal with an extremely cranky co-worker who was causing you stress? Hmmm. I had all different kinds of stress created by employees. Some I confront directly and told them to let it go or knock it off. Others I might try to avoid for a time until I figured out how best to deal with them. Some I talked to their managers for input or help. It had everything to do with who it was and the issue with which they came calling.

8) The movie "Anonymous," which is coming out soon in U.S. movie theaters, poses the idea that William Shakespeare did not write his own plays and poetry. If you became a professional writer, would you use your own name or create a fake pen name? I'd have to use a pen name if I wrote about my weird life as a Human Resources Manager and an Emergency Medical Technician. Anything else, I'd use my own name. I did come up with a title, however: Lumps in the Sugar. I think that is perfect for me!

Mary Says... Ten Day Meme: Day Three - Eight Fears

2011-10-26T21:47:00.001-04:00

1. Arachnids. I am completely terrified of spiders. It is not at all funny. It's my only real fear.

2. Being completely disabled. I guess this is really it. I have no other fears than these two.

Heights - love 'em. Open spaces, no problem. Tight spaces, no problem. What else is there? No, wait. There's country music! I find that completely terrifying! I don't have any problem with blood. I'm sorry, I have very little fear. I've seen far too many dead people to care about that. It is just a part of life.